A Pakistani court granted bail Wednesday to former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a graft case, his lawyer said. But with a slew of other charges pending against him, the opposition leader is staying in prison. Still, the order by a superior court in the capital, Islamabad, was a boost for Khan in the case in which he is accused, along with his wife, Bushra Bibi, of keeping and selling state gifts in violation of government rules when he was in power. Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in 2022, has denied the charge. The hearings in the trial on the graft charges started in July and are still ongoing. Khan has so far been embroiled in over 150 cases and has been sentenced in several, including to three years, 10 years, 14 years and seven years to be served concurrently under Pakistani law. His convictions were later overturned in appeals but he cannot be freed due to other, pending cases against him. His lawyer, Salman Safdar said he remained confident Khan would be freed but experts say there are at least eight cases standing in the way of Khan's release on bail. Khan, who has been held in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi for over a year, has maintained his innocence and has argued that the cases are an attempt to sideline him politically by keeping him out of the public area. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, has also been demanding his release. Khan’s supporters have called for a rally in Islamabad on Sunday to demand his release — despite a government ban on the gathering. A suicide car bombing at a security post in northwestern Pakistan has killed 12 troops Pakistan’s laws allow government officials and politicians to keep gifts given to them by foreign dignitaries, but they must correctly declare the market value of those gifts and declare any money they earned after selling them. Last month, Bibi was freed on bail in the same case but will have to appear in court for the hearings alongside her husband.

Japanese officials said Wednesday they are closely watching to see if China keeps its promise to prevent further violations of Japan's airspace after explaining that an incursion by a Chinese military aircraft nearly three months ago was unintentional and caused by turbulence. Tokyo protested and sought an explanation from Beijing after a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane briefly entered Japanese airspace off the southern main island of Kyushu on Aug. 26, prompting Japan's military to scramble fighter jets and warn the plane. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said China acknowledged the airspace violation and assured Japan that it would make efforts to prevent a recurrence. “We take note of China's explanation, and we will closely watch Chinese military activity from now on,” Hayashi said. China said the airspace violation occurred when the plane's pilot took emergency measures in response to turbulence in the area and was not intentional, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. Japanese officials did not disclose further details, such as when China provided the explanation, citing the protocol of diplomatic exchanges. Even though aircraft can encounter turbulence, such a significant deviation from a flight route is unthinkable, Japanese officials said. NHK public television reported that Japanese defense officials said they still find the airspace violation unacceptable because it was a serious breach of territorial sovereignty. A suicide car bombing at a security post in northwestern Pakistan has killed 12 troops Japanese officials are concerned about China's growing military activity around Japan's southwestern waters and airspace. It has led Tokyo to significantly reinforce its defenses in the area, which includes remote islands that are considered key to Japan's defense strategy. Japan is also worried about joint military activities between China and Russia. A Chinese survey ship violated Japanese territorial waters off a southern island in August. In September, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and two destroyers sailed between Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni — just east of Taiwan — and nearby Iriomote, entering Japan's “contiguous zone,” an area just outside of a country’s territorial waters in which it can still exercise some control over maritime traffic.  

A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at a security post in northwestern Pakistan, killing 12 members of the security forces and wounding several others, officials said Wednesday. The attack, one of the deadliest in recent months, happened Tuesday evening in Bannu, a district in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said in a statement. It said in the ensuing exchange of fire, six “khwarij” — a phrase which is used for Pakistani Taliban — were killed. “The attempt to enter the post was effectively thwarted by own troops, which forced the khwarij to ram an explosive laden vehicle into the perimeter wall of the post,” the statement said. It said the suicide attack led to collapse of a portion of a perimeter wall and damaged the adjoining infrastructure, resulting in the “martyrdom" of 12 security forces. A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. Pakistan has witnessed a steady increase in violence since November 2022, when the Pakistani Taliban ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but are allies of the Afghanistan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan emboldened the TTP, whose top leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan. In December 2023, a suicide bomber targeted a police station’s main gate in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in northwestern Pakistan, killing 23 troops. Tuesday's attack happened in Bannu while the country's political and military leadership was meeting in Islamabad to discuss how to respond to the surge in militant violence. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved a “comprehensive military operation” against separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army, in southwestern Balochistan province. The order came following a Nov. 9 suicide attack by the group at a train station that killed 26 people in Quetta, the capital of the province. In recent months. violence has also surged in northwest Pakistan, where security forces often target TTP and the Gul Bahadur group. Abdullah Khan, a senior defense analyst and managing director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said over 900 security forces have been killed in militant attacks in Pakistan since 2022, when TTP ended the cease-fire with the government. “TTP and other groups have expanded their operations, showing they are getting more recruits, money and weapons,” Khan said. He said there is a need for political stability in the country to defeat the insurgents. Pakistan has experienced a political crisis since 2022, when then-Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He was arrested and imprisoned in 2023. Since then, his supporters have been rallying to demand his release.

Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman and his wife Saira have announced their decision to part ways after nearly three decades of marriage. In a joint statement issued through their lawyer, Vandana Shah and Associates, the couple described the decision as "difficult" but necessary. "After many years of marriage, Mrs. Saira and her husband Mr. A R. Rahman have made the difficult decision to separate from each other," reads the statement. The decision, said the lawyer, "comes after significant emotional strain in their relationship". "Despite their deep love for each other, the couple has found that the tensions and difficulties have created an insurmountable gap between them, one that neither party feels able to bridge at this time," the statement said, underscoring that the "decision comes out of pain and agony". The couple requested privacy and understanding from the public during this challenging period, asking for space as they navigate this phase of their lives. The couple, who married in 1995, have three children: Khatija, Raheema, and Ameen. On Instagram Stories, their son Ameen urged the public to respect their privacy, thanking them for their understanding. AR Rahman, lauded as the "Mozart of Madras" by Time magazine, gained global acclaim for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, which won him an Oscar. Beginning his career at the age of five, he achieved national recognition with his music for the 1992 film Roja. With inputs from NDTV

Millions of people are voting in state elections in politically significant Maharashtra, India’s western industrial hub, and the mineral-rich eastern province of Jharkhand on Wednesday, a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and its regional partners. Maharashtra is India’s wealthiest state and home to the financial and entertainment capital, Mumbai. It is currently ruled by a coalition of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and a Hindu nationalist ally. An opposition alliance, including the Congress party, is in power in eastern Jharkhand state. Modi has held big rallies in the two states. The challenge comes barely four months after his party suffered a setback and returned to power in national elections for a third term without a parliamentary majority. He formed the government with the help of regional partners. Modi, in a post on social platform X ahead of the state elections, wrote: "On this occasion, I appeal to all the youth and women voters to vote in large numbers.” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst who wrote a Modi biography, said a reversal in these state elections would negatively impact Modi’s leadership style. “It will have repercussions for the BJP in coming elections in Delhi and Bihar states next year," he said. Votes in the two states will be counted on Saturday. After suffering a setback in national elections, the BJP regained momentum in October as it won Haryana state elections, where pollsters had predicted an easy victory for the opposition Congress party. Sri Lanka's Marxist-leaning president appoints his Cabinet after a resounding election win Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party won a consolation victory in alliance with the regional National Conference party in local elections in India’s insurgency-wracked Jammu and Kashmir after a 10-year gap. The BJP is trying to wrest power from the Congress party and its allies in Jharkhand, a state rich in iron ore, coal and other minerals. The BJP’s use of slogans like “If you divide, then you will die” and “If we are united, then we are safe” to attract Hindu votes has prompted opposition parties to accuse the BJP of trying to polarize the voters along Hindu-Muslim religious lines. Hindus constitute nearly 80% and Muslims 11.5% of Maharashtra state’s estimated 131 million people. Mukhopadhyay saw a tendency from top BJP leaders to communalize the elections, saying, "It shows the growing desperation of the party, and it looks like their reading is they are not doing very well in Maharashtra and Jharkhand states." Election surveys on the eve of polling put the opposition alliance comprising the Congress party and two truncated regional groups, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress party, ahead of the BJP and its allies currently governing the state. The Congress party defeated the BJP and its allies in the June national elections by winning 30 out of 48 seats in the state. The BJP and its regional partners won 17 seats. Indian and Nigerian leaders vow to deepen security ties and strengthen support for Global South The Congress party and its allies hope to capitalize on the simmering disaffection with high youth unemployment, inflation and low crop prices during the BJP’s rule. The BJP hopes to attract women voters with a scheme that provides 1,500 rupees ($18) a month to over 20 million women aged 21-65 whose annual family income is less than 250,000 ($3,010). If the Congress party is voted to power in the state, it has promised women double that amount and free transportation in government buses.

Iran has defied international demands to rein in its nuclear program and has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) since the last report in August. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The IAEA also estimated in its quarterly report that as of Oct. 26, Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium stands at 6,604.4 kilograms (14,560 pounds), an increase of 852.6 kilograms (1,879.6 pounds) since August. Under the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%. The reports come at a critical time as Israel and Iran have traded missile attacks in recent months after more than a year of war in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, a group supported by Iran. Adding to the complexity, Donald Trump’s reelection raises questions about whether and how the incoming administration and Iran may engage. Trump’s first term in office was marked by a particularly troubled period, when he pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran. He unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, leading to the sanctions hobbling the economy, and ordered the killing of the country’s top general. Western diplomats consider censuring Iran Iran last week offered not to expand its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60%, during a visit to Tehran by the IAEA chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi. The IAEA said during the meetings, “the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed, including technical verification measures necessary for the Agency to confirm this, if implemented.” The report said that one day after Grossi left Iran, on Nov. 16, IAEA inspectors verified that “Iran had begun implementation of preparatory measures aimed at stopping the increase of its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 % U-235” at its underground nuclear sites in Fordow and Natanz. The reports come ahead of this week’s regular IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna. Western countries have been considering a resolution censuring Iran for its failure to improve cooperation with the agency. A senior diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it is possible that the commitments made by Iran during the IAEA’s chief visit may not stand in case a resolution is passed. In the past, Iran has responded to resolutions by the IAEA Board of Governors by further enhancing its nuclear program. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but Grossi, has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so. He has acknowledged the U.N. agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges may have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment. Little progress on improving ties The IAEA also reported that Iran has failed to take concrete steps as of now to improve cooperation, despite pleas by Grossi, who held talks last week with Mohammad Eslami of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian. However, Tuesday’s confidential report also said that during Grossi’s visit to Iran on Nov. 14, “Iran agreed to respond to the Agency’s concerns related to Iran’s withdrawal of the designation of several experienced Agency inspectors by considering the acceptance of the designation of four additional experienced inspectors.” In September 2023, Iran barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors. The report also said there was no progress thus far in reinstalling more monitoring equipment, including cameras, removed in June 2022. Since then, the only recorded data comes from IAEA cameras installed at a centrifuge workshop in Isfahan in May 2023 — although Iran has not provided the IAEA with access to this data and inspectors have not been able to service the cameras. Last week, Eslami warned that Iran could retaliate if challenged at the upcoming IAEA board meeting. Grossi acknowledged some nations were considering taking action against Iran. In an effort to ensure Iran could not develop atomic weapons, world powers struck a deal with Tehran in 2015 under which it agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. U.N. inspectors were tasked with monitoring the program Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity, can maintain a stockpile of uranium of 300 kilograms and is permitted to use only very basic IR-1 centrifuges, machines that spin uranium gas at high speed for enrichment purposes. A year after the U.S. withdrawal from the deal under Donald Trump, Iran started to gradually abandon all limits the deal put on its program and began enriching uranium to up to 60% purity.

Dozens of prominent activists were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on Tuesday in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case under a sweeping law imposed by Beijing that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement. The defendants were prosecuted in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election under the 2020 national security law. They were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and force the city’s leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately. The 45 convicted received prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years. Legal scholar Benny Tai was given the longest sentence. They either pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion by three government-approved judges. The judges said in the verdict that the activists’ plans to effect change through the election would have undermined the government’s authority and created a constitutional crisis. Two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted. Tai, who had written an article outlining "ten steps to mutual destruction" is widely seen as the organizer behind the unofficial primary. In a judgment uploaded online, the judges wrote that Tai essentially “advocated for a revolution” by publishing a series of articles over a period of months that traced his thinking, even though in his mitigation letter Tai said the steps were “never intended to be used as blueprint for any political action.” Some defendants had claimed that the scheme to secure a majority of seats in the legislature would never have materialized, though the judges rejected this reasoning, stating that “all the participants had put in every endeavor to make it a success." In the judgment, the judges highlighted that a great deal of time, resources and money had been put into the organization of the primary election, and rejected the idea that the scheme had been “doomed to fail.” “When the Primary Election took place on the 10 and 11 July, no one had remotely mentioned the fact that Primary Election was no more than an academic exercise and that the Scheme was absolutely unattainable,” the judgment read. “In order to succeed, the organisers and participants might have hurdles to overcome, that however was expected in every subversion case where efforts were made to overthrow or paralyse a government.” The judges said the sentences had been reduced for defendants who said they were unaware the plan to secure a majority in the legislature and stall governance was unlawful. However, the penalties were not reduced for Tai and Alvin Yeung, as they are lawyers who were “absolutely adamant in pushing for the implementation of the Scheme.” Observers said the case illustrated how authorities suppressed dissent following huge anti-government protests in 2019, alongside media crackdowns and reduced public choice in elections. The drastic changes reflect how Beijing’s promise to retain the former British colony’s civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to China in 1997 is increasingly threadbare, they said. Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the law is necessary for the city's stability. The sentencing drew criticism from foreign governments and human rights organizations globally. The U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong said the U.S. strongly condemned the sentences against the 45 pro-democracy advocates and former lawmakers. “The defendants were aggressively prosecuted and jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity protected under Hong Kong’s Basic Law,” the statement said. “We call on (Beijing) and Hong Kong authorities to cease politically motivated prosecutions of Hong Kong citizens and to immediately release all political prisoners and individuals jailed for their peaceful advocacy for rights and freedoms.” Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said its government “gravely concerned” by the sentences for Australian citizen Gordon Ng and the other activists. “Australia has expressed our strong objections to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation, including in application to Australian citizens,” Wong said in a statement. “We call for China to cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society, consistent with the Human Rights Committee and Special Procedure recommendations, including the repeal of the National Security Law in Hong Kong.” Human Rights Watch said “running in an election and trying to win it is now a crime that can lead to a decade in prison in Hong Kong.” “Today’s harsh sentences against dozens of prominent democracy activists reflect just how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties and judicial independence have nosedived in the past four years since the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law on the city,” Maya Wang, associate China director at the rights group, said in a statement. The subversion case involves pro-democracy activists across the spectrum. They include Tai, former student leader Joshua Wong and former lawmakers. Most of them have already been detained for more than three and a half years before the sentencing. The separations pained them and their families. More than 200 people stood in line in moderate rain and winds Tuesday morning for a seat in the court, including one of the acquitted defendants Lee Yue-shun. Lee said he hoped members of the public would show they care about the development of the court case. “The public's interpretation and understanding has a far-reaching impact on our society's future development,” he said. A supporter locally known as “Grandpa Wong,” who did not know the English spelling of his name, said he wanted to see the convicted activists again. He is about 100 years old and feared he wouldn't be able to see them when they are released from prison. Wei Siu-lik, a friend of convicted activist Clarisse Yeung, said she arrived at 4 a.m. even though her leg was injured. “I wanted to let them know there are still many here coming here for them,” she said. Thirty-one activists entered a guilty plea and have better chances of getting reduced sentences. The law authorizes a range of sentences depending on the seriousness of the offense and the defendant’s role in it, going from under three years for the least serious to 10 years to life for people convicted of “grave” offenses. The unofficial primary in July 2020, which drew 610,000 voters, was meant to pick pro-democracy candidates who would then run in the official election. The pro-democracy camp at that time hoped they could secure a legislative majority, which would allow them to press for the 2019 protest demands, including greater police accountability and democratic elections for the city leader. But the government postponed the legislative election that would have followed the primary, citing public health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shuntaro Tanikawa, who pioneered modern Japanese poetry, poignant but conversational in its divergence from haiku and other traditions, has died. He was 92. Tanikawa, who translated the “Peanuts” comic strip and penned the lyrics for the theme song of the animation series “Astro Boy,” died Nov. 13, his son Kensaku Tanikawa said Tuesday. He said his father died at a Tokyo hospital due to old age. Shuntaro Tanikawa stunned the literary world with his 1952 debut “Two Billion Light Years of Solitude,” a bold look at the cosmic in daily life, sensual, vivid but simple in its use of everyday language. Written before Gabriel García Márquez’ “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” it became a bestseller. Tanikawa’s “Kotoba Asobi Uta,” or “Word Play Songs,” is a rhythmical experiment in juxtaposing words that sound similar, such as “kappa,” a mythical animal and “rappa,” a horn, that makes for a joyful singsong compilation, filled with alliterations and onomatopoeia. “For me, the Japanese language is the ground. Like a plant, I place my roots, drink in the nutrients of the Japanese language, sprouting leaves, flowers and bearing fruit,” he said in a 2022 interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home. Tanikawa explored the poetic, not only in the repetitive music of the spoken word but also the magic hidden in little things. One of his works is titled, “I wanted to talk to you in the kitchen in the middle of the night.” “In the past, there was something about it being a job, being commissioned. Now, I can write as I want,” he said. In every work Tanikawa tackled, including the script for Kon Ichikawa’s “Tokyo Olympiad," a documentary film of the 1964 Tokyo Games, the respectful love for the beauty of the Japanese language resonates. He also translated Mother Goose, Maurice Sendak and Leo Lionni. Tanikawa has in turn been widely translated, including English, Chinese and various European languages. Some of his works were made into picture books for children, and they are often featured in Japanese school textbooks. He also incorporated Japanese words derived from foreign origins into his poems like Coca-Cola. In his prose poem with that title, in which a boy is opening a Coke can, he wrote: “If, for instance, he saw the infinite universe that started or ended at the tip of his can, he was totally unaware of it. One might be able to opine that he named every bit of the unknown about to swallow him with all the vocabulary he could muster, which included his future vocabulary that was yet dormant in his subconscious.” In his debut poem that catapulted him to stardom, he is more sparse: “Because the universe goes on expanding, we are all uneasy. With the chill of two billion light-years of solitude, I suddenly sneezed,” is the way the poem ends, as translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura. When asked about it, Tanikawa acknowledged it felt as though someone else had written it, but noted he still thought it was a good poem. “Tanikawa’s poetry reflects a metaphysical and quasi-religious attitude toward experience. In simple, spare language, he sketches profound ideas and emotional truths,” according to the Poetry Foundation, a U.S. literary organization. Tanikawa was born in 1931, a son of philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa, and began writing poetry in his teens, circulating with the famous poets of that era, like Makoto Ooka and Shuji Terayama. He said he used to think poems descended like an inspiration from the heavens. But, as he grew older, he felt the poems welling up from the ground. In person, Tanikawa was friendly and unassuming, often reading in public with other poets. He never seemed to take himself too seriously but used to confess his one regret in life was never finishing his education, having dropped out amid stardom at a young age. His relative isolation from the bleakly serious scholarly poetry scene of postwar Japan likely helped him take his free-verse approach that went on to innovate and define Japanese contemporary poetics. Tanikawa said he wasn’t afraid of death, implying he perhaps meant to write a poem about that experience, too. “I am more curious about where I will go when I die. It’s a different world, right? Of course, I don’t want pain. I don’t want to die after major surgery or anything. I just want to die, all of a sudden,” he said. He is survived by his son, musician Kensaku Tanikawa and daughter Shino and several grandchildren. Funeral services were held privately with family and friends. A farewell event in his honor is being planned, Kensaku Tanikawa said. “As they did with all of you, Shuntaro’s poems stunned and moved me, making me chuckle or shed a tear. Wasn’t it all so fun?” he said. “His poems are with you forever.”

Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning president swore in a 21-member Cabinet on Monday after his party secured a two-thirds parliamentary majority in last week’s election. The margin of victory will allow President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to make sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution, without needing support from other parties. Sri Lanka is struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022. Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 159 of the 225 seats in Thursday's vote. He kept a pledge to have fewer than 25 Cabinet members, and a majority of the new ministers are first-time lawmakers. He also reappointed Harini Amarasuriya, a female lawmaker in the NPP, as prime minister. Amarasuriya, 54, was first appointed as the prime minister in September to serve in the interim government after Dissanayake won the presidential election and that made her the first woman to head the national government in 24 years. Dissanayake was elected president on Sept. 21 in a rejection of traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948. He received 42% of the votes, fueling questions over his party’s prospects in the parliamentary elections. But the party received a large increase in support less than two months into his presidency. Dissanayake and his government face a challenging task in steering the country out of economic turmoil. Sri Lanka is in the middle of a bailout program with the International Monetary Fund, with debt restructuring with international creditors nearly complete. Dissanayake said during the presidential campaign that he would propose significant changes to the targets set in the IMF deal signed by his predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, saying it placed too much burden on the people. However, he has since said Sri Lanka will go along with the agreement. Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with militant attacks in 2019 devastated the important tourism industry. The pandemic also disrupted the flow of remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad. The government also slashed taxes in 2019, depleting the treasury just as the virus hit. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving Sri Lanka unable to pay for imports or defend its currency, the rupee. Sri Lanka’s economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected Wickremesinghe to replace him. The economy was stabilized, inflation dropped, the rupee strengthened and foreign reserves increased under Wickremesinghe. Nonetheless, he lost the election as public dissatisfaction grew over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses as part of the government’s efforts to meet the IMF conditions. Voters were also drawn by the NPP’s cry for change in the political culture and an end to corruption, because they perceived the parties that ruled Sri Lanka so far caused the economic collapse. Dissanayake’s promise to punish members of previous governments accused of corruption and to recover allegedly stolen assets also raised people's hopes.

Authorities in New Delhi have closed schools, suspended construction activities, and banned non-essential trucks from entering the capital as air pollution hit its highest levels of the season on Monday. Thick, toxic smog engulfed the Indian capital, home to over 33 million residents, pushing air quality into the "severe" category, according to SAFAR, the country's leading environmental agency. The agency measures particulate matter, which can penetrate deep into the lungs, worsening respiratory health. Monuments and high-rise buildings in the city were hidden under a blanket of haze, while visibility dropped to dangerous levels, causing delays at airports. In several parts of New Delhi, pollution levels were more than 50 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended safety limit. Experts predict the poor air quality will persist throughout the week. Each winter, air pollution levels in northern India soar, particularly due to the burning of crop residue by farmers. This practice coincides with colder temperatures that trap smoke in the atmosphere, which is then carried into urban areas. Auto emissions, industrial pollutants, and the burning of coal also contribute to the rising pollution levels. In response to the worsening air quality, authorities have shifted classes for all grades, except for grades 10 and 12, to online formats. Non-essential trucks have been banned, while older diesel vehicles are prohibited from entering the city. All construction activities have been halted, and residents, particularly children, the elderly, and those with respiratory conditions, have been advised to limit outdoor exposure. Farmers in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state contributed to the pollution over the weekend by burning fields, releasing large clouds of smoke that were likely blown into New Delhi and surrounding areas. Despite the hazardous air, many residents continued their daily routines, including morning walks at the popular Lodhi Garden. The deteriorating air quality has sparked widespread criticism on social media, with many residents complaining of headaches, coughing, and describing the city as a “gas chamber” or “apocalyptic.” Many have called on the authorities to tackle the root causes of the pollution. Studies estimate that more than a million people in India die annually from diseases linked to air pollution. While New Delhi authorities have implemented similar emergency measures in the past, including using water sprinklers and anti-smog guns, critics argue that these actions only address the symptoms of the pollution rather than offering a long-term solution to the root causes of the crisis.