Rajesh Dadi sat on the edge of a chair, his thin frame curled into an almost defensive posture. One leg was pulled close to his chest, his knee tucked under his chin, and his other leg stretched out awkwardly towards the floor. The nine-year-old fourth-grade student’s attention was on the glow of the screen in … Read more
April 25 has been recognised globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day (previously African Malaria Day), since 2006 to highlight the need for continued investment and innovation. The “butterfly effect” from chaos theory might result in a Tornado, but the “mosquito effect” (through the parasite it carries) has fundamentally altered human … Read more
Banu Mushtaq begins by reading aloud a story from her International Booker-nominated short story collection, Heart Lamp, titled “The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri.” The story is about a lawyer who hires an Arabic teacher, who is very fond of Gobi Manchuri, for her two young daughters, and a series of unexpected events that ensue … Read more
Fifty-seven senior citizens have gathered in Satvik Valley Resort, Loni Kalbhor village, about 25 kilometres from Pune. Tourists mostly come here to visit the ancient Ramdara temple, built on a hill, where Hindus believe Rama and Lakshmana visited during their exile. But this is not a religious gathering. Nor is it a bunch of fitness … Read more
Moscow, April 24: The Soviet Union yesterday offered its backing for the “strictest guarantees of Israel’s existence and independence” — if it was prepared to withdraw from occupied Arab territories. The pledge, made by the Foreign Minister, Mr. Andrel Gromyko, at a Kremlin dinner in honour of the visiting Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdel-Khalim Khaddam, … Read more
Lahore, April 24: The North-Western Railway strike situation is about the same as yesterday and men with previous railway experience are being engaged in satisfactory numbers in the place of the absentees. A recent change in the situation is that a proportion of the yard staff and of the station carriage staff at Lahore have … Read more
United States President Donald Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariffs’ have been compared to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s, which many say hastened the slide into the Great Depression. The difference between the 1930s and now is that we have the World Trade Organization (WTO) to oversee and enforce global trade rules. However, some argue that over … Read more
West Asia is in a geo-engineering flux not seen since the birth of Israel 77 years ago. The perennial Palestinian issue is at a pivotal moment with an extreme right Israeli government’s hard-line position at odds with the Arab States’ insistence on a two-state solution for the Abraham Accords’ expansion. After the loss of regional … Read more
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office on April 24, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP The recently announced reciprocal tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump have led to a decline in the prices of key commodities, crude oil, volatility, and a downturn in stock markets. Since the tariff announcement, crude oil … Read more
After weeks of speculation – they will, sure, but when will they? – the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the annual player contracts for the Indian men’s team for the 2024-25 season this Monday. These contracts run between October 1 of last year and September 30 of 2025 – the 34 names … Read more