Thursday, Sep 3, 2026

• The High Court ordered an eight-week halt to road construction on Cox's Bazar beach sand dunes and adjourned related contempt proceedings for the same period, after the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association and Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh argued the work violated a 2011 High Court directive to preserve the beach's natural features and lacked required environmental clearance (The Daily Star).
• The Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating four people, including former interim government adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan, over alleged irregularities in recruitment, transfers and procurement syndicates at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, with the probe led by a four-member team headed by Deputy Director Md Zahid Kalam (Prothom Alo).
• Power and Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood was admitted to the coronary care unit of Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital in Dhaka on Tuesday night after developing fever, a cold and a cough, his personal assistant Abdullah Qayes said (Prothom Alo).
• The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources issued a circular guaranteeing rooftop solar users a grid feed-in tariff of Tk 10.50 per unit for three years, for systems installed by February 28, 2027, as an incentive to expand residential and commercial rooftop solar with battery storage (The Daily Star).
• Erosion washed away about 50 metres of the Burirhat cross dam in Rajarhat upazila, Kurigram, threatening roughly 20,000 people across six villages with flooding; Kurigram Water Development Board executive engineer Rakibul Hasan said geo-bags were being deployed to contain the damage (The Daily Star).

• Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired an emergency health meeting and said "no leniency will be shown to officials found guilty of criminal negligence," over the August 26 fire at the Mother and Child Healthcare Centre of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad that killed 14 infants; the government ordered criminal charges and suspensions against eight officials (Dawn).
• A member of the Ahmadi community was shot dead near the main Eidgah on Eidgah Road in Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, on Wednesday evening in what District Police Officer Kamran Amir Khan called an apparently targeted killing; two unidentified attackers fled after opening fire, police said (Dawn).
• The government raised petrol prices by Rs2.29 per litre to Rs346.16 and high-speed diesel by Rs1.11 per litre to Rs372.03, effective September 3, in the latest of the daily price revisions introduced this year amid market volatility from the US-Iran conflict (Dawn).
• The Islamabad High Court's division bench of Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas and Justice Shahrukh Arjumand set aside a 2022 single-bench verdict that had declared the Pakistan Naval Farms and the Pakistan Navy Sailing Club at Rawal Lake illegal, ruling that affected parties including retired Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi had not been given a fair hearing (Dawn).
• Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi welcomed the Permanent Court of Arbitration's decision affirming that the Indus Waters Treaty remains fully enforceable and that India cannot unilaterally suspend its obligations, calling it "an important reaffirmation of the sanctity" of the treaty (Dawn).

• Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya held bilateral talks with her Bhutanese counterpart, Dasho Tshering Tobgay, during a visit to Bhutan where she was due to deliver the keynote address at the inaugural Global Conscious Food Systems Summit 2026 (Daily Mirror).
• Independent trade unions and civil society groups distributed leaflets on September 2 opposing a government proposal to move the Employees' Provident Fund and the Employees' Trust Fund out of Central Bank of Sri Lanka control and place them under a three-member committee (Daily Mirror).
• Parliament's Sectoral Oversight Committee on Governance, Justice and Civil Protection has approved the Chief of Defence Staff (Repeal) Bill, which will go to its second reading debate in Parliament on September 9 (Daily Mirror).
• Sri Lanka's trade deficit widened 69 percent to US$6.51 billion in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka data, as import growth outpaced exports (Daily Mirror).
• The Women and Child Affairs Ministry warned that strict legal action will be taken against anyone who punishes or mentally harasses children over their Grade 5 Scholarship Examination results, following release of the 2026 results (Daily Mirror).
• Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath is undertaking an official visit to the United Arab Emirates from September 2 to 3 (Daily Mirror).

• The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation said 147 local elected representatives, government staff, teachers and security personnel are among those still unaccounted for after the August 26 Bhotekoshi floods in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, out of 3,916 people missing and 1,114 bodies recovered as of September 2; disaster management head Dipak Dhakal said the figures would be updated as new information emerges (The Kathmandu Post).
• Addressing the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Balendra Shah said the Bhotekoshi flood disaster was "a shared blow to the heart of the entire country" and that the government had declared affected municipalities crisis zones for three months, mobilised army helicopters and allocated 100 beds at the National Trauma Centre; this article put the death toll at 1,127 with 4,858 still missing, a different running total than reported the same day elsewhere (see note below) (The Kathmandu Post).
• Electricity exports to Bangladesh have fallen to effectively zero after the Chilime and Trishuli hydropower projects were damaged in the floods, Nepal Electricity Authority acting managing director Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha said, with total exports down from a wet-season average of 1,000 megawatts to around 650 megawatts and generation halted at 12 hydropower projects since August 26 (The Kathmandu Post).
• Rescue teams resumed searches on Wednesday at flood-hit hydropower sites including Rasuwagadhi, Langtang, Upper Trishuli-3A and Upper Trishuli-3B, with a 93-member team working through 1.5 metres of accumulated water at Upper Trishuli-3A and more than 9,200 Nepali Army personnel deployed across Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and Nawalparasi East (The Kathmandu Post).
• In parliament, Nepali Congress parliamentary leader Bhishma Raj Angdembe accused the government of delays in tunnel search and rescue operations, calling them "inhumane and serious," while Nepali Communist Party coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal called for broad national mobilisation and Rastriya Swatantra Party deputy parliamentary leader Ganesh Parajuli urged distinguishing flood-affected from unaffected areas to protect tourism (The Kathmandu Post).

• Bhutan hosted the inaugural Global Conscious Food Systems Summit in Paro, drawing more than 400 delegates from over 60 countries, even as the country's own farming sector struggles with a shrinking workforce, underfunded programmes and unused farmland (Kuensel).
• Construction on the 570-megawatt Wangchhu Hydroelectric Project entered its main phase with the first blast for the diversion tunnel, marking the start of underground excavation ahead of dam construction (Kuensel).
• EtonHouse International School opened on August 31, becoming Bhutan's first international school, combining an international curriculum with Bhutanese values (Kuensel).

Nepal's casualty count from the Bhotekoshi floods is moving fast: two Kathmandu Post articles published the same day gave different running totals (1,114 dead / 3,916 missing in one report, 1,127 dead / 4,858 missing in the other). Each item above uses only the figures given in its own source article; treat any single figure as provisional.

• Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, 29, pleaded guilty at Hong Kong's High Court on Wednesday to a charge of foreign collusion under Beijing's national security law, over allegations he asked foreign countries to sanction or take other hostile action against China and Hong Kong in 2020. He is already serving a nearly five-year sentence for subversion and faces three to ten years, or life if the offence is deemed "of a grave nature" (Al Jazeera).
• Vanuatu has filed an application with the International Court of Justice seeking control of the uninhabited Matthew and Hunter islands, currently held by France, arguing its decolonisation remains incomplete without them. The case cannot proceed unless France accepts the court's jurisdiction; talks in 2018, 2019 and 2025 had already reached an impasse (Al Jazeera).

• Hakainde Hichilema was inaugurated for a second term as Zambia's president on Tuesday after winning about 60 percent of the August 13 vote to opposition challenger Brian Mundubile's 38 percent. The European Union's election observation mission cited an "uneven playing field," Mundubile and running mate Makebi Zulu have been charged with treason and remain in custody, and former cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was fatally shot during an August 14 security-force raid tied to the dispute (Al Jazeera).
• Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission dismissed more than 40 staff over corruption and financial-malpractice allegations, with five facing prosecution. Chairman Ola Olukoyede said the commission cannot fight corruption "when your hands are soiled," and cited 1.23 trillion naira recovered and a 75 percent conviction rate since October 2023 (Al Jazeera).
• Human Rights Watch says Tunisia's crackdown on civil society has widened, documenting at least 47 people connected to non-governmental organisations prosecuted, 10 held in pre-trial detention beyond legal limits, 14 convicted and imprisoned, and 20 associations suspended. Human rights defender Saadia Mosbah was sentenced to eight years in March on financial-crime charges, and organisations including Amnesty International's regional office and the anti-corruption group I Watch have been targeted (Al Jazeera).
• Guinea-Bissau's referendum approved a new constitution expanding presidential powers, including the authority to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and dissolve parliament, with parliamentary seats cut from 102 to 65. The National Electoral Commission said 70 percent of voters backed the changes on roughly 60 percent turnout; the opposition PAIGC had called for a boycott (Al Jazeera).
• A mutiny at Niamey's Base 101 was put down after Russia's Africa Corps, 200 to 300 personnel, provided "ground and aerial support" at Niger's request, according to Russia's ambassador. State media said dozens were killed or arrested; General Abdourahamane Tiani's Presidential Guard stayed loyal and the government regained control (Al Jazeera).
• The World Health Organization's (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that Ebola transmission chains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo must be broken or "the epidemic will continue to pose a threat." The death toll has passed 3,000, up to 80 percent of new cases have no known contact link, and the funding gap exceeds $1 billion; Uganda's linked outbreak was declared over on August 26 (Al Jazeera).

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will use an upcoming Organization of American States meeting to pressure member states into ending "business as usual" with Nicaragua, calling the country's recent constitutional reforms, which restrict opposition parties and extend the presidential term from six to seven years, a "war on democracy" (Al Jazeera).
• Chevron said it will invest more than $7 billion to roughly double its Venezuela oil production to about 600,000 barrels a day within five years, adding acreage in the Orinoco Belt's Carabobo region. CEO Mike Wirth cited "confidence in the country's deep resource potential"; US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said total Venezuelan output should reach 2 million barrels a day by decade's end (Al Jazeera).
• A Honduran judiciary spokesperson said the "Pandora case" corruption charges against former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, alleging he received $2.3 million from a scheme diverting $10.8 million in state funds, have been dropped because the evidence "did not establish the defendant's participation." Hernandez, pardoned by US President Trump in December over a separate US drug-trafficking conviction, called it the end of "political persecution" (Al Jazeera).
• A car bomb attack at a police station in Colombia killed one person and injured more than ten, including police officers; no group has been named as responsible (Al Jazeera).

• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said at a Ynet conference that removing Palestinians from Gaza remains the only "real solution," saying Israel would pursue it "by sea, by air and by any means" once US backing returns; he said President Trump has only suspended, not cancelled, the plan. Egypt has refused to accept Palestinian refugees (Al Jazeera).
• Two Palestinians, named as Mohammad Na'ssan and Khalil Abu Aliya, both 19, were killed and two others critically wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire during a raid involving settlers on al-Mughayyir village in the occupied West Bank. The article says at least 79 Palestinians, including 19 children, have been killed in the West Bank by settlers or Israeli forces since 2026 began (Al Jazeera).
• The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Syria built a nuclear reactor in Deir Az Zor, constructed by North Korea and destroyed by Israeli air strikes in 2007, and found roughly 73 tonnes of undeclared natural uranium metal at another site. Director General Rafael Grossi visited Syria in August after inspectors were given access following Bashar al-Assad's removal; the new government has expressed interest in a civilian nuclear programme (Al Jazeera).
• Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his first visit to Egypt in a decade, told President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that Middle East countries are "the masters of their own affairs" and offered to help safeguard regional shipping lanes. The two agreed to expand Chinese investment in Egypt's industrial zone near the Suez Canal (Al Jazeera).
• Brazilian activist Thiago Avila called for Tunisia to release four Tunisian Global Sumud Flotilla organisers, Nabil Channoufi, Ghassan Henchiri, Ghassan Boughdiri and Wael Naouar, held for over five months on money-laundering and fraud allegations after the flotilla's August 2025 attempt to deliver aid to Gaza. He said one detainee has been on hunger strike for at least seven days and is in critical condition (Al Jazeera).

• A jury in Valletta acquitted Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, 44, of complicity and criminal association to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, voting 8-1 after eight hours of deliberation. Caruana Galizia's sons said "institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed" (Al Jazeera).
• EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc is pursuing further sanctions on Russia, including on 1,600 additional individuals and entities, after three explosive-carrying drones were found at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. She called it "state-sponsored terrorism"; Russia denies involvement and says the evidence was "planted" (Al Jazeera).

• The US hosted a G20 innovation meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on September 1, where Trump tech adviser Michael Kratsios promoted the "Carolina Principles" against treating artificial intelligence (AI) as an isolated policy problem; Elon Musk argued new technologies "must be default legal." The same day, the European Commission sent information requests to more than 30 AI companies as a step toward compliance investigations under its AI Act, with tech-sovereignty vice president Henna Virkkunen saying the goal is development that occurs "safely and transparently" (Al Jazeera).