Reuters

How Israel’s bulky pager fooled Hezbollah

An invisible detonator and wafer-thin plastic explosives turned batteries into bombs BEIRUT, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The batteries inside the weaponised pagers that arrived in Lebanon at the start of the year, part of an Israeli plot to decimate Hezbollah, had powerfully deceptive features and an Achilles' heel. The agents who built the pagers designed a battery that concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a novel detonator that was invisible to X-ray, according to a Lebanese source with first-hand knowledge of the pagers, and teardown photos of the battery pack seen by Reuters. To overcome the weakness - the absence of a plausible backstory for the bulky new product - they created fake online stores, pages and posts that could deceive Hezbollah due diligence, a Reuters review of web archives shows. The stealthy design of the pager bomb and the battery’s carefully constructed cover story, both described here for the first time, shed light on the execution of a years-long operation which has struck unprecedented blows against Israel's Iran-backed Lebanese foe and pushed the Middle East closer to a regional war. A thin, square sheet with six grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) plastic explosive was

Gaza in rubble and ruin

Israel’s military campaign since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack has devastated the Gaza Strip, leaving an estimated 42 million tonnes of debris piled where houses, mosques, schools and shops used to stand. In April a U.N. estimate reckoned that this would take 14 years to dispose of, while the U.N. official overseeing the problem said the clean-up would cost at least $1.2 billion. Tackling the debris crisis will be harder because it is spread across so much of the Gaza Strip, and because there are so many areas of intense destruction. The volume of rubble is immense and continues to accumulate rapidly. Adding to the complexity is the large quantity of unexploded ordnance (UXO) as well as risks from asbestos and other contaminants, especially in refugee camps, and the large number of bodies still lying in the rubble. The World Health Organization said large amounts of dust released from destroyed buildings are releasing hazardous materials that float into the air or seep into water supplies, risking serious health problems for Gaza’s 2.3 million people. According to a damage assessment from UNOSAT, 163,778 structures were damaged in the Gaza Strip based on images taken on Sept. 3 and Sept. 6 amounting to

Harris and Trump fight to win in seven states

2024 U.S. Elections Behind the Battleground States What's Changed in the Seven States Likely to Determine America’s Next President U.S. Presidential elections are sprawling affairs, with mail-in voting that begins weeks ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5 and in-person voting that begins at midnight that Tuesday in the small New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch and continues until voting ends at 7 p.m. in the Hawaiian-Aleutian time zone, already the next day back east. But in the U.S. system, that popular vote doesn’t determine the outcome. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Each state gets a certain number of votes based on its size in what is called the Electoral College. Those votes are awarded on a state-by-state basis, and in all but two states - Maine and Nebraska - the winner takes all. Because many states vote dependably for Democrats or Republicans in presidential elections, the outcome usually rests on a handful of places where the election is truly competitive – the battlegrounds. This year seven states are regarded as the battlegrounds. They include old-line manufacturing powerhouses that have had a tough transition to the 21st century economy, and fast growing southern states that used to be dependably Republican

Years after Grenfell Tower tragedy, buildings still wrapped in “solid gasoline”

At around 5.30 p.m. on February 22, a fire broke out on the 8th floor of a high-rise building in Valencia, Spain. These videos were taken over the next 45 minutes. 5:37 p.m. In two hours, flames had engulfed the entire building, killing ten people. Reuters consulted more than half a dozen experts who said the blaze was fuelled by the use of flammable materials in the high-rise’s cladding. They said the fire showed that seven years after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people, its lessons had gone unlearned. Despite scores of deaths, building codes in many countries don’t require the removal of flammable polymers from cladding The energy crisis of the 1970’s pushed architects to insulate buildings to reduce heating costs. Ventilated facades — a cladding system that creates an air gap for ventilation between a building’s exterior wall and a thin layer of rainproof cladding — became a popular option to improve energy efficiency. But in the 1980s and 1990s, building codes in many countries didn’t consider the fire risk of cladding materials. Flammable polymers like polyethylene were available cheaply and were widely used in ACM panels. These panels — which no longer

The music played at the DNC and RNC

In one chart Candidate track record The music used for presidential candidate nomination acceptance speeches compared to when the song was originally released. Kamala Harris took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last night to deliver her much-anticipated nomination acceptance speech — a significant moment for any candidate. Traditionally, this moment is accompanied by a carefully selected song that resonates with the candidate's message. Harris chose Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” a song that has quickly become synonymous with her campaign. Released in 2016, it reflects the younger base of the Democratic party. In contrast, Republican nominees often opt for older, more classic songs, except for John McCain, who used the campaign-specific anthem “Raisin’ McCain.” Note Nomination acceptance speech entrance songs were used however, in the case of John McCain, Al Gore, and George W. Bush in 2004 the candidates’ exit/walk off song was used. In the case of “God Bless the USA” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”, the song's original release date and version were used. In 2020, a virtual DNC was held but did not feature an entrance or exit song. The song was chosen from an official campaign ad shown during that night. Sources C-Span, Reuters

North Korea’s trash balloons explained

May 28-29, June 1-2 FIRST AND SECOND WAVES North Korean state media said the country launched over 3,500 balloons After a week, The North released more. A torrent of trash How North Korean balloons have dropped tonnes of waste on the South North Korea has sent aloft thousands of balloons with bags of trash attached since May, which have crossed the border to become a new source of tension with the neighbouring South. The balloons have disrupted flights at Seoul’s Incheon airport, sparked a fire on the roof of a residential building, and even landed in the precincts of the South’s presidential palace. Across swathes of the country, they have hit cars, farms, neighbourhoods, restaurants, and schools. At least 1,300 arrived in all but two provinces of South Korea, according to the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). Where some balloons were found Of the hundreds that landed, CSIS used local media reports to locate 130 of the sites, shown below. The true number of landing sites is much higher, however, with waste found in 3,359 places nationwide from May 28 to July 25, according to police data provided to Yang Bu-nam, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic

Democrats’ new optimism: Kamala Harris breathes new life into campaign

Kamala Harris breathed new life into the White House bid of the Democratic Party. Enthusiastic donors and supporters followed. Whether their excitement can last until November remains uncertain. Kamala Harris revitalized a beleaguered Democratic campaign for the presidency when she entered the 2024 race last month, attracting record-high funding to her campaign and a groundswell of support on a still tight race to the White House. On July 21, U.S. President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, igniting a social media firestorm. A surge in individual contributions quickly followed, helping Harris’ campaign raise around $130 million in July alone, almost five times the $27 million raised by her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, a Reuters analysis of data from Federal Election Commission showed. The data only covers itemized contributions submitted to the FEC. Contributions must be itemized when they surpass $200 within an election cycle, according to FEC rules. The Harris effect Daily fundraising totals for the Democrats’ and Republicans’ presidential campaigns Enthusiasm over Harris has been palpable from the start. Democratic political action committee ActBlue posted its highest donations in 24 hours after Harris started her presidential campaign. In

Satellite imagery shows full extent of India's Wayanad landslide

After landslide 0 building washed away Before landslide 00 Washed away Satellite imagery shows how deadly landslides swept through settlements and washed away hundreds of buildings in India Sources: Planet Labs (after landslide); Google © 2024 Maxar Technologies, Airbus (before landslide) Landslides that hit the southern Indian state of Kerala on July 30 completely washed away more than 200 buildings in the worst-affected settlements of Mundakkai and Chooralmala, a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery shows. The analysis is based on a comparison of fresh imagery of the landslide acquired by satellite firm Planet Labs on Aug. 12 compared to images from before the disaster. The landslide damaged settlements as far as five km (3 miles) downhill from the source and covered an area of about one square kilometer (247 acres), equivalent to 140 soccer fields. The local government has estimated the landslide washed away 236 buildings and more than 400 were fully or partially damaged. Satellites from Planet Labs captured the panoramic view of the landslide after monsoon clouds cleared from the area. Reuters visually identified structures that appeared to be completely washed away. Buildings hidden in dense tree cover or those that appeared to remain in place were not

Bank of Japan yen intervention: A short history

Explainer The yen’s rollercoaster ride The Bank of Japan’s interest rate rise last week rattled markets, triggering an unwinding of yen-funded carry trades. Here’s a look at how the BOJ has shaped the yen’s value over time. The Japanese yen has been under pressure in the past few years as markets focused on the wide U.S.-Japan interest rate differentials. The yen lost more than 20% against the dollar since the outset of 2022, prompting several rounds of intervention by Tokyo to prop up the currency in September and October that year. It kept falling despite further intervention in April and May 2024, touching a 38-year low of 161.96 to the dollar on July 3. Japan is suspected to have stepped in again in mid-July to put a floor under the yen. The yen’s downtrend has reversed in recent days, following the Bank of Japan’s July 31 decision to raise interest rates and ahead of an expected loosening of U.S. monetary policy. The BOJ’s hawkish move, along with investors’ concerns about U.S. growth, jolted global stock and bond markets. It triggered an unwinding of the carry trade, whereby investors borrow cheaply in yen to invest in higher-yielding assets. The yen rebounded

How missed warnings, 'over-tourism' aggravated deadly India landslides

With a steeply pitched tiled roof piercing misty green hills in southern India and a stream gushing through rocks nearby, the Stone House Bungalow was one of the most popular resorts in the Wayanad area of Kerala state. It was empty when two landslides early on Tuesday washed away the 30-year-old stone building: staff and tourists had left after rain flooded its kitchen a few days earlier. But neighbouring dwellings in Mundakkai village were occupied and nearly 200 people, almost all locals, were killed with scores more missing. Tourists had been warned to leave the day earlier because of the rain. Local authorities are now counting the cost of the disaster and questioning whether the rapid development of a tourism industry was to blame for the tragedy. Weather-related disasters are not unusual in India, but the landslides in Kerala state this week were the worst since about 400 people were killed in floods there in 2018. Mundakkai, the worst affected area, was home to some 500 local families. It and neighbouring areas housed nearly 700 resorts, homestays and zip-lining stations attracting trekkers, honeymooners and tourists looking to be close to nature, a local official said. Cardamom and tea estates dotted

Myanmar’s junta terrorised a Rohingya town. Then rebels burned it down.

Saifur Rahman woke up to screams. In the darkness, the air reeked of fuel. Flames blazed in the distance. The town of Buthidaung in Rakhine state, Myanmar's largest settlement of minority Rohingya, was on fire and under attack. “All I could see was fire,” said the 30-year-old Rohingya. “We knew something bad could happen but never imagined this.” When the fires subsided, much of the riverside town near Myanmar’s western border with Bangladesh was smouldering debris, rendering thousands of Rohingya homeless. Initial estimates suggest at least 45 Rohingya died during the attack and its immediate aftermath, a senior United Nations official said. The attack at around 10 p.m. on May 17 was the latest of many bouts of violence against the Rohingya, Myanmar’s largely Muslim ethnic minority group, which suffered what the U.N. called “textbook ethnic cleansing” at the hands of the Buddhist-majority country's military in 2017. That year, the military spearheaded the killing of an estimated 10,000 Rohingya, sending more than 700,000 fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the U.N. Since then, fighting has flared between junta troops and the powerful Arakan Army ethnic militia in Rakhine state, with combat intensifying in recent months as the rebels scored major

Olympians will be surfing the perfect wave in Teahupo’o, Tahiti

While most 2024 Olympians will be battling for glory in Paris, the world's best surfers will be going for gold 16,000km away on Tahiti, where the spinning blue barrels of Teahupo'o might be the real star of the show. A potent mix of beauty and brutality, Teahupo’o has been the venue for many of surfing’s most exciting contests and some of the sport’s seminal moments since it was revealed to the wider world in the 1990s. Teahupo'o, which loosely translates as “Pile of Heads” or “Wall of Skulls” after a gruesome local legend, was picked to stage the Olympic competition because the beaches in France are mostly flat this time of year. Huge winter storms in the South Pacific near New Zealand generate swells of up to 15m that travel thousands of kilometres before lurching out of the deep onto a shallow reef at “The End of the Road”, as Teahupo’o is also known. A large trench carved by fresh water running off the jungle-clad mountains provides an incredibly close and relatively safe spot for spectator boats. While the biggest waves rise some 10m and are not as tall as those in Portugal's Nazare or Hawaii's Peahi, the explosive power,

Elections in 2024 and global politics

2024 elections How this year of elections is set to reshape global politics Almost half of the world’s population will vote in national elections in 2024. Here's what we've learned so far. Elections are taking place this year in countries home to almost half of the world's population, from Taiwan's general election in January to the U.S. presidential race in November. The votes come amid growing economic and geopolitical strife, with the Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East and rising trade tensions between the United States and China, the world's two largest economies. In some countries, there are concerns about the resilience of democracy itself as political discourse has polarized or been warped by disinformation. Many of this year's elections will not be free and fair - or their results will be disputed. Half-way through the biggest year for elections in history, here are some common themes that have emerged in Reuters reporting from around the world: Cost of living From the price of green onions in Indonesia to higher fuel bills across Europe, rises in the price of food, energy and other basics have hit the living standards of households across the world. Incumbent governments and leaders are

Biden is now deporting more people than Trump

Immigration Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have pledged to return more migrants to their home countries, with differing approaches as immigration has emerged as a top issue in the coming U.S. election rematch. Republican former President Donald Trump is promising to ramp up deportations from the United States to historic levels if reelected to another four-year term in the White House as part of his campaign to defeat President Joe Biden, a Democrat, who has struggled with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. In June, Biden implemented a sweeping, new asylum ban aimed at quickly deporting more recent border crossers to their home countries or Mexico. Even with the tougher border policy, Biden has continued to work to protect longer-term immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including through a new effort also announced in June that would ease the path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people married to U.S. citizens. He has shifted enforcement priorities inside the country to focus on removing migrants who the U.S.has deemed as public safety threats. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Trump’s pledge echoes his 2015 campaign promise to deport some 11 million immigrants in the

India Stampede: How 121 people were killed

Uttar Pradesh stampede How a monthly religious event led to disaster At a Hindu religious gathering in northern India, 121 people were killed on July 2 in one of the country's worst stampedes in years. The stampede happened in Phulrai Mughal Garhi village in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the national capital New Delhi, where authorities said hundreds of thousands had gathered in sweltering late afternoon temperatures. As the Hindu preacher started to leave the venue after addressing the crowd at around 1:30 PM local time, thousands of devotees rushed to get a closer glimpse of him, jostling and pushing on slippery ground, witnesses say. Most of the victims were women, trampled when they fell in the path of the crowd. The preacher Suraj Pal Singh Jatav, 72, also known as 'Bhole Baba', was holding a monthly congregation. The meeting started around noon. About 250,000 people had gathered in a canopied field by a highway, although authorities had given permission for only 80,000, police said. At least 121 people were killed and 31 injured, with the dead including 112 women and seven children. The trouble started after the hour-long afternoon congregation concluded and

How the renting bubble may be a key factor in the election

undefined undefined US voters press Congress candidates to fix housing crisis Published July 2, 2024 From suburban New York to rural Montana, candidates for U.S. Congress are getting an earful from voters stressed by stratospheric housing costs, interviews with Democratic and Republican campaigns and Reuters/Ipsos polling showed. At campaign stops in his New York state district, Democratic U.S. Representative Pat Ryan said in an interview that people regularly complain about having trouble finding a house or apartment they can afford. He is seeking to hold his seat, one of a couple dozen tight races his party must win in the Nov. 5 elections if it is to capture a majority in the House of Representatives. “I would say right now ... in the whole region — the Hudson Valley north of New York City — the No. 1 point of economic pain and pressure is housing affordability,” said Ryan, who wants money from Democratic President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure law to aid housing construction. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll in May found voters rated the scarcity and cost of housing as their second-most important economic worry, after fears of stagnating income and rising prices. Economic concerns are also central to

Challenges aplenty for UK’s 2024 election winners

2024 elections The UK, 14 years after Conservatives won power UK election winners inherit huge challenges, from economy to health The winners of Britain's election on Thursday - which looks set to end 14 years in power for the Conservative Party - will take on some of the biggest challenges faced by any new government since the end of World War Two. The economy has struggled to grow, health and other services are under severe strain and there is little room in the public finances to fix them. The government is also lagging behind its targets for immigration and house-building. Opinion polls give a large lead to Keir Starmer's opposition Labour Party over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives. The graphics below highlight some of the main tasks ahead for the next government. Economy Britain, like many other rich nations, has managed only sluggish economic growth for most of the period after the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Growth in Britain since 2010 - when the Conservatives took power - has been stronger than in Germany, France or Italy. But the lead is marginal. Taking account of changing population numbers - which have risen sharply in Britain due to high immigration

Comparing Trump and Biden

2024 Elections The Rematch The Trump and Biden Economies by the Numbers Approaching the November presidential rematch between incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his predecessor Donald Trump, a Republican, the two candidates are already drawing distinctions over their economic records. And there are surely fundamental differences between them. But any broad comparison is complicated by the huge disruptions at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, which triggered two of the most extreme quarters of economic contraction and growth in U.S. history, followed by a bout of inflation reminiscent of the 1970s. Should Trump be blamed for a collapse in output that rivaled the Great Depression? Should Biden get credit for millions of jobs created in 2021 that were largely a pandemic rebound? Below, a look at key measures of economic performance - from growth overall to the labor market, from tariffs to tax collections - that illustrate the contrasts and similarities between the economies under both. Overall Growth The broadest measure of an economy’s performance is annualized growth in gross domestic product, a figure that counts every widget produced, every meal served, and every dollar spent by the government to measure changes to the country’s

Gaza faces the threat of famine. How children starve

In Gaza, hunger is taking a toll on the bodies of children. The impact can last a lifetime. Nearly 166 million people worldwide are estimated to need urgent action against hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global partnership which measures food insecurity. That includes nearly everyone in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military launched an offensive in October following an attack on Israel by Hamas militants. More than one million of Gaza’s inhabitants face the most extreme form of malnutrition – classified by the IPC as ‘Catastrophe or Famine.’ Seven-month-old Majd Salem is one of them. Born on Nov. 1, three weeks after Israel launched the offensive, the child was being treated for a chest infection in the neonatal ICU at Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on May 9. The nurse caring for him said he was suffering from severe malnutrition. Majd was born at a healthy weight of 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds), said his mother, Nisreen al-Khateeb. By May, when he was six months old, his weight had barely changed to 3.8 kg, she said – around 3 kg less than would be expected for a baby his age. Majd, whose eyes

North Korea balloon offensive

Seoul-based activists develop tech to send messages deep into North Korea In the balloon warfare between North Korea and South Korean activists, one Seoul-based group has honed its tech expertise to develop balloons capable of dispersing leaflets and electronic speakers hundreds of kilometres across the border. Built using 3D printers and components sourced online and sometimes equipped with GPS-tracking, these so-called "smart balloons" can cost up to $1,000 each. Once or twice a month from spring to autumn, when favourable winds blow north, the secretive group flies the balloons - mostly under the cover of darkness. The aim is to drop cargoes deeper into North Korea, including over the capital Pyongyang, with the longer ranges now possible. One balloon has flown as far as China. Balloon paths The activists tracked some of their balloons with GPS "Our smart balloons are expensive but we think they're a hundred times more powerful than balloons flown by other groups," said one member of the group which is called "The Committee for Reform and Opening up of Joson". Joson is another word for North Korea. The group, which has some 30 core members and is funded by members' own finances as well as donations,

India's election 2024: A logistical triumph across a vast polling network

How India conducted the world's largest election Poll workers reach India’s most remote corners to set up polling stations India’s mammoth general election drew to a close on June 1. About 642 million voters cast their ballots in the staggered seven-phase polling over six weeks, the largest election in history. The world’s biggest election involved over one million polling stations spread across the country, from remote corners of the Himalayas to far-flung forests deep in Nagaland. Each polling station served a maximum of 1,500 people. The process involved over 15 million people, four hundred thousand vehicles, nearly 1,700 air sorties and 135 trains moving across the country. Each voting location used electronic voting machines (EVMs) which were first introduced in 1982. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, electors cast their votes by pressing a button next to a candidate’s name and party symbol. It has been deployed widely in the country from 2000. Nearly 1.8 million Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) systems and 1.7 million control units were deployed for the 2024 elections across 1.05 million polling stations. The VVPAT system is attached to the EVM to confirm the vote. It prints a small slip of paper carrying the symbol

Indian 2024 election results

Results of the six-week-long election to the lower house of India’s Parliament started pouring in Tuesday morning Results of the Indian general elections were out on Tuesday with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning a majority, even if their seat tally reduced significantly compared to the 2019 elections. Counting of over 640 million votes that were cast in the 2024 Indian general elections began early on Tuesday. The polling to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Indian parliament, concluded on June 1. The ruling BJP along with its allies was competing for a third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. The Indian National Congress (INC), which has the second largest national footprint after the BJP, helped stitch a new coalition called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) last year, hoping to wrest power from Modi through a united opposition. Elections were held in seven phases in constituencies spread across 36 states and federal territories. The BJP seized power from the Congress and its allies with a decisive victory in 2014, marking the first time in three decades that a single party achieved a majority of its

Papua New Guinea landslide explained

Buried alive Papua New Guinean authorities are piecing together the scale of destruction and death toll from a devastating landslide Satellite images showing the area immediately before the landslide are unavailable. However, Maxar Technologies captured this picture around 11 months ago, on June 27, 2023. Some structures are visible and give an indication of what was in the area. Around 20 of these may have been located in the path of the landslide. Satellite images: Maxar Technologies. Taken June 27, 2023 and May 27, 2024 A massive landslide swept through a remote area of northern Papua New Guinea early on May 24, burying a village in a remote part of the country difficult to reach for aid workers and heavy excavation equipment. Villagers are still trying to move debris as high as two stories with spades, sticks and their bare hands. What machinery has made it to the remote site often cannot be used because the unstable ground could slide further. Only six bodies have been pulled from the rubble so far and officials say they don’t expect many survivors. Papua New Guinean authorities are still trying to piece together the death toll. Officials estimate around 8,000 people lived in

How disruption from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea is driving up shipping emissions

A surge of attacks on ships traveling the waters of the Red Sea is forcing shippers to reroute their vessels, sending them on longer journeys that drive up their carbon dioxide emissions. For companies struggling to account for – and lower – the climate-warming emissions associated with their businesses, these rerouted journeys add to the challenge. Many companies had already revamped their supply chains as they navigated COVID-19 disruptions, extreme weather risks, trade protectionism that forced them to change suppliers, and rising freight costs. “Whether it’s the Red Sea, or the war in Ukraine or COVID or Brexit before that, we’ve had so many discontinuities in the last decade,” said Archana Jagannathan, who leads sustainability in Europe for PepsiCo <PEP.O>. She said the company will need to double down on efforts to cut emissions if it hopes to meet its 2030 and 2040 climate pledges. Reuters spoke to executives from five large consumer companies and analyzed data from 30 sustainability reports of major firms to show that third-party carbon emissions have broadly been on the rise in recent years amid supply chain disruptions. Since the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces began in the Suez Canal last year, hundreds of

India elections 2024: Record high 744 political parties contesting

Panorama of parties Number of parties contesting Indian elections is at its highest, but expected winners remain unchanged. Besides nearly a billion voters and more than a million polling stations, Indian general elections are big for another reason: the sheer number of aspirants. The two large parties that have led most of India’s governments so far have fielded 769 candidates this year. Two packed circles show the number of candidates fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress in the 2024 general elections in India. Then there are more than 30 other parties contesting this year that won at least one seat in the previous election in 2019. More than thirty extra circles show candidates filed by more than 30 other parties that had won at least one seat in the previous election in 2019. That is not all. Hidden behind a heated contest between large parties are more than 700 less-known political parties clamouring for attention with diverse ideologies and ambitions, even if their chances of victory are very low. More than 700 circles show all the parties that have fielded candidates in this year's elction. Never before have so many parties contested for the Lok

How the Singapore Airlines turbulence incident unfolded

The mechanics of turbulence What happened to Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 and why? One passenger died of a suspected heart attack and many others were injured after a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore hit severe turbulence on May 21, forcing the Boeing 777-300ER jet to divert to Bangkok. The sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said. The pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft to Bangkok, it said. Aircraft tracking provider FlightRadar 24 said at about 0749 GMT the flight encountered “a rapid change in vertical rate, consistent with a sudden turbulence event”, based on flight tracking data. “There were thunderstorms, some severe, in the area at the time,” it said. Rapid movements Altitude data from FlightRadar24 shows how the aircraft was thrust up and down over the course of a minute, before returning to its original cruising altitude of 37,000 ft. During the event, the plane’s vertical speed, the rate by which the plane ascends or descends, quickly surged to 1,664 feet per minute before plummeting to -1,536 feet per minute in a matter of three seconds. What is Turbulence? Turbulence or pockets of

South Africa 30 years after apartheid ended

Explainer Thirty years after the end of apartheid, equality eludes South Africa Nelson Mandela's African National Congress promised South Africans "A Better Life For All" when it swept to power in the country's first democratic election in 1994, marking the end of white minority rule and apartheid. After 30 years of ANC government, many South Africans are frustrated about persistent poverty and inequality, and the party risks losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in a May 29 election, according to opinion polls. The World Bank reported in 2022 that South Africa was the most unequal country in the world, based on the Gini metric, a statistical distribution of welfare indicators commonly used to measure inequality. The following data shows that while strides have been made in delivering education, housing and welfare benefits to a wider share of society, South Africa has yet to overcome the legacy of apartheid and deliver a better life for all. UNEMPLOYMENT South Africa's joblessness rate, among the highest in the world, is the number one concern for many voters, though the problem is far more acute for the Black majority than for the white minority. The rates for other ethnic groups fall in

Cricket’s mammoth Indian Premier League

csk It rose to $3.3 billion in 2013. csk It crossed $5 billion in 2018. csk Its valuation nearly doubled from five years back and crossed $10 billion in 2023. csk Explainer Cricket’s mammothIndian Premier League The sport’s first franchise league is a huge money spinner and has overshadowed other domestic competitions in the game The months of April and May mean only one thing for India’s army of cricket fans; the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now in its 17th season, the IPL was cricket’s first franchise style league. A franchise sports league is a tournament where teams are run like a business and can be privately owned. Leagues like soccer’s Premier League in England and basketball’s National Basketball Association in the United States are domestic tournaments. Across all major sports played in the world, including soccer, American football, baseball and basketball, franchise-style leagues have been almost as popular as international events. Not in cricket though. The sport is primarily played at international level among a handful of countries, most of them former colonies of Britain. The international governing body of cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has 12 permanent members. It also has over 90 associate member nations where

How annual bird migration could spread avian flu

Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how a virulent bird flu is spreading through farms in the United States, but one pattern is clear: poultry and cows risk exposure to sick wild birds migrating across the Americas. One way to understand the relationship between migrating birds and agricultural livestock is to look at the path of the mallard duck which has the most recorded avian flu infections. January Mallards spend winters across the United States. As they migrate north for the breeding season, the mallards pass over chicken farms big and small. April They may use farms as a water and food source throughout their journey. “Outbreaks among poultry are more likely to happen where migratory waterfowl are present,” said Claire Teitelbaum, a researcher with Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. July In the breeding season, birds return to cooler landscapes that may still contain viruses from a previous season. A virus can persist for weeks or months in colder environments, meaning birds could contract multiple virus variants. Those variants can undergo genetic changes that enable the virus to infect new species. September Viruses travel along bird migration routes or “flyways,” transferring from one wild bird to another. While only

Tracking China's 'grey zone' balloon flights over Taiwan

Since December, about a month before Taiwan’s presidential election, China began sending a different type of intruder over the Taiwan Strait: more than 100 balloons, some of which passed directly through the island’s territorial airspace or busy, Taipei-controlled air corridors for civil aviation. Experts say the balloons could be psychological warfare, carry surveillance tools or simply gather meteorological data. On some days, as many as eight were detected within a few hours; at other times, weeks passed without any balloons at all. In the week leading up to Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, an average of three balloons were spotted each day. Then on April 11, they stopped altogether. Flight paths of balloons TAIWANCHINATaiwan StraitStrait median lineTaipeiXiamenFuzhou The increased frequency has raised alarms both domestically and abroad. A senior Taiwanese security official briefed on the matter said Chinese balloon flights near Taiwan took place on an “unprecedented scale” in the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s elections and described the incidents as part of a Chinese pressure campaign – so-called gray-zone warfare designed to exhaust a foe using irregular tactics without resorting to open combat. Taiwan inaugurates its new president, Lai Ching-te, on May 20. China, which views democratically governed