Bangladesh restores ‘except Israel’ clause in passports after public pressure

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Updated 16 April 2025
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Bangladesh restores ‘except Israel’ clause in passports after public pressure

Bangladesh restores ‘except Israel’ clause in passports after public pressure
  • Bangladesh’s previous government dropped the wording in 2021 without public notice
  • Immigration says it may take several weeks to finalize procedures to print it again

DHAKA: Bangladesh is reinstating the “except Israel” clause in its passports, the Department of Immigration said on Tuesday, after public pressure to reverse its removal by the previous government.

Bangladeshi passports carried the sentence: “This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel” until 2021, when authorities rolled out a new travel document, the phrase was removed without any public notice.

While authorities justified it by saying it was meant to “maintain international standard,” many people in the country — which has no diplomatic relations with Israel — questioned the move.

The new interim government, which took charge of Bangladesh in August after the ouster of its long-standing prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has decided to undo her cabinet’s decision.

“We’ve received the government’s directive to reinstate the ‘except Israel’ clause in Bangladeshi passports. We are currently working to implement it,” Brig. Gen. Mohammad Nurus Salam, passports director at the Department of Immigration, told Arab News.

“For many years, our passports carried the ‘except Israel’ clause. But the previous government suddenly removed it. We were used to seeing ‘except Israel’ written in our passports. I don’t know why they took it out. If you talk to people across the country, you’ll see they want that line back in their passports. There was no need to remove it.”

Pressure to reinstate the clause has been mounting since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing deadly onslaught on Gaza which began in October 2023.

Over 51,000 people have been killed, 116,000 wounded, and 2 million others face starvation after Israeli forces destroyed most of the region’s infrastructure and buildings, while blocking humanitarian aid from entering.

A clear ban on travel to Israel in Bangladeshi passports was one of the key demands raised during a series of Gaza solidarity protests, which have been held regularly in Dhaka since last month, after Israeli forces unilaterally broke a ceasefire agreement and resumed bombing hospitals, schools and tents sheltering displaced people.

The biggest such protest took place in Dhaka on Saturday, with about 1 million people taking to the streets to call on the international community to “take effective and collective action to end the genocide,” and especially on Muslim countries to immediately sever all economic, military, and diplomatic relations with Israel and to “impose commercial blockades and sanctions on the Zionist state” and begin active diplomatic efforts to isolate it on the international stage.

“People will definitely welcome this new decision. It reflects the feelings of the people of this country,” Salam said, but he was not able to specify when the new passports will be available.

“There are some technical challenges involved with this change. Currently, we import e-passports from Germany under a government-to-government agreement ... It may take another week to finalize the necessary procedures. In the meantime, we are exploring whether there’s any option to modify the existing stock of printed booklets.”


Trump says US kids may get ‘2 dolls instead of 30,’ but China will suffer more in a trade war

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Trump says US kids may get ‘2 dolls instead of 30,’ but China will suffer more in a trade war

Trump says US kids may get ‘2 dolls instead of 30,’ but China will suffer more in a trade war
The US president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession
“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that his tariffs could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States, saying American kids might “have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” but he insisted China will suffer more from his trade war.
The US president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession, after a new government report showed that the US economy shrank during the first three months of the year.
Trump was quick to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any setbacks while telling his Cabinet that his tariffs meant China was “having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business,” adding that the US didn’t really need imports from the world’s dominant manufacturer.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump continued, offering a hypothetical. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”
His remarks followed a defensive morning after the Commerce Department reported that the US economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 percent during the first quarter. Behind the decline was a surge in imports as companies tried to front-run the sweeping tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and almost every country. And even positive signs of increased domestic consumption indicated that purchases might be occurring before the import taxes lead to price increases.
Trump pointed his finger at Biden as the stock market fell Wednesday morning in response to the gross domestic product report.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the Republican president, who took office in January, posted on his social media site. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”
But the GDP report gives Democrats ammunition to claim that Trump’s policies could shove the economy into a recession. Democrats’ statements after the GDP report noted how quickly the economy, which still has a healthy 4.2 percent unemployment rate, appears to lose momentum within weeks of Trump returning.
“Trump has been in office for only 100 days, and costs, chaos and corruption are already on the rise,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon “The economy is slowing, prices are going up, and middle-class families are feeling the pinch.”
The report landed as Trump is trying to put the focus on new corporate investments in the US as he spends the week celebrating his 100th day in office. He planned remarks later in the day on the subject.
Trump’s economic message contains some clashing arguments and dismisses data that raises red flags.
He wants credit for an aggressive first 100 days back in the White House that included mass layoffs of federal workers and the start of a trade war with 145 percent in new tariffs against China. He also wants to blame the negative response of the financial markets on Biden, who left office months ago. He’s also saying his tariffs are negotiating tools to generate trade deals but at the same time banking on hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenues to help cover his planned income tax cuts.
Trump highlighted the positive aspects of the GDP report at the Cabinet meeting. But that session revealed how his administration is also trying to take credit for policies that involve the Biden administration.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talked about his recent trip to Arizona to see the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s computer chip factories. The company notes on its website that it announced plans in May 2020, during Trump’s first term when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global economy, to build its first plant in Arizona. The company announced a second factory in December 2022, when Biden was in office. After getting up to $6.6 billion in commitments in 2024 from the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, TSMC announced plans for a third plant.
Trump dismissed the importance of the government support that Biden made possible for computer chip factories to open domestically.
“They’re building because of the tariffs,” Trump said.
Yet Democrats are quickly to say that Trump inherited an economy on a steady course of low unemployment and declining inflation that his tariff plans have almost immediately disrupted.
“In just 100 days, President Trump has taken the US economy from strong, stable growth to negative GDP,” said Heather Boushey, a former member of Biden’s White House Council of Economic Advisers. “This astonishing turn of fortune is directly due to the incoherence of his economic policy and his mismanagement of federal policy more generally.”
But White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters that the GDP drop was a “one-shot deal” because of the increased imports, which mathematically subtract from the measure of economic activity. Navarro said that the individual and business income tax cuts planned by Trump would help growth in the months ahead.
“All we’re seeing is good, strong news,” Navarro said. “So the idea that there’s a recession coming should be heavily discounted.”

Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’

Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
Updated 33 min 35 sec ago
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Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’

Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
  • “I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters
  • “I think we’re going to have a great relationship”

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would visit Washington in the coming week, hailing him as “very nice” despite tensions over Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
“He’s a very nice gentleman and he’s going to come to the White House very shortly, within the next week or less,” Trump said after the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party secured election victory in part by vowing to stand up to the US president.
“I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters in a cabinet meeting.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
Trump however downplayed any possible tensions with the Canadian — despite repeatedly calling for Carney’s country to become the 51st US state.
“I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He called me up yesterday, he said ‘Let’s make a deal’,” Trump said.
“They both hated Trump, and it was the one that hated Trump, I think, the least that won. I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal.”


Five Indians kidnapped in attack in Niger

Five Indians kidnapped in attack in Niger
Updated 30 April 2025
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Five Indians kidnapped in attack in Niger

Five Indians kidnapped in attack in Niger
  • The victims were working for an Indian company providing services to Niger’s Kandadji dam project
  • The armed men who carried out the kidnapping have not been officially identified

NIAMEY: Five Indian citizens were kidnapped in western Niger during an attack last week by armed men that also killed a dozen soldiers, according to two Nigerian security sources and a statement by Indian state authorities seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Reuters reported on Saturday that 12 soldiers had been killed in the attack a day earlier near the village of Sakoira in the tri-border region, where the West African Sahel countries of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.
The victims were working for an Indian company providing services to Niger’s Kandadji dam project, the two security sources said.
The local government of the Indian state of Jharkhand said in a statement that the five citizens had been working in the Tillaberi region.
It said all five were from Jharkhand and that the Indian embassy in Niger had approached Nigerian authorities for support in securing their release.
The armed men who carried out the kidnapping have not been officially identified, but last month Niger blamed the EIGS group, a Daesh affiliate, for an attack on a mosque near the tri-border area in which at least 44 civilians were killed.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are fighting a jihadist insurgency linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State that spun out of a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali in 2012 and later spread to its neighboring countries.
Kidnappings appear to have intensified this year, with an Austrian woman kidnapped in January and a Swiss citizen earlier in April, both in Niger. Also in January, four Moroccan truck drivers went missing on the border between Niger and Burkina Faso.


Head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir calls for international mediation

Head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir calls for international mediation
Updated 30 April 2025
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Head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir calls for international mediation

Head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir calls for international mediation
  • Head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir says Gulf states could help
  • Calls for attention on Kashmir’s long-term future

ISLAMABAD: The head of the Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir called for international mediation and said on Wednesday that his administration was preparing a humanitarian response in case of any further escalation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.
Pakistan’s government has said it has “credible intelligence” that India intends to launch military action soon after days of escalating tensions following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
India blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack that killed 26 people, which Islamabad has denied.
“There is a lot of activity going on and anything could happen so we have to prepare for it. These few days are very important,” president of Pakistan-administered Kashmir Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry told Reuters in an interview, calling for rapid international diplomacy to de-escalate the situation.
“We expect some mediation at this time from some friendly countries and we hope that that mediation must take place, otherwise India would do anything this time,” he said. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates could be in a position to mediate, he added.
Chaudhry also said he hoped major players like the United States and Britain might also get involved.
He said activity along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the two portions of Kashmir was “hot” and that Pakistan had shot down two Indian drones in the last few days.
There had been regular firing by Pakistani and Indian soldiers day and night, though so far there had been no casualties, he said.
Pakistan had also detected Indian Rafale fighter jets flying near the LoC, though they had not crossed, he added.
The Indian Air Force did not respond to a request for comment, though an Indian military official said Rafale jets were doing their usual training and drills along the LoC.
Chaudhry said he had not received intelligence on when and where India was expected to strike, but his administration was working with groups such as the Red Crescent Society to prepare extra medical and food supplies in case of any conflict.
“Red Crescent are working on it and we are working on displaced people in affected areas,” he said.
He said that the international community also needed to pay more attention to Kashmir’s long-term future.
“I think this is the right time for the international community as a whole and the UN to play some mediating role in Kashmir,” he said.
“It’s been a very long time and the people of Kashmir have suffered a lot.”
Pakistan-administered Kashmir has its own elected government but Pakistan handles major issues like defense and its residents hold many of the rights of Pakistani citizens.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Pakistan and India on Tuesday, stressing the need to avoid confrontation. The US and Britain have also called for calm.


China to lift sanctions on EU Parliament members, official says

China to lift sanctions on EU Parliament members, official says
Updated 30 April 2025
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China to lift sanctions on EU Parliament members, official says

China to lift sanctions on EU Parliament members, official says
  • China has grown keen to forge closer economic and political ties with Europe
  • The sanctions China is lifting, according to the official, were imposed in 2021

BRUSSELS: China has decided to lift sanctions on four members of the European Parliament as well as on its subcommittee on human rights, a parliament official told Reuters.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is expected to announce the change on Wednesday. The official initially said sanctions would be lifted for four current members and one former member but later said the decision applied only to four current members.
China has grown keen to forge closer economic and political ties with Europe to limit the damage from tariffs on most of its exports to the United States.
The sanctions China is lifting, according to the official, were imposed in 2021 in response to Western measures against Chinese officials accused of the mass detentions of Muslim Uyghurs.
In response to the Chinese sanctions on its members, the European Parliament halted the ratification of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which had aimed to put EU companies on an equal footing in China.
Asked about reports that Beijing would lift sanctions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a news conference on Wednesday that “the economic and trade cooperation between China and Europe is complementary and mutually beneficial.”
“The legislative bodies of China and the EU are an important part of China-EU relations, and we hope that the two sides will meet each other halfway and strengthen exchanges,” he said, adding that “members of the European Parliament are welcome to visit China more often.”