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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was joined by his Cuban counterpart Miguel Díaz-Canel Sunday as they issued a rallying cry for regional unity “to confront the onslaught of U.S. imperialism.” The pair were among the speakers at the closing ceremony of the 25th São Paolo Forum in Caracas, which coincided with celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the birth of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013.

The result of Brecon and Radnorshire by-election in Britain shows two things. First, that despite the massive media campaign, there has been no swing to Remain. Quite the reverse. Those voting on Thursday moved in the opposite direction. Second, that Labour needs to restate the policies that almost won the last general election.

BHOPAL: There is a famous Hindi saying “Ulta Chor Kotwal to Datea”(thief scolding police officer). This saying fully applies to the two weeklies “Organiser” and “Panchjanya” patronised by the RSS. Almost in every issue the two weeklies run a column titled “Narad”. Incidentally RSS holds the view that Narad was the first reporter of human civilisation. Bhopal based Journalism University, when it was controlled by the RSS, used to tell its students that they must learn from Narad if they want to be a perfect investigative journalist. Here I will like to mention what the two weeklies wrote in their issues published in the month of July 2019.

Since the passage of the Triple Talaq Bill, has been passed, by both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, there have been criticisms that it was passed by the BJP led NDA government with a selective mentality to criminalise the Muslim men. According to them, BJP, “which is anti-Muslim in nature”, is trying to attack the community through this bill — which has now become a law. Actually, it seems that the problem is not with the bill but with the BJP government. It is this political prism which is mostly responsible for this criticism.

India is ranked 77 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings. The rank of India improved to 77 in 2018 from 100 in 2017. Ease of doing business in India averaged 124.82 from 2008 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 139 in 2010 and a record low of 77 in 2018. In the background of better and easier provisions for doing business implemented by RSS controlled BJP government led by Narendra Modi during the last five years of his first term as the prime minister, could India make any meaningful progress towards improving India’s growth prospects? The answer definitely is in the negative as data speak.

On 30th July 2019, Modi Government passed the Code on Wages Bill 2019 in the Lok Sabha, which provides for a national floor wage. On 23 July 2019, while tabling the Bill, the Labour Minister, Mr. Santosh Gangwar simultaneously proclaimed—obviously to reassure the corporates—a Cabinet decision to hike the national floor wage to Rs.178 per day—a ridiculous increase of Rs.2 from the national floor wage of Rs.176 fixed in 2017! This is even more ridiculous because this national floor wage is below the prevailing statutory minimum wage in 28 out of 29 States, the sole exception being Nagaland! What is the point in coming up with such a floor wage?

President Obama on December 17, 2014 announced a U.S. opening to Cuba. Months later there was a U.S. embassy in Havana. Beginning in late 2016, however, some diplomats there –CIA agents among them – experienced strange noises, hearing loss, headaches, impaired memory, confused thinking, dizziness, impaired vision and more. Expressing safety concerns, the State Department in September, 2017 recalled most of its employees from its Embassy in Cuba.

Once again the same old story was seen to be replayed on the floor of Rajya Sabha. Notwithstanding their pledge to defeat the Triple Talaq Bill the left and secular parties helped the BJP government to turn into a law abstaining from voting. If these forces had not abstained from the voting the bill must had been defeated.

Green shoots are visible in the Sino-India trade relation as an impact of USA- China trade war, notwithstanding global trade is embroiled in disruption. In other words, a third force became key role player to cool Sino-India trade relation, even though a long parley was made bilaterally before. Disgruntled by big trade balance, alleging China for dumping goods, trade relation is now seen with a volte-face of China, surging imports from India and restricting exports to India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is at it yet again. The MP from Thiruvananthapuram has, once again, created a flutter with his latest statement that the Congress has become a rudderless ship.