June 2 News Quiz: How long has Erdogan been ruling Turkey?

Turkey’s presidential election saw an unprecedented runoff on May 28, 2023. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the man who’s been at the helm for two decades and counting, won 52.1% of the votes. His victory means continuing his populist politics. Erdogan’s rule has been marked by a painful cost-of-living crisis, limited freedom of speech, and recent earthquakes.

Russia’s Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) after criticizing the Putin regime and praising US military assistance to Ukraine during a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on May 30, 2023. Graham responded defiantly by challenging Russia to submit to the International Criminal Court, where Putin faces a warrant for forced transfers of children from Ukraine. He also said he would wear the arrest warrant as a badge of honor.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filed paperwork to run for president on May 24, 2023. He announced his decision on Twitter, just ahead of a scheduled Twitter Spaces conversation with Twitter chief Elon Musk. The event faced more than 20 minutes of technical problems and attracted only about 300,000 concurrent listeners and 3.4 million total listeners – far below expectations.

Nvidia is the leading producer of graphics processing units (GPUs), essential for running complex AI models that generate human-like content. The company’s shares have soared by more than 200% since October 2023 as investors were impressed by its revenue forecast and generative AI innovation. On May 30, 2023, Nvidia briefly joined the exclusive club of US companies with a market value of $1tn. This club includes Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Holmes was the founder and CEO of Theranos, a startup that raised nearly $1 billion from investors and became a Silicon Valley sensation. However, The Wall Street Journal exposed her technology as flawed and dangerous in 2015. She was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022 and sentenced to 11 years in prison in May 2023. She was incarcerated on May 30, 2023, in a women’s prison camp in Texas.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy, scheduled for May 21, 2023, was canceled due to sudden floods, its management announced on May 17. It was the first Grand Prix canceled since the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, which was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The floods had disastrous effects on the Emilia Romagna region. Interestingly, another major racing event, the Coca-Cola 600 race, scheduled for Sunday, May 28, 2023, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, was postponed to Monday, May 29, 2023, due to persistent and heavy rain. This was the first time inclement weather forced the Coca-Cola 600 to run on Memorial Day afternoon since 2009.

Tina Turner was 44 when she released her first solo album, “Private Dancer” in 1984. The album sold five million copies and launched her tour career, which made her a worldwide phenomenon. At the 1985 Grammys, the album won her three awards for “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and a fourth award for “Better Be Good To Me.” Turner died on May 24, 2023, at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. She was 83 years old.

Fun Fact: The title song from “Private Dancer” was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

Anatomy of a Fall, directed by Justine Triet, stars Sandra Hüller as Alice, a popular writer who claims her husband committed suicide by jumping from their balcony. However, the police suspect foul play and arrest Alice for homicide. The film won the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival, on May 27, 2023. Triet is only the third woman to win the Palme d’Or, after Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993 and Julia Ducournau for Titane in 2021.

Samantha Jones was played by Kim Cattrall, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in 2002. She was one of the four main characters of the show, along with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis). The show ran for six seasons and spawned two feature films. However, Cattrall declined to participate in a third film or the reboot series And Just Like That…, citing personal issues with Parker. The good news: In June 2023, Cattrall filmed a cameo scene as Samantha for the second season of the reboot series. The scene involved a video conversation with Carrie and was filmed without meeting any of the cast.

Only weeks after 79 years-old Robert De Niro announced he had just had his 7th child, 83 years-old Al Pacino confirmed on May 31, 2023, that his 29-year-old girlfriend, Noor Alfallah, is 8 months pregnant with his fourth child. According to TMZ, who broke the news, Alfallah has been linked to Pacino since April 2022 and had a previous relationship with Mick Jagger in 2018. The boy, Roman, was born on June 15, 2023.

In a twist of events that could only be expected in the world of Succession, Tom “The Underdog” Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) ascends to the throne of Waystar Royco as CEO in the series finale, titled “With Open Eyes,” which aired on May 28, 2023. Shiv Roy, initially considered the favorite for the CEO position, was sidelined when tech mogul Lukas Matsson had a change of heart and saw Tom as a more pliable choice. Meanwhile, Kendall Roy was left staring blankly at the water.