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In South Asia, size continues to matter, even for countries- never mind diplomacy. Bangladesh has been impacted by the ongoing war in Ukraine, along with India, but the Western response could not have been more contrasting. The US/EU-led bloc of countries have hit out at Bangladesh viciously, while they still assess their options vis-à-vis its bigger neighbour, India.

Russian civilisationalism is proving handy as President Vladimir Putin seeks to expand the imaginary boundaries of his Russian World, whose frontiers are defined by Russian speakers and adherents to Russian culture rather than international law and/or ethnicity.

The ‘Z’ marking seen on Russian battle tanks and other military equipment as a coding for the Ukraine invasion is fast acquiring an evil meaning, similar to the evil that the Nazi symbol of Swastika denotes. In India, Swastika connotes exactly the opposite, as the Hindu symbol of auspiciousness. But for most parts of the world, Swastika stands for all that was horrifying about Nazism.

The US-led NATO’s attempts to seek the high moral ground against aggression by the “brutal dictator Putin” reeks of hypocrisy and double-standards. Going by the shrill pronouncements of President Biden and Prime Minister Johnson, this is the first time peace has been shattered in Europe after the Second World War and the end of the Cold War. They completely ignore the fact that the first war in Europe after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the NATO aggression against Serbia and Yugoslavia in 1999. The NATO forces unleashed a 78-day aerial bombardment on Belgrade and other places to achieve their goal of the dismemberment of Yugoslavia.

Liz Truss says the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a “paradigm shift” similar to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on New York. This is likely to be true. Russia’s assault on Ukraine is the first major war launched in the 21st century by a power not aligned with the United States.

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is known to have dramatically increased gender inequality, but India is probably one of the most extreme examples of this brutal process.

Independent journalism – the kind that favours public interest over political, commercial, or factional agenda – is in peril, due to erosion of business models, increasing crackdowns on press freedom, and ongoing threats against the safety of journalists. The coming decade, therefore, will be decisive for the survival of a democratic public sphere.

With his illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin may have played right into the hands of major Western oil and gas companies who were hoping a war in Europe would open up new profit opportunities for them at the expense of Russia.

The no-confidence motion, tabled against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government and okayed for debate and voting by the Speaker of National Assembly of Pakistan, Asad Qaiser, has unnerved and enraged the Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi. In a speech at a gathering of the PTI lawmakers of Sindh in Karachi, he targeted the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari bluntly, “Now my first target, who has been under my radar for a long time, is Asif Ali Zardari” and snapped fingers at the latter for several misdeeds like using police and ‘thugs’ to get people killed, theft, corruption and money laundering abroad.

Just over two years ago, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa told a press conference of women judges that they should not conduct themselves in court like their male counterparts. At that time, Pakistan had five women judges across its five High Courts.