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The National Capital Territory of Delhi is not new to political spectacles or drama as they say, especially since the last three years when the AAP Government came to power with Arvind Kejriwal at the helm, but the developments of the past one week have surprised even the weary political experts. Since last one week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with his Ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain, have been doing a ‘sit-in’ protest at the waiting room of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, to protest against the non-cooperation of the senior IAS officers with the AAP Ministers in the matters of daily governance. The main grievances of the AAP Ministers pertain to the ‘informal strike’ by the IAS officers, especially at the senior level, over more than four months, and non-approval of LG to a scheme of doorstep ration delivery to the citizens of Delhi.

At the height of summer heat and severe pollution levels, the capital is caught in a bizarre confrontation between the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the duo of Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for more than a week. Besides politics, the bureaucracy has also been dragged into this fight, as chief minister alleges that the IAS officers are not cooperating at the behest of the Centre. The result is that the capital is in limbo with no work done since June 14.

As the world hailed the Trump-Kim summit as successful and big event of the current year, there is a lesser known side of North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un’s rule. As talks between two leaders progressed, human rights activists were watching if Trump would bring up North Korea’s widespread crimes against humanity, but the US President disappointed them. Kim rules with extreme brutality, making his nation among the worst human rights violators in the world. In North Korea, these crimes entail“extermination, murder, enslavement, rape, forced abortion and other sexual violations, persecution on political……” concludes a 2014 United Nations report that examined the country’s human right records.

India-Iran ties have become challenging yet again after the recent US sanctions against Tehran following the unilateral pull-out of Washington from Iran Nuclear deal. But this has thrown a new opportunity to get into shipping services in a big way that will facilitates Iranian oil imports but also trade from elsewhere.

Cartel versus cartel is certainly a fair deal. Oil cartel OPEC has been holding the world to ransom by manipulating supplies so that the buyers pay a price that can sustain the extravagant life of their rulers and citizens for endless time. The whole world has been suffering because they happen to possess a resource without which human progress in its present form is not possible. As such the oil market is more inequitable and arbitrary than the global order, which any way is skewed in favour of the exploiters. But maybe the time has come for the oil importing countries to form their own cartel so that they can confront the exploiters because they have whatever it takes to tame OPEC to beat them in their own game: the demand. If supply is king, demand is god. The buyers have to realise their strength. That’s all.

Promising to replace trust in long-standing institutions such as commercial and central banks with trust in a new, fully decentralized system founded on the block chain and related distribution ledger technology (DLT), are the crypto-currencies emerging from obscurity to prominent position? This is a crucial question engaging the attention of not only businesses and consumers but also central banks and other authorities.

Call it an irony of fate or, maybe, his tryst with destiny, Palaniappan Chidambaram, the country’s four-time finance minister, is in a mess. Chidambaram has been chargesheeted by his once trusted Income-Tax Department for allegedly making investments in foreign assets and not disclosing them in tax returns. Last week, Enforcement Directorate (ED) charged his son Karti in Aircel-Maxis case before a special court in Delhi. The 4,500-page chargesheet also highlighted P Chidambaram’s alleged role in the case. Earlier, the income-tax department had filed as many as four prosecution complaints against Chidambaram and three of his immediate family members — wife Nalini, Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi — before a special court in Chennai under section 50 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

‘You left all too sudden…’ says the June 15, 2018 front-page of Rising Kashmir, the words etched on a black & white picture of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir. All too sudden was also the killing of rifleman Aurangzeb, abducted and killed while on his way to a furlough to celebrate Eid with his family.

Climate Change implies significant variations in temperature, wind patterns and precipitation that may occur in cycles over decades, hundreds, thousands and millions of years; sometimes these changes may be random occurrences. These result in rain or hail, snowfall or extreme weather events like thunderstorms, cyclones, tornados etc. We have witnessed such events in much greater frequency in recent years.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The time for tinkering is over. A quick surgery alone can save the Congress in Kerala, reeling under the twin setbacks it suffered within the space of 10 days.