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The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the security alliance of the western nations led by the USA is having an uneasy period after celebrating its 75th year of founding in July this year with big fanfare. The recent summit of the BRICS in Kazan of Russia held on October 22 to 24 witnessed the presence of two countries close to the West — first Saudi Arabia as a newly admitted member and another Turkey which has applied for BRICS membership despite being a member of NATO.

For RSS blowing hot and cold in the same breath is not the sign of its irresoluteness, instead it reflects the highest form of its duplicity; when its right face is not aware of the message its left face was sending. Only a week back the RSS leadership sent a message to its rank and file across the country that it was no more engaged in a polemical combat with Narendra Modi and he continues to be public face of the saffron ecosystem, but on October 26 addressing the RSS cadres, its general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale endorsed UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s ’batenge toh katenge’ remark on Hindu unity, and projected him virtually as the new modern face of Hindus and Hindutva.

Japan’s election results last Sunday demonstrate once again that good economics often fail to get political gains. That does not of course necessarily mean that bad economics gets good political revenues.

On Tuesday, the last day for filing nominations for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections, both the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances were still looking for closure to their seat-sharing blues. Nobody in either grouping could provide clarity to the goings on, the protracted delays plaguing seat-sharing. And while on seat-sharing, the BJP is fighting allegations of "wrong-choice" candidates, accused of giving tickets to "outsiders".

Bihar often creates contrasting images about itself. On the one hand, it produces many IAS, IPS, and professionals in other fields. On the other hand, school education with mass copying in the exams and malpractices in evaluating the copies are too familiar to be talked about. Over the years, government jobs were far and few between. The payment of salaries was delayed by several months. However, all these images should change now. The Bihar Education Department, for example, offers some freshness.

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday more than lived up to predictions that it would echo the Nazi rally held there in 1939. It was filled with vitriol and profanity-laced racist attacks against people the convicted criminal ex-president sees as political enemies but particularly aimed at Vice President Kamala Harris.

Domestic issues often override international commitments in diplomacy. China’s preference of Kamala Harris to Donald Trump as the next US president may look unusual but not entirely illogical from the world’s second largest economy’s business point of view. China may not mind if such a possibility could enhance diplomatic discomfort to its ally, Russia, which has been fighting Ukraine to prevent its western neighbour from joining NATO. Under the leadership of President Joe Biden, the US has extended massive fund and military equipment support to Ukraine to face off the Russian assault head on in the last two years, making the US arms manufacturing industry a major gainer so far. A Trump victory could mean a US pull back forcing the end of the Ukraine war. But, going by past experience, it could also embitter China-US trade and diplomatic relations. Adversely, a Kamala Harris victory next month is most likely to escalate the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war diminishing the prospect of an early resolution of the bitter conflict.

BRICS nations concluded their annual summit in the Russian city of Kazan on October 24 resolving to deepen economic ties. Plans to deepen financial cooperation and develop alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems were also discussed, besides offering African nations a bigger say in the changing global order.

KOLKATA: A development in the ultra-Left politics that happened on September 9 this year in Jharkhand, to be more specific in the Dhanbad coalfields, gets cemented as elections for the sixth state Assembly knock at the door and revive memories of the role that the Marxist Coordination Committee’s veteran leader A K Roy (Arun Kumar Roy) had played in the area’s trade union movement for many years. [Not many people were aware of his full name; he was well-known and always addressed as A K Roy].

Indian judiciary faces a significant backlog of civil cases, with around 11.1 million cases pending, of which 22 percent are older than five years. These prolonged delays erode public trust in the legal system and leave many in a prolonged state of uncertainty while awaiting justice.