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Two countries have made the front pages and lead stories in our lemming-like capitalist media: Haiti and Cuba. One country — Haiti — has earned the ire of the self-styled Western democracies by overthrowing its colonial slavemasters and establishing a free state in 1803, the first country in history to liberate itself from European-imposed slavery.

Four prominent U.S. lawmakers have jointly issued a statement calling for action against NSO-like companies that sell spyware to authoritarian regimes across the world. Terming such companies as the “A.Q. Khans of the cyber world”, the statement called for stricter regulations as it was used against “peaceful activists and journalists”. The statement was issued on Monday by Democratic Party lawmakers Tom Malinowski, Katie Porter, Joaquin Castro, and Anna G. Eshoo.

A student writes letter to her estranged lover, who has been pulled out of college by his parents for being in a relationship with her, a girl of different caste. Through her letters and story the viewers gets a sense of what can be like to be a university student in India today, the internal turmoil, peer pressure, the political protests on campus, crackdowns on dissent.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As if the plethora of problems plaguing the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) are not enough, its allies are giving the Front a big headache. The ‘culprits’ are the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Indian National League (INL).

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is on the mission to the National Capital, after assuming office for a third term, to prick the aura of Narendra Modi and dismantle the perception of his being invincible. Just before leaving for Delhi she sent a clear message through her action of constituting a judicial commission to probe the Pegasus scandal not only to the BJP but also to her opposition allies. Her move not only turned the table on Modi, a task which should have been done ideally by him but also heralded the emergence of Mamata as the national figure, amidst trending of #Ab Ki Baar Didi Sarkar on social media.

India may be only three to six weeks away from the predicted third wave of COVID-19 that may actually hit the country. Union Ministry of Health sounded alarm yesterday, though not for the third wave, but for slowing down in drop of new cases as “cause of concern”, and also for other co-infections that might be problematic during the monsoon. Within 24 hours of expressing such an alarm, India reported 43,654 new cases as against 29,689 cases a day earlier.

The death of seven Assam policemen in armed clashes with the Mizoram police on July 26 is deplorable. Assam has “border disputes” with Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram for a long time. This time, according to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the clash with the Mizo police ensued when the Assam police tried to prevent the encroachment of land by the Mizos in the reserved forests of the contiguous region of Barak Valley of Assam. The CM said that there was no “politics” in it. The clash with the Assam police was because the Mizos had occupied, illegally and surreptitiously, land in the reserved forests of Assam and built roads. He asserted that Assam would not allow “an inch of our land” to be occupied by the Mizos.

The Supreme Court has passed a historical verdict on the powers of the legislature vis-à-vis other institutions of parliamentary democracy, declaring that the privileges of the elected representatives do not place them above the law of the land.

New Delhi: Virtually assured of a place in quarter finals, a confident India will look for their third win when they take on defending Champions Argentina in their fourth match of the Tokyo Olympics at Oi Hockey Stadium on Thursday.

New Delhi: India huffed and puffed, missed chances galore and went down 1-4 to defending champion Great Britan in the Pool A of the Olympic Women's hockey competition in Tokyo on Wednesday.