The global trade order was unquestionably under strain well before the Covid-19 crisis struck the world economy.

The latest batch of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority refugees landed in Aceh recently, prompting ASEAN in its ministerial meeting last week to urge and express readiness to help Myanmar to work out its plan to repatriate the refugees.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted educational activities across Bangladesh, with the closure of educational institutes affecting the regular learning activities of nearly four crore students.

According to her primary education certificate, Umme Kulsum was only 14-years-old. But to send her to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker, her passport falsely portrayed her as 25—since that is the minimum age for women to go as labour workers to Saudi Arabia. But the dream that the middleman had sold to Kulsum’s family was broken within a year and a half when she returned to her family as a corpse.

The Covid-19 pandemic may have taken a heavy toll on the global economy, but the pandemic hasn’t been bad for everyone. While hundreds of millions of people worldwide have lost their source of earning and have become jobless, billionaires are getting richer than ever before.

The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) has recognised the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poor and densely populated urban areas, and particularly on informal settlements and slums.

It is probably the first time that the House of Commons recorded a statement by a cabinet member that a legislation brought by the government of Great Britain will breach international law.

I am not referring to human infants, who need society’s affection and complete care. The focus here is on “infant industries”, a jargon in trade economics for new firms and industries in the international marketplace.

It was a peaceful cultural exhibition on a burning issue; an issue that has been haunting thousands of families of victims and resonating among millions of conscientious citizens of the land and beyond.

Kulsum died on August 9 this year while undergoing treatment at the King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Her lifeless body arrived in the country on September 12. The family claimed that her employer and his son had beaten Kulsum, breaking her legs and arms, as well as injuring her waist. Her eye was also damaged. Merciless as they were, she was left on the street in this miserable condition. Later, Saudi police rescued her and took her to the hospital where she died in a few months.

Seldom has a Bengali actress of Bollywood roiled the politics of three Indian states—Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal—for contrasting reasons.

Buru, the dog, has been taken away. According to a Facebook post by the Animal Welfare Club of Dhaka University, this gentle creature was a fixture around the tea stalls at TSC in Dhaka University, largely cared for by the students out of their own pockets.

The killing of innocent Bangladeshis at the hands of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) is an issue that brings shock, dismay and humiliation to us as a nation.

On the morning of September 9, 2020, the colour of the sky in the San Francisco Bay Area was burnt orange. By noon, the sky grew darker instead of lighter. The morning sky resembled the red planet Mars, while the afternoon sky gave the impression that there is a solar eclipse, but a longer one.

The end of the pandemic is not quite in sight. Schools have remained closed for a full six months now since March 17.

Jharna Akter overheard journalists talking about how the photo of a burqa-clad mother playing cricket with her son will shake the world.

The more things change in India’s main opposition party Congress, the more they seem to remain the same. This was the most important takeaway from the party’s interim President Sonia Gandhi when she carried out a major organisational reshuffle on September 11.

The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to accelerate the global trends of democratic backsliding and weakening respect for human rights. It is intensifying existing inequalities, hitting those who are already marginalised, subjected to discrimination and living in poverty the hardest.

September is an important month for Right to Information (RTI) buffs all over the world. They undertake various activities during the month to commemorate the International Right to Know Day on September 28 with two key focus points.

Three decades ago, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and overthrow of military regimes in different countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, we were all talking about the “third wave” of democracy.