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Officials in Nepal were still assessing the extent of the damage on Sunday from the earthquake that struck the country’s west two nights earlier, leaving at least 150 people dead and thousands either homeless or afraid to sleep indoors. An earthquake in Nepal’s east in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people, and the toll of Friday’s temblor, which was categorized as medium in intensity, suggested the country is a long way behind in its preparations. “You cannot move the population; the entire country is seismic, the entire Nepal is seismic,” said Amod Mani Dixit, the director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology in Kathmandu, the capital. “But can we improve the building stock? The answer is yes we can, and we have demonstrated in many parts of the world, including in Nepal, that we can.”

Persons: ”, Amod Mani Dixit Organizations: National Society for Earthquake Technology Locations: Nepal, Nepal’s, Kathmandu

☆ Indian deputy IT minister investigated over social media post after attack on Jehovah's Witnesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Jose Devasia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

People stand outside the Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre where multiple blasts occurred during a religious gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian group, in Kochi, India, October 29, 2023. REUTERS/Sivaram V/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India Oct 31 (Reuters) - Police in Kerala opened an investigation against India's deputy minister of Information Technology on Tuesday for allegedly stirring religious hatred on social media after bomb blasts at a Jehovah's Witnesses convention in the southern state. More than 2,000 people were attending the convention in the state, where the Jehovah's Witnesses have a strong presence. Police arrested a man after he posted a video claiming responsibility for the attack, accusing the religious group of being anti-national. Chandrashekhar's aide told Reuters the criminal case filed by the Kerala police would be addressed by the minister's lawyer.

Persons: Sivaram, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Narendra Modi's, Kerala's, Chandrashekhar, Hillary Clinton's, Khaled Mashal, Pinarayi Vijayan, Vijayan, Israel, Rupam Jain, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Exhibition, REUTERS, Rights, Police, Information Technology, Communist, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Zamra, Kochi, India, Rights THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala, Gaza

Image Palestinians wounded in Ahli Arab Hospital blast were later treated at another hospital in Gaza on Tuesday. Israel said the strike on the hospital parking lot was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket, citing intelligence intercepts and videos of the sky above Gaza at the time. Al Jazeera, a Qatari news channel, concluded that a Palestinian rocket had been intercepted by an Israeli air defense missile. Scores of public institutions in northern Gaza, including hospitals like the Ahli Arab hospital, were warned by Israel to evacuate. American intelligence agencies have assessed that the blast killed 100 to 300 people.

Persons: Israel, ”, Ghazi Hamad, ” Salama Maroof, “, Abed Khaled, Hamas’s, Daniel Hagari, Musab Al, Umit Turhan, Hagari, Biden, Al Jazeera, Jones, Hamad, “ We’ve, Motasem Mortaja, Fadi Diab, Diab, Father Diab, Associated Press Yousur, Hlou Organizations: Hamas, The New York Times, Sunday, The Times, Arab Hospital, ., Palestinian, Islamic, East . Credit, Agence France, Getty, Wall Street, Associated Press, CNN, Munitions, Armament Research Services, Press, World Health Organization, WHO Locations: Al Ahli, Gaza, Israel, Gaza City, Ahli, Palestinian, Islamic, Istanbul, East, Israeli, London, Al, Qatari, Australia, Cairo

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicWarning: This episode contains descriptions of violence. The relationship between two democratic allies fell to its lowest point in history this week, after Canada accused India of assassinating a Sikh community leader in British Columbia in June. Mujib Mashal, The Times’s South Asia bureau chief, explains this stunning accusation — and what India’s reaction to it tells us about the era of its leader, Narendra Modi.

Persons: Mujib Mashal, Narendra Modi Organizations: Spotify Locations: Canada, India, British Columbia, Asia

The allegation was a bombshell: that India had been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil in June. Canada’s prime minister leveled the charge on Monday, and an all-out diplomatic war soon followed. Canada pressed its allies to come together to challenge India, with statements of concern issued in Washington and Canberra, Australia. India moved to expel a top Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move, and Indian officials lined up to air grievances with Canada. But behind the plunge in relations to what officials and analysts called the lowest point ever were years of diplomatic tension.

Persons: Canada’s, Canada — Organizations: Canadian Locations: India, Canada, Washington, Canberra, Australia, Canadian, Britain, United States, Punjab

For more than a decade, China has courted developing countries frustrated with the West. And as it challenged the postwar order, especially with its global focus on development through trade, loans and infrastructure projects, it sent billions of much-needed dollars to poor nations. Exhibit A: the unexpected consensus India managed at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend. With help from other developing nations, India persuaded the United States and Europe to soften a statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine so the forum could focus on the concerns of poorer countries, including global debt and climate financing. India also presided over the most tangible result so far of its intensifying campaign to champion the global south: the admission of the African Union to the G20, putting it on par with the European Union.

Organizations: Group, African Union, European Union Locations: China, ”, India, New Delhi, United States, Europe, Ukraine

“They have nowhere they can go back to,” Mr. Choula said of his family, who spent Saturday night sleeping in a field with several other families. Some are rallying together to send funds and organize shipments of supplies for survivors while others are heading home to help on the ground. But Mr. Dehy said he had received dozens of calls from Moroccans who want to immediately send help home. For Moroccans watching from afar, “the only thing that helps them is knowing that they helped, that they didn’t just stand idly by,” Mr. Dehy said. Mr. Choula, 41, said he was gathering money to send home.

Persons: Youssef Choula, “, ” Mr, Choula, ”, Latif Dehy, Dehy, —, Ella Williams, Talat N’yakoub, It’s, “ I’ve, Williams Organizations: “, French, of, British Moroccan Society Locations: Gloucestershire, England, Marrakesh, Amizmiz, Moroccan, Avignon, France, Morocco, Europe, Britain, ”

While a major climate policy breakthrough appears unlikely at the G20 summit this weekend, experts do expect less-wealthy countries to continue pressing richer ones to provide more climate financing. Last year, rich countries agreed at a climate summit in Egypt to establish a fund that would help poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters made worse by pollution from wealthy nations. “Ambitions for climate action must be matched with actions on climate finance and transfer of technology,” he wrote. But a meeting of climate ministers from G20 countries in India earlier this summer failed to produce consensus on climate-mitigation targets. There was some progress on climate finance at a G20 summit in Rome two years ago, where leaders said they would end the financing of coal power plants overseas.

Persons: Narendra Modi, ” Organizations: European Union Locations: United States, Egypt, Tuvalu, Chad, Pakistan, Pacific, India, Paris, Rome

While a major climate policy breakthrough appears unlikely at the G20 summit this weekend, experts do expect less-wealthy countries to continue pressing richer ones to provide more climate financing. In an article published in Indian newspapers on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India appeared to signal that climate finance would be a priority this weekend. “Ambitions for climate action must be matched with actions on climate finance and transfer of technology,” he wrote. But a meeting of climate ministers from G20 countries in India earlier this summer failed to produce consensus on climate-mitigation targets. There was some progress on climate finance at a G20 summit in Rome two years ago, where leaders said they would end the financing of coal power plants overseas.

Persons: Narendra Modi, ” Organizations: European Union Locations: United States, Egypt, Tuvalu, Chad, Pakistan, Pacific, India, Paris, Rome

Inside a sprawling golf resort south of New Delhi, diplomats were busy making final preparations for a fast-approaching global summit meeting. Not far away, however, were the remnants of bitter division: grieving families, charred vehicles and the rubble of bulldozed shops and homes. Weeks before, deadly religious violence had erupted in the Nuh district, the site of the resort. Clashes quickly spread to the gates of Gurugram, a tech start-up hub just outside New Delhi that India bills as a city of the future. Mr. Modi, India’s most powerful leader in decades, is attempting nothing less than a legacy-defining transformation of this nation of 1.4 billion people.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi Locations: New Delhi, Nuh, Gurugram, India

Bangladesh’s multiparty democracy is being methodically strangled in crowded courtrooms across this country of 170 million people. Nearly every day, thousands of leaders, members and supporters of opposition parties stand before a judge. Charges are usually vague, and evidence is shoddy, at best. But just months before a pivotal election pitting them against the ruling Awami League, the immobilizing effect is clear. About half of the five million members of the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are embroiled in politically motivated court cases, the group estimates.

Organizations: Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party Locations: Dhaka

☆ India’s Frugal Path to Global Clout: Breakthroughs in Space and Beyond
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Mujib Mashal | More About Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even during the difficult decades when India was struggling to muster resources and find a path out of poverty, its scientists were aiming high in a characteristic style: frugally and often with little fanfare. Some of their breakthroughs, such as the nuclear tests that began in the mid-1970s, brought sanctions and restrictions on knowledge sharing that forced the scientists to become self-reliant for leaps forward. Others, such as India’s repeated success in space exploration, were followed by nagging questions of priorities: Should a nation unable to meet the basic needs of much of its vast population be focusing on the skies? The country’s groundbreaking landing on Wednesday of a rover on the southern polar region of the moon was done with a space budget that was smaller than many other countries’ and a tiny fraction of NASA’s. It did not just send a burst of joy and pride through the Indian public but also delivered a potent message: Resource constraints need not cut off the path to momentous achievement.

Locations: India

India has a busy decade of space exploration ahead. In addition to the scientific results of Chandrayaan-3, India is preparing a joint lunar exploration with Japan, in which India will provide the lander and Japan the launch vehicle and the rover. It is therefore preparing its first astronaut mission to space, called Gaganyaan. But the project, which aims to send three Indian astronauts to space on the country’s own spacecraft, has faced delays, and ISRO has not announced a date for it. ISRO will first have to conduct a test flight of the Gaganyaan spacecraft with no astronauts aboard.

Organizations: Indian Space Research Organization, Indian, ISRO Locations: India, Japan

The Indian mission launched in July, taking a slower, fuel-conscious route toward the moon. Vikram out-endured its Russian counterpart, Luna-25, which launched 12 days. Luna-25 was scheduled to land on the moon on Monday in the same general vicinity as the Indian craft but crashed on Saturday following an engine malfunction. India’s recent efforts in space exploration closely mirror the country’s diplomatic push as an ambitious power on the rise. Indian officials have been advocating in favor of a multipolar world order in which New Delhi is seen as indispensable to global solutions.

Persons: Vikram, Narendra Modi’s Organizations: Soviet Union Locations: India, Russia, Soviet, New Delhi

☆ Most children in South Asia are exposed to extreme high temperatures, UNICEF says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Nearly half a billion children in South Asia are exposed to extreme high temperatures as life-threatening heat waves caused by the climate crisis become stronger and more frequent, according to the United Nations’ children’s agency. The analysis showed 76% of children in South Asia were exposed to extreme high temperature compared to 32% globally, UNICEF said. Not only is there high potential for record extreme heat, the impacts are compounded by dire social and economic problems. At the same time, extreme weather has had a deadly impact in other parts of the region. In its report, UNICEF warned that ultimately children, adolescents and women are among those who pay the highest price for extreme weather events.

Persons: ”, Sanjay Wijesekera, Sudipta Das, Shahid Saeed Mirza, “ Young, ” Wijesekera Organizations: CNN, United Nations ’, UNICEF, South, Mashal, Getty, stillbirths Locations: South Asia, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sindh, Farah Province, Xinhua, New Delhi, Kolkata, Multan, AFP

“The fact that there are these weapons which are at large — massive number of sophisticated weapons — is a very huge risk to our national security,” Mr. Gogoi said in an interview. Mr. Modi’s silence, analysts said, reflects how crucial his brand is for the calculations of his governing party, known as the B.J.P., around next year’s general elections. Amit Shah, Mr. Modi’s home minister, visited Manipur last month, and told Parliament last week that he was willing to have a discussion on behalf of the government. Since India’s founding as a republic seven decades ago, its northeast has been rife with insurgencies rooted in tribal and ethnic grievances. Successive national governments have prioritized connections through the northeast that could expand trade with neighboring Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southeast Asia more broadly.

Persons: Mr, Gogoi, Amit Shah, Modi’s, Modi Organizations: Party Locations: Manipur, Meiti, New Delhi, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Southeast Asia

In recent weeks, families have been rationing their intake of tomatoes, which are fundamental to the Indian diet. They’re omitting tomatoes from salads, keeping the few they can afford for flavoring the main dish. Some, out of fear of even higher prices, have been stocking tomatoes as purée in their freezers. Tomatoes have even found their way to the middle of India’s raucous, and increasingly polarized, politics. A prominent leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist party, Himanta Biswa Sarma, blamed the country’s Muslims for the price rise.

Persons: Himanta Biswa Sarma Locations: India, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Indian officials on Friday arrested three railway workers in connection with a deadly train crash last month that left at least 290 people dead and once again highlighted safety problems across a vast train network that serves as an important lifeline for the poor. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the criminal inquiry into the train accident in the eastern state of Odisha, said the workers were arrested on charges of endangering the safety of passengers, culpable homicide without murder, and tampering with evidence. In a statement, the agency identified the three as a senior section engineer, a section engineer and a technician. The “investigation is continuing,” the agency said. The Coromandel Express, which was traveling from West Bengal, crashed into a parked freight train in Odisha at a speed of 80 miles an hour, resulting in a three-way tangle with another train that was passing in the opposite direction.

Organizations: India’s, Bureau of Investigation Locations: Odisha, West Bengal

Their love affair across one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders had begun on the virtual battlefields of a video game where players bond over having one another’s back against bloody enemy ambushes to become the last survivors. But when Seema Ghulam Haider, 27, a married Pakistani Muslim, sneaked into India with her four children to be with Sachin Meena, 22, a Hindu man, their time together was brief. About two months after they started secretly living in the same neighborhood in Rabupura, a town outside New Delhi, the couple ran into the Indian authorities. “I don’t want to go back,” Ms. Haider told reporters as she was taken away by the police, her befuddled children next to her. I love him a lot.

Persons: Seema Ghulam Haider, Sachin Meena, Haider, Meena, ” Ms, “, Sachin, ” Locations: Pakistani, India, Rabupura, New Delhi

☆ Going Abroad, Modi Receives a Gift for Image-Building at Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

His grip on the levers of national power secure, his hold on India’s domestic imagination cemented, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increasingly turned to advancing himself on a new horizon: the global stage. With a packed diplomatic calendar that includes India’s hosting of the Group of 20 summit later this year, Mr. Modi is building an image going into his re-election campaign as a leader who can win respect and investment for his vast nation. The state visit accorded to Mr. Modi in Washington, which ends on Friday, is perhaps the biggest prize yet in that quest. “It’s not just about a fairer bargain abroad,” said Ashok Malik, a former government adviser who is the India chair at the Asia Group, a consulting firm. It has persisted in its vilification of the country’s 200 million Muslims, even as Mr. Modi used an exceedingly rare news conference in Washington to claim that there was no discrimination against anyone in India.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, “ It’s, ”, Ashok Malik, ’ Organizations: Asia Group Locations: Washington, India

☆ Mark the day: Modi fielded live questions from the press.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s vanishingly rare for Narendra Modi to directly field live questions from the press throughout a near decade in power. So when the Indian prime minister took two questions from reporters at a White House press event with Mr. Biden on Thursday, it was a notable moment. Mr. Modi’s aides insist that social media, which his party’s vast communications apparatus has mastered, has made news conferences redundant. Mr. Modi’s shying away from media engagement goes back to his time as chief minister of Gujarat decades ago. Under his watch, the state broke into widespread riots in 2002, and Mr. Modi was accused of looking away — or even enabling — Hindu mobs who went on deadly rampages in Muslim neighborhoods.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Biden, Modi, Modi’s Organizations: White House, Mr Locations: Gujarat

☆ Biden Welcomes Indian Leader With a 21-Gun Salute
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Mujib Mashal | Karoun Demirjian | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Mr. Biden celebrated India’s rise with a lavish display of friendship marked by marching bands, honor guards and a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn, to be followed by an Oval Office meeting and a gala state dinner. Mr. Modi agreed to join Mr. Biden in the East Room to meet with journalists and will also address a joint session of Congress in the afternoon. Image The scene on the South Lawn in the morning underscored the rising role of Indian Americans in the United States. Image Mr. Modi suggested the two nations could tackle international challenges in tandem. Credit... Pete Marovich for The New York TimesMr. Biden pointed to the prevalence of Indian Americans in prominent positions.

Persons: Biden, Narendra Modi, Modi, “, ” Mr, ’, Mr, ”, Doug Mills, China’s, Atomics, Biden’s, Alexandria Ocasio, Cortez, “ Modi, Pete Marovich, Kamala Harris, Harris, Harris’s, Erin Schaff, Joshua Bell Organizations: White, “, New York Times, Artemis Accords, International Space Station, General Electric, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Boeing, Biden, New York Times “ Equity, United States, ”, Cortez of New York, Twitter, The New York Times, Mr, The New York, Penn Masala, University of Pennsylvania, U.S . Marine Locations: India, United States, Russia, China, U.S, Moscow, Beijing, American, Ukraine, Russian, New York Times India, New Delhi, Cortez of New, portobello, Asian

Mr. Modi agreed to join Mr. Biden in the East Room to meet with journalists and will also address a joint session of Congress in the afternoon. Image The scene on the South Lawn in the morning underscored the rising role of Indian Americans in the United States. Image Mr. Modi suggested the two nations could tackle international challenges in tandem. They considered it a victory that the administration had persuaded Mr. Modi, who famously refuses to hold news conferences, to meet with reporters alongside Mr. Biden, as most major world leaders do when they visit the White House. Credit... Pete Marovich for The New York TimesMr. Biden pointed to the prevalence of Indian Americans in prominent positions.

☆ In Hosting Modi, Biden Pushes Democracy Concerns to the Background
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Peter Baker | Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden has declared “the battle between democracy and autocracy” to be the defining struggle of his time. But when he rolls out the red carpet on the South Lawn of the White House for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Thursday morning, Mr. Biden will effectively call a temporary truce. In granting Mr. Modi a coveted state visit, complete with a star-studded gala dinner, Mr. Biden will shower attention on a leader presiding over democratic backsliding in the world’s most populous nation. At a time of confrontation with Russia and an uneasy standoff with China, Mr. Biden is being forced to accept the flaws of America’s friends. Even some of his top advisers privately view the construct as too black-and-white in a world of grays.

Persons: Biden, ”, Narendra Modi, Modi, George Washington Organizations: White House, India, Mr Locations: India, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Russia, China, grays

☆ Why Modi’s Radio Show Is Vital to His Popularity in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Mujib Mashal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The first is his deep understanding of India’s grass roots, developed over decades as a foot soldier and evangelist of the Hindu right. All the while, the program associates Mr. Modi with every positive happening, big or small, and every solution, tangible or spiritual. On occasion, he talks about international events where India commands the spotlight, but he most often addresses issues of basic government services, down to the tiniest details. Mr. Modi puts himself at the center of conversation over the delivery of some of life’s most rudimentary amenities, like piped water or toilets. “As a responsible citizen and as a member of society, we will have to cultivate the habit of conserving every drop of water,” Mr. Modi said in one episode, before giving the example of a coastal village that has a “200-year-old underground water tank,” recharged with rainfall.

Persons: Modi, ”, Joyojeet Pal, ‘, “ Mann Ki Baat, India’s, Mr Organizations: University of Michigan Locations: India

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