THE Tenth Asia Pacific Regional Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba was successfully held in Beijing, People’s Republic of China on October 29-30, 2024. The meeting unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the international demand for an end to the unjust and criminal policy of blockade imposed by the United States government on the Republic of Cuba for the last 64 years. On the same day, the United Nations Assembly has come out with a resolution demanding the same and endorsed by 187 countries – including India – out of 193 countries.

BELYING predictions of pollsters that the US Presidential race is ending in a dead heat, Donald Trump has won a decisive victory, getting 312 of the 538 Electoral College votes and outstripping Kamala Harris in the popular vote by polling 51 per cent.  Despite the liberal media’s favourable projection of the Kamala Harris campaign, it was clear to independent observers that Trump was gaining ground, particularly in the last one month, and his inflammatory rhetoric on immigration and rising crime and populist rants against the “elites” were evoking a g

IN the collective experience of the fight for justice for victims of rape, the movement in Bengal on the RG Kar case is unique in several ways. The last time India witnessed a widespread public response against an atrocity which transcended the boundaries of political or organisational mobilisation was in the Nirbhaya case in 2012. More recently, the female wrestlers struggle in Delhi against serial institutional sexual harassment was an example of a struggle that gained support across India. The Bengal struggle is different.

THE assembly segment of Kulgam has consistently been represented by CPI (M) since 1996. And it is also a known hot-bed of religious fanatic organisation like Jamat-e-Islami. JeI has been banned by the government since 2019, and JeI is the bedrock of militancy in Kashmir. Some of the members of this banned organisation decided to contest the assembly elections of 2024, and contested over five constituencies. JeI, however, focussed on Kulgam only. A question emerges: why JeI has made compromises with its ideology, and constitution? Why it took a sharp u-turn over its politics?

Farmers’ distress, unemployment and the taint of corruption are dragging it down.FOR the first time, Maharashtra will witness a battle for the assembly between two weighty alliances with equally widespread and diverse bases.