Racial and other forms of inequality limit US economic strength The US president-elect Joe Biden did two spectacular things last week which may rewrite the assumption that his presidency would return America back to the Barack Obama era. One was the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan Biden rolled out Thursday and the other his choice …
Russia takes charge of Nagorno-Karabakh
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) met Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev (C) and Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan (L), Moscow, Jan. 11, 2021 The trilateral meeting of the leaderships of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Kremlin on January 11, exactly two months after the ceasefire in the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, can be seen as a robust …
No matter Impeachment 2.0, Trumpism haunts America
US President Donald Trump faces reporters as he walks toward Marine One, White House, Washington, DC, January 13, 2021. “My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine. You may my glories and my state depose but not my griefs; still I am king of those.” (King Richard in William Shakespeare’s Richard II) For …
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Germany draws another line in the sand for the US
Russia’s pipe-layer crane ship Fortuna, capable of laying about 1km of undersea pipe a day (File photo) Exactly a week after the announcement on December 30 regarding European Union’s long-sought comprehensive investment agreement with China, the Danish Energy Agency received an innocuous revised schedule from Nord Stream 2 AG for the construction of the gas pipeline …
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Boris Johnson has done Modi a favour
Prime Minister Modi (R) and UK PM Boris Johnson. File photo Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson conferring on the latter the great honour of being the chief guest at the Republic Day on January 26 was a hasty and premature move. True, the Oxford vaccine can turn India’s dismal …
US may annoy adversaries but means no harm
The US Congress in night session after rioters were evicted and Capitol building was sanitised, Washington, DC, January 6, 2021 Atonement becomes an inevitable process as the decline of a superpower begins accelerating. But imperial powers find it genuinely difficult to learn to become a ‘normal’ country. That dichotomy could cause traumatic events. The sack …
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Whither American Democracy?
Rioters stormed US Capitol, Washington, Jan. 6, 2021 In a poignant remark, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reacted to the dramatic events in Washington, DC, on Wednesday — the storming of the Capitol building and President Donald Trump’s attempted coup — by recalling that Hitler’s seizure of total power started with the burning of the …
Modi marks distance from Trump, finally
Modi-Trump bromance comes to an end (File photo) Apropos of the dramatic happenings in Washington, DC, — with President Donald Trump’s ardent supporters and acolytes ransacking the Capitol Hill on Wednesday — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tweeted: “Distressed to see news about rioting and violence in Washington DC. Orderly and peaceful transfer of power …
Saudi embrace of Qatar falls short of Gulf unity
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) welcomes Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani upon arrival to attend Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Al-Ula, Jan. 5, 2021. The West Asian region is such a fragmented part of the world that any semblance of reconciliation on any of the criss-crossing fault lines becomes a …
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Biden needs Russia and China’s help to cut Trump’s Gordian knot on Iran
South Korean-flagged tanker Hankuk Chemi carrying 7200 tonnes of ethanol escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats off Oman for polluting the Gulf with chemicals, January 4, 2021 In international diplomacy, while creating narratives, there is a criticality about the timeline over normative values. Iran’s announcement on December 4 that it has begun to enrich uranium …
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