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The urge to call it a “political miracle” is understandable. After all, the fall of Trinamool Congress (TMC) after fifteen years in power and the sweeping ascent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal looks, at first glance, like a sudden rupture. But politics rarely works in ruptures. It accumulates. It ferments. And then, almost quietly, it breaks.

NEW YORK: Trump is a billionaire president, with billionaire friends, who represents the billionaire class in the United States. Evidence of this abounds, and when it comes to Cuba, there is no clearer example than his relationship with the Fanjul family.

The ongoing confrontation between Iran and the United States has brought renewed global attention to the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow maritime chokepoint vital to global energy flows. Despite superior Western military power, Iran’s ability to disrupt, control, and condition access to this corridor underscores a complex strategic reality that resists quick resolution.

NEW YORK: Venezuela’s sweeping new mining law, passed on April 9, is the latest in a series of domestic “reforms” purportedly directed at rebuilding the country’s energy and mining sectors. This follows years of debilitating US sanctions and disinvestment, which have seen the mining centres of the Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro states abandoned to governance by “criminal syndicates.” But buried deep within the text of this law is a historic concession that will redefine Venezuela’s relationship with transnational energy and mining capital for the foreseeable future, a mandate that Caracas must submit to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)–style arbitration.

GENEVA: Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping cybersecurity and is the biggest driver of change in the field, according to a new World Economic Forum report released on May 4. Some 94% of cyber leaders identify AI as a defining force and 77% of organizations already use it in their cyber operations.

The U.S. decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany announced on Friday, marks further deterioration in U.S. relations with Europe and NATO in the context of the Iran war as also the Russian war in Ukraine. Trump indicated his displeasure with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and NATO earlier but his precipitating the withdrawal of troops was caused by Merz’s caustic comments on U.S. role in Iran. German Chancellor said that the U.S. had been outplayed by Tehran in war and what was happening was nothing but humiliation of USA.

Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), an Iraqi militia that receives support from Tehran, has been officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. They are offering a reward of up to $10 million for information regarding its leader, Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji, who is also known as Abu Ala al-Wala'i. KSS is accused of targeting US personnel in Iraq and Syria. This U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, formed from Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah, directly collaborates with Iran's IRGC.

China has started its biggest outreach to the African nations by implementing from May 1, 2026 by implementing zero tariff treatment to the 53 nations of the continent who have diplomatic relations with China, This poses a major challenge to India as Narendra Modi government is also in the process of taking major initiatives to improve trade relations with the African nations following the recent visit of the Prime Minister to a few African countries.

The global oil market has once again become the battlefield with ups and downs in the prices depending on the trends in moves of US and Iran. What began as a geopolitical confrontation involving the United States, Israel, and Iran has now spiralled into a full-blown energy crisis, sending shockwaves across economies that were already walking a tightrope between inflation and stagnation. At the heart of this upheaval lies the strategic choke point of the Strait of Hormuz—through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows—now effectively disrupted. The consequences have been immediate and unforgiving: crude prices surging past $120 per barrel, supply chains tightening, and governments scrambling to shield their citizens from the cascading fallout.

MADRID: Over the past two months, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has drawn international attention as the most prominent European critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran. As clips of his speeches have gone viral on social media, the Financial Times dubbed him “Trump's nemesis”; the Independent “Europe’s conscience”; while the New York Times described him as “a progressive superhero for many on the global left.”