WASHINGTON, 04 November 2022, (TON): The United States issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it accused of supporting Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force, as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Tehran.

The US Treasury Department in a statement said it designated members of the network that facilitated oil trades and generated revenue for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Quds Force, an arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that operates abroad, both of which are under US sanctions.

The latest US move against Iranian oil smuggling comes as efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal have stalled and ties between the Islamic Republic and the West are increasingly strained as Iranians keep up anti-government protests.

VIENNA, 04 November 2022, (TON): The UN nuclear watchdog said “its inspectors had found no indications of undeclared nuclear activities at three locations in Ukraine during visits requested by Kyiv to address Russia’s dirty bomb allegations.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said “our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations.”

Grossi added “we will report on the results of the environmental sampling as soon as possible.”

ISTANBUL, 04 November 2022, (TON): NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “Iran’s plans to supply Russia with weapons including drones and ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine are unacceptable.”

Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Iran of supplying drones to Russia.

Stoltenberg told a news conference “we see Iran offering drones and considering ballistic missile deliveries to Russia.”

“This is unacceptable. No country should provide support to Moscow in this illegal war.”

Kyiv has said “around 400 Iranian drones have already been used against the civilian population of Ukraine, and Moscow has ordered around 2,000.”

WASHINGTON, 04 November 2022, (TON): Warning that democracy itself is in peril, President Joe Biden called on Americans Wednesday night to use their ballots in next week’s midterm elections to stand up against lies, violence and dangerous ultra MAGA election disruptors who are trying to succeed where they failed in subverting the 2020 elections.

This is no time to stand aside, he declared. “Silence is complicity.”

After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, Biden turned to a darker, more urgent message, declaring in the final days of midterm election voting that the nation’s system of governance is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence Biden said they inspire.

PARIS, 04 November 2022, (TON): A far-right lawmaker in France was criticized Thursday after he responded to a Black lawmaker’s question about migrants stranded at sea by saying, “Let them return to Africa.”

Gregoire de Fournas of the National Rally party made the comment in the National Assembly.

The president of the lower house of the French Parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet, subsequently suspended the legislative session.

De Fournas spoke while Carlos Martens Bilongo of the leftist France Unbowed party was challenging French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government over a maritime rescue boat that is carrying hundreds of passengers in the Mediterranean Sea and not received an assigned port.

Braun-Pivet said “the comment would be investigated.”

RIYADH, 04 November 2022, (TON): Fahd bin Hassan Al-Aqran, president of the Saudi Press Agency and Khalid Al-Ghamdi, undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Media for international media relations, have met with Cagatay Ozdemir, deputy director of the presidential communications of Turkiye, along with the Turkish Ambassador to the Kingdom Fatih Ulusoy.

Discussions focused on cooperation between the two countries in the fields of news exchange, news agencies, radio and TV, media regulation and international media relations.

Separately, Turkiye’s finance minister said Ankara is seeking more cooperation with Saudi Arabia and other countries as it plans to be an energy hub to Europe.

DHAKA, 04 November 2022, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid rich tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four national leaders marking the Jail Killing Day.

The premier placed wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi Road No. 32 showing respect to the memory of the Father of the Nation and the four leaders.

Sheikh Hasina first laid a wreath as the prime minister at the portrait of Bangabandhu around 7:00 am. After placing the wreath, she stood in solemn silence there for some time.

Flanked by central leaders of the party, Sheikh Hasina then placed another wreath as the president of Awami League at the portrait of Bangabandhu.

DHAKA, 04 November 2022, (TON): The visiting International Monetary Fund mission reiterated its call for introduction of market-based fuel oil prices and also sought to know of future financing mechanism to import liquefied natural gas.

The Washington-based multilateral lender also emphasised initiation of automatic fuel oil price adjustment formula at a meeting with the officials of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.

Officials attending the meeting said “the IMF wanted an end to the fuel oil subsidy regime in the country that depended fully on import to meet its annual petroleum demand for about 5.5 million tonnes in recent years.”

NEW DELHI, 04 November 2022, (TON): India has abstained on yet another resolution involving Ukraine, this time a motion sponsored by Russia at the UNSC that sought to establish a commission to investigate claims by Moscow that the US and Ukraine are carrying out military biological activities in laboratories in Ukraine in violation of the biological weapons convention.

The resolution failed to get adopted Wednesday as only two Council members “Russia and China” voted in its favour, while the US, the UK and France voted against it and the other Council members, including India, abstained.

In the explanation of the vote, Counsellor A. Amarnath from India's Permanent Mission to the UN said India attaches high importance to the Biological Weapons Convention, which is the first non-discriminatory disarmament treaty banning a complete category of weapons of mass destruction.

DHAKA, 04 November 2022, (TON): Swiss Ambassador to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard recently visited the Surma Plant of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Ltd at Chhatak in Sunamganj.

She was accompanied by Eros Robbiani, counselor and head of Political, Economic and Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Switzerland.

Rajesh Surana, chief executive officer of LHBL along with other executive committee members and senior officials welcomed her at the plant.