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Australian by birth, John Pilger died on December 30 2023, at the age of 84. He initially rose to fame for his international reporting on the Vietnam war, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Burma, East Timor, Australia and the Middle East.

BJP has just coined this attractive slogan to its gullible constituency – Teesri Baar Modi Sarkar, ab ki baar 400 paar. Some national and international political analysts are declaring “almost an inevitability” of PM Narendra Modi’s win for the third time, supporting the first part of the slogan, while PM Modi’s supporters are going with deafening assertion of the second part of the slogan, cleverly not mentioning that out of 437 seats BJP had contested, it had lost its deposit in as many as 51 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Thus, the second part of the slogan is just a far-fetched idea far away from the ground reality. As for the first part of the slogan, the term “almost” just veils the doubts in the very propaganda of “inevitability.”

When drone-fired missiles hit an apartment in south Beirut, killing a prominent militant leader and his associates, it signalled a new direction in Israel's conflict with Hamas.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have announced that the military operations in Gaza will continue throughout 2024. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly stated that the war in Gaza will continue till the Hamas is totally finished. He has also stated that Israel will control the Gaza border with Egypt which would mean Israel’s de facto control over the whole of the Gaza strip.

At a time India is in advanced stage of negotiations with United Kingdom and European Union on free trade negotiations, there are warning bells to suggest trade diversions from China to India using FTAs with some of the countries.

Forensic investigations by Amnesty International’s Security Lab have come out with surprising revelations about continued and increasing use of Pegasus, a type of highly invasive spyware, developed by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group. It has come amid an unprecedented crackdown by the Indian authorities on freedom of peaceful expression and assembly, which has had a chilling impact on civil society organizations, journalists, and activists.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “imminent arrest” has been on the cards for two-three days and the AAP convener has been milking every drop of sympathy from talk of his imminent “arrest”. That said, while half of Delhi is convinced Kejriwal is corrupt to the core, the other half is still making up its mind. Arvind Kejriwal on January 4 dramatically pronounced that the Narendra Modi government was hell bent on robbing him of his most precious wealth – the thick vein of irreversible honesty that runs through his veins.

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.