ISTANBUL (AP) — Millions of Turks voted in municipal elections Sunday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan depicted as a fight for Turkey’s survival, and which are a crucial test of the strongman’s own support amid a sharp economic downturn.

The voting, which ended in the evening, was marred by scattered election violence that killed at least two people and injured dozens of others across Turkey. Results were expected late Sunday.

Economic prosperity provided Erdogan and his party with previous election victories. But the party could lose key posts in the mayoral elections taking place in 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts as Turkey copes with a weakened currency, a double-digit inflation rate and soaring food prices……

…..The killings weren’t caused by “simple animosity,” but happened when the volunteers tried to enforce the law requiring ballots to be marked in private voting booths instead of out in the open, Karamollaoglu tweeted……

…more…

https://www.apnews.com/dbd42c5c3e1d492ab2dfd60aa39ea2b9

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Voters in Ukraine cast ballots in a presidential election Sunday after a campaign that saw a comedian with no political experience become the front-runner and two other top candidates, including the current president, face allegations of voter bribery.

Opinion polls have indicated that Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV sitcom about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral, is leading a field of 39 candidates. The polls also had Zelenskiy outpacing incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the other top candidates, by a broad margin.

“Zelenskiy has shown us on the screen what a real president should be like,” said voter Tatiana Zinchenko, 30, who cast her ballot for the comedian. “He showed what the state leader should aspire for — fight corruption by deeds, not words, help the poor, control the oligarchs.”

If no candidate secures an absolute majority in Sunday’s vote, a runoff between the two top finishers will be held April 21.

…more…

https://www.apnews.com/aa83599ab7e347cdb0746d9801c2a165

https://www.apnews.com/1c1a52f6dca44861a6e1145c729198fa

Ex-Sen. David Boren accused of sexual misconduct

WASHINGTON (AP) — A robot walks into a bar. It goes CLANG.

Alexa and Siri can tell jokes mined from a humor database, but they just don’t get them.

Linguists and computer scientists say this is something to consider on April Fools’ Day: Humor is what makes humans special. When people try to teach machines what’s funny, the results are at times laughable but not quite in the way intended.

“Artificial intelligence will never get jokes like humans do,” said Kiki Hempelmann, a computational linguist who studies humor at Texas A&M University-Commerce. “In themselves, they have no need for humor. They miss completely context.”

…more…

https://www.apnews.com/bae71c3bef8145ecaaa84bca24d77430

https://www.apnews.com/6dfc2af45970473a82df9f2d28f1337d

Opinion…is it me or is there a ramp up in coordinated opportunities for "remember me" sympathy?

>>5991523

satin wana be