When Elected Leaders Pursue Risky Policies, What Can Stop Them?

It has been a chaotic few weeks in geopolitics. At the beginning of the month, President Trump announced tariffs that threw the global economy into turmoil. Investors panicked, stock markets plunged, and analysts predicted an imminent recession. Mr. Trump insisted…

For Some Autocrats, Even Rigged Elections Can Be Too Much of a Threat

Over the last two decades, countries like Turkey, Hungary, Venezuela and India gave the world a lesson on how democracy can erode into “competitive authoritarianism” — a system in which elections are still meaningful, but leaders manipulate the rules to…

Turkey Deports BBC Reporter Who Covered Mass Protests

The BBC said on Thursday that Turkey had deported a correspondent who was covering the antigovernment protests in the country, after he was detained and labeled “a threat to public order.” The broadcaster said in a statement that Mark Lowen,…

Turkey Jails Istanbul Mayor Who Was Expected to Run for President

A Turkish court on Sunday jailed the mayor of Istanbul pending his trial on corruption charges, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, hobbling a potential contender in Turkey’s next presidential election and the top rival of President Recep Tayyip…

In Turkey, Critics of Erdogan See Democracy Eroding After Istanbul Mayor’s Detention

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan entered this year facing a knot of political problems with little precedent in his two decades at the summit of power in Turkey. Voters were angry about persistently high inflation. His political party’s popularity had sunk.…

‘This Is Worse’: Trump’s Judicial Defiance Veers Beyond the Autocrat Playbook

President Trump’s intensifying conflict with the federal courts is unusually aggressive compared with similar disputes in other countries, according to scholars. Unlike leaders who subverted or restructured the courts, Mr. Trump is acting as if judges were already too weak…

Kurdish Fighters Called a Truce, but Turkey Kept Up Lethal Strikes

Turkey’s military has kept up deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq on fighters linked to the Kurdish insurgent group P.K.K. in the two weeks since the movement’s founder called on his followers to lay down their arms and disband. The…