President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey is among the top four nations globally in geothermal energy and stressed the importance of renewable energy investments.

He spoke at Sanko Energy Salihli GPP-2 and GPP-3 power plants via video conference and thanked the Sanko Group.

With the JES-2 and JES-3 power plants, which have a total installed capacity of 54.5 megawatts and an annual electricity energy of 500 million kilowatt hours, the energy needs of 200,000 households will be met, according to a statement.

As a renewable energy source, thanks to the JES-2 and JES-3 geothermal power plants, 280,000 tons of CO2 emission will be prevented, it added.

Sanko Energy carried out a project with the Salihli municipality to heat 8,600 homes with geothermal resources and planted 12,000 trees in and around the power plant.

Erdogan: We prepare a bright future for Turkey

Earlier in the day, Erdogan attended the opening ceremony of multiple energy and natural resources facilities in western Manisa province via video link.

Referring to the new facilities, he cited extreme efforts put forward to meet Turkey’s goals and dreams.

Despite those who would like to see Turkey stumble, drag on the crisis and chaos, we are preparing a bright future, he said on Twitter.

The Turkish foreign minister said on Twitter that “Turkey is among 5 countries in the world with >1GW installed geothermal capacity. 4th in the world, 1st in Europe. Our capacity increased despite Covid 19. We added 84,5 MW with 3 more geothermal plants inaugurated today by President @RTErdogan.”/aa

Turkey has invested 27 billion Turkish liras ($3.6 billion) on natural gas distribution since 2002, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

"Since the day we took office, investment in natural gas distribution across Turkey has reached a total of 27 billion Turkish liras," Erdogan said via video link at the opening ceremony of multiple energy and natural resources facilities.

“Today, 54.5 million citizens benefit from the comfort of natural gas. The total population reached by natural gas is 68 million,” he added.

Turkey aims to establish an energy sector based on local resources as much as possible, the president said.

He went on to say that Turkey's power generation has been tripled over the past 18 years to reach 96,000 megawatts.

“Today, 63% of our installed power consists of domestic resources. 51.7% of it belongs to renewable energy resources. So clean energy,” Erdogan added.

He said Turkey’s geothermal power generation, which was only 18 megawatts in 2002, has now reached 1,613 megawatts, adding that with this figure, Turkey ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world in terms of geothermal.

"We aim to be the central country not only in production but also in renewable energy technologies," the president added..aa

Protest rallies in France against the controversial security bill resumed on Saturday as large crowds of demonstrators gathered in multiple cities and towns amidst snowfall with the police clashing with protesters in at least one city. 

According to local media, at least 80 rallies of “freedom march” took place nationwide to denounce the bill.

France’s national body on human rights as well as special agencies at the UN and European Union have criticized the bill and raised concerns over articles that would pave the way for mass surveillance, violation of privacy laws, personal data, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of press.

Equipped with drums, musical instruments and posters, crowds in the capital Paris began to gather around afternoon calling to retract the law.

Local BfMtv reported the protests were largely peaceful and demonstrators began to disperse ahead of the 06.00 p.m. curfew deadline which came into effect today. In Nantes, however, police threw tear gas and used water cannons at the gathering.

The bill passed in the national assembly in November drew outrage from the general public, trade unions, journalists as well as law makers, prompting mass demonstrations.

It is scheduled to be examined in the Senate this month.

The protests were organized by several rights groups including Amnesty International, journalists union CFDT, Guild of authors and reporters documentaries (Garrd), the Association of Independent Cinema for its Diffusion (ACID) and activists of #StopSécuritéGlobaleLaw, an initiative formed by trade union organizations representing journalists and the League of Human Rights.

A statement from the initiative said that President Emmanuel Macron did not respond to their request for discussion and similar requests with the Interior Ministry, the parliamentary group and La République en Marche party went unheeded./aa

“Faced with the strategy of avoidance and denial, and until our demands are heard, we will mobilize again everywhere in France. We will march on Jan 16, and as long as necessary: for the right to information, against police violence, for the freedom to demonstrate, for the respect of our private life,” the statement said.

The coalition of groups say the bill once made into a law will effectively give a freehand to the police to use excessive force and prohibit citizens from seeking accountability against police violence.

Three men opened fire at a local restaurant in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan after they had learnt that their favourite dish was not available, according to Iraqi media.

The three got angry when workers at the restaurant in Erbil, the capital city of Kurdistan, told them that the eatery had run out of Al Baja dish, a traditional meal, witnesses said.

Al Baja is an Iraqi traditional dish made of lamb legs, head and entrails.

Gripped by anger, the disappointed customers had an altercation with the restaurant owner and the spat soon evolved in an armed fight, the witnesses told news portal Shafaq News.

No casualties

The three opened fire at the façade of the restaurant as well as adjoining two restaurants and a café, they said.

The attack resulted in damage, but no casualties were reported. “Fortunately, there were no customers inside the restaurants or the matter would have resulted in a massacre,” one witness said.

Images published in the media showed shattered glass facade of the restaurant in the aftermath of the shooting.

Local authorities vowed that the assailants will not get away with their act./ Agencies

Four House committee leaders are launching an investigation into "high-level failures" of intelligence and security planning that left the Capitol vulnerable to insurrection on Jan. 6.

The committee chairs said in a letter released Saturday that emerging evidence shows federal intelligence officials and law enforcement agencies received information about the likelihood of violence targeting Congress, but a breakdown in the information-sharing process left the Capitol vulnerable, despite widely anticipated efforts to disrupt the lawmakers' session to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

"This still-emerging story is one of astounding bravery by some U.S. Capitol Police and other officers; of staggering treachery by violent criminals; and of apparent and high-level failures — in particular, with respect to intelligence and security preparedness," wrote House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, House Oversight Committee Chairman Carolyn Maloney and House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson in a letter to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and top federal intelligence officials.

"The Committees will conduct robust oversight to understand what warning signs may have been missed, determine whether there were systemic failures, and consider how to best address countering domestic violent extremism, including remedying any gaps in legislation or policy," they continued.

The committees are seeking a series of classified briefings beginning in late January to help lawmakers understand the evidence of threats they had collected, both about Jan. 6 and other threats to the transition of power leading up to Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration.

They're also asking specific questions, including on the evidence each intelligence agency gathered ahead of Jan. 6 and what they did with it; if there was evidence of any foreign efforts to either assist the insurrection, spread misinformation about it or exploit the aftermath; if any current or former officials with security clearances participated in the insurrection; and what policy responses the intelligence agencies have implemented to apprehend rioters and disrupt potential future actions.

For several hours on Jan. 6, the Capitol convulsed in chaos as violent rioters stormed past police lines and sent lawmakers and aides fleeing for safety inside the building. Vice President Mike Pence, a target of some of the insurrectionists, was escorted from the Senate chamber shortly before rioters swarmed it. On Wednesday, the House impeached President Donald Trump for inciting the riot, and federal prosecutors have been rounding up participants in a nationwide manhunt while piecing together evidence.

Democrats have alleged that some of their own GOP colleagues may have had a hand in assisting the insurrectionists, with some saying they witnessed suspicious tours in the Capitol on Jan. 5. Some of the rioters appeared to have significant knowledge of the Capitol complex, which has fueled those concerns./ Politico

The deadly attack at the U.S. Capitol last week has revived an ongoing debate over whether federal law enforcement should be given more authority to fight homegrown terrorism at the same level the U.S. combats terrorism abroad.

President-elect Joe Biden was one of many lawmakers to refer to the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building as “domestic terrorists.” The rioters’ attempt to forcibly stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory appears to meet the legal standard for domestic terrorism, which is defined under U.S. law as violent acts intended to “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.”

But while a number of people involved in the assault have been arrested, none of them will face domestic terrorism charges. That’s because domestic terrorism itself is not a crime in the United States. International terrorism laws give federal law enforcement broad authorities to monitor people suspected of terrorist activity and charge them for being members of a designated terrorist group or providing “material support,” even if their actions aren’t illegal under normal circumstances. However, when it comes to terrorism birthed within U.S. borders, law enforcement powers are much narrower.

Some lawmakers and national security experts have pushed in recent years for a new law that would designate domestic terrorism as a crime and expand law enforcement’s ability to combat extremism at home. While the term would apply to all ideologies, the proposals are specifically aimed at right-wing radicalism — which has inspired the majority of terrorist attacks in the U.S. over the past few decades.

Why there’s debate

Supporters of a new domestic terror law say the Capitol assault is just the latest example of how current laws hold back the effort to stomp out homegrown extremism. Other attacks — including recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Pittsburgh — show how misguided it is to treat terrorism differently simply because of where it originates, they argue. A new law could give authorities more power to disrupt plots before they’re carried out and establish more severe punishments for perpetrators.

Opponents say any new powers given to law enforcement would inevitably be used to violate the constitutional rights of innocent Americans. Whether it’s the warrantless surveillance of Muslim Americans after the 9/11 attack or covert operations in the 1960s against Martin Luther King Jr., the government has a troubling history of abusing anti-terror laws — with the victims often being people of color. The solution to white supremacist extremism, they argue, is for authorities to finally focus the considerable powers they already have on the true threat.

Some argue that there’s space for a targeted law that creates a narrow definition of domestic terrorism while still protecting the rights of vulnerable groups. Others have pushed for bills that would force federal law enforcement to prioritize far-right extremism using its existing authority.

What’s next

According to his campaign website, Biden intends to “work for a domestic terrorism law” when he takes office. But concerns from civil rights groups may lead the president-elect to reconsider that pledge, according to a new report from Yahoo News.

Perspectives

Supporters

Existing laws make it hard to track domestic extremists

“Federal authorities have had more success combating international terrorists than those with a domestic focus, reflecting legal limits on investigations of American political groups, the opaque and elusive nature of the threat, and President Donald Trump’s embrace of far-right groups, experts say.” — Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica

A domestic terrorism law would prevent future attacks

“[Congress] should enact laws that make the domestic terrorism definition in U.S. code a chargeable offense — not only to provide penalties that might deter future threats, but also to provide law enforcement with the tools needed to conduct strategic analysis and organized investigations of such threats and the crimes that result from them.” — Adam Maruyama, The Hill

Treating domestic and international terrorism differently is a mistake

“When someone like [Tree of Life synagogue shooter] Robert Bowers kills 18 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, and he’s not considered a domestic terrorist because he used a handgun and not a weapon of mass destruction, it really points to the absurdity of the law as it exists today. If that were an individual inspired by ISIS, they’d be charged with an act of terrorism.” — Counterterrorism expert Jason Blazakis to Intercept

It’s possible to create a domestic terror law that protects civil rights

“Domestic terror threats with the intent of subverting democracy are real, and great constitutional care is always needed when crafting laws that expand police powers. We face a real threat. Let’s come together and make some good law.” — Bill Scher, Washington Monthly

Better surveillance will help identify potential attackers

“Murder is a crime in all 50 states, and white-supremacist killings often violate federal hate-crime laws. But from a prevention standpoint, those crimes don’t give the FBI the tools it needs to treat potential white-nationalist killers like the Islamist terrorists whom investigators have spent their careers studying.” — Former federal prosecutor Mary McCord, Washington Post

Opponents

A domestic terrorism law would inevitably be abused

“Decades of experience have shown how law enforcement uses broad terrorism-related authorities to target and surveil Black and Brown people, including those engaged in protest. A new domestic terrorism statute, even if intended to protect communities of color, would inevitably be used to harm them.” — ACLU senior attorney Hugh Handeyside to Yahoo News

The government has plenty of freedom to combat far-right violence, it just chooses not to

“The real scandal here is not the lack of a domestic terrorism statute. The real scandal is the free pass white supremacy has had from law enforcement for all these years.” — Moustafa Bayoumi, The Nation

Human rights should not be abandoned in the name of fighting terror, wherever it occurs

“The solution to this American hypocrisy cannot be to fight domestic terror with the same fervor and disregard for human rights with which we fight it internationally.” — Alex Pareene, New Republic

Everything the Capitol rioters did is already illegal

“It’s also abundantly clear that a new domestic terrorism law is not needed. Killing a police officer, violently storming the U.S. Congress, and destroying federal property are all already illegal.”— Chip Gibbons, Jacobin

Overaggressive enforcement will only create more extremists

“To categorize all Trump supporters — or even all attendees of pro-Trump events in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday — as domestic extremists would be counterproductive too. Such actions will push some Americans deeper into webs of conspiratorial fantasy. Pulling them back from the brink will become even harder.” — Emerson T. Brooking, Atlantic

The focus should be on fixing societal causes of domestic terrorism

“Invoking ‘terrorism’ only stokes fear and clouds our ability to talk about root causes. It is a conversation stopper, not a conversation starter.” — Diala Shamas and Tarek Z. Ismail, Washington Post

The US claimed on Saturday that staff at a Chinese virology laboratory became sick with a Covid-like illness in autumn 2019, months before the coronavirus spread widely from Wuhan.

In a long-awaited document from the state department, the Trump administration called for an investigation as it published dubious accusations that a possible "laboratory accident" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) may be the source of the global pandemic.

The claims were dismissed by analysts who insist the disease came from a naturally occurring event.

In a statement late on Friday claiming to reveal "undisclosed information", the state department said it "has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case, with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses."

The statement also said that the lab had been carrying out research on a bat coronavirus similar to the Sars-CoV-2 strain that spread globally and that the lab had collaborated with China's military on publications and secret projects.

Some experts were nonplussed by the announcement. "Zero details given," noted Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at Scripps Research, rating the statement as "an F". The fact that Wuhan was home to the world's leading coronavirus research facility before it became known as ground zero for the pandemic has led to speculation that the virus could have originated in the lab.

While Mr Pompeo's statement offered little beyond insinuation, the state department was on firmer ground when it accused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of preventing an investigation into the pandemic's origin.

"The CCP has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV," it said. The WHO team that travelled to China found itself at the centre of a propaganda battle, caught between a Chinese government determined to extol its leadership in fighting the virus and an outgoing US administration eager to shift blame from its own contentious pandemic response.

Landing in Wuhan after months of delay, the 13 members of the WHO team were whisked away for two weeks' quarantine before their fraught task of attempting to identify the origins of the virus from which two million have died.

The CCP has sought to reshape the narrative about where and when the pandemic began, while covering up early missteps which may have facilitated its global spread.

In the US, where more than 393,000 Americans have died, President Trump has repeatedly sought to blame Beijing for what he calls the Chinese virus.

Ever since the outbreak, Chinese authorities have attempted to control the narrative over the origins of the pandemic, claiming it existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan and at times promoting baseless conspiracy theories, including that the virus was a US military biological weapon.

They have also restricted access to foreign journalists. In December, a BBC team which visited Yunnan to investigate a mystery illness that killed three mine workers in 2012 reported being tailed by officers in unmarked cars, and having their route blocked by a "broken-down" lorry, which they were told had been placed across the road a few minutes before their arrival.

Yunnan, and the cave systems within its rolling jungle, is the site of major coronavirus research. WIV senior virologist Professor Shi Zhengli is known as "China's Batwoman" for her work there to predict and prevent outbreaks.

Prof Shi, her lab and the Chinese government have dismissed allegations that the virus might have leaked from the facility. But when she emailed the BBC telling them she would welcome WHO researchers to the WIV, the corporation later received a call from the lab's press office, saying she had been speaking in a personal capacity and her answers had not been approved.

Instead, the arrival of the WHO investigative team to Wuhan was stymied by months of delays and sensitive negotiations. When visa issues blocked the team's arrival earlier this month, speculation grew that Beijing was being deliberately obstructive. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman sought to allay concerns, blaming a "misunderstanding". "There's no need to over-interpret this," she said.

But the frustration of WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was clear when he issued a rare public rebuke, saying on Tuesday he was "very disappointed" that China had not authorised the entry of the team.

Last week China recorded its first coronavirus death in eight months as infections topped 138 new cases, the highest one-day jump since early March 2020, intensifying pressure on Chinese authorities to appear in control.

When as the WHO team departed for Wuhan, two of the 15 experts were barred from boarding their flight after testing positive for antibodies during a stopover in Singapore.

Mr Pompeo, meanwhile, continued rehashing allegations against the WHO first aired by President Trump, saying on Monday that the organisation "was corrupted by China's influence".

He repeated previous threats by President Trump to withdraw funding from the organisation, writing "we won't keep wasting taxpayer $$$ to subsidise Chinese influence operations."

By the time the WHO team is released from quarantine, the Trump administration will have left office, removing one source of pressure on the investigators. But another source will remain, however, as Chinese authorities seek to control the outcome of an investigation which is finally underway more than a year after the pandemic began./The Telegraph