WASHINGTON, 05 August 2022, (TON): US officials believe Russia is working to fabricate evidence concerning last week’s deadly strike on prison housing prisoners of war in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine.

A US official familiar with the intelligence finding told media “US intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on Olenivka Prison that left 53 dead and wounded dozens more.”

Russia has claimed that Ukraine’s military used US-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka.

PARIS, 05 August 2022, (TON): According to a UN document “a United Nations committee ruled that France discriminated against a Muslim woman who was prevented from attending vocational training in a public school while wearing her Islamic head scarf.”

In 2010, Naima Mezhoud, now aged 45, was due to train as a management assistant at a course held in a state high school, where teenagers are prohibited by law from wearing the hijab.

When she arrived, the head teacher of the school on the northern outskirts of Paris barred her from entering, according to the document which was seen by Reuters.

Six years earlier, in 2004, France had banned the wearing of hijabs and other visible religious symbols in state schools by school children. Mezhoud argued that as a higher-education student, she should not have been targeted by the law.

UNITED NATIONS, 05 August 2022, (TON): The United Nations chief sharply criticized the grotesque greed of oil and gas companies for making record profits from the energy crisis on the back of the world’s poorest people, while destroying our only home.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “it was immoral that the largest energy companies in the first quarter of the year made combined profits of close to $100 billion.”

He urged all governments to tax these excessive profits and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.

Guterres urged people everywhere to send a message to the fossil fuel industry and their financiers “this grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only common home, the planet.”

TEHRAN, 05 August 2022, (TON): Negotiators from Iran, the United States and the European Union prepared to resume monthslong, indirect talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal, even as international inspectors acknowledged the Islamic Republic began a new expansion of its uranium enrichment.

The resumption of the Vienna talks, suddenly called, appears not to include high-level representation from all the countries part of Iran’s 2015 deal with word powers.

That comes as Western officials express growing skepticism over a deal to restore the accord and the EU’s top diplomat has warned “the space for additional significant compromises has been exhausted.”

Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, had arrived in Vienna for the talks, Iranian state media reported. US Special Representative for Iran Rob Malley also was on hand, tweeting Wednesday that “our expectations are in check.”

WASHINGTON, 05 August 2022, (TON): The US Senate ratified the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, strongly backing the expansion of the transatlantic alliance in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Senate voted 95 to 1 in favor of the two Nordic countries’ accession, making the United States the 23rd of the 30 NATO countries to formally endorse it so far, after Italy approved it earlier Wednesday and France on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden hailed the Senate’s quick ratification process, the fastest since 1981.

Biden said in a statement “this historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan US commitment to NATO, and to ensuring our Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.”

ANKARA, 05 August 2022, (TON): Turkey’s defense minister said “three more ships filled with grain will sail from Ukraine on Friday under a UN-backed deal lifting Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea.”

The Anadolu state news agency quoted Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying “it is planned that three ships will set sail tomorrow from Ukraine.”

Ankara also announced that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the agreement’s implementation by phone with UN chief Antonio Guterres, without disclosing further details.

Moscow and Kyiv agreed in Istanbul last month to resume shipments of wheat and other grain from Ukrainian ports for the first time since Russia invaded its neighbor in February.

The first ship, loaded with 26,000 tons of maize, set off from Odessa for the Lebanese port of Tripoli.

RIYADH, 05 August 2022, (TON): Saudi Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Ambassador Dr. Saud Al-Sati received UK Ambassador to the Kingdom Neil Crompton in Riyadh.

During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways to build upon them in all fields.

Crompton had a constructive meeting with Minister for Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef, in which they discussed ways to cooperate in mining and other sectors following Alkhorayef’s recent visit to the UK.

By TON Bangladesh

Bangladesh has wanted a $4.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), joining South Asian neighbors Pakistan and Sri Lanka in seeking help to manage with escalating stress on their economies. Despite the fact, that the economy of Bangladesh seemingly is not in shambles.

On Wednesday, Bangladesh has asked to start talks on a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but will take it only if conditions are satisfactory, tallying its macroeconomic conditions are fine. Popularly recognized for its big garment-exporting industry, Bangladesh has pursued the funds for its balance of payment and budgetary needs, as well as for efforts to deal with climate change.

The country’s $416 billion economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the world for years, but mounting energy and food charges because of the Russia-Ukraine war have exaggerated its import bill and the existing account deficit. According to finance minister a letter was sent to the IMF seeking assistance, but it has not been not mentioned that how much financial help required.

The government of Bangladesh is waiting to see their circumstances. If the IMF conditions are in favor of the country and well-matched with our improvement policy, otherwise not. Seeking a loan from the IMF does not mean Bangladesh’s economy is in wrong shape.

Bangladesh had requested it to start talks on a new loan under the global creditor’s Elasticity and Sustainability Trust. Such funds are covered at 150 per cent of a country’s quota or, in Bangladesh’s case, a maximum of $1 billion. In this regard the central bank, the Bangladesh Bank, recently announced a policy to preserve dollars by discouraging imports of luxury goods, fruit, non-cereal foods, and canned and processed foods.

Bangladesh's July to May current account deficit was $17.2 billion, equated with a deficit of $2.78 billion in the year-earlier period, according to central bank data, as its trade deficit expanded and payments fell. In the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, imports jumped 39% but exports grew 34%.

In the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, imports jumped 39% but exports grew 34%.The central bank, the Bangladesh Bank, recently announced a policy to preserve dollars by discouraging imports of luxury goods, fruit, non-cereal foods, and canned and processed foods.

Its foreign-exchange reserves fell to $39.67 billion as of July 20 sufficient for imports for about 5.3 months from $45.5 billion a year earlier. Remittances from overseas Bangladeshis fell 5% in June to $1.84 billion, the central bank said, as many migrant workers lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic and many could not get home because of the travel disruption it caused.

As in South Asia, Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades while Pakistan foreign exchange reserves are reducing quickly. The region economies have been hit particularly hard by the Ukraine war also, which has raised the cost of fuel and other vital import.

The country wanted $4.5bn from the IMF. Bangladesh’s economic backbone is its export-oriented garments industry, which could suffer if sales fall in its key markets in Europe and the United States because of a slowdown in the global economy. After garments, remittances are the second highest source of foreign currency for Bangladesh. The South Asian country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $39.67bn as of July 20 sufficient for just over five months’ worth of imports from $45.5bn a year earlier.

The country seek long-term, low-interest rates from worldwide institutes in exchange for wider economic improvements like having flexible bank interest rates. As there's a need for a balance-of-payments support. Exports and remittances alone cannot handle that. Bangladesh need an extra dose of external funding.

By Sameen Afshain

‘Youm-e-Istehsal,’ a day of solidarity is observed each year across Pakistan and around the world to mark the one year anniversary of India stripping Jammu & Kashmir of its autonomy on 5 August 2019, and converting it into two federally-administered territories.
On the anniversary of lost autonomy, many parts of India, especially, Jammu & Kashmir saw heavy deployment of troops and barricades of barbed wire. Seets in the Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar were deserted, with armed paramilitary and police manning roadblocks to enforce a lockdown that was initially imposed on Tuesday to prevent any violent protests.
Kashmiris are demanding their right to self-determination through free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as per the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions but India is not ready to fulfill its obligations.
The UN Security Council adopted several resolutions in 1948 and in the 1950s on the pending dispute between India and Pakistan over Jammu & Kashmir which binds that a plebiscite should be held to determine the future of mostly Muslim Kashmir while the other resolution calls upon both sides to “refrain from making any statements and from doing or causing to be done or permitting any acts which might aggravate the situation.”
Today, The posters called upon the Kashmiri people to hoist black flags to show their resentment against the Indian illegal occupation. The Kashmiris have also been appealed to continue their peaceful struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination till the accomplishment of the mission of their martyrs.
Over 900,000 Indian occupation forces have turned Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir into a prison. Yet, State Citizens and their indigenous Kashmiri movement has paralysed India attempt to subdue Kashmiris. It is high time that United Nations Organization must force India to stop genocide of original inhabitants of Kashmir and implement UNSC resolutions for peaceful settlement of long pending Jammu & Kashmir issue.

DHAKA, 05 August 2022, (TON): State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has laid emphasis on greater collaboration with Nepal in sectors like hydroelectricity, tourism, connectivity, trade and people to people contacts.

He interacted with the members of the parliamentary delegation from Nepal at the state guesthouse Padma on Thursday and hosted a lunch in honour of the visiting delegation.

The state minister highly appreciated Nepal and expressed the optimism that the two countries will explore newer areas of cooperation in addition to the existing areas.

Delegation leader Pabitra Niroula Kharel said Bangladesh and Nepal need to gear up for the development partnership through meaningful cooperation in the areas of trade, tourism, connectivity, education and clean energy.