Politics around the world is evolving in ways that both leaders and analysts are finding difficult to assess and respond to. Politicians are scrambling to sustain support as new entrants make inroads into constituencies that have lost faith in the established order. It is in this melee of the old and the new that the grammar of today’s politics is charting a course of its own. Globally, the political elites have never seemed so out of touch as they seem today, unable to respond to the challenge from their streets.

In just the last few days, US President Joe Biden’s credibility saw a free fall, while the UK booted out an accidental, out-of-touch Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and ushered in the Labour Raj at a time when the rest of Europe is moving to the right. The French have given a mandate to the Far Right. Nine months after the terror attacks of October 7, Israel is facing a civil war-like situation, with people demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation even as the nation remains in a state of war on multiple fronts. In Iran, Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian found himself elected as the nation’s new president, beating his hardline conservative rival Saeed Jalili by securing around 53.3% of votes, nine percentage points more than Jalili.

Also Read | Rishi Sunak: For Whom Everything That Could Go Wrong, Went Wrong

A Reformist In Iran, ‘Changemaker’ In UK

Different nations, different challenges, different political arcs, but all facing a moment of political reckoning. Ironically, it is Iran where the recent change of leadership holds the most promise. This is not the first time a reformist has come to power in Iran in a system that has been dominated by the “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since 1989. The conservatives have controlled all the levers of power and have managed to scuttle earlier reformists like Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani. However, there has been a growing disillusionment with the ruling elites. By criticising Iran’s morality police and promising “unity and cohesion”  as well as an end to Iran’s “isolation” from the world, Pezeshkian talked in a language that appealed to those who want normalcy in a nation that has been on the edge of a precipice for years now.

Rishi Sunak, on the other hand, was not only bogged down by the legacy of his predecessors who had made a mockery of public mandates, but he was also unable to soothe the British public struggling with rising costs of living and a crumbling public services infrastructure. The Conservative Party imploded, and Sunak’s leadership never managed to rise to match the needs of today’s Britain. And so, the Labour Party ended up getting a landslide even without increasing its vote share, thereby taking the United Kingdom in a direction opposite to the rest of Europe, where the Right is ascending.

Close Shave For Macron

In France, President Emmanuel Macron had to call a snap election fearing the resurgence of the nation’s far-right party, the National Rally (RN). Only a last-minute, left-wing tactical adjustment could prevent an outright landslide for the RN. But this should be seen as just a consolation prize, as the RN has greatly increased its representation in Parliament. 

Also Read | Disaster Averted, But Macron Still Faces Big Challenge Ahead

Separately, last month, the European Union elections saw a resurgence of the right in ways few had anticipated, and the triumph of Eurosceptic parties will have serious long-term consequences for the ability of the 27-member bloc to work cohesively.

Concerns About Biden

The world’s eyes, however, are now on the leadership contest in the US, where two old white men are busy damaging the brand of American democracy. Donald Trump, under whose presidency the foundations of the American democratic institutional fabric came close to collapsing, continues to be ahead in the presidential race, as the base of the Republican Party continues to move to the right. Trump’s supporters still view him as an anti-establishment candidate and despite facing a number of charges in the courts, he is hailed as a victim. His greatest advantage is that he has his primary opponent in President Joe Biden, who, after a disastrous debate performance, is having a difficult time convincing his own party about his candidacy. 

Also Read | “He Looks Different”: Wild Theories Over Joe Biden’s Appearance

Old templates no longer apply to the new political climate, where fast-evolving aspirations demand a change in the status quo. Back home in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third consecutive victory and Indian democracy’s continuing resilience underscores the Indian electorate’s ability to make nuanced choices even as the world around it undergoes a dramatic shift. Even so, this global churn has a lesson for Indian political leaders and the larger system.

(Harsh V Pant is Vice President for Studies and Foreign Policy at ORF.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Washington:

The US Supreme Court on Monday ordered lower courts to review a pair of Republican-backed state laws that imposed restrictions on social media companies to moderate content, sidestepping a ruling on their constitutional validity.

Tech industry trade groups, which welcomed the decision, had challenged the laws passed in 2021 by conservative Republican lawmakers in Florida and Texas as part of a broader pushback against perceived anti-conservative bias by major platforms such as Meta-owned Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

The companies denied that they were censoring conservative viewpoints under the guise of content moderation, as their advocates argued that the laws quashed the platforms’ own First Amendment rights under the US Constitution.

The Supreme Court declined to rule on whether it was constitutional for states to pass such legislation, leaving the two laws in limbo as it instructed the lower courts for a thorough review.

Florida’s measure bars social media platforms from pulling content from politicians, a law that was passed after former president Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

In Texas, the law stops sites from pulling content based on a “viewpoint” and is also intended to thwart what conservatives see as censorship by tech platforms such as Facebook and YouTube against right-wing ideas.

Neither law has gone into effect due to the litigation.

The challenge to the laws were brought by associations representing big tech companies, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice, who argue that the First Amendment allows platforms to have the freedom to handle content as they see fit.

– ‘Orwellian’ –

“We are encouraged that a majority of the court has made clear that the government cannot tilt public debate in its favored direction,” CCIA president Matt Schruers said in a statement.

“There is nothing more Orwellian than government attempting to dictate what speech should be carried, whether it is a newspaper or a social media site.”

The decision was also welcomed by tech advocacy groups.

“The government does not have the right to impose rules on how companies like Meta and Google should accomplish” platform accountability measures, said Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the watchdog Free Press.

“These laws would have further ratcheted up the amount of hate and disinformation online while undermining both the meaning and the intent of the First Amendment,” she added.

But other advocates cautioned that the decision must not absolve tech firms of their responsibility to address threats to public safety and democracy.

“Today’s unanimous opinion ensures platforms can enforce their community and safety standards during a critical election year,” said Nicole Gill, executive director of the watchdog Accountable Tech.

“But make no mistake: this is not an excuse for platforms to continue to shrug off their role in the desecration of democracy and proliferation of a myriad of societal harms.”

Monday’s decision comes after the Supreme Court last week rejected a Republican-led bid to curb government contact with social media companies to moderate their content.

The decision handed a win to President Joe Biden’s administration and top government agencies ahead of the presidential vote in November, allowing them to continue notifying major platforms including Facebook and X about what they deem as false or hateful content.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said Monday it had reached a “definitive deal” to buy its subcontractor Spirit, which has faced scrutiny over production quality control in recent months.

“The merger is an all-stock transaction at an equity value of approximately $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share,” the company said in a statement.

Boeing disclosed in March that it was in talks to potentially reacquire Spirit, which it spun off in 2005 to lower costs.

“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” said Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun.

He said by reintegrating Spirit, “we can fully align our commercial production systems”, including safety and quality management systems, and “our workforce to the same priorities, incentives and outcomes — centered on safety and quality”.

Spirit AeroSystems builds fuselages and other significant parts for both Airbus and Boeing.

Boeing is by far Spirit’s biggest customer, with around 70 per cent of its revenue coming from the American plane maker in 2023.

The two companies have faced intense scrutiny since a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel blew off a 737 MAX mid-flight.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

India received $120 billion in remittances in 2023, almost twice the $66 billion received by Mexico in the same period, the World Bank said in a report released on Wednesday.

China ($50 billion), the Philippines ($39 billion), and Pakistan ($27 billion) figure among the top five nations in the list released by the World Bank. The list showed remittances in 2023 after a period of strong growth during 2021-2022. The total was an estimated $656 billion.

“Growing at 7.5 per cent, remittance flows to India touched $120 billion in 2023, reflecting the benefits of a deceleration in inflation and strong labour markets in the United States, the largest destination for India’s skilled migrants, and other OECD destinations, as well as positive demand for skilled and less-skilled workers in the GCC countries (which, together, are the second largest destination for Indian migrants),” the World Bank said.

While the same external demand conditions could have favoured remittance flows to Pakistan, weak internal conditions due to a balance of payments crisis and economic difficulties caused remittances to plummet 12 per cent to $27 billion in 2023, compared with more than $30 billion in 2022, it said.

According to the World Bank, remittance flows to India from the United Arab Emirates, which account for 18 per cent and are the second largest source of India’s remittances after the United States, benefited from the February 2023 agreement.

The latter established a framework to promote the use of local currencies for cross-border transactions and cooperation for interlinking payment and messaging systems between India and the United Arab Emirates.

The use of dirhams and rupees in cross-border transactions is instrumental in channelling more remittances through formal channels. In addition to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar account for 11 per cent of India’s total remittances, it said.

The World Bank said remittances to India are expected to grow 3.7 per cent to $124 billion in 2024, and at four per cent to $129 billion in 2025.

India’s efforts to link its Unified Payments Interface with source countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Singapore are expected to reduce costs and speed up remittances, it said.

“Most importantly, the diversification of India’s migrant pool between a large share of highly skilled migrants employed mostly in high-income OECD markets and the less-skilled migrants employed in the GCC markets is likely to lend stability to migrants’ remittances in the event of external shocks,” the bank said.

“Migration and resulting remittances are essential drivers of economic and human development,” said Iffath Sharif, Global Director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank.

“Many countries are interested in managed migration in the face of global demographic imbalances and labour deficits on the one hand, and high levels of unemployment and skill gaps on the other… The resilience of remittances underscores their importance for millions of people,” said Dilip Ratha, lead economist and lead author of the report.

“Leveraging remittances for financial inclusion and capital market access can enhance the development prospects of recipient countries. The World Bank aims to reduce remittance costs and facilitate formal flows by mitigating political and commercial risks to promote private investment in this sector,” he said.

New Delhi, India:

A six-foot-tall wax statue of former US President Abraham Lincoln in Washington melted as the capital city’s temperatures soared over the weekend.

The temperatures, which reportedly touched 37 degrees Celsius, disfigured the wax structure at the site of Camp Barker, a Civil War-era refugee camp that housed formerly enslaved and freed African Americans.

The statue’s head was the first to surrender to the scorching heat, followed by the legs, BBC reported. Authorities are now repairing the sculpture.

WE CAN NOT WITH THIS HEAT EITHER, LINCOLN
Our project, “40 ACRES: Camp Barker” by Sandy Williams IV has gone viral (for innocent reasons and some not so innocent ones). Read the articles for yourself: https://t.co/NfRc0CaLQI
Check out our website for updates. #waxlincolnpic.twitter.com/688QcBUAj2

— Cultural_DC (@Cultural_DC) June 25, 2024

The structure was a candle and a wax structure with a plaque that said, “Please blow out your wick within 1-2 minutes.”

The replica, commissioned by the non-profit organisation CulturalDC, was scheduled to be placed at the site till September 2024.

The organisation also commented on the incident and said, “Whether it’s the state of the union, the upcoming election, or this record-level heat, we are all over it!

The statue was created by US-based artist Sandy Williams as part of the Wax Monument Series. It was placed at the site of Camp Barker, which now houses an elementary school.

An 18-year-old woman in the United States has been arrested for calling 911 to avoid going on a date with a man she met on a dating app. According to The Independent, the woman, identified as Sumaya Thomas, was arrested after cops said she told a dispatcher that her abusive ex-boyfriend of two years was outside her home and sending her threatening text messages. She told the police that the man told her that he wanted to hit, kick, punch and stab her. 

Ms Thomas was arrested on June 16 on two false reporting charges, both of which were misdemeanour crimes, The Independent reported. The 18-year-old even told the police that she was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s baby. The majority of their conversations took place over Snapchat, she said. 

However, upon arriving at the scene, the cops spotted the man leaving the residence. He reportedly told the officers that he started speaking to the woman a week ago on a dating app. The two then moved their conversations off the platform and started to text. The man also showed the cops the text and dating app conversations, following which the officers confirmed that the messages were sent to the woman’s phone number. 

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The man was detained for over an hour due to the false accusations. It was during a third interview that Ms Thomas admitted to making the false report because she got “cold feet on meeting him and no longer wanted to”. 

“She advised she didn’t think officers would help so she made up this call and the events that she described,” the police complaint stated. 

Ms Thomas was arrested last week and later released from the Johnson County Jail in Iowa. 
 

Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was freed by a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan on Wednesday after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will see him return home to Australia.

During the three-hour hearing, Assange pled guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents but said he had believed the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.

“Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information,” he told the court.

“I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.

Assange, 52, has left Saipan on a private jet accompanied by Australia’s ambassadors to the US and UK, according to flight logs. They will then travel to Canberra, landing just before 7 pm (0900 GMT).

Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

The U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen due to his opposition to travelling to the mainland U.S. and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

Dozens of media from around the world attended the hearing, with more gathered outside the courtroom to cover the proceedings. Media were not allowed inside the courtroom to film the hearing.

“I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory depravation and the four walls of his high-security Belmarsh prison cell,” Stella Assange, the wife of WikiLeaks founder said on social media platform X.

LONG SAGA

Australian-born Assange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London as he fought accusations of sex crimes in Sweden and battled extradition to the U.S., where he faced 18 criminal charges.

Assange’s supporters view him as a victim because he exposed U.S. wrongdoing and potential crimes, including in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington has said the release of the secret documents put lives in danger.

The Australian government has been advocating for his release and has raised the issue with the United States several times.

“This isn’t something that has happened in the last 24 hours,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference on Wednesday.

“This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way, which is how Australia conducts ourselves.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Houston:

The governor of Louisiana signed a bill Wednesday requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom in the conservative US state, reigniting the debate over separation of church and state.

The legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, mandates that the biblical text be on display starting in 2025 in all public school classrooms from kindergarten through state-funded universities.

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law given — which was Moses,” Jeff Landry, Republican governor of the southern state, said at the bill’s signing ceremony.

The law requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed as a poster or framed document “and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font,” the bill’s text reads.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) responded to the legislation by indicating it would take the case to court.

“The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the organization said in a statement.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution forbids the establishment of a national religion or the preference of one religion over another.

The bill, HB 71, is the first of its kind to be signed into law, though similar bills have been drafted and put forth in other southern states within the US “Bible Belt.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A 41-year-old plastic surgeon in the United States has been arrested over the death of his wife who went into cardiac arrest on his operating table in November last year. The doctor, identified as Benjamin Brown, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count of second-degree felony homicide for alleged manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of his wife Hillary Ellington Brown. According to The Independent, he turned himself in to the police after a warrant was put out for his arrest on Friday. 

In a press note, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the 41-year-old’s practice, Restore Plastic Surgery, in Florida, for a medical emergency on November 21. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located a female victim – later identified as Hillary Brown – suffering from cardiac arrest. She was taken to a hospital, where she was put on life support before she was pronounced dead. An autopsy into her death is pending. 

“The autopsy protocol typically takes several months as it usually is dependent on extensive laboratory and toxicology tests as well as the information gathered by our Major Crimes detectives concerning the circumstances of the death,” the police department said in a statement. 

Benjamin Brown is being held in the county’s jail pending his bond hearing, the statement added. 

According to The Independent, on the day Ms Hillary went into cardiac arrest, she was scheduled to undergo miniature muscle plication/abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm liposuction, lip injections, and ear adjustment procedures. She reportedly prepared her own anaesthesia before the surgeries. She also ingested a handful of multicoloured pills, including Valium. 

Shortly before the procedures, she began experiencing symptoms relating to sedation. When she went into the operating room, her husband administered additional anaesthesia without being able to verify what his wife took. He subsequently did not record his wife’s medication and dosage. At one point, his wife told him that her vision was becoming blurry and she saw “orange”. Moreover, she experienced restlessness, muscle twitching and blurred vision which are common symptoms of toxicity. The 41-year-old, however, continued injecting drugs into her face, following which she became unresponsive and started to seize.

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At this point, a medical assistant asked the doctor if they should call emergency services and he said “no”. In the next 20 minutes, the assistant asked again and he said “no” or “wait,” the outlet reported. 

The plastic surgeon began to panic and requested his assistants to bring him supplies, including an oxygen tank and stethoscope. However, as the medical assistant was new, they found it difficult to find the items. Meanwhile, instead of calling an ambulance, Brown allegedly “shouted” at the staff, asking “What medication did she take?” 

About 10 to 20 minutes after Hillary Brown suffered a seizure, Brown instructed an assistant to call 911, but his wife never regained consciousness. 

The medical board determined that Brown’s treatment of his wife was “careless and haphazard”. Moreover, in May, Florida’s Department of Health issued an emergency order restricting the doctor’s medical license to only perform procedures or surgeries in a licensed hospital while under the supervision of a licensed physician. The department is pursuing disciplinary action in the case. Ben Brown, on the other hand, has chosen to challenge the allegations made against him and the case will be heard by the Division for Administrative Hearings. 

New York:

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will likely face tough questions Tuesday when a Senate panel grills the executive on safety problems, manufacturing missteps and alleged efforts to intimidate whistleblowers.

The hearing, an examination of “Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture,” follows an April session of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations featuring a Boeing engineer who testified that he was punished for raising safety questions about the top-selling 787 Dreamliner and 777.

“Five years ago, Boeing made a promise to overhaul its safety practices and culture. That promise proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said earlier this month.

“Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand.”

The whistleblower allegations surrounding the 787 and 777 are only one of the myriad issues facing Boeing that could come up on Tuesday.

The company is also implementing safety upgrades under the tight supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration after a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX blew out mid-flight in January, necessitating an emergency landing and leading to a brief grounding of some MAX planes.

The Department of Justice meanwhile concluded in May that Boeing could be prosecuted for violating a criminal settlement following two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, off Indonesia and in Ethiopia.

Next steps around a decision on whether to prosecute will come next month.

Calhoun has previously apologized for the Alaska Airlines incident and announced production halts and other steps to improve safety and quality assurance.

In Calhoun’s opening statement, released by Boeing ahead of the hearing, the CEO reiterated those points, emphasizing that the company has strict policies prohibiting retaliation against employees who report problems.

“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said. “We understand the gravity, and we are committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability, while elevating employee engagement.”

Whistleblower alleges safety issues 

At the April 17 hearing, witnesses painted a disturbing picture of a company that blew off safety questions and sidelined critics as it chased faster production and bigger profits.

The star witness was engineer Sam Salehpour who went public with allegations that, because of flawed manufacturing processes, the Dreamliner could suffer from premature fatigue, resulting in a potentially catastrophic accident because of excessively large gaps in the plane’s assembly.

Boeing has pointed to extensive testing that it says proves the 787 is safe.

Salehpour also testified that he was blackballed by company higher-ups and feared for his personal well-being after raising concerns about safety.

In connection with the probe, Blumenthal and Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, sent a letter to Calhoun seeking records that would shed light on Salehpour’s allegations about the 787 and 777, as well as records relating to Boeing’s whistleblower policies and protocols.

The same two senators also sent a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker related to the allegations, as well as other ongoing Boeing-related matters, such as a six-week FAA audit of the company following the Alaska Airlines incident.

Joining the hearing will be family members who lost relatives in the 2018 and 2019 MAX crashes, which together claimed 346 lives.

“I flew from England to Washington, DC, to hear in-person what the Boeing CEO has to say to the Senate and to the world about any safety improvements made at that corporation,” said Zipporah Kuria, who lost her father in the 2019 crash.

“I also continue to press the US government to hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people. We will not rest until we see justice.”

Calhoun, who will be accompanied at the hearing by Boeing Chief Engineer Howard McKenzie, apologized to the MAX families in his written remarks, saying “we are deeply sorry for your losses.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)