Modi wins, but his party suffers losses
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India yesterday claimed a third term. But early results suggest his party won by a much narrower margin than expected. The aura of invincibility that surrounded Modi has been shattered.
The results indicated that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party would still win the most parliamentary seats, but not enough for an outright majority. He will probably need smaller parties in his coalition to form a government. The result was a surprising setback for the BJP.
See the live results here.
The Indian National Congress, the main opposition, was doing better than expected. The party was considered by many to be irrevocably weakened after heavy losses in the previous two elections. Congress and its allies increased their margin against Modi by exploiting issues such as unemployment, social justice and the prime minister’s ties to India’s billionaires.
Context: Modi will be only the second Indian leader to begin a third consecutive term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister. Modi yesterday called it “a historic feat in Indian history.”
Economy: As the results became clearer, Indian stock markets plummeted. By the end of trading yesterday, markets had fallen 6 percent, nearly wiping out the year’s gains.
What Ukraine has lost
Since World War II, few countries have experienced the level of devastation that Ukraine has. But until now, the scale has been too broad to see more than a glimpse at a time.
My colleagues published the first complete image of the total destruction. Using detailed analysis of years of satellite data, they created a record of every city, every street, every building that has been destroyed. In some places, such as the city of Marinka, not a single resident remains. Many people have lost more than their homes. They have lost their communities, their stories.
“If I close my eyes, I can see everything from my old life,” said Iryna Hrushkovksa, 34, who was born and raised in the city, adding: “But if I open my eyes, everything is gone.”
The scale of the destruction: More buildings have been destroyed in Ukraine than if every building in Manhattan were razed four times. Parts of Ukraine look like Dresden or London after World War II, or Gaza after half a year of bombing.
HIMARES: Ukraine used a U.S.-made rocket system to destroy missile launchers inside Russia, a Ukrainian official said. The attacks came just after the United States granted Ukraine permission to do so.
Israel kills Iranian general in Syria
Israeli airstrikes in Syria killed an Iranian general who was there as an adviser, Iranian media said. He He was believed to be the first Iranian killed by Israel since the two countries nearly went to war in April, after Israel bombed Iran’s embassy compound in Syria.
Iran is currently mired in a leadership crisis stemming from the death of its president last month. A new wave of attacks against Israel seems unlikely. The Iranian was identified as General Saeed Abyar, a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guard.
Loop: In an interview with Time magazine, President Biden suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was prolonging the war to stay in power.
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Benjamin Bolger has spent his life accumulating academic degrees. He has 14 advanced degrees, including some that took many years to complete, such as a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
The reason for his university search is simple: “I love learning,” he told our journalist.
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Chinese websites are disappearing
The Internet in China is disappearing in pieces. Posts are being deleted and censored.
In 2023, there were just 3.9 million sites, down from 5.3 million in 2017, the country’s internet regulator found. A recent post on WeChat reported that almost all information shared on the Internet in China (news portals, blogs, forums, social networking sites) between 1995 and 2005 was no longer available.
While it is expensive and difficult to archive a website anywhere, Internet publishers in China are under intense pressure to censor as the country has taken an authoritarian turn under Xi Jinping’s leadership, Li Yuan writes in The column. New New World.
Internet companies have more incentive to censor excessively and let old content disappear by not archiving it.
Two weeks ago, Nanfu Wang, a documentary filmmaker, searched for her name on the movie review site Douban and found nothing. “Some of the films I directed were removed and banned on the Chinese Internet,” she said. “But this time I feel like, as part of history, I have been erased.”