AT THIS decisive moment in Bangladesh鈥檚 strategic course, a new vector has been set 鈥� one not drawn on land, but charted across the sea. In a nationally televised address, chief adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus signalled a maritime turn of historic magnitude. His proposition 鈥� that Bangladesh will 鈥榤ake the world our neighbour鈥� by turning decisively towards the sea...
WHEN most European countries and Volodymyr Zelensky were praying together with American neocons for the collapse of Vladimir Putin鈥檚 Alaska summit with Donald Trump, India was vocal in hoping for its success. The Indian idea was laudable, only the argument was a tad self-regarding. If the talks ended on a positive note, assorted Indian analysts reasoned, the...
CHILDHOOD, from birth to eighteen, is the single most formative period in human life. It is during these years that the foundations of physical, cognitive, social, emotional, motor and linguistic development are laid. Research suggests that up to 90 per cent of brain development, along with socio-emotional and linguistic skills, occurs before the age of three. These...
THE Trump administration is currently attempting to rewrite American history by whitewashing the country鈥檚 negative legacy and scrubbing out references to anything connected to multiculturalism or diversity...
THE American dollar, long the primary vehicle of global finance, now faces a quiet but consequential retreat. This decline is neither sudden nor absolute; it signals a deeper shift than a mere cyclical correction. It reflects a geo-politiconomic erosion 鈥� a simultaneous weakening of US geopolitical dominance and economic centrality...
AS BANGLADESH moves deeper into the digital age, the internet has become both a playground and a battleground for the country鈥檚 young users. A recent study by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University found that 59 per cent of rural children aged 11 to 17 who access the internet had faced cyber harassment or digital abuse 鈥� ranging from online...
ABOUT a month ago, a military training aircraft crashed onto Milestone School in Dhaka, killing 30 people, including many children, in a fiery explosion. When I saw the news, I fell into silence. But strangely, I noticed something: I didn鈥檛 feel the same deep shock I once would have. A few years ago, such a tragedy would have devastated me 鈥� I鈥檇 have spent the day in...
Donald Trump came into office promising to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Now, six months later, his high stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska may have put the United States and Russia on a new path toward peace, or, if this initiative fails, could trigger an even more dangerous escalation, with warhawks in Congress already pushing for another $54.6 billion in weapons for Ukraine...
THE luminous white stones of Sadapathar, glistening in the currents of the River Dhalai, have long been celebrated as a wonder of Sylhet. Tourists travel miles to marvel at this natural treasure, yet behind its beauty lies a thriving, often lawless, industry of stone and sand extraction. Along the Companiganj鈥揃holaganj highway, stone-crushing machines run ceaselessly...
IN SIDNEY Lumet鈥檚 12 Angry Men, there鈥檚 a moment when Juror 8, played by Henry Fonda, stands alone against a mounting verdict. 鈥業t鈥檚 not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first,鈥� he says. He adds very little to the prevailing noise in the room, yet his voice carries a weight far beyond its volume, grounded in moral authenticity...
DHAKA, a teeming capital, is a living example of what happens when urbanisation can outstrip planning. A sprawling city with more than 20 million, it is about to explode. Its crowded, polluted streets, survival struggles and squalor tell the story of a desperate metropolis. Every morning, millions of Dhaka residents endure agonising commutes, stuck in traffic that snakes...
IT WAS astonishing to read about the death of Ahmad Saeed Tazazaa (20 years old) on August 3, 2025, inside Israel鈥檚 Magiddo prison. Just months earlier, reports emerged that Israeli forces had killed another Palestinian prisoner in Megiddo, Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad (16 years old), on March 24. Both young men, boys really, had been picked up from the...
PEOPLE in Bangladesh are not dying solely from poverty; they are dying under the crushing weight of cruelty, superstition and hypocrisy. Three recent incidents have laid bare the nakedness of our collective moral bankruptcy. They are not isolated tragedies; they are symptoms of a deeply unhealthy social structure and of our contempt for the very religious...
ONCE, in the villages of Bangladesh, the night air shimmered with tiny golden lights. Fireflies, the living lanterns of the countryside, would drift through paddy fields and hover over darkened rivers, their glow guiding the imagination of poets and the steps of night-time travellers. Bengali literature even gave us the image of 鈥榓 boat in a dark night finding its way...
WATER runs through the veins of Bangladesh 鈥� shaping our land, feeding our people and sustaining our economy. With more than 700 rivers and a maze of wetlands, ponds, canals and coastal ecosystems, the country is blessed with extraordinary freshwater and marine wealth. Yet this abundance is underappreciated, undervalued and increasingly under threat. As...