Diary

ANKARA (AA) - Here are the main topics Anadolu Agency’s English Desk plans to cover on Thursday, August 1, 2019 (coverage may change depending on developing/breaking stories):

TURKEY

ANKARA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to chair Supreme Military Council meeting at presidential palace, followed by a luncheon with council members.

GERMANY

BERLIN - Monitoring developments after Germany turned down a U.S. request to join a naval mission to patrol the waters of the Persian Gulf.

THE NETHERLANDS

AMSTERDAM - Burqa ban across the Netherlands due to come into effect

RUSSIA

MOSCOW - Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to hold a news conference.

KAZAKHSTAN

NUR SULTAN - The 13th round of Syria peace talks to begin with preliminary bilateral and trilateral meetings in Kazakhstan.

SUDAN

KHARTOUM - Opposition to stage ‘million-people’ protest to call Transitional Military Council (TMC) to hand over power.

SYRIA

ALEPPO/IDLIB - Monitoring developments in Syrian civil war.

SPORTS

SLOVENIA - Turkish football club Yeni Malatyaspor to be hosted by Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana in the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round's second leg match.

SPECIAL REPORT

Iranians pin hope on new British PM to defuse tension

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN (AA) – With Boris Johnson taking over as Britain's new prime minister, Iranians are looking forward to him to defuse simmering tensions between Tehran and London over the seizure of oil tankers.

SPECIAL REPORT

Militancy mars Afghanistan’s electoral campaign

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - Surrounded by grim ambiguities amid brazen terrorist attacks and rejuvenated peace talks between the U.S. and Taliban, the campaign for key presidential polls lingers in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

SPECIAL REPORT

Brexit casts shadow over Kashmir settlement model

By Iftikhar Gilani

ANKARA (AA) - Soon after taking office, new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson threw down the gauntlet, calling for total abolition of the Irish border backstop, which would effectively reverse the commitments of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that paved the way for resolution of the Northern Ireland issue and 700-year British-Irish conflict.