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Bangladesh is the diplomatic battleground of two super powers USA and China since the interim Government took over power on August 9 this year following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League regime on August 5 last. In the last five weeks of the new government led by Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus, there has been twists and turns, but the two contending global influencers are in a political game in which the Bengalees of both sides of Padma see the shades of the derby match between two leading football clubs of Kolkata Mohanbagan and East Bengal.

LONDON: With each passing week, the conduct of the Israeli state bursts further bounds of legality, decency and simple humanity. Consider the record since last weekend alone: At least 21 people were killed in an air strike on an apartment building in northern Lebanon. Body parts in the majority Christian area are still being identified.

Lot of developments are currently on in finding out a way out for the cessation of hostilities in Myanmar. With the opposition National Unity Government of the deposed Prime Minister Su Kyi and the other rebels firmly in possession of a number of states in the strife-torn country defeating the forces of ruling Junta, pressure is mounting on the military bosses for starting negotiations with the rebel groups.

In the ongoing war in the Middle East, news that Iran could think of changing its nuclear doctrine is very disturbing but not unexpected. As the situation is developing in the region such adventurous happenings cannot be ruled out. Former Israeli heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu had in January 2024 renewed the call to use nuclear bomb on Gaza. The defence minister of Israel Yoav Gallant’s statement that Palestinians are “human animals” and his decision to impose a complete siege on Gaza, completely closing it off from basic necessities without which survival is impossible, is gross violation of human rights. These have added fuel to the fire in the existing humanitarian crisis . Such rhetoric will only worsen the already dangerous situation.

World economy is in transition, so the world of work. The transition to a sustainable and green economy requires workers to move out of carbon intensive jobs to green jobs. Since green jobs are associated with wage premium – 7 per cent premium for men and an even higher premium of 12 per cent for women –men’s and women’s labour supply may not meet the demand.

Just a week before the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel, Israel was rattled by a barrage of missiles fired by Iran. This came in retaliation of the Israeli assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and a key ally of Tehran. Israel vowed to attack Iran brutally but even a fortnight after the Iranian attack, there are no signs of any Israeli retaliation. Meanwhile, the world wonders apprehensively, what is holding Israel from carrying out its threat.

Man arrested near a Donald Trump rally had two guns and fake passports. Vem Miller, 49, told police he wasn't out to harm Trump. The suspected wannabe assassin was on his way to a Trump rally in Coachella, California, a state which would rather vote for Kamala Harris than waste it on Donald Trump. Suffice to say that Trump had no business to rally support in California, which is no country for Trumps.

At the recently concluded annual ASEAN Summit, member nations called for “an immediate cessation” of violence and the creation of “a conducive environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and inclusive national dialogue.” The conflict between Myanmar’s military government and armed rebel groups, whose size and number have grown significantly since the coup in 2021, has resulted in widespread violence, displacement of civilians, and a deepening humanitarian crisis across the country. The five-point peace plan offered by the ASEAN a few months after the coup was never implemented by the ruling Myanmar military.

LONDON: Peace campaigners have slammed NATO’s dangerous nuclear war games which began on October 14 in the North Sea. Dubbed Steadfast Noon, the exercise will run for two weeks.

The U.S. Presidential elections on November 5 have assumed unusual significance in the shaping up of the future of Bangladesh which is presently ruled by an interim government headed by the Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus. In the last two weeks, hectic activities were on in both Dhaka as well as in Washington DC and New York by all the contending parties- the chief adviser Dr. Yunus, the main opposition and the aspirant for heading the post election government BNP and the disgraced, now politically shunned ousted ruling party Awami League to explain their respective viewpoints on the Bangladesh developments to the US political establishment covering both the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition Republicans.