Malaysia has deported a Bangladeshi worker who criticized the government’s treatment of migrants in a documentary made by broadcaster Al Jazeera, the country’s director general of immigration confirmed on Saturday.Mohammad Rayhan Kabir was deported to Bangladesh late on Friday, Khairul Dzaimee Daud told Reuters. He did not respond to further queries on why Rayhan was deported.Accompanied by immigration officers, he was seen waving and giving a thumbs-up to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday night, state media outlet Bernama reported.Malaysia arrested 25-year-old Rayhan and blacklisted him from entering the country last month, after Al Jazeera’s July 3 documentary on Malaysia’s treatment of undocumented foreign workers during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a backlash in the Southeast Asia nation.At that time, Qatar-based Al Jazeera said it was disturbing Rayhan had been arrested “for choosing to speak up about some of the experiences of the voiceless and the vulnerable.”Rights groups have accused the government of suppressing media freedom after authorities questioned Al Jazeera’s journalists, raided their office, and opened into alleged sedition, defamation and violation of a communications law.Malaysia arrested hundreds of undocumented foreigners, including children and Rohingya refugees, after the country imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.Malaysian officials said the arrests were necessary to prevent the spread of the virus, which human rights activists have condemned as inhumane.Activists have also voiced concerns that the nearly 6-month-old administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is stifling dissent amid a series of clampdowns, an accusation the government has denied. 
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Delivering a “much-needed moment of pure joy,” the National Zoo’s giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a wiggling cub Friday at a time of global pandemic and social unrest.An experienced mom, “Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately and began cradling and caring for it,” the zoo said in a statement. “The panda team heard the cub vocalize.”Panda lovers around the world were able to see the birth on the zoo’s Panda Cam. Zookeepers also were using the camera to keep an eye on mom and baby.“Giant pandas are an international symbol of endangered wildlife and hope, and with the birth of this precious cub we are thrilled to offer the world a much-needed moment of pure joy,” said Steve Monfort, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.Monfort said Mei Xiang’s age — 22 — made her chances of giving birth to a cub slim. “However, we wanted to give her one more opportunity to contribute to her species’ survival,” he said.She is the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States. The oldest in the world gave birth in China at age 23.Mei Xiang has three surviving offspring, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei, that were transported to China at age 4 under an agreement with the Chinese government.The zoo has reopened to visitors on a limited basis, but the Panda House is closed.Mei Xiang gave birth in a small den, where she created a nest out of branches.Although the place looks tiny for a big panda, the zoo said giant pandas in wild give birth in small dens. “They stay in these dens for about the cub’s first 100 days,” the zoo said on Instagram.The zoo had given notice earlier in the day that Mei Xiang appeared to be in labor, noting her restlessness and body-licking.Earlier this week, the zoo, part of the Smithsonian Institution, posted an image from Mei Xiang’s ultrasound that confirmed the pregnancy. “Keep your paws crossed!” the zoo posted, reporting that the fetus was “kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid.”“We need this! We totally need this joy,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said when the pregnancy was confirmed. “We are all in desperate need of these feel-goods.”Giant pandas at birth are about the size of a stick of butter. They’re pink and hairless; the distinctive black and white fur markings of giant pandas come later.The zoo said Mei was impregnated via artificial insemination, a process which was heavily affected by precautions over the COVID-19 pandemic. The procedure was conducted shortly after the entire zoo shut down on March 14.The father is giant panda Tian Tian.Rather than using a combination of stored frozen sperm and fresh semen, the zoo inseminated Mei Xiang only with thawed-out semen to minimize the number of close-quarters medical procedures. It was the first successful procedure of its kind in the U.S. using only frozen sperm. 
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Russian doctors said Friday that gravely ill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny could be flown to Germany to receive medical care after the opposition politician’s allies accused the Russian authorities of trying to stop his evacuation.Navalny’s life was not in immediate danger; he was in an induced coma and his brain was in a stable condition, the medical staff at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk said.Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said she expected him to be flown out on Saturday morning.Navalny, a longtime opponent of President Vladimir Putin and a campaigner against corruption, collapsed on a plane Thursday after drinking tea that his allies believe was laced with poison.German doctors flew in to evacuate Navalny, 44, at the request of his wife and allies who said they feared authorities might try to cover up clues as to how he fell ill and that the hospital treating him was badly equipped.Medical staff at the Omsk hospital initially said  Friday that while Navalny’s condition had improved slightly overnight, he was in too unstable a state to be safely transported out of the country.But late on Friday they said they would not object to his being moved after the German doctors were granted access to Navalny and said they thought he was fit to travel.A senior doctor at the hospital, Anatoly Kalinichenko, said the hospital could help transport Navalny to the airport and that he would be moved within several hours.”We have taken the decision that we do not object to him being transferred to a different hospital,” Kalinichenko said.Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, walks near a hospital where Alexei receives medical treatment in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 21, 2020.Wife’s appealNavalny’s wife, Yulia, earlier sent a letter to the Kremlin directly appealing for it to intervene and grant permission for him to be allowed to be flown out.”It’s a shame it took so long for the doctors to make this decision. The plane has been waiting since morning. The documents were also ready then,” Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said Friday evening.Alexander Murakhovsky, the head doctor at the hospital, said earlier that Navalny had been diagnosed with a metabolic disease that may have been caused by low blood sugar.He said traces of industrial chemical substances had been found on Navalny’s clothes and fingers and that doctors did not believe he had been poisoned.Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level graft and mobilizing crowds of young protesters.He has been repeatedly detained for organizing public meetings and rallies and sued over his investigations into corruption. He was barred from running in a presidential election in 2018.Navalny fell ill while flying back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk where he had met allies ahead of regional elections next month. He was taken on a stretcher, motionless, from the plane and rushed to a hospital after the aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk.
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At least six people have died and 175,000 have been forced to flee their homes because of wildfires raging through California, some of them the largest blazes in the state’s history.The fires have burned more than 771,000 acres (3,120 square kilometers) since August 15, Jeremy Rahn, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Friday at a Thomas Henney, left, and Charles Chavira watch a plume spread over Healdsburg, Calif., as the LNU Lightning Complex fires burn, Aug. 20, 2020.“These two fires represent two of the 20 largest fires the state of California has had to battle in recent memory, arguably in modern recorded history,” Governor Gavin Newsom said at Friday’s briefing. The SCU Lightning Complex is the seventh largest, while the LNU is the 10th largest.VictimsAmong the dead were three people found Wednesday in a burned Napa County home; their remains were recovered Thursday. Also found dead Wednesday was a man in Solano County, a Pacific Gas and Electric crewman and a pilot on a water-dropping mission in Fresno County, who died when his helicopter crashed.An additional 43 firefighters and civilians have been injured, and 500 homes and other buildings have been reported destroyed.Cal Fire lifted some evacuation orders Friday, but the department added more in other areas. Cal Fire Incident Commander Chief Sean Kavanaugh said at the briefing that this was a sign of how large the fires have grown.“That’s something we normally don’t do,” he said, referring to the simultaneous lifting and adding of orders. “We’re spread out in such a large geographical area that we have different fire behavior. We have different levels of containment.”Heed orders, authorities sayLocal authorities urged residents to listen to evacuation orders, both to protect themselves and to stay out of firefighters’ way. Some civilian firefighting efforts have required rescue operations, diverting resources.Members of the Glendale, Calif., Fire Department hose down hot spots along Empire Grade Road after the CZU August Lightning Complex Fire went through, Aug. 21, 2020, in Bonny Doon, Calif.“We want you to leave when you’ve been ordered to evacuate,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said at the briefing. Not only are evacuation zones dangerous, he said, but “evacuation zones have active firefighting efforts going on, and you remaining in those areas could hamper firefighting efforts.”Cal Fire Unit Chief Shana Jones told residents to have an evacuation plan ready.“You shouldn’t wait to be told,” she said. “You should have a plan right now.”Help from outsideNewsom said the state was working with the federal government to declare a federal disaster, which would help in securing more resources. California also requested help from both Australia and Canada, he said, and was in talks with governors from 10 other states through a mutual aid system. He thanked governors from Arizona, Oregon and Washington for sending fire engines and surveillance equipment, alongside Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Texas and Utah.However, a Cal Fire spokesperson said that only 45 of the 375 out-of-state fire crews requested by the state had arrived, Reuters reported.Many of the California fires were sparked by a series of lightning strikes earlier this week, totaling close to 12,000 in just three days. In a video Friday, Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant warned that wildfire authority was “remaining on high alert” for more dry lightning storms, which could hit Monday and Tuesday.Please watch the video below for a statewide update for August 21, 2020 on the fire activity across California and visit https://t.co/sWZPp02O9t for information on how you and your family can be #WildfireReady. pic.twitter.com/mmGqIlRB2E
— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) August 21, 2020
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Opposition supporters flooded into Bamako’s central square Friday to celebrate the overthrow of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, where they were warmly praised by the country’s new military rulers.Thousands gathered in the capital’s Independence Square, the birthplace of a monthslong protest movement, many of them draped in Mali’s national flag and blasting on vuvuzela horns.They rallied three days after mutinying troops seized the country’s unpopular 75-year-old president, forced him to announce his resignation and unveiled a junta that would rule until a “transitional president” takes over.In contrast to fierce condemnation abroad at the overthrow of an elected leader, many in the square were jubilant and shouted their approval when the junta came to pay tribute for the public’s part in the drama.Showing solidarity”We have come here to thank you, to thank the Malian public for its support,” the junta’s spokesman, Ismael Wague, told the crowd. “We merely completed the work that you began and we recognize ourselves in your fight.”Keita’s downfall came after months of protests, staged by a loose coalition called the June 5 Movement, that were fueled by anger at failures to stem a bloody jihadist insurgency, revive the economy and tackle corruption.”I am overjoyed! We won. We came here to thank all the people of Mali, because this is the victory of the people,” said opposition supporter Mariam Cisse, 38.Retired soldier Ousmane Diallo, 62, said, “We are here to celebrate the victory of the people. Just the victory of the people.””IBK has failed,” he said, using a common reference to the ousted president by his initials. “The people are victorious.”But, he cautioned, “the military should not be thinking now that they can stay in power.”Broad welcomeFriday’s “victory rallies” had initially been scheduled as the latest round of protests to force out Keita by the June 5 Movement, also called the M5-RFP.The movement — a loose alliance of parties, religious leaders and grassroots groups — has given a broad welcome to the president’s fall.Keita, who was elected for a second five-year term in 2018, announced his resignation early Wednesday, saying he had been given no other choice and wanted to avoid bloodshed.The June 5 Movement, in its first reaction, said it “took note of the [junta’s] commitment” for a civilian transition and promised to work with it on “developing a road map.”Some of the placards brandished in the rally reflected resentment at perceived foreign interference in Mali’s affairs.One read, “ECOWAS, a union of heads of state serving personal interests,” a reference to the 15-nation regional bloc that has led the condemnation of the coup and stands by Keita.The bloc is to send envoys on Saturday, led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
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Portland protesters clashed with federal officers late Thursday and early Friday outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, on the city’s 85th consecutive night of protests, while an earlier protest remained peaceful.
Demonstrators gathered Thursday night at Kenton Park, and at 7 p.m., began marching through city streets toward the boarded-up Portland Police Association headquarters, a common protest destination.
“The goal right now is to disrupt the peace,” said Erandi Jones-Vega, 17, reported The Oregonian/Oregon Live. Jones-Vega spoke from the bed of a pickup truck leading the march. “If you’re here right now, you need to be loud. You need to be exhausted. Because we’re exhausted.”
Another woman in the back of the truck read names from a list of Black people fatally shot by Portland police, according The Oregonian/Oregon Live, as the crowd replied, “Rest in power.”
Protesters walked through the city for several hours before ending the march at the park. Most people left by 10 p.m., the protest over without any interactions with police.
Also at 10 p.m., another group of about 100 people began gathering at an ICE building, which the night before had been declared the site of a riot. Just after 11 p.m., some began painting over a security camera at the entrance, spray-painting building windows and the building itself. By midnight, the officers had declared the situation an unlawful assembly, and police began using force to disperse the crowd.Portland police reported that people threw rocks, bottles and fireworks. In its statement, city police said crowd control munitions or tear gas were not used but did not say if federal officers had used them. Local media and social media reports showed spent tear gas canisters and footage of officers firing munitions. Three people were arrested.There was a lot of tear gas tonight. #koin6news#PNW#PDX#Portland#Oregon#protestspic.twitter.com/n9xNlIJGKY
— Jennifer Dowling (@JenDowlingKoin6) August 21, 2020After about 20 minutes of standoff and a small amount of teargas fired, federal agents retreated back into the I.C.E. Detention Center in Portland #PortlandProtest#Portlandpic.twitter.com/AW8pAK5JWA
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 21, 2020Portland police issued a timeline of protests Thursday, which showed they had declared riots 17 times between May 29 and August 19. Earlier that day, a U.S. judge granted a preliminary injunction that exempts journalists and legal observers from federal officers’ orders to disperse after officers officially declare a protest a riot. Officers were prohibited from seizing press passes, cameras or other recording equipment.
Portland residents have held nightly protests since mid-May, when an interaction with Portland police left George Floyd dead. His name became a rallying cry for people protesting racism and police brutality, sparking demonstrations across the U.S. and world. 
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Антимонопольний комітет України застерігає учасників ринку від необґрунтованого підняття оптових та роздрібних цін на пальне, створення штучного дефіциту пального та створення бар’єрів в доступі до інфраструктури морських портів з перевалки нафтопродуктів.

Водночас в АМКУ наголосили, що частка бензинів та дизелю, які виробляються та ввозяться до України з Республіки Білорусь, є досить значимою для забезпечення в повному обсязі попиту споживачів на пальне.

«Зважаючи на поширення у ЗМІ інформації про можливе обмеження обсягів постачання нафтопродуктів з білоруських нафтопереробних заводів до України, Антимонопольний комітет України посилює моніторинг ситуації на ринках пального», – зазначили в АМКУ.

Останніми днями в ЗМІ висловлюються припущення, що ціни на пальне зростатимуть у випадку страйків на білоруських нафтопереробних заводах у зв’язку з шостою поспіль перемогою Олександра Лукашенка на виборах президента.
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Національний банк України опівдні 21 серпня оприлюднив довідкове значення курсу 27 гривень 38 копійок за долар, це на 10 копійок менше за офіційний курс на сьогодні.

Регулятор відобразив тенденцію, яка спостерігалася на українському міжбанківському валютному ринку в другій половині дня 20 серпня. 21 серпня на міжбанку долар дещо подорожчав, але станом на 13:00, як свідчать дані Finance.ua, котирування є ненабагато вищими за довідковий курс НБУ – 27 гривень 38,5–40,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.

«На торгах по долару попит дещо перевищує пропозицію, що підтягує поступово котирування вгору», – відзначали експерти сайту «Мінфін» станом на 12:00.

Із рівня майже 28 гривень за долар національна валюта впродовж майже двох тижнів дорожчала. Цього тижня тренд змінився, 20 серпня котирування міжбанку навіть перейшли позначку 27,5 гривні за долар. Але в пікові дні бюджетних платежів і перед тривалими вихідними попит на гривню серед учасників ринку зріс, що спричинило деяке послаблення долара.
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Autocrats fall when people lose their fear — and that moment can be signaled dramatically by a simple jeer. As it was last week when Europe’s so-called “last dictator,” Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko, was booed during a speech at a Minsk factory by workers who chanted for him to step down.“Until you kill me, there will be no other elections,” Lukashenko told the sullen crowd. “Shoot yourself,” one emboldened worker shouted at him as he left the stage — a brazen statement no one would have dared utter to his face before the current turmoil rocking Belarus.The visit was meant to have demonstrated Lukashenko’s strong support from a core group of Belarusians, say analysts. The factory, which makes tractor wheels, is one of the large Soviet-like state-run industrial plants that have in the past been pro-Lukashenko strongholds. For veteran observers and journalists, the debacle at the factory was reminiscent of the fall 32 years ago of another European autocrat — Nicolae Ceaușescu, the longtime Communist leader of Romania.He similarly misjudged the mood of a crowd — as well as the tide of events. In 1984, Ceaușescu had easily sidestepped a planned coup d’état, dispatching nimbly a key military unit to help with the maize harvest. But in December 1989, history caught him up with him as he tried to whip up support against growing anti-government protesters who had been undeterred by a violent state reaction.Eight minutes into a speech before a mass meeting in Bucharest’s Revolution Square, during which he labeled protesters as “fascist agitators who want to destroy socialism,” he was booed, triggering a bewildered frown from the autocrat and an impotent wave of his hand. Power seemed to drain away from the Conducător, or leader.Belarusian opposition supporters rally in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 17, 2020. Workers heckled President Alexander Lukashenko as he visited a factory that day, and strikes grew across Belarus, raising the pressure on the authoritarian leader to step down.“A fatal moment of weakness, shown live on television, sealed his fate,” writes historian Victor Sebestyen in his book Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. “The panic on his face was the beginning of his end. As the first barracker, a taxi driver called Adrian Donea, said later: ‘We could see he was scared. At that moment we realized our force.’”It is unlikely that Lukashenko will share thefate of Ceaușescu, who was executed along with his wife, Elena, after a kangaroo court passed death sentences on the couple. It would more likely be a quick flight to Moscow, where he would take his place as a semi-tolerated guest alongside Ukraine’s ousted Viktor Yanukovych, suggest Western diplomats.And there seems to be plenty of fight left in Lukashenko, according to Keir Giles, an analyst with Chatham House.“Having failed to swiftly translate popular support into tangible political achievements, there are signs the protests against the fraudulent presidential election in Belarus may be losing momentum in the face of the state’s resilience and still-confident security and enforcement apparatus,” he warns.“Attempts to blame the unrest on the West have focused on groups Lukashenko and Russia can both call enemies. And now Lukashenko is not only inventing anti-Russian policies supposedly held by the opposition, such as suppressing the Russian language and closing the border with Russia, but also a supposed military threat from NATO,” Giles adds.“If this is believed in Moscow, where Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already described events in Belarus as part of a ‘struggle for the post-Soviet space,’ this makes a Russian intervention more likely,” he says.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, center, speaks to an employee of the Minsk Tractor Wheel Plant in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 17, 2020.A 2007 research study by American political scientists Jennifer Gandhi and Adam Przeworski on “Dictatorial Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats” found authoritarian leaders survive by pursuing one or other of two options — either intensifying repression if they can, or broadening out their support base via nominal reforms. Judging by this week’s reaction at the Minsk factory, reform would appear now not to be a viable option for Lukashenko.According to former British Foreign Secretary Malcom Rifkind, there is no reason for him to stop his brutal crackdown as that would be a sign of weakness which would diminish his hold on power.“We have the precedents of Tiananmen Square in China, the Iranian ayatollahs suppressing a popular uprising some years ago, and (Nicolas) Maduro in Venezuela clinging to power despite the desperate opposition of his own people. Lukashenko knows that it will be a dacha in Russia at best and a prison cell in Minsk at worst, if he appeared to submit to international pressure at such a time,” Rifkind adds in a commentary for the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security research group based in London.But that may not be enough — as the ill-fated Ceaușescu discovered, let down by his own involuntary acknowledgement of surprise. Lukashenko’s only option may be to secure some form of Kremlin intervention. Chatham House’s Keir Giles, believes the West should carefully calibrate its responses and avoid offering a pretext for Russian intervention.But being kept in power by Putin, though, would leave Lukashenko diminished, the leader in name but in effect a temporary placeman for the Kremlin, no longer the king of his castle. 
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 U.S. lawmakers will aggressively question U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in his first appearance before Congress on Friday about recent cost-cutting measures that Democrats say appeared to be an attempt to boost President Donald Trump’s re-election chances. Under pressure from the public and lawmakers, DeJoy on Tuesday suspended all mail service changes until after the Nov. 3 election. Critics feared they would interfere with mail-in balloting, which is expected to be much more widely used amid the COVID-19 pandemic. WATCH the Hearing LIVE (click here to see testimony)Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that an increase in mail-in ballots would lead to a surge in fraud, although Americans have long voted by mail.The Republican chairman of the Senate committee holding Friday’s hearing, Ron Johnson, will defend DeJoy in his opening statement, citing his “commendable attempt to reduce those excess costs that are now being cynically used to create this false political narrative.” Democrats will want to know whether DeJoy plans to undo changes to the mail made in recent weeks. Changes that threatened to slow mail delivery – and in some cases, already have – include reductions in overtime, restrictions on extra mail transportation trips, and new mail-sorting and delivery policies, enacted in an attempt to cut costs.DeJoy, who has also agreed to testify before the Democratic-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday, will testify before the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday. While criticism from Democrats is expected, any signs that Republican senators are unhappy with DeJoy’s cost-cutting efforts could suggest his tenure as postmaster general is at risk. DeJoy, a major political donor and ally of Trump, assumed the job in June. A group of 90 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday called on the Postal Service’s board of governors to immediately remove DeJoy “to protect this critical institution,” according to a letter sent to board members. The House is set to vote on a bill on Saturday that would provide $25 billion in funding for the Postal Service and require the reversal of operational changes. 
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Антимонопольний комітет України 21 серпня розпочав справу проти суб’єктів господарювання, які входять до складу групи компаній Roshen, за ознаками зловживання монопольним становищем на ринку патоки.

«Найбільшими вітчизняними виробниками патоки крохмальної кукурудзяної (сиропів) є суб’єкти господарювання, які  входять до складу групи Roshen. Група Roshen протягом 2018 – 2019 років мала структурні ознаки монопольного (домінуючого) становища на цьому товарному ринку. За наявною в АМКУ інформацією, в ході ведення своєї господарської діяльності група Roshen протягом 2018 року встановлювала різні ціни, а також різні умови придбання патоки для певної групи споживачів – кондитерських фабрик. У 2019 році, посиливши ринкову владу у зв’язку з забороною імпорту з Російської Федерації патоки (сиропів), група Roshen підвищила ціни на патоку власного виробництва для всіх покупців, які були об’єктом цінового аналізу», – мовиться у повідомленні АМКУ.

Як заявили у відомстві, під час дослідження, яке провели в АМКУ, не було встановлено об’єктивних причин для підвищення цін.

«Такі дії групи Roshen по відношенню до суб’єктів господарювання – конкурентів на ринках кондитерських виробів (у тому числі і Кондитерської корпорації «Рошен»), могли призвести до недопущення, усунення чи обмеження конкуренції між ними», – зазначили в АМКУ.

Тепер Антимонопольний комітет проводитиме розслідування, збір та аналіз доказів у справі.

Кондитерська компанія Roshen належить колишньому президенту України Петру Порошенку.

Крохмальна кукурудзяна патока є одним з основних компонентів в рецептурі кондитерських виробів. Вона використовується при виробництві халви, карамелі, зефіру, цукерок, мармеладу тощо для регулювання консистенції кондитерського виробу. Іноді патока використовується в якості підсолоджувача.
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