Textile worker Sabina Khatun is in limbo after losing her job during sweeping factory closures, caught up like millions in Bangladesh in the fallout from a 2024 uprising that toppled years of autocratic rule.In the 18 months since the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s government, Bangladesh has endured political turmoil but also biting economic pain — with many hoping for a rebound under new leadership after elections on February 12.”I’ve gone to a dozen factories looking for work,” said Khatun, 30, who lost her job last year in garment hub Narayanganj.”There are no openings.”Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest producer of garments, has seen 240 factories shut since the August 2024 uprising, many of them textile industries, according to government data.That has dealt a blow to a major sector that forms 80 percent of Bangladesh’s export economy.Some of the factories were owned by Hasina’s cronies, who have since fled.Many workers like Khatunhave been laid off, with the closures rippling through the wider labour market.”Small markets, stores and low-cost cosmetics shops catering to female garment workers have all disappeared,” said Iqbal Hossain, a trade union leader.- ‘Law and order’ -The economy has improved since the chaotic aftermath of Hasina’s ouster, but there are wider issues in the country of 170 million people.Salehuddin Ahmed, who holds the finance portfolio in the interim government, said the economy had shifted from the “intensive care unit to the high dependency unit”.Bangladesh’s economy is expected to grow 4.7 percent this year, up from 3.7 percent in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund.Fahmida Khatun, head of the Dhaka-based Centre for Policy Dialogue, said foreign reserves have risen and the banking sector is showing signs of repair.”But unemployment is rising, merchandise exports have declined, imports of heavy machinery and raw materials remain weak, and private-sector credit has hit a historic low,” she told AFP.”The gradual deterioration of law and order has emerged as the biggest threat.”In August, Bangladesh struck a trade deal with the United States — a key market for ready-made garment exports — scaling back President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs to 20 percent.But US orders “remained static”, said Mohiuddin Rubel, former head of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, noting that some new factories had opened.They, however, have had little impact on the labour market, as the unemployment rate remains high.Merchandise exports still fell for a fifth consecutive month in December 2025, and while inflation slightly eased, it continues to erode what people can afford.”We don’t buy fish or meat anymore,” said unemployed textile worker Khatun, who continues her search for a job. “Everyone tells me to come back after the election”.Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, head of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, said the interim government had done little to help the bruised textile sector.”Some of these were big factories employing thousands of workers,” he said.”In some cases, the government sold factory land and assets to clear workers’ dues — but there was no initiative to restart viable factories.”Unemployment is at 4.63 percent, according to the latest government figures released in May, up from 3.95 percent recorded during the same period the previous year.- ‘No quick fix’ -Once juggling multiple odd jobs, Helal Uddin now ekes out a living running a food cart.”It’s hard to pay the house rent with the meagre amount I earn now,” the 33-year-old told AFP, gloomy about the “sharp rise” in the price of rice he serves.”The economy is not moving,” Uddin said. “It’s stuck. We are all waiting for the election.”Hasina, 78, was once praised for overseeing Bangladesh’s rapid economic rise, with growth topping seven percent annually and per capita GDP more than quadrupling since 2000.But she also presided over an autocratic government that crushed dissent, and now faces court cases alleging the looting of national wealth.She is a convicted fugitive in hiding in India, sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity.Economist Fahmida Khatun warned that the new administration will face many challenges.”People hope things will improve after the election, but many of the problems are structural,” she said. “There is no quick fix.”

Dozens of people crowded around an automated gold recycling machine at a Shanghai mall, hoping to melt down family heirlooms for cash as prices of the precious metal hit record highs.China is the world’s largest consumer of gold, which is traditionally purchased by families to mark special occasions like births and weddings.But as prices soared to a fresh high near $5,600 on Thursday, customers surrounding the bright yellow machine installed by gold trading firm Kinghood Group were looking to sell.”I never thought prices would rise so dramatically,” said 54-year-old Wu, who told AFP she wanted to sell panda-themed gold coins she had purchased after the birth of her daughter in 2002.She said she had previously sold the machine a ring inherited from her late father, which fetched around 10,000 yuan ($1,400) — a huge increase from the original 1,000 yuan her mother had paid for the ring decades ago.”Gold prices hold steady at a historic high, it’s the right time to sell gold,” an ad on the machine advised customers.An embedded screen displayed the Shanghai Gold Exchange’s fluctuating prices, while a live video feed showed a robotic arm moving gold scraps onto a scale and under a device that used light waves to measure its purity.Some people told AFP they had waited over an hour for their turn.An attendant kept track of each seller’s position in the queue, and helped to deposit ornate pendants, hammered rings and commemorative coins into an opening in the device.Wu said her elderly mother was especially excited about soaring gold prices, and saw the recycling machine as a chance to supplement her modest pension.”Everyone is suddenly talking about (gold), and it has sparked this emotion in her,” Wu told AFP.- Old gold -Zhao, a woman sporting an intricately carved gold medallion on a necklace of jade beads and shimmering bangles on her wrist, brought her late grandfather’s ring to the recycling machine.The ring’s surface was adorned with the Chinese character for “luck” and tiny images of traditional gold ingots.She said she believed her grandfather had purchased the ring sometime between the 1950s and the 1980s, and that her mother had handed it down to her this year.”If the price is good, I will sell it,” she told AFP as she waited for her turn.Minutes after Zhao deposited the ring into the machine, a message popped up on its screen that said Kinghood would buy the chunk of high-karat gold for over 12,000 yuan.Satisfied, Zhao clicked “agree” on the terms displayed onscreen and keyed in her full name, ID number and bank account details, while her grandfather’s ring was melted down into a smooth puddle on the live video feed.The attendant promised she would receive the full amount via bank transfer by the end of the day.”Other places test the gold by burning it slightly, but here they test it directly and it’s open and transparent,” Zhao said, explaining that she trusted the automated recycler over a traditional human buyer.In addition to a steady stream of sellers, the machine also drew the attention of bystanders who gawked at the large sums of money changing hands at the unassuming corner of the mall.”Damn!” said a passerby when she saw that one person was selling their old jewellery for more than 75,000 yuan.And onlookers crowded around an elderly couple as the machine calculated that their finger-sized gold bar could fetch over 122,000 yuan.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted the US tech giant will make a “huge” investment in OpenAI and dismissed as “nonsense” reports that he is unhappy with the generative AI star.Huang made the remarks late Saturday in Taipei after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI had been put on ice. Nvidia announced the plan in September to invest $100 billion in OpenAI, building infrastructure for next-generation artificial intelligence.The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said some people inside Nvidia had expressed doubts about the deal and that the two sides were rethinking the partnership.”That’s complete nonsense. We are going to make a huge investment in OpenAI,” Huang told journalists, when asked about reports that he was unhappy with OpenAI.Huang insisted that Nvidia was going ahead with its investment in OpenAI, describing it as “one of the most consequential companies of our time”.”Sam is closing the round, and we will absolutely be involved in the round,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.”We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we’ve ever made.”Nvidia has come to dominate spending on the processors needed for training and operating the large language models (LLM) behind chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Gemini.Sales of its graphics processing units (GPUs) — originally developed for 3D gaming — powered the company’s market cap to over $5 trillion in October, although the figure has since fallen back by more than $600 billion.LLM developers like OpenAI are directing much of the mammoth investment they have received into Nvidia’s products, rushing to build GPU-stuffed data centres to serve an anticipated flood of demand for AI services.