By Ali Cinar -  President Trump welcomed President Erdogan at the White House over four hours for bilateral discussions on a range of important issues despite concerns from Congress over Turkey's military operation into northern Syria. Trump's face-to-face meeting with Erdogan  was a very significant step in resolving disagreements. Both leaders seemed in reducing tensions and finding a way forward which benefits both sides. There are many areas of interest and benefit to both nations, from the economy to education, energy, and technology, and the previously discussed trade goal of $100 billion was part of their conversation when the two leaders met.

The American Turkish Society’s Annual Gala celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Vehbi Koç Foundation at Cipriani 25 Broadway in New York. Gala Chair, Ms. Peggy Dulany Rockefeller gave the award of “50 years of Excellence in Philanthropy” to Mrs. Semahat Arsel, director of Koc Holding, who received the award on behalf of the Vehbi Koc Foundation and Koc Family. The evening’s entertainment was offered by Ms. Zeynep Alpan, former recipient of The Ahmet Ertegun Memorial Scholarship at the Juilliard and The Society’s former late Chairman, Ahmet Ertegun’s favorite event band, Joey Morant and Catfish Stew.

Since it was installed in Chicago’s Millennium Park in 2004, Anish Kapoor’s mirrored metal sculpture Cloud Gate—more affectionately known as “The Bean”—has become a magnet for art loving residents and tourists alike. Now, New York is finally getting its own shiny statement piece by the artist, his first permanent public work in the city, but instead of a luxe legume it will resemble a squashed balloon.

Bango and MobileAction, the app store optimization and app intelligence platform, are collaborating to boost in-app payment revenues for app developers through smart campaign targeting. MobileAction’s global community of app developers can now gain a substantial competitive advantage by targeting their campaigns at the users most likely to spend in apps. Created by analyzing payment information gathered across billions of dollars of in-app purchases, Bango Audiences enable app marketing campaigns to directly target new paying users. By applying Bango Audiences, the revenue generated from user acquisition campaigns has been proven to increase by between 2x - 9x compared to targeting “vanilla” audiences that do not offer payment insight.