THE war with Iran did not begin with American jets in the sky or missiles falling on Tehran. It began earlier, in the streets of Iran itself.

FOR years, Malaysia has urged its citizens abroad to return home. The message has been repeated by successive governments and echoed in speeches, forums and national policy discussions: Malaysians who have built successful careers overseas should come back and contribute their expertise to the country.

Some years ago, in this very column, I wrote that Umno needed to get its groove back. That observation was not made casually. It came from watching, at close range, how a party that once anchored the nation had gradually lost its rhythm, its confidence and its sense of direction.

When Donald Trump once again reached for tariffs, he did so with familiar language and an unfamiliar legal theory.

The Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan, Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir, has voiced deep concern over the prevalence of corruption, while expressing disappointment at those who continue to support individuals convicted of graft.

WHAT the United States has done in Venezuela under Donald Trump is not just another episode in a long history of American interventionism.

Friedrich Merz did not mince words. Speaking to his party faithful in Munich at the Christian Democratic Union party conference last week, Germany's chancellor declared that Pax Americana, as Europe had known it, was over.

POLITICS has an uncomfortable relationship with honesty. Everyone claims to value it, yet few are willing to practice it when the truth is inconvenient.

WE are living through a period that keeps forcing us to confront an uncomfortable question: why have good leaders become so rare? This is not a wistful look back at a romanticised past or golden age. It is a recognition that leadership, as a societal function, seems to have drifted from its moral centre.

WHEN Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term, the world braced for a more aggressive and unpredictable chapter of US foreign policy.

PUBLIC sentiment is hardening into a view that the government is under-delivering at a time when Malaysians are wrestling with rising prices, sluggish delivery of election promises, and the lingering effects of subsidy rationalisation.

The United States' ongoing trade wars under Donald Trump's second administration have fundamentally changed the global trading environment.