Christmas Day, marking the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ, a Jewish preacher and religious leader of the first century, is being observed across the country on Thursday. Christian community in Bangladesh, like elsewhere in the world, is celebrating the day with religious fervour and festivity. Special prayers are offering at churches, makeshift Christmas trees set up at homes, churches and ...

The government’s partial U-turn on what opponents dubbed the “farms tax” was a Christmas present for those who had campaigned against the imposition of 20% inheritance tax from next April. About half the farms that would have been affected will now be exempt. But given that minsters had defended the policy in the 14 months since last year’s Budget, the ...

As December arrives, London’s sky begins to change. Even if the sun appears less often, the city never loses its glow. Instead, colourful, sparkling lights spread everywhere, and the warmth of the festive season fills the air. Streets are draped in Christmas lights, Santa figures appear everywhere, and the city blends into one grand celebration. Shops overflow with discount crowds, ...

Journalists, media professionals, cultural activists, and members of the British Bangladeshi community gathered at the Altab Ali Park in East London on Sunday to protest the attacks on Bangladesh’s leading newspapers, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, and growing threats against journalists. The demonstration, organised by Bangla-speaking journalists working in London, strongly condemned the vandalism, arson, looting, and alleged attempts ...

The culinary essence of the festive season is a kind of sanctioned chaos. Never mind that, from one angle, Christmas is mostly just rigidly observed collective food traditions and grown adults dying on the hill of whether yorkshire puddings should be served with turkey. I don’t think I ever really feel that warming yuletide rush until I have turned a ...

BP has struck a $6bn (£4.4bn) deal to sell a majority stake in its motor oil division Castrol to a US investment firm. The oil giant sold a 65% stake in Castrol, which makes lubricants for cars, motorcycles and industrial vehicles, to New York-based Stonepeak. The deal valued Castrol at $10.1bn (£7.5bn), with BP receiving $6bn in cash, which it ...

What was the last thing you asked an AI chatbot to do for you? Maybe you asked it for an essay structure to help answer a tricky question, provide an insightful analysis of a chunky data set, or to check if your cover letter matches the job description. Some experts worry that outsourcing these kinds of tasks means your brain ...

The government has reduced customs duty on the import of dates by 40 per cent ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, aiming to ensure adequate supply and keep prices within the purchasing capacity of general consumers. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said the existing customs duty on date imports has been ...

Attorney General (AG) Md Asaduzzaman would step down from his post on December 27. He came up with this announcement on Wednesday (December 23). On Tuesday, the upazila BNP leaders bought a nomination paper on behalf of Asaduzzaman, two days after he announced he would contest the general elections from Jhenidah-1 constituency on BNP’s ticket. On August 8, last year, ...

BNP has left seven more parliamentary seats for its allies as part of a seat-sharing arrangement. The announcement came at a press conference at the party Chairperson’s Gulshan office on Wednesday afternoon by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Under the arrangement, Nagorik Oikya President Mahmudur Rahman Manna will contest from Bogura-2, Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar) leader Mostafa Jamal ...