Author: Jindan Malhotra

Six o’clock comes and footsteps are heard by Vadim Kukin. The footsteps are firm, the wooden floor cracked rhythmically under each step. The streetlights flickered on a fading shadow against the walls. “He is not coming”, said his father, with a sad expression. “He is a ghost. He roams night for night around passing from house to house.” He is the ghost of Bucha who is looking for the souls who snubbed out his life. People in the village speak softly when the Ghost of Bucha is raised. Guys lifted their glasses in respect to the “prizrak”, to the Ghost,…

The US treaty ally is spending billions to arm itself for a conflict over Taiwan or the South China Sea it hopes will never comeIn the heart of Manila, where noise and chaos reign supreme, the American Cemetery and Memorial is an oasis of stillness. More than 50,000 fallen troops are honoured at the site – some with white marble headstones, but most as names etched into the Walls of the Missing, their remains never recovered. All but a handful were American soldiers. The cemetery does not commemorate the estimated 1 million Filipinos who also died in the Pacific War…

The festive season is well and truly upon us, and I have embraced every aspect of it. From decadent dining experiences to the small flurry of snow and captivating Christmas light turning on ceremonies; Leamington has even more to offer than normal at this time. The great Leamington ‘Big Lights switch on’ is rivalled only by the spectacular lights that can be found adorning the Piazza. Whilst it isn’t as grandiose as other ceremonies I’m sure you have attended, it is abundant in charm. The grand turning-on ceremony occurred this year at 5pm, November 27 2024, hosted by the Radio 2 DJ…

Officials whitewashing the Taliban as a responsible diplomatic party are getting the organization wrong. The people of Afghanistan are once again trapped under the Taliban’s tyrannical rule, but rather than facing condemnation and ostracism, much of the world seems ready to embrace the new regime. Indeed, the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan has been largely met with not just acquiescence justified in the name of counterterrorism but concerted efforts to whitewash the jihadists, often with counterfactual claims. This practice is a product of more than just the wishful thinking of its proponents. It too-often reflects an enthusiasm to continue a dangerous shift in…

The European Union announced on Friday that it will begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova to join the 27-member political and economic bloc starting next week. All 27 members agreed to the Ukraine and Moldova joining the European Union. Negotiations will begin for both countries on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union said on X. The move comes at a critical time for both nations with Ukraine in the middle of an invasion by Russia and Moldova facing a Russian-led insurgence by a breakaway state. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the European Union for its “robust political…

Denpasar, Indonesia — Elon Musk and Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin launched SpaceX’s satellite internet service for the nation’s health sector on Sunday, aiming to improve access in remote parts of the sprawling archipelago. Musk, the billionaire head of SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA), arrived on the Indonesian resort island of Bali by private jet before attending the launch ceremony at a community health center in the provincial capital, Denpasar. Musk, wearing a green batik shirt, said the availability of the Starlink service in Indonesia would help millions in far-flung parts of the country to access the internet. The country is home to more than 270 million people…

Berlin (29/2 – 30) Ukrainian officials are concerned that Russian advances could gain significant momentum by the summer unless their allies can increase the supply of ammunition, according to a person familiar with their analysis. Internal assessments of the situation on the battlefield from Kyiv are growing increasingly bleak as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold off Russian attacks while rationing the number of shells they can fire. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Thursday that mistakes by frontline commanders had compounded the problems facing Ukraine’s defense around Avdiivka, which was captured by Russian forces this month. Syrskyi said he’d sent in more…

A year ago Germany deported to Tajikistan an activist from that country’s exiled opposition movement who had been living in Dortmund since 2009. What happened next is a shocking example of what can occur when Germany fails to uphold safeguards in its increased efforts to deport unsuccessful asylum seekers. The Bundestag this month gave police greater powers to carry out deportations. The activist, Abdullohi Shamsiddin, 33, was deported to Tajikistan on January 18 2023. He was detained on arrival by the security services. Two months later he was convicted of trying to overthrow the constitution and jailed for seven years. No credible…

In the last decade, few have fit the chess prodigy descriptor as well as India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. He was 10 years old when he became the then-youngest International Master, the second-highest title after Grandmaster. He became the second-youngest Grandmaster in 2018, defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen three times in a row in online games, and is only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to make a World Cup final and qualify for the Candidates tournament. While all of this unfolded, another chess-playing member of his family diligently awaited her turn – Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vaishali, who is older than him by…

Environmental photographer and writer Arati Kumar-Rao travels across South Asia in all seasons to chronicle the subcontinent’s changing landscape. Here, in photos and in her own words, she captures the increasing threat climate change poses to the lives and livelihoods of the Ladakhi people, who face an uncertain future below the melting glaciers of the Himalayan mountains. Kumar-Rao is one of this year’s Climate Pioneers on the BBC 100 Women list. The night of 5 August 2010 is still fresh in the memory of the people of Ladakh, in northern India, when it felt like a cloud had burst over…