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In January 2022, Xiomara Castro became Honduras’s first woman president, restoring electoral democracy to the country after more than a decade of dictatorship. Running with the leftist Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) party, Castro’s election breaks with the century-old two-party system that traded power between elites in the establishment National and Liberal Parties. With a mandate for transformation and high popular expectations, Castro faces significant challenges in a context of profound systemic crisis.

When Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador travelled to Washington, DC, on July 12, his most exciting encounter for Mexicans in both the United States and Mexico was not his meeting with President Joe Biden but his impromptu encounter with well-wishers outside his hotel room at the Lombardy. Some of them had driven from places like Chicago and New York City just to get a glimpse of their president.

India has a new President, and so does Sri Lanka. But look at the difference. India’s president-elect will ease into her new job while Sri Lanka’s new President Ranil Wickremesinghe has done it with a mixture of unease and determination writ large on his face. What ails his mind would make for dark reading. For starters, he has appointed hardliner Dinesh Gunawardena as Prime Minister, who sent in troops to dismantle protestors and barricades Both Wickremesinghe and Gunawardena are hardcore Gotabaya Rajapaksa loyalists.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s followers barely had time to appreciate their champion’s progress in April’s presidential election before François Ruffin sounded the alarm in Libération: “Peripheral France, the France of the small towns, does not appear to be a priority. And when we look at the vote numbers, that’s where we’re losing.”

In a curious paradox, Bangladeshis are scrambling to emigrate to Western shores even as the country emerges as an economic model in South Asia, faring a cut above others during the pandemic-hit times. Yet, in a mystifying development, hundreds of Bangladeshis are denting their country’s increasingly glowing international image as they head for richer pastures, and not always legally.

The final ballot of the British Parliamentarians which put Rishi Sunak at the top place with 137 votes as against Liz Truss’s 113 votes does not give any indication of what finally can happen on September 5 when the final results will be out following voting by nearly160,000 members of the Conservative Party. Rishi Sunak will have to organize a tough campaign among the white majority ordinary members to prove that he is one of them.

Last week, I had a chance to visit the Baltic region in Europe for a conference. My destination was Lithuania. Once part of the erstwhile Soviet Block, Lithuania, still has a large proportion of their population who speak and understand Russian language. The buildings and the architecture also remind of the old Soviet relics but somehow I get the feeling that the locals did not like Russia. They hold Russia responsible for the present-day economic hardship that their country, alongside other countries in Europe, is facing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said recently that India is the fastest growing economy at the moment. Statistics wise it may be true as other countries are doing badly. But the question to be asked is India’s growth story a myth or reality? On the face of it Indian economy may look reasonably good when compared to many other countries. Particularly after the Covid Pandemic the recovery seems to be reasonably good and quick.

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!