British parliamentarians on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a motion that would see the establishment of an investigation into claims that Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied to parliament about parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The motion, introduced by the opposition Labour Party that calls for the privileges committee to examine claims against Johnson, received the backing of MPs after no objections from government benches in the House of Commons through a nod without an official tally or vote.

“The motion I’ve tabled seeks to defend the simple principle that honesty, integrity and telling the truth matter in our politics. It’s a British principle,” Labour head Keir Starmer said.

“We have a duty here today in relation to this motion and to these principles and if we fail in our duty, the public will not forgive and forget that we have done so because this will be the parliament that failed, failed to stand up for honesty, integrity, and telling the truth in politics.

“Failed to stand up to a prime minister who seeks to turn our good faith against us and fail to stand up for our great democracy,” Starmer added.

The passing of the motion is a victory for the Labour Party and the wider opposition who have sought to scrutinize the premier’s conduct in the last two years as well as the handling of growing crises under his government, including the cost of living and recent tax hikes.

Earlier this week, Johnson had attempted to delay the motion from being debated and voted on in parliament until after the publication of the Sue Gray Report into the “Partygate” scandal, the series of lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.

These attempts, however, were abandoned on Thursday in a major U-turn for the government, allowing Tory MPs to approve the motion without facing the party whip.

Though the motion has successfully passed, the Privileges Committee of the House of Commons will not begin its investigation into claims against Johnson until the full publication of Sue Gray’s report and until after the completion of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation.

The Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced that their investigation into the “Partygate” scandal will be paused ahead of the May local elections. This means that the parliamentary inquiry will not begin for a number of months.

The passing of the motion will add significant pressure on Johnson to resign as a number of Tory MPs have urged the prime minister to quit. Johnson, however, has remained adamant that he will remain as prime minister and lead the party through the local elections next month./aa

More than 600,000 additional people were internally displaced in Ukraine in the first 17 days of April, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday. 

According to the UN migration agency, the total number of internally displaced people since the Feb. 24 start of the Russia-Ukraine war climbed to over 7.7 million, 17% of the country's population.

These displacements represent a 9% rise since the IOM's second report on April 1 and 19% since the first survey published on March 16.

The number of people who have fled Ukraine since the war began is over 5 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with more than 2.8 million of them going to Poland.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), meanwhile, said 2,345 people have been killed and 2,919 injured in Ukraine so far.

The UN rights office said it "believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations, where intense hostilities have been going on, has been delayed."

The most pressing needs identified for the internally displaced in Ukraine included cash and access to financial support, followed by medicines and medical supplies, it added.  

Women, children among 'disproportionately affected'

"Women and children, the elderly, and people with disabilities have been disproportionately affected as they all represent a highly vulnerable group of people," said IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino.

"Our work in support of those forced to flee their homes and all vulnerable populations affected by the war continues, but a humanitarian cease-fire is crucial to allow for aid delivery and access to hard-to-reach communities."

Among those currently displaced internally, 15% plan to return to their homes in the next two weeks, heading mainly to Kyiv and the country's north.

At the same time, 8% of the population has reported damages to their homes by attacks.

More than half of internally displaced people – mainly in the east of Ukraine – reported a lack of some food products.

A total of 28% of families with children under the age of 5 said they experienced problems getting enough food for their children since the start of the war compared to 25% recorded in the April 1 report./aa

Elon Musk is exploring a tender offer to buy Twitter and he received a $46.5 billion commitment for the deal, according to a securities filing released Thursday.

"To finance the Proposed Transaction or a Potential Offer, entities related to the Reporting Person have received commitment letters committing to provide an aggregate of approximately $46.5 billion," said the filing made Wednesday to the US Securities Exchange Commission.

It is, however, uncertain whether Musk would present the tender offer to buy Twitter.

"There can be no assurance that a definitive agreement with respect to the Proposed Transaction will be executed or, if executed, whether the Proposed Transaction will be consummated," the filing said.

A tender offer is a bid to buy some or all shareholders' stock in a company, which is usually made public, while it invites existing shareholders to sell their shares for a fixed price and at a specific time period.

Musk announced April 14 that he proposed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, which amounts to around $43 billion.

Twitter said the next day it is adopting a “poison pill” strategy to stave off the takeover bid that would take the company private.

The poison pill strategy allows existing shareholders to buy additional shares of the company's stock at a reduced price, which would dilute Musk's existing share of the company. The strategy is intended to prevent anyone from being able to establish a more than 15% share in Twitter.

Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, announced April 4 that he bought a 9.2% share in Twitter, becoming the social media platform’s biggest investor.

Musk is the world's richest man, according to Forbes, which places his net worth at more than $288 billion as of Thursday./aa

Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that the Turkish navy and coast guards have saved hundreds of thousands of lives on seas.

Erdogan attended the country's Blue Homeland military exercise via video conference from Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara.

Having a strong naval force is not a choice but a necessity for Turkiye, a country surrounded by seas on three sides, he noted.

"So, we attach importance to constantly improving our navy with equipment and personnel, to make the highest possible contribution to the homeland's defense," said Erdogan.

He added that Turkiye has the world's appreciation for its humanitarian, rescue, and aid operations from Ukraine to Libya across the world.

"With our Navy and Coast Guard, we have saved hundreds of thousands of lives from being lost in dark waters, while countries that consider themselves developed and modern were leaving refugees to die in the seas or even attempting to kill them by sinking their boats," he also said.

Blue Homeland 2022

The Blue Homeland military exercise continues in the Black Sea, Aegean, and Eastern Mediterranean with 122 ships and 41 aircraft.

Meanwhile, the first phase of distinguished observer activities of the Blue Homeland military exercise was completed on Thursday.

TCG Kemal Reis Frigate, with National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, force commanders, and attaches from 15 countries on board, was saluted by the TCG Salih Reis Frigate.

As part of the exercise, underwater defense teams, transferred by helicopter, jumped into the water and destroyed a mine.

For submarine defense activities, the Tuzla class patrol boat fired an anti-submarine warfare missile while maritime patrol aircraft carried out a torpedo attack on a submarine.

MILGEM class TCG Heybeliada and TCG Buyukada flagships conducted an underway replenishment drill with TCG Kemal Reis.

For the first time, an overwater target was hit with MAM-L smart ammunition from an armed UAV Aksungur which has entered the inventory of the naval forces this year.

In addition to Akar and force commanders, foreign representatives from the US, Australia, Azerbaijan, Czechia, the Philippines, Georgia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Latvia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Senegal took part in the observer day./aa

Electric automaker Tesla posted a record high profit during the first quarter of the year, according to its financial results statement.

The Texas-based firm had a $3.32 billion net income attributable to common stockholders in the January-March period of this year, it said Wednesday.

This marked a whopping 658% increase from $438 million recorded in the same period of last year.

The company had total revenues of almost $18.8 billion in the first three months of 2022, up around 81% from almost $10.4 billion in the same period of last year.

Tesla said it has been struggling with global chip shortages, supply chain issues, and recent COVID-19 outbreaks weighing on its supply chain and factory operations.

"Furthermore, prices of some raw materials have increased multiple-fold in recent months. The inflationary impact on our cost structure has contributed to adjustments in our product pricing, despite a continued focus on reducing our manufacturing costs where possible," the statement noted.

Tesla stock price was up 7.25% in pre-market hours before the opening of the Nasdaq on Thursday./agencies

Car sales in Europe dropped sharply in March, industry data showed Wednesday, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine added to the woes of a sector that has been long struggling with shortages of semiconductors.

Passenger car registrations fell 20.5% compared to the same period last year, with 844,187 units sold, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

Excluding 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the global economy, it was the worst performance for a month of March since statistics began in 1990.

Car production has been hampered worldwide since last year by a severe shortage of semiconductors, a key component for modern cars as they power everything from antilock braking systems to airbags to parking assistance technology.

The war has led to shortages of other parts, such as the cables used in car wiring harnesses and of which Ukraine is a manufacturer.

Several factories in Europe have had to go idle due to the lack of cables, with Volkswagen temporarily suspending production at a number of German sites.

Europe's top automaker saw sales fall by nearly a quarter in March, according to ACEA figures.

"The ongoing supply chain disruptions, further exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, negatively affected car production," the ACEA said.

Most countries in Europe had double-digit drops in car sales in March, the association said, with a fall of 17.5% in Germany, the biggest market.

There were even larger falls of around almost 20% in France, around 30% in Italy and nearly 40% in Spain.

Outside the European Union, sales fell by 14.3% in Britain./ AFP