The Turkish government on Tuesday discussed several strategies to further improve Syrian refugees' access to vocational training in order to enhance their employability skills.

The latest status of the projects as well as new initiatives for the integration of Syrian refugees were discussed in a meeting chaired by Mahmut Ozer, the deputy education minister responsible for vocational and technical education, said a National Education Ministry statement.

Improvements in the vocational training program for employment and social and economic adaption programs, as well as initiatives to improve access of Syrian refugees to vocational training facilities, were also evaluated, the statement said.

Ozer explained that in the last three years, they have focused on social and economic integration through vocational and technical education and that they have also initiated international projects.

Syrian students get education once a week at vocational training centers and on other days, they receive skills training in businesses, he noted.

The vocational training centers also support students with one-third of the minimum wage during the four-year education, he added.

Currently, 3,000 of around 150,000 students in these centers, accounting for approximately 2%, are Syrians, Ozer said, noting that their goal this year is to increase this rate to 10%.

He emphasized that significant progress has been made in the access of school-age Syrian children to education, adding that many projects have been successfully implemented to increase the school enrolment rates at all levels.

Ozer also underlined that the number of Syrian students studying in Turkey surpasses the total number of students in many European countries.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million remain displaced, according to UN estimates.

Turkey hosts more than 3.6 million refugees – more than any country in the world./aa

Though many French politicians and presidents before him had also come face to face with public ire in varied innovative ways, with some spat at and others having flour, ketchup and pies hurled at them, Emmanuel Macron last week became the first sitting head of state in France to be slapped.

While Macron was visiting the village of Tain-l'Hermitage in the southeastern Drome region on June 8, Damien Tarel, a young man in the crowd, grabbed the president's wrist as he approached for a handshake before striking him in the face with an open palm.

Wearing a green t-shirt, Tarel rehashed the French army's ancient battle cry "Montjoie Saint-Denis, down with Macronie," to lambast the national policies under Macron, who had previously suffered an egg thrown at his face in a past similar incident.

The 28-year old attacker was an unemployed young Drome resident displeased with the ruling government and was later revealed to be a supporter of the royalist and nationalist movements in the country seeking to restore the kingdom of France, while also being influenced by far-right.

Local media have pointed to Tarel's social media profile, saying it suggests interest in medieval French history, along with the nationalists and resurgent royalists, who oppose the French Revolution of 1776 that put an end to the Bourbon monarchy and promulgated France's First Republic.

These groups harp on France's "glorious royal history," advocating for French sovereignty as opposed to European identity and calling for a so-called "Frexit" from the EU. They describe themselves as patriots and are anti-immigration and anti-Muslim.

Tarel has founded two associations in Drome on historical European martial arts and board games with figurines. His Instagram account shows a photo of him dressed in knight armor with black headgear and a longsword by his side.

He follows on YouTube the discourse of far-right figures like Henry de Lesquen, a holocaust denier who has been convicted for incitement to hatred, and Cercle Richelieu, a French royalist think-tank seeking to "facilitate the king's return to France." He also supports Action Francaise on Facebook, a royalist movement founded in 1898 to "defend the heritage until the return of the heir."

Impulsive but symbolic

A day after the incident in Tain-l'Hermitage, Action Francaise came out in Tarel's support on Twitter and on its online blog without naming him specifically.

Referring to the slap, the group said the "gesture" was "not glorious" but was "in line" with what it called Macron's clownery and came after "four years of contemptuous power, blind and deaf to the real expectations of the French."

"The French do not want to meet Emmanuel Macron: they want him to listen to them, without constantly explaining to them that they have not understood anything," it said in one of its tweets. "The French want a strong France, capable of ensuring their security ... provide them with real work ... decent income ... real education. Not a France which is constantly declining."

In a testimony to the court the following day, Tarel's revelation echoed Action Francaise.

Explaining that he had intended to do "something striking" to challenge the president on political matters, he said that he had come to regret his impulsive reaction that resulted in the slap.

Tarel further claimed that the slap was "symbolic" of the "injustice" that many French people felt, including the demonstrating supporters of the yellow vest protests, the workers' movement that gripped France in 2018 with large sections of the middle class coming out against the government's economic policies. They were later marred with violence, riots, and looting by members of ultraright and ultraleft groups.

Tarel also said he felt invested in the movement but was let down by the government as the opinion of the French people who expressed themselves through the demonstrations were not heard appropriately. In his view, "Macron represents the downfall of the country."

He argued that his words, "down with Macronie," had had an impact on the president, the yellow vest movement, and French patriots.

Not a revisionist

Details from Tarel's social media accounts and profile also suggest influence from the far right. He admitted to giving a copy of Adolf Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf to friend and accomplice Arthur C, who was also detained for filming the attack.

Photos of Tarel dressed in the likeness of Hitler were also found on his phone. During his testimony in court, he also defended far-right youth group Generation Identity, which was outlawed earlier this year for inciting discrimination, spreading hatred, and violence against Muslims and immigrants.

Tarel, who has no criminal history, told that court that the photo of him as Hitler was a "bad joke," and admitted to visiting websites that peddled conspiracy theories, denied the holocaust, or argued against the banning of gas chambers.

"I'm not a revisionist, it's the censorship that I dislike," he insisted.

Tarel’s defense of his influences and subtle endorsement of the far right echoes the majoritarianism that has become prevalent in many parts of Europe, excluding and overlooking the experiences of groups marginalized from mainstream integration. Many see this trend also as an underlying factor fomenting increasingly violent confrontations and tensions between majority and minority populations in the country.​​​​​​​

Conviction

After the event, Macron said the slap was "foolish and violent" and should not be looked upon as anything other than an isolated action, refuting claims that French society was experiencing "widespread social violence."

"I think that there are many citizens who are fatigued by the epidemic, that there are among some of our fellow citizens fear, doubt, anxiety, the consequences of loneliness," he said in an interview with the BFMTV news network.

Tarel did not dispute the facts of his action and was held guilty, sentenced to four months in jail. In total, he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, 14 of which were suspended for two years, during which he will have to undergo psychological counseling. He was also banned from holding any public office for life, possessing weapons for five years, and deprived of civil rights for three years./aa

The total number of people who lost their lives due to the novel coronavirus in the US has surpassed 600,000, according to data from Maryland's Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, 600,012 individuals died in the US, the country having the worst record in the world. The US is also on top with almost 33.5 million cases, the data showed.

It was followed by India with over 29.5 million infections and Brazil more than 17.4 million. Those two countries exceeded 377,000 and 488,000 deaths, respectively.

The data also showed almost 2.4 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.

In the US, Novavax said Monday its COVID-19 vaccine has an overall efficacy of 90.4% against the coronavirus. The firm has joined other American pharmaceuticals -- Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson -- that provide vaccines for the population.


More than 374 million doses have been distributed in the US with over 310 million administered as of early Monday. So far, 144.9 million people, or 43.7% of the population, have received two doses, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)./aa

An "inclusive political settlement" is required to end cycles of violence in Yemen, UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said Tuesday.

Griffiths told the UN Security Council that political partnership, accountable governance, sovereignty, economic and social justice and equal citizenship are the guiding principles for a settlement.

"A political settlement will need to reflect the interests of diverse conflict parties. It must guarantee the interests and rights of those most affected by the conflict, and not only those who perpetuate and lead in the conflict," said Griffiths.

He noted armed and political actors have multiplied and foreign interference has grown, not diminished, saying that what was possible in terms of conflict resolution years ago is not possible today.

"Time is not on Yemen’s side," he added.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sana'a.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict has claimed more than 233,000 lives./aa

By: Jose Chalhoub*

Oil prices have seen record highs in recent weeks with the US benchmark hitting a 32-month high and Brent rising above $73 per barrel.

The market is growing increasingly bullish on demand while the return of Iranian oil now looks more distant and uncertain in the short term than initially expected.

In this regard, oil prices early Tuesday continued their upward move, with Brent crossing the $73 threshold and West Texas Intermediate trading above $71 in early trading in Asian markets keeping the positive momentum of recent weeks on the back of bullish demand reports by OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Global oil demand will rise by 6 million barrels per day (bpd) this year from the lows of 2020, driven by the rise of consumption in China and the US, especially in the second half of 2021 with growing economies and border re-openings, OPEC said Thursday in its monthly report.

Subsequently and interestingly, a day later, the IEA urged OPEC to ramp up oil production to ensure adequate supply amid expectations of surging demand. That was curiously a few weeks after it called for stopping investments in oil and gas to reach net-zero carbon emissions by global powers.

“Our first detailed look at 2022 balances confirms earlier expectations that OPEC+ needs to open the taps to keep the world oil markets adequately supplied. Global oil demand will continue to recover and, in the absence of further policy changes, by end-2022 reach 100.6 mb/d,” IEA said in its Oil Market Report on Friday.

Also joining recent bullish voices for oil prices, Goldman Sachs said it was plausible to see a level of $100 per barrel, amplifying a cheerful and optimistic attitude in markets.

Talks about Iran and the US returning to the nuclear deal resumed last weekend but skepticism is growing about the potential to reach an agreement ahead of the Iranian presidential election on Friday.

But on the other hand, the issue of the expansion of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the spike in cases in countries like the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed for four weeks the total lift of the country’s lockdown because of it, and in other countries in Europe and in Asia, threatens to put the brakes to the growing optimism about the economic recovery and the acceleration of global oil demand despite the speedy yet uneven global vaccination process.

And there is the other element that could pose a hurdle in the medium- and long-term global oil demand which is inflation, related to the growing rise in prices of commodities and the price of the US dollar, the most relevant currency in oil transactions, all this as a consequence of the pandemic and which could in the long term, if oil prices rise too high, inflict another pain to oil-importing nations especially in Asia, representing one key challenge for OPEC+ after being tested during the whole pandemic period.

Overall, in a totally different picture than the one lived during 2020 with the unfolding of the pandemic, the oil price war between the Saudis and Russians --leading even oil prices to turn negative -- once again OPEC+ will have another challenge, this time, to keep a balance between their fiscal and macro needs and a sustained global economic recovery and this will be significantly determined by an adequate price of oil.

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*The author is a freelance political risk and oil analyst based in Caracas

**Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Al-Mujtama.

A new study suggests that the coronavirus was infecting Americans as early as December 2019.

That would be weeks earlier than first believed and long before masks and social distancing became the norm.

Researchers, including those from the National Institutes of Health, looked at blood samples from 24,000 Americans, taken in the first three months of 2020. They found virus anti-bodies in enough samples to determine that the virus was popping up in mid-to-late December 2019, a finding that correlates with the latest findings by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Initially, the CDC said the virus arrived in the US in mid-to-late January and early February of 2020.

A Washington state man was considered the first American to contract the virus after a visit to Wuhan, China, around Jan. 15.

About two weeks later, a Chicago woman, returning from Wuhan, was considered the first American to transmit the virus to another person -- her husband.

"There was probably very rare and sporadic cases earlier here than we were aware of," said Natalie Thornburg of the CDC. "But it was not widespread and didn't become widespread until late February."

There were plenty of Americans who reported getting sick with flu-like symptoms just before the virus exploded and later wondered whether if they had the virus or just the standard flu.

Notably, the NIH study found several participants in midwestern states who likely had the virus in December, far from the coasts of New York and Seattle, Washington where it took populations by storm in February.

The latest findings are not definitive and some experts are skeptical about the earlier timeline.

And while debate rages about how the virus originated in China, the CDC said tracing the specific timeline of its arrival is just as important.

Thornburg said the new findings underscore the need for countries to work together and identify newly emerging viruses as quickly and collaboratively as possible./aa

Fitch Ratings revised up its global gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for this year to 6.3%, according to its Global Economic Outlook report released Tuesday.

The rating agency now expects the world economy to grow 0.2 percentage points higher than its previous projection of 6.1% in the report published in March.

The economic growth forecast for most developed economies was raised – the US revised to 6.8% from 6.2%, the eurozone to 5% from 4.7%, and the UK to 6.6% from 5%.

Only Japan's forecast saw a reduction to 2.5% from 3.6%, while China’s remained at 8.4%.

Emerging markets, excluding China, on the other hand, saw their growth estimate lowered to 5.9% from 6%.

"Face-to-face services activity has picked up in recent months in Europe and the US as new COVID-19 cases have declined, vaccination rates risen and restrictions eased," the report said.

"Alongside the synchronous global recovery, this has fueled a sharp rise in global commodity prices, similar to that seen in 2010. Shortages in the global semiconductor market are adding to price increases," it added.

Fitch said it expects Turkey to grow 6.3% this year, saying its economy continued to exceed expectations, as growth rose to 7.1% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2021, supported by domestic demand and improving net trade, thus maintaining strong momentum from the final quarter of 2020.

"Weakening private consumption on slowing credit growth will be partly balanced by a gradual recovery in tourism in 2H21," it said.

The agency warned that currency weakness, high producer price inflation that reflects increased commodity prices, pandemic-related supply disruptions, and high inflation expectations will boost the rate of inflation until the last quarter of this year.

It said it expects a gradual decline in Turkey's inflation to 12% by the end of 2022 and 9.5% at the end of 2023.

Fitch forecast that Turkey's GDP will grow by 3.7% next year and 4.5% the year after./agencies

 The abuse of elderly people constitutes a violation of the right to life, the most basic human right, said the director of an elderly care center.

"Elder abuse may not be revealed unless there is physical violence and attempted murder, as in other cases of violence.

"Elder abuse means violating the most basic human right, the right to life of the elderly," Dr. Emine Ozmete, the head of the Center on Aging Studies Implementation and Research at Ankara University, told Anadolu Agency on the occasion of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day has been observed every year as an annual international UN observance day on June 15 since December 2011.

The main purpose of the day is to take action to effectively prevent and protect older people from physical and psychological abuse, including neglect.

Ozmete, also the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ankara University, described elder abuse as a multidimensional phenomenon with physical, emotional, and economic aspects.

"Elder abuse is to abuse, harm, and inflict pain on the elderly person physically, emotionally, or spiritually," Ozmete said.

She noted that in addition to violent behavior, elder abuse also includes being exposed to attitudes of age discrimination or other types of stereotypes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "around 1 in 6 people 60 years and older experienced some form of abuse in community settings during the past year."

"Rates of elder abuse are high in institutions such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities, with two in three staff reporting that they have committed abuse in the past year," WHO noted.

Elder abuse during COVID-19 pandemic

For the last two years, the day has been under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of elderly people.

WHO said rates of elder abuse have increased during the outbreak that has affected the whole world since December 2019.

"It is estimated that the existing rates of elderly neglect and abuse are on the rise and new abuse cases have emerged as everyone stays together at homes for longer periods amid the pandemic," Ozmete said.

She added that "there have been limitations in building evidence on this because this type of phenomena, including abuse, discrimination, and violence, are usually hidden between two or a few people in the household so it is difficult to measure and reveal elder abuse.

“It has been difficult to speak on the basis of evidence that the rate of elder abuse has increased during the pandemic. A limited number of studies could be conducted on this subject.”

Turkey protects its elderly

Turkey's elderly population, aged 65 years and over, reached nearly 8 million as of the end of 2020, according to the country's statistical authority.

Ozmete underlined that during the pandemic, Turkey has provided a high level of protection for its elderly people with all its resources and institutions.

Giving examples of Turkey's work in this field, she noted: "Quarantine organizations have been established by the Family and Social Services Ministry for the elderly who are sick or have contact with the outside. The elderly were followed in these quarantine establishments. The Health Ministry firstly vaccinated people aged 65 and over, protecting them against the disease."

"With Vefa Support Program run by the Interior Ministry, the needs of all citizens, especially the elderly staying at home, were met," she added./aa

At least 20 people, including military trainees and civilians, were killed on Tuesday in a suicide blast at a military training camp in Somalia, according to authorities.

More than 20 others were wounded when a suicide bomber, donning an explosive vest, blew himself up at the General Dhagabadan military facility in the Wadajir district of the capital Mogadishu, where hundreds of new recruits were lined up for training, a military official in the city told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Army Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Odawa Yusuf Rageh confirmed the attack to reporters, saying that 10 people were killed and 20 others wounded.

"A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of General Dhagabadan military training camp. There are unspecified casualties, military officials reported," state-run media had said earlier.

Abdifatah Hassan, a police official, confirmed the attack to Anadolu Agency over the phone.

"Casualties of today's suicide explosion at a recruits training center in Mogadishu is over 20. May Allah have mercy on them all," Abdirizak Mohamed, member of parliament and former internal security minister, said on Twitter.

Residents in Mogadishu's Wadajir neighborhood told Anadolu Agency over the phone that they heard a huge explosion sending huge smoke into the air.

"I was having breakfast at a restaurant, suddenly I heard one of biggest explosions in my lifetime, minutes later we saw huge smoke in the air," Mohamed Khalif, a rickshaw driver and Wadajir resident, told Anadolu Agency.

Somali-based al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying one of its suicide units struck the army camp, killing over 40 soldiers and wounding 50 others.

The group has been behind similar strikes in the horn of Africa country that have targeted civilians, government officials, and military sites./aa