Zyma Islam

In its first budget in two decades, the BNP government yesterday boosted allocations for education and health and significantly expanded social safety programmes, reflecting its key electoral pledges.

The National Human Rights Commission’s current inability to investigate disciplined forces remains a major structural barrier to eradicating state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Bangladesh, according to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Dr Alice Edwards, who called for urgent legal reforms to align the body with global independence standards.

Five senior journalists remain behind bars for between 593 and 620 days in Bangladesh. None of them have been formally charged since their arrest after the 2024 July uprising.

The newly passed Labour Act changes the definition of who qualifies as a worker, excluding anyone with a supervisory role from the protections offered by the law.

Nahid Islam, founding convener of (NCP) and a first-time parliamentarian, sits down with Zyma Islam of The Daily Star.

Unemployed youth are finding an unlikely ally in the soil -- turning, once more, to agriculture for survival.

Forged flight records and a blatant disregard for safety protocols have revealed a deep-seated rot within Biman Bangladesh Airlines, where the very pilots entrusted with passengers’ lives appear to operate without accountability.

The home ministry has decided to allow the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC) to continue operating for another year, even though the previous interim administration had moved to abolish the much-criticised surveillance agency.