Nation & World Glance

Turkey’s Erdogan wins another term as president, extends rule into 3rd decade

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade as the country reels from high inflation and the aftermath of an earthquake that leveled entire cities.

A third term gives Erdogan, a polarizing populist, an even stronger hand domestically and internationally, and the election results will have implications far beyond the capital of Ankara. Turkey stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it plays a key role in NATO.

With more than 99% of ballot boxes opened, unofficial results from competing news agencies showed Erdogan with 52% of the vote, compared with 48% for his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The head of Turkey’s electoral board confirmed the victory, saying that even after accounting for outstanding votes, the result was another term for Erdogan.

In two speeches – one in Istanbul and one in Ankara – Erdogan thanked the nation for entrusting him with the presidency for five more years.

“We hope to be worthy of your trust, as we have been for 21 years,” he told supporters on a campaign bus outside his home in Istanbul in his first comments after the results emerged.

North Korea tells neighboring Japan it plans to launch satellite in coming days

TOKYO – Japan’s coast guard said North Korea has notified it that it plans to launch a satellite in coming days, which may be an attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.

Japan’s coast guard said the notice from North Korean waterway authorities said the launch window was from May 31 and June 11 and that the launch may affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.

Japan’s coast guard issued a safety warning for ships that would passing through the area during the launch window.

The prime minister’s office said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has instructed officials to do their utmost to gather and analyze information related to the launch and inform people about it.

Pyongyang said early this month its first military spy satellite was ready for launch. Such a launch would use long-range missile technology banned by past U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Fight still ahead for Texas’ AG after historic impeachment deepens GOP divisions

AUSTIN, Texas – The historic impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was just the first round of a Republican brawl over whether to banish one of their own in America’s biggest red state after years of criminal accusations.

Paxton and his allies, from former President Donald Trump to hard-right grassroots organizations across Texas, now wait to fight back in what Paxton hopes will be a friendlier arena: a trial in the state Senate.

It was still unclear Sunday when this will take place. The Republican-led Senate met to pass bills in the final days of the legislative session. But the chamber’s presiding officer, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, did not immediately address the Paxton impeachment.

Paxton has said he has “full confidence” as he awaits a Senate trial. His conservative allies there include his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has not said whether she will recuse herself from the proceedings to determine whether her husband will be permanently removed from office.

For now, Texas’ threeterm attorney general is immediately suspended after the state House of Representatives on Saturday impeached Paxton on 20 articles that included bribery and abuse of public trust.

George Maharis, star of TV’S ‘Route 66’ in the 1960s, dies at 94

LOS ANGELES – George Maharis, a stage-trained actor with rough-hewn good looks who became an icon to American youth in the 1960s as he cruised the country in a Corvette convertible in the hit television series “Route 66,” has died.

Maharis’ friend and caretaker Marc Bahan said in a Facebook post that he died Wednesday. Bahan told the Hollywood Reporter, which first reported Maharis’ death, that he died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after contracting hepatitis. He was 94.

On “Route 66,” Maharis played Buz Murdock, a hardened survivor of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. His co-star Martin Milner, who died in 2015, was Tod Stiles, a young man raised in wealth who upon his father’s death was left with nothing but a shiny new Corvette.

The pair decided to travel the highway author John Steinbeck had dubbed “The Mother Road.” Each week brought a new adventure in a new city, and audiences tuned in in droves.

“Route 66” was the rare series at the time that was filmed on location, moving to new towns and cities for each new episode. It featured as guest stars future stars including Robert Redford, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Alan Alda in some of their earliest roles.

Russia launched ‘largest drone attack’ on Ukrainian capital before Kyiv Day

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s capital was subjected to the largest drone attack since the start of Russia’s war, local officials said, as Kyiv prepared to mark the anniversary of its founding on Sunday. At least one person was killed, but officials said scores of drones were shot down, demonstrating Ukraine’s air defense capability.

Russia launched the “most massive attack” on the city overnight Saturday with Iranian-made Shahed drones, said Serhii Popko, a senior Kyiv military official. The attack lasted more than five hours, with air defense reportedly shooting down more than 40 drones.

A 41-year-old man was killed and a 35-year-old woman was hospitalized when debris fell on a seven-story nonresidential building and started a fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Debris from a drone damaged the building of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind. On Sunday morning, organization member Volodymyr Golubenko came to pick up his things. He was helped by his son Mykola, who searched for his father’s belongings among the rubble and at the same time tried to describe to his father what his office looks like now.

“This wall on the right is destroyed and on left also,” said Mykola to his father.

Ukraine said that Saturday night was also record-breaking in terms of Shahed drone attacks across the country. Of the 59 drones launched, 58 were shot down by air defense systems, according to the military’s General Staff.

Russia has repeatedly launched waves of drone attacks against Ukraine, but most are shot down. Ukraine has also claimed this month to have downed some of Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted as providing a key competitive advantage.

In the northeastern Kharkiv province, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said a 61-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were killed in two separate shelling attacks.

Kyiv Day marks the anniversary of the city’s official founding.