DHAKA, 25 August 2022, (TON): The World Bank's outgoing country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Mercy Miyang Tembon, highly appreciated Bangladesh's overall socioeconomic development, including women empowerment, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Tembon said “this during her farewell call on the prime minister at her official residence, Ganabhaban.”

Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters on the meeting afterwards.

The WB official said that she visited several places across Bangladesh and was overwhelmed with the development at the grassroots.

NEW DELHI, 25 August 2022, (TON): More than 4,000 people have been shifted from flood-hit areas to safer places in the past two days while security personnel were deployed for rescue efforts in Kota, Jhalawar, Baran and Bundi districts of Rajasthan.

Officials said “though the situation was better on Wednesday as the water started receding, several areas in these districts are still submerged following heavy rainfall.”

Meanwhile, schools reopened in Kota, Bundi and Baran while these remained shut in Jhalawar.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has directed officials to conduct a survey to assess the loss of property due to the heavy rainfall in Kota and neighbouring areas.

DHAKA, 25 August 2022, (TON): The European Commission has said addressing the root causes of the protracted crisis, including the systematic abuses suffered by the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State, must remain an international priority.

High Representative Borrell, Commissioner Lenarcic said "in this regard, the European Union (EU) fully supports the work of the International Court of Justice.”

The EU continues to advocate for the safe, sustainable, dignified, and voluntary return of the Rohingya refugees to their places of origin.

The EU also continues to support the work of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar to ensure full accountability for the crimes committed against them, reads the statement.

DHAKA, 25 August 2022, (TON): Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander Mantytskiy said anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West cannot hurt their development and sought stronger ties with Bangladesh.

He dismissed "ungrounded accusations of Russia being responsible for a global food and energy crisis.”

Mantytskiy was speaking at the discussion "Six Months of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine: Its Results and Perspectives. Russia-Bangladesh Relations in the Context of Economic Crisis."

The envoy listed the causes and aims of the Russian SMO, exposed unlawful methods of war used by the Ukrainian Army, and outlined the major shifts in the world order that are gaining momentum after February 24, 2022.

TAIPEI, 24 August 2022, (TON): A US state governor met Taiwan’s president, days after Washington announced trade talks with Taipei in a show of support following China’s military threats towards the self-ruled island.

Eric Holcomb, the Republican governor of Indiana, landed in Taiwan on Sunday for an economic development trip.

US-China tensions have risen since Beijing staged huge military drills in retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan earlier this month.

Taiwan lives under constant threat of an invasion by China, which claims the democratic island as part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.

Beijing lashes out at any diplomatic action that might lend Taiwan legitimacy and has responded with growing fury to visits by Western officials and politicians.

PARIS, 24 August 2022, (TON): Woolly socks and thermostats turned down a notch: Europeans are preparing for a difficult winter without gas supplies from Russia, part of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Latvians have been adjusting since the end of July, when Russia stopped supplying gas to the Baltic former Soviet state.

They know what to expect in the coming months.

Juons Ratiniks said “energy prices are so exorbitant that we already cut off the hot water from the city pipeline and installed our own hot water boiler.”

“It is cheaper to use it when we actually need it than pay for constantly heated hot water,” supplied centrally, the retired border guard explained.

Politicians need to understand that people expected help when their energy bill started shooting up, said Ratiniks. With elections due in October, he warned “they better support heating for us otherwise we’ll give heat to them.”

BRUSSELS, 24 August 2022, (TON): The bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “the European Union will debate the launch of a major training operation for Ukrainian forces in nearby nations.”

The proposal will be discussed next week at a two-day meeting of EU defence ministers which gets underway in Prague on Monday, Borrell told a press conference in Santander, in northern Spain.

He added “I hope it will be approved.”

He said “of course it would be a big mission, I think it would be a big mission.”

He added “any mission has to be up to the level of the conflict.”

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, sparking the worst conflict in Europe in decades which has killed tens of thousands of civilians.

ANKARA, 24 August 2022, (TON): Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said “Turkey does not have preconditions for dialogue with the Syrian government and talks should be goal-oriented.”

Turkey has backed rebels fighting to topple Syria’s President Bashar Assad, and cut diplomatic relations with Damascus early in the 11-year conflict.

But Russian intervention has helped Assad’s government drive the rebels back to a pocket of northwest Syria.

Erdogan said after talks in Russia earlier this month that President Vladimir Putin had suggested Turkey cooperate with the Syrian government to tackle violence along their joint border.

Erdogan has warned that Turkey could launch another military incursion into northern Syria targeting Syria Kurdish fighters, to extend a ‘safe zone’ where Ankara says some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees which it currently hosts could return.

MOSCOW, 24 August 2022, (TON): At Moscow’s sprawling Izmailovsky outdoor souvenir market, shoppers can find cups and T-shirts commemorating Russia’s deployment of troops into Ukraine, but from the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

There’s nothing about the special military operation that began six months ago.

Throughout the capital, there are few overt sign that Russia is engaged in the worst fighting in Europe since World War II. Displays of the letter “Z”, which initially spread as an icon of the fight, replicating the insignia painted on Russian military vehicles are hardly seen.

There are only some scattered posters on bus shelters, showing the impassive face of one soldier or another and the words, “Glory to the heroes of Russia.”

The posters give no clue as to what the man did, or where he did it.

TEHRAN, 24 August 2022, (TON): State media reported “Iran’s armed forces will on Wednesday launch large scale drone drills across the country involving 150 unmanned aerial vehicles to show off its power.”

Deputy coordinator of the armed forces Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told “the accuracy and power of weapons, the capabilities of guidance and control systems and the combat capabilities of drones are among the things that will be tested and evaluated in this exercise.”

Sayyari added “this is the first time that a joint drone exercise is conducted at the level of the four forces of the Islamic republic of Iran’s army and the country’s joint air defence base.”

No details were given as to how long the exercises would last.