I received a short message on my phone just before noon on July 1 but could not notice it properly due to office work.

From Covid-19 to climate disruption, from racial injustice to rising inequalities, we are a world in turmoil.

I have often been tongue-tied in the presence of Latifur Rahman. Was it his impassive face and intense eyes that would look right through you, his relentless demand for accurate, precise answers?

Immediately after his country broke free from the shackles of Pakistani rule, a young man in Dhaka landed in a crisis that no one his age would have wanted to find themselves in.

On March 12, 2020, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine organised a discussion titled “Discrimination and Racism During Coronavirus Outbreak”.

Dr Safiqul Islam, Director, BRAC Education Programme, shares his thoughts with The Daily Star’s Naznin Tithi about the challenges associated with school reopening, ways to recover children’s learning loss over the extended break from school, and BRAC’s education model for this crisis situation. This interview is part of an interview series by The Daily Star that aims to give readers an idea of what changes to expect in a post-Covid-19 world.

A patient on ventilatory support was removed from the ICU of a private hospital in Dhaka when it was found that he was Covid-19 positive.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the fragility and brokenness of Bangladesh’s health system. But what we may fail to realise is that Covid-19 is also making way for aggravating the already perilous situation of sexual violence against women and children in Bangladesh.

The logic is simple and nothing new—morbidity and mortality do not help people earn their livelihoods.

In these pandemic-plagued times, ceremonies commemorating the beginning of the celebrations of the University of Dhaka (or DU) that were to culminate in July 1, 2021 have been scaled down drastically; the chances of alumni and well-wishers of university students and faculty members thronging the campus on July 1, 2020 to inaugurate the year-long events have all but gone.

From Buddhism travelling to China from India in the ancient days and the “Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai” slogan in the heydays of friendship, to the scuffle in the Galwan valley earlier this month that led to casualties on both sides, India and China’s bilateral relationship has been through highs and lows over the centuries. But the modern day spats between the two countries are rooted deeply in the colonial legacy left by the British.

The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing our migrant workers across the globe into unimaginable vulnerabilities. Without a regular income to sustain them in a foreign land, many have no savings to fall back on and are on the brink of starvation.

The Swiss Banking authorities published their annual update on deposits of foreign nationals, including Bangladeshis, on June 25. It shows 603.2 million Swiss Francs or Tk 5,367 crores invested by Bangladeshis, which is 2.38 percent less than that in 2019.

Sometime during the pre-lockdown era, I was standing in queue at the Dhanmondi branch of a renowned bank.

There have been lots of debates and disagreements with regard to the economic cost of Covid-19 in Bangladesh. In particular, the debate concentrated on GDP growth rate in FY2020, which ranged from 1.6 percent (World Bank) to 5.5 percent (Budget Speech FY 2021, Ministry of Finance [MOF]).

The recent fire incident in the suddenly added corona unit of the United Hospital, Dhaka, is a sharp reminder of our lack of knowledge, neglect and apathy for fire safety in hospitals and high-rise commercial buildings (i.e. FR Tower in Banani).

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected our lives in several ways. Likewise, it is evident that the pandemic’s effect on our country’s economy is likely

In this instalment of The Daily Star’s interview series that aims to give readers an idea of what changes to expect in a post-Covid-19 world, Dr Shahdeen Malik, advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about the right to freedom of speech and expression and the limiting of human rights by governments.

In late 2019, we learned of the harrowing plight of Suma Akter, a Bangladeshi woman in Saudi Arabia who secretly recorded and shared on social media her story of abuse and exploitation abroad. In Saudi Arabia, Akter said, her employer beat her and at one point poured hot oil on her hand. Later on, when she fell ill, Akter said her employer sold her to another person for 22,000 riyals (almost Tk 5 lakh).

“In life, your parents come first, after the Great and most Benevolent Allah. They are the greatest blessing and safest shelter. Because of the mercy of Allah and the sacrifices of my parents, because of their prayers, advice, courage, discipline, love, affection, encouragement—for standing next to me like mountains through all my troubles—I have been able to earn my Bachelor’s degree from the Oxford of the East, Dhaka University.”