Dhaka, Nov. 3 -- There's a quaint superstition in newsrooms that anniversary pieces should be lighter than the rest-cake, candles, a few misty-eyed lines about "our journey", then back to the grind. Forgive me for breaking tradition.

At 19, bdnews24.com has earned more than a slice of sentiment. It deserves an honest reckoning with what it takes to keep the lights on, the pages loading, and the truth-warts, footnotes and all-reaching your screen.

Bangladesh's last two years have served up more story than most countries can digest in a decade: a student-led upheaval, cyclical internet blackouts, Sheikh Hasina's fall in August 2024, an interim government under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, and a flourishing black market in disinformation...