Germany’s far-right protesters fly national flag at demonstration The political class in Germany is stunned by the findings of a YouGov poll published on Friday that 20 percent of German voters would give their vote to the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany), making it the second-strongest party behind the centre-right CDU (28%) and ahead of …
Continue reading “The rise and rise of far-right in Germany”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) with the visiting Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, Beijing, 18th July, 2017 The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken drew a blank in Riyadh in his mission to coax Saudi Arabia to grant diplomatic recognition to Israel and resuscitate the moribund Abraham Accord. The Saudi stance is unwavering: a two-state solution …
Quiet flows the Dnieper: Water runs through a breach in the Nova Kakhovka hydro-electric dam, Kherson, Ukraine, June 6, 2023 The breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in war-ravaged Ukraine on Tuesday is no doubt a catastrophe of colossal proportions, a veritable ecological and human disaster that may outlive the war itself. …
Family photo of Prime Minister Modi (4th from left) & special invitees to G7 Leaders’ Summit, Hiroshima, Japan, May 21, 2023 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits abroad are carefully choreographed events, given their optics domestically. Perhaps, this is even more so today as general elections loom ahead and in Hiroshima, Modi was taking the stage …
Continue reading “Modi at Hiroshima — optics, politics, reality”
Pope Francis (L) meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a private audience at The Vatican, May 13, 2023 President Vladimir Zelensky’s tour of Rome, Berlin and Paris has been a success, securing for Ukraine significant additional quantities of weaponry for the upcoming offensive against Russian forces. The high water mark was Germany’s announcement of a …
Continue reading “Biden can be charming. But Beijing should be wary of sequels”
Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky has somewhat eased the suspense by his remark to the western media on Thursday that his army needs to wait and still needs “a bit more time” to launch the much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces. He acknowledged that Ukraine’s combat brigades are “ready” but would reason that the army still needed …
Emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers agreed to readmit Syria, Cairo, May 7, 2023 When a mere subplot overnight assumes habitation and a name, it becomes more fascinating than the main plot itself. Syria’s return to the Arab League after its decade-long exclusion can be regarded as a sub-plot of the China-brokered rapprochement between …
Continue reading “Syria’s return to Arab League is a big deal”
Russian-controlled Nuclear Power Plant in Zaporozhya region where Ukrainian “counter-offensive” is expected (File photo) For all the noise out of Washington, more and more countries are integrating their supply chains with China. Even the UK Foreign Secretary is making overtures to China, while Zelensky had a “long and meaningful” phone call with Xi Jinping on …
People fleeing fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, April 19, 2023 The worst-case scenario is coming to pass, apparently, in Sudan. That is, at any rate, the apocalyptic message streaming out of Khartoum in the western media. President Biden lent credence to the alarmist perception by confirming that on his orders, the US military conducted an operation …
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) arrives at the Headquarters of the Dnepr Group of Forces, Kherson Oblast, April 17, 2023 The Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to the country’s “new territories” of Lugansk and Kherson/Zaporozhye Regions on Monday to assess the military situation. The countdown has begun for the Ukrainian “counterattack”. The arrival of Patriot missile system …
Continue reading “Ukraine: Stalemate in an attritional war?”
