Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing – September 4, 2020

By Sena Guler

ANKARA (AA) - 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’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday that 1,642 new coronavirus cases have raised the country's overall count to 274,943.

He said 1,211 more patients recovered over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 248,087.

The death toll in the country rose to 6,511 as 49 more people died over the past day, he added.

Former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and his wife have also contracted the novel coronavirus, Yildirim announced Thursday.

Also on Thursday, a group of aggrieved families in southeastern Turkey marked the first anniversary of a sit-in protest against the YPG/PKK terror group.

During the protest, one more family reunited with its son kidnapped by the PKK terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, a new anti-terrorism operation was launched in Turkey’s Mus, Bingol and Diyarbakir provinces, the Interior Ministry announced.

- COVID-19 updates worldwide

COVID-19 has claimed more than 867,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since emerging in Wuhan, China in December.

The US, Brazil, India and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

More than 26.2 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, including over 17.43 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

India on Thursday witnessed another single-day spike of 83,883 in new COVID-19 cases, sparking fear that the South Asian nation may soon become the worst-hit country in the world.

A record single-day spike took Israel’s total coronavirus cases past 120,000 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Iraq reported 4,755 new cases of the novel coronavirus, the country’s highest single-day increase, bringing the total number to 247,039.

More than 100,000 people in Spain have tested positive for the novel coronavirus over the past two weeks, the Ministry of Health confirmed Thursday.

South Africa registered 2,420 new cases of the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to more than 633,000, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

- Eastern Mediterranean

Turkey and Greece agreed to enter into technical talks at NATO to reduce the risk of incidents and accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean, the alliance’s chief said Thursday.

"Greece and Turkey are valued Allies, and NATO is an important platform for consultations on all issues that affect our shared security," Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

Following the NATO statement, Turkey urged Greece to support the alliance’s initiative under which the two countries will start technical talks on the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Global Journalism Council (GJC) Thursday condemned an anti-Turkish Greek website for threatening and calling Turkish journalists from Anadolu Agency "spies."

Anadolu Agency's Athens Representative Tevfik Durul and photojournalist Ayhan Mehmet flew from the Greek capital Athens to Rhodes and reached Meis Island by ship to cover recent developments there.

A Greece-based anti-Turkish website called Turkikanea.gr published a provocative editorial a few hours after they arrived.

- Other global developments

At least 43 crew and around 5,800 cattle were aboard a large freighter when it was reported missing, the Japan Times reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is interested in clarifying what happened to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and needs wider cooperation with Germany in this case.

The US is "deeply troubled" by the findings of German authorities regarding the alleged poisoning of Russia's Navalny.

"We're deeply troubled by the results released yesterday. Alexei Navalny's poisoning is completely reprehensible," said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.