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Middle East has turned into a ticking time bomb as Iran and Israel stand on the verge of a full-blown war. A lot has transpired between the two countries since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war. Israel is more than a thousand miles away from Iran. They do not share any border and there are no significant bilateral claims between them. And yet they are arch enemies.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the security alliance of the western nations led by the USA is having an uneasy period after celebrating its 75th year of founding in July this year with big fanfare. The recent summit of the BRICS in Kazan of Russia held on October 22 to 24 witnessed the presence of two countries close to the West — first Saudi Arabia as a newly admitted member and another Turkey which has applied for BRICS membership despite being a member of NATO.

Japan’s election results last Sunday demonstrate once again that good economics often fail to get political gains. That does not of course necessarily mean that bad economics gets good political revenues.

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday more than lived up to predictions that it would echo the Nazi rally held there in 1939. It was filled with vitriol and profanity-laced racist attacks against people the convicted criminal ex-president sees as political enemies but particularly aimed at Vice President Kamala Harris.

BRICS nations concluded their annual summit in the Russian city of Kazan on October 24 resolving to deepen economic ties. Plans to deepen financial cooperation and develop alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems were also discussed, besides offering African nations a bigger say in the changing global order.

Austrian President Alexander van Der Bellen has decided to sidestep the far right Freedom Party (FPO) in government formation sending an unambiguous signal about the future. At the heart of the decision lies the question that should a party having won the largest share of votes but remaining politically isolated be entitled to lead the government?

BERLIN: “There is hope.” This was one of the most repeated sentences when talking to delegates at Germany’s Die Linke’s national congress last weekend, as the left-wing party convened in Halle, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. This hope clearly isn’t inspired by polling data, which has turned from bad to worse over the last year. Right now, Die Linke is languishing between 3 and 4 percent in national polling, well below the 5 percent threshold required to reenter parliament in the 2025 elections to the Bundestag. The last nationwide contest, the elections to the European Parliament this past June, pointed in the same direction, as Die Linke received only 2.7 percent of votes — half of its 2019 score.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is teetering from crisis to crisis. He survived a second no-confidence motion on October 1, the second in two days, and on October 25, Trudeau faced an internal challenge from his party MPs, 24 of whom have asked him to resign by October 28.

LONDON: The International Monetary Fund AGM in Washington had barely reflected on the efficacy of its austerity regime in reducing inflation before beginning to worry about the inevitable hike in global oil prices if Benjamin Netanyahu’s offensive is not stayed.

Indian origin Black African-American Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris faces imminent defeat unless former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in one of his crankier moments, pulls out from the race before November 5, which is not a possibility unless a fourth assassin doesn’t miss the orange-head for the bleeding ear.