Visiting British cross-party parliamentary delegation on Saturday praised the spectacular socio-economic development of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They appreciated the changed Bangladesh with mega infrastructures like new airport terminal, elevated expressway, metro rail in Dhaka.  Book on Nepal-Bangladesh friendship launched at Nepal Embassy in Dhaka During their meeting with Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at state guesthouse Padma, they acknowledged the immense contributions of the British-Bangladeshi Diaspora to the economy, culture and society of the UK and termed them as the living bridge between the two Commonwealth nations.  The Foreign Minister invited more FDI from the UK into Bangladesh in emerging sectors like ICT, light engineering, and agro- and food-processing sectors, while highlighting the remarkable success stories of Bangladesh in agriculture mechanization, food sufficiency, disaster management and tackling climate change. Bangladesh’s security forces remain alert along Myanmar border: Foreign Minister  They British cross-party parliamentary delegation assured of their contributions towards further support of the UK government to the Rohingya crisis. 

British ministers, House of Lords members, and cross-party members of the UK Parliament lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for championing women's empowerment and gender equality at an event organised by the Bangladesh High Commission in London Tuesday. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam was the chief guest at the "Bangladesh-UK@50: Empowering women and girls towards agenda 2030," organised to celebrate International Women's Day 2023. UK Minister for London and Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Paul Scully MP, UK Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Girls' Education Helen Grant MP, Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific Catherine West MP, and Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Rushanara Ali MP spoke at the event. Vice chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Afzal Khan MP, Tahir Ali MP, Lord Dholakia, Lord Rami Ranger, Deputy Leader of Labour Lords and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Lord Collins, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP, Member of Justice and Home Affairs Committee Baroness Prashar, Baroness Verma, Baroness Uddin and eminent organiser of Bangladesh's freedom movement in the UK Sultan Mahmud Sharif also joined the discussion. The event, co-hosted by Lord Popat, brought together women ambassadors and high commissioners from different countries, representatives of leading think tanks and civil society organisations, academics and eminent members of the British-Bangladeshi diaspora. Highlighting Hasina's contributions to women empowerment that earned her the "Agent of Change" award and "Planet 50-50 Champion' honour, Shahriar said, "Bangabandhu's visionary daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina put women empowerment at the core of national development and achieved for Bangladesh the highest credentials in gender parity, not only in South Asia but also globally."  

Australia is removing the British monarchy from its bank notes. The nation's central bank said Thursday its new $5 bill would feature an Indigenous design rather than an image of King Charles III. But the king is still expected to appear on coins. The $5 bill was Australia’s only remaining bank note to still feature an image of the monarch. The bank said the decision followed consultation with the government, which supported the change. Opponents say the move is politically motivated. The British monarch remains Australia's head of state, although these days that role is largely symbolic. Like many former British colonies, Australia is debating to what extent it should retain its constitutional ties to Britain. Australia's Reserve Bank said the new $5 bill would feature a design to replace a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, who died last year. The bank said the move would honor “the culture and history of the First Australians.” “The other side of the $5 banknote will continue to feature the Australian parliament," the bank said in a statement. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the change was an opportunity to strike a good balance. “The monarch will still be on the coins, but the $5 note will say more about our history and our heritage and our country, and I see that as a good thing,” he told reporters in Melbourne. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton likened the move to changing the date of the national day, Australia Day. “I know the silent majority don’t agree with a lot of the woke nonsense that goes on but we’ve got to hear more from those people online,” he told 2GB Radio. Dutton said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was central to the decision for the king not to appear on the note, urging him to “own up to it." The bank plans to consult with Indigenous groups in designing the $5 note, a process it expects will take several years before the new note goes public. The current $5 will continue to be issued until the new design is introduced and will remain legal tender even after the new bill goes into circulation. The face of King Charles III is expected to be seen on Australian coins later this year. One Australian dollar is worth about 71 cents in U.S. currency. Read more: France, Australia to supply Ukraine with artillery shells

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, stick to a familiar script in a new Netflix series that chronicles the couple’s estrangement from the royal family, chastising Britain’s media and the societal racism they believe has fueled coverage of their relationship. The first three episodes of “Harry and Meghan,” released Thursday, dissect the symbiotic relationship between tabloid newspapers a nd the royal family and examine the history of racism across the British Empire, and how it persists. The storytelling relies on interviews with the couple, their friends, and experts on race and the media. The series does not include dissenting voices, and there is no response from any of the media organizations mentioned. “In this family sometimes, you know, you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution,’’ Harry says in one of the episodes. “There is a huge level of unconscious bias. The thing with unconscious bias is that it is actually no one’s fault. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right.” The media’s treatment of Meghan — and what the couple felt was a lack of sympathy from royal institutions about the coverage — were at the heart of their complaints when they walked away from royal life almost three years ago and moved to Southern California. Lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify have helped bankroll their new life in the wealthy enclave of Montecito. Promoted with two dramatically edited trailers that hinted at a “war against Meghan,” the Netflix show is the couple’s lat est effort to tell their stor y after a series of interviews with U.S. media organizations, most notably a two-hour sit down in 2021 with Oprah Winfrey. Read more: Royals tour US green tech incubator, meet at-risk youth The first three episodes break little new ground on royal intrigue, leading one British-based analyst to conclude that the main audience Harry and Meghan are trying to reach is in the United States. The series is an effort by Harry and Meghan to cement their place in American society, where fame and riches await, says David Haigh, chief executive of Brand Finance, which has analyzed the monarchy’s value to the UK economy. “They are trying to become the next Kardashian family. And they are using the fame and notoriety of the monarchy as their stepping stone to get there,” he said. “No one would take the remotest bit of interest in either of them if they weren’t strongly associated with the UK monarchy.” The series comes at a crucial moment for the monarchy. King Charles III is trying to show that the institution still has a role to play after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose personal popularity dampened criticism of the crown during her 70-year reign. Charles is making the case that the House of Windsor can help unite an increasingly diverse nation by using the early days of his reign to meet with many of the ethnic groups and faiths that make up modern Britain. Harry’s 2018 marriage to the former Meghan Markle, a biracial American actress, was once seen as a public relations coup for the royal family, boosting the monarchy’s effort to move into the 21st century by making it more representative of a multicultural nation. But the fairy tale, which began with a star-studded ceremony at Windsor Castle, soon soured amid British media reports that Meghan was self-centered and bullied her staff. The new series seeks to rebut that narrative in the three hour-long episodes released Thursday. Three more are due on Dec. 15. It opens with video diaries recorded by Meghan and Harry — apparently on their phones — in March 2020, amid the couple’s acrimonious split from the royal family. It’s “my duty to uncover the exploitation and bribery” that happens in British media, Harry says in one entry. “No one knows the full truth,” he adds. “We know the full truth.” The couple then tell the story of their courtship and the initial enthusiasm that greeted the relationship. But the tone shifts as Harry recounts the intense media scrutiny faced by Meghan, reminding him of the way his mother, Princess Diana, was treated before she died in a car crash while being trailed by photographers. “To see another woman in my life who I loved go through this feeding frenzy – that’s hard,” Harry says. Read more: Duchess of Sussex gets goofy on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show “It is basically the hunter versus the prey.” Harry and the series' other narrators say the palace is partly to blame for this treatment because it has granted privileged access to six newspapers that feel they are entitled to learn intimate details about members of the royal family since British taxpayers fund their lives. Harry and Meghan said they initially tried to follow palace advice to remain silent about the press coverage as other members of the royal family said it was a rite of passage. But the couple said they felt compelled to tell their story because there was something different about the way Meghan was treated. “The difference here is the race element,” Harry said. That bias has deep roots in the history of the British empire, which was enriched by the enslavement of Black people and the extraction of wealth from colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, said historian and author David Olusoga in the program. It is only since World War II that large numbers of Black and Asian people moved to Britain, changing the face of the nation. Those changes aren’t reflected in the British media. While Black people make up about 3.5% of Britain’s population, they account for just 0.2% of the journalists, Olusoga said. “We have to recognize that this is a white industry…,” he said. “So people who come up with these headlines, they are doing so in a newsroom that’s almost entirely white, and they get to decide whether something has crossed the line of being racist.” King Charles III was asked if he had watched the series as he carried out an engagement on Thursday in London. He did not reply. Race became a central issue for the monarchy following Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. Meghan alleged that before their first child was born, a member of the royal family commented on how dark the baby’s skin might be. Prince William, the heir to the throne and Harry’s older brother, defended the royal family after the interview, telling reporters, “We’re very much not a racist family.” But Buckingham Palace faced renewed allegations of racism only last week when a Black advocate for survivors of domestic abuse said a senior member of the royal household interrogated her about her origins during a reception at the palace. Coverage of the issue filled British media, overshadowing William and his wife Kate’s much-anticipated visit to Boston, which the palace had hoped would highlight their environmental credentials.

The British Council has commissioned a project to nurture the collaboration and co-creation between young Bangladeshi and UK artists and to commemorate its 70 years in Bangladesh. Britto Arts Trust Bangladesh, Tara Theatre UK and the British Council have jointly organised "Artists Make Space." In collaboration with Chittagong University, the inaugural exhibition of this project was launched at the Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery of the Fine Arts Institute of the university on November 6. This exhibition will continue till November 12 and remain open for everyone from 3pm to 7pm every day.  Chittagong University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Shireen Akhtar was present at the launching event as the chief guest with Professor Benu Kumar Dey as a special guest. Professor Mahbubul Haque, artist Dhali Al Mamun and artist Nazlee Laila Mansur were also present. Read more: 23rd Young Artists' Fine Arts Exhibition ends

A 60-year-old British national was found dead at a hotel in the capital’s Uttara area on Thursday, said police. The deceased was identified as Finlayson Dugald, who came to Bangladesh with a tourist visa and had been staying in ‘Marino Hotel’ in Sector No 4 on Road No 11 since September 20. Hotel staff said Dugald’s Chinese friend Dong Hao Peng knocked the door of his room but received no response around 10am. Later, the door of the room No 108 was unlocked with a duplicate key and his body was found lying in the bathroom, they said . Read: Young couple found dead at Mohammadpur flat Md Mamunur Rahman, sub-inspector of Uttara East Police Station, said on information they rushed to the spot and sent the body to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The foreigner might have died of sickness but the exact reason will be known after the postmortem, he said. 

British sports were holding a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, with high-profile golf, cricket and horse racing events canceled Friday as a mark of respect and the Premier League meeting to discuss whether to call off games scheduled for the weekend. The BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event on the European tour, was paused near the end of the first round Thursday following the announcement of the queen's death — there were still 30 players out on the course — and there will be no play Friday. “We remain hopeful of restarting at some stage over the weekend,” the tour said Friday in a statement, adding that it would be reviewing “protocol guidance from Buckingham Palace” while also aligning with the decisions made by other sporting events in Britain. The England and Wales Cricket Board has already announced that there would be no play on Friday in the third and deciding test between England and South Africa at the Oval. There was no update on whether play would be resuming over the weekend. Other events called off included the third day of horse racing's St. Leger festival in Doncaster — horse racing was the queen's favorite sport — and cycling's Tour of Britain, which also canceled the final two stages of the race scheduled for the weekend. Read: Bangladesh declares 3 days of mourning for Queen Soccer matches in the English Football League — the three leagues below the Premier League — and in the Scottish lower league will not be played Friday and matches scheduled to be played in Northern Ireland over the weekend were also canceled. The Premier League had not yet decided its position, with a meeting being held between the clubs on Friday morning. Factors involved in any decision were likely to include whether holding matches would use up police resources, the desire of broadcasters and the mood of the public. There is little room in the schedule of this World Cup-affected season to fit in postponed fixtures.    

Britain’s top diplomat flew Wednesday to Moscow, seeking to defuse tensions raised by Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine and warning that an invasion would bring “massive consequences for all involved.” “Russia has a choice here. We strongly encourage them to engage, de-escalate and choose the path of diplomacy,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said ahead of departing on the first visit to Moscow by the U.K.’s top envoy in more than four years. Russia has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and has launched military maneuvers in the region, but says it has no plans to invade its neighbor. It wants guarantees from the West that NATO not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members, that the alliance halt weapon deployments there, and that it roll back its forces from Eastern Europe. The U.S. and NATO flatly reject these demands. Western nations say they will impose their toughest-ever sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals if Moscow invades Ukraine. READ: Dhaka, Moscow resolve to enhance areas of cooperation  “Russia should be in no doubt about the strength of our response,” said Truss, who will meet Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the two-day visit. Truss urged Moscow to abide by its international agreements that commit it to respecting Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova again rejected warnings from Washington and its allies of a possible Russian invasion, calling them “absurd.” “We have no aggressive plans, but I have a feeling that the U.S. does,” she said, adding that Washington’s statements reminded her of the rhetoric before the U.S. war in Iraq. Several dozen Ukrainians rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, urging Washington to use its international clout to prevent a Russian offensive. Western leaders in recent weeks have engaged in multiple rounds of high-stakes diplomacy in hopes of de-escalating the crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron held over five hours of talks Monday with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv the next day. Macron said Putin told him he would not initiate an escalation, but also acknowledged that it will take time to find a diplomatic solution to the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War. He later flew to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda, and they urged de-escalation by Russia and that it engage in a meaningful dialogue on European security. Macron spoke by phone on Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden to brief him on his meetings in Moscow and Kyiv, the White House said, and they discussed the ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis through diplomacy and deter Russia. On Wednesday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares visited Kyiv to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. Afterward, Albares reiterated that dialogue and de-escalation should be the priorities. Kuleba urged more sanctions against Russia and said “there is a chance to resolve the crisis through diplomatic means.” Scholz is expected in Kyiv and Moscow on Feb. 14-15. He met Monday with Biden, who vowed that the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline will be blocked in the event of an invasion. Such a move against the pipeline, which has been completed but is not yet operating, would hurt Russia economically but also cause energy supply problems for Germany. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov criticized the U.S. and its allies for turning the Nord Stream 2 “into an instrument of pressure on Moscow” and called recent statements about it “a political circus.” Japan has decided to divert some of its gas reserves to Europe amid growing concern over possible disruptions of supplies due to the crisis, said Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda. The decision was made at the request of the United States and European Union. U.S. and European officials have been coordinating with global natural gas suppliers to cushion the impact in case Russia cuts off natural gas supplies. NATO also has stepped up the deployment of troops to bolster the alliance’s eastern flank. The U.S. has begun to move the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s stryker squadron from Vilseck, Germany, to Romania, which borders Ukraine. U.S. officials have said they would send about 1,000 NATO troops. The first troops arrived in Romania in the past 24 hours, said the regiment’s commander, Col. Joe Ewers. The troops will bolster 900 U.S. service members already in the country. “We are always prepared to meet any mission as is required,” he said in Vilseck. “But the focus will be on training and we will initially partner with multiple Romanian elements within the region there.” About 1,700 U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division are going to Poland and about half have now arrived, with more expected to flow in during the coming days, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. Britain also has pledged to send 350 more troops to Poland and already has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. U.S. consular services in Poland are preparing for any surge of Americans living in Ukraine who may decide to flee if Russia invades. U.S. troops deployed to Poland have developed contingency plans to assist Americans fleeing Ukraine through Poland in case of a Russian attack, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment. The State Department continues to urge Americans in Ukraine, including nonessential U.S. Embassy staff, to leave now. Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east of the country. The fighting between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed over 14,000 people. Talks on the separatist conflict will take place Thursday, when foreign policy advisers from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy format — will meet in Berlin. France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine. The deal, however, has failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict, and efforts to resolve it have stalled. The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it would hurt Ukraine Some European leaders see talks on the accords as a possible way to ease tensions in the larger crisis. Scholz’s spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said Wednesday that the parties to the talks “reaffirmed their commitment to narrowing current disagreements with a view to moving forward, and that is what tomorrow’s meeting should be about.” “Germany is strongly and tirelessly committed to the Normandy format, where we have a special responsibility and, together with France, are making a very special contribution to the attempt to de-escalate the situation in and around Ukraine,” he said.

British Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls Education Helen Grant is now visiting Bangladesh to learn about the experiences of girls and the challenges they have faced in accessing quality education. Helen, who is here for the first time, will be visiting Sylhet on Tuesday as part of her three-day visit. "I’m here to meet civil society partners, education leaders, and most importantly Bangladeshi women and girls to learn about their experiences and the challenges they’ve faced in accessing quality education," Helen tweeted. Also read: Inclusive politics essential for every country’s prosperity: British Minister

The British navy warned Tuesday of a “potential hijack” of a ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman, without elaborating. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations initially warned ships Tuesday that “an incident is currently underway” off the coast of Fujairah. Hours later, they said the incident was a “potential hijack.” They did not elaborate. The U.S. military’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and the British Defense Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment. The Emirati government did not immediately acknowledge the incident. Also read: India to maintain warships in Gulf zone to aid merchant ship Earlier, four oil tankers announced around the same time via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com. That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer. An Oman Royal Air Force Airbus C-295MPA, a maritime patrol aircraft, was flying over the area where the ships were, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. The event comes just days after a drone struck an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members. The West blamed Iran for the attack, which marked the first known assault to have killed civilians in the yearslong shadow war targeting commercial vessels in the region. Iran denied playing any role in the incident, though Tehran and its allied militias have used similar “suicide” drones in attacks previously. Also read: Data recovered as ship with chemicals sinking off Sri Lanka Israel, the United States and United Kingdom vowed a “collective response” to the attack, without elaborating.