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The juggling which US imperialism has to do to maintain its hegemony becomes more bizarre by the day. First, it kept needling Russia (“provoking the bear”) “on behalf of the western alliance” by expanding NATO to its very borders, knowing full well that Ukraine’s joining NATO would be totally unacceptable to Russia. Its objective was to prevent Russia and western Europe from coming closer, which would have occurred because of the latter’s dependence on the former for energy; it is even reported that to keep hostilities going between Russia and Ukraine, it sabotaged an agreement between the two, that had been witnessed by France and Germany.

Mr Fumio Kishida is the first Prime Minster, who made physical visit to India during the COVID 19 pandemic. He is the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s handpicked successor. His rise to the frontline was his vow to counter China’s growing influence by closely working with USA and other likeminded democracies. His visit enchanted Indian counterparts with the increased Japanese economic cooperation from US $ 33 billion to US $ 42 billion. But, it frayed to enthuse corporate sector, as the Japanese PM preferred silence on investment in India.

Colombia’s left-wing and progressive coalition, Pacto Historico, has become the country’s most popular political movement following the congressional elections on Sunday, March 13. This historical victory threatens two hundred years of ruling-class hegemony, with most of the coalition’s representatives coming from rural and working-class backgrounds. Depending on what happens in May’s presidential election, this win could have global reverberations. Crucially, the West stands to lose the unconditional loyalty of its most stable ally in the region.

It's been a month since Russia invaded Ukraine. So long in the battlefield and even Changez Khan’s hordes would have ended their campaign and returned home to the Manchurian steppe. But Putin’s army is not returning home even as we are being told that the Russian troops do not have their hearts in the war because it's not their war. It’s Putin’s War!

Indonesia has emerged as a primary battleground between democratic and autocratic visions of Islam in the 21st century.

Earlier this month, China announced a 7.1% increase in its defence budget to about $230 billion. The news generated concerns in relevant quarters in India. China maintains the highest number of active military personnel in the world and its defence budget is the 2nd largest in the world for many years now. This has been China’s seventh consecutive defence budget hike in as many years. When the Chinese military has more money to spend, what does it do? It builds roads and bridges in remote places like Doklam and Pangong Lake areas. When China does so, India gets edgy about its security and reacts.

The more the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan Niazi zooms in on 25 March (if not earlier),the fateful voting for no-confidence motion at the National Assembly, the more rattled is the hierarchical order of the main ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf, headed by the PM. As if sensing that his prime ministerial existence is threatened, Imran Khan seems to have forgotten that once he was committed to play with a straight bat when he led the Pakistan Test cricket team and now swinging with a cross bat to stay on.

Three scantily dressed samba dancers wearing traditional feather headdresses laid bare the limits of social liberalisation in Saud Arabia when they earlier this year danced on the streets of Jizan, a historically conservative city on the border with Yemen.

In his State of the Union address, United States President Joe Biden made it clear that the US was not planning to send troops to Ukraine. On earlier occasions, former POTUS Bill Clinton sent troops to Yugoslavia, George W. Bush to Iraq and Afghanistan, and Barack Obama to Libya. As history would have it, in all these occasions, the US gained little except for spending trillions of dollars. In Afghanistan, for instance, the US spent close to $2.2 trillion, only to see the country getting back to the Taliban after two decades of war.

The massive humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is engaging the attention of all concerned. The pain and suffering caused by the war to innocent people, manifesting in some three million seeking refuge in Ukraine’s European neighbour states provide unbearable visuals. But away from public gaze, vulnerable sections even far outside the conflict zone are faced with disruption to lives and livelihoods, directly attributable to the Russian action. To make matters even worse, this is happening at a time when the world has barely got out of the Covid pandemic and its aftermath.