Tuesday, Sep 1, 2026

• Bangladesh Bank set up a Tk 2,000 crore revolving pre-financing fund for frozen-food exporters, offering loans at up to 7% to address cash-flow and cold-chain financing gaps for the shrimp and fish export sector. The Daily Star
• A worsening gas crisis is hitting industry and households: August supply fell to its lowest in a decade, partly because Qatar is withholding contracted liquefied natural gas amid the wider US-Israel-Iran conflict, cutting textile output by half in affected areas. The Daily Star
• US special envoy Sergio Gor said Bangladesh has agreed to buy more Boeing aircraft, expanding on an April deal for 14 planes worth about $3.7 billion, part of a wider 25-aircraft plan. Prothom Alo
• Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir agreed to launch a new diplomacy-and-defence dialogue at state-minister level and an early foreign-minister-level strategic dialogue, alongside talks on the Teesta project, a China Economic and Industrial Zone, and Mongla Port. Prothom Alo
• Delhi Police denied permission for a Delhi seminar featuring Awami League information-and-research secretary Selim Mahmud, citing unspecified "controversies," seen as an Indian effort to avoid fresh friction with Dhaka after Sheikh Hasina's August 5 appearance at the same forum drew formal protests. Prothom Alo
• Police sued 113 named individuals, including a former state minister and five former MPs, plus 250 to 300 unnamed people, over an alleged banned Awami League protest rally in Jashore on August 28 that police called "anti-government and subversive." The Daily Star
• The International Crimes Tribunal's chief prosecutor said investigators have found a possible link between an unnamed "cultural figure" and the unsolved 2012 murders of journalists Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi, though it remains unverified and the case is handled by the Police Bureau of Investigation, not the tribunal. Prothom Alo
• A draft new pay scale for government employees, recommending 100 to 140% raises under the 9th National Pay Commission, may go before Cabinet, though an implementing committee has proposed a scaled-down, phased version capped at 100% due to fiscal constraints. Prothom Alo
• Friendship, a Bangladeshi NGO, founder Runa Khan won the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award for decades of work in remote, river-eroded and climate-vulnerable char communities, including pioneering floating hospitals on the Jamuna; the ceremony is set for November 15 in Manila. The Daily Star
• Bangladesh confirmed a procurement deal for Chinese J-10CE fighter jets plus attack and transport helicopters and drones, with officials citing Pakistan's reported use of J-10Cs against Indian jets in a May India-Pakistan conflict as justification; no jet count or price was disclosed. Dawn

• The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled the Indus Waters Treaty "remains fully in force," rejecting India's April 2025 suspension of the treaty, and barred India from further concreting work on its Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects above set levels until 90 days after a neutral expert's final decision, expected July 2027. India did not participate in the proceedings. Dawn
• Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye formally institutionalised their defence pact as the "Makkah Defence Alliance" at its first Strategic Political and Defence Committee meeting in Istanbul, with a Riyadh-based secretariat to be headed by a Pakistani secretary-general for the first three-year term. Dawn
• The Punjab Assembly passed the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2026 after an opposition walkout, creating a "special security case" mechanism allowing concealed identities for judges, prosecutors and witnesses in terrorism trials. Opposition Leader Moin Riaz Qureshi called it "draconian" and warned it could target political rivals. Dawn
• The Public Alliance Forum Sudhnoti led a cross-party peace march in Palandri, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, demanding elections in seven constituencies left out of the phased July-August polls, an end to blockades, and restoration of internet and essential supplies. Dawn
• Petrol prices rose 0.77 rupees per litre to 342.79 rupees and high-speed diesel fell 1.03 rupees to 370.41 rupees, effective September 1, with the government still levying 114 rupees per litre tax on petrol and 100 rupees on diesel. Dawn
• Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Iranian President Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan. Dawn
• Islamabad and Riyadh agreed to boost Pakistani agricultural and food exports to Saudi Arabia to $3 billion. Dawn

• Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, a five-judge bench under Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena, is set to hear petitions challenging the 22nd Amendment, which proposes extending the retirement age of superior court judges. Daily Mirror
• Former minister Ravi Karunanayake was arrested after questioning by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption over a Lotteries Board probe, then granted bail the same day. Daily Mirror
• A United Nations report warned Sri Lanka faces heightened risk of disruption to food production in the upcoming Maha cultivation season from strengthening El Nino conditions combined with rising input costs and potential heavy rainfall. Daily Mirror
• Customs seized over 440 kilograms of suspected crystal methamphetamine at Colombo Port in a major drug bust. News First
• Sri Lanka's exports crossed $10.49 billion in the first seven months of 2026, up 5.5% year-on-year, led by merchandise exports of $8.19 billion, with services exports growing faster at 7.02%. News First
• The Court of Appeal invalidated the Inland Revenue Department's classification of national cricketers as Sri Lanka Cricket employees for tax purposes, offering the players relief from advance personal income tax liability. Daily Mirror
• Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya arrived in Bhutan to speak at the inaugural Global Conscious Food Systems Summit in Paro and Dungkar Dzong, addressing the opening plenary on responding to what organisers call the "polycrisis." News First

• The confirmed death toll from the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river flood disaster reached 903, with 4,247 still missing, including 592 foreign nationals and 933 people linked to hydropower projects. 10,451 people have been rescued and 21 hospitals are storing unidentified bodies. The Kathmandu Post
• China closed the Tatopani border crossing on August 29 over landslide risk on the Nepali side, leaving Nepal with only the Korala, Mustang, crossing functioning after floods separately destroyed the Rasuwagadhi crossing, threatening trade shortages ahead of the festive season. The Kathmandu Post
• Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane briefed President Ramchandra Paudel on the government's Bhotekoshi flood response. The Kathmandu Post
• Four bodies swept away by the Bhotekoshi floods were recovered in India. The Kathmandu Post
• Local units in flood-hit areas are appealing for urgent supplies and repairs to power and infrastructure, while survivors face a rising secondary threat of illness and disease. The Kathmandu Post

• The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, working with the International Monetary Fund, began implementing a Financial Sector Cybersecurity Strategy for 2026-2028, including a capacity-building workshop, a tabletop crisis-response exercise called "Ngul-Sung 2026," and pilot risk-based supervision of selected institutions. The Bhutanese
• Three senior executives, the chief executive, the IT director and a project manager, stepped down from the Bank of Bhutan after major problems surfaced following a core banking system migration. Kuensel
• Bhutan's High Court sentenced a doctor to 10 years for raping a minor patient with a disability at Trashigang Hospital, overturning a lower acquittal. Kuensel
• Their Majesties the King and Queen led prayers for flood victims in Nepal and China, and a nationwide fundraising and merit-making effort, "Karmi Tongchoed," was organised for the same victims. Kuensel

All four Bhutan items sit at the three-day outer recency limit; no news dated August 31 or September 1 was found from either Bhutanese outlet after escalated searching, which reflects normal low daily volume rather than a fetch failure.

• Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appointed his longtime aide Erlan Karin, a former counter-terrorism official, as vice president on August 31, making Karin first in line of succession; parliament, dominated by Tokayev's party, approved it immediately. Al Jazeera
• Presidents Putin and Xi met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on August 31, the organisation's 25th anniversary, reaffirming their "more solid" partnership and citing rising global "uncertainty and unpredictability." Over a dozen heads of state attended. Al Jazeera
• A South Korean court sentenced Han Hak-ja, leader of the Unification Church, to two years in prison on August 31 for bribing the former first lady and conservative politicians with money and luxury gifts to secure political favours for the church. Al Jazeera
• Myanmar's military has clawed back 22 of 101 towns lost since the 2021 coup by combining nearly 150,000 new conscripts since 2024, sustained air power, 520 strikes between April and June 2026 alone, killing at least 314 civilians, and Chinese-brokered pressure on the United Wa State Army to halt arms supplies to opposition forces. The war has now killed over 100,000 and displaced 3.9 million. Al Jazeera
• Meta ran a paid influencer and celebrity campaign promoting its "Teen Accounts" safety features across India, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and New Zealand, as at least 22 governments move toward under-16 social media bans, already in force in Australia, Brazil and Indonesia. Critics say the campaign aims to head off tougher regulation rather than protect children. Rest of World

• A coalition of 20 African civil society groups is demanding an independent, forensic investigation after six bound and blindfolded bodies were found in a mass grave near Alassoya, Guinea, on August 24. Rights groups have documented at least 35 enforced disappearances in Guinea since the 2021 coup by General Mamady Doumbouya, and Guinea's armed forces and France have both called for a transparent inquiry. Al Jazeera
• Five years after President Kais Saied's 2021 power grab, Tunisia is seeing renewed public anger as extreme heat near 50 degrees Celsius forces rolling blackouts and water cuts atop unemployment and medicine shortages. A mass "conspiracy case" against 37 opposition figures, journalists and activists, with appeal sentences of 5 to 45 years, continues to draw accusations of political persecution. Al Jazeera
• The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak, a Bundibugyo strain with no approved vaccine or treatment, has reached 6,041 confirmed cases and 2,911 deaths across 60 areas in the country's east. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it "the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic ever recorded," with insecurity and underpaid health workers hampering the response; neighbouring Uganda was declared Ebola-free on August 28. Al Jazeera
• An investigation found that an artificial-intelligence-driven anticipatory cash-transfer scheme for flood-prone Ibaji, Nigeria, run by GiveDirectly and the International Rescue Committee with a $4.6 million Google.org grant, excluded over 13,000 of 39,000 applicants, many poor farmers, due to data mismatches or inability to charge phones for verification calls, while some wealthier and urban recipients were paid multiple times. Nearly a third of payments arrived only after flooding had peaked. The New Humanitarian
• Somali piracy is resurging, with at least 15 attacks recorded in 2026, eight of them in the Gulf of Aden since May, driven by reduced US and Israeli naval patrols now focused elsewhere, 9.2% Somali inflation, aid cuts, and an estimated $300 million in annual losses to illegal foreign fishing. Turkish forces freed the hijacked cargo ship MV Lutuf on August 29, killing 14 pirates. Al Jazeera
• Niger's government put down an attempted mutiny at Base 101 near Niamey's airport involving hundreds of soldiers from regions hit hard by losses against al-Qaeda- and ISIL-linked groups. Russia's Africa Corps, with 200 to 300 personnel at the base, provided "ground and aerial support" to help restore control, marking the most serious internal challenge yet to General Abdourahamane Tiani's rule. Al Jazeera
• Zambian opposition leader Brian Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu were charged with treason after the disputed August 13 election, in which Mundubile's party placed second; his legal challenge to the results was blocked when courts closed before the filing deadline. Al Jazeera
• Guinea-Bissau held a referendum on August 30 on shifting from a parliamentary to a presidential system, letting the head of state appoint or dismiss the prime minister and dissolve parliament. Turnout exceeded 55% with no reported incidents; results were not yet confirmed as of this writing. Al Jazeera

• Colombia's military killed 10 people, including three minors aged 15, 15 and 16, in an August 27 airstrike on a FARC dissident faction in Guaviare department, the deadliest operation since President Abelardo de la Espriella took office. Human Rights Watch says armed groups have recruited at least 1,500 children since 2021, partly via social-media algorithms. Al Jazeera
• Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro posted his first photos from US detention in Brooklyn, taken June 25 and posted August 30, since his January 2026 capture by US special forces. He and his wife, Cilia Flores, face drug-trafficking and firearms charges they deny, with trial set for June 1, 2027; the photos surfaced two days after Venezuela's oil agreement with the US was announced. Al Jazeera
• The US and Venezuela's interim government under Delcy Rodriguez struck a deal giving the US majority control over roughly 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, which Trump says will "more than double" US reserves. Venezuela expects about $209 billion in treasury revenue and $100 billion in private investment, per Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though the deal's structure remains unspecified. Al Jazeera
• Ecuador's former President Lenin Moreno, who served 2017 to 2021, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison plus a permanent ban from public office over roughly $76.1 million in bribes allegedly paid by China's Sinohydro through fraudulent consulting contracts tied to the Coca Codo Sinclair hydro plant. China's former ambassador to Quito, Cai Runguo, also received five years. Al Jazeera
• Haitian gangs freed 13 captives, six children and seven women, on August 28, following an August 23 attack on Kenscoff near Port-au-Prince by roughly 150 armed men that killed at least 47 people, including inside a church, and displaced about 2,647 residents. Gangs now control up to 90% of the capital despite a United Nations-backed Gang Suppression Force deployed in April. Al Jazeera

• Defence and foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye are working to operationalise the "Mecca Agreement," a mutual-defence pact signed August 7 stating an attack on one signatory is an attack on all, with a focus on coordinating defence production. Al Jazeera
• Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Gaza on August 30-31, two near a municipal park and three in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City, plus two in Deir el-Balah including a three-year-old; the military said it targeted Hamas fighters but offered no evidence. Since the October ceasefire, 1,313 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, with nearly 73,500 dead in Gaza since October 2023. Al Jazeera
• Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a group of rabbis, settlers and security forces into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on August 31, performing Talmudic prayers barred under the 1967 status-quo arrangement; the Jerusalem governorate called it "a dangerous escalation." Al Jazeera
• Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asked Greece, during an Athens visit, to help enforce the US-brokered June framework requiring Hezbollah disarmament, Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and Lebanese army deployment there; implementation remains stalled as Hezbollah rejects the deal pending Israeli withdrawal and Israel continues operations in the area. Al Jazeera

• Poland's National Prosecution Office opened a terrorism and sabotage investigation into a fire that broke out shortly after midnight at the WB Electronics defence factory in Skarzysko-Kamienna, which makes drone components for Ukrainian and Polish forces. Authorities suspect deliberate arson possibly tied to a "foreign intelligence service," with Russia widely suspected in a pattern of European sabotage. Al Jazeera
• Truck drivers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia are threatening to block regional European Union border crossings on September 14 unless Brussels grants an exemption from Schengen-area rules limiting non-Schengen drivers to 90 days per 180-day period, which they say halves their working time. A blockade could disrupt EU-bound food, fuel and medicine given the EU accounts for over 60% of Western Balkan trade. Al Jazeera
• A ferry travelling from Girne, Northern Cyprus, to Tasucu, Turkey, capsized around midday on August 31 after reportedly taking on water and an explosion near the bow. Eight are confirmed dead, 18 missing and 241 rescued of 267 aboard, with the captain and eight crew arrested amid survivor accounts of insufficient life jackets. Al Jazeera
• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accused Russia, Israel and "an ultra-right international" of spreading disinformation, including false claims that migrants entering Ceuta could not be deported, during a crisis in which roughly 70,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain's Ceuta enclave in late July, with an estimated 3,500 to 10,000 still there. He cited EU foreign-service research. Al Jazeera
• Greece signed a $3.5 billion air-defence and missile deal with Israel on August 31, announced around the same time Lebanon's president was in Athens seeking Greek help enforcing the Lebanon-Israel framework. Al Jazeera

• US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a Vance ally and Iraq war veteran confirmed in February 2025, has reportedly resigned amid prolonged tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over "Army transformation and readiness," becoming the latest senior Pentagon official to depart under Hegseth after the earlier removals of Army Chief of Staff Randy George and General Christopher Donahue. The White House has not confirmed acceptance. Al Jazeera
• General Dan Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin the military "has no plans" to send federal troops or National Guard members to polling places for the November 2026 midterms and has received no unlawful orders to do so, amid Democratic concern following Trump's past deployment of federal agents and Guard members to Democratic-led cities. Al Jazeera
• In a 5-4 ruling on August 31, the US Supreme Court let construction continue on Trump's $400 million White House ballroom and military complex, replacing the East Wing, while litigation proceeds, finding the challenging preservation group likely lacked standing. Chief Justice Roberts dissented, calling the decision "no victory for the separation of powers" and the project "likely unlawful" without congressional approval. Al Jazeera
• Trump urged US communities to embrace artificial-intelligence data centres, saying "let data reign" and warning opponents risk becoming "backwards and poor," even as a March Gallup poll found 71% of Americans oppose local data centres over power-grid strain, water use for cooling and noise. His administration backed a voluntary pledge for tech firms to cover their own energy costs, while some Republicans, including Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, have called for pauses. Al Jazeera
• Sony Music and Warner Music's publishing arms sued Anthropic in US federal court on August 31, alleging it downloaded hundreds of copyrighted songs via torrents to train the Claude model and that Claude can reproduce lyrics verbatim, seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work. Anthropic called the suit "recycling allegations" and cited fair use; it separately paid $1.5 billion last year to settle a related authors' class action. Al Jazeera
• A US federal judge postponed jury selection in the case against Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence official accused of building and planting the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270, after newly discovered evidence surfaced days before proceedings were due to start. Al Jazeera