ON the night of December 19, 2023, Israeli military forces surrounded the Al-Awda building in Gaza City’s Al-Remal neighbourhood. Four families were inside the building, including the Annan family, after whom the building is popularly known as the ‘Annan Building’. The Al-Remal area, along the Gaza coastline, was a middle-class area of apartment buildings. During the early days of the war, the Israelis cruelly bombed this residential area, turning this residential quarter into rubble.

TWO pictures carried promptly by most of the national dailies and social media on December 22 last week attracted special attention of the people. One picture shows a heavily garlanded Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) former president Brij Bhushan Singh escorted by his incumbent president elect Sanjay Kumar Singh flaunting a victory sign. In the second picture Brij Bhushan's son was seen displaying a placard in front of his father's Ashoka Road MP bungalow as part of grand celebration of the results of the national body of WFI elections held on December 21.

Enable GingerCPI(M)  Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on December 26.THE CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, has received an invitation to attend the inauguration  of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The CPI(M) policy has been to respect religious beliefs and safeguarding the right of every individual to pursue their belief. It believes that religion is a personal choice not to be converted into an instrument for political gain.

NINETY years ago, a major fire engulfed the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament. Adolf Hitler, the four-week-old chancellor of Germany, used it as a ruse to clamp down on the opposition and forge ahead with his devious political project. In 2023 in India, the provocation was just a question that led to the mass suspension of opposition MPs in both the house of Indian parliament. The recently concluded winter session of parliament left several blots on our democracy and will go down in history for all the wrong reasons.

The SFI continued to hold protests against the nominations of the members associated with different Sangh Parivar organisations to the senate of the University of Calicut.