Day: November 11, 2022

Major Asian stock markets ended Friday with strong gains as softer-than-expected US data fueled bets that US Federal Reserve slow its aggressive rate hike, as well as ease of COVID-19 measures in China.

Annual consumer inflation in the US came in at 7.7% in October, down from an 8.2% annual gain in September, according to the Labor Department figures released on Thursday.

China on Friday shortened the coronavirus monitoring period and reduced the number of tests required.

The country’s health authorities said the quarantine requirements for international arrivals who are close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases are shortened by two days, from “7+3 to 5+3,” officials said.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, jumped 5.69% to 3,164.36 points on Friday. On a weekly basis, it soared 8.98%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange surged 2.98% to 28,263.57. The index was up 3.91% this week.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, enjoyed the largest rise with 7.74% to 17,325.66 points, while it had a weekly gain of 7.21% on Friday.?

Hong Kong’s economy narrowed 4.5% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022, following a 1.3% contraction in the previous three-month period.

China’s Shanghai stock exchange soared 1.69% from the previous close to 3,087.29 points on Friday, while it was up 54% on a weekly basis.

The Indian Sensex benchmark increased 1.95% to a fresh record close of 61,795.04 and the Singapore benchmark index gained 1.74% to 3,228.33 points.

While Singapore added 3.14% this week, Sensex rose 1.39%.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The German parliament on Friday gave green light to extend the lifespan of three nuclear power plants amid the ongoing energy crisis in the country.??

The Bundestag has decided to temporarily continue the operation of the last three German nuclear power plants – Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland – until April 15 next year.

As part of Germany’s nuclear phaseout plans, the three power plants were to shut down at the end of the year.

In a roll-call vote, 375 MPs voted in favor of amending the Atomic Energy Act, 216 voted against and 70 abstained, as Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki announced.

In a last step, it is still up to the upper house of the parliament – the Federal Council –which could deal with the issue at its meeting on Nov. 25. However, it is very unlikely that it will veto the plans.

The decision of the Bundestag is the provisional conclusion of a heated dispute within the center-left government coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats.

Last month, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had decided to continue the operation of the remaining three nuclear power plants until mid-April next year at the latest.

“The legal basis will be created to enable the power operation of the Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland nuclear power plants beyond Dec. 31, 2022, until April 15, 2023, at the latest,” Scholz said reportedly in a letter sent to Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

Germany mothballed three nuclear reactors in 2021, and shutting the remaining three would have officially marked the end of the nuclear phaseout for domestic energy production that had first started under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Spanish government is submitting a bill to parliament on Friday to drop the sedition law from the penal code and swap it for a lesser offense called “aggravated public disorder.”

?In Spain, the crime of sedition carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison. The new offense to replace it would drop the maximum sentence to five years.

?In 2019, several leaders of the Catalan independence movement were charged with sedition and sentenced to as many as 13 years behind bars for trying to separate from Spain in 2017.

Other leaders involved in the breakaway attempt, including former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, remain in exile and continue facing sedition charges in Spain.

?Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview with broadcaster La Sexta that his progressive government has made a series of controversial decisions that have “eased tensions” with Catalonia and helped “overcome” the 2017 political crisis.

?He also pointed out that Spain’s sedition law was written in 1822 and that the country is “taking a step forward in terms of becoming more like other European democracies.”

?In Barcelona, separatist Catalan President Pere Aragones celebrated the proposed legal reform, saying it is “an indispensable step towards dejudicializing” politics with Catalonia and will make it “harder to persecute the independence movement unjustly.”

?However, he still calls for total amnesty for crimes related to the 2017 referendum.

?Spain’s top conservative party, on the other hand, accused Sanchez of betraying Spain.

Popular Party leader Alberto Feijoo said the prime minister is putting “his political interests above Spain,” called the move “a historic irresponsibility” and warned that the “separatists will never, ever, be satisfied.”

?Before presenting the bill in parliament, Socialist politician Patxi Lopez pushed back on the criticism, explaining that the reformed law will make it easier to extradite politicians in exile.

?“Since the crime of sedition does not exist in the countries around us, judicial collaboration with those countries was not possible… which impeded the extraditions,” he said. “That won’t happen anymore, and there will be no more sanctuaries for crimes against the public order.”

?Former Catalan leader Puigdemont, who is exiled in Brussels and has avoided extradition, did not celebrate the news.

?He said that Sanchez is “a master in the art of deception” and that Spain will continue “criminalizing the right” to an independence referendum.

?The deputy leader of Spain’s far-right party Vox took rhetoric against Sanchez even further.

?“As soon as we enter the government of Spain, the first thing we will do is reform the crime of high treason and put you on the bench for collaborating with coup plotters,” Javier Ortega Smith said on Twitter, in reference to the Spanish prime minister.

?The new law still needs to pass through a parliamentary and legal process to become official. But Lopez said the minority coalition government expects to find majority support for the bill.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A consolidated position of the Turkic states has to become “an effective mechanism for influencing political events in the world,” a former Turkmen president said on Friday.

The political situation emerging in several regions of the Eurasian continent requires “a very thoughtful, clear and serious assessment,” Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, chairman of the upper chamber of Turkmen parliament, said at the leaders’ summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

“We believe that our organization, both autonomously and in close cooperation with the international community, must do everything necessary to end conflicts and develop far-sighted, responsible solutions,” he said.

Berdymukhamedov also invited the leaders of the Turkic bloc to draft a UN General Assembly resolution, “Dialogue – Guarantee of Peace.”

“We will be grateful if the Turkic states support it during the current session of the UN General Assembly,” he said.

Speaking about the common security of the Turkic countries, the Turkmen chairman pointed out the necessity to counter terrorism, extremism and IT crimes.

“We believe that it (addressing security issues) should be implemented at all levels – global, regional and national. We are sure that this task is especially important for those Turkic countries that have faced similar threats,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

In the past 10 months, Türkiye has rescued nearly 18,500 irregular migrants illegally pushed back by Greece in the Aegean Sea.

A total of 18,487 irregular migrants were saved in Turkish Coast Guard operations off Canakkale, Balikesir, Izmir, Aydin, and Mugla between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

In August alone, Greece pushed back 3,259 irregular migrants, the highest monthly figure for this year.

Many of the migrants were violently assaulted by Greek forces before being left to die at sea.

The bodies of at least 18 migrants were found in the Aegean Sea in the past 10 months.

Turkish forces also prevented 11,541 irregular migrants from making illegal border crossings.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for irregular migrants who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution in their countries.

It already hosts 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, and is taking new security measures on its borders to humanely prevent an influx of migrants.

Türkiye and human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back irregular migrants and asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Türkiye’s state-run aid agency is assisting flood-battered farmers in Pakistan to mitigate a looming threat to food security caused by recent super floods and rains that inundated millions of acres of croplands across the South Asian country.

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has launched a program to provide wheat seeds to thousands of farmers to help them grow crops in southern Sindh and southwestern Balochistan provinces that have been severely affected by the near-apocalyptic floods.

Wheat is the main winter crop and a major source of income for millions of farmers across Pakistan.

So far, the relief agency has distributed 60 tons of wheat seeds to 700 small-scale farmers in Sindh’s eight worst-affected districts, TIKA Karachi Coordinator Halil Ibrahim Basaran told Anadolu Agency on Friday.

The districts include Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Matiari, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Dadu, and Khairpur.

The TIKA held the latest ceremony in Matiari district to provide wheat seeds to over 100 farmers in collaboration with Sindh Agricultural University in Tandojam, Hyderabad district, and the Rural Agriculture Extension Department Sindh, according to a statement issued by the Turkish relief agency on Friday.

Basaran said at the ceremony that the program is aimed at assisting small-scale farmers who have suffered huge losses in terms of ready-to-reap crops and cash due to massive floods and rains.

Since the floodwaters have receded, he further said, now seeds and fertilizers are the key requirements of the millions of farmers in the flood-hit areas.

One of the program’s beneficiaries, Ghulam Mustafa, thanked Ankara for its support, saying, “We always heard about the friendship and brotherhood between Türkiye and Pakistan, but today we have witnessed it.”

Türkiye has so far sent 15 planes and seven trains loaded with relief goods, including tents, boats, food items, medicines, vaccines, and other items on the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has also set up three “tent cities” in Dadu, Hyderabad, and Noshero Feroz districts of Sindh, providing temporary housing to some 3,000 flood-affected people.

Aside from killing over 1,700 people, the drenching monsoon that began in mid-June and lasted until late September, inundated a third of Pakistan, washing away hundreds of thousands of houses, schools, bridges, and animals and destroying millions of acres of cropland.

The massive floods have caused $30 billion in losses to the country’s already struggling economy, mainly in infrastructure and agriculture.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Prosecutors have charged two Swedish brothers with “aggravated espionage” for allegedly spying for Russia, local media reported on Friday.

Swedish media reports said they have been identified in a charge sheet as Peyman Kia, 42, and Payam Kia, 35.

The brothers are of Iranian origin, according to the reports.

They are accused of having worked with Russia’s GRU military intelligence for a decade from September 2011 to September 2021.

The elder brother was a high-ranking manager at a Swedish government agency at the time of his arrest in September 2021, public broadcaster SVT reported.

He previously worked for Swedish domestic security service SAPO and foreign intelligence agency MUST.

The other man was arrested in November 2021.

Both have denied any wrongdoing, according to Swedish media reports.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US President Joe Biden arrived Friday in the eastern city of Sharm el-Sheikh on his first visit to Egypt since taking office in January 2021.

Biden headed to the headquarters of the UN climate summit, according to the official Nile channel.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Thursday: “The President departs for Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where he will participate in the COP27 climate conference and hold a bilateral meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

“The President heads to COP27 with historic momentum on climate, thanks to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and other significant steps that put us on an enduring path towards meeting our ambitions and clean energy goals.”

After the COP27 summit, Biden will head to Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Nov. 12 – 13 to participate in the annual US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.

On Thursday, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed with El-Sisi the Russian-Ukrainian war as well as the Ethiopia dam issue without reaching an agreement with Cairo, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.

*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report

Source: Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency, Türkiye’s top news source, on Friday planted 320 tree saplings in the capital Ankara in honor of Nov. 11 National Afforestation Day, an event celebrated annually since 2019.

Executives and employees of Anadolu Agency were present at the event, in which saplings were planted near the agency’s Centennial Memorial Forest in Ataturk Forest Farm.

“Türkiye stands in first place among all European countries on afforestation, as well as holding fourth place across the world,” Hale Aydogmus, an environment editor, said during the event.

“In the last 20 years, total forestland in Türkiye has increased by 2 million hectares,” she added.

The total area of forestland in Türkiye has grown from 20.8 million hectares in 2002 to 22.9 million in 2022, according to Forestry General Directorate.

At least 6 billion tree saplings have been planted since 2002.

Saying that the efforts so far are significant but not enough, she stressed that “the green” has to be protected by both people and society.

“We’re going to put up a fight to regain our green lands by not only planting trees but also repairing the ecosystem,” she emphasized, adding that doing so is critical.

“We owe it to the planet as well as future generations,” she underlined.

To mark National Afforestation Day, every year on Nov. 11 simultaneous tree planting is carried out in all 81 provinces of Türkiye at 11.11 a.m.

This year’s theme is “A Breath into the Century of Türkiye.”

Türkiye has enjoyed an intense afforestation campaign over the past two decades in comparison with European countries, she said, adding that Nov. 11 should be viewed as a day of sensitivity and awareness towards green life.

Source: Anadolu Agency