What the battle for the US Supreme Court is really about
by Rashmee
Posted on October 22, 2020 / The National
This is a big week for American politics, arguably just like every other week in the years since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Mr Trump debates his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the last such exchange before election day on November 3. It may not be a game-changer. By last weekend, … Continue reading “What the battle for the US Supreme Court is really about”
Read MoreExpect fewer vices in the Pence-Harris debate
by Rashmee
Posted on October 7, 2020 / The National
In normal times, a vice-presidential debate doesn’t rank high on the roster of set-piece events that define the closing weeks of a US presidential election. But these are not normal times. The Wednesday night face-off in Utah between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris could be the most important vice-presidential debate since 1976, when the exchange … Continue reading “Expect fewer vices in the Pence-Harris debate”
Read MoreClimate refugees is not a new term but get used to hearing it more often
by Rashmee
Posted on September 22, 2020 / The National
This is officially Climate Week and it’s brought to the world by the United Nations and New York City, on the sidelines of the ongoing, virtual 75th UN General Assembly. Unofficially, climate week now runs throughout the year in some form or other, somewhere — an extreme weather event, a call to action, or a heated argument … Continue reading “Climate refugees is not a new term but get used to hearing it more often”
Read MoreKnees, guns and votes: US race relations in 3 words
by Rashmee
Posted on September 9, 2020 / The National
Race relations can be a fraught subject anywhere but especially so in the US right now. The long hot summer of national reckoning on race and policing has slipped into an autumn of continuing anguish and defiance. Americans’ view of the relations between black and white races is now the most negative of any year … Continue reading “Knees, guns and votes: US race relations in 3 words”
Read MoreKamala Harris and the complexity of racial identity
by Rashmee
Posted on August 25, 2020 / The National
Harris’s birth certificate alone illustrates the problem of rigid binary notions around identity in the US It has taken a Kamala Harris — half Jamaican, half Indian and by her own definition, all American — to show the United States and the world that race isn’t a black or white issue and there are grey areas in our understanding … Continue reading “Kamala Harris and the complexity of racial identity”
Read MoreThe world expected too much from Obama. Now it expects too much of Kamala Harris
by Rashmee
Posted on August 18, 2020 / The Independent
When Joe Biden said of Kamala Harris, “Her story is America’s story”, it felt like 2008 in India all over again. I was editor of the Sunday Times of India, the country’s largest English-language newspaper, and based in the Indian capital. My husband was cultural attaché at the US embassy in New Delhi. Barack Obama … Continue reading “The world expected too much from Obama. Now it expects too much of Kamala Harris”
Read MoreBeirut blast: what do we do with the world’s ammonium nitrate?
by Rashmee
Posted on August 12, 2020 / The National
Both too much and too little has happened in the seven days since the powerful blast that levelled large swaths of Beirut. Lebanon’s Higher Defence Council, chaired by the president and prime minister, has declared the city a disaster zone. The UN says Lebanon is facing a humanitarian catastrophe. A virtual international donor conference on … Continue reading “Beirut blast: what do we do with the world’s ammonium nitrate?”
Read MoreHow much will the EU’s ‘historic’ new deal change life in Europe?
by Rashmee
Posted on July 26, 2020 / The National
For the first time in nearly seven decades of Europe’s union, the 27-member bloc is prepared to jointly raise billions of euros on the capital markets. It is rare for European solidarity to go beyond declarations of shared values, the thicket of common regulations, cluster of continent-wide institutions and the more partial 19-country eurozone. The … Continue reading “How much will the EU’s ‘historic’ new deal change life in Europe?”
Read MoreWhat is the deal with ‘woke’ culture and writing letters?
by Rashmee
Posted on July 16, 2020 / The National
A battle of letters is under way on the broad and bitterly contested theme of “justice and open debate” and a truce seems unlikely anytime soon. We have been here before many times in previous years, with warriors for and against political correctness and wokeness facing off in prolonged bouts of written and oral sniping. … Continue reading “What is the deal with ‘woke’ culture and writing letters?”
Read MoreThe US and EU are competing to play peacemaker in the Balkans
by Rashmee
Posted on June 30, 2020 / The National
The Serbia-Kosovo dispute is back in the news more than two decades after the war ended. A peace summit that was to be held over the weekend at the White House between the presidents of both countries had to be postponed. But Kosovo’s Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic met the president of the European … Continue reading “The US and EU are competing to play peacemaker in the Balkans”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK