Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 119

The Turkish President's Arch-Nemesis

Who is Fethullah Gulen and why is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convinced the cleric’s supporters, dubbed Gulenists, were behind last week’s coup attempt? Those two questions are perhaps central to understanding what’s happening in Turkey in the aftermath of last Friday’s failed putsch.

Who is Gulen?

The cleric is the head of the Hizmet (“Service”) movement, a community that espouses a moderate strain of Islam, but whose critics dismiss as cult-like. Since 1999, Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. He rarely gives interviews, but his followers preside over a network of businesses, schools, and charitable organizations the world over. Writing in The New Republic in 2010, Suzy Hansen chronicled in “The Global Imam” just how influential Gulen and his movement are in Turkey and elsewhere. Here’s an excerpt:

As I became more acquainted with Turkey, it began to seem as if everything there was somehow linked to Gülen. Not only NGOs, businesses, and schools, but also people. “This article is good,” I would say. “Yes, but you know, that writer is Gülen,” would come the reply. Sometimes, calling someone “Gülen” seemed to reflect fear or prejudice, and pinning down whether or not any given organization was tied to the Gülen movement was rarely a simple matter. As someone at the Rumi Forum in Washington—another organization where Gülen serves as honorary president—put it, “If you say you are in [the Gülen movement], if you say that at 12:20, and say you are out at 12:21, you are out.” One Turkish acquaintance joked to me, “Who knows? Every day, when I go to the bakery or get my groceries, I could be giving money to Gülen. Who knows!” “They’re everywhere” is a common refrain. At times, suspicions about the Gülenists sound like anti-Semitism—they run the media, they’re rich, they stick together, they only help their own.

If you ask Gülenists—who blanch at the words “follower” and “member,” as well as the term “Gülenist” (in Turkish, the term is Fethullahçı, referring to his first name)—they will call themselves a “faith-based, civic society movement” or a “volunteers movement” made up of people who admire the thoughts and writings of Gülen. They are an organic network of people, they say, whose goal is to do good works at Gülen’s noble behest while spreading his message of love and tolerance, as well as his vision of Islam. According to academics who have studied the movement, there are, more or less, three levels of involvement: sympathizers, who admire Gülen; friends, who, to some degree, support or work for the movement; and the cemaat, or community, the core adherents who are closest to Gülen himself. …

Gülen’s views are moderate and modern. He is fiercely opposed to violence and enthusiastic about science. According to Gülen, “avoiding the physical sciences due to the fear that they will lead to heresy is childish.” He is emphatically not a radical Islamist. “The lesser jihad is our active fulfillment of Islam’s commands and duties,” he has written, and “the greater jihad is proclaiming war on our ego’s destructive and negative emotions and thoughts ... which prevent us from attaining perfection.” He has exhorted women to take off their headscarves, a ritual he considers “of secondary importance,” in order to attend university in compliance with Turkey’s secular laws. His followers run nonprofit organizations that promote peace, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue, and Gülenist businessmen devote their resources to building secular schools.

Why does the Turkish government oppose him?

Erdogan, who heads the Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Gulen were once close—and both opposed the Turkey’s formerly strict interpretation of secularism that punished overt expressions of Islam. Both are devout Muslims, but as Mustafa Aykol pointed out for Al-Monitor, Erdogan espouses a more political Islam while Gulen advocates a more cultural Islam. As Aykol explained in “What you should know about Turkey's AKP-Gulen conflict”:

Had the Gulen movement been limited only to cultural Islam, this current tension would be limited. Most observers agree that the movement in fact has its own version of a political effort: aiming for members to obtain jobs within the judiciary and the police. Apparently, this began back in the '70s as an effort to transform a hostile state — Turkey’s draconian secular regime — by gradually joining its ranks. Since it has been a covert task, it has always been a matter of speculation and a source for conspiracy theories.

The perceived lack of transparency in Gulen’s movement, combined with its reach within the government and society, and the unsubstantiated belief that Gulenists form a parallel state all contributed to the schism between the two men. So did the investigation of Erdogan’s former spy chief, who was involved in secret negotiations with Kurdish separatists. The BBC’s Guney Yildiz, in a January 2014 review, “Analysis: Power of Turkey's Fethullah Gulen,” noted:

Now, with hindsight, we can say that Mr Erdogan had been preparing for this battle at least since the beginning of 2012. That was when prosecutors allegedly close to Hizmet tried to investigate the chief of the National Intelligence Organisation, a close ally of Mr Erdogan, who was conducting secret talks with the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Der Spiegel’s Maximilian Popp, also in January 2014, had more details in “A Brother’s Vengeance: The Preacher Who Could Topple Erdogan” on what drove the two sides apart. In addition to the investigations, it also centered, according to Popp, on Gulen’s nationwide “tutoring centers” that trained more than a million students for exams needed to enter Turkey’s judiciary and police.  

In February 2012 state prosecutors attempted to apprehend Erdogan's intelligence chief. The prime minister prevented [Hakan] Fidan's arrest —and transferred police powers to intelligence. The media attacked Erdogan's actions with the same vehemence they once reserved for the opposition. In summer 2013 Gülen criticized Erdogan for his brutal handling of the Gezi protesters.

But only after Erdogan threatened to close the tutoring centers did the conflict escalate. Lawmaker Hakan Sukur, a former soccer player and national hero, announced his resignation from the AKP: "As a supporter of the movement, I take the hostilities against Gülen personally," he said. Afterward, the daily newspaper Zaman called him a "hero with a lion's heart" and interpreted his resignation as a "final warning."

The corruption scandal shook the country just a day later.

The scandal resulted in the arrests of 52 people connected with the AKP. Fourteen top officials were charged with corruption. The arrests were believed to have been orchestrated by Gulen’s supporters within the government. In response, the government cracked down by purging the civil service and other institutions of the cleric’s sympathizers.

What’s next?

Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind last Friday’s coup attempt and told CNN on Monday that Turkey will file a formal request with the U.S. to extradite him.

“We have a mutual agreement of extradition of criminals so now you ask someone to be extradited, you're my strategic partner I do obey, I do abide by that,” he said. “But you don’t do the same thing well, of course, there should be reciprocity in the types of things.”

Speaking over the weekend, John Kerry, the American secretary of state, said Turkey should first “present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny.” Those remarks angered Turkish officials. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday:  “We will be a little bit disappointed if our friends say ‘show us the evidence’ while there are members of this organization which is trying to destroy a state and a person who instructs it.”

Kerry also dismissed the idea of U.S. involvement in the coup attempt, but that perception may be hard to shake in Turkey among opponents of Gulen. As BuzzFeed News reported in 2014, in Secretive Turkish Movement Buys U.S. Influence:

Here in the United States ... Gülen’s allies have been stepping up their involvement in U.S. politics, emerging as a force in districts from South Texas to South Brooklyn. Liberal Democrats like Yvette Clarke, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Al Green, and conservative Republicans like Ted Poe and Pete Olson have all benefitted from donors affiliated with Gülen in one way or another.

Leaders in the movement deny that there is any top-down organization of the donations (or, indeed, that the Gülen movement has any organization at all), but the patterns of giving suggest some level of coordination in a community beginning to flex its political muscle. Gülen himself reportedly told followers in 2010 that they could only visit him in the Poconos if they donated to their local congressman, according to the Wall Street Journal, though Gülen has denied the comment.

Gulen, a permanent resident of the U.S., himself appeared to be unperturbed by the allegations and the request that he be extradited. He told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday:

“I don’t believe the U.S. will honor a request that is based on the enmity of a regime, which is recognized as dictatorial and has lost all of its credibility in the eyes of the world,” Mr. Gulen said from his home in rural Pennsylvania, where he has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999.

He added: “Under any circumstances, if I had to return to Turkey and face the gallows, I will not blink an eye. I am 77 years old and I look forward to meeting my Lord and the life in the hereafter.”

The 'Garden of Eden' Becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site

NEWS BRIEF Iraq’s marshlands, which lie in the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are believed to be the inspiration for the Bible’s Garden of Eden. The wetlands once spread 3,500 square miles, but Saddam Hussein drained most of the water in the 1990s in order to choke out a rebel group. It has slowly recovered since, and on Sunday was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The announcement means the land and animals in it will receive international protections. The marshlands, also called Ahwar, are made up of seven sites: three archaeological ruins and four wetlands marshes that represent one of the world’s largest inland deltas. The area is home to the Maʻdān, or Marsh Arabs.

As Reuters reported:

The Marsh Arabs have lived in the wetlands for millennia, but are on the fringes of Iraqi society. A study put their population at 400,000 in the 1950s but several hundred thousand fled Saddam's repression or become economic migrants.

Estimates of the numbers returning vary wildly. Many Marsh Arabs are illiterate and have struggled to find work outside the marshes.

The water in the marsh had been irrigated and dammed for decades, but especially so during Iraq’s war with Iran in the 1980s. In retribution for an uprising, Saddam drained the wetlands, forcing the Marsh Arabs to move away, and shrinking the wetlands to 290 square miles.

The wetlands, which supports about 40 species of birds, is an important migratory stop as they fly from Siberia to Africa. In 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, locals destroyed many of the dams Saddam built, and the water returned. More than 40 percent of the wetlands have now been re-established.

Ahwar / Marshes

Southern Iraq

Inscribed by the UNESCO on 17/07/2016

5th Iraqi site listed.#WorldHeritage#iraqesque pic.twitter.com/fowbG1reh2

— #IRAQesque (@Iraqesque) July 17, 2016

The @UNESCO approves to add Ahwar of southern Iraq (Iraqi marshes) to the #WorldHeritage sites!



Congratulations

A Bizarre New Zika Infection in Utah

Scientists are bewildered by a new and disturbing development involving the Zika virus in Utah, where a patient who contracted the virus recently died. Officials announced on Monday they’re investigating how a person who cared for the patient who died also became infected.

“Based on what is known now, the person has not recently traveled to an area with Zika and has not had sex with someone who is infected with Zika or who has traveled to an area with Zika,” the Utah Department of Health wrote in a statement on Monday. “In addition, there is no evidence at this time that mosquitoes that commonly spread Zika virus are in Utah.”

The department described the deceased as someone who had “a uniquely high amount of virus in the blood.” The death marked the first known Zika fatality in the United States.

“Our knowledge of this virus continues to evolve and our investigation is expected to help us better understand how this individual became infected,” said Angela Dunn, the deputy state epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health. “Based on what we know so far about this case, there is no evidence that there is any risk of Zika virus transmission among the general public in Utah.”

So far, the Centers for Disease Control has recorded 1,306 cases of the Zika virus in the United States, including 346 cases among pregnant women. Although the virus can have grave outcomes for children and adults, infection is especially concerning for pregnant women. Zika has been linked to birth defects like microcephaly, in which babies are born with unusually small heads, and other brain abnormalities. Despite the growing number of cases in America, there are no known areas in the United States where mosquitoes are actively transmitting the virus. Though the country has thus far avoided a Zika outbreak, officials warn that such an event is still possible.

In most cases, Zika is not deadly. Symptoms are often mild, if they appear at all. But the virus appears to have evolved in recent years, which may help explain why it has had such devastating effects in Brazil. Paul Farmer, the physician and humanitarian, told me he recently saw a patient in Haiti, a 12-year-old boy who was suffering from acute paralysis. “I just found out he did have Zika,” Farmer said. The boy, who remained paralyzed even after medical treatment, had developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome—a serious complication associated with the virus. “We don’t know in what fraction of cases those things occur, but it’s not trivial at all,” Farmer told me.

Gary Edwards, the executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, said in a statement that officials are doing what they can to figure out how the unusual transmission in Utah may have occurred. “In the meantime, the public, and especially pregnant women, should continue to take recommended steps to protect themselves from Zika virus.”

Shorter Game of Thrones Seasons? Great

Season seven of Game of Thrones will run seven episodes long, instead of the usual 10, and will premiere in summer rather than the spring, HBO announced today. Fans may mourn the time-shift because it means an even more agonizing wait to see what happens under Queen Cersei’s rule. But the network is chalking the delay up to the unfixable fact that shooting in what’s now wintertime Westeros means working within the limits of our world’s weather.

The news of shorter season length, too, may come as a bummer for anyone suffering from Thrones withdrawal, and it seems in line with a cynical Hollywood trend of unnecessarily drawing out the end of hugely popular stories (like splitting the final Hunger Games book into two movies, or the final Mad Men into two seasons). But there may be reason to be happy about the news, too, and it’s not simply because it’ll be less psychologically taxing to sit through seven weeks of death and drama than 10. In April, when the idea of briefer seasons was first floated as a possibility, I wrote why it might be one of the wiser moves HBO could make with regards to the show’s future:

Shorter seasons might help the show overcome obstacles that would seem to naturally arise from the unique situation it now finds itself in. Famously, most of its plotlines are about to outpace the Song of Ice and Fire books series upon which they’re based, and without the steady girding of George R.R. Martin’s meticulous work, creating the show has necessarily become a tougher task: In addition to scripting and filming a host of actors in locations across the world, Benioff and Weiss have to also wholly invent story. Martin, yes, has reportedly given them the big bullet points about how he expects the series to unfold, but that is not the same thing as having tome-length guides for how exactly it all happens.

It’s a challenge that gets to the heart of why Thrones appeals in the first place. One of the biggest things that sets the show apart from most works of popular fantasy entertainment is the sense that realistic cause-and-effect logic drives its action: Unlike with, say, The Force Awakens, viewers rarely are faced with a coincidence that they have to chalk up to destiny or magic or simple writer’s room convenience. This is unique in the world of mainstream entertainment, surely, because it’s hard to pull off. Martin, up to this point, had done the legwork for Benioff and Weiss; it takes him so long to write each installment in part because he has to figure out how to move the extremely complicated narrative along without resorting to shortcuts. And in addition to no longer having the simple and inexorable logic of Martin’s plot to build upon, Benioff and Weiss also have to create dialogue and setting details from scratch for nearly every single scene.

Logic would dictate that tackling this challenge would take more time, and therefore would mean that Benioff and Weiss could create fewer episodes in a year.

I think that season six ended up confirming some suspicions about Benioff and Weiss having to make the same amount of entertainment as before but with less source material to work off of. On the plus side, the results were widely agreed upon to be some of the most propulsive and flat-out watchable entertainment Thrones has ever provided—a symptom, perhaps, of TV instincts taking over from novelistic ones. On the negative side, there was a good deal of yadda-yaddaing about plot improbabilities, like Sansa not informing Jon about Littlefinger, or Davos not confronting Melisandre about Shireen till the very end of the season, or Arya telling Jaqen H'ghar to eff off without being immediately murdered. My colleague Chris Orr rounded up what felt different about the latests twists in his season review:

The show still had its share of shocks this season, of course. But they typically seemed spontaneous (Ramsay stabbing his father Roose), conveniently timed (Dany’s return to Meereen with her dragons), relatively straightforward (satisfying as it was, Cersei’s wildfire plot wasn’t particularly complex), or largely unexplained. For instance, I enjoyed Arya’s revenge-killing of Walder Frey—neatly set up by his Red-Wedding-echoing line earlier, “The Freys and the Lannisters send their regards”—as much as anyone. But it came, almost literally, out of nowhere. When and where did Arya arrive back in Westeros? How did she infiltrate the Frey household and kill two of Walder’s sons—let alone gain access to the kitchens to bake them into pies? How and where did she get the new face? (An unnecessary flourish, incidentally: She could almost certainly have accomplished all of the above just as easily with her own face; the Mission-Impossible-esque peel-back wasn’t really for Walder, it was for us.)

Like so much this season (and to a lesser degree, last), the Frey murder seemed all payoff with almost no meaningful buildup. Likewise, Dany’s burning down of thekhalar vezhven back in episode four, though also terrifically satisfying, raised as many questions as it answered. (Did no one notice that the entire floor was covered in oil?) Compare any of these developments with the meticulous setup of, say, the Purple Wedding—the introduction of foolish Ser Dantos, far, far in advance, for instance, and the presentation of the poison-amethyst necklace—and the contrast is striking.

More time to work doesn’t necessarily mean that Benioff and Weiss will succeed at cracking the challenge of keeping the story both cohesive and exciting. But it would, logically, seem to give them more opportunity to do so. HBO hasn’t yet said how many seasons of the show are left, but it certainly seems like we’re close to the end. Why not have each episode be as good as it can be?

The Russian Olympic Doping Scandal

Updated on July 18 at 1:45 p.m. ET

NEWS BRIEF The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has recommended that all Russian athletes be barred from competing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The announcement comes just a few hours after a the release of a two-month investigation that found the Russian government helped dozens of its athletes cheat at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor and sports lawyer, who presented the findings at a news conference Monday in Toronto, said he established “beyond a reasonable doubt” Russian government involvement in the doping coverup.

In its statement after the presentation, WADA said, “Given that the Russian Ministry of Sport orchestrated systematic cheating of Russian athletes to subvert the doping control process; and that, the evidence shows such subversion in 30 sports, including 20 Olympic summer sports and Paralympic sports, the presumption of innocence of athletes in these sports, and in all Russian sports, is seriously called into question.”

The report came out less than three weeks before summer games in Rio. Although there has been no final determination, the International Association of Athletics’ Federations (IAAF), which governs track-and-field events worldwide, was expected to seek a ban on all Russian athletes. Reuters first reported the news Saturday when it obtained a leaked draft of a letter prepared in anticipation of the WADA report’s release. IAAF officials who reportedly wrote the letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, in part:

Therefore, consistent with the Principles, Charter and Code we request that the IOC Executive Board take the action to suspend the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committee from participating in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

The only appropriate, and permissible, course of action in these unprecedented circumstances is for the IOC to immediately suspend the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees from the Olympic Movement.... and declare that no athlete can represent Russia at the Rio Olympic Games.

The Olympic Committee has already banned Russian track-and-field athletes from the Rio games, which begin August 5. A total ban on all athletes would be novel, and is seen by some as the “nuclear option.”

Some of WADA’s other recommendations included officially designating Russia’s anti-doping agency as non-compliant, a continued investigation into the scheme, and denying all Russian officials access to the games in Rio.  

WADA called for the report, which focused on claims made by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia’s former anti-doping lab. In May, he told The New York Times the Russian government had helped dozens of athletes, including 15 medal winners, cheat at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. Rodchenkov said he developed a three-drug cocktail (washed down with alcohol) that he gave to athletes, including those on the country’s bobsled and cross-country ski teams. The scheme even included a secret room where Rodchenkov and intelligence agents allegedly swapped out dirty urine for clean batches by passing them through a hole in the wall, replacing about 100 supposedly tamper-proof bottles.

In the news conference Monday, McLaren said Russia’s top intelligence agency, the FSB, had worked closely with the country’s Ministry of Sport to develop the technology to remove and replace the urine in the bottles. McLaren did not describe how Russian intelligence exactly replaced the urine without breaking the seal on the bottles, but he did say that with Rodchenkov’s help they were able to go back with a microscope and see small scratches left behind on the inside of the caps.

After the Sochi games, Rodchenkov received a prestigious award from President Vladimir Putin for his work. Then in November, WADA accused Rodchenkov of being the mastermind of the state-run doping scheme. Russian officials forced him to resign, and he moved to Los Angeles. Since then, he has divulged to media and investigators the secrets of how Russia helped athletes cheat.

Russian officials, as well as athletes, have denied doping, or any scheme to cheat at the Sochi games. The report, however, points directly to Russian Sports  Minister Yuri Nagornykh, as well as Irina Rodionova, deputy director of the center of sports preparation. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would suspend officials named in the report. He also asked WADA to provide “more complete, objective, evidence-based information” about the Russians involved.

At the news conference Monday, a reporter who identified herself as a member of Russian media asked why Russian officials not been interviewed as part of the investigation. In past investigations, McLaren said he’d done that, but he had  “found that information and process singularly unhelpful.”

The Baton Rouge Police Shooting: What We Know

What we know:

—Three officers are dead and at least three others are wounded after a gunman opened fire Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, state law-enforcement officials confirmed.

—Details about the shooting, which took place at a convenience store near the Baton Rouge Police Department’s headquarters, are still scarce.

—One suspect is dead, state officials said. Louisiana State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson said they believe he was the man who shot and killed the officers. He added they believe there is “no other shooter held up in the Baton Rouge area.”

—The incident comes less than two weeks after Alton Sterling’s shooting death by Baton Rouge police officers on July 5, sparking both local and national protests. There’s no evidence of a connection between the two events so far.

—President Obama offered his condolences for the officers and said attacks on public servants “have to stop.”

—We’re live-blogging the major updates. All updates are in Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4).

8:20 p.m.

Louisiana law-enforcements officials have not publicly disclosed the gunman's identity. But multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, identify him as Gavin Long, a 29-year-old black man from Missouri and a former U.S. Marine.

5:17 p.m.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton released a statement on the shooting, offering condolences and urging people to "stand together to reject violence."

Hillary's statement on the shooting in Baton Rouge. pic.twitter.com/4a0MVF3025

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 17, 2016

5:13 p.m.

President Obama gave brief remarks from the White House on Sunday’s shooting, saying he’s offered state and local officials “the full support of the federal government.”

Obama stressed the gunman’s motive wasn’t yet known. But he condemned the killing of law-enforcement officials. “Attacks on police are attacks on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible,” he said.

He also urged people avoid making “careless accusations” about the incident and to resist “overheated” political rhetoric, especially ahead of the Republican and Democratic national conventions over the next two weeks.

“We need to temper our words and open our hearts,” he said. “All of us.”

"It is up to all of us to make sure we are part of the solution, and not part of the problem." —@POTUS speaks on the attack in Baton Rouge.

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 17, 2016

4:46 p.m.

David W. Brown, who's covering the shooting in Baton Rouge for us, reports Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is meeting with state National Guard officials.

Two-star, one-star La. National Guard generals were just escorted into a restricted area where Gov John Bel Edwards is waiting. #BatonRouge

— David W. Brown (@dwbwriter) July 17, 2016

Officials refused to answer whether guard is being mobilized. #BatonRouge

— David W. Brown (@dwbwriter) July 17, 2016

4:12 p.m.

Louisiana Governor Mike Bel Edwards and a group of state and local law-enforcement officials are holding a press conference in Baton Rouge on Sunday’s shooting.

Mike Edmonson, the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said there is no active-shooter scenario in Baton Rouge. He said he believed the suspect who was shot and killed was the man who shot the officers. There is "no other shooter held up in the Baton Rouge area," he said.

Edmonson also confirmed three officers had died and three were injured. Two of the injured officers had non-life-threatening injuries.

The shootings began, he said, when officers responded to a report of an armed man wearing black near a convenience store. The suspect was eventually killed, he said.

One of the Baton Rouge Police officers killed Sunday was 41 years old; the other was 32. The sheriff's deputy who was killed was 44 years old, Sid Gautreaux, the East Baton Rouge sheriff, said.

“It’s unjustified, it’s unjustifiable,” Bel Edwards said. “The hatred just has to stop.”

State officials offered no details on the dead shooter’s identity or his possible motive.

3:25 p.m.

In a statement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were on the scene.

Here’s more:

For the second time in two weeks, multiple law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty.  There is no place in the United States for such appalling violence, and I condemn these acts in the strongest possible terms.  I pledge the full support of the Department of Justice as the investigation unfolds.  Our hearts and prayers are with the fallen and wounded officers, their families, and the entire Baton Rouge community in this extraordinarily difficult time.

2:55 p.m.

In a statement, President Obama strongly condemned the shootings in Baton Rouge. “These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop,” he said. Obama has been repeatedly criticized by Republicans in recent weeks for what they see as a lack of leadership, but his statement was clear and unambiguous:

We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right now wrongs. They advance no cause. The officers in Baton Rouge; the officers in Dallas—they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now—all of us—to be at our best.

Today, on the Lord’s day, all of us stand united in prayer with the people of Baton Rouge, with the police officers who’ve been wounded, and with the grieving families of the fallen. May God bless them all.

2:44 p.m.

DeRay Mckesson, one of the Black Lives Matter movement’s most prominent leaders, responded to Sunday’s shooting in a New York Times interview.

“I’m waiting for more information like everybody else,” he said. “I have more questions than answers”

“The movement began as a call to end violence. That call remains.”

Mckesson was among those arrested last week during a protest over Alton Sterling’s death on July 5. The Baton Rouge District Attorney’s office announced Friday no charges would be filed against him or many of the other arrests made during the demonstration.

2:28 p.m.

In Cleveland, police officers are watching the situation in Baton Rouge closely.

Steve Loomis, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, said that he would ask Ohio’s Governor John Kasich to suspend the open carry of firearms in Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County during the convention, Fox 8 reported. He also asked that officers not be deployed alone on street corners, asking instead that they be assigned in threes. A departmental spokesperson told Fox 8’s Peggy Gallek that officers will be deployed in pairs in police cars.

Kasich’s office quickly rebuffed the request:

Law enforcement is a noble, essential calling and we all grieve that we’ve seen attacks on officers. Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws as suggested...

Loomis’s opposition to open carry is a reminder that the issue divides even those on the right. Loomis also went on Fox on Sunday to assign blame for the shootings in Baton Rouge, even before a suspect has been identified. “The president of the Untied States validated a false narrative and the nonsense that Black Lives Matter and the Media are pressing out to the public … The president has blood on his hands and it will not be able to come washed off.”

1:41 p.m.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose state saw five police officers killed in a shooting less than two weeks ago, called Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to offer his condolences, Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek reports.

.@GovAbbott spoke today w/ @LouisianaGov, per Abbott's office. "They discussed their shared grief about the back-to-back similar tragedies."

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) July 17, 2016

1:33 p.m.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump issued a brief statement about the shooting on Facebook:

We grieve for the officers killed in Baton Rouge today. How many law enforcement and people have to die because of a lack of leadership in our country? We demand law and order.

We'll update with further statements from major political officials when we receive them.

1:19 p.m.

The Advocate's Elizabeth Crisp reports the White House has been in contact with local officials about the shooting.

.@WhiteHouse official says @potus has been briefed on #BRshooting & asked to be updated throughout the day as more details become available.

— Elizabeth Crisp (@elizabethcrisp) July 17, 2016

.@WhiteHouse has been in contact with local officials in Baton Rouge and offered any assistance needed. #BRshooting

— Elizabeth Crisp (@elizabethcrisp) July 17, 2016

12:46 p.m.

While we await more information on what’s happening in Baton Rouge, it’s worth bearing in mind these words from Steve Hardy, a reporter with The Advocate newspaper.

Not sure how shooting started. No word when asked if robbery or police ambush

— Steve Hardy (@SteveRHardy) July 17, 2016

12:22 p.m.

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office has posted the latest information. Here it is:

12:18 p.m.

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office has provided a timeline of what happened Sunday. It does not provide details on how many people were shot or about the number of fatalities.

Statement from @EBRSheriff pic.twitter.com/AS2gfCzBYR

— Elizabeth Vowell (@ElizabethWAFB) July 17, 2016

William Daniel, the city’s chief administrative officer, has confirmed three law-enforcement officers were killed in Sunday’s shooting.

12:14 p.m.

Governor John Bel Edwards, in a statement, called the shootings “unspeakable and unjustified.” Here’s his statement, in full:

#lagov on the shooting of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge today: pic.twitter.com/BU3B4Iznbe

— Gov John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) July 17, 2016

12:08 p.m.

Two police officers and one sheriff’s deputy have been killed, the Baton Rouge Mayor’s Office says.

12:06 p.m.

The Advocate and WAFB, both news organizations based in Baton Rouge, are reporting that the scene of the shootings is active, but contained.

11:58 a.m.

Though we don’t know the exact circumstances of the shooting, our colleague J. Weston Phippen wrote a piece last week about the occasions in which police have deliberately been targeted, resulting in changes to how departments around the country work. “Over the past 50 years, four officers have died on a single day on three separate occasions—most recently in 2009,” Weston wrote. He added:

After each of these killings, police departments across the country asked what could have been done differently to protect officers. But it was one day in 1970 when four officers were killed that had the most impact on that question. The incident is known as the Newhall Massacre, named for the town where two criminals murdered four California Highway Patrol officers, about an hour north of Los Angeles. From that April day forward, the U.S. taught its officers to be more cautious, and it trained police in tactics that reflected this new attitude. Shooting deaths of police officers have dropped steadily since the 1970s, in large part because of Newhall.

The full article is worth reading.

11:55 a.m.

The Mayor’s Office has confirmed two officers have been killed in the shooting.

Mayor's office confirms 2 police officers have been killed in Baton Rouge shooting. They say stay home. Stay off the streets.

— Rebekah Allen (@rebekahallen) July 17, 2016

Here’s a tweet from The Advocate newspaper, citing the Baton Rouge Police Department:

Along with police officers, Sheriff's Office deputies may be among those shot in Baton Rouge, BRPD spokesman says.

— The Advocate (@theadvocatebr) July 17, 2016

“Common sense needs to prevail,” Mayor Kip Holden said, according to WAFB TV.

11:50 a.m.

It’s worth pointing out here that the news reports we’re getting from Baton Rouge are preliminary. There has been no official word on the number of people killed. We’ll verify the accounts we’re getting before posting them here.

11:46 a.m.

Baton Rouge has been the scene of massive protests—some of them violent—following the killing earlier this month of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man whose killing by a police officer was captured on video. The nature of Sunday’s shooting is as yet unclear, but they also come just days after a sniper in Dallas targeted police officers during a protest rally in that city, killing five of them

11:30 a.m.

A gunman reportedly shot multiple police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday.

At least two Baton Rouge police officers are dead after the shooting, The Advocate reported, citing city-parish officials.

East Baton Rouge Parish mayor-president Kip Holden told CNN that the toll was “three officers dead possibly,” although the situation remains fluid.

Details about the shooting itself are scarce. Local news station WBRZ reported a man “dressed in black with his face covered” began shooting indiscriminately at about 9 a.m. local time at a convenience store near the police department headquarters.

The shooting comes less than two weeks after Baton Rouge officers shot and killed Alton Sterling on July 5. Videos of his death prompted protests locally and nationwide.

We'll update this article with more details when they become available.

American Literature Needs Indie Presses

For better or worse, writers and readers live in an age of the million-dollar book deal. The Big Five publishers (Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster) increasingly gamble on massive book advances in hopes that they might put out one of the biggest hits of the year. Last fall, Knopf—a division of Penguin Random House—paid an unprecedented $2 million advance for the first-time novelist Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire. Other recent million-dollar debut deals include Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers, Stephanie Clifford’s Everybody Rise, and Matthew Thomas’s We Are Not Ourselves—and the list goes on.

These large advances correlate with grandiosity on multiple levels: Each of these books is between 400 and 1,000 pages long, costs around $30 for a hardcover, and aims boldly for success on a scale that remarkably few works actually achieve. With these massive investments, which come at the cost of investing in fewer writers, mainstream publishers are trying to recreate the major successes of some recent fiction hits. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt sold more than three million copies. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr hung around the New York Times bestseller list for months. Both won Pulitzer Prizes. Both were over 500 pages long.

But when editors and publishers feel they need to fight for every moment of planned reading, and readers are experiencing a shrinking cultural attention span, it’s surprising that large books inherently make the most market sense. With this pattern of investment behavior, major presses are inadvertently helping foster an environment where American indie presses can thrive by doing the very thing they’re best at: being small and, by extension, focusing on creativity and originality over sales.

Graywolf, for instance, is one of many independent presses that have found their place in the shadow of bigger publishing houses. In the past few years, Graywolf has released some of the most groundbreaking American nonfiction. Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, which won the 2015 National Books Critics Circle award, complicated notions of sexuality and desire with tender, cutting prose. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric conveyed a sense of exhaustion of American racial harassment and violence that resonated with many readers.

The Argonauts and Citizen are each less than 160 pages long. They’re built from fragments and vignettes that don’t so much combine genres—personal essay, critical theory, poetry, and photography—as they put them into a blender and shred them. Both play with method and perspective to offer insight into crucial subjects: One explores what it’s like to love a fluidly gendered person, the other grieves the continued killings of black citizens by the police. Rather than depending on preexisting notions of what succeeds, these writers pursued faith in new models, and The Argonauts and Citizen both happened to do quite well among mainstream audiences (the latter sold over 60,000 copies). The Argonauts won a National Book Critics Circle Award, Citizen was a finalist for a National Book Award, and both can be found in major bookstores just about everywhere.

Another notable press subverting traditional publishing standards is Dorothy, which is “dedicated to works of fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women.” Run by the experimental writer and book designer Danielle Dutton, Dorothy publishes just two books a year, and the books are small, beautiful, and cost only $16. Dutton started the press when she found out that Renee Gladman, a poet she admired, had written a trilogy of novels about the invented city-state of Ravicka. These books are absurd and surreal, and are stabilized by an eerie interior logic: Think The Phantom Tollbooth for adults. Dutton told Gladman she’d start a press if Gladman let her publish these books. Thus, Dorothy was born.

Dorothy powerfully demonstrates the deft curation that’s possible with a small press. Dutton has been a steward of the razor-sharp and visceral work of writers like Gladman, Nell Zink, Joanna Walsh, and many more. Dorothy books emerge each October like ringing endorsements of writers you’ve never heard of by a friend whose taste you can absolutely trust. The reading experience is more manageable, too. These books are short, but existentially grand in impact. Dutton said in a radio interview that being based in St. Louis, as opposed to a big coastal city, allows Dorothy to worry less about the business side of things.

Major presses are inadvertently helping foster an environment for indie presses to thrive at the very thing they’re best at: being small.

Many of the great indie presses are similarly based in unlikely locations. Graywolf is in Minneapolis. Tin House is in Portland. Two Dollar Radio—the publisher of some of the best gritty Americana novels of the past decade—is in Columbus. But there are plenty of small presses grinding on the same New York streets as The Big Five, including Catapult, New York Tyrant, and Coffee House Press.

Indie presses are also currently promoting the work of some of the greatest new and long-neglected writers. Coffee House recently published a four-book set by the horror master Brian Evenson, who put out his first book with a major publisher more than 20 years ago and hasn’t returned to the mainstream press since. His stories embody the terror and thrill of madness; while they sort of resemble a blend of the work of Franz Kafka and Stephen King, they’re also utterly singular. Most readers haven’t heard of Evenson, and he isn’t necessarily looking to change that. “I don't think I’d trade being more visible for having the loyal and generous group of readers that I currently have,” Evenson said in a recent interview with Hobart.

Evenson’s career trajectory demonstrates the dangers or virtues—depending on how you look at it—of trailblazing in publishing. He’s published books under pseudonyms, at a fast rate, and with small presses that few people have ever heard of. But none of it was without intention, and he’s earned a passionate following as a result. “I love those books that do something that I didn't think a book could do,” Evenson said in his Hobart interview. “Books that humble me and open me to new possibilities. I only rarely have that experience with contemporary work that everybody praises to the skies. The best books tend to fly under the radar.” It’s exactly these kinds of works independent publishers seek to champion.

Each Coffee House Press book concludes with the tagline, “Literature is not the same thing as publishing,” and that mantra nicely captures the valuable position from which many indie presses operate. Two Dollar Radio markets to the “disillusioned and the disaffected.” Tin House advertises itself as “artful and irreverent.” Dorothy emphasizes that its “interest in literature lies in its endless stylistic and formal variety.” In re-organizing the priorities of book publishing—by inventing new models rather than trying to repeat past success, by valuing ingenuity over magnitude, by thinking of sales as a way to make great books possible rather than the point—indie presses aren’t just becoming the places where the best books are published; they’re already there.

While it’s not inherently a bad thing for a few writers to make huge amounts of money—and while it makes some amount of business sense for the major publishers who are helping it happen—that model isn’t attuned to recognizing subtler instances of unique work. The Big Five model is geared more toward stable careers—and translation and movie deals—than lightning-bolt moments that are short, vivid, hard to predict, and unlikely to be repeated.

Eighty percent of U.S. books are produced by the Big Five publishers, but with each passing year—and with a stable small number of annual releases—independent presses are earning more of the literary conversation, gaining frequent articles and reviews in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and more. With small, strange books, and alternative publishing techniques, independent presses are finding the readers they need to make the best, weirdest, and most relevant work possible. Maybe in literary publishing in 2016, “under the radar” isn’t such a bad place to be.

An Internet Star's Murder in Pakistan

Qandeel Baloch, a singer and Internet celebrity whose outspokenness on social media brought her fame and notoriety in Pakistan, died Friday night in what local police described as an honor killing allegedly committed by her brother.

Baloch, who was 26 years old, first rose to prominence after appearing in a Pakistani singing-competition show. Using Twitter and Facebook to post racy videos where she opined on controversial topics, she rapidly became one of the country’s most widely known social-media figures.

Her posts were met with hostility from conservative elements of Pakistani society: recent ones included twerking and a promise to strip for the national cricket team captain if they won a world championship.

Baloch also used her prominence to criticize Pakistan’s cultural norms towards women and gender. That outspokenness and willingness to defy social taboos brought criticism and threats. The BBC has more:

In one of her last posts on Facebook before her murder, Qandeel Baloch wrote: "No matter how many times I will be pushed down, I am a fighter, I will bounce back…

"Qandeel Baloch is an inspiration to those ladies who are treated badly and dominated by society. I will keep on achieving and I know you will keep on hating. Damn, but who cares."

It was for such provocative views that Ms. Baloch was loved, derided and mocked.

She instigated a debate in Pakistan on whether choosing to defy family and societal norms symbolised women's empowerment or was cheap narcissism.

In a series of posts on Twitter shortly before her death, Baloch urged women to stand up for themselves and each other.

Life has taught me lessons in a early age...My Journey from a girl to a SELF DEPENDENT WOMEN was not easy.#Qandeel pic.twitter.com/Mwyn4UC32z

— Qandeel Baloch (@QandeelQuebee) July 14, 2016

Pakistani law-enforcement officials are searching for Baloch’s brother for his alleged role in her death, according to the Express Tribune, a major Pakistani newspaper. He reportedly opposed her social-media use as a dishonor for the family’s name.

Turkey's Putsch and the Democratic Dilemma

For outside observers of the confusing drama of Turkey’s coup attempt on Friday night—the blocked bridges, the low-flying jets, an embattled president FaceTiming the nation with a plea for supporters to take to the streets—it was difficult to locate an unambiguous good guy among rival claimants to Turkey’s leadership. (Among ordinary Turkish citizens, the good guys were plainly visible, for example among protesters confronting tanks and journalists continuing to broadcast after soldiers invaded their studio.)

But for supporters of liberal democracy, there were few other heroes to cheer on. There was only the deeply strange spectacle of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the elected strongman of Turkey who has consolidated power and silenced opposition, landing in Istanbul to vanquish the putschists like some sort of democratic savior. Erdogan’s prime minister, Binali Yildrim—the constitutional head of government who serves as a figurehead in Erdogan’s de facto, one-man presidential rule—remarked as the coup attempt was unfolding that “Our people should know that we will not allow any activity that would harm democracy.”

Erdogan’s decade-plus tenure itself has been replete with such activity. As Dion Nissenbaum detailed in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, under Erdogan:

An escalating effort to silence debate has had a chilling effect on an assortment of students, teachers, truck drivers, opposing politicians, business executives, journalists and celebrities, many of whom have said they are more afraid to publicly question the president. Press-freedom groups say nearly 900 journalists have lost their jobs. Prosecutors have accused people of insulting the Turkish leader by using a law invoked infrequently before Mr. Erdogan became president in 2014. He has transformed the job, once seen as largely ceremonial, into the country’s most powerful post.

And under Erdogan, on Saturday, the purges began, with the arrests of nearly 3,000 military personnel and the dismissal of almost as many judges.

And yet Erdogan remains Turkey’s elected president, which underscores the tension between procedural democracy and liberal values. Writing in The Atlantic recently, Shadi Hamid described this tension:

In the American experience, democracy and liberalism seemed to go hand in hand, to such an extent that democracy really just became shorthand for “liberal democracy.” As Richard Youngs writes in his excellent study of non-Western democracy, liberalism and democracy have historically been “rival notions and not bedfellows.” Liberalism is about non-negotiable personal rights and freedoms. Democracy, while requiring some basic protection of rights to allow for meaningful competition, is more about popular sovereignty, popular will, and accountability and responsiveness to the voting public. Which, of course, raises the question: What if voters don’t want to be liberal and vote accordingly?

How is liberal democracy to emerge in that case—a case like Turkey’s? Does it require force? And can the overthrow of an elected leader really yield a more liberal-democratic government than whatever preceded it?

Turkey’s own history has provided repeated tests of this last question; David Graham on Friday described the country’s “semi-regular pattern of military coups … in 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997.” In the past, these moves have enjoyed popular support, and military leaders have restored civilian government. The long-term trajectory, right up to Erdogan’s current authoritarian moment, has not been in a more democratic direction. “In each and every one of these military interventions beginning in 1960s, the military has altered constitutions in a way that makes it more difficult for certain groups to contest politics,” Steven A. Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me.

Cook said it didn’t follow that, because Erdogan is authoritarian, a coup to remove him would be good for democracy. “Neither this faction within the military [that attempted the coup] nor [Erdogan’s party] the AKP have good democratic credentials. … There’s also large numbers of Turks who hate Erdogan but don’t want to live under military rule.”

But something important has changed in Turkish politics. All of Turkey’s four main political parties, including the opposition, have condemned the coup attempt, as did top military leaders, with one general denouncing “this movement comprised of a small group within our ranks.” Cook said: “I think what’s important is that regardless of the quality of Turkish politics, there are a lot of Turks who don’t want the military to intervene,” Cook said. “Unlike previous coups in 1980, 1997, where the public welcomed the military’s intervention, in this you did not have that at all.”

None of this adds up to a democratic breakthrough. And as Erdogan moved to eliminate alleged plotters and further consolidate power on Saturday, liberal democracy moved even further away.

Pokemon Go and Chuck Close: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing

Pulitzer Prize-Winner Phil Kennicott’s Pokemon Go Diary

Philip Kennicott | The Washington Post

“Apparently, I am merely capturing Pokemon (the plural of Pokemon is Pokemon, not Pokemons or Pokemata) and submitting them to the scrutiny of science. But later I can also use them to combat other Pokeman, which makes it feel like I’ve fallen into some sick world of virtual cock fighting or dog baiting. In any case, the distinction between killing Pokémon and capturing and enslaving them is rather flimsy.”

Chris Hemsworth, Male Privilege Heartthrob

Allison P. Davis | The Ringer

“So remember: When you are fixated on Hemsworth’s big, vascular biceps and the gentle curve of his calves in tight jeans, those muscles serve a higher purpose. They are reminding us what a handsome, entitled, extremely stupid white dude can still get away with in this world. Also, they are beautiful.”

Inside the Playlist Factory

Reggie Ugwu | Buzzfeed

“We’ve come to expect that virtually all of our problems can be solved with code, so much so that we summon it unthinkingly before doing almost anything: from choosing what movie to watch, to finding a doctor, to deciding where to wake up the next morning and who with. But what if music is somehow different? What if there’s something immeasurable but essential in the space between what is now called ‘discovery’ and, you know, that old stupidly human ritual of finding and falling in love with a song?”

The Quiet Perfection of Tim Duncan

Bethlehem Shoals | GQ

“There’s a remarkable similarity between Duncan’s attitude toward superstardom and the public’s attitude toward Tim Duncan. In the same way that Duncan has been both indispensable and more felt than seen throughout his career, for the man himself, acclaim was incidental. He never had to make peace with athletic celebrity because it just never stuck to him.”

The Emails of Joanna Rothkopf and Kelly Stout

Joanna Rothkopf and Kelly Stout | Jezebel

“It’s Thursday, garbage day. One of the garbage days, I should say. Every day is a garbage day when the thin film that was the world thickens into a scrim, which I now have wrapped around my face to keep out the morning light. Light! It so reminds me of darkness that I find it easiest to ward of its creep by dressing in its own costume.”

Behold Your Newest Silver-Screen Sex Goddess, Jane Neighbor

Rachel Axler | The New Yorker

“Recently, I met Jane under a bridge next to a defunct dentist’s office, on the Lower North Side of somewhere in Queens. (It’s a celebrity haunt, in that I think some famous people were maybe killed there.) I don’t remember what she was wearing, but I think it was hair? Something was on the front of her head—either glasses or a nose. I probably should have taken notes. She made noises with the lower part of her face, and I was mesmerized.”

Garth Brooks Brings Rousing Anthems and Ballads to Yankee Stadium

Jon Caramanica | The New York Times

“At the end of the night, fireworks shot into the sky from behind the stage, but they were upstaged by the rain, which began during ‘Friends in Low Places’ and really took hold during ‘The Dance,’ one of Mr. Brooks’s most scarred ballads. It was so apt as to seem art-directed; it was studied sincerity and spontaneity all rolled into one. As Mr. Brooks sang, with eyes closed, about the trauma of failed love, raindrops were exploding at his feet.”

Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face Is a Gangster Rap Classic

Frank Guan | Vulture

“Q’s excellence both reflects and contributes to the improving fortunes of rap on the West Coast, a region which, after a long period of relative stagnation, has undergone a renaissance in recent years, as multiple creative constellations emerged whose members were eager to revitalize, interrogate, or move past the traditions and legacy of California gangster rap.”

The Erotic Bard of Ancient Rome

James Romm | The New Republic

“His fearless attacks on his enemies, even revered public figures, teem with anuses, penises, stinking armpits—one man, a certain Rufus, is said to have a wild goat living beneath his—and graphic sex acts either given or received. The saltiness of these poems has thrilled many a beginning Latin class, but their power extends beyond mere shock value. With his freewheeling aggression, his willingness to let fly at the slightest provocation, Catullus evokes the modern Beat poets; the ‘neoteric’ school to which he belonged was just as daring as theirs in breaking with literary tradition.”

The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close

Wil S. Hylton | The New York Times Magazine

“It seems to me now, with greater reflection, that the value of experiencing another person’s art is not merely the work itself, but the opportunity it presents to connect with the interior impulse of another. The arts occupy a vanishing space in modern life: They offer one of the last lingering places to seek out empathy for its own sake, and to the extent that an artist’s work is frustrating or difficult or awful, you could say this allows greater opportunity to try to meet it.”

Pokemon Go Is a Work of Art, Not a Social Experiment

Virginia Heffernan | Los Angeles Times

“For all its elegant features, Pokemon Go has suffused the ether because its artistry generates a singular effect: inevitability. Resistance to the game vanishes in a flash. To try Pokemon Go is to feel there’s no going back—that, in fact, on some deep level you’ve been somehow waiting for this experience your whole life, maybe even training for it in your dreams.”