Ceasefire holds in south Syria, but humanitarian crisis deepens: UN
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
15 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Bangladesh's youth struggle to find jobs
Agencies A year after an uprising forced the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh out of power, challenges persist to address the severe lack of jobs among youth who took their grievances to the streets. The uprising, in which some 1,400 people were killed, according to the United Nations, was sparked by the issue of quota reservations in civil service recruitment tests. More than half of highly sought-after government jobs were reserved for certain designated groups, including women, disabled people and descendants of veterans of the 1971 War of Independence. The country's high court has since reduced the quota reservations to 7 percent. Since the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over, a broad agenda of reform has been drawn up, but experts say a lack of opportunities for the young workforce remains a problem. 'Amid jobless growth faced by the country's youth, a fair chance at civil service recruitment tests became a rallying cry,' said Tuhin Khan, a leading activist in the quota reform movement and the July uprising. 'But since then, we have not seen enough meaningful focus from the government on the economic pressures faced by ordinary people as politics took center stage,' he 30 percent of Bangladeshi youth are neither employed nor in school or training, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Also, about 23 percent of young women are unemployed compared with 15 percent of young men - and last year's protests featured the wide participation of young women. Women in Bangladesh typically have limited opportunities for employment and career growth beyond a few sectors like government, non-governmental organizations and education. The protesters ranged from graduate students seeking government jobs to garment workers and balloon sellers, as segments of the urban poor demanded better, more dignified lives, said Maha Mirza, a researcher who teaches economics at Jahangirnagar University. But the creation of decent jobs depends upon jump-starting investment, which may have to wait for an elected government to be sworn in, said Rashed Al-Mahmood Titumir, a professor of Development Studies at Dhaka University. 'When we have a stable policy regime, there would be more investment, and that will bring in the much-needed jobs for young people, including graduates and women,' he said. While the protest focused on government jobs, those can provide for only a small slice of the job market. Last year, about 18,000 government recruitments were available, yet more than 2 million young people enter the job market each year. One major employer of young people is the garment and textile sector, but a number of factories shut down due to political changeover, including more than a dozen factories owned by Beximco Group that employed 40,000 workers. Since the political shift, about 10,000 people have been arrested on various charges including corruption and even murder, and they include a number of business owners linked to the former ruling party. Jasim Uddin was a supervisor in a garment factory in the outskirts of Dhaka, but he has been jobless for months. 'I had quit my earlier workplace as they were holding up the payment of wages. Since then, I went from door to door in search of a job,' he said. Many factory owners affiliated with the earlier government feared arrest and went into hiding, resulting in plant closures, said Arman Hossain, a trade union activist from Gazipur. 'We expected the government to appoint administrators who could temporarily operate those closed factories so that workers would not go jobless - but that did not happen,' Hossain said. Additional challenges come from the global economy. The 35 percent tariff announced on Bangladesh's products by the United States, the largest buyer of the country's clothes, poses a threat to many of the four million workers in its garment industry. Meanwhile, the cutting of aid from the US has left about 20,000 development workers in Bangladesh jobless, said aid agency Caritas. The interim government has announced training programs for young people and courted foreign investment to create jobs. Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, who heads the youth and sports ministry, has said the government had plans to create 500,000 new jobs for youth besides training 900,000 young people. At an investment summit in April, businesses from various countries shared investment proposals of about 31 billion taka ($255.35 million), the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) said. But the share of private investment in the economy has dropped from 24 percent last year to about 22.5 percent this year - although in actual numbers it saw a slight uptick from 11,985 billion Taka ($97.68 billion) to 12,484 billion Taka ($101.74 billion).
Qatar Tribune
15 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Pakistan, Iran aim to raise bilateral trade to $10 bn
dpa Islamabad Pakistan and Iran on Sunday signed agreements pledging to raise bilateral trade to $10 billion and committed to work more closely to eliminate the menace of terrorism in favour of peace and prosperity in the region. Agreements across various sectors, including energy and trade, were signed during the two-day visit of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. 'We have set a target of $10 billion in trade and hope to achieve it as soon as possible,' Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said. Addressing a joint press briefing Sharif reiterated Pakistan's stance of supporting Iran's right to a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes under the UN charter and condemned Israel's aggression against Iran saying there was 'no justification.' He said the two countries would take effective steps to eliminate terrorism and open the avenues of prosperity in the region. The Iranian president said he thinks reaching the $10 billion trade mark - which would represent a more than three-fold increase in trade - is doable. 'My deep belief is that we can easily, in a short time, increase the volume of our trade relations from the current $3 billion to the projected goal of $10 billion,' Pezeshkian said. He thanked the government and people supporting Iran 'during the 12-day terrorist aggression by the Zionist regime and the United States.'
Qatar Tribune
15 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Tensions high as fresh fighting flares up in Syria's Sweida
dpa Damascus Fighting has erupted in the Druze-majority Sweida province of southern Syria, violating a ceasefire deal reached last month after sectarian violence left hundreds dead, activists and state media reported on Sunday. At least one person was killed and seven injured in renewed fighting between militias of the Druze minority and government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said on Sunday. The state SANA news agency reported that 'lawless groups' with links to the Druze community violated the ceasefire by attacking a village with heavy weapons and mortar shells. Fighting broke out last month in Sweida between Sunni Bedouin groups and members of the Druze community, a religious minority that emerged from Shiite Islam and live mainly in Syria, but also in Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. The Damascus government said it sent troops to calm the situation but its forces were accused of brutal acts of violence against the Druze. Neighbouring Israel subsequently bombed targets in Syria with the stated aim of protecting the Druze. The London-based SOHR, which has monitored the conflict in Syria for many years, counted around 1,400 fatalities. Its figures, collected by a network of activists, are generally considered reliable. The violence also resulted in a dire humanitarian situation and a mass exodus of civilians from the province, with UN figures suggesting that around 190,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. More than half a year after the fall of long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad, the new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa has not succeeded in establishing stability in Syria. There have been several major battles, terrorist attacks and violence, including against the Alawite minority on Syria's Mediterranean coast. There have also been isolated clashes in northern Syria in recent days. The Defence Ministry in Damascus announced that its troops have prevented Kurdish militias from advancing near Manbij. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurdish militias, reportedly attacked a village with rockets and injured several people. The government troops responded with 'precise attacks,' the ministry said. The SDF, on the other hand, accused the government troops of having 'attacked residential areas for no reason,' while their own forces defended themselves.
