Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) has forecast rain or thundershowers in all divisions including Dhaka of the country in 24 hours commencing 9am on Friday. “Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at most places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna, Barishal, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions with moderately heavy to very heavy falls at places over the country,” said a met office update. The country’s highest 72 millimeter of rainfall was recorded in Aricha in 24 hours till 6am on Friday. Day and night temperatures may fall slightly over the country, according to the BMD. Read: Rain may continue till Thursday: BMD The country’s highest temperature was recorded in Khunla’s Koyra at 32.4 degree Celsius over the past 24 hours till 6pm on Thursday while the lowest temperature 23.5 degree Celsius was recorded in Chattogram’s Sandwip till 6am on Friday. Meanwhile, monsoon trough runs through Bihar, West Bengal to Assam across central part of Bangladesh. Read more: Rains likely to drench country in next 24hr: BMD Monsoon is active over Bangladesh and moderate to strong elsewhere over North Bay. A Low Pressure Area is likely to form over coastal areas of West Bengal & adjoining southwest Bangladesh during next 24 hours.

Director General (DG) of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui has acknowledged the BGB's partial responsibility in preventing Awami League leaders and activists from fleeing the country. “But the agency should not be solely held accountable for the situation,” he said at a press conference held at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday. The DG said that the BGB has so far held 22 people identified as opponents of the anti-discrimination student movement. “Despite these arrests, a significant number of Awami League leaders and activists have still managed to escape across borders,” he recognised. Major General Siddiqui said that while the BGB bears responsibility for the fleeing incidents, it is critical to determine whether other entities should also be held accountable. "An investigation is necessary to ascertain who crossed which border—there can be no compromises on this matter," he emphasised. Read: BGB DG warns KNF, vows support for joint operations The DG said that a request had been made on August 6 to aid the BGB in curbing escapes through border, an initiative that was undertaken independently and without any external directive. “We have been working on this continuously. If all organisations that collect intelligence share their information, our efforts would be far more effective,” he said. He also referred to speculations that a large number of Awami League leaders and activists had already fled the country. “Did everyone flee? I don’t think so. Some are still hiding in this densely populated country,” he asserted. Major General Siddiqui urged journalists to assist the BGB by sharing any relevant information they might have. “You also have information. Please share it with the BGB, and we will take action. We are committed to preventing these escapes,” he said. Read more:Integrated checkpost to benefit both Bangladesh and India economically: BGB DG The BGB DG reiterated that the BGB is dedicated to fulfilling its role in safeguarding the borders and that all stakeholders must collaborate to address the ongoing issue effectively.

Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said no country in the world has a caretaker government except Pakistan. No country in the world talks about caretaker government, it is BNP which talks about it shamelessly, he said. He said these at a food distribution and discussion programme on the occasion of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birthday at Gendaria in the capital. "BNP is talking about caretaker government. They should be ashamed of it," he added. Quader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is taking the country forward and making it a role model for the world by nurturing Bangabandhu’s ideals. Regarding the letter of 40 world leaders about Yunus, Quader said, "We don't need to think about people who don't think about Bangladesh. He breaks the law himself."

Mentioning that BNP has started terrorist activities again, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud on Saturday said that the country cannot be handed over to the patron of terrorists. The minister said these while addressing the tri-annual conference of Chattogram North District Krishok League, held at Chattogram Engineers Institution as chief guest. “Those who used to snatch money from people by building Hawa Bhaban, who installed poles without providing electricity, who attacked grenades on August 21st, who created Bangla Bhai all over the country and killed people, We can't hand over the country to those terrorists,” he said. Read more: Hasan Mahmud to BNP: Don't play with people's lives “Tarique Rahman means the son of corruption and five times champion in corruption. If someone is asked ‘Who is the biggest thief of Hawa Bhaban?’, the answer is Tarique Zia” he said. “If BNP comes back to power, they will peel the skin of everyone's back. We can't hand over the country to those who want to pe people's backs, so everyone should be united,” he added. North District Krishak League President Nazrul Islam Chowdhury presided over the function while Krishak League president agriculturist Samir Chand inaugurated the conference. Chattogram North District AL President MA Salam, its General Secretary Sheikh Ataur Rahman, newly elected Zilla Parisad Chairman ATM Pearul Islam, Central Krishok League leader Akbar Ali Chowdhury, Rezaul Karim Reza, among others, addressed the function as special guests. Read more: Jubo League is enough to face BNP: Hasan Mahmud Earlier in the morning, Dr. Hasan Mahmud, also the joint general secretary of Awami League, visited Chittagong's historic Pologround where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address the public meeting on December 4 as the chief guest.

Taking a swipe at the government for frequent power outages across the country, Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Tuesday feared that the country was heading towards bankruptcy. “The people of the country are facing unbearable load-shedding for 4 to 10 hours. There’re preparations to produce 20,000 MW of electricity, but the government is not capable of buying fuel for lack of money,” he said. Although the price of gas has fallen in the world market, the Jatiya Party chief said the government is also unable to procure gas as the exchequer does not have money. He said Sri Lanka was facing load-shedding, a sharp rise in dollar price, a shortage of money to buy fuel and unusual price hikes of daily essentials before going into bankruptcy. “Exactly the same picture is now here in Bangladesh.” He came up with the remarks at a programme at the Jatiya Party Chairman’s Banani office. At the programme, Executive Secretary of Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) Mirza Shahadat Hossain and BHRC General Secretary (International Special Representative) Golam Kibria Mollah joined Jatiya Party by presenting a bouquet to GM Quader. GM Quader voiced concern that production of all goods is decreasing since it is not possible to keep industrial factories functioning for the lack of electricity. As a result, he said many people have lost their jobs and become unemployed while the prices of essential commodities have increased several times. Amid such a situation, the Jatiya Party chief said crores of takas are being allocated for mega projects like Sri Lanka and thousands of crores of taka are being laundered abroad,” he observed.  “The government had earlier said the power situation will be normal from September. They’re now saying it will be normal in November. No one knows when the electricity system will be back to normal. So, the country’s people can’t trust the words of the government,” he observed. Read: JaPa won't be slave to any party: GM Quader GM Quader also said people are going through limitless suffering in the current economic reality of the country. “Though the government pledged to prove jobs in all houses, it has now created unemployment in every house. The government also announced to give per kg rice at Tk10, but now the rice is 70 taka per kg. People want to get free from such a miserable situation.” He said the by-polls to the Gaibandha-5 set will be held on Wednesday, but the leaders and activists of his party there are not able to stay at home due to attacks and false cases. “Supporters of the government are committing various types of criminal activities, but they’re filing cases on false charges against Jatiya Party people implicating them with those offences… in fact, the country's electoral system has collapsed and people are no longer showing interest in elections” the Jatiya Party chief observed.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday alleged that the Awami League government has led the country to the brink of a dark abyss, through ‘mega’ corruption in mega projects. In a statement, he said, “Lower and middle-income people of the country have lost all means of livelihood. Every indicator of the country's economy is going down.” Stating that the government has filled the country with misdeeds and corruption, the BNP leader said, the stories of looting, money laundering, killing and grand corruption of the ruling party are now on people's lips. Read: BNP won’t even join talks on polls until AL quits power: Fakhrul “The government has always cooperated (with the looters) in plundering the country's financial sector. Because the masterminds of those involved in the looting are all the agents of the government…Bangladesh has been made bankrupt,” he observed. The statement was issued denouncing the jailing of Feni district unit Jubo Dal president Jakir Hossain Jasim in a ‘false’ case. Fakhrul alleged that law enforcers arrested Jasim on Thursday evening from Kakrail in the capital and then brought him to his house in Feni. Later, the BNP leader said Jasim was implicated in a ‘false case’ and sent to jail. “The illegitimate government has got desperate to stay in power and continue its misrule. That’s why they’re implementing the blueprint of wiping out the opposition parties through repression,” Fakhrul said. He said the ruling party has snatched all human rights as they consider the country’s people as their enemies. “Freedom of expression is now imprisoned in Awami prison. People's lives are endangered by the poisonous grasp of Nazi rule and everyone is worried about the safety of life and property.” The BNP leader said the existence of the opposition party has become a threat to the government. “So, their only programme now is to create planned incidents, file false cases for the arbitrary arrest of the opposition activists. The government is shamelessly using the administration and police to implement the programmes”. As part of that ‘evil’ programme of the government, Fakhrul said  Jasim was arrested in a false case and sent to jail.   He demanded the withdrawal of the ‘politically motivated’ case against Jasim and his unconditional release.

Bangladesh has been judged as the most gender-equal country in South Asia for the eighth time in a row, according to a study by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The country has managed to stay ahead of its regional neighbours since 2014. But despite being the best performer in the region, Bangladesh slipped six notches to rank 71st among 146 countries on the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2022, which benchmarks countries based on how close they are to reaching gender equality. The WEF prepares the index measuring gender-based gaps on four key dimensions – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Read: Women's participation in climate action: 'Gender equality prerequisite for sustainable tomorrow' According to the 16th edition of the report published Wednesday, women in the country saw a decline in overall gender parity in 2022 from 2021. That was in part due to poorer performance on educational attainment as the gender gap in literacy widened. Bangladesh reported no changes in political empowerment (9th) and health and survival (129th). However, the country scored poorly in economic participation and opportunity – ranking 141, only ahead of Egypt, India, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There was a reduction in workforce participation for both men and women in Bangladesh, but the proportional impact was higher for women. However, the difference was counteracted slightly by an increase in the share of women engaged in professional and technical work as well as an increase in estimated earned income. Although no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top 10 economies have closed at least 80 per cent of their gender gaps. Iceland became the most gender-equal country in the world for the 13th time, being the closest to achieving gender equality. Afghanistan was named as the least gender-equal country. Among the eight regions covered in the report, South Asia ranks the lowest. The lack of progress since the last edition extends the wait in the region to close the gender gap to 197 years, with broad stagnation across the gender parity scores of most countries. Also read: Swedish embassy stresses gender equality in labour market

A mild cold wave is likely to sweep over the country on Sunday, Met officials said. “The minimum temperature may range between 9 and 10 degrees in the western part of the country, including Rajshahi, Jashore, Pabna, Kushtia, Satkhira, Khulna, Faridpur, Bogura, Dinajpur and Rangpur districts, on December 19 and December 20," said AKM Ruhul Kuddus of the Met office. However, the temperature may rise after December 20. READ: Brace for a foggy weekend! The lowest temperature of the country was recorded at 9.4˚C at Tetulia in Panchagarh around 9am on Saturday. The highest temperature was recorded at 29.7 degrees in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar district. Weather may remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country. Light morning fog may occur at places over the country, said a regular Met bulletin. READ: Bangladesh ‘braces for Covid’s winter wave’; experts urge caution Night temperature may fall slightly but day temperature is likely to remain nearly unchanged over the country.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said that now there is no justice and rule of law in the country.