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What We’re Watching: Trump and Musk feud, Russia retaliates, Bangladesh sets elections
Will Trump and Musk kiss and make up?
The extraordinary public feud between US President Donald Trump and his former government efficiency czar Elon Musk continues. Despite late night reports that the two alphas were seeking detente, Trump was reportedly unwilling to engage with Musk again on Friday morning. The potential break-up risks fracturing the MAGA coalition and could affect Trump’s efforts to pass his “big beautiful” spending agenda (which Musk has called “an abomination.”) And if things get really ugly, could Musk actually start a third party?
Russia responds “very strongly”
Russia has pounded Ukraine with airstrikes over the past 24 hours, in response to Kyiv’s recent drone attacks which crippled a third of Russia’s strategic bombers. The ferocious exchange comes after Ukraine-Russia talks earlier this month went nowhere: Kyiv wants an unconditional ceasefire, Russia wants only a partial one. Trump, who spoke with Putin this week and warned that Russia would respond “very strongly”, said yesterday the two sides, already at full-scale war since 2022, may “need to fight for a while.”
Bangladesh to hold elections next spring.
Bangladesh, a South Asian country of 173 million people, will hold national elections in April 2026, the country’s de facto prime minister, Muhammad Yunus, announced on Friday. The textile-exporting nation has been without an elected leader since a student uprising last August forced then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party had pushed for an election this December, but Yunus said he wanted to ensure a free and fair electoral process before sending voters to the polls.A view of the city of Tehran, Iran, amid pollution.
Hard Numbers: Tehran’s pollution closes schools, Social media swing vote, Militia controls Myanmar-Bangladesh border, Signs of Assad-era torture, Big boost for Ukraine
10 million: Officials in Tehran, a city of more than 10 million people, closed elementary schools and kindergartens on Saturday and Sunday because of dangerous levels of air pollution. On Tuesday, they announced the closure of all governmental offices, universities, and schools on Wednesday and Thursday. Schools will move classes online. In Iran, schools are generally open from Saturday to Wednesday.
45: A new survey found that 45% of “Swing voters” in the US presidential election reported getting most of their news from social media. Just 39% cited local news as their primary source of information, and 38% cited broadcast news.
168: A militia fighting on behalf of the Buddhist Rakhine minority group has driven Myanmar’s army out of its last outpost along the country’s 168-mile border with Bangladesh. This rebel group now claims control of the northern part of Rakhine state, where locals have pushed for independence.
40: The HTS rebels who now control Syria’s government say their search of a hospital morgue has discovered 40 bodies that show signs of torture by former dictator Bashar Assad’s security forces. Human rights groups say more than 100,000 people have disappeared since Assad ordered the 2011 crackdown on protests that ignited the country’s civil war.
20 billion: The US confirmed that it has sent $20 billion to Ukraine from seized Russian assets as part of a $50 billion G7 package to make Russia “bear the costs of its illegal war, instead of taxpayers," in the words of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The US Treasury transferred the $20 billion to a World Bank fund; money handled by the World Bank cannot be used for military purposes. Instead, it is intended to be used for hospitals and emergency services. The move comes weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he would cut aid to Ukraine.
ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) activists hold placards as they protest demanding the release of Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das Prabhu, who was arrested in Bangladesh, in Kolkata, India, 29 November 2024. Chinmoy Krishna Das Prabhu, the spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote was arrested by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on November 25, accused of disrespecting Bangladesh's national flag during a rally.
India-Bangladesh trade war brews, Hasina accuses government of genocide
Anger in India over mistreatment of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority could spark a trade war. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has threatened to impose a five-day trade embargo against Bangladesh unless anti-Hindu violence ceases by next week, and possibly for “an indefinite period” in 2025. Some Indian businesses have already stopped exporting to Bangladesh, and Indian hospitals are reportedly refusing Bangladeshi patients.
Why the threats? Violence erupted last week after the arrest in Bangladesh of Hindu monk Krishna Das Prabhu on sedition charges following protests Prabhu led against anti-Hindu discrimination. Prabhu’s supporters stormed the Bangladeshi consulate in Agartala on Monday and reportedly hacked a Muslim lawyer to death in Chattogram.
Hindus constitute less than 10% of Bangladesh’s 170-million-strong population and have long claimed discrimination and violence from the Muslim majority. Attacks intensified after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka in August following violent anti-government uprisings. On Wednesday, in her first public address since then, Hasina accused interim leader Muhammad Yunus of genocide.
What’s the issue for India? An ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hasina now lives in exile in India, complicating Delhi’s relationship with the new Bangladeshi administration. Bangladesh is a key ally for India’s border security, particularly in the northeastern states where armed insurgents frequently cross the border to escape local authorities.
People walk against strong wind in Kagoshima on Aug. 29, 2024, as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall on Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu.
Hard Numbers: Typhoon pummels Japan, Germany deports Afghans, Press freedoms attacked in Hong Kong, Israel and Hamas pause for vaccinations, Hundreds lost eyesight in Bangladesh violence
5.2 million: At least three people have been killed by Typhoon Shanshan in Japan, and on Thursday, evacuation notices were issued for over 5.2 million people as the storm pummeled the southwest part of the island, bringing torrential rain and 112 mph wind gusts. More than 200,000 households lost power, and authorities have warned it could be one of the strongest storms ever to hit the area.
28: For the first time since August 2021, Germany has dispatched a deportation flight to Afghanistan. Authorities said the 28 deportees were all Afghan nationals and convicted offenders “who had no right to stay in Germany.” The German government had stopped sending Afghans back to their native country after the Taliban regained power owing to human rights concerns. The flight departed early Friday and was the culmination of two months of secret negotiations aided by mediator Qatar.
2: Two former editors of the pro-democracy publication Stand News — Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam — were convicted of sedition in Hong Kong on Thursday, in yet another sign of the deterioration of freedoms in the city as Beijing continues to tighten its grip in a territory that was once mostly autonomous. They face up to two years in prison and a fine of roughly $640. This was the first trial involving media in Hong Kong since the handover of the city from Britain to China in 1997.
640,000: It’s far from a cease-fire deal, but Israel and Hamas have agreed to zoned three-day pauses in fighting so polio vaccines can be administered to approximately 640,000 children, a World Health Organization official said Thursday. This process will begin on Sunday in central Gaza, followed by the southern part of the enclave and then the north. The agreement leaves room for the pauses to be extended to a fourth day if necessary. This announcement comes less than a week after the WHO confirmed a baby in Gaza had been paralyzed by polio.
1,000: Over 1,000 people were killed by violence in Bangladesh that broke out last month amid anti-government protests, the country’s interim health ministry chief said Thursday, adding that more than 400 students lost their eyesight. The health ministry also noted that many people had their legs amputated. The protests ultimately saw Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flee the country in early August. Bangladesh now has an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.Handout file photo dated July 3, 2024 shows Boeing's Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA's Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port.
Hard Numbers: Stranded in space, Mexico’s shenanigans, Harris’ big haul, Rohingya remember their roots, Deadly ID checks
8: American astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were expecting to spend just 8 days in space when they blasted off in July — but they’ll now be stuck aboard the International Space Station for 8 months thanks to severe problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, and Wilmore and Williams will have to catch a ride home on the next SpaceX rocket, which will arrive in February.
73: Mexico’s governing coalition is set to receive 73% of the seats in Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, despite receiving just 60% of the vote at the ballot box in June. Mexico’s proportional representation system has historically served to give smaller parties a voice in Congress. But outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador worked the system to his advantage by “lending” delegates from his Morena Party to smaller members of his coalition, thereby qualifying to take some of the proportional representation seats.
540 million: Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has raised over $540 million since she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, with a third of donations coming from first-time contributors — and two-thirds from women. The Trump campaign has not yet released fundraising figures for August, but Harris outraised him by a 4:1 ratio in July and currently leads by 3 percentage points in the New York Times’ national polling average.
7: Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees attended a ceremony in the pouring rain in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sunday, marking the seventh anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar. Having fled genocide, roughly 700,000 Rohingya, a visible Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, are currently sheltering in Bangladesh, where they are not particularly welcome. Recently ousted Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina tried twice to force the refugees’ repatriation, despite the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and the enduring threat to their lives.
22: The militant Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 22 people at a vehicle checkpoint in southwest Pakistan — part of a wave of militant separatist attacks over the weekend. Armed men stopped cars on a highway in Balochistan province, where security forces have been fighting the separatists, demanded identification, and singled out those from Punjab to be shot.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina holds a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo
Hasina faces murder investigation, issues plea for accountability from exile
Her statement from self-exile in India came just hours after Bangladeshi police launched a murder investigation against her related to the civil unrest. It will likely be the first of several cases accusing Hasina and other government officials of wrongdoing.
Hasina stepped down and fled Bangladesh on Aug. 5 after student protests, which began as demonstrations against a quota system for government jobs, morphed into a movement against Hasina’s administration. She is accused of being responsible for much of the deadly violence – more than 300 people were killed – that ensued.
According to her son, Hasina plans to return to Bangladesh when the caretaker government, led by Nobel-winning microfinance guru Muhammad Yunus, holds elections. But that could change if the results of the investigations leave her facing jail time if she returns.Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus during the inauguration of the Muhammad Yunus place in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, on July 22, 2024.
Bangladesh taps Nobel laureate as interim leader
Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will lead the country’s interim government, student protest leader Nahid Islam announced Tuesday. The news came a day after the student-led uprising against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led to her fleeing the country. At a meeting with the military and other political stakeholders, student protest leaders proposed that Yunus should take the helm.
Who is Yunus? He’s a longtime critic of Hasina and called her resignation the country’s “second liberation day.” The 84-year-old was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microfinance to help impoverished people, particularly women.
In 2007, he announced he would form a political party when the country was run by a military-backed government but abandoned the idea. He has faced investigations and allegations of embezzlement ever since, which his supporters say are politically motivated because he challenged Hasina.
The challenge ahead: Yunus must reassure fellow Bangladeshis and restore order to the 170-million-strong population that’s been rattled by violent protests in recent weeks. Beyond that, he will need to shape the interim government and push for elections to choose the country’s next leader.
“I am honored by the trust of the protesters who wish for me to lead the interim government," he said in a statement. “If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country, and for the courage of my people, then I will take it.”
People waves Bangladeshi flags on top the Ganabhaban, the Prime Minister's residence, as they celebrate the resignation of PM Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 5, 2024.
How can calm be restored in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh faces an uncertain future after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday resigned and fled the country amid deadly mass protests. The demonstrations came as Hasina increasingly faced allegations of authoritarianism and sharp criticism from top human rights groups.
She referred to the protesters as “terrorists,” and the demonstrations were met with deadly force by security forces. The student-led protests began over quotas for government jobs but morphed into a broader movement against Hasina, who won a fourth term in January in an election that was boycotted by the opposition.
What happens next? Army Chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, who announced Hasina’s resignation, says an interim government will be formed in the days to come.
Zaman is calling for calm. “I promise you all, we will bring justice to all the murders and injustice. We request you to have faith in the army of the country,” he said in a message to the public. “Please don't go back to the path of violence and please return to non-violent and peaceful ways.”
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer applauded the “brave protestors” in a tweet on Monday and called for elections to be held soon. “It’s critical to establish a balanced interim government that respects the rights of all & sets up democratic elections swiftly,” Schumer wrote. The White House also emphasized the need for the formation of a “democratic and inclusive” interim government. We’ll be watching to see if the interim government, once formed, takes steps toward new elections.
Protest leaders say they will not accept a military-led government, and on Tuesday, one of their key demands was met when the country’s parliament was dissolved, paving a path for an interim government.
GZERO’s very own MD Khan, who has family members in Bangladesh who have seen the protests firsthand, says “people are excited but nervous” about what comes next, and there is concern that “what should be a new Bangladesh can quickly turn into mob rule” unless level-headed leaders take charge, unite the people, and put political ambitions aside.