DURING the previous regime of 15 years, the people of the country faced deep-rooted grievances and deprivation, aggravated by pervasive and systematic repression. Misgovernance, rampant corruption, unchecked arbitrariness, and the abuse of power fuelled widespread anger and antagonism among the populace. Amid this...
RECENTLY, we travelled to Cox鈥檚 Bazar, where around one million Rohingya refugees live in 33 congested camps. Among them are hundreds of thousands of children 鈥� more than...
The interim government has continued to provide crisis-hit commercial banks and large business groups with emergency loan assistances with the offering of Tk 180 crore to the Beximco Group in the past week, said officials...
COUNTRIES across the global south are experiencing climate, poverty and development crises 鈥� all made worse by the unbearable costs of debt servicing. Indeed, according to Development Finance International, 鈥楥itizens of the Global South now face the worst debt crisis since global records began.鈥� Low-income countries, which have seen the amount...
THIS piece is not about the crisis or the chaos that the country is now facing after successfully toppling the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Rather, it is about the crisis of confidence and social capital or trust 鈥� interlinked, nonetheless...
Speakers, including academics, on Thursday stressed the need for initiatives to address the mental health crisis of those injured and families of those killed during the student-led mass uprising in July and August...
French president Emmanuel Macron raced Wednesday to meet a self-imposed 48-hour deadline to name a new prime minister after he hosted party bosses in a bid to hammer out a consensus and avoid a protracted political crisis...
French president Emmanuel Macron has called for a 鈥榤eeting of different political forces鈥� to hammer out a programme for a new government, the Greens party leader said on Monday amid a political crisis triggered by prime minister Michel Barnier鈥檚 ouster...
Ghana鈥檚 former president John Dramani Mahama won a historic comeback election victory on Sunday after voters appeared to punish the ruling New Patriotic Party over its management of an economic crisis...
Regulatory mood swings and corruption during the Awami League regime created disorderly conditions in the foreign exchange market, which led the foreign exchange reserves declining to levels too low for comfort, according to the White Paper on the State of Bangladesh economy submitted to chief adviser Muhammad Yunus on Sunday...
Natural disasters have caused an estimated $310 billion in economic losses around the world this year, swelling six per cent from 2023 as the climate crisis takes its toll, reinsurance giant Swiss Re said Thursday...
UPON publication of the report by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan in August 2017, there should not have been any debate over the Rohingya people鈥檚 nationality and citizenship issues. According to media reports, in 2017, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement regarding the...
THIS is worrying that potato growers in the north are faced with a shortage of seeds and fertiliser. The shortage, coupled with high prices of both seeds and fertiliser, is likely to impact the potato production in the 16 northern districts, where two-thirds of potatoes are produced. As agricultural authorities have not ensured enough supplies, prices have increased sharply. Farmers in the region allege that syndicates...
Along with the ongoing seed crisis in the peak of potato cultivation season, a shortage of fertilisers has added insult to injury to the northern farmers as they have to pay up to Tk 450 extra for per sack of fertiliser...
THE world is facing a serious water crisis, with 26 per cent of the global population still lacking access to safe drinking water, and a staggering 46 per cent are deprived of basic sanitation facilities. These alarming statistics, revealed in the UN World Water Development Report 2023, serve as a grim reminder of how far we are from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure safe water...
AFTER the July-August 2024 mass uprising, the nature and framework of the interim government have sparked fresh debates in political and intellectual circles. Some argue that failing to establish a 鈥榬evolutionary government鈥� following such a massive uprising was a mistake. This has led to disagreements on how best to address the ongoing crisis in the country. While some, including the BNP and many...
Georgia鈥檚 new parliament met for the first time Monday, with the chamber facing serious questions over its legitimacy amid a boycott by opposition parties and the president declaring it unconstitutional...
COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, brought the world鈥檚 attention once again to strategies to address the climate crisis. While reducing emissions (mitigation) remains essential, it has become increasingly clear that even with significant global efforts, the consequences of climate change are here to stay. Rising sea levels, erratic weather patterns, and...
Foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Saturday underlined the need for a national consensus to address the Rohingya crisis, which has been further complicated by the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State...
AS THE world came together for COP29 in Baku, the need to tackle climate change has never been more urgent. The Conference of the Parties, or COP, is a UN initiative that began in 1995 to address the growing climate crisis. The foundation for global climate action was laid much earlier at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro...
Commerce adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin on Thursday said that no artificial crisis would be allowed in the supply chain of food and other essentials...
SAFE drinking water insecurity is a global issue, particularly severe in Bangladesh鈥檚 coastal regions. Frequent cyclones, storm surges, breached embankments, coastal flooding, and rising salinity levels contribute to the contamination of both groundwater and surface water sources. According to the Bangladesh Environment and Development Society...
Bangladesh president Mohammed Shahabuddin on Wednesday called upon the international community, including Canada to take pragmatic measures to solve the long-standing Rohingya crisis.
With international support, professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government should look to score some 鈥榪uick wins鈥� to keep the public on side, said the International Crisis Group in its report released on Friday.
Iranian demonstrators gathered on Sunday outside the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 hostage crisis that has for decades shaped relations between...
Angry customers of National Bank鈥檚 Shibganj branch in Sylhet locked the main entrance of the bank on Wednesday in protest after being unable to withdraw their deposits, a situation that has reportedly persisted for several days...
Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Wednesday said that initiatives were being taken to provide immediate solutions to the existing crises on the country鈥檚 stock market...
AMID the lingering haze over Bangladesh鈥檚 cities, air pollution has become an escalating public health crisis. From brick kilns to traffic congestion, harmful pollutants seep into every aspect of urban life, making this not just a climate issue but a matter of human survival. These fine particulate matters 鈥� dust, soot, and smoke 鈥� can penetrate the lungs...
Intermittent power outages despite substantial drop in the electricity demand together with the new austerity instruction issued on Monday underscore the country鈥檚 declining energy capacity...
