Day: June 15, 2021

Second-half goals led Portugal past Hungary 3-0 in a EURO 2020 Group F game on Tuesday.

Neither team broke the deadlock in the first half while Portugal opened the scoring with a close-range finish from defender Raphael Guerreiro in the 84th minute.

After three minutes, the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo successfully converted a penalty to make the score 2-0.

Ronaldo’s stoppage-time goal gave the Portuguese team a 3-0 win in Budapest’s Puskas Arena.

Ronaldo has become the all-time top scorer in the history of the Euros with 11 goals. He has also become the first player to play in five European Championships (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020).

Source: Anadolu Agency

Fitch Ratings revised up its global gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for this year to 6.3%, according to its Global Economic Outlook report released Tuesday.

The rating agency now expects the world economy to grow 0.2 percentage points higher than its previous projection of 6.1% in the report published in March.

The economic growth forecast for most developed economies was raised – the US revised to 6.8% from 6.2%, the eurozone to 5% from 4.7%, and the UK to 6.6% from 5%.

Only Japan’s forecast saw a reduction to 2.5% from 3.6%, while China’s remained at 8.4%.

Emerging markets, excluding China, on the other hand, saw their growth estimate lowered to 5.9% from 6%.

“Face-to-face services activity has picked up in recent months in Europe and the US as new COVID-19 cases have declined, vaccination rates risen and restrictions eased,” the report said.

“Alongside the synchronous global recovery, this has fueled a sharp rise in global commodity prices, similar to that seen in 2010. Shortages in the global semiconductor market are adding to price increases,” it added.

Fitch said it expects Turkey to grow 6.3% this year, saying its economy continued to exceed expectations, as growth rose to 7.1% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2021, supported by domestic demand and improving net trade, thus maintaining strong momentum from the final quarter of 2020.

“Weakening private consumption on slowing credit growth will be partly balanced by a gradual recovery in tourism in 2H21,” it said.

The agency warned that currency weakness, high producer price inflation that reflects increased commodity prices, pandemic-related supply disruptions, and high inflation expectations will boost the rate of inflation until the last quarter of this year.

It said it expects a gradual decline in Turkey’s inflation to 12% by the end of 2022 and 9.5% at the end of 2023.

Fitch forecast that Turkey’s GDP will grow by 3.7% next year and 4.5% the year after.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Former Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos Geyer, known for his fight against corruption, has died, his family announced Tuesday. He was 93.

“It is with deep sorrow that the family of engineer Enrique Bolanos Geyer, former president of the Republic of Nicaragua, announces the painful death of a beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather, which occurred at five past eleven in the evening of June 14,” his family said on the Facebook account of the virtual library that bears his name.

Bolanos, who led the country from 2002 to 2007, was born in Masaya on May 13, 1928. In 1995, he served as vice president with Arnoldo Aleman on the winning conservative Liberal Party ticket.

He became president after defeating Daniel Ortega with a large majority in 2001. He inherited a country devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which left more than 3,000 dead.

His greatest legacy was his fight against corruption. Bolanos accused his former running mate, Aleman, of diverting nearly $100 million in public funds for personal use during his term, which led him to be named one of the most corrupt presidents in the world with his name appearing on the FBI’s most wanted list. Aleman was finally convicted of fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Bolanos was also a critic of current ruler Ortega. During the outbreak of a political crisis in 2018, Bolanos recommended that Ortega resign and in 2020 he criticized the former Sandinista leader for his handling of the pandemic.

The former president had already suffered from health complications in August 2020, but his family did not specify the cause of his death. Two weeks earlier, Bolanos received the coronavirus vaccine.

He died at home in El Raizon, Masaya and his family asked Nicaraguans to say prayers from their homes.

“We know that in other times you would accompany us to say your last goodbye, but he, from his broken health, always called for prudence and care,” they said. “Let us be inspired by Don Enrique’s legacy; the legacy of the good Nicaraguans who thought more of the Homeland than of themselves. This is the best tribute we can pay him.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Israeli police will deploy 2,000 forces on Tuesday to provide protection to participants in a planned flag march across occupied East Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, the police forces will be deployed in the vicinity of the routes that the participants will take during the march.

The broadcaster said Israeli police also decided to reinforce their forces in the mixed cities and the Wadi Ara area inside Israel in anticipation of violence over the march.

The flag march was approved by Israeli Minister of Internal Security Omer Bar-Lev on Monday evening.

Groups from the Israeli right-wing have called for participation in the march that passes along the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, and stops at Bab al-Amud before continuing to the Al-Aqsa’s al-Buraq Wall known to Jews as the “Western Wall”.

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions have called on the Palestinians to gather in the Bab al-Amoud area, one of the gates of the Old City in East Jerusalem, at the time of the march.

On Monday, the Joint List, an alliance of four Arab Israeli political parties, called on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Bar-Lev to cancel the march.

The march includes what is known as the “flag dance”, during which participants dance while carrying the Israeli flag at Bab al-Amud, one of the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The march was scheduled to be organized last month on the occasion of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, according to the Hebrew calendar, but it was postponed due to the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials and parties have warned of the consequences of allowing the flag march, holding the Israeli government responsible for its repercussions.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“I’m confident that the Chinese leadership being aware of the totality of these matters, including the part of their population who are Uyghurs, will find the necessary solution to make sure that the situation remains stable and benefits the entire multi-million-strong Chinese people, including its Uyghur part,” he said.

– Russia insists on distributing humanitarian aid in Syria through ‘central government’

Russia insists that humanitarian aid should be given “just as it should be done in the entire world,” “as it is provided for in the provisions of international humanitarian law” — through the central government, said Putin.

This along with attacks from some border crossings in Syria are reasons why Russia intends to close them for humanitarian convoys, he said.

“If there are grounds to believe that the central government of Syria will plunder something, well, set up observers on the part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to oversee everything.

“I don’t think that anybody in the Syrian government is interested in stealing some part of this humanitarian assistance. It just needs to be done through the central government. And in this sense, we support President [Bashar al-] Assad because a different mode of behavior would be undermining the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic. And that’s all,” he said.

Putin added that in the Idlib zone, Turkish troops “effectively control” the border between Turkey and Syria, and “convoys cross the border without any restrictions on their numbers in both directions.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

The “acute” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey is nearing an end, the health minister announced on Tuesday.


In a statement, Fahrettin Koca said he held a virtual meeting with Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe.

“In these days we are in, I think that the acute period of the pandemic is nearing its end and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Koca said.

In the meeting, many issues such as global and regional developments regarding the pandemic, Turkey’s vaccination studies and vaccination program were discussed.


Kluge thanked Turkey for its international cooperation and solidarity.


Emphasizing that Turkey supports more than 100 countries and dozens of international organizations, Kluge said: “I congratulate you on the rapid implementation of COVID-19 vaccination.”


Koca said Turkey’s efforts to develop its own vaccine continue at full speed.


Expressing that Turkey is in a good position regarding vaccination, he said: “I think we will go a long way with the effective campaigns we will carry out until autumn. Today, I estimate that we will exceed 1 million doses of vaccine daily.”

Source: Anadolu Agency