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Revolutionaries are seldom unarmed. Peter Magubane was no exception; but instead of a machine gun or a machete, he carried a camera and clicked with it to fight his cause. Like a prophet, not honoured at home, but feted worldwide, Magubane was a Black South African photographer whose snapshots cruelties and images of apartheid won plaudits worldwide. The man who caught apartheid in celluloid passed away at 91.

During his first speech in August 2022, Colombian president Gustavo Petro put special emphasis on the environment ­— a novelty in a country where the security agenda has dominated the political conversation for decades. “There will only be a future if we balance our lives and the world economy with nature,” said the former guerrillero turned president.

The Supreme Court verdict in the keenly-awaited petitions against the adequacy of the SEBI probe into the charges against the Adani group is neither convincing nor conclusive. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has given the market regulator another three months to complete its investigations. The court has also in essence put the ball in the court of the government, which is largely perceived to be an interested party in the infamous cover-up. If SEBI cannot complete the probe in so many months it has apparently been engaged in the task, there is no way it can do it in three months. So, the extension of time fails to cut ice.

Narendra Modi government had successfully avoided any meaningful discussion on the three new criminal laws in the Lok Sabha by resorting to suspension of almost entire opposition members in the Lower House, but had to face a serious roadblock even before their implementation enforcing the Centre to give a second thought on making them operational before the Lok Sabha General Election 2024 fearing political backlash.

With their malicious design to engage Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar in a psychological war proving to be absolutely ineffective, the Narendra Modi and Amit Shah combine has tossed a new type of conceptual war against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. While the duo failed to muster courage to direct their parrot to swoop on Nitish and put him in jail, the ED is already gearing up to arrest Hemant Soren.

It sounds odd calling Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Nyay Yatra’, “nationwide east-to-west yatra”. The yatra is east-to-west, but not nationwide. Cutting through 14 states and 85 districts is not the entirety of India. It is another matter if it has a nationwide impact. Also, the claim that the Congress “hopes” to win 150 parliamentary constituencies because Rahul Gandhi travelled through 85 districts is tall.

Ahead of the general Budget on February one, International Monetary Fund has warned India to return to fiscal consolidation path and efficient spending implying mounting debt and rampant freebies culture are unsustainable. Finance Ministry might be dismissive of IMF observation saying any interpretation that the IMF article IV country report implies that general government debt would exceed 100 per cent of GDP in the medium term is misconstrued. The Indian government may also take solace in saying India has done relatively well when cross-country comparison is made of major economies, especially after Covid.

As recently as on Tuesday, (December 12, 2023), fighters stormed a military outpost in northwestern Pakistan as they opened fire and rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the army base in the town of Daraban, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Dera Ismail Khan city, in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, located at the edge of the lawless tribal regions that fringe Afghanistan. At least 23 people were killed in the gun-and-suicide bomb attack, the Pakistani military said in a statement.

Kolkata is no stranger to quizzical posters. But of late, the two adorning city walls and lamp posts have foxed Kolkatans; one announcing the need for an alternative politics is sans any mention of the name of organisation or individual putting it up while the other merely states seven.

On January 1, 2024, a labour court in Dhaka, Bangladesh sentenced Grameen Telecom chairman and controversial Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and three others to six-month jail in a case filed against them for violating labour law. Judge Sheikh Merina Sultana of Dhaka's 3rd Labour Court pronounced the judgment in presence of all the four convicts.