ANKARA — Turkey's May 14 electionis the toughestrace in two decades for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and it could be one of the most pivotal elections in Turkey's history.
Driving the news: Erdoğan and opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu both held large rallies across the country in recent days, with most polls showing a neck-and-neck race or Kılıçdaroğlu slightly ahead.
Emirati officials were shocked last year when their U.S. counterparts asked that the United Arab Emirates pay for the military assistance it received in the aftermath of a Houthi attack on Abu Dhabi, Emirati and U.S. officials told me for my book, “Trump’s Peace,” which was published in English this week.
Why it matters: Emirati officials told me that for then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, this was further proof of his growing feeling since the Jan. 17, 2022, attack that the U.S. had abandoned the UAE in its time of need.
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Russia met on Wednesday in Moscow for a summit aimed at creating a road map for normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus.
Why it matters: It was the first meeting between a Turkish and Syrian foreign minister since 2011.
A journalist working for French news agency Agence France-Presse was killed in Ukraine during a rocket strike near the eastern city of Bakhmut on Tuesday, AFP said.
The big picture: Arman Soldin, a 32-year-old Bosnian-French video coordinator, "is at least the 15th journalist to be killed while reporting on the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022," per nonprofit the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The agreement between the Taliban, Pakistan, and China over the weekend extending the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to Afghanistan is the fruit of many years of China's outreach to the Taliban. But it may not achieve the aims Beijing hopes for, experts say.
The big picture: The Taliban needs Chinese investment after much of the international community cut ties with Kabul. Beijing says it wants Afghanistan to take more steps to protect Chinese nationals and coordinate more closely with China on controlling Uighur militant groups based there.
The Hollywood studio policiesthat writers are on strike against are particularly harmful to writers of color and Latino writers because they trap many in entry-level positions, industry professionals tell Axios.
The big picture: Thousands of writers in Los Angeles and New York went on strike last week against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), grinding to a halt costly productions while they fight for a number of changes they say are crucial for writers to be able to earn a living.
As Hollywood writers continue a massive strike against studios, some say they're worried that the unregulated use of artificial intelligence could hurt efforts to diversify the industry.
Details: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) wants the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to regulate the use of AI in projects covered by its agreements and declare that AI can't write or rewrite literary material or be used as source material.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Tuesday that a "real war has again been unleashed against our homeland" as he marked Russia's Victory Day, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The big picture: More than a year on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and with his forces bracing for a Ukrainian counter-attack, Putin again tried to paint the West as the true aggressors and equate Russia's current fight with its war against the Nazis.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested during a court appearance in the capital Islamabad on Tuesday, according to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The big picture: The cricketer-turned-politician was in court on corruption charges, which Khan and his supporters say are politically motivated.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides will leave his post this summer after nearly two years in Jerusalem, two U.S. officials told Axios.
Why it matters: Nides announced his departure at a time when the Netanyahu government's controversial judicial overhaul continues to complicate the U.S.-Israel relationship. President Biden still hasn't invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House — more than four months after the Israeli leader was sworn in.
Israeli strikes on Gaza Tuesday killed at least 13 Palestinians, including eight civilians and three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders, according to Palestinian officials.
Why it matters: It's the biggest Israeli military operation in Gaza since last August when Israeli forces conducted a wave of air strikes against the PIJ group. Tuesday's strikes will likely lead to a wider escalation.
Canada's government on Monday expelled a Chinese diplomat who was accused of trying to intimidate a lawmaker who had sponsored a motion that declared Beijing's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs as a genocide.
Driving the news: Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in a statement announced the government had declared the Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei "persona non grata." Hours later, Beijing took retaliatory measures.
