DHAKA, 05 June 2022, (TON): Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader verbally invited Mercy Miyan Tembon, the country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan of World Bank, at the opening of Padma Bridge.

The government will send her a formal invitation also, Quader said while addessing a programme at the Brac Center where the WB country director was also present.

In 2012, the World Bank backtracked on its $1.2 billion money-lending deal on Padma Bridge construction on the ground of corruption allegations, a claim later rejected by a Canadian court.

Behind the World Bank's Padma Bridge loan drama

DHAKA, 05 June 2022, (TON): The Jatiya Sangsad goes into its budget session for 2022-23 fiscal year.

President Md Abdul Hamid convened the session exercising the power bestowed upon him as per the Clause (1) of Article 72 of the Constitution on May 18.

The 18th session of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad will begin at 5pm at the parliament room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

The tenure of the session will be determined in a meeting of the parliament’s business advisory committee to be held with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Choudhry in the chair.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is expected to place the national budget for 2022-23 fiscal year in the parliament on June 9. This will be the fourth budget presented by the current Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

DHAKA, 05 June 2022, (TON): Bangladesh has urged the United States to recognise its continuous improvements of labor and human rights situations.

A press release said “this was stated while Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F. Rahman, MP met US Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer at the White House in Washington, DC.”

During the meeting, Finer, who also serves as the Assistant to the US President and a key official of the Biden administration, expressed Washington's willingness to work more closely with the Bangladesh government on governance, labour and human rights issues.

While expressing similar interest to work with the US government, Rahman stressed that the US and other development partners should duly recognize measures already undertaken by the Bangladesh government for the continuous improvements of labor and human rights in the country.

ANKARA, 04 June 2022, (TON): Syria-ally Russia could block the UN Security Council resolution, which expires on July 10, and observers say it is using it as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Bab Al-Hawa crossing near Turkey’s Cilvegozu border post in the south has been the only point of entry for UN aid into Syria for the past two years.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it was imperative the opening stay open.

Thomas-Greenfield from a UN logistics center in Reyhanli said “we have to extend this border crossing, we have to continue to provide this assistance.”

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last rebel bastion in Syria and home to around 3 million people.

NEW YORK, 04 June 2022, (TON): The UN Security Council welcomed the extension of the truce between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, which was agreed a day earlier.

Council members expressed concern about grave humanitarian effects of ongoing road closures around Taiz and called on the Iran-backed militia “to act with flexibility in negotiations and immediately open the main roads.”

Taiz governorate has been under siege since 2015, when the Houthis closed main routes and encircled the city center, largely cutting it off from the rest of the country.

It remains under siege deespite this week’s extension of a truce between the militia and government forces.

The council members reiterated their appreciation of the steps taken by all sides to uphold the truce, which began on April 2 and has now been extended for another two months.

JERUSALEM, 04 June 2022, (TON): An Israeli statement said “Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told the UN nuclear watchdog that Israel would prefer a diplomatic resolution to the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program but could take independent action.”

It quoted Bennett as telling International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Rafael Gross “Israel reserves the right to self-defense and action against Iran to stop its nuclear program if the international community fails to do so within the relevant time-frame.”

LONDON, 04 June 2022, (TON): US State Department said “US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi.

Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement “the secretary thanked the foreign minister for Oman’s efforts to strengthen and extend the truce in Yemen.”

He added “both sides also discussed Iran and opportunities for greater cooperation on regional issues.”

Blinken also said “he was looking forward to hosting Albusaidi in Washington soon.”

RIYADH, 04 June 2022, (TON): A number of people were killed or wounded in two separate shootings in the US as President Joe Biden appealed to Congress to take action against gun violence.

“Enough, enough,” Biden said in an impassioned address to the nation, after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into killing fields.

At almost the same time that Biden was speaking, a shooting was going on outside a church in Ames in the state of Iowa.

Police later said “three people, including the shooter died.”

The shooting happened outside the Cornerstone Church, a megachurch on the outskirts of Ames, according to the Story County Sheriff’s Office. The church is near Interstate 35, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) north of Des Moines.

WASHINGTON, 04 June 2022, (TON): A dozen members of the US Congress have asked the Biden administration to look into recently introduced Israeli rules that limit the numbers of American academics and students who can teach or study at Palestinian universities in the Occupied Territories.

Jamaal Bowman, a representative from New York, sent a letter, co-signed by 11 of his Democratic colleagues, to the secretaries of state, homeland security, and education calling for an inquiry into the restrictive new rules.

They were announced by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which functions as the de-facto Israeli military government in the Occupied Territories.

According to the recent COGAT announcement, a limit of only 100 foreign academics and 150 foreign students will be allowed to teach or study at Palestinian universities.

KYIV, 04 June 2022, (TON): Governor told media “Ukraine’s embattled eastern region of Donetsk will not fall quickly to Russia’s assault, but it needs the world to supply more weapons to keep the offensive at bay.”

Russian troops are poised just 15 km north of Sloviansk, the second biggest Ukrainian-controlled city in Donetsk region, said Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Seizing the regions of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk is a key Russian military objective.

While Russia is close to capturing full control of Luhansk region, just under 50 percent of Donetsk region still remains in Ukrainian hands, Kyrylenko said “a sign of how far Russia is from achieving its aim of controlling all the lands known as the Donbas.”

The regional governor said in an online interview “I am sure that they will not advance quickly. In the longer term, it all depends on the concentration of our forces.”

Kyrylenko said he hoped the new supply of US weapons announced on Wednesday, which includes multiple rocket launch systems, would allow Ukraine to conduct effective counter-offensives, but he emphasized that the support should not stop there.