The group of Least Developed Countries (LDC) has been negotiating under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for many years and has continuously taken leadership roles at key points. For example, the push for and successful inclusion (against great odds) of the long-term global temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Centigrade in the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Is Bangladesh heading in the direction where a few at the top control all the levers of power? A story published in this newspaper voices concerns about the harmful effects of influence-peddling at the highest levels of government in Bangladesh.

The history of camouflage is as old as animals hiding in their natural habitat. Human beings, perhaps the greatest copycats, took quite a while but never looked back, especially since World War I when military forces massively exploited the craft. Over the years, few of us can deny not having taken refuge in the art of disguise and deception at some time in our life.

The project of globalisation remains as contested as ever. In Globalization and Its Discontents (2001), Joseph Stiglitz criticised international monetary organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for advancing ideologically driven, market-based development mantras around the globe, often at the expense of poorer nations.

Every time we read the word “rape” and “gang rape”, we cringe with horror. Yet these two words keep coming up too often in our daily dose of nightmarish news.

It has been almost 21 months since the influx of about 750,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh began in August 2017. Gradually, it is becoming clear to us that the Rohingyas are here to stay for a protracted period of time.

The gentleman in Lakshmipur orders a watch online. When he receives the package, he discovers two Indian onions. I hope he has held on to them, for now that it is Ramadan, he can sell those two onions for more than the price of the watch he had initially ordered.

The recent devastation in Mozambique due to two successive hurricanes (Aida and Kenneth) of unprecedented severity for southern Africa, are a clear indicator that we are now living in a climate changed world. And that the huge loss and damage sustained by the people of Mozambique is due to human-induced climate change and not just natural causes.

In Angola, an oil-rich country in Africa, over 2.3 million people are now on the brink of starvation due to drought. In Yemen, the United Nations warned that 13 million people are facing the prospect of famine.

Each year, more than one billion people are engaged in volunteering worldwide. Their actions have economic, private and social values. You may wonder how helping others has economic value when no monetary transaction is involved.

"Tragedy” only mildly describes Sri Lanka’s bombing spate. It was heinous, stirring the wrong juices, pitting the wrong spiritual brethrens against each other. It was evil, not only fanning flames between two religious groups...

The captain boasts of taking advantage of the tail wind, the earth’s rotation and the earth’s curvature, but the fact remains that Los Angeles (LAX) to the airline’s hub city takes no less than 16 hours.

Aside from being nominated multiple times for the Nobel Peace Prize, including in 2019 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguir, Julian Assange has won countless awards for journalism

If you live in the US, it is hard to miss the ongoing tug of war between the White House and the US central bank, The Federal Reserve System (the Fed).

While inaugurating the first national industrial fair in the city, the prime minister, at the end of last month, said she wanted to discuss how to reduce the interest rate of bank loans which she thought had become the biggest barrier to the country’s industrialisation.

The devastating series of suicide attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that claimed at least 250 lives was noticeably well organised.

The second phase of Arab Spring has dawned on the Arab world. It is not a surprise that people in Algeria and Sudan have risen to demand changes in the leadership in their countries, while Libya is also locked in serious conflict over who should rule the country.

It has now been well over five years since the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up with its headquarters in Songdo, Korea to support both mitigation and adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries. It received an initial contribution of around USD 10 billion and is now undergoing a review of its performance in anticipation of a major replenishment of funds from 2020 onwards.

Fire,” Don McLean wrote in “American Pie”, “is the devil's only friend.” It must have been so for Roman Emperor Nero: he anecdotally “fiddled while Rome burned” in 64 AD.

An article titled, “The audacity to do what is right” (April 5, 2019), in this newspaper has implored the leaders of Bangladesh to help in the massive clean-up of the police force wherein “the biggest blemish on their image has been the blatant politicisation of the police by successive governments,