On July 1, 2016, five militants stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, a restaurant frequented by foreigners in an upscale neighborhood of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility, but local officials blamed members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a Bangladeshi militant organization.
During an official visit to Kazakhstan on September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping out his vision for what eventually became known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This multi-decade global infrastructure plan 70 countries, stretching from East Asia through Europe. Its reported is over USD $1 trillion; some estimate it to be than that number.
Bangladesh is the world's eighth most populous country with a population of almost 160 million . Termed a "tiger" economy by The Economist last year, Bangladesh's consistent GDP since the early 2000s signals the country has the potential to attain middle-income country status in the near future.
It's not often that armed motorcyclists attack a U.S. ambassador, but that's exactly what happened to Marcia Bernicat, Washington's envoy in Bangladesh, one night this past summer. Bernicat was leaving a dinner party in Dhaka on August 4 when men on motorbikes chased her vehicle and threw bricks.
On July 29 th, two students were in a busy intersection in Dhaka city after a reckless bus driver plowed into them. While numerous deaths via are an unfortunate reality in Bangladesh, this particular incident touched a nerve in the collective body of young Bangladeshi students.
As is the case with most of the world, Bangladesh has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. While official statistics point to over 300,000 cases and approximately 4,200 deaths, questions have been raised about the veracity of these numbers.
"If there is ever another war in Europe," Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck reputedly said, "it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans." On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand travelled to Sarajevo, Bosnia, a routine part of his duty as inspector general of Austria-Hungary's armed forces.
As the world comes to terms with the Iran nuclear deal, there has been plentiful analysis on its impact across the world. The focus largely has been on the impact in the Middle East. Its impact on the Indian subcontinent has also been researched and commented upon, with a specific focus on how India and Pakistan may benefit.
As militants loyal to Islamic State (IS) claim responsibility for increasing numbers of attacks across the Middle East and North Africa, including a recent massacre of European tourists on a Tunisian beach, questions are arising as to just how far-reaching IS's reach is across the world.
"Still, ISIS is not the biggest problem for Bangladesh. The biggest problem is an alarming rise in extremist violence more broadly. Debating whether terror attacks are carried out directly by ISIS or simply inspired by ISIS detracts from the chief need of the hour: To stop attacks, many of them not linked to ISIS at all, from happening altogether," writes Michael Kugelman and Atif Jalal Ahmad.
