Reuters: World

Turkey faces runoff election with Erdogan leading Turkey headed for a runoff vote after President Tayyip Erdogan led over his opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday's election but fell short of an outright majority to extend his 20-year rule of the NATO-member country. Neither Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu cleared the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second round, to be held on May 28, in an election seen as a verdict on Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian path. The presidential vote will decide not only who leads Turkey but also whether it reverts to a more secular, democratic path, how it will handle its severe cost of living crisis, and manage key relations with Russia, the Middle East and the West. Kilicdaroglu, who said he would prevail in the runoff, urged his supporters to be patient and accused Erdogan's party of interfering with the counting and reporting of results. read more

Turkey election rivals both claim early lead but runoff likely Turkey appeared headed for a runoff presidential election with the parties of Tayyip Erdogan and opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu each claiming the lead but sources in both camps admitting they may not clear the 50% threshold to win outright. Early results on Sunday put Erdogan comfortably ahead, but as the count continued his advantage eroded as expected. A runoff on May 28 appeared likely, which would delay a verdict on the president's two decades in power. Opinion polls before the election had given Kilicdaroglu, who heads a six-party alliance, a slight lead, and two polls on Friday even showed him above the 50% threshold. However most had suggested a tight margin. read more

Turkey votes in pivotal elections, with Erdogan rule in balance Turks voted on Sunday in one of the most important elections in modern Turkey's 100-year history, which could either unseat President Tayyip Erdogan and halt his government's increasingly authoritarian path or usher in a third decade of his rule. The vote will decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy. Opinion polls have given Erdogan's main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads a six-party alliance, a slight lead, with two polls on Friday showing him above the 50% threshold needed to win outright. If neither of them wins more than 50% of the vote on Sunday, a runoff will be held on May 28. read more

Data of 237,000 US government employees breached The personal information of 237,000 current and former federal government employees has been exposed in a data breach at the U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT), sources briefed on the matter said on Friday. The breach hit systems for processing TRANServe transit benefits that reimburse government employees for some commuting costs. It was not clear if any of the personal information had been used for criminal purposes. USDOT notified Congress Friday in an email seen by Reuters that its initial investigation of the data breach has "isolated the breach to certain systems at the department used for administrative functions, such as employee transit benefits processing." read more

New York sues company that sold accessory for Buffalo mass shooter's gun New York on Thursday sued the company that sold the locking device included with the gun used by a white supremacist to kill 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store last year, saying it allowed the shooter to turn the rifle into an illegal assault weapon. In a complaint filed in state court in Manhattan, Democratic Attorney General Letitia James said Georgia-based Mean Arms LLC falsely claimed that its device can make a rifle comply with New York's ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, by locking a 10-round magazine in place so that it cannot be replaced by a larger one. In fact, the lawsuit said, the lock can easily be removed, and Mean Arms includes instructions for doing so on its packaging. The Buffalo shooter, Payton Gendron, wrote in a manifesto that he removed the Mean Arms lock from an AR-15 he purchased in a few minutes and replaced the magazine with one holding 30 rounds. read more

An unrepentant Donald Trump held firm to past grievances at the first televised town hall of the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, stressing from the moment he took the stage that he has little intention of mounting a more disciplined campaign for his third White House bid. In a contentious 70-minute broadcast, Trump drew laughter from a New Hampshire audience when he mocked writer E. Jean Carroll's account of his having sexually abused her, repeated falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said he would pardon many of his supporters convicted of taking part in a Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and called the CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a "nasty person." Responding to questions from Collins and members of the audience at Saint Anselm College, Trump made no effort to offer more moderate positions on issues, which political analysts say is key to broadening his appeal to a wider swath of Republicans. read more

Gold rebounds as US inflation data boosts Fed rate-hike pause bets Gold prices reversed course to gain on Wednesday as the dollar retreated after U.S. inflation readings came in mostly as expected, reinforcing expectations for a pause in the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes. The U.S. dollar and Treasury yields fell after the Labor Department reported that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% last month, in line with estimates. However, underlying inflation remained strong. In the 12 months through April, the CPI increased 4.9% after advancing 5.0% on a year-on-year basis in March. read more

Bollywood film on Islamic State recruits sparks debate in India A low-budget Bollywood film about young women recruited by the Islamic State has stirred up passionate debate, helping to make it an instant box-office hit in India. "The Kerala Story," set in the coastal southern state of the same name, follows three women who are indoctrinated, converted and sent to IS camps. The Hindi-language film, starring relative unknowns, has racked up more than 450 million rupees ($5.50 million) in ticket sales since its theatrical release on Friday, a rarity in Bollywood, according to figures compiled and posted by trade analyst Taran Adarsh on Twitter. read more

Russia fires missiles at Ukraine on Victory Day as Kyiv celebrates Europe Russia fired cruise missiles at Kyiv on Tuesday and paraded troops and vintage equipment across Red Square in a curtailed celebration of victory in World War Two, while Kyiv fended off the air strikes and hosted the head of the European Union. In a fiery 10-minute speech in front of the Kremlin walls, Russian President Vladimir Putin thundered against "Western global elites" and said Russia again faced an existential threat. "Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against our homeland," said the Russian leader, who last year ordered what the West calls an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, destroying cities and killing thousands of civilians. read more

Russia launches new attack on Ukraine's capital, officials say Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine's capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. "As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed," Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv's city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app. Tuesday's attacks - the fifth in May - came a day after Russia launched its biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March. read more

Trump will not testify in New York rape, defamation trial Former U.S. President Donald Trump will not testify at a civil trial to challenge claims made by writer E. Jean Carroll that he raped her in the 1990s and later defamed her, after letting a Sunday deadline pass without asking the court to appear. Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina told the judge on Thursday that Trump had waived his right to testify in the trial in Manhattan federal court and opted not to present a defense in the case, gambling that jurors will find that Carroll had failed to make a persuasive case. In response to a Reuters request for comment, Tacopina said in a statement what Trump's legal team had already told the court on Thursday, that the former president would not testify in the case. After the jury left for the day on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Tacopina to inform Trump that he had until Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) to tell the court whether he intended to testify. read more

Tens of thousands join protests against Israeli judicial overhaul Tens of thousands of Israelis joined protests across the country on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bitterly disputed plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court. The planned overhaul, which would give the government control over naming judges to the Supreme Court and let parliament override many rulings, was paused after opponents organised some of the biggest street protests ever seen in Israel, now in their 18th consecutive week. The government accuses activist judges of increasingly usurping the role of parliament, and says the overhaul is needed to restore balance between the judiciary and elected politicians. read more