Tasneem Tayeb

Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza strip continues.

As the sun was about to set over the Gaza horizon on May 10, 2021, the community would not have known what was to happen that night. But they are citizens of Gaza, and what did happen would not have taken them by surprise. Israeli bombardment overnight of the besieged strip has claimed the lives of 21 Palestinians, including nine children. As dawn broke, there was devastation and a fresh round of Israeli attacks killing another three people. By the time of writing this, at least 26 lives have been lost to Israeli attacks.

As the government rolls out a financial assistance scheme in the country to support the poor in the face of the economic fallout of the pandemic, the urban poor are finding themselves in a tight spot.

The 2021 West Bengal assembly polls have been a tussle for power between the centre and the state government.

Covid-19 has exposed the underbelly of Bangladesh’s inadequately equipped healthcare system, especially during the grimmer second wave.

With the assembly polls ongoing in West Bengal, the state—currently being ruled by the strong matriarch Mamata Banerjee—has turned into a battleground for Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the power at the centre, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

As Bangladesh started a new phase of lockdown on April 14, 2021—apparently a more stringent one—the country was faced with a grim milestone. On the first day of the Bengali New Year, the country recorded 96 deaths, the highest till then, since the pandemic hit the country.

Bangladesh has been under lockdown since 6am April 5, 2021. This is the first time the nation is under lockdown to curb the spiralling spike in Covid-19 cases.

Narendra Modi’s recent visit to mark 50 years of Bangladesh’s independence has been dominated by his narratives of shared ties between the two friendly neighbours,

Torture, forced disappearance, displacement, chemical attacks, butchery, loss of lives and limbs, death of family and friends, mass murder: the Syrian people have been through it all in the last 10 years.

Mursal Wahidi, Sadia Sadat and Shahnaz Roafi were aged between 18 and 21 when they died. They were journalists, working at the dubbing wing of a privately-owned TV station called Enikas, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Myanmar is burning: with rage, with demonstrations, with the fierce determination of the civilians to end the newly imposed military rule.

On the face of it, it seems to be a logical move. An internal survey by Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) is said to have found only 200,000 of the about 600,000 rickshaws plying the DSCC areas suitable for operation.

Myanmar’s mighty military overthrowing the country’s democratically elected government to take full control of power was a well-planned move.

Joe Biden’s recent announcement to pull out of the Yemen war comes as no surprise.

The United Nations has rightly expressed fears that the recent military coup in Myanmar would exacerbate the plight of the Rohingya still remaining in the country.

For those who had expected a quick rapprochement initiative from the Biden administration with regard to Iran, especially a return to the 2015 landmark Iran nuclear deal, the recent comments by the new US top diplomat, Antony Blinken, may have perhaps been a little disappointing.

As the lights were about to go out on Trump presidency, the outgoing US administration made two major announcements about the Middle East—terming Iran a home for Al Qaeda, and designating the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as “terrorists”.

A desperate Mike Pompeo unconvincingly claiming, “Al-Qaeda has a new home base.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warmly embracing Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar on January 5 at the Saudi Al Ula airport made for a picture-perfect scene of brotherhood.