No end in view for Ukraine war

The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s meetings with Ukrainian leaders, including President Vladimir Zelensky, in Kiev has created a lot of confusion and misperceptions. One one side, the White House maintains that the trip aimed “to underscore the United States’ steadfast support to Ukraine and its people.” The readout stated that Sullivan also affirmed …

A Biden-Putin meeting in Bali cannot be ruled out

The US President Joe Biden said in a CNN interview recently that Russian President Vladimir Putin  is a “rational actor who has miscalculated significantly” on Ukraine issue. The Russian-American summit meetings have a history of calibrated foreplay. As the G20 summit in Bali on November 15-16 draws closer, the big question is still hanging in the …

Who’s afraid of US troops in Ukraine?

Very innocuously, the Biden Administration has ‘sensitised’ the world opinion that American troops are indeed present on Ukrainian soil in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. Washington made a “soft landing” with an unnamed senior Pentagon official making the disclosure to the Associated Press and the Washington Post.  The official gave an ingenious explanation that the US troops …

Lula never left Brazil’s centre stage

Lula, the fiery trade union leader, berating free-market reforms of President Cardoso, Brasilia, circa 1999 (File photo)  The former president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, has won the country’s presidential election by an incredibly narrow margin of 50.90% of the vote against his right-wing rival and incumbent president Jair …