Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who became the 39th president of the United States and later won the Nobel Peace Prize, died on Sunday (December 29) at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son, Chip Carter. At 100 years old, he was the longest-living U.S. president in history. Plagued by economic and other […]

Manmohan Singh’s story is one of remarkable transformation, both of himself and the nation he served. Born in 1932 in the remote village of Gah (now in Pakistan), Singh rose from humble beginnings, studying under street lights to escape his noisy household in Amritsar after his family’s migration during Partition. His academic excellence earned him […]

The American writer Richard Powers’ latest novel, Playground, delves into the complexities of artificial intelligence, mirroring our current fascination with large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini. One particular passage from the novel, where a character expresses scepticism about artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) overreliance on information processing, has sparked an intriguing discussion. When this passage was […]

China is seeing a significant decline in postgraduate entrance exam applications for the second year running, reflecting growing doubts about the value of advanced degrees in a challenging job market. According to data released by the Ministry of Education in November, 3.88 million people have registered for the 2025 postgraduate entrance exam, marking an 11.4 […]

A transformation in fatherhood is quietly unfolding across East Asia, challenging decades-old gender roles as more men step into active parenting and household responsibilities. The shift is particularly visible in Japan, where paternity leave uptake has surged to 30% in 2023, a dramatic increase from just 2% a decade ago, reports The Economist. Ito Tsubasa […]

Delegates from several developing nations at the COP29 UN climate talks in Azerbaijan are challenging the long-standing classification of China and India as developing countries, arguing they should no longer receive the same treatment as the world’s poorest nations. Nigeria’s environment minister, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has taken a strong stance, stating that China and India […]

A dramatic political chasm has emerged among Generation Z voters worldwide, with young men and women increasingly diverging in their political allegiances. This trend came into sharp focus during the 2024 US presidential election, where Donald Trump secured a striking 14-point advantage among men aged 18-29, while Kamala Harris captured young women’s votes by an […]

China is one of the world’s most powerful nations, but its defence ministers are proving strangely vulnerable. Dong Jun is the third Chinese defence minister to come under investigation, reports the Financial Times, after his two immediate predecessors were found guilty of corruption. Ironically, the billions :Beijing is splurging on becoming a superpower to rival […]

It’s been a thousand days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the strategic outlook has shifted dramatically since then. While Ukraine initially defied expectations by repelling Russia’s assault on Kyiv, it now faces mounting challenges as Russian forces make steady territorial advances in the east, controlling roughly one-fifth […]