Tourist Police Chief Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Md Abu Kalam Siddique has said that incident in Bandarban will not have any impact on the tourist sector of Bangladesh.  He said the reporters after the inauguration of a zonal office in Jamgara area of Ashulia in Savar on Saturday (April 6). Tourist Police chief said, "Our joint forces are operating in the hill areas. Security measures have also been strengthened. These isolated incidents will not have any impact on the tourist sector of Bangladesh. We have taken adequate security measures on the occasion of Pahela Boishakh celebration."

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi, which has an ambitious goal of unseating iPhone maker Apple from the No 1 spot globally by 2024, has started laying off workers in multiple departments, according to social media posts by affected employees and local Chinese media reports. In China, lay-offs are often conducted in the name of “business optimisation” to avoid scrutiny by labour authorities. Lay-offs affecting more than 20 jobs must be referred to the government under China’s labour law. A Xiaomi representative said in a statement on Tuesday that the company has implemented “routine personnel optimisation and organisational streamlining” with “less than 10 per cent of the total workforce” affected. Xiaomi had 35,314 employees as of September 30, with more than 32,000 in mainland China, according to its third-quarter financial results. Xiaomi will cut jobs in several units of its smartphone and internet services business, according to a report by Chinese media outlet Jiemian, an online publication affiliated with Shanghai United Media Group. The report said laid-off workers were given redundancy packages, adding that the move may reduce Xiaomi’s payroll by about 15 per cent. The Beijing-based company began trimming workers this year amid weaker sales due to China’s Covid-19 lockdowns and slower consumer spending. The latest move could affect thousands of workers, many of whom have just joined the company during a hiring spree that began in December last year. China’s social media platforms, including Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Maimai, have been flooded with posts about the reported Xiaomi job cuts, injecting a fresh sense of anxiety over the future of China’s tech sector. The news comes just days after Xiaomi founder Lei Jun unveiled the company’s new flagship 13-series smartphones, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, despite weakness in the consumer electronics market due to a sluggish Chinese economy. In the third quarter, global smartphone shipments fell 9 per cent year on year to 297.8 million units, with shipments in China down 11 per cent to 70 million units in the same period, according to market research firm Canalys. China’s closely-monitored retails sales, a broader gauge of consumption, were down 5.9 per cent year on year in November. Consumer goods excluding cars declined by 6.1 per cent, an indicator of widespread consumption weakness in the world’s second-largest economy which ended draconian Covid-19 controls and lockdowns after angry protests across the country. Xiaomi, the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in the Chinese market with a 13 per cent market share in the September quarter, saw its revenue decline by 9.7 per cent year on year to 70.47 billion yuan (US$10.1 billion) in the three months ended September 30, while net profits dropped by 59.1 per cent to 2.21 billion yuan. 

India raised concern on Monday at the Security Council about the suspension of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain initiative, saying that this move is likely to further exacerbate the food security, fuel, and fertilizer supply challenges faced by the world. Indian diplomat R Madhu Sudan said the Black Sea Grain deal had provided a glimmer of hope for peace in Ukraine and helped contribute to lowering the prices of wheat and other commodities. "The initiative had resulted in export of more than nine million tonnes of grains and other food products out of Ukraine. We believe the exports had contributed to lowering prices of wheat and other commodities, evident from the drop in the FAO Food Price Index," said Madhu Sudan, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, at the UNSC briefing debate on Ukraine. "The suspension of the Black Sea Grain initiative is expected to further exacerbate the food security, fuel and fertilizer supply challenges faced by the world, particularly the Global South," he added. The UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed during a ceremony in Istanbul in July. Under the deal, ships transporting grain from three Ukrainian ports travel along an agreed corridor to markets worldwide. This UNSC debate comes after Russia requested the meeting following its decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative "for an unspecified period of time", announced this past weekend, in response to alleged Ukrainian attacks against its ships. Counsellor Madhu Sudan said India supports the engagement of the Secretary-General with the parties on renewal and full implementation of the initiative, including facilitating of exports of food and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia. "The Black Sea Grain initiative and its successful implementation over the last four months is consistent with India's long-standing position that diplomacy and dialogue is the only solution to end this ongoing conflict that has resulted in serious consequences for the region and beyond," he said while adding that India continues to support all efforts, including that of the Secretary-General, to end the conflict. On Monday, UN officials told the Security Council the landmark agreement to export grain and related foodstuffs from Ukraine must be kept alive amid the ongoing war and the global cost of living crisis. "Ukraine's grain exports are not a food aid operation. They do operate as a huge lever on price, with positive ripple effects throughout the world. New security allegations are a cause of grave concern to the Secretary-General and many Member States are worried now that the deal is in trouble," said UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths. According to UN News, Ukraine and Russia account for roughly 30 per cent of the world's exported wheat and barley, one-fifth of its maize, and over half of its sunflower oil. Russia is also the world's largest exporter of fertilizers, accounting for 15 per cent of global exports.  Source: ANI

A humanitarian crisis is brewing in Afghanistan that could have serious ramifications for Pakistan’s national security, Pakistan’s senators have warned,  local media reported on Tuesday. Speaking on the rapidly developing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Former Senate chairman and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Mian Raza Rabbani said that Pakistan would be affected the most by a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and it would have an impact on the country’s national security, Dawn reported. Rabbani also referred to the commitments made by the Afghan Taliban that terrorism would not be exported to Pakistan, and raised questions over the talks held with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) without taking parliament into confidence. He said the so-called ceasefire reached with the TTP had repeatedly been violated by the other side. Highlighting the recent attack in the country, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said the recent terror attacks in the country were of a grave nature. She said the ruling government must hold the Afghan Taliban accountable for the use of their country’s soil for conducting attacks inside Pakistan. Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami said that the US and its allies were responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. He said a large number of Afghans, including children, were facing hunger in the war-torn country. The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since the Taliban took control of Kabul last year in mid-August. A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban, have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis. Source: ANI

Researchers from the Bar-Ilan University of Israel learned that sleep deprivation has a negative impact on aging and leads to the development of brain disorders. In reference to animal behavior observation, sleep also significantly affects brain performance among humans. In a study published in the Nature Communications journal, the researchers used 3D time-lapse imaging techniques to measure the effects of sleep deprivation. The results of the study showed that neurons require sleep for them to function properly and coherently. The results also showed that sleep deprivation results in DNA damage, such as oxidative stress, and adversely affects the brain’s ability to function.  The lead researchers concluded that the loopholes of brain activity are remedied when we sleep at night, such as in the case of the zebrafish they observed, according to Science Daily. Using a high-resolution microscope and applying controlled body tests, they also found that one of the main functions of sleep is to maintain the nuclear makeup of brain cells that’s responsible for constant neuron activity. In analyzing the fish, they found that animals sleep in order to preserve their DNA composition. Hence, the researchers said that sleep deprivation could really affect aging and lead to brain disorders. Furthermore, the study found that constant sleep deprivation could lead to the production of cancer cells, making the body unable to detoxify itself from DNA damage. The researchers noted that brain chromosomes are surprisingly more active during the night especially when the body is at rest. Thus, they concluded that the damage repair is also directly associated with physiological relevance to the entire body. On the other hand, Daily Mail pointed out the causes of sleep deprivation which could hinder the DNA repair process. When a person is stressed, they feel anxious and this prevents the body from acquiring enough sleep required to improve cognitive abilities. The outlet also stressed that establishing a frequent sleep routine could help improve the ability of a person to spend more time sleeping than just lying around. Listening to calming music and visualizing happy pleasant thoughts also promote a healthy sleep, thereby preventing aging and brain disorders from developing. Source: Medical Daily/MSN AH