Daily Hindu Editorials

👉Iván Duque’s election as Colombia’s President puts a question mark on the peace accord👈 Colombia’s first presidential election since the landmark 2016 peace deal with the FARC Marxist guerrillas has thrown up the youngest winner in its history. But the victory of the 41-year-old right-wing candidate, Iván Duque, raises questions for the future of the agreement negotiated by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning outgoing President, Juan Manuel Santos. Mr. Duque, a relative political novice, beat his rival, Gustavo Petro, an erstwhile insurgent, by a 12 percentage point margin in Sunday’s run-off. Mr. Duque’s victory is likely to help the conservatives further consolidate their gains in the Congress, where the centrists led by Mr. Santos remain weakened. Mr. Duque’s decade-long work experience with the Inter-American Development Bank perhaps partly explains his programme of economic orthodoxy — to cut corporate taxes and create a conducive climate for investment in the oil sector. A proté...

👉South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s skilful diplomacy is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize👈 The Nobel Peace Prize has been conferred on international organisations which simply do their job and even the promoters of impractical disarmament initiatives, while the real issues that involve the very survival of mankind cry out for out-of-the-box solutions. Three festering situations which guarantee this Nobel for anyone who can break the impasse are Korea, Palestine and Kashmir. There is no dearth of proposals to resolve them but they elude acceptance as the parties concerned have adopted ironclad positions. The traditional approach is to let things be. Till very recently, North Korea was a clear case of a total freeze being preferable to any meddling that might cause an escalation. With a mix of authoritarianism, holding out nuclear threats and irrational behaviour, three generations of Kims held the world to ransom while successive U.S. Presidents followed a carrot and stic...

👉Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have stunned the world. They may yet surprise us by pulling off a détente👈 “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t,” wrote Mark Twain. Nothing proves it better than the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on Tuesday. No reality TV show could have scripted an episode with greater suspense and drama than what the two leaders successfully imparted to their meeting. Mr. Trump, the 72-year-old leader of one of the world’s oldest democracies, an $18 trillion economy with a 1.3 million strong military, of whom 28,500 troops are deployed in South Korea, and Chairman Kim, at 34 the third-generation leader of a totalitarian state with an impoverished economy estimated at less than $40 billion and a military force of 1.2 million with a newly acquired nuclear capability, make for an unusual couple. And yet, as Mr. Trump said, “...

👉As the civil war winds down, the once overlapping interests of Moscow and Tehran are disentangling👈 As the new Cold War gets hotter, Russia now faces a big dilemma in West Asia of defending its allies. When President Vladimir Putin decided to send Russian troops to Syria in September 2015, the regime there of President Bashar al-Assad was on the brink of collapse. The Islamic State (IS) had already declared Raqqah in eastern Syria as its de facto capital. Rebels and jihadists had captured eastern Aleppo, Damascus suburbs, including Eastern Ghouta, Idlib province and southern towns like Daraa and Quneitra; they had also established a strong presence in Hama and Homs. Several rebel factions were breathing down on Damascus and the Mediterranean coastal belt, the stronghold of the regime. Three years later, Mr. Assad is safe, while his regime has recaptured most of the territories it lost in the early days of the war. 👉A successful partnership Both Russia and Iran have play...

👉Trump and Kim have traversed a remarkable distance; they must build on it👈 The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore is an affirmation of the power of diplomacy. Until a few months ago, the two countries had been trading nuclear threats, as the North raced along with its nuclear weapons programme. Now, as Mr. Trump shook hands with Mr. Kim, who had once said the U.S. President was “mentally deranged”, it was a reminder of Richard Nixon’s ground-breaking 1972 visit to Beijing. Through the day, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim were keen on casting the “comprehensive” meet in a positive light. The two whimsical leaders deserve full credit for this thaw in relations, given the decades of hostility and the quick diplomacy that pulled the Korean peninsula back from the brink of war. It all began with the new South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s expansive outreach to the North. Mr. Kim reciprocated by sending athletes to the Wint...

👉Rafael Nadal’s 11th French Open title is a testimony to the transformation of his game👈 There is a tendency among tennis fans to take Rafael Nadal’s clay court dominance for granted. Ever since he won his first French Open in 2005, the Spaniard has single-handedly drained out almost all the suspense that Paris may have otherwise offered. On Sunday, when he held aloft the Roland Garros trophy for the 11th time in his career, after defeating his touted heir apparent Dominic Thiem, it was more of the same. The 32-year-old, ranked No. 1 in the world, was the overwhelming favourite ahead of the tournament and during the course of the two weeks there wasn’t an inkling of any change as Nadal lost just one set in the capture of his 17th Major overall. The victory pulled him level with Margaret Court for the most number of titles at a single Grand Slam tournament and made him only the second active men’s player — Roger Federer being the other — to win three or more after turning 30. The ...

👉After being close to military action last year, how the U.S. and North Korea agreed to talks👈 Less than a year ago, North Korea scored a ‘nuclear double’. In July 2017, it launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles, the first capable of reaching Alaska, and the second, the Hwasong-14, capable of reaching California. In November, it detonated its most powerful nuclear weapon — a 120 kiloton-boosted fission device. For long, North Korea had been seen as an impoverished state, run by a megalomaniac dictator, trying to punch way above its weight by defying the United Nations and the U.S. Yet, last year, it was very close to establishing a viable nuclear deterrent against the world’s biggest superpower. True, it was still perfecting the weapon’s miniaturisation and ensuring the missile’s accuracy and safe re-entry. That might take a little more time but the U.S. has already felt deterred from taking pre-emptive military action. By late 2017, these developments had broug...

👉The Taliban’s reciprocal truce against Afghan troops provides a glimmer of hope👈 The Taliban’s announcement of a three-day ceasefire with Afghan government troops for Eid, two days after President Ashraf Ghani declared an unconditional week-long ceasefire, is a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough in the long-struggling peace process. This is the first time the Taliban has announced a ceasefire in the 17 years since it was removed from power in Kabul. Though it has not acknowledged the government ceasefire, the timing and the public declaration unmistakably point to the reciprocity of the decision. In the past, Mr. Ghani’s government had tried several times to reach out to the Taliban to find a breakthrough in the conflict. In 2015, when both sides were in an advanced stage of talks, it was revealed that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died years ago, upending the whole process. In February, Mr. Ghani had invited the Taliban to shun weapons and join peace talks in return for se...

👉The escalating trade wars will hurt economic growth worldwide👈 Nobody wants to lose a trade war. The European Commission on Wednesday announced it would impose tariffs as high as 25% on imports worth $3.3 billion from the U.S. beginning July. A whole range of American goods, from motorbikes and jeans to peanut butter and orange juice, will now face higher taxes when sold in the European Union zone. The Commission is also mulling import duties on more American goods if the trade war with the U.S. intensifies. Europe is not alone in waging a battle against imports from the U.S.; China, Mexico and Canada have joined hands in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Last week, the U.S. imposed a 25% tax on steel and a 10% tax on aluminium imports from the EU, Mexico and Canada. The first salvo in this ongoing trade war, however, was fired by Mr. Trump in March this year, when he imposed tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium to ...

👉Iran should cooperate with Europe and China to work around U.S. sanctions👈 Iran’s notification to the UN that it would launch a plan to increase its uranium enrichment capacity illustrates the risks associated with the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal last month. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, besides Germany, the European Union and Iran, in 2015, curtailed Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions. But after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement and threatened to impose new sanctions on Iran, its survival is in question. For now, the other signatories say they remain committed to the agreement. But almost a month after Mr. Trump announced his decision, they are yet to come up with a framework to salvage the deal. The latest Iranian announcement is perhaps aimed at turning the heat up on European powers to come up with guarantees that the...

👉Finally, Italy has a government, and an edgy dialogue with the EU may be on the cards👈 The political whirlwind that has swept Italy looks to be dissipating, at least for now. Giuseppe Conte, a little-known academic with an embellished resume, has been sworn in as Prime Minister, after weeks of wrangling between President Sergio Mattarella and a coalition with a slim parliamentary majority. The two-party combine, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio and the far-right League headed by the rabble-rousing, anti-migrant Matteo Salvini, disbanded plans to form a government after Mr. Mattarella exercised his powers to block the appointment of Eurosceptic Paolo Savona as Finance Minister. The President then decided to order fresh elections and appoint an ex-IMF official as interim Prime Minister, a decision that, if implemented, could have made a bad situation worse. The Eurosceptic coalition partners wasted no time in using the President’s actions as a r...

👉The Awami League government’s success in turning around the economy and health care must not be overlooked👈 Bangladesh, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Uganda are the “new” autocracies, according to Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation. In its “Transformation Index 2018 (BTI)”, it has rated 58 out of 129 developing nations as autocracies. On Bangladesh, the report says, “Due to the worsened quality of elections, the formerly fifth largest democracy is classified as an autocracy again. These developments are worrying for citizens because corruption, social exclusion and barriers to fair economic competition continue to be more prevalent in autocracies.” The BTI has, since 2006, been measuring quality of democracy, market economy and governance in 129 developing and transformation countries. Expectedly, in Bangladesh, while the ruling Awami League Party has rejected the study as baseless and claimed the country to be a “100 percent democracy”, the main opposition Bangladesh Nat...

👉President Macri’s reformist credentials are on the line as Argentina faces economic crisis👈 Argentina is not alone among major emerging economies in trying to weather the current run on currencies due to the rallying U.S. dollar and rising interest rates. But with a history of recurrent defaults and devaluation of the peso, Buenos Aires has greater cause for concern. President Mauricio Macri, whose market-friendly image ensured Argentina’s return to the global capital markets in 2016 after a decade, has a special stake in ensuring that his reforms remain on track. Following a record sovereign debt issue that year, Argentina became the second Latin American state after Mexico to launch a 100-year maturity bond in 2017. The new optimistic narrative was based on the former businessman’s commitment to reducing the fiscal deficit, building on the prevailing reasonable ratio of public borrowing to GDP. Nevertheless, Mr. Macri’s poll promise to make Argentina a “normal country” has bee...

👉The appointment of a caretaker PM in Pakistan signals it’s in election mode👈 The appointment of a caretaker Prime Minister in Pakistan, under whom the country will face general elections on July 25, sets the stage for the second consecutive transfer of power from one civilian government to another. This in itself is a landmark for democracy in Pakistan, where no civilian Prime Minister has completed a full term in office; only in 2013 did a government complete its full tenure for the first time. The choice of Nasirul Mulk, a former Chief Justice, as caretaker Prime Minister has been welcomed across the spectrum, with leaders of the main political parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jamaat-e-Islami, issuing statements commending outgoing Pakistan Muslim League (N) Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s decision. During his time in the Supreme Court, Justice Mulk heard several contentious constitutional matters, including one in which...

👉Google has announced initiatives that could ensure more money flows into the coffers of publishers👈 News publishers, whose revenue dreams have never quite materialised in the digital space, have reasons to look in the direction of Google with some optimism. In recent months, Google has announced initiatives that, if they click, could ensure more money flows into the coffers of publishers. The initiatives go by the names Funding Choices and Subscribe with Google. Funding Choices, announced last year and still in beta, is designed “to help publishers with good ad experiences recover lost revenue due to ad blocking”. Publishers who are a part of this initiative have the tools to spot users with ad blockers, who are then either asked to switch off the blockers or “buy an ad removal pass” via Google Contributor. This is how Contributor works: users load their pass with some money and also select Contributor partnering sites that they would like to use the pass on. A bit of the mo...

👉The Korean imbroglio reflects America’s fear of any meaningful adjustment to the global balance of power👈 The whirlwind U.S.-North Korean bromance hit a temporary roadblock last week. If American President Donald Trump’s decision to open direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a few months ago came as a surprise, last Thursday’s dramatic somersault to pull the plug on a summit that could have ushered in a transformed Northeast Asia will not leave too many scratching their heads. After all, Mr. Trump’s foreign policy since the outset of his administration has swayed erratically between his own pragmatism and the hawkish elements in the larger security establishment. At almost every stage, we have seen Mr. Trump succumb to the default worldview inside his administration and across the broader political spectrum. If we accept the proposition that Mr. Trump remains stifled in a national security system still largely dominated by the traditionalists, the question then...

👉Ireland votes in numbers to rid itself of inhumane restrictions on abortions👈 Ireland has firmly pulled itself into the 21st century by voting overwhelmingly (66.4% vs 33.6%) to repeal the constitutional block on abortions. In a referendum, the Irish voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment that practically prohibits abortions. The amendment, introduced in 1983 to strengthen an older law outlawing abortions, grants an unborn child and the woman carrying it an equal right to life. Consequently, abortions in Ireland have been only permitted when the life of the woman is at risk, including from suicide. This exception too was introduced as late as 2013, after 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar, a dentist from Karnataka, died of sepsis in a hospital after being denied an abortion while miscarrying at 17 weeks. The couple made multiple requests for a termination but were told it was not possible because Ireland was a Catholic country, her husband said during the inquest that followed. The i...

👉So far, Iran’s response to U.S. provocation has been rhetorical but President Rouhani has little room for manoeuvre👈 The long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in West Asia has been overshadowed by new flashpoints in the region, both internal and external, since the Arab Spring. The fight against the Islamic State and its offshoots, beginning with Iraq; the Syrian conflict that has drawn in the U.S., Russia, Iran and Turkey; renewed skirmishing between Israel and Iran across the Golan Heights; and the civil war in Yemen where the involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran has heightened tensions, exposing old regional fault lines. Growing drumbeats of a wider conflict can threaten to overturn the boundaries imposed after World War I. 👉U.S. withdrawal To this volatile mix, new uncertainty was added on May 8 when President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. was walking out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). A flurry of diplomatic activity followed with Ira...

👉A series of avoidable mis-steps led to the unravelling of the Trump-Kim summit👈 American President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to call off his planned June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore has not only dashed hopes of a breakthrough but also heightened risks of a confrontation on the Korean peninsula. It brings a very unusual spell of diplomacy full circle. Unlike the standard practice of announcing landmark summits after working out an understanding on the agenda through quiet diplomacy, Mr. Trump accepted Mr. Kim’s invitation in March and let it be known to the public immediately. That was surprising given the acrimony in both Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Kim’s public utterances over the past year. Once Mr. Trump had cleared the summit proposal, North Korea also moved fast, making a series of gestures meant to smoothen the path for the meeting. In end-April, there was a summit between Mr. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village in t...

👉The Labour party may be forced to specify EU exit strategy as internal rifts intensify👈 Last weekend, Labour party members queued outside the premises of Trinity, a school in the southeast London borough of Lewisham, where the hustings for the party’s candidate for a forthcoming by-election was due to take place. Among the groups campaigning there was People’s Vote, a cross-party group pushing for a public vote on any final Brexit deal reached with the European Union (EU). 👉The choice of candidate Optimism was high among those campaigners about the potential signal that the by-election, triggered by the resignation of Heidi Alexander, the constituency’s popular anti-Brexit MP, could have. Initially the loss of Ms. Alexander had been mourned by many seeking change in the party’s approach to Brexit, but that soon gave way to hope as Janet Daby, a candidate who supports remaining in the European single market as well as the customs union, won the internal party contest by ...