The WHO South-East Asia Region has in recent months witnessed a sharp and sustained surge of SARS-CoV2 infection. For consecutive weeks in April and May, the Region has reported more than two million new cases, with some areas reporting test positivity rates of upwards of 40 percent.

It is now well-recognised at national and international levels that a comprehensive social security system is imperative for addressing the problems and challenges of poverty and marginalisation.

Accor-ding to a report published in March 2021 by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), 30 percent of children have experienced various forms of online harassment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

How universities can better prepare graduates for the industry is a constant topic of debate. It will perhaps never end because the industry needs are changing rapidly, and the universities are constantly trying to adapt to such changes.

This year, Bangladesh marks the Golden Jubilee of its independence. The whole nation is celebrating this milestone with joy and pride. In 1971,

he Digital Security Act (DSA) has claimed its latest victim. Last Saturday, police arrested Shahnewaz Chowdhury (37), a diploma engineer of Chattogram’s Banshkhali upazilla, after a case was filed under the DSA for posting a Facebook status.

Since schools were closed due to the pandemic on March 17 last year, the closure has been extended 17 times.

The outburst of violence between Palestine and Israel during the month of Ramadan led to Hamas firing rockets and Israel bombing Palestine.

Fuelled by draconian legal measures and administrative harassment against seasoned Prothom Alo correspondent Rozina Islam, the journalistic community is fuming at the humiliating and hasty actions of the health ministry—and by definition, frustrated at the supposed inaction of the government and the judiciary to address what in reality, is nothing less than an embarrassing move to stop a journalist from doing her professional duty.

The prolonged school closures in Bangladesh has put us at the top of yet another unpalatable list—according to UNICEF, we have had one of the world’s longest full closure of educational institutions due to the pandemic.

The 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) takes place from May 24 to June 1. This year’s gathering is likely to be dominated by Covid-19, but here I want to talk about a different disease—leprosy—and a resolution that was adopted at the WHA exactly 30 years ago.

All sectors and walks of modern life are touched by sustainability and so too is the construction industry-whether it is buildings, airports, highways or stadiums.

Bangladesh is potentially approaching a dual crisis. One is the shortage of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Covishield, leaving over 14 lakh people in uncertainty over their second doses, and the other is the emergence of the notorious “Indian variant” in the country.

The history of designing and delivering policy-driven economic stimulus packages is customarily traced back to the “New Deal” which was implemented in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Schools have been fully or partially closed for more than a year in many developing countries. As of March 29, 2021, the world’s longest full closure was in Bangladesh, at 47 weeks, according to the UNESCO.

What the Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on May 20 about his ministry’s predicament is nothing unique. Expressing his regret about Prothom Alo journalist Rozina Islam’s arrest, he said, “As foreign ministry,

Professor Dr Shahida Akhter, a well-known child health specialist, passed away prematurely from liver cancer at 59 years of age on May 1, 2021. She was soft-spoken, introverted, humble and beloved by many people.

I felt distressed and embarrassed after coming across the news of senior journalist Rozina Islam’s ordeal of harassment at the health ministry and her eventual arrest.

In this age of intelligent machines, journalists often keep information that is sensitive, confidential and self-evidentiary in their laptops or mobile phones, or in cloud storage facilities.

The internet and its cloak of anonymity seemingly avails us with freedom on all counts. What people see of one’s life on their social media profile/s, for instance, is what they want people to see.