Recep Tayyip Erdogan
MBS visits Ankara as Turkey attempts to repair relations with its regional rivals
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks in Ankara. The visit comes as Turkey seeks to repair ties with its regional rivals. Steven A. Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington spoke with The World’s host Carol Hills about the significance of the visit.
Turkey’s president formally makes Haghia Sophia a mosque
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century iconic Haghia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum.
The global implications of Geoffrey Berman firing; US and Russia start nuclear weapons talks; US targets Assad govt and backers with sanctions
Shares in Turkish state lender Halkbank surged 8% today after US federal chief prosecutor Geoffrey Berman was forced to step down over the weekend. Also, Wirecard said on Monday that $2.1 billion is missing from its accounts and was likely never there. And, representatives from the US and Russia started nuclear weapons talks today in Vienna.
North Korea stops answering daily calls with South; Past epidemics underscore importance of mental health
North Korean officials did not answer a routine daily call to the liaison office with South Korea or calls on military hotlines Tuesday. The move is seen as a first step toward shutting down contact with Seoul. And, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he and US President Donald Trump agreed on “some issues” on the conflict in Libya during a phone call Monday. Also, a new study of satellite images shows a surge in traffic to hospitals in Wuhan, China, in August.
China raises coronavirus death toll; political shakeups in Brazil; restoring Notre Dame’s soundscape
Chinese officials have revised their novel coronavirus fatality count, but insist there has been no coverup. And in the US, President Donald Trump tells governors they are responsible for opening up states’ economies. Political shakeups in Brazil and Turkey point to questionable responses to the pandemic. In Bangladesh, coronavirus could put Rohingya refugee women in leadership roles. And rebuilding the Notre Dame de Paris is about more than the structure. Learn how acoustic research could help reconstruct the cathedral’s unique soundscape.