In 1940, with Europe gripped by a war from which the United States remained aloof, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the country needed to be “the great arsenal of democracy.”

The racist abuse of Indian players by fans at the third Test in Sydney is just the latest in a litany of similar incidents to mar sport in Australia, with authorities struggling to stamp out the problem.

Cartoon

At the height of a pandemic that has torn through America’s communities of colour with particular ferocity, health officials are engaged in a fraught exercise in fairness: how to nudge communities of colour toward the front of the line for scarce vaccines while pretending that race and ethnicity hav

Though US President Donald Trump has got only less than 10 days left in office, his administration marked last Wednesday one of the most significant environmental rollbacks accomplished in his term by auctioning off oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Anyone who was surprised by the mayhem in Washington, DC has not been paying attention for the last four years.

2021 may not see an increase in interest rates globally, as central banks are set to spend this year maintaining their ultra-easy monetary policies to steer away from last year’s coronavirus-inflicted recession.

Cartoon corner

The storming of the US Capitol on January 6 is easily misunderstood. Shaken by the ordeal, members of Congress have issued statements explaining that America is a nation of laws, not mobs.

In the thousands of books certain to be written about President Donald Trump, the first chapters will almost surely begin with the climax, his last days in office, his refusal to concede electoral defeat in time and a rally that led to a riot, a Washington, DC, horror show.

The January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol lacked the gravitas of the storming of the Winter Palace — that much is certain.

President-elect Joe Biden will get the Democratic Congress he sought after his party’s stunning success in Georgia, but his expansive legislative agenda on issues such as healthcare and climate change cannot be assured a smooth ride.