Nazrul Islam Mallik, a medical assistant at the BDR Hospital during the 2009 Pilkhana massacre, was a direct witness to the killings of 74 people, including 57 army officers. After escaping from the hospital during the uprising, he went into hiding under a false name. Despite living secretly for years, he was abducted and later found dead, his body recovered from the Baleshwar River in Bagerhat. Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024, Nazrul’s wife, Munni Akter, filed a case seeking justice for his murder. The International Crimes Tribunal is currently trying dismissed army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan for crimes against humanity, including the killing of Nazrul and others. Family accounts describe how Nazrul disappeared in March 2010 after being taken by plainclothes men and was later identified through DNA testing. Investigators reportedly informed the family that Ziaul Ahsan was responsible for Nazrul’s death. The case remains part of a broader investigation into enforced disappearances and killings linked to the 2009 BDR mutiny.

The 2026 West Bengal assembly election has concluded, drawing attention to the political and social transformation of former enclave residents in Cooch Behar. These communities, once stateless and deprived of basic services, became Indian citizens after the 2015 land boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh, which exchanged 162 enclaves. Villages like Poaturkuthi and Mashaldanga now have electricity, roads, and schools, but residents say many promises remain unfulfilled. Interviews with villagers reveal frustration over incomplete land ownership documentation, limited job opportunities, and the rise of political divisions. Once united in their struggle for citizenship, former enclave residents are now split among parties such as the Trinamool Congress, BJP, and left groups. Some attribute this division to local political pressure and personal interests, while others lament the loss of unity that once defined their movement. Community leaders and residents express that despite improvements in infrastructure, the expected social and economic benefits have not fully materialized. The story of these former enclaves reflects both progress and disillusionment in the post-exchange years.

Bangladesh’s long-awaited administrative reform proposals have stalled, with the report of the Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury Commission remaining unimplemented. The commission, formed by the interim government to build a transparent, accountable, and citizen-friendly administration, had recommended dismantling colonial and feudal bureaucratic structures and ensuring merit-based recruitment and promotion. However, senior officials and experts told Amar Desh that the proposals are now effectively shelved, and initiatives such as asset declarations and dual citizenship disclosures by officials have lost momentum. Public administration experts say bureaucratic behavior has not changed despite regime shifts, with corruption, bribery, and harassment persisting across government offices. Citizens interviewed across eight divisions reported that bribery has increased in land, transport, and passport offices. Former officials alleged that the interim government failed to reform the politicized bureaucracy inherited from the Awami League era. The government, however, maintains that it is committed to building an efficient and neutral administration, prioritizing merit and integrity in promotions and transfers. Analysts warn that without implementing the Muyeed Commission’s recommendations, efforts to establish good governance and accountability will remain ineffective.

European football’s 2025–26 season is entering its final stretch, with title races nearing resolution across major leagues. Bayern Munich have already secured the Bundesliga crown, while Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A are approaching decisive moments. In La Liga, Barcelona lead with 85 points after 33 rounds, followed by Real Madrid on 74. Barcelona faced Osasuna last night, and Real Madrid meet Espanyol tonight. If Barcelona win and Real Madrid lose or draw, the Catalan club will clinch their 29th league title. In Italy, the Serie A title race is also reaching its climax. Inter Milan top the table with 79 points after 34 matches, ahead of Napoli on 69 and AC Milan on 67. With only four matches remaining, Inter can secure their 21st league title tonight by defeating Parma, regardless of other results. As May progresses, the European football season is at its most intense stage, with league outcomes potentially changing within hours.

In Gaza City, new luxury cafes and restaurants have appeared among the ruins and piles of debris, featuring glass walls, expensive furniture, and bright lights. Images of these establishments have been circulated by pro-Israel social media accounts to suggest that life in Gaza has returned to normal and that no genocide occurred. However, eyewitness accounts describe a starkly different reality, where most residents struggle to survive amid destruction and displacement. According to a recent visitor to Gaza City, these upscale venues are owned and frequented by war profiteers who became wealthy through smuggling, looting, and hoarding goods during the conflict. Ordinary citizens, once able to afford cafes, now face tripled food prices and unaffordable transport costs. Many families live in tents without electricity, clean water, or stable livelihoods. Analysts cited in the report argue that the rise of such luxury spaces does not signal recovery but rather highlights deep social inequality and ongoing abnormality in Gaza’s shattered society.

Former Fox News host and political commentator Tucker Carlson has alleged that U.S. President Donald Trump is acting as a 'hostage' to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the ongoing war with Iran. In an interview published Saturday by The New York Times, Carlson said Trump was less an independent decision-maker and more constrained by Netanyahu and his supporters in the United States. He claimed Trump launched the war on February 28 but was unable to withdraw from it, and that the president was fighting against his own will. Carlson further stated that only hours after Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran on April 8, Israel began killing civilians in Lebanon in a manner that drew global attention. He argued that Israel’s goal was to block all diplomatic solutions and continue the conflict until Iran was destroyed and destabilized. Criticizing Trump’s reluctance to publicly challenge Netanyahu, Carlson described the situation as one of total control, calling it a form of servitude. Carlson has long been known as a prominent media ally of Trump, previously describing a 2024 assassination attempt on the president as 'divine intervention.'

Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea—spanning Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—has now shrunk to less than one-tenth of its original size. Once a thriving source of fish and livelihood for local communities, the sea’s ports now stand abandoned, and its exposed seabed has turned into a toxic, saline desert. The United Nations Development Programme has described the situation as one of the twentieth century’s most severe environmental disasters. The crisis began in the 1960s when Soviet irrigation projects diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to support cotton cultivation, drastically reducing water inflow. As evaporation outpaced replenishment, the sea fragmented into smaller bodies, and the newly exposed land became known as the Aralkum Desert, one of the world’s youngest deserts. In response to the ongoing environmental degradation, Central Asian leaders recently convened in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, to discuss joint water resource management and strategies to prevent further damage to the region’s fragile ecosystem.

More than three million people in the United States have lost access to food assistance following the enforcement of stricter federal rules. According to The Wall Street Journal, citing federal data, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has dropped by about 3.5 million since the new conditions took effect in July last year. The revised policy requires able-bodied adults aged 18 to 64 without children under 14 to work, volunteer, or attend approved training for at least 80 hours per month to remain eligible. Previously, the work requirement applied only up to age 54, and adults with children under 18 were exempt. The new rules also exclude some legally residing non-citizens who were previously eligible, in addition to undocumented immigrants who were already barred. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that an average of 42.1 million people received SNAP benefits last fiscal year, costing about $101.7 billion. Since the implementation of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law in July, participation has steadily declined, reaching 38.5 million by January, an 8 percent drop in six months.

Former six-time Member of Parliament and ex-Constituent Assembly member Alhaj Md. Moslem Uddin has died at the age of 88. He passed away at around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at a hospital in Dhaka. Moslem Uddin was a former president of the Mymensingh District Bar Association and a leader of the now-banned Awami League activities in Phulbaria upazila. His first funeral prayer was held the same day after the noon prayer at Taqwa Mosque in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. Additional funeral prayers are scheduled for Sunday at the Mymensingh District Lawyers’ Association at 10 a.m., Phulbaria Government High School field at 3 p.m., and Alhaj Md. Moslem Uddin Orphanage field at 5 p.m. He will be buried at his home in Neugi Kushmail. His eldest son, Imdadul Haque Selim, confirmed the news on Facebook. Moslem Uddin is survived by two sons and two daughters.

Iran has presented a 14-point peace proposal to the United States aimed at achieving a permanent end to the ongoing war, according to a report by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency published on Sunday. The report stated that the U.S. had earlier sent a nine-point proposal to Iran. Al Jazeera also reported on the exchange of proposals between the two countries. Tasnim’s report said the U.S. had requested a two-month ceasefire period, while Iran insisted that all issues be resolved within 30 days. Iran emphasized that its focus was not merely on extending a ceasefire but on ending the war completely. The Iranian plan includes guarantees of non-aggression, withdrawal of U.S. forces from areas near Iran, lifting of naval blockades, release of Iran’s frozen assets, removal of sanctions, and cessation of fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon. According to the report, Iran is now awaiting the U.S. response to its 14-point proposal.

An April 23 report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated that dozens of children are disappearing weekly in Gaza amid post-war chaos. The article cited the Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, which estimated that 2,900 children went missing during the war, with 2,700 believed trapped under rubble and 200 still unaccounted for. The report linked these disappearances to Israel’s military operations, which have reportedly killed over 72,500 Palestinians since 2023, with thousands more missing. Al Jazeera Arabic’s February investigation found at least 2,842 Palestinians had vanished since the war began, with Gaza’s civil defense blaming U.S.-made thermal and thermobaric weapons for vaporizing bodies. The Israeli military rejected these claims, asserting it uses only lawful weapons and targets military sites in compliance with international law. UN experts have previously condemned reports of enforced disappearances from aid centers in Gaza. The article connected these disappearances to a broader global pattern of state-backed abductions, citing U.S. involvement in similar cases in Latin America and Mexico. It concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to an attempt to erase the Palestinian population’s very existence.

The National Citizen Party (NCP) has formed a new affiliated body named the National Tribal Alliance to represent Dalit, Harijan, and other marginalized communities. Bhimpalli David Raju has been appointed as convener, while Kailash Chandra Rabidas will serve as member secretary. The 11-member convening committee was announced by NCP member secretary Akhtar Hossain at an event held at the CRAB auditorium in Segunbagicha, Dhaka. Other key positions include Rajendra Kumar Das as senior joint convener, Manik Barail as joint convener, and Aruna Rani Das as senior joint member secretary. Community leaders presented a 14-point demand at the event, calling for constitutional recognition of Dalit, Harijan, and scheduled communities, enactment of an anti-discrimination law, proportional representation in state structures, and reforms to land and health policies to ensure inclusivity. They also urged the government to preserve their languages and culture, conduct ethnographic surveys, and establish a dedicated commission for community rights. NCP leaders expressed full support for the demands, emphasizing equality and inclusion. They stated that the party aims to bring marginalized groups into mainstream politics and ensure equal citizenship rights for all communities in Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Tareq Rahman paused his motorcade on Saturday, May 2, 2026, while returning from Sylhet to Dhaka to fulfill a child’s emotional request for a photo. The child, identified as Abdullah Al Mamun, began crying to take a picture with the prime minister. Seeing this, Rahman stopped his convoy, brought the boy into his car, comforted him, and took selfies together. The moment quickly went viral on social media. According to the report, Abdullah handed the prime minister a paddy sheaf and a note bearing the names of Major Ziaur Rahman, Begum Khaleda Zia, and Tareq Rahman, each marked with a heart symbol. Abdullah is a fifth-grade student at Sylhet Shahjalal Pre-Cadet School and lives with his family in Sylhet City Corporation’s Ward 6 area. His father, Borhan Uddin, is a contractor and involved in BNP politics. Borhan Uddin expressed gratitude to the prime minister for stopping the motorcade and embracing his son with affection, describing the gesture as heartfelt and beyond protocol.

After an eight-year gap, the Lakshmipur District Chhatra Dal has announced a new convening committee. The 18-member body was approved late Saturday, May 2, 2026, with Abul Barakat Sourav appointed as convener and Hasibur Rahman Abhi as member secretary. The approval came from the central Chhatra Dal president Md. Rakibul Islam Rakib and general secretary Nasir Uddin Nasir. The last district committee was also formed after an eight-year hiatus in 2018, when Hasan Mahmud Ibrahim served as president and Abdullah Al Mamun as general secretary. The newly approved committee has been instructed to form a full convening committee within the next 30 days. Other members of the committee include senior joint convener Abdullah Al Khaled and several joint conveners such as M A Majid, Delwar Hossain Bhuiyan Babu, Ismail Hossain, Jamal Hossain, Akbar Hossain Munna, Musa Abdullah Russell, Nasiruzzaman Rahat, Shahbaz Mahmud Zidan Chowdhury, and others.

Kuwait exported no crude oil in April 2026, marking the first such occurrence in more than 30 years, according to a report by TankerTrackers.com cited by Al Jazeera. The last time Kuwait experienced zero crude exports was in 1991 during the aftermath of the Gulf War. Despite the halt in crude exports, Kuwait continues oil production. Part of the produced oil is being stored, while the rest is refined into various petroleum products for export. The report attributes the suspension of crude exports to a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil transport routes. Analysts warn that if the blockade persists, it could have significant repercussions for the global energy market, given Kuwait’s role as a major oil producer in the Gulf region.