Anadolu’s Morning Briefing - March 17, 2023

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

The Pentagon on Thursday released a video of the incident involving a US military surveillance drone and a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea two days ago.

Some of those who were on board a helicopter that crashed in northern Iraq on Wednesday are members of the PKK terror group, Iraqi's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said on Thursday.

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto on Thursday visited Türkiye's Kahramanmaras province, the epicenter of the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes.
The Turkic world was among the first to help after the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Turkic states on Thursday voiced the need to develop a response mechanism against natural disasters during an extraordinary summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
Top diplomats from Ukraine and the US on Thursday discussed Kyiv's peace formula and ways to accelerate the delivery of artillery ammunition to the war-torn country during a phone conversation.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Moscow requested an explanation from Washington regarding its involvement in the explosions in the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Russia committed a wide range of violations in Ukraine, and many of them amount to war crimes, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said Thursday.

"Russian authorities have committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in various regions of Ukraine, many of which amount to war crimes," the independent international commission said in its latest report.

A ceasefire in Ukraine would only serve to "ratify" Russia's territorial gains against its eastern European neighbor, the White House said Thursday.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously extended on Thursday the mandate for its assistance mission in Afghanistan for a year.

China said Thursday that Washington had not provided any evidence that the popular video-sharing app TikTok is a threat to US national security.
In an apparent warming up of bilateral ties, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday flew to Japan for a two-day official trip, the first by the country's head of state since 2011.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday decided to use Article 49.3 of the constitution to adopt the controversial pension reform without a vote in parliament.

Tempers are fraying fast and patience is running thin in Paris as thousands of tons of putrid rubbish pile up on the streets of the French capital.

Approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in Libya has gone missing, UN nuclear inspectors said.

The European Central Bank increased its policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.5% on Thursday.

US space agency NASA and its partner Axiom Space showcased on Wednesday new spacesuits designed for the Artemis III Moon Surface Mission, currently planned for 2025.