Author: Eva Benerjee

After charging into the opposition with the red ball and swinging from the hip with the bat for nearly two decades, Doug Bracewell has finally blown full time on his professional cricket career. The Central Stags veteran and New Zealand international has announced his retirement from all cricket, ending an era for both his domestic team and the Black Caps. For a generation of cricket-loving New Zealanders, Bracewell was the archetypal ‘hard-case’ Kiwi cricketer – unostentatious, obstinate and with the stubborn refusal to give up on any given game that belied moments of pure magic just when his country needed it most. A…

High-level peace talks between the United States president, Donald Trump, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have given cautious optimism when they happened in Florida, where they said that there has been significant progress in terms of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has lasted almost four years. But, as President Trump said, there are still one or two quite prickly matters keeping a complete breakthrough at bay, all of which have to do with the question of territory and the future of the Eastern regions of Ukraine. Significant Progress in Peace Framework In an interview with reporters at…

As December 2025 comes to an end, the Gaza Strip battles a formidable new enemy:a brutal winter storm that has transformed an already dire humanitarian situationinto a bitter struggle to stay alive. Now, for the almost two million people displacedby two years of conflict in northwestern Syria, torrential rains and near-freezingtemperatures have turned makeshift camps into waterlogged quagmires, rippingthrough the flimsy fabric of tents never designed to weather a Mediterraneanwinter.A strong low pressure area – named ‘Storm Byron’ earlier in the month, and followedby a so-called polar low over the weekend – has seen 50 to 70 km/h winds coupledwith heavy rain…

Demonstrating the deepening ties in technology and geopolitics, Iran has successfully launched three homegrown satellites into space, at dawn on Sunday Dec 28th, 2025. The mission was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, aboard a Russian Soyuz-2. 1b rocket to take the payloads into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Analysts say this launch represents a turning point for Tehran’s space program, and marks a leap forward in both technical capacity and geopolitics. Filling in a gap created by the disappearance of high-resolution imagery and cementing a “strategic partnership” with Russia, the mission has raised security fears in the West. As international monitors…

The last weeks of 2025 have brought a string of meteorological shockers: Scenes that could have been pulled from the script of a high-budget disaster flick, but purport to be weather.com. And in a world of growing climate volatility, the familiar line between “hot” and “cold” countries is increasingly being redrawn with dramatic consequences. For the ironic of nature, as the deserts of Arabian peninsula were covered under snowfall after 30 years; those in and around ice had reached 20 degree centigrade points- example would be Iceland! White Deserts: Saudi Arabia’s Historical `Winter Wonderland´ Northern Saudi (*Specifically for the residents of northern saudi, north…

In the high-altitude parts of Jammu and Kashmir, winter is generally a season of forced silence. During Chillai Kalan — the 40-day period of harshest cold that takes hold in the valley and where life virtually comes to a halt by several feet of snow — it could be unpleasant to venture out. Historically, this time of year created a “temporary lull” in combat as frozen passes and sub-zero temperatures rendered movement virtually impossible for defender and infiltrator alike. This year, though — during the winter of 2025 — has represented an astonishing deviation. Unlike other winter postures or retreat to lower heights, the…

Inside a courtroom heavy with the gravity of an atrocious crime, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently arrived at a decision — man bites cop — that has ignited in India a nationwide discourse on law, morality and India’s profound anthropological complex: the Indian family. The court sentenced to 30 years of prison a man who had raped and murdered a five-year-old girl, but it was his mother’s acquittal that reverberated in the public conscience. The court’s observation was as stark as it was tragic: there is no provision in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to punish a mother for doing “‘appalling,”…

Late on Saturday night, the earth below Taiwan shuddered with seismic energy — an incredibly powerful earthquake that sent shocks of alarm through Taipei and other cities in the island’s northern region. The 6.7-magnitude quake hit around 11:05 PM local time on December 27, 2025 as reported by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). The earthquake struck at a relatively shallow depth of about 60 kilometers, and was most strongly felt in Taipei, the capital city, and Yilan County. For almost a full minute, buildings swayed, light fixtures swung wildly and residents of high-rise apartments described a nauseating low roll that brought to…

The chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, recently said that he was worried about going on the famous TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. Birla was on the show, which was hosted by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, during the last week of its most recent season. Many people were surprised by his honest answer because he is known for being cool and sure of himself in business. Birla said that being in the famous “hot seat” made him feel awkward at first, even though he was in charge of one of India’s biggest business groups. Many people…

It’s been a long wait, Nerds. That’s right, on December 25th, 2025 (or in the early hours of December 26 as per India), Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 has officially landed with a big crash onto Netflix. The next-to-last chapter of the Hawkins saga is here, and it’s as fraught, emotional and high-stakesy as the Duffer Brothers promised. As the town of Hawkins is quite literally tearing itself apart and Vecna’s power grows by the second, these three new episodes are the almighty bridge to an absolutely epic series finale. If you haven’t started your marathon yet, here’s everything to know about Volume 2.…