DHAKA: Leaders of Bangladesh’s student protests said on Tuesday economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus should lead an interim government following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the dissolution of parliament.
Hasina resigned and fled to neighboring India on Monday, forced out by weeks of student-led rallies. The protests started peacefully in early July but soon turned violent as security forces clashed with demonstrators, leaving 300 people dead.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved the parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for the new temporary administration that will preside over new elections.
“The date of the new election will be decided by the new government. The government will be formed, and then they will take the decision how and when they will conduct the election,” Joynal Abedin, press secretary of the president, told Arab News.
“The process is underway.”
Student protests broke out across the country against a rule that reserved a bulk of government jobs for the descendants of those who fought in the country’s 1971 liberation war.
After the deadly clashes and a week-long communications blackout, the Supreme Court eventually scrapped most of the quotas, but the ruling was followed by a crackdown on protesters.
The arrests of 11,000 participants of the rallies, mostly students, triggered new demonstrations last week, which culminated in a civil disobedience movement. Bangladesh’s military chief, Waker-Uz-Zaman, assumed control on Monday and announced Hasina’s resignation.
Student leaders, who have repeatedly said they would not accept military rule, published a video message on Facebook on Tuesday morning, saying that “no government other than the one proposed by the students will be accepted.”
Nahid Islam, coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organizing group, named the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim administration.
Flanked by two other student leaders, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder, Islam said they had already spoken with Yunus and “he agreed to take this important responsibility to protect Bangladesh on the request of the students.”
Yunus, 84, is an economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, who introduced microloans to help poor people establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.
Since its establishment in 1983, the bank has advanced to the forefront of a world movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending, and its replicas were launched in more than 100 countries.
In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to “create economic and social development from below.”
Lamiya Morshed, Yunus’s spokesperson and executive director of his think tank Yunus Centre in Dhaka, confirmed to the local media that he had “agreed to the proposal of the students.”
Bangladesh awaits installation of interim government after weeks of strife
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus expected to be sworn in as chief adviser along with a team of advisers later on Thursday
Sheikh Hasina’s dramatic exit on Monday triggered jubilation and violence across Bangladesh
Updated 7 sec ago
Reuters
DHAKA: Bangladesh is set to get a new, interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus on Thursday, after weeks of tumultuous student protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India. Yunus, 84, Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate and a harsh critic of Hasina, was recommended for the job by the student protesters who led the campaign against Hasina. He was expected to be sworn in as chief adviser along with a team of advisers later on Thursday in an interim government which the army chief said may include 15 members, although discussions on the names continued till late on Wednesday. Hasina’s Awami League party was not involved in all-party discussions led by army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who announced Hasina’s resignation on Monday. Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said in a Facebook post late on Wednesday that the party had not given up yet and was ready to hold talks with opponents and the administration. “I had said my family will no longer be involved in politics but the way our party leaders and workers are being attacked, we cannot give up,” Joy said. Yunus is known as the ‘banker to the poor’ and was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that pioneered fighting poverty with small loans to needy borrowers. He is due to arrive in the capital Dhaka from Paris on Thursday, where he had been receiving medical treatment. “I’m looking forward to going back home and see what’s happening there and how we can organize ourselves to get out of the trouble that we’re in,” Yunus said before he boarded a flight on Wednesday evening. Hasina’s dramatic exit on Monday from the country she ruled for four terms — and was reelected to a fifth in January — triggered jubilation and violence across Bangladesh, as crowds stormed and ransacked her official residence unopposed. She fled to neighboring India where she is taking shelter at an air base near the capital New Delhi. Student protests against quotas for government jobs spiralled in July, killing about 300 people and injuring thousands, as demonstrations were met with a violent crackdown that was criticized internationally although the government denied using excessive force. The protests were fueled by tough economic conditions and political repression as well. After years of strong growth as the garment industry expanded, the $450 billion economy struggled with costly imports, inflation and unemployment and the government had sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Yunus and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Hasina’s main political opponent, called for calm and an end to violence on Wednesday. “No destruction, revenge or vengeance,” said Hasina’s arch rival and BNP leader Khaleda Zia, 78, in a video address from her hospital bed to hundreds of her supporters at a rally in Dhaka on Wednesday. Zia, who was released from house arrest on Tuesday, and her exiled son Tarique Rahman, addressed the rally and called for national elections to be held within three months. On Wednesday, a court overturned Yunus’ conviction in a labor case in which he was handed a six-month jail sentence in January. Yunus had called his prosecution political, part of a campaign by Hasina to quash dissent. “Let us make the best use of our new victory,” Yunus said.
Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Walz in 2020 for response to unrest over Floyd’s murder, audio shows
“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and other governors and officials in a phone call on June 1, 2020
Protests erupted in Minneapolis and around the world after Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white former officer who knelt on the Black man’s neck on May 25, 2020
Updated 08 August 2024
AP
MINNEAPOLIS: While former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance have been hammering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his response to the violence that erupted after George Floyd’s murder, Trump told the governor at the time that he fully agreed with how Walz handled it.
“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and other governors and officials in a phone call on June 1, 2020. The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained an audio recording of the call, which has taken on new significance now that Walz has been tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate against Trump and Vance.
Other administration officials on the call included Defense Secretary Mark Esper; Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Attorney General William Barr.
ABC News reported on the call earlier Wednesday, a day after Harris introduced Walz as her vice presidential pick. CNN posted a transcript of the call back in 2020.
George Floyd died after being restrained by police in Minneapolis. (AFP/File)
Protests erupted in Minneapolis and around the world after Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white former officer who knelt on the Black man’s neck for nearly 9 1/2 minutes, on May 25, 2020. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism. Some of the protests turned violent.
Walz mobilized the Minnesota National Guard three days later to help restore order to Minneapolis after rioting that included the burning of a police station and numerous businesses. Trump offered federal help to Walz later that day, but the governor did not take him up on it.
During a May 2024 fundraiser in St. Paul, Trump repeated a claim he had been making lately that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard. “The entire city was burning down. ... If you didn’t have me as president, you wouldn’t have Minneapolis today,” Trump told a Republican audience. Trump made similar claims at a rally in St. Cloud last month.
It was actually Walz who gave the mobilization order in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Although Walz came under criticism at the time for not moving faster. There was finger-pointing between Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Walz on who bore responsibility for the delays.
Trump, in the June 1, 2020, call, described Walz as “an excellent guy” and later said: “I don’t blame you. I blame the mayor.” The president didn’t criticize the governor at the time.
“Tim, you called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast, it was like bowling pins,” Trump said.
But Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt put a different spin on the call in a statement to the AP on Wednesday.
“Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” Leavitt said. “In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”
Walz did thank Trump on the call, as well as Esper and Milley, “for your strategic guidance, very helpful. ... Yeah, our city is grieving and in pain.”
Hunter Biden was hired by Romanian businessman trying to ‘influence’ US agencies, prosecutors say
Hunter Biden’s trial set to begin next month in Los Angeles centers on charges that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years during a period in which he has acknowledged struggling with a drug addiction
Updated 08 August 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian businessman accused of corruption who was trying to “influence US government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president, prosecutors said in court papers Wednesday.
Special counsel David Weiss said Hunter Biden’s business associate will testify at the upcoming federal tax trial of the president’s son about the arrangement with the executive, Gabriel Popoviciu, who was facing criminal investigation at the time in Romania.
The allegations are likely to bring a fresh wave of criticism of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which have been the center of Republicans’ investigations into the president’s family. Hunter Biden has blasted Republican inquiries into his family’s business affairs as politically motivated, and has insisted he never involved his father in his business.
An attorney for Hunter Biden didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Prosecutors plan to introduce evidence that Hunter Biden and his business associate “received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence US policy and public opinion,” according to the filing. Popoviciu wanted US government agencies to probe the Romanian bribery investigation he was facing in the hopes that would end his legal trouble, according to prosecutors.
Popoviciu is identified only in court papers as G.P., but the details line up with information released in the congressional investigation and media reporting about Hunter Biden’s legal work in Romania. Popoviciu was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of real estate fraud. He denied any wrongdoing. An attorney who previously represented Popoviciu didn’t immediately respond to a phone message Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Hunter Biden agreed with his business associate to help Popoviciu fight the criminal charges against him. But prosecutors say they were concerned that “lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so the arrangement was structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work” for Popoviciu, prosecutors allege.
Hunter Biden’s business associate and Popoviciu signed an agreement to make it look like Popoviciu’s payments were for “management services to real estate prosperities in Romania.” However, prosecutors said, “That was not actually what G.P. was paying for.”
In fact, Popoviciu and Hunter’s business associate agreed that they would be paid for their work to “attempt to influence US government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation,” prosecutors said. Hunter Biden’s business associate was paid more than $3 million, which was split with Hunter and another business partner, prosecutors say.
The claims were made in court papers as prosecutors responded to a request by Hunter Biden’s legal team to bar from his upcoming trial any reference to allegations of improper political influence that have dogged the president’s son for years. While Republicans’ investigation has raised ethical questions, no evidence has emerged that the president acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or his previous office as vice president.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have said in court papers that he has been “the target of politically motivated attacks and conspiracy theories” about his foreign business dealings. But they noted he “has never been charged with any crime relating to these unfounded allegations, and the Special Counsel should thus be precluded from even raising such issues at trial.”
Hunter Biden’s trial set to begin next month in Los Angeles centers on charges that he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years during a period in which he has acknowledged struggling with a drug addiction.
Prosecutors say they won’t introduce any evidence that Hunter Biden was directly paid by a foreign government “or evidence that the defendant received compensation for actions taken by his father that impacted national or international politics.”
Still, prosecutors say what Hunter Biden agreed to do for Popoviciu is relevant at trial because it “demonstrates his state and mind and intent” during the years he’s accused of failing to pay his taxes.
“It is also evidence that the defendant’s actions do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence US public policy and receive millions of dollars” in the agreement with his business associate, prosecutors wrote.
The tax trial comes months after Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony charges over the purchase of a gun in 2018. Prosecutors argued that the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
He could face up to 25 years in prison at sentencing set for Nov. 13 in Wilmington, Delaware, but as a first-time offender he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.
Arab American community, key unions encouraged by Harris’ choice of Walz as runningmate
Democratic enthusiasm has surged since VP Harris announced her candidacy and picked Walz as her running mate
“Picking Walz is another sign of good faith,” says Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan
Updated 08 August 2024
AP
EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin: Leaders of the Arab American community and key unions in America’s Midwest on Wednesday said Vice President Kamala Harris made the right choice in picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as his running mate in the November elections.
Some Democratic Party leaders in Michigan had grown concerned that choosing the wrong running mate could slow the momentum and fracture a coalition that has only recently started to unify following President Joe Biden’s momentous decision to drop out of the race and give way to Harris.
Walz’s addition to the ticket has soothed some tensions, signaling to some leaders that Harris had heard concerns about another leading contender for the vice presidential slot, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt had gone too far in his support for Israel.
“The party is recognizing that there’s a coalition they have to rebuild,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “Picking Walz is another sign of good faith.”
Harris and Walz on Wednesday spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest, where they got an unusual glimpse of how hotly contested the region will be when they overlapped on a Wisconsin tarmac with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to shore up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.
Harris told the day’s first rally in Eau Claire, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.” Contributing to that feeling, the Harris campaign said it had raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after she announced Walz as her running mate.
The vice president said the pair look on the future with optimism, unlike former President Donald Trump whom she accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a confrontational style of politics — even as she criticized her opponent herself.
“Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the chance to sit behind the seal of the United States,” Harris said, her voice rising amid applause from a crowd her campaign said numbered more than 12,000.
Wednesday’s campaign swing was especially important for her and Walz since Biden’s winning coalition from four years ago has showed signs of fraying over the summer — particularly in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of Democratic divisions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Addressing the Democrats’ Wisconsin rally ahead of Harris, Walz had some critical words for Vance but trained most of his sharpest words on Trump, saying the former president “mocks our laws, he sows chaos and division among the people and that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president.”
Republicans are trying to portray Harris and Walz as too liberal for the Midwest, with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, saying on a conference call that Walz is “part of the radical, crazy left as is Vice President Harris.”
Surging enthusiasm
But Democratic enthusiasm has surged since Harris announced her candidacy and picked Walz as her running mate.
“We love Joe. Joe has been an incredible president, but he just isn’t the same messenger. And sometimes you need a better messenger,” said Dan Miller, from Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, who attended the Walz-Harris rally. “And that’s Kamala.”
The momentum could be pivotal in Detroit, which is nearly 80 percent Black, where leaders for months had warned administration officials that voter apathy could cost them in a city that’s typically a stronghold for their party.
Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit branch, said the excitement in the city now is “mind-blowing.” He likened it to Barack Obama’s first run for president in 2008, when voters waited in long lines to help elect the nation’s first Black president.
Some Democratic leaders in Michigan had grown concerned that choosing the wrong running mate could slow that momentum, however, and fracture a coalition that has only recently started to unify.
Arab American leaders, who hold significant influence in Michigan due to a large presence in metro Detroit, had been vocal in their opposition to Shapiro due to his past comments regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Those leaders specifically pointed to a comment he made earlier this year regarding protests on university campuses, which they felt unfairly compared the actions of student protesters to those of white supremacists. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining a staunch supporter of Israel.
Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader in Michigan’s large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week.
Although Perez was in the state on official business, he has maintained contact with some Dearborn leaders since he and other top officials traveled there with Biden in an effort to mend ties with the community.
Siblani said he met with Perez for over an hour on July 29 and told him that if Harris chose Shapiro, it would “shut down” future conversations.
“Not picking Shapiro is a very good step. It cracks the door open a little more for us,” said Siblani, who along with Hammoud emphasized that any meaningful conversations must include policy discussions.
Dueling schedules
Trump, too, has put emphasis on appealing to voters in Midwestern states with his choice of Vance an Ohio Republican senator, as his running mate. Vance was even bracketing the Harris-Walz ticket with Michigan and Wisconsin appearances of his own on Wednesday.
The dueling schedules overlapped enough that while Harris was still greeting a group of Girl Scouts who came to see her arrive at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Wisconsin, Vance’s campaign plane landed nearby and was taxiing in the distance.
Harris posed for a group picture with the girls around the same time Vance was deplaning, and he began walking over to Air Force Two, trailed by his security detail.
The vice president eventually climbed into her motorcade, and it pulled away before they could interact. Still, that the pair came so close to doing so on a tarmac was unusual given the carefully scripted nature of campaign schedules.
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance later told reporters, meaning that he’d travel on Air Force Two should he and Trump be elected in November. He also criticized Harris for not taking questions from reporters, though she sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving her plane for campaign stops.
Vance later told the crowd at his Eau Claire event, “We actually just saw the vice president’s plane” and then joked of reporters traveling with him, “I figured they must be lonely because Kamala Harris doesn’t take any questions.”
“If those people want to call me weird I call it a badge of honor,” Vance said, responding to a moniker Walz used to describe him that made the Minnesota governor notable online in the days before Harris tapped him as her running mate.
Anti-racism, pro-Palestinian protesters unite at London rally
There was no sign of the anti-migrant mobs that have rampaged through more than a dozen English towns and cities since early last week
Updated 08 August 2024
AFP
WALTHAMSTOW, Britain: As the advertised evening meet-up time for a rumored far-right rally approached in northeast London, a crowd of several thousand anti-racism and pro-Palestinian protesters let out a cheer and clapped.
There was no sign of the mobs that have rampaged through more than a dozen English towns and cities since early last week, clashing with police and targeting mosques and asylum-seeker accommodation.
Instead, with dozens of officers looking on, the crowd of “Stand Up To Racism” demonstrators were joined by hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters in a noisy, carnival-like rally opposed to the far right.
“I live in the borough and we don’t want these people on our streets... they don’t represent us,” Sara Tresilian, 58, told AFP as she joined the throngs in Walthamstow early Wednesday evening.
“You have to turn out to give that message... I think it’s important that you show up for your friends and neighbors.”
Maz, 40, who declined to give his last name, had come down with his Palestinian flag along with hundreds of other Muslims from the surrounding area.
“We’re local, we’re here for each other because these racists declared they were going to destroy our community,” he said. “So we’re here to keep the peace.”
Following postings on far-right social media channels to target an immigration support office in the ethnically diverse, working-class district, police had also flooded the area since early afternoon.
The same happened at several dozen other similar sites across the country where the far right had been expected, with counter-protesters also turning out there.
In Walthamstow, the crowds chanted “whose streets? Our streets!” and other slogans, holding banners saying “smash fascism & racism” and “racists not welcome here.”
Police officers stand on duty as people attend a counter-demonstration against an anti-immigration protest called by far-right activists in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on August 7, 2024. (AFP)
Several pro-Palestinian attendees held the Palestinian flag aloft, climbing atop bus stops and other vantage points.
“It’s good to see,” local restaurant owner Assad, who declined to give his last name, said of the collective turnout, from behind the counter of his Asian street food outlet.
“There was some concern,” he admitted regarding whether far-right agitators would show up.
“It’s one of those things you don’t expect in London.
“We’re a restaurant run by immigrants, Muslims as well. The silver lining is the community here is very strong,” he added.
Hours earlier, around the corner, a bakery store owner was closing early in case trouble erupted.
“It’s crazy,” he said of the recent riots, which followed a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, that killed three young girls.
Disinformation spread online wrongly blamed the stabbing spree on a Muslim asylum-seeker.
“I understand why they’re mad but this ain’t the way,” he said of protesters, who turned violent in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“Blaming a whole culture for the actions of one man — what they’re doing is wrong.
“What I just want is for them to do protests without attacking.”
Muhammed Noman, an immigrant from Pakistan to the UK 13 years ago and who now owns several cafes in northeast London, was handing out bottled water from outside one on Wednesday.
He was not planning to board up his store, as several neighboring businesses had done ahead of that evening’s gatherings.
“I came myself to look after the store,” he said, adding friends and family had told him to shutter the place temporarily.
Welcoming the heavy police presence, Noman added he wanted “peace” — in Walthamstow and across England.
