Twelve vessels carrying more than 370,000 metric tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs have been authorised to leave Ukrainian ports, while several more grain vessels in Turkish waters await contracts.

Ukraine has exported nearly 400,000 tonnes of grain in the first week following the announcement of a deal brokered by Türkiye to address global food insecurity.

Twelve vessels carrying more than 370,000 metric tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs have been authorised to leave Ukrainian ports, the interim Coordinator for the UN at the Joint Coordination Centre, Frederick Kenney, said.

"We have seen tremendous interest from ship owners in terms of their willingness to make this transit," Kenney told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

"We're expecting to see a big uptick in applications."

Several empty grain vessels are sitting in Turkish waters waiting to arrange contracts. Once their deals are arranged, they will be transiting northbound, he added.

The vessels departing Ukrainian ports were loaded with corn and other foodstuffs and the first Ukrainian wheat shipment is expected next week.

"We actually have cleared the first ship inbound that's going to be picking up the wheat according to our records and that should occur sometime next week," said Kenney.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on July 22 to reopen three Ukrainian ports — Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny — for grain that had been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, now in its sixth month.

Source: agencies

Türkiye's drill ship, Fatih, had discovered 405 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Black Sea in July 2020, followed by a second discovery of 135 bcm in June 2021

Türkiye will be ready to use natural gas from its Black Sea discovery in March next year, the country’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez has said.

"I hope we will be able to use this natural gas on land in the first quarter of 2023, in March," Donmez said on Thursday.

The Black Sea discovery refers to the natural gas find of around 540 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the offshore Sakarya Gas Field.

The country’s drill ship, Fatih, discovered 405 bcm of gas in July 2020, followed by a second discovery of 135 bcm in June 2021.

Both discoveries are notable for the country, which is very dependent on expensive imports to meet its energy demand.

Hydrocarbon exploration strategy

As part of the country’s strategy for hydrocarbon exploration, the drill ship, Abdulhamid Han, has recently arrived at its first destination, the Yorukler-1 well offshore in the southern province of Antalya, the minister confirmed.

The ship, dubbed the strongest of the country’s current fleet of four, will drill exploration wells in the Eastern Mediterranean while other ships, Yavuz and Kanuni, will continue drilling operations in the Black Sea.

The new addition to the fleet is a seventh-generation vessel and one of five worldwide with the capability of drilling to depths of up to 12,200 metres.

Abdulhamid Han will run its exploratory mission for two months, after which Donmez promised to publicise any discoveries.

Source: agencies

Azad Yandi, codenamed Soro Amed, is among seven terrorists neutralised in an operation by the Turkish forces in Iraq’s Gara region.

Turkish intelligence forces have "neutralised" a so-called senior member of the PKK terror group in northern Iraq, security sources said.

Azad Yandi, codenamed Soro Amed, was among seven terrorists neutralised in an operation by Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Iraq’s Gara region, said the sources on Tuesday, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Yandi was said to be in charge of logistics for the terror group in Gara, the sources added.

PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq and plot terror attacks in Türkiye, across the border.

Meanwhile, the Turkish military neutralised seven YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria as they attempted to attack and infiltrate Türkiye’s southeastern border through the Mardin province, the National Defense Ministry said.

Additionally, seven more PKK/YPG terrorists were targeted by Turkish soldiers in the Operation Peace Spring and Operation Euphrates Shield zones in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, the ministry stated.

Turkish authorities use the term "neutralise" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered, or were killed or captured.

Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the US, UK and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.

Source: AA

Turkish coast guards saved the lives of 54 migrants and asylum seekers who were illegally pushed back to Türkiye by Greek coast guards in Aegean Sea, Turkish Defence Ministry says.

Turkish coast guards have saved the lives of migrants and asylum seekers who were illegally pushed back to Türkiye by Greek coast guards in the Aegean Sea, Turkish Defence Ministry said.

"On August 9, 2022, a Turkish Navy UAV detected irregular migrants being transferred to an inflatable boat and pushed back towards Turkish territorial waters by the Greek Coast Guard in the east of the island of Sisam (Samos) in the Aegean Sea," the Turkish Ministry of National Defence stated on Twitter.

"The situation was immediately reported to the Turkish Coast Guard which rescued the irregular migrants,"  the statement said.

The Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement on Tuesday that 54 migrants and asylum seekers who were pushed back by Greece were rescued off the coast of Karaburun in Izmir province.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.

Source: AA

France continues to suffer successive heat waves, like the rest of Europe, with the latest wildfire sweeping across the southwest of the country.

A huge wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents, some of whom had clambered onto rooftops as the blaze neared, has swept through the Gironde region of southwestern France.

More than 1,000 firefighters backed by water-bombing aircraft were fighting the fire on Wednesday. 

More than 60 square kilometres have  been razed and the fire is still burning out of control.

France, like the rest of Europe, is struggling with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record.

Dozens of wildfires are ablaze across the country, including at least four other major ones.

The local Gironde authority described the blaze as "rampant". Firefighters said more evacuations were likely.

Latest inferno

Camille Delay fled her home town of Hostens on the orders of emergency services late on Tuesday with her partner and son as a wall of flames drew rapidly closer.

The couple grabbed their two cats, chickens and house insurance documents before taking flight, she said.

"Everyone in the village climbed onto their rooftops to see what was happening - within ten minutes a little twist of smoke became enormous," the 30-year-old said.

The Gironde was hit by major wildfires in July which destroyed more than 200 square kilometres of forest and temporarily forced almost 40,000 people from their homes.

Authorities believe the latest inferno was a result of the previous fires still smouldering in the area's peaty soil.

Fires were also raging in the southern departments of Lozere and Aveyron. In the Maine et Loire department in western France, more than 12 square kilometres have been scorched by another fire. 

Source: agencies

Britain is also expanding surveillance for polio to other areas outside London to see if the virus has spread further.

Britain is launching a polio vaccine booster campaign for children in London aged below 10, after confirming that the virus is spreading in the capital for the first time since the 1980s.

The UK Health Security Agency has identified 116 polioviruses from 19 sewage samples this year in London. It first raised the alert on finding the virus in sewage samples in June.

The levels of poliovirus found since and the genetic diversity indicated that transmission was taking place in a number of London boroughs, the agency said on Wednesday.

No cases have yet been identified but, in a bid to get ahead of a potential outbreak, GPs will now invite children aged 1-9 for booster vaccines, alongside a wider catch-up campaign already announced.

Immunization rates across London vary, but are on average below the 95 percent coverage rate the World Health Organization suggests is needed to keep polio under control.

Expanding surveillance

Polio, spread mainly through contamination by faecal matter, used to kill and paralyse thousands of children annually worldwide. It paralyses less than 1 percent of children who are infected.

There is no cure, but vaccination brought the world close to ending the wild, or naturally occurring, form of the disease.

The virus found in London sewage is mainly the vaccine-like virus, which is found when children vaccinated with a particular kind of live vaccine - now only used overseas - shed the virus in their faeces.

This harmless virus can transmit between unvaccinated children, and while doing so, can mutate back into a more dangerous version of the virus, and cause illness.

Last month, the United States found a case of paralytic polio outside New York in an unvaccinated individual, its first for a decade. The UKHSA said the case was genetically linked to the virus seen in London.

Britain is also expanding surveillance for polio to other sites outside London to see if the virus has spread further.

The risk to the wider population is assessed as low because most people are vaccinated even if rates are below the optimal levels to prevent spread.

Source: Reuters

At least nine people were killed and seven others missing in South Korea after intense downpours flooded major roads, metro stations and homes in the heaviest rainfall the country has ever recorded.

Torrential rains that slammed South Korea's capital have diminished after killing at least nine people and damaging about 2,800 homes and other buildings.

More rain was forecast for Wednesday, but less than the heavy downpours on Monday and Tuesday that submerged some streets and buildings, trapping people in flooded apartments and stranding cars.

At least five people had been killed in Seoul as of early Wednesday, as well as three in the neighbouring Gyeonggi Province and one in Gangwon Province, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

At least 17 people have been injured, and seven are missing.

Flooding in some buildings around the glitzy Gangnam district continued on Tuesday, while subway stations and several roads there had been blocked.

Widespread damage

Data showed at least 2,800 public and private facilities had been damaged across South Korea, and more than 1,100 households had been displaced. 

Most highways and subway lines had been cleared by Wednesday.

The accumulated rainfall in Seoul since midnight on Monday stood at 52.5 centimetres as of Wednesday morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 

In neighbouring Yangpyeong County, total rainfall hit 53.25 centimetres.

The KMA expects rain to continue in most parts of the country, with especially heavier rain in Chungcheong Province.

However, the agency predicted rainfall would gradually subside in many parts of the greater Seoul area and Gangwon Province.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will preside over a meeting on Wednesday to discuss damage and countermeasures against flooding. 

Separately, the government and the ruling People Power Party are expected to hold an emergency meeting to discuss fiscal support for damage recovery.

Source: agencies