Millions of people are expected to cast ballots in the first polls since prime minister Sheikh Hasina was removed. Following weeks of demonstrations, in August 2024, millions of young protesters in Bangladesh managed to topple the government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years.
Nahid Islam was just 26 when he stepped up to a microphone at Dhaka's Shaheed Minar, a national monument, on August 3, 2024, and uttered a single rallying cry: Hasina must go. Student-led demonstrations had begun weeks earlier over a government job quota system that reserved a large share of coveted civil-service posts for special groups, including descendants of 1971 liberation war veterans, leaving too few merit-based opportunities for everyone else.
The Mela comprises a series of themed and solo exhibitions, by international and Bangladeshi artists at venues across downtown Dhaka. Until 2024, Bangladeshi artists had to contend with the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian government, which monopolised access to funding and foreign collaboration. Many arts institutions were turned into propaganda machines, as Hasina's cultural officials 'just wanted to please the national leader,' one Bangladeshi artist told the Financial Times last year.
Moroccan authorities have arrested more than 400 people during violent protests demanding reforms in the public health and education sectors, the Ministry of Interior says. A fifth night of youth protests was under way on Wednesday in cities across the North African country, but authorities said the fourth night had turned more violent than before. They reported 263 members of the security forces and 23 civilians were injured as demonstrators torched cars and ransacked shops.
