Our world in photos: August 14

August 14, 2024
Brooklyn Eagle Staff

BANGLADESH — The PM has fled her post … but what about the allegations? Students shout slogans during a protest demanding the trial of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. However, other students have reportedly filled the gap that police left when they went on strike, particularly in directing traffic in Dhaka, according to the Associated Press. While searching cars for smuggled goods, they also made sure drivers were wearing seatbelts.

It was students who led the uprising that succeeded in toppling the regime of Hasina, one of the most unshakeable leaders in Bangladeshi history. They apparently studied government thoroughly enough to begin governing, with the hope of restoring democracy and peace in a “new Bangladesh.”

ZIMBABWE — A day honoring those honored to serve: Presidential Guards attend an event marking the 44th Zimbabwe Defense Forces Day at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. Observed every second week of August, Defense Forces Day honors members of the uniformed forces for their duty in protecting the country, officially renamed Zimbabwe in April 1980 upon gaining independence from Great Britain, which had colonized the region during the 19th-century scramble for Africa. Formerly called Southern Rhodesia, Zimbabwe borders Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) to the north and west, the panhandle of Namibia to the west, Botswana to the southwest, South Africa to the south and Mozambique to the east.

A landlocked nation, Zimbabwe is known for its waterfalls, dramatic landscape and wildlife. Victoria Falls is in western Zimbabwe, near the border with Namibia.

MINNEAPOLIS — On the way to her fourth term: Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks after winning the primary at Nighthawks in Minneapolis, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. She ran against former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels in a rematch of the party’s 2022 primary. Although a close race, it was one in which Omar improved on her 2022 margins in the district’s two largest counties, according to an Associated Press analysis of vote results at the time she was declared the winner. First elected to Congress in 2018, Omar is one of the progressive House members known as the “Squad.” She has sharply criticized Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.

But unlike her fellow squad members, Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, Omar has succeeded in winning her primary and had more campaign funds.

PARAGUAY — Remnants of tyranny now a symbol of democracy: The feet are what remains of a statue of former dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1912-2006) that was removed several decades ago from Victory Peace Monument which features national heroes on Lambare Hill in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, the day before the 70th anniversary of the start of Stroessner’s regime that lasted 35 years. The shadow behind is from another statue. The son of a Bavarian immigrant and an indigenous Paraguayan Guarani mother, General Stroessner seized power in Paraguay in 1954 through a surgical coup with a single fatality — a police chief named Roberto Le Petit who also served as minister of agrarian reform and who was in charge of redistributing land to the poor. With American military aid, he established a secret police force, changed Paraguay’s constitution to authorize him to stay president and kept power through fear.

Stroessner was overthrown in a 1989 coup that his most trusted confidant, Lieutenant General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, instigated.

AFGHANISTAN — They’re kind of like the Hell’s Angels with open-carry bazookas: Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southwestern Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. The withdrawal was completed during the current Biden administration, with the planned official date being Aug. 30, 2021. However, two weeks before that, on Aug. 15, 2021, Taliban leaders entered the capital city of Kabul and pushed back into power with little resistance: the Afghan government collapsed, the country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, fled, and many desperate Afghan civilians became stranded. Many in the Biden administration blamed what they said were former President Trump’s missteps in meeting with Afghani leaders without first consulting with the United States’ allies.

President Biden called the conflict in Afghanistan “America’s Longest War,” which the U.S. military had begun in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Their mission was to destroy the terror group al-Qaeda and force the ruling Taliban to surrender 9/11’s mastermind, Osama bin Laden, to the United States. A small coalition of special forces from six nations, including Canada, offered military aid.

GERMANY — Running with abandon: Icelandic horses run in their paddock at a stud farm in Wehrheim, Germany, early Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. Germany, a major breeding country for Icelandic horses, has about 65,000 of this pedigree. The small Nordic nation of Iceland, of course, has the most Icelandic horses, around 80,000. They are considered to be the original Viking horses and are among the purest horse breeds worldwide.

Once Icelandic horses are exported from the island, they cannot return to prevent the spread of disease. And horses from other nations cannot be brought to Iceland.

LOS ANGELES — Other politicians have corporate ties while Walz’s stock portfolio is filled with love for the working class: Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, right, hugs Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, at the convention in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. AFSCME’s Lee Saunders introduced the “Fearless Agenda” with the goals of strengthening public services, ensuring health care and retirement income for all, and electing the Harris-Walz ticket.

Founded in 1932, the ACSCME is the United States’ largest public employee trade union, with a membership of over 1.3 million.

INDIA — Earthly offerings turn to earthly waste: A man searches for reusable material amid offerings and idols of Hindu goddess Dashama left by devotees on the banks of River Sabarmati after the end of the ten-day long Dashama festival in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. Dashama is the goddess of feminine power.

During the festival, women perform rituals to bring about prosperity and good fortune for their families.

MUMBAI — United and divided by the British: Today, they’re just happy to be liberated: Mumbai’s iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) building is illuminated in colored lights ahead of India’s Independence Day celebration in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. India gained its independence from the British Empire on Aug. 15, 1947. It was on that date that the Indian Independence Act, which transferred legislative sovereignty to the Indian Constituent Assembly, took effect. King George VI was retained as head of state until its transition to a republic, when the Constitution of India came into effect on Jan. 26, 1950. That milestone is celebrated as Indian Republic Day.

King George abandoned his “Emperor of India” title in 1947 but served as India’s ceremonial head of state as ‘King of India’ during the interim.

LAHORE — A symbol of celebration behind a symbol of freedom: Fireworks light the sky close to the Minar-e-Pakistan or Pakistan monument during the Pakistan Independence Day celebrations in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. On its Independence Day, Pakistan celebrates the end of the British Raj (Crown Rule) in India. The British Raj extended almost all of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar from 1858.

Pakistan became a republic in 1956 and retained King George VI — and, upon his death, Queen Elizabeth — as ceremonial head of state until then.