ANKARA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “Turkey is in no rush to stage a new military operation against armed Kurdish militants.”

But regional actors have voiced their concerns over the potential Turkish offensive against the towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij.

Erdogan told journalists in Madrid “no need for hurry. We don’t need to do that."

The stakes are high. Experts believe that Turkey still lacks Russian backing for a military intervention against Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which Ankara considers to be a terror group with direct links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Oytun Orhan, coordinator of Syria studies at the ORSAM think tank in Ankara, said that Russia’s failure to back the operation remains its major obstacle.

WASHINGTON, 03 July 2022, (TON): US stocks have seen their worst first half of a year since 1970, as concerns grow over how steps to curb inflation will affect economic growth.

In the last six months, the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 20.6%, while other major US indexes also dropped sharply.

Stocks in the UK, mainland Europe and Asia have also suffered steep losses.

It comes as central banks around the world are trying to rein in soaring living costs, with prices of essential goods like food and fuel jumping.

Some economists expect the US, which is the world's biggest economy, to go into a recession as early as this year as interest rates continue to rise.

DUBAI, 03 July 2022, (TON): Emirates new agency reported “the UAE has sent three planes of medical supplies, including a 1,000 square-meter-field hospital, to aid the injured of Afghanistan's earthquake that killed over 1,000 people and wounded scores more.”

The statement read “the dispatched hospital includes 75 beds and two operating rooms equipped with medical supplies and devices.”

The planes also carried 16 metric tonnes of equipment and a medical team to operate the hospital and provide urgent medical services.

The UAE earlier established an air bridge to transport aid in the wake of the disaster.

CAIRO, 03 July 2022, (TON): Khaled El-Anany, Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, has held talks with Ivana Jelinic, president of the Federation of Italian Tourism Companies, as part of efforts to attract more Italian tourists to Egypt.

The meeting was held at the Egyptian Embassy in Rome during El-Anany’s visit to the Italian capital.

Egypt’s plans to attract more tourists from various markets, including Italy, were reviewed at the meeting, which also discussed organizing a number of introductory visits for leading Italian tour operators and media representatives.

These visits will include Sharm El-Sheikh and other tourist cities in South Sinai in preparation for the coming winter season.

WASHINGTON, 03 July 2022, (TON): A senior US official said “the United States has not seen China evade sanctions or provide military equipment to Russia.”

He added that enforcement measures taken earlier in the week targeted certain Chinese companies, not the government.

The Commerce Department added five companies in China to a trade blacklist for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defense industrial base as Moscow carries out its war in Ukraine.

US officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China offer material support for Russia’s war effort, but have consistently said “they have yet to detect overt Chinese military and economic backing of Moscow.”

A senior Biden administration official told “China is not providing material support. This is normal course-of-business enforcement action against entities that have been backfilling for Russia.”

ATHENS, 03 July 2022, (TON): Several dozen Romanian and Bulgarian firefighters took up their posts in Greece, the first members of a European force being deployed to the country to provide backup in case of major wildfires during the summer.

More than 200 firefighters and equipment from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway and Finland will be on standby during the hottest months of July and August in Greece, where a spate of wildfires caused devastation last summer.

A group of 28 Romanian firefighters with eight vehicles, and 16 firefighters from Bulgaria with four vehicles, were the first to arrive for the two-month mission, financed and coordinated under the European Union’s civil protection mechanism.

Greek Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides said “we thank you very much for coming to help us during a difficult summer for our country, and for proving that European solidarity is not just theoretical, it’s real.”

MADRID, 03 July 2022, (TON): Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was meeting in Madrid in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since the Second World War.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered Europe’s peace and driven NATO to pour troops and weapons into eastern Europe on a scale not seen since the Cold War.

Members of the alliance have also sent billions in military and civilian aid to Ukraine. The 30 NATO leaders will hear directly from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is likely to ask them to do even more when he addresses the gathering by video link.

Money could be a sensitive issue just nine of NATO’s 30 members currently meet the organization’s target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.

The war has already triggered a big increase in NATO’s forces in the east, and allies are expected to agree at the summit to increase the strength of the alliance’s rapid reaction force nearly eightfold, from 40,000 to 300,000 troops by next year.

JERUSALEM, 03 July 2022, (TON): The Israeli military on Saturday said it shot down three unmanned aircraft launched by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah heading toward an area where an Israeli gas platform was recently installed in the Mediterranean Sea.

The launch of the aircraft appeared to be an attempt by Hezbollah to influence US-brokered negotiations between Israel and Lebanon over their maritime border, an area that is rich in natural gas.

In a statement, the Israeli said the aircraft were spotted early on and did not pose an “imminent threat.”

Nonetheless, the incident drew a stern warning from Israel’s caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid.

Lapid said in his first address to the nation since taking office “I stand before you at this moment and say to everyone seeking our demise, from Gaza to Tehran, from the shores of Lebanon to Syria: Don’t test us.”

“Israel knows how to use its strength against every threat, against every enemy.”

JAKARTA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Indonesian officials have said they are hopeful of increasing the country’s exports to the Middle East after the signing of a new wide-ranging economic pact with the UAE.

Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulfikli Hasan and UAE Economy Minister Abdullah bin Touq Al-Marri signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in Abu Dhabi, after talks aimed at eliminating tariffs and boosting investment between the two countries were launched last September.

Bilateral trade volume reached almost $4 billion in 2021, according to data from Indonesia’s Trade Ministry, showcasing an increase of nearly 38 percent from the previous year, when it was worth $2.9 billion.

The agreement is Indonesia’s first with a Gulf country and the UAE’s first with a Southeast Asian nation.

KYIV, 03 July 2022, (TON): Fighting intensified on Saturday for Lysychansk, Ukraine’s last bastion in the strategic eastern province of Luhansk, while blasts shook a southern city after the civilian toll from Russian strikes climbed in towns well behind the front lines.

Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russian television that “Lysychansk has been brought under control,” but added “unfortunately, it is not yet liberated.”

Russian media showed videos of Luhansk militia parading in Lysychansk streets waving flags and cheering, but Ukraine National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian national television the city remained in Ukrainian hands.

Muzychuk said “now there are fierce battles near Lysychansk, however, fortunately, the city is not surrounded and is under the control of the Ukrainian army.”