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Bombay high court has quashed the amended Information and Technology rules that enable the Centre to set up its own Fact Check Unit (FCU). Justice AS Chandurkar’s order, which set aside the IT Amendment Rules, 2023, broke the tie of the split verdict given earlier by a two-judge bench of the high court regarding the validity of the IT amendment rules. Justice Chandurkar ruled that the terms like “fake or false or misleading news”, on the basis of which the government had sought to act against the social media contents, are not defined. He also declared that the Fact Check Unit is going to be arbiter of government’s own cause, and, therefore, the formation of the FCU itself was unconstitutional.

NEW YORK: Vice President Kamala Harris’s entrance into the 2024 presidential race has transformed a limping electoral contest into a full-blooded dash to the finish line. Perhaps what seems to be the most underappreciated is Harris’s expressed recognition of this unprecedented moment in the nation’s life—bloodthirsty, stultifying tyranny vs. forward-looking democratic freedoms.

WASHINGTON: Democratic socialist senator Bernie Sanders, one of the lone critics on Capitol Hill of Israel’s carnage in Gaza, is set to introduce a joint resolution this week to block the ongoing billions of US dollars in arms sales to Israel. “Much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment,” said Sanders. “That’s why I will introduce a resolution to block this $20 billion arms sale to Israel.”

Creating a bad neighbourhood is unwise, especially through totally avoidable unrestrained speeches. However, the leaders from the ruling establishment in India have been in the habit of making unrestrained speeches aimed at winning domestic elections that hurt our neighbouring countries unnecessarily worsening already strained relationships at a time when India is in urgent need of creating good neighbourhood for resolving long standing issues with them.

Debates alone don’t win a presidential election, but they can certainly influence the outcome in a closely contested race. The last presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was marked by numerous arguments and counter-arguments, but much of the discussion focused on economics and how each candidate plans to address the aspirations, ambitions, and dreams of the American people.

The grim truth holds that everybody Indian belongs to some or the other caste. Even Muslims and Christians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi identifies with an OBC. A Chief Minister has a caste. Criminals also have caste. Caste equations play important political roles. There was the ‘MY’ before the ‘PDA’. Riding the PDA, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party beat Yogi Adityanath’s BJP to second place.

The anti-fascist forces in Germany felt a big relief after the Sunday’s crucial elections to Brandenburg region showed that the beleaguered ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) narrowly beat the surging far right party AFD defying all opinion polls about the AFD’s imminent victory. The SPD got 31 per cent as against AFD’s 29 per cent while the left leaning BSW got 13 per cent and the Christian Democrats 11 per cent.

The decision of national leadership of Congress to make Subhankar Sarkar the president of the party's West Bengal unit sends a message of cessation of hostilities with Trinamool Congress, the state's ruling party. For Sarkar who replaces Adhir Ranjan Choudhury as the state chief, has never been witnessed to have been engaged in a confrontation with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have graduated from being a mere union finance minister to a lofty “management guru” and a spiritual leader.

India’s neighbour Sri Lanka has elected the Marxist-Leninist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the next president in the intensely contested presidential elections held on Saturday, September 21. About 75 per cent of the total of 170 million population who voted, broke away decisively from the binary of two political formations through years and opted for the uncharted path of bringing the National People’s Power (NPP), coalition of 28 fringe left parties and civil society groups, to power at a time when the Sri Lankan economy is facing a major crisis.