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Shigeru Ishiba becomes the new prime minister of Japan when Japan is in a sort of way at a cross roads. Shigeru has been in the wings for a long time. His efforts to emerge as the leader were foiled a number of times. But only after the last incumbent had to leave under a cloud, that Shigeru could really claim the mantle of the prime minister.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is under attack for feeling dizzy while addressing a rally in Jammu. Since then, the BJP is criticizing Kharge for his dizzying remarks centred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kharge said the dizzy episode had nothing to do with his death and that he would not depart this world till as long as Narendra Modi remains Prime Minister. In a manner of speaking, it was Kharge wishing long life to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Opinions are divided about the wisdom of conferring Dada Saheb Phalke award on veteran actor, Mithun Chakraborty. If high brow film critics are not too happy at this prestigious award being given to Mithun, this tribe of dissenters are outnumbered by his fans whose age group cuts across the generation divide.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, chaired a key meeting on September 30 in Itanagar to review the performance of seven Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) serving the North East region. The meeting covered RRBs from the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.

LONDON: An emergency resolution at Britain’s TUC Congress warned that “Israel threatens a much wider war in the Middle East that will lead to far greater death, destruction and instability.” It vowed to back a Britain-wide workplace day of action to stop that. The “much wider war” is already beginning.

When controversy and suspicion surround an innocuous sweet like Srivari Laddu sold by the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam, it does not stop there. It has gone much further in the past week and become a political weapon for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandra Babu Naidu to beat his predecessor, Jagan Mohan Reddy. Other political parties like Congress and the BJP use it to their advantage. Some see it as a religious issue. Some others see it as a food quality issue. The spiritual leaders claim that Laddu is divine food and that contaminated Laddus should not be offered to the deity. The political row surrounding the Laddu highlights the delicate balance between politics, religion, food quality, and the public.

The surge of the far right political parties continues unabated in Europe as the Austrian electorate voted most for the far right party Freedom Party (FPO) placing the ruling centre-right People’s Party (OVP) in the second position. This was for the first time since the Nazi era that a far right party came close to capturing power in Austria.

“Wish there is no hatred in heaven” wrote a mother in Shenzhen in China, while laying a floral tribute in memory of a slain Japanese school child in the city. That is symptomatic of the country’s current mood of sadness and self doubt about the Chinese avowed programmes to whip up rabid xenophobic attitude throughout the country. The hate programme, had admittedly, aimed at the Japanese and the state media had spread canards about that nation.

Hassan Nasrallah, one of the Arab world’s most charismatic leaders, was the leader of Kashmiri politician Mehbooba Mufti, too. And National Conference leader Omar Abdullah couldn’t brush away a tear after the Hezbollah Chief was killed by 5000-pound bombs made in the USA, dropped on Nasrallah by Israel. The United States said Israel would be protected at every cost.

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates expressed horror a couple of weeks ago on apparently learning from social media that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs and cats, “eating people’s pets,” as Trump put it. The reports, as we all know now, were false, but their fallout was quite real. Bomb threats followed, schools and public buildings closed down, and longtime African-American residents felt threatened.