If this Turkish politician doesn’t win, he’s blaming the cats

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu is sure he's going to be Turkey's next president — he even said so while campaigning recently.

In fact, İhsanoğlu said there's just one thing that can get in the way of him taking the position that is rightfully his: cats. Yes, if he doesn't win, İhsanoğlu said it would be because the four-legged felines intervened.

Silly as it seems, it's not exactly outrageous. He was referring to an incident in recent local elections where a cat was blamed for a power outage that struck a local community while votes were being counted. The Turkish todayszaman.com has the full story.

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Wal-Mart looks into it was selling expired meat too

The Shenzen Wal-Mart is under fire and under investigation after a local TV news station aired a report accusing it of taking the store's expired meat, and then frying it in reused oil and selling it to customers. The video came from a former Wal-Mart employee who worked at the store for eight years. They also accused the store of selling moth-infested rice, rather than discarding it or returning it to the the distributor.

The South China Morning Post reports that an internal investigation has been launched, and local government officials are also investigating — but no results have been reported yet. This scandal comes on the heels of a scandal in Shanghai where Western fast food restaurants were reportedly unknowingly selling expired meat.

A Muslim American takes on discrimination as he runs for office in Tennessee

Zak Mohyuddin lost his bid to be elected to his local county commission — the first time any foreign-born person had ever made a bid to hold elected office in the county. But along the way, he changed perceptions and, he hopes, inspired other immigrants to realize that America, and American politics, are for everyone — and not just people who were born here.

Our Global Nation desk traveled to Tennessee to talk to Mohyuddin about the race, and the negative stereotypes he encountered. But rather than be angered by them, Mohyuddin chose to tackle them head on. PRI's The World has the story.

If you've ever wanted to rock an ISIS T-shirt, a shop in Turkey has what you're looking for

ISIS is perhaps the most notorious terrorist organization in the world right now, so imperiling Iraq that the US military has returned to the country with airstrikes to try and blunt its advance on Kurdish-controlled parts of the country. But, for some people at least, ISIS is a group to be admired. And for people in that group, there's a shop in Istanbul that will sell you a T-shirt with ISIS's logo printed on it.

Writing for RoadsAndKingdoms.com, reported Joseph Dana visited the "Islamic Clothing" shop, where he found more than just T-shirts. The store also sells cargo pants, green bandanas and other bits of jihadi wear that are commonly seen in news footage and pictures from the front lines. The shop owner insists he's not a member of ISIS — merely someone who saw a market opportunity and seized it.

Cheese, sure. But don't take away our booze

Russia responded to Western sanctions Thursday with sanctions of its own — prohibitions on the import of most food and agricultural products from the US, Canada, the EU and Australia. That means no American poultry, no French cheese — none of the foreign goods that many Russians have developed an affinity for. And Russians were willing to go along with that. But alcohol? That would be a bridge too far.

Global Voices gathered some of the most amusing responses from Russian social media of people worried they may no longer be able to get the whisky they've become accustomed to. Fortunately, Russian officials decided to exempt all alcohol from their ban — a decision that may just have saved them from some sort of popular revolution.

What we're seeing on social

.@StateDept now handling the investigation of protesters who were allegedly attacked by DRC security forces http://t.co/6oTSfioYyW

— Jacob Fischler (@ItsFischy) August 8, 2014

Weather around the world

The monsoon was late and the monsoon was weak in India, but recent developments are — finally — producing results. Rainfall has been 18 percent above average for the last week, and is expected to remain high for several days to come. All the rain has boosted the critical planting season and made up for some of the drought from June's late, weak start. Forecasters are projecting solid additional rainfall over the last two months of the monsoon, according to Reuters.