COMMENT

The upshot of ‘He said, Xi said’: More pandas to the US

— Joe Biden and Xi Jinping participated in a crucial summit during the APEC forum in San Francisco. Acknowledging competition, the leaders underscored the importance of averting conflict and committed to resuming military contact.

COMMENT

Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar… whatever happened to the ‘never again’ pledge?

— Global tensions are escalating, marked by ongoing regional disputes in Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, and Ethiopia. The international community’s intermittent focus on these crises raises concerns about the efficacy of global peacemaking efforts.

COMMENT

The ethics of Biden’s ‘America First’ argument for Ukraine funding

— Some Republicans express disapproval of the Biden administration’s approach to aiding Ukraine against Russia, which frames aid as a means to boost American employment in the weapons manufacturing industry.

COMMENT

Britain’s cosplay with warships and suchlike in the eastern Mediterranean

— What is the purpose of Rishi Sunak’s Government deploying a notably smaller naval task group in the Middle East compared to the United States, if not to project a larger presence on the international stage?

COMMENT

An Israeli novelist on being a good mother and empathetic in hard times

— Aylet Gundar-Goshen has previously said the trait she finds most irritating in others is, “indifference to others’ suffering.”

COMMENT

Multicultural man, Rishi Sunak

— 50 years after Peter Adler’s “Multicultural man”, Rishi Sunak’s diverse identity challenges stereotypes and raises questions on multiculturalism.

COMMENT

What a section of the UK’s Sikh community says is happening to it

— The Sikh Council UK seems to be trying to stir suspicions against India. Were they to succeed, it would be profoundly damaging in all sorts of ways.

COMMENT

Libya’s warring governments and the West

— Eight years on from the grand bargain, Libya’s situation is even more woeful.

COMMENT

‘9/11 is becoming an exercise in forgetting’

— Strangely, 22 years on, 9/11 is the one reassuring sign in America’s otherwise sickening body and body politic.

COMMENT

Is the G20 in trouble?

— Xi no-show and several other headaches for host India.

COMMENT

Al-Fayed simply lived in the wrong era of British politics

— Mohamed Al-Fayed was deemed ‘not a fit and proper person to be given (British) citizenship’. Today, the Egyptian businessman would probably be in the House of Lords.

COMMENT

(Not) over the moon about Vivek Ramaswamy

— A second-generation Indian swam into the world’s view of America’s political craziness the day India became only the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon.

COMMENT

Memo to fellow journalists: Please don’t cover Trump 2.0 like in 2016

— In 2016, Donald Trump’s outrageous behaviour – tweets, incendiary statements, and norm-breaking promises – were covered with gawping attention. In 2023, it’s his criminal indictments.

COMMENT

In having nothing to say about Rishi Sunak, new Tory MP Steve Tuckwell said it all

— Some people, like Britain’s prime minister, have hideously good luck.

COMMENT

Wagner is golden again... in Central African Republic

— Business as usual for Russia’s globe-trotting mercenary army. Is Putin fully on board or unable to prevent it?

COMMENT

Riots show that France may be increasingly American (and I don’t mean McDonald’s)

— How France’s recent riots reflect a growing racial consciousness among its black and north African population, influenced by the US and the work of Education Minister Pap Ndiaye, a historian who challenges France’s colourblind ideal.