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Election day has come and gone, and we don’t yet have a winner. This, of course, is not a surprise. Many experts, election officials and journalists have anticipated precisely such an outcome, and have sought to counsel patience. An election, after all, is not a day but a process, and the process is not complete until all votes have been counted. If we are unaccustomed to having to wait for the results, we are also unaccustomed to voting in a time of pandemic. The fact that we don’t yet know who our next president will be is not evidence of a system malfunctioning; to the contrary. It is proof that election officials around the country are taking the requisite time to make sure that all ballots – including all those cast by mail – are properly tallied. Counting early ballots – and some 100 million Americans cast their vote before election day – is labor intensive. Envelopes often need to be hand-opened; signatures need to be checked against those in-state records; and election officials will have to perform these acts while practicing safe-distancing. Some states, such as Colorado, have been counting mail-in ballots since they arrived; others, such as several counties in Pennsylvania, will only begin the task after election day. So patience is the order of the day. The integrity of the electoral system demands no less. Alas, this commonsensical message appears to have been lost on the president himself, who early Wednesday morning recklessly declared, “Frankly, we did win this election.” At a campaign rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump direly predicted that if election day passes without a clear winner, “You’re going to have bedlam in our country.”

Pakistanis on Monday joined the campaign to boycott French products in response to recent controversial comments made by President Emmanuel Macron on Islam, and his decision to continue publishing blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. While the hashtag, #boycottfrenchproducts, was among the top trends on Twitter in Pakistan, leaders and scholars urged the citizens to stop consuming French products. "After insults against the Holy Prophet by France and its president, will we still continue buying and selling, and import of French products? They will only learn a lesson when Muslims around the world will boycott their products...," religious scholar Muhammad Taqi Usmani tweeted. “The current trend of boycott of French products and anti-Macron protests around the Muslim world shows people's anger, and how much they are hurt by the French president’s statement,” Sirajul Haq, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a leading religio-political party, told Anadolu Agency. Calls for a boycott of French products have been made in many Middle Eastern countries as well. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier said the French leader needs "mental treatment," also urged Turkish citizens "to never buy French products." Pakistan's Prime Imran Khan, and other opposition politicians have condemned the French president for "attacking Islam." The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador to convey "deep concerns" over the recent "illegal and Islamophobic acts," and condemned equating Islam with terrorism. Khan also wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, asking him to put a ban on Islamophobic content. Haq, meanwhile, called for expulsion of the French envoy in Pakistan. Earlier this month, Macron described Islam as a religion "in crisis," and announced plans for tougher laws to tackle what he called "Islamist separatism" in France. He also paid tribute to a French teacher murdered after he showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.

The Armenian leadership must think carefully, they are already on their knees, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in his Tuesday’s address to the nation. “We have brought them to their knees. We have shown them the place they deserve. We will drive them out of our lands! We will drive them out!” the head of state said. “Good news comes in every day. Every day, our flag is raised in a new settlement. This is the strength of the Azerbaijani state, the Azerbaijani people.” President Aliyev noted that for 30 years, the Armenian leadership has been spreading myths about a “strong army”, myths about an “invincible Armenian army”. “Where is this “invincible Armenian army?” Look at the way it runs away from us. It was all a myth, it was all a lie. We have exposed it,” he addedi

ANKARA Turkey will continue to fight all terror groups with resolution and determination, the National Security Council said late Tuesday. “Counter-terror operations, Claw and Claw 2, in northern Iraq will continue until terrorists are wiped off in the region,” the council said in a statement after its meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. The council said Turkey is committed to creating a peace corridor in Syria with all its strength. Turkey maintains a determined and principled stance toward the protection of its and Turkish Cypriots' rights and interests in Eastern Mediterranean under the international law and abides by its commitments and obligations under international law and expects the same sensitivity from its allies, it added. Turkey will also monitor efforts for clarification of circumstances of an attack on a diplomat martyred in Erbil, Northern Iraq, the council stated.