Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez

Spain's general election on Sunday could make the country the latest European Union member swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and its small far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos ("United We Can"), took a beating in local and regional elections.
The center-right Popular Party emerged from the May 28 elections with the most votes. Polls for the general election have consistently put the PP in first place  but likely needing support from the far-right Vox party to form a government.
Such a coalition would return a far-right force to the Spanish government for the first time since the country transitioned to democracy following the 1975 death of Gen. Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled Spain for nearly 40 years.
The Popular Party and Vox have agreed to govern together in some 140 cities and tow

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat (left) and Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale

The core message of the RSS' top decision-making body at its recent meeting was its unreserved support to its affiliate, BJP, marking a break from the past

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel's government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country's legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls for restraint by the United States.
Thousands of demonstrators were expected to gather outside the parliament, or Knesset, for a second straight week to rally against the plan as lawmakers prepared to hold an initial vote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies, a collection of ultra-religious and ultranationalist lawmakers, say the plan is meant to fix a system that has given the courts and government legal advisers too much say in how legislation is crafted and decisions are made.
Critics say it will upend the country's system of checks and balances and concentrate power in the hands of the prime minister. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for a series of corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
The standoff has plunged Isr

Debate, audience, left vs right

Every debate is recast in left vs right terms in the urban mindscape, but it is hard to tell one from the other

Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the legal system and weaken the Supreme Court  a step that critics say will destroy the country's democratic system of checks and balances.
The protest presented an early challenge to Netanyahu and his ultranationalist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has ordered police to take tough action if protesters block roads or display Palestinian flags.
Israeli media, citing police, said the crowd at Tel Aviv's Habima Square swelled to at least 80,000 people, despite cool, rainy weather. Protesters, many covered by umbrellas, held Israeli flags and signs saying Criminal Government," The End of Democracy and other slogans.
They are trying to destroy the checks and balances of the Israeli democracy. This will not work, said Asaf Steinberg, a protester from the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. And we will fight until the ver

Germany

Reich Citizens consider the partition of Germany by Allied powers after World War II and the subsequent democratic states that followed to have been illegal

Twitter

Twitter permanently suspended accounts of Mike Lindell and Dr Vladimir "Zev" Zelenko shortly after the duo rejoined with creating new Twitter handles, for violating platform rules against evading bans

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday laid down a detailed programme for them for every day during the 14-day long exercise.

The problem with writing history to please the piper, however, is that no one bothers with the whys

Microblogging platform Twitter uses an algorithm that amplifies the reach of politically right-leaning sources more than that of politically left-leaning sources, suggested a study.Twitter uses the algorithm to personalize the content its users see on their home timelines.Cambridge University professor Ferenc Huszar and his colleagues quantified whether Twitter's algorithm amplifies left-leaning or right-leaning content using a randomized control group of nearly two million daily active Twitter users chosen by the platform to receive content in reverse-chronological order without personalization and a treatment group representing 4 per cent of all other accounts with personalized timelines.The authors analyzed the algorithmic amplification effect on tweets made by 3,634 elected politicians from major political parties in seven countries that are highly represented on Twitter.The authors also measured the algorithmic amplification of 6.2 million political news articles shared in the ...

Strong nationalism is always a defining feature of our ideological leaning, says BJP spokesperson

Illustration

Mr Modi's supporters are eager to call themselves right-wing, 
but what do they stand for really?

China, coronavirus, lab leak theory, wuhan, covid-19, virus

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Monday

voting, election, EVMs, voters, people, politics

How support for left and right-leaning parties is changing in social composition

Coronavirus, covid, cremation

Narendra Modi's is not a picture of a leader concerned about the well-being of the country he governs but of fulfilling a personal and political agenda in spite of it

Book cover

Book review of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America. A Recent History

tanishq ad

Listen to the Podcast to know about the much talked about Tanishq ad controversy, which has attracted criticism as well as support from across the country

Tatas should have stayed firm on the Tanishq ad

Angela Merkel

The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures

Why, how, and to what extent AI could enter the decision-making boardroom?

The Right also thinks so, which is why I despise intellectuals from both sides. They think smugness is the perfect substitute for wisdom and the State is the panacea for all ills

The stock price of GVK Power & Infrastructure was locked in the 5% upper circuit for the eight day, trading at its highest level since September 2018 on the BSE

Sensex, Nifty, stock brokers

The restructuring exercise will be undertaken by Arjun Mohan, who was recently elevated as chief executive officer (CEO) of its India business, replacing Mrinal Mohit, according to the sources

Byju's

Meanwhile, companies like HP and Acer, which do not sell mobile phones in India, are likely to miss out

Apple iPhone

His three children - twins Akash and Isha (both 31) and Anant (28 years) - will get only a sitting fee and a commission on the profit earned by the firm

Reliance Industries chairman Mukseh Ambani and Nita Ambani's children, left to right, Akash, Isha and Anant Ambani. PTI: Photo

Isha, Akash and Anant Ambani

Analysts at Jefferies, believe that the time is ripe to buy Eicher Motors given alleviating competitive concerns, along with tailwinds of 2W demand recovery, industry premiumization and exports.

Eicher Motors, motorcycle ,Royal Enfield, Royal Enfield bikes,

The combined market valuation of eight of the 10 most valued firms plunged by Rs 2,28,690.56 crore in a holiday-shortened last week, with HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries taking the biggest hit, amid an overall weak trend in equities.
Last week, the BSE benchmark fell 1,829.48 points or 2.69 per cent, and the Nifty declined 518.1 points or 2.56 per cent.
Equity markets were closed on Tuesday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.
From the top-10 pack, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, ITC, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance were the laggards while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Hindustan Unilever were the gainers.
The market valuation of HDFC Bank plummeted by Rs 99,835.27 crore to Rs 11,59,154.60 crore. Shares of the company fell by nearly 8 per cent last week.
The valuation of Reliance Industries plunged Rs 71,715.6 crore to Rs 15,92,661.42 crore. The company's shares declined over 4 per cent past week.
ICICI Bank's valuation dropped Rs 29,41

HDFC Bank

In a move to fuel growth through self-employment, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched a scheme to help youths set up their own ventures.
At a function here, Sarma rolled out the Chief Minister's Atmanirbhar Asom Abhijan 2023. He also launched a registration portal for the scheme.
Under the programme, financial aid will be given to two lakh youths for creating a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, he added.
Speaking on the occasion on Saturday, Sarma said, "The scheme has been designed to create self-employment avenues to enable the youths to fuel development of the state. It has the potential to strengthen rural economy."
He said that the unemployed degree holders in the fields of engineering, medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery will be kept in the first category and will be given Rs 5 lakh.
"On the other hand, unemployed postgraduates, general graduates, ITI, polytechnic passouts will be kept in the second category for government assistance of Rs 2

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma speaks during a press conference organised to commemorate the completion of 8 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP-led government at the centre, at BJP state office in Guwahati, Wednesday, Jun

Himanta Biswa Sarma

The US provided Canada with intelligence after the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, but communications intercepted by Ottawa were more definitive and led it to accuse India of orchestrating the plot, The New York Times has reported citing sources.
The report came on Saturday as the top US diplomat in Canada confirmed that there was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that had prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's offensive allegation against India in the killing of a Khalistani extremist on Canadian soil.
The allegations have infuriated India, which rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case. India also accused Canada of being a safe haven for terrorists.
Nijjar, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was killed in Surrey in British Columbia on June 18. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in ...

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Hardeep Nijjar

"The fact that over fifty visitors were able to raise slogans is a matter of grave concern. In response to this serious breach, Members from the opposition panics walked out in protest"

Priyanka Chaturvedi

IAS-turned-politician Sasikanth Senthil has been appointed as the Chairman of the Central War Room

Congress

International credit agency Moody's Investors Service has made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar without citing any evidence, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Monday.
The UIDAI issued a strong rebuttal to Moody's Investors Service which claimed that the Aadhaar system often results in service denials and the reliability of biometric technologies, especially for manual labourers, in hot and humid climates is questionable.
"A certain investor service has, without citing any evidence or basis, made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar, the most trusted digital ID in the world. Over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times," the UIDAI said in a statement.
The unique id Aadhaar's custodian said that the report in question does not cite either primary or secondary data or research in support of the opinions presented in it.
"The investor service did not make any

Adhaar, UIDAI

The Nijjar murder is fast unfolding into treacherous scenarios that could have tragic consequences for both nations. No one stands to gain from the ongoing face-off

India Canada

The leaders of both countries should encourage bilateral trade and people-to-people exchanges that can help build bridges

Canada has updated travel advisory for its citizens in India asking them to "stay vigilant and exercise caution" in the context of recent developments as there are calls for protests and some "negative sentiment" towards Canada on social media.
Tensions flared between India and Canada following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's explosive allegations of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, on his country's soil on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.
India angrily rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
"In the context of recent developments in Canada and in India, there are calls for protests and some negative sentiment towards Canada on social media. Please remain vigilant and exercise caution," the Canadian government said in an

India's rage is misplaced and hardly serves to endear the country to those appalled by the idea that it may have had a Canadian citizen killed

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday is conducting major raids across 6 states in 3 cases at 51 locations belonging to associates of Lawrence, Bambiha and Arsh Dalla Gangs

Khalistan

In the wake of Canada's allegations about India's potential involvement in the killing of a Khalistani separatist on its soil, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that New Delhi conveyed to Ottawa that it is not the government of India's policy and it is open to looking at specific and relevant information in the case.
Yes, I do have a comment. I'll share with you very frankly what we told the Canadians, Jaishankar said during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) here Tuesday when asked if he had any comment on the allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that agents of the government of India are linked to the killing of a Canadian Sikh.
"One, we told the Canadians that this is not the government of India's policy. Two, we told the Canadians saying that look, if you have something specific, if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it, he said during a conversation with former US Ambassador to India and CFR ..

Sources privy to the development have informed ANI that 'One Nation One Election' would be beneficial not only in the national interest but would also save a lot of the financial reserves of the govt

Voting, elections, Polls, Votes

Catch all the latest live updates from around the world here

S Jaishankar, EAM S Jaishankar

The company's revenue from operations in FY23, Agarwal added, stood at approximately Rs 5,463 crore in FY23 up from Rs 4,781 crore in FY22, marking a 14 per cent increase

right wing

Spain's early poll could put far right in power for 1st time since Franco

Finding a fine balance: For BJP, RSS' organisational heft is a prized asset

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu advances judicial changes despite uproar

An illusion that divides

Thousands of Israelis rally against Netanyahu government in Tel Aviv

German coup plot fuelled by conspiracy claims, Covid-19 measures

Twitter bans two right-wing accounts as Musk promotes free speech

On BJP foundation day eve, PM asks MPs to dedicate themselves to 'seva'

Why right-wing historians could learn from D D Kosambi

Twitter amplifies politically right-leaning tweets more, says study

Letter to the Editor: Identifying Indian Right

Searching for the Indian right

Best of BS Opinion: The real oximeter, why poor are leaning right & more

Why the poor are leaning right

The discovery of Modi's India

America's alt-right turn

America's alt-right turn

Controversy over Tanishq advertisement: Who said what & the story so far

Missing oneness

Far-right extremists try to enter German parliament over Covid restrictions