The year 2020 will be recorded in history as the year when the world population lived dangerously—under the onslaught of an unknown killer virus that did not discriminate between rich or poor, developed or developing countries.

They say that when Rome was burning, its mad emperor Nero stood on its great walls and fiddled while his city was destroyed. While it’s difficult to verify the veracity of an event that is said to have occurred in the year 64, this image comes to mind when we look at Trump and Bolsonara’s (mis)handling of the coronavirus pandemic in their respective countries.

Like it or not, the United Arab Emirates may have done the Palestinians a favour by forging diplomatic ties with Israel. On the face of it, the agreement deprives the Palestinians of a perceived trump card: Arab recognition in return for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the 1967 Middle East war even if it has not proven to be much of an asset.

The protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by four Minneapolis police officers rightfully reflected waves of anger and activism in the United States and beyond.

Secularism is the most misunderstood word in Pakistan. Though not apparent to the casual observer, secularism versus religion in politics is the most important problem in our country.

If half of the population of Bangladesh and up to 70 percent of children are deficient in vitamin D, then it must be a major cause for concern for us. Despite having the natural advantage of abundant sunshine all year round allowing vitamin D synthesis, why are we having this phenomenon in our population?

It has been 41 years since the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted. Bangladesh ratified CEDAW in 1984 but with reservations about certain articles that uphold a state’s responsibility towards women and their right to social and economic advantages, and address discrimination in matrimonial and family laws.

Bangladesh is home to around three million indigenous peoples (IPs) from more than 50 ethnic backgrounds, according to the Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples’ Forum.

There is little I can add to what has already been said about the shaming, blaming and moral policing of women on the internet.

The biggest problem faced by our textile industry right now is not the coronavirus.

Israel will undoubtedly enthusiastically welcome and celebrate the occasion if Donald Trump wins the US presidential elections. No other US president has done so much for the Zionist state since Harry S Truman. Truman was the first world leader to officially recognise Israel as a Jewish state on May 14, 1948, only 11 minutes after its emergence.

Two years after the countrywide road safety movement, many of us feel a sense of frustration and disappointment as the much-expected changes are yet to occur.

The law has repeatedly been side-lined in recent years by law enforcers, who have illegally abducted or “picked up” people and detained them secretly in custody, without following due legal process. Some were later released, while others remained indefinitely “disappeared” (or “goom”) in what are known as enforced disappearance cases.

“Owning the libs and pissing off the media. That’s what we believe in now. There’s really not much more to it,” said long-time senior congressional Republican aide Brendan Buck on what the Republican Party stood for today, while in conversation with Politico reporter Tim Alberta.

It is said that in times of peace, sons bury their fathers, but in war, it is the fathers who bury their sons. On August 29, 1971, the Pakistani army caught Bodiul Alam (Bodi), Shafi Imam (Rumi), Abdul Halim Chowdhury (Jewel) and Magfar Ahmed Chowdhury (Azad) in Dhaka city. They were the members of a guerrilla unit of Mukti Bahini.

Memorising math is a crime. It’s a disease with no cure. Often, students stuck with bad teachers and bad systems are the victims of this crime.

The World Bank leadership must urgently abandon its “Maximising Finance for Development” (MFD) hoax. Instead, it should resume its traditional multilateral development bank role of mobilising funds at minimal cost to finance developing countries.

While many universities in Bangladesh planned to return to an in-person fall, this dream is crumbling. If they do it, students will be at high risk as the Covid-19 pandemic is still far from over. Given the situation, improving the quality of online education is more important than hastily opening up in-person classes.

Most of Bangladesh is located within the floodplains of three large river systems: the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM), with over 90 percent of the basin area outside Bangladesh. Flood is thus a natural phenomenon here, and people have been living with floods for centuries. Yet, not all floods are created equal, so to speak, nor all floods lead to a flooding disaster.

Ever since the outbreak of coronavirus in March in the country, Bangladesh’s economy has been severely affected, particularly because of its overdependence on RMG sector exports and remittance earnings from the migrant workers.