politicodiary

China has declared a self-imposed ban on the South China Sea for fishing, hampering the trade possibilities for Philippines. It now stands that the latter has had to resort to a diplomatic protest against Beijing. There are also allegations on Chinese coastguards violating Philippine access to the waters and harassment of fishermen. Additionally, the foreign ministry in a statement accused the Chinese vessels of disrupting a joint marine scientific research mission as well as energy exploration activities at two sites in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ). China has been trying ways and means of securing its position on the South China Sea. This new development is going to be tricky for the President-elect Ferdinand Marcos. Indeed, he is going to be facing a delicate balancing act in pursuing stronger economic ties with China while not appearing to capitulate over what the military sees as Beijing's unlawful provocations at sea. With Marcos coming to power is ...

  Geetanjali Shree has become the first Indian women to have won a Booker’s Prize for her Hindi novel. The most prestigious award, her book was essentially written in Hindi and has been translated thereafter in various languages like English, French, German, Serbian, and Korean . Hailing from Mainpuri Uttar Pradesh, the 64 years old writer has to her credit many short stories and three other novels too. With this award, she becomes India’s first women writer to be awarded an international award of such feat. Tombs of Sand or Ret Samadhi, has also been republished in the UK in English by Daisy Rockwell and the book itself is set in Northern India.   Reflecting upon becoming the first work of fiction in Hindi to make the Booker cut, the 64-year-old author said it feels good to be the means of that happening.   "But behind me and this book lies a rich and flourishing literary tradition in Hindi, and in other South Asian languages. World literature will be the richer fo...

Despite mass protest, the dictatorial Tunisian President Kais Saied has sought for a referendum on a new constitution. The date fixed for this in July 25, which had earlier been set unilaterally set by him for December. Again, the referendum is being declared so through a presidential decree. While Saied was democratically elected, he seemed to have been dictatorial as he immediately sacked the prime minister and eventually suspended the parliament dominated by the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party.   A popular online consultation organised between January and March, which was largely rejected, voted in favour of the establishment of a presidential system that Mr. Saied is calling for. It’s not getting the support it should now. Mr Saied appointed on Friday a lawyer close to him, Sadok Belaïd, to head a commission in charge of drafting the new Constitution through a "national dialogue", from which political parties have been excluded. Invited to this dialogue, the powe...

There is a manpower crunch in the Ukraine war and Russia is desperate for more heads to join the war that that has shaken up the Western world. The new tactic to recruit is to by offering signing bonus four times as big as a monthly salary and attracting young people to join the army. It’s a three-month contract that most have to sign up to get a huge joining bonus. Advertisements everywhere are offering positions in the army as Russia is short of army recruits.  A recruiter for the military in Chechnya too has also offered a first-month salary of 300,000 rubles ($5,200). As of end of March, 1300 and more soldiers had lost their lives in the war. Ukraine has also lost a lot of lives. Many who have a conscience have quit the war already. These are more of Russian military that Ukrainians. No one is happy with the way there has been loss of lives in large numbers. Looking the way the war has consumed so many lives, Vladimir Lisin, a Russian billionaire, told employees at stee...

The World Economic Forum 2022 had a special address this time. Via a video call, the Ukrainian President addressed the gathering in Switzerland. Sitting in the war zone, he continues to hold the helm with great courage. He received a standing ovation even before he started to speak. The forum expressed great respect for his ‘courageous leadership’ and was eager to what he had to say about a peaceful nation being restored. There was no sign of agitation in him; only mature leadership speaking through and through. President Zelensky has called for ‘maximum’ sanctions against Russia in his speech. The best way you can cripple an economy today is through trade sanctions; if not war. The latter should never be an option. But here, the reasons are completely different. Zelensky, has also stressed on the fact that businesses needed to ‘completely withdraw’ from Russia, and that there should be no trade with the country in order for the world to set a precedent. Indeed, that would be t...

  Deepika Padukone has done India proud by being called at the Cannes Film Festival. The prestigious originally French festival is considered one of the most popular one. Padukone was selected on the panel of judges where she went onto to say something that has left the social media buzzing, besides her 70s dressing look and bold dark kohled eyes that went along well with a Sabyasachi saree.  She landed up saying, "We are here without the pressure of performance on stage." Indeed, the actor who has struggled at one point of depression was as straight as she could be, expressing in a few words how much stress and depression that actors can go through.  The actor   is serving on Cannes jury alongside  actor-filmmaker Rebecca Hall, Noomi Rapace and Italian actor-director Jasmine Trinca, as well as directors Asghar Farhadi, Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols and Joachim Trier. The jury will decide which film wins the Palme D’Or.   She is one of the few actors who speaks tru...

  In a recent incident, Boeing has decided to remove 141 planes from its order backlog. The geopolitical situation including the restrictions on sales due to the current situation in Russia and sanctions like those imposed on Russia for its war against Ukraine. The big question in front of Boeing management is whether they will ever be able to sell those planes, stalled due to sanctions. Their current order backlog is 4200 planes. As per the U.S. accounting rules, Boeing regularly can add or remove orders from the backlog, this happens only when a order is cancelled or the buyer's financial problems put the deal in jeopardy. As per a statement by company representatives, the reason for cancellations now is geopolitical. About two third of the 130 Boeing 737s that it removed from the backlog resulted from geopolitical reasons, including sanctions. At present 85 deals out of 90 are affected due to sanctions. Without revealing the final customer’s name, the spokesperson shared...