Vox Sentences: Turkey continues its slow slide toward authoritarianism

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Harley-Davidson production is headed overseas; winning reelection, Erdogan will be Turkey’s most powerful president to date.

Harley-Davidson shifts production overseas

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

• Motorcycle company Harley-Davidson has announced it will send production of its motorcycles intended to be sold in Europe overseas. [Biz Times / Arthur Thomas]
• The decision comes after the EU enacted tariffs on aluminum, steel, denim, cigarettes, and other imports Friday in response to President Trump’s tariffs. The tariffs made the motorcycles $2,200 more expensive to export. [CNN Money / Nathaniel Meyersohn]
• Earlier this year, Harley shut down a plant in Kansas City, directly and indirectly resulting in over 1,000 job layoffs. Moving production to Europe will likely result in further job losses. [Vox / Emily Stewart]
• That’s awkward for Trump, who met with Harley executives two weeks after taking office and touted the good his policies would do for the company. [Washington Post / Philip Bump]
• Experts predict this is only the beginning. Harley-Davidson will likely be the first of many companies to shift production overseas in response to the retaliatory tariffs. [Bloomberg / Brooke Sutherland]

A power-hungry Erdogan wins reelection in Turkey

• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reelected for another five years in Turkey on Sunday. The presidential victory marks Erdogan’s 15th year in power and fourth year as president. [BBC]
• Erdogan will become the most-powerful, longest-serving ruler since the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was in power. [Sky News / Alistair Bunkall]
• The election follows a 2017 referendum regarding presidential control. The new system will expand the president’s power — as they assume the prime minister’s functions — and effectively do away with significant checks and balances in 2019. [Vox / David Stevens]
• Analysts and election observers believe Erdogan’s control over state and private media afforded him immense advantages in the election. Erdogan was granted hundreds of hours of coverage, as opposed to just minutes granted to his opposing candidates. [NYT / Palko Karasz]
• Muharrem Ince, presidential candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), won 30.6 percent of the vote, the most the party has ever received. These numbers reflect the continued perseverance of Turkey’s opposition. [Washington Post / Suat Kiniklioglu]

Miscellaneous

• New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has introduced her baby girl to the world after giving birth last week. She is only the second woman leading a country to have a child while in office.
• Facebook may be rolling out a new feature that marks how long you spend on the social network. As long as they don’t publish how long you spent Facebook-stalking peers from middle school, the apocalypse is not yet upon us. [The Verge / Chaim Gartenberg]
• Zsa Zsa, the long-tongued, chapstick-wearing bulldog, has won the title of “World’s Ugliest Dog.” The win comes with $1,500, a trip to New York, and infinite pets — but the infinite pets were a guarantee whether or not she won. [The Cut / Kelly Conaboy]
• The first cannabis-based medicine was approved by the FDA today. The UK-based medicine is designed to treat childhood seizures. [The Guardian / Julia Kollewe]

Verbatim

“There’s this idea that if only people asked Trump X, Y, and Z, we’d get to the bottom of something. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s that he’s the constant; he’s resolute in his belief that he’s right, that he’s a victim. … No variable is going to change what he is.” [Seth Meyers on why he doesn’t want to have President Trump as a guest on Late Night / The Atlantic]

Watch this:

Terrorist groups are destabilizing countries all over the continent. [YouTube / Sam Ellis]

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