A Closer Look | The Daily Star

  • US designation of Houthis as terrorists: A wrong move at a wrong time

    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”.

  • Pompeo’s Iran claims

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

  • Qatar Diplomatic Crisis: A warm embrace or just a photo op?

    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.

  • Money without a trail

    While Bangladesh’s economy has grown, the Swiss coffers of the super wealthy have easily outpaced and inevitably outgrown that growth.

  • Covid-19: How vaccine-ready are we?

    With the grim reaper back for the second wave of Covid-19, people around the world are desperately looking for a shield.

  • Sexual violence is an emblem of patriarchy in the guise of tradition

    A Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis) report from last year suggests that in 2018, girls formed 54 percent of the total number of students at the secondary level.

  • Crisis of opportunities feeds Bangladesh’s human trafficking problem

    We all aspire to “a better future”. While the idea of a better future and what it entails varies from people to people, dreamer to dreamer, what remains constant is the aspiration.

  • Have we forgotten the Bangladeshis trapped in Velika Kladusa?

    If someone looks up Velika Kladusa on Pinterest, they’ll find lovely photos of the town and its beautiful landscape.

  • Journalism remains fraught with risks and persecution

    For 45-year-old Ilias Hossain, there was nothing unusual about October 11—until things took a deadly turn.

  • The prodigal son’s return and the uncertain future of Lebanon

    In a scene reminiscent of last year’s massive protests that had led to the downfall of Saad Hariri, Lebanon’s prodigal son, the streets of Beirut were filled with protestors on October 17, 2020.

  • Sexual violence and the misfortune of our children

    Sexual violence against women, unfortunately, has always been a pressing concern for our society.

  • Rohingya: The people with no land

    They were once the residents of Rakhine state. Then they became victims of persecution. Then they turned into refugees, desperately crossing the Naf river to seek refuge in Bangladesh.

  • Who cares what happens to the children of Yemen!

    The world today is grappling with an unprecedented crisis. More than 900,000 people have already fallen to the scythe of the grim reaper and more are feared to become its victim as winter approaches.

  • Peace in the time of pandemic

    In a time of an unprecedented global health crisis that is only spiralling from one peak to another, one would expect all parties—warring or not—to join hands and work together to establish peace.

  • The exodus of the helpless

    Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, the country’s flourishing economy had taken a hit. With the government-announced general holidays leading to closures of businesses, offices, educational institutions, shops, eateries, factories and other livelihood-generating opportunities—both formal and informal—life came to a halt in the nation.

  • PK Halder and the incredible landscape of our financial system

    Prashanta Kumar Halder’s financial misadventures and subsequent escape from the country with Tk 3500 crore, which made the headlines recently, has brought into the fore Bangladesh’s struggles with systemic irregularities in its financial sector.

  • Delinquent youths of a delinquent society

    Children, like adults, can get embroiled in conflicts with the law. When juveniles commit criminal offences, they are placed in Juvenile Development Centres (JDC) rather than jails, where constructive counselling is supposed to be provided so that they realise their mistakes and come out of these centres better human beings. The reality of these JDCs, as perhaps one would expect, is pretty different.

  • Our heritage sites need our help to stem the ravages of time and negligence

    The dilapidated condition of the lonely ruins scattered across the country can be attributed to many reasons.

  • A tale of a tragedy and a farce

    For the people of Lebanon, it was business as usual on Tuesday, August 4, 2020. Post-Eid holidays, the desperate people—struggling to feed themselves and their loved ones—were out in search of livelihood and subsistence. As the day neared its end, little did they know that it was going to be the last for many of them.

  • How do we address human trafficking during a pandemic?

    Bangladesh has recently been rocked by several international human trafficking scandals, one of them involving a lawmaker trafficking individuals to Kuwait.

  • Caught in the middle of nowhere

    The British Court of Appeal has recently ruled that “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the United Kingdom to challenge the revocation of her British citizenship.

  • What do we do with the refuse of our Covid-19 afflicted healthcare system?

    Management of medical waste has remained a persistent problem for Bangladesh. Proper disposal of these wastes—general, infectious, hazardous, radioactive, and often containing pathogens—has never seemed to be taken seriously by the authorities, resulting in rampant mishandling by all concerned.

  • In search of refuge

    Hundreds and thousands of refugees and migrants are preyed upon every year by human traffickers with false promises of a better future, a home.

  • Covid-19 has increased children’s exposure to traffickers

    With Covid-19 bringing economic activities across nations to a halt, more and more people are being pushed into poverty. Job losses, business losses and farming losses, leading to economic stress, are pushing many to the fringes of poverty. And as families are being rendered helpless, the worst sufferers are invariably the children.

  • Global locust population surge: Should we be worried?

    While the world grapples to contain the spread of the coronavirus, a different breed of pesky pestilence is threatening the food security of many regions, including some parts of Asia—locusts!

  • Strengthening digital economy is the way to go

    China and South Korea were the early frontlines in our pitched battle against Covid-19. Both countries had taken the hardest hit during the initial phase of the outbreak, but both were quick to rebound from the initial shock of it and soon cornered the mortal enemy with the swift stroke of their digital weapons.

  • May Day in Bangladesh

    How will the new normal for our migrant workers look like?

    The world watched in paralysed horror as oil prices plummeted to below zero: the price of West Texas Intermediate oil grade went negative to –USD 37.63 per barrel (pb), for the first time in history. The shock of the collapse was intense, leading to traders naming the day “Black Monday”.

  • Online Exclusive: While Bangladesh grapples with a pandemic, measles remains below the radar

    According to newspaper reports, 10 children have already died in the CHT since the outbreak began on February 26, when the first death was reported. Another 300 children have been infected.

  • Covid-19: Can this be the war to end all wars?

    Wars and epide-mics make the perfect bedfellows. Wars create the perfect wombs where murky diseases can gestate and then combust, wiping out entire populations as they spread around the world.

  • Covid-19, Iran sanctions, and how politics aids a pandemic

    These are unprecedented times, times that call for unprecedented measures, humane measures.

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