The prime minister has told the BBC his new government is “going to have to be unpopular” as he defended his “tough” decision to cut winter fuel payments. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in his first major interview in Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer said he was determined to deliver change but this meant having to “do the difficult ...

Sir Keir Starmer says he is “frustrated” at how long it is taking to deal with building safety and cladding, following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report this week. Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the prime minister said he accepts it is his “duty”, and that his government “will accelerate the programme”, when questioned about the number of people ...

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained a former upazila chairman while trying to flee to India illegally through Sylhet’s Jaintiapur upazila last night. The detainee, Kamal Ahmed, was a former chairman of the upazila and president of the upazila unit of Awami League. BGB detained him at around 8:00pm and handed him over to the police. Confirming his detention, Mohammad Mahbubur ...

The government has faced criticism over this week’s approval of plans to pump treated wastewater into the River Thames in south-west London. The Teddington Direct River Abstraction (DRA) would see treated sewage pumped into the river above Teddington Lock through an underground pipeline from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. Twickenham MP Munira Wilson said the Thames Water scheme could damage the ...

The government is set to introduce a bill in the Commons next week which will ban landlords from evicting tenants without a reason. Ministers are expected to bring the Renters’ Rights Bill for its first reading. The draft law, which will apply in England, will also give tenants the right to request a pet. A ban on no-fault evictions has ...

A number of farmers have achieved massive success in cultivating bean in the summertime in different places of the division. Although bean is known as a winter vegetable, two varieties of the vegetable released by Sylhet Agriculture University (SAU) have showed huge success in its farming during summer, said Professor Md Shahidul Islam of SAU horticulture department. He also said ...

The latest floods and rolling water from upstream Indian states of Assam and Tripura have caused large-scale damage to standing crops in Sylhet region in addition to road links and flood-control structures. The third phase of severe floods of the year had shattered local farmers’ attempt to recoup previous damage, officials and farmers said. Aus harvest was nearing end while ...

The political wing of the trade union movement has been elected to power for the first time in 14 years. So many delegates at next week’s Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton will blend celebration with anticipation. But the Labour Party – set up by trade unions more than a century ago – now claims to be both the party ...

Labour is “getting it wrong” in “so many areas” and the Greens will “hold the new government to account”, the party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay has told its conference in Manchester. In his first such speech since the Greens’ major advance in July’s general election, when it went from a single MP to four MPs, he said the party would challenge ...

The prison population in England and Wales has reached a record high, just days before the government’s temporary early release scheme comes into force. According to figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Friday, the number of inmates has risen by 1,159 since 2 August, the week when the UK riots began, and now stands at 88,521. This ...