Musician whose real name was Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu was killed a day after his security cover was withdrawn
Indian police are investigating the murder of a popular Punjabi rapper a day after he was fatally shot.
Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, better known by his stage name Sidhu Moose Wala, was killed on Sunday evening while driving his car in Mansa, a district in Punjab state, northern India. Moose Wala, 28, was taken to hospital where he was declared dead.
Continue reading...Prime minister in Tokyo says no ‘serious person’ had believed Coalition line that a Labor government would adopt a softer approach towards Beijing
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will not bend to demands from China to reset the strained relationship despite overtures from Beijing in the wake of Labor’s election win.
Speaking after a meeting of the quadrilateral security dialogue (Quad) in Tokyo on Tuesday, Albanese confirmed the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, had sent a congratulatory letter to him following Saturday’s election win. The letter was first reported by Chinese state media Xinhua on Monday.
Continue reading...Leaders of US, India, Japan and Australia meet in Tokyo for Quad summit Beijing claims is an attempt to contain China
The turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underlined the need for a free Indo-Pacific region, Joe Biden has said at a meeting with regional partners that Beijing has condemned as part of a US-led attempt to contain China.
Biden and the leaders of a loose alliance known as the Quad – India, Japan and Australia – reaffirmed their commitment to a “free and open” Indo-Pacific during talks in Tokyo on Tuesday. The comments came one day after the US president said Washington would be ready to intervene militarily to defend Taiwan, prompting China to accuse him of “playing with fire”.
Continue reading...Soaring temperatures in subcontinent, which have caused widespread suffering, would be extraordinarily rare without global heating
The heatwave scorching India and Pakistan has been made 30 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. Extreme temperatures and low rainfall since mid-March have caused widespread suffering, including deaths, crop losses, forest fires, and cuts to power and water supplies.
The study is the latest to show the already severe impacts of global heating on millions of people, even though the global average temperature has risen only 1.2C above pre-industrial levels to date. If it rises to 2C, heatwaves as intense as the current one would be expected as often as every five years in India and Pakistan, the scientists estimated.
Continue reading...Rains inundate thousands of villages and trigger landslides in north-east Bangladesh’s worst flooding in nearly two decades
Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in parts of Bangladesh and India, leaving millions stranded and at least 57 dead, officials say.
In Bangladesh, about 2 million people have been marooned by the worst floods in the country’s north-east for nearly two decades.
Continue reading...The ban on wheat exports highlights the effect a rapidly warming planet has on food security – and livelihoods
It was his buffaloes that he was first worried about. As temperatures in the small village of Baras, deep in the Indian state of Punjab, began to soar to unseasonably hot levels in April, farmer Hardeep Singh Uppal noticed that his two buffaloes, essential for his family’s livelihood, became feverish and unwell.
A few weeks later and the buffaloes now seem fine, flicking their tails leisurely as an icy breeze blows down from an air conditioning unit, a luxury that once sat in Uppal’s parents house but now has been installed in an otherwise run-down cowshed, running all day at great expense. “The vet told me I need to keep them cool in this heatwave otherwise they will die so this is the only way,” said Uppal.
Continue reading...Latest analysis adds to evidence that the impacts of human-caused global heating are already damaging many lives around the world
Record-breaking heatwaves in north-west India and Pakistan have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. The analysis means scorching weather once expected every three centuries is now likely to happen every three years.
The region is currently suffering intense heat, with the Indian capital New Delhi setting a new record on Sunday above 49C and the peak temperature in Pakistan reaching 51C. Millions of people are suffering from crop losses, and water and power outages.
Continue reading...Gang who stole statues from Hindu temple in India return most items, with note saying they had suffered nightmares
A gang of thieves have returned more than a dozen idols they stole from an ancient Hindu temple in India, saying they had been haunted by nightmares since the crime, according to police.
Last week, the group stole 16 statues from a 300-year-old temple to Lord Balaji – an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu – in Uttar Pradesh, police inspector Rajiv Singh told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Move imposed with immediate effect in attempt to control prices after heatwave damages crops
India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, has banned all exports with immediate effect after a heatwave affected the crop.
A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
Continue reading...Dozens injured as official says building had no fire exit and most died ‘due to asphyxiation’
At least 27 people have died and dozens more were injured in a huge fire in a commercial building in India’s capital, Delhi.
The large fire broke out at the four-storey building near a railway station in the western suburb of Mundka in the late afternoon on Friday, but its cause was not immediately clear.
Continue reading...Parents lament pilot son ‘still not planning a baby’ after six years of marriage and demand compensation for exhausting their savings on him
An Indian couple are taking their son to court demanding that he and his wife either produce a grandchild within a year or cough up almost $650,000.
Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad say that they exhausted their savings raising and educating their pilot son and paying for a lavish wedding.
Continue reading...Jagtar Singh Johal has been detained since 2017 and allegedly tortured, accused of helping to fund assassination plot
The UK is under pressure to insist India release Jagtar Singh Johal, a British citizen, after a UN working group ruled he had been arbitrarily detained by India and his detention lacked any legal basis.
Boris Johnson apparently raised the case when he met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, last month and provided a written note of consular cases, but Foreign Office ministers have not confirmed whether they regard his detention as arbitrary.
Continue reading...Analysis: As the heatwave in India and Pakistan starts to intensify again, Thailand and China are recording strangely cold May days
The final days of April saw further unbearable temperatures recorded in India and Pakistan. Temperatures peaked at 49C in Jacobabad, Pakistan on 30 April, with a high of 47.2C observed in Banda, India. The Indian Meteorological Department confirmed that average temperatures in April were the highest for northern and central parts of the country since records began over 100 years ago.
Heatwaves are a common occurrence at this time of year in India and Pakistan, but scientists believe the intensity, duration and arrival time of the conditions witnessed so far this year are caused by rising global temperatures. Despite a slight respite in the extreme heat over the past few days, temperatures are set to intensify once more this weekend and into next week with maximum temperatures expected to approach 50C in parts of north-west India and Pakistan.
Continue reading...April temperatures at unprecedented levels have led to critical water and electricity shortages
For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and Pakistan, his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering through weeks of temperatures that have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F), unprecedented for this time of year. Locals have been driven into their homes, unable to work except during the cooler night hours, and are facing critical shortages of water and power.
Ahmed fears that things are only about to get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the world’s highest temperature for May was recorded, a staggering 54C. This year, he said, feels even hotter. “Last week was insanely hot in Turbat. It did not feel like April,” he said.
Continue reading...PM says he will close loopholes that allow components to be smuggled via India for use by Russian military
Boris Johnson has said he will close loopholes to ensure UK exports to India cannot end up being used in Russian weapons, as he conceded the war in Ukraine could go on until the end of next year, and Russia could win.
Speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day visit, the UK prime minister warned that Vladimir Putin was resorting to a “grinding approach” in Ukraine; and suggested the UK would help to “backfill” countries including Poland if they provided heavy weaponry such as tanks to Kyiv.
Continue reading...Analysis: The PM travelled 4,000 miles to not get very far, on a trip fraught with tensions about Partygate and Ukraine
As Boris Johnson met Narendra Modi on Friday morning, he joked of the enthusiastic welcome he received in the Indian prime minister’s home state of Gujarat featuring giant posters of the British leader’s face, and flag-waving crowds: “I wouldn’t get that necessarily everywhere in the world.”
It was a characteristically self-deprecating reference to the fact that even 4,000 miles from home, he was unable to escape Partygate.
Continue reading...Jignesh Mevani accused prime minister of idolising Nathuram Godse, killer of Mahatma Gandhi
A state lawmaker in India was arrested for criticising the prime minister, Narendra Modi, in a tweet, officials have said, raising concerns over freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy.
His arrest coincided with the arrival of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, in the country.
Continue reading...Narendra Modi hails ‘good progress’ as Boris Johnson signals he is willing to make concessions on immigration
India and the UK will press ahead with talks on a bilateral free trade agreement, Boris Johnson and the Indian premier, Narendra Modi, have said, after the UK made clear it was willing to make immigration part of any deal.
The pair appeared to differ on how rapidly an agreement could be made – Johnson suggested it could be ready by the festival of Diwali in late October, but Modi pointed to the end of the year.
Continue reading...Observers criticise optics of PM at factory while bulldozers seen in TV coverage of razing of settlements
Boris Johnson’s attempt to use his India visit to hail the success of JCB, the digger firm owned by a Tory donor, was met with a backlash on Thursday over the use of its machinery in the mass demolition of homes.
The prime minister arrived in India as a fierce row rages in Delhi over the demolition of mainly Muslim settlements in an area of the capital hit by communal violence – an issue that is being considered by India’s supreme court.
Continue reading...Analysis: Deal is seen by some as single most important UK negotiation, but agreement will take time
Of all the deals that Boris Johnson could sign with countries outside the EU to lift UK trade, one with India is the among the biggest prizes.
After landing in the country on Thursday morning, the prime minister must be hoping his two-day trip – taking in his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujurat and then New Delhi – will add impetus to talks already under way to reach a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
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