Month: May 2021

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

– Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey

Turkey has administered nearly 1 million coronavirus jabs over the past week, according to official figures.

The country also administered over 28.82 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the launch of a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, the figures revealed.

As of Sunday evening, more than 16.51 million people have received their first doses, while over 12.31 million have been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry’s count showed.

Anadolu Efes won the 2021 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague title by defeating Barcelona 86-81 in Sunday’s final.

Turkish forces have neutralized 1,162 terrorists in operations within the country and outside its borders this year, said the National Defense Ministry.

– COVID-19 updates worldwide

The World Health Organization (WHO) will send 5 million coronavirus vaccines to Venezuela in July, the country’s president announced.

South Africa introduced new COVID-19 restrictions to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Over 1.87 billion coronavirus vaccine shots have been given so far worldwide, figures compiled by Our World in Data, a tracking website, showed.

China leads the global count with 620.97 million jabs, followed by the US with 293.71 million.

India has administered 207.09 million shots, Brazil 66.93 million and the UK 63.96 million.

Germany has given 49.26 million shots, France 35.63 million, Italy 34.73 million and Mexico 29.86 million.

Turkey is ranked 10th on the list with more than 28.81 million, followed by Russia, Spain, Indonesia and Canada.

– Other global developments

The death toll in violent protests in and around Cali, the capital of Colombia’s Valle del Cauca province, against the government’s tax reform plan rose to 13.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has married Carrie Symonds in a secret ceremony, according to local media reports.

The US-led coalition against the Daesh/ISIS terror group said its mission in Iraq has shifted from direct combat to providing support to the Iraqi army.

Israeli forces rounded up nine Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, according to a local NGO.

Swiss Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier,19, has died after succumbing to his injuries from a multi-rider accident during the qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix.

Nearly 416,000 people in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were displaced due to a volcanic eruption, the UN said.

One person was killed and more than 100 students were kidnapped in an armed attack on an Islamic school in central Nigeria’s Niger state.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Road motor vehicle registrations in Turkey rose 155.1% year-on-year in April, the country’s statistical authority said on Monday.

A total of 102,461 first- and second-hand vehicles were registered last month, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Motor vehicle registrations, however, were down 21.4% compared to March 2021.

The number of road motor vehicles registered in Turkey rose to over 24.55 million by the end of April, TurkStat said.

In April, cars accounted for most new registrations with 54.4%, followed by motorcycles with 21.9%, and small trucks with 13.6%.

Of the new cars registered last month, 12.6% were Renault, 11.6% Volkswagen, and 10.7% Fiat.

Turkey’s automotive market expanded 132.4% in April, compared to the same month of last year, according to a report by the Automotive Distributors’ Association on May 4.

Passenger cars and light commercial vehicle sales in the country totaled 61,488 last month, the report said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon held a celebration Sunday to mark the success the Hamas resistance group achieved in the Gaza Strip in the face of Israel’s latest attacks.

In an event organized by Hamas in Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, with the slogan “Palestine resists and wins,” people carried Hamas flags and banners in support of the resistance forces.

Addressing Palestinians in Ain al-Hilweh through a live broadcast during the celebration, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh said Operation al-Quds Sword enabled the group to make progress such as determining the rules of engagement.

“This is a new equation that they did not take into account in the rules of conflict with the invaders. They believed that they were able to separate and divide the land and the people as they wished,” he said.

“The operation cast doubt on this belief and made the entire Palestinian geography a center for the lights of the missiles and the fire of the revolution.”

Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip announced the launch of Operation al-Quds Sword in early May as tensions continued to escalate with Israel.

An Egyptian-brokered truce that took effect in the early hours of May 21 ended Israel’s 11-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank killed at least 289 people, including women and children, and left behind a trail of destruction. Health centers and media offices as well as schools were among the structures targeted.

The head of the UN Human Rights Council has said that the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza may constitute war crimes.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revised its global gross domestic product forecast to 5.8% for 2021, up from 5.6% in its previous expectation.

According to the organization’s Economic Outlook report on Monday, the global forecast for 2022 was up 0.4 percentage points to 4.4%, versus its interim report in March.

“Prospects for the world economy have brightened but the recovery is likely to remain uneven and, crucially, dependent on the effectiveness of public health measures and policy support,” the report said.

The OECD increased its forecast for G20 countries by 0.1 percentage points to 6.3% this year.

Euro area’s economic growth expectation was also revised up to 4.3% for 2021 and to 4.4% for 2022 in the report.

The report’s GDP expectations for major EU economies, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, were 3.3%, 5.8%, 4.5% and 5.9%, respectively.

The report also forecasts that Turkey’s economy will grow by 5.7% in 2021, revising down from 5.9% in its March report. Turkey’s 2022 forecast was 3.4% in the report.

The US economy is expected to grow by 6.9% in 2021, and the UK by 7.2%, the report showed.

According to the report, the world economy narrowed by 3.5% in 2020, when the pandemic hit all economies globally.

Turkey was among a few countries in the world achieving to post positive GDP result in 2020, with 1.8% growth.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) announced Monday that the 47th edition of the Copa America will be held in Brazil.

“The Brazilian government demonstrated agility and decision-making capacity at a fundamental moment for South American football,” CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez said in a statement.

“Brazil is experiencing a moment of stability. It has proven infrastructure and accumulated experience recently to organize a competition of this magnitude,” he added.

The Copa America is scheduled to be held from June 13 to July 10 this year after being suspended last year over coronavirus concerns.

Argentina, together with Colombia, were set to host the competition. Colombia, however, was later dropped due to a series of protests against President Ivan Duque.

On May 21, Argentina suspended all football games due to be played in the country amid renewed restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

The host cities of the event will be defined and disclosed as soon as possible, CONMEBOL added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Iran is set to roll out its first indigenously developed vaccine for coronavirus, COV-Iran Barakat, next week after the third and final clinical trial.

Soberana-02 vaccine, jointly developed by Iran and Cuba, has also completed its third clinical trial and is ready for industrial line production.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki on Monday announced that the two homegrown vaccines were being mass-produced and would be administered to people starting next week.

He said the second phase of the vaccine development involving clinical trials had been accomplished, and the third phase involving mass production and injection was presently in progress.

Earlier on Monday, Kianush Jahanpur, head of Iran’s food and drugs administration, in a tweet said the good news was “on the way,” referring to COV-Iran and Soberana-02 vaccines.

COV-Iran vaccine, unveiled in December last year, has been developed by state-run Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam. Its production began late March, followed by clinical trials in late April conducted across the country.

Hassan Jalili, head of the research center producing the vaccine, on Sunday informed that one million doses of COV-Iran Barakat will be produced this month, which will go up to three million next month, 10-12 million by July and 13-15 million by August.

According to Minoo Mohraz, a leading medical expert and member of Iran’s task force against COVID-19, the domestically produced COV-Iran vaccine has “high efficiency and immunity”.

On the other hand, Soberana-02, developed by Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute and Pasteur Institute of Iran, is the first collaborative project involving transfer of technical knowledge between Iran and Cuba.

Iran, which has recovered from the fourth wave of pandemic, with drop in fresh cases and fatalities, has been slow in its vaccination campaign.

The country began COVID-19 vaccination early February with Russian-made Sputnik V Vaccine. It later received vaccines from China, India, and the WHO’s COVAX, a global vaccine sharing scheme, as well.

A total of 3.5 million people have received one jab, while 516,000 have received both jabs, mainly healthcare workers, aged and ailing people.

President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said the vaccination of people with different ailments will end by late July and the whole population is expected to get vaccinated by November.

Source: Anadolu Agency

One person was killed and more than 100 students were kidnapped in an armed attack Sunday on an Islamic school in central Nigeria’s Niger state.

In a statement, police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said gunmen on motorcycles arrived at the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in the town of Tegina and opened fire indiscriminately.

One person died in the attack and dozens of students were kidnapped, Abiodun said.

The exact number of abducted students is not yet known and security forces were dispatched to the scene, he said.

According to local media, however, more than 100 students were kidnapped.

The West African nation recently banned motorcycles in several states to stem such attacks.

In a number of states, including Benue, Plateau, Katsina and Zamfara, students have been kidnapped from schools multiple times since January.

Education had been suspended in some states due to attacks targeting Nigerian schools.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey and Greece agreed to recognize each other’s COVID-19 vaccine certificates, the foreign ministers of the two countries announced on Monday.

“The agreement we reached today will mutually contribute positively to our tourism sectors,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Athens.

Turkey has started to work on concrete projects with a focus on action and cooperation with the Greek side and the two countries agreed on 25 items in the list of areas of cooperation, Cavusoglu said.

He said Turkey is ready for dialogue without any preconditions to improve bilateral relations with Greece.

“We agreed to resolve differences within the framework of good neighborly relations, international law and respect for mutual interests,” he said.

Dendias, for his part, said they discussed bilateral relations as well as the EU- Turkey relations in the meeting.

He congratulated Cavusoglu over Turkish basketball team Anadolu Efes’ victory in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Before meeting his Greek counterpart, the Turkish foreign minister also met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“Revitalization of our dialogue channels is a positive step. Enhancing our relations is important to solve our differences,” he said on Twitter.

Source: Anadolu Agency

ArtContact Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair, which has gathered works of over 1,000 local and foreign artists, opened its doors on Monday.

More than 100 galleries, local governments, civil initiatives, associations, museums, and universities are taking place at the fair in Istanbul.

The opening ceremony, which was held at the Kadir Topbas Show and Art Center, was attended by Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and many art lovers.

Baujazz Band gave a concert at the event. Honorary Award to Art, Contribution to Art and Institution Honor Award were given to the doyens of art.

The fair is open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. until June 6.

Source: Anadolu Agency