United News of Bangladesh

As early Aman paddy is harvested and threshed across Rangpur, farmers are not only celebrating bumper yields and lucrative prices but also profiting from a soaring demand for straw, which has brightened their harvest season. This year, the price of straw, an essential feed for livestock, has risen significantly compared to last year. Experts attribute the increase to an imbalance between supply and demand, adverse weather events, reduced paddy yields and the scarcity of grazing land. Golam Mostafa, a farmer from Mominpur village in Rangpur Sadar, said, “Earlier, cattle could graze freely in the fields, but now almost no fallow or low-lying land remains vacant. As a result, dependence on cultivated fodder and straw has increased.” Another farmer, Siraj, explained that floods between September and October damaged both natural and cultivated grasslands across the region, intensifying the shortage of fodder. Consequently, farmers who cultivated early paddy are experiencing high demand for straw and are able to sell it at premium prices. Agricultural officials anticipate that the sale of early Aman paddy and straw could generate over Tk 2,500 crore for farmers in the Rangpur region this season.

A Turkey-registered plane crashed in western Croatia on Thursday, police said, with local media reporting that the pilot had died. The Air Tractor AT-802 disappeared from the radar shortly before 5 p.m. local time, an Interior Ministry statement said. Some 20 minutes later emergency services were informed that a plane was on fire near the town of Senj, close to the Adriatic Sea coastline, the statement said. Police said the plane was flying from the northern port of Rijeka to the capital Zagreb and back. No other details were immediately available. Air Tractor AT-802 planes are usually used in agriculture or for fire-fighting. Croatia's HRT public broadcaster said the plane belonged to Turkey's forestry administration. The HRT report said rescue teams found the pilot's body after they extinguished the fire. No one else was on the plane, the report added.  

The BBC apologized Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump for a misleading edit of his Jan. 6, 2021 speech but said it had not defamed him, rejecting the basis for his $1 billion lawsuit threat. The broadcaster said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House expressing regret for the edited version of Trump’s speech delivered before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress prepared to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claimed was stolen. The publicly funded network added that it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, which had spliced together portions of Trump’s remarks that were originally nearly an hour apart. “We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action," the BBC wrote in a retraction. Trump’s lawyer had sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit for the harm the documentary caused him. It had set a Friday deadline for the BBC to respond. While the BBC statement doesn’t respond to Trump’s demand that he be compensated for “overwhelming financial and reputational harm," the headline on its news story about the apology said it refused to pay compensation. The dispute was sparked by an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series “Panorama,” titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” broadcast days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully. Director-General Tim Davie, along with news chief Deborah Turness, quit Sunday, saying the scandal was damaging the BBC and “as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.” The letter from Trump's lawyer demanded an apology to the president and a “full and fair” retraction of the documentary along with other “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading or inflammatory statements” about Trump. Legal experts have said that Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the U.K. or the U.S. They said that the BBC could show that Trump wasn’t harmed because he was ultimately elected president in 2024. Deadlines to bring the case in English courts, where defamation damages rarely exceed 100,000 pounds ($132,000) expired more than a year ago. Because the documentary was not shown in the U.S., it would be hard to show that Americans thought less of him because of a program they could not watch. While many legal experts have dismissed the president’s claims against the media as having little merit, he has won some lucrative settlements against U.S. media companies and he could try to leverage the BBC mistake for a payout, potentially to a charity of his choice. In July, Paramount, which owns CBS, agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over a “ 60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump alleged that the interview was edited to enhance how Harris, the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, sounded. That settlement came as the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation that threatened to complicate Paramount’s need for administration approval to merge with Skydance Media. Last year, ABC News said it would pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos ’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. A jury found that he was liable for sexually abusing her. The apology and retraction came as BBC said it was looking into a report in the Daily Telegraph that its Newsnight program in 2022 had similarly spliced together parts of the same speech by Trump.

Apple TV subscribers will be able to watch all Major League Soccer matches without an additional subscription beginning next year. During the first three years of MLS' 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement with Apple, a standalone Season Pass subscription was needed to access all matches. During this season, over 200 matches were simulcast on both MLS Season Pass and Apple TV, including the league's “Sunday Night Soccer” package. Dropping the separate subscription was announced Thursday at an owners' meeting. Apple has made its Friday night Major League Baseball doubleheaders available to all subscribers since its start in 2022. It recently secured U.S. rights to Formula 1 for five years which will also be available beginning next season. Making the MLS games more accessible also comes as the United States hosts the World Cup next year and the league switches to a late summer to spring calendar matching the European model in 2027. The current season runs from late February to early December, MLS deputy commissioner Gary Stevenson said Apple approached MLS early this year about the possibility of moving all of its matches to Apple TV. “We had been testing ‘Sunday Night Soccer’ on Apple TV and we got a really good reception to it. Then we talked to them about the potential schedule change and they thought that made sense. So it all kind of seemed like the perfect evolution to what we started and we think that the fans are going to find the experience and the value to be significantly better,” Stevenson said. MLS season-ticket holders will receive Apple TV subscriptions after previously receiving MLS Season Pass. MLS said it averaged 3.7 million gross live match viewers per week across streaming and linear platforms for its 15 weekly matches, a 29% increase over 2024. Apple has worldwide rights to MLS, which have benefitted them in South America after Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023. The league has also seen an influx of Asian viewers after Son Heung-Min began playing for LAFC in August. Messi and Son had the top two jersey sales in the league this season. Messi and Son's clubs have both advanced to the league quarterfinals. LAFC is at Vancouver on Nov. 22 while Inter Miami travels to Cincinnati on Nov. 23.      

President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks. The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222-209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday. The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as Trump took unprecedented unilateral actions — including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands. Democrats wanted to extend an enhanced tax credit expiring at the end of the year that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

The European Union (EU) has said it supports the transition in Bangladesh under the interim government, leading to democratic elections.  "We welcome the leadership of Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in view of the holding of participatory, free and fair elections in February next year," said the EU Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday. The EU said they encourage the political parties to engage constructively in the next steps.

Zayn Malik has formally rejoined One Direction as a company director, nearly a decade after his dramatic exit from the band. The 32-year-old Pillowtalk singer, who is set to launch his first Las Vegas residency in January, has been reinstated as an “active director” of PPM Music Limited, the band’s business entity, according to new documents filed with Companies House on November 3. Zayn joins former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan, all of whom are listed at the same central London address associated with the law firm Lee and Thompson LLP, which specializes in music and media law. The firm previously managed Liam Payne’s solo career. Malik’s previous role with the company was terminated on June 20, 2016, following his departure from One Direction in 2015. His return marks the first official sign of the group’s renewed collaboration since their hiatus began in January 2016. Industry insiders say Liam Payne’s recent passing has brought the remaining members closer, with sources describing the move as a “huge moment” for the band. “Liam was always the biggest supporter of a reunion,” one insider told The Sun. The name PPM refers to Princess Park Manor, the gated London complex where the band lived after forming on The X Factor. Although no new music or tour has been confirmed, reports suggest Zayn and Louis Tomlinson have been filming a TV project together across the U.S. Music manager Alan McEvoy, who previously worked with One Direction, Olly Murs, and JLS, is also listed among the company’s directors — further fueling speculation of an upcoming reunion. Source: The Sun  

President Donald Trump signed a funding bill late Wednesday, ending a historic 43-day government shutdown that left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid, disrupted travel and food assistance, and deepened political divisions in Washington. The House passed the measure earlier in the day by a 222-209 vote, following Senate approval on Monday. The shutdown stemmed from partisan clashes over extending tax credits that help lower health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats demanded their renewal, while Republicans argued the issue should be debated separately. During the shutdown, around 670,000 federal employees were furloughed and 730,000 worked without pay. The crisis also affected food aid programs like SNAP and caused long lines at airports and food banks. The funding bill restores government operations and extends Medicare telehealth programs and hospital-at-home care through January 30. Essential workers are expected to receive back pay within days, according to White House officials. While the shutdown’s end brought relief, it left frustration in its wake. Many federal workers said they felt used as “political pawns.” Lawmakers on both sides traded blame — Republicans accused Democrats of leveraging public suffering for policy gains, while Democrats said the GOP prioritized tax breaks for the wealthy over working families’ health care. The closure’s financial and emotional toll will take time to recover from, with many questioning whether the weeks-long standoff was worth the hardship it caused.

The government has appointed new divisional commissioners in four divisions ahead of the 13th national parliamentary election. The Ministry of Public Administration issued a gazette notification in this regard on Thursday night. According to the notification, Dr. A.N.M. Bazlur Rashid, additional secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, has been made the divisional commissioner of Rajshahi; Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman, additional secretary of the Ministry of Land, has been appointed as the divisional commissioner of Barishal; and Farah Shammi, chairman of the Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation, has been made the divisional commissioner of Mymensingh. Besides, Mymensingh Divisional Commissioner Mokhter Ahmed has been transferred and appointed as the divisional commissioner of Khulna.