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monday
DhAkA: August 24, 2020; Bhadra 9, 1427 BS; Muharram 4, 1442 hijri
www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net
Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.17; N o.148; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00
InternatIonal
Experts flag risks in
India's use of rapid
tests for virus
>Page 7
art & CUltUre
'Giving more priority
to indoor based
works' : Nadia
>Page 8
sport
Crawley, Buttler,
Anderson pummel
Pakistan
>Page 9
aCC sues suspended
teknaf oC
pradeep, his wife
DHAKA : The Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) on Sunday filed a
case against suspended officer-incharge
(OC) of Teknaf Police Station
Pradeep Kumar Das and his wife
ChumkiKaron for allegedly amassing
illegal wealth and siphoning off
money.ACC Assistant Director Riaz
Uddin filed the case with the
Commission's Integrated District Office
Chattogram-2, ACC spokesperson
Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told BSS.
The national anti-graft watchdog
found that Pradeep and his wife accumulated
wealth worth over Taka 3.95
crore beyond their known sources of
income, he said.
According to the case statement, the
accused in collusion with each other
accumulated the wealth illegally and
laundered money.
dhaka-5, naogaon-6
by-polls oct 17
tbt report
The Election Commission is set to hold
the by-elections to Dhaka-5 and
Naogaon-6 constituencies on October
17 and Pabna-4 on September 26.
Schedule for the by-elections will be
announced next week, said Election
Commission Secretary Md Alamgir at
Nirbachan Bhaban media center on
Sunday. The decision was made in a
meeting chaired by Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda
at Nirbachan Bhaban.
Dhaka-5 seat has been declared
vacant following the death of Awami
League lawmaker Habibur Rahman
Molla on May 6.
Naogaon-6 constituency was
declared vacant after Awami League
MP Israfil Alam died of Covid-19 infection
on July 27.
Pabna-4 seat fell vacant after former
Land Minister and Awami League lawmaker
Shamsur Rahman Sherif died
on April 2.
Zohr
04:19 AM
12:05 PM
04:34 PM
06:30 PM
07:45 PM
5:36 6:26
zia behind aug 15
killings: pM
DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
on Sunday renewed her allegations that
Khaleda Zia was involved in the August
21, 2004 grenade attack as her husband
Ziaur Rahman was behind the August 15,
1975 killings, reports UNB.
"Ziaur Rahman was involved in the
killings of the Father of the Nation, four
national leaders...he killed army personnel
through coups one after another.
Khaleda Zia just did the same thing
after coming to power," she said.
The Prime
Minister said
this as she
joined a discussion
virtually
from her official
residence
Ganobhaban.
Father of the
N a t i o n
Bangabandhu
S h e i k h
M u j i b u r
Rahman Birth
C e n t e n a r y
Celebration
N a t i o n a l
Implementation Committee organised
the programme at the International
Mother Language Institute, marking
the 45th martyrdomof the Father of the
Nationand National Mourning Day.
She said Ziaur Rahman had made
collaborators like Abdul Alim, Maulana
Mannan and Shah Aziz ministers,
prime minister and advisers.
Following Zia's footstep, Hasina said,
Khaleda Zia also made ministers
Nizami, Mujaheed and culprits
involved in the intellectuals' killings.
The Prime Minister mentioned that
Khaleda Zia made killer Rashid and
Huda members of parliament.
"If there was no link with them, why did
Khaleda Zia pave the way for them to sit
in Parliament snatching the voting rights
of people in the February-15 farcical election?
They (Ziaur and Khaleda) always
patronised those who were involved in
terrorism and killing," she said.
Talking about the August-15 massacre,
the Prime Minister said the main aim of
the conspirators was to destroy the ideal
of the Independence as they could not
tolerate the victory of Bangalees.
"Those who were with Pakistan during
the Liberation War also could not
accept our victory. There were conspiracies
(against the country), from the
day we attained our victory ...there were
a deep-rooted conspiracy against our
victory," she said.
Regarding the involvement of Ziaur
Rahman in the Bangabandhu killing,
she said that killers Faruq and Rashid
in their statement had told that Ziaur
Rahman was with them always and
being empowered by these killers Ziaur
Rahman later proclaimed himself as
the president of the country.
Medicines unavailable at Habiganj hospital
Free services requires
payment
MaMun Chowdhury, habiganj Correspodent
Poor patients, allegedly, are not getting
the free allocated government medicine
allocated in the District Sadar Hospital in
Habiganj. In addition, the patients complained
that they had to pay bribe in the
name of tips for obtaining the service of
surgery and dressing. They say that during
the COVID-19 situation, the proper
care of patients has further decreased.
The second floor of the eight-storey
building of the hospital has been dedicated
for treating the corona patients.
Although the infrastructural problems
have been solved, there are questions
about the quality of service. Any service
recipients have to spend money to get the
minimum services in the emergency
department or Operation Theater of the
hospital. Patients have to buy everything
from just a thread to medicines.
>(Contd. on page-11)
a mother and a daughter were tied with ropes and were forced to walk in
various areas in harbang union of Chakaria upazila on Friday, for
allegedly being cattle thieves.
photo : shafiul alam
prime Minister sheikh hasina addressed a discussion meeting on the occasion of the
45th martyrdom anniversary of bangabandhu sheikh Mujibur rahman and nat’l
Mourning day 2020 at the int’l Mother language institute auditorium in dhaka via
video conference from ganobhaban.
photo: pba
highway through haor already
having 'transformational' impact
DHAKA : For a road that opened to the
public during a pandemic, the Itna-
Mithamoin-Astagram highway has
already made a huge impression on
people, in more ways than one.
As lockdown measures gradually
ease, travel bloggers and thrill-seekers,
or just normal people who like nothing
better than to let their hair down and
drive out of town, have been making a
beeline due north of the capital, and on
towards Kishoreganj, reports UNB.
All of them seem to return with one
message to deliver above all else: they
have seen 'the most beautiful road in
Bangladesh!'
Almost half of Kishoreganj district,
including four of its 6 upazilas - Itna,
Mithamoin, Oshtogram, and Nikli - is
designated as a completely haor area:
unique wetland ecosystems that during
the monsoon resemble vast inland seas.
Though much-romanticised and
recognised for the stunningly beautiful
vistas they offer as well as the tremendous
biodiversity they contain, the haor
and its inhabitants have never seen the
levels of development witnessed in other
parts of the country reach their locality.
Infrastructure in particular has
always been a problem. Yet recognising
that infrastructure cannot be bypassed
as a necessity for meaningful growth
and development in any region, the
government is now engaged in a serious
push for development in the country's
haor areas.
shaFiul alaM, Cox's bazar Correspondent
A middle-aged mother and her
teenage daughter have been beaten up
in Chakaria upazila Cox's Bazar, for
allegedly being cattle thieves. Later,
the mother and daughter were tied
with ropes around their waists and
taken to the office of the chairman of
Harbang Union.
After beating them up by a group of
miscreants, Harbang Union Parishad
(UP) Chairman Miranul Islam himself
beat them again. At one stage, when
their physical condition deteriorated,
the police came and rescued the mother
and daughter and admitted them to
Chakaria Government Hospital.
The incident took place on Friday in
the Harbang Paharchanda area of the
upazila, but pictures of the incident
went viral on social media on
Saturday.
When contacted with Harbang police
investigation center in-charge (police
inspector) Md. Aminul Islam, he said, "I
The Itna-Mithamoin-Austagram
highway, that connects these 3 upazilas
of Kishoreganj by going straight
through the haor, can be seen as part of
that push, although work on the Tk
514-crore project (the almost 30-km
highway is just one component, see
below) was inaugurated in 2016 by
President Abdul Hamid - the district's
most famous son.
The 'haor road', as it is also called,
paves the way for direct road connectivity
between the haor region and other
parts of the country including Dhaka,
Sylhet and Chittagong. In providing
connectivity with surrounding areas
and beyond even during the monsoon
months, the newly built road has come
as a sheer lifeline for the three upazilas.
UNB talked to administration officials,
visitors to the area, as well as
locals of course, of the three upazilas to
better understand what a game-changer
it is for the inhabitants of the haor.
Assistant Commissioner (Land) of
Mithamoin Upazila Ali Noor is convinced
that Haor Road has already
transformed people's lives.
"The road can be used by the people
of the three upazilas all year round.
That alone has also boosted livelihoods
directly, as a new profession
arrived in the region of autorickshaw
drivers!" he said, referring to the proliferation
of autorickshaws serving
mainly tourists that has followed the
highway's opening.
Mother, daughter harassed
for allegedly stealing
cows in Chakaria
sent a force when the locals informed the
police outpost on Friday." Our forces
went and rescued the mother and
daughter in critical condition and
brought them into their custody. We
provided treatment to them".
He added that they have been
charged in a case of cow theft filed by a
local man. Among the accused, the
house of four people including mother
and daughter is at Shantir Hat in Patia
upazila. The other's house is in Pekua
Lalbridge area.
When asked if they had been tortured
under the supervision of Harbang
Union Parishad Chairman Miranul
Islam, he said none of them had made
such allegations.
More than two hundred people were
present when our force arrived. We
have given priority to bringing them
into our custody from there. And if the
victim or anyone else complains, we
will investigate and take action.
>(Contd. on page-11)
Covid-19
bangladesh sees
lowest daily cases
since aug 4
DHAKA : Health authorities in
Bangladesh on Sunday reported 1,973
new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, which
was the lowest since August 4 when
1,918 cases were detected across the
country.
With the latest ones, the total number
of Covid-19 cases in the country jumped
to 2,94,598 in the 24th week of the first
virus detection, reports UNB.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the
disease rose to 3,941 as 34 more
patients succumbed to the disease in
the last 24 hours.
RT-PCR facilities of the country tested
14,42,656 samples so far and 10,801
of them were conducted on Sunday.
The daily infection rate declined to
18.27 percent while 20.42 percent of
the tested population turned out Covid-
19 positive.
The total number of recoveries saw
massive growth again on Sunday as
3,524 patients got cured during the
period, raising the total number of
recovered cases to 1,79,091. The recovery
rate increased to 60.79 percent, said
a media release from the Directorate
General of Health Services (DGHS).
The number of deaths per one million
population in Bangladesh has
increased to 24.
The country is seeing 1,774 cases in
8,682 tests per one million population.
At present, there are over one lakh
active cases in the country.
Among the 34 who lost their lives in
the last 24 hours, the highest 22 were
aged above 60 years.
The DGHS data recorded since
March 18 show that 0.48 percent of
those who died aged below 10 years,
while 0.89 percent aged between 11 and
20 years, 2.41 percent between 21 and
30, 6.27 percent between 31 and 40,
13.30 percent between 41 and 50, 27.73
percent between 51 and 60 and 48.9
percent aged above 60 years.
Arms case
Charges framed
against papia, her
husband
DHAKA : A court in Dhaka on Sunday
framed charges against expelled general
secretary of Jubo Mohila League
Narsingdi district unitShamima Nur
Papia, and her husband Mofizur
Rahman Sumon in an arms case,
reports UNB.
Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of Dhaka
Metropolitan Sessions Judges' Court
passed the order.
The court also rejected their petition
to acquit them from the charges.
Earlier on June 29, sub-inspector Md
Arifuzzaman submitted the
chargesheet in the case filed with Shere-Bangla
Nagar Police Station against
them to Dhaka Metropolitan
Magistrate Court. Twelve people were
made witnesses in the case.
On February 23, members of the
Rapid Action Battalion raided two flats
belonging to Papia and Sumon after
arresting them at Hazrat Shahjalal
International Airport on February 22.
RAB men seized counterfeit notes,
foreign currencies and around Tk 2.5
lakh.
They also recovered around Tk 58
lakh raiding two flats at Indira Road in
Dhaka and also a presidential suite at a
five-star hotel in the capital.
Apart from the lavish flats in Dhaka,
Papia and Sumon, a former Chhatra
League leader, own two more flats and
two plots, worth around Tk 2 crore, in
Narsingdi and a number of luxurious
cars.
Later, three cases were filed-two with
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station
under the Arms Act and the Special
Powers Acts while another with Airport
Police Station under the Special Powers
Act-1974.
MondAY, August 24, 2020
2
the farmers of Bogra are spending their busy time as the profit from early winter vegetable cultivation is high. the picture is
taken from Madhupur Pathpara in dhunat upazila of Bogura on sunday.
Photo: PBA
noir 'the Batman' footage thrills
fans at dC virtual event
LOS ANGELES : Robert Pattinson
showcased "The Batman" footage and
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hyped up
his new anti-hero movie "Black Adam"
as Hollywood A-listers and their comicbook
alter-egos hosted a sprawling
online event Saturday, reports BSS.
The virtual "DC FanDome" from
Warner Bros comes after real-world
extravaganzas beloved by comic-book
fans - such as Comic-Con - were
canceled this year due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
Headline billing went to "The
Batman," a dark, detective-style mystery
take on the Caped Crusader which star
Pattinson said had to shut down
midway through production in March
due to Covid-19.
Director Matt Reeves said his version
- still due next year - is inspired by
classic noirs like "Chinatown" and "Taxi
Driver," and will meet a "very human
and very flawed" Bruce Wayne in his
second year as Batman, trying to solve a
series of crimes.
First-ever footage from the muchhyped
movie left fans drooling online,
with a mysterious villain leaving notes
for Batman at crime scenes across
Gotham - and the film's hero
pummeling a street thug before
'End of the world':
Countdown to Beirut's
devastating blast
The 10 firefighters who
received the call a bit before
6 p.m. - alerting them of a big
fire at the nearby port of
Beirut - could not know what
awaited them, reports UNB.
The brigade of nine men
and one woman could not
know about the stockpile of
ammonium nitrate
warehoused since 2013
along a busy motorway in
the heart of a densely
populated residential area - a
danger that had only grown
with every passing year.
They and nearly the entire
population of Beirut were
simply unaware. They were
not privy to the warnings
that authorities had received,
again and again, and
ignored: ammonium nitrate
is highly explosive, used in
fertilizer and sometimes to
build bombs. The stockpile
was degrading; something
must be done. They knew, of
course, that they lived in a
dysfunctional country, its
government rife with
corruption, factionalism and
negligence that caused so
much pain and heartbreak.
But they could not know that
it would lead to the worst
single-day catastrophe in
Lebanon's tragic history.
Across the city, residents
who noticed the grey smoke
billowing over the facility
were drawn to streets,
balconies and windows,
watching curiously as the fire
grew larger. Phones were
pulled out of pockets and
pointed toward the flames.
growling: "I'm vengeance." Like the
rival, record-breaking Marvel films,
several movies featuring DC characters
including Superman are interconnected,
with shared storylines and
crossover cameos. Saturday's all-day
event premiered footage and panels for
follow-ups to blockbusters "Wonder
Woman," "Suicide Squad" and
"Shazam!" - despite uncertainty over
release dates, with many US theaters
closed.
Johnson - the world's top-paid movie
star who is now making his first foray
into the superhero "universe" - teased
next year's "Black Adam," in which he
will play a 5,000-year-old rebel slave
determined to mete out ruthless justice.
"Things will never be the same.
Because the hierarchy of power in the
DC Universe is about to change," the
former wrestler warned rival stars in
typically bombastic style. - 'Out soon!' -
Details for "The Flash" movie - in
which Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck
are both set to reprise their former roles
as Batman - were kept under wraps,
except that its young hero will hop
through time and space in the so-called
"multiverse."
Footage of "The Suicide Squad"
showed Margot Robbie and Viola Davis
us envoy joins taiwan president
at military memorial
The U.S. envoy to Taiwan joined President
Tsai Ing-wen at a military memorial service
Sunday in a fresh show of warming relations
that threatened to add to irritants in
Washington's relations with Beijing, reports
UNB.
Neither the director of the American
Institute in Taiwan, William Brent
Christensen, nor Tsai spoke at the annual
event for soldiers killed by Chinese bombing
in 1958 on Kinmen, a Taiwanese-controlled
island near the mainland coast. Attendees,
wearing masks as a precaution against the
coronavirus, observed one minute of silence.
Military personnel lit incense at soldiers'
graves.
Washington has no official relations with
Taiwan, which split with the communistruled
mainland in 1949 following a civil war.
The Trump administration has made
gestures toward Taiwan as relations with
return alongside new cast members
Idris Elba, John Cena and Peter Capaldi.
Kicking things off Saturday was
"Wonder Woman 1984" - penciled to be
the next DC movie due out, in October,
despite the pandemic.
"I really think the movie is so great on
the big screen," said director Patty
Jenkins. "We believe in putting it in the
cinema… I can't wait for it to come out
soon!" The event comes as
WarnerMedia - which owns the movie
rights to DC comics - undergoes a
massive restructuring, including the loss
of hundreds of studio jobs.
Parent company AT&T is refocusing
on new streaming service HBO Max,
which has delighted comic-book
obsessives with plans for a new
director's cut of ensemble superhero
movie "Justice League." Director Zack
Snyder stepped down from the 2017
original due to family tragedy, and fans
disappointed by the end product have
spent years campaigning for his vision
to be restored.
Saturday's panel on the "Snyder Cut"
sent geeks around the world into social
media meltdown, with Snyder
confirming it will feature four, hourlong
episodes - twice the length of the
studio-cut original.
Beijing soured. This month, Health and
Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became
the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit,
prompting a Chinese protest.
Despite that lack of official ties, the United
States is Taiwan's most important ally and
weapons supplier. The AIT is a non-profit
corporation instead of an embassy but is
staffed by State Department employees.
There was no immediate official Chinese
comment Sunday about U.S. participation in
the memorial.
Sunday marked the first appearance by an
AIT director at the annual memorial.
Christensen has previously attended
events with Tsai, but Sunday's was unusually
high-profile. Some Taiwan TV channels
broadcast the memorial live.
Christensen, who brought an eightmember
delegation, and Tsai said nothing to
reporters.
on the occasion of the 45th death anniversary of Bangabandhu sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, Krishak League President Krishibid samir Chanda
addressed a discussion meeting as the chief guest in Rangpur. Photo: PBA
Rajshahi
MP tests
positive for
Covid-19
RAJSHAHI : Dr Mansur
Rahman, a member
parliament of Rajshahi-5
constituency, tested positive
for coronavirus on Saturday,
reports UNB.
MP Mansur has been
suffering from fever and
cold for the last few days,
said Abdullah, a relative of
the MP.
He was found positive for
coronavirus after his sample
was tested at Rajshahi
Medical College Hospital.
However, Dr Mansur is
doing well and taking
treatment from his home at
Kazihata in the district
town, said the relative.
The death toll from Covid-
19 disease reached 3,907 in
Bangladesh on Saturday, as
health authorities reported
46 more fatalities in the last
24 hours across the country.
During the period,
another 2,265 fresh cases
were detected which
increased the number of
total cases in the country to
2,92,625 since the first
detection of the infection on
March 8.
Woman dies from
fever, cold-related
problem in
satkhira
SATKHIRA : A
sexagenarian woman died
from fever and cold- related
problems at Satkhira
Medical College and
Hospital early Sunday,
reports UNB
The deceased was
identified Sukjan Begum,
65, wife of Karim Sardar of
Paikgaccha upazila of
Khulna district.
Dr Manash Kumar
Mandal, medical officer of
Satkhira Medical College
and Hospital, said the
woman was admitted to the
hospital with fever and cold
related problems on August
18 and died at the isolation
unit of the hospital.
Later, the hospital
authorities collected her
samples for Covid-19 test
but the result is yet to come.
Meanwhile, the local
administration has put the
house of the woman under
lockdown.
So far, 74 people have
died from fever and cold
related problems in the
district.
Bangladesh's death toll
from Covid-19 reached at
3,907 with the deaths of 46
people while the total
number of confirmed cases
stood at 2,92,625 with the
detection of 2,265 fresh
cases as of Saturday since
the first detection of the
infection on March 8.
JICA to implement a food value
chain development project
DHAKA : The Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) will implement
a food value chain development project at a
cost of about Taka 882 crore (11.218 billion
Japanese yen) to process agricultural
products and expand agribusiness in
Bangladesh.
Under this project, low interest financing
and technical assistance will be provided to
organizations and industrial entrepreneurs
working in agro-based business
development, food processing and food
security, said an Industries Ministry press
release.
As a result, the release said, it will be
possible to strengthen the initiative to
provide safe and quality food as well as
achieve the goals 1, 2 and 8 of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
JICA Bangladesh Office Chief
Representative Yuho Hayakawa made the
remarks during a virtual meeting with
Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud
Humayun.
Additional Secretary of the Industries
Ministry Begum Parag, Senior Assistant
Secretary of the ministry Md Salim Ullah,
Senior Representative of JICA Bangladesh
Office Koji Mitomori, Program Advisor
Ryuichi Katsuki, Program Officer Md
Mehdi Hasan, Chief Executive Officer of
Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund
Limited (BIFFL) SM Anisuzzaman, among
others, connected the online meeting.
At the meeting, Yuho Hayakawa said the
recent economic growth has led to an
increase in demand for quality and safe food
both domestically and abroad. As a result,
quality protection and development of the
food value chain has become urgent at every
stage of food production, he added.
Humayun said JICA has been making
significant contributions to the
development of infrastructure,
modernization of technical training and
development of food and food related
industries in Bangladesh.
He said JICA could come up with
innovative projects to diversify the products
of state-owned sugar mills.
Humayun said the Ministry of Industries
would extend all possible support for the
speedy implementation of the food value
chain development project adopted to
improve the quality of food industry in
Bangladesh.
This project will make a positive
contribution to the development of
Bangladeshi food industry through the
transfer technology and the establishment
of world-class food industry factories in this
country, he added.
He hoped that this would strengthen the
opportunities for export of halal and quality
food products by meeting the domestic
demand.
south Korea reports highest daily
virus cases since March
SEOUL : South Korea reported its highest
daily number of coronavirus cases since early
March on Sunday as authorities warned the
country was "on the brink of a nationwide
pandemic" and tightened social distancing
rules, reports BSS.
The majority of the 397 new infections
were in the greater Seoul region - home to
half the country's 51 million people, the
Korea Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said.
Authorities warned of tougher social
distancing rules, which may include closing
schools and businesses, if the number of new
cases continues to grow at a fast pace after
South Korea had largely brought its earlier
outbreak under control.
"The situation is very grave and serious as
we are on the brink of a nationwide
pandemic," KCDC chief Jung Eun-kyeong
told reporters. "Please stay home if possible,"
Jung said, adding the number of infections
has not peaked yet. Virus curbs were
tightened in the Seoul region last week and
were further expanded to the rest of the
the Madhri Rest House building owned by Himchhari district Council
in Cox's Bazar has become dangerous as the soil under the building has
shifted in the tidal water of the new moon and the building has cracked.
It may be collapsed at any moment.
Photo: PBA
32 tested positive for
CoVId-19, 2 die in Ctg
CHATTOGRAM: A total of 32 people were detected positive for
coronavirus in the last 24 hours after testing 294 samples in five
COVID-19 laboratories in Chattogram district, reports BSS.
A total of 263 patients died till today due to coronavirus
only in Chattogram district with yesterday's two deaths.
Among the newly detected patients, 21 are from
Chattogram city and 11 from different upazilas of the district,
hospital sources said.
The total number of infected patients now stands at 16,438
in Chattogram district, Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, civil surgeon
of Chattogram, told BSS yesterday.
He said the persons, who came in contact with COVID-19
patients, were identified and they were asked to remain in
home isolation so that the virus cannot spread further.
Among the total coronavirus infected people, 11,691 are the
residents of the port city and the rest 4,729 are inhabitants of
different upazilas of the district.
The total number of recovered patients from coronavirus
rose to 3,943 with the healing of 41 more people in the last 24
hours out of 16,438 infected people in the district till 2 pm
yesterday.
"The percentage of recovery rate stands at 23.88 percent in
the district," Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi added.
country on Sunday.
The measures include restrictions on large
gatherings such as religious services and the
closing of nightclubs, karaoke bars and cyber
cafes. All beaches have also been closed.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said
Sunday that face masks would be mandatory
for indoor and crowded outdoor areas in the
capital from midnight. South Korea has
reported a total of 17,399 coronavirus
infections with 309 deaths.
The country endured one of the worst early
outbreaks outside mainland China but
brought it broadly under control with
extensive tracing and testing while never
imposing the kind of lockdowns ordered in
much of Europe and other parts of the world.
South Korea has been seen as a model on
how to combat the pandemic with the public
largely following safety health measures such
as face masks.
It even started allowing limited numbers of
spectators at sports events in July - which
was reversed for the greater Seoul area last
week and nationwide from Sunday.
Israeli military
drone fell in
Lebanon:
army
JERUSALEM : An Israeli
military reconnaissance
drone has crashed inside
Lebanon, Israel's army said
overnight between Saturday
and Sunday.
A military spokesperson
said in a statement that the
incident occurred "during
IDF (Israel Defense Forces)
operational activity" along
the Blue Line, a border
demarcation drawn in 2000
by the United Nations after
Israel withdrew its forces
from southern Lebanon.
"There is no risk of breach
of information," the
spokesperson said, without
elaborating on the cause of
the crash.
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020
3
Experts foresee 'new normal situation'
in post-COVID period
DHAKA : Experts at an
international conference
said COVID-19 has
disrupted both domestic and
global supply chains, but a
new normal situation will
prevail in the post pandemic
scenario where people will
have to explore and choose
between life and earnings.
To this end, vaccine
should be sold in the free
market which needs to be
prioritized by each country,
and intellectual property
rights should not be a
burden to access in
procuring and producing
quality vaccine across the
globe, they opined.
Entrepreneurial
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Economists Club (EEC) of
Dhaka School of Economics
(DScE) organized the virtual
conference titled "New
Normal and COVID19:
Impact on Economic-
Business Strategies and
Management of Supply
Channel" with the
participation of both local
and foreign experts, said a
press release today.
The experts also said
aggregate demand and
supply should be matched
with monetary and fiscal
policies as well as the
efficiency of dependence on
the local economy be
prioritized.
Besides, a research
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Southeast University (SEU) observed the
National Mourning Day 2020 marking the
45th Death Anniversary of Father of the
Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman. On the occasion an Online
Discussion Meeting was organized by SEU
on 23 August 2020. Obaidul Quader, MP,
Generel Secretary, Bangladesh Awami
League and Minister, Ministry of Road,
Transport & Bridges was present as the
Chief Guest. The discussion meeting was
chaired by the Vice Chancellor of Southeast
University, Prof. Dr. AFM Mafizul Islam
while Dr. Atiur Rahman, Bangabandhu
Chair Professor, University of Dhaka &
Former Governer, Bangladesh Bank was
present as the Special Guest. Md. Rezaul
Karim, Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT),
Southeast University Trust was the Guest of
Honor. Prof. Dr. ANM Meshquat Uddin,
Adviser, BoT gave the Welcome Speech.
Among others, Members of BoT, Registrar,
Deans, Chairmen, teachers, journalist, officials
and students were present on the
occasion. Photo : Courtesy
conducted by Thai experts
said online learning cannot
be completely substitute to
classroom-based learning
rather the most desirable
learning model is a hybrid
model of classroom-based
learning as the main method
with online learning as a
complement.
Dr Yashoda Krishna
Durge, associate professor at
GNVS Institute of
Management, India and
Rukmini Durge presented
how COVID-19 hit threefold
impact on retailers in the
Indian economy and it
adjusts style in the new
process.
Dr M Shamsuzzaman,
director at ACI formulation,
showed pictorial impact on
the value addition process of
the supply chain
management in the globe.
Dr Shakila Yasmin,
associate professor at
Institute of Business
Administration, University
of Dhaka narrated several
breakthroughs in supply
chain management based on
empirical evidences of her
study.
Professor Dr Muhammad
Mahboob Ali said digital
policy, robotics, use of
artificial intelligence and
innovative skills may build a
mass employment and
enhance the value for ICT.
Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman
Ahmad laid emphasis on
social capital accumulation,
ethical values and morality.
He said under new normal
situations entrepreneurial
economics will play a vital
role as different sectors of
the country were affected
and new poor were created
all over the world.
The conference was
subdivided into three parts:
Technical session: 1,
Technical session: 2 and
closing ceremony. Four
concept papers and sixteen
subject specialized papers
were presented.
NTV's joint chief
news editor dies
of Covid-19
DHAKA : Abdus Shaheed,
joint chief news editor of
NTV, a private television
channel, died of Covid-19 at
a hospital in the city on
Sunday. He was 63.
Abdus Shaheed breathed
his last around 10:45 am at
Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver
Institute and Hospital,
reports NTV.
Heleft behind wife, one
son and a host of relatives to
mourn his death.
Shaheed tested positive for
coronavirus on July 25 and
he was admitted to Kuwait
Bangladesh Friendship
Hospital on July 27 with
respiratory problem.
As his condition
deteriorated, he was taken to
Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver
Institute and Hospital on
July 28 and then shifted to
the ICU of the hospital.
Chairman and managing
director of NTV Mohammad
Mosaddek Ali expressed
deep shock at the demise of
Abdus Shaheed.
Journos invited
to apply for
SAJP
DHAKA : The British High
Commission in Dhaka has
invited applications from
journalists for theChevening
South Asia Journalism
Fellowship (SAJP), reports
UNB.
Interested journalists can
apply (https://www.
chevening. org/fellowship/
sajp/) for the fellowship
until 19 October 2020, said
the High Commission.
The Chevening South Asia
Journalism Fellowship
(SAJP) is aimed at midcareer
journalists from
South Asian countries
including Bangladesh, India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the
Maldives, it said.
The fellowship is hosted by
the University of
Westminster and funded by
the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office.
Applicants must have at
least seven years
professional experience
working at a leading media
group.
BAF airlifts coronavirus
infected doctor from
Bogura to Dhaka
DHAKA : Coronavirus
infected Prof Dr AKM
Rownak Hossain
Chowdhury of TMSS
Medical College Hospital
wasshifted to Dhaka from
Boruga onon Sundayon
aMI-171SH
helicopterofBangladesh Air
Force (BAF), reports UNB.
He was taken to
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib
Medical University
Hospitalfor better
treatment, said a press
release ofInter Service
Public Relation (ISPR).
The BAF has always been
providing emergency air
transport and medical
evacuation (MEDEVAC)
assistance in aid to civil
power totacklecoronavirus
and continuing various
activities to affirm its
commitment to meet all
emergency needs in a
professional manner, said a
press release.
In line with this,theChief
of Air Staff of Bangladesh Air
Force provided necessary
guidance to carry out the
medical evacuation
(MEDEVAC) missions.
Tipu for increasing
tea export after
meeting domestic
demand
DHAKA : Commerce
Minister Tipu Munshi
yesterday urged the
authorities concerned to
take necessary initiatives to
increase tea export after
meeting its domestic
demand.
"The demand for tea is
increasing in the country
and there is also a demand
for Bangladeshi tea in
abroad. Tea exports need to
be increased after meeting
domestic demand," he said
while presiding over a
meeting for the
development of tea industry
from his official residence,
said a press release.
Tipu said there is a huge
demand for Bangladeshi tea
in many countries of the
world, including the United
States, Pakistan and
different countries in the
Middle East.
"There is a need to
increase tea production and
research on new varieties
and increase production, as
well as increase the number
of tea gardens. That is why
tea garden owners have to
come forward. The
government will continue to
support the development of
the country's tea industry.
There is an opportunity to
increase the number of tea
gardens in the country, this
opportunity must be used,"
he added.
Razzak seeks Indian cooperation
in farm sector
mechanization
DHAKA : Agriculture Minister Dr M Abdur
Razzaque yesterday sought cooperation
from India in terms of agro-processing and
farm mechanization as both the countries
have a lot of opportunities to work together
to this end.
"We need Indian assistance for enhancing
agro-processing and marketing of the
agricultural commodities as our main goal is
commercialization and modernization of the
agriculture," he said.
The agriculture minister made the
comment when Indian High Commissioner
in Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das made a
courtesy call on him at his ministry office at
the secretariat.
During the call on, they discussed bilateral
issues and how the two neighboring
countries can cooperate each other on
agriculture, livestock, agro-engineering and
dairy sectors.
Dr Razzaque said, "Under the leadership of
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
already has brought tremendous success in
agriculture which once was less productive,
GD- 1068/20 (4 x 3)
GD- 1067/20 (9 x 3)
but the country is still lags behind in agroprocessing
and commodity marketing."
On the other hand, the minister said India
is far advance in these areas compared to
Bangladesh, he said, adding: "So, we need
Indian cooperation to bring changes in the
sector."
Terming India as a true friend of
Bangladesh, he said, "As we have deep
relationship between us, we strongly believe
that the cooperation in all areas, including
economic, social and cultural, would further
strengthen."
Lauding Bangladesh's success in
agriculture sector, the Indian high
commissioner said there are lots of
opportunities between the two countries to
cooperate each other in agro-processing,
dairy, agro-engineering and light
engineering.
During the discussion, she also assured the
minister of providing all-out cooperation in
the agriculture sector.
Agriculture Secretary M Nasiruzzaman
was present during the call on.
MonDAY, AuGuST 24, 2020
4
Europe's big beasts make plans for the future
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, August 24, 2020
Repair and strengthen coastal
embankments immediately
According to news reports, the coastal areas of
the country or 16 districts have been severely
affected by unusual flood like tides in the wake
of the depression like situation in the Bay of Bengal
recently. The tides have breached large areas of the
coastal embankments and inundated large areas
from where water is failing to drain away. As a result,
nearly ten million coastal people are living a life of
great distress with their homesteads under water
and washed away fish farms, boats, cattle, poultries
and other means of livelihood.
According to a Coast Trust research, about 150km
of Bangladesh's 5,757km of coastal embankments
were affected by super cyclone Amphan in the early
part of the present year. The post Amphan conditions
dictated the very urgent need of fastest repair,
reconstruction and rebuilding of embankments in
the affected Amphan hit areas as protection against
future such events. But it appears that this task was
taken up casually. Although the government has
been doing very praiseworthy works in many other
vital areas, regrettably the tasks of embankment
repair and rebuilding remain relatively neglected.
Furthermore, whatever works were carried out in
relation to the embankments, the same were riddled
with corruption. Thus, the vastly weakened embankments
from the Amphan could hardly provide
defences against last week's unusual tidal surges.
Speakers at an online discussion recently demanded
an immediate allocation of Tk 400 crore to build
and repair coastal embankments damaged by
cyclone Amphan and now the tides. They also asked
the government to ensure Tk12,000 crore in allocations
each fiscal year to build sustainable embankments
in coastal areas.
The online discussion titled "Save Embankments
and Save Economic Activity of Coastal People
Through National Budget 2020-21" was jointly
organised by Coast Trust - a non-governmental
organisation - and Campaign for Sustainable Rural
Livelihood - a national network of individuals,
organisations and institutions. Chairman of Polli
Karma Sohayak Foundation Qazi Kholiquzzaman
presided over the function while Rezaul Karim
Chowdhury, executive director of Coast Trust, moderated
it.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of Standing
Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and
Climate Change, noted economist Dr Qazi
Kholiquzzaman, lawmaker Akhtaruzzaman Babu,
and Dhaka University Professor Dr Mahbuba Nasrin
spoke, among others, at the occasion. Qazi
Kholiquzzaman said a special budgetary allocation is
a must to recover the losses of the coastal people.
Otherwise, many will lose their employment and the
areas will become prone to worse poverty. An immediate
survey should be conducted in this regard, he
added.
It is not that the government is too unmindful of
the problem. It has had several coastal embankment
projects under various nomenclatures and periods.
There was the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP)
implemented during the 1960s and early 1970s. And
following the two severe cyclones, SIDR and AILA,
that hit the coastal zone with devastating effect, the
Coastal Embankment Improvement Project, and
under it various other schemes, were formulated and
their implementation attempted with international
financing.
But the problem is that the long network of
embankments, running into hundreds of miles, seldom
fully stands a storm surge. The standard of
work and of course poor quality of construction
materials combine to render these protection barriers
brittle. There is need to construct newer embankments
every year, apart from regular repair and
maintenance . But the works must be done absolutely
incorruptibly. It is credibly alleged that hundreds
and hundreds of crores of Taka have just gone down
the drain from unpardonable 'corruption' in the
building, rebuilding, strengthening and maintaining
the networks of embankments. Such callous loss of
precious national resources cannot go on unpunished.
Government must do two things immediately :
Fastest possible engagement in works along the total
length and breadth of the embankments network.
Second, all spending in the works must be carried
out with zero corruption to fetch the best results
from durable and effective embankments.
The hand of history was on the minds
of Emmanuel Macron and Angela
Merkel in their mini-summit last
week; 76 years after Paris was liberated
from Nazi forces, the two leaders plotted
the future of the EU and Europe's wider
role in the world.
The meeting at Fort de Bregancon, the
summer residence of French leaders, was
the first there since 1985. At that time,
Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand
forged a trusted partnership, and Merkel
and Macron are working more closely
together now than at any time during
their periods in office.
While the Franco-German alliance has
long been the motor of European
integration, cooperation between the two
powers ebbs and flows. The current high
point in the Macron and Merkel
relationship partially reflects the fact that
the former faces an uncertain election
outlook in 2022, while the latter is leaving
office next year.
"We need to ramp up our co-operation,
whether it's Lebanon or Belarus or Covid-
19 … even though we don't enjoy global
leadership, we will ensure the EU makes
its voice heard," Merkel said, echoing
Macron's theme of "European
sovereignty." It is this combined context
that is bringing out both of their concerns
to come together to try to steer the EU's
future, internally and externally. Both, in
their own ways, are extraordinary
politicians with an eye on their legacies,
and see Germany's current six months
presidency of the EU as a key vehicle to
realize their ambitions.
Since his remarkable rise to power,
MOST Muslim-majority nations
are enduring yet another phase of
the 'politics of ummah'. However,
heedful of their domestic challenges, they
are also striving to readjust their
geopolitical priorities in accordance with
their own economic and political realities.
The concept of ummah has always
remained central to the Muslim world,
mainly as a religious ethos of unity. At the
same time, it has been undergoing a
process of deconstruction, where the
states as well as non-state actors have
been shaping its new contours.
Recent developments in the Middle
East, especially the agreement between
Israel and the UAE for normalisation of
bilateral relations, and the reported
tensions between Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan, are merely the undercurrents of
the brewing political crisis in the Muslim
world. Apparently, it seems the Gulf
states, especially Saudi Arabia, have
already made some hard decisions linked
to their geostrategic realignment which
could entail their desertion of the
custodianship of the Muslim world or
ummah. Many would argue that fastchanging
geopolitical realities, growing
economic upheavals, increasing
sociopolitical disquiet, and mounting
grievances of the youth in these countries
are forcing the Gulf leaders to transform
their geostrategic and political
approaches.
Still, it is hard to presume that Saudi
Arabia and its Gulf allies have lost their
belief in the concept and the politics of
ummah. Leadership of the ummah
confers huge political and strategic value
in regional and global politics, which will
make it hard for these countries to
withdraw their claim to it. Rather, they are
Macron has emerged as one of the most
authoritative defenders of the liberal
international order. Indeed, the young
French president and Donald Trump
currently embody perhaps more than any
other democratic leaders the current
battle in international relations between a
populist tide and the liberal center
ground.
Macron aside, Merkel, in office since
2005, has been the most important
political leader in continental Europe.
Four French presidents (Jacques Chirac,
Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande and
now Macron himself) have already served
during her long tenure.
Both Merkel and Macron believe that
Europe is now, a century and a half after
Bismarck's time, in another critical period
in the midst of a massive recession and
political tumult.
By the end of her fourth term next year,
she will have matched Kohl's 16 years in
office. Indeed, in length of tenure she will
sit behind only Otto von Bismarck, who
served for almost two decades from 1871-
90 and was a dominant force in European
AnDREw HAMMonD
affairs, having helped drive German
unification.
Both Merkel and Macron believe that
Europe is now, a century and a half after
Bismarck's time, in another critical period
in the midst of a massive recession and
political tumult. The fact that they
perceive this political window of
opportunity reflects not just the economic
stresses that the coronavirus has brought
to the continent, but also Brexit, given
that the UK would have been skeptical of
key elements that Macron and Merkel are
now pushing, including stronger defense
union. Their agenda last week was
therefore far reaching, including the
turmoil in Belarus, Lebanon and Mali;
Greek-Turkey tensions; re-imagining the
shape of the EU post-Brexit; carving out a
role for Europe as a defense power to
match its economic might; and the
relationship the EU should have with
China, post-pandemic. While these are all
key issues, it could be Belarus that
becomes the most pressing business for
Macron and Merkel this month.
They made the offer of EU-led
changes in the Muslim world
MuHAMMAD AMIR RAnA
worried on account of the other
contenders to leadership, mainly an
alternative bloc led by Turkey, Iran, Qatar
and to some extent Malaysia.
However, religious institutions and
clergy have nurtured an altogether
different worldview among ordinary
Muslims in many parts of the Muslim
world, which, though it may not be
compatible with the narratives promoted
by their respective states, usually
resonates with the sentiments of nonstate
actors of violent and non-violent
shades.
For the ordinary Muslim, visualising
politics separately from religion is not an
easy task.
The 'ummah' is a religious concept, used
to describe the worldwide community of
Muslims. The pan-Islamist and
brotherhood movements had constructed
a political delusion around the concept,
and the Muslim world (states and
societies) have been fantasising about the
concept for decades. They have tried to
build a political community of Muslims:
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) is one such manifestation. The Gulf
states have effectively manoeuvred the
notion: they blended it with Arab
nationalism during the socioeconomic
transition period from the 1960s to the
last decade. Many Gulf states led by Saudi
Arabia narrowed the scope of the ummah
to Wahabi Islam and made a huge
investment in exporting it across the
Muslim world and Muslim diaspora
communities, and extracted political
support for their regimes.
However, religious institutions and clergy have nurtured an
altogether different worldview among ordinary Muslims in
many parts of the Muslim world, which, though it may not be
compatible with the narratives promoted by their respective
states, usually resonates with the sentiments of non-state
actors of violent and non-violent shades.
The Saudis are not going to abandon the
idea of leading the ummah because that
would mean losing enormous strategic
value in their international relations.
While the 'influence' they wield by being
leaders of the ummah makes them an
important global player, their strong
alliance with the US makes them 'potent'
among Muslim countries. To further
consolidate this two-pronged strength,
Saudi Arabia formed an alliance of 40
Muslim countries called the Islamic
Military Counterterrorism Coalition.
Many would argue the Saudis' real aim in
doing so was to raise troops for Yemen
and counter Iran in the region. Of course,
Saudi Arabia was not doing this as a
religious service or to serve the ummah's
collective interests, yet many small
Muslim countries joined the Saudi-led
'Muslim Nato' for their own economic
interests. However, the alliance was
bound to fail because it had a very narrow
focus and revolved around the interests of
a particular state.
VIcToR DAVIS HAnSon
mediation for Belarus. They also told
Vladimir Putin that Alexander
Lukashenko's government must stop
using violence against peaceful
demonstrators, engage with the
opposition, and immediately release
political prisoners. Some EU leaders want
to go further and agreed last week to draw
up a list of targets for a new round of
potential sanctions.
The situation remains combustible, and
Putin says the EU placing external
pressure on the leadership in Minsk is
unacceptable. Belarus is one of Russia's
closest allies and a full member of two
Moscow-dominated alliances that are
alternatives to the EU and NATO in
Europe; the Eurasian Economic Union
and the Collective Security Treaty
Organization.
Much of this German-Franco agenda
may not be realized in 2020, but a
significant start was made last month as
they worked together to persuade
squabbling EU members to give the bloc,
for the first time in its history, debt-raising
powers to finance a 750 billion euro
pandemic recovery plan.
A UK-EU trade deal would be another
key success for the German presidency of
the EU after years of Brexit angst. Both
Macron and Merkel now want to see an
agreement with London to avoid a hard,
disorderly end to the UK transition
period, and use this as a platform for the
continent, in the midst of continuing
division, to come together again and forge
a new path into the 2020s and beyond.
Source: Arab news
For the ordinary Muslim, visualising
politics separately from religion is not an
easy task: the pan-Islamist and
Brotherhood movements have changed
the worldview of many Muslim societies.
By targeting the education sector, they
have transformed Muslim societies'
political views to the extent that it will take
a long time to rediscover the lost religious
value of the concept of ummah.
The Palestinian issue has remained on
top of the OIC agenda. While the Gulf
states have maintained solidarity with the
Palestinians, non-state actors have
developed their narratives around the
Palestinian-Israel issue and their
allegedly corrupt regimes who they
believe are not taking the issue seriously.
Interestingly, the public has largely
consumed the narrative of 'corrupt
regimes' that is promoted by non-state
actors and like-minded religious leaders,
but the educated classes still refuse to
borrow the idea of an alternative state
system which undermines democracy
and associated freedoms. Non-state
actors also failed to sell their models of
alternative state systems after the Arab
Spring uprisings. But they still remain
relevant in political and religious
discourses of their societies.
Non-state actors could exploit the
emerging political developments to their
advantage. The major violent groups Al
Qaeda and Islamic State have not reacted
to the UAE-Israel deal yet. Both groups
have been significantly weakened and
might not be able to launch big attacks
immediately, but they could use the
situation in support of their argument
against the Muslim regimes and Israel.
Source: Dawn
American soldiers leave Germany-and suddenly Germany is upset
President Trump recently ordered a
12,000-troop reduction in American
military personnel stationed in
Germany. That leaves about 24,000
American soldiers still in the country.
A little more than half of the troops being
withdrawn will return home. The rest will be
redeployed to other NATO member nations
such as Belgium, Italy, and perhaps Baltic
and Eastern European countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said
to be furious. She claims the redeployments
will "weaken the (NATO) alliance." German
commercial interests chimed in that the
troop withdrawals will hurt their decadesold
businesses serving U.S. bases.
Perhaps, but Merkel surely cannot be
surprised. Six years ago, all NATO members
pledged to spend 2 percent of their GDP on
defense. Yet only eight of 29 so far have kept
their word.
Germany spends only about 1.4 percent of
its GDP on defense. As NATO's largest,
wealthiest and most powerful European
Since his remarkable rise to power, Macron has
emerged as one of the most authoritative defenders of
the liberal international order. Indeed, the young French
president and Donald Trump currently embody perhaps
more than any other democratic leaders the current
battle in international relations between a populist
tide and the liberal center ground.
member, it sets the example for the rest of
alliance.
Merkel's reneging on her 2014 pledge
helps explain why less wealthy and
influential NATO members also see no
reason to meet their obligations.
Germany surely knows that 2020 marks
the 75th anniversary of the end of the World
War II, and the 29th year since the fall of the
Berlin Wall - the symbolic end of the Cold
War.
Will there be any point in the future when
Europe is confident enough to be a full
defense partner with the U.S. rather than an
eight-decade client?
placeholder
NATO, of course, still provides a common
European defense, but only by habitually
relying inordinately on U.S. military
contributions. That dependence seems
increasingly odd when the European Union
has an aggregate GDP nearly as large as
America's.
More important, NATO's frontline threats
are now mostly concerned with rogue
member Turkey, especially its bullying of
Greece and its increasingly aggressive
stance in the Middle East.
Russia always poses a threat to Europe.
But the likely flashpoints are not on the
German border, but more likely eastward in
the Baltic states or on the Russian frontier
with Poland.
Moreover, the Merkel government has
concluded, over American objections, a
huge natural gas deal with Russia that is
currently under some U.S. sanctions and
short of cash.
Russian energy exports to Germany are
said to earn Russia $10 billion a year, with a
likely doubling of that income once
additional pipelines to Germany are
completed.
Merkel likes to lecture the world on moral
issues, but what is so noble about
empowering Russian President Vladimir
Putin, who recently reclaimed Crimea and
seems now to be eyeing Belarus?
placeholder
Like a modern-day Byzantine emperor
Justinian, who recovered much of the lost
Western Roman Empire, Putin seems to
think he can reabsorb the lost Soviet
republics.
In recent polling, Germans were more
anti-American than any other nation in
Europe. And while about 75 percent of
Americans believe the U.S. still has a good
relationship with Germany, only about a
third of Germans feel that way about the
U.S. Nearly half the German population in
some polls want U.S. troops out.
Note that Germany piles up the largest
annual trade surplus with the U.S. of any
nation in Europe - roughly $55 billion to
$70 billion in most years. The Trump
administration says the surpluses have
grown in large part due to asymmetry in
tariffs and duties, with Germany the far
more protectionist of the two partners.
Source: Fox news
MonDAY, August 24, 2020
5
Face masks give facial recognition
software hard times
Alex Hern
It is an increasingly common
modern annoyance: arriving at
the front of the queue to pay in
a shop, pulling out a
smartphone for a hygienic
contact-free payment, and
staring down at an error
message because your phone
fails to recognise your masked
face.
As more and more nations
mandate masks to prevent the
spread of coronavirus,
technology companies are
scrambling to keep up with the
changing world. But some
experts are warning that the
change may have to start with
users themselves.
Apple's Face ID is the most
well-known example of a
consumer facial verification
system. The technology, which
uses a grid of infrared dots to
measure the physical shape of
a user's face, secures access to
the company's iPhones and
iPads, as well as other features
such as Apple Pay.
But although the service can
work through many barriers,
including heavy makeup, thick
beards and even sunglasses, it
fails with masks. Users can still
avoid some hassle with a littleknown
feature called express
Transit, which allows them to
use Apple Pay on public
transport
without
authentication.
But other than that, there has
only been one tweak to the
system to account for the new
reality. In mid-May, Apple
launched an update that
removed the delay between
failing to recognise a face and
showing a passcode for an
alternative authentication.
That speeds up the fallback
option, but is less than many
had hoped for by now.
Unfortunately, says Andrew
Bud, chief executive of facial
verification company iProov,
that might be the best we see in
the near term.
Face masks do not actually
make it significantly harder to
recognise a person, Bud says.
"Modern face recognition
relies quite heavily on the area
around the eyes. The old
paradigm - measuring the
geometry of the shape of the
face in general - that was
obsolete five years ago."
Face masks make it harder for a system to distinguish between a real face
and a spoof.
Photo: Pavlo gonchar
Instead, the problem masks
have is that they make it harder
for a system to distinguish
between a real face and a spoof.
That task, called "genuine
presence assurance", is at the
core of facial verification - and
the reason why Bud thinks we
may not see alternatives arising
any time soon. "Most genuine
presence assurance solutions
will struggle to deal with a large
mask covering the majority of
someone's face."
That problem has also
plagued alternatives. In 2017,
for instance, Samsung brought
out the Galaxy S8, a new
smartphone with iris
recognition. Within a month,
researchers had posted a video
of them unlocking the same
phone with just a photo of
someone's eye hidden behind a
contact lens. "By far [the] most
expensive part of the iris
biometry hack was the
purchase of the Galaxy S8," the
group wrote.
Other technologies might
show more promise. Bud's
company, which provides
verification services to the UK
government, has developed a
palm verification system that
can successfully recognise
people from a smartphone
picture of their hand - with the
same protection against
artificial spoofs. But ultimately,
he warns, the most likely
outcome is a change in
attitudes.
"In the future, when you
want to authenticate, you just
briefly take your mask off. We
think that's OK. We as a
company are focused on
usability, and that strikes me as
being an imposition you can
live with, even in the world of
Covid."
There is one silver lining. The
problems that facial
verification systems have with
masks have also been plaguing
manufacturers of a similar
technology, facial recognition -
used for surveillance purposes,
to track people using CCTV
footage. A July study by the US
government revealed that
widespread mask wearing
reduced the accuracy of facial
recognition algorithms by
between 5% and 50%.
tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, has presided over an almost nine-fold increase in its share
price.
Photo: Bloomberg
Apple becomes a $2tn company
MArK SWeney
Apple became the first US $2tn
company on Wednesday, only two years
after becoming the first to be valued at
$1tn by Wall Street. The technology
powerhouse behind the iPhone needed
to hit a share price of $467.77 to reach
the milestone and moved through that
barrier during mid-morning trading on
the nasdaq exchange on Wednesday,
although it closed down just below that
historic level at $1.979tn (£1.51tn).
The figure means the company, cofounded
to sell personal computers by
the late Steve Jobs in 1976, is valued at
significantly more than half of the US's
total tax take of 2019.
Apple hit a $1tn market capitalisation
in 2018, 42 years after it was founded
and 117 years after US Steel became the
first company to be valued at $1bn in
1901. It is not the first company in the
world to have been valued at $2tn. Saudi
Aramco was briefly valued at that level
after the Saudi state-backed oil company
made its stock market debut last year,
but it then slipped back.
The iMac to iPhone maker has so far
proved to be coronavirus-proof,
crushing Wall Street expectations in
each of the last two quarters. Apple had
expected to take a hit, issuing a revenue
warning and withdrawing financial
guidance in February well before the
pandemic had gone global. Instead, its
share price has risen more than 50% this
year, adding more than $1tn to its value
since March. It is now worth $300bn
more than the next largest listed US
company, Jeff Bezos' Amazon.
However, the company's rise to tech
behemoth status has seen its carefully
cultivated image as the plucky challenger
replaced by accusations it is now abusing
its power. last month, Apple faced
accusations of anti-competitive
behaviour at a heated congressional
hearing in Washington. And last week,
Fortnite-maker epic Games launched
legal action against Apple and Google
after the enormously popular video
game was removed from their app stores
for violating Apple's strict payment
guidelines.
The Apple juggernaut has successfully
navigated major changes in recent years
as Jony Ive, the British chief architect of
groundbreaking designs from the iMac
to the iPhone who reinvigorated the
business alongside Jobs, left the
company after almost 30 years last year.
Jobs passed away in 2011 and his
successor, Apple lifer Tim Cook, has bet
big on moving the company away from
an over-dependence on its stalwart
product, the iPhone. Cook has presided
over an almost nine-fold increase in
Apple's share price since taking over, a
run that saw the 59-year-old join the
billionaire club last week.
It has been Apple's push into services
and so-called wearable products that has
really paid off, making more than $13bn
in the last quarter alone. The company
has moved into Spotify territory with its
subscription music offering, Apple
Music.
AI will create useless class of human
At the inset, added city details of Queens in new York.
google Maps gets worldwide
visual overhaul
TeCHnOlOGy DeSK
Google Maps is getting a visual overhaul
worldwide, finally letting users distinguish
forest from floodplain, and desert from
snowfield, at a glance. Alongside the changes to
natural environments, a new set of maps will be
rolling out in major cities, beginning with
london, new york City and San Francisco,
aiming to more accurately represent the builtup
environment to help pedestrians and
cyclists navigate.
"Google Maps has high-definition satellite
imagery for over 98% of the world's
population," said Sujoy Banerjee, a product
manager for the app. "With a new colourmapping
algorithmic technique, we're able to
take this imagery and translate it into an even
more comprehensive, vibrant map of an area at
global scale.
"exploring a place gives you a look at its
natural features - so you can easily distinguish
tan, arid beaches and deserts from blue lakes,
rivers, oceans and ravines. you can know at a
glance how lush and green a place is with
vegetation, and even see if there are snow caps
on the peaks of mountaintops."
The new detail comes from algorithmic
analysis of satellite imagery, which attempts to
automatically discern the nature of the
environment. It then adds new colour on to the
map in an attempt to reflect the varieties of
landscape.
rather than following a predefined key, as
with a paper map, the automatic colouring
allows for different features to be emphasised
according to need. In Iceland, the land can be
darker green depending on the level of tree
cover, but in Washington State, a darker green
Photo: google
is instead used to detail the borders of Mt
rainer national park.
Those changes are due to roll out "starting
this week", Google says. Alongside the newly
detailed terrain, the company is also launching
more detailed maps for selected urban areas,
starting with london, new york City and San
Francisco.
Those updates will include visual
representations of features such as pavements,
road widths and pedestrian crossings and
islands. That, Banerjee says, is "crucial
information if you have accessibility needs, like
wheelchair or stroller requirements. These
details are particularly helpful as more people
are opting to walk or take other forms of solo
transportation due to the pandemic."
Google's rival Apple is in the process of
overhauling its own mapping service,
introducing a Street View-like feature dubbed
"look around" and improving the detail of rural
and urban areas. Apple's refreshed maps,
which were first launched in California's Bay
Area in 2018, will finally hit the UK, Ireland
and Canada this autumn, after expanding to
Japan, the first non-US deployment, earlier
this year.
A few American and Chinese cities will also
receive cycling directions in Apple's update,
more than 10 years after Google introduced the
feature. Competition between rival mapping
companies has been steadily intensifying, as
Google and Apple seek to reposition their
respective mapping apps as more fullyfeatured
"local search" offerings. As well as
taking users from A to B, Google Maps can now
be used to book restaurants or hotels, hire cabs
and place orders for takeaway or delivery
meals.
IAn SAMPle
It is hard to miss the
warnings. In the race to
make computers more
intelligent than us, humanity
will summon a demon, bring
forth the end of days, and
code itself into oblivion.
Instead of silicon assistants
we'll build silicon assassins.
The doomsday story of an
evil AI has been told a
thousand times. But our fate
at the hand of clever cloggs
robots may in fact be worse -
to summon a class of
eternally useless human
beings. At least that is the
future predicted by yuval
noah Harari, a lecturer at
the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, whose new book
says more of us will be
pushed out of employment
by intelligent robots and on
to the economic scrap heap.
Harari rose to prominence
when his 2014 book,
Sapiens: A Brief History of
Humankind, became an
international bestseller. Two
years on, the book is still
being talked about. Bill
Gates asked Melinda to read
it on holiday. It would spark
great conversations around
the dinner table, he told her.
We know because he said so
on his blog this week.
When a book is a hit, the
publisher wants more. And
so Harari has been busy. His
next title, Homo Deus: A
Brief History of Tomorrow,
is not out until September
but early copies have begun
to circulate. Its cover states
simply: "What made us
sapiens will make us gods".
It follows on from where
Sapiens ends, in a
provocative, and certainly
speculative, gallop through
the hopes and dreams that
will shape the future of the
species.
And the nightmares.
Because even as the book has
humans gaining godlike
powers, that is only one
eventuality Harari explores.
It might all go pear-shaped,
of course: we sapiens have a
knack for hashing things up.
Instead of morphing into
omnipotent, all-knowing
masters of the universe, the
human mob might end up
jobless and aimless, whiling
away our days off our nuts
on drugs, with Vr headsets
strapped to our faces.
Welcome to the next
revolution.
Harari calls it "the rise of
the useless class" and ranks
it as one of the most dire
threats of the 21st century. In
a nutshell, as artificial
intelligence gets smarter,
more humans are pushed
out of the job market. no one
knows what to study at
college, because no one
knows what skills learned at
20 will be relevant at 40.
Before you know it, billions
of people are useless, not
through chance but by
definition.
"I'm aware that these
kinds of forecasts have been
around for at least 200 years,
from the beginning of the
Industrial revolution, and
they never came true so far.
It's basically the boy who
cried wolf," says Harari. "But
in the original story of the
boy who cried wolf, in the
end, the wolf actually comes,
and I think that is true this
time."
The way Harari sees it,
humans have two kinds of
ability that make us useful:
physical ones and cognitive
ones. The Industrial
revolution may have led to
machines that did away with
humans in jobs needing
strength and repetitive
actions. But the takeover was
not overwhelming. With
cognitive powers that
machines could not touch,
humans were largely safe in
their work. For how much
longer, though? AIs are now
beginning to outperform
humans in the cognitive
field. And while new types of
jobs will certainly emerge,
we cannot be sure, says
Harari, that humans will do
them better than AIs,
computers and robots.
AIs do not need more
intelligence than humans to
transform the job market.
They need only enough to do
the task well. And that is not
far off, Harari says.
"Children alive today will
face the consequences. Most
of what people learn in
school or in college will
probably be irrelevant by the
time they are 40 or 50. If
they want to continue to
have a job, and to
understand the world, and
be relevant to what is
happening, people will have
to reinvent themselves again
and again, and faster and
faster."
even so, jobless humans
are not useless humans. In
the US alone, 93 million
people do not have jobs, but
they are still valued. Harari,
it turns out, has a specific
definition of useless. "I
choose this very upsetting
term, useless, to highlight
the fact that we are talking
about useless from the
viewpoint of the economic
and political system, not
from a moral viewpoint," he
says. Modern political and
economic structures were
built on humans being useful
to the state: most notably as
workers and soldiers, Harari
argues. With those roles
taken on by machines, our
political and economic
systems will simply stop
attaching much value to
humans, he argues.
none of this puts us in the
realm of the gods. In fact, it
leads Harari to even more
bleak predictions. Though
the people may no longer
provide for the state, the
state may still provide for
them. "What might be far
more difficult is to provide
people with meaning, a
reason to get up in the
morning," Harari says. For
those who don't cheer at the
prospect of a post-work
world, satisfaction will be a
commodity to pay for: our
moods and happiness
controlled by drugs; our
excitement and emotional
attachments found not in the
world outside, but in
immersive Vr.
All of which leads to the
question: what should we
do? "First of all, take it very
seriously," Harari says. "And
make it a part of the political
agenda, not only the
scientific agenda. This is
something that shouldn't be
left to scientists and private
corporations. They know a
lot about the technical stuff,
the engineering, but they
don't necessarily have the
vision and the legitimacy to
decide the future course of
humankind."
Most of what people learn in school will be irrelevant by the time they are 40 or 50. Photo: Antonio olmos
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020 6
Jubo Mohila League holds discussion
meeting in Pabna
Abdul HAmid KHAn, PAbnA CorresPondent:
A discussion meeting and prayer mahfil
organized by Jubo mohila league was
held in Pabna in protest of the August 21
grenade attack and in memory of the
martyrs at Pabna district Awami league
office on Friday.
At the beginning of the program, the
leaders of the party observed a minute's
silence and paid homage to the portraits
of the 24 martyrs of the grenade attack on
21 August. Pabna district Jubo mohila
league President Adv. Arefa Khanam
shefali chaired the occasion while Pabna
district Awami league General secretary
and sadar constituency mP Golam
Farooq Prince moderated the occasion.
Parliament member of Pabna-1
constituency Adv shamsul Haque tuku
was the chief guest at the occasion while
among others, district Awami league
Joint General secretary Adv. belayet Ali
billu, upazila Parishad Vice Chairman
shawal biswas, municipal Awami league
President Adv. toslim Hasan sumon,
upazila Awami league General secretary
sohel Hasan shahin, municipal Awami
league General secretary shahjahan
mamun, labor Affairs secretary sardar
mithu Ahmed, upazila Awami league
organizing secretary sheikh russell Ali
masud and Finance secretary Hirok
Hossain were also present at the
occasion.
At the end of the discussion, a prayer
was held for the forgiveness of the souls of
the martyrs of the grenade attack.
Narsingdi Sadar Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Md. Shah Alam Miah on Saturday led
a day long drive and recovered government land worth around Tk 7 crore from illegal occupation.
Photo: Md Salim Mia
Government land worth Tk 7 crore
recovered in a day in Narsingdi
md sAlim miA, nArsinGdi CorresPondent:
narsingdi district administration
has rescued government land worth
around tk 7 crore from illegal
occupation in one day. narsingdi
sadar upazila land office on
saturday launched a day-long
operation to recover government
land.
narsingdi sadar upazila Assistant
Commissioner (land) md. shah
Alam miah led the day-long
operation. during the operation, 25
per cent government khas land in
Paikarchar union land office of
sadar upazila at Puranchar mouza
no. 92 (with a current market value of
about tk 75.10 lakh), 10 percent
government khas land in balursail
mouza no. 1299 of mahishashura
union land office (with a current
market value of around tk 40 lakh),
in Atpaika mouza no. 361 of the same
union, 133 per cent of schedule 'Ka'
land (with a current market value of
about tk 5.32 crore), and in Atpaika
mouza no 341, 15 per cent of schedule
'Kha' land (with a current market
value of around tk 60 lakh) was
evicted at the and the red flag was
hoisted and taken under the control of
the government. the total amount of
land recovered and evicted is 183
percent with a current market value of
around tk 7.2 crore.
narsingdi deputy Commissioner
and district magistrate syeda
Farhana Kaunain, who is committed
to protecting and safeguarding
government interests, said the rescue
and eviction drive was conducted
under the direction of executive
magistrate and sadar upazila
Assistant Commissioner (land) md.
shah Alam.
earlier on August 12, 10 per cent
government khas land in baduarchar
area of Hajipur union in narsingdi
sadar upazila with a market value of
around tk 20 lakh was evicted. on 13
August, 45.82 per cent of the
government khas land in satirpara
mouza of narsingdi municipality
(with a market value of about tk2.3
crore) was evicted.
on saturday, July 25, 157 per cent
government ponds worth crores of
taka were recovered at birampur in
madhadi and on July 26, 4 acres and
15 per cent government properties
worth several crores of taka were
recovered at Pakuria village of
banghab mouza in Amdia union of
the district. executive magistrate md
shah Alam mia, who led the rescue
operation, said about 8 acres and 10
per cent of the land in narsingdi
sadar upazila has been recovered so
far in just two months as part of
government land recovery in different
parts of the district under the
direction of narsingdi deputy
Commissioner and district
magistrate syeda Farhana Kaunain.
the lands were being illegally
occupied by different influential
people and were conducting different
illegal businesses. He said the drive to
vacate government property would
continue.
A discussion meeting and doa mahfil organized by Jubo Mohila League was held in Pabna
in protest of the August 21 grenade attack and in memory of the martyrs at Pabna district
Awami League office recently.
Photo: Abdul Hamid Khan
Sramik League holds Doa Mahfil
for Bangabandhu in Moulvibazar
AloK KAnti deb, moulVibAzAr CorresPondent:
A milad and doa mahfil was held at
district Jame mosque (old Court
mosque) in moulvibazar on the
occasion of 45th martyrdom
anniversary of Father of the nation
bangabandhu sheikh mujibur
rahman and national mourning day
on sunday.
during the time, district General
secretary misbahur rahman, district
Jatiya sramik league President md
Asad Hossain makku, orgaz
secretary sobhan Ali, Alamgir Khan,
Abdul Ahad, sadar upazila Jatiya
sramik league President
samshaddin sanu, rajnagar upazila
sramik league General secretary
md. nannu Ahmed and other leaders
were also present at the occasion.
during the time, prayers were offered
for the forgiveness of Father of the
nation bangabandhu sheikh
mujibur rahman.
besides, prayers were also offered
for the forgiveness of the late former
member of the Constituent
Assembly, several times former
member of Parliament, Chairman of
the district Council Azizur rahman
and late social Welfare minister syed
mohsin Ali. imam of district Jame
mosque conducted the prayers.
Rangpur District Superintendent of Police, Biplob Kumar Sarkar BPM (Bar) PPM as the chief
guest was present at a bit policing workshop and bit registrar distribution meeting of Rangpur
District Police at Police Lines School and College auditorium on Sunday.
Photo: TBT
'There is no alternative but to intensify
bit policing activities': Rangpur SP
tbt desK:
bit policing workshop and bit
registrar distribution meeting of
rangpur district Police was held Police
lines school and College auditorium
on sunday. Additional superintendent
of Police (Administration and Crime),
rangpur, mahushudhan roy presided
over the while maintaining social and
physical distance.
rangpur district superintendent of
Police, biplob Kumar sarkar bPm
(bar) PPm was present as the chief
guests at the bit Policing Workshop
and bit registrar distribution
ceremony. during the time, the Police
super said that we need to work faster
than before to reduce the crime trend
in the society by bridging the gap
between the police and the people by
bringing the police service to the
doorsteps of the common man through
bit policing service. there is no
deterioration of discipline in the
designated bit area, and we need to
work sincerely so that the victims can
get the full service. He also pledged to
work hand in hand with the police and
the people to set up bit police offices in
the area to strengthen the police
relationship with the people by
exchanging views with the people on
issues related to crime control in the
area.
He further said that the police
stations have given instructions to
increase the monitoring of bit officers
to strengthen the bit policing system in
the area. He thanked all concerned for
speeding up the service at the
doorsteps of the common man and
also said that no exemption would be
given if any officer was accused of
unprofessional behavior.
At the occasion, maruf Ahmed,
Additional superintendent of Police,
(b-Circle) rangpur,. Abu tayyab
mohammad Arif Hossain, Additional
superintendent of Police (A-Circle)
rangpur, md. Anwar Hossain,
Additional superintendent of Police
(Headquarters) rangpur and md.
Ashraful Alam Palash, Assistant
superintendent of Police, (sAF) were
among others also present at the
occasion.
A Milad and Doa Mahfil was held at District Jame Mosque (Old Court Mosque) in Moulvibazar on the
occasion of 45th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and National Mourning Day on Sunday.
Photo: Alok Kanti Deb
Tree plantation program opened
in Cumilla on Mujib Year
CumillA: A tree plantation program
was inaugurated in Chauddagram
upazila of the district yesterday on the
occasion of the birth centenary of Father
of the nation bangabandhu sheikh
mujibur rahman, reports bss.
Cumilla's Chauddagram upazila
mohila Awami league (Al) and Juba
mahila league arranged it as a part of
tree plantation programme of Cumilla
south district mohila Awami league
(Al) on mujib Year.
Cumilla south district mohila Al
president and former mP Jobeda Khatun
inaugurated the program by planting
saplings of different trees in front of the
office building of mazibul Haque, mP of
Chauddagram constituency. upazila
mohila Awami league Chairman
Faizunnesa Amin presided over the
inaugural function and upazila Awami
league General secretary Professor
rahmat ullah babul conducted it.
Cumilla south district mohila Al
General secretary Kohinur begum,
municipal mayor mizanur rahman,
Cumilla south district Jubo mohila
league Chairman and sadar dakshin
mohila Awami league Vice Chairman
nasima Akter Putul, Cumilla district
Council member VP Faruk Ahmed miazi,
Cumilla south district Jubo mohila
league organizing secretary and
reserved seat in parliament mP salma
Akter beauty and leaders of the mohila
Awami league were present, among
others, in the program.
leaders of Awami league and its
associate bodies here expressed their
determination to continue tree plantation
program in the district on the occasion of
the mujib Year.
MONDAY, AUGUSt 24, 2020
7
House passes bill to reverse changes
blamed for mail delays
Health workers conduct COVID-19 antigen tests for migrant workers in New Delhi, India, Aug. 18,
2020. In June, India began using the cheaper, faster but less accurate tests to scale up testing for the
coronavirus â€" a strategy that the US is now considering.
Photo : AP
Experts flag risks in India's use
of rapid tests for virus
In June, India began using cheaper,
faster but less accurate tests to scale up
testing for the coronavirus - a strategy
that the United States is now considering,
reports UNB.
These rapid tests boosted India's testing
levels nearly five-fold within two
months. But government numbers suggest
some parts of the country might
have become over reliant on the faster
tests, which can miss infections.
Experts warn that safely using them
requires frequent retesting, something
that isn't always happening.
Cases surged faster than labs could
scale up testing once India's harsh lockdown
was relaxed. So far authorities
have rationed the use of the more precise
molecular tests that detect the
genetic code of the virus. But on June
14, India decided to bolster these with
faster tests that screen for antigens, or
viral proteins. Albeit less accurate,
these tests are cheap and yield results in
minutes. Most don't require a lab for
processing or any specialized equipment
or trained personnel. The plan
was to rapidly increase testing to identify
infected people and prevent them
from spreading the virus. Samples tested
using both tests increased from 5.6
million in mid-June to 26 million two
months later, and nearly a third of all
tests conducted daily are now antigen
tests, health officials say.
But India's experience also highlights
the inherent pitfalls of relying too heavily
on antigen tests, at the expense of
more accurate tests. The danger is that
the tests may falsely clear many who
are infected with COVID-19, contributing
to new spread of the virus in hardhit
areas. Rapid test results can be
backstopped with more accurate laboratory
tests, but these are slower and
expensive. Experts also warn that since
the two types of tests vary in accuracy,
they need to be interpreted separately
to properly assess the spread of infection-something
India isn't doing.
The U.S. faces a similar need to strike
a balance between speed and precision,
with overburdened labs struggling to
keep pace with the outbreak.
Researchers at Harvard and elsewhere
are proposing developing a $1 salivabased
antigen test for all Americans to
test themselves daily, something that
has not yet been approved by the Food
and Drug Administration.
Harvard's Dr. Michael Mina says antigen
tests don't catch as many patients
early in the infection, when virus levels
are low. But these people aren't considered
the greatest threat to spreading the
disease since it's only after virus levels
surge that they become more infectious,
and by then they will be picked up by
antigen tests, he said. Because a negative
antigen test doesn't guarantee a person is
virus free, people should be retested regularly,
said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of
Harvard's Global Health Institute. "If
their symptoms change, you want to
think about retesting those people."
With heated debate over mail delays,
the House approved legislation in a
rare Saturday session that would
reverse recent changes in U.S. Postal
Service operations and send $25 billion
to shore up the agency ahead of the
November election, reports UNB.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled lawmakers
to Washington over objections
from Republicans dismissing the action
as a stunt. President Donald Trump
urged a no vote, including in a Saturday
tweet, railing against mail-in ballots
expected to surge in the COVID-19 crisis.
He has said he wants to block extra
funds to the Postal Service.
"Don't pay any attention to what the
president is saying, because it is all
designed to suppress the vote," Pelosi
said at the Capitol.
Pelosi called the Postal Service the
nation's "beautiful thread" connecting
Americans and said voters should
"ignore" the president's threats.
The daylong session came as an
uproar over mail disruptions puts the
Postal Service at the center of the
nation's tumultuous election year, with
Americans rallying around one of the
nation's oldest and more popular institutions.
Millions of people are expected
to opt for mail-in ballots to avoid
polling places during the coronavirus
pandemic. Ahead of voting the president
tweeted, "This is all another
HOAX." More than two dozen Republicans
broke with the president and
backed the bill, which passed 257-150.
Democrats led approval, but the legislation
is certain to stall in the GOP-held
Senate. The White House said the president
would veto it.
Facing a backlash over operational
changes, new Postmaster General
Louis DeJoy testified Friday in the Senate
that his "No. 1 priority" is to ensure
election mail arrives on time.
But the new postal leader, a Trump
ally, said he would not restore the cuts
to mailboxes and sorting equipment
that have already been made. He could
not provide senators with a plan for
handling the ballot crush for the election.
DeJoy is set to return Monday to
testify before the House Oversight
Committee.
"The American people don't want
anyone messing with the post office,"
said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the
chair of the Oversight Committee and
author of the bill. "They just want their
mail." But Republicans countered that
complaints about mail delivery disruptions
are overblown, and no emergency
funding is needed right now.
"It's a silly, silly bill," said Rep. Tom
Cole, R-Okla. Despite the postmaster
general's vow election mail will arrive
on time, Democrats remain skeptical.
Maloney's committee on Saturday
released internal Postal Service documents
warning about steep declines
and delays in a range of mail services
since early July, shortly after DeJoy
took the helm. He acknowledged at the
Senate hearing there has been a "dip" in
service, but disputed reports of widespread
problems. The Board of Governors
of the Postal Service announced a
bipartisan committee to oversee mail
voting.
The bill would reverse the cuts by
prohibiting any changes made after
January, and provide funds to the
agency. In a memo to House Republicans,
leaders derided the legislation as
a postal "conspiracy theory" act. Many
GOP lawmakers echoed such sentiments
during a lively floor debate.
"I like the post office, I really do," said
Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. But he
said, "We have no crisis here."
Nevertheless, Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell is eyeing a $10
billion postal rescue as part of the next
COVID-19 relief package. While Trump
has said he wants to block emergency
funding for the agency, the White
House has said it would be open to
more postal funding as part of a broader
bill. Hundreds of lawmakers
returned to Washington for the weekend
session, but dozens cast votes by
proxy under House rules that allow
them to stay away during the COVID-
19 crisis. Another lawmaker, Rep. Dan
Meuser, R-Pa., announced Saturday he
had tested positive for the virus.
Indonesia’s Sinabung
volcano spews new
burst of hot ash
A rumbling volcano in western Indonesia on
Sunday unleashed an avalanche of scorching
clouds down its slopes, reports UNB.
Authorities are closely monitoring Mount
Sinabung on Sumatra, one of Indonesia's
main islands, after sensors picked up
increasing activity in past weeks.
The volcano in North Sumatra province
was shooting smoke and ash more than
1,000 meters (3,280 feet) into the air on
Sunday morning, and hot ash clouds traveled
1 kilometer (0.6 mile) southeast,
Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological
Hazard Mitigation Center said.
Villagers were advised to stay 5 kilometers
(3.1 miles) from the crater's mouth and
should be aware of the peril of lava, the
agency said. Air travel was not impacted by
the ash so far, the Transport Ministry said.
There were no casualties from the eruption,
said Armen Putra, an official at the
Sinabung monitoring post. He said villages
outside the red zone were not in immediate
danger.
Some 30,000 people have been forced to
leave homes around Sinabung in the past
few years.
The 2,600-metre (8,530-feet) Sinabung
was dormant for four centuries before
exploding in 2010, killing two people. Another
eruption in 2014 killed 17 people, while
seven died in a 2016 eruption.
The volcano, one of two currently erupting
in Indonesia, has sporadically come to life
since then.
Sinabung is among more than 120 active
volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to
seismic upheaval due to its location on the
Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and
fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
Mount Sinabung spews volcanic materials during an eruption, in
Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. Sinabung
is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is
prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of
Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific
Basin.
Photo : AP
2nd night of
protests against
GOP convention
in Charlotte
Protesters returned to the
streets of Charlotte, North
Carolina, to demonstrate for
a second night as GOP officials
gathered in the city for
the Republican National
Convention, reports UNB.
Police used bicycles to
block protesters Saturday
night from gathering close to
the Charlotte Convention
Center, the site of the convention.
The Secret Service
set up a perimeter, news outlets
reported.
The demonstrators' chants
included, "No RNC in CLT"
and "Black Lives Matter."
Several people were
arrested Friday, and at least
one person was arrested Saturday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
police tweeted that a
protester armed with a gun
was arrested, and earlier
stated that pepper spray was
used to stop another protester
armed with a pole "from
advancing on officers."
Friday night, a group of
about 60 demonstrators left
a park and began a march
throughout uptown Charlotte,
authorities said.
Police said the group
briefly trespassed onto light
rail tracks, temporarily disrupting
service. Demonstrators
later impeded traffic by
surrounding a vehicle that
was attempting to travel
through an intersection,
police said. William Gissentaner
was arrested and
charged with impeding traffic,
disorderly conduct and
resisting a public officer,
police said.
Police say demonstrators
surrounded another vehicle as
they continued to march, and
three more people were
arrested shortly after. Nolan
Strout was charged with two
counts of assaulting a government
official and resisting a
public officer, police said.
With heated debate over mail delays, the House approved legislation in a rare Saturday session that
would reverse recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations and send $25 billion to shore up the
agency ahead of the November election.
Photo : AP
2 tropical storms heading for double
blow to US Gulf Coast
Two tropical storms advanced across
the Caribbean on Saturday as potentially
historic threats to the U.S. Gulf Coast,
one dumping rain on Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands and Hispaniola while the
other swept into the gulf through the
gap between Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
and Cuba, reports UNB.
Tropical Storms Laura and Marco
were both projected to approach
Louisiana's coast at or close to hurricane
force just two days apart in the
next several days. A hurricane watch
was issued for the New Orleans metro
area, which was pummeled by Hurricane
Katrina in August 2005.
Two hurricanes have never appeared
in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time,
according to records going back to at
least 1900, said Colorado State University
hurricane researcher Phil
Klotzbach. The last time two tropical
storms were in the Gulf together was in
1959, he said.
The projected tracks from the U.S.
National Hurricane Center late Saturday
pointed to both storms being
together in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday,
with Marco hitting Louisiana at
midday and Laura making landfall in
the same general area Wednesday. But
large uncertainties remained for that
time span, and forecasts have varied
greatly so far for the two storms.
"We are in unprecedented times,"
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a
news conference Saturday as he
declared a state of emergency. "We are
dealing with not only two potential
storms in the next few hours, we are
also dealing with COVID-19."
He urged residents to prepare for the
storms and, if possible, find places to
evacuate that are not public shelters.
A hurricane watch was issued for
Intracoastal City, Louisiana, eastward
to the Mississippi-Alabama border.
People in Louisiana headed to stores
to stock up on food, water and other
supplies. Raymond Monday of Gretna,
though, had only a generator on his cart
at Sam's Club. "We've got a freezer full
of food" at home, along with large containers
of water, he said.
Laura flung rain across Puerto Rico
and the Virgin Islands on Saturday and
knocked out water service Saturday
night as it whipped at the Dominican
Republic and Haiti. It was predicted to
move over Cuba on Sunday on its westward
course to the gulf.
In Puerto Rico,the storm knocked
down trees in the island's southern
region and left more than 200,000
clients without power and more than
10,000 without water across the U.S.
territory.
Officials said they were most concerned
about the thousands of people
in Puerto Rico who still have been living
under blue tarps since 2017's
Hurricane Maria and the hundreds of
families living along the island's
southern coast in homes damaged by
a string of strong earthquakes this
year.
Laura was centered about 25 miles
(40) kilometers southeast of Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic, late
Saturday, with maximum sustained
winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving
west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).
Before the storm began moving over
Hispaniola, crews in the Dominican
Republic evacuated dozens of families
in flood-prone areas.
Marco, meanwhile, was centered
about 470 miles (755 kilometers)
south-southeast of the mouth of the
Mississippi River and was moving to
the north-northwest at 13 mph (20
kph). It had maximum sustained winds
of 65 mph (100 kph) and could become
a hurricane sometime Sunday.
Police shoot, kill
Black man outside
store in Louisiana
The mother of a man fatally shot by
Louisiana police said her son was intelligent,
shy and had sought therapy for
social anxiety. Her lawyers said they
plan to sue over the death of Trayford
Pellerin, who police said had a knife
and was trying to enter a convenience
store, reports UNB.
The shooting Friday night was captured
on video, and the state ACLU
condemned what it described as a
"horrific and deadly incident of police
violence against a Black person." Both
the ACLU and the Southern Poverty
Law Center quickly called for an investigation.
Pellerin's death prompted a
crowd of protesters to gather Saturday
and demonstrate against the latest
fatal police shooting. Officers in riot
gear fired smoke canisters on Saturday
night to get the crowd to disperse,
Trooper Derek Senegal said. No tear
gas was deployed, he said.
On Friday night, Lafayette officers
followed Pellerin, 31, on foot as he left a
convenience store where he had
created a disturbance.
MoNDAy, AUGUST 24, 2020
8
Saif Shuvo’s new song
‘Noshto Manush’ released
‘Giving more priority to indoor
based works’ : Nadia
TBT RePoRT
Saif Shuvo, a rising star, has
released a new song with the
title 'Noshto Manush'. The song
was written by Helal Khan.
Rajan Saha composed the
melody and music.
In this regard, Shuvo said, "A
good creation gives immortality
to an artist. I regularly sing with
emphasis on melody and
music." The lyrics of this sad
romantic song is quite nice. The
melody and music have been
great too. In fact, the use of time
and effort is essential for the
creation of something good. I
believe that if we work with time
and labor, something good will
be created.
"I've been gifting new songs to
my listeners for a while now," he
added. I have tried my best, the
rest will be considered by the
audience. I believe that
everyone will like the song and
the listeners will love it, let the
Bengali song win. The work of
the music video of the song has
been completed along with the
audio, said the artist. The music
video of the song was made by
popular Kolkata producer
Sauradipta Chowdhury.
It was learned that the shooting
of the music video of the song
has been completed in different
places of Bangladesh and
Kolkata. The song was released
on YouTube in this Eid- Adha.
It is worth mentioning that
Shuvo studied music for four
years from 2001 to 2005 at the
Shalpikala Academy. After that
he became the first in
Bangladesh to participate in the
national level music
competition organized by
Shalpikala Academy. Apart
from music training at
Shalpikala Academy in
Bangladesh, he also took music
training from various masters.
It is note that in 2013, Sapna
Kotha, in 2015, two solo tracks
titled 'Bhalobasar Din', and in
2017, Shuvo released a solo
album with seven songs titled
'Hridoyer Bhasha' from the
banner of Laser Vision. Also, the
latest song titled 'Ami Bhalo Nei'
from the banner of Studio Jaya
on Valentine's Day 2020 has
gained wide popularity among
the listeners.
TBT RePoRT
TV drama actress Salha
Khanam Nadia said I am giving
more priority to indoor based
works as I want to work to keep
myself safe. This actress has
been seen in a few dramas last
Eid. She said that she has
received response for Tousif's
'Oppekhar Nil Prohor' and
Mosharraf Karim's 'Tarzan
Visa'. Regarding the Eid
dramas, the actress said that
the dramas of different artists
have been highly appreciated
on Eid. Most of the Eid dramas
were more story based than
other Eid dramas.
TBT RePoRT
Dwayne Johnson is all set to
change the hierarchy of power in
the superhero universe with his
Black Adam avatar. The
Hollywood star described Black
Adam as a ruthless keeper of
justice.
Johnson pulled back the
curtain of his upcoming film
"Black Adam" at the DC
Fandome by sharing some
She has been shooting
regularly since Eid. In the
meantime, she has finished
shooting two solo dramas.
However, she stand in front of
the camera through the
shooting of the serial 'Cheating
Master'. She also has a series of
dramas titled 'Golmaal' on
RTV. Nadia said, I have been
shooting since Eid. Apart from
single dramas, I am also acting
in serials. But now I am giving
more priority to indoor based
works.
We artists are looking
forward for good work. But a
lot of the time we have to work
on traditional story dramas as
concept art trailers for the film,
which has not yet been shot. He
said that he is in the "very early
processes of this creation".
"I can promise you this, I give
you my word. We are going to go
beyond your wildest
expectations," said Johnson,
who also confirmed that the film
includes Justice Society of
America characters Hawkman,
Doctor Fate, Cyclone, and Atom
Smasher (played by Noah
well. This glamour girl has been
seen in some music videos
outside of TV dramas. In
response to a question, she said
that all types of shooting were
stopped due to Corona. I got
several offer for music videos.
But did not work on that. I
will do a good job very soon.
This actress said about work,
many times various types of job
offers comes. But not all kinds
of work done. So some people
see it in a negative way.
Honestly, everyone has their
own likes and dislikes. We need
to understand this. I think it's
normal for an artist to work like
his own in his career.
Dwayne Johnson promises
‘wildest’ version of Black Adam
Centineo). "The superheroes
have to exhibit a little bit of
restraint when it comes to taking
care of the bad guys. This idea
that you could take all of Black
Adam's powers and he does not
practice restraint, that makes for
a really powerful combination,
and one that's explosive, one
that's very dangerous, and one
that is ultimately very likable.
"He's a ruthless keeper of
justice. He is the judge, the jury
and executioner," Johnson said
while talking about Black Adam.
The "Black Adam" panel began
with an animated sequence
voiced over by Johnson, which
narrated the origin story of the
anti-hero.
In the clip, he said: "5,000 years
ago, Kahndaq was a melting pot of
magic and powers. Most of us had
nothing except the chains around
our necks. Kahndaq needed a hero;
instead they got me. I did what
needed to be doneaand they
imprisoned me for it. Now, 5,000
years later, I'm free. And I give you
my wordano one will ever stop me
again."
Source:thestatesman.com
TBT RePoRT
Abida Sultana a popular singer has sung in both audio and movie
world. Got the love of the audience. Sunday was the birthday of this
famous singer. Happy Birthday Abida Sultana.
Sultana was born in Panchagarh to Abdus Salam and Muslima
Begum. She completed her bachelor's in political science. She got
her musical breakthrough in 1974. She performed as a playback
singer for the films Abar Tora Manush Ho (1973), Alo Tumi Aleya
‘Kangana should return her
Padma Shri,’ : Aditya Pancholi
After Sushant Singh Rajput's
demise, several B-town biggies
have stepped forward and spoken
up about how they feel about the
actor's untimely demise. Among
them was Kangana Ranaut who
has been at the forefront and
talking about nepotism and related
issues. Ever since, she has been
constantly demanding justice for
SSR. Not just this, but the Panga
actress is seriously taking 'panga'
from all the bigwigs of the
Bollywood industry thereby
targeting them for not giving work
to Sushant. A few weeks ago, she
had alleged that Karan Johar and
Aditya Chopra were responsible for
'systematically' damaging
Sushant's career.
Elaborating on the nepotism
issue, Kangana in a TV interview
had said, "I am telling you, if I have
said anything, which I can't testify,
which I can't prove, and which is
not in public domain, I will return
my Padma Shri."
Now, Aditya Pancholi has taken
a jibe on Kangana Ranaut by
quoting her statement and said,
"Tell her to return it now because
she is wrong about Sushant Singh
Abida Sultana
celebrates
birthday
and Yea Kore Biye. She was one of the playback singers of the film
Simana Periye (1977), composed by Bhupen Hazarika. Sultana can
render songs in 32 languages.
Sultana was awarded by Bangladesh Performing Media Centre
(BPMC) in 2008
Abida Sultana has learned singing from Babu Ram Gopal Mahant,
Ustad Ful Mohammad, Akhter Sadmani, Barin Majumder, Ustad
Naru and Ustad Sagiruddin Khan. Although she was trained in
Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Sangeet, she was more focused on
modern songs.
In 1986, Abida Sultana became a listed artist on Bangladesh
Television and Bangladesh Betar. She was first found singing in the
film in 1974. Since then she has sung in at least 400 movies.
Among the popular songs sung by Abida Sultana are- 'Bemuhorto
Ai Ratree Amar, Mounotar Sutoy Bona Akti Rongin Chad...', 'Akta
Dolna Jodi', 'Bemourto Ai Ratree Amar', 'Ridoyer Ochana Duti
Nodi', 'Harjit Chiro Thakbay' , 'Haaty Thak Duti Haat', 'Amader
Desh Ta Shobnopuri', 'A Ki Badhon Ay Bol', etc.
In private life Abida Sultana is married and mother of one child.
Her husband is Rafiqul Alam, a well-known musician. They got
married in 1975.
Rajput. His father (Sushant's) filed
a report in Patna in which there is
no angle of nepotism mentioned.
He clearly said that Section 306 is
on Rhea." In a recent interview
with Aaj Tak, Aditya also addressed
his son Sooraj Pancholi being
dragged into the matter. Sooraj had
also lashed out against fake reports
and asked the media to stop linking
his name to Disha Salian.
Meanwhile, Sooraj, on Friday,
announced on Instagram that he is
bidding adieu to social media after
receiving hate comments post the
death of late actor Sushant Singh
Rajput and Disha Salian.
Source: thestatesman.com
H o R o S c o P e
ARIeS
(March 21 - April 20) : Today you should
be looking especially good and feeling
particularly passionate and sensual,
Aries. This is a great day to buy new
clothes online, as your fashion sense is probably right
on target. Racy novels and romantic movies may seem
more appealing than usual. This is a great day to be
alone with a love partner, if possible. Try to do this
early in the day so there won't be any conflicts.
TAURUS
(April 21 - May 21): Your imagination
should be flying high today, Taurus.
Words, images, melodies, or whatever
your artistic media are probably popping
into your head faster than you can keep track of them.
Write them down, record them, or do whatever you
can to remember them or you could very easily forget
them. You don't want that to happen. Take time to do
this no matter what else is pressing.
GeMINI
(May 22 - June 21): Your financial goals
are probably on the verge of becoming
reality, Gemini, but it might seem as if
the few tasks remaining are too
monumental to face right now. Don't fall into gloom
and despair. Try to find some workable ideas to get
these obstacles out of your way with minimal effort.
Remember, there's always a way if you take time to
plan. Good luck.
cANceR
(June 22 - July 23): Conversations with a
friend whose good sense you trust could
open your eyes to new career
possibilities, Cancer. You might think
about transforming your working life. These
opportunities need careful consideration, since you've
never contemplated them before. There's no rush to
make up your mind, so don't feel pressured. Do give it
some thought. You'll probably be glad you did.
Leo
(July 24 - Aug. 23): Strange dreams,
insights, or visions could upend your
spiritual orientation, Leo. These new
ideas could have your mind going a
thousand miles an hour and shake up concepts that
you've embraced for most of your life. Think about
it without making yourself crazy. What you're
receiving is nothing more Earthshaking than
information to consider and then accept or reject.
VIRGo
(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Strange dreams,
insights, or visions could upend your
spiritual orientation, Leo. These new
ideas could have your mind going a
thousand miles an hour and shake up concepts that
you've embraced for most of your life. Think about it
without making yourself crazy. What you're receiving is
nothing more Earthshaking than information to
consider and then accept or reject.
LIBRA
(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): The formation of a
new business partnership might
transform your working life, Libra. The
benefits may not appear for a while, so
don't quit your day job. Nonetheless, it's definitely
worth considering. Make sure you have all the facts
before making any formal commitment. It's important
to be aware of every possible contingency before you
start a new enterprise, especially now.
ScoRPIo
(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): Unfinished job
tasks might have you wanting to pitch
in and get them done no matter what
it takes, Scorpio. This is likely to earn
you a few brownie points with your colleagues but
take care that you don't stress yourself out. You
probably woke up feeling pretty good this morning,
but you won't finish the day that way if you exhaust
yourself. Pace yourself.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): Today you're apt to feel
very sensual and passionate, Sagittarius.
Sexy clothes, racy novels, and romantic
movies could be more appealing than
usual. Don't be surprised if you attract admiring glances
from strangers. This is an excellent day to schedule an
evening alone with a lover, although you might not be
able to get together now. You'll enjoy it whenever it
happens. Better late than never!
cAPRIcoRN
(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): A powerful desire for
a current or potential romantic partner
might come over you today, Capricorn.
This person could live far away or be
on a trip, so you might have to be satisfied with a
phone call or email instead of the meeting you'd
prefer. Don't get frustrated. Distract yourself with
an exciting novel or movie and look forward to
when you can get together.
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): A powerful need to
reach someone either for business or
personal reasons could have you
spending a lot of time on the phone that
may come to nothing, Aquarius. You might call every
place this person could possibly be, and this could
prove frustrating. Your friend may be away. Leave a
message or two and let him or her call you back. Find
something else to distract you.
PISceS
(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20): Money matters could
prove obsessive today, Pisces, as you
might be trying to make an important
purchase and need to revise your budget
in order to do so. You'll be able to do it if you calm
down and don't stress out. Be logical and methodical,
and you'll probably accomplish what you want
without too much frustration. Tonight, schedule a
special date with a lover, if possible.
MOnDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020
9
PSG star Mbappe hungry to make history
with Champions League win
James Anderson appeals successfully for lbw against Pakistan during 3rd Test in Southampton.
Photo: AP
SportS DeSk:
kylian Mbappe said he joined paris
Saint-Germain to make history by
winning the Champions League on the
eve of the final against Bayern Munich,
reports Ap.
pSG - who defeated rB Leipzig in the
last four to reach their first Champions
League final - go head-to-head with
Bundesliga giants Bayern in Lisbon on
Sunday.
Mbappe reached the semi-finals with
Monaco in 2017, before making a bigmoney
move to pSG.
the 21-year-old has looked sharp since
recovering from an ankle injury and is
determined to ensure pSG win the
biggest club competition in europe for
the first time this weekend.
"this is exactly the reason I am here,"
Mbappe told a news conference on
Saturday. "I always said I wanted to write
the history of French football. I have
another opportunity to do that tomorrow.
"When I arrived in 2017, pSG had
difficulties, now we're in the final. It
shows we never gave up and it will be an
amazing thing for a French team to win
the Champions League. It's why I signed.
"I have always dreamed of facing the
best players. You want to face and beat
the best. We need to play as we always do.
We hope to go back to paris with the cup.
It's the biggest club competition.
"obviously it's quite hard to play
behind closed doors. We would have
wanted the fans here but we know they
will be supporting us. It's still a
Champions League final. It is a very
special year."
Mbappe, who says he is in a relaxed
mood ahead of Sunday's showdown, also
confirmed he has fully recovered from the
injury he sustained in the Coupe de
France final last month.
"I feel even better the more days that
pass. I'm good," he said.
"I think the games have helped me
prepare for the final. Munich are a great
team but every team has flaws. We know
they don't like to change the game. We
look forward to playing tomorrow."
thomas tuchel's position as pSG's
coach has been under scrutiny at times
this season, but Mbappe believes the
club's run to the final has validated the
work of the former Borussia Dortmund
boss.
"Yes, of course. Completely, the players
are supporting the coach," Mbappe said
when asked if pSG's squad were behind
tuchel.
"I heard myself, and I know a lot of
people were hearing things about the
coach, about him not being able to
manage the stars.
"Honestly I think he's doing the best
season in the club's season. We are in the
Champions League final. He really
pushed us and we are in a good state of
mind.
"there were some exceptions during
the season, it can happen in every team,
but we really trust him and we will play
for him."
Crawley, Buttler, Anderson
pummel Pakistan
SportS DeSk:
"Don't worry, let him try and go for a
big shot," Mohammad rizwan
announced from behind the stumps.
Asad Shafiq bowled a loopy delivery
and Stuart Broad slogged it for a six. It
was just that kind of a day for pakistan.
By the 153rd over of the innings, there
was little that could've got them to drop
their shoulders any further. Not a
dropped catch. Not the reviews wasted.
Not the overexcited throw of the 12th
man Shadab khan which ended up
hurting rizwan's fingers. Such was the
decimation of the english fifth-wicket
pair - Zak Crawley and Jos Buttler,
reports Cricbuzz.
If they were to sit and analyse the
second day's play, pakistan would
struggle to wonder which session was
the worst of them all? Maybe the first
one, a good part of which was rained
out. that was the reprieve but that was
also the period in which the visitors
failed to bag a wicket. In the second,
even if they managed to dismiss
Crawley, it was not before the No 3 had
registered his double century and
paced away to 267, en route
outsmarting their legside trap, to
which he eventually fell when he
stepped down the track and was
stumped off a delivery bowled wide
outside leg. However, by then, the
damage was done. the last 66 runs
came off only 62 balls, a period in
which he overshadowed Buttler, who
failed to pick up a boundary in the
post-Lunch session. of the more
beautiful shots on display were the
flicks, the reverse sweeps and the pick
ups.
Crawley broke records, reached
milestones and was well on course for
more only if he was to adopt a more
cautious approach. Consciously, and
rather selflessly, he didn't, attempting
to get quick runs for his team. In the
process, he became Shafiq's only third
test victim. And then, there was also
Buttler, playing an able foil - if not
outdoing his partner's brilliance - who
brought up his second test century
Steven Smith speaks to the media at the Sydney airport on Sunday.
early in the day. the 'keeper-bat
registered his highest test score - 152 -
en route a 359-run partnership for the
fifth wicket. He was
uncharacteristically sedate in his
approach but played a handy role in
tiring out the pakistani bowlers with
his seven-plus hours of stay in the
middle. His end was also as anticlimatic
when he chipped the ball
straight to Fawad Alam's part-time
slow left-arm spin.
thereafter, it was just that long
english tail adding to the wounds. A
54-ball 40 for Chris Woakes, a 30-ball
27* for Dom Bess and an 18-ball 15 for
Stuart Broad to power the hosts to 583
(the highest they have scored since
2014) before Joe root declared the
innings. to pakistan's credit, even as
three of their frontline bowlers
conceded more than 100 runs, the
pacers kept running in hard. Behind
the stumps, rizwan urged his captain
to take some fancy reviews and even
hurt himself but remained brilliant in
ball collection.
'Super-fit' Australia ready to hit
ground running in England
SportS DeSk:
Justin Langer said his Australia
squad are super-fit and ready to hit the
ground running ahead of departing
Sunday for a white-ball tour of
england, their first cricket since
March, reports BSS.
the 21-man squad gathered in perth
before taking a direct flight after which
they will face several days of isolation
in Derby due to coronavirus
restrictions.
training will be permitted during
their lockdown and they will play four
inter-squad warm-up games to get
match-ready after nearly six months of
inaction since the pandemic brought
sport to a halt.
they will head to a bio-secure hub in
Southampton for the first of three
twenty20s on September 4 against an
england side who have been back in
action since early July.
three one-day internationals against
the 50-over world champions follow in
Manchester.
Australia are taking a larger-thannormal
squad, partly because they will
not be able to call up anyone into the
touring party under the bio-security
protocols, but also to ensure they have
enough players to field two teams in
warm-up games.
"the reason we're taking 21 is so we
can play some good practice games
over there," said Langer.
"the guys have done plenty of
technical work, they're all super-fit so
when we arrive in england, we get
straight into match practice.
"that's what we've asked the boys to
be ready for, that they can start playing
games and, hopefully, because we've
got 21 very good players coming with
us, we can have some really high
intensity practice games."
Skipper Aaron Finch, who will open
alongside David Warner, with Steve
Smith batting at three followed by
Marnus Labuschagne, said close
attention will be paid to mental health
inside the bio-secure bubble, with a
sports psychologist travelling with the
team.
"that's going to be something that's
going to be a real issue, it's going to be
something to monitor heavily," he said,
with players not allowed out even to go
for a meal.
Finch skippers a squad that includes
three uncapped players in Daniel
Sams, riley Meredith and Josh
philippe, with an eye on the t20 World
Cup next year in India then on home
soil in 2022, ahead of the 50-over
showpiece a year later.
Photo: AP
The forward said opportunities like Sunday's final against Bayern Munich are why he moved to the Ligue
1 giants. Photo: AP
India ready to host
England Tests in
February: Ganguly
SportS DeSk:
India are committed to
hosting england in
February next year ahead
of the 2021 Indian premier
League season, the
country's cricket chief
Sourav Ganguly said,
reports BSS.
england's original whiteball
tour to India in
September-october was a
casualty of the coronavirus
pandemic.
According to the
International cricket
Council's Future tours
programme (Ftp), India
are scheduled to tour
Australia in December and
host england for their last
five world test
championship matches in
early 2021.
Ganguly, president of the
Board of Control for
Cricket in India, said in an
email to state associations:
"the BCCI and the Indian
cricket team will continue
to fulfil its Ftp
commitments.
"the senior Indian men's
team will travel to Australia
for its series starting in
December this year, and
will come back to the
country for a series against
england starting February
next year," Ganguly said in
the letter seen by AFp.
"this will be followed by
IpL 2021 in April (the
normal month for it to
start)."
After many delays, the
13th edition of the IpL, the
world's richest twenty20
tournament, will now start
on September 19 in the
United Arab emirates with
the final on November 10.
Ganguly also confirmed
the BCCI's readiness to
host the 2021 t20 World
Cup, which was originally
scheduled for Australia this
year, and the 50-over
showpiece event in 2023.
Australia will host the
t20 World Cup in 2022.
Murray makes triumphant
start to year at
US Open tuneup
SportS DeSk:
Britain's Andy Murray
made a triumphant Atp
comeback Saturday,
defeating Frances tiafoe
7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-1 in his
first match of 2020 at the
Western and Southern
open, reports BSS.
the 33-year-old
Scotsman advanced in
hot and humid conditions
to a second-round date
with German fifth seed
Alexander Zverev at the
CoVID-19 quarantine
bubble that will also be
used for the US open,
which starts on August 31.
Murray won the 2012
US open as well as the
2013 and 2016
Wimbledon titles plus the
2012 and 2016 olympic
gold medals.
Former world number
one Murray, now ranked
129th, suffered a pelvic
injury at the Davis Cup
last November and that,
combined with the
pandemic shutdown, kept
him out of competition
until he faced 22-year-old
tiafoe in a meeting of
wildcard entrants.
"I thought I moved well
today," Murray said.
"that was probably the
thing I was most happy
with and probably the
thing I was most
apprehensive about going
into the match.
"My tennis could have
been better. I did some
things well at the end, but
I could definitely improve
in terms of my game."
Murray broke tiafoe for
a 2-0 lead in the third set
when the American
missed a volley, broke
again to 5-1 with a
backhand return winner
and held at love to finish
matters after two hours
and 28 minutes.
Murray was the 2008
and 2011 winner in this
Grand Slam tuneup
event, usually staged in
Cincinnati but moved to
New York due to the
CoVID-19 pandemic that
wiped out much of the
season, including
Wimbledon.
He rallied from 2-5
down in the first set
tiebreaker to gain the
upper hand. But tiafoe
gained the first break of
the match for a 5-3 lead in
the second and held to
force a third set.
the match was played
on the National tennis
Center Grandstand court,
the event's feature court
with no matches until the
US open scheduled at
Arthur Ashe Stadium or
Louis Armstrong
Stadium.
With no spectators in
attendance, Murray said
he missed the boost that
fans can provide, and he
had to make a conscious
effort to early in the third
set to energize himself
with fist pumps and the
like. "that helped a bit,"
he said.
Canadian Felix Auger-
Aliassime appeared to be
at a loss as his 6-4, 6-1
victory over Nikoloz
Basilashvili concluded,
with no crowd to cheer or
groan when Basilashvili
buried a forehand in the
net on match point.
"I actually threw a ball
at my coach," said Auger-
Aliassime, who usually
tosses a ball to a fan after
a win.
Auger-Aliassime had
the distinction of being
the first winner on the
Atp tour as it resumed
after a five-month
coronavirus shutdown.
Fellow Canadian Denis
Shapovalov, the 12th
seed, closed out the day's
action with a brisk 6-3, 6-
3 victory over former US
open champion Marin
Cilic.
on the women's side,
20-year-old 16th seed
Dayana Yastremska beat
seven-time Grand Slam
champion Venus williams
5-7, 6-2, 7-5. Facing the
elder Williams sister for
the first time, Yastremska
let a 4-2 first-set lead get
away after twisting her
ankle, but after having it
taped she rallied to win
the next two.
She gained the first
service break in the third
set for a 5-4 lead but was
broken as she served for
the match.
She responded by
breaking Williams to love
then saved three break
points to close out the
victory over the American
star who turned 40 in
June. "I really wanted to
withdraw because of the
pain," Yastremska said.
"But I played against
Venus Williams, so I
really wanted to finish
that match, even with the
pain.
"It wasn't matter for me
I'm going to win or I'm
going to lose, but I have to
give it everything I have,
even with the pain."
Greek 13th seed Maria
Sakkari defeated US teen
Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-3 in 64
minutes. Sakkari could
face 23-time Grand Slam
winner Serena Williams
in the third round.
MONDAY, AUgUST 24, 2020
10
Samsung's refrigerator emphasizes
cleaning campaign
Samsung Electronics
Bangladesh, a global leader
in consumer electronics and
the most trusted brand, has
carried out a campaign to
ensure health hygiene for its
customers. Initiated before
Eid, through this recently
ended campaign, Samsung
Bangladesh has cleaned
customer's refrigerators to
help them with the hardship
during corona virus
pandemic, a press release
said.
The campaign was aimed
to inspire the practices of
cleaning refrigerators
regularly pertinent to the
hygiene care efforts among
the customers across the
country. As part of the
campaign, Samsung's expert
service team, equipped with
advanced tools, has provided
a professional check and
cleaning services for free over
300 customers around the
country.
The assistance has been
provided to the customers
who purchased and are using
Samsung refrigerator seven
without a warranty period,
includes overall status check
and consulting, voltage check
for power stability, outside
temperature check, and
settings, water tray cleaning,
guidance on 'how to get
better performance. 'To get
the service, eager customers
registered them through
Samsung call center
appointments.
Regarding this campaign,
one of the customers, Md
Rakibul Isalm, commented,
BIDA, DCCI sign MoU
to integrate services
Bangladesh Investment
Development Authority
(BIDA) and Dhaka
Chamber of Commerce &
Industry (DCCI) signed a
Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU)
recently for integration of
services with BIDA's One
Stop Services (OSS). The
OSS is an online facilitation
mechanism that aims to
bring relevant agencies and
stakeholders together,
coordinated and
streamlined, to provide
efficient and transparent
services to the investors, a
press release said.
Director General-5 (Joint
Secretary) of BIDA Md.
Wahidul Islam and
Secretary General (Acting),
DCCI Afsarul Arifeen
signed the document on
behalf of their respective
organizations. Secretary
from the Prime Minister's
Office Md. Tofazzel
Hossain Miah was present
on the occasion as the chief
guest.
Meanwhile, besides
DCCI, BIDA signed the
MoU with the Ministry of
Land, Department of
Environment and RAJUK.
13 services will be provided
online through these four
organizations.
DCCI, according to the
MoU, will provide two
services which are issuing
certificate of origin and
membership certificate. In
total 154 services through
35 organizations will be
provided under the OSS.
Meanwhile, using the OSS
five companies got
registration approval.
with OSS
Secretary, PMO, Md.
Tofazzel Hossain Miah also
thanked DCCI for signing
MoU with BIDA as one of
the largest voices of private
sector in Bangladesh. He
said for starting a business,
license and certification are
two important things and
through the OSS these
services will be available in
a hassle free manner. He
believes that this initiative
will create confidence and
build trust among the
business community and
the investors. He also
underscored the
importance of maintaining
coordination between
public and private sector to
expedite quality and
quantitative investments in
the country.
During the function,
BIDA Executive Chairman
Md. Sirazul Islam thanked
DCCI for being on board
with BIDA's initiative as
the forefront of
Bangladesh's private
sector. He also said that
there are three
components- like process,
time and cost that are very
important in ease of doing
business index. By
implementing OSS,
process, time and cost will
automatically come down,
he said.Using digital
platform will ease process
and it will help remove
corruptions as well. The
OSS app is mobile
compatible and there is an
option of feedback to
monitor its activities.
During the signing
ceremony, DCCI President
Shams Mahmud saidthat it
is a milestone and DCCI is
honoured to be the first
private sector organization
in Bangladesh to be
associated with BIDA by
signing this MoU. The OSS
will open up a new window
of opportunity to both local
and foreign investors and
the initiative will help
improve Bangladesh's
position in the Ease of
Doing Business index, he
said.
Effective
implementation of OSS
will enhance employment
generation, boost
economic development,
growth and help attain the
dream of becoming a
developed nation by 2041.
Shams Mahmud also said
that DCCI will work hand
in hand with the
government and BIDA to
contribute in fulfilling the
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and Dhaka
Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) recently for integration of services with BIDA's
One Stop Services (OSS).
Photo: Courtesy
dream of building 'Digital
Bangladesh' and attain the
target of becoming a
developed nation by 2041.
Land Secretary Md.
Muksodur Rahman
Patwary and Environment
Secretary Ziaul Hassan,
ndc also spoke on the
occasion. They both
congratulated DCCI as the
first private sector
representative to sign this
MoU with BIDA. Land
Secretary informed that
export oriented industries
now get the opportunity of
having their land mutation
within 7 working days.
Environment Secretary
said digital initiative like
OSS will usher trade and
investment opportunity in
future which will boost
employment generation.
"My refrigerator was out of
warranty, but Samsung's
initiative relieved me during
this pandemic. I am very
much happy with the
cleaning service. The
dedication from the
engineers has increased my
trust in the brand, and now I
am looking forward to
buying more products from
Samsung."
On this occasion,
Seungwon Youn, Country
Manager, Samsung
Bangladesh, said, "We rise to
the occasions as a part of our
responsibility as we believe
in making our customers'
lives more convenient in any
circumstances. The
importance of staying clean
and healthy is never felt
more significant than the
present time. Hence, we
launched this campaign so
that our valuable customers
can stay worry free during
this time."
This campaign was
launched, followed by
Samsung's previous initiative
of cleaning services to extend
the lifespan of refrigerators
by helping customers to
maintain proper hygiene.
Alamgir Hossain promotes as
Deputy Managing Director of
Bank Asia Ltd.
Alamgir Hossain has
recently been promoted as the
Deputy Managing Director of
Bank Asia Ltd. Prior to his
promotion, Hossain was
Senior Executive Vice
President and Head of
Principal Office Branch of the
bank, a press release said.
Alamgir Hossain started his
banking career with Eastern
Bank Ltd in 1997 as
Probationary Officer. During
his 8 years of career with
Eastern Bank Ltd, he
performed responsibilities in
different capacities in Branch
Banking including Branch
Manager. In 2005, he joined
Bank Asia Ltd. as Assistant
Vice President and initially
worked at Gulshan Branch.
During his last 15 years'
journey with Bank Asia Ltd,
he has served as Head of
Branch of major branches of
the bank like Mohakhali,
MCB Banani, MCB Dilkusha
and Principal Office. Mr.
Hossain, a veteran banker,
achieved remarkable success
in the leadership roles in
different branches of Bank
Asia Ltd. As the recognition of
his contribution in business
development of the Bank, he
received "The Service
Excellence Awards" for 6
years consecutively (2014-
2019). Hossain completed
his post-graduation in English
from the University of Dhaka.
He has taken numerous
training on banking from
various institutes of home and
abroad.
Huawei stands beside flood victims:
MoPT minister inaugurates the event
Bangladesh, like the rest of the world,
is facing tremendous adversity due to the
COVID-19 pandemic; moreover, the
recent disastrous flood worsened the
suffering of the people and left them
without food and shelter. Huawei
Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, as a
localized international company, comes
forward to stand beside the flood victims
in Khaliajuri, Netrokona, a press release
said.
An online meeting has been organized
recently where Huawei discussed with
all the relevant stakeholders and
symbolically handed over the relief
goods to A H M Ariful Islam, UNO,
Khaliajuri, Netrokona. Mustafa Jabbar,
Minister, Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications and Information
Technology, was present at the handover
ceremony as the chief guest. Zhang
Zhengjun, CEO, Huawei Technologies
(Bangladesh) Limited, gave the welcome
speech. Shebastin Rema, Deputy
Secretary (PS to minister, Posts and
Ctg port cargo dwell time
drops 42pc in 6yrs
Cargo dwell time at the
Chattogram port has
decreased by around 42
percent, or 7.49 days, in the
past six years, enhancing the
ease of doing business in the
country, a press release said.
According to data from the
Chattogram Port Authority
(CPA), a cargo container
stayed at the Chattogram
port for around 17.48 days
(dwell time) on average in
2014-15 fiscal year, which
dropped to just 9.99 days in
FY2019-20.
The significant decrease in
dwell time is easing
container congestion at the
port's storage yard and
allowing exporters-importers
to save on storage charges
imposed by the port
authorities.
Dwell time is the time
taken to offload import
containers onto a truck,
trailer, covered van or train
from the port yard; and to
load export containers from
the port yard onto a ship.
"This is a milestone
achievement for the port as
well as for businesses in the
country. That we have been
able to reduce the dwell time
by half despite our limited
Telecommunication Div.); Jerry
Wangshiwu, CTO, Huawei Technologies
(Bangladesh) Limited were there along
with other Huawei officials at the event.
On the occasion, Mustafa Jabbar,
Minister, Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications and Information
Technology, said, "I want to thank
Huawei since it has taken the initiative to
help the most deserving people of the
country, and it proves that Huawei has a
good intention to provide not only the
technology but also supporting the
humanity of this area. I congratulate
Huawei authorities and appreciate the
whole effort Huawei has put, and I hope
it will continue in the future."
Zhang Zhengjun, CEO, Huawei
Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited,
stated, "This relief program is our
holistic approach towards the
betterment of lives in the flood-affected
areas, and this includes our efforts to
make people's lives better. As a localized
global company in Bangladesh, we take
resources has been possible
because of some smart
decisions of the authorities
concerned," said Mahbubul
Alam, president of the
Chattogram Chamber of
Commerce and Industry
(CCCI).
He, however, observed that
the dwell time should come
down below 24 hours as the
cost of doing business is
related to it.
"Spending more time on
offloading containers means
a higher cost of business.
Ultimately, the prices of
imported products go up and
the costs of exports get
higher," he explained.
Mahbubul Alam also
expressed his hope that the
cargo dwell time at the
Chattogram port will come
further down once the
Patenga Container Terminal
and Bay Terminal are
complete. "The port
authorities should speed up
the construction work on the
ongoing projects," he
stressed.
The Chattogram port that
handles 92 percent of
the pride of being locally global and
always responding according to that to
fulfill our responsibilities to the
communities where we operate and look
forward to contributing more. Moreover,
we are continually strengthening our
ability to put our efforts to work so that it
directly impacts the lives of the people in
Bangladesh."
A H M Ariful Islam said, "Last year
Khaliajuri upazilla was affected by flood
and Huawei Technologies delivered
around 2,000 units of dried foods, also
current year Huawei has sent 2,000
units of dried food and 2,000 facemasks,
these are very necessary at this moment.
So, on behalf of Khaliajuri upazilla I am
giving my heart full thanks and gratitude
to Zhang Jun, CEO of Huawei
Technologies Bangladesh."
Huawei has come forward to support
the flood-affected people and will
distribute a variety of dry foods among
families in Khaliajuri on August 26,
2020.
Bangladesh's export-import
trade has a storage capacity
of only 49,018 TEUs (twentyfoot
equivalent units) of
containers. The port can only
offload containers from
vessels if there is availability
of storage spaces.
Over the last five years,
export-import container
handling at Chattogram port
has increased by 60 percent
or 1,137,080 TEUs. In
FY2014-15, the port handled
only 1,867,062 TEUs, while
in FY2019-20 it handled
3,004,142 TEUs.
UAE deal puts Israel's economic reach on Iran's doorstep
Israel's landmark deal with the
UAE to normalise ties could see
businesses from the Jewish state
operating on arch-rival Iran's
doorstep, but are unlikely to disturb
Emirati economic ties to Iran, reports
BSS.
It could also pave the way for direct
economic engagement between Israeli
and UAE-based Iranian business
people that would reap benefits from
politics, experts say.
Cinzia Bianco, a research fellow at
the European Council on Foreign
Relations, said it would be "a while"
before Iranians in the UAE come face
to face with Israelis.
"It is important to stress here that
Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, as a localized international company, comes forward to
stand beside the flood victims in Khaliajuri, Netrokona.
Photo: Courtesy
most Iranians with real ties in the
Islamic republic were either expelled
or moved away in the past years," she
said. "Those who remained in Dubai or
the UAE in general are the ultrapragmatic
business people, who refuse
to get enmeshed in any kind of politics.
So some of them view this deal as an
opportunity, not a challenge," she
added.
The oil-rich United Arab Emirates
was the first Gulf state to establish ties
with Israel, in a deal that came amid
rising tensions with Iran, accused by
its neighbours of fuelling regional
instability.
Abu Dhabi accuses Tehran of
occupying three Emirati islands since
1971, and downgraded ties with Iran in
2016 amid rivalry between UAE ally
Saudi Arabia and the Islamic republic,
which is also targeted by painful US
economic sanctions.
Despite tensions, the UAE and Iran,
which lie 70 kilometres (44 miles)
apart across the strategic Strait of
Hormuz, have maintained diplomatic
exchanges and crucially protected
their economic ties, generating billions
for both sides.
"Tehran is not in a position to forego
its economic ties with any country -
especially not the UAE which is
practically next door," said Ellen R.
Wald, a senior fellow at the Atlantic
Council's Global Energy Centre.
"Iran also has close ties to countries
like China that work alongside Israel,"
she told AFP. Two days after US
President Donald Trump's shock
announcement of the deal, Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani warned the
UAE "against opening the path of
Israel to the region".
The UAE summoned Iran's envoy to
protest the "threats", although it
insisted the next day the agreement
"was not directed against Iran".
But feelings are still running high in
the Strait of Hormuz - a vital corridor
connecting the petroleum-rich states
of the Middle East with markets in
Asia, Europe, North America and
elsewhere.
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2020
11
Free fertilizers, vegetable seeds and tree saplings among flood victims of Gaibandha at the initiative
of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina distributed in Fulchhari Upazila Parishad on Sunday. Parliament
member of Saghata-Fulchhari constituency and Deputy Speaker of Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Adv
Fazle Rabbi Mia MP was present as the chief guest at the occasion while Adv Umme Kulsum Smrity
MP was the keynote speaker at the occasion.
Photo: Rafiqul Islam
Turkey's maritime doctrine author
has dire warning for France
ISTANBUL : The father of Turkey's
controversial new maritime doctrine
told AFP that France's decision to send
warships to help Greece out in its
Mediterranean standoff with Ankara
was adding "fuel to the fire".
While he might be retired, the "Blue
Homeland" vision that Rear Admiral
Cem Gurdeniz helped craft over a
decade ago is being turned into reality
by Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan today.
A 62-year-old Francophone and
Francophile, Gurdeniz received AFP at
a gorgeous wooden summer house on
one of Istanbul's Prince's Islands in the
Marmara Sea. As warships from
France, Greece and Turkey converged
on a disputed patch of the eastern
Mediterranean Sea, Gurdeniz looked at
ease while criticising French President
Emmanuel Macron. "I'm fed up with
Macron's everyday verbal threats,"
Gurdeniz said in English, reports BSS.
"For many Turks now, France is
acting like an 'enfant terrible'. Can you
imagine, they are threatening Turkey?"
he asked. "If France continues such
provocative actions… that would not
serve regional peace and stability - that
Brazil reports 50,032
new COVID-19 cases,
892 more deaths
Brazil registered 50,032
new COVID-19 cases and
892 more deaths in the last
24 hours, bringing the
national caseload to
3,582,362 and the death toll
to 114,250, the Ministry of
Health reported on
Saturday, reports UNB.
Brazil is second only to the
United States in terms of
both cases and deaths from
COVID-19.
The state of Sao Paulo, the
most populous in the
country, has also been the
most affected, with 749,244
cases and 28,392 deaths,
followed by Rio de Janeiro
with 210,464 cases and
15,267 deaths, and Ceara
with 204,587 cases and
8,286 deaths.
New Zealand reports
3 new COVID-19
cases, 1,324 in total
Three new confirmed cases
of COVID-19 were reported
in New Zealand on Sunday,
said the Ministry of Health
in a statement, reports UNB.
According to the ministry,
one case was
epidemiologically linked to
an existent cluster in
Auckland as a household
contact of a previously
reported case. Two were
imported cases reported in
the Managed isolation and
quarantine facilities.
The total number of active
cases in New Zealand was
114, of which 18 were
imported cases from
managed isolation facilities,
it said.
would add fuel to the fire and France
should avoid that."
The discovery of major natural gas
deposits in waters surrounding Cyprus
and the Greek island of Crete have
triggered a scramble for energy riches
and revived old regional rivalries.
The biggest tensions are between
historically uneasy NATO allies Turkey
and Greece, which almost went to war
over some uninhabited islets in the
Aegean Sea in 1996.
These have been growing
progressively more serious as Erdogan
lays claim to waters designed to turn
Turkey into the maritime powerhouse
Gurdeniz envisioned from the start.
EU foreign ministers convened an
emergency video conference last week
after Greek and Turkish warships
collided in hotly disputed
circumstances. "If Greece pulls the
trigger, it will be the end of NATO,"
Gurdeniz said, implying that Turkey
would then withdraw from the Cold
War-era military alliance.
"European countries should put
pressure on Greece so that it abandons"
some of its maritime claims, he said.
Erdogan has tempered his heated
rhetoric with calls for talks, which have
been spearheaded with sporadic
success by German Chancellor Angela
Merkel. Gurdeniz agreed, saying: "We
should think with cold blood, soberly,
prudently." But he saw no need for
outside mediation, suggesting that
hostilities will only end when Greeks
and Turks sit down and frankly talk
their problems out.
Gurdeniz overwhelmingly approves
of Edrogan's tough line, but also regrets
Turkey's growing diplomatic isolation
in the increasingly volatile region. He
called Turkey's decision to rupture its
relations with Egypt following the
army's ouster of Islamist president
Mohamed Morsi in 2013 "a mistake".
"Turkey could have won over Egypt.
Also, starting with Egypt, we could have
made some gains with Israel too,"
Gurdeniz said. But his eyes lit up and
his easy smile broadened when talking
about the "growing interest of young
people" in Turkey's maritime claims.
"I do a lot of interviews with
YouTubers," said the retired admiral,
pointing out that the annual enrolment
of new cadets in navy schools is steadily
rising.
DU observes 'Black day'
DHAKA : The Dhaka University (DU)
authorities yesterday observed 'Black Day'
marking the attack on the institution's
teachers, students and employees on August
20 to 23, 2007, during the military-backed
caretaker government.
Teachers, students, officials and
employees of the university wore black
badges marking the day, said a DU press
release.
To mark the day, a discussion was held at
the Abdul Matin Virtual Classroom adjunct
to the VC's office through virtual platform
with DU Vice-Chancellor Professor Md
Akhtaruzzaman in the chair.
DU Pro-VC (Administration) Dr
Muhammad Samad, Pro-VC (Academic) Dr
ASM Maksud Kamal, General Secretary of
DU Teachers Association (DUTA) Dr
Nizamul Hoque Bhuiyan, among others,
were present on the occasion.
While addressing the DU VC said nonelected
and anti-democratic government is
responsible for such an inhuman attack on
the university's teachers, students and
officials on August 20 to 23, 2007.
The attack was against the spirit of
Liberation War as well as the value of
democracy, added the VC.
Akhtaruzzaman urged all to remain alert to
stop any conspiracy in the country.
On August 20 in 2007, some military
members severely beat up students and a
violent clash ensued between them centering
a football match at DU central playground.
Thousands of DU students took to the
streets protesting the incident and
demanded withdrawal of the army camp
from the campus and an apology from the
troops.
The protest afterwards spread to all the
educational institutions across the country.
Following the clash, the then army-backed
caretaker government imposed a curfew on
the divisional cities and later arrested four
DU teachers - Prof Dr Anwar Hossain, Prof
Dr Sadrul Amin, Prof Dr Harun-or-Rashid
and Prof Dr Neem Chandra Bhowmick and
several students on August 23 and tortured
them.
The university observes August 23 as the
Black Day every year.
On the occasion of 'Black Day' at Dhaka University, a virtual discussion
meeting was held under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor
Akhtaruzzaman at Prof. Abdul Matin Chowdhury Virtual Classroom of the
University on Sunday.
Photo: DU Public Relations
Mexican drug cartel leader
sentenced to 50 years in
prison for murder of
journalist
A federal judge in the
northern Mexican state of
Chihuahua has sentenced an
organized crime leader to 50
years in prison for the
murder of Mexican
journalist Miroslava Breach,
the Attorney General's
Office (FGR) said on
Saturday, reports UNB.
This is "the highest penalty
to date and represents a
precedent in investigations
of crimes committed against
freedom of expression," said
the FGR in a statement.
Juan Carlos Moreno,
nicknamed "El Larry," was
convicted in March for the
2017 murder of Breach, a
correspondent for the
Mexican newspaper La
Jornada, who had been
reporting on Moreno and his
alleged criminal activities.
His sentencing was delayed
several months due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The
government of Chihuahua
has identified Moreno as the
head of Los Salazar, a drug
trafficking group that
operates along the border
with the United States.
U.S. House passes 25-bln-
USD bill to boost Postal
Service in defiance of
White House
The Democratic-led U.S.
House of Representatives on
Saturday passed a bill to
provide the cash-strapped
U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
with 25 billion U.S. dollars,
reports UNB.
The legislative move was
aimed at preventing the
agency from making any
reforms which could slow
delivery of mail-in ballots for
the presidential election in
November. The bill was
passed largely along party
lines and was not expected
to pass the Republican-led
Senate. The White House
had previously issued a veto
threat, claiming that the bill
would add to the challenges
currently facing the USPS. It
also accused Democrats of
trying to "exploit the
COVID-19 pandemic as a
pretext for placing
c o u n t e r p r o d u c t i v e
restrictions on USPS's
already limited operational
flexibilities."
Riot declared outside Portland
public safety building
Police forced protesters away from a law
enforcement building in Oregon's biggest
city early Sunday, as efforts to stop the
demonstrators from gathering at the
building seemingly fell apart.
The protesters apparently had plans
Saturday night to march from a park to the
Penumbra Kelly public safety building, news
outlets reported. But, a standoff between
marchers and officers took place on a bridge
along the way - and the demonstrators
retreated, reports UNB.
Protesters appear to have returned to the
park, and then taken cars to the building,
according to a reporter for The
Oregonian/Oregon Live.
Police initially declared an unlawful
assembly, saying items had been thrown at
officers, green lasers had been pointed at
them and paintball guns had been fired.
The gathering was later declared a riot.
Officers had been hit with rocks, bottles and
other objects, police said.
Images posted online showed officers
using smoke to clear the area. Several people
were seen being detained, but it's unclear
whether any arrests were made.
Similar protests have previously occurred
at the Penumbra Kelly building, including
last weekend.
The unrest followed rivaling protests
Saturday afternoon. Federal authorities
Mother, daughter harassed
(From Front page)
According to several eyewitnesses,
after the mother
and daughter were tortured
once, Harbang Union Awami
League president and UP
chairman Miranul Islam
sent village police to the
spot and tied them with a
rope and brought them to
his office and brutally tortured
them again.
After the torture, the
chairman's men called the
investigation center and
handed over the mother
and daughter to the the
police.
When contacted with Harbang
Union Parishad chairman
Miranul Islam, he said
the incident was true.
However, the incident
took place on Friday in
Paharchanda area. I have
no involvement in the incident.
He said the locals
grabbed them and handed
them over to the police.
According to eyewitnesses
while trying to sell a cow
of Mahabubul Haque,
some people led by his son
chased them. At one stage
they were found next to the
railway line under construction
at Paharchanda.
There was a scuffle
between the two sides. The
locals came forward after
the Friday prayers and
after learning about the
incident, beat them up and
took them to the chairman.
The chairman handed over
to the police.
When contacted with
Chakaria Police Station OC
Habibur Rahman he
refused to talk to the media
in this regard. However,
according police sources,
cow owner Mahabubul
Haque filed a case against 4
people of the same family
including mother and
daughter of Shantirhat area
and one person of Pekua
area.
The number of the case is
21/08/2020. The court
sent 5 people to jail in this
case. A stolen cow, a CNG, a
knife and a spray used to
make one unconscious
were recovered in the incident.
Chakaria Upazila Nirbahi
Officer (UNO) Syed Shamsul
Tabriz said, "I came to
know about the incident
through the local chairman."
I then ordered to
hand over the cattle thieves
to the police". He further
said that 'a three-member
investigation team has
been formed under the
direction of the deputy
commissioner.
Deputy Secretary Srabanti
Roy has been made the
chief of the team. The other
two members of the committee
are Chakaria AC
Land and a Harbang Union
tag officer. I am looking
into the matter myself. If
the accused think they have
been tortured or harassed,
their allegations will be taken
into account".
forced demonstrators away from a plaza
near a federal building as dueling
demonstrations by right-wing and left-wing
protesters turned violent.
The area includes county and federal
buildings and has been the site of numerous
recent protests. Department of Homeland
Security officers moved through the plaza
across from an 18-story federal building. A
federal courthouse is also near that area.
Violent demonstrations have gripped
Portland for months, following the police
killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police
custody.
The Saturday afternoon demonstration
involving hundreds of people began about
noon near the Multnomah County Justice
Center, news outlets reported.
Demonstrators hurled rocks and other items
at each other and got into fights. Streets were
blocked amid the mayhem.
Right-wing groups had announced a rally
near the Justice Center Saturday afternoon
that quickly drew counter demonstrators.
No arrests were reported.
In a statement, Portland Police said there
had been questions about why the afternoon
gathering wasn't declared a riot and why city
police officers didn't intervene. Incident
commanders have to determine whether
police action will make things more
dangerous, the statement said.
Free services requires payment
(From Front page)
Allegedly, a syndicate is taking advantage
on the pretext of not having supplies.
Although it was under the watchful
eye of the higher authorities, no action
was taken. The health department was
supposed to have stocks of medicines and
equipment but they disappeared after
being brought to the hospital, the victims
said.
According to the source, in the case of
normal delivery in Gynecology ward, a
patient has to spend 2 to 5 thousand taka.
The money is taken as tips by the nurses
and maids. Amid widespread criticism
about this issue in the area, the authorities
are in a silent role.
On the spot report described the picture
of the emergency department and
the OT room. Patients injured in accidents
or collisions from different parts of
the district and dying patients suffering
from various diseases come here for
treatment. After the initial checkup, the
on duty doctor handed over a prescription.
The relatives of the patient have to
collect various medicines including
gloves, yarn, bandages, pain killer, and
injections from outside.
The duty officers made an excuse that
there was no supply even though the hospital
was supposed to provide these
items. The relatively poor and lowincome
people have to face difficulties to
buy these expensive medicines. The condition
is the same for Operation Theater.
The relatives of the patient have to buy
the necessary medicines from outside for
all types of operations including minor
operations. The people concerned also
gives of excuse of supply shortages.
Patients have to manage bandages,
gloves, hand sanitizer, spirits, painkiller
injections from outside of the OT. In
addition, nurses take payment as bribes
to get dressing services. This has become
the rule. If bribe is discharged, the dressing
is quick, and if not, there will be some
lump sum work.
Recently, Helal Mia of Barabhula village
in Sadar upazila went to Gynecology
ward with his wife. The nurse and the
nanny demanded 2500 taka for normal
delivery. Helal Mia said that he had to
buy various items including stich yarn for
around Tk 1,500 from outside.
Habiganj Sadar Hospital Residential
Officer (RMO), Dr. Shamima said the
hospital should have adequate stocks of
all types of medicines and medical equipment.
She claimed that the authorities
are very sincere so that the patients are
not deprived of services.
Habiganj Adhunik Zila Sadar Hospital
is the main destination of medical services
for about 3 million people in the district.
However, the patients have been
complaining that even though there is a
namely 250-bed hospital, the services of
5 beds are not actually available.
GD- 1070/20 (7 x 2)
Monday, Dhaka, August 24, 2020, Bhadra 9, 1427 BS, Muharram 4, 1442 Hijri
Three years in review
No end in sight to Rohingya crisis
Although the water level of Bangali river has decreased, river erosion has increased. Houses and crop lands
along the river are at risk. The picture is taken from Dhunat upazila of Bogura on Sunday. Photo: PBA
DHAKA : Three years in review: No end in
sight to Rohingya crisis Dhaka, Aug 23
(UNB) - Myanmar has not taken a single
Rohingya back home till date although the
crisis enters the fourth year within a couple
of days amid "lack of conducive conditions"
in Rakhine required for a safe and
sustainable return of Rohingyas, officials
said, reports UNB.
"Myanmar is yet to do anything concrete
till date for the repatriation of Rohingyas,"
an official told UNB mentioning that the
humanitarian disaster created by
Myanmar must not be the sole responsibility
of Bangladesh in the world to shoulder
it. In August 2017, the military launched a
campaign of mass atrocities against the
Rohingya that forced over 740,000 to flee
Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The 600,000 Rohingyas who remain in
Rakhine State are essentially confined to
camps and villages, said the Human
Rights Watch (HRW).
They are there without citizenship or the
ability to vote this November. Myanmar's
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be a candidate
in this November's general election.
Officials said the ongoing coronavirus
pandemic and Myanmar's internal issues
further delayed talks on Rohingya repatriation.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul
Momen said until the international community
"exerts more pressure" on
Myanmar, including by putting trade and
investment moratorium, the Rohingya crisis
will not be resolved.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has
called for renewed support and solutions
for displaced and stateless Rohingya communities
both within and outside of
Myanmar.
"Three years on from the latest exodus of
Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar and
sought sanctuary in Bangladesh from
August 2017 onwards, challenges persist
and continue to evolve," said UNHCR
spokesperson Andrej Mahecic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has added
additional complexities to the crisis.
"The international community must not
only maintain support for refugees and
their host communities, but adapt to critical
needs and expand the search for solutions,"
Mahecic said.
Rohingya communities estimate that up
to three-quarters of the Rohingya people
are today living outside of Myanmar.
UNHCR and the government of
Bangladesh have individually registered
over 860,000 Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar
Rohingya camps.
The UN says Bangladesh has demonstrated
a profound humanitarian commitment
to Rohingya refugees and ensured
their protection and extended lifesaving
humanitarian support, and now hosts nine
out of ten Rohingya refugees registered in
the Asia-Pacific region.
This generosity must be acknowledged
through continued investment in both
Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi host
communities, said the UN agency.
Ultimately, the UN Spokesperson said,
the solution to the plight of the Rohingya
lies in Myanmar, and in comprehensively
implementing the recommendations of
the Advisory Commission on Rakhine
State, to which the government of
Myanmar has committed.
Creating conditions that are conducive
to the Rohingya people's safe and sustainable
return will require whole of society
engagement, resuming and enhancing the
dialogue between the Myanmar authorities
and Rohingya refugees, as well as other
measures that help inspire trust, the
UNHCR said.
Aritri suicide case
Arrest warrant issued
against 2 teachers
DHAKA : A Dhaka court yesterday
issued warrant to arrest two teachers
of Viqarunnisa Noon School
and College in the case lodged for
allegedly instigating one of their
students, Aritri Adhikary, to commit
suicide.
Dhaka 3rd Additional
Metropolitan Sessions Judge
Robiul Alam passed the order, cancelling
their bail in the case.
Sunday was fixed for recording
deposition of the witness and the
accused needed to be present at the
court for this. But the accused
teachers Nazneen Ferdous and
Zinat Akhtar failed to appear before
it, making the court to cancel their
bail and issue arrest warrant.
The same court on July 10, 2019,
framed charges against the two
teachers.
Earlier on April 30, 2019, Dhaka
Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir
Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury accepted
the charge sheet filed in the case.
The court also allowed the investigation
officer's plea to drop the
name of Aritri's class teacher Hasna
Hena from the case as allegations
brought against her were not found
true in the probe.
Police on March 28, 2019, filed
the charge sheet against the then
principal of Viqarunnisa Noon
School and College Nazneen
Ferdous and morning shift incharge
of the school's Bailey Road
branch Zinat Akhtar.
Investigation officer (IO) inspector
Qazi Qamrul Islam of detective
branch (DB) of police submitted the
charge sheet.
Aritri was found hanging from a
ceiling fan of her residence in capital's
Shantinagar area on December
3, 2018, hours after she and her
parents were allegedly insulted by
the teachers. She was rushed to
Dhaka Medical College Hospital
(DMCH) where doctors declared
her dead.
Aritri's father Dilip Adhikary on
December 4 filed the case with
Paltan Police Station against the
three teachers.
In recordings, Trump's sister says
he 'has no principles'
BNP's link to grenade
attacks is as true as
daylight : Quader
DHAKA : Awami League General
Secretary Obaidul Quader on Monday
said BNP's involvement in the gruesome
grenade attacks on the AL rally on
August 21, 2004 is true like daylight and
none can hide the truth.
"BNP cannot conceal the truth by hiding
their heads in the sand like ostrich.
BNP's involvement in the August 21
grenade attack is true like daylight and
they will not be able to hide it," he said.
Quader, also minister for road transport
and bridges, was addressing a virtual
discussion, joining it from his official
residence on parliament premises,
arranged by Southeast University marking
the National Mourning Day.
He said BNP gets angered when it
faces the truth as patrons of evils of
darkness cannot accept it.
Southeast University Vice-Chancellor
Prof AFM Mafizul Islam chaired the virtual
discussion while Bangladesh Bank
former Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and
the university's board of trustees
Chairman Md Rezaul Karim addressed
it among others.
The minister said many people are
seen not abiding by health guidelines in
proper manner at this stage of coronavirus
outbreak and showing negligence
in wearing facemasks but this laxity
could push the nation to risk and "We
may have to pay heavy price for that".
California fires force thousands
to flee as more blazes feared
Some of California's largest-ever fires are
raging across the state, forcing tens of
thousands from their homes as forecasters
warned of further blazes sparked by
lightning.
Several thousand lightning strikes in
recent days ignited fires that left thick
smoke blanketing the region on
Saturday, reports BSS.
The total area burned for all the fires in
California this week is "close to one million
acres (400,000 hectares)," according
to CalFire public information officer
Jeremy Rahn.
"More lightning is anticipated tomorrow
(Sunday) and into Tuesday -everyone
must remain alert and have an evacuation
plan," the agency said on Twitter.
The National Weather Service added:
"With severe drought and exceptionally
dry fuels present, dry thunderstorms
could spark additional wildfires this
weekend."
"The western US and Great Plains are
shrouded under a vast area of smoke
due to ongoing wildfires that extend
from the Rockies to the West Coast."
About 2,600 firefighters are tackling
the two largest blazes, out of 13,700 battling
"nearly two dozen major fires,"
according to Rahm.
"If you don't believe in climate change,
come to California," tweeted state
Governor Gavin Newsom alongside a
dramatic photograph of huge clouds of
smoke rising from fires.
"This is from today. And is just a small
part of the nearly 600 fires we are battling
this week."
He had earlier tweeted an ABC News
video showing apocalyptic images of
smoldering orange roadsides thick with
smoke, with sparks flying as trees
burned ferociously.
Wineries in the famed Napa and
Sonoma regions, which are still reeling
from blazes in recent years, are under
threat.
"Many of these firefighters have been
on the lines for 72 hours, and everybody
is running on fumes," Assemblyman
Jim Wood of the Healdsburg district in
Sonoma told the Los Angeles Times.
"Our first responders are working to
the ragged edge of everything they
have."
The two largest blazes - dubbed the
SCU Lightning Complex and the LNU
Lightning Complex - have burned about
660,000 acres and destroyed more than
840 structures.
The SCU fire had burned nearly
340,000 acres by early Sunday, making
it the second-largest fire in California
history. It was 10 percent contained.
The LNU blaze covered 325,000 acres
and was the third largest in state history.
It was 15 percent contained.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
the 1.2 million acres burned in California
in the past month is far higher than the
259,000 acres destroyed in the whole of
last year. It was "an astonishing toll so
early in fire season," the paper said.
Shahed sent to
jail in money
embezzlement
case
DHAKA : A Dhaka court on Sunday sent
Regent Group Chairman Md Shahed
alias Shahed Karim to jail in a case
lodged over alleged embezzlement of
Taka 2.71 crore from Padma Bank (then
The Farmer's Bank).
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special
Judge KM Imrul Qayes passed the order
as police produced Shahed before the
court after the end of his seven-day
remand in the case.
In today's hearing, Investigation
Officer (IO) and Deputy Assistant
Director of Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) Mohammad
Shahjahan Miraz pleaded to keep the
fraudster behind the bars till the end
of the probe in the case.
The same court on August 10 placed
Shahed on seven-day remand in the
case as the IO pleaded to give the
accused on 10-day remand.
The anti-graft body official on July 27
filed the case against four including
Shahed and Dhaka Metropolitan
Magistrate Court the next day accepted
the ejahar and set August 16 for submitting
a probe report in the case.
The other accused are former
Chairman of Padma Bank audit committee
Mahbubul Haque Chishti,
Managing Director of Bakshiganj Jute
Spinners Limited Rashedul Haque
Chishti, Regent Hospital Chairman Md
Shahed and its Managing Director Md
Ibrahim Khalil.
WASHINGTON : President Donald
Trump's older sister, a former federal
judge, is heard sharply criticizing her
brother in a series of recordings released
Saturday, at one point saying of the president,
"He has no principles."
Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly
recorded by her niece, Mary Trump, who
recently released a book denouncing the
president, "Too Much and Never
Enough: How My Family Created the
World's Most Dangerous Man." Mary
Trump said Saturday she made the
recordings in 2018 and 2019.
In one recording, Barry, 83, says she
had heard a 2018 interview with her
brother on Fox News in which he suggested
that he would put her on the border
to oversee cases of immigrant children
separated from their parents.
"His base, I mean my God, if you were
a religious person, you want to help people.
Not do this," Barry says.
At another point she says: "His goddamned
tweet and lying, oh my God."
She adds: "I'm talking too freely, but you
know. The change of stories. The lack of
preparation. The lying. Holy shit."
Barry can also be heard saying that she
guesses that her brother has never read
her opinions on immigration cases.
"What has he read?" Mary Trump asks
her aunt.
Barry responds: "No. He doesn't read."
The recordings were first reported by
The Washington Post. The Associated
Press then obtained the recordings.
The recordings came to light just a day
after the late Robert Trump, brother to
Maryanne and the president, was
memorialized in a service at the White
House. Later, the president was dismissive
of the recordings.
"Every day it's something else, who
cares. I miss my brother, and I'll continue
to work hard for the American people,"
Trump said in a statement. "Not
everyone agrees, but the results are obvious.
Our country will soon be stronger
than ever before."
In the weeks since the release of Mary
Trump's tell-all book about her uncle,
she has been questioned about the
source of some of its information.
Nowhere in the book does she say that
she recorded conversations with her
aunt. On Saturday, Mary Trump
revealed that she had covertly taped 15
hours of face-to-face conversations with
Barry.
"Mary realized members of her family
had lied in prior depositions," said Chris
Bastardi, a spokesman for Mary Trump.
He added: "Anticipating litigation, she
felt it prudent to tape conversations in
order to protect herself."
The president has frequently spoken
highly of his sister; the recordings are the
first time a family member, outside of
Mary Trump, has been critical of him.
The recordings illuminate the tension
between the president and his sister. At
one point Barry says to her niece: "It's the
phoniness of it all. It's the phoniness and
this cruelty. Donald is cruel."
Mary Trump's book was filled with
attacks on her uncle, including the assertion
- he denied it - that he paid someone
to take the SATs for him as he sought to
transfer into the University of
Pennsylvania.
Flames surround Lake Berryessa during the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Napa, California on August 19, 2020.
Thousands of people fled their homes in northern California on August 19 as hundreds of fast-moving wildfires
spread across the region, burning houses and leading to the death of a helicopter pilot. Photo : Internet
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