Author: Durgawati Vaknis

Frankfurt, Paris (18/8 – 62.50) Ukraine has scored a series of victories in more than a week since launching a lightning offensive into Russian territory. Now the stakes are rising as its forces prepare to defend their gains and Russia begins to regain its footing. Last week, Ukraine deployed thousands of troops to the Kursk region in western Russia, removing Russian flags from captured towns and taking the initiative from Moscow for the first time in months. On Wednesday, officials in Kyiv said Ukraine would use seized Russian territory as a “buffer zone” to shield its north from Russian strikes.…

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ousted as the president of Sri Lanka in a popular public uprising in 2022, on Thursday hinted that India was keen on his continuation despite the growing public discontent against him at the behest of certain Western powers. “There was, in fact, a major foreign power that was insisting that I should not resign and they had demonstrated their willingness to do whatever it takes to keep Sri Lanka with essentials,” Rajapaksa, 74, writes in his book without naming India. Titled The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency, Rajapaksa’s book was out for sale starting Thursday but there…

Russia has reportedly lost a staggering amount of troops over the past 24 hours along with dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles as bloody fighting takes its toll on Vladimir Putin’s men. Russia lost a staggering 1,740 troops in a single day, the highest tally of casualties for Moscow since the start of the invasion in 2022, according to Ukraine. In the previous 24 hours, Ukraine also claimed Russia had lost 30 tanks and 42 armoured vehicles. Death toll and military hardware statistics are difficult to assess with both sides giving different or little information. However, Ukraine’s armed forces have claimed Russia has so far lost an eye-watering…

On April 17, the application process for grants from the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan for the Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights ends. An official announcement on the launch of a new project by the EU delegation in Dushanbe on March 12 said that projects “to promote and protect human rights, democracy and fundamental freedoms in Tajikistan” will be selected on a competitive basis. Representatives of civil society can participate in the competition. The total budget of the competition was 1 million 855 thousand euros. Applicants can request a grant of €300,000 to €400,000 for a period…

The US has said it foiled an alleged plot to assassinate an American citizen in New York who advocated for a Sikh separatist state. Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, is accused of trying to hire a hitman for $100,000 (£79,000) in cash. But the hitman was actually an undercover federal agent, prosecutors said. Mr Gupta, 52, is in jail in the Czech Republic pending extradition. The charges carry up to 20 years in prison. He was allegedly directed by an Indian government official who was not named or charged in the indictment. The White House said it had raised the…

Latest Developments The third-most senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed on January 2 in a Beirut blast that Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel. Arouri was among at least four people who died in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas media office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, authorities said. Israeli officials had no immediate comment. After Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Arouri was the top-ranked Hamas official. He pursued an especially aggressive Palestinian terrorism strategy, with a focus on the West Bank, where he ordered the 2014 abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, sparking a…

Rescuers in India are looking at fresh options to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel for the past eight days. New plans had to be conceived after work to push in metal pipes through the debris wall was halted and rescue teams were withdrawn after a cracking sound was heard from the tunnel on Friday. Officials say they plan to drill two parallel tunnels which could provide an “escape route” to the workers. The under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand caved in after a landslide. The incident took place on the morning of 12 November in the northern state’s Uttarkashi district.…

Rescue operations to save 40 workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand have been ongoing since Sunday morning. What happened? Forty workers, who were building the Silkyara tunnel, were trapped when part of it caved in due to a landslide nearby on Sunday. The landslide caused heavy debris to fall on the tunnel, leading to its collapse. The mounds of debris cut off oxygen supply to the workers. Officials said the men were trapped some 200m into the tunnel but none of them were injured. As of Friday afternoon, rescue workers had dug through 24m of…

Experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) analyzed what consequences Ukraine’s ability to use long-range ATACMS missiles would have for the Russians – it would pose a threat to Russian aviation and enemy ammunition depots in the rear. Details : The report states that Ukraine first used US-provided ATACMS long-range missiles to strike Russian targets in its occupied territories on October 17. The Wall Street Journal and other Western media confirmed on October 17 that the US had “secretly” provided Ukraine with ATACMS missiles with a range of 165 km in recent days, and reported that Ukrainian troops had already used ATACMS…

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly accuses New Delhi of breaching international law with its move to revoke diplomatic immunity. Canada has pulled 41 diplomats out of India in the latest escalation of a bitter dispute over the killing of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver. The Canadian government made the decision to recall its diplomats after the Indian government said it would revoke their diplomatic immunity, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday. Joly said India’s threat to revoke their diplomatic immunity was “unprecedented” and violated international law. “Given the implications of India’s actions on the safety of our diplomats, we…