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Perhaps no clear answer is right now available to what may look like a straightforward question. Is the pace of US moving out from Afghanistan more, or is it the pace of Taliban moving in? Well, it is not a question that will hang in balance for a long time as the US withdrawal gets completed in the coming days and weeks. One can imagine Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan celebrating the US discomfiture, may be on mute, but he has challenges he can’t ignore.

Cuba is in turmoil. The continuing blockade of the Caribbean nation by the United states has hit the country’s economy badly and after a long time, there were big demonstrations on Sunday in Havana and other big cities in Cuba demanding the supply of the essential goods including food items and medicines.

Education for millions of children is still disrupted. As of today, almost about 18 months after the closures of educational institutions, primary and secondary schools are shuttered in 19 countries affecting over 156 million students. The losses children and young people incur from missing out on school may never be recouped. That is why reopening of schools can’t wait, but how to do it is also not less important.

The political kaleidoscope has turned again in Nepal, throwing up yet another government. The Nepal Supreme Court on Monday restored Parliament which was dissolved by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on May 21, after Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli lost majority in the House. The President announced that elections to the House of Representatives would be held on November 12 and 19. Oli continued to be the Prime Minister because no other party or an alliance of parties could form an alternative government.

The Supreme Court has issued yet another verdict, in which it has shown that when it is time to take sides, it will stand for the common man. In a postscript to its judgment, refusing to strike down the Delhi Assembly’s summons to Facebook India head Ajit Mohan in the inquiry into the Delhi riots, a three-member bench, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, stated that the ‘judicial system exists for the common man; and expressed serious concern over the unduly long time taken for arguments, counter-arguments, submissions and other procedures was taking justice away from people who actually deserved it most. The court also stressed the need for judges to write 'more crisp, clear and precise' judgments which litigants can understand.

The evergreen film hero Dilip Kumar has passed away but he will ever remain alive in people’s memory. “Saheed” was his early film which portrayed him in the lead role of a martyr. Son of a DIG, the hero turned a revolutionary during the British Raj and hanged. The song of the movie—“Watan ke Naujawaan, watan par Saheed ho” became a hit. Dilip Kumar’s father, Ghulam Sarvar Khan, had not known that his son had become a film actor. A close friend of Sarvar Khan once casually told him: “your son has started doing good work”.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress in Kerala has decided to harden its stance against the Modi Government to erase the impression that the party is soft on the BJP in the State. That is the unmistakable message from the statewide satyagraha the party organized to protest against the petrol-diesel price hike.

In a state where demagoguery is the key component of the politics and mercenaries dictate the character and rule of the governance, the politics of identity and idiom of democracy are the worst victims.

Elderly abuse and ill-treatment have become far more frequent and unidentifiable during the corona virus induced pandemic than ever before notwithstanding the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 and Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 that provide for all round maintenance and care for elderly. India needs a comprehensive policy and execution of welfare programmes for economic, social and emotional wellbeing of senior citizens. Ageism and other challenges on counts of demographic transition need to be dealt with at the grass roots level in line with other developing nations that have launched participatory action research and community building programmes to address total welfare of the elders, whileensuring inclusion and reducing inter-sectional discrimination. This is because increasing ageism and elderly abuses have thrown a crucial challenge,as elderly comprise a major part of Indian population.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exhorted the sportsperson who will be representing the country in the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo to give their best and assured them that entire nation's good wishes are with them.