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WASHINGTON: In the corridors of power, where messaging is currency and optics are everything, President Donald Trump faces a political paradox that threatens to undermine his party's prospects in November's midterm elections: his administration's economic achievements are being systematically overshadowed by images of masked federal agents confronting protesters in Minneapolis.

As the world anxiously awaits whether the US will attack Iran — whose oil China buys in vast quantities as its largest customer — analysts warn of global repercussions that could spill over into broader geopolitical tensions. Although the arguments given by the US are to stop Iran's nuclear program and to address the so-called atrocities committed by the leadership against protesters complaining about the Iranian economy, the actual reason may lie elsewhere. It is the oil.

At a time when the labour market in India is undergoing a significant structural change and the employment and skilling ecosystem is being reshaped by demographic shifts, technological changes, and evolving industry needs, including the expansion of gig and platform work, the Economic Survey 2025-26 bats for the “effective implementation of Labour Codes” and recommended development of a digital framework and industry-driven skilling to address the skills-job mismatch.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The budget presented by Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal undoubtedly, is a budget with a long-term vision of future Kerala - a judicious blend of welfarism and development agenda.

The 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in Davos from 19–23 January 2026 under the theme “A Spirit of Dialogue,” took place against a highly charged backdrop of strained global trade relations. Actions taken by the U.S. President Donald Trump fundamentally altered the established framework of cooperation among nations.

NEW YORK: The United States is forcing an oil boycott against Cuba through pressure on Mexico — a targeted blow aimed at bringing the island to its knees economically and forcing a regime change. The decision by the Mexican government to no longer ship oil to Cuba threatens to initiate a countdown to the island’s economic collapse.

The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, January 29 in Beijing assumes special significance at a time when Britain is fighting its transatlantic ally U.S. over the sovereignty of Greenland and President Trump has mentioned security threat from China and Russia in Arctic as the major reason for U.S. move for takeover of the island.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s sad demise in a plane crash on Wednesday, January 28 has created such a vacuum in Maharashtra politics that no single politician could fill in the near future. A prospect of political reconfiguration that was already indicated by the election of municipal corporations held on January 15 and its outcome, will soon be taking place, since nature abhors a vacuum, as the ancient principle suggests. Maharashtra will be undergoing a politics of new alliances, identities, and regional bargaining phase.

The Economic Survey 2025–26 presents itself as a document of sobriety in an age of global disorder. It raises India’s potential growth estimate to 7 per cent, underscores macroeconomic stability, and urges delayed gratification in the face of geopolitical and financial uncertainty. Yet when read closely—and when its own data are taken seriously—the Survey reveals tensions that its philosophical framing does not fully resolve.

From Plato’s Republic till today, republicanism has traversed a long journey. It has been enriched at junctures of the French Revolution and its clarion call for liberty, equality and fraternity. The journey has witnessed major ruptures with the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the advent of fascism as orchestrated by Mussolini and Hitler. The idea of republicanism achieved a new life with the defeat of fascism and the unfurling of the red flag atop the Reichstag. It is at the ruins of that anti-fascist war and, with the realignment of the global forces, that the world strived to reorganise itself by transforming the League of Nations to a more all-encompassing United Nations.