Pineapple growers in Naogaon and Rangamatia unions of Fulbaria upazila in Mymensingh expect bumper production and sales this season. According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, farmers may earn more than Tk125.64 crore by selling Jaldubi, Calendar and Honeyqueen pineapples. The area, adjacent to Madhupur upazila, relies heavily on pineapple cultivation as a source of farmers’ income.

The upazila agriculture office recorded pineapple cultivation on 750 hectares this season: 315 hectares of Jaldubi, 425 hectares of Calendar and 10 hectares of Honeyqueen. Jaldubi cultivation rose by 65 hectares from last year. Farmers are increasingly choosing Jaldubi because it requires less time, land and production cost while offering higher returns. It produces a full crop within one year, compared with about one and a half years for Calendar and Honeyqueen varieties.

Production from 315 hectares of Jaldubi is projected at about 25.2 million fruits, valued at Tk63 crore at an average Tk25 each. Calendar pineapple sales could generate Tk61.2 crore, while Honeyqueen and other varieties may bring Tk1.44 crore. Farmer Solman Sarker said he sold Tk11 lakh worth of fruit from three acres planted with 60,000 seedlings.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman said ensuring access to justice is part of guaranteeing human rights, and the state must enable citizens to exercise their inherent and universal rights. He made the remarks on Saturday morning at the opening of a two-day coordination meeting in Rajendrapur, Gazipur, for the “Accelerating Digital Legal Aid Services in Bangladesh” project, attended by judges, legal aid officers and other stakeholders.

The meeting discussed how to effectively deliver digital legal assistance to disadvantaged and marginalised communities. Participants focused on strengthening and coordinating 57 upazila legal aid committees and 413 union legal aid committees across nine districts. The effort aims to help poor people, women, persons with disabilities and other underserved groups obtain legal advice and assistance, including opportunities to resolve disputes through mediation before going to court.

The minister directed steps to recognise eight outstanding legal aid officers, one from each division, and 20 judicial officers nationwide. He said Bangladesh has about 4.5 million pending cases and aims to reduce the number significantly within a year through combined use of legal aid, mediation, digital technology and judicial work. The second day on August 16 will discuss training, records, reporting and areas for improving digital services.

Farmers and potato traders in Kalai upazila of Joypurhat are facing losses as weak demand and lower-than-expected prices discourage them from releasing potatoes stored in cold facilities. As of the second week of August, potatoes sold at cold-storage gates for Tk920 to Tk960 per 60-kilogram sack, against an estimated production, transport, sorting and storage cost of about Tk1,400. The average loss is about Tk460 per sack.

According to the district Department of Agricultural Extension, only about 22 percent of potatoes kept in cold storage had been released by the second week of August, while around 78 percent remained stored. At the same time last year, about 45 percent had been released. This year, potatoes were cultivated on 39,330 hectares in Joypurhat, producing about 930,000 tonnes. The district’s 22 cold storages hold about 215,982 tonnes.

Farmers need funds for land preparation, seedlings, fertiliser and labour during the aman rice season, but say their capital remains tied up in storage. Traders reported losses of Tk4,000 to Tk5,000 per truck and Tk50 to Tk55 per sack in some cases. Exporter Md Sujaul Islam said overseas demand was also weak. An agricultural official said higher-than-needed production had lowered prices and authorities were coordinating to improve the market.

Bangladesh Commerce Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir said the country may take about two years to build the infrastructure needed to address its gas shortage. Speaking in Sylhet on August 15 after a workshop, he said conditions would become largely normal within the next two years once the required infrastructure is completed. He described the hardship facing industrial factories because of gas shortages as a long-standing inherited problem.

Muktadir said resolving the crisis requires increasing the capacity for gas imports and supply infrastructure. He said initiatives are being taken to raise liquefied natural gas imports. According to the minister, the coming two years are important for the industrial sector, and the government is also examining whether solutions beyond emergency and conventional arrangements can be used.

He cited a possible initiative involving Malaysia’s state energy company Petronas, under which LNG could be brought on large vessels and transferred at sea to smaller ships to increase supplies. The remarks followed a workshop on preparing district-level annual work plans for fiscal year 2026-27 and evaluating the previous year’s implementation under an agricultural development project using modern technology. Agricultural Department officials at different levels attended.

The death toll from a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Indonesia on Saturday has risen to 38, according to an official from the country’s disaster management agency. The update was reported on August 15, 2026.

Suharyanto, head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said at a news conference that 38 deaths had been confirmed. He said two people were seriously injured and 11 others sustained minor injuries in the earthquake.

Nearly 2,000 people moved to safer locations on their own after the quake, Suharyanto said. The reported death toll had previously been lower. Rescue and search operations remain under way, and authorities fear the number of fatalities could rise further.

France’s Constitutional Council on Friday blocked a bill that would have restricted social media use by children under 15. The court said the proposal interfered excessively with freedom of expression and communication and did not provide sufficient legal safeguards for personal privacy. The decision was seen as a political setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had previously instructed the government to redraft the measure.

Under the parliamentary-approved bill, children under 15 would have been barred from opening new social media accounts from September 1. Platforms would also have been required to close existing accounts within four months. The proposal required age verification through methods approved by France’s data protection regulator.

The court said the bill did not clearly define the conditions or limits for collecting and storing information used to prove users’ ages. The Elysee Palace said the Macron government remains determined to introduce revised legislation on social media regulation ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Google, Meta, Snap and TikTok gave no immediate comment after the ruling.

Hackers breached computer systems used by France’s tax administration and land registry in two separate cyberattacks in June and July, authorities said Friday. The Directorate General of Public Finances, or DGFiP, said the first attack compromised data from at least 678,000 individual and professional accounts. A second attack in July stole information from 200,000 land registry accounts.

The stolen tax-related data included names, income-related information and tax rates paid. A hacking group called Zerobytes had previously claimed responsibility in a dark-web forum. The group said it gained access through a virtual private network used by tax officials. Zerobytes claimed it took data from 250,000 land registry accounts linked to about 2 million people who own land and property.

The authority’s figure for affected land registry accounts is lower than the group’s claim. Zerobytes has also been linked to several previous cyberattacks on French government computer systems. In April, a major attack on ANTS, the agency responsible for identity-document applications and management, affected data of about 12 million individuals and professionals. France’s Finance Ministry also reported in February that information from 1.2 million bank accounts had been stolen in a major security breach.

Gas supplies have been fully shut off to 171 industrial factories in Habiganj, Bangladesh, halting production and leaving more than 150,000 workers idle, the report said. Supplies had been limited for the previous 20 days before being cut completely from Wednesday. The disruption is causing reported daily losses of more than Tk1,000 crore, while foreign orders are being cancelled or face cancellation because export shipments cannot be completed on time.

Managers at Jamuna Industrial Park, Badsha Pioneer, SM Spinning, Sayham Group, Habiganj Industrial Park and Square Denim said their factories had stopped operating after gas supplies ended. Several companies are fully export-oriented and rely on captive power systems for electricity, meaning production and internal power generation have both been affected. Officials cited idle workers, stopped output and risks to existing orders.

Jalalabad Gas T&D System Limited Deputy General Manager Md Ruhul Karim Chowdhury said the shortage is a national problem that began in late July. He said gas supply to power-generation centres was increased to maintain electricity production, forcing supplies to industries to be curtailed. He said the problem could be resolved within three to four days.

Social media platform X plans to end its current Creator Earnings program and introduce a replacement called Original Content Rewards for content creators. Creators can continue earning under the existing system until September 7, while eligible users will be able to apply for the new program from September 8.

Applicants must have an X Premium subscription, at least 500 verified followers, and a minimum of 500,000 views from verified users during the previous 90 days. The program will prioritize original material, including creators’ own photos, videos, reports, analysis, comments, memes, and graphics.

Content that makes only minor changes to others’ material will not be treated as original. Users who copy posts from other accounts or download and repost content will not qualify for earnings. X said some incentives in the old system had become less effective than expected. Allegra Zakia said creators should focus on producing new, valuable content rather than only earning more money. X may revise the program’s rules later based on user experience and circumstances.

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Flores Island at 5:58 a.m. local time on Saturday, killing two people and injuring one, according to the country’s disaster agency. Authorities issued a tsunami warning for affected coastal areas after the quake, which occurred off the coast of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The United States Geological Survey said the epicentre was about 68 kilometres north and northwest of Ende city, at a depth of 10 kilometres. Three aftershocks were felt within half an hour of the initial quake, with magnitudes of 5.9, 5.6 and 6.1.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, BNPB, said a man and a woman were killed at Maumere port, where another person was injured. Local media footage showed extensive damage to the port and other buildings, while areas around Maumere were reported to be severely affected. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, BMKG, urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks and move to higher ground.

Farmers in five villages across Cumilla’s Adarsha Sadar and Burichang upazilas say nearly 500 acres of agricultural land remain underwater for most of the year, causing major crop losses. The report, published on August 15, 2026, identified affected land in Maheshpur and Palpara of Amratali, and in Sholonal, Chhoygharia and Bhorasar. Farmers who once cultivated three crops annually now struggle to produce even one crop.

Residents alleged that influential people have narrowed the drainage canal by filling sections with soil in an attempt to create plots, while waste from Bhorasar market is regularly dumped into it. The canal runs from Maheshpur through Sholonal to the Payater water body. It has not been properly dredged or cleaned for a long time, they said. Recently planted transplanted Aman rice has submerged, and replanting would double farmers’ costs.

Agriculture officer Mohammad Nizam Uddin said drainage had previously been arranged by cutting soil in several places and that necessary measures would be discussed with the upazila executive officer. Executive officer Fatematuz Johra said an official had been sent for an on-site inspection, with canal excavation and action against those responsible for filling it to follow soon.

An LNG-related gas shortage disrupted CNG filling stations, transport services and household cooking gas across Bangladesh on August 15. Supply was limited or suspended at stations in several areas, leaving most stations effectively idle in Narayanganj and all filling stations shut in Brahmanbaria town. Long queues formed at filling stations in Dhaka, while reduced CNG vehicle operations contributed to passenger hardship and allegations that bus fares rose by Tk5 to Tk10 on some routes.

Drivers said they waited hours for limited fuel, while station operators cited inadequate pressure for normal filling. Operators also said they still had to run equipment despite reduced sales, raising electricity costs and financial losses. On the Araihazar-Madanpur route, passengers alleged fares had nearly doubled, with disputes and physical altercations reported amid fewer CNGs and buses.

CNG drivers and workers blocked roads in Chattogram and Sylhet in protest. Jalalabad Gas attributed low pressure to a technical fault at an LNG terminal and asked consumers to limit use to 50 percent. Petrobangla operations director Md Shoaib said winds near Maheshkhali were about 38 knots, preventing an LNG vessel from berthing; he said supply could normalize quickly once weather conditions allow docking.

Bangladesh’s Middle East-bound air ticket market is again facing allegations of syndicate activity as ministry directives on booking transparency and ticket disclosure are reportedly not being enforced. The report, published on August 15, 2026, says tickets often omit travel agency names, licence numbers and actual prices, while magistrate-led monitoring at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka has largely stopped.

A February 11, 2025 circular required bookings to include passengers’ names and passport numbers, and required Middle East group bookings to be confirmed with names within 72 hours. Investigators had found allegations that tickets were blocked indefinitely through unnamed group bookings and later sold at high prices through unauthorised agents. A government investigation reportedly found evidence of misconduct involving 11 international airlines, their GSAs and 30 travel agencies.

The report says the task force created to protect passengers is not visibly active, despite government promises of zero tolerance. Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Afrosa Khanam Rita said fares are set through dynamic pricing based on demand, time, season, seat availability and market conditions. She said ticket prices, agency names and licence numbers must be displayed, and agencies involved in abnormal charges or syndicates could face strict action, including cancellation of registration.

An Iranian supertanker began loading crude oil at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, despite a US naval blockade, according to vessel-monitoring firm TankerTrackers. The loading was detected on Friday, the first such case involving an Iranian supertanker at the island since late July. The report was published on August 15, 2026.

TankerTrackers said a Very Large Crude Carrier operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company was loading at the Azarpad jetty on Kharg Island. About 2 million barrels of crude oil were being loaded onto the vessel. Kharg Island normally handles about 90 percent of Iran’s total crude oil exports, making the activity significant for the country’s export operations.

The United States reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports in mid-July, creating uncertainty over Iran’s oil exports and maritime traffic. TankerTrackers said Iran’s overall oil production is currently broadly aligned with domestic demand. The firm said Iran may therefore not need to export very large volumes of oil.

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Flores region near Naggeokeo in East Nusa Tenggara province at about 4:58 a.m. local time on Saturday. Residents were initially instructed to move to safer places because of tsunami concerns following the quake. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, known as BMKG, later withdrew the tsunami warning.

The earthquake had a shallow depth of 15 kilometres and was centred about 30 kilometres northeast of Mbay town in Naggeokeo. BMKG said the strong quake created the possibility of a tsunami, prompting warnings for East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara provinces.

People in vulnerable areas had been told to evacuate quickly. BMKG said the initial tsunami concern was linked to the earthquake’s shallow depth. After reviewing conditions, the agency issued updated information and formally cancelled the warning, ending the tsunami alert imposed after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake.