European Union unveiled a road map to phase out Covid-19 pandemic containment measures, Brussels, April 15, 2020 A European Union road map plotting the way out of the containment measures to counter Covid-19 — commonly known as ‘lockdown’ — was unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday. The document titled Joint European Roadmap towards lifting COVID-19 containment measures holds …
Continue reading “Europe eases Covid-19 lockdown but caveats remain”
Senator Bernie Sanders (R) endorsed the candidacy of Joe Biden (L) in the US presidential election in November For all practical purposes, Joe Biden has emerged as the Democratic Party’s nominee in the US presidential election in November. There was an inevitability about it once Bernie Sanders sensed that despite his impressive network of volunteers …
Continue reading “Biden invites the left into his coalition to take on Trump”
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech proposing a summit in September of the “founder countries of the United Nations, the five states that hold special responsibility to save civilisation,” Jerusalem, Israel, January 23, 2020 A perfect deal is where all protagonists get something out of it. All oil-producing countries stand to gain if oil …
Continue reading “Why the OPEC+ deal is a many-splendoured thing”
No social distancing in Stockholm: Sweden has taken a “flexible” approach, but Prime Minister Stefan Löfven regrets that wasn’t good enough. It might have sounded exciting two days ago to propose the Swedish pathway as the ideal route for India to pursue to combat the coronavirus . But no longer so. When it comes to …
The coronavirus-struck USS Theodore Roosevelt nuclear aircraft carrier went into ‘self-isolation’ in Guam base after disembarking 5000 sailors on board. File photo. The greatness of the classical Greek tragedies lies in their humanising effect on the spectator or reader — “catharsis”, the purification or purgation of emotions, a metaphor first used by Aristotle in the …
Continue reading “Covid-19 confronts American exceptionalism”
President Trump’s crowded White House press conferences to discuss the coronavirus have become daily events, Washington, DC, March 13, 2020 It often puzzles me what transpires during high-level visits by world leaders. The substantive content of such events laced with pomp and glory impacting inter-state relations is generally handled by sherpas, quietly and unobtrusively. (Of …
Continue reading “We desperate Indians also need ventilators, Mr. Trump”
Health workers setting out to combat Covid-19, Chennai, April 4, 2020 We got to know from the US President Donald Trump today morning that his phone call to PM Modi on Sunday was to make a demand that India should lift its export ban on the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being used in America …
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appointed his political rival Mohammad Haneef Atmar, as acting foreign minister, Kabul, April 4, 2020 The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the US State Department, Alice Wells dropped a bombshell early morning today on the Afghan government and the country’s political elites …
Continue reading “Don’t threaten Afghans. It will be counterproductive.”
The past week witnessed a sudden spurt of tensions in the US-Iran standoff. There was intense speculation that to divert public attention in America from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump might order a military attack on Iran. Trump himself fuelled the speculation with the sudden outburst in a tweet on April 1: …
Continue reading “Trump’s Iran sanctions policy on the turn”
Indians observe social distancing before a pharmacy A national strategy to tackle the coronavirus pandemic has appeared, finally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with state chief ministers on Thursday becomes the first milestone in a challenging journey ahead. PM outlined an exit strategy to get out of the “total lockdown”. It is a strategy …
