A Landmark Settlement Following a Fatal Crash Seattle has agreed to pay approximately ₹260 crore ($29 million) to the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, the Indian graduate student who died after being struck by a police vehicle in 2023. Finalized in February 2026, the settlement stands among the largest ever issued in Washington state in a police-involved…
A Nation at the Polls After Political Upheaval Bangladesh is conducting its first parliamentary election since the August 2024 student-led uprising that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from office, marking a critical transition for the country’s political order. Voting began on February 12, 2026, under heavy security and the oversight of an interim administration. The election…
Al-Udeid on Alert: Mobility Replaces Permanence At Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base—the largest American military installation in the Middle East—U.S. forces have quietly shifted Patriot air-defence systems from fixed emplacements onto mobile truck launchers. Satellite imagery from early February 2026 shows missile batteries mounted on heavy tactical vehicles, allowing rapid redeployment across the sprawling base. The move comes…
Moscow Looks Abroad as Workforce Shrinks Russia, grappling with a deepening labour crunch exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, is increasingly turning to India to plug gaps across its economy. With hundreds of thousands mobilised for military service and demographic pressures intensifying, Russian authorities and businesses are recruiting foreign workers at scale. Thousands of Indians are…
A Stark Admission in Parliament Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has delivered one of his sharpest public critiques of Washington, accusing the United States of using Islamabad for strategic purposes and then abandoning it “worse than toilet paper.” The unusually blunt remark, made in parliament, signals deep frustration within Pakistan’s political establishment over the long-term consequences…
Oman Hosts High-Stakes Return to Diplomacy On February 6, Washington and Tehran are set to restart nuclear negotiations in Oman, reviving a fraught diplomatic channel overshadowed by sharp warnings from US President Donald Trump to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The talks come after months of escalating rhetoric, targeted strikes, and military deployments across the Gulf,…
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on February 5, 2026, unveiled Bharat Taxi at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi-NCR, positioning it as India’s first government-supported, cooperative ride-hailing platform. The service, run by Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Ltd, begins with an initial fleet of roughly 2.5 lakh vehicles and promises a zero-commission structure in which drivers retain the…
War, Stalled Diplomacy, and a Grinding Stalemate Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, another attempt at diplomacy has begun, with US-mediated talks resuming in early February 2026. The negotiations follow a protracted conflict marked by battlefield stalemates, failed peace initiatives, and deep mistrust between Moscow and Kyiv. While frontlines have shifted only marginally in…
Odisha has set out to reposition itself as a global centre for artificial intelligence, financial technology, and insurance innovation through the Black Swan Summit in Bhubaneswar. The event, bringing together international investors, policymakers, and technology leaders, reflects the state’s ambition to move beyond its traditional industrial base and emerge as a major node in India’s digital…
The Washington Post’s decision to lay off more than 300 employees — roughly a third of its newsroom — has underscored the accelerating upheaval within legacy media. The sweeping cuts, affecting reporting desks from international coverage to culture and sports, illustrate how even storied institutions are reshaping operations as digital disruption, declining advertising revenue, and changing…
