US has new Defense Secretary; Türkiye arrests thousands of illegal immigrants

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned on July 24 that he would destroy any US aircraft that deliberately violated his country's airspace. President Rouhani affirmed that his country does not want war or escalation of tensions, but will do everything to maintain regional order. "We will not allow anyone to destabilize the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz," Mr. Rouhani added.

Iran's leader stressed that the Strait of Hormuz is not a place for countries to "play with international rules", and praised the capture of the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying it was a campaign demonstrating professionalism.

Türkiye arrests thousands of illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants arrested by Türkiye. Photo: hurriyetdailynews

In a two-week crackdown on illegal immigrants in Istanbul, Turkish security forces arrested 6,122 illegal immigrants.

In a statement on July 24, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the operation had been underway since mid-July. Among those arrested were 2,600 people from Afghanistan and many Syrians. The illegal Syrian migrants were transferred to refugee camps, some in the border province of Hatay.

France passes law forcing Facebook, Google to pay for newspapers

With 81 votes in favor and only 1 vote against, the French National Assembly members officially passed the bill on copyright for press and media agencies. According to the content of this bill, press and media agencies have the right to request units providing software, applications for searching and exploiting information on the internet or social networking sites to pay when these units quote or re-post their products.

Accordingly, large corporations such as Google or Facebook will have to share a portion of the income they get from internet users with press and media agencies, when internet users refer to the content that is quoted or reposted on these search engines or social networks. The copyright law for press and media also stipulates that journalists, reporters, and direct authors of articles, videos or audio products will also receive a portion of the remuneration, from the remuneration that Google or Facebook pays to the governing agency.

China releases defense white paper

On the morning of July 24, China published a White Paper on National Defense, comprehensively and systematically introducing the characteristics, principles and connotations of China's national defense policy in the new era. The White Paper, titled "China's National Defense in the New Era", consists of 27,000 words, divided into 4 parts with 6 main contents, introducing the international security situation, China's defensive national defense policy in the new era, the military's missions and tasks in the new era, China's national defense and military in the process of reform, reasonable and moderate defense spending and actively serving the building of a community with a common destiny for mankind.

This is the 10th Defense White Paper published by the Chinese government since 1998, and also the first comprehensive Defense White Paper since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.