Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing

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 a total of 4,215 more COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the country's overall infection count to over 425,000. The death toll stands at 11,028 while recoveries topped 361,000.

In an effort to curb the spread of the disease, Turkey decided to resume its distance learning education system as of Nov. 20 until Jan. 4 of the next year.

Two Turkish soldiers were martyred and another was wounded in a vehicle accident in northern Iraq in the Operation Claw area. The Ministry of National Defense extended its condolences to the families of the victims.

The ministry also said that six YPG/PKK terrorists were "neutralized” when they attempted to infiltrate Turkey’s cross-border anti-terror operations region in northern Syria.

A British Eurofighter Typhoon jet and two Turkish F-16s conducted their first training flight as part of NATO training activities, the ministry reported.

Dozens of irregular migrants seeking to cross into Europe were held by Turkish authorities in Bitlis province. Among them were 49 Afghans, three Bangladeshis and one Pakistani.

Meanwhile, Turkish Coastal Guard units conducted an operation and rescued a total of 25 asylum seekers who were pushed back by Greece and left to die in the Aegean Sea. Recent months have seen multiple reports of Greek forces illegally pushing back boats of asylum seekers, endangering the passengers in the process.

32-year-old Fatma Uruk, a Turkish diver, set the world record in the women's Variable Weight Without Fins category in Mexico. The previous record-holder was another Turkish athlete, Derya Can.

An historical artifact, a Roman Zeus statue, was seized in Turkey when security forces stopped a pick-up truck during a traffic check in Zonguldak province in the Black Sea region of the country.

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake shook Turkey’s Corum province. According to the country's disaster agency, the quake occurred at a depth of 10.7 kilometers below the surface.

COVID-19 developments across globe

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Africa has surpassed two million, while the overall death count reached 48,112, according to Worldometer, a statistical website.

Russia registered a new record number of coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday while daily recoveries outnumbered new cases for the first time in the past two months.

The UK reported 529 deaths and more than 19,600 new cases. The virus claimed nearly 3,000 lives over the past week, 11% more than the previous week.

Italy's coronavirus deaths hit a new daily high as 753 peopled succumbed to the disease. The country's death toll stands at 47,217, the second-highest in Europe after the UK.

US drugmaker Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech announced Wednesday that their coronavirus vaccine candidate "met all of the study’s primary efficacy endpoints" and is ready to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration "within days."

Other developments around world

Five people were killed in Nigeria when the terror group Boko Haram downed a helicopter in the Bama region of Borno state.

The UN sent 13 truckloads of humanitarian aid to Idlib, a northern province of Syria where millions of people remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance due to internal conflicts.

Greece ordered its coast guard to push asylum seekers to Turkish territorial waters, according to a string of emails exchanged between the EU border agency Frontex and the Greek coast guard.

Thousands of German demonstrators gathered near parliament in Berlin, defying social distancing and masking orders. The police broke up an anti-lockdown protest using pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the protestors.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Armenia would be held accountable in the international courts for the crimes it committed on Azerbaijani lands.