Eresh Omar Jamal

Sultana Kamal, lawyer and human rights activist, member of CPD board of trustees, former Executive Director of Ain o Salish Kendra, and former advisor to the caretaker government of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star about the upcoming national elections and the state of human rights in Bangladesh.

As one of the most talked about and, perhaps, controversial US Midterm Elections comes to an end, the US, as a nation, remains where it was before the election started.

During a national dialogue to foster the start-up ecosystem in Bangladesh, nine start-ups consisting of two members each were given

Today is the fifth anniversary of the UN recognising November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. Incidentally, data shows that this year has been one of the deadliest for journalists out of the last five years, if not longer.

Much has been made of the death of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And rightfully so. The story of his alleged gruesome murder at the hands of a Saudi hit-team inside the country's consulate in Istanbul is not something the average person has to hear and replay in their heads every day—with the help of some imagination.

This year marks the 45th Anniversary of the October War between Israel and a coalition of Arab States, a war that significantly contributed to the present, complex Arab-Israeli conflict.

The 21st century has broadly been characterised as the Information Age.

The United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons falls on the anniversary of an incident that happened in 1983, when the world was just inches away from accidentally entering what would most likely have been a nuclear holocaust.

The momentous growth in the digitalisation of the finance industry over the last decade(s) has transformed the sector to a point where an increasingly wide variety of financial services are now becoming available to more and more people, faster than ever before.

While the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned the Syrian and Russian governments to stand down from attacking Idlib—the last stronghold of the armed Syrian opposition—as that may lead to a possible “bloodbath”, the term itself brought to mind chapter 10 of the book The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire.

At 11am on September 11, 2001 the Bush administration had already declared that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

According to the Financial Times (US), the USD 3.7 billion Padma Rail link, for which Beijing has provided more than USD 3 billion, will serve as “a physical reminder of China's growing presence” in Bangladesh.

These words were written into the US Declaration of Independence in Congress on July 4, 1776.

No matter who you ask, the student movement for safe roads we witnessed across our country recently is something completely unprecedented.

Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall victim to traffickers in their own countries and abroad. Despite seldom making the headlines, trafficking in persons also remains one of the biggest challenges for national security and law enforcement agencies throughout world—as the United Nations explained, “every country in the world is affected by human trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims.”

According to the World Bank in 2017, the unemployment rate in Bangladesh was 11.4 percent, far greater than that of our two largest neighbouring countries, India and China, where the rates of unemployment were 3.5 percent and 4.05 percent, respectively.

With the “world watching” Bangladesh in appreciation for its brave choice to defend the rights of the Rohingya refugees and stand up for the more honourable human values, a most disgraceful display of inhumanity had to bring our nation back down to earth.

The trade war started by Trump could be seen as him keeping his election promise of renegotiating US trade relations with the world.

CR Abrar, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about Myanmar's genocidal campaign against the Rohingyas and the international community's unfortunate but overwhelming silence in response.

It is that time of the year again, when we tread our own paths, to our own homes and hometowns with great excitement to celebrate Eid in our own special ways. And yet, it is also a time when we are brought together by that shared feeling of festivity that unites us in spirit.