New Year's Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
It was one of the warmest years on record, the stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across Southeast Asia.
There was a sombre tinge to celebrations in Australia's harbour city, Sydney, the self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world".

Barely two weeks have passed since a father and son ...
Climate change is increasingly impacting mental health and psychosocial well-being, the World Health Organization said calling on member countries in South-East Asia Region to strengthen mental health systems and services to address this growing challenge.
“Climate change exacerbates many social, environmental, and economic risk factors for mental health and psychosocial well-being. Among WHO regions, South-East Asia is most vulnerable to this,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia, in her opening remarks at a regional workshop for ‘Strengthening capacity of countries to address the impact of climate change on mental health’, held in Ball, Indonesia from 12 – 14 August.
The WHO Regional Director said that in many countries significant gaps exist between menta...
In a historic turn of events, Bangladesh recently purchased almost 100,000 metric tons (3.9 million bushels) of U.S. corn, the largest quantity purchased by the country since 1989 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS) first began recording sales. These sales are directly attributable to U.S. Grains Council (USGC) programming and educational activities to inform Bangladeshi buyers of the current market situation.
The Council has been very active and engaged in Bangladesh for the past two years, including bringing a strong

Much has been written over the past few months about Bangladesh and none of it has been very complimentary. So I felt it was time again to revisit that country and see if any progress had been made on the economic front. Initially, I was pleased to read a report on the Asian Development Bank’s website indicating that the economic growth forecast for 2015 is 6.1% and 6.4% in 2016. Those indeed are very good numbers, considering that the main revenue-

producing element is the service sector and in particular the textile industry.
Recently, however, the...
Tata Motors, the largest automobile manufacturer in India, on Wednesday launched its next-generation range of ‘Ultra’ commercial vehicles in Bangladesh.
The ‘Ultra’ range of trucks ranges from 7 to 16 tonnes in payload capacity and engine size from 120 hp to 170 hp. In Bangladesh, Tata Motors has launched the ULTRA 812 and ULTRA 912 in

the Cargo segment. The driveline of the ULTRA 812 & 912 launched today, has the TATA 497 TCIC engine, with an output of 125 HP, a new-generation transmission with aluminum casing - the G-550 overdri...
For 70 years, World War II planes have been resting in peace at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Although divers have enjoyed exploring the underwater graveyard since the 1960s, Brandi Mueller's photos allow us to admire these treasures without a wetsuit.
"I find diving [to see] the airplanes really exciting," Mueller, a scuba diving instructor and boat captain, told Mashable. "It's a strange thing to see airplanes underwater. Shipwrecks you expect, but not airplanes."
The planes didn't actually crash at this particular location near the Marshall Islands, though. They were discarded there after WWII because it was too expensive to transport them back to the United States from the Kwajalein Atoll, according to Mueller.
The site includes Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, F4U Co...