Shock therapy? written by Mahir Ali

Mahir Ali

AS the marathon quadrennial circus in the US drew to a close last week, most people expected to hear a monumental sigh of relief as the curtain came down.

Instead, there was a sharp intake of breath as the creepy clown emerged to have the last laugh, mocking all the pollsters and pundits who had confidently predicted that after all his grotesquely

Tipping Point- by Mahir Ali

Mahir Ali

SIXTY years ago this week, Europe’s two leading colonial powers scored a stupendous own goal. After Israeli troops entered the Sinai area in late October 1956 and began advancing towards the Suez Canal shortly after Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalised the Anglo-French outfit that operated the commercially lucrative waterway connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, Britain

Hungarian revolts written by Mahir ali

Mahir Ali

EARLY last month, there was a glimmer of hope in Hungary. Implored to vote in a referendum intended to effectively sanctify the nation’s brutal hostility to refugees from the Middle East, a majority of the eligible electorate opted to disengage from the process, rendering it invalid.

A turnout of at least 50 per cent was mandatory for the referendum to be considered valid. It didn’t happen, despite an unprecedented

Clinton conundrum written by Mahir Ali

Mahir Ali

THERE is no longer much cause to doubt that Hillary Clinton will be inaugurated in January as the first female president of the US. The opinion polls have been strongly trending that way, notably after her Republican rival, Donald Trump, indicated last week that he would accept the result of the Nov 8 election only if he won the contest.

He has also undermined himself in multiple other ways, mainly through

An elusive winner written by Mahir ali

Mahir Ali

An elusive winner

                                          ALMOST everyone was taken by surprise last Thursday when the Swedish Academy named this year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. And it is perfectly possible that no one was quite as surprised as the honoree himself.

By the beginning of this week, the academy had failed to get in touch directly with Bob Dylan. At a concert in the US on the night after the award was announced, he did not allude to it even