Day: July 5, 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 administered more than 5.34 million COVID-19 vaccine doses over the past week, according to official figures released Sunday.

The country has so far administered over 52.62 million doses since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in January, according to the Health Ministry.

Turkish security forces “neutralized” at least two PKK terrorists in the country’s southeast, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

Turkey expressed grief after a boat with 127 migrants on board sank off the eastern coast of Tunisia on Saturday.

The country’s Foreign Ministry also extended condolences to the Philippines over the loss of lives in a military plane crash.

– COVID-19 updates worldwide

Over 3.19 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered so far worldwide, according to figures Sunday compiled by Our World in Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

India registered more than 43,000 new coronavirus cases and 955 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

Bangladesh witnessed 153 COVID-19 deaths, the highest number since the pandemic hit the country, amid a weeklong strict nationwide lockdown in effect since July 1 to curb the spread of the virus.

France faces the risk of a fourth COVID-19 wave by the end of July due to the progression of the Delta variant of the virus, the country’s health minister warned Sunday.​​​​​​​

– Other global developments

Pope Francis “reacted well” to planned surgery for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon, according to the Vatican spokesman Sunday.

Amid deep political and cultural divisions, a lingering pandemic and economic trials, America still partied like it was 1776 on Sunday.

The discovery of more than 1,000 indigenous children’s bodies on the peripheries of boarding schools in Canada came as a shock to many.

At least 29 people were killed after a Philippine military plane carrying 96 people crashed in the country’s south, local media reported.

A strong explosion occurred in the Caspian Sea on Sunday near the coast of Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku.

Egypt has praised recent steps by Turkey towards normalizing ties between the two countries.

Afghan authorities claimed to have thwarted a Taliban attack on Bagram Airfield, which was recently vacated by US forces after 20 years of occupation.

The premises of the Al Ghazali Institute of the Grand Mosque of Paris was defaced with Islamophobic and racist inscriptions.

Lebanon is suffering from an acute shortage of imported drugs, particularly for chronic diseases, amid a lack of foreign exchange in the country, Lebanese pharmaceutical importers warned Sunday.

A missile attack targeting an army camp in Yemen’s southern Abyan province killed two soldiers and injured 20 others, a government source told Anadolu Agency.

Tunisian authorities have rescued 84 of 127 migrants making their way by boat to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, according to an official from the Tunisian Red Crescent.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Islamabad is working with regional powers to ensure a political settlement in neighboring Afghanistan and avert a potential civil war following the US pullout, Pakistan’s prime minister said on Monday.

“We are in contact with regional countries for a political settlement in Afghanistan. We will also contact the Taliban (to persuade them) for that,” Imran Khan said at the launch of several development projects in the strategic Gwadar port in southwestern Balochistan province.

“All neighboring countries should play their role to save Afghanistan from civil war,” he added, warning that such conflict would “destroy” Pakistan’s trade with Central Asian states.

Khan said he has spoken to Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi on the Afghan issue and will contact other relevant countries as well.

Islamabad has been critical of the US’ rushed withdrawal from war-ravaged Afghanistan without putting up a credible governance structure in Kabul.

Although the withdrawal is slated to be completed by Sep. 11, the Taliban have already launched a brazen offensive to seize several key districts across Afghanistan, further stretching and demoralizing the country’s security forces.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Members of Afghanistan’s parliament on Monday blasted the US for rushing to exit the war-ravaged country with no regard to the reality on the ground or bilateral agreement with Kabul.

During a plenary session, the lawmakers expressed grim concerns over mounting assaults of the advancing Taliban in various parts of the country, accusing Washington of leaving the task of eliminating terrorism unfinished.

“They (Americans) came irresponsibly and are now leaving irresponsibly. Was the security pact (US-Afghanistan Bilateral Security Agreement) just a lie,” questioned one member of the house, Mohammad Sediq.

Amid ensuing violence and mounting Taliban assaults, many other legislators called for holding those Afghan officials accountable for supporting the signature of the Bilateral Security Agreement.

Signed in September 2014, the agreement with the US and Status of Forces Agreement with the NATO alliance gave Afghanistan assurances for support in return for legal cover for foreign troops’ extended stay in the war-ravaged country after the end of the combat mission that year.

In line with US President Joe Biden’s announcement, all American troops are scheduled to depart from Afghanistan by September later this year, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Andy Jassy on Monday officially took over from Jeff Bezos as CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon.

Amazon and Bezos announced the change in leadership back in February. July 5 is the 27th anniversary of the US-based giant.

Bezos previously said that he wanted more time to focus on his personal ventures such as climate change organization Bezos Earth Fund and aerospace company Blue Origin.

Bezos is also the richest person in the world, boasting a fortune of almost $202 billion, according to business magazine Forbes.

According to Amazon’s website, Jassy, who joined the firm in 1997, founded and led Amazon Web Services from its inception and served as its CEO from April 2016 until July 2021.

Jassy has a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and India are among a raft of countries that have suspended or limited operations of their consulates in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, officials confirmed on Monday.

Local authorities in Balkh said the missions have not given a clear reason for the move, which comes as clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban have flared up amid the ongoing withdrawal of foreign troops.

Farhad Azimi, spokesperson for the provincial governor, said consulate officials were assured that their buildings would be protected at all costs.

“However, it seems they were concerned about the situation and have decided to restrict operations. Some of them said they were going to Kabul to consult with their ambassadors,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Russia’s consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh, has “temporarily halted its operations because of the worsening situation in northern Afghanistan,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a senior official as saying.

“The situation is unstable. Afghan troops have surrendered too many districts. Naturally, that triggers anxiety. So, many consulates [of other countries in Mazar-e-Sharif] have temporarily suspended their work pending clarification of the situation,” said Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities, however, stressed that claims of their consulate being closed were “factually incorrect.”

“The Consulates General of Pakistan in Afghanistan, including Mazar-e-Sharif, are open and functioning normally,” read a statement by the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.

“However, due to deteriorating situation of COVID-19 in the country, the Embassy and all Consulates General in Afghanistan, including Mazar-e-Sharif, have temporarily closed its consular sections for issuance of manual visas. However, on-line visa services are operational and issuing visas on daily basis.”

Turkey’s Embassy in Kabul said its consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif remains open, as it advised Turkish citizens against travelling to the northern provinces of Afghanistan, including Balkh.

India also urged its citizens in Afghanistan to exercise utmost vigilance and caution amid escalating violence.

The US Embassy clarified that it will continue to have “a robust diplomatic presence in Kabul.”

“We have no plans to close the embassy,” the US mission said in a statement, adding that Washington was aware of the security challenges and ready to “adjust the presence as necessary to address these challenges.”

Reports suggest that the diplomatic missions of Afghanistan’s northern neighbors Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan have also limited issuance of visas.

– Badakhshan battles

The Taliban on Monday claimed to have captured several more districts in the northern Badakhshan province, namely Warduj, Tashkaan, Tagab, Yaftal Payen, Baharak, Yawaan, and Kishm.

While Afghan officials did not comment on the insurgents’ claim, the local administration said special military units have been deployed in the province to push back the Taliban.

Separately, the Afghan Defense Ministry said 143 Taliban insurgents were killed in operations across the country over the past day.

Source: Anadolu Agency

TRIPOLI, Libya – (AA) Political and military institutions in Libya have declared their rejection of any constitutional basis that will allow warlord Gen. Khalifa Haftar to vie for the country’s presidency.

Speaking after the latest meeting of Libya’s Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) held in Switzerland on June 28-July 3, chairman of the Libyan High Council of State Khalid al-Mishri blamed some members in the forum of failing Libyans by refusing to agree on conditions that prevent military leaders from vying for the country’s presidency.

“Remove your military uniform, drop your foreign citizenship, and settle your legal case on war crimes, but you will lose at the ballot boxes just as you lost at the ammunition boxes,” al-Mishri said in a Facebook statement targeting Haftar.

Meanwhile, Libya’s Justice and Construction Party (JCP) said they are totally against returning of the country to dictatorship.

“The Justice and Construction Party looks forward to working with all political and national forces to reach a stable and civil state that alleviates the suffering of the people, and rejects the return to despotism and establishment of a one-man rule,” JCP said in a Facebook statement.

For its part, the Western Tripoli Protection Force rejected any proposal that will pave way for the candidacy of someone who “shed the blood of Libyans and attempted a coup against the country’s legitimate government.”

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

Within the scope of the political process that started after the cease-fire agreement, the LPDF decided in November last year that elections would be held in December of this year.

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

Source: Anadolu Agency

Istanbul police on Monday started to question the fugitive creator of an alleged online Ponzi scheme game who was brought back to Turkey over the weekend.

Interviews with Mehmet Aydin were done by a special Istanbul police team equipped with 60 pages of prepared questions.

Aydin, 29, had surrendered to the Turkish Consulate in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was arrested at the Istanbul Airport as soon as he landed on Saturday.

Aydin, nicknamed Tosuncuk, who was also sought by an Interpol red notice at Turkey’s request, is accused of various crimes, including founding a criminal organization and fraud and faces possible lengthy prison sentences.

Following four days of questioning, he will be brought before the Istanbul Anatolian Court.

Aydin faces charges in courts in Istanbul and Bursa on committing fraud by using information systems, banks, or credit institutions.

After Aydin founded Farm Bank – “Ciftlik Bank” in Turkish – inspired by the FarmVille social media game in 2016, over 3,700 people were allegedly defrauded.

After complaints by thousands of users, a red notice was issued in March 2018, but Aydin disappeared and had been at large for the last two years.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry contacted every country where Aydin was allegedly seen, including Uruguay, Brazil, Panama, Honduras, Canada, and Ukraine.

After Aydin was spotted in Brazil, his extradition was requested from Brazil in June 2018. The request was repeated this February.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Pope Francis “reacted well” to planned surgery for a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon, according to the Vatican spokesman Sunday.

The 84-year-old pope was admitted to the A. Gemelli Polyclinic, a Catholic teaching hospital, in Rome in the afternoon and underwent the scheduled surgical operation for a “diverticular stenosis of the sigma” conducted under general anesthesia in the evening, said a statement issued by Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See’s press office.

The Vatican did not provide any further information on the operation or how long the pope would stay in the hospital.

A diverticulum is a pouch-like protrusion through the muscular wall of the intestine.

This was Francis’ first known hospitalization since his election to the papacy in 2013.

The “get well soon” messages came from several leaders soon after news of his hospitalization was made public.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Maltese President George Vella and European Parliament President David Sassoli sent get well message to Francis.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Concerns have grown that a “third wave” could be experienced in the course of the outbreak as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which first appeared in India, begins to spread around the world.

The variant, first detected in India and seen as responsible from the second wave, caused daily case numbers to reach up to 400,000.

It has also become the dominant strain in the UK and caused an increase in virus-related infections since the start of summer.

The number of daily cases in the UK rose from 3,165 on June 1 to 27,561 on July 1.

In the country, the number of daily cases increased nearly three-fold in just one month.

The highly contagious Alpha variant, which first appeared in the UK, has led to a rise in infections during winter months and the rise has been dubbed the “second wave.”

Despite progress in vaccination, the new climb in case numbers indicates that the UK is facing a “third wave” triggered by the Delta variant this time.

– Low hospitalizations, deaths

A parallel rise in case numbers appears when examining the development of the second and third pandemic waves in the UK in the first month, but the number of hospitalizations and deaths in the third wave triggered by the Delta variant is lower than in the second wave.

Daily case numbers rose by 39,855 from Dec. 1, 2020 to Jan. 1 this year and by 24,824 from June 1 to July 1, according to Health Ministry’s data.

On the same dates, the number of daily hospitalizations increased in the second wave by 1,878 and in the third wave by 204.

As much as 411 additional daily casualties were recorded at the end of the first month of the second wave, and seven additional daily casualties were identified at the end of the first month of the third wave.

The spread of vaccination was effective when the increase in the number of hospitalizations and deaths was less than in the third wave.

In the first month of the second wave, vaccination had not yet begun in the country, whereas the number of those who received the first dose of vaccination had exceeded 39 million by June 1 and 45 million by July 1.

– Partially reduces vaccine effectiveness

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the Delta variant requires a higher level of antibodies for virus protection and immunity due to changes caused by the spike protein that allows the virus to hold and penetrate the human body, so it partially reduces the effectiveness of existing vaccines.

Medical Research Council of India published a study on the effect of an inactive vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech based on the wild type (natural phenotype) of COVID-19 on variants. They reported that they were successful in neutralizing mutations in the B.1.617 family, but were able to do so with lower effectiveness.

Public Health England also found that Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines were both 33% effective against the Delta variant at the first dose, Pfizer-BioNTech was 88% effective after the second dose, and AstraZeneca-Oxford was 60% effective.

– Responsible for pandemic wave in India

First identified in India in October 2020, “B.1.617.2,” also known as the Delta variant, is considered responsible for the second major outbreak wave in the country, which began in March and raised the number of daily cases to 400,000.

The daily infections in India increased to 50,000 on March 24, 100,000 on April 4, 200,000 on April 15, 300,000 on April 21, and 400,000 on April 30.

The WHO had placed the Delta variant in the “Variant of Interest” category on April 4 and the “Variant of Concern” category on May 11.

– Highly contagious, with different disease signs

In its assessment in May, the Public Health Authority of England warned that the spread rate of the Delta variant was %51 to 67% higher than the Alpha variant of COVID-19, which first appeared in the UK.

The Delta variant, which leads to flu-like disease symptoms such as headache, dry throat, runny nose, weakness, and fever, differs from those of pneumonia, cold-like diseases such as cough, respiratory stress, and back pain seen in previous types of COVID-19.

It is also expected to be the dominant strain across the world.

– 3rd wave signs in South Africa, Russia

The Delta variant has also changed outbreak figures in South Africa and Russia, apart from India and the UK.

South Africa has seen a sudden rise in its case numbers around the same dates as the UK.

The number of daily cases rose from 3,614 on June 1 to 21,584 on July 1, while the single-day death toll, which was 95 on June 1, rose to 382 on July 1.

In Russia, the number of daily cases rose from 9,500 on June 1 to 23,543 on July 1.

The country’s daily death toll stood at 372 on June 1, rising to 672 on 1 July.

The steady rise in deaths in the third wave in South Africa and Russia compared to the UK is attributed to the slower progress of vaccination in these countries.

Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on June 29 said 224 cases of the Delta variant were detected in 26 provinces of Turkey.

Source: Anadolu Agency