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Stockport MP Nav Mishra’s warning that “constant anonymous briefings and threats” risk poisoning the Labour leadership race is spot on.

The ghastly crime of rape and murder for which the Nirbhaya four are convicted is a heart-breaking reminder of the unimaginable brutality of violence and the immeasurable value of non-violence. The perpetrators must be held fully accountable.

While the novel Corona virus is leaving a trail of its victims throughout the world, it is for sure going to dent the global economy as much hard. The crisis underlines several action plans for the future.

Few would have expected the Aam Admi Party (AAP) to repeat its stellar performance of five years ago when it won 67 out of the 70 Delhi assembly seats. But the fact that it is touching the 60-seat mark and succeeded in retaining its well over 50 per cent vote share shows that there has been very little diminution of its political appeal.

Whoever thought seven years ago that the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would come this far to bag the throne of Delhi for the third term? Though AAP had arrived as a disruptive force in 2013 and dismissed as an upstart, its chief Kejriwal surprised his critics with his ability to grasp public opinion and change for the better in his roller coaster political ride. There was a method in his madness though his critics called him an anarchist. Actually, Delhi was not the end of his ambition, as he took on Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and contested in 400 Lok Sabha seats displaying how overly ambitious he was. Even after winning this time, the AAP was talking of nation building. When Kejriwal found that he had spread himself too thin, he changed track again.

EXIT polls in the election to the Dáil Éireann indicate a surge in support for the left-of-centre Sinn Fein, mainly at the expense of the two right-wing parties that have dominated the Irish Republic’s politics for 70 years and more.

Confusion surrounding the Iowa Caucus results continued Feb. 6 after Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez called for a re-canvass of votes to ensure their full integrity. The chaos is likely the final nail in the coffin of the Iowa caucus, long criticized as undemocratic and unrepresentative of Democratic base voters.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: We shall overcome despite the heavy odds. That is the powerful message sent out by the Kerala Budget, animated by the never-say-die spirit.

Kirk Douglas was Spartacus, the doomed slave who rebelled against the repressive Roman Empire. He was Colonel Dax, the soldier-lawyer who defends three sacrificial French troops who refuse a WWI suicide mission in Paths of Glory. He was painter and social activist Vincent Van Gogh who took up the cause of the poor and downtrodden in Lust for Life. Kirk Douglas died on February 5 at the age of 103.

Coronavirus from China may not have yet impacted life in India, but it threatens to ruin the livelihood of the country’s tens of thousands of traders and businessmen, importing products and components to service a $100-billion plus Indian market for goods made in China. The outbreak of pandemic coronavirus in China, if continues unabated for long, may severely hit India’s industry and trade in the coming months as China has become the country’s single largest import source. China accounts for over 20 percent of India’s total non-oil, non-gold imports.