Author: Minakshi Mukhtar

A controversial theory that some Hindu groups call “Love Jihad” – which claims that many Muslim men are taking part in a plot to seduce Hindu women and convert them – has circulated in India for years, despite lack of evidence. Now a reverse theory – that Hindu men are deliberately trying to seduce Muslim women – is going viral online. It’s called the “Bhagwa Love Trap”, and again, evidence for the claim is scant. But that hasn’t stopped it spilling over into real-world violence. “It was extremely vile. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says Maryam, a Muslim woman from…

Much like its ideological counterparts at HispanTV (Iranian-owned) and Actualidad RT (Russian-owned), Telesur wraps its incitement into a sophisticated and slick twenty-four-hour news platform through its website, broadcasts, and social media presence. Though it is difficult to gauge its influence, numbers suggest that Telesur’s message is impactful. Telesur has two million followers on its Spanish X account, 117,500 on its English X account, and more than half a million on Instagram. Its YouTube account has over 1.7 million subscribers, with 100,000 new subscribers and almost 7.4 million video views since October 7 (It also posts its videos on the Daily Motion). The network traditionally pushes out conspiracy theories, fake news, “whataboutism,”…

The lives of 40 Indian labourers, who have been trapped in a tunnel for more than 72 hours, hang in the balance as authorities try to rescue them. The workers were building the tunnel in northern Uttarakhand state when a part of it caved in due to a landslide on Sunday. State and federal rescue teams have been using a massive drill to push through the debris to reach the men. Officials have been able to establish contact with the workers. Authorities have also brought fresh and more sophisticated drilling equipment from Delhi to speed up the rescue operations, they…

London (28/11 – 58) Tajikistan’s human rights record continues to deteriorate amid an increased crackdown on freedom of expression and the political opposition, as well as the targeting of independent lawyers, journalists, and family members of opposition activists abroad. Freedom of assembly is severely curtailed with any local protests, such as a series of protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region (GBAO), violently quashed. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Programme Office in Dushanbe, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, and the Permanent Representation of France to the OSCE organized a study visit to Paris for government officials from…

Authorities in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand are racing to rescue around 40 workers who are trapped inside a collapsed tunnel. The workers were building the tunnel when a part of it caved in on Sunday morning due to a landslide. A senior official said that contact had been established with the men and they were being provided oxygen and food. But rescuers still have to dig through several metres of debris before they can start evacuating the labourers. The accident occurred at 05:00 local time (23:30 GMT) on Sunday – a portion of the Silkyara tunnel, around 200m…

Sir Cliff Richard surprised staff and customers at a restaurant when he visited twice in one week. The singer had been rehearsing for his tour date in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, when he visited the Blue Monk Nepalese & Indian Restaurant in Bedford. He visited the venue on Tuesday for a meal with his secretary and returned on Friday with a large group of people. Fokrul Islam, who works at the High Street restaurant, said the star left a “nice big tip”. He brought 20 people with him for his return visit where he ordered a large banquet including saag aloo, palak…

Brussels (25/11 – 33.3) Tajikistan Supreme Court has sentenced a widely respected 65-year-old female journalist, Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva, to 21 years in prison on charges of incitement to overthrowing the government. Mamadshoeva was accused by the authorities of being a leading figure behind the political turbulence that rocked her native Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) earlier this year. State propaganda has previously alleged that the veteran reporter and activist hatched the purported plot, for which no credible evidence has been produced, at the behest of an unnamed foreign government. Mamadshoeva’s brother, Khursand, was last week sentenced to 18 years in prison on…

During the entire war in Ukraine, 20 thousand mercenaries of the Wagner PMC died, half of them were recruited prisoners, PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview with media technologist Konstantin Dolgov. “During the operation [in Bakhmut], I selected 50 thousand prisoners, of whom approximately 20 percent died. Exactly as many of them died as those who came to us under contract. Approximately another 20 percent were wounded who had wounds, which do not provide the opportunity for three months or more to carry out combat missions,” Prigozhin said. According to the founder of the PMC, at the time of the…

India aims to send an astronaut to the Moon by 2040, the government has said. The country’s space goals also include plans for a space station by 2035. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced these ambitions on Tuesday, and also asked scientists to work on missions to Venus and Mars. In August, India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, and in September it launched a rocket to study the Sun. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is also working on the Gaganyaan project, which aims to send a human crew to an orbit of 400km…

Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty spoke warmly about the prime minister before introducing him for his speech on the last day of the Conservative Party Conference. A businesswoman and heiress to a fortune worth billions, she has lived a life divided between three continents. Her father founded one of India’s biggest companies, Infosys, while she launched her own eponymous clothing label. BBC News spoke to some of those she has met along the way. It is a Friday night in rural Yorkshire and local farmers and small business owners are waiting for the results of a Conservative party fundraising raffle.…