WASHINGTON, 19 September 2021, (TON): Several hundred people gathered outside the walls of the US Congress to speak out in support of the participants in the storming of the Capitol, which took place on January 6.

In connection with the rally, the authorities have strengthened security measures in the center of Washington, law enforcement officers have been put on high alert.

Demonstrators Justice for J6 (a call to justice for the participants in the January riots) demand fair treatment in the courts for more than 600 suspects in the storming of the Capitol.

According to the TASS correspondent, by the beginning of the demonstration, the number of journalists, including representatives of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Asia and Africa, and law enforcement officers was comparable to the number of protesters who came to the Congress.

However, then the number of demonstrators reached several hundred. Not far from them were several people of opposing political views, accusing the protesters of betraying American ideals and often provoking them.

The police stopped all such attempts. At the moment, no serious incidents or riots have been noticed.

Nevertheless, some journalists put on helmets at the rally in case of emergency. The protest is being led by the right-wing nonprofit Look Ahead America, led by Matt Brainard, who served on the campaign headquarters of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. Earlier, Brainard said that his organization is “dedicated to protecting patriotic Americans who have been forgotten by the US government.” He stressed that the demonstration will be peaceful and “no one is going to take weapons with them.”

Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said that congressional violence against the protests of a number of American far-right organizations is most likely due to clashes in the area by demonstrators with diametrically opposed political views.

RIYADH, 19 September 2021, (TON): Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan held a “brotherly” meeting at the Red Sea.

Director of the Private Office of the Saudi Crown Prince, Badr Al Asaker, shared a picture of the three on Twitter.

Al Asaker wrote on Twitter “a friendly and brotherly meeting in the Red Sea brings together Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, and the UAE National Security Adviser in the UAE, Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.”

Last month, the UAE's national security adviser had also met Qatar's emir in Doha in the first such visit in four years following this year's deal to end a bitter dispute.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel embargo on Qatar since mid-2017 accusing it of supporting terrorism. Qatar had denied it, saying the embargo aimed to undermine its sovereignty.

NEW DELHI, 19 September 2021, (TON): The French foreign ministry said “France’s foreign affairs minister has agreed with his Indian counterpart to work on a programme to promote a truly multilateral international order.”

The ministry said in a statement “Jean-Yves Le Drian and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also agreed during a call to deepen their strategic partnership, “based on a relationship of political trust between two great sovereign nations of the Indo-Pacific.”

It added that the two ministers agreed to meet in New York next week, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, to work “on a common programme of concrete actions to defend together a truly multilateral international order.”

For his part, Jaishankar said in a Twitter post they discussed “developments in the Indo-Pacific and Afghanistan.”

France has pushed for several years for a European strategy for boosting economic, political and defence ties in the region stretching from India and China to Japan and New Zealand. The European Union unveiled this week its plan for the Indo-Pacific.

DHAKA, 19 September 2021, (TON): As many as 7,900 farmers in the districts have been affected by the floods.

Flash floods in Faridpur have damaged cash crops worth more than Tk10 crore, affecting nearly 100,000 hectares of land.

According to the district’s Agricultural Extension Department (AED) office, over 7,900 farmers have been affected after the loss of 3,945 tons of crops in the floods this year.

The AED said that crops on over 900 hectares of land had been completely ruined. The damaged crops include 621 hectares of Ropa Amon, two hectares of Aaush (Ufsi), nine hectares of local Aaush, 195 hectares of sown Amon paddy, seven hectares of banana orchards, 15 hectares of green chillies and 54 hectares of vegetables.

According to Ripon Prasad Saha, an agriculture officer in the district’s Alfadanga Upazila, vegetables on 10 hectares of land have completely been ruined by floods.

He added that the amount relating to the damage was 10.52% of the total vegetable cultivation in the entire upazila.

Siddique Jamadar, 46, from Tajuddin Matubbar North Channel Union had planted banana trees on 15 acres of land.

The floods submerged his orchard and by the time the water receded, the trees had started dying.

A farmer in the same union, Abdul Majid, 62, had sown Aaush paddy on 33% of his land but nearly 75% percent of the crops were destroyed in the floods.

DHAKA, 19 September 2021, (TON): In a letter to the UN secretary-general, Dhaka made it clear that maritime boundary with India was determined by the Permanent Court of Attribution in its verdict on July 7, 2014.

Bangladesh has objected to Indian claims on the continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal, completely disregarding the assertion made by New Delhi.

In a letter to the United Nations secretary-general on September 13, Bangladesh made it clear that the maritime boundary with India was determined by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in its verdict on July 7, 2014.

In April, India made some claims with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on Bangladesh’s assertion on the continental shelf. New Delhi said that some of the areas claimed by Bangladesh belonged to India.

At that time, Bangladesh objected to the Indian claims, saying that there was no legal basis on the assertion made by India.

Reminding that the boundary was determined by the verdict on July 7, 2014, the letter to the UN chief said, “The Government of the Republic of India published gazette notifications (Ministry of External affairs Notification, New Delhi, G.S.R. 334(E) dated 23rd March 2016 & GSR 381 (E) dated 29 Mar 2016, respectively) reflecting the Award of the arbitral tribunal related to the single maritime boundary line between Bangladesh and India, including the intersection point of the two maritime boundary lines at precisely the same coordinates as identified by Bangladesh in its amended submission.”

“There is therefore no dispute between Bangladesh and India as to the limits of Bangladesh’s entitlement to the continental shelf beyond 200 M in the Bay of Bengal.”

The letter said that the Commission (CLCS) has no role to play in the determination of the extent of the so-called “Grey area” where the Exclusive Economic Zone of India overlaps with the continental shelf beyond 200 M of Bangladesh. The Commission’s role is limited to determining that Bangladesh has an entitlement in the continental shelf beyond 200 M and the limit(s) of that entitlement.

NAYPYITAW, 19 September 2021, (TON): According to a leader of the armed group “five members of the anti-junta Chaung-U People’s Defence Force (PDF) were killed in a clash with the military near the Sagaing Region town of the same name.”

The battle occurred in Methekyo village, two miles west of Chaung-U, and the Myanmar army reportedly deployed a helicopter in its fight against the PDF.

After a military-owned Mytel telecommunications tower was blown up by resistance forces around 5 miles west of Chaung-U, the military began raiding villages in the area.

In retaliation, the local PDF launched a guerilla attack against the junta’s troops outside Methekyo in what became an hour-long battle.

The PDF leader said “yesterday, the junta troops raided some villages, so the local defence forces carried out landmine attacks against them.”

He added that a Myanmar army airstrike soon followed. They used a Huskie to shoot [from above] and one of us was killed instantly. I think they also had a sniper.

WASHINGTON, 19 September 2021, (TON): The United States deeply regrets the decision by the Russian Federation to block consensus to extend the OSCE Border Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk, which was announced by the OSCE Chair in Office, in Vienna.

The OSCE Border Observer Mission plays a valuable role in providing transparency on movements of people and material between the Russian Federation and areas in eastern Ukraine, controlled by Russia-led forces.

This small mission has been in operation since July 2014, and its work is fundamentally connected to the commitment Russia made when it signed the Minsk Protocol in September 2014, which “ensure permanent monitoring on the Ukrainian Russian state border and verification by the OSCE.”

Russia’s objection to continuing the Border Observer Mission’s mandate raises deep concerns about its intentions to fulfill its international commitments and engage constructively with Ukraine. 

DHAKA, 19 September 2021, (TON): The Prime minister's Private Sector Industry and Investment Advisor Salman F Rahman on Saturday called upon Saudi Arabia to give duty-free access to some 137 Bangladeshi products to the Saudi market.

Salman, who is now in Saudi Arabia, made the announcement at a virtual meeting with Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi.

A press release said “the Prime Minister's Adviser mentioned that Saudi Arabia imports RMG, leather goods, plastic goods, frozen fish and pharmaceuticals from Bangladesh adding that Saudi Arabia could take necessary steps to import halal meat from Bangladesh and thus could minimize the trade imbalance between the two countries.”

The current bilateral trade volume between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia is $1.3 billion.

Extending greetings of the prime minister to the Saudi Badsha and Crown Prince, Salman Rahman put emphasis on more Saudi investment in Bangladesh to materialize the goal of 2041.

The prime minister’s adviser informed the Saudi commerce minister that Bangladesh is ready to set up a special economic zone exclusively for the Saudi investors with necessary facilities.

Following a request from the adviser to invest in various mega projects of Bangladesh under the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the Saudi minister assured him they would be considering the matter. In this context, Salman sought Saudi investment for setting up Dhaka to Payra Port rail connection as well as transforming Cox's Bazar into an international standard tourism hub.

NAYPYITAW, 19 September 2021, (TON): According to representatives of the groups “five policemen were killed morning when three defence forces jointly attacked a police station in Tedim, northern Chin State.

The Chinland Defence Force chapter based in the three areas of Kalay Township, Kabaw Valley and Gangaw Township (CDF-KKG) issued a statement confirming the assault on Khaikam police station, describing it as a reminder to the junta’s troops to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and fight alongside the resistance to topple the coup regime.

The statement said that in the attack, the CDF-KKG had collaborated with the People’s Defence Force Zoland and the Civic Defence Militia.

Ko John, a CDF spokesperson, told Myanmar Now that they plan to continue attacking the army and police, particularly since the National Unity Government (NUG) declared the start of a “resistance war” on the military dictatorship on September 7 and encouraged targeted attacks on all pillars of junta rule.

“We have further targeted military targets, including soldiers and police. We have discussed arresting and shooting them wherever they are found,” he said of the group’s actions since the declaration by the shadow government. 

More than 20 policemen and seven soldiers in Chin State have left the junta’s armed forces and joined the CDM since the NUG’s announcement earlier this month, according to Ko John.

ATHENS, 18 September 2021, (TON): Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Turkey was an important partner in tackling any new migration challenge to Europe and needed support, and that Europe itself has not delivered on a common policy in addressing the migrant issue.

More than a million refugees and migrants fleeing conflict in Syria and elsewhere crossed into Europe via Greece and Turkey in 2015 and early 2016, virtually waved through by Greece’s then leftist Syriza administration.

Mitsotakis, whose conservative New Democracy came to power in 2019 with an administration which has taken a markedly harder stance towards unchecked migration, vows there will not be a re-run of 2015. That was, he said, a general consensus among all EU members.

He told media in an interview “that is off the cards and we will do everything that we can to prevent that from happening.”

But the dramatic events unfolding in Afghanistan by a takeover of the Taliban movement have fuelled fears of a new refugee crisis.

Mitsotakis said “a cohesive policy in the EU in how to handle a mass influx was still lacking.”

He said “we are clearly not there yet.”

“We need common rules regarding asylum. It doesn’t make sense for people to shop, do asylum shopping, move from one country to another, they should know that will be they will be treated fairly, but with the same with the same standards, and of course, we need to do more on returns at the European level.”