Early Thursday, election officials in the Democratic Republican of Congo "provisionally" declared opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi winner of a long-delayed presidential election, setting up the first democratic transfer of power in sub-Saharan Africa's largest county since its independence in 1960. According to the national election commission, Tshisekedi got about seven million votes, narrowly beating another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, with 6.4 million votes, and far outpacing Emmanuel Shadary, the hand-picked successor of outgoing President Joseph Kabila, with 4.4 million votes.
Polls before the Dec. 30 election showed Fayulu with a commanding lead, and outside observers and institutions — notably the Catholic Church, which deployed 40,000 election observers — considered him the true victor. The Catholic observers and another domestic election-watching organization said there was widespread irregularities or outright fraud.
Just before the electoral commission named him the runner-up, Fayulu said it's an "open secret" that Tshisekedi had entered a power-sharing agreement with Shandary and the Kabila government. "My response is simple," he wrote: "The Congolese people deserve the truth of the ballot, not another backroom arrangement." He can legally appeal the results to the constitutional court.
Kabila — who took power after his father, Laurant Kabila, was assassinated in 2001 — delayed the elections for two years past when his second and final term was supposed to end in 2016, and analysts say he favored Tshisekedi as his best remaining option because he views him as more pliable and less likely to tackle corruption in Kabila's circle. Still, The New York Times reports, "the election commission's early-morning announcement amounted to a startling admission by the government that Mr. Kabila's candidate had suffered a defeat so big that his government — in power for 18 years — could not simply hand him the presidency without risking widespread violence and international condemnation."
Congolese security forces are bracing for violence and on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department advised all Americans in the country to leave. Peter Weber
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway would very much like everyone to stop paying so much attention to her husband's tweets calling her boss, President Trump, mentally unstable.
Conway spoke with Fox Business on Thursday after Trump went after her husband, George Conway, as a "stone cold loser," "husband from hell," and a "whack job." It's "unusual" and "new" for her husband not to support "the agenda of the president and my work there," she said, also saying it's "surprising" to see "grievances" aired in public. Still, "I appreciate the president defending what he thinks is unfairness," she said, later saying that Trump is "protective" of her and has "never" made her feel like she has to "choose between my marriage and my job."
She went on to say that she has "certainly" had "conversations" with her husband about not wanting him to tweet attacks on her boss, but she argued the media is "getting into a very dangerous area" by covering this story, in particular going after what she called "self-designated marriage experts." She also suggested her husband's tweets aren't really that important since he can't "act on" them and that reporters only care about him because of their marriage. "I don't know when the feminists are going to write the story about the unusual situation about a man getting power through his wife, but that's what we have here," she said.
Later, Conway said her husband "certainly" wants her to step down, but asked, "what message would that send to the feminists everywhere who pretend they're independent thinkers, and men don't make decisions for them? They can talk it, and I can walk it. I can live it." Brendan Morrow
At least 55 people are dead after a ferry sank in Iraq's Tigris river, officials tell Al Jazeera.
The ferry was carrying more than 80 people celebrating the Kurdish new year when it sank due to a technical problem near Mosul on Thursday, a civil defense official tells The Associated Press. Those dead include 33 women, 12 children, and 10 men, an Iraqi health ministry spokesman added. At least 30 people had been rescued but search operations are ongoing.
The river had seen high, fast-moving waters recently after the nearby Mosul dam was opened, BBC notes. Water authorities told boat operators to stay off the river, meaning there weren't many boats around to aid the sinking vessel. Many of those onboard were women and children who could not swim, the civil defense official told AP.
Some sources have said there could've been up to 200 people onboard the ferry as it traveled to a tourist island, per Al Jazeera. Photos and videos showing people floating in the water appeared on social media following the incident. Kathryn Krawczyk
Republicans estimate President Trump needs $1 billion to win in 2020 — and that he needs some unlikely donors to make that happen.
With several Democrats' fundraising totals already leaping into the tens of millions, the GOP knows it needs its wealthy party members who fought Trump in 2016 to change allegiances this time around. And to make that happen, Vice President Mike Pence — the less abrasive of America's executive duo — is taking to the golf course, Politico reports.
On Monday, Pence spoke to several big-dollar GOP donors, including billionaire investor Paul Singer, at a surf and turf dinner at California's Pebble Beach golf course. Singer donated millions to an anti-Trump PAC in 2016, but that wasn't apparent from the way Pence "thanked him for his years of financial support to the party and conservative causes" on Monday, Politico says. Pence also brought Singer to the White House to share "detailed briefings on the administration's legislative agenda," Politico continues, perhaps because Singer did reportedly end up giving $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee.
The Pebble Beach dinner was just one example of how Pence can "translate Trump" into a language conservatives want to hear, says David McIntosh, who heads a former anti-Trump group that's more anti-Beto O'Rourke this time around. Still, Pence's dinner party didn't completely convince 2016 anti-Trumper Art Pope to donate to Trump in 2020. He may "remain on the sidelines" this time instead of publicly opposing Trump, though, and he expects more former anti-Trumpers to do the same, Politico notes.
Read more about Pence's mission at Politico. Kathryn Krawczyk
The death toll from Cyclone Idai continued to rise in southern Africa on Wednesday, with more than 200 people confirmed dead in Mozambique and at least 100 more victims in neighboring Zimbabwe, The Associated Press reports. Floodwaters were forecast to continue to rise on Thursday, with more torrential rains expected.
"Floodwaters are predicted to rise significantly in the coming days and 350,000 people are at risk," the United Nations humanitarian office said. Aid groups have been struggling to rescue survivors, some awaiting help on rooftops. Entire villages have been destroyed. "There is death all over," said a survivor, Amos Makunduwa, who carried his remaining possessions in a bag. Harold Maass