NO NATO ENTRY FOR SWEDEN UNLESS ANTI-TURKISH PROTESTS STOP: ERDOGAN

ANKARA: Sweden should not expect a green light from Ankara on its NATO membership bid at the Western alliance's summit next month unless it prevents anti-Turkey protests in Stockholm, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Turkey cannot approach Sweden's NATO bid positively while "terrorists" were protesting in Stockholm, and Turkey's position would be made clear once again in talks with Swedish officials in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters on a flight returning from Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

Erdogan spoke as officials from Turkey, Sweden, Finland and NATO met on Wednesday in Ankara for talks to try to overcome Turkish objections holding up Sweden's NATO membership bid.

Sweden's chief negotiator Oscar Stenstrom said the talks with Turkish officials had been good and that discussions aimed at overcoming Ankara's objections would continue, though no fresh date was yet set.

"It's my job to persuade our counterpart that we have done enough. I think we have," Stenstrom said. "But Turkey is not ready to make a decision yet and thinks that they need to have more answers to the questions they have."

In a statement, the Turkish presidency said the level of progress by Sweden under a trilateral deal agreed in Madrid last year was discussed in the meeting. The parties agreed to continue working on the "prospective concrete steps" for Sweden's NATO membership, the statement said.

BELARUS STARTS TAKING N-DELIVERIES

Belarusian President  Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The deployment is Moscow's first move of such warheads - shorter-range less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield - outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency's Telegram channel.

"The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he said, speaking on a road in a forest clearing with military vehicles parked nearby and some kind of military storage facility visible in the background.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.

RUSSIA BIGGEST THREAT TO EUROPE: GERMANY

Germany announced its first National Security Strategy Wednesday, calling Russia the biggest threat to Europe and warning about growing rivalry with China. The document provides an overview of Berlin’s foreign policy, which has shifted towards prioritising security over economic interests since Russia’s Ukraine invasion. “This is a major change in how we deal with security policy,” moving away from military strategy towards an integrated security concept, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

HK PROTEST SONG OFF STREAMING SITES, SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Hong Kong : A popular Hong Kong protest song was no longer available on Wednesday on several major music streaming sites and social media platforms, after the government sought an injunction to ban the tune.

“Glory to Hong Kong” rose to popularity during the 2019 pro-democracy protests, and became an unofficial protest anthem.

In 2020, the government outlawed protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” over secessionist connotations, and the song was widely considered to be banned in the city as its lyrics contained parts of the slogan.

Hong Kong, once a bastion of free speech and expression, has come under tighter scrutiny by Beijing after the unrest in 2019. Since then, its political system has undergone a major overhaul to ensure that only “patriots” loyal to Beijing can hold office. More than 250 people have been arrested under a sweeping national security law passed in 2020 that critics say is aimed at suppressing dissent. The song rose to top of Apple iTunes' charts last week after Hong Kong government sought an injunction from courts to ban “unlawful acts” related to the song and any derivatives, including lyrics and melody.

IMF BAILOUT STUCK, PAK MAY DEFAULT

Islamabad : The IMF has raised serious objections over Pakistan’s budget for 2023-24, lessening chances that the global lender will revive the loan programme that the cash-starved country has been seeking to meet its international debt obligations. Since the IMF programme — which has been delayed since late last year over a policy framework — expires on June 30, Pakistan has been racing against time to implement measures to reach an agreement with the IMF which would not only lead to a disbursement of $1. 2 billion, part of the $6. 7 billion bailout package but also unlock inflows of funds from other multilateral lenders and friendly countries.

The IMFis sticking to its tough conditions while holding back release of funds as it pushes Islamabad even harder toincrease revenue. The PM Shehbaz Sharif-led government, however, has been making a final effort to revive the country’s IMF programme, with a financing gap of $2 billion and its exchange-rate policy among the biggest hurdles.

In a last ditch-effort, finance minister Ishaq Dar held a virtual meeting with IMF mission chief Nathan Porter on Tuesday to secure the IMF programme. The meeting ended inconclusively. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, junior minister for finance, said the IMF was not satisfied with the budgetary framework for 2023-24 and another round of meetings would now be held to address the IMF’s concerns.

Without the IMF on board, the risk ofPakistan defaulting on its foreign debt repayments has sharpened. The country’s foreign reserves have fallen critically low, below $3 billion, after it repaid a $1 billion commercial loan to China earlier than its maturity. The low reserves, which barely provide cover for three weeks of imports, may mount pressure on the rupee against the US dollar, which was trading at Rs 287 against the dollar in the interbank market on Wednesday.

Moody’s Investors Service warned on Wednesday that Pakistan is closer to a sovereign default. “There are increasing risks that Pakistan may be unable to complete the IMF programme that expires at the end of June,” said Grace Lim, a sovereign analyst with the rating company in Singapore. “Without an IMF programme, Pakistan could default, given its very weak reserves,” Bloomberg cited Lim as saying.

Pakistan is staring at about $23 billion in external debt payments for fiscal 2023-24. The amount is roughly five times its reserves and most of it is taken from concessional multilateral and bilateral sources.

SEVENTY-NINE DEAD AND HUNDREDS MISSING IN 'ONE OF GREECE'S BIGGEST MIGRANT TRAGEDIES'

At least 79 people have died and more than 100 have been rescued after their fishing vessel capsized off the coast of southern Greece.

But survivors and Greek officials say that hundreds more migrants were on board.

The government says this is one of Greece's biggest migrant tragedies, and has declared three days of mourning.

The boat went down about 80 km (50 miles) south-west of Pylos after the coastguard said it had refused help.

The coastguard said the boat had been spotted in international waters late on Tuesday by an aircraft belonging to EU border agency Frontex. No-one on board was wearing life jackets, it added.

Quoting a timeline provided by the shipping ministry, Greek public broadcaster ERT said authorities had made contact with the boat via satellite phone on several occasions and offered help, but were repeatedly told: "We want nothing more than to go on to Italy."

A few hours later, around 01:00 (23:00 GMT), someone on the boat reportedly notified the Greek coastguard that the vessel's engine had malfunctioned.

Shortly after, the boat capsized, taking only ten to fifteen minutes to sink completely. A search and rescue operation was triggered but complicated by strong winds.

Alarm Phone, an emergency helpline for migrants in trouble at sea, said the coastguard was "aware of the ship being in distress for hours before any help was sent", adding that authorities "had been informed by different sources" that the boat was in trouble.

It added that people may have been scared to encounter Greek authorities because they were aware of the country's "horrible and systematic pushback practices".

The boat was apparently going to Italy from Libya, with most of those on board believed to be men in their 20s.

‘CHINA WANTS STRATEGIC TIES WITH PALESTINE’

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that his country was establishing “strategic” relations with Palestinians ahead of talks with its leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing.

Mr. Abbas will be in the Chinese capital until Friday, Beijing has said, on his fifth official visit to the world’s second-largest economy.

‘Global changes’

“Facing a century of global changes and new developments to the situation in the Middle East, China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Palestinian side,” Mr. Xi said during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.

“Today, we will jointly announce the establishment of a China-Palestine strategic partnership, which will be an important milestone in the history of bilateral relations,” Mr. Xi added at the ceremony.

Mr. Abbas arrived in Beijing on Monday to hold talks with top Chinese leaders including President Xi and Premier Li Qiang.

Beijing has sought to boost its ties in West Asia, challenging U.S. influence — efforts that have sparked unease in Washington.

DOMINANT GOOGLE EXPLOITED AD MARKET: EU

The European Commission accused Google on Wednesday of abusing its dominance of the online advertisement market and recommended the U.S. company sell part of its ad services to ensure fair competition.

The EU executive invited Google to now respond to this preliminary finding. If the commission maintains its view after that, it could levy a fine of up to 10% of Google’s annual global revenues. The charges add pressure on Google over its dominance of the ad tech industry as it comes just months after U.S. authorities sued the company for the same issue.

Google’s vice president for global ads, Dan Taylor, said in a statement that the company disagrees with the commission’s announcement.

He stressed Google was committed to “creating value” for advertisers in a “highly competitive” market and said “the commission’s investigation focuses on a narrow aspect of our advertising business”.