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Only 72 hours before the holding of the Presidential elections in Brazil on October 2, Left coalition candidate and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula has emerged as a front runner against the far right incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro. Latest opinion polls show that Lula has a 13 point lead over Bolsonaro in the first round. Media reports are indicating that there is a last minute swing in favour of the Left wing candidate and it will not be surprising if he defeats his rival in the first round itself.

October 2 is here again. The day Bapu was born. The unforgettable message Bapu conveyed to us was about change, its being eternal. He told us it is the way life is. Even the truth for which he laid his life. His last words, when the bullet pierced him, were “Hey Ram”! He was not unprepared. Not surprised. He knew his people only too well and the ‘other’ too. They had no roots among us. Us includes not only India, but beyond too. Bapu took us all in his thin bony arms. As he slowly crumbled, he knew it was not defeat. Only Godse and his mentors started shrinking. For them, Hindu Rashtra, the aim itself, got demolished after Bapu was killed.

The victory of the far-right alliance in the parliament election in Italy is a watershed moment in Europe. The far-right alliance consisting of the post-fascist Fratellid’ Italia (Brothers Party of Italy) and its alliance partners – the League and Forza Italia – have won 46 per cent of the vote.

Politics in India has turned dangerous. Pursuit of political hegemony by Modi-Shah duo has been undermining democracy. The knife of persecution is being frequently used to cut political leaders into size, make them to fall in line, and even to effect defection from other political parties to the BJP. The leaders in opposition are targeted and maligned, and the hate propaganda, from which stems the strength of the duo, in numerous shades is used against them.

Crude oil prices have now dipped below the level when Russia’s Ukraine war broke out, which means the market has not only absorbed the shock of disruption in supplies, but the end game is approaching for the oil cartel. The war, however, forced a tectonic change in the oil market dynamics, of which India has been a big winner, but not necessarily the Indian consumers.

Several recent public opinion surveys send a mixed message to autocratic reformers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, which hosts this year's World Cup in less than two months. These reveal contradictory attitudes among Arab youth towards religion as well as widespread rejection of notions of a moderate Islam and formal diplomatic ties with Israel.

Jhulan Goswami is retiring. With that ends a spectacular career and a story worth countess retells. The mindboggling numbers—more than twenty years as top-flight fast bowler, over 350 wickets across formats, most balls bowled (9945 till Friday) in ODIs and also the youngest (23 years, 277 days) to take 100 wicket Test haul—alone led a sense of completeness to a career that has seen everything barring a World cup win. Pronged by a probing in swinger and stifling Yorker. Goswami was the reason India were not pigeonholed as a team of letters and all-rounder.

India and Iran have different political systems, but when it comes to the hijab the two aren’t different. This is seen in the context of certain laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sharia-based Constitution which appear to be knocking on the doors of the so-called secular Republic of India. Especially, those which govern how women should dress and behave under the male gaze, and when stepping outdoors in the full glare of the sun, and the neon.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Narendra Modi government have globalised the hate politics and divisiveness. The two evils which have been, after Narendra Modi becoming the prime minister, dictating the political discourse in India have made their way to the international arena. This is clearly manifest in the incidents that took place barely a fortnight back in Leicester (UK) and New Jersey (USA). These two places are quite apart, but the impact of the globalisation of vices has been akin. A look at the chemistry of the incidents underline that the cocktail of hate and bigotry is more lethal and dangerous than they have been in India.

Ever since underground leader Jiban Singha of the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) reiterated the call for a separate state, there have been signs of a resumption of activity on part of its activists in Assam and North Bengal.