27-06-2021

Sunday, Dhaka, June 27, 2021, Ashar 13, 1428 BS, Zilqad 15, 1442 Hijri
Delta the 'most transmissible' of
variants identified so far: WHO
Cox's Bazar district correspondent of The Bangladesh Today Shafiul Alam greeted the Chairman of
the Department of Oceanography, University of Dhaka and also acting Editor of The Bangladesh
Today with flower during the visit to Cox's Bazar with his wife.
Photo : TBT
Chauvin gets
22 ½ years in
prison for George
Floyd's death
MINNEA POLIS : Former
Minneapolis police Officer Derek
Chauvin has been sentenced to 22 ½
years in prison for the murder of
George Floyd, whose dying gasps
under Chauvin's knee led to the biggest
outcry against racial injustice in the
U.S. in generations, reports UNB.
The punishment handed out Friday
fell short of the 30 years that prosecutors
had requested.
With good behavior, Chauvin, 45,
could be paroled after serving twothirds
of his sentence, or about 15 years.
Former police Officer Derek Chauvin
broke his long courtroom silence Friday
as he faced sentencing for the murder of
George Floyd, offering condolences to
Floyd's family and saying he hopes more
information coming out will give them
"some peace of mind."
Chauvin, who did not testify at his
trial, removed his COVID-19 and turned
toward the Floyd family, speaking only
briefly because of what he called "some
additional legal matters at hand" - an
apparent reference to the federal civil
rights trial he still faces.
"But very briefly, though, I do want to
give my condolences to the Floyd family.
There's going to be some other information
in the future that would be of
interest. And I hope things will give you
some some peace of mind," he said,
without elaborating.
Hisattorney Eric Nelson called Floyd's
death "tragic," and that Chauvin"s
"brain is littered with what-ifs" from the
day: "What if I just did not agree to go in
that day? What if things had gone differently?
What if I never responded to that
call? What if what if what if?"
Floyd's family members took the
stand and expressed sorrow about his
death. They asked for the maximum
penalty.
Govt determined to
take education sector
forward: Zakir
DHAKA : State Minister for
Primary and Mass Education Md
Zakir Hossain yesterday lauded the
initiatives taken by Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina for the education
sector and said that the government
under her dynamic leadership
is taking the sector forward.
"Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman believed that education is
the key to overall development and
prosperity of the nation. That's
why he nationalized 36,165 schools
and 1,57,724 teachers.
Following this, his worthy
daughter Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina nationalized 26,193 private
schools including teachers,"
he said at a review meet, said a
release here.
The state minister was addressing
a meeting to review the
achievements of Reaching Out-of-
School Children (ROSK) Phase-II
at LGED building in Sher-e-Bangla
Nagar, jointly organized by LGED
and DPE.
"The government has been providing
various trainings to teachers
including distribution of free textbooks
to improve the quality of primary
education.
Cooked food and high nutritional
rich biscuits are being served
among the needy students in poor
areas with the aim of increasing
the mental development and physical
nutrition of the students," he
said.
Mentioning that the 'ROSK'
Project has created a second education
opportunity and provided
technical education to the children
of the poorest families who have
not been able to complete the primary
education cycle, Zakir said,
"In future, this project will create
entrepreneurs who will create their
own employment as well as the
employment for others."
The state minister further said
that, "In order to maintain the continuity
of primary education activities
in spite of the ongoing Covid-
19 epidemic situation, 'Ghore Bose
Shikhi' lessons are being conducted
through Sangsad Bangladesh
Television with the aim of keeping
the students focused on their studies
and lessons in compliance with
hygiene norms as well as
Bangladesh Betar and all community
radios."
"Online classes have already
started through Zoom and Google
Meet and work is underway to
deliver worksheets to students
from door to door", the state minister
added, added the release.
The meeting was chaired by Md
Abdur Rashid Khan, Chief
Engineer, Department of Local
Government Engineering.
Director General of the
Department of Primary Education
Alamgir Md Mansurul Alam,
Additional Secretary, Ministry of
Primary and Mass Education Ratan
Chandra Pandit and ROSK Project
Director Md Mahbub Hasan Shahin
addressed the meeting.
UNITED NATIONS/GENEVA : The
Delta variant of COVID-19, identified in
at least 85 countries, is the "most transmissible"
of the variants identified so far
and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated
populations, WHO chief Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned,
reports BSS .
"I know that globally there is currently a
lot of concern about the Delta variant, and
the WHO is concerned about it too,"
Director-General Ghebreyesus said at a
WHO press briefing on Friday.
The Delta variant was first identified in
India. "Delta is the most transmissible of
the variants identified so far, has been
identified in at least 85 countries, and is
spreading rapidly among unvaccinated
populations," he said in Geneva. He noted
with concern that as some countries ease
public health and social measures, "we are
starting to see increases in transmission
around the world.
"More cases means more hospitalisations,
further stretching health workers
and health systems, which increases the
risk of death," he said.
While pointing out that new COVID-19
variants are expected and will continue to
Indian Air Force
Chief in city
DHAKA : Indian Air Chief Marshal
Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria
arrived in Dhaka on Saturday on a
three-day visit. The visit of the Indian
Air Force Chief in the year of Golden
Jubilee of Bangladesh's independence
will further "strengthen the close and
fraternal ties" existing between the
Armed Forces of the two countries, officials
said.
The Indian Air Chief is visiting
Bangladesh at the invitation from the
Chief of Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force.
The Indian Air Force Chief is scheduled
to pay courtesy calls to all senior
officers of the Bangladesh Armed Forces
and will meet other senior officers from
the Bangladesh Air Force, said the
Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
He will also be visiting major BAF air
bases across Bangladesh during the
course of his visit.
The Indian Air Force Chief would
also be paying tribute to the members
of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, who
made the supreme sacrifices during the
Liberation War of 1971, by laying
wreath at the altar of Shikha Anirban at
Dhaka Cantonment.
A major highlight of his current visit
is that, the Chief of Air Staff, Indian Air
Force, has been invited as the Chief
Guest of Commissioning Ceremony on
the occasion of President Parade-2021
at Bangladesh Air Force Academy
(BAFA), Jessore.
This is the first time that an Indian
Air Chief would have the distinct honour
of reviewing the Parade of BAFA,
which goes on to show the strong commitment
and trust that both Air Forces
have towards each other.
be reported, "that's what viruses do, they
evolve - but we can prevent the emergence
of variants by preventing transmission."
In a strong warning, Dr Maria Van
Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical Lead at
the WHO said the Delta variant is a "dangerous"
virus and is more transmissible
than the Alpha variant, which was itself
extremely transmissible across Europe
and any country that it entered.
"The Delta variant is even more transmissible,"
she said, adding that the WHO
is seeing trajectories of incidents that are
almost "vertical" in a number of countries
around the world.
Many European countries are witnessing
a decline in cases but there are a lot of
events happening across the region,
including large sporting or religious
events "or even backyard barbecues."
"All of these actions have consequences
and the Delta variant is spreading readily
among people who are unvaccinated,"
Kerkhove said. While some countries
have high percentages of people who are
vaccinated, yet the entire population of
those nations is not yet vaccinated and
many people have not received their second
dose or the full course of dose of the
COVID-19 vaccines, she said.
Kerkhove underlined that COVID-19
vaccines are "incredibly effective" at preventing
severe disease and death, including
against the Delta variant.
"The virus will continue to evolve. And
right now our public health and social
measures work, our vaccines work," the
diagnostics work and the therapeutics
work.
"But there may be a time where this
virus evolves and these countermeasures
don't. So we need some kind of
movement to pull ourselves together to
drive transmission down and keep it
down," she said.
Kerkhove warned that events that are
large scale and see huge crowds "will have
consequences. We are already starting to
see some consequences of these events
with increasing transmission again.
The Delta variant will make that epidemic
curve exponential," she warned.
She urged people to keep themselves safe
and make decisions individually about
what they need to do every day.
"There's a lot that all of us want to be
doing, but there's not a lot that we need to
be doing right now," she said.
COP26:Young people
urged to raise voice
to save planet
DHAKA : State Minister for Foreign Affairs
M Shahriar Alam has called upon the young
people and climate activists of Bangladesh
and the UK to join hands and emerge as the
greatest force for good for their respective
countries in protecting the planet. He urged
them to raise their voices at the COP26
and beyond, and be an asset to their local
communities in saving the planet, people
and nature for succeeding generations.
"There is no planet B or plan B."
The State Minister was addressing a youth
climate dialogue titled "Bangladesh-UK
Youth Voices on Climate Action: The Road
to Glasgow" held virtually on Friday night.
Bangladesh High Commission in
London, in collaboration with Tower
Hamlets Council, organized the youth
climate dialogue on the occasion of the
50th anniversaries of Bangladesh's
Independence and Bangladesh-UK diplomatic
relations. The event coincided with
and be a part of the London Climate Action
Week 2021.
Minister for London, Paul Scully MP
attended the event as the guest of honour
which was co-chaired by High
Commissioner of Bangladesh to Saida
Muna Tasneem and Mayor of the Tower
Hamlets Council John Biggs. Rushanara
Ali MP of the Tower Hamlets Borough
and Nahim Razzaq MP also attended.
Councillor Asma Islam, Cabinet
Member for Environment and Public
Realm (Job Share) - Lead on
Environment also spoke at the event.
Shahriar said under the extraordinary climate-stewardship
of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, Bangladesh has emerged a global
leader in adaptation, climate-resilience, and
nature-based climate solutions. "We are
also submitting ambitious and quantified
NDCs ahead of COP26 including a renewable
energy target of 40% by 2041," he said.
Bangladesh Parliament was the first in
South Asia to declare a "Planetary Emergency"
and called on the world to work "on a warfooting"
to stop climate change.
Bangladesh government is spending on
an average 2.5% of our GDP, US$5 billion
each year in climate adaptation and
resilience-building alongside the
Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, he added.
"Without waiting for external; financing
our government implemented more than
800 climate action projects from PM
Sheikh Hasina's self-financed 450 million
US$ National Climate Change Trust
Fund," said the State Minister.
He said Bangladesh looks forward to
UK's robust and ambitious climate leadership
at the COP26 and beyond specially
in securing mitigation commitments
by the G20 to curb global emissions substantially,
arrest global temperatures at
1.5 degrees, secure maximal climate
finance especially the promised 100 billion
USD each year.
Bangladesh and India urged to cooperate
on Meghna River basin
DHAKA : Speakers at a dialogue have
called on Bangladesh and India to boost
cooperation in protecting and promoting
the ecosystem services of the Meghna
River basin for the benefit of 50 million
people living in the region shared by the
two countries.
The two neighbours should work
together to the make the basin as one the
most vibrant regions of South Asia,
Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said.
"There is no alternative to cooperation
and working together," he said while
addressing the first ever knowledge forum
on the Meghna River basin, the minister
said, according to a release from
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) on Saturday.
It is estimated that more than 50 million
people in Bangladesh and India depend
on the ecosystem services provided by the
basin, including indigenous forest
dependent communities such as the
Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia; and the fishermen
and farmers depending on the extensive
wetlands (Haors) of Sylhet region in
Bangladesh.
R. R. Sambharia, representing India's
Ministry of Jal Shakti and Senior Joint
Commissioner, Ground Water and Flood
Management, advised the IUCN to share
the result of the forum with the Joint River
Commission (JRC) of Bangladesh and
India, and its dissemination to the relevant
government departments at the state level.
To maintain the momentum created
through the Meghna Knowledge Forum
(MKF) 2021 and to attract international
donor agencies to the Meghna River basin,
IUCN will disseminate the forum outcomes
at the bilateral and global platforms,
such as IUCN World Conservation
Congress in Marseille France planned in
September 2021.
Malik Fida A Khan, Executive Director,
Center for Environmental and Geographic
Information Services, said the article 6 of
Framework Agreement for Cooperation
between Bangladesh and India, mandates
the two countries to work together for the
preservation of ecosystem of the shared
rivers.
"This provides an entry point for
strengthening the discourse on the formation
of Meghna River Basin Organization
(RBO), which needs to ensure multi-level
coordination for the sustainable management
of the Meghna basin."
More than 100 participants from across
the Meghna basin joined the three-day
forum held recently, said IUCN on
Saturday. The three-day forum laid the
foundation of a multi-stakeholder knowledge
exchange platform for the inclusive
management of the Meghna river basin.
Designed as a virtual event, the forum's
objective was to facilitate partnerships
among different stakeholders and sectors
to address knowledge gaps in the implementation
of an Integrated Water
Resource Management (IWRM) in the
Meghna River basin.
Chan (hay) is an important product in Bangladesh and it is also a cash crop in different areas. Chan is
used to make ropes, mats, bags, baskets, etc. In ancient times, chan ghar was used as a tent. The picture
was taken from Aolakandi Ghat in Dhunat upazila of Bogura on Saturday.
Photo: PBA