Author: Cory Robbins

Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna has called a deepfake video of herself, which has gone viral on social media, “extremely scary”. Ms Mandanna’s face was morphed onto an Instagram video posted by a British-Indian woman named Zara Patel. India’s information technology minister has called such deepfake videos a more “damaging form of misinformation”. The 27-year-old actress has worked mostly in Telugu and Kannada films and won a number of awards for her roles. She will be next seen with actor Ranbir Kapoor in the Bollywood film Animal, which is due for release on 1 December. Abhishek Kumar, a journalist who works…

Popular Punjabi rapper Shubhneet Singh has asked people to stop spreading “hate and negativity” after a controversy broke out over a hoodie he held up at a concert in London. Some Indian social media users claimed the hoodie had imagery supporting the Sikh separatist movement. The Canada-based singer said a fan threw it at him and he did not see what was on it before displaying it. The issue of Sikh separatism is a sensitive topic in India. The rapper – known to fans as Shubh – has previously been in controversies over the issue. In September, his India tour was…

Until recently, the United States did not officially confirm the transfer of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine in order to maintain the element of surprise used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to attack Russian positions. The publication writes that the path to transferring missiles to Ukraine was long and difficult, but the decision to provide the missile was made on August 30. It was decided to transfer missiles of the ATACMS APAM type, capable of firing cluster warheads at 165 km. The administration’s decision to send the missiles was kept secret for weeks after President Joe Biden made the final decision, according to two…

India is open to looking into any “specific” information Canada provides on the killing of a Sikh separatist leader, the country’s foreign minister said. S Jaishankar was referring to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June. Tensions flared up after Canada recently said it was investigating “credible allegations” linking the Indian state with the murder. India dismissed the claim as “absurd”. Mr Jaishankar said that the Indian government had told Canada that it was open to investigating any “relevant” allegations about the murder while insisting that Delhi had no role in it. He was speaking at an…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he will not attend the G20 Summit in Delhi next month. India is hosting this year’s summit, which will be held in the capital Delhi from 9-10 September. Mr Putin rang Mr Modi and told him that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would attend the summit on his behalf. The two leaders also discussed several “regional and global issues of mutual concern”, India said in a statement. A Russian government spokesperson had said last week that Mr Putin would not attend the summit as he had a “busy schedule”. The G20…

India’s space agency has released new footage that shows Chandrayaan-3’s rover for the first time ever. The video was taken just hours after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the south pole. It shows Pragyaan (Sanskrit for wisdom) exiting the lander by sliding down a ramp and taking first “steps” on the lunar surface. The Vikram lander – carrying the rover in its belly – had successfully touched down as planned on Wednesday evening. With this, India joins an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the…

Three years after launching her clothing brand Ed-a-Mamma, Alia Bhatt, one of Bollywood’s most sought-after young actresses, is reportedly cashing out. Indian newspapers report that her company will be acquired by the retail arm of one of India’s largest conglomerates, Reliance Industries, for 3bn rupees ($36m; £28m). If the deal goes through, it would give a “fillip” to the now established trend of Indian movie stars putting money into start-ups and owning consumer-facing brands, says Bhaskar Majumdar, an early-stage investor. Bhatt is just one among a host of Bollywood stars who have been actively investing in start-ups recently. Her contemporary…

India’s space chief says a giant metal dome that washed up on an Australian beach was definitely part of a rocket – but may or may not be Indian. “We can’t confirm it’s ours unless we analyse it,” S Somanath told the BBC. There has been wild speculation about the object ever since it was discovered at Green Head beach, about 250km (155 miles) north of Perth, at the weekend. Some even said it may be from India’s latest Moon mission launch last Friday but experts quickly ruled that out. The cylindrical object, about 2.5m wide and between 2.5m and…

Belarus can deploy up to 8,000 Russian mercenaries of the Wagner PMC on its territory. The Defense Forces are aware of an additional potential threat and are in constant combat readiness. Source: State Border Service Speaker Colonel Andriy Demchenko in a commentary to Ukrayinska Pravda Details: As Demchenko explains, the situation at the border at the moment remains fully controlled. At the moment, no Russian offensive groups are observed on the territory of Belarus. At the same time, the terrorist country of the Russian Federation continues to use the Republic of Belarus as a base for the training of its units and military aviation…

Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has expressed regret for the downing of several Russian military aircraft during his revolt, but Moscow’s troops may not be ready to forgive the mercenary leader for Wagner’s mutiny anytime soon. In his first public statement since calling off what turned out to be rather short-lived rebellion, Prigozhin expressed remorse on Monday that his fighters shot down several Russian aircraft, which killed an unconfirmed number of airmen. He said, however, that he was given no choice. He did not specifically apologize for carrying out the mutiny. “We regret that we had to hit air assets, but those…