THE international focus is mainly on Syria following the American cruise missile attack on the country. The western media is full of stories about the alleged atrocities being committed by the Syrian government. The world's attention has been successfully deflected from the crimes being committed in Iraq by the United States in neighbouring Iraq as it struggles to subdue the Daesh (Islamic State) in Mosul.  The Iraqi military backed by the full power of the American air force and allied militias, is still struggling to completely liberate Iraq's second biggest city.

EARTH Day, commemorated on April 22 each year, has always seen marches and demonstrations  highlighting dangers to life on the planet and mobilising people for the defence of the environment from wanton exploitation and profiteering. Earth Day this year was different. It saw rallies in cities round the world, especially in the US, under the banner March for Science. This year Earth Day was not about saving the planet, but about saving science and the institutions that engage in studying and propagating it. Who would have thought such a thing would happen?

IN the midst of the current tumultuous situation in valley which is wrecking innocent lives with terrible alacrity, it seems words like peace and security have completely disappeared from our  living idiom as some of us may have held on to the faintest hopes that these words carry in the situation that has beset us for so long.

 After the anti-capitalist Left's unprecedented achievement in the first round, attention will now focus on Mélenchon’s engagement with the movementWITH the results now in from the first round of voting in France’s presidential elections, the two frontrunners, Emmanuel Macron of En marche! and Marine Le Pen of the fascist Front National, are drawing breath after making it through to the run-off.On the basis of a high voter turnout of 78-80 percent, both victors in fact performed short of projections made earlier in the campaign.

IT has been widely reported in the press that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath plans to carry out a survey of Muslim women to ascertain their keenness to get rid of triple talaq. Muslim women and Muslim women's groups across the country have been campaigning for several years against the practice of triple talaq and have filed several cases in the courts including the Supreme Court against this practice.