World
The day after in Dhaka
Dhaka, Bangladesh – A day after Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year autocratic rule ended, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, took on a sombre and unusual appearance.
The city’s streets, which had been filled with jubilant crowds following Prime Minister Hasina’s fall around 2pm (08:00 GMT) on Monday, were now notably less busy, with fewer vehicles and pedestrians.
Most striking was the complete absence of police – no constables, officers or traffic sergeants were visible in the city of about 20 million residents.
In many locations, traffic was being managed by people in their early 20s. At the Bijoy Sarani intersection, a major crossroads leading to the airport and parliament, about five or six young men were directing traffic with bamboo sticks, even a cricket bat.
One man with a pointed goatee controlled the flow of cars heading towards the Tejgaon Industrial Area by waving a bamboo stick, first directing traffic towards the airport and then allowing vehicles bound for Tejgaon to proceed in an orderly manner.
The scene where there once stood an iconic bronze statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nation’s father and Hasina’s father, had also dramatically changed.
On Monday night, a throng of people used ropes to topple the statue and dismantled its base using hammers and chisels. Enthusiastic crowds then moved in to collect pieces of the overturned statue.
“It reminded me of the video of Saddam Hussein’s statue being pulled down,” said Asraf Ul Jubair when he shared a video of the scene on Facebook.
It was a similar scene at the Mohakhali intersection, another typically busy area of the city, where young people were directing traffic.
One of them, Rabbi, who did not provide his surname or age, smiled when asked about his role. “There are no police… ‘shob bhagse’ – which means they [the police] have all vanished out of fear,” he explained.
Monday night violence
On Monday night, after the massive crowds celebrating Hasina’s fall had dispersed, a wave of violence erupted. Groups armed with sticks and sharp weapons moved through various parts of Dhaka, attacking individuals affiliated with Hasina’s Awami League party.
Mahbubul Haque, a resident of Dhanmondi, an Awami League stronghold, told Al Jazeera that around midnight, a group of people arrived in a car and began vandalising the gate of an apartment building across from his home.
The building was occupied by a prominent intellectual known for his strong support of Hasina’s controversial actions, such as the suppression of students during the quota protest.
“At one point, they started firing guns, and we were terrified,” Haque recounted. “Then some armed forces arrived, and they fled in the car. It’s frightening.”
The violence continued throughout the night, with hundreds of videos of various attacks across the country circulating on social media and going viral.
This led to widespread speculation, including claims that Hindu homes in Muslim-majority Bangladesh were being burned, and that police were firing bullets from police stations in different places as angry mobs tried to enter and burn those down.
Jumanah Parisa, a third-year student at Brac University, told Al Jazeera that she stayed up all night reading and watching videos about events. She felt panicked. “We didn’t protest to make this land lawless,” she said.
On Monday, clashes across the country resulted in at least 119 deaths – the deadliest day in the week-long protest. Because the police are seen as corrupted by the Hasina administration, many police stations were targeted by protesters. Moreover, Hasina’s close ties with the Indian government had led to rumours Indian agencies were helping her government suppress the protests.
While some protest videos depicted atrocities like arson and violence, the speculation surrounding them was often exaggerated, according to Qadaruddin Shishir, a fact-checking editor for AFP, who spent Sunday night debunking claims and posting clarifications on social media.
“The images of burning temples are outdated,” Shishir explained to Al Jazeera. “Yes, there were attacks on police stations due to grievances over police brutality, but the police involved were Bangladeshi, not Indian.”
Meanwhile, images of people, including madrassa students, standing guard in front of temples and Hindu homes circulated widely on social media.
Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, a leader of the Hindu community in Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that Hindu temples were protected and no Hindus were killed. However, he noted that many Hindu homes and businesses were attacked by mobs in over 20 districts.
“But those Hindus were associated with the Awami League party and they were not attacked because of their religious identity, rather because of their connection with Awami League,” said Pramanik. “I haven’t heard any news that a regular Hindu family without any political connection was attacked anywhere.”
“Anyway, law enforcement must be immediately reinforced,” he said. “Otherwise, the situation will spiral out of control.”
‘We will leave no trace of the Awami League’
On Tuesday morning, the talk of the town was who would head the interim government.
In most households and places, people were discussing that Muhammad Yunus, the country’s Nobel laureate, is going to head the government as its chief adviser.
Most of the city meanwhile was calm, with no signs of violence or confrontation.
However, in the upscale Dhanmondi area, crowds continued to gather at the remains of the Awami League chairperson’s office, the Bangabandhu Museum and Hasina’s former residence, Sudha Sadan. These sites had been set ablaze by an angry mob the previous afternoon.
At noon, another building beside the Bangabandhu Museum, which was previously used for Awami League gatherings, was burning.
“We will leave no trace of the Awami League in the country,” a young man, who declined to give his name, told Al Jazeera while he struck the building with a hammer.
Road No. 3A, which housed several Awami League buildings including the party chairman’s office, resembled a war zone. At least three buildings were completely destroyed.
Yusuf Banna, a resident of the road, told Al Jazeera he had been in a state of panic throughout the night. “People had such intense anger against the Awami League that it seemed unstoppable. I was worried about my family’s safety, as an angry mob is unpredictable.”
In the nearby Kalabagan area, residents were seen using chisels and screwdrivers to deface a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Sabur Ali, a middle-aged man, proudly told Al Jazeera that he had been destroying symbols of the Awami League and Rahman since Monday noon.
Saiyeed Abdullah, a law graduate and social media influencer, called for the immediate restoration of law and order. “We have successfully ousted a dictator and aspire to build a just nation. While I understand the grievances against the Awami League and Hasina, allowing angry mobs to control the streets is not sustainable,” he said.
Abdus Shakur, a motor mechanic who spent Monday night awake in front of Dhaka’s Dhakeshwari temple, told Al Jazeera that citizen volunteers would ensure no vandalism, communal violence or crimes occur in the absence of police or law enforcement.
“We are expecting a new government that will not only restore law and order but also provide proper justice,” said Shakur, 28. “Until then, we will remain vigilant on the streets.”
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A strong earthquake took place off the northern coast of Japan Monday afternoon, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to put out a tsunami alert in the area.
The quake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.5, occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. local time, at a depth of about 6 miles below the sea surface, the agency said.
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A television screen shows a news report on Japan Meteorological Agency’s tsunami warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 meters (9.84 feet) to reach large coastal areas in northern Japan after an earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, in Tokyo, Japan April 20, 2026 (REUTERS/Issei Kato)
A tsunami of around 2.6 feet was identified at the Kuji port in the Iwate prefecture while a tsunami of 1.3 feet was recorded at a different port in the prefecture, the agency indicated.
The Iwate prefecture put out non-binding evacuation advisories for those living in 11 towns.
A tsunami of as high as 10 feet could strike the region, the agency indicated.
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A policeman picks his way through the debris looking for bodies in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, on March 22, 2011, after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP via Getty Images)
A powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 wreaked havoc in Japan, leaving over 22,000 dead and compelling nearly 500,000 people to flee their homes, most of them because of tsunami damage.
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In this satellite view, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power plant after a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 14, 2011 in Futaba, Japan. (DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Around 160,000 fled their residences due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant — around 26,000 have not come back because they resettled somewhere else, their hometowns are still off-limits, or they harbor concerns regarding radiation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Bulgaria’s former President Rumen Radev, an EU critic who has called for renewing ties with Russia, hailed a “victory of hope” on Monday after his Progressive Bulgaria (PB) coalition topped the polls in Sunday’s election, the eighth such parliamentary vote in five years.
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Many voters see Radev, a former fighter pilot, as the only person capable of giving the corruption-plagued Balkan nation a fresh start.
The 62-year-old has presented himself as a defender of the lowest earners in the EU’s poorest country as he walks a tightrope on European issues.
He has hailed the benefits Bulgaria has reaped from EU membership while calling for dialogue with Russia as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine rages into a fifth year.
“Bulgaria is in a unique position, because we are the only EU member state that is both Slavic and Eastern Orthodox,” Radev, who was president for nine years, said recently.
“That should be used … and we really can be a very important link in this whole process, which I am sure will sooner or later begin, to restore relations with Russia,” he added.
Last year, as president, he called for a referendum on Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone, saying the Balkan country was not ready to join. Yet his proposal failed and Sofia adopted the joint European currency on 1 January.
Radev has also slammed military aid to Ukraine and the EU, trying to turn its back on Russian oil and gas.
“Geographically, economically, in terms of resources and as a market, we need to rebuild those relations,” he insisted.
Raised fist
For sociologist Parvan Simeonov, Radev is hard to figure out, like many leaders in the region who, “depending on the visiting delegation, choose whether or not to fly the Ukrainian flag in the background.”
Radev insists he embodies distrust of the country’s elites and oligarchs, denying any links to them.
A graduate of the elite US Air War College, he later served as the head of the Bulgarian Air Force.
He entered politics in 2016 and later won a presidential election to the largely ceremonial post.
Born in 1963 in the southeastern town of Dimitrovgrad, the austere and reserved man lacks the polish of seasoned communicators.
When he vows to regulate public tenders through AI or to reform the much‑criticised judicial system, he sometimes gives the impression of reciting a memorised text.
Yet he won over some liberal pro-European voters when he openly supported protesters at anti-corruption rallies in 2020.
Radev walked out of the presidential palace with his fist raised to join the protests that ultimately toppled conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borissov a year later.
Radev was re‑elected head of state in 2021 with two-thirds of the vote.
Modest lifestyle
Late last year, Radev once again backed anti-corruption protesters, and when the last government resigned in December, he stepped down as president to run in the election.
Radev’s left-wing conservative movement, Progressive Bulgaria, brings together a plethora of figures including military officers, former socialist officials and athletes, and the union leader of the country’s main arms manufacturer, which has boomed from supplying Ukraine’s army.
Radev is campaigning to combat social inequalities and promote budgetary discipline without calling for radical change, said Simeonov.
His promises of a return to stability appeal to voters tired of facing election after election.
Married with two children and intensely patriotic, Radev also wooed voters with a modest lifestyle and his defence of what he calls family values.
A campaign video shot in a village shop that went viral showed Radev soothing the grocer, upset over rising prices and Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone.
Political instability
Sunday’s election follows five years of near-permanent crisis in which no government has survived a full term.
Instead, the country has cycled through caretaker administrations, fragile coalitions and short-lived alliances that have often collapsed amid scandal.
Public trust has all but evaporated. Voter turnout, once a barometer of democratic engagement, has entered a state of chronic decline.
This prolonged instability has unfolded against a backdrop of deepening internal divisions and mounting external pressure.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has exposed a stark fault line running through both society and the political class, one that continues to define the national conversation.
And yet, paradoxically, Bulgaria has, in this same period, taken major steps forward in its European integration — joining Schengen and adopting the euro — often without a functioning government or even a passed state budget.
Meanwhile, delays in reforms have slowed access to EU recovery funds, raising the risk of losing billions.
More than 60% of the votes had been counted by Monday morning, according to the Central Electoral Commission, putting Radev’s PB in the lead with around 45%, an absolute majority of at least 132 seats in the 240-seat parliament.
The outcome of the election is set to not only shape Bulgaria’s domestic trajectory but will also be closely watched across the EU, as the bloc fears further instability in any of its member states.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose in early trading Sunday as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.
The price of U.S. crude oil increased 6.4% to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel.
The market reaction followed more than two days of lifted hopes and dashed expectations involving the strait. Crude prices plunged more than 9% Friday after Iran said it would fully reopen the strait, which it effectively controls, to commercial traffic.
Tehran reversed that decision and fired on several vessels Saturday after President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect. On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. attacked and forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that allegedly tried to get around the blockade. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond.
Sunday’s higher prices wiped out much of the declines seen Friday, signaling renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East.
The US-Israeli war against Iran, now in its eighth week, has created one of the worst global energy crises in decades. Countries in Asia and Europe that import much of their oil from the Gulf have felt the most impact of halted supplies and production cuts, although rapidly rising gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices are affecting businesses and consumers worldwide.
Asked when he thought U.S. motorists would again see gas cost less than $3 a gallon on average, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said prices at the pump might not go down that much until next year.
“But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
The price of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — has fluctated dramatically since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and as Iran retaliated with airstrikes on other Gulf states. Crude traded at roughly $70 a barrel before the conflict, spiked to more than $119 at times, and previously closed Friday at $82.59 for U.S. oil and $90.38 for Brent.
Industry analysts have repeatedly warned that the longer the strait is closed, the worse prices could get.
A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz puts the fate of new talks to end the war into question.
Even if a lasting deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz emerges, analysts say it could take months for oil shipments to return to normal levels and for fuel prices to go down. Backed-up tanker traffic, shipowners concerned about another sudden escalation, and energy infrastructure damaged during the war are factors that could impede production and shipment volumes from returning to pre-war levels.
A gallon of regular gas cost an average of nearly $4.05 a gallon in the U.S. on Sunday, according to motor club federation AAA. That’s about 8 cents lower than a week ago, but far higher than $2.98 before the war.
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