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One hundred and thirty days have passed since Donald Trump took oath as the second time President of United States on January 20 this year. After arousing big expectations in the initial days, the hyperactive President is now gradually reconciling to the fact that he is a big failure. “Trump Always Chickens Out” a label that the Chinese netizens had coined for him as afraid of a fight with China on tariffs. Trump had raised US tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% and in stages brought that down to 30% even before negotiations started.

NEW YORK: Cracks have begun to emerge in the Trump-Musk relationship as the latter has shown his disappointment with President Donald Trump on the recent domestic policy endorsed by the Congress. He said in a TV interview that he was "disappointed" that it would increase the federal deficit.

The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged USD 70–80billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to USD 180–200 billion. Now in 2025, total disaster costs are estimated USD 2.3trillion annually when losses to health, education, livelihoods, ecosystems and supply chains are factored in. That is nearly ten times the annual direct losses reported in official figures.

In Portugal, the full right wing turn of the country’s politics is complete with the centre right Democratic Alliance (AD) emerging as the largest single party with 91 seats, followed by the far right Chega with 60 seats putting the Socialist Party (PS) at third position at 58 seats. The minority ruling AD led by the Prime Minister Luis Montenegro is expected to continue his minority government rule in the house of 230 where 116 seats are needed for a majority.

BERLIN: This month, Die Linke met for its congress in Chemnitz, under the motto “Organizing Hope.” Such a slogan would have seemed out of touch the last time it held such a meet-up in October 2024. Back then, activists were surely hopeful for Die Linke’s future, despite a damaging split by the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Yet in many polls, the party didn’t even register, and it feared falling out of parliament altogether.

Amidst the present battle between India and China over the sharing of the manufacture of American high tech company Apple’s iPhones, Chinese daily Global Times, in its latest commentary has appreciated India’s expertise in manufacturing Apple’s iPhones but at the same time said that it will take some more time for India to compete with China as a manufacturer at the level of China.

By the time Washington and Beijing released their latest joint statement on May 12 - ostensibly pressing pause on a spiraling tariff war - much of the world exhaled in cautious relief. But beneath the performative diplomacy and sterile communiqués, a quieter suffering has gone largely unheard. For the world’s most vulnerable economies, the damage is neither paused nor negotiable. It is metastasizing.

The global economic outlook has worsened since the start of the year 2025, as rising economic nationalism and tariff volatility fuel uncertainty and risk stalling long-term decision-making, according to a World Economic Forum report released on Wednesday in Geneva.

The unprecedented humanitarian crisis going on in Gaza is extremely disturbing. No sane and sensitive person can ever condone this on any pretext. Only the beastly instinct can make one kill the innocent toddlers. With an official figure of over 55000 people killed out of which 70% are women and children, the situation is beyond condemnation.

One good thing coming out of India's "4-Day War", aka 'Operation Sindoor', is the thaw in relations between Pakistan and Iran, two Islamic countries which share a border and often end up trading fire across the same border. Iran is a country worth cultivating or left to its own devices. Pakistan, on the other hand, can be left to its own devices only at India's peril.