The Turkish president on Friday announced the discovery of another 135 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea, following a historic find last year.

"Our Fatih drill ship has made a new natural gas discovery of 135 billion cubic meters in the Amasra-1 well in the Sakarya Gas Field," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the groundbreaking ceremony of Filyos Port and Natural Gas Operating Facility in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

Noting that Turkey's total natural gas discovery in Black Sea has reached 540 billion cubic meters, Erdogan said drilling activities in Amasra-1 well region is ongoing and "we expect new good news from this region."

The president also noted that they plan to bring natural gas from the sea to land in three stages.

The first stage includes the natural gas production systems to be established on the seabed, he said, adding that the second stage will see the launch of the facility that will process natural gas on land and make it ready for use.

"The third stage is the pipeline that will provide the connection between the system at sea and the facility on land," he noted.


Turkey's first national drillship Fatih discovered 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas last year in the country’s largest discovery ever in its history and the biggest offshore gas discovery worldwide in 2020 at the Tuna-1 well located about 170 kilometers off Turkey's Zonguldak coast.

Fatih drilled Turkali-1 and Turkali-2 testing wells after the big discovery along with the Amasra-1 well.

The first gas production from Sakarya Gas Field is planned for 2023.

Around 155 kilometers (96 miles) of the pipeline will be built from underneath the sea to Filyos onshore in Zonguldak, a port city in the Black Sea.

As an import-dependent country, Turkey imported 48 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year with a growth of 6.5% compared to the previous year.

Turkey's natural gas production stood at 441 million cubic meters in 2020, according to Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority data showed.

Highlighting that the newly inaugurated port, which is listed among country's 2023 goals, is one of the important infrastructures that will bring Turkey among the world’s top 10 economies, Erdogan said the port will make a significant contribution to country's exports with an annual capacity of 25 million tons.

"We began to see the signals of reaching an export figure of $200 billion by the end of the year," he added.

The Turkish president also stressed that country's success in energy is not only limited to natural gas and said three wells in southeastern Diyarbakir and northwestern Kirklareli provinces have a daily production capacity of 6,800 barrels of oil.

He also noted Turkey's efforts in renewable energy sources and said: "With 2,000 megawatts of solar and 2,000 megawatts of wind, we will mobilize a total of 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy investment this year."/aa

Recent floods in Somalia's southern province of Middle Shabelle displaced thousands of families and destroyed crops on vast agricultural land.

Jowhar town, the administrative capital of Hirshabelle State, and its surrounding areas were heavily hit by the floods, threatening a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.

Mohamed Abdullahi Adan, a 40-year-old father of 6, told Anadolu Agency over the phone on Friday that they are facing a humanitarian crisis after the floods cut them off from the rest of the country.

“The river flooded our agricultural lands and destroyed crops. We need urgent humanitarian assistance and the only way to do that in some areas is by air because all the roads are completely cut off,” said Adan, who lives in a village located 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town of Jowhar.

Describing the current situation in the region as a "dire humanitarian situation", Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, who visited the flood-hit areas Thursday, urged the international community to provide humanitarian assistance.

“The flood-hit areas around Jowhar city are totally isolated and can only be reached by boat or air. The recent floods in Jowhar have affected thousands of families while destroying vast agricultural lands,” Somali government spokesman, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, said after the visit.

In a statement Friday, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said flooding in Somalia has affected 400,000 people in 14 districts since late April, of whom 101,300 people have been displaced from their homes mostly in Middle Shabelle. In Jowhar district, 66,000 people are displaced, the UN office said./aa

British ambassador to Turkey Friday stressed that it is possible for countries to increase gross domestic product while decreasing harmful greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.

"If you have right policies in place, you can make significant cuts in greenhouse gasses without damaging economic growth," Dominick Chilcott told at an online "Climate-ish" event, moderated by UN Development Program (UNDP) Turkey Goodwill Ambassador Mert Firat, with the participation of UNDP Turkey and British Embassy ahead of World Environment Day.

Saying that governments need to show leadership on climate change issues by setting targets and encouraging "green revolution" to counter climate change, Chilcott said if right policies are followed, it is possible to grow while preventing toxic gases.

"If you look at the past 30 years, the UK's GDP has increased by 75%. At the same time, in the same period, we have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 43%," he noted.

He also pointed out the importance of individual actions on climate change.

For her part, Louisa Vinton, UNDP Turkey resident representative, said that along with facing negative effects of climate change, there is also "good news" that people know what to do in this regard.

["...] Reducing carbon emissions, shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy" should be done to tackle the crisis, she said while answering a question about what to do.

Touching on green fund mechanism of Paris climate accord, she urged solidarity among countries around the world.

Commitments of countries to reduce carbon emissions are very important, she said, adding that at this point UNDP supports all countries and partners in line with these goals and actions in this regard.

Mentioning the UN's sustainable development goals that consist of 17 main articles and 169 subtitles, Vinton said these goals define a better world.

"Our aim is leaving no one behind," she noted, adding that these are important goals towards a better world.

Organized by the UN Environment Program, World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5 to encourage global awareness and action for the protection of environment./aa

Waste management will be one of the biggest challenges that cities will face in the coming years, the head of the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) said.

In an interview with TRT World, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of the UN-Habitat, said by 2030, 70% of people will be living in cities.

She said the world should start taking some early precautions, in terms of economy and changing lifestyle.

Stressing that COVID-19 pandemic is “a wakeup call” for the world, she said: “I would like to take the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for us to rethink, and for the future green development, and sustainable urbanization in implementing a new urban agenda”.

Turkey's first lady Emine Erdogan received the Waste Wise Cities Global Champion award from the head of UN-Habitat on Wednesday for her contributions to the Waste Wise Cities initiative and healthy environment as well as Turkey's Zero Waste Project that she led.

Sharif said she was honored to present the award to Erdogan./aa

Facebook suspended former US President Donald Trump from its platform and his Instagram account until Jan. 7, 2023, saying they will be "only reinstated if conditions permit."

On May 5, the company's Oversight Board upheld Facebook’s suspension of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts because of his alleged role in riots at the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

"Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols," Facebook said in a statement. "We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year."

At the end of this period, the company will review whether the risk to public safety has receded and if it determines that there is still a serious risk to public safety, they will extend the restriction for a set period of time, and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.

The decision met an immediate backlash from Trump.

"Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election," Trump said in a statement.

"They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win," he said. "Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!"

The board upheld the indefinite suspension by saying Facebook "failed to impose a proper penalty".

The former president had been banned from Twitter and Facebook after he urged his supporters to "stop the steal," and called them "great patriots" in the midst of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Four people died that day at the Capitol, and a law enforcement officer died the following day after suffering two strokes. Two other officers present during the riot took their own lives in the aftermath.

Following the social media bans, he launched a new communication tool called From the Desk of Donald J. Trump that features videos and statements by the former president but on Tuesday his spokesman Jason Miller said the page has been shuttered./agencies

A dangerous fungal infection, which was first reported in India as black fungus, has been detected in at least four other countries.

Many cases have been reported in South American nations of Chile and Uruguay besides Egypt and Iraq in Middle East.

The Chilean Society of Infectiology said: “Cases of fungal infections have been detected since the start of the pandemic but the frequency has increased and serious cases have arisen,” MercoPress reported.

Authorities in Uruguay have also pointed out a case involving a 50-year-old patient who recovered from COVID-19.

Mucormycosis is a dangerous fungal infection which mainly affects people who have a weak immune system, causing loss of eyesight, removal of the nose and jaw bone. The diabetic patients have been underlined as high-risk people by experts from All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

India is currently battling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with the death toll crossing 340,000. But the country is now entangled in a new challenge in the form of mucormycosis – a fungal disease with a high mortality rate that is commonly referred to as “black fungus”.

In many cases, doctors are removing one eye of patients to prevent the spread of infection.

“In any case, this issue requires the greatest attention from the medical community at the national level with the support of the necessary resources to monitor the presence of cases, to have the support to facilitate early diagnosis and timely treatment of this serious complication,” the Chilean society said.

In Iraq, health officials last Tuesday reported first five cases of mucormycosis, including first death in a southern province.

The cases were reported in the southern province of Dhi Qar.

According to Middle East Monitor, Egyptian authorities have also started treating patients with mucormycosis.

Ehab Kamel, a Health Ministry official, told a news conference last Monday that medicine against the fungal disease is available in the country while some patients “have already recovered.”

A viral video on social media put spotlight on one of the patients in Egypt where brother of the late Egyptian actor, Samir Ghanem, said his “brother died after black fungus disease infected his eyes.”/agencies

Turkey's benchmark stock index ended the week at 1,432.93 points, up 0.34% from the previous close.

After starting Friday at 1,428.91 points, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 index gained 4.80 points from Thursday's close of 1,428.13 points.

During Friday's trading, the BIST 100 hovered between 1,427.40, and 1,435.24 points, with 51 stocks on the index rising, 40 down, and nine flat from the previous close.

Ending the week with a market value of around 1 trillion Turkish liras ($116.5 billion), the benchmark index posted a daily trading volume of 14.3 billion liras ($1.65 billion).

The highest trading volumes were posted by national flag air carrier Turkish Airlines, private lender Garanti BBVA, and automotive manufacturer Karsan.

Shares of Koza, a mining company, did the best, rising 6.65%, while stocks of automotive manufacturer Karsan dropped the worst, falling 7.13%.

One ounce of gold traded for $1,869.20 by market close, down from $1,889.60 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul's Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $71.50 per barrel as of 6.10 p.m. local time (1510GMT) on Friday. /aa

Germany on Friday asked for an investigation into the massacre of eight civilians in Syria's Manbij earlier this week.

German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr answered a question by Anadolu Agency on the matter.

She said Germany is aware of news reports on the killings, but added that they do not have independent findings on the matter.

Calling on the parties involved to de-escalate tensions, Adebahr said: “The Incidents should be investigated with participation of the involved parties. I think such an investigation is being thought upon.”

PKK/YPG’s massacre in Manbij

During the protests against the terror group in Manbij on Monday and Tuesday, eight people were killed and 27 others wounded when YPG/PKK terrorists opened fire on them.

The terrorist group seeks to recruit members from occupied areas, including Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), Qamishli, al-Malikiyah, Darbasiyah, al-Hasakah, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Manbij.

Turkey demands that the terrorist group exit Manbij, which was occupied by YPG/PKK in August 2016.

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 at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot./aa

The World Health Organization said Friday that wealthy countries need to make COVID vaccines immediately available as not enough doses are being supplied to achieve the goal of reaching 10% of the world with 250 million doses by September.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO advisor, addressed journalists at a UN press briefing in Geneva, saying that only a portion of vaccines pledged or planned for has been delivered.

The WHO would like to have at least 30-40% of the world vaccinated this year.

"We've got to get another 250 million people vaccinated between now and the end of September," said Aylward.

With 70 million vaccines promised, he said: "We're going to need twice that much. ... But we're setting up for failure if we don't get early doses."

Two billion doses have been delivered across the world in 212 countries, and the WHO's COVAX facility aiming at equitable access to vaccines has reached 127 countries, said Aylward, also the head of the WHO's Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

2B doses

"If we look at those 2 billion doses, over 75% of them have gone to just 10 countries, and three countries, China, the US, and India, account for about 60% of those doses," said the WHO advisor.

"And if we look at the other end of the spectrum of the low-income countries, only about 0.5% of doses globally have gone to the lowest income countries that account for about 10% of the world's population."

For lower-middle-income countries, it's only fractionally higher in terms of coverage.

"So, we increasingly see a two-track recovery and rollout of the vaccines with that high coverage deep into the high-risk populations and younger populations, even in high income and producing countries," said Aylward.

"We are not on track yet. We don't have enough confirmed doses from enough countries early enough to get the world on track to get out of this, with the speed with which it should be to save lives."

The world needs "a sprint to September" to achieve at least a 10% of all countries' population to be vaccinated.

He said an IMF report states that the world must intensify the rollout so that 40% of the population are vaccinated this year and 60% by mid-next year and would enable an over $9 trillion benefit to the world economy.

The WHO needs 250 million doses by September, "and we need 100 million doses just in June and July. G7 nations are in a unique position to pool doses and make this happen," added Aylward./aa

The European Commission launched a probe to find out if social media platform Facebook had breached EU competition rules with its advertising practices, the institution announced on Friday.

The antitrust investigation will determine if the social media giant violated the competition rules “by using advertising data gathered in particular from advertisers in order to compete with them in markets where Facebook is active such as classified ads.”

The EU executive body will also assess if the tech company ties its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its social network.

“In today's digital economy, data should not be used in ways that distort competition,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commission’s executive vice president for digital.

“We will look in detail at whether this data gives Facebook an undue competitive advantage in particular on the online classified ads sector, where people buy and sell goods every day, and where Facebook also competes with companies from which it collects data”, Vestager added.

The EU executive body’s preliminary investigation raised concerns that Facebook might have used data obtained from competing providers in the context of their advertising on the social network. 

Maintaining fair competition in the EU’s internal market is one of the few exclusive competencies of the EU. It allows the European Commission to fine companies for breaching EU antitrust law./aa