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A curious item in the charter of demands presented by Saudi Arabia and its allies to Qatar is a call for banning the popular and highly rated television channel, Al Jazeera. One can understand the insistence on outlawing the supposedly terroristic Muslim Brotherhood and the closure of a Turkish base on Qatari soil, but shutting down Al Jazeera?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was an utterly disgraceful display of patriarchal attitude. The shocked people of Kerala were treated to a malevolent manifestation of entrenched patriarchy by the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA).

KOLKATA: Disturbing lapses from normal procedural behaviour on the part of both the West Bengal Government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling have led to a politically explosive situation in the strategic North Himalayan foothills. For the first time, a no-holds-barred battle between the GJM and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is under way, involving militant Gorkhas and the state administration. The decline in the level of administrative functioning and political discourse is a cause of major worry in political circles.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh has set a world record by planting more than six crore saplings in a day last Sunday. But the big issue is how many of these would survive. Earlier records show that on an average only one out of five saplings survives.

There is a growing realisation among the opposition parties that their survival is now dependent upon their unity. In a democracy, an effective opposition is very important. Therefore, efforts are currently going on to unite the non-BJP parties but unfortunately they are facing road- blocks.

NEW DELHI: The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party India has severely condemned the move of the Government of India, to disinvest and sell away the “AIR INDIA” in the name of losses.

The hype over introduction of GST created such an atmosphere as if India would be radically different from the midnight of June 30. There was widespread fear that prices will zoom, trading collapse, farmers would be burdened with huge tax burden, retailers would cheat consumers charging premium on old stocks of goods.

Abroad, ever triumphant Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasts of 'surgical strikes' and on how the whole world is looking at India and its structural reforms like GST, deserving of a study in US Business Schools. At home, his unwavering campaign against black money - with no end in sight with all his tough laws and raids - overlooking farm crisis, the banking mess, and an investment-starved economy limping without jobs.

Just three days before the start of the summit of the Group of Twenty countries(G-20) at Humburg in Germany on July 7 and 8, high tensions have gripped the Brussels headquarters of the European Union and the German capital Berlin as information has percolated that the US President Donald Trump will be making a very harsh statement against Germany concerning free trade, climate change and immigration and his target will principally be the German Chanchellor Angela Merkel who is hosting the summit this year.

International relations among nations have probably never been so intense and complex as they are in present times. Known allies such as the United States of America and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members, the European Union and the United Kingdom, Turkey and Germany and Qatar and Saudi Arabia have lately turned adversaries for one reason or the other. The possibilities of improved Iran-US and Cuba-US relationships, sparked off after former US president Barak Obama’s initiatives, now look rather remote.