Manishankar I مانيشانكار

In an article for For Pol India, political analyst Manishankar Prasad argues that these crises are not isolated but intertwined and due to late-stage capitalism. *Listen here* 🎧👇🏾 BFM Website: bfm.my/content/podcas… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6NmMUA…

☦️🇵🇸Palestinian Christian Lady from Ramallah passing her hand through the Holy Fire, which is believed to be a blessing. رام الله، فلسطين.

EAM Jaishankar meets UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy PM Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum in Abu Dabhi.

Kaja Kallas is out of touch, condescending, and ungrateful. Qatar stepped in to support Europe during its energy crunch. The UAE is building AI infrastructure across 🇪🇺. And Europeans are living and making a living across the Gulf. The Gulf will be fine, but won’t forget.

Decided to barge in and have a feast - since I had major FOMO about the Sunday club - with @SandipGhose @Iyervval @dsen68 and above all @AdvaitaKala and the ever sulking @Suhelseth

Shell CEO Wael Sawan on Oil, Renewables and the Future of Energy youtu.be/aQxncja69Ic?si… via @YouTube

On the papal plane to Africa! ✈️ 🇻🇦 I’m traveling with Pope Leo XIV for the next 11 days reporting on his apostolic visit to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea for @OSVNews.

The Relationship Between America and the U.A.E. Needs an Upgrade | by @BadrJafar in the @nytimes nytimes.com/2026/04/13/opi…

Viktor Orbán has been a very consequential PM - probably the most consequential Hungary has ever had. The economy has strengthened, the city of Budapest has been transformed, and Hungary’s family policies and determination to keep its culture have been studied around the world. He and I differed on Ukraine but I thought he was dead right to defy the EU, on illegal immigration especially. Why should a sovereign nation be bullied by Brussels into policies that would jeopardise its future as a distinct people? Under Orbán, Budapest became something of a haven for conservative intellectuals. This has been a significant point of soft power for Hungary and I don’t expect the new government will want that to change.

"The Anglo-American empire was built on fossil fuels and will do anything at all to preserve the fossil fuel economy." ~ Amitav Ghosh: observer.co.uk/culture/books/…

Three Western Women Scholars Who Pioneered the Study of India’s Anti-Caste Movements m.thewire.in/article/books/… via @thewire_In

Péter Magyar is not the anti-Orbán. He is running on a platform that is Orbán without the corruption. As Orban, Magyar opposes the EU migration pact. He voted against the loan to Ukraine. He wants strong borders and has no plans to reverse Hungary’s energy ties with Russia before 2035. On every substantive question that defines the European left-right divide, Magyar sits exactly where Orbán sits. What he promises to change is governance, not ideology. Anti-corruption reforms, rule of law, meritocratic appointments, unlocking frozen EU funds. A voter who backed Orbán for border security and national sovereignty can vote for Magyar without abandoning a single conviction. The only thing that voter has to abandon is tolerance for theft. Orbán did not lose the argument. He lost the trust.

The Arab Word is Watching a Different War: Three reasons why it has been difficult to understand the Arab position: The first is the Arab relationship with Iran. From the vantage point of Brussels or London, Iran presents itself as a resistance movement with a grievance against American hegemony and Israeli occupation, and this presentation maps comfortably onto familiar Western anticolonial frameworks. What it does not map onto is the lived experience of Arab populations in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and across the Gulf. In those countries, Iran's presence meant Hezbollah holding the Lebanese state hostage to Tehran's decisions, thirty-five armed factions in Iraq drawing salaries from Iranian funds channeled through the Iraqi national treasury, and Houthi commanders answering to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while firing on Arab civilians from Yemeni soil. Freedom is not the word any serious Arab observer would use for what Iran brought. Indeed, the Arab world's quarrel with Iran runs far deeper than American bases or Israeli airstrikes. What drives it is the systematic subversion of Arab sovereignty by a foreign power that uses the language of Islamic solidarity as cover for an imperial project conducted through proxies. The second dimension is the proxy question itself, where Western analysis fails most comprehensively. Iran goes far beyond supporting armed groups. Parallel state structures get built inside Arab countries, financial systems get captured, and political figures get installed who owe their existence and survival entirely to Tehran. The Iranians who have administered this project understand it as the export of a revolution, but what Arab populations have experienced is closer to a colonial occupation conducted through intermediaries, and as of now, they’re not mourning the Islamic Republic. When Westerners treat these proxy networks as instruments of legitimate resistance rather than as mechanisms of subjugation, they endorse an imperial project while believing themselves to be opposing one, and as a matter of fact, make themselves the legitimizing force behind Iran’s war against the Arab world. The third dimension is the most counterintuitive for a Western audience, and it is the one most consequential for how the current war is understood and misunderstood. For Arab nationalists, including secular nationalists and even those with deep reservations about Israeli policy, Iran represents a greater and more immediate threat than Israel does. This is a position that Western media are structurally ill-equipped to render intelligible, because Western discourse on the Middle East has been organized for decades around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the primary axis of regional injustice. The result is that when Western governments and Western publics take strong positions against Israel’s actions against Iran’s operations, they believe themselves to be standing with the Arab world. In reality, they are advancing a position that the Arab world does not share and has not asked for, while ignoring the threat that Arab governments and Arab populations actually live with. The rhetorical use of Israel as a perpetual alibi for Iranian aggression has been one of the Islamic Republic’s most durable tools, and Western opinion has served as the unwitting amplifier of that tool across the entire duration of the Islamic Republic’s existence. open.substack.com/pub/zinebribou…

A NEW WORLD: While crude has breached the $100 mark again, an oil tanker possibly headed for India transits through the Hormuz.

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law.

Bengali rapper takes Net by storm! A powerful voice from the ground shakes conscience of West Bengal, exposes corrupt, cruel, criminal, communal regime of Mamata Banerjee A young rapper, who goes by the name ‘Manchu Dada’ on Facebook, has dropped a hard-hitting, copyright-free track exposing the scams under Mamata Banerjee. This is more than just music, it’s a reflection of growing public anger. Across West Bengal, people are contributing in their own ways to bring an end to the misrule of the Trinamool Congress. The surge is unmistakable. Mamata Banerjee and her minions should know: When the youth begin to push back, it signals a point of no return. BJP has laid out a clear roadmap for the future. Big promises for Youth and Women in West Bengal: • Creation of 1 crore jobs and self-employment opportunities over the next five years, along with ₹3,000 monthly financial assistance for every unemployed youth. • Strong focus on women’s safety and empowerment, women-only police battalions, Durga Surokkha Squads, and 33% reservation in State Government jobs. • ₹3,000 monthly financial support for women. When young voices rise, change follows. It’s happening in West Bengal.

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan, among the top UAE leadership in Beijing for talks

Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty in New Jersey last night. An experience. Na teerath mayn na moorat mayn Na ikaant nivaas mayn Na mandir mayn na masjid mayn Na kaashi kailaas mein Mayn tau teray paas mein

Rap song on the state of West Bengal under TMC.

MBS is going to help decisively shift the entire future and the Middle East in the next 72 hrs. America, Israel, Saudi, UAE, Bahrain, all Arab countries win. Iran and Islamists lose.

Pakistan's Role In The Iran USA Mediation youtube.com/live/vIoUtBtTZ… via @YouTube