On July 25 this year, the Prothom Alo English edition published a news item about a bridge being built somewhere on the outskirts of Dhaka that led to nowhere.

Recent attacks on Kabul’s international airport by the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate raise multiple questions, as well as the spectre of paradigm shifts in the drivers and expanding geography of political violence.

“Safety first. Because let’s face it. If you get injured while covering a protest, your colleagues will come to see you in the hospital, send good wishes to your family, talk about the incident for some days…

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation, spent most of his life in politics outside state power.

When Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed floor leaders of 31 parties in Parliament on August 26 on the developments in Afghanistan, he faced some searching questions about New Delhi’s policy, actions and future strategy towards Afghanistan, post-Taliban takeover.

Salim (not his real name) is 42 years old and works in a private company in Dhaka. Recently, he needed to go to an office to have a meeting, and felt intense anxiety. This happens to him whenever he has to meet any man alone.

December 2, 2013 was the birthday of Mahfuzur Rahman’s—a Chhatra Dal leader of Bangshal—son. Mahfuz promised his son that he would bring him flowers on the occasion and went out to buy flowers in Shahbagh.

Pakistan may not hurry to recognise the Taliban as new rulers of Afghanistan this time and wait for regional powers like China, Russia and Iran to make their decisions, a prominent expert on regional security and terrorism issues said.

Against all odds, the Taliban need to prove their credentials as Afghan nationalists and shun global jihadist movements along with delivering promises to the international community if they want to govern Afghanistan, a panel of experts said.

The only major Bengali poet to have come from the rural proletariat and the first one to have raised—in public—the demand for the total independence of colonial India in 1922, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) enacts insurrectionary ruptures and breaks with certain old traditions in Bengali poetry while inaugurating new ones.

Throughout history, humanity has often failed to take adequate notice of some of the worst atrocities that were committed. The story of the Rohingya falls squarely into this category. As a group, they are among the most persecuted, and yet their cries for justice and help have long gone unheard.

Instead of a health system striving to provide universal healthcare, a fragmented, profit-driven market “non-system” has emerged in recent decades. The 1980s’ neo-liberal counter-revolution against the historic 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration is responsible for this.

Afghanistan is now under the reins of the Taliban. No, they have not come to power through the ballot box, rather they have accomplished it by implementing the famous saying of Mao Zedong: “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Afghanistan is now a Shariah-based Islamic state.

Yesterday, Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and those in different parts of the world observed Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day for the fourth year. In late August 2017, Myanmar’s military forces, together with extremist anti-Rohingya civilians, committed a deliberate deadly crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state, which drove away nearly 900,000 people.

Over the last four years, the Rohingya refugee crisis has changed the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Peninsula on many levels.

They work in mills and factories, also under tin sheds in squalid conditions. They begin their long days commuting in crammed public transport vehicles or taking long walks, braving monsoon rain or summer heat.

Over the past two decades, the Asia-Pacific region has made remarkable progress in managing disaster risk. However, countries can never let down their guards.

This month marks the fourth year since the flight of more than 730,000 Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown.

Death is always difficult to accept, but in the case of some, it is more so. The news of Major (retd) Muqtadir Ali passing away on August 20 not only shocked his family, but also all his freedom fighter colleagues, second war course batchmates, professional colleagues in the energy sector, and personal friends and relatives.

Paban Paul, 38, a tea worker of Rampur Tea Garden in Bahubal upazila (Habiganj district), died of Covid-19 on July 6. Rampur Tea Garden is a furi (division) of Rashidpur Tea Estate, owned by Finlay Tea Co. Ltd.