t’s no secret that the Bangladesh education system seems to be, slowly but surely, achieving quite notable standards. Let’s take a look at the numbers, starting with primary and secondary education.

In two days (May 29-30), six successive mild earthquakes shook Sylhet city and its adjacent areas, leaving people panicking and running out into the streets.

It is rather thought-provoking to see how the growing interest in conserving terrestrial megafauna (for example, the Bengal Tiger) is starkly different from the interest in preserving marine megafauna (sharks, rays, turtles, whales).

Over the past 50 years, Bangladesh has undoubtedly made impressive progress in overall human development as well as on specific human development fronts.

Bangladesh, under the able stewardship of the present government, has made huge strides in socioeconomic indicators. The role of the private sector in this journey was pivotal, and the health sector is no exception.

On May 24, the Cabinet Division wrote to the Secretaries of Security Division of the Home Ministry and the Election Commission (EC) to amend the National Identity Registration Act (Jatiyo Parichoypotro Nibondon Ain), 2010 and transfer the personnel and infrastructure used for providing NID services, which includes 594 server-stations, to the Security Division.

The education community’s plea for breaking the pattern of Bangladesh having the lowest public spending on education in South Asia and among developing countries has fallen on deaf ears.

It has been nearly two weeks since the shocking news about journalist Rozina Islam’s harassment and imprisonment jolted our conscience.

Immunisation campaigns have been toting themes like “Vaccines for all” or “Vaccines bring us closer” signifying that the vaccine is universal, with everyone having equal access.

Racism is America’s original sin. Its manifestations are myriad, and notwithstanding occasional spurts of progress, the struggle for justice continues to be an uphill battle.

In March last year, Cyclone Amphan, said to be the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999, devastated the state of West Bengal, killing more than a hundred people.

As the rich countries get their vaccination numbers up, whilst poorer countries are still struggling, there is some hope that we are getting to grips with the pandemic. On the climate change front, there has been some remarkable achievements in the last two months.

Like writer-journalist Jon Mooallem wrote in “Wild Ones”, I too have been finding nature in the oddest of places.

The Homo sapiens, in their current evolved form, have been around on Earth for about 200,000 years. Many advances have taken place since then, with each advance seeming to have had a greater impact on our environment than the previous one.

This World Environ-ment Day, I am reflecting on my recent visit to one of the most ecologically important countries in the world. Sadly,

For a terrible 11 days in May, the world watched hellfire rain upon the world’s largest open-air prison camp, otherwise known as Gaza.

The counterintuitive decision that the government has taken regarding the endorsement in Bangladeshi passports of travel to Israel demands clear answers.

The title of this article invokes the name of an important book by a 19th-century British thinker, John Henry Newman.

You may not be aware, but a long-running effort to deny you access to independent information is culminating. The state’s attempts to control the media are blatant and blunt. If they succeed, Pakistan will be authoritarian in all but name.

On the occasion of the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence and the 100th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,