The new normal is now normal! Four years back, seeing us sitting at the coffee table with our masks, disposable gloves and sanitiser bottles, people would have chuckled and called us abnormal.

When Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” he meant that the essence of something is not determined by its label. Calling a plum a pear does not make it taste any different.

The word “safety” has multiple connotations when applied to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

If I am asked to pick one song from a Hindi film that best encapsulates how the posterity would look back at the singing legends Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi, it would be “Pagla Kahin Ka” (1970), where they sing: “tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge / jab kabhi bhi geet sunoge mere / sang sang tum bhi gungunaoge”.

On January 27, after much debate, drama and blame game, the Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2022 was passed in parliament.

Dr Ainun Nishat, professor emeritus of BRAC University and a water resource and climate change specialist, talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star about the reasons behind the persistent waterlogging problem in the Bhabadaha area and the measures that should be taken to solve it.

Using symbolic images to represent sexual crimes is very common in news media.

A young female is reported missing. The police find a dead body. The relatives identify the body. The police make an arrest and question the suspect.

It was the spring of 1985 in New Delhi. I, along with my father Vishnupada Bhattacharya, a linguist, literary critic and a teacher at the Department of Modern Indian Languages in Delhi University, came out of Vigyan Bhavan after watching Satyajit Ray’s “Ghare Baire.”

Recently, Bangladesh formally proposed the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Many societies have their own sources of shame. Genital mutilation, honour killing, sexual abuse of children in religious institutions—there are many such practices that go against all norms of a civilised and humane society.

Like many countries, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of Bangladesh’s healthcare system.

Often as children, my female peers and I would lament over the myriad privileges our male counterparts enjoyed in society, from being allowed to play for hours in the sun (a tan would not diminish their value as human beings) to going out any hour of the day (with their prime fear being that they might be mugged, not that they might be raped and killed).

A declining trend of gas production from the local gas fields against an increasing gas demand has led Bangladesh to partially depend on importing high-priced liquefied natural gas (LNG).

If we want to address our development and societal challenges with the help of nature, we have three options. While nature-based solutions (NbS) have been discussed in this column extensively, let’s talk about two other options: nature-driven solutions and nature-inspired solutions.

Can anyone remember such degradation of a constitutional body like what our Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has done?

February 1, 2022 marks the first anniversary of Myanmar’s audacious military coup, which has gone down in recent history of the country as the beginning of the most repressive regime.

On January 31, 2022, Bangladesh and Australia celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations. It was on this day 50 years ago that Australia’s Foreign Minister Nigel Bowen announced that Australia had recognised the government led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the government of the new state of Bangladesh.

We don’t normally think of toys from a critical perspective because, well, they’re just toys. But if one were to reflect on it, one might become easily disenchanted by these children’s playthings.

This January 24 marked the sixth death anniversary of Syed Twareque Ali, who was truly a gift from Bangladesh to the world of science.