A lake in Turkey's southwest may resemble a Mars long lost to billions of years of history, according to NASA.

The US space agency made the comparison to Lake Salda in an Instagram post as its Perseverance Mars rover explores the red planet's Jezero Crater, which scientists believe may have once been the site of a lake and river delta.

NASA posted a photo of the lake in which rocks can be seen below the azure water's surface laying on pristine white sand, saying scientists believe it mirrors scenes on Mars from 3.5 billion years ago.

"The rocks in this photo adorn the shoreline of Lake Salda in Turkey, an area that scientists believe the #RedPlanet may have resembled billions of years ago," it said.

"Formed over time by microbes that trap minerals and sediments in the water, this waterfront location provides some of the oldest known fossilized records of life on our planet. Scientists hope by studying microbial fossils on Earth, they might be better able to spot signs of microbial life from the water and sediments that flowed on Mars billions of years ago," it added.

Those scenes are from the reality on present-day Mars, which is largely devoid of water except for ice and air vapor in the atmosphere.

Lake Salda is thought to be the only lake on Earth that has similar minerals and deltas to those found at Jezero Crater, which is thought to have once been the site of a sprawling lake, NASA said in a February blog post.

A NASA delegation and team from Istanbul Technical University traveled to Lake Salda in 2019 to study its shorelines and topography./aa

The global system of imposing a minimum 15% tax rate on multinational corporations from 2023 was finalized on Friday, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced Friday.

The agreement was agreed by 136 countries, representing more than 90% of global gross domestic product (GDP).

The deal will reallocate more than $125 billion of profits from around 100 of the world’s largest multinational corporations, ensuring that these firms pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate and generate profits, according to the OECD.

"The global minimum tax agreement does not seek to eliminate tax competition, but puts multilaterally agreed limitations on it, and will see countries collect around $150 billion in new revenues annually," OECD said in a statement.

The agreement will be presented to the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Washington D.C. on Oct. 13, and later to the G20 Leaders Summit in Rome at the end of this month, it noted.

The initial part of the deal, referred to as Pillar One, includes multinational corporations with global sales above €20 billion ($23.1 billion) and profitability above 10%.

Pillar Two includes imposition of the minimum tax rate of 15% on companies with revenue above €750 million ($868 million), and the new rate is estimated to generate around $150 billion in additional global tax revenues annually.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier that the world is on the edge of a deal of new global tax rules that will start a new era of multilateralism.

President Joe Biden later said in a statement that the agreement will ensure that multinational corporations "pay their fair share."

"For decades, American workers and taxpayers have paid the price for a tax system that has rewarded multinational corporations for shipping jobs and profits overseas. This race to the bottom hasn’t just harmed American workers ... Establishing, for the first time in history, a strong global minimum tax will finally even the playing field for American workers and taxpayers, along with the rest of the world," Biden said./agencies

Price of US crude oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on Friday climbed above $80 per barrel for the first time in seven years.

WTI crude oil price hit as high as $80.11 per barrel before 12.30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT), according to official data.

That marked the highest level since Nov. 3, 2014 when WTI price last saw the highest level of $80.98 per barrel.

The peak in 2014 came a few weeks before Saudi Arabia-led OPEC opposed a production cut on Nov. 27, 2014 that had created an oversupply in the market and caused prices to plummet dramatically for the following three years -- a move by the cartel to kick US shale oil producers out of the market.

The recent price surge, however, is a result of high global oil demand creating an imbalance against low supply caused by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and its allies, dubbed by OPEC+.

OPEC+ agreed earlier this week to raise their oil production by 400,000 barrels per day in November, much lower than what global oil market needs in surging demand during post-pandemic period -- a decision that keeps upward pressure on oil prices.

The move was part of the group's existing plan that aims to gradually phase out its production cuts that were implemented during the coronavirus pandemic when global oil demand had steeply declined.

US gasoline prices soared to their highest level in seven years this week, according to figures released Wednesday by the American Automobile Association (AAA).

The national average stood at $3.221 per gallon for regular gasoline -- its highest since October 2014. That marked a 47.6% increase from a year ago when it was $2.182./agencies

Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, on Friday strongly condemned an “Israeli” court’s decision in favor of Jews praying at the Al-Aqsa complex.

“The decision of the Zionist judiciary regarding the right of Jews to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque is a flagrant violation of international conventions and human norms, and a clear provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world,” Al-Azhar said in a statement.

The statement stated that “Al-Azhar condemns in the strongest terms the decision of the judiciary of the Zionist entity, which grants the Zionists the right to pray in the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

It called on the international community to "take all measures against the Zionist entity's violations of Palestinian places of worship and Al-Aqsa Mosque and to support the oppressed Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle towards restoring their usurped rights and their abused land."

Al-Azhar said that "Zionist attempts to Judaize Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, are doomed to failure … Al-Aqsa will remain a purely Islamic sanctuary, and Jerusalem will remain Arab, and the occupation will cease to exist," according to the statement.

In a landmark ruling on Wednesday, an Israeli judge said that "silent" prayer by Jewish worshippers at the Al-Aqsa complex in occupied East Jerusalem was not a “criminal act.”

The decision, which came on an appeal by Rabbi Aryeh Lippo against a ban on his visits to the flashpoint site, has also been vehemently denounced by Palestinians.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, a move never recognized by the international community./agencies

Price of US crude oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on Friday climbed above $80 per barrel for the first time in seven years.

WTI crude oil price hit as high as $80.11 per barrel before 12.30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT), according to official data.

That marked the highest level since Nov. 3, 2014 when WTI price last saw the highest level of $80.98 per barrel.

The peak in 2014 came a few weeks before Saudi Arabia-led OPEC opposed a production cut on Nov. 27, 2014 that had created an oversupply in the market and caused prices to plummet dramatically for the following three years -- a move by the cartel to kick US shale oil producers out of the market.

The recent price surge, however, is a result of high global oil demand creating an imbalance against low supply caused by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and its allies, dubbed by OPEC+.

OPEC+ agreed earlier this week to raise their oil production by 400,000 barrels per day in November, much lower than what global oil market needs in surging demand during post-pandemic period -- a decision that keeps upward pressure on oil prices.

The move was part of the group's existing plan that aims to gradually phase out its production cuts that were implemented during the coronavirus pandemic when global oil demand had steeply declined.

US gasoline prices soared to their highest level in seven years this week, according to figures released Wednesday by the American Automobile Association (AAA).

The national average stood at $3.221 per gallon for regular gasoline -- its highest since October 2014. That marked a 47.6% increase from a year ago when it was $2.182./aa

Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim-American woman to wear a veil while competing for the US Olympic team, has alleged a teacher "forcibly" removed a student's hijab in the city of Maplewood in New Jersey.

Muhammad said the incident occurred on Wednesday at Seth Boyden Elementary when teacher Tamar Herman allegedly attempted to remove the head covering, and was met with resistance from the female student who sought "to hold onto her hijab, but the teacher pulled the hijab off, exposing her hair to the class."

"Herman told the student that her hair was beautiful and she did not have to wear hijab to school anymore. Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates," she said. "Imagine the humiliation and trauma this experience has caused her. This is abuse. Schools should be a haven for all of our kids to feel safe, welcome and protected— no matter their faith."

Muhammad's post has accrued over 36,000 likes on Instagram.

The South Orange-Maplewood School District said it is investigating the allegation, adding it "takes matters of discrimination extremely seriously." But it maintained that "Social Media is not a reliable forum for due process and the staff member(s) involved are entitled to due process before any action is taken."

"We must abide by our legal obligations to keep personnel and student matters confidential," it said. "Any decision or outcome related to this will be reserved for after the completion of the investigation."

Still, the New Jersey branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Muslim advocacy group said the educator should be fired immediately without an investigation being completed./agencies

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday the world is on the edge of a deal of new global tax rules that will start a new era of multilateralism.

"The international tax agreement will stop the four-decade long race to the bottom on corporate taxation—where tax authorities offer lower tax rates to attract business, leading others to respond with lower rates," she said at the B20 summit, the official G20 dialogue forum with the business community, held in Rome, Italy.

"Right now, the global minimum tax rate is zero, and no countries, other than the United States, have a minimum tax on foreign earnings," she added.

Yellen noted that G7 members agreed in July to rewrite international tax rules to impose a global minimum tax on corporate foreign earnings, which was later supported by 134 countries representing more than 90% of the world’s GDP.

"This agreement will be finalized in the coming weeks, and foreign-headquartered multinational corporations will face a minimum tax in all places they do business, just like US-headquartered multinational corporations do now," she said./agencies

US President Joe Biden came to a sprawling construction site near Chicago on Thursday to tout a new White House report that says vaccine requirements are now showing the benefits he has promised in the last few months. 

Biden spoke at a data center under construction by a company run by a Democratic party donor that was an early adopter of vaccine requirements.

The White House started collecting data after Biden announced during the summer that COVID-19 vaccination would be required in the federal government and the military, and then last month, when he required the same of all US businesses with more than 100 employees. Most health care workers are also required to get the shot.

The report says that since vaccine requirements were rolled out in the summer, the rate of vaccination has jumped by 20 percentage points -- to reach a vaccination rate of over 90% -- wherever the vaccine is required.

Biden said that 95 million Americans were unvaccinated in the summer, and today, that number has been reduced to 67 million, or about 25% of those who are still eligible to get the shot. He also said increased vaccinations were leading to a double-digit drop in the percentage of the COVID infection rate over the last month, including a 20% drop in US hospitalizations.

"It wasn't my first instinct" to require vaccinations, Biden said in his speech, but he said a slowing vaccination rate during the summer forced his hand. He pointed to some hospitals that are so overwhelmed with COVID patients, mostly those who are unvaccinated, that patients with other ailments are having trouble getting treated.

Biden acknowledged that some Americans are still angry over vaccine requirements, but he sounded mystified by it, given that most Americans are already vaccinated against a host of other diseases, including measles and polio.

"When you see headlines and reports of mass firings and hundreds of people losing their jobs [for refusing the vaccine], look at the bigger story," he said.

Biden said many more companies are now being inspired to require vaccines.

"Even -- and this is something I get a kick out of -- Fox News," he said to applause from the audience, pointing out that the TV news network that is mostly critical of him and his vaccine requirements has a stringent vaccine mandate of its own.

Biden also pointed to the report's conclusion that as the vaccine rate goes up, the economy is improving, with more people feeling comfortable about going back to in-person work and heading back to restaurants and movies.

He pointed to Wall Street investment firms and economists who are touting the vaccine requirements as a form of economic stimulus.

"Yes, some object [to vaccine mandates]," Biden said, "and some object very strenuously, and some are making a political statement out of this issue. But a strong bipartisan majority of Americans support vaccinations. They know this isn't about politics, it's about life and death."

He called on more businesses that do not fall under the government's vaccine mandate to require the vaccine for their workers anyway.

"We have a plan, we have the tools," he said. "We just have to finish the job. For God's sake, get vaccinated. We can do this."

The death toll in the US from COVID-19 stands at nearly 710,000, with over 44 million cases, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the total number of those vaccinated is 216 million, or 76% of those who are eligible./agencies