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LONDON: The annulment of the first round of Romania’s election marks a new phase in European authoritarianism. Given the growing alienation of populations across the West from “mainstream” politics — Britain is no exception to this — the precedent Romania sets is dangerous. This is the first case in which social media influence has been officially used to annul an election.

BERLIN: Germany’s Die Linke was once the shining light of the European left. Created in 2007 as a merger between the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and a pro-labour breakaway from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), in its first decade Die Linke became a major force in national politics. In the East, it represented left-behind young people and pensioners and drew attention to the inequalities bequeathed by reunification. In the cities, it was the obvious political home for left-wing students, radical trade unionists, and activists of all kinds. At its height, it routinely scored around 10 percent nationally and nearly 30 percent in many former eastern states, even entering government there.

The already war ravaged West Asian region has entered into a new phase of geo political turmoil with the ouster of the Syrian President Bashar-al Assad Government and the President fleeing from Damascus on Sunday to Moscow and granted asylum there by the Russian Government. The defeat of the Syrian Bath Party leader who ruled for twenty five years since the year 2,000 with iron hand backed by Russian assistance is a big personal defeat for President Putin and a major setback to his diplomacy in West Asia.

US president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to slap a 100 percent tariff on nine-member BRICS Plus countries if they try to replace the US dollar with a common BRICS currency may at best be called as a panic reaction to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s wish to create a common BRICS currency to reduce the growing vulnerability to US dollar exchange rate fluctuations. President Lula made the common BRICS currency proposal at a BRICS summit at Johannesburg in August last year. More recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a new international payments system at the latest BRICS summit at Kazan (Russia), saying "the dollar is being used as a weapon.” The Kazan summit underlined BRICS's ambition to foster relations with the Global South, and its aim of shaping an alternative multipolar world order, particularly in the global financial and trade system.

Last week, Americans and people worldwide were stunned by the news that President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden. This clemency controversy was significant because Hunter Biden, a family member, contributed to the debate surrounding the pardon.

Syria is witnessing seismic shifts in its prolonged conflict, with President Bashar al-Assad's regime having collapsed amid dwindling support from its critical allies, Russia and Iran. The rebel factions, spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), are in control, creating uncertainty about the nation's political future. This precarious balance raises concerns of a potential power vacuum with regional ramifications.

The data given by the Union Ministry of State for Labour and Employment Ms. Shobha Karandlaje in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on December 5, 2024 conceals the frightening ground level reality of unemployment in India. The pattern is simple – first various government agencies produce data portraying rosy picture on employment front, and the Centre goes on repeating this, and the propaganda is so loud that it drowns the desperate voices of the unemployed.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is coming apart. The Samajwadi Party, which is a component of the INDI-Alliance and has two MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly distanced itself from the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and took part in the oath-taking ceremony, which the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) boycotted. This apart, there are reports that the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray is mulling a decision to quit the MVA and return to the Hindutva fold!

Much to its mortification, our country today is surrounded by unfriendly, if not hostile, neighbours. Leave out the Himalayan kingdom Bhutan, which is more like Switzerland equally well disposed to every other nation, the rest of India’s other immediate neighbours having undergone regime changes in recent times have no love lost for the largest south Asian country. The birth of Bangladesh ending the subjugation of Bengalis, their language, culture et al by an ever hostile and domineering Islamabad was a revolution with support from India. That country has come full circle with the dethroning of Sheikh Hasina that ended an unbroken 15-year rule by the Awami League.

KOLKATA: Since the anti Awami League (AL) coup of August 5, Bangladesh interim government authorities have employed grizzled army veterans/defence experts in media panel discussions , to counter what Dhaka perceives as 'hostile , biased Indian propaganda'. This group of influential people has now come up with a fresh narrative asserting that the new Bangladeshi rulers had foiled a major Indian plan to launch a major offensive in the NE region even as they ousted Sheikh Hasina from power. In other words, India far more than the AL or Sheikh Hasina — was the bigger loser in terms of the massive setback to its long term strategic objectives.