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Is the global geopolitics moving a full circle after 80 years since the end of the Second World War in 1945? The question is now extremely relevant after the world saw on Friday in TV channels the unprecedented spat between the United States president Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine president visited Trump in the White House to sign a deal on mineral resources apart from discussions on the proposed peace deal with Russia. But what happened in that 45 minute meeting was nothing but, as the London-based newspaper The Guardian termed “one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history”.

The departure of Madhabi Puri Buch from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) marks the end of what many consider the darkest period in the history of India’s market regulator. SEBI, the institution responsible for ensuring transparency, fairness, and accountability in India's financial markets, found itself embroiled in controversies that not only undermined its credibility but also called into question the fundamental principles on which it was built. With allegations of misconduct, conflicts of interest, and regulatory overreach clouding her tenure, Buch’s exit is unlikely to erase the deep scars left behind by the crisis. Instead, it should serve as a moment for introspection on the governance of regulatory bodies in India and the dangerous precedent that political protection of erring officials can set.

Bonhomie between RSS and BJP that enabled the BJP to win the Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi assembly elections, notwithstanding bitter acrimony between Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appears to have been overshadowed by the fraternal rancour. The situation has acquired such heat that RSS is reluctant to undertake electioneering and help BJP win assembly elections in Bihar and Bengal.

The issue of giving wages to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers has again in sharp focus. Union Budget 2025-26 neither promised them to give status of the workers preventing them from getting even minimum wages, nor increased the little amount of honourariums and incentives that are being given to them as volunteers. The amount of work and time ASHA and Anganwadi workers are giving is not compensated by any justified wages, and thus their exploitation continues.

Things are not happening along planned and expected lines for Sambhal's Shahi Jama Masjid, i.e., as expected by the mosque's Masjid Management Committee and "protector", the Samajwadi Party. For example, is this Masjid also going the way of the Babri Masjid? The Allahabad High Court on Friday referred to it as "disputed structure" and "alleged mosque".

Rekha Gupta’s appointment as the Chief Minister of Delhi marks a significant political moment, not just for the Bharatiya Janata Party (‘BJP’), which has returned to power in the national capital after 27 years, but also for the broader discourse on women’s representation in Indian politics. The decision to elevate Gupta to the state’s top executive position came after eleven days of deliberation within the party’s high command, eventually making her the fourth woman Chief Minister in Delhi’s history, only the second to currently serve in the chief minister’s position nationwide.

NEW YORK: The late, great Gene Hackman was a working-class guy from Danville, Illinois, the son of a waitress and a pressman for a local newspaper who deserted the family when young Hackman was just thirteen. An avid moviegoer from childhood and a big fan of the ultimate urban working-class tough, James Cagney, whom he considered “the consummate actor,” Hackman wanted to act from an early age. But he spent many years, after a post-WWII stint in the Marines, moving furniture and driving trucks and selling shoes for a living while he studied acting and got his training on the New York stage.

Democratic rights activist Jagdeep S. Chhokar in his recent piece in the news portal The Wire mentions of his four conclusions on the state of Indian polity in the present stage after the BJP sweep in Delhi assembly polls. His four concluding points are: first, the BJP is almost achieving an opposition-free political landscape in India; second, This seems to have been achieved by decimating the opposition parties and institutional capture; third, the opposition parties have failed the nation and its people; and fourth, the people of India have failed the nation.

The latest article four consultation papers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gives a unique peep into the state of the Indian economy from an outsiders’ point of view, tampered with inputs and interactions with the national economic managers. India’s latest review was released yesterday at Washington, at the end of detailed reviews stretched between September last year and January this year.

Bihar has always been a hard nut for the BJP, precisely for the saffron ecosystem. The more the saffron brigade strives and tries to exploit the existing social and caste contradictions, more it gets alienated from the mainstream politics and also from the Bihari people. A system born out of the copulation of communalism and politics of hatred and growing up swallowing the milk of Hindutva cannot comprehend the basics of the political economy of Bihar.