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NEW YORK: The US President Donald Trump keeps saying he’s not worried about the midterms. He says it the way a card player says he’s not worried—when he’s already seen the other guy’s hand.

The latest phase of the US-Iran confrontation presents a paradox. While President Donald Trump publicly dismisses negotiations as “boring” and claims indifference to their outcome, Washington and Tehran continue exploring a possible agreement. Yet escalating Israeli military operations in Lebanon threaten to derail diplomacy and deepen regional instability.

LONDON: There is a growing recognition that the illegal war on Iran conducted by the US and Israel is exacting a huge cost on the population, and that the price will go higher the longer the war is continued. Of course, the biggest price of all is firstly paid by the Iranian people, with outrageous incidents such as the bombing of the Minab elementary school, which killed 158 civilians including 120 schoolchildren.

Facing the big possibility of China taking control of the new Junta government in Myanmar which took office last month, Indian policy makers are now very keen to give a big push to the India-Myanmar relations covering both economy and security aspects. Myanmar President U Min Aung Hlaing is in India visit from May 30 to June 3 to have extensive discussions with the Indian ministers and officials to take the bilateral relations to a new high.

The Republican People's Party (CHP), the primary secular opposition party in Turkey, is presently embroiled in a significant political and democratic crisis as a result of an unprecedented court ruling on May 21, 2026, that invalidated the political party's leadership election in 2023. The fragile democracy of Turkey was put to the test when Turkish riot police invaded the CHP headquarters in the capital, Ankara, to remove its office bearers. Tear gas and rubber projectiles were fired inside the headquarters, where party officials and supporters, including leader Özgür Özel, were confined for days. The standoff between the CHP and Turkish police comes days after a court nullified Özel's 2023 election as the party's chairperson. Human Rights Watch has alleged that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is attempting to "sideline the main political opposition in ways that profoundly undermine civil and political rights and Türkiye's democratic process."

Amid reports that Iran and the United States may soon reach a ceasefire agreement over the ongoing conflict, fresh tensions emerged on Tuesday following reports of U.S. strikes on missile launch sites and boats in southern Iran. Washington claimed the action was carried out in self-defense. A prolonged war is bad news for a large and fast-growing economy like India, which imports nearly a quarter of its energy needs. Although the arguments given by the US are to stop Iran's nuclear program and to address the so-called atrocities committed by the leadership against protesters complaining about the Iranian economy, the actual reason may lie elsewhere. It is the oil.

The failure of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), held at the UN Headquarters in New York from 27 April to 22 May 2026, is deeply disappointing. Despite the fact that a vast majority of participating delegations strongly advocated complete nuclear disarmament, the conference ended without any meaningful agreement or concrete roadmap toward eliminating nuclear weapons.

The global economic outlook has deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, according to the latest edition of the World Economic Forum’s Chief Economists’ Outlook released in Geneva on May 28.

NEW YORK: The renewed accusations by Iran that the United States violated the fragile ceasefire by launching missile strikes on Iranian facilities have once again pushed the Middle East to the edge of a wider conflagration. Tehran claims that the latest strikes on missile installations and naval assets near the Strait of Hormuz amount to a direct breach of the truce painstakingly negotiated through Qatar and Pakistan. Washington, however, insists the attacks were “self-defence strikes” against imminent threats to American naval assets.

The United States domestic political situation is hotting up as only five months are left for the crucial midterm elections in November this year. During the coming polls, elections will be held for the entire House of Representatives as also one third of the Senate. Though Donald Trump as the executive President remains in power till his present term expires by 2028 end even if the Democrats win in both houses, Trump’s effective powers will be diluted turning him into a lame duck President for two years.