United News of Bangladesh

Dhaka's air quality remained unhealthy on Friday morning, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 153 at 9:10 am. With this score, the capital ranked 12th among the world's most polluted cities. Pakistan's Lahore, India's Delhi and Senegal's Dakar occupied the top three spots on the list, with AQI scores of 344, 244 and 184 respectively. Earlier, at 9:20 am on Thursday, the city ranked 7th among the world's most polluted cities, recording an AQI score of 165. An AQI score between 50 and 100 is considered "moderate" with acceptable air quality, while one between 101 and 150 is considered "unhealthy for sensitive groups," and a score between 151 and 200 is classified as "unhealthy." AQI readings between 201 and 300 are termed "very unhealthy," and anything above 301 is considered "hazardous," posing serious health risks. The AQI is a daily indicator of air quality, showing how clean or polluted the air is and the possible health effects people may experience. In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone.

In 2010-2024, Brazil's Amazon emitted an annual average of 1.17 billion tons more carbon dioxide than it absorbed, according to a study published on Thursday by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation. The imbalance is adding to global warming and eroding the rainforest's role as the planet's most important tropical climate regulator. The study, also published in the British scientific journal Nature, showed fires released approximately 1.47 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, compared to an absorption capacity of about 300 million tons per year. The research, led by specialists from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), revealed that drastically reducing fires, eliminating deforestation, and restoring forests are essential to preventing the Amazon from reaching a "tipping point," the threshold beyond which it would lose the ability to sustain itself and recover as a tropical rainforest. Brazil is home to 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest. "The main conclusion of the research is striking: the problem in the Amazon is human activity. We are losing the rainforest because the region's development model has been based on destruction," said Luciana Vanni Gatti, coordinator of the Greenhouse Gas Laboratory at INPE and the study's lead author. In an analysis spanning 46 years, the research team also detected an increase of 1.13 degrees Celsius in the average annual temperature and 1.81 degrees during the dry season. These changes reduce regional humidity and worsen conditions that favor fire spread and environmental degradation. "This places immense stress on the remaining forest," Gatti said, explaining that the loss of forest cover reduces rainfall and raises temperatures, creating a feedback loop that fuels more fires and speeds up the deterioration of the remaining forest. Scientists are investigating why the rainforest is absorbing progressively less carbon, and the extent to which this phenomenon is driven by a reduction in photosynthesis versus an increase in the decomposition of vegetation. The Sao Paulo Research Foundation believes these results reinforce the importance of conservation and restoration policies for the Brazilian Amazon, whose role in carbon storage and the regulation of the water cycle is key to regional and global climate balance.  

Every shallow-water coral reef ecosystem in Australia faces an extremely high risk of collapse by 2075, largely driven by projected ocean warming, according to a global assessment. The assessment, led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) researchers at Australia's University of Melbourne and over 250 researchers across more than 80 countries and territories, found that 96 percent of the world's assessed coral reef ecosystems are classified as critically endangered, including all 17 Australian coral reef ecosystems, according to a university statement released on Thursday. Researchers identified climate-driven ocean warming as the most widespread and severe threat to coral reefs, with increasingly frequent marine heatwaves causing mass coral bleaching and widespread coral mortality. The study evaluated coral reef ecosystems in 127 tropical and subtropical marine ecoregions, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and the Red Sea. Mishal Gudka, a University of Melbourne research fellow and scientific lead of the assessment, said much of the risk is driven by projected changes that have not yet fully materialized, making this a critical window for conservation and climate action. Despite covering less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, coral reefs support around a quarter of all marine species and provide habitat, food and breeding grounds for thousands of species, while supporting fisheries, tourism and coastal protection for millions of people, the researchers said. The assessment warned that stronger local management and rapid decarbonization could help avoid coral reef collapse, but the window for action was rapidly closing.  

A new low-pressure area is likely to form over the Southeast and adjoining East-central Bay of Bengal around October 23 and may intensify, according to Bangladesh Meteorological Department. A low-pressure area is currently lying over the Southwest Bay of Bengal off the Tamil Nadu coast, while a trough extends over the North Bay, said a BMD bulletin on Wednesday evening . The forecast, commencing from 6pm on Wednesday for the subsequent period, said the weather may remain mainly dry across the country, with temporary partly cloudy skies.

Dhaka ranked 7th among the world's most polluted cities on Thursday morning, recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 157 at 09:20 am. The air quality was classified as ‘unhealthy’, meaning the concentration of pollutants in the air had reached a level that could pose health risks to the general population, according to the AQI scale. Lahore in Pakistan ranked first with an AQI score of 294, while Delhi in India ranked second with a score of 235, followed by Jakarta in Indonesia third place with an AQI score of 174. According to AQI standards, a reading between 101 and 150 is considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', while 151 to 200 is classified as 'unhealthy'. A reading between 201 and 300 is considered 'very unhealthy', while levels above 301 are deemed 'hazardous', posing serious health risks. The AQI provides daily updates on air quality, indicating how clean or polluted the air is and highlighting potential health impacts. In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone. Dhaka has long struggled with air pollution, with air quality typically deteriorating during winter and improving during the monsoon season. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes around seven million deaths globally each year, mainly from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.

The world is falling further behind in efforts to combat climate change and faces a hotter future than scientists projected last year, with the United States contributing significantly to the worsening outlook, according to a new United Nations report. Even if all countries fulfil their pledges to cut heat-trapping emissions, global temperatures are expected to rise another 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above current levels, according to updated climate projections released Wednesday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The estimate is about 0.1 degrees Celsius (0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the projections made by the same scientific team last year. “This is a worse outcome than expected last year, as a result of the formal withdrawal of the United States of America from the Paris Agreement and revised estimates of historical emissions,” the report said. The report also pointed to increased US emissions last year, noting that all other major economies among the world's top 20 either reduced their carbon pollution or slowed the growth in carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and gas. The increase in US emissions, at 133 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, far exceeded that of any other country and was driven by rising electricity demand and a rebound in coal-fired power generation, the report said. Of the 189 million tonnes of additional carbon dioxide emissions recorded in 2025 by 124 countries whose emissions increased, excluding the 63 countries that recorded declines, around 70% came from the United States, according to the report. The United States is going “hell-for-leather trying to block renewables while actively promoting and subsidizing dirty coal — and its diplomacy is trying to make other countries also pull back on action,” said Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, which assesses countries' climate action plans. “It is looking at the fire, denying there is a fire, and then pouring more petrol on it,” he said. Hare was not involved in the UN report but, like several other independent scientists, said its findings were scientifically sound. Global warming projected to exceed Paris climate targets The updated projections show that global temperatures could rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100 if countries fulfil the climate action plans they have submitted to the United Nations. If the world continues along its current path without those national commitments, temperatures are projected to rise by 2.8 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels recorded in the second half of the 19th century, unchanged from last year's estimate. Both scenarios would significantly exceed the targets set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Global temperatures have already risen by around 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Earlier this year, and again in the latest report, UN officials acknowledged that limiting warming to the 1.5-degree target is no longer achievable. Instead, they are hoping to restrict warming to around 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) before removing enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to bring temperatures back down to 1.5 degrees. The world is falling “dangerously short” of even those targets, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, adding that the tools needed to change course and avoid the worst consequences remain available. Cutting global carbon emissions by 18% by 2030 and 69% by 2040 is essential to bringing the climate situation back to a more manageable level, said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. “The report's message is clear,” said climate scientist Adelle Thomas, vice chair of a UN scientific assessment on climate impacts who was not involved in the study. “We know what needs to be done. We have the tools to do it. And delay only makes the challenge more dangerous and more expensive for all,” she said. Additional warming poses serious risks Anne Olhoff, the report's lead author and director of the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre, said the shift in US policy would likely add 0.1 degrees Celsius (nearly 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) to global temperatures by the end of the century. “This report shows that America's retreat isn't just a political embarrassment. It has real consequences for the planet and for millions of people around the world,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the climate organisation Power Shift Africa. “An extra tenth of a degree might sound insignificant, but in climate terms it is enormous. It means more dangerous heat waves, more destructive floods, more failed harvests and more lives lost,” he said, adding that every fraction of a degree matters for vulnerable African communities already on the front lines of the climate crisis. Hare said the additional 0.1 degrees Celsius of warming could expose another 140 million people to dangerously high temperatures and increase the risk of the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. The added warming could also cost the global economy around $1.2 trillion, said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Johan Rockstrom, director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research, said the impact of US policy could be even greater than the UN estimates because other countries might scale back their climate efforts if the world's largest historical emitter does less to combat global warming. “The rest of the world is exhausted when it comes to counting the damage that the U.S. is willingly doing to allies, multilateral structures, economic cooperation, disaster relief,” Australian climate scientist Malte Meinshausen said. “The rest of the world should probably continue to focus even less on the U.S.,” he added.

Dhaka ranked 9th among the world's most polluted cities on Wednesday morning, recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 162 at 10:05 am. The air quality was classified as ‘unhealthy’, meaning the concentration of pollutants in the air had reached a level that could pose health risks to the general population, according to the AQI scale. Lahore in Pakistan ranked first with an AQI score of 272, while Delhi in India ranked second with a score of 249, followed by Jakarta in Indonesia third place with an AQI score of 183. According to AQI standards, a reading between 101 and 150 is considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', while 151 to 200 is classified as 'unhealthy'. A reading between 201 and 300 is considered 'very unhealthy', while levels above 301 are deemed 'hazardous', posing serious health risks. The AQI provides daily updates on air quality, indicating how clean or polluted the air is and highlighting potential health impacts. In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone. Dhaka has long struggled with air pollution, with air quality typically deteriorating during winter and improving during the monsoon season. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes around seven million deaths globally each year, mainly from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.

Dhaka ranked 7th among the world's most polluted cities on Tuesday morning, recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 167 at 10:35 am. The air quality was classified as ‘unhealthy’, meaning the concentration of pollutants in the air had reached a level that could pose health risks to the general population, according to the AQI scale. Lahore in Pakistan ranked first with an AQI score of 201, while Delhi in India ranked second with a score of 199, followed by Mumbai in India fourth place with an AQI score of 189. According to AQI standards, a reading between 101 and 150 is considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', while 151 to 200 is classified as 'unhealthy'. A reading between 201 and 300 is considered 'very unhealthy', while levels above 301 are deemed 'hazardous', posing serious health risks. The AQI provides daily updates on air quality, indicating how clean or polluted the air is and highlighting potential health impacts. In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone. Dhaka has long struggled with air pollution, with air quality typically deteriorating during winter and improving during the monsoon season. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes around seven million deaths globally each year, mainly from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.

Dhaka ranked 3rd among the world's most polluted cities on Monday morning, recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 171 at 09:10 am. The air quality was classified as ‘unhealthy’, meaning the concentration of pollutants in the air had reached a level that could pose health risks to the general population, according to the AQI scale. Lahore in Pakistan ranked first with an AQI score of 251, while Mumbai in India ranked second with a score of 186, followed by Delhi in India fourth place with an AQI score of 169. According to AQI standards, a reading between 101 and 150 is considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups', while 151 to 200 is classified as 'unhealthy'. A reading between 201 and 300 is considered 'very unhealthy', while levels above 301 are deemed 'hazardous', posing serious health risks. The AQI provides daily updates on air quality, indicating how clean or polluted the air is and highlighting potential health impacts. In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone. Dhaka has long struggled with air pollution, with air quality typically deteriorating during winter and improving during the monsoon season. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes around seven million deaths globally each year, mainly from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.

Hurricane Trudy battered parts of Mexico’s Pacific coast with heavy rainfall and powerful winds on Sunday, prompting warnings from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) about potentially deadly flooding and mudslides. A hurricane warning was in force for the coastal stretch from Manzanillo in Colima state to Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco. According to the latest NHC update, the Category 2 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometres per hour). Its centre was located about 135 miles (215 kilometres) south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes and 115 miles (185 kilometres) west-southwest of Manzanillo, moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph). Trudy was expected to remain close to the Mexican coast through Sunday evening before moving south of the Baja California Peninsula. A tropical storm warning was still in effect for Las Islas Marias, while a previous warning for the coast between Punta San Telmo and Lazaro Cardenas had been lifted. The Mexican navy urged mariners and coastal communities to remain highly cautious amid high waves, heavy rain and the threat of rising rivers, flooding and landslides in vulnerable areas. Authorities in Colima said the overall risk remained low but warned that additional rainfall could cause damage as the ground was already saturated following successive storms along the Pacific coast. Trudy was forecast to bring 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimetres) of rain through the weekend, with isolated totals reaching about 12 inches (30 centimetres) along and near the coasts of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco. The NHC warned that steep and mountainous areas faced a particular risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides. Super Typhoon Champi Moves Away from GuamMeanwhile, Typhoon Champi was moving away from Guam on Sunday after passing near the island’s southern tip as a Category 4 super typhoon. The storm had sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) and was located about 200 miles (320 kilometres) west of Guam late Sunday afternoon, moving west at 14 mph (23 kph), according to the US National Weather Service. Champi could intensify into a Category 5 super typhoon early Monday local time. Guam and Rota remained under typhoon warnings, while tropical storm warnings and a typhoon watch for Tinian and Saipan were cancelled. The governors of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands requested emergency disaster declarations on Friday. On Saturday, US President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Guam, authorising the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate federal disaster relief operations. FEMA said federal assistance was available to support the territory’s response to the typhoon and supplement local emergency efforts. Airports, harbours and some healthcare facilities across the affected territories were closed. According to FEMA updates issued on Saturday, additional resources were unlikely to reach the islands for three to five days. The territories are still recovering from the impacts of Super Typhoons Sinlaku and Bavi, which struck in April and July, respectively.