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WASHINGTON DC: In the wake of the election, I have read many insightful and thoughtful assessments of how we have arrived at the point where Donald Trump was re-elected. I highly recommend the recent scathing essay by my colleague at Marxism-Leninism Today, Chris Townsend (www.bit.ly/MLTelection), on the crying need for an alternative to the two-party charade and the bankruptcy of the Democratic Party as a representative for working people. But for every good analysis, there are a dozen awful commentaries that ultimately blame the voters’ judgement or endorse their worst fears.

The National People’s Power (NPP) has won a historic victory in the Sri Lankan Parliament elections. For the first time, a political party has won a two-thirds majority through the proportional representation system. The NPP has won 159 of the 225 seats polling a record high of 61.6 per cent of the vote. This is an extraordinary performance considering the fact that the NPP had got only three seats in the last election held in 2020.

As if he needed a doctrine to make a strike, the Russian president Vladimir Putin, has amended the so-called Russian nuclear doctrine. The change provides for Russia to strike even a non-nuclear state with nuclear weapons in case it is “supported” by a country which has nuclear weapons.

The victory of the Republican candidate Donald Trump in November 5 U.S. Presidential elections defeating the Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris has brought to light the big dilemma of the pro-Bernie Sanders socialist wing of the Democratic Party. Sanders is a long time senator heading the progressive wing of the Democratic Party trying to impart a pro- labour orientation to its policies.

A fascist has one too many abominable attributes. But basically, someone to be called fascist will be found to be anti-liberal and anti-left. A fascist leader will be promoting a nationalist dictatorship and he will have a positive disposition to violence. Mass mobilization besides, he will be prone to building himself as a charismatic authoritarian leader who overtly and covertly will stay engaged in snuffing out all critics at all times. Some leaders will wear democratic mask but their actions will give out their fascist bearings. Since her resignation as prime minister and the army aided fleeing the country for friendly neighbour India as a result of unrelenting protests turning violent with students in the forefront, Sheikh Hasina to her acute discomfiture finds that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is called a fascist by several leaders of the interim government.

The Ukraine war entered its 1000th day on Tuesday, November 19 and on the same afternoon, President Zelensky used for the first time high tech AATCMS missiles for striking inside Russia after getting green signal from the outgoing President Joe Biden only two days before. Soon after, President Putin announced lowering the Russian threshold for using nuclear weapons agreed to earlier.

G20 Presidency has called the Rio de Janeiro Declaration “historical” as the leaders committed to taxing billionaires, tackling inequalities, and support for climate action with focus on sustainable growth and fight against poverty, but it has taken limited concrete steps and focus was on long term goals rather than immediate actions.

Manila: It may be seen as an irony of fate that the Philippines, a pioneer of the modern rice production technology helping some of the world’s major rice producers, including India, to become self-sufficient in paddy production, has itself become the world’s biggest rice importer. For the third successive year, the Philippines will continue to be the world’s No. 1 rice importer during the current marketing season of 2024-25. Official estimates put the country’s rice import requirement at a record high of 5.1 million tons.

The Draft Communique of G20, the countries which are responsible for 80 per cent of global emissions, circulated on November 19, 2024, doesn’t mention “transitioning away from the fossil fuels” the phrase already agreed upon at COP28. G20 summit (November 18 -19) at Brazil thus displays a stark failure, as far as climate action is concerned, while COP29 in midway in Baku in Azerbaijan has turned into a stage for theatrics, and time is running out for an effective agreement on key issue of considerably scaling up necessary funding the climate action to save the planet Earth.

LONDON: The meeting between a British prime minister and China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 18 was long overdue. Reportedly, Keir Starmer wants a “consistent, respectful and pragmatic” relationship between the two countries, with an emphasis on progress towards clean energy. But he is especially keen to improve Britain’s prospects for economic growth by increasing British exports to China and Chinese investment in Britain.