Abdullah Shibli

Bangladesh newspapers bring me good news and sometimes not so good ones too. In the latter category, I include accounts of tailbacks, road accidents, power failures, and factory fires.

Since March, when President Trump announced his plan to slap tariffs on USD 50 billion Chinese imports to the USA, the world has been anxiously waiting to find out about the nature and extent of China's response.

The recent announcement by a German foundation that Bangladesh is no longer a democracy has caused a stir in national and international media. The Bertelsmann Foundation, which tracks democracy around the globe, published its latest report showing that Bangladesh has slipped in its “democracy Index” measurement and has joined four other countries, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Uganda in the category of “new” autocracies.

Some of my readers might ask: Why bring up this issue once again since it has always been an implicit goal of the development plans and governmental efforts? Because, we have not been getting the bang for our buck.

Happenings in China always make the headlines around the globe. Two recent events, one in the political arena and the other in the economic policy domain, will have profound, long-term impacts not only in China but also geopolitically. The first event happened in Beijing. President Xi Jinping secured a lifetime job by having the National People's Congress endorse his desire to continue ruling beyond the two-term limit set by the Constitution.

European Union (EU) President Jean-Clause Juncker warned the United States (US) on March 2 that EU will retaliate in kind if President Trump follows through with his plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Europe.

Reduction of gender inequality is a goal embraced by nations across the globe.

Just as the United States is in the process of pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, US government data revealed that the need for action to stem global warming is as urgent as ever.

The Rohingya repatriation programme, agreed upon by Bangladesh and Myanmar, is off to a rocky start.

It is well known that President Trump's much-ballyhooed recent tax cuts will have a major negative impact on the US federal budget, and according to some estimates, will lead to a USD 1.5 trillion increase in national debt.

I have been a voracious consumer of news trivia since my Dhaka University days when I was quite a BBC World News addict.

We were in Cambridge, Massachusetts, waiting for a table at a popular restaurant. There were only two benches and a chair arranged

On December 7, 2017 during a debate in parliament, David Davis, a high ranking British Cabinet Minister, voiced his frustrations with economists, particularly with their practice of creating economic models and predicting the course of events using these models.

Winter is coming, and the now more than 620,000 Rohingyas living temporarily in Bangladesh need to worry about adequate winter clothing, food, and possible firewood to burn to keep them warm for the next few months.

The Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organization will be held on December 10-13 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The meeting of this highest decision-making body of the WTO, which meets at least once every two years, is taking place at a critical moment of the free trade movement.

At a recent event in Dhaka, Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, the former finance adviser to caretaker government, identified a key dilemma that policymakers often face.

The US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, sent mixed messages at the news conference in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, at the conclusion of his brief visit to Myanmar on November 15.

The year 2017 can be chalked down as a prosperous one for the world economy. Wherever we live, as we celebrate the end of a good year, we also welcome the incoming year, which, by all indications, we hope, will be a better one.

A news item that probably did not get much attention in Bangladesh media was an announcement in The Hague that an international court has accepted a case against two well-known fashion brands in March 2018.

Bangladesh has been taking in Rohingya refugees from Myanmar since the 70s, right after independence, and the rate accelerated in the 1990s. Currently, we are sheltering, feeding, and providing various assistance to well over a million refugees and it is possible that the situation might get worse before it gets better.