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Nepal and Bangladesh are feeling the negative impact of the uncertainties plaguing power generation and related operations in India, in the wake of the Ukraine war. Neither Nepal, nor Bangladesh can expect much relief from long power cuts until more supplies can be sourced from India later this year. For the present, officials in Dhaka and Kathmandu are agreed on ensuring the immediate implementation of proposed 700 megawatt Hydropower project in Nepal, to be jointly financed with India.

Diamonds are forever! That was a James Bond spy thriller released in 1971. And then, the Heart of the Ocean that got sunk in the ocean in the Titanic movie! It was a replica of the big blue 45.52-carat Home Diamond that’s worth $350 million, nearly Rs 3000 crore. But the stone that was used in the Titanic movie to represent Home Diamond was another semiprecious stone — Tanzanite, which became extremely popular post-Titanic movie but saw its popularity slump when it came to light that Osama Bin Laden used smuggled Tanzanite stones to fund his Al Qaeda activities. Diamonds and gems are mysterious and powerful as enchanting they are!

A clear win in 15 out of 20 seats in the bye-elections to Punjab provincial assembly by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has unnerved the 13-party ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement. It indicates that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is not at all formidable in its home turf. It was thrashing late swinger by the former Pakistan cricket team captain to trounce the PDM. Elections took place in the constituencies which fell vacant after the de-notification of dissident members of PTI in the provincial assembly. Almost all who defected to the PML-N from PTI were defeated, suggesting strongly that ‘Kaptaan’s political base remains strong vis-à-vis PML-N in Punjab.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the western sanctions against Russia for its Ukraine invasion is hurting Europe more than these were meant to harm Moscow. While a guaranteed energy crisis is staring Europe on its face due to the stoppage of gas flow from Russia, even creating the scare of rationing of natural gas to meet winter heating demand, Russia’s oil output, the key target of the US-sponsored sanctions, has increased to more than pre-crisis levels, according to authentic assessments.

For rightist Conservative Party, choosing a visionary and able administrator as the prime minister in place of Boris Johnson has indeed become a major combative task. This was for the first time that party was deprived of a talented leader. After coming to power three years ago, Boris decapitated his party of talent. Scared of the abilities and political acumen of his rivals he threw out Rudds Hammonds, Gaukes, Clarks and Greenings. He did not allow any space to the politicians who could be construed as a better personality in the matter of competence and dignity to the governance. Boris Johnson preferred to rely on the less known mortals.

US and European acquiescence in Turkey's long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights came home to roost when Turkey initially objected to Finnish and Swedish membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Ultimately, Turkey postponed potential conflict in NATO by dropping its initial objection to Finland and Sweden’s application.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has sent his resignation — first by email and a hard copy flown in from Singapore. The authenticity of the resignation has been verified and it has been accepted as authentic. The Parliament Speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, officially announced the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday. And, he has promised a new President in a week. Meanwhile, the opposition parties have called a meeting on July 20 to work out a consensus to choose a new president.

The new Webb telescope has shown that NASA’s $10 billion investment and 26 years are finally delivering their promise: pictures of the cosmos in depth, detail and quality far beyond what we had. The first images have captivated the public, and astrophysicists are drooling at the detail and spectra of distant objects, telling us what they actually are. For astrophysicists who started their careers even before the Hubble telescope, this is like witnessing two revolutions—Hubble and Webb—all in one generation.

The battlegrounds in eastern Ukraine are proving to be prey wars between two weapons systems — old Soviet type weapons and those advanced latest weapons developed in the west. The battle worthiness and the effective of the competing firepower would indicate a lot for the future of conventional warfare. These lessons from the fields should have an important being for India’s defence preparedness as well.

People’s power was displayed in a spectacular fashion in Sri Lanka on July 9 when tens of thousands of people stormed the Presidential Palace, the President’s Secretariat and the official residence of the prime minister and took them over, sweeping aside the police and soldiers guarding them.