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Opinion Pieces at the News International Pakistan
A Dark Chapter – Published June 2, 2020
Just a few days ago the US reached the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19. Even as the country was grappling with these losses, many more disturbing events have taken place.
Just in the past week, while the nation was coming to grips with Covid-19 losses, President Trump announced the US will leave the WHO and withdraw the special trading status that had been granted to Hong Kong, following Beijing’s announcement of curtailing many freedoms in the territory. A full-blown cold war between the US and China is now on the cards. Read more…
Politics in a Pandemic – Published May 20, 2020
The rapid deterioration of the US economy due to the novel coronavirus pandemic has started to make President Trump very nervous.
After all, the presidential election is less than six months away. After continuously downplaying the threat, he was ultimately forced to confront reality as the number of infections and deaths kept climbing. As of mid-May, the number of infections in the US were approaching 1.5 million and deaths were closing in on 90,000. Read more…
An Unusual Ramazan – published May 5, 2020
We have been in near total lockdown since mid-March. The Greater Washington DC area where I live has been hit very hard. While many states in the US are starting to slowly lift their lockdowns, my state is not there yet. In fact, the federal guideline is to wait till there are 14 days of declining cases before relaxing restrictions. According to media reports, none of the 30 or so states that are starting to open up have yet reached this milestone. Read more…
Test of Leadership – published April 21, 2020
In the US, it is hard to watch or read any news these days that isn’t focused on the novel coronavirus. The total number of confirmed infections in the country is almost at 750,000, and the number of dead is over 40,000 and growing.
Yet, the impact across the country has been uneven. Large metropolitan areas such as New York, Detroit and Chicago are badly affected while rural areas have had much less health impact so far. These cities also happen to be areas with majority Democratic Party supporters. Read more…
Virus in the Economy – published April 9, 2020
The coronavirus continues to dominate the news cycle and is occupying pretty much the entire attention of all in the US.
Since I wrote about this two weeks ago, confirmed coronavirus cases in the US have gone up from 30,000 to over 330,000 and deaths from the virus are approaching 10,000. The US is now clearly the most affected country in the world. Read more…
The virus and the U.S. – Published March 26, 2020
I have just returned to Washington DC after a month-long trip to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Concerns about the coronavirus had started to emerge when I left home. But coming back to the US now feels like we have returned to a completely changed landscape. Having traveled through several airports we are self-isolating for 14 days at home. It is hard to turn on any TV or radio channel without being deluged with facts and figures about the spread of the virus…..Read more
Is Trump Good for Pakistan? Published on February 12, 2020
Last week the US Senate acquitted Donald Trump of charges of Abuse of Office and Obstruction of Congress. A few weeks earlier the House of Representatives had impeached Trump by a majority vote, an act that will remain on the books for all times.
Trump has led an abusive and corrupt administration. He allegedly sought and received help from Russians in the 2016 election and is seen to be seeking to do the same in 2020, this time from Ukraine. Read more…
Polarisation in America – Published on January 30, 2020
Extreme polarization in American society is a rapidly emerging phenomenon, both in how people assess the performance of their elected leaders as well as in how much they trust or distrust various media sources.
A recent survey shows that 89 percent of all Republicans say President Trump is doing a good job, while only seven percent of Democrats approve of his performance. This is the largest gap in a president’s approval rating between supporters of the two parties in the last 50 years or so since such data has been reported. Read more…
As 2020 Begins – Published on January 16, 2020
We are barely two weeks into the new year, and all hopes of 2020 bringing a measure of peace have faded away.
The year has begun with major hostilities between the US and Iran. On January 3, on President Trump’s orders Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in Iraq. The world then waited with bated breath to see how Iran would react. Read more …
About 2019 – Published on January 1, 2020
As the year 2019 drew to a close, many of us were reflecting on what the just passed year brought; in fact, what the decade of the two-thousand-teens brought to the world.
Progress has been made in many areas. People have put new technologies and high-speed internet to many good uses. There is greater awareness and concern for the environment. New business models are flourishing and along with that a large amount of wealth has been created. The total value of US stock market has grown by $5 trillion just in 2019. Read more…