Native to the south Pacific and Indian Oceans, the invasive lionfish has made a recent journey to its new ecosystem off the coast of Turkey’s Aegean Sea.

Ilker Aydin, a professor at the Department of Fisheries at Izmir’s Ege University, told Anadolu Agency that biological invasion is one of the most important problems of this era.

The introduction of non-native species into new ecosystems threatens biodiversity and ecosystem components, he said.

Aydin caught the lionfish in the Aegean Sea as part of his ongoing project and published an international article on it.

He said the lionfish, which is mostly seen in the Mediterranean Sea due to global warming and climate change, was lastly seen at the Edremit Gulf in Turkey’s Balikesir province.

The biological invasions, Aydin said, harm not only the ecosystem but also have economic and health-related results.

The professor stated that increasing human influence on nature increase the number of non-native invasive species entering the Mediterranean Sea.

Briefing about the lionfish, Aydin said it lives in warm waters, eats fish smaller than itself, and it does not give a chance to other species to live by, especially by dominating the rocks.

He cited the rise in sea temperatures as the main factor for the entry of lionfish and many other invasive species into the Mediterranean Sea./aa

Pakistan will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all Afghans coming into the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Thursday.

Khan said his government has assured Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi that Pakistan “will provide all possible humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.”

“We are sending essential food items, emergency medical supplies & winter shelters to provide immediate relief to Afghan ppl. We will also provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all Afghans travelling across the border into Pak,” he said on Twitter.

He reiterated Islamabad’s call for global efforts to “avert a grave humanitarian crisis” in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi echoed the same views at a meeting of the Troika Plus group on Afghanistan in Islamabad.

“Today, Afghanistan stands at the brink of an economic collapse as international funding has dried up. It has become difficult to pay even salaries, let alone pursue development projects,” he told special envoys of the US, China and Russia in what was the group’s first meeting since the Taliban seized power in mid-August.

Muttaqi, who arrived on his first visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, also attended the meeting.

Qureshi stressed that the Taliban are interested in engagement with the international community, and urged the world to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and pursue positive engagement.

He also called on the US to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and said the UN and other humanitarian agencies must find ways to help Afghans in need.​​​​​​​/aa

The EU economy is expected to grow by 5% in 2021, accompanied by a 2.6% rise in inflation due to growing energy prices, the European Commission announced on Thursday.

According to the EU executive body’s autumn economic forecast, the bloc’s economy has been recovering from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic faster than expected.

The EU economy will expand by 5% this year and 4.3% in 2022, the prognosis suggested.

The highest growth rates are foreseen for Ireland, Estonia, and Croatia this year, with a GDP growth of 14%, 9%, and 8.1% respectively.

“The European economy is moving from recovery to expansion but is now facing some headwinds,” EU Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni commented on the forecast.

Gentiloni praised the bloc’s €750 billion ($860 billion) recovery fund that already helped the economy to rebound from the shock of the pandemic.

At the same time, he warned of three “key threats to this positive picture” -- the rise in new COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rate in some countries, the “rising inflation, driven largely by a spike in energy prices,” and supply-chain disruptions.

The inflation in the euro area is projected to peak at 2.4% this year, while the rise in prices will be slightly higher -- 2.6% -- in the entire bloc.

According to the forecast, energy prices will level out in 2022, so inflation in the eurozone and the EU will drop to 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively, next year./agencies

The EU economy is expected to grow by 5% in 2021, accompanied by a 2.6% rise in inflation due to growing energy prices, the European Commission announced on Thursday.

According to the EU executive body’s autumn economic forecast, the bloc’s economy has been recovering from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic faster than expected.

The EU economy will expand by 5% this year and 4.3% in 2022, the prognosis suggested.

The highest growth rates are foreseen for Ireland, Estonia, and Croatia this year, with a GDP growth of 14%, 9%, and 8.1% respectively.

“The European economy is moving from recovery to expansion but is now facing some headwinds,” EU Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni commented on the forecast.

Gentiloni praised the bloc’s €750 billion ($860 billion) recovery fund that already helped the economy to rebound from the shock of the pandemic.

At the same time, he warned of three “key threats to this positive picture” -- the rise in new COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rate in some countries, the “rising inflation, driven largely by a spike in energy prices,” and supply-chain disruptions.

The inflation in the euro area is projected to peak at 2.4% this year, while the rise in prices will be slightly higher -- 2.6% -- in the entire bloc.

According to the forecast, energy prices will level out in 2022, so inflation in the eurozone and the EU will drop to 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively, next year./aa

Turkey and Azerbaijan, two member states of the Turkic Council, and observer Hungary announced Thursday that they will donate COVID-19 vaccines to the African countries in need.

Addressing a news conference in Istanbul ahead of the 8th summit of the Turkic Council foreign ministers, Hungary's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic showed that more vaccines are needed.

"We have seen very clearly that vaccines save lives," he said, adding that Hungary carried out a "successful" vaccination campaign, and has been among the first countries to end the lockdowns in Europe.

"There are enough vaccines in our country at the moment. Therefore, we are in a position to help other countries in need," he stated.

Stressing lack of vaccines in some African countries, Szijjarto said: "Therefore we, as Hungary, together with the member countries of the Council, are ready to help."

Accompanying Szijjarto during the news conference, Turkic Council Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev said a total of 511,000 vaccine doses will be sent to the African countries in need.

The vaccine shipment will include 211,000 doses of Sinopharm from Hungary, 200,000 Sinovac doses from Turkey and 100,000 Sinovac doses from Azerbaijan, he elaborated./agencies

Turkey launched an initiative to plant 252 million saplings by the end of the year, the country’s ministry of agriculture and forestry, on Thursday.

“On Nov. 11, National Afforestation Day, we are becoming a breath for the future,” said the ministry on Twitter.

“We breathe life into the world by planting 3 tree saplings for 84 million each and 252 million saplings in total,” it added.

The ministry invited all citizens to plant areas in their cities on Nov. 11.

Earlier in the day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has set a goal to plant a total of 7 billion saplings across the country by the end of 2023.

Turkey celebrates National Afforestation Day every Nov. 11, declared in 2019./aa

South Africa has witnessed an increase in the deaths of patients in urgent need of organ transplants due to the impact of COVID-19, according to the country’s Organ Donor Foundation.

“The number of transplants performed dramatically decreased, and as a result, many patients waiting for a transplant died,” the group said in an email statement to Anadolu Agency.

The foundation said that due to the high risk of COVID-19 infection, many live-related donations were paused, and there has been more than a 50% reduction of deceased donors since the COVID-19 outbreak.

The group said that during the peak of the pandemic, many patients suffering from the virus were admitted to intensive care units (ICUs), which made it difficult to make ICU beds available for organ transplantation or recovery after a transplant is done.

There was also limited access to hospitals, making it virtually impossible for medical professionals to refer potential donors and get consent from their next of kin.

The foundation said this was due to the restrictive nature of isolation and protective protocols that the COVID-19 pandemic placed on medical facilities.

Highest number of COVID cases in Africa

South Africa – a regional superpower – also has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections on the continent, with the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases at over 2.92 million, with nearly 89,500 reported fatalities.

The country, which is one of the global leaders in the field of organ transplantation, observed organ donor month this August with appeals for more people to register as donors to help save lives.

“Both live and deceased donor transplants have been severely affected, creating a compounded negative outcome for patients needing urgent transplants who will die if not immediately helped,” the foundation said.

South Africa has the best organ transplant units on the continent. Currently, there are approximately 5,000 South African adults and children awaiting a life-saving organ or cornea transplant.

But with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of transplants that could be performed will be fewer, with patients desperately waiting for lifesaving organ transplants waiting longer, and many are said to die in the interim.

In 2019, South Africa carried out 356 solid organ transplants, while in 2018, it did 391 transplants, according to the organ donor group.

South Africa has an average of 1.8 donors per million population, which equates to around 100 organ donors in the country per year.

The foundation says for a transplant to take place, a donor is needed with a matching blood type and meeting a range of criteria such as tissue typing and antibody cross-matching, which all has to match to a recipient.

​​​​​​​“This is a complex process and can often disqualify a potential donor if a matching recipient cannot be found. It is therefore – in light of the COVID-19 pandemic – critical that the pool of available donors is bigger to increase the chance for a suitable match,” the group said, appealing to more people to register as donors.

“More registered organ and tissue donors will help alleviate the unusual pressure being placed by COVID-19 on transplantation,” added the national non-profit group, which is working to address the critical shortage of organ and tissue donors in South Africa through awareness and education campaigns./aa

Pakistan on Thursday said the interim Afghan government wants engagement with the international community and urged the world to continue with a positive response to save the war-torn country from economic collapse.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Troika Plus meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Taliban are interested in engagement with the international community and the world should avoid repeating mistakes of the past and continue with a positive engagement.

“Today, Afghanistan stands at the brink of an economic collapse as the international funding dried up. It has become difficult to pay even salaries, let alone pursue development projects,” Qureshi told the meeting attended by special envoys of the US, China, Russia, and Pakistan.

“The common man is reeling under the effects of a severe drought,” he said, adding any further downward slide will severely limit the new administration’s capacity to run the government.

The Troika Plus meeting is taking place after three months as the last meeting was held in Doha just four days before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on Aug. 15.

Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who arrived along with his delegation on his first visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, also attended the meeting.

On Oct. 19, the Russian, Chinese and Pakistani special envoys for Afghanistan had met in Moscow. However, their US counterpart skipped that meeting. Earlier on Sept. 22, the three special envoys also visited Kabul and met with the Taliban leaders.

US urged to defreeze Afghan assets

During opening remarks on Thursday, Qureshi again urged the US to defreeze Afghanistan’s assets and said the UN and its agencies must find ways to reach out to the common Afghan people and help stabilize the situation.

“Enabling Afghanistan to access its frozen funds will dovetail into our efforts to regenerate economic activities and move the Afghan economy towards stability and sustainability,” Qureshi said.

The US government has blocked the Afghan central bank's reserves, and many donors and organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have halted payments since the Taliban swept to power on Aug. 15.

Talking about the role of extended Troika, Qureshi said the group has assumed greater significance and has a critical role to play.

“We are confident that Troika Plus’s engagement with the new Afghan government will help consolidate peace and stability, promote sustainable economic development and help constrict space for terrorist outfits operating from and within Afghanistan.”

Pakistan’s top diplomat said that being an immediate neighbor, his country has a direct stake in Afghanistan’s peace and stability.

“Located next door, we have borne the brunt of four decades of conflict and instability in the shape of refugees, drugs, and terrorism,” he said.

On Wednesday, India also hosted a high-level talk on Afghanistan which China and Pakistan did not attend as both countries have tense relations and long-standing border disputes with India.

The dialogue in New Delhi was attended by seven other countries – Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

However, on Wednesday China announced that its envoy for Afghanistan would attend the Troika Plus meeting in Islamabad./agencies