Day: September 2, 2021

With the addition of two medals on Thursday in Taekwondo, the total number of medals Turkey has won in its nearly 30-year participation in the Paralympics rose to 37.

At the 2020 Tokyo Games – set to end on Sunday – Meryem Cavdar of Turkey earned a silver in women’s K44-49kg Taekwondo, while Leonor Espinoza Carranza of Peru scored the gold.

Turkey’s Mahmut Bozteke also got a bronze medal in the men’s K44 -61kg Taekwondo, beating Antonio Bossolo of Italy.

In that event, Nathan Cesar Sodario Torquato of Brazil got the gold while Mohamed Elzayad of Egypt scored the silver.

Turkey first took part in the Paralympics in 1992, at the Summer Games. It made its Winter Games debut in 2014.

In its nearly three decades competing in the Games, Turkey has racked up 37 medals, including seven gold, 10 silver and 20 bronze medals.

In the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics – postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Turkish athletes have so far bagged 14 medals, including one gold medal, four silver medals, and nine bronze medals.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Inventories decreased by 7.2 million barrels to 425.4 million barrels compared to the market expectation of a 2.8 million-barrel draw.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 621.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.

However, gasoline inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels to 227.2 million barrels over that period.

– Crude production rises

According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 183,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.34 million bpd during the week ending August 27, while crude oil exports rose by 228,000 bpd to around 3.04 million bpd.

The data showed that US crude oil production also increased by 81,000 bpd to approximately 11.9 million bpd during the same period.

The EIA forecasts that US crude output is estimated at 11.8 million bpd for 2022, up from 11.1 million bpd in 2021.

In November 2018, the US first surpassed Saudi Arabia and then Russia to become the world’s largest crude oil producer.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Istanbul’s Besiktas on Thursday began transfer talks with Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic and the Spanish football powerhouse.

Turkey’s Besiktas said that the Black Eagles want to sign the 31-year-old Bosnian star on a temporary basis, in a statement on the public disclosure platform.

Pjanic posted on Instagram late Thursday while boarding a flight, perhaps hinting at his departure from Spain.

He is expected to arrive in the Turkish metropolis in the coming hours.

Pjanic has played for French club Olympique Lyon, Italy’s Roma, and Juventus.

He is a four-time Italian champion with Juventus.

He helped Juventus win the Italian Cup twice, and last season, with Pjanic on the squad, Barcelona captured the Spanish Cup.

Pjanic joined Barcelona in 2020, and his deal with the Spanish club will expire in 2024.

During his career, he has scored 73 goals and had 108 assists in 552 club appearances.

He also played for the Bosnian national team and piled up 101 international caps with 15 goals.

Source: Anadolu Agency

World food prices bounced back in August following two consecutive months of decline, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.

The FAO Food Price Index rose 3.1% month-on-month, averaging at 127.1 points in August, the UN body said in a statement.

Strong gains in the sugar, vegetable oils, and cereal sub-indices drove the increase.

The FAO Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index that tracks international market prices of five major food commodity groups.

Reflecting higher palm, rapeseed, and sunflower seed oil prices, the vegetable oil price index jumped 6.7% from July’s five-month low.

Sugar surged in August by 9.6% in its fifth monthly increase in a row and hitting the price index’s highest level since February 2017. This stemmed from concerns over frost damage on crops in Brazil — the world’s largest sugar exporter.

The cereal price index went up 3.4% on a monthly basis with reduced harvest expectations in several major exporting countries.

The meat price index was marginally up from July, while the dairy price index was the sole sub-index posting a decline in August.

Source: Anadolu Agency