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President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Ukraine's recapture of Kherson marked "the beginning of the end of the war" as he hailed the liberation of the city in a surprise visit.
NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg nonetheless cautioned that Ukraine was facing difficult months ahead and said that Russia's military capability should not be underestimated.
And US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping -- a key ally of Vladimir Putin -- agreed in talks Monday that nuclear weapons should never be used, including in Ukraine.
When we experience intense emotions, we often feel it in our gut. Everyone at some point has felt ‘butterflies in the stomach when we’re anxious or stressed. Something that really upsets us can be ‘gut-wrenching’. Our body has a physical reaction to our emotional state. There’s growing research that gastrointestinal health also impacts our mental health. And that has big implications for how we think about and manage mental health conditions.
Experiment with eating a diet that’s free of processed food and sugar that contribute to inflammation and monitor how your body responds. Once you identify the major culprits, slowly reintroduce other foods back into your diet. Many people have found that by transforming what they eat, they also see positive changes in their moods.
India's men's cricket team was defeated by the England men's cricket team on 10 November at Adelaide stadium during the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. England won by 10 wickets. This defeat has raised questions about the T20 squad of the Indian Men's cricket team. Indian cricket team has to look into the future as well now, and it looks likely that young talents like Umran Malik and Shahbaz Ahmed would make a comeback to this Indian side. Players like Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Arshdeep Singh seem would also be cementing their place into India's top-tier team.
Indian selectors would also need to work upon would be building a core team of 15 to 20 players are all-formats, this means that this would basically be India's core team which would function across all formats and minor changes would be done to it, basically opposite looking than India's strategy for individual teams or A to C teams. Indian cricket would need to divest from the night-stardom players it has been looking for from the IPL.
One last thing, Indian cricket would need to focus on would be players' fitness. India suffered hugely from missing out on players like Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, although they are some of the fittest sports professionals around. Overall, there would be a need to have more investment into players' fitness ensuring there won't be any major losses in important tournaments like the present Cricket world cup going forward.
Every two years one-third of the Senate’s members are either elected (or reelected) or vacate the seat at the end of the term. When this biennial contest does not coincide with a presidential election, it is called a “midterm election.” Such elections often receive less attention than presidential contests, but midterm elections have influenced national politics and predicted major turning points in the history of the United States of America.
History seems to be repeating itself this cycle as well, as the Republics of the GOP seem to be getting gains in the elections, and also hoping to take back the House of Congress which is controlled by democrats now. And, the faith of the senate seems to rely on the crucial senate race in Georgia which is between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. This is considered the climax of this election and is predicted to go neck-to-neck and results are expected only late into the night for the USA.
This is the second part in our ongoing series of, Life outside planet earth, where we trying to give you real facts on the research made so far about extraterrestrial life and would we be able to discover life in the universe during our lifetimes.
With roughly 100 billion galaxies hosting countless stars each, the universe seems like it should be teeming with life. But is it really it?
The question remains, Are we alone?
This question has plagued humankind since time immemorial. And yet, we still don’t have a conclusive answer. Despite our incredible technological advancements, we have never received a credible radio signal from, or even the teeniest trace of, extraterrestrial life beyond Earth.
For the longest time, belief in extraterrestrial life was considered a fringe viewpoint, more suitable for science fiction conventions and fans of Star Trek or the X-Files. Today, it’s the exact opposite. Those who reject the notion of alien life are considered to be outliers. This change in attitude occurred for several reasons, perhaps none as important as the discovery that exoplanets are everywhere — 100 billion of them in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
Surely, with so many opportunities for life to flourish, the universe must be teeming with extraterrestrials. But is it? Other than Earth, there’s almost certainly no other life in our solar system. Most exoplanets we know of are not particularly hospitable to life. Most stars are incapable of supporting photosynthesis.
The reality is that Earth-like planets are probably rare, but that doesn’t rule out that the entire universe, after all, is a pretty big place. While the spatial size of the entire universe is unknown, it is possible to measure the size of the observable universe, which is approximately 93 billion light-years in diameter at the present day.
This is the exact reason why, though humankind has never found any sign of any extraterrestrial life outside of our planet, many scientists do believe in the possibility that it's just a matter of time before we would get a news flash from channels like CNN or BBC that some mission that NASA or ISRO did discover a bacteria on some planet which has no relation to any life present on earth.
An earlier upset during the day was witnessed Netherlands who defeated South Africa who was the clear favourites from the group B to enter the semi-finals. This effectively ended South Africa's campaign unless the match between Bangladesh and Pakistan was cancelled. Later in the day, Pakistan handsomely defeated Bangladesh finalizing their unexpected seat in the Semifinals.
By the evening in Melbourne, India and Pakistan had finalized their seats though the rankings were still in question. If Zimbabwe could have managed another upset, India would have needed to fight New Zealand in the semifinals to continue their campaign, which as history depicts hasn't been an easy task for the men in blue. Anyway, Suryakumar Yadav's beautiful performance batting first which took India to a decent 170 plus score made it extremely difficult for Zimbabwe, and eventually, after a fall of Zimbabwe's batting fall, India managed to get the task done quite easily.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion was finalised on Thursday, October 28th, and the months-long process over the ownership of one of the most loved and used Social media platforms was finally over. Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, immediately after taking control of the company.
Twitter as a company since its inception has been traditionally dependent on advertising for the bulk of its revenue and has always been cited to have left-lining culture. This also explains the banning of Former US President Donald Trump and Indian actress Kangana Ranaut from the platform permanently. As Musk took control, people have been asking if the banned public figures would be allowed back to the platform, however interesting this question might be, the real question lies if Twitter would ever be able to compete with social media giants like the Meta group and Snapchat in terms of users and revenue.
Twitter's new chief twit, Elon Musk seems to have a solution to increase twitter's revenue by introducing a subscription plan of sorts to remove Blue bird's dependence on advertising.
Think and Learn Private Limited, which runs the ed-tech platform Byjus seems to be in trouble since it filled its results for the Financial year 2021. Byju's had a goal of going public sometime in 2022 looks now scattered and the company has announced massive job-cuts, now trying to focus on its core products.
Although, the startup community of India has been quick to react to the layoffs, posting job listings via Twitter and LinkedIn and, many startups increasing their hiring to get a chunk of the talent from Byjus. Byjus is still one of the most admired startups from India and only time will tell if Byjus would be able to cope-up with this crisis and achieve its goal of an Initial public offering in the coming years.
On October 26, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Central government to issue Indian currency notes featuring the portraits of Mahatma Gandhi on one side and Hindu Gods on the other. He cited the example of the world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia which had done the same sometime back for its currency.
So what is the reason that a secular party like the AAP is trying so desperately to play in the Hindutva card for the Gujurat elections?
The answer is simple, It looks like Congress by its own self-destruction mechanism is out of the game in Gujurat and the battle seems to be with the BJP as the front-runner and AAP seems to be the challenger. Hence, Mister Kejriwal seems to believe that he has already backed the so-called secular votes, that is the minority votes as its highly likely that they would be voting for anyone who seems to have a chance to defeat the BJP.
In just three years, Lula da Silva has gone from prisoner to president-elect.
After being jailed on corruption charges, the left-wing da Silva engineered a stunning political resurrection on Sunday by winning Brazil's presidential runoff election — in a nail-biter — over right-wing incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
After having a turbulent past and an even worse pandemic, everyday Brazilians now hope that Lula will bring back the times from his prior presidency when Brazil experienced high growth and low inflation.
In a historic decision, the Board of Control for Cricket in India or the BCCI, announced a pay equity policy saying that its centrally-contracted men and women players would get the same match fees. BCCI secretary Jay Shah took to Twitter to promote the significant development.
This means the women players will now get Rs 15 lakh per Test match, Rs 6 lakh for a One-Day International or the ODI, and Rs 3 lakh for a T20 International. Till now, they were paid Rs 1 lakh for a white-ball match, and Rs 4 lakh for a Test.
With this, India has become the second country in international cricket to implement equal pay. Earlier this year, New Zealand Cricket announced equal match fees for its women players.
Bollywood seems to be struggling against South Indian cinema since the Pandemic has ended. It's losing steadily the battle for literally everything from decreasing ticket sales to revenue generated from movies to even now losing the number of screens for its shows, which are been taken over by the so-called Tamil-Telgu industry duo, launching its dubbed movies on Bollywood's or Hindi Film Industries in Hindi & Marathi languages.
Though, this decline can be attributed to many factors from less number of single-screen theatres to Bollywood losing touch with the ground. Yet, many Bollywood movies still seem to be unthreatened by this downfall. So we wanted to examine the reasons why people still love Bollywood so much.
Russia has a much larger economy than Ukraine, banking on whom, Russia is able to continue the war and it would also help it to recover faster once the war is over. But now, this economy itself is becoming a challenge, slowly but steadily the mounting effect of the sanctions made on Russia is starting to show up, and ordinary citizens are feeling the burnt from the war in rising inflation and food prices.
It's clear that no matter how much support Ukraine could push the Russian forces backwards, the war could only end from the Russian side, when either the existing establishment is forced out of power or if it realises the war is just not worth it anymore.
Only time will tell what happens in Ukraine in the future, but right now the war seems to be continuing at least till 2023.
India is a country with more than 1.3 billion people living inside its borders alone and has always been a country looked at by external powers as blessed with its human resources.
India has been known for its universities and its education system with universities like Nalanda which were world famous for its times. India arguably is also considered as a birth-place of a type of democracy where nobles were allowed to vote and elect the leader or the king who enjoyed absolute power over their kingdom depicted in Bollywood movies such as Bajirao Mastani and Mohenjodaro
Yet, as we see India today is still a lower-income nation with a lot more people to feed than the resources it has, due to which many talented people choose to leave India, in pursuit of a better life.
Intimacy in a relationship is a feeling of being close and emotionally connected and supported. We take a look at how important it is for any relationship to be successful and what are the problems today's generation is facing in their relationships because of not being intimate enough.
Liz Truss’s sudden resignation has trigged crises to find the party’s next leader and Britain’s next Prime Minister within a week. Candidates need 100 votes from fellow Conservative MPs to enter the contest, with party members set to decide once a final two are selected. A potential showdown between Sunak and Johnson in a Bollywood-styled drama seems evident and we look forward to enjoying this upcoming story throughout the next week, which might lead to a comeback from Ashes for Boris or UK electing its first brown Prime Minister.
Welcome to today's special episode of Stynd Podcast on lessons for love and life from Ramayana.
Ramayana is basically the biography of Lord Rama who is the incarnation of Vishnu, the God of Protection. Vishnu is one of the trinity of the three most important Hindu gods – Brahma the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Shiva the destroyer. Ramayana has many different lessons which we can instil in our own lives in order to help us make it just a little bit better.
Here are five lessons simplified that you can use in your lives.
With a class batting attack and an unproven but talented bowling attack, India certainly has the potential to challenge the favourites for this tournament in Australia and New Zealand. But the home conditions and a strong core team do play in advantage for the favourites.
If not like in 1983, India at least certainly has a 2007 level of challenge to be overcome if it has any ambitions of dreaming of that World cup trophy after 15 years.
Malikarjun Kharge was elected as the Congress president on Monday after he secured 7,897 out of the 9,385 votes polled. His rival, Shashi Tharoor, however, sprung a surprise by securing 1,072 votes. Kharge handsomely defeated Tharoor with a ratio of 9:1 and the credit for the same is given to backing from the Gandhi family. Kharge was assumed to be hand-picked by the Gandhi plan to run the operations of the party.
Its yet to be seen if the post of Congress president could translate to bigger ambitions for Kharge, as many still believe that the Gandhis would still be running the show from behind, and is all set to project Rahul Gandhi as its face once again for the 2024 General Elections.
The challenge mounting in 2024 for the Congress would be huge, as even after 10 years of anti-incumbency, Narendra Modi seems stronger than ever and is able to sweep elections with just his name and charisma. Kharge’s years of experience in politics and his skills to build a consensus would now be very crucial for an increasingly un-united party of Congress to rise from the ashes and dream of challenging Modi in 2024.
Follow our Podcast to keep up with more such stories from across India and the world.
A few months before August, when elections will be held to choose a new President, freedom of expression is increasingly in danger in Angola. According to the US State Department’s Human Rights 2021 report, published in 2022, Angola is experiencing moments marked by illegal or arbitrary executions, forced disappearances, inhuman treatment, and restrictions on press freedom. It should also be noted that after successive protests by activists and opposition parties against the new electoral law, new demonstrations took place once again in the capital Luanda. However, as has been recurrent on other occasions, the police prohibited the demonstration on 9 April from taking place and arrested some of the activists in the past.
Written by Global Voices Lusofonia Translated by Dércio Tsandzana on 9th May 2022.
Srilanka is a neighbor country of India and anything that happens over there also reflects the situation in India. There are many aspects that will impact India directly and some indirectly. Some of the consequences of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis are quite vulnerable from the point of view of India and some of them are favorable for India.
Sri Lanka is fighting some serious economic problems and the whole country is running out of resources. If we understand the reason behind this situation then we’ll find that it was a complete failure of theSri Lankan government and administration. The government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa took some foolish steps which were revolutionary according to them and ended up putting the whole country in tough times
In Sri Lanka, some news stories suggest that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa may step down, although it seems improbable that this in itself would put an end to the protests. Another report claims that the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has been invited to take the post, although he wishes to consult other parliamentarians before deciding. If the president remains in power, there may be widespread scepticism about any changes at the top.
Meanwhile, the risk looms of intensified repression using the new powers at President Rajapaksa’s disposal. On May 10, the Colombo Chief Magistrate is due to hear a request from police to have the Galle Face protestors removed.
If there are moves to use further violence in clamping down on the most high profile protests or demonstrations elsewhere, or to victimise critics of the regime, the government’s credibility will be further undermined at home and abroad. Much remains uncertain.
The snippet is taken from the article which was first published on globalvoices.org on May 9th 2022.
Nothing could be more symbolic of Nepal’s goal of being net-zero in energy by 2045 than the sight on New Year’s day on Thursday, April 14, 2022, as three new Chinese electric buses drove past a hydroelectric plant and a solar panel array on the Bhote Kosi River.
The three buses are the first of 40 battery-powered buses ordered by the Sajha Yatayat cooperative public transport service from China. They will be running on renewable energy generated by power plants like the 45MW Upper Bhote Kosi hydroelectric project along the Arniko Highway in Phulping Katti, Central Nepal to the Chinese border.
The Article is by Nepali Times and was first published on global voices on 24th April 2022
Communal clashes between right-wing Hindu supremacist groups and the minority Muslim community have been reported across India at two recent Hindu festivals within a week.
The first time was on the occasion of Ram Navami on April 10, when clashes were reported in Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Bihar. More clashes were reported on Saturday, April 16, at Hanuman Jayanti from Kurnool, Haridwar, and the Jahangirpuri area in India’s capital, New Delhi.
Ram Navami is an important Hindu festival that is traditionally observed by fasting and culminates on the ninth day, the birth of Lord Ram, one of the most significant Hindu deities. Devotees offer prayers and rituals at temples, sing devotional songs, and conduct rituals and chariot processions at home and at the community level. However, there is a century-old history of violent processions and using these Hindu religious occasions as opportunities to galvanise Hindus, instigate hate and assert Hindu supremacy.
The Article is by Sanjukta and was first published in Global Voices on 25th April 2022 (Stynd is a content-partner of Global Voices and has no control and responsibility of the content in the article)
Elon Musk’s moment of triumph is a moment of uncertainty for the future of one of the world’s leading social media platforms. AP Photo/John Raoux Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, acquired Twitter in a US$44 billion deal on April 25, 2022, 11 days after announcing his bid for the company. Twitter announced that the public company will become privately held after the acquisition is complete.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for his initial bid for the company, Musk stated, “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”
As a researcher of social media platforms, I find that Musk’s ownership of Twitter and his stated reasons for buying the company raise important issues. Those issues stem from the nature of the social media platform and what sets it apart from others.
The Article was first published in The Conversation on 26th April 2022.
On Wednesday, Indian steel giant, Tata Steel announced that it was cutting all business ties with Russia. This made Tata Steel the latest multi-national company to stop business with Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A spokesperson from the company’s European division, Tata Steel Europe, said in a statement that it “does not have any operations or employees in Russia”.
The company added, its steel manufacturing units in India, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands had arranged for raw materials to be sourced from elsewhere ending its dependence on Russia.
The Article was first published in Wikinews.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, nations across Europe rose to respond to the crisis, raising questions, not only about its consequences for the affected countries and beyond but also about various implications around disinformation and digital rights. As technology has progressed rapidly over the years, resulting in a digital revolution, a number of security experts concluded that certain advancements could lead to “hybrid wars” in which cyberweapons and disinformation may become a type of weapon in psychological warfare around the globe. Similarly, the current pandemic has been accompanied by a so-called “infodemic” as well. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the practices of information that influence our everyday lives, as an essential part of maintaining the world’s security and stability.
The article is by Rafaela Landikusic and was first published on globalvoices.org on March 22nd, 2022.
Reports yesterday indicated Ukraine has recaptured territory including Irpin, a suburb of capital city Kyiv, from Russian invading forces ahead of scheduled peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey later today. Mayor of Irpin Alexandar Markushin said: "We have good news today — Irpin has been liberated", but told residents who had fled it was too soon to return as fighting was ongoing. Trostianets in the north-east near the border with Russia, was also reported to be back under Ukrainian control, according to a senior United States defense official who spoke anonymously with the Associated Press.
The article you listened was first published on Wikinews on Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Imran Khan’s ousting as PM signals that the fate of Pakistan is still in the hands of the Pakistani army‘s establishment which undoubtedly has the power to break any future government's efforts to pursue peace with India. As long as the Army will continue to see India as its primary enemy and existential threat towards its sovereignty, no future government ever coming in power in Islamabad will ever have a chance to talk peace in its wildest of dreams with New Delhi.
On Tuesday, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted emergency use authorisation to Novavax Covid-19 vaccine Covovax for use on teenagers aged between 12 and 17. The vaccine, also known as NVX-CoV2373, is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India under the brand name Covovax. Last month, Novavax conducted the last stage trial of the vaccine on 2,247 Indian teenagers aged between 12 and 17, which returned an 80% efficacy rate. Novavax also ran phase three trials of Covovax in the United States and the United Kingdom on participants aged 18 years and older, which showed an efficacy rate of 90.4% and 89.7%, respectively.
The Article is published first on Wikinews.org on Thursday, March 24, 2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February coincided with important legislative assembly elections in India, bolstering the expression of expansionist sentiment on the campaign trail and elsewhere. Expansionist narratives have long been present in Indian media, but the war in Ukraine has given them an additional boost. Now that legislative assembly elections are over, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having won major states, setting the tone for India’s 2024 general elections, pro-BJP media is seeking to humiliate and silence dissenters.
The Article was first published on globalvoices.org on 18th March, 2022.
Akhilesh Yadav has resigned as an MP and is about to become the leader of opposition in the UP's legislative assembly face to face against the newly elected MLA and chief minister of the state Adityanath, this comes after the Akhilesh's party increased its tally to 125 seats with allies in the UP elections of 2022 coming in second to BJP's massive win of 270 plus seats. Many commentators were not afraid to say that if Akhilesh would have remained more active before the election campaign began, his party could have capitalized more on the anti-bjp votes and could have increased its tally close to 200 seats. If Akhilesh could have been more vocal during the covid & migrant crises and be out into public more often that he was between 2017 to 2021, he could have cemented his place as a strong challenger to the so-called double engine ki sarkar.
Imran Khan's faces a no-confidence motion mostly because of his falling out with the Pakistani Army, its quite well known that In other countries the state owns the Army but in Pakistan the Army owns the state. For about two years after his 2018 election, Imran Khan’s boast was that his government was always with the Army and was therefore stable and could focus on governance.
The Bhartiya Janta Party announced that Pramod Sawant will remain the Chief Minister of Goa, finally ending speculation that Vishwajit Rane was getting the support internally in the party to project himself as the leader of the state, The BJP is to form the government with MGP and three other independents.
Dramatic petrol and diesel price rises have left the Indians uneasy these past few months. Even though the prices had not risen for 11 consecutive days as of September 16, it hardly brought any solace. In Delhi, petrol was priced at 101.19 INR (1.37 USD) per litre, while diesel was 88.62 INR (1.2 USD) per litre on September 18. Mumbai, with the highest rates of fuel among the four metros, recorded petrol prices at 107.26 INR (1.46 USD) and diesel at 96.19 INR (1.31 USD) per litre, as reported by the state-run oil refinery, Indian Oil. From 1990 until the recent spike in 2021, gasoline prices in India averaged 1.04 USD per litre.
The Article is by Anumeha Verma and was first published on globalvoices.org on 21 September 2021.
Is the Modi government trying to really build a Hindu Rashtra or its just tactics to divert attention from the crippling economy and win over states like Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam by polarising the population? Why aren’t Muslims & the Hindus talking about the failing economy, Is your religion more important than getting a daily meal?
The Article was first published on Medium on Dec 21, 2019.
Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol is home to 500,000 people. It was captured briefly by Russia-backed separatists in 2014. The city was retaken by Ukrainian troops the same year, but has remained very close to the frontline between Ukrainian and separatist forces ever since. Now Mariupol has come under attack again, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022. Taking Mariupol would enable Russia to create a land corridor between areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea, securing access to the sea of Azov. The city is currently under siege, its inhabitants trapped. More than 1,200 people are believed to have died.
This article by Valeria Costa-Kostritsky appeared on OpenDemocracy on March 11, 2022. It is republished as part of a content-sharing partnership and has been edited to fit the GV style and the republished article first appeared on globalvoices.org
In Ukraine, the internet has become the major front of defence against the Russian invasion. It is how the military informs Ukrainians about incoming Russian attacks, how humanitarian aid is organized, how cyber vigilantes are brought together, and how the rest of the world learns about the war. It has become Ukraine’s most prominent weapon, dominating the narrative of the war and resisting Russian disinformation. The internet is also the way Western companies like Microsoft have been able to analyse and patch vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s networks, creating an effective defence against Moscow’s cyber attacks. Many experts have been asking why Russia has not tried to destroy Ukraine’s internet infrastructure.
From being nobody before 2013 to now becoming India’s third-largest political party (by no. of legislative assemblies under control), the journey of the Aam Aadmi Party & Arvind Kejriwal – India’s newest political startup & its CEO has been compelling at the least. Today when the jhadu is sweeping Punjab’s elections, let’s have a look back at the future possibilities for AAP.
When you inhabit international spaces, you often find yourself having to represent your country in a most literal way. Whether it’s a classmate from grad school asking about a protest movement or my boss asking for my country’s take on a political situation, I have often found myself asked to explain India and its choices. So I was ready for it last week when Russia invaded Ukraine and all of us in the Global Voices newsroom began discussing the reactions in our respective home countries. What I did not expect, however, is that I would find myself with nothing to say.
The Article is by Ameya Nagrajan and was first published on globalvoices.org
As India completes sixty-three crore vaccines which are enough to vaccinate a quarter of our nation’s 1.25 billion strong population, I take a look back at the journey of the Pandemic from the beginning to today of what this young nation has been through and what challenges its healthcare system will face for the next pandemic.