The NATO chief on Thursday reiterated the alliance’s support for Türkiye on its “legitimate security concerns” over Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids.

“Türkiye has legitimate security concerns, and we are working to solve those with Finland and Sweden,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at a joint news conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

“We will address Finland and Sweden’s historic applications for NATO membership, ensuring that the security interests of all allies are addressed while making progress in the accession process,” said Stoltenberg, referring to the NATO summit in Madrid next week.

Sweden and Finland, amid their NATO bids, are under pressure from Türkiye to end their support for the YPG/ PKK terror group, with Ankara saying that NATO is a security alliance and that any potential members must take a clear stance against terrorism.

Stoltenberg said he discussed with Fiala the alliance’s preparations for the NATO summit in Madrid on July 28-20.

“We’ll make important decisions in five key areas. We will agree NATO’s new strategic concepts, a blueprint for our alliance’s future,” he said.

“It will set out our joint position on Russia, emerging challenges and on China, as well as on our partnership with the European Union, which has reached unprecedented levels,” Stoltenberg added.

He also said “further decisions to support Ukraine and other parties at risk” will be taken at the summit.

“We will improve burden-sharing with more defense investment, to do more together.”/aa

Amid reports of surging cases in Europe, a special committee of the World Health Organization began meeting Thursday to decide whether monkeypox should be declared a global “public health emergency.” 

The emergency committee will advise the WHO chief “on whether the event constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),” the WHO’s highest alert level, said the UN health agency.

Since early May, cases of monkeypox have been reported from countries where the disease is not endemic, along with continuing reports in several endemic countries, according to the WHO.

The WHO said 2,746 cases of monkeypox had been identified by June 21 in 29 countries and areas throughout the European region.

Most confirmed cases with a travel history reported visits to countries in Europe and North America rather than West or Central Africa, where the monkeypox virus is endemic.

This is the first time that so many monkeypox cases and clusters have been reported concurrently in non-endemic and endemic countries in disparate geographical areas.

“Most reported cases so far have been identified through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary health-care facilities and have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men,” said the WHO.

There have been nine emergency committees under international health regulations so far, including two ongoing ones on polio and COVID-19, said WHO.

Monkeypox is an orthopoxvirus that causes a disease with symptoms similar to, but less severe than, smallpox.

While smallpox was eradicated in 1980, monkeypox continues to occur in countries in central and western parts of Africa, according to the WHO./aa

The monsoon floods and onrush upstream water from India have claimed at least 68 lives in Bangladesh amid a rising number of waterborne diseases, along with food and potable water crises.

Over 4,000 people have been infected by various waterborne diseases due to floods that swept one-third of Bangladesh, according to official data.

The deaths were mainly due to drowning, snake bites, landslides, diarrhea, and other injuries, according to the Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Thursday.

The monsoon stays in the south Asian country mainly between June and October in Bangladesh.

The death toll registered since May 17 includes 46 fatalities in the northeastern Sylhet division, 18 in the north-central Mymensingh division, and four in the northern Rangpur division in floodwater, with the most casualties recorded in June, it added.

The situation in Bangladesh has worsened due to the heavy rains and onrush of water from the hills across the Indian borders, affecting at least 13 districts out of 64 that have been submerged.

The flood situation has improved in some parts of the northeastern Sylhet division but continues to worsen in the northern parts.

Bangladesh has also started facing a humanitarian crisis in flood-affected areas.

The Brahmaputra River in the northern region was flowing above the danger level in some parts on Thursday.

The worsening flood submerged 15,852 hectares of land and forced 294 primary schools to be shut in the northern Kurigram district, according to the Water Development Board.

People in the flood-hit northern Kurigram district are facing a serious crisis of relief.

Meanwhile, some 4,500 families have been marooned in the central Tangail district while floods damaged 6,300 hectares of cropland, data by the local administration showed.

Government agencies are struggling to reach remote areas amid the deteriorating road and water transport situation due to floodwater.

However, the government on Thursday said it has been working on a priority basis to send food and potable water to the flood-hit areas, while the army, navy, and air force have also joined the rescue efforts./aa

Apart from civil wars and foreign military interventions, natural disasters and persistent earthquakes have caused massive death and destructions in Afghanistan over the past 60 years. 

Wednesday’s earthquake that struck a rural, mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan, killing hundreds of people, is one of a series of deathliest quakes that have hit the country.

According to the data compiled by Anadolu Agency, 12,555 people have died in the past 68 years in Afghanistan due to massive earthquakes.

Early this year, 22 people were killed in a Badghis, northwest of Afghanistan, on the border with Turkmenistan. In 2015, 399 people were killed when the quake struck the Hindu Kush mountains. In 2002, 1,000 people lost their lives in the provinces of Baghlan, Nahrin. The same year in another quake, 166 people died in Samanghan, Kabul, Rustaq.

In Feb 1998, in Rostaq, in Takhar Province, Afghanistan, along with Tajikistan, 2,323 people lost their lives in the quake. Just three months later, another quake hitting Badakhshan and Takhar consumed 4,700 people. In 1999, the quake hit Lowgar, Vardak, and Kabul, killing 70 people.

Scientists believe that Afghanistan is situated in a geologically active region of the world with an ever-present threat of strong earthquakes.

“The location of the country is on the boundary where two tectonic plates, the Iranian Plate and the Eurasian Plate, meet. To the south of Afghanistan, the Indian Plate moves northwards and to the north, the Eurasian Plate moves south-eastwards,” maintains the US Agency for International Development, which has prepared a seismotectonic map of Afghanistan.

The collision resulting from the movement of the plates has been underway for 50 million years. Due to this, Afghanistan is vulnerable to earthquakes.

According to scientists, both the Iranian Plate and the Eurasian Plate consists of continental crust, which can neither sink nor be destroyed. As a result, the rocks between the two plates are forced upwards to form mountains.

As scientists are still grappling to find the exact cause of Wednesday’s quake, mostly such disturbances in this region are caused due to the constant movement of the Iranian Plate, which increases pressure on the curst of the earth.

According to Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the earthquake hazard is classified as high, which means that there is more than a 20% chance of potentially-damaging earthquakes shaking the region. Besides the movement of tectonic plates, there are many small, interacting faults in the Hindu Kush mountains in this rugged region.

Aid workers are worried about the capacity of the cash-strapped Taliban-led administration to cope with the massive tragedy. They believe that even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan last year in August, the country was facing a drought and mass displacement driven by the conflict and extreme poverty.

As many as 43% of the GDP during the previous government of President Ashraf Ghani was financed by foreign aid, according to the World Bank.
About 75% of public spending was funded by foreign aid grants, while 90% of Afghans lived on an income of less than $2 a day, and an estimated 18.4 million people — nearly half the country’s population — needed humanitarian aid.

The freezing of assets and international aid -- a move intended to halt the flow of money to the Taliban – has risks of making quake victims and people of Afghanistan collateral victims./aa

Single-use plastics pose huge risks to public health and the environment, warned a Turkish expert, calling for a shift to alternatives for daily usage.

Single-use plastic products, which are used once, or for a short time, before being discarded, continue to cause health and waste problems globally, said Turgut Tuzun Onay, head of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Bogazici University.

The world will face grave health and waste problems if the current trend continues and one billion tons of plastic are produced annually by 2050.

According to studies, the amount of greenhouse gas emitted in plastic production and burning is, more or less, equivalent to emissions from around 189 coal-fired power plants.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Onay said single-use plastics account for two-thirds of the waste found in oceans and seas.

Plastics turn into microplastics after a while due to environmental effects such as wind or rain, he said, explaining that as these microplastics interact with sea creatures, toxic chemicals seep into the food chain.

Single-use plastic products

Although there are reusable and sustainable alternatives, single-use plastic products are widely used globally.

However, amid increasing awareness about the threats plastics pose and many sobering reports on their long-term negative impacts on human health, some countries have accelerated efforts to phase out single-use plastics.

According to the EU, plastic cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plates, straws and stirrers, balloons and sticks for balloons, food containers, cups for beverages, beverage containers, cigarette butts, plastic bags, packets and wrappers, wet wipes and sanitary items are some of the single-use plastic products that should be limited across the bloc.

Though there are extra tax obligations imposed on companies that use, consume and distribute such materials in the EU, Onay noted that using plastic for a long time or exposing it to heat creates harmful toxins that poison human beings.

Plastics contain chemical additives such as endocrine disruptors that can cause cancers, birth defects, diabetes, and immune system suppression in humans and animals.​​​​​​​/aa

As Türkiye's ongoing anti-terror operations in northern Iraq progress, the PKK terrorist organization is using local civilians as human "shields."

Residents of the Amedi district in Duhok province want an end to the PKK terrorist organization's presence in the area.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Adnan Sinci, a resident of the town of Sheladiz, revealed that the terror group was using civilians as human "shields" against the Turkish Air Force's precision air strikes.

Locals in town of around 5,000 people are increasingly worried by the situation, he said.

Sinci further underlined that many residents in rural Amedi were compelled to leave their homes because of the PKK terrorist organization's presence.

They want to return to their ancestral homes, but for this to happen, the terror group must be removed from the area, added Sinci.

A local senior politician, Sidki Nerveyi, underscored that the PKK terrorist organization had caused the people of Amedi much suffering.

Nerveyi said that 2,000 villages in the district were now abandoned, adding that the PKK terrorist organization had also prevented local authorities from providing public services.

Also speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ramazan Kivli, a political analysist, highlighted that the PKK terrorist organization was disturbing stability and security in northern Iraq.

PKK terrorist group's presence in northern Iraq

On June 5, 2021, five Peshmerga soldiers were killed in a PKK terrorist organization ambush in Duhok province.

According to official data from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), the PKK terrorist organization had occupied 515 villages on the borders of Duhok, along with the provinces of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, in 2015. Of these, 304 were in Duhok, while 177 were in Erbil, and 34 in Sulaymaniyah.

Following Türkiye's successful cross-border operations in recent years, the PKK terrorist organization retreated from the Turkish border into Iraq. It has occupied 285 more villages over the last seven years.

In a statement on Feb. 27, 2021, KRG Prime Minister Masoud Barzani emphasized that authorities could not rebuild 800 villages because of the PKK terrorist organization, adding that they would not tolerate the terror group's presence in the region.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

Life is gradually returning to normal in northeastern Bangladesh, which was devastated by the worst floods in a century.

However, the suffering of people is far from over as they have lost everything and face new challenges in resuming their lives.

Last week's flood in Sylhet district, known for tea cultivation, killed at least 42 people and stranded millions of others. Except for a few concrete structures, floods have washed away hundreds of thousands of people's homes.

"We have lost everything, even our clothes... what will we eat and wear when we return home?" Rahima Khatun, an elderly woman who has been taking refuge at a high school in Sylhet for over a week, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Abdur Rahman, who owned a small grocery store, said the flood caused a significant loss. "We only had the flood a month ago... and now we have another ghostly flood."

After two years of pandemic-related restrictions, the latest situation has crippled them, he said.

On Thursday, army troops and local officials resumed relief operations in the flood-affected areas, providing packaged food and supplies to people.

"With our limited number of boats and other supplies, we are doing our best to reach the remotest and most afflicted people to provide relief goods to them," Maj. Hafiz, an army officer who has been working with relief teams in the Sylhet district for the last one week, told Anadolu Agency.

Though the flood situation in the majority of the district has improved, the situation in some other northern districts of the country has deteriorated in the last 24 hours due to the onrush of water from upstream India.

Meanwhile, after a six-day suspension, flight services at the district's Osmani International Airport have resumed. The flight cancellation affected a considerable number of people from Sylhet who live in the UK.​​​​​​​/aa

Ukraine -- the world's fourth-largest grain exporter -- has 30 million metric tons (33 million tons) of grain in storage waiting for export and farmers are now scrambling to build temporary storage, but time is short. 

In July, Ukrainian farmers start the summer harvest, but many fear they will not have anywhere to store the new grain in September if Russia's export blockade is not lifted in time.

The consulting firm APK-Inform estimates that an extra 40 million metric tons may be ready for export when the next harvest is due by the end of the summer.

"In addition to the blockaded 24 million tonnes (metric tons) of grain from the 2021 crop, from mid-July we will have the 2022 harvest and it is huge problem where to store the new crop if the old one is still there," said Gennadiy Ivanov, the CEO of dry-bulk operator BPG Shipping.

"In my opinion, in order to solve the global food crisis issue the only solution is to end the war in Ukraine and de-blockade the ports," he told Anadolu Agency.

To make matters worse, reports suggest that a fifth of Ukraine's grain elevators have been damaged or fell under the control of Russian forces. Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi, said this could leave farmers short of 10 to 15 million tons of storage space.

Before the war, Ukraine's Black Sea ports of Odessa, Pivdennyi, Mykolayiv, and Chornomorsk served as terminals for around 5 million metric tons of grain per month, representing about 80% of its total grain exports.

The country usually accounts for 12% of global wheat exports. Now, with 84 foreign ships stuck in Ukrainian ports -- many with grain cargo onboard -- due to a Russian naval blockade, that figure is closer to 3%.

Wheat prices, which were already 49% above their 2017-21 average in mid-February, have risen by another 30% since the war in Ukraine began.

Many fear that this marked hike could spark starvation, political unrest, and migration in Africa and the Middle East.

About 400 million people worldwide rely on Ukrainian food supplies, according to Anna Nagurney, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

- Cynical Russia

Russia says Western sanctions on its banking and shipping industries make it impossible for it to export food and demands that sanctions be lifted.

Russian forces have allegedly targeted grain silos and agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine, and are accused by US and Ukrainian officials of stealing grain from the country and trying to sell it on to Syria after Lebanon and Egypt refused similar offers.

The New York Times reported that the US had sent an alert to 14 countries, mostly in Africa, about Russian cargo vessels loaded with what that the State Department said was stolen Ukrainian grain.

Kyiv says Russia has stolen about 400,000 metric tons of grains and seeds, with the Centre for Defence Strategies, a Ukrainian security think tank, putting the figure at closer to 600,000. A Ministry of Defense report found that Russian soldiers forced farmers into giving 70% of their harvest to buyers from Crimea at a price of about 10% retail.

Ukraine's farming sector generated about 22% of the country's GDP in 2021, according to UN data.

Some observers worry that Moscow is seeking to take Ukraine's share of the global market for itself in commodities like corn and wheat and will attempt to paint itself as a charitable provider to poor countries.

- US and EU plans

EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said Russia's actions amount to war crimes and that the EU has even mulled sending warships to protect grain transports.

Germany is planning to establish a "trial corridor" to enable safe passage of Ukrainian grain by rail, German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen told state press on Monday.

Meanwhile, the US has pledged to build temporary silos for storing Ukrainian grain near the Ukrainian border in Poland and Romania to facilitate grain exports, President Joe Biden said last week.

Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Henryk Kowalczyk said that for this initiative to take place, issues related to ownership, additional infrastructure, funding, and the location and size of the silos would need to be sorted out.

"Implementation of this type of investment takes about three to four months," he said.

The current possibilities mean the maximum amount of grain that can be shipped in Poland is about 1.5 million tons, while the needs of Ukraine amount to about 5 million tons per month.

"I don't see much point for silos in Poland," said Pavlo Martyshev, an agricultural economist from the Kyiv School of Economics. "If anything, they could be built on the Ukrainian side of the border, for logistical reasons. At the moment we have bottlenecks at the borders and silos wouldn't change this," he told Anadolu Agency.

Ivanov agrees. "In my opinion, even building the temporary silos will not help much as there is still a global bottleneck of internal logistics in terms of capacity."

"The prices of a new crop in terms of transportation costs is a big question-mark, i.e. whether traders/farmers will be ready to accept less sale price in order to meet the huge freight/transportation costs," he said.

Martyshev added: "The extra cost of rail travel would be less than the cost in rising prices if the grain is wasted in storage on Ukrainian farms."

- Alternative routes

Ukraine hopes to send 700,000-750,000 metric tons of grains per month from two small ports on the Danube to Romania.

The remainder would be transported to Europe via road and rail.

But, there are logistical problems preventing a quick turn from sea to land transport.

Trains in Ukraine must stop at the country's borders, as the track gauge is 9 cm wider than that of its European neighbors. The grain is then loaded onto wagons on other trains or lifted onto narrower wagons, which takes time.

These is also the matter of capacity, with a single shipping container ship able to carry about the same cargo load as 50 trains.

Kyiv is also considering sending up to 4 million metric tons of grain per month via Belarus, which uses the same rail gauge as Ukraine. Plans are reportedly being discussed between Kyiv and EU ministers to construct a new railway from Ukraine to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.

Martyshev also said Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko regime might be open to a deal of some kind. "He is in negotiations and always like to have some leverage between Russia and the EU," Martyshev said.

Poland in June decided to temporarily reduce goods inspections on its border with Ukraine, which will allow the war-hit country to export agricultural crops through the Rava Ruska - Werchrata border crossing point.

But, another obstacle is the unavailability of storage in European ports, where tens of thousands of metric tons of grain have to be put in port elevators before they can later be loaded onto cargo ships.

OT Logistics, a Polish operator of dry-bulk terminals, said its port facilities in Swinoujscie and Gdynia on the Baltic coast are already operating at full capacity. The company estimates that the capacity of its Baltic terminals at about 1.6 million tons monthly -- 400,000 less than the amount Kyiv wants.

Another route is through Constanta, a port on the Romanian Black Sea coast. A lot of Ukrainian grain is bound for Constanta, with about 50% of current exports shipped from there, said Nikolay Gorbachov, the head of the Ukrainian Grain Association.

About 30% of Ukrainian grain exports leave through Poland near Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea.

As the UK's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss travels to Türkiye for crisis talks on the global food shortage as fears rise that Russia's blockade Ukrainian grain exports could drive food prices in developing countries to dangerous levels.

Türkiye is also planning to host Russian, Ukrainian, and UN officials for talks in the coming weeks aimed at resuming the currently stuck exports, according to media reports. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said leaders are working on a solution that would not require the clearing sea mines from Ukraine's ports./aa