CNN’s Freakshow (Nina Burleigh)
“It took barely a minute for Donald Trump to say ‘rigged election.’ From there, he rambled. He ranted. He lied. And he lied some more. And that was the response to the first question of the evening to the first President in American history to refuse to concede his defeat and accept the peaceful transfer of power: “Why should Americans put you back in the White House?'" (Susan B. Glasser/TNY)
Turkey’s choice could not be starker: more cruelty under Erdoğan, or the return of justice and hope (Ece Temelkuran/The Guardian)
“Twenty-four hours after CNN's town hall, it's all anyone is talking about. Throughout the day, in fact, we heard from dozens of network staffers — ranging in seniority and positions across the organization — who all expressed dismay by what they saw transpire on their television screens.” (Oliver Darcy/Reliable Sources)
“Runa Sandvik has made it her life’s work to protect journalists against cyberattacks. Authoritarian regimes are keeping her in business.” (Maddy Crowell/CJR)
Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan released on bail (CNN)
“Delayed opening times and glitches in a system that was supposed to upload results from over 177,000 polling stations rendered millions of votes susceptible to tampering. The Financial Times reported a staggeringly low turnout rate of 27 percent; two-thirds of the 87 million people who waited to collect voter registration cards reportedly did not end up casting a ballot.” (Feven Merid/CJR)
"It’s in every silly reality show I watch, where 30-something faces never look more filled and sculpted than next to their mothers visiting from their hometowns. If we can’t financially do better than our boomer predecessors, at least we can look better, millennials and Gen Xers are told. We have a bevy of age-erasing tools at our disposal." (Jessica Machado/Today)
“I thought it would be an insight into virality, how something spreads in today’s marketplace. Instead, it’s a history of virality, from Nick Denton and Gawker to the Huffington Post to BuzzFeed. Who’s interested in that?” (Bob Lefsetz)
“This is not Ukraine’s only remaining opportunity to liberate a substantial amount of territory and inflict a major defeat on Russian forces, but the upcoming offensive may be the moment when available Western military equipment, training, and ammunition best intersect with the forces set aside by Ukraine for this operation.” ( Michael Kofman and Rob Lee/ Foreign Affairs)
What is it about Slovenia and Donald Trump? (Christina Oxenberg)
“Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has been on a mission this year to block 184 senior military promotions that require the consent of the Senate.” (Joe Perricone/PressPass)
“Yet Trump is far and away the leader for the 2024 Republican nomination and is neck-and-neck with Joe Biden in general election matchups. In the RCP average he has a 30-point lead over the next closest GOP competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and is essentially tied with the incumbent president.” (Matthew Continetti)
"From May 15-18, expect Disney, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery execs to work overtime selling their wares to ad buyers during a downturn and a major work stoppage." (Alex Weprin/THR)
“In March, Taiwan lost one of its diplomatic allies in Latin America when Honduras established ties with China. That leaves Taipei with just 13 formal diplomatic partners, seven of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean.” (The Diplomat)
Turkey’s foreign policy: From past to potential post-Erdogan era (Al Jazeera)
BlackBerry Is a New Kind of Business Biopic (David Sims/The Atlantic)
Eurovision’s Nul Points Survivors’ Club: what does it feel like to score zero? (NME)
"But it is with muscular diplomacy that Turkey has made its mark over the past 30 years, following then Prime Minister Turgut Ozal’s decision, over military objections, to support US-led Operation Desert Storm against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. With the second strongest conventional military forces in NATO, Turkey has been vital in all NATO operations in the Balkans and broader Middle East (except Libya), has played major roles containing Iran and Russia—especially during the Ukrainian war – and operates against ISIS and the Assad regime in Syria." (James F. Jeffrey/ Wilson Center)
"The horrific murder of Jordan Neely on a New York subway spoke volumes about the tolerance of racial violence in the American social order." (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)
“People who are infected with the coronavirus shed the pathogen in their stool, whether or not they take a Covid test or seek medical care, enabling officials to track levels of the virus in communities over time and to watch for the emergence of new variants … The National Wastewater Surveillance System, which the C.D.C. established in late 2020, now includes data from more than 1,400 sampling sites, distributed across 50 states, three territories and 12 tribal communities, Amy Kirby, the program lead, said.” (NYT)