About Tk60 lakh in unspent funds from a 10-kilometre canal excavation project in Guthia ইউনিয়ন of Uzirpur upazila, Barishal, has been returned to the government treasury. The project was completed under the overall supervision of Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Ali Suja, according to a report published on August 7, 2026.

The government had allocated Tk2.57 crore for the canal excavation, the upazila administration said. The work was implemented by Upazila Project Implementation Officer Md Mosharraf Hossain under Suja’s supervision. After the work was completed and accounts were settled, approximately Tk60 lakh remained unspent and was deposited in the treasury.

Suja said the allocation represented taxpayers’ money and that proper use and preservation of such funds were a moral duty for public officials. He said the returned money could be used by the government for other development work. Local informed groups described the return of unspent funds, following completion of the specified work, as a positive example of sound public financial management and accountability.

Millions of camels now roam remote desert and grassland areas of Australia, far from their original Arab desert habitat. British colonizers brought camels to Australia for transport in the 19th century, but many were released when vehicles reduced their usefulness. Australia’s camel population is estimated at between 300,000 and one million, according to the report.

Many of the animals have become feral, and authorities say they create problems in desert areas. They compete with livestock for food, damage fences, contaminate water sources and harm cultural sites of Indigenous communities. At the same time, trained and domesticated camels have created a limited export market, with farmers selling camel milk and sometimes exporting live animals.

So far in 2026, Australia has exported 68 camels to Malaysia and Indonesia. Trade data showed Australian camel meat exports exceeded $3.9 million in 2024. Warwick Hill, owner of Humpalicious farm in Robe, South Australia, sells camel milk for 20 Australian dollars per litre but says high labour costs and relatively low milk output keep prices high. The annual Marree Camel Cup is held in the remote town of Marree, about 600 kilometres north of Adelaide.

Several Chinese and Indian oil refineries are seeking vessels to transport discounted Iraqi crude through the Strait of Hormuz from Iraq’s Basra Oil Terminal, according to multiple shipping-industry sources cited by Reuters. The effort was reported this week, but no vessel charter agreement has yet been finalized because of security risks in the strait.

The sources said Iraq’s state oil marketing company SOMO is offering discounts of up to about $30 per barrel on Basra Heavy and Basra Medium crude for August delivery. The large price reductions are driving refinery interest in purchasing the Iraqi oil.

Shipowners are reluctant to send vessels through the Strait of Hormuz because of concerns about security conditions. Kpler data showed that only six crude oil tankers exited the strait this week, while 21 vessels entered it, most using Iranian waterways. Iran closed the strait when the US-Israel war began on February 28. Before that closure, an average of 130 to 140 ships used the important sea route each day.

Most teenagers in the United Kingdom do not want the government’s proposed overnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds, according to a Censuswide survey published Friday. The plan, announced in mid-July under former prime minister Keir Starmer’s government, would introduce default overnight limits on teenagers’ social media accounts. Among respondents aged 16 to 18, 85% said the restriction should be scrapped.

Under the proposal, users aged 16 and 17 would be unable to use social media platforms between midnight and 6 a.m., although they could turn off the setting. Nearly half of surveyed teenagers said they would disable the feature to communicate with friends and family, while 37% said they would opt out to watch online content. The measure is intended to complement a ban announced in June for users under 16 on platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Liane Proctor, head of regulation at the Online Responsibility Network, said a curfew alone was unlikely to prevent online harms. Of 1,000 teenagers surveyed, 2% said they avoid social media or short videos at night during school periods, while more than 18% said they watch content until 1 a.m. or later. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said changes to the voluntary approach would be considered if many teenagers disable the default setting.

Bangladesh received $602 million in remittances during the first five days of August in fiscal year 2026-27, according to the latest updated data from Bangladesh Bank. The amount was 83.7 percent higher than remittance inflows recorded during the same period of the previous fiscal year. The report said the upward trend in expatriate income continued into August, following the first month of the fiscal year.

Expatriates sent $196 million to the country on August 4 and 5 alone. From July 1, the start of the current fiscal year, through August 5, total remittance inflows reached $3.461 billion. During the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, the amount was $2.806 billion.

Total remittance inflows up to August 5 in fiscal year 2026-27 rose by 23.3 percent year on year. Bangladesh Bank said the continued tendency to send expatriate income through formal banking channels is strengthening the country’s foreign currency inflow. According to the central bank’s data, this is playing a positive role in foreign exchange reserves and the broader macroeconomy.

Bangladesh Bank will appoint administrators on Sunday as it moves to close five weak non-bank financial institutions, according to sources cited by Amar Desh. The government has already given final approval for the closures. The institutions are Peoples Leasing and Financial Services, International Leasing and Financial Services, Aviva Finance, FAS Finance and Investment, and Fareast Finance and Investment. Their existing boards will be suspended and managing directors’ contracts cancelled when administrators are appointed.

Administrators are initially expected at four institutions, excluding Peoples Leasing because of pending litigation and the absence of a court order. A Bangladesh Bank spokesperson, Arif Hossain Khan, said the closure process was under way and administrators would be appointed soon. At the end of last December, non-performing loan ratios at the five institutions ranged from 93 percent to nearly 100 percent.

The five institutions hold total deposits of Tk16,076 crore, including about Tk2,700 crore in individual deposits. Individual depositors are to receive priority repayment of up to Tk10 lakh. Four other institutions have been given three months to recover; if they fail, they will automatically enter the resolution process.

Europe’s Rhine River, a major transport route for industry and trade, is facing severe drought and record-low water levels, disrupting cargo movement and raising costs. The report, published on August 7, 2026, said water levels fell this week to their lowest since official measurements began in 1880. Large vessels are carrying less freight, while cargo is being shifted in some places to smaller boats, trucks and rail, adding pressure to German industrial production.

The roughly 800-mile Rhine runs from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea through six countries and carries about 300 million tons of goods annually. In parts near Duisburg, water is only slightly more than four feet deep, forcing some ships to unload up to two-thirds of their cargo. The 564-foot W. D. Beijers Senior, which normally carries 5,000 tons of iron ore, is currently limited to 1,200 tons.

Low water has also affected the Danube, raising concerns over water used to cool nuclear reactors in Hungary and Romania. Research cited by the report estimates that a month of low-water conditions could cut German industrial output by about 1 percent. Companies have expanded storage and other preparations, but only a few of roughly 8,000 cargo ships on the Rhine are specially designed for shallow water.

Bangladesh’s state-owned Jamuna Fertilizer Factory in Jamalpur has remained closed since January 15, 2024, after gas shortages were cited as the reason for suspending production. It had not restarted by August 5, 2026. Factory-related officials say production could have continued at about 1,200 metric tons of urea a day even with limited gas supplies if the required pressure had been ensured, while the shutdown has forced imports.

According to sources cited in the report, the plant could have produced about 36,000 metric tons of urea monthly. Imported urea now costs about Tk88,000 per ton, requiring monthly imports worth Tk316.8 crore, compared with an estimated domestic production cost of Tk79.2 crore for the same volume. The report estimates the additional spending over more than two and a half years at about Tk7,365.6 crore.

Factory officials say the plant needs gas pressure of only 42 to 43 PSI and that supplies to some lower-priority industries could have been adjusted. Bangladesh Fertilizer Association representatives said the factory’s fertilizer is popular with farmers and that its closure increases market pressure and import dependence. General Manager Fazlul Haque said regular gas supply could significantly reduce reliance on fertilizer imports.

China’s Einstein Probe space telescope detected an unusual X-ray flash in March from a stellar explosion about 500 million light-years from Earth. Within an hour, telescopes around the world turned toward the distant source, which scientists identified as a supernova. The observations captured the brief initial light known as shock breakout, when a shock wave escapes a star’s outer layers. Two papers on the observations were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 14.

Researchers said this was only the second direct observation of a supernova shock wave in the past 20 years. The event was classified as a Type Ic broad-lined supernova, but its shock breakout was the faintest yet seen for that class. No gamma-ray burst was detected, despite follow-up with sensitive instruments. Co-author Brendan O’Connor said no evidence of such a burst was found, while one possibility is that a jet was trapped by the star’s surface or surrounding material.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, Gemini North and South, and other facilities contributed follow-up observations. The dead star was a Wolf-Rayet star with roughly 20 times the Sun’s mass and had expelled hydrogen and helium before its explosion. Scientists plan to seek more shock-breakout observations to examine whether similar stars undergo comparable final stages.

Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the United States declined in the first six months of the year, but the drop was smaller than for China and India, according to a Thursday report by the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, or OTEXA. The United States is Bangladesh’s largest single-country garment market, receiving about 20 percent of the country’s total apparel exports.

US apparel imports fell 8.04 percent year on year to $35.09 billion from January through June, amid higher tariffs and pressure on global demand. Imports from Bangladesh declined 5.75 percent to $4.01 billion. In contrast, imports from China dropped 37.69 percent and imports from India fell 25.27 percent. Bangladesh’s apparel imports rose 5.74 percent year on year in June alone, reaching $763.57 million.

By volume, US apparel imports from Bangladesh fell 3.69 percent, compared with declines of 26.30 percent for China and 22.74 percent for India. Bangladesh’s average unit price declined 2.15 percent, the same decrease recorded for Vietnam. The price decline was close to Pakistan’s but lower than the declines reported for China and India.

Bangladesh will begin sending new workers to Malaysia through BOESL in the final week of August, Mahdi Amin said at a meeting with journalists at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. The announcement was reported on August 6, 2026, and concerns the reopening of worker recruitment to Malaysia.

Amin addressed the press as the prime minister’s representative in the presence of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury, who was visiting Malaysia. Amin is identified as the minister’s spokesperson and an adviser to the prime minister.

He said senior-level discussions between the two countries had been positive and productive, aimed at reopening the previously closed labor market and swiftly completing arrangements for transparent, low-cost worker recruitment. The government is committed to keeping the labor market free of syndicates and transparent so ordinary workers can travel safely to Malaysia at lower cost, he said.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry administrator Md Fazlul Haque welcomed the successful signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA, between Bangladesh and South Korea. In a Thursday press release, he said the agreement would expand business and trade between the two countries and strengthen their economic relationship. He also congratulated the commerce minister and relevant officials for completing the agreement quickly and successfully.

According to the FBCCI administrator, bilateral import-export trade between Bangladesh and Korea stands at $1.39 billion. Bangladesh imports goods worth $903 million from Korea and exports goods worth $492 million, leaving Bangladesh with an estimated trade deficit of about $411 million.

Haque said nearly 97 percent of Bangladeshi products, or 8,428 items, would be able to enter Korea's developed market duty-free under the agreement. He expressed hope that exports of garments and other products would rise substantially and help Bangladesh address its post-LDC graduation situation. He also cited opportunities for leather goods, footwear, pharmaceuticals and agricultural products, alongside increased technical cooperation. South Korea imports about $12 billion in garments annually, with only 3 percent currently sourced from Bangladesh, he said.

Turkey’s olive oil exporters have raised concerns that possible US taxes and trade barriers could create new challenges for the country’s exports in international markets. They called for swift action, warning that olives, described by Turkish farmers as “green gold,” are a valuable agricultural product and a key part of the sector.

Industry businesses said additional tariffs or taxes in the US market could raise the price of Turkish olive oil and weaken its position in international competition. The United States is one of the important markets for Turkey’s olive oil, meaning such a decision could place significant pressure on exporters.

Exporters said the industry involves not only large companies but also thousands of farmers and small producers, so barriers in export markets could affect the broader production system. Turkey is among the world’s important olive and olive oil producing countries and has been trying to expand export markets in recent years. Exporters described maintaining access to the US market as strategically important and urged rapid diplomatic and commercial initiatives to address potential tax barriers.

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) said the ongoing 2026-27 budget centers on easing government controls on businesses and adopting investment-friendly policies. The measures were outlined on Thursday at a briefing titled “Investment Related Budget Outcome for Fiscal Year 2027-27” at BIDA’s conference room in Investment Bhaban, Agargaon, Dhaka. Prime Minister’s adviser Rehan Asif Asad attended as chief guest, while BIDA Executive Chairman Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun chaired the event.

BIDA said businesses can be started within 14 days through a single-window system, with automatic approval if service-level agreement deadlines are exceeded. The budget identifies tax policy as a tool to support an investment-production-employment cycle and prioritizes export diversification, local value chains, renewable energy and technology use. Ten new export sectors, including motorcycles, speedboats and handicrafts, can import duty-free raw materials through bank guarantees without bond licences.

The budget removes turnover tax for startup sandboxes and provides a Tk500 crore startup fund. Import tax on electric vehicles priced below $25,000 has been reduced from 94 percent to 64 percent, while charging stations receive full duty exemptions. BIDA also cited duty-free solar components, zero income tax for solar-power businesses, lower advance income tax on cotton imports, and customs-duty exemptions for specified pharmaceutical raw materials.

The Trump administration has returned nearly $100 billion to importers in the United States after courts struck down a major portion of tariffs imposed on goods from various countries using emergency powers. Al Jazeera reported the figure, citing US customs authorities. The report was published on August 6, 2026.

In February this year, the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 to invalidate a major part of the administration's tariff policy. The court said imposing tariffs at such high rates through emergency economic powers was not lawful. Before the ruling, the administration had collected about $166 billion in tariffs from importers. Lower-court judges subsequently directed US Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, to begin the refund process.

In a court filing submitted Tuesday, CBP said it had accepted refund claims exceeding $128.68 billion for processing, with more than three-quarters already returned. Trade lawyer Ted Murphy and analyst Walker Livingston expressed surprise at the speed of the refunds. US lawmakers, however, alleged that the money is largely going back to large companies rather than consumers and small businesses that ultimately bore the higher tariff costs.