JERUSALEM, 14 May 2022, (TON): Palestinian Health Ministry said “Israeli forces resumed raids in the occupied West Bank area of Jenin on Friday, where a prominent Palestinian journalist was shot dead this week, wounding at least four people.”

The Israeli military said its forces were conducting counter-terrorism activities on the outskirts of Jenin, where Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed on Wednesday. Her funeral procession in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday is expected to draw thousands.

The death of Abu Akleh, who had covered Palestinian affairs and the Middle East for over two decades at the Qatar-based news channel, seemed likely to add fuel to a surging conflict.

A spokesman said “hundreds of Israeli officers were to be deployed in the area of the funeral to ensure it proceeds without confrontations.”

Residents in the area of Jenin said Israeli forces fired a projectile toward a home near Jenin on Friday in an apparent effort to arrest suspects inside. Palestine TV footage showed black plumes of smoke rising from the house. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

LONDON, 14 May 2022, (TON): A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson responds to the ballistic missile launches carried out by North Korea on 12 May.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said “North Korea’s ballistic missile launches on 12 May are a breach of UN Security Council resolutions.”

North Korea’s repeated testing of ballistic missile technology poses a threat to our regional partners and global security.

The UK will continue to call out all violations of UNSCRs. North Korea must return to dialogue and take credible steps towards denuclearisation in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

LONDON, 14 May 2022, (TON): Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is announcing fresh sanctions on Putin’s ‘wallet’ of family and friends, those whom he rewards with state positions and wealth in return for their undying loyalty.

Official records list modest assets for President Putin including: a small flat in St Petersburg, 2 Soviet-era cars from the 1950s, a trailer, and a small garage.

In reality, Putin relies on his network of family, childhood friends, and selected elite who have benefited from his rule and in turn support his lifestyle.

Their reward is influence over the affairs of the Russian state that goes far beyond their formal positions.

Sanctions will hit this cabal who owe Putin their wealth and power, and in turn support Putin and his war machine.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said “we are exposing and targeting the shady network propping up Putin’s luxury lifestyle and tightening the vice on his inner circle. We will keep going with sanctions on all those aiding and abetting Putin’s aggression until Ukraine prevails.”

KABUL, 14 May 2022, (TON): Local officials in southern Helmand province say they have eradicated hundreds of acres of poppy fields in Nawzad, Washir, Babaji and Marjah districts of the province.

 Ahmad Jan Khalid, Helmand police spokesman, said “we have started eradicating poppy farms in accordance with the decree of Amir of the Islamic Emirate and have cleared hundreds of acres of land so far.”

He also said “they have banned the sale and purchase of narcotics in Lashkargah, the provincial capital and many people arrested in connection to the drug business in the province. On the other hand, a number of farmers in Helmand say that the government should provide them with an alternative to poppy.”

Nazar Mohammad, a farmer in Nad Ali district of the province said “we respect the government for banning poppy cultivation, but they should find an alternative for farmers.”

KABUL, 14 May 2022, (TON): Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in a virtual meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Uzbekistan, discussed the finalization of the railway plan between the two countries.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi tweeted “both sides called for the development of trade, transit and the Mazar-Kabul-Peshawar railway during the meeting.”

Bakht-ur-Rahman Sharafat, head of the Afghanistan Railway department, said progress has been made in the construction of the Trans-Afghan railway and its survey will start within the month.

Bakht-ur-Rahman Sharafat, head of the railway department said “the technical teams of the survey are expected to start their work this month, now all departments are discussing this issue.”

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) said that connecting Central Asia with South Asia through Afghanistan will have a positive impact on the growth of Afghanistan’s trade relations.

Khairuddin Mayel, deputy of ACCI said “Having a railway to all three countries plays a very important role in their export and import trade, and we welcome this.”

NEW DELHI, 14 May 2022, (TON): The Indian embassy in Ukraine shut after Russia invaded the former Soviet republic, will reopen shortly in Kyiv.

The embassy operations in the Ukraine Capital had shut down in early March after Russian shelling intensified days after the February 24 invasion.

On March 13, the embassy had relocated to Warsaw after most Indian nationals were evacuated from Ukraine.

In a communique, the foreign ministry said “the Indian Embassy  in Ukraine, which was temporarily operating out of Warsaw (Poland), would be resuming its operation from Kyiv w.e.f 17 May 2022.”

Several Western political leaders including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have recently visited Irpin and other residential areas around the Ukrainian capital, where Russian forces have been accused of killing hundreds of civilians.

DHAKA, 14 May 2022, (TON): President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed profound shock and sorrow at the death of UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In a condolence message, President M Abdul Hamid said Khalifa had played an important role in the development of Bangladesh-United Arab Emirates ties.

“Bangladesh lost a tested and true friend.”

The head of the state prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed profound sympathy to the bereaved family.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina conveyed profound shock and grief to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on the passing away of the president.

DHAKA, 14 May 2022, (TON): Spanish ambassador to Bangladesh Francisco de Ass Bentez Salas has said “Madrid is ready to go into ‘More In-depth Cooperation’ as Bangladesh and Spain are reviewing its 50-year bilateral relationship.”

He said ‘it is a graduation day of our bilateral relations (with Bangladesh), in 50 years, we have gone from LDC-Long Distance Contracts - and are ready to go into MIC -More In-Depth Cooperation.”

The envoy was addressing a celebration event marking 50-year anniversary of establishment of Bangladesh-Spain bilateral relations in the capital on Thursday evening, the Western European nation recognized the newly independent Bangladesh.

The ambassador said “fifty years ago, Bangabandhu was there, leading his people into future in very difficult circumstances, right after the war of liberation.”

He added that Spain recognizes and commends the ‘unrivalled and unparalleled miracle’ of Bangladesh in only 50 years.

DHAKA, 14 May 2022, (TON): An Indian high commission press release said “the Indian delegation was led by Chairman Advisory Council of GCNEP and head of NCPW and the Bangladesh delegation was led by Additional Secretary of Science and Technology ministry Md. Ali Hossain.”

It added “during the meeting, the two sides expressed satisfaction at the ongoing collaboration on the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project and discussed avenues to further enhance bilateral cooperation in the field of Science and Technology.”

The Bangladesh side expressed appreciation for the services being rendered by the Indian experts currently deployed at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

Both sides also stated their desire for collaboration in societal applications of radiation technologies in areas such as cancer care, nuclear medicine and food preservation.

Dwaipayan Regmi, (TON Nepal)

With the open border that Nepal holds, the friendship along with cooperation that Nepal has with India is deeply rooted at the national level, community level to individual level. Nepal shares 1850 km with five major Indian states of Sikkim, West Bengal, and Bihar along with Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It has been regarded that Nepal and India share a unique set of ties of friendship along with cooperation which is characterized by open borders holding deep-rooted people to people-based contact among them. The biggest dispute that these two nations hold right now is regarding territorial disputes which is a land of around 400 km square at India- Nepal-China tri-junction within Western Nepal. Nepal has been claiming that the river leading west of Kalapani would lead to the Kali river which would somewhere balance and bring stuff to Nepal.

Nepal has been an independent nation that has not celebrated any day of independence to date. However, being a landlocked nation - Nepal is heavily dependent on India for the various supply of essential goods. So, what can be easily tracked here is that these nations hereby hold some sort of layer which would somewhere create a different set of impacts for holding the negotiations there itself. Although Nepal has imposed restrictions on different goods right now, what can be tracked or stated here is that - Nepal has to be dependent on India - accepting the weakest aspect of the landlocked nation.

There had been positive rays of hope between India and Nepal at the time when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal showing the hope of connectivity - both physically and technically. The issue of connectivity, which was supposed to be massive ended up with a 35 km cross borderline between Jaynagar of India and Kurtha of Nepal. Although the construction of this railway track was initiated in the year 2010 itself, with a total estimated cost of $ 72.3 million, which increased later the project was an extended version of the old railway track between Jaynagar and Janakpur.

It has been believed that in the days ahead, India will connect other regions of the Dhanusa, Mahotari, and Siraha districts of Nepal for further connectivity. There have been plans for extending the railway up to Kathmandu itself, but because of failure at different places - be it at the connection point of Jogbani, India with Biratnagar extending 18.6 kilometers the plans have remained as a plan on their own.

Had Nepal been part of British rule, the British would certainly opt for Nepalese spaces to build castles and railway lines - because of the cool and charming weather that Nepal has. But, since Nepal did not go under any routine, the supremacy hereby provoked taking India to the bigger role which accounted for a loss of amazing gifts from the Nepalese perspective, especially the railway lines. Apart, Nepal did not get to enjoy another advanced form of infrastructure that the British would have built too. And, this all led Nepal to lose the basic form of infrastructure that it would possess.

Nepal is currently using roadway and airway transportation on a massive scale. Although, today there are other modes like ropeway – which is being used at few places, waterways – also at counting number of places, Nepal has re-initiated this railway mode. The connection of the Indian railway line up to Nepal is limited only to the border region – be that Jogbani, near Biratnagar of Nepal; Raxaul, near Birgunj of Nepal, or other neighboring spaces. Else, Nepalese never got this opportunity to travel by train in their nation.

There can be hopes, that the generation will get to travel by train in future days because there have been a lot of plans and agendas that are being discussed for the same. Currently, Nepal is seeking rooms to improvise electric vehicle campaigns because of their immense production of electricity.

A railway line is required in Nepal. Because of the hilly nature of the geographical structure, this can be complex – but seeing China and taking lessons from them, it can be stated that it is not impossible through any means in Nepal. And, if Nepal does not want to initiate complexities, it can always seek to start this project from the Southern belt – making the entire transportation network easy, accessible, and with connectivity around. No doubt, it is a positive step and is in the interest of both countries but what is feared most is Indian hegemonic designs.