World last week: Signs of 'new wars'

History of the joke "luck comes to you"

After a period of absence from the public eye, in the annual traditional ceremony held at the White House on the occasion of Thanksgiving, incumbent President Donald Trump pardoned a turkey named Corn.

Before the ceremony, Corn and another turkey named Cob were brought to Washington and stayed at the luxurious Willard Hotel near the White House. An online poll was opened for 24 hours for Americans to vote on whether Corn or Cob would be the turkey to be pardoned.

The annual turkey pardoning event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thanksgiving. Photo: NBC News

Since November 2018, before the turkey pardon, the White House has chosen two turkeys and posted their photos on social media, asking the public to vote for which turkey the president would pardon. The chosen turkey would join the president at the Rose Garden event, while the other turkey would be saved and put on display for visitors.

ThanksgivingThis year, a video recording of the speech from 2018 has become a hot topic on social media in recent days, with more than 1 million views. That year, Carrots and Peas were the two main "characters" participating in the vote and Peas won. During the pardon ceremony, President Trump jokingly complained about Carrots' stubborn refusal to admit defeat. Speaking in the Rose Garden at that time, President Trump said: "This was a fair election. Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and demanded a recount. I will tell you, we have come to a conclusion. Carrots, I apologize but the results will not change." Some people commented that Mr. Trump's joke from 2 years ago may have "applied" to him, when he was going through a similar scenario.

Despite his best efforts to fight the legal battle, the battleground states where Mr. Trump fought to challenge the election results, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, have certifiedvictory for Joe Biden. Mr. Trump's chances of turning the tables have all but come to a standstill. Public Service Director Emily Murphy also announced the transfer of available resources and services to the president-elect.

Incumbent President Donald Trump pardoned the Cornish turkey, following the White House's annual Thanksgiving tradition. Photo: ABC News

Present,Incumbent President Donald Trumpstill declares “Never give in”. Observers say that the transition has begun, Mr. Trump can still rely on his loyal team to create barriers for Mr. Joe Biden’s administration. This opinion seems to have a basis, because many of Mr. Trump’s loyal arms are still abundant, holding key positions in the administration including: Secretary of State, and Ministers of the Departments: Justice, Defense, Finance, Health.

In the last two months of his term, President Trump still has enough power to order judicial and defense decisions. Of course, Trump's orders can be reversed by Biden, and old policies can be revised. But the way the Trump administration deploys federal employees will likely have a lasting impact. Biden cannot remove all of Trump's "cronies" when some have had terms longer than his.

Stress aggravation

With 631 votes in favor, 3 against and 59 abstentions, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution, backing the Republic of Cyprus' call on EU leaders to act and impose tough sanctions in response to Türkiye's illegal actions.Tensions between the EU and TürkiyeNot new, but new developments could cause bilateral relations to hit rock bottom, complicating the already turbulent situation in the region.

The European Parliament urged the European Union to pass a resolution to sanction Türkiye. Photo: AP

The source of the tension began when on November 15, during a visit to the breakaway region of Northern Cyprus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his support for the permanent separation of Cyprus into two countries. Accordingly, Türkiye and Northern Cyprus will no longer tolerate “diplomatic games” in an international dispute over rights to resources off the Eastern Mediterranean.

Cyprus was divided along ethnic lines after Türkiye invaded in 1974, in response to a brief Greek-backed coup. Only Ankara now recognises Northern Cyprus as an independent state.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Ankara, controls the northern third of the island, where some 30,000 Turkish troops are stationed. Erdogan's visit comes as Türkiye ispublic controversywith neighbors Greece and Cyprus over maritime territories believed to hold large gas reserves.

The government of the Republic of Cyprus, an internationally recognized state and member of the EU, called President Erdogan's visit "provocative and illegal" and said, "Ankara completely disregards international law, European principles and values, as well as its obligations to the EU."

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (left) and leaders of the Republic of Northern Cyprus attend the ceremony to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the declaration of independence of Northern Cyprus on November 15. Photo: Reuters

Türkiye's move was immediately met with strong opposition from the EU. EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said Ankara's recent statements about Cyprus were exacerbating tensions with the EU. Brussels will consider imposing sanctions on Ankara for its illegal exploration of resources in the sea when EU leaders meet at a summit in December.

Tensions continued to rise last week when, on November 23, the German military said that Ankara had prevented its soldiers from participating in an EU military mission - searching a Turkish cargo ship on suspicion of transporting weapons to Libya. This operation of the German military was part of the deployment of the "Hamburg" frigate to the Mediterranean to participate in the EU's "Irini" mission, implementing the UN arms embargo monitoring order on Libya.

For its part, Türkiye criticized the inspection force for violating international law by not allowing it, and affirmed that the ship did not violate the arms embargo, but only contained many goods such as food, paint, etc.

According to international law, the “Irini” representative agency must request the consent of the flag state of the ship before conducting an inspection of the ship. A spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense said that if the request was sent out and there was no response within four hours, this could be interpreted as “tacit consent.” However, it was only when the German military boarded the ship and began the inspection that Türkiye responded and said it did not agree.

The German frigate Hamburg intercepted the Turkish ship Rosaline A 200 km off the coast of Libya. Photo: AFP

The incident is similar to an earlier clash between a French frigate and Turkish vessels in June, which led to sharp tensions within the NATO military alliance.

The disagreements seemed to have eased when Ankara and Brussels promised to negotiate. But all of these developments have increased tensions between the EU and Türkiye. The EU’s drastic actions have once again put bilateral relations at a standstill. At the upcoming European Council meeting on December 10-11, EU leaders will discuss relations with Türkiye and potential restrictions on the country.