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As coronavirus cases surge around the world, hospitals are getting overstretched and economies, gasping. Within a week, there was good news from two US-based companies and both were to do with the much-awaited vaccine that spells hope in these dire times.

Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf bagged ten out of 23 seats that went to poll in the Gilgit-Baltistan provincial assembly elections on Sunday. Political analysts most of whom foresaw a three-party neck-to-neck contest among PTI, Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) failed to feel the pulse of voters who gave no party an absolute majority. Election in GBA-3 will remain postponed till November 22, following the death of a candidate. Polling took place amid tight security and anti-coronavirus standard operating procedures. The G-B legislature comprises of 33 members, of which 24 are directly elected by the people, while six seats are reserved for women and three for technocrats.

The fight against misinformation and fake news on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and others is apparently entering a decisive stage, with the government reportedly floating a tender to invite agencies for providing solutions and services related to fact verification and disinformation detection on social media platforms. The tender has been floated through the public sector enterprise Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL).

After what felt like the longest presidential campaign in US history — amid a pandemic, no less — the Democratic Party escaped defeat. Sort of. The dust has yet to fully settle, but the disasters down ballot point to a House and Senate where Republicans will still wield substantial power. Party centrists ran the campaign they wanted, and this was the result.

I am very proud of the hard work that the progressive community put into electing Joe Biden as our next president.

It was in late 1979 when Justice P.N. Bhagwati, in Hussainara Khatoon Vs State of Bihar case, set off the phenomenon that Public Interest Litigations (PILs) evolved to become what it is today. Brought about by a substantial relaxation in the traditional interpretation of the term “locus standii”, the Supreme Court formally defined the term in SP Gupta vs Union of India.

With the appointment of Bheem Rajbhar as state president of Uttar Pradesh BSP, Mayawati has made it clear that it would concentrate on most backward casts to expand its support base for next assembly polls scheduled in 2022.

West Bengal is moving towards a personality clash between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming Assembly elections. Both have evolved as cult figures. With no tall state leaders in Bengal, the BJP has followed this formula of a battle between a regional heavyweight and the BJP mascot Modi, in some states, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra, and Haryana with mixed success.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is, once again, an unredeeming tale of missed opportunities and timing gone terribly wrong.

It is almost a year that the news of first case of COVID-19 in Wuhan in China became known to the world. There has been much research since than about how this virus has grown to spread as a Pandemic. There have been blames and counter blame that this has been grown in China to be used as a biological weapon. But this has not been substantiated with evidence till date. In our country first case was reported on 30th January 2020 in the state of Kerala when a student from Wuhan came back. Laxity and unpreparedness on the part of the government at that time led to several problems and increase in the number of cases.