Anadolu Agency’s Morning Briefing - Feb. 23, 2023

ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments around the world.

The death toll from the powerful Feb. 6 earthquakes in southern Türkiye rose to 43,556, said Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

China and Japan began a security dialogue for the first time in four years Wednesday, with the goal of stabilizing bilateral relations, local media said.

The Committee on International Affairs in Russia's lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, recommended that the lower house adopt a bill to suspend Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said achieving peace with Saudi Arabia would end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

China accused the US of pushing Taiwan’s ruling party for independence, warning that it will only bring disaster to Taiwan, state run-media reported.

Around 1.1 million Ukrainian refugees have entered Bulgaria since the war broke out in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, said a senior UN official.

Germany declared two Iranian diplomats persona non grata in response to Tehran’s death sentence to German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd.

If the US stops supplying weapons to Kyiv, the war in Ukraine will end, said the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev.

France is in a "state of alert" over a drought risk this summer, said the minister of ecological transition.

British judges ruled that the removal of UK citizenship of Shamima Begum, who joined Daesh/ISIS in 2015, was "lawful."

Senior officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan met in the Afghan capital Kabul to discuss ways to ease diplomatic and border tensions between the two neighbors.

Iran summoned the British interim charge d’affaires to protest London’s policy of “baseless” accusations against Tehran.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said more than 83,000 civilians fled the violence in Somalia’s northern town of Lasanod and arrived in Ethiopia’s Somali state.

US, South Korean and Japanese forces held a trilateral missile defense exercise in international waters of the East Sea, said the South Korean military.

At least 160 suspects were remanded in custody across Türkiye over the collapse of buildings following the Feb. 6 deadly quakes, according to judicial sources.

A severe drought is projected to leave approximately 5.4 million people in Kenya without adequate access to food and water between March and June 2023, an international humanitarian group said.

Nearly 60 miners went missing after a huge coal mine collapsed in China’s Inner Mongolia, state-run media reported.

The Russian parliament approved a bill on the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

China urged the United Nations to investigate the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi and said that Russian-Chinese relations are important for maintaining global stability.

Tunisian President Kais Saied has called for ending the flow of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to his country, citing demography change concerns.

US Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the Russian economy continues to "deteriorate" through Western sanctions on Moscow amid its war against Ukraine.

At least 5,909 irregular migrants died in 2022 in the quest for a “better life,” a UN report said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to New York to join a UN Security Council meeting of foreign ministers to discuss Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.

US first lady Jill Biden arrived in Namibia, beginning her five-day visit to Africa to strengthen US partnerships on the continent.

Russia's decision to suspend a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US was a "big mistake," US President Joe Biden told a meeting in Warsaw.

Canada's spy agency warned that foreign players like Russia and China will attack the country's key artificial intelligence (AI) sector, according to a report.

Families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US cannot seize $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves, a federal judge in New York has ruled.

Nineteen countries have set up 22 field hospitals in southern Türkiye, which was jolted by two strong earthquakes on Feb. 6, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

The UN chief said that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are “illegal” under international law, warning it “must stop."

Türkiye on Wednesday “strongly” condemned an attack by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus that left at least 10 Palestinians dead and more than 100 injured.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that there have been at least 802 attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 jolted the China-Tajikistan border early Thursday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).