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WASHINGTON DC: On the evening of January 19, 2025, the American Hindu Coalition — a pro–Donald Trump group whose stated mission is to “build a stronger America through Hindu Enlightenment Principles” — joined forces with several right-wing Latino organizations to host a joint Hindu-Latino inaugural ball in downtown Washington, DC. Among those who gathered in the ballroom of the swanky Mayflower Hotel, rubbing shoulders with Argentina’s far-right president Javier Milei, was Rajiv Pandit, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) — a Washington, DC–based advocacy group that proudly professes to be the “largest and oldest education and advocacy organization and the pre-eminent voice for Hindu Americans.”

The 14th National People’s Congress of China ended its one-week-long session in Beijing on Tuesday March 11 with a clear direction given by the President and the Communist Party supremo Xi Jinping that China will take on the disruptions made in the global order by the United States president Donald Trump in his second term, through both diplomacy and increased strength of the country’s economy.

Trump's tariff policy is making headlines once again. On 2 March, the Trump administration's decision to impose 20% tariffs on Chinese imports and 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico came into effect. As a retaliatory measure, Canada has announced immediate 25% tariffs on C$30 billion ($20.7 billion) worth of U.S. imports, with the potential to extend these measures to an additional C$125 billion ($86.2 billion) if the U.S. tariffs remain in place beyond 21 days. Likewise, China has announced additional tariffs of 10–15% on various U.S. products.

Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Finance in Maharashtra, has made a new promise on empty poll promises, that the promises will be implemented as and when funds are available. Soon after tabling of the Maharashtra’s Mahayuti government’s Budget 2025-26 on February 10, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) had called Mahayuti’s poll promises bogus.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 24th State Conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) concluded with a ringing reiteration of its intent to build on the spectacular gains the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government has made during the nine years it has been in power.

NEW YORK: Mark Carney has been elected leader of Canada’s Liberal Party in months-long, high stake race to replace the present Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now the question that follows is twofold – can he repair the deteriorating relations between Canada and USA as the Prime Minister designate over the 25% tariffs issue and can he arrest the rising popularity of the opposition Conservative party and its leader before the next national elections.

We are at a critical juncture in the relationship between the citizen and the State in India. The concept of individuals as rights-bearing citizens has been overshadowed by the State’s authority in every sphere, effectively reshaping the very foundation of democracy.

Thursday and Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, just this side of Parliament Street and a kilometre from Parliament House, which was not long ago claimed as "Waqf Property", will see a massive protest against the Modi Government's Waqf Board Amendment Bill, 2024, spearheaded by the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, a body of mostly Muslim lawyers, clerics and Islamic scholars.

TORONTO: Last Sunday, a rally led by President Claudia Sheinbaum filled Mexico City’s central square, the Zócalo. It was not, however, a political party event, a historical commemoration, or a state of the union address. It was a national unity rally called in the face of ongoing tariff threats by US president Donald Trump. “I have said that we are a government of the people . . . and that whenever there was a need to inform or face adversity, we would be together,” she began. “And besides, we come from a great people’s movement that was created in public plazas, and here we are back with you.”

Returning empty-handed and crestfallen from his meeting with United States President Donald Trump, popular satirical comedian turned Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky looks more like a totally confused person now. He doesn’t know whom to trust — highly peeved US President Donald Trump or the leaders of the EU-UK combine, the backstage instigators who constantly propped him up to fight a losing battle with mighty nuclear armed Russia. Even after the globally-televised snubs he received from Trump and his Vice President James David Vance at a White House press conference after a tense Oval Office meeting, he had the cheek to confer with those European leaders, playing the fiddlers on the roof, on his return about the future of his country’s three-year old war with mighty Russia, especially after the massive death and devastation on its eastern front. Joker Zelensky is clearly at his wit’s end.