Protests grip Bangladesh as pressure mounts on Yunus-led government
DHAKA, May 26 (Reuters) - Primary school teachers in Bangladesh joined public sector workers in protests against the interim government on Monday amid growing discontent and political uncertainty in the South Asian country.
Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, took over as interim head of the country of 173 million last August after deadly student-led protests forced then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.
Yunus' administration has faced pressure from civil servants, teachers, political parties and the military as the caretaker government attempts to guide the country through a fragile transition before holding a general election.
The government issued an ordinance on Sunday allowing the Ministry of Public Administration to dismiss public servants for misconduct without lengthy procedures, sparking outrage across the bureaucracy.
Government employees continued their demonstrations for a third consecutive day on Monday, calling the ordinance "repressive" and demanding its immediate withdrawal.
Thousands of teachers in government primary schools also began indefinite leave from work on Monday, demanding a hike in wages.
In the face of protests by the employees of National Board of Revenue, the interim government was forced on Sunday to withdraw an order to dissolve the tax body and replace it with two divisions under the finance ministry.
The strike was then called off.
Political uncertainty also deepened last week after a top student leader said Yunus said he could step down if political parties cannot agree on reforms and an election timeline.
Wahiduddin Mahmud, the planning adviser in Yunus' cabinet, however, said the de-facto prime minister was not quitting.
"We are not going anywhere till our job is done," Mahmud said during the weekend, adding that Yunus acknowledged the obstacles but remained committed to holding a fair election.
The interim government has been caught between competing demands for swift general elections and reforms. Yunus has said the elections could be held by June, 2026 while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has been pushing for polls by December.
Bangladesh's army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, added to the pressure by calling for elections to be held in December during a speech last week, expressing his dissatisfaction over the political situation.
Yunus convened a last-minute meeting of his Advisory Council on Saturday and also held talks during the weekend with the country's main political forces, including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the student-led National Citizen Party.
Leaders of other political parties also met Yunus.
"We are in a war-like situation," Yunus' press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday. "After the Awami League's activities were banned, attempts are on to destabilise us in various ways. We have to get out of this situation."
The registration of Hasina's Awami League party was suspended this month, effectively barring the party from contesting the next election.
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The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Thursday briefing: How Geert Wilders' exit from Dutch coalition might set up his own comeback
Good morning. The Dutch government dramatically collapsed on Tuesday after far-right politician Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition, citing his frustration over immigration and asylum policy. Shortly afterwards the prime minister, Dick Schoof, handed in his resignation to King Willem-Alexander. Fresh elections are expected in October. Until then ministers will remain in place in a caretaker capacity. There are a lot of players in this coalition and plenty of initials to keep track of (bear with me). In a political earthquake, Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) emerged as the largest party in parliament in the last election. The other coalition members were the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), which came third, the centrist New Social Contract (NSC), which came fourth, and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), sixth. It took six months of negotiations to piece this coalition government together, and 10 months for it all to come crashing down. Schoof called Wilders' decision 'irresponsible and unnecessary'. The VVD leader, Dilan Yeşilgöz, said she was 'shocked' by the 'super-irresponsible' move. Wilders, for his part, said he would 'fight the coming elections to make the PVV even stronger' with the goal of emerging on the other side as prime minister. In today's newsletter I spoke to Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist and leading expert on populism and the radical right who is based at the University of Georgia. That's after the headlines. US news | Donald Trump has signed a sweeping order banning travel from 12 countries and restricting travel from seven others, reviving and expanding the travel bans from his first term. Security concerns and visa overstays, the US president said, justified the move. 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This 'overwhelming' breakthrough could help overcome one of the biggest obstacles to a cure: the virus's ability to lie dormant in certain white blood cells. Unstable coalition governments aren't new on the Dutch political scene. The threshold for a party to enter parliament is quite low compared to other European countries. In 2002, a coalition government collapsed in less than 100 days. Still, this latest debacle stands out. Things were rocky for the coalition from the beginning. The two biggest parties, the PVV and NSC, were not especially eager to join the government, as Mudde explains, and neither was the VVD. They eventually reached an agreement that allowed the PVV to be part of the government, but barred Geert Wilders from becoming prime minister or taking a cabinet post. 'From the start this was a very unlikely coalition and they have been fighting about almost everything. That has a lot to do with the fact that Wilders isn't in the government. He's the leader of the biggest party who is very isolated,' Mudde said. It's important to remember that Wilders is the PVV. 'You have all these people in the government from Wilders' party who have no power because the only one who decides is Wilders. He's mostly communicating through Twitter,' Mudde added. The BBB and NSC are both new and inexperienced political parties that were slipping in the polls. The former dominant party, the VVD, was internally divided about joining the coalition and likely to have been searching for an exit strategy. 'Despite this and despite a number of crises, the government survived 2024,' Mudde said. Then came the so-called issues around immigration and asylum. From all accounts, none of the other coalition parties saw it as a crisis – except Wilders. What were Wilders' immigration policies? Wilders had wanted to adopt a 10-point plan to radically reduce immigration and asylum. This included enlisting the army to secure and patrol the borders, turning all asylum seekers back when they reached the Netherlands, closing refugee accommodation facilities, deporting all Syrian refugees, suspending EU asylum quotas, and banning family members joining refugees already in the country. Unsurprisingly, legal experts said several of these proposed policies breached European human rights laws or the UN refugee convention, to which the Netherlands is a signatory. Still, Mudde said the government had tried to bring immigration down through drastic measures. For one, the government wanted to declare a national immigration crisis, which would have granted special powers, but a court struck it down as unconstitutional. 'They have passed many other legislations, but of course it has to be implemented. And that often takes a long time. This is much more about impatience than about not having policies passed,' Mudde said. One of the parties in the coalition was against declaring an immigration crisis. 'But they mostly didn't want to do that because it was clear that it would be struck down by the court. So the difference between the parties has not so much been about what we should do. It is much more about how to do it. It is not as if these other parties have said, no, you are too extreme. They've pretty much given Wilders everything on immigration,' Mudde added. What the government did push for, he said, was bringing immigration down within the legal framework of Dutch liberal democracy. Why did he pull out? Wilders' decision to pull out of the coalition is widely seen as bizarre. Recent polls show the PVV has lost significant voter support since its shock election victory in November 2023. The party is now polling at about 20%, roughly level with the Labour/Green alliance, currently the second-largest bloc in parliament (more on them soon). 'There is no strategic decision here. It is being framed by the other parties as him being unreliable, and this plays into the broader narrative of populists being irrational, like he is some kind of Trump. He is not reckless usually, so this is a very odd decision,' Mudde said. Unlike some other far-right politicians, Mudde added, Wilders is a true believer. 'Wilders has been living for more than 15 years under 24/7 police protection because of the threat of jihadists. And while he denies that this has affected the way he looks at the world, there's no way that this hasn't impacted him.' For Wilders, the fight against immigration, or more bluntly, against Islam and Muslims, is existential. 'It is the only issue for him, it is fundamental. He's not concerned about surviving as leader because he is the party. He believes that the government didn't do what he wanted, so he got out of the government. It's an ideological decision, which strategically doesn't make much sense. That is very rare in politics: to put ideologies over strategy.' What happens next? It is hard to predict who will come out on top in the October election – and much of what is happening now may be forgotten by then. After the collapse, Wilders came out swinging with one clear message to voters: I wasn't allowed to implement the radical changes the country needs. Vote for us because we're too big to ignore. The VVD, under Dilan Yeşilgöz, has responded in a way reminiscent of former prime minister Mark Rutte, Mudde explains: acknowledging that immigration is a major issue but insisting that far-right populists like Wilders are all talk and no delivery. Yeşilgöz hasn't ruled out governing with Wilders again. That risks a repeat of the 2023 election, which was framed around immigration and whether Wilders should be allowed into government, which is a narrative that ultimately benefits him. There is still a chance the VVD could pivot back to traditional issues, such as lowering taxes, he added. If that happens, the Netherlands could end up with a centrist government made up of the VVD, GroenLinks–PvdA, D66, and the Christian Democrats, 'bringing the Netherlands back to where it has been for a long time'. According to Mudde, two key players in setting the political tone are the Dutch media, which has been 'obsessed' with the far right and immigration since the 2002 assassination of Pim Fortuyn, and the VVD itself. 'Politicians create their own realities,' Mudde says. 'And so just as Starmer thinks that if he is going to be Reform-lite, then he's going to win back the white working-class vote, which he never lost actually, the VVD has a similar story: they think that if we campaign as the trustworthy anti-immigrant party, then we will win back the voters who we lost to Wilders.' But if they choose to focus on immigration, the media will follow, and the far right will benefit, he added. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion And what of the centre left? The Social Democrats and the Greens are running on a joint list and are very close to merging, Mudde explains. That's made them more interesting to the media and helped them poll neck-and-neck with the far-right PVV. 'They've got Frans Timmermans, who's a heavyweight. But they haven't been able to truly shift the discourse. He'll likely campaign against the far right — 'Vote for us, or you'll get Wilders' — but that still keeps the focus on Wilders,' Mudde said. 'Whereas if you campaign on housing, education, healthcare, which are major issues in the Netherlands, then you force the VVD to have a position on that. You even force Wilders to have a position on that.' 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Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Diddy's political ties revealed as photos show mogul mingling with Washington DC elite
The blockbuster sex-trafficking trial of Sean ' Diddy ' Combs has seen four weeks of bombshell testimony, shocking evidence and many elites have been named-dropped throughout. Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors claim Diddy coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using sex and violence. The rapper has denied all accusations, insisting all sex acts were consensual. They 55-year-old music mogul faces several more weeks of grilling, but if convicted he could be facing decades of prison time. In the case of a guilty verdict, Diddy may have to use his ties with Washington, DC elite for help obtaining a pardon - which his 'good friend' Donald Trump has said he would consider. Although Diddy has often endorsed Democrats throughout the years, including Joe Biden in 2020, he has been photographed with members across the political spectrum. Here takes a look at all of the politicians this music mogul has mingled with over the years. Donald Trump Trump and Diddy have been pictured together on several occasions over the past two decades, largely owing to the fact they both ran in elite New York City circles. 'Donald Trump is a friend of mine, and he works very hard,' Diddy said of Trump in October 2015. During a 2012 episode of The Apprentice, Trump praised the music mogul saying, 'I love Diddy. You know, he's a good friend of mine, he's a good guy.' On Friday, the president took a wide stance from their previous ties, saying he would 'look at the facts' of the case and then would decide if he would pardon Diddy, noting he and rapper used to have a friendly relationship. Trump added: 'If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact.' Barack Obama Combs campaigned for Obama throughout the years and attended his inauguration in 2009. The former president was bizarrely mentioned during the federal trial in shocking testimony about drug-taking at the rapper's infamous 'freak off' parties. Diddy's former personal assistant David James testified that A-listers would pop pills including Percocet and ecstasy at the parties. He did not say Obama was ever in attendance at the parties - but said celebrities would celebrate with 'various pills in the shape of the former president's face.' New York City Mayors Eric Adams gave Diddy a key to the city in September 2023, just two months before his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit against the rapper alleging he raped her and physically abused her over the course of 10 years. In a surfaced clip from when the Mayor gave Diddy the key at a Times Square ceremony, the Democrat leader of the Big Apple said: 'The bad boy of entertainment is getting the key to the city from the bad boy of politics.' Diddy has also been pictured with Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg throughout the years. However, he did 'infuriate' Bloomberg in 2011 over claims he got a police escort to help him beat the traffic and get a $75,000 payday at a concert in New Jersey. Mayors of Major US Cities Diddy had been honored by several major cities around the country before he became embroiled in scandal. Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine gave him a key to the city in 2015 and he was given the honor of 'Diddy Day' by Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in 2005. Diddy also campaigned for Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum during his 2018 Florida gubernatorial campaign.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
NYC mayoral hopeful brutally mocked over 'diabolical' breakfast order
NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has been blasted online over his breakfast order after confessing he preferred an English muffin to a bagel in a new interview. Cuomo ignited harsh criticism after he was asked 'what is your bagel order or favorite breakfast sandwich?' as he answered 10 questions for the New York Times. He candidly admitted: 'Bacon, cheese and egg on an English muffin, and then I try to take off the bacon, but I don't really take off the bacon. 'The bagel I try to stay away from, to keep my girlish figure.' The Democrat, 67, is attempting to make a political comeback after his resignation from office in 2021 following a slew of sexual harassment allegations, all of which he has denied. Yet, the controversial breakfast order may have foiled his chances as New Yorkers have dished out relentless disapproval of his brave admission. 'I have never seen my Jewish father so distraught as when he read that Andrew Cuomo 's bagel order is an English muffin,' one said. Another said: 'I don't understand how you don't have a normal answer to "what kind of bagel do you like" when YOU'RE RUNNING FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY.' To which one user responded: 'To be fair, his favorite borough is Westchester.' 'Answering the question of what's your bagel order with 'English muffin' as not only a New Yorker but a candidate for the MAYOR of NYC is DIABOLICAL,' one user commented 'Answering the question of what's your bagel order with 'English muffin' as not only a New Yorker but a candidate for the MAYOR of NYC is DIABOLICAL,' one user commented. Cuomo's phrasing while answering the question also has many doubtful of his New York ties. 'Cuomo saying "Bacon, cheese and egg" and not "Bacon, egg and cheese" shows his true colors,' one said. 'Guy is a psychopath.' 'Saying "bacon, cheese and egg" instead of baconeggancheese is not only disqualifying for Mayor but should result in deportation from the entire tri-state area,' another harshly suggested. 'The way my brain immediately autocorrected it to bacon, egg and cheese so I didn't see the problem until "girlish figure,"' another wrote. 'He's not winning any NYC office with that kind of information out in the public.' 'Nowwwwww Y would this man destroy his chance to win, Lol this is a sin to most of us NEW YORKERS.' 'This will probably lose him more voters than the sexual harassment and aged care home deaths.' However it wasn't only left to the public to rip the hopeful Mayor to shreds for the 'diabolical' order. City Councilwoman Joann Ariola posted on X: 'Honestly, calling it a "bacon, cheese and egg" instead of a bacon egg and cheese should be a disqualifying offense.' Zohran Mamdani, polling second behind Cuomo in the Democratic Party primary for the mayoral position, chimed in on the breakfast order at a press conference on Tuesday. 'It confirms so much of what we feared about Andrew Cuomo, not just that he doesn't know how to order a bacon, egg and cheese, but also the fact that this is a man who New York City has been something he's understood more through his television screen than actually by walking the streets,' Mamdani said, the New York Post reported. 'And we've seen that over the course of this campaign, he seems to be afraid of the city. 'He spends his time between his car and his $8,000 a month apartment in Midtown, and we don't ever know when we're going to see him, other than when it's legally required of him to be present.' But Cuomo is not the first to to have sacrilegious New York food tendencies, as one commenter wrote: 'I mean NYC did elect a mayor who ate pizza with a fork and knife.' Former Mayor Bill de Blasio caused a major stir across the five boroughs when he used utensils to chow down on a New York slice in 2014. A photograph of de Blasio using utensils spread across Twitter and prompted mock outrage among New Yorkers on blogs and news sites. Responding to the pizza palaver, de Blasio defended the approach, saying that his Italian ancestry is behind his decidedly un-New York pizza-eating style. The 2025 primary election in the heavily blue-leaning Big Apple is scheduled for June 24. Despite the food faux pas, Cuomo remains favored to win, though socialist Mamdani has been gaining. New York City uses ranked choice voting which could end up deciding who takes on Republican Curtis Sliwa and incumbent Eric Adams running as an independent in November.
