Ashfaque Swapan

My recent open letter to Hindu brothers and sisters published in this newspaper was accompanied by a photograph that is seared in my memory.

My dearest Hindu sisters and brothers, I am overcome with grief, outrage and shame as I write to you.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves a distinguished—if unavoidably mixed—legacy as she ends a long stint at the helm of Germany, the economic powerhouse of the European Union.

It was a political circus almost as outsized as America’s largest state: California.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is rightly celebrated for leading the people of Bangladesh to independence after a prolonged, decades-long struggle that required acute political acumen, a remarkable capacity to win the hearts of his people, and most important of all, that rare sort of courage that had the power to stare squarely into the eyes of death.

Racism is America’s original sin. Its manifestations are myriad, and notwithstanding occasional spurts of progress, the struggle for justice continues to be an uphill battle.

No child, Palestinian or Israeli, whoever they are, should ever have to worry that death will rain from the sky. How many of my colleagues are willing to say the same, to stand for Palestinian human rights as they do for Israeli? How many Palestinians have to die for their lives to matter?”

Dear Satyajit Ray: Happy 100th birthday, maestro.

Hello from Georgia, ground zero in a massive US political battle.

"Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power.

Despite razor-thin majorities in the US Senate and the House—where corralling lawmakers can be as frustrating as herding cats—Biden has managed the near-impossible task of steering through Congress a massive USD 1.9 trillion bill about to profoundly change America.

Every Ekushey, we renew our pledge to the language martyrs of 1952 that we will ensure that our beloved Bangla continues to flourish. To redeem this pledge, we need to remember a critical fact: The continued survival of a language depends on how well it adapts to the changing technologies of the age.

The trial of former US President Donald Trump in the US Senate had all the hallmarks of a Shakespearean tragedy. The Democratic impeachment managers put together a chilling case proving Trump’s complicity in the January 6 assault on the US Congress.

During a recent round-trip from Atlanta, US to Dhaka, Bangladesh, I had wildly contrasting experiences in the two cities as I tried to get tested for Covid-19.

America’s quadrennial celebration of peaceful transition of power is one of its more hallowed traditions.

As the world continues to reel from images of the outrageous assault of the US Capitol by Trump’s goons, history was made in the southern US state of Georgia this month.

Here in America, are we finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel?

The toxic political fallout of the recent presidential elections has truly tarnished America’s reputation.

President Donald Trump will leave the White House in January, thank goodness. Unfortunately, his malign influence on American politics will remain.

Never before has a hard-won victory had such a bitter edge.