The Road to Democracy Has Potholes There are many ways to interrupt a political convoy. You can wave a party flag, hold up a banner, shout slogans, or, if you happen to be a resident of Guna with a particularly persistent road problem, simply stand in front of the convoy and ask where the road went. That is essentially what…

A Race Against Time — and Apparently Against Nature There are many things an elite athlete is trained to do: run faster, lift heavier, push through exhaustion, ignore screaming muscles and occasionally wonder why anyone voluntarily pays money to make their lungs feel like two pieces of burnt toast. But apparently there is one lesson that even professional athletes may…

India has apparently entered a new academic category where the freedom to think comes with its own terms and conditions. According to the Free to Think 2026 report by Scholars at Risk, India has been placed in the “severely restricted” category for academic freedom, alongside countries and territories including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine. China, meanwhile, has been placed in…

Paris Court Says: Keep the Change, Kim PARIS — Nearly a decade after Kim Kardashian was held at gunpoint and robbed of millions of dollars in jewelry at a Paris hotel, justice has finally arrived — carrying approximately one euro. A Paris court has awarded Kardashian €1 in damages following the 2016 jewel heist, a case involving more than $6…

Delhi is hosting the BRICS Summit, and apparently the capital has decided that the best way to showcase India to the world is to make sure the world doesn’t see too much of India. As global leaders arrive in New Delhi for the September 12–13 summit, parts of the capital have received the kind of makeover usually reserved for a…

A bank robbery in Nagpur has given the phrase “adding some spice to the situation” an unexpectedly literal meaning. A man allegedly entered an SBI branch, attacked bank employees with chilli powder, grabbed several lakh rupees in cash and fled. Unfortunately for him, what appeared to be an ambitious bank-heist operation turned out to have the shelf life of a…

The Moon was once the romantic symbol of poetry, impossible love and late-night philosophical thoughts. Now, it appears to be entering a rather different phase of its career: becoming the solar system’s most politically interesting piece of real estate. As major space powers accelerate their lunar programmes, the competition is no longer simply about planting flags and taking photographs. The…

Sometimes Bollywood careers begin with star kids, film families and producers carrying spreadsheets thicker than a screenplay. And then there is Anupriya Nagar, whose journey into filmmaking apparently began somewhere between an Economics degree, Steve Jobs and Neem Karoli Baba. Nagar, who was studying Economics in the UK, had reportedly been preparing for a completely different career when her curiosity…

When Devotion Starts Shaking the Ground Ganeshotsav is traditionally a festival of faith, devotion, music and community spirit. But this year, Maharashtra appears to have discovered a rather unusual new way of measuring religious enthusiasm: the Richter scale. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has compared the noise generated by DJ systems during Ganpati celebrations to the sound of an earthquake and…

Mount Everest has survived avalanches, blizzards, earthquakes and generations of ambitious humans determined to stand on top of the world. But apparently, the latest threat is something considerably less majestic: pee. A new study has found that human activity at Everest Base Camp—including thousands of litres of urine discharged directly onto the Khumbu Glacier—is contributing to local ice loss. The researchers…