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Israel’s strike against Iran has reignited a familiar tension in global energy markets, sending oil prices climbing into the mid-$70 per barrel range. The impact is not just visible in the numbers, but in the broader nervousness sweeping across energy trading floors and geopolitical circles alike. At the heart of this movement lies the so-called “geopolitical risk premium”—the extra cost per barrel that markets price in when a key oil-producing region teeters on the brink of conflict. That premium has now risen to about $8 a barrel, a level surpassing even the acute flashpoints of April and October 2024, when Israel and Iran directly exchanged strikes for the first time in decades.

NEW YORK: There are moments in a presidency of no turning back, decisions made and actions taken that are so consequential and far-reaching, they mark a fundamental turning point. George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, for example, poisoned Bush’s presidency and reshaped the Middle East for the worse in ways that are still reverberating. The war that Israel started on June 13 with Iran may well be another.

“We made a great deal with China. We’re very happy with it.” So declared President Donald Trump in his familiar tone of triumphant ambiguity on June 11, fresh off what was touted as a breakthrough agreement to restore a trade truce between the United States and China. But if history has taught us anything, it is that “done deals” in the Trumpian lexicon tend to be either dangerously fragile or conveniently fungible.

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, has virtually shaken the world with his aggressive domestic and foreign policies – anti immigration involving massive deportation of so-called aliens spending at least $100 billions of taxpayers' money, it will cost $750 billion before the end of his term. He is talking of a third term even.

LONDON: Israel’s illegal and unprovoked bombing of Iran, killing military leaders, scientists and numerous other civilians, puts us on the brink of catastrophic conflict.

KOLKATA: It goes without saying that the messages of the two Manipur organizations condoling the death of two crew members from the state in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, Thursday afternoon, is of immense sentimental value. But, in Manipur’s context, the message also reconfirms understanding and harmonious relations between the Meitei community and the tribal Thadou community. It is a coincidence that of the two crew members, one, Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma, 20, was a Meithei and the other, Lamnunthem Singson, 26, was a Thadou.

Amidst the speculation making round the political circle that NDA leadership has nearly reached a consensus in the matter of seat sharing for the 2025 assembly election in Bihar by year end, comes the news that the coordination committee of Bihar unit of INDIA block has sought district wise list of the probable contestants from its partners within a week.

Yet to be fully implemented resolution “the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204)” adopted by the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) even after 10 years of its adoption, gets another resolution in its support on June 13, 2025, at ILC’s 113th session held during June 2-13, 2025, while the International Convention on Decent Work in Platform Economy was deferred for 114th session to be held in 2026.

On Thursday June 12, Indian diplomacy under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached its lowest ebb when India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly from a vote on a resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The 193 member UN general assembly passed the resolution overwhelmingly with 149 countries in favour, 12 against and 19 countries including India, once the real leader of the global South.

NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump went to town with his announcement that his Art of the Deal with China on trade and tariffs was a Done Deal even as China chose to downplay it as the negotiations finalised at a uniform tariff of 55% tariffs for all Chinese goods imported into the USA, a far cry from the 135% tariffs imposed on the Asian giant in the trade war where US was slapped with reciprocal 125% tariffs.