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Maritime ports asked to lower cautionary signal
Maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Mongla and Payra have been advised to lower the cautionary signal as squally weather is unlikely over the ports, the weather department said on Thursday.
Squally weather is also unlikely over the North Bay and adjoining coastal areas of Bangladesh. However, all fishing boats and trawlers over in the North Bay and the deep sea have been advised to proceed with caution till further notice.
Read:Maritime ports asked to hoist cautionary signal 3
On Wednesday, the met office advised the country’s maritime ports to hoist local cautionary signal three to alert vessels of a possible squall as a deep convection was taking place over the North Bay.
Deep convection refers to the thermally driven turbulent mixing that moves air parcels from the lower to the upper atmosphere.
Brace for monsoon showers!
The weather department has predicted showers across Bangladesh in the next 24 hours, with monsoon being fairly active over the country and moderate to strong elsewhere over the North Bay.
“Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty winds is likely to occur at many places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions and at a few places over Dhaka, Khulna and Barishal divisions with moderately heavy to heavy falls at places over the country,” the department said in its bulletin on Thursday morning.
Day and night temperatures may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
Read:Monsoon showers likely in parts of country
Rainfall activity may continue for the next two days, it added.
The weather office recorded the highest rainfall at 109mm in Cox’s Bazar in 24 hours till 6am on Thursday.
The highest temperature was recorded at 35.2 degrees Celsius in Ishwardi of Rajshahi division, while the lowest temperature was recorded at 25 degrees in Sitakunda of Chattogram division.
The monsoon trough runs through Panjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal to Assam across central parts of Bangladesh, as per the bulletin.
One of its associated troughs extends up to the Northeast Bay, it added.
Dhaka's air quality remains 'unhealthy'
Dhaka's air quality remains 'unhealthy for sensitive groups'.
With an air quality index (AQI) score of 152 around 8.22am on Thursday, the metropolis ranked third in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.
Kuwait’s Kuwait City and Indonesia’s Jakarta occupied the first two spots, with AQI scores of 160 and 155, respectively.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups.
Similarly, an AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
Read: Global Covid cases top 584 million
AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, is used by government agencies to inform people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.
Global Covid cases top 585 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now surged past 585 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 585,143,027 and the death toll reached 6,426,600 on Thursday morning.
The US has recorded 93,593,214 cases so far and 1,057,239 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
Also read: Covid forces suspension of production at Barapukuria Coal Mine for 15 more days
India reported 17,135 new cases of Covid-19 during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 44,067,144 in the country, according to federal health ministry data released on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday's new cases marked an increase after showing a declining trend in the new cases for two straight days.
With the reporting of fresh cases, India's active caseload currently stands at 137,057.
The country also logged 47 related deaths during the past 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll to 526,477 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.
Covid in Bangladesh
Three more persons died from Covid and 375 tested positive for the virus in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Wednesday.
The country's total fatalities and caseload reached 29,298 and 2,006,368, respectively, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily case positivity rate dropped to 6.53% from Tuesday's 7.72% as 5,785 samples were tested.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.46%. The recovery rate rose to 96.95% from Tuesday's 96.92%.
'National Conference on Mental Health Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking' held
The "National Conference on Mental Health Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking" was held in Dhaka Wednesday.
Winrock International organised the conference in collaboration with the Department of Clinical Psychology of the University of Dhaka.
Representatives from the National Trauma Counselling Center, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the Embassy of Switzerland in Dhaka, mental health professionals, UN bodies, INGOs, and NGOs, and mental health caregivers, supported by the Ashshash project, were present.
Ashshash works in partnership with public and private-sector service providers to deliver counselling, legal services and economic empowerment support to men and women who have escaped trafficking. The four-year project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by Winrock International.
Mental health caregivers shared their experiences on capacity-development initiatives that created increased access to mental health services at grassroots levels.
The importance of psychosocial support in improving the quality of life of the survivors, ensuring their overall wellbeing, and enabling self-reliance, was also highlighted throughout the session.
Ashshash's beneficiaries – the survivors, exhibited the direct result of the project's psychosocial counselling support; towards forging mental resilience and enabling their successful journeys toward reintegration.
Kamal UA Chowdhury, professor of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Dhaka, highlighted the overall context of provisioning psychosocial counselling support at grassroots levels, the associated challenges, and potential scopes of intervention through collaborative efforts, moderation of existing resources, and capacity development of mental health caregivers at grassroots levels.
Read: Government increased its efforts to prevent trafficking
Mohammad Shaheen, joint secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, endorsed the ongoing work of the project and stated that in the future, he envisions institutionalising mental healthcare service provision.
Dr Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder, director of NIMH, said: "We operate institutionally and projects such as Ashshash works at grassroots levels. This gap must be bridged to ensure the effective provision of counselling services."
Suzanne Mueller, deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Switzerland, said several ministries, governmental agencies, NGOs, and INGOs are working to deliver the care and support needed by the victims.
"However, we need to come up with a comprehensive referral structure by integrating all the service providers under a singular standard operating procedure," she added.
3 held over snatching of JnU student Parisha's phone
Police Tuesday arrested three members of a ring, dealing in stolen mobiles, from Dhaka's Karwan Bazar for their involvement in the snatching of the mobile phone of Jagannath University (JnU) student Parisha Akhtar.
The accused are Md Ripon alias Akash, Md Shafiq and a juvenile whose name has not been released.
On July 21, a youth snatched the phone of Parisha, a student of zoology at JnU, while she was on a bus in Karwan Bazar, Rubaiyat Zaman, additional deputy commissioner Of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Tejgaon Zone, said Wednesday.
However, Parisha quickly got off the bus and caught a suspect and she also beat him up. Her friends caught another suspect.
Read: 6 ‘robbers’ held in city
The bravery of Parisha and her friends took social media by storm.
A general diary was registered with the police and a case was also filed in connection with the incident, the ADC said.
After checking CCTV footage, Tejgaon Police arrested a juvenile from Karwan Bazar. He initially said he did nothing. However, the juvenile later admitted his involvement and named another person called Ripon alias Akash.
"During interrogation, Ripon also admitted his involvement. He sold Parisha's phone to Md Shafiq, who buys stolen handsets, for Tk4,000. Shafiq was arrested along with the stolen phone from Karwan Bazar Tuesday," the ADC said.
Freelancing training can make underprivileged women skilled, self-reliant: Study
Online freelancing training can have a significant positive impact on the employment and income of underprivileged women, according to a study by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD).
However, success in freelancing may be hindered by steep competition in the online marketplace, the resultant loss of confidence, and time constraints in learning and building their portfolio due to household responsibilities.
Findings from the study were disseminated at a workshop held Wednesday in Dhaka. The workshop brought together government officials, trainees and implementers to discuss the ways forward to develop an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem for women freelancers in Bangladesh.
The mixed-method study evaluated the impact of a freelancing training programme, conducted by Coders Trust Bangladesh (CTBD), which targeted women aged between 18 to 35 years.
The programme "Women’s Skills Development for Freelancing Marketplaces" aims to develop 1,000 young underprivileged women into freelancers by providing them free training on different ICT-related skills and building their confidence through post-training technical mentorship and career advising support.
Women who received the training had a 28 percent higher employment rate, and a 53 percent increase in monthly income from both freelancing and non-freelancing sources, compared to women in the control group who did not receive the training.
Read: The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in the Freelancing Industry: Can You Sustain?
However, constraints such as lack of family support, access to digital devices and connectivity, language barriers, and lack of time drove many women to drop out of the training programme.
Dr Imran Matin, executive director of BIGD, said: "Youth unemployment is a ticking time bomb for Bangladesh; we must address it with urgency."
Ataul Gani Osmani, Country Director, CTBD said, "If you want to earn online, you must learn online."
However, Lopita Huq, research fellow at BIGD, said: "We have to weigh the pros and cons before involving women in online freelancing in Bangladesh."
Energy sector requires an effective national policy: Speakers
Speakers at a discussion on Wednesday stressed the need for formulation of an effective national policy and framing the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) in line with the policy in order to ensure good governance in the power and energy sector.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan (BAPA) jointly organized the discussion titled “Challenge for Good Governance in Coal and LNG Power Projects in Bangladesh: What to Do for Ensuring Integrity in IEPMP formulation” in the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, said a press release.
Read: TIB for formation of neutral commission for banking sector reform
The speakers said the policy framework of the country’s energy sector is largely held hostage to investors and donors concerned due to the implementation of its plans and projects depends on donors, local and foreign investors in many cases.
Due to legal weakness, policy framework and lack of transparency, the use of fossil fuels is harming the country and its people. But no significant steps are seen to control it despite of the government's commitment in the field of renewable energy, they said.
The speakers said it’s necessary to formulate an effective national policy and IEPMP in light of the policy to ensure good governance in the power and energy sector.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, Forest and Climate Changes Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP spoke at the function as the chief guest, while TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman delivered the welcome speech.
Director General of Power Cell under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Engineer Mohammad Hossain, Honorary Professor of Geology Department at Dhaka University Badrul Imam,
Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Research Director of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Khandaker Golam Moazzem, Dean of the Engineering Faculty at Daffodil University Professor Shamsul Alam also spoke in the panel discussion moderated by BAPA general secretary Sharif Jamil.
PM mourns death of AL leader Abu Saleh
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday expressed deep shock and sorrow at the death of former Gano Parishad Member, former general secretary of Chattogram South unit of Awami League and valiant Freedom Fighter M Abu Saleh.
Read: PM mourns death of ex-MP Abbas Ali
“The senior Awami League leader in his student life discharged his duties as the president of Chattogram district unit of Chhatra League and he will be remembered and followed by the present and future generations,” she said.
The Prime Minister prayed for the eternal salvation of the departed soul and expressed sympathy to the bereaved family.
Scope for politics gets limited: GM Quader
Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Wednesday bemoaned that the atmosphere for doing politics in Bangladesh has now become limited.
“There’s no politics in the country… the people’s freedom of expression has also been squeezed. It is a great threat to democratic practice,” he said.
GM Quader, also the deputy opposition leader in parliament, was speaking at a meeting with ex-leaders of Chhatra Samaj at the Jatiya Party Chairman’s Banani office.
He said their party has been working for establishing people's freedom of speech and the freedom of individuals. “We are doing politics to ensure the voting rights of the mass people.”
Read: Bangladesh can become bankrupt due to debt liability: GM Quader
Stating that people’s right to elect the representatives of their choice through elections has been snatched, the Jatiya Party chief said their party will carry out a movement to establish the rights of all people.
Former student leaders M Helal Uddin, Anwar Hossain Tomar, Humayun Khan, Delwar Hossain Khan Milon, Faisal Didar Dipu, Jatiya Party central executive committee member Shamim Ahmed Rajib, AKM Sajjad Parvez, Rezaur Razi Swapan Chowdhury and Rakib Khan, among others, were present at the meeting