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A year of elections, emotions and eruptions

Many of our stories in 2024 were about wars, conflicts and clashes. The year began with Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine that was already in its 23rd month. As the year moved on, the other two wars – in Sudan and Gaza – too turned intense. The year is drawing to a close and the three wars do not look like ending anytime soon. Surely, 2024 was a year of wanton wars. Viewed through the prism of…

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What does Chrystia Freeland’s resignation mean?

Trump tariffs are creating a stir in neighbouring Canada as well. As tensions over Trump tariffs were souring ties between Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy minister-and-finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the latter resigned from the cabinet on December 16th. Exiting with sound and fury, she heaped hate over how Canada was facing ‘grave challenges’ from Mr Trump.

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Europe has a worry: the German government has collapsed now

Not surprising that chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost the confidence vote. Germany has turned turbulent, politically and economically. Even that is not surprising. The real surprise, rather the real shock, is because this has happened at a terrible time for the European Union. The war in Ukraine is going from bad to worse as Russia looks determined to escalate the conflict. Worse, president-elect…

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Bayrou is yet another Barnier for Emmanuel Macron

What avail is a new prime minister when silly squabbling is sapping the strength of French politics? French president Emmanuel Macron thinks he is doing a Robert Bruce. But he is just having yet another go at finding a prime minister who will end up in the same trash can as Michel Barnier did. Francois Bayrou, Mr Macron’s latest prime-minister pick, is a trusted ally, but that does not assure his…

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The Syrian theatre of so many players

The Assad Drama in Syria is a shining study of how great teamwork can get the results. For the outside world, it was the Syrian rebels who were responsible for Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country. The reality is that they were just a part of a grand cast that played its role to perfection from behind. How they all together toppled Mr Assad and his government is a study in seamless co-ordination…

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Syria is growing more anxious after Assad

Nationals of any country would have been glad to see their dictator leave their land. But Syrians could not afford to. Even as their power-hungry president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8th, in a bid to escape the fury of invading rebel groups, their happiness was overtaken by rushing anxieties over their hazy-looking future. The decade-long war is over but the war of anxieties has…

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After the failed Yoon impeachment

There has been no dearth of drama in South Korea ever since president Yoon Suk Yeol launched his ill-conceived declaration of martial law. The drama seems to have reached its climax with another drama, at least for now. Mr Yoon’s partymen staged a walkout forcing the assembly speaker to declare the vote invalid. Put simply, the motion to impeach Mr Yoon for his goofy martial-law stunt bombed at…

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The dictator in a democrat’s clothing

Yoon Suk Yeol is a shrewd operator. He knows stepping back is a must for striking back hard. Possibly guided by this strategy, the South Korean president did not bat an eyelid before saying sorry for his attempt to impose martial law in the country. How else could one explain Mr Yoon’s move, particularly when an impeachment vote is due for voting by the parliament? Possibly, he could have earned…

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The political consequences of the new French pickle

Taste the political version of the French Stew. The political bouillabaisse now on offer in France is a strong stew of voter fatigue, dejection and disappointment. Fed up with futureless alliances and fragile minority governments, frustrated French voters cannot be expected to do anything better than swinging to the extremes. Irrefutably, it is bathos at its best, from feeble coalitions to a…

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Donald Trump’s Middle East Challenges

The good news first. Peace has made a beginning in Lebanon. The bad news now. Peace will get stuck at the start itself. The man responsible for this will be Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States. Despite global peaceniks’ fervent hopes that Mr Trump would finish the task begun by his predecessor Joe Biden, the former may tacitly encourage the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in the…

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Is the war in Lebanon really ending?

This is a classic example of a delicate deal. So delicate that the deal is brittle, fragile and flimsy. Worse, the deal between Israel and Hizbullah, effective November 27th, is complex too. So much so that the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hizbullah seems to have been concluded just to end American president Joe Biden’s career on a high. At least, Mr Biden can now walk into the sunset with…

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How paranoid populism plunders the treasury

Earanoid populism has reached epidemic proportions in Indian states. State politicians in India are running amok, wreaking havoc on their treasuries, with unbridled populism. As winning elections has become a matter of life and death for India’s vote-hungry politicians, they are promising the sun and the moon. Inevitably, the states now go so serially broke that the epidemic threatens to hit the…

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DOGE is a disaster waiting to happen

Elon Musk hates acronyms. He shot off a mail in May 2010 to all SpaceX employees with the subject line “Acronyms Seriously Suck”. The mail argued that acronyms are tough on new hands. The same Musk will now head president-elect Donald Trump’s freshly minted acronymous DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency. The irony gets darker as he has been dodging Twitter depositions. Curiously, DOGE…

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Narendra Modi’s win in a state election sets a scary precedent

Truly, Narendra Modi’s win in a prestigious state election in Maharashtra is overwhelming. Yet that is no reason for cheer. The win has been obtained by doling out liberal subsidies to women voters. Not long ago, Mr Modi, India’s prime minister, had derided opposition parties that banked on subsidies to get votes. Mockingly, he called the goodies revdis, aka sweetmeats. And now he has won the…

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How Vladimir Putin hopes to transform his nuclear weapons

Nuclear is the word that is buzzing now in Vladimir Putin’s ears. For Russia’s president, nuclear weapons are an open sesame to pelf and power. Worse, Mr Putin will surely use them as a bargain bet. Inevitably, he is fast transforming his nuclear weapons as his go-to source for getting what he wants. His nuclear attitudes are changing even America’s. So much so that America is getting used to his…

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The first sign of a nuclear war

Conventional wars are so different from a nuclear war. It is rare to see nuclear-payload-carrying weapons in them. Yet, if these weapons are used, they carry the message that a nuclear war could be on the devilish mind of the aggressor. Ukraine became the recipient of such message on November 21st as Russia fired ominously an intercontinental ballistic missile, aka ICBM, at the Ukrainian city of…

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Will Adani be second time lucky?

It isn’t the first time that Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is facing the US music. Earlier, the accuser was US short-seller Hindenburg Research. Now, it is New York federal prosecutors. The Adani Group chairman, the second richest man in India, has been indicted by them in New York on November 20th. The charges are serious – bribery and brazen lies, securities and wire frauds, misleading US…