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Land surface temperatures reached a staggering 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in Turkey and on Cyprus island, a map released Tuesday by the European Space Agency (ESA) showed.

The ESA shared the map showing sea and land surface temperatures that were captured by Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on Aug. 2.

“The Mediterranean has been suffering a heatwave for some weeks, leading to numerous wildfires. Turkey, for example, is reported to be amid the country’s worst blazes in at least a decade,” said the agency.

“While weather forecasts use predicted air temperatures, this satellite instrument measures the real amount of energy radiating from Earth – and depicts the real temperature of the land surface,” it added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Stephen Curry, 33, on Tuesday extended his contract with the Golden State Warriors with a four-year contract worth $215 million, according to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

The two-time MVP point guard will be part of a roster at the San Francisco team including All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Curry had a spectacular season in 2020-2021, winning his second scoring title with 32 points per game and earning a place in the All-NBA first team for the 4th time.

Carmelo Anthony signs with Lakers

Carmelo Anthony signed with the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday, Wojnarowski reported separately.

Anthony, 37, agreed to a one-year contract with the Lakers.

After Anthony’s move, the Lakers now boast a roster of many veterans, including LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, and Marc Gasol.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A Syrian graffiti artist has painted the wall of a house in the northwestern province of Idlib that shows the fight against forest fires in Turkey.

Aziz Esmer, known for drawing important global events on the walls of destroyed buildings in the province, this time turned his focus to forest fires in Turkey.

Esmer painted graffiti on a house in Binnis district where he lived with the words, “Get well soon, Turkey.”

His work in solidarity with the Turkish people describes the response of a firefighter to a fire in an area close to a refugee settlement.

He expressed to Anadolu Agency his sadness about the ongoing wildfires.

“After the start of forest fires in Turkey and their reach to settlements, solidarity with Turkey was necessary. Turkey has given martyrs in Syria. Therefore, we had to stand in solidarity with Turkey,” he said.

Esmer stressed his desire to put out the fires as soon as possible. “We are sending our wishes to the Turkish people to get well soon with the drawing we made on a wall in Binnis,” he said.

He cited Turkey’s support for the oppressed in Syria: “We believe that the fires will be over in the near future. I hope this will be the end of bitter sadness. Our hearts are with the Turkish people,” he said.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said earlier that 16,603 residents from 3,219 households in 28 neighborhoods were evacuated because of the fires in the southern part of the country.

At least eight people were killed since the fires started last Wednesday.

*Writing by Merve Berker

Source: Anadolu Agency

Major stock markets in Asia recovered Wednesday from their losses in previous session to end higher except Japan, while two major European indices hit new record highs.

Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, rose 17 points, or 0.46%, to close at 3,882.

Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, added 231 points, or 0.88%, to 26,426, while China’s Shanghai stock exchange was up 29, or 0.85%, to 3,477 points.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange, on the other hand, declined 57, or 0.21%, to 27,584 points.

The decline in Nikkei 225 came amid the rising cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the country and investors taking a sell-off position in Toyota shares to take advantage of Japanese automaker’s strong earnings in second quarter.

All four indexes in Asia closed lower Tuesday with losses between 0.16% and 0.5%.

In Europe, indexes have continued to increase after gains on Monday and Tuesday, despite German lender Commerzbank’s earnings disappointed.

The bank had a €478 million $(567 million) loss in the second quarter, down from €211 million in the same quarter of last year. Revenue fell 18% to €1.86 billion from €2.27 billion.

STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 European countries, was up 0.6% to 468.18 points at 1010GMT. The French stock market, CAC 40, rose 0.63% to 6,766. Both indexes hit their all-time highs earlier with 468.39 and 6,766.61 points, respectively.

London’s FTSE 100 increased 0.4% to 7,134 points, and Germany’s DAX 30 soared 0.87% to 15,690 at that time.

While Italy’s Borsa Italiana FTSE MIB 30 gained 0.57% at 25,430, Spain’s IBEX 35 was almost flat at 8,774.

European indices closed Tuesday higher except Germany.

Source: Anadolu Agency

At least two terrorists were “neutralized” in a domestic anti-terror operation in southeastern Turkey, the country’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said two terrorists were neutralized by local gendarmerie forces during Operation Eren-13.

The operation was carried out under the coordination of the gendarmerie forces in the rural area of the Mt. Herekol in the Pervari district of Turkey’s southeastern Siirt province, it added.

Armed unmanned aerial vehicles, a combat helicopter, and the air forces supported the operation.

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in statements to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

The ministry further said the operations in the region are ongoing.

The PKK terror group has been active in eastern and southeastern Turkey.

Operation Eren, named after Eren Bulbul, a 15-year-old killed by the terrorist PKK on Aug. 11, 2017, began in January to eliminate terrorism in the country.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

*Writing by Merve Berker

Source: Anadolu Agency

Two Turkish athletes in women’s boxing are set to fight to win gold medals after reaching the finals at Tokyo Olympics.

Busenaz Surmeneli defeated Lovlina Borgohain of India with a unanimous 5-0 decision in the women’s welterweight semifinals.

Surmeneli will meet China’s GU Hong for the gold medal on Saturday.

Another Turkish boxer, Buse Naz Cakiroglu, moved to the final after beating Chinese Taipei’s Huang Hsiao-Wen on a unanimous decision, 5-0, in the women’s flyweight semifinals.

She will square off against Bulgarian Stoyka Zhelyazkova to seal the gold medal in Saturday’s flyweight boxing final.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Germany’s envoy in Turkey said on Wednesday that he was “pleased” that bilateral relations between Turkey and Germany are “extremely close and trusting.”

“Our political relations are extremely close at all levels of government and covering also non-governmental organizations,” Jurgen Schulz told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Speaking on the forest fires in southern Turkey that have been burning for the last several days, the ambassador conveyed his “heartfelt condolences” to the victims.

He said Germany feels “very much with the people of Turkey,” reminding of the recent catastrophic floods in western Germany and Belgium, which caused the death of over 180 people.

“This was a big catastrophe in our own country. And as we are in the process of dealing with the aftermath of this catastrophe, we feel very much with the people of Turkey who are now in the midst of another catastrophe here in your country. And we wish everybody well,” he told reporters.

Bilateral relations

Underlining that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel “have regular exchanges,” Schulz said: “They’re on the phone, on video conferences regularly. And they both appreciate to exchange their views.”

“They do not always agree. That’s part of life. That’s pretty natural. But, they do have these regular exchanges and I think this is very, very important for both of our countries,” he added.

On next month’s general elections in Germany, in which Merkel is not seeking a new term, Schulz said he could not make any predictions. But, he added: “Whoever follow Chancellor Merkel and our Cabinet, I think one thing is sure that these close political ties and contacts (between Turkey and Germany) will continue.”

Economic and business ties

Economic and business relations between the two countries are also “extremely close and tight,” he added.

He later went on to say that the trade volume between Germany and Turkey last year, stands roughly at €37 billion ($43.8 billion), despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Schulz also praised the “human bridges” between the two countries on the 60th year of the migration of workers from Turkey to Germany, saying that more than 3 million people with Turkish roots are currently living in Germany.

“Today, Turkish people who came to Germany contributed enormously to the economic success story of Germany,” he said. “Many of them are also extremely successful as movie directors, artists, doctors, politicians, entrepreneurs, or scientists.”

He cited BioNTech, a company founded in Germany by scientists of Turkish background, that developed a successful COVID-19 vaccine, as “the best-known example for this.”

Speaking on reports of Islamophobia and assaults on Turks living in Germany, he said German authorities are “very diligent” in going after and punishing perpetrators to prevent further incidents.

But, he also stressed that these reports were “a very small portion of what normal life is.” The vast majority of people with Turkish roots have a “very normal life without any conflicts without any problems and they are happy to live in Germany,” he added.

Turkey-EU relations

On relations between the EU and Turkey, Schulz said Germany wants to see more strategic cooperation between Ankara and Brussels.

“Turkey is of course, not just any other partner of the European Union. Turkey is a very special country. Turkey is an accession candidate for membership in the EU. Turkey is a member of the EU Customs Union. So, we have a very special relationship already. But, from a German point of view, we would like to see this development even going much further,” he said.

He said Berlin wanted to see some aims achieved, including updating the 1995 Customs Union, more high-level dialogues, and closer cooperation on migration issues.

“The EU has agreed at the highest level, at the level of heads of state and government in the past year, a balanced approach that offers the possibility, the opportunity of the positive agenda with Turkey,” he said, but also shared the bloc’s expectations on the road to “more strategic cooperation, which covers de-escalation in the eastern Mediterranean” and “respect for the rule of law for fundamental rights.”

“We also would like to see more progress in Cyprus, that continues to be a source of concern for us,” he said.

Praising Turkey’s hosting of a large amount of refugees from neighboring war-torn Syria, he said the EU decided to provide more additional financial assistance to Turkey for dealing with the issue.

“We have to work together with Turkey on how we best do this,” he said.

* Writing by Iclal Turan in Ankara.

Source: Anadolu Agency