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An unusual triple alliance is emerging from the Syrian war, one that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East, unhinge the NATO alliance, and complicate the Trump administration’s designs on Iran. It might also lead to yet another double cross of one of the region’s largest ethnic groups, the Kurds.

The revolution carries on. That’s the message out of Havana, where 57-year-old Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president of Cuba by the National Assembly of People’s Power in April 19, succeeding Raúl Castro, 86.

Scared of Dalits feeling alienated and severing their ties with the party, the BJP leadership has embarked upon a major image refurbishing mission. With the Supreme Court reluctant to review its order on the SC/ST Atrocities Act, the BJP has decided to move the court to display the concern of the party to the dalit community.

There is a lot of concern over the possibility of a trade war between China and the U.S. In early April, President Trump announced that his administration was considering levying $100 billion of additional tariffs on Chinese exports, after the Chinese government responded to a previously proposed U.S. tariff hike on Chinese goods of $50 billion by announcing its own equivalent tariff hikes on U.S. exports. And the Chinese government has made clear it will again respond in kind if these new tariffs are actually imposed.

In the movie 'Mother' India the resident ‘lech’ was named Sukhilal. In Tamil Nadu, Governor Banwarilal Purohit steals a cheeky pat on a woman journalist’s cheek and Mother India explodes in righteous indignation – brackets Banwarilal in the company of Sukhilal, names that have gone out of fashion.

‘Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,’ says the Bible. Then, if ‘no money in the ATM’ is a ‘sign’, it will require a doomsday scenario to turn the phenomena into a ‘wonder’. Rahul Gandhi and Derek O’Brien term it a ‘Financial Emergency’. “But where are the facts to substantively advance that theory?” asks Alec Smart, not aware that Arnab Goswami had said much the same the night before on Republic TV. “For, isn’t it just that: a theory, rumour and fear-mongering by the Opposition?”

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Keralites woke up this Monday to a different kind of hartal.

Farmers’ suicides are back in the limelight and have become a major political weapon for political parties. Since 2010, farmer’s suicides have been a perennial problem for the ruling parties. Even the biggest loan waver by UPA-2 in 2008 failed to prevent suicides by farmers.

In the mostly washed-out post-budget session of Parliament, a revealing reply was provided on the well-meant Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiative of the former RBI governor and celebrated economist Raghuram G Rajan on a query on the record write-off of non-performing loans (NPAs) by the public sector banks (PSBs) amounting to 81,683 crore of rupees in a single year in 2016-17, by far the biggest over the past five years.

The woes are piling up for the BJP. Meenakshi Lekhi, the party’s MP, listed them in the right order; although her purpose was to mock the Opposition for raising the issues, rather than to draw the government’s attention to them for taking corrective steps.