KIEV, 26 July 2021, (TON): US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will not participate in the Crimean Platform meeting; the country will be represented by the US Secretary of State. This was announced by the US Charge d’Affaires in Ukraine, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent in an interview.

Kent said “we will be a member of the cabinet, that is, it will not be the president, the vice president, but there will be a member of the cabinet.”

The US presidential administration includes 15 officials with the status of minister (secretary). The US Charge d’Affaires in Ukraine did not specify which of them will arrive to attend the platform meeting.

The creation of the Crimean Platform was initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to coordinate efforts at the international level with the aim of returning the peninsula to the jurisdiction of Ukraine. The site should begin with the so-called inaugural summit on 23 August. It is planned that it will operate at several levels: heads of state and government, heads of the Foreign Ministry, parliamentarians, in the format of an expert network.

After the coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014, the authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum on reunification with Russia. More than 80% of those who had the right to vote took part in it, 96.7% and 95.6%, respectively, voted for reunification.

KATHMANDU, 26 July 2021, (TON): Two weeks after forming the government, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has appointed Umesh Shrestha, a Nepali Congress lawmaker, state minister for health.

The Office of the President in a statement said that President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Shrestha as state minister for health on the recommendation of the prime minister as per Article 76 (9).

The Health Ministry portfolio will continue to remain with Prime Minister Deuba.

On July 13, Deuba, who took over the government reins from CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli, had appointed four ministers–Gyanendra Karki (law and parliamentary affairs), Bal Krishna Khand (home), Janardan Sharma (finance) and Pampha Bhusal (energy)

Karki and Khand are from Deuba’s Congress party and Sharma and Bhusal represent the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)

MALE, 26 July 2021, (TON): Speaker of the Parliament and former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed has called on the government to bring the Home Ministry under the direct supervision of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and to announce the State of Emergency in order to bring a stop to extremism in the Maldives.

In a series of messages sent to main-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s National Council's Whatsapp group, Nasheed noted that those supporting and spreading extremist ideologies in the Maldives are increasing day by day. He suggested that the President takes charge of the Home Ministry and declaring the state of emergency as a solution to the issue.

Nasheed said “although such a move may affect tourism, its benefits would be greater in the longer run.”

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is also a member of said Whatsapp Group. In his messages, Nasheed noted that President Solih refrained from responding to his messages in the group, and asked Alifushi MP Mohamed 'Bigey' Rasheed to show his messages to the president. MP Bigey is President Solih's brother-in-law.

While Nasheed has suggested bringing the Home Ministry under the direct supervision of the President, the current Home Minister is the president of religiously conservative Adhaalath Party, Sheikh Imran Abdulla. Nasheed recently alleged that Adhaalath Party was 'monopolizing' the government's every decision. The relationship between President Nasheed and President Solih is also strained at this time.

ABUJA, 26 July 2021, (TON): Officials said “kidnappers have released the remaining 14 students who had been held captive after being abducted last month from a northern Nigerian university.”

Armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and universities in northwest Nigeria in the last few months, abducting more than 700 students for ransom since December.

The inability of security forces to crack down on kidnapping gangs has sparked protests against perceived government inaction.

Armed men had stormed Greenfield University in the northwestern state of Kaduna on April 20. They killed one person during the raid and, in the days after the attack, murdered five of those they took.

“Fourteen of the abducted students of the university have been freed,” Simeon Nwakacha, pro-chancellor of Greenfield University, told Reuters news agency by phone on Saturday. He said the 14 were the remaining students being held.

Kaduna state’s security commissioner, Samuel Aruwan, said in a statement 14 people taken from the university had been freed and had been found beside a road connecting Kaduna and the capital Abuja on Saturday at about 2pm local time (13:00 GMT).

It was not immediately clear if the hostages were released in exchange for a ransom payment.

ISLAMABAD, 26 July 2021, (TON): According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement “four Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred after a vehicle of the army's quick reaction force fell into a ravine in Azad Jammu and Kashmir's Laswa area.”

It said that three other soldiers and a civilian driver were also injured when the vehicle employed for the maintenance of law and order in support of the AJK general election 2021, toppled over while taking a steep turn in Laswa and fell down a ravine.

The ISPR press release said "the injured have been evacuated to [a] nearby medical facility for necessary medical care."

AJK Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria had announced on July 10 that army and Rangers would be deployed to take care of security during the AJK general election in order to help the electorate exercise their right to vote in a fear-free atmosphere.

Later, AJK chief secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan said in a media briefing that 5,300 policemen from AJK, 12,000 from Punjab police, 10,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, 1,000 from Islamabad police, 400 Frontier Constabulary personnel and 3,200 Rangers personnel had been requisitioned to maintain law and order.

WASHINGTON, 26 July 2021, (TON): The United States has and will always encourage India and Pakistan to work for a more stable relationship, says a senior US official as Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves for his first visit to India and other destinations in South Asia and the Middle East.

Briefing journalists on the July 26-29 visit, Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Dean Thompson said “Mr Blinken would also discuss with his Indian partners various options for pursuing a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan.”

Mr Blinken is expected to visit Kabul as well, although the schedule of such visits to the Afghan capital are not announced for security reasons.

The top US diplomat is reaching New Delhi on July 28 for meetings with External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a wide range of issues, including India’s role in Afghanistan and its relations with Pakistan.

Asked to what extent would the current relationship between India and Pakistan figure in Secretary Blinken’s talks in New Delhi, Mr Thompson said: “We strongly believe that India and Pakistan’s issues are ones for them to work out between themselves” but he acknowledged that Washington would continue to encourage better ties between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed neighbours.

He said “we are pleased to see that the ceasefire that went into place earlier this year has remained intact, and we certainly always encourage them to continue their efforts to find ways to build a more stable relationship going forward.”

KATHMANDU, 26 July 2021, (TON): A taskforce has been formed to run the government which has been formed through an alliance. The taskforce has been formed with representatives of the parties that are part of the government.

The taskforce will be holding a meeting at 4 pm today in Baluwatar. The meeting will hold discussions to finalise the priority of the government and other development works.

Meanwhile, the team will comprise of Purna Bahadur Khadka, Ramesh Lekhak and Minendra Rijal from Nepali Congress, and Barsha Man Pun and Dev Gurung from CPN (Maoist Centre). Similarly, Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal will be represented by Rajendra Shrestha.

The taskforce will provide suggestions to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also the president of Nepali Congress.

DHAKA, 26 July 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sent 1,000kg mango as a gift to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry release said “senior officials of the Bangladesh Embassy in Jakarta in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia handed over the mangoes on July 21.”

The presidential palace protocol of President Secretariat, personal officer staff of the president and protocol officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia received the mangoes at the Merdeka Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

Earlier, the Bangladesh embassy received the mangoes from the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

RABAT, 26 July 2021, (TON): The first direct commercial flight between Israel and Morocco landed in Marrakesh, AFP correspondents said, more than seven months after the countries normalized diplomatic relations in a US-brokered deal.

About 100 passengers from Tel Aviv arrived on an Israir flight early afternoon to be met with dates, cakes and mint tea at a welcoming ceremony organized in their honor.

“I am originally from Marrakesh. I’ve come back here around 30 times but this time, the trip has a special flavor, it’s as if it were the first time.”

Israir spokeswoman Tali Leibovitz told that two to three flights per week were planned on the route.

Israeli national carrier El Al announced it too had launched a service to Marrakesh, and planned five flights per week there and to Casablanca.

According to an El Al statement “at a ceremony sending off the El Al flight attended by Moroccan envoy Abderrahim Beyyoudh, Israel’s Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov said the service would boost “trade, tourism and economic cooperation between the countries.”

The El Al flight was expected in Marrakesh later in the afternoon.

NEW DELHI, 26 July 2021, (TON): Officials said “days of landslides and flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in western India’s Maharashtra state killed at least 113 people and injured 50, as rescuers scrambled to find at least 100 missing.”

A government spokesperson, Sandhya Garware, said over 130,000 people were rescued from nearly 900 affected villages across the state. Many were stranded on rooftops or atop buses on highways. India’s navy also said it deployed helicopters to evacuate stranded people and sent rescue teams with boats to the region.

Officials said that one of the worst-hit villages was Talai, 270 kilometers (168 miles) south of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state and also India’s financial and entertainment hub.

The village of 59 households was buried by a massive landslide, state official Sagar Pathak said.

Rescuers recovered two more bodies, bringing the number of villagers killed to 42, with around the same number still missing. Pathak said inclement weather, difficult terrain and large debris were hampering rescue efforts.

Authorities deployed hundreds of rescuers to the affected areas to locate missing people and take the stranded to safety, with scores of soldiers assisting.

Disasters caused by landslides and flooding are common in India during the June-September monsoon season, when heavy rains weaken the foundations of structures that are often poorly built. The monsoon is crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season, but the rain often causes extensive damage and kills scores of people each year.