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Bank transaction hours from 10am-3:30pm from Nov 15

November 05, 2022

 Bangladesh Bank has directed the country's commercial banks to reschedule their banking transaction hours from 10am to 3:30pm from November 15.


But, the bankers will have to stay at their respective offices till 5pm.

The banks across the country are currently running its transaction from 9am-3pm due to the government's decision to save electricity.

Meanwhile, the government and autonomous offices will run from 9am to 4pm from November 15.

EU Ambassador calls on FBCCI President

November 05, 2022

 Mr. Charles Whiteley, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, on Thursday morning paid a courtesy call on FBCCI President Md. Jashim Uddin at FBCCI office in Dhaka.


While talking on bilateral trade and investment between the countries, FBCCI President informed the Ambassador about the golden jubilee celebration of FBCCI to be held in March 2023 and expected the Ambassador to join the International Investment Summit to be organised in connection with the celebration.
Deputy Head of Mission Dr Bernd Spanier, FBCCI Vice President Salahuddin Alamgir, Director Syed Sadat Almas Kabir, Dr. Nadia Binte Amin, Secretary General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque were present at the call.

Italy to let migrant rescue ship dock for health checks

November 05, 2022

 Italy will allow an NGO ship carrying 179 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to dock so medics can carry out health checks, the country's foreign minister said Friday.


Antonio Tajani said that German NGO SOS Humanity's vessel Humanity 1 would head for Catania, Sicily, and "be able to stay in our territorial waters for the time necessary for us to examine all the emergencies on board".

"We will accept all those people, for example because they are minors, or because, according to what we know from the media, they are pregnant women or with young children, or people with fever", he told a press conference in Rome.

But he warned that "all those who do not meet these criteria will have to be removed from our territorial waters by the ship".

More than 1,000 migrants are currently aboard rescue boats trying to reach Europe, and Italy has faced mounting pressure to let humanitarian ships dock.

Germany sent a diplomatic note to Italy on Thursday asking its government to provide rapid help.

On Thursday the group SOS Mediterranee said it had called on the governments of France, Greece and Spain to help find a port for 234 people it rescued while trying to reach Europe, after Italy and Malta failed to answer.

So far, the NGO said it had made 20 requests to dock without success.
France said on Friday however that it was ready to take in some women and children aboard the NGO's Ocean Viking vessel.

SOS Mediterranee's director Sophie Beau welcomed the announcement but warned "any further day of waiting could have serious consequences".

More rain on the way as Philippine storm death toll hits 150

November 04, 2022

 The death toll from a powerful storm that triggered flooding and landslides across the Philippines has reached 150, disaster officials said Thursday, as more rain was forecast in some of the hardest-hit areas.


More than 355,400 people fled their homes as Severe Tropical Storm Nalgae pounded swathes of the archipelago nation late last week and over the weekend.

Of the 150 deaths recorded by the national disaster agency, 63 were in the Bangsamoro region on the southern island of Mindanao where flash floods and landslides destroyed villages.

At least 128 people were injured and 36 are still missing across the country, the agency said. Authorities have warned there is no hope of finding more survivors.

Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but storms that do reach the region tend to be deadlier than in Luzon and the central parts of the country.

With more rain forecast Thursday, disaster agencies in Bangsamoro were preparing for the possibility of further destruction in the poor and mountainous region.

"The soil is still wet in areas where flash floods and landslides occurred so further erosion could be instantly triggered," said Naguib Sinarimbo, regional civil defence chief.

"Waterways and rivers that were in the path of the flash floods are blocked by debris and boulders so they could easily overflow."

President Ferdinand Marcos has blamed deforestation and climate change for the devastating landslides in Bangsamoro.

He has urged local authorities to plant trees on denuded mountains.
"That's one thing that we need to do," Marcos told a briefing this week.
 
"We have been hearing this over and over again, but we still continue cutting trees. That's what happens, landslides like that happen."

Marcos has declared a state of calamity for six months in the worst-affected regions, freeing up funds for relief efforts.

Scientists have warned that deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

G7 ministers meet with Ukraine war, China ties on agenda

November 04, 2022

 Top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized democracies grappled with the implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s growing economic clout and aims on Taiwan, and Iran’s crackdown on antigovernment protesters as they opened two days of talks on Thursday.


Meeting in the western German city of Muenster, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations were taking stock of the situation in Ukraine more than eight months since Russia invaded the country, exacerbating food and energy shortages and creating ripple effects far from Europe, AP reports.

“While we are steadfast in our support for Ukraine, we must not forget that the impacts of Russia’s aggression, interference and hostility extend across the world,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said ahead of the meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “actions are plunging the world’s poorest further into despair, putting global food security on the brink and pushing up energy prices,” he said. “These actions only serve to demonstrate Putin’s true intentions and further unite the international community against his callous plans.”

“We won’t accept that the Russian president succeeds with his strategy of ... breaking Ukraine,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

The meeting in Muenster comes nearly a year after the G-7 nations - the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - banded together to warn Russia of “massive consequences” if it went ahead with plans to invade Ukraine.

Putin denied having such plans, and some nations saw the West’s repeated alerts of a Russian troops buildup near Ukraine as exaggerated at the time.

Since delivering the initial warning to Moscow - two months before the invasion was launched in late February - the G-7 nations have largely followed through with their vow to punish Russia, although sanctions have done little to deter the Kremlin.

Russia has instead escalated its attacks targeting civilian infrastructure, sent more troops, illegally annexed areas of Ukraine and shown no interest in a diplomatic solution. A senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Muenster said Putin had “doubled down” and, in some cases, “tripled down” on his position.

Although a potential world food crisis was averted Wednesday when Russia agreed to rejoin a wartime agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain and other commodities to reach global markets, other emergencies loom. They include the war’s impact on energy supplies, Russia’s unfounded claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” and suggestions Moscow might respond with nuclear weapons.

Senior U.S. officials said they expected the discussions at Muenster’s town hall — which local officials say was last used to host an international diplomatic event in 1648, for the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the 30 Years War — to reaffirm G-7 “alignment and consistency” on Ukraine.

Blinken made reference to the 374-year-old document at an event with Germany’s Baerbock, saying Russia’s actions in Ukraine were a direct attack on the concepts of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that some believe the treaty enshrined.

“These are the very principles that are being challenged today by Russia,” he said. “If we let that be challenged with impunity, then the foundations of the international order will start to erode and eventually crumble, and none of us can afford to let that happen.”

The ministers were also to discuss other issues, including joint approaches to China, which has sided with Russia over Ukraine while also seeking to boost investments in critical and sensitive infrastructure in the West, and Iran, which in addition to conducting a brutal crackdown on protesters is accused of supplying Russia with armed drones and possibly other weapons for use in Ukraine.

The G-7 has weathered major changes since the foreign ministers issued their stark pre-war ultimatum to the Kremlin last December in Liverpool, England: Britain is on its third prime minister, there’s a new right-wing government in Italy, relations between Germany and France have frayed and control of the U.S. Congress may be about to shift, with potential implications for Ukraine policy.

The ministers’ discussions in Germany will look at holding the bloc together in the face of the Ukraine conflict, which has exacerbated global shortages of food and energy as famine looms in parts of Africa and winter approaches in Europe. The European Union is considering moving forward with price caps on Russian energy imports aimed at further stifling Russia’s income, a move that some hope might help convince the Kremlin to stop the fighting and engage in diplomacy.

On China, U.S. officials said the G-7 would be looking to further harmonize their policies related to Chinese investment in their countries as well to caution against antagonistic moves that Beijing might take against Taiwan.

Beijing “is not just a partner on international questions but also a competitor and, much more strongly, a rival, in view of its understanding of the international order,” Baerbock said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting Beijing this week, becoming the first European leader to make the trip since the war in Ukraine began. Chinese investment in a major port project in Germany has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals that China might gain a controlling interest in critical infrastructure in the heart of an allied country.

U.S. officials said they were pleased the Hamburg port contract was amended to reduce China’s stake to a minority position but said it was important that all nations look carefully at proposed Chinese investments and the potential security threats they might bring.

Scholz has pledged to use his trip to make the case for Chinese moderation and assistance in calming the situations with Ukraine and Taiwan.

10 million tonnes shipped in Ukraine grain deal: UN chief

November 04, 2022

 Ten million metric tonnes of grains and foodstuffs have left Ukraine in the past three months, the UN chief said Thursday, calling for the renewal of a deal vital to "reducing the risk of hunger" worldwide.


The landmark announcement comes just days after the so-called Black Sea grain deal, which was put in place over the summer to ease the global food crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine, was called into question by Moscow's
complaints over sanctions.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative is making a difference," United Nation chief Antonio Guterres told journalists.

"As of today, ten million metric tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs have been shipped through the Black Sea corridor. It has taken just three months to reach this milestone."

He noted that Russia's brief withdrawal from the deal earlier this week, which led to a further increase in global food prices, had shown the "importance" of the accord in stemming the global food crisis and "reducing the risks of hunger, poverty, and instability."

"The initiative is working. It is our collective responsibility to keep it working smoothly," said Guterres.

He called for concentrated efforts toward the "renewal and full implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative."

The 120-day grain deal was signed between Moscow, Kyiv, the UN, and Turkey on July 22 in an effort to combat the global food crisis sparked by the war, which had stalled all agricultural exports from one of the world's breadbaskets.

Even before Russia's move to pull out of the deal on Saturday, from which it backtracked on Wednesday, uncertainty over the extension of the initiative had led to price increases of certain products.

Guterres also urged the parties to focus on "removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer."

Russia has slammed its inability to export its own grain and fertilizer as part of a second agreement, due to Western sanctions.

"The world needs concerted efforts to urgently address the global fertilizer market crunch and make full use of Russian export capacity," said Guterres.

"The fertilizer shortage is already affecting farmers around the world. We cannot allow the global fertilizer shortage to morph into a global food shortage."

40 countries to unveil methane plans at climate summit

November 03, 2022

 Forty of the 119 countries that pledged last year to slash emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane will unveil their plans to do so at the UN climate summit next week, according to a senior US official.


The outlook reflects modest progress on the US-led Global Methane Pledge, an international side deal to the UN climate talks in which countries promised to reduce methane emissions 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels in a bid to tackle one of the top contributors to near-term planetary warming.

The United States, Canada and Vietnam are among the countries that will put forward details, according to the official in US President Joe Biden's administration, who asked not to be named.

Aside from the United States, it was unclear if any of the world’s other top 10 methane emitters would present plans at the summit, which takes place in Egypt from Nov. 6-18.

The world’s top two largest methane emitters, China and India, are not signatories to the pledge, and other big emitters like Brazil are not expected to have plans in time for the talks.

The plans will outline the countries' regulations, standards and investments in methane reduction and how those strategies fit into their broader climate targets under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the US official said.

The United States, for example, is expected to tout its 2021 regulatory proposal to require oil and gas drillers to find and fix methane leaks, and release new details on how it aims to tackle emissions from small oil wells and from flaring.

To date, only 15 countries have published specific targets or detailed national strategies for slashing their methane emissions since signing on to the Global Methane Pledge at the 2021 UN climate summit in Glasgow. Those countries will be among the 40 expected to lay out details at the conference, the official said.

Scientists say sharp cuts in methane emissions from oil and gas extraction to farming and waste management will be a vital lever in tackling climate change, since methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.

The World Meteorological Organization said last month that last year's jump in methane concentrations was the highest since records began in 1983 and came on the heels of another record-breaking year in 2020.

Meanwhile, the world saw at least two massive releases of methane from oil and gas infrastructure since last December, including from ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea and a major leak from offshore oil and gas fields in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
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