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Hundreds of Cubans demonstrated peacefully in Santiago de Cuba and other cities across the island on March 17. Portrayed in some U.S. corporate media outlets as “anti-government” protests, the demonstrations were focused on electrical power outages and food shortages.

The late awakening of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India Dr. D Y Chandrachud in seeing the quid pro quo relationship between the donors and the ruling party under the Electoral Bonds Scheme 2017 is welcome. The CJI has been firm in getting all the details from the State Bank of India by March 21 since the SBI has been dilly -dallying to furnish the crucial info contained in the unique code of bond. Once it is furnished by the SBI without hiding any details, the identity of the bond purchaser and the political party beneficiary will be known.

Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as the Russian Federation’s new old president, securing a record fifth term in office with a thundering 87.28 percent of the vote, supported by over 75 million voters, more than his win in the 2018 presidential polls. To a consistent observer of the Russian affairs, the news is hardly breaking, as the numbers tallied nicely with Putin’s approval ratings, at a whopping 87 percent. Putin’s opponents in the presidential race barely managed single digit support, including the Communist Party’s Nikolay Kharitonov at 4.31 percent, Vladislav Davankov of the New People party at3.85 percent and Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democrats at 3.20 percent respectively.

Politics of development has clearly emerged as a key narrative in the Lok Sabha election 2024 campaigns. Vikasit Bharat @ 2047 is the loudest high decibel bluff of PM Narendra Modi’s political campaign so far that has almost buried the three real concerns of the people – livelihood, healthcare, and education - though people are just not able to afford their cost. Over 81 crore people are dependent on free foodgrain supplied under Food Security Act 2013 and over 97 crore people are not able to afford healthy food. Obviously, the people who can’t even afford food how can they afford high healthcare and education costs that Modi’s regime has brought in the last 10 years? PM Modi does not only want us not to see this side of the coin, but also has been drawing our attention to India’s growing wealth and infrastructure and on his guarantee of a developed India by 2047, forming a key narrative of his election campaign.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s southern search for Lok Sabha seats to make up the targeted ‘370’ took him to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. And just like in the north, the Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to take advantage of "Hindu sentiments" to secure for Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third straight term. Also, just so that people don't forget, the Prime Minister has been introducing himself in the local lingos, a smattering of a few words in each language learned by rote.

LUCKNOW: Ever since Akhilesh Yadav joined Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi at Agra, there is a perfect understanding between Samajwadi Party and Congress for Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. Both the leaders sent positive message to the party leaders and workers through their action during their joint rally at Agra. So much so both the leaders took selfie of each other to show mutual respect which was very well appreciated by those present on the occasion.

India has been aiming to enhance its defense capabilities through the development of a more compact and efficient version of the BrahMos missile. BrahMos Aerospace, a defense corporation with Indo-Russian roots, is set to begin drop and dummy trials of the lighter and more compact Next Generation (NG) BrahMos missile around the middle of 2025, with plans for flight testing to follow by the year's end.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal bode farewell to arms years ago. But perish the thought that ever since he has cast aside his pseudonym of Prachanda, forsaken armed struggle and laying down arms walked away from the hills of his homeland Nepal, he no longer has to watch his steps.

Hamas will win if Israel holds elections. That’s essentially the claim made by Benjamin Netanyahu this weekend as he hit back at U.S. political leaders pressuring him to send his country to the polls.

On the face of it the controversial citizenship amendment act of 2019 may appear to be purely humanitarian. It provides the government with a special provision to expedite the citizenship process for non-Muslim migrants – including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Parsis — to India from the neighbouring Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2014. However, the time chosen for its implementation just before the national election makes it rather provocative. It would appear to be politically motivated considering the fact that the amended citizenship law had earlier invited nationwide political protests, delaying its implementation for about four and half years. Few are surprised to witness renewed protests from opposition parties against the government notification on March 11 just days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha election.