MULTILATERAL donors and lenders are international financial institutions that provide loans and other forms of financial assistance along with policy support for developing countries. The institutions, known as multilateral development banks, are...
THE July uprising in Bangladesh marked a dramatic rupture in the political landscape. At first glance, it signalled a resounding victory: the collapse of a long-entrenched fascist regime. Yet beneath the euphoria lies a more complex and unsettling reality...
On July 21, the unthinkable happened. A Bangladesh Air Force F-7 jet 鈥� a relic of Cold War-era military hardware 鈥� fell from the sky and slammed into Milestone School and College in Uttara, Dhaka, killing at least 33 people, most of them children. In a...
ONE of the most corrosive legacies of Bangladesh鈥檚 political misrule has been its transformation into a toll state 鈥� where power is monetized and citizens are coerced into paying for what should be theirs by right. Toll extortion 鈥� coerced payments...
A PERSISTENT decline in private-sector credit growth is concerning as it has direct, adverse impact on industrial expansion, investment and job creation. Bangladesh Bank data show that private-sector credit growth fell to 6.40 per cent in June 2025, the lowest level...
THE police arrested former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque at Dhanmondi in Dhaka in the morning on July 24. A court in the evening sent him to jail in connection with a case filed on July 6, 2025 with the Jatrabari police for the murder of a young man, shot dead...
THE Financial Times revealed this month that a cabal of Israeli investors, one of the world鈥檚 top business consulting groups and a think-tank headed by former British prime minister Tony Blair had been secretly working on plans to exploit the ruins of Gaza as prime real estate...
I teach literature, a subject that is closely related to everyday life and hence cannot be divorced from political happenings. When interpreting literary texts, I often draw examples from political contexts...
IN A quiet courtroom in the Hague, history stirred. A legal ripple, as gentle as a sigh from the Pacific, reached the shorelines of global governance. The International Court of Justice declared, in an advisory fashion though, that one country may, indeed, sue another for climate change. The words hung heavy in the air, stirring both celebrations and scepticism. Rightly so...
ACADEMIC activities continue to remain stalled at the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology after the students assaulted their teachers in February. An absence of the vice-chancellor has only added to the academic stalemate, putting teachers, general students and their guardians in trouble. This appears so as academic activities had been stalled for more than...
THE legacy of filing cases against hundreds of unnamed people, as has been by successive governments, including the authoritarian Awami League government, regrettably persists. After the Awami League regime was toppled in an uprising, it was expected that the abuse of legal devices would end. But the legacy, unfortunately, continues apace. In the recent examples, the...
JUST weeks after a temporary pause in the Israel-Iran war through a fragile ceasefire, Israel has attacked Syria, under the pretence of protecting the Druze community. The Israeli attack denotes Israel鈥檚 ambition to expand and perpetuate its war in the Middle East...
THE Milestone School and College jet crash of July 21, 2025, is a national tragedy of unspeakable proportions 鈥� one that transcends the conscience of the entire nation. The tragic and untimely deaths of our children have plunged the country into profound grief. For the families affected, the loss is irreparable, and those who survived will undoubtedly carry the trauma...
IT IS hard to decide what is more surreal: that the United States is threatening 50 per cent tariffs on Brazilian imports in the name of 鈥榬eciprocity鈥� or that global markets, once jittery at the mere whisper of Trumpian trade tantrums, are now brushing off these ultimatums with a shrug and record-breaking rallies...
WE HAVE all seen children dress up as their heroes or pretend to be doctors, teachers, or other professionals during playtime. What seems like simple fun is actually something far more significant. It is how children make sense of their world, acting out experiences, ideas, or stories. Imagination, which lies at the heart of children鈥檚 role play, is even more vital than simply acquiring knowledge...