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Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing – November 20, 2020

Daily briefing on novel coronavirus pandemic worldwide, Turkey, other developments

Ali Murat Alhas  | 20.11.2020 - Update : 20.11.2020
Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing – November 20, 2020

ANKARA

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey

Turkey registered 4,542 more patients afflicted by the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, according to figures by the Health Ministry; the country's overall coronavirus count now stands at 430,170 patients.

Turkish Foreign Ministry slammed a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, saying: "Behind this visit lies the aim of legitimizing Israel's illegal actions in the occupied Palestinian territories."

Country's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met top Afghan peace negotiator, he said the two discussed the developments in the intra-Afghan peace process along with bilateral ties.

At least 16 irregular migrants were held in northwestern Kocaeli province of Turkey, including 12 Pakistanis and Afghans. Due to its geographical location, Turkey has been one of the main routes for irregular migrants trying to cross to Europe.

Turkish security forces inflicted heavy blows on the PKK terror group in northern Iraq, "neutralizing" 82 of them over the past month. Turkish interior ministry said he believed PKK was to be wiped out in 1 year thanks to country's determination and successful anti-terror operations.

2020 Turkish Grand Prix venue Istanbul Park was awarded Grade 1 license by FIA, the world motosports body. The venue looks forward to hosting more top-level motosports activities with the highest safety certification.

COVID-19 developments around world

Britain, one of Europe's most-affected countries in terms of the outbreak, reported near 23,000 new coronavirus infections and over 500 fatalities from the deadly strain.

With over 23,600 new cases, Russian COVID-19 cases topped two million as of Thursday. The country's death toll rose to 34,850 with a record high of 463 fatalities over the past 24 hours.

On the other hand, Italy reported more than 36,000 new novel coronavirus infections, up 5.5% from the previous day. The national death toll now stands at 47,870.

Iran confirmed 476 more coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, raising the nationwide death toll to 43,417, according to the country's Health Ministry data.

Oxford vaccine shows the strong immune response in elderly; some 560 adults participated in a study and researchers say Phase 2 findings were "encouraging".

Germany's Robert Koch Institute issued reported 251 deaths and over 20,000 virus cases over the last 2 hours, saying COVID-19 remained "very serious".

Other developments worldwide

An Australian probe found that its special forces killed 39 Afghan civilians, country's chief of defense forces sought an apology from both Afghans and Australians on behalf of troops involved in crimes.

US senators seek to block Trump's $23B arms sale to UAE, warning that arms sale may flood the Middle East with more weapons and cause an arms race in the region.

At least three Somalian soldiers died and several more, including civilians, were wounded in a blast at a security checkpoint outside the country's capital. Somalia-based al-Shabaab, affiliated with the al-Qaeda terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack via its propaganda radio service Andalus.

Amnesty International urged the leaders of G20 countries to demand the immediate release of five jailed women's rights activists in an upcoming virtual summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia, saying: “G20 leaders attending this weekend's virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia must take the Saudi authorities to task for their shameless hypocrisy on women's rights.”

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