Aug 25,2022:A Russian missile attack killed 22 civilians and set a passenger train on fire in eastern Ukraine as the country marked its Independence Day under heavy shelling, officials in Kyiv said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned of the risk of “repugnant Russian provocations” ahead of the 31st anniversary on Wednesday of Ukraine’s independence from Moscow-dominated Soviet rule, and public celebrations were cancelled.
The holiday also coincided with six months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, touching off Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War Two.
The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia denies targeting civilians.
PATNA,Aug 24,2022: Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha announced his resignation on the floor of the House on Wednesday after an emotionally charged speech in which he expressed anguish over the no-confidence motion moved against him by the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’.
The upcoming session is also likely to witness the replacement of Acting Chairman of the Legislative Council Awadhesh Narain Singh, who is also from the BJP, with JD(U)’s Devesh Chandra Thakur.
The Mahagathbandhan is understood to have agreed upon the name of veteran RJD leader Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as the new Speaker.
New Delhi,Aug 23,2022: To commemorate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, TP Renewable Microgrid (TPRMG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), have joined hands to launch an innovative program that will see 1,000 green energy enterprises established throughout the nation. The Government of India’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat will be supported by this initiative as it will foster sustainable entrepreneurship models across the nation leading to empowerment of rural entrepreneurs.
Under the collaboration, SIDBI will provide entrepreneurs a “Go REsponsive, ENterprise incentive (GREENi)” after they complete a TPRMG-organized capacity building activity. Through its PRAYAAS scheme or partner institutions, SIDBI will also assist in credit linkages to facilitate financing (loans) for setting up or expanding the businesses of rural entrepreneurs. To provide these rural businesses with quality, affordable, dependable, and clean green energy (Solar/Wind/Bio-Gas), TPRMG will discover suitable entrepreneurs within its existing Microgrid network as well as in new geographies. TPRMG will also provide rural enterprises, green energy solutions, the technical know-how for maximising energy utilisation and conservation. The Sustainable is Attainable program of Tata Power and the Empowering MSMEs campaign of SIDBI are the driving forces behind this partnership.
Aus 23,2022:Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced an independent inquiry into his predecessor Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to multiple ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Albanese announced the move on Tuesday after Solicitor General Stephen Donaghue concluded that while Morrison’s appointments were legal, they “fundamentally undermined” responsible government.
“Our democracy is precious,” Albanese wrote on Twitter. “Australians deserve to know who is responsible for making decisions on their behalf.”
Morrison, who stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party after losing a general election in May, has faced a barrage of criticism from the Labor government and his own party, after it was revealed he was secretly sworn in to ministries without telling parliament or his cabinet, an unprecedented assumption of power.
In the written advice, the solicitor general was critical that the public and Parliament were not informed of Morrison’s appointment to the ministries.
This was “inconsistent with the conventions and practices that form an essential part of the system of responsible government prescribed by the … Constitution,” the advice said.
BAMAKO, Aug 22,2022: Mali has appointed an interim prime minister to act in place of leader Choguel Maiga, who is resting amid media reports he had been hospitalised.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, currently government spokesman and minister of territorial administration, is the new acting prime minister, a government statement said.
Earlier this month, Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine reported that Choguel Maiga had suffered a stroke, citing sources close to him.
One of Choguel Maiga’s advisers denied this when contacted by Reuters, and his office said he would resume his duties by the following week. He did not.
Mali is governed by a military junta that came to power in a 2020 coup and has promised to organise democratic elections in 2024.
Choguel Maiga had been one of the governemt’s most outspoken voices in repeated public rows with West African neighbours and international allies who criticised its military cooperation with Russian mercenaries and repeated election delays.
Abdoulaye Maiga has also made strong public statements as government spokesman against former colonial ruler France, including telling French President Emmanual Macron in July to abandon his “neocolonial” and “condescending” attitude.
Aug22,2022: Iran accused the United States on Monday of “procrastinating” in indirect talks aimed at reinstating Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, and said a prisoner swap with Washington was not linked to the negotiations. “Until we agree on all issues, we cannot say that we have reached a complete agreement,” he said. Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly called on Tehran to release several Iranian-Americans held in Iran on security charges.
Iran last week responded to the EU’s text with “additional views and considerations”, while calling on Washington to show flexibility to resolve three remaining issues. The United States last week said it was studying Iran’s response. “The Americans are procrastinating and there is inaction from the European sides…America and Europe need an agreement more than Iran,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told a news conference.
Kanaani said Tehran wanted a sustainable deal that would preserve Tehran’s legitimate rights”. “Until we agree on all issues, we cannot say that we have reached a complete agreement,” he said.
Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly called on Tehran to release several Iranian-Americans held in Iran on security charges. Iran has demanded several Iranians detained on charges linked to U.S. sanctions be freed. “We emphasize that the exchange of prisoners with Washington is a separate issue and it has nothing to do with the process of negotiations to revive the 2015 pact,” Kanaani said, adding that Tehran was ready to swap prisoners.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump reneged on the deal reached before he took office, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin breaching the pact’s nuclear curbs. “We seek a good agreement which would guarantee Iran’s national interests and would be long-lasting…We won’t be bitten twice,” Kanaani said.
The 2015 agreement appeared on the verge of revival in March after 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration in Vienna. But talks broke down over obstacles such as Tehran’s demand that Washington provides guarantees that no U.S. president would abandon the deal as Trump did.
However, President Joe Biden cannot provide such ironclad assurances because the deal is a political understanding rather than a legally binding treaty.
Seoul,Aug 19,2022: The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday slammed Seoul’s offer of economic assistance in return for denuclearisation as the “height of absurdity” and dismissed the possibility of face-to-face talks.
The statement follows South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol this week putting forward an “audacious” aid plan that would include food, energy and infrastructure help in return for the North abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.
Analysts previously said the chances of Pyongyang accepting such an offer — first floated during Yoon’s inaugural speech — were vanishingly slim, as the North, which invests a vast chunk of its GDP into weapons programmes, has long made it clear it will not make that trade.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Yo Jong, on Friday called Yoon’s offer the “height of absurdity”, adding the entire premise of the North willingly putting its nuclear programme on the table was wrong.
Aug 18,2022:The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has blocked eight YouTube channels, seven Indian and one Pakistan based, for spreading disinformation related to the country’s national security, foreign relations and public order.
The Ministry, utilizing the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, had issued orders for blocking the eight YouTube news channels, one Facebook account, and two Facebook posts.
The blocked YouTube channels had a cumulative viewership of over 114 crore, and were subscribed by over 85 lakh users.
Analysis of content revealed that the purpose of the content published by some of these YouTube channels was to spread hatred among religious communities in India.
Aug 18,2022:At least 21 people have been killed and 33 others were wounded after a bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul, during evening prayers on Wednesday, according to the police.
“Yesterday an explosion occurred in a mosque … during evening prayers. As a result 21 of our citizens were martyred and 33 were wounded,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said in a statement on Thursday.
Italian non-governmental organisation Emergency, which operates a hospital in the capital, earlier said it was treating 27 patients who had been wounded in the blast, three of whom had died. Five of the wounded were children.
Aug 17,2022:UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine on Thursday, a United Nations spokesman has said.
“At the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky[y], the secretary-general will be in Lviv on Thursday to attend a trilateral meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and the Ukrainian leader,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
Dujarric said the trio will visit on Friday the Black Sea port of Odesa, where grain exports have resumed under a UN-brokered deal.
On July 22, Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal with the UN and Turkey on resuming grain shipments in an attempt to ease a global food crisis in which millions face hunger.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov each signed separate but identical agreements with UN and Turkish officials on reopening blocked Black Sea delivery routes.
Dujarric said Guterres would meet Zelenskyy in Lviv in western Ukraine and discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and also discuss “the need for a political solution to the conflict”.
Dubai, Aug 16,2022: No one has the right to level accusations against Iran over Friday’s attack on Salman Rushdie, for which he and his supporters are solely to blame, the foreign ministry in Tehran said on Monday.
The novelist, who has lived under threat for decades since enraging clerical authorities in Iran through his writing, is recovering after being repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in New York state.
In Iran’s first official reaction to Friday’s attack, ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said freedom of speech did not justify Mr Rushdie’s insults against religion. His 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages.
“During the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach, reproach and condemnation,” Kanaani told a news briefing. “No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard.”
Writers and politicians around the world have condemned the attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iranian state institutions had incited violence against Mr Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media had gloated about the attempt on his life.
The Indian-born writer has lived with a bounty on his head since “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988. The following year, Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling on Muslims to kill the novelist and anyone involved in the book’s publication.
The Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back the fatwa.
But in 2019, Twitter suspended Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s account over a tweet that said the fatwa against Mr Rushdie was “solid and irrevocable”.