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For now, Ukraine is the far from my bed show for most Middle Eastern nations. The question is not if but when Ukraine will arrive on their doorstep.

The left wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, is firmly on his path to big victory in the coming presidential elections in Brazil scheduled for October 2 this year. A recent opinion survey run by Instituto FSB found that in the first round Lula will be getting 46 per cent as against the incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro’s 32 per cent but in the second round, Lula will go up to 54 percent as against the conservative candidate’s 35 per cent.

I very vividly remember when 30 years back in the year 1992 we wanted to hold a public function as a part of campaign for the promotion of healthy environment and preservation of ecology, not many people took it seriously. However we carried out with our activities and soon our actions drew attention of the public as well as the administration. We organized school education programmes, formed Eco Clubs in schools and conducted several other outreach events.

Thirteen weeks long, the war in Ukraine has reached a state of paradox. To a greater extent than at any previous point since Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded, the political establishment is acknowledging that a negotiated settlement is the only way the war can end safely. Yet the prospect of anything of the sort happening also seems more and more remote.

Why are the Indians curious about the British Royal family even after India's Independence? Even the present generation of Indians know of Queen Elizabeth 11. We have listened to the nursery rhyme in our childhood, "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I have been to London to look at the Queen." Then TV series like 'Crown" and "Jewel in the Crown" also revived the memories of the colonial past. English is still the lingua franca of the Indian elite.

The politics in Latin America took a definitive left wing shift on Sunday May 29 as the people of Columbia voted the candidate of the anti-establishment coalition Gustavo Petro as the top candidate with 40.3 per cent votes, followed by the surprise businessman candidate Rodolfo Hernandezwhogot28.2 per cent. Both of them will have a face off on June19 to elect the President of the country.

No need to get fancy or clever in paying tribute to Ray Liotta, who died suddenly in his sleep at age sixty-seven. This one really hurts.

After significant gains during the last quarter of 2021, the number of hours worked globally dropped in the first quarter of 2022, to 3.8 per cent below the pre-crisis benchmark in the fourth quarter of 2019. This is equivalent to a deficit of 112 million full-time jobs, which represents a significant downgrading of figures published by the ILO in January 2022.

The scale of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr’s victory in the Philippine presidential election on May 9, where he gained a record 58.74 per cent of the votes cast, has stunned many observers. By contrast, his closest rival Leni Robredo, current vice-president and the main hope of the political and economic establishment, could manage only 27.99 per cent.

On May 18 UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm. For him “the spectre of a global food shortage” looms and he fears “this dangerous situation could tip into catastrophe.” “It threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years.”