SPOTLIGHT: STATE OF EMERGENCY, THE OBVIOUS ANSWER?

If the whole world is always in a state of emergency, does that mean there's no emergency? We're not quite there yet, but an official "state of emergency" decree, with additional regulations and the granting of special police powers, is increasingly how governments react in times of crisis.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency yesterday following Friday's failed military coup attempt. Just hours earlier, the French parliament agreed on extending the country's state of emergency until January 2017, following the terror attack in Nice. Meanwhile, less reported, was the decision by the government of Mali to extend its own special security regime for 10 more days after armed groups killed 17 soldiers in an attack on a military base Tuesday.

For each of these countries, this means more power for authorities and fewer rights for the people. In Turkey, Erdogan gets radically enhanced powers, such as bypassing parliament when drafting new laws, with the constitutional court unable to challenge him and his cabinet. The government can also wield more repressive powers on the country's media, protests and human rights in general. In a country where some 9,000 people have been arrested since the coup and where there are talks about reinstating the death penalty, this is troubling.

In France, the state of emergency has been criticized for its inefficiency. With yesterday's extension, in addition to measures such as exceptional powers given to the president and police, authorities will also be able to cancel events that cannot be secured and more easily shut down places of worship that advocate hatred and violence. For Mali, as well, the government has imposed the state of emergency several times over the past year for limited periods, forced to bring it back after yet another terrorist strike. At the heart of these and other examples are apparently conflicting questions: What are the risks to democratic principles of imposing a state of emergency? And, what are the benefits?

WHAT TO LOOK FOR TODAY

• Donald Trump to make his acceptance speech at the RNC.
• New British Prime Minister Theresa May meets François Hollande in Paris.

TED CRUZ REFUSES TO ENDORSE TRUMP

In a speech delivered last night at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Senator Ted Cruz failed to endorse the GOP's presidential candidate Donald Trump, as The New York Times reports. This caused hundreds of people in the crowd to boo the former candidate, chanting "We want Trump!"As Cruz wrapped up his speech, Trump appeared thumbs up as he joined his family in a VIP area, in a clear move to steal the spotlight from his fellow Republican.

RUSSIAN ATHLETES BANNED FROM RIO GAMES

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the IAAF's decision to ban Russian track and field athletes from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in the wake of reports evidencing organized state-sponsored doping in the country. Read more about it from the BBC here.

THREE FRENCH SOLDIERS KILLED IN LIBYA

French President François Hollande confirmed yesterday that three French soldiers had been killed in a helicopter crash in Libya while conducting a an intelligence-gathering mission, with no information as to where and when this happened. According to Jeune Afrique, the Libyan government later accused France of violating its national territory.

— ON THIS DAY

From Harry Potter to the IRA and Cat Stevens, here's what happened in the world on this day, in 57 seconds.

VERBATIM

"I went to the ground, I went to the ground with my hands up," Charles Kinsey, a black caregiver at a Miami mental health center, told the television network WSVN after he was shot by police while lying on the ground, arms up, saying "there's no need for firearms." Kinsey was tending to a 23-year-old autistic man who had escaped from the center when he was confronted by officers responding to the report of a man carrying a gun threatening to commit suicide. "I'm like this right here, and when he shot me, it was so surprising. I thought it was a mosquito bite, and when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I'm thinking I just got shot!"

22 DIE IN MEDITERRANEAN

The bodies of 22 people, 21 women and one man, were found on a rubber dinghy by a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) boat near the Libyan coast yesterday, Reuters reports. The boat, from which 209 people were saved, had just set off for Italy. The victims were found lying in a pool of fuel at the bottom of the dinghy.

— WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO

In Congo, elegant dandies took the suits and ties of their colonial predecessors and made them their own. For Le Monde, Françoise Alexander explores the fascinating Sape movement: "In the 1970s, La Sape became a protest against the ‘abacost' policy ... that was implemented in Congo. In accordance with Zairianization, the official state ideology of the Joseph-Désiré Mobutu regime, wearing a European-style suit and tie was officially forbidden. President Mobutu wore a hat made of leopard fur, a symbol of power in the Bantu population. ‘In this sense, La Sape was truly a revolutionary behavior,' notes Fonkoua. ‘It expressed both resistance and the assertion of an African identity with a global outlook, as opposed to Mobutu's limited, obtuse vision.'"

Read the full article, La Sape, Congolese Dandy Style Born Of Political Protest.

FRANCE ISSUES MICROSOFT ULTIMATUM

The French data protection authority (CNIL) put Microsoft on notice yesterday by ordering the American company to cease collecting excessive data on users through its Windows 10 operating system, Le Monde reports. If Microsoft, a tech giant that had a $93.6 billion revenue last year, does not comply within three months, it could be issued a $165,000 fine.

2.6%

The low-cost air company easyJet has reported its quarterly revenue has fallen by 2.6% to $1.58 billion, with its shares dropping as as much as 7.6%, according to Bloomberg. The UK-based company says terrorist attacks in Europe, its main market, and the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU are to blame.

MY GRAND-PERE'S WORLD

On The Boat Again — Jakarta, 1991

U.S. SHUTS DOWN POPULAR TORRENT WEBSITE

Kickass Torrents, one of the most popular torrent-sharing websites, has been offline since yesterday, and its owner, Atrem Vaulin, has been arrested in Poland, International Business Timesreports. This comes after a massive operation by U.S. authorities against the website.

MORE STORIES, EXCLUSIVELY IN ENGLISH BY WORLDCRUNCH

• Reading Erdogan In The Heart Of Germany's Turkish Community — Die Welt
• Comfort After Defeat — A Video Quote
  
• Chinese Travel Agents Offer "Nostalgia" Tours To North Korea — VOA Chinese

SELFIE WARS

After House Speaker Paul Ryan posted a very Caucasian selfie on Instagram last week, another group of Congressional interns got together to produce a more diverse pic.