View Articles

Anguish and Anger—these two words and their synonyms may be used to express the reactions of majority of American women after ‘ Politico’ a political journalism company, released a bombshell leak of a majority draft opinion of Supreme court to overrun its landmark ruling on abortion. The draft was penned by Justice-Samuel Alito, a right wing conservative member of the court. He was supported by four other justices, three of them appointed by Donald Trump.

Amid speculation about a reduced US military commitment to security in the Middle East, Turkey has spotlighted the region's ability to act as a disruptive force if its interests are neglected.

In what appeared to be a sudden move, the Indian government prohibited the export of wheat on May 13. This appeared to be totally out of sync with India’s policy of goodwill and outreach through liberal relief and support measures under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, so far.

Majoritarian nationalism can go wrong and it can land the leaders in a hot soup! This is the unmistakable message from the Sri Lankan crisis. The Rajapaksa family was the darling of the majority Singhalese and it indulged in hate politics against Hindus and Muslims. The isolation of the minority came to become the norm. For example, Buddhist monks would block Hindus from entering their temples. Hit by scarcity, these monks had to stand in queues for essential daily-use items. The hardship forced them to demand the removal of the Rajapaksas from the government. Last week, New Zealand provided NZ$ 500,000 to help feed children and farmers and India sent 65,000 MT of urea to Sri Lanka.

Few will disagree that the US-led 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is using Ukraine to test Russia’s military capability and patience. The increasing supplies of arms, money and even clandestinely despatching soldiers to Ukraine indicate that NATO is fighting a proxy war against Russia cleverly using Ukraine as a pawn. The Russia-Ukraine war, which started on February 24, is showing no sign of ending as NATO is continuously supplying weapons worth billions of dollars to Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion of Ukraine to protect itself from further expansion of NATO towards the east.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he laid down a marker for a critical mass of world leaders who, like him, think in civilizational rather than national terms. In the minds of these leaders, the stakes in Ukraine are about much more than the future of a former Soviet republic or the rejiggering of Europe’s security architecture.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Thursday that her country should apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay.” Signing up with NATO, Marin said, was necessary to guarantee the security of Finland’s citizens. She also called for the international community to step up sanctions against Russia.

The present strategy and structure of trade unions, evolved during the period when welfare economics prevailed and existing technology saw the evolution of big corporations with big manufacturing units, employing hundreds and hundreds of workers. The evolution of Fordism with assembly line production, deskilling of workers, etc, was seen during the period. But constant class struggle that was unfolding, power of workers to stop production was an important factor in increasing their bargaining strength along with the existence of socialist world, which also helped in increasing power of workmen vis-à-vis capitalists.

In 1998 that is 24 years back on 11th May India carried out first nuclear weapon test under the Vajpayee government. The event was celebrated with fanfare; public was jubilant over that India has now become a power to reckon with. Those who termed the event as a step towards mutually assured destruction were ridiculed. But just after 17 days on 28th May Pakistan too did the same. Observers felt that Pakistan has become at par with India in nuclear weapons race. Mood of the supporters of nuclear weapons in the country got subdued. Some experts argued that India who had superiority over Pakistan in conventional warfare has lost that since both countries have become nuclear armed. Exact figure unknown but there are estimates that both have 100 plus nuclear weapons each.

The Horn of Africa, also known as Somali Peninsula, is making big news these days but somehow it’s not reaching us with the same high decibel resonance as the Sri Lankan economic and political crisis or the Russia-Ukraine war. A geographical region that spans several African countries — Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda, the Horn of Africa is in the grip of a prolonged and devastating drought.