Category World News

As the two South Asian countries attempt to rekindle relations amid Dhaka’s strained ties with India, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has met with senior Bangladeshi officials and politicians, including Touhid Hossain, the country’s top foreign affairs adviser.

Islamabad described the visit as “historical” and a “significant milestone in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations” and that Dar was the most senior Pakistani official to visit Dhaka since 2012.

Since Sheikh Hasina was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last August, there have been fewer strained relations between Dhaka and Islamabad, which has led to her emigrating to New Delhi. Hasina was viewed as more in favor of India.

According to reports, the two countries have eased visa requirements for travel between them, making Dar’s visit come just days after.

On Sunday, Pakistan and Bangladesh are expected to sign a number of agreements, including ones relating to trade. The two nations expanded government-to-government commerce in February last year as they started sea trade.

After meeting with Bangladesh’s commerce adviser Sheikh Bashiruddin on Sunday morning, Dar and Commerce Minister Jamal Khan and Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed ways to promote economic and commercial cooperation, with a particular emphasis on boosting trade and encouraging connectivity.

Local carriers are also looking into getting local carriers’ approvals for direct Dhaka-Karachi flights, according to Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star.

Dar will meet Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s interim leader, according to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

Dar emphasized his country’s “strong desire to forge a cooperative and forward-looking relationship with Bangladesh” at a press conference held on Saturday at the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka.

Stronger and more active

The top Pakistani diplomat also met with Jamaat-e-Islami political delegates from Bangladesh, which supported Pakistan’s partition and helped create Bangladesh in 1971.

After the meeting, Jamaat-e-Islami’s deputy leader Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher addressed reporters about how to strengthen and strengthen relations with the brotherly Muslim state of Pakistan in the coming days.

Dar also met with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leadership and the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), which was responsible for the uprising last year.

Top military leaders from both nations sat down in Pakistan on Friday.

In Dhaka, Pakistani Minister Khan agreed to establish joint commissions to promote trade and investment a day earlier.

During the 1971 war, East Pakistan reunified into Bangladesh, the Pakistani military was accused of carrying out numerous atrocities. Many Dhaka residents still demand Islamabad apologise for the killings, which hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis estimate to be the millions.

India, which almost encircles Bangladesh’s 170 million people, leaned heavily on the island nation after 1971.

However, Yunus has pressed for India to return Hasina, who is still refusing to testify against charges of crimes against humanity.

A sprawling digital bazaar known as The Silk Road, which is hidden on the dark web, was the foundation of Ross Ulbricht’s empire. There, freely flowing weapons, drugs, and secrets that had been stolen, all for untraceable cryptocurrency. He was known as the Dread Pirate Roberts to his worldwide audience.

However, Ulbricht’s fate changed once more after a shocking arrest and a shocking double life sentence. President Trump’s pardon of him just days into his second term sparked outrage and debate. So, did he really deserve punishment? Was there a balance between power and justice, or both? And how did a digital criminal become the system’s wild card?

After falling behind by two goals, Barcelona rallied to defeat Levante 3-1 in La Liga with a late own goal from the hosts.

After the newly promoted Levante had rolled a surprise two-goal lead at halftime on Saturday, champions Barcelona needed Pedri Gonzalez and Ferran Torres to score early in the second half to equalize.

Lamine Yamal then assisted in scoring the winning goal with a header into Levante’s own net after Unai Elgezabal headed in with a cross into the 6-yard box.

Ivan Romero, a Levante striker, earlier struck from a counterattack that had begun with Yamal’s misdirected ball. In the first half of injury time, Jose Luis Morales converted a penalty after Alejandro Balde’s video review called his shot a “handball” when he blocked Morales’ shot.

However, Pedri started the fightback in the 49th when he received Yamal’s pass well outside the area, placed his foot in the corner of the net, and fired a long range shot.

When Ferran fended off his marker and headed in Raphinha’s corner kick, Ferran, who had hit the woodwork in the opening period, levelled in the 52nd minute.

The score was then pressed for by Barcelona, which Yamal assisted in scoring shortly after the 90th minute had passed.

Hansi Flick, the coach of Barcelona, praised Pedri’s goal, saying “it changed the match.”

“The first goal we scored gave us a lot of confidence in the box, but it wasn’t easy for us to get the three points,” we said.

Last weekend, Barcelona won its opening game 3-1 against Mallorca.

Rashford debuts in the first-team

Marcus Rashford, a left-sided forward for Flick, made his first league start for Barcelona since his loan move from Manchester United from United.

At halftime, Dani Olmo took the place of the English international after Pedri’s passes in the middle and Yamal’s incursions down the right had mostened the most threats.

Marcus [Rashford] did some things in the first half that demonstrated how good he is and how he can help us, according to Flick.

Robert Lewandowski, who has a muscle injury, started his first game for Barcelona as a substitute.

Next week as Barca fights to defend its title, it will travel to Rayo Vallecano. Levante will travel to Elche in search of a more favorable outcome after losing both of its opening games.

Here is how things stand on Sunday, August 24:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched a drone attack on a minibus in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 59-year-old man and wounding five others, according to a Ukrainian official.
• A wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Kherson also killed a 69-year-old man, wounded 17 people, and damaged a school and an administrative building in one district, local officials said.
• Russian forces launched 448 attacks on 17 settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region in a single day, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed its troops have taken control of two more settlements – Seredne and Kleban-Byk – along the 1, 000km (620-mile) front line in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, while the Ukrainian military said its forces had recaptured a settlement further west, on the edge of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to reduction in the operating capacity at one of the plant’s units, officials said early on Sunday.
• Earlier, one person was killed and another injured when they drove over an explosive device dropped by a Ukrainian drone in the village of Kirillovka in the Bryansk region, the local governor said.
• Another Russian civilian was killed in a targeted Ukrainian drone attack in the Krasnoyarsk district of Russia’s Belgorod region, an official said.
• Russian forces also shot down a drone flying towards the Russian capital, Moscow, and intercepted 160 drones and four guided aerial bombs in a 24-hour period, the TASS news agency reported, citing officials.
• The drone barrage forced several airports in central Russia to suspend operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia’s air transport agency Rosaviatsia said. &nbsp,

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on countries in the Global South to support diplomatic efforts to push Russia to agree to end its war with Ukraine, following talks with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa.
• Zelenskyy announced new Ukrainian sanctions against 139 individuals and legal entities working for Russia’s war, as well as “28 citizens of different countries, who are equally helping the Russians in maintaining the occupation regime on our land and effectively sponsoring the Russian state”.
• The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from launching long-range missile attacks on Russia, as the White House tries to get Moscow to agree to peace talks. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the WSJ report, which cited unnamed US officials.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the firing of two new air defence missiles, state media reported, announcing that the tests showed the weapons had “superior combat capability”.

The report on Sunday comes a day before United States President Donald Trump meets his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which took place on Saturday, showed that the missiles demonstrated a “fast response” to aerial targets such as attack drones and cruise missiles.

The report did not explain the new missiles in any detail, only that their “operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology”.

It also did not say where the test had been carried out.

The launches also come as South Korea and the US continue their annual joint military drills and as the South Korean military announced that it had fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who had briefly crossed their heavily militarised border on Tuesday.

The United Nations Command in South Korea put the number of North Korean troops that crossed the border at 30, the Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korean state media, meanwhile, quoted Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol as saying the incident was a “premeditated and deliberate provocation”.

“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase”, Ko said.

Earlier this month, Kim condemned the US-South Korea joint military drills as their intent to remain “most hostile and confrontational” to his country, pledging to speed up nuclear build-up.