by Luxman Aravind Rajapaksas are in trouble. As our columnist Durga Velayudham noted in yesterday’s column, a confrontation is unfolding between politically motivated Buddhist monk groups and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP),
On July 1, 2026, the day China’s new Ethnic Unity law went into effect, a storm of criticism ensued. All major Western media, governments, politicians and human rights groups raced to denounce
More
Ihave been emphasizing the importance of a liberal arts college education for a long time. I had such an education back in the late 1950s, and I’ve been thankful ever since. Back
More
On August 13, 2026, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was injured in a sword/kirpan attack inside Gurdwara Mata Sahib Devan Ji Mugat near Nanded in Maharashtra.
More
On July 30, 2026, enormous crowds crossed from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. Within hours, Spanish authorities estimated that roughly 72,000 had entered Ceuta, overwhelming a city of just 83,000 residents.
More
Just as Indian Army Chief, Gen Dhiraj Seth makes his first foreign trip; to Nepal on 16 Aug, a flicker of hope is seen of Nepal Domiciled Gorkhas (NDG) being allowed to
More
Across Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents itself as the custodian of macroeconomic stability. Its latest Article IV staff reports on Ethiopia. Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia are written for economies with very different histories and
More
On August 7, 2026, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement at the Makkah Al-Mukarramah Summit
More
A few days ago, TIME revealed how an artificial intelligence system went out of control and attacked other systems. Days later, more than 1,100 engineers at major artificial intelligence companies signed a joint petition calling for
More
For more than six decades, the United States has attempted to make the Cuban people pay for their decision to pursue an independent, socialist path. The latest phase of this economic war
More
Murdering foreign leaders is not something any American president should ever do. How can the US uphold its claim to be a champion of laws and political decency while committing murder and
More
I was only sixteen years old when I first set eyes on Fidel Castro at the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in India. When Fidel, who would have turned 100 this week,
More
For years, the secrecy surrounding Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption has provided fertile ground for political gossip in China. Now that speculation is taking a more organised and commercial form, with underground
More
For decades, resource-rich African nations operated within a familiar economic model: foreign companies extracted minerals, loaded raw ore onto ships and exported it overseas, leaving producer countries with relatively limited gains from
More
Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier who helped engineer one of the most consequential periods of economic reform in modern China, died of an illness in Beijing on Wednesday, aged 97. Premier
More
It happened on 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis, USA. George Floyd (a Black man) was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pay for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
More