TO SAY that Israel鈥檚 Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had lost the plot is to assume he ever had one. With a dearth of ideas as to how to come up with a 鈥榝inal solution鈥� to the Palestinian problem, he has received a majority approval from his cabinet colleagues to take over Gaza City. It took a late-night meeting with the security cabinet lasting some ten hours...
EVERY year on 12 August, International Youth Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of young people to global progress. The 2025 theme, 鈥榶outh advancing multilateral cooperation through technology and partnerships鈥�, is more than aspirational. It reflects a reality already taking shape. From climate action to digital governance...
AUGUST 8 marked the first anniversary of the interim government鈥檚 rise to power in the wake of the historic July uprising. The Yunus-led administration came into office buoyed by unprecedented public goodwill, both at home and abroad, and charged with the responsibility of healing a fractured nation. One year may not be long enough to fulfil every expectation...
鈥楾HE more they know, the less they obey鈥� 鈥� this unforgettable line is uttered by an authoritarian king who fears an educated public. Satyajit Ray鈥檚 dystopian film Hirak Rajar Deshe may be fictional, but the impulse to suppress political knowledge is very real. In both authoritarian regimes and fragile democracies, political education is often neglected, leaving citizens less equipped to understand and defend their rights...
THE non-life insurance sector in Bangladesh faces a number of structural limitations that continue to hinder its growth. One pressing concern is the practice of offering additional paybacks over the prescribed commission rates, even as insurance premium rates in the country remain significantly higher compared to overseas markets. This imbalance affects...
IT HAS been one year since our father, ambassador Serajul Islam (Shobuj, as he is widely known), passed away. And one year since Bangladesh charted her course for a better future. I don鈥檛 believe in coincidences, but sometimes history and grief collide in ways that feel undeniably meaningful. Our father devoted his life to the idea that Bangladesh could and must do...
IN A dazzling twist that no playwright could鈥檝e scripted better, the once-mighty Awami League 鈥� yes, the very party that lorded over Bangladesh for 15 and a half uninterrupted years 鈥� has now declared its own fall as the result of a grand, globe-spanning conspiracy. Naturally. Because when authoritarianism topples under the weight of its own hubris, what else could...
IN MANY educational systems today, well-meaning efforts to ensure teacher accountability have become narrowly preoccupied with measurable indicators 鈥� attendance, lesson delivery, syllabus coverage. While structure and discipline have their place, such emphasis on compliance risks diverting attention from the real objective: student learning. A teacher might adhere...
THERE are no permanent friends, only permanent interests, in geopolitics. And today, those interests have forced India to make the most consequential choice in decades: to bow before Beijing鈥檚 economic and strategic dominance, and to distance itself from an increasingly hostile Washington. What began as a cautious re-balancing in late 2024 has now hardened into...
COUNTERFACTUALS 鈥� what if so and so had happened? 鈥� are always dicey. For example; would there have been a full-scale Vietnam war if President John F Kennedy had not been assassinated? There is no way to prove that hypothesis right or wrong. In the case of today鈥檚 Middle East, one could pose the counterfactual question about a forgotten 1919 report about...
IN HIS seminal work Parties and Party Systems, political theorist Giovanni Sartori astutely observed that electoral systems are far from neutral tools. They do more than count votes; they shape outcomes, entrench hierarchies, and define the political playing field. Nowhere is this truer than in Bangladesh, where the first-past-the-post system has entrenched duopolistic...
IMAGINE a world in which the US dollar, already the lifeblood of global finance, transforms into a digital juggernaut 鈥� flowing through blockchain rails to tighten America鈥檚 grip on global capital. This isn鈥檛 speculative fiction. It鈥檚 the emerging reality, and its name is stablecoins...
SINCE independence in 1971, Bangladesh has gone through several political transitions, many of which involved interim or caretaker governments. During these times, significant institutional reforms have often been introduced that tend to last beyond their immediate terms. The current government, now responsible for leading the country through a critical...
AMERICAN exceptionalism has for long attracted both admiration and strategic exploitation. With its vast economy, unmatched military reach and liberal democratic ideals, the United States remains the gravitational centre of the global order. Yet many...
A WISE old man once lived in the hills alongside a clever young boy. Eager to prove the old man a fool, the boy devised a cunning trick. He caught a small, delicate bird in the forest and held it gently in his hands. His plan was straightforward: he would...
