Day: October 27, 2022

Ukraine’s sole power grid operator announced on Thursday that it will implement a temporary blackout in several regions of the country, including the capital Kyiv, due to an overnight Russian shelling.

“Due to the night shelling of the Russian army, blackouts will take place in several regions. Electricity consumption will be limited in the capital Kyiv, as well as in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.

The operator said the decision was taken to “help reduce the load and balance the energy system after the shelling by Russian forces.”

It also placed limits on electricity consumption in several regions across Ukraine on Monday, noting that Kyiv would face the most restrictions as well as the Kyivskyi district of Kharkiv and the Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions.

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been the target of Russian airstrikes since the start of the war in February.

The Ukrainian government said last week that it would cut energy consumption across the country by 20% due to lower output from damaged energy facilities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also announced that 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed since Oct. 10.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Fighting against war and terrorist propaganda is among Türkiye’s top priorities, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on Thursday.

“As Türkiye, fighting against war and terrorist propaganda is among our priorities, as well as fortifying our national security and preventing humanitarian tragedies in different geographies,” Altun told a forum at Anadolu Agency’s headquarters in the capital Ankara.

Titled War Journalism and Reporting in Crisis Zones, the forum is being organized with the support of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate.

A total of 15 international journalists — who earlier received war correspondent training at the agency — from Georgia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Nigeria, Algeria, Chad, Kenya, Sarajevo, and Kyrgyzstan participated at the forum.

The forum aims to increase the interest of international media members in Türkiye, and to contribute to the promotion of the country by providing interaction between foreign and Turkish war correspondents.

“In this period, reporting wars, crises, tensions and conflicts between global and regional actors in the most accurate way is one of the most challenging journalism activities,” Altun said.

He added periods of war and crisis are the periods “most open” to manipulation, perception operations and disinformation.

“Of course, it has to be a basic principle for a journalist not to be an instrument of war propaganda and not to serve the policies of persecution. Because conscientious journalists can contribute to the end of wars, conflicts and crises, and thus they actually serve peace,” Altun said.

The director added it should not be ignored that war journalism can also enable a global awareness of humanitarian issues in different regions, saying: “For example, I consider it within the scope of peace journalism to bring to the attention of the world public the tragedy experienced by migrants who were subjected to the inhuman treatment of Greece.”

As Türkiye is exposed to terrorist propaganda, the country makes an intense effort to counter the black propaganda on a national and international scale, Altun added.

He also thanked Anadolu Agency for producing news and images on Türkiye’s fight against terrorism, the war between Azerbaijan-Armenia and the Russia-Ukraine war.

This caught the attention of people across the world at large, he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met with his Israeli counterpart Benny Gantz for talks in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday.

Akar and Gantz held a one-on-one meeting and gathered with delegations to discuss bilateral relations and security issues.

Gantz’s visit to Türkiye is the first by an Israeli defense minister in over a decade.

Türkiye and Israel have been taking steps to normalize their strained relations for the past two years, and in August, the countries agreed to restore full diplomatic ties and reappoint ambassadors and consuls general after a four-year hiatus.

Ahead of his meeting with Akar, Gantz paid his respects to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, at his mausoleum Anitkabir.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Britain’s Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir will be released in January next year, the book’s publisher announced on Thursday.

In a statement, Penguin Random House said the book, titled Spare, will hit the shelves on Jan. 10, 2023, and it will also be translated into 15 different languages, including Spanish, German, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Danish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Swedish.

The memoir will also be released in an audio edition read by Harry himself.

“SPARE takes readers immediately back to one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow and horror,” said the statement.

“As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is his story at last,” it added.

The book is “a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief,” said the publisher.

Markus Dohle, Penguin Random House’s global CEO, also said that his company is “honoured” to be publishing Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex’s memoir.

“He (Harry) shares a remarkably moving personal journey from trauma to healing, one that speaks to the power of love and will inspire and encourage millions of people around the world,” said Dohle.

Harry is the second-born son of Britain’s King Charles III and his former wife Diana, princess of Wales, who died in a tragic car accident in 1997 in Paris.

Charles and Diana got divorced in 1996. Their sons William and Harry were 15 and 12 respectively when the princess died.

Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left the British Royal Family to pursue a life of “financial freedom” in 2020.

The duke and duchess of Sussex then signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Alex Tyus, a 2014 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion, moved to the French basketball club LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Thursday.

In a statement, ASVEL said that the club signed Tyus for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.

The 34-year-old center joined ASVEL to replace French player Joffrey Lauvergne, who suffered from an ACL tear in his knee on Saturday.

“Following my injury in yesterday’s game, I will be out for few months with a torn ACL but I will come back stronger,” Lauvergne earlier said on Twitter.

Tyus from the US previously helped Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv win the 2014 EuroLeague title.

He played for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Türkiye’s Anadolu Efes and Galatasaray, Russia’s UNICS Kazan, and Spain’s Real Madrid while in Europe.

Tyus last played for another Turkish club Pinar Karsiyaka.

He amassed 196 games in the EuroLeague to average 7.3 points and 4.4 rebounds.

This season ASVEL have 1-3 win/loss record to come 16th in EuroLeague standings.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The European Central Bank on Thursday hiked rates by 75 basis points, its third major increase in a row, bringing borrowing costs to their highest level in more than a decade to tackle record eurozone inflation.

“Inflation remains far too high and will stay above the target for an extended period,” said a bank statement.

In September, euro area inflation hit 9.9%, with soaring energy and food prices, supply bottlenecks, and the post-pandemic demand recovery causing price pressures.

“The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will be increased to 2.00%, 2.25% and 1.50% respectively, with effect from 2 Nov. 2022,” it said.

The bank also announced it was changing the terms and conditions of its targeted longer-term refinancing operations, or TLTROs – an instrument that enables European banks with attractive borrowing conditions, formed to incentivize lending to the real economy.

“The Governing Council … decided to adjust the interest rates applicable to TLTRO III from 23 November 2022 and to offer banks additional voluntary early repayment dates,” the ECB said.

“In order to align the remuneration of minimum reserves held by credit institutions with the Eurosystem more closely with money market conditions, the Governing Council decided to set the remuneration of minimum reserves at the ECB’s deposit facility rate,” the bank said.

Speaking at a press conference following the meeting, ECB President Christine Lagarde warned that a eurozone recession was looming.

“In the current state of uncertainty, with the probability of recession looming much more on the horizon, a probability that has increased. Everyone must do their job. Our job is price stability,” Lagarde said.

The bank aims to ensure the timely return of inflation to its 2% medium-term inflation target, she said.

“We will have further rate increases in the future, so the normalization process continues,” Lagarde said, adding: “There is still ground to cover.”

Pointing that eurozone economic activity is likely to have slowed significantly in the third quarter, Lagarde said, the bank estimates a further weakening in the rest of this year and the beginning of 2023.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency’s News Academy on Thursday organized a forum for international journalists at its headquarters in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

The War Journalism and Reporting in Crisis Zones forum was held with support of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate.

Speaking at the opening session of the forum, Anadolu Agency Director General Serdar Karagoz said the agency has provided war journalism training to nearly 500 participants, including many local and foreign journalists.

Nearly one-third of the participants are foreign journalists, Karagoz said, adding that this demonstrates the uniqueness of the training program provided by Anadolu Agency.

Over the last decade, said Karagoz, 22 such training opportunities have been offered by Anadolu Agency with the support of leading Turkish institutions such as the Security General Directorate, Turkish Armed Forces, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), and Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

“We provided both practical and theoretical courses during war journalism training, from journalism in emergency situations to personal security, from chemical and biological attacks to media management,” Karagoz noted.

Underlining that war correspondents should be able to withstand harsh conditions on the ground, Karagoz said: “With this training, we prepare reporters for all the challenges they may face on the battlefield.”

Unparalleled forum with seasoned hands

A total of 15 international journalists who were trained earlier by the agency – from Georgia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Nigeria, Algeria, Chad, Kenya, Sarajevo, and Kyrgyzstan – took part in the forum.

The forum aims to boost the interest of the international media in Türkiye and to help promote the country by providing interaction between foreign and Turkish war correspondents.

During the forum, war correspondents shared their experience in the field, and exchanged ideas on the difficulties of the profession, the dangers they faced, and new technologies as well as rules that need updating.

A range of issues was discussed at the forum, including sessions on Changing Conflict Conditions and War Correspondence, War Correspondents in Türkiye, and Global Communications in Wartime.

Speakers with significant success in war journalism stressed the importance of the war journalism training offered by Anadolu Agency.

Senior journalist Coskun Aral said that during his professional life he had reported from various war zones. He said he had his first foreign war correspondence experience in Iraq during the 1980s, reporting on the Iraq-Iran war.

Praising Anadolu Agency’s war journalism training, Aral said: “If I had gotten such training, I would have been able to go to the war zones better prepared and equipped.”

Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Fedchenko, for her part, touched on the war in her country, saying: “Russia is bombing electrical systems and critical infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Underlining her deep concern about recent developments, Fedchenko said it is very difficult for a journalist to describe the war in her country.

“Ukrainian journalists are not only reporters but also civilians. I lost many people I know in this war,” she said.

Telling how she had recently lost a friend, Fedchenko fought to hold back tears.

War journalism training, a discipline available from only a few institutions in the world, has been offered by Türkiye since 2012.Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday received Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz for talks in the capital Ankara.

The Turkish presidency gave no further details about the closed-door meeting, which was held at the presidential complex.

Earlier, Gantz met with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar to discuss bilateral relations and security issues.

Türkiye and Israel have been taking steps to normalize the strained relations for the past two years, and in August, the countries agreed to restore full diplomatic ties and reappoint ambassadors and consuls general after a four-year hiatus.

Source: Anadolu Agency

European gas prices continue to drop on the spot market, but German consumers are not benefiting from the cheaper prices.

Gas traded at €350 per megawatt hour in August on the Dutch TTF exchange, but it dropped to around €92 on Tuesday, still more than twice as high as last year.

German media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) has reported that only new customers will have a chance to benefit from the current drop in prices. Existing and basic supply customers cannot expect falling prices.

“Short-term fluctuations in wholesale prices are usually not felt by consumers at all, and they arrive – if at all – only with a time delay,” a spokesman for the German price comparison portal Verivox told RND.

Suppliers would buy gas for the long term – sometimes years and months in advance.

“Only if the trend of falling wholesale prices continues to stabilize can customers hope for relief,” the spokesman added.

At present, the price level is still well above the long-term average, according to the Verivox. In addition, the fees for the use of gas networks would rise by around 20% in 2023.

Experts are pessimistic about the near future and say that they are expecting prices to rise in the coming months.

“We have recorded around 300 price increases by local gas suppliers for November and December alone – by around 25%,” the Verivox spokesman said.

“For a family with a gas consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours, that is additional cost of around €1,100 a year.”

Source: Anadolu Agency