Anadolu Agency’s Morning Briefing - Jan. 12, 2023

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

A suspect wielding a knife who injured several people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris has been neutralized, the interior minister confirmed.

China suspended its free transit policy with South Korea and Japan, taking yet another strong stance in response to the two countries' restrictions on China travelers due to the COVID-19 issue.

With no letup in the so-called “war against illegal drugs,” at least 61 people were killed in the Philippines in the last six months of the last year under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Wagner Group, a private Russian military company, took control of Ukraine's Soledar city, the head of the mercenary group claimed.

Constantine II, the former and last king of Greece, has died at the age of 82.

The number of Ukrainians who crossed the border into neighboring Poland since the war with Russia began has shot past 9 million, the Polish Border Guards said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said there will not be a third world war.

To boost bilateral trade to around $1 billion, Cambodia has sought investments from Türkiye in agriculture, storage and processing facilities for exports to the EU and other nations.

NATO and the EU agreed Wednesday to establish a joint task force on “resilience and critical infrastructure protection.”

South Korea and the US plan to hold tabletop joint military exercises next month under the scenario of the use of a nuclear weapon by North Korea.

Iraq's envoy to Tehran was summoned by Iran's Foreign Ministry in response to Iraq calling a regional football tournament the "Arabian Gulf Cup.”

Flights were temporarily grounded in the US on Wednesday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a computer system outage.

Bangladesh’s main opposition political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), organized a huge rally in the capital Dhaka, demanding the formation of a non-partisan caretaker government to hold free and fair elections.

The number of passengers served by Türkiye's airports in 2022 soared 42.1% from the previous year to 182.3 million, said the transport and infrastructure minister.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed countries which have become a shelter for terrorists who are fleeing Turkish justice.

The UN human rights chief warned that the US administration's new border enforcement measures risk undermining the basic foundations of international human rights and refugee law.

Any UN peacekeeping mission in Karabakh can only be possible if both Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, vowed to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem again amid tension in the Palestinian territories.

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said Wednesday that Washington opposes Israeli settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories.

The Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved in a preliminary reading a bill to withdraw citizenship from Palestinian prisoners who received financial aid from the Palestinian Authority.

Poland plans to contribute a company of tanks to Ukraine as part of efforts to form an international coalition supporting Kyiv in its war with Russia, President Andrzej Duda said.

The emergency rooms of dozens of hospitals in Spain are overflowing, with patients in various cities having to wait days to be admitted to hospital.

German authorities started to clear a major protest camp in the village of Lutzerath following clashes between police and climate activists.

Seventeen people are dead from storms that have forced many to evacuate their homes as incessant rain that started late last month continued to batter the US state of California.

The UK and Japan signed a "landmark agreement" allowing them to deploy military forces on each another's territory.

Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has been named commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said.

Iran has sentenced to death a former senior official on charges of espionage for the British intelligence agency MI6, the judiciary-linked Mizan News said.

A Palestinian youth died of wounds he sustained from Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

Around 1 million people came to Türkiye and spent approximately $2 billion on hair transplants last year, said the head of the Turkish Health Tourism Association.

Newly sworn-in New York lawmaker George Santos faced calls for his "immediate resignation" from Republican leaders for lying about his background to be elected to the US Congress.

More than 150 organizations sent a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to “prioritize closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”

The US will station a new Marine unit in Japan's southern island of Okinawa, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

A second set of classified documents from US President Joe Biden's time as vice president were found at a separate location from where records were first discovered in November.

The US and Japan said Wednesday that China is the "greatest" strategic challenge for both nations.