NEW DELHI, 07 May 2022, (TON): India's permanent ambassador to the UN and the Dutch ambassador to the UK had a short, snappy exchange on Twitter, after the envoy tried to school New Delhi on its Ukraine policy.

This came shortly after India's permanent ambassador TS Tirumurti to the UN made his statement at a UNSC briefing on Ukraine.

Netherland's ambassador to the UK Karel van Oosterom tweeted "you should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter.”

The retort from Tirumurti did not take long in coming.

Tirumurti said in response “kindly don't patronise us, Ambassador. We know what to do.”

The Dutch ambassador's unsolicited comment is in line with what several Western nations feel- that India should take a hard stand on Russia vis-à-vis the Ukraine conflict.

KABUL, 07 May 2022, (TON): Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said it is ready to negotiate with the United States on issues of an external nature. US suspended talks with IEA in March after it reversed a decision to allow girls to return to secondary school.

Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman said “IEA believed in negotiation and dialogue with all parties including the US since the very beginning. We are ready to negotiate on issues having external dimension with all parties.”

He said “I am sure problems and concerns can be resolved through talks.”

The official said that the international community continues to engage with the IEA to some extent, as he referred to the operation of the EU embassy in Kabul and the World Bank’s resumption of work on some projects in Afghanistan.

He stressed “humanitarian issues should be separate from political issues. Experts believe that apart from the issue of girls’ education, IEA’s warm relations with China and Russia have also affected its ties with the West.”

KABUL, 07 May 2022, (TON): Hundreds of Afghan students staged a protest in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul and requested the Indian government to issue electronic visas for them to allow them to continue their education.

With the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Afghan students enrolled in Indian universities still await the issuance of visas so that they can return to India.

 More than 2,500 students from different parts of Afghanistan are unable to join offline classes at Indian colleges and universities.

The students have urged the Indian government to expedite the issuance of visas to those students who are in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters entered the capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, and the Afghan government collapsed.

DHAKA, 07 May 2022, (TON): Bangladesh says it considers continuation of learning under Myanmar curriculum as an effort to keep the children engaged in productive and capacity building activities which would work as incentive for their early voluntary repatriation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press statement said "Prolonged presence of a huge number of persecuted people entails serious ramification on the economy, environment, security, and socio-political stability of Bangladesh and beyond.”

The government says it appreciates the international community's cooperation to facilitate early, sustainable, and voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya to their ancestral land in Rakhine State of Myanmar and it is also the expectation of the Rohingya.

The government of Bangladesh places great importance on ensuring access to education for all especially for girls and in a similar vein.

DHAKA, 07 May 2022, (TON): The US Congress has introduced a bipartisan resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of establishment of Bangladesh-US diplomatic relations.

According to a message received in Dhaka “Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins of New York introduced the resolution in the Congress, which has been co-sponsored by Republican Congresswoman Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa.”

It added “the resolution was referred to the US’s House Committee on Foreign Affairs.”

It highlighted that the United States and Bangladesh shared a rich and multifaceted relationship focused on cooperation on a range of issues, including economic, security, governance, and development to advance a shared vision of a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and secure Indo-Pacific region.

WASHINGTON, 06 May 2022, (TON): United States president Joe Biden has found his message for the midterm congressional elections: you’re either with him, or you’re with predecessor Donald Trump’s MAGA crowd, the most extreme political group in American history.

The 79-year-old president won the White House in 2020 promising to turn a page on the breathless, for many terrifying, Trump era.

Even as Trump kept fuming and lying about his election loss Biden and his aides ignored him long refusing so much as to mention his name.

But heading into the November midterms, where Democrats face losing control of Congress and even his own re-election in 2024, Biden has changed his tune.

Biden said last month on a trip to Washington state “don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters “they would hear him with that mantra much more out there over the next coming months.”

MOSCOW, 06 May 2022, (TON): Russia said “Western aid to Kyiv had slowed its offensive in Ukraine but would not thwart its victory, as conflicting reports emerged about efforts to rescue civilians from a besieged steel plant in the devastated city of Mariupol.”

Nearly 10 weeks into a war that has left thousands of people dead, flattened Ukrainian cities and uprooted more than 13 million people, the Kremlin conceded that Western countries had prevented a quick end to Russia’s military campaign.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the United States, Britain, NATO as a whole hand over intelligence... to Ukraine’s armed forces on a permanent basis.”

He told reporters “coupled with the flow of weapons that these countries are sending to Ukraine, these are all actions that do not contribute to the quick completion of the operation.”

ROME, 06 May 2022, (TON): Ita-ly intends to provide Ukr-aine with short-range air d-efense systems, mortars an-d artillery shells, said Def-ense Minister Lorenzo G-uerini.

On Thursday, he delivered an informational message at a joint meeting of the defense commissions of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, which was dedicated to the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine.

According to him “the Italian authorities have developed two interdepartmental decrees signed by the Minister of Defense, the heads of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance, which determined the type and number of military systems and means to support and strengthen the defensive efforts of Ukraine.”

The minister said “Italian assistance, whose technical details are classified, provides for anti-tank weapons, short-range air defense systems, mortars, artillery shells, communication devices and personal protective equipment and survival kits.”

WASHINGTON, 06 May 2022, (TON): According to US State Department “Dr. Cary Fowler, a noted agriculturalist, has joined the Department of State as U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security. Best known as the father of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Dr. Fowler brings decades of commitment and a depth of experience leading multilateral efforts, including at United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.”

He arrives at a time of unprecedented stress on global food systems, driven in part by climate change, the impacts of the pandemic, and conflict, most notably Russia’s brutal and unjustified attack on Ukraine and the resulting disruptions to global grain supplies.

The mission of the Special Envoy for Global Food Security is to advance U.S. food security, global hunger, and nutrition objectives, through diplomatic engagement with allies and partners in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora.

As such, Dr. Fowler will be critical to the Department’s efforts to respond to the current global food security challenges guided by the Administration’s Global Food Security Strategy 2022-2026 and Global Nutrition Coordination Plan 2021-2026.

JEDDAH, 06 May 2022, (TON): The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has condemned the actions of extremist Israeli settlers under the Israeli occupation forces’ protection in storming Al-Aqsa Mosque, performing Talmudic prayers in its courtyards and raising the Israeli flag inside it, considering this a flagrant violation of international law and an infringement on the sanctity of the mosque.

The organization stated that it holds Israel responsible for the continuation of these violations, which constitute a blatant attack on Muslims and fuel the violence and tension that threaten international security and stability.

The OIC called on the international community, namely the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities in obligating Israel, the occupying force, to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people and their Islamic and Christian lands and holy sites.