I’m told that there is only one vegetable that can make people cry. And this tubular vegetable is making almost an entire nation cry, except those unscrupulous traders who shut the doors of their godowns as soon as India announced a moratorium on the export of onions.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, the country’s flourishing economy had taken a hit. With the government-announced general holidays leading to closures of businesses, offices, educational institutions, shops, eateries, factories and other livelihood-generating opportunities—both formal and informal—life came to a halt in the nation.

I was reading a harrowing report in the New York Times that revealed startling data about how federal officials in the United States during the 1930s demarcated or “redlined” certain areas of different cities as “hazardous” or “risky for business,” based on the concentration of poor Black people or immigrants in them.

Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon jointly launched the new South Asian Regional office of the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA).

It is just as well that we are kept reminding by the UN on this very day since 2007 of the values of democracy and its importance in our life through the observance of the International Day of Democracy.

The huge changes we are seeing in the global apparel industry right now are bewildering and unsettling for many of us. A tsunami has swept through the Bangladesh apparel sector and it is hard to believe that things will ever be quite the same again in our industry.

While economies around the world are reeling from distress due to the debilitating impact of the coronavirus pandemic, some sectors are facing the brunt of Covid-19 the most.

For future historians, the most memorable event of the year 2020 is certainly likely to be the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the US Presidential elections.

The conviction of three police officers working in one of the police stations of Dhaka metropolitan area for a custodial death that occurred years ago should be a shining example in an otherwise murky environment.

The title alludes to a very famous folk song by Abdul Alim, Premer Mora Jole Dobe Na. The song pits true love against so-called flings, suggesting that mere water cannot drown the “body” who is in love.

On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court in Dhaka found three police officers guilty of custodial torture in what is the first known judgment under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013.

The blunt statement on September 7 of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a virtual meeting with the Armed Forces Selection Board—that “we should exclude Martial Law from military lexicon”—was both surprising and refreshing.

During July last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hosted the Global Commission on Adaptation meeting in Dhaka attended by the co-chairs of the Commission, former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and Kristalina Georgiva, head of the International Monetary Fund.

One would like to know more than what one has come by so far about the killing of Major Sinha. There were two ongoing investigations of the murder—a rare thing—and the report from one, instituted by the home ministry, has been submitted. Usually, one would hear very little of a criminal investigation till the framing of charges.

On Friday night, a massive explosion took place in Baitus Salah Jame Masjid in Narayanganj, killing 24 people and injuring dozens more, most of whom have sustained over 70 percent burn injuries.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc within the global apparel industry and its supply chains and continues to have a devastating impact on sourcing hubs such as our own.

If life were a film with a wholesome ending, traffickers of the 106 Bangladeshis stuck in Vietnam would have been swiftly arrested.

English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words.

I don’t know why I was expecting that I would not be fazed at embarking on a journey across the Atlantic at a time when just stepping out of my bedroom had the potential to kill me.

The September 2 issue of The Daily Star had two contrasting stories that dramatically expose our hypocritical attitudes towards our expatriate workers.