Day: July 1, 2021

Turkish security forces arrested three people over their alleged links to the Daesh/ISIS terror group, a security source said on Thursday.

As part of an investigation launched by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in northwestern Sakarya province, simultaneous operations were carried out by security forces in the capital Ankara, northwestern Bolu and southern Adana provinces, said the source on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The suspects included a Syrian and two Iraqi nationals, it added.

In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terrorist group.

The country has since been attacked by the terror group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.

In response, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.

Source: Anadolu Agency

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday received his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, at his residence at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

The men discussed several bilateral and multilateral subjects of mutual interest.

Most of the discussions were on infrastructure projects in Kenya that are backed by France that includes the expansion of the $1.4 billion 233 kilometer (145 mile) Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Road whose construction is set to begin in September, according to the presidency in Kenya.

“Besides infrastructure, Presidents Kenyatta and Macron discussed enhanced cooperation in the health sector particularly in building Kenya’s capacity to manufacture vaccines locally,” it said.

Kenyatta said in a national address earlier this week that the country’s long-term strategy is to set up a Human Vaccine Centre.

“I have directed a multi-agency team to activate this plan and to focus not only on the COVID-19 vaccine but on any other human vaccine needed in our region.”

Kenyatta and Macron also spoke about the forthcoming Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Summit in London that will be hosted by Kenyatta and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.​​​​​​​

Source: Anadolu Agency

Kuwait announced the resumption of flights with 12 countries on Thursday after a year-long suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The resumption of flights will include Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the US, according to the official news agency, KUNA.

“As of Aug. 1, non-Kuwaitis will be allowed to enter the country, provided they receive the coronavirus vaccine,” spokesman for the General Administration of Civil Aviation, Saad Al-Otaibi, was quoted. “Kuwaiti citizens will not be allowed to travel abroad unless they have received two doses of the vaccine.”

“The groups who are not subject to vaccination due to their age, and those who have a certificate proving they are unable to obtain the vaccine for health reasons along with pregnant women are excluded from the decision,” he added.

In August 2020, Kuwait announced a suspension of air travel with several countries to limit the spread of the virus.

As of late Wednesday, Kuwait recorded 356,687 cases, including 1,969 deaths, and 336,122 recoveries.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Responding to its suspension in Pakistan, Chinese social media app TikTok said Thursday it continues to work with regulators to serve its millions of users and creators in the South Asian country.

“We have grown our local-language moderation capacity for Pakistan, and work diligently to review and take action on content in violation of our Community Guidelines,” the platform said in a statement shared with Anadolu Agency.

“We continue to work with regulators, and look forward to serving the millions of TikTok users and creators in Pakistan who have found a home for creativity, fun and vital economic opportunities for many years to come.”

A Pakistani court on Monday ordered the temporary suspension of the short-form video app, the third such ban in less than a year.

The Sindh High Court made the order in response to a citizen’s complaint of “immorality and obscenity” spread by the app, directing its suspension until the next hearing in the case, set for July 8.

The court said that TikTok – wildly popular among Pakistani youth – had failed to keep its assurances that it would regulate content in Pakistan “in line with the local laws and … block accounts spreading vulgarity.”

The order said the platform failed to respect the law, basic injunctions of Islam, and the culture of Pakistan and “recently started a social media campaign whereby they are celebrating “LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Pride Month.”

Pakistan had blocked the app last October but un-banned it after assurances that the app would block all accounts “repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality.”

TikTok was again banned this March by the Peshawar High Court, with a later reversal warning the app management that “immoral content should not be uploaded.”

– ‘Worrying’ development

Rights organizations and officials have both voiced concern over the ban.

“The development is worrying and points at the disregard of citizens’ interests, and at the inclination towards prioritising arbitrary arguments,” Media Matters for Democracy, a non-profit working on media literacy and internet regulation in Pakistan, said in a statement.

It called on judges to take into account the interests of users when making such decisions, adding that bans based on subjective terms such as “obscene” and “vulgar” violate citizens’ free speech and right to access information.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also decried “judicial activism” in Pakistan, saying it has cost the country billions of dollars.

In a tweet, he said the country cannot emerge from its economic crisis without reforms to its judiciary.

Last year, India banned a number of Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, following a border skirmish with China in the disputed region of Ladakh. The IT ministry said the apps “engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”

Then-US President Donald Trump also ordered a ban on new downloads of the viral app in 2020, calling it a threat to national security.

Those orders never came to fruition due to a series of legal challenges, and Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, revoked the executive order earlier this month.

– 6.5M videos removed from Pakistan

Meanwhile, TikTok said it had removed 61.95 million videos from its platform during the first three months of the year for violating its guidelines, including nearly 6.5 million from Pakistan.

Of the total, 36.8% of the videos were removed for violating TikTok’s policy on minor safety, 21.1% for illegal activities and regulated goods, and 15.6% for adult nudity or sexual activities, the company said in its Q1 2021 transparency report.

According to its community guidelines, TikTok does not allow nudity, pornography, or sexually explicit content.

It also prohibits people from using the platform to threaten or incite violence, or upload content that contains hate speech, and forbids the trade, sale, or promotion of “certain regulated goods.”

Besides Pakistan, most of the videos were removed in the US, Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia.

Over 11 million accounts were also removed for similar violations.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The US Supreme Court sided Thursday with the state of Arizona, upholding the constitutionality of Republican-enacted voting restrictions.

The 6-3 ruling saw the Court’s three liberal judges dissent from the majority as it dismissed the argument from the laws’ challengers that Arizona sought to infringe upon the rights of minority voters.

The case was a key test for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the Supreme Court curtailed in 2013. That year, the Court invalidated a key part of the act that required states to receive federal approval before changing voting laws.

Arizona’s laws invalidate ballots cast in the wrong jurisdiction and significantly curtails the practice known as “ballot harvesting” wherein an individual can pick up completed ballots and deliver them to polling places. The state sought to portray its efforts as aimed at ensuring election integrity.

Critics had sought to challenge the law on the grounds that they disproportionately affect minority voters, a view upheld by an appeals court.

But writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said neither provision violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule enforces the requirement that voters who choose to vote in person on election day must do so in their assigned precincts. Having to identify one’s own polling place and then travel there to vote does not exceed the ‘usual burdens of voting,'” he wrote.

“On the contrary, these tasks are quintessential examples of the usual burdens of voting,” he added.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote a searing dissent in which she said “this is not how the Court is supposed to interpret and apply statutes,” but said that critique “woefully undersells the problem.”

“What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten—in order to weaken—a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about ‘the end of discrimination in voting,'” she wrote.

US President Joe Biden issued a statement that said he is “deeply disappointed in today’s decision” shortly after the ruling was announced, arguing that over the past eight years the Supreme Court “has now done severe damage to two of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

“After all we have been through to deliver the promise of this Nation to all Americans, we should be fully enforcing voting rights laws, not weakening them,” he said.

“While this broad assault against voting rights is sadly not unprecedented, it is taking on new forms. It is no longer just about a fight over who gets to vote and making it easier for eligible voters to vote. It is about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all,” added Biden.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) meetings in Switzerland under the leadership of the UN, were extended for another day after participants could not reach a consensus.

The LPDF sessions, which were expected to result in a decision on the constitutional basis for elections on Dec. 24, were supposed to end Thursday.

Participants decided to form a committee to reach a consensus among members who presented different proposals on the third day of sessions which lasted until midnight Wednesday, according to information received from the LPDF members.

The meetings began Monday, seeking to build constitutional safeguards acceptable to all sides ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections that aim to consolidate the peace process.

As part of the UN-led dialogue, meetings of the 5+5 Joint Military Committee were held on Oct. 23, 2020, in Geneva. As a result of the meetings, a permanent cease-fire agreement was signed between the legitimate Libyan government and delegations affiliated with warlord Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Within the scope of the political process that started after the cease-fire agreement, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum decided in November that elections will be held in December 2021.

Libyans hope the new unity government will end years of civil war that have engulfed the country since the ouster and killing of strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Hamas denounced on Thursday remarks by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier regarding the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) authority to investigate Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

“The remarks of the German president about the lack of jurisdiction of the ICC to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes are a violation of international law and a clear bias towards the occupation and its aggressive policy against the Palestinian people,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem.

“The position of the German president encourages the occupation to continue its crimes and aggression, and makes the occupation entity above international law,” he said.

Steinmeier told Israeli daily Haaretz on Wednesday that his country considers the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate Israeli war crimes in Palestinian territories because of the “absence of the Palestinian state” and considers it a “violation of the international law.”

Hamas demanded Steinmeier “stop his discrimination in granting Israel immunity and impunity from accountability and punishment as well as considering it a state above the law.”

Earlier Thursday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Steinmeier’s statements as “withdrawal from the rules of international law” and interference with ICC’s work and decisions.

The ICC opened a formal investigation in March into alleged war crimes in Palestinian territories after five years of preliminary inquiries.

The probe was before new tensions erupted that were centered on the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.

Former ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the investigation would “cover all sides and all the facts and evidence relevant to an assessment of whether there is individual criminal responsibility under the [ICC] Statute.”

Based on the relevant UN resolution, the ICC found that the Court has territorial jurisdiction in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been under Israeli occupation since 1967. The occupation is considered illegal under international law.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A 10-week decline in COVID-19 cases in Europe ended last week and was followed by a 10% surge in infections, prompting the regional WHO chief to urge people on Thursday to take care during the EURO 2020 football tournament.

“Last week, the number of cases rose by 10%, driven by increased mixing, travel, gatherings, and easing of social restrictions,” said Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe.

“This is taking place in the context of a rapidly evolving situation, a new variant of concern — the Delta variant — and in a region where despite tremendous efforts by member states, millions remain unvaccinated,” he added.

He said the Delta strain overtakes variants very quickly through multiple and repeated introductions “and is already translating into increased hospitalizations and deaths.”

Kluge warned that the WHO European Region would be “Delta dominant” by August, but the region will not be fully vaccinated as 63% of people are still waiting for their first jab.

– ‘European region to be restriction-free in August’

The WHO European Region will remain mostly restriction-free in August, with increased travels and gatherings, he said.

“Today, I am not here to cold shower any EURO 2020 fans or anyone’s holidays, but before we watch our players, and before we all pack and go for some well-deserved rest near home or far away,” Kluge said he had important messages.

If people decide to travel and gather, he urged them to “assess the risks and do it safely,” keeping all life-saving reflexes such as masks and self-protection, especially indoors and in crowds.

“Take the jab, don’t think twice, take it, for you and for others,” he urged, noting that the vaccines should be brought “to our most vulnerable ones first.”

He added that the three conditions for a new wave of excess hospitalizations and deaths before the autumn is in place.

New variants, a vaccine uptake deficit, and increased social mixing are among them, according to Kluge.

“There will be a new wave in the WHO European Region unless we remain disciplined, and even more so when there are far fewer rules in place to follow — and unless we all take the vaccine without hesitation when it is our turn,” he also noted.

Source: Anadolu Agency