DHAKA: Saudi Arabia is open to engaging Bangladeshi workers in its green initiatives, Riyadh’s envoy has said following talks with Dhaka’s new top diplomat.
Nearly 3 million Bangladeshis live and work in Saudi Arabia. They are the largest expat group in the Kingdom and also the biggest Bangladeshi community outside Bangladesh.
Under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, even more of them are likely to find employment in Saudi Arabia, especially if they are skilled professionals or their jobs are related to the vision’s projects.
Riyadh’s Ambassador to Dhaka Essa Al-Duhailan discussed the possibilities during his first meeting with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, who recently assumed office following last month’s general election.
The foreign minister is a renowned ecologist and academic specializing in environmental sciences.
“We talked about the Saudi Green Initiative and Middle East Green Initiative to have some farmers and experts from Bangladesh participate … in planting more than 50 billion trees in the region,” Al-Duhailan told Arab News after the meeting on Thursday.
He said the Saudi side was “open to any suggestion and cooperation.”
The green initiatives launched by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2021 are focused on combating climate change and safeguarding the environment for future generations in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East through emissions reduction, afforestation, and land and sea protection.
The planting of 50 billion trees across the Middle East is the equivalent of restoring 200 million hectares of degraded land. A fifth of the trees will be planted within the Kingdom’s borders, with the remaining 40 billion set to be planted across the broader region in the coming decades.
The Saudi ambassador said he also discussed with the foreign minister the Kingdom’s plans to streamline the employment of Bangladeshis in order to “ease the procedures for the workers,” as well as preparations for the upcoming Hajj season.
“We will, inshallah, implement the Makkah Route initiative this year, for the fourth (time),” he added.
The Makkah Route initiative is a flagship program launched by Saudi Arabia in 2019, allowing pilgrims to fulfill all visa, customs and health requirements at the airport of origin, saving long hours of waiting. Upon arrival, pilgrims can enter Saudi Arabia without waiting, having already gone through visa and customs processes back home.
Philippines cleans up after sixth major storm in weeks
There have been no other reports so far of deaths or injuries
Power outages across the island province of Catanduanes could last for months
Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
Manila: Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least one life. The national weather service had warned of a “potentially catastrophic” impact from Man-yi, which was a super typhoon when it hit over the weekend, but President Ferdinand Marcos said Monday it “wasn’t as bad as we feared.” Packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 185 kilometers an hour, Man-yi slammed into Catanduanes island late Saturday, and the main island of Luzon on Sunday afternoon. It uprooted trees, brought down power lines, crushed wooden houses and triggered landslides, but did not cause serious flooding. “Though Pepito was strong, the impact wasn’t as bad as we feared,” Marcos said, according to an official transcript of his remarks to media, using the local name for Man-yi. One person was killed in Camarines Norte province, which Marcos said was “one casualty too many.” Police said the victim, a 79-year-old man, died after his motorbike was caught in a power line. There have been no other reports so far of deaths or injuries. “We will now carry on with the rescue of those (in) isolated areas and the continuing relief for those who are, who have been displaced and have no means to prepare their own meals and have no water supplies,” Marcos said. Power outages across the island province of Catanduanes could last for months after Man-yi toppled electricity poles, provincial information officer Camille Gianan told AFP. “Catanduanes has been heavily damaged by that typhoon — we need food packs, hygiene kits and construction materials,” Gianan said. “Most houses with light materials were flattened while some houses made of concrete had their roofs, doors and windows destroyed.” In the coastal town of Baler in Aurora province, clean-up operations were underway to remove felled trees and debris blocking roads and waterways. “Most of the houses here are made of light materials so even now, before the inspection, we are expecting heavy damage on many houses in town,” disaster officer Neil Rojo told AFP. “We’ve also received reports of roofs that went flying with the wind last night... it was the fierce wind that got us scared, not exactly the heavy rains.” Storm weakens Man-yi weakened significantly as it traversed the mountains of Luzon and was downgraded to a severe tropical storm as it swept over the South China Sea toward Vietnam on Monday. More than a million people in the Philippines fled their homes ahead of the storm, which followed an unusual streak of violent weather. Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts. At least 163 people in the Philippines died in the past month’s storms, which left thousands homeless and wiped out crops and livestock. About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window. Man-yi also hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season — most cyclones develop between July and October. This month, four storms were clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin, which the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP was the first time such an occurrence had been observed in November since its records began in 1951.
Texas offers Trump land on US-Mexico border for potential mass deportations
Updated 8 min 28 sec ago
AP
McALLEN, Texas: Texas is offering a parcel of rural ranchland along the US-Mexico border to use as a staging area for potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump.
The property, which Texas originally purchased last month, is located in rural Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley. Republican Dawn Buckingham, the Texas Land Commissioner, sent a letter Nov. 14 to Trump extending the offer.
“We do hear through back channels that they are taking a look at it and considering it. But we just want them to know we’re a good partner. We’re here. We want to be helpful,” Buckingham told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
The property has no paved roads and sits in a county with one public hospital and limited local resources. But Buckingham stressed its location.
“We feel like this is actually very well-located. The land is very flat there. It’s adjacent to major airports. It’s also adjacent to a bridge over the river,” Buckingham said. “So if it’s helpful, then I would love to partner up with the federal government. And if it’s not, then we’ll continue to look to ways to be helpful to them.”
The land offer is the latest illustration of a sharp divide between states and local governments on whether to support or resist Trump’s plans for mass deportations of migrants living in the US illegally. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to become a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities to carry out deportations.
Texas leaders have long backed aggressive measures on the border to curb crossings, including installing razor-wire barriers and passing a law last year that would allow law enforcement to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally.
“By offering this newly-acquired 1400-acre property to the incoming Trump Administration for the construction of a facility for the processing, detention, and coordination of what will be the largest deportation of violent criminals in our nation’s history, I stand united with President Donald Trump to ensure American families are protected,” Buckingham said in an earlier statement.
Trump has said he plans to begin his deportation efforts on the first day of his presidency. He frequently attacked illegal immigration during his campaign, linking a record spike in unauthorized border crossings to issues ranging from drug trafficking to high housing prices.
There are an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally. Questions remain about how people would be identified and where they would be detained.
The president-elect’s transition team did not say whether they would accept Texas’ offer but sent a statement.
“On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history,” Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokeswoman for Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, said Wednesday.
The Texas General Land Office did not disclose the amount paid for the land, but Buckingham stated the previous owner resisted the creation of a border wall.
A 1.5-mile (2.4 kilometer) stretch of border wall was built under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 on that land. Buckingham said with the recent purchase, the state has created another easement for more border wall construction.
Haiti blasts Macron’s criticism of transition council as ‘unfriendly and inappropriate’
Updated 4 min 8 sec ago
Reuters
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s foreign minister met with the French ambassador to the nation on Thursday over what the ministry branded as “unfriendly and inappropriate” comments from French President Emmanuel Macron as he left the G20 summit in Brazil.
Macron had on Wednesday called the decision of the Caribbean country’s transitional presidential council to oust the prime minister earlier this month amid an escalation in gang warfare as “completely dumb.”
“Honestly, it is Haitians who killed Haiti by letting in drug trafficking,” Macron was filmed saying in Brazil, before hailing ex-Prime Minister Garry Conille, who was ousted amid divisions with the council, as a great leader.
“They are completely dumb, they should never have fired him,” he said.
His remarks sparked outrage in Haiti, a former French colony. After Haiti freed itself from slavery and declared independence in 1804, it paid France a “debt” for lost property — including slaves — over more than a century that some activists say amounted to over $100 billion.
Activists are seeking French reparations for the debt, which many blame for Haiti’s economic and political turmoil.
Speaking in Chile on Thursday, Macron vowed that “France will never turn its face from a crisis... There will never be a double standard in face of tragedy, be it in Haiti, Venezuela, or at the gates of Europe.”
France has pledged 4 million euros ($4.2 million) to a UN fund financing a deeply under-resourced security mission mandated to help restore security in Haiti, as well as funding for French and Creole classes for its troops.
Haiti’s foreign ministry said that in the meeting French Ambassador Antoine Michon promised France would stay by Haiti’s side to help restore security and carry out elections.
NATO says new Russian missile will not alter course of Ukraine war
Updated 22 November 2024
AFP
BRUSSELS: The experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile Russia fired at Ukraine will not affect the course of the war nor NATO’s backing for Kyiv, a spokesperson for the US-led defense alliance said on Thursday.
“Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter NATO Allies from supporting Ukraine,” said spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah, calling the launch “yet another example of Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian cities.”
Putin hints at strikes on West in ‘global’ Ukraine war
Warns of retaliation after Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory
Putin spoke after Russia test-fired a new generation intermediate-range missile at Ukraine, hinting that was capable of unleashing a nuclear payload
Washington saw no need to modify the United States’ own nuclear posture in response, says White House spokesperson
Updated 49 min 36 sec ago
AFP
DNIPRO, Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the conflict in Ukraine had characteristics of a “global” war and did not rule out strikes on Western countries.
The Kremlin strongman spoke out after a day of frayed nerves, with Russia test-firing a new generation intermediate-range missile at Ukraine — which Putin hinted was capable of unleashing a nuclear payload.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky branded the strike a major ramping up of the “scale and brutality” of the war by a “crazy neighbor,” while Kyiv’s main backer the United States said that Russia was to blame for escalating the conflict “at every turn.”
Intermediate-range missiles typically have a reach of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) — enough to make good on Putin’s threat of striking the West.
In a defiant address to the nation, Russia’s president railed at Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory, warning of retaliation.
In recent days Ukraine has fired US and UK-supplied missiles at Russian territory for the first time, escalating already sky-high tensions in the brutal nearly three-year-long conflict.
“We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities,” Putin said.
He said the US-sent Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and British Storm Shadow payloads were shot down by Moscow’s air defenses, adding: “The goals that the enemy obviously set were not achieved.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did, however, say Moscow informed Washington of the missile’s launch half an hour before it was fired through an automatic nuclear de-escalation hotline, in remarks cited in state media.
He earlier said Russia was doing everything to avoid an atomic conflict, having updated its nuclear doctrine this week.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Washington saw no need to modify the United States’ own nuclear posture in response.
Ukraine had earlier accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time in history — a claim later downplayed by Washington.
The Ukrainian air force said Moscow had launched the missile as part of a barrage toward Dnipro, where local authorities said an infrastructure facility was hit and two civilians were wounded.
Putin said that Russia had carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian... missile systems” named “Oreshnik.”
Criticizing the global response to the strike — “final proof that Russia definitely does not want peace” — Zelensky warned that other countries could become targets for Putin too.
“It is necessary to urge Russia to a true peace, which is possible only through force,” the Ukrainian leader said in his evening address.
“Otherwise, there will be relentless Russian strikes, threats and destabilization, and not only against Ukraine.”
The attack on Dnipro comes just days after several foreign embassies shuttered temporarily in the Ukrainian capital, citing the threat of a large-scale strike.
“It is another example of reckless behavior from Russia,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.
The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said the new missile’s deployment was “another concerning and worrying development,” warning the war was “going in the wrong direction.”
Yet a US official played down the threat, saying on condition of anonymity that Russia “likely possesses only a handful of these” experimental missiles.
The head of the Dnipropetrovsk region where the city of Dnipro is located said the Russian aerial bombardment damaged a rehabilitation center and several homes, as well as an industrial enterprise.
“Two people were wounded — a 57-year-old man was treated on the scene and a 42-year-old woman was hospitalized,” said the official, Sergiy Lysak.
Russia and Ukraine have escalated their use of long-range missiles in recent days since Washington gave Kyiv permission to use its ATACMS against military targets inside Russia — a long-standing Ukrainian request.
British media meanwhile reported on Wednesday that Kyiv had launched UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Russia after being given the green light from London.
With ranges of 300 and 250 kilometers respectively, both missile systems’ reach is far dwarfed by the experimental intermediate-range system fired by Russia.
Russia’s envoy to London on Thursday said that meant Britain was “now directly involved” in the Ukraine war, with Andrei Kelin telling Sky News “this firing cannot happen” without UK and NATO support.
But the White House’s Jean-Pierre countered that it was Russia who was behind the rising tensions, pointing to the reported deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to help Moscow fight off a Ukrainian offensive in Russia’s border Kursk region.
“The escalation at every turn is coming from Russia,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that the United States had warned Moscow against involving “another country in another part of the world” — referring to Pyongyang.
The defense ministry in Moscow said Thursday its air-defense systems had downed two Storm Shadows, without saying whether they had come down on Russian territory or in occupied Ukraine.
Air-launched long-range Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missile, manufactured by MBDA, on displat at the 54th International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, on June 20, 2023. (REUTERS/File Photo)
The missile escalation is coming at a critical moment on the ground for Ukraine, as its defenses buckle under Russian pressure across the sprawling front line.
Russia claimed deeper advances in the war-battered Donetsk region, announcing on Thursday that its forces had captured another village close to Kurakhove, closing in on the town after months of steady advances.
Moscow’s defense ministry said Russian forces had taken the small village of Dalne, five kilometers (three miles) south of Kurakhove.
Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said that 26 people had been wounded in another strike on the town of Kryvyi Rig, where Zelensky was born.
