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US Tells Israel that Escalations in Middle East Serve No One

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Archive-Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Archive-Reuters)
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US Tells Israel that Escalations in Middle East Serve No One

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Archive-Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Archive-Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call on Friday that the escalation of tensions in the Middle East was "in no party's interest" while also stressing the need for a Gaza ceasefire, the State Department said.
There has been an increased risk of escalation into a broader Middle East war after recent killings of Palestinian group Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut drew threats of retaliation against Israel.
As a result, many fear a widening of Israel's war in Gaza that has already killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Reuters said.
"The Secretary reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to Israel's security and discussed how escalation is in no party's interest," the State Department said in a statement.
Blinken stressed the "urgent need to reach a ceasefire in Gaza" that could release hostages held in the enclave and "create the conditions for broader regional stability," the State Department added.
A day earlier, Gallant spoke to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the situation in the region.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel's military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide accusations that Israel denies.
President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal in an address on May 31. Washington and regional mediators have since tried arranging the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal but have consistently run into obstacles.

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Bangladesh’s Yunus Hails Slain Student in Appeal for Unity

A man carries a basket of vegetables at a market in Dhaka on August 10, 2024. (AFP)
A man carries a basket of vegetables at a market in Dhaka on August 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh’s Yunus Hails Slain Student in Appeal for Unity

A man carries a basket of vegetables at a market in Dhaka on August 10, 2024. (AFP)
A man carries a basket of vegetables at a market in Dhaka on August 10, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for religious unity Saturday as he embraced the weeping mother of a student shot dead by police, a flashpoint in mass protests that ended Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule.

Nobel laureate Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to helm a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms.

"Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh," he told reporters.

Several reprisal attacks against the country's Hindu minority since autocratic ex-premier Hasina's toppling have caused alarm in neighboring India as well as fear at home.

"Don't differentiate by religion", he said.

Yunus called for calm during a visit to the northern city of Rangpur by invoking the memory of Abu Sayeed, the first student slain during last month's unrest.

"Abu Sayeed is now in every home. The way he stood, we have to do the same," he added. "There are no differences in Abu Sayeed's Bangladesh."

Sayeed, 25, was shot dead by police at close range on July 16 at the start of a police crackdown on student-led protests against Hasina's government.

His mother sobbed as she clung to a visibly emotional Yunus, who had come to pay his respects alongside members of the "advisory" cabinet now administering the country.

Fellow cabinet member Nahid Islam, a 26-year-old sociology graduate who led the protests that culminated in Hasina's ouster, wept by the leader's side.

- Allies purged -

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighboring India on Monday as protesters flooded Dhaka's streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

Cabinet ministers left blindsided by her sudden fall have gone to ground, while several top appointees have been forced out of office -- including the national police chief and the central bank governor.

On Saturday, the chief justice of the Supreme Court became the latest to announce his departure, with private broadcaster Jamuna TV reporting he had agreed "in principle" to resign.

Appointed last year, Obaidul Hassan oversaw a much-criticized war crimes tribunal that ordered the execution of Hasina's opponents, and his brother was her longtime secretary.

His announcement came after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court to demand he step down by the early afternoon.

"No one should do anything that pits the Supreme Court against the mass uprising of the students and the people," Asif Nazrul, a student protest leader now serving in Yunus' government, told reporters.

Hasina's flight has heightened rancor towards India, which played a decisive military role in securing Bangladesh's independence, but also backed her to the hilt.

More than 450 people were killed in the unrest leading up to Hasina's departure, including dozens of police officers killed during clampdowns on demonstrations.

The caretaker administration Yunus helms has said that restoration of law and order is its "first priority".

Complicating its efforts is a strike declared Tuesday by the police union, saying its members would not return to work until their safety was assured.

Bangladesh's police force said more than half of the country's police stations had reopened by Saturday.

The buildings are being guarded by soldiers from the army, an institution held in higher public regard than the police for opting not to forcibly quell the protests.

Two attempted jailbreaks were staged at prisons north of the capital Dhaka this week, with more than 200 inmates fleeing one facility.

Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.

He took office Thursday as "chief advisor" to a caretaker administration, comprised of fellow civilians bar one retired brigadier-general, and has said he wants to hold elections "within a few months".