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1) Newly-discovered skull in China baffles scientists. Is it yet another lineage of humans?Beijing, ChinaEdited By: Moohita Kaur Garg

Human ancestry is often taken as a done and dusted topic by the layperson. However, that is far from true. Adding to the mystery, an ancient skull is now baffling scientists with its not-so-similar features to the modern human. The mysterious skull, as per a Science Alert article, belongs to a child that was alive around 300,000 years ago.

Experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) working alongside researchers from China's Xi'an Jiaotong University, the UK's University of York, and Spain's National Research Center on Human Evolution say that this could potentially be the discovery of a new branch of humans. The skull in question was discovered in 2019. Alongside it, researchers also found a jaw and leg bones. The findings were uncovered in East China's Hualondong and belong to a child between the ages of 12 and 13 years.

What baffles scientists is the fact that they can't match it to any known human lineage. The skull doesn't resemble Neanderthals, Denisovans, or us (the modern human). Yet, it does have some matching features to different lineages. This means that the hominin or the human family tree may need another branch.

I see you in me

The skull, which is a nearly complete with a partial cranium and a nearly complete mandible, as per the research published in the Journal of Human Evolution, is similarly structured to the modern human lineage.

In their analysis, the authors write that while its face has modern-human like features, the limbs, skull cap, and jaw "seem to reflect more primitive traits."

Furthermore, it lacks a chin, which is reminiscent of a Denisovan, a lineage that once existed in Asia and is now extinct.

This complicates the process of identification. The skull seems to be a mosaic of physical features, and points to the co-existence of three different lineages in Asia — H. erectus, Denisovan, and this new lineage which is "phylogenetically close" to us.

What is this new human called?

Scientists are yet to classify this purportedly new lineage of hominin. For now, they've now labelled it HLD 6 — here HLD represents Hualongdong where the skull was found.

Homo sapiens, or "wise humans" only appeared in China around 120,000 years ago.

The skull discovered by experts, as per researchers at CAS may be the historic uncovering of an entirely new lineage–a hybrid between the branch that gave us modern humans and the branch that gave us other ancient hominins in the region.

2) Whale like filter-feeding discovered in prehistoric marine reptile :by University of Bristol

Reconstruction of Hupehsuchus about to engulf a shoal of shrimps

A remarkable new fossil from China reveals for the first time that a group of reptiles were already using whale-like filter feeding 250 million years ago.New research by a team from China and the UK has shown details of the skull of an early marine reptile called Hupehsuchus that indicate it had soft structures such as an expanding throat region to allow it to engulf great masses of water containing shrimp-like prey, and baleen whale-like structures to filter food items as it swam forward.

The team also found that the Hupehsuchus skulls show the same grooves and notches along the edges of its jaws similar to baleen whales, which have keratin strips instead of teeth.

"We were amazed to discover these adaptations in such an early marine reptile," said Zichen Fang of the Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey, who led the research. "The hupehsuchians were a unique group in China, close relatives of the ichthyosaurs, and known for 50 years, but their mode of life was not fully understood."

"The hupesuchians lived in the Early Triassic, about 248 million years ago, in China and they were part of a huge and rapid re-population of the oceans," said Professor Michael Benton, a collaborator at the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences. "This was a time of turmoil, only three million years after the huge end-Permian mass extinction which had wiped out most of life. It's been amazing to discover how fast these large marine reptiles came on the scene and entirely changed marine ecosystems of the time."

"We discovered two new hupehsuchian skulls," said Professor Long Cheng, also of the Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey, who directed the project.

"These were more complete than earlier finds and showed that the long snout was composed of unfused, straplike bones, with a long space between them running the length of the snout. This construction is only seen otherwise in modern baleen whales where the loose structure of the snout and lower jaws allows them to support a huge throat region that balloons out enormously as they swim forward, engulfing small prey."

Li Tian, a collaborator from the University of Geosciences Wuhan, added, "The other clue came in the teeth… or the absence of teeth,"

"Modern baleen whales have no teeth, unlike the toothed whales such as dolphins and orcas. Baleen whales have grooves along the jaws to support curtains of baleen, long thin strips of keratin, the protein that makes hair, feathers and fingernails. Hupehsuchus had just the same grooves and notches along the edges of its jaws, and we suggest it had independently evolved into some form of baleen."

3) Ahead of Chandrayaan-3 lander’s soft landing ISRO assesses current situation around the moon

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that as of July 2023, there are six active lunar orbiters

In the run-up to the Chandrayaan-3’s lander’s soft landing on the moon’s surface on August 23, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has carried out an assessment of the current space situation around the moon.

The space agency, which released the document on August 9, stated that the moon and Mars are the most explored and also comparatively more crowded planetary bodies at present.

It added that India’s Chandrayaan-3 is the latest entry into lunar orbit and more intensified activities around the moon are foreseen in the next few years due to the renewed interest in lunar exploration, heralded by Artemis missions for return to the moon and preparations for colonisation of Mars.

“While the previous missions were essentially aimed at scientific explorations, upcoming ventures will likely involve multiple actors of diverse interests, including those primarily driven by resource utilisation for commercial purposes. A better understanding of the environment is needed to formulate reasonable mitigation practices to avoid close-approach threats in planetary orbits,” ISRO said.

Chandrayaan-3 just 1,437 km away from moon

ISRO carried out another orbit reduction manoeuvre of India’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3 on August 9

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 9 successfully carried out another orbit reduction manoeuvre of India’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3.

The manoeuvre was performed from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) centre in Bengaluru. The spacecraft is now just 1,437 km away from the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 will land even if ‘everything fails, all sensors fail, nothing works’: ISRO chief

ISRO chairman S Somanath said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will make a soft-landing even if two engines and all the sensors of the Vikram lander stop working, while speaking during an event on Tuesday.

ISRO chairman S Somanath on Tuesday said that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is set to make a soft landing on the Moon on August 23.

Somanath made the comments while speaking during a talk on Chandrayaan-3 hosted by the non-profit organisation Disha Bharat. “If everything fails, if all the sensors fail, nothing works, still it (Vikram) will make a landing. That’s how it has been designed — provided that the propulsion system works well. We have also made sure that if two of the engines (in Vikram) don’t work this time also, it will still be able to land,” said the chairman during the event according to news agency PTI.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission took aff atop an LVM-3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2.35 PM IST on July 14, 2023. After takeoff and separation from the launch module, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft executed multiple manoeuvres climbing to a higher Earth orbit each time before finally injecting itself into a “translunar” orbit on August 5. Then, on Sunday, August 6, the spacecraft entered a lunar orbit. It first achieved an orbit where it was 164 kilometres from the Moon at its closest and 18,074 kilometres from the Moon at its farthest. It then completed a manoevure which then took it to a 170 by 4313 kilometre orbit. The mission’s next orbit manoevure should happen between 1 PM and 2 PM IST today. This will be followed by two more manoeuvres on August 14 and August 15 till it reaches its final 100 kilometre by 100 kilometre orbit.

After it reaches that final orbit, the spacecraft will start a deboost process where the craft will slow down before the lander module will separate to land on the lunar surface on August 23.

“We have also made sure that if two of the engines don’t work this time also, it will still be able to land. So the whole design has been made to make sure that it should be able to handle many failures, provided the algorithms work properly,” said the chairman during the same event, speaking about the Vikram lander.

Chandrayaan-3 will land India in the history pages as just the fourth country in the world to manage a soft-landing on the Moon—a feat that it attempted unsuccessfully with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. The only other countries that have achieved the same so far are the United States, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China. Apart from Chandrayaan-2, privately-led attempts from Israel and Japan have also crashed on the Moon.

4) Physicists open new path to an exotic form of superconductivity : Carol Clark, Emory University

Physicists have identified a mechanism for the formation of oscillating superconductivity known as pair-density waves. Physical Review Letters published the discovery, which provides new insight into an unconventional, high-temperature superconductive state seen in certain materials, including high-temperature superconductors.

"We discovered that structures known as Van Hove singularities can produce modulating, oscillating states of superconductivity," says Luiz Santos, assistant professor of physics at Emory University and senior author of the study. "Our work provides a new theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of this behavior, a phenomenon that is not well understood."

The puzzle of superconductivity

Santos is a theorist who specializes in condensed matter physics. He studies the interactions of quantum materials—tiny things such as atoms, photons and electrons—that don't behave according to the laws of classical physics.

Superconductivity, or the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity without energy loss when cooled to a super-low temperature, is one example of intriguing quantum behavior. The phenomenon was discovered in 1911 when Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes showed that mercury lost its electrical resistance when cooled to 4 Kelvin or minus 371 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about the temperature of Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system.

It took scientists until 1957 to come up with an explanation for how and why superconductivity occurs. At normal temperatures, electrons roam more or less independently. They bump into other particles, causing them to shift speed and direction and dissipate energy. At low temperatures, however, electrons can organize into a new state of matter.

"They form pairs that are bound together into a collective state that behaves like a single entity," Santos explains. "You can think of them like soldiers in an army. If they are moving in isolation they are easier to deflect. But when they are marching together in lockstep it's much harder to destabilize them. This collective state carries current in a robust way."

A holy grail of physics

Superconductivity holds huge potential. In theory, it could allow for electric current to move through wires without heating them up, or losing energy. These wires could then carry far more electricity, far more efficiently.

"One of the holy grails of physics is room-temperature superconductivity that is practical enough for everyday-living applications," Santos says. "That breakthrough could change the shape of civilization."

Many physicists and engineers are working on this frontline to revolutionize how electricity gets transferred.

Meanwhile, superconductivity has already found applications. Superconducting coils power electromagnets used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines for medical diagnostics. A handful of magnetic levitation trains are now operating in the world, built on superconducting magnets that are 10 times stronger than ordinary electromagnets. The magnets repel each other when the matching poles face each other, generating a magnetic field capable of levitating and propelling a train.

The Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator that scientists are using to research the fundamental structure of the universe, is another example of technology that runs through superconductivity.

Superconductivity continues to be discovered in more materials, including many that are superconductive at higher temperatures.

Everything we learn about the world has potential applications,says Emory physicist Luiz Santos, senior author of the paper. Credit Emory University

An accidental discovery

One focus of Santos' research is how interactions between electrons can lead to forms of superconductivity that cannot be explained by the 1957 description of superconductivity. An example of this so-called exotic phenomenon is oscillating superconductivity, when the paired electrons dance in waves, changing amplitude.

In an unrelated project, Santos asked Castro to investigate specific properties of Van Hove singularities, structures where many electronic states become close in energy. Castro's project revealed that the singularities appeared to have the right kind of physics to seed oscillating superconductivity.That sparked Santos and his collaborators to delve deeper. They uncovered a mechanism that would allow these dancing-wave states of superconductivity to arise from Van Hove singularities."As theoretical physicists, we want to be able to predict and classify behavior to understand how nature works," Santos says. "Then we can start to ask questions with technological relevance."Some high-temperature superconductors—which function at temperatures about three times as cold as a household freezer—have this dancing-wave behavior. The discovery of how this behavior can emerge from Van Hove singularities provides a foundation for experimentalists to explore the realm of possibilities it presents."I doubt that Kamerlingh Onnes was thinking about levitation or particle accelerators when he discovered superconductivity," Santos says. "But everything we learn about the world has potential applications."

5) Scientists name new species of extinct giant amphibian from fossil found in retaining wall : University of New South Wales

Arenaerpeton looks a lot like the modern Chinese Giant Salamander.

Arenaerpeton supinatus was discovered in rocks cut from a nearby quarry that were intended for the building of a garden wall. A 240-million-year-old fossil of an amphibian that was found in a retaining wall in the 1990s has been formally named and described by scientists at UNSW Sydney and the Australian Museum.

The fossil was originally found by a retired chicken farmer in rocks obtained from a local quarry intended for use in the construction of a garden retaining wall and was subsequently donated to the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Paleontologist Lachlan Hart, who holds joint roles with UNSW Science and the Australian Museum, says the fossil—named Arenaerpeton supinatus, meaning "supine sand creeper"—shows nearly the entire skeleton, and remarkably, the outlines of its skin.

"This fossil is a unique example of a group of extinct animals known as temnospondyls, which lived before and during the time of the dinosaurs," says Hart, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) at UNSW.

"We don't often find skeletons with the head and body still attached, and the soft tissue preservation is an even rarer occurrence."

Arenaerpeton inhabited freshwater rivers in what is now known as the Sydney Basin during the Triassic period, 240 million years ago. Mr. Hart says it most likely hunted other ancient fish such as Cleithrolepis, but apart from that, there is not much evidence that tells us about the other animals that Arenaerpeton shared the land and waters with.

"Superficially, Arenaerpeton looks a lot like the modern Chinese Giant Salamander, especially in the shape of its head," Hart says.

"However, from the size of the ribs and the soft tissue outline preserved on the fossil we can see that it was considerably more heavyset than its living descendants. It also had some pretty gnarly teeth, including a pair of fang-like tusks on the roof of its mouth."

Hart says what is exciting about the discovery is that Arenaerpeton is large—estimated to be about 1.2m from head to tail—when most other closely related animals that lived at the same time were small.

"The last of the temnospondyls were in Australia 120 million years after Arenaerpeton, and some grew to massive sizes. The fossil record of temnospondyls spans across two mass extinction events, so perhaps this evolution of increased size aided in their longevity."

Dr. Matthew McCurry, Senior Lecturer in UNSW's School of BEES and Curator of Paleontology at the Australian Museum says the fossil is a significant find in Australian paleo history.

"This is one of the most important fossils found in New South Wales in the past 30 years, so it is exciting to formally describe it," says McCurry, who is also a co-author on the study. "It represents a key part of Australia's fossil heritage."

The study has been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and the fossil will be on display at the Australian Museum, Sydney, later this year.

6) After 15 years, pulsar timing yields evidence of cosmic background gravitational waves : Robert Sanders, University of California - Berkeley

Artist's interpretation of an array of pulsarsbeing affected by gravitational ripples producedby a supermassive black hole binary in a distantgalaxy

The universe is humming with gravitational radiation—a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it.

That is the conclusion of several groups of researchers from around the world who simultaneously published a slew of journal articles in June describing more than 15 years of observations of millisecond pulsars within our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. At least one group—the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration—has found compelling evidence that the precise rhythms of these pulsars are affected by the stretching and squeezing of spacetime by these long-wavelength gravitational waves.

"This is key evidence for gravitational waves at very low frequencies," says Vanderbilt University's Stephen Taylor, who co-led the search and is the current chair of the collaboration. "After years of work, NANOGrav is opening an entirely new window on the gravitational-wave universe."

Gravitational waves were first detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015. The short-wavelength fluctuations in spacetime were caused by the merger of smaller black holes, or occasionally neutron stars, all of them weighing in at less than a few hundred solar masses.

The question now is: Are the long-wavelength gravitational waves—with periods from years to decades—also produced by black holes?

In one paper from the NANOGrav consortium, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, University of California, Berkeley, physicist Luke Zoltan Kelley and the NANOGrav team argued that the hum is likely produced by hundreds of thousands of pairs of supermassive black holes—each weighing billions of times the mass of our sun—that over the history of the universe have gotten close enough to one another to merge.

The team produced simulations of supermassive black hole binary populations containing billions of sources and compared the predicted gravitational wave signatures with NANOGrav's most recent observations.

The black holes' orbital dance prior to merging vibrates spacetime analogous to the way waltzing dancers rhythmically vibrate a dance floor. Such mergers over the 13.8-billion-year age of the universe produced gravitational waves that today overlap, like the ripples from a handful of pebbles tossed into a pond, to produce the background hum. Because the wavelengths of these gravitational waves are measured in light years, detecting them required a galaxy-sized array of antennas—a collection of millisecond pulsars.

"I guess the elephant in the room is we're still not 100% sure that it's produced by supermassive black hole binaries. That is definitely our best guess, and it's fully consistent with the data, but we're not positive," said Kelley, UC Berkeley assistant adjunct professor of astronomy. "If it is binaries, then that's the first time that we've actually confirmed that supermassive black hole binaries exist, which has been a huge puzzle for more than 50 years now."

"The signal we're seeing is from a cosmological population over space and over time, in 3D. A collection of many, many of these binaries collectively give us this background," said astrophysicist Chung-Pei Ma, the Judy Chandler Webb Professor in the Physical Sciences in the departments of astronomy and physics at UC Berkeley and a member of the NANOGrav collaboration.

Ma noted that while astronomers have identified a number of possible supermassive black hole binaries using radio, optical and X-ray observations, they can use gravitational waves as a new siren to guide them where in the sky to search for electromagnetic waves and conduct detailed studies of black hole binaries.

Ma directs a project to study 100 of the closest supermassive black holes to Earth and is eager to find evidence of activity around one of them that suggests a binary pair so that NANOGrav can tune the pulsar timing array to probe that patch of the sky for gravitational waves. Supermassive black hole binaries likely emit gravitational waves for a couple of million years before they merge.

Other possible causes of the background gravitational waves include dark matter axions, black holes left over from the beginning of the universe—so-called primordial black holes—and cosmic strings. Another NANOGrav paper appearing in ApJ Letters lays out constraints on these theories.

"Other groups have suggested that this comes from cosmic inflation or cosmic strings or other kinds of new physical processes which themselves are very exciting, but we think binaries are much more likely. To really be able to definitively say that this is coming from binaries, however, what we have to do is measure how much the gravitational wave signal varies across the sky. Binaries should produce far larger variations than alternative sources," Kelley said.

"Now is really when the serious work and the excitement get started as we continue to build sensitivity. As we continue to make better measurements, our constraints on the supermassive black hole binary populations are just rapidly going to get better and better."

Galaxy mergers lead to black hole mergers

Most large galaxies are thought to have massive black holes at their centers, though they're hard to detect because the light they emit—ranging from X-rays to radio waves produced when stars and gas fall into the black hole—is typically blocked by surrounding gas and dust. Ma recently analyzed the motion of stars around the center of one large galaxy, M87, and refined estimates of its mass—5.37 billion times the mass of the sun—even though the black hole itself is totally obscured.

Tantalizingly, the supermassive black hole at the center of M87 could be a binary black hole. But no one knows for sure.

"My question for M87, or even our galactic center, Sagittarius A*, is: Can you hide a second black hole near the main black hole we've been studying? And I think currently no one can rule that out," Ma said. "The smoking gun for this detection of gravitational waves being from binary supermassive black holes would have to come from future studies, where we hope to be able to see continuous wave detections from single binary sources."

Simulations of galaxy mergers suggest that binary supermassive black holes are common, since the central black holes of two merging galaxies should sink together toward the center of the larger merged galaxy. These black holes would begin to orbit one another, though the waves that NANOGrav can detect are only emitted when they get very close, Kelley said—something like 10 to 100 times the diameter of our solar system, or 1,000 to 10,000 times the Earth-sun distance, which is 93 million miles.

But can interactions with gas and dust in the merged galaxy make the black holes spiral inward to get that close, making a merger inevitable?

"This has kind of been the biggest uncertainty in supermassive black hole binaries: How do you get them from just after galaxy merger down to where they're actually coalescing," Kelley said. "Galaxy mergers bring the two supermassive black holes together to about a kiloparsec or so—a distance of 3,200 light years, roughly the size of the nucleus of a galaxy. But they need to get down to five or six orders of magnitude smaller separations before they can actually produce gravitational waves."

"It could be that the two could just be stalled," Ma noted. "We call that the last parsec problem. If you had no other channel to shrink them, then we would not expect to see gravitational waves."But the NANOGrav data suggest that most supermassive black hole binaries don't stall.The amplitude of the gravitational waves that we're seeing suggests that mergers are pretty effective, which means that a large fraction of supermassive black hole binaries are able to go from these large galaxy merger scales down to the very, very small subparsec scales," Kelley said.NANOGrav was able to measure the background gravitational waves, thanks to the presence of millisecond pulsars—rapidly rotating neutron stars that sweep a bright beam of radio waves past Earth several hundred times per second. For unknown reasons, their pulsation rate is precise to within tenths of milliseconds.When the first such millisecond pulsar was found in 1982 by the late UC Berkeley astronomer Donald Backer, he quickly realized that these precision flashers could be used to detect the spacetime fluctuations produced by gravitational waves. He coined the term "pulsar timing array" to describe a set of pulsars scattered around us in the galaxy that could be used as a detector.

In 2007, Backer was one of the founders of NANOGrav, a collaboration that now involves more than 190 scientists from the U.S. and Canada. The plan was to monitor at least once each month a group of millisecond pulsars in our portion of the Milky Way galaxy and, after accounting for the effects of motion, look for correlated changes in the pulse rates that could be ascribed to long-wavelength gravitational waves traveling through the galaxy. The change in arrival time of a particular pulsar signal would be on the order of a millionth of a second, Kelley said.

"It's only the statistically coherent variations that really are the hallmark of gravitational waves," he said. "You see variations on millisecond, tens of millisecond scales all the time. That's just due to noise processes. But you need to dig deep down through that and look at these correlations to pick up signals that have amplitudes of about 100 nanoseconds or so."

The NANOGrav collaboration monitored 68 pulsars in all, some for 15 years, and employed 67 in the current analysis. The group publicly released their analysis programs, which are being used by groups in Europe (European Pulsar Timing Array), Australia (Parkes Pulsar Timing Array) and China (Chinese Pulsar Timing Array) to correlate signals from different, though sometimes overlapping, sets of pulsars than used by NANOGrav.

The NANOGrav data allow several other inferences about the population of supermassive black hole binary mergers over the history of the universe, Kelley said. For one, the amplitude of the signal implies that the population skews toward higher masses. While known supermassive black holes max out at about 20 billion solar masses, many of those that created the background may have been bigger, perhaps even 40 or 60 billion solar masses. Alternatively, there may just be many more supermassive black hole binaries than we think.While the observed amplitude of the gravitational wave signal is broadly consistent with our expectations, it's definitely a bit on the high side," he said. "So we need to have some combination of relatively massive supermassive black holes, a very high occurrence rate of those black holes, and they probably need to be able to coalesce quite effectively to be able to produce these amplitudes that we see. Or maybe it's more like the masses are 20% larger than we thought, but also they merge twice as effectively, or some combination of parameters."

As more data comes in from more years of observations, the NANOGrav team expects to get more convincing evidence for a cosmic gravitational wave background and what's producing it, which could be a combination of sources. For now, astronomers are excited about the prospects for gravitational wave astronomy.This is very exciting as a new tool," Ma said. "This opens up a completely new window for supermassive black hole studies."

NANOGrav's data came from 15 years of observations by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, a facility that collapsed and became unusable in 2020; the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia; and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Future NANOGrav results will incorporate data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope, which was added to the project in 2019.

1) Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi returns to parliament after reinstatement:

Rahul Gandhi returned to India's parliament on Monday after a Supreme Court ruling, boosting the profile of his Congress party and its opposition allies ahead of a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The vote is not expected to affect the popularity of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which enjoys a strong majority.

However, the return of Gandhi, the scion of one of India's most renowned political dynasties, to parliament is expected to strengthen the voice of the newly formed, 26-party opposition alliance led by Congress. Lawmakers are expected to debate, and then vote, on the government's performance from Tuesday to Thursday.

Gandhi, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were prime ministers, was convicted in March in a case brought by a BJP lawmaker over 2019 comments deemed insulting to Modi and others with the same name, including the lawmaker.

Upon his conviction, Gandhi, 53, lost his parliamentary seat and was jailed for two years but granted bail. The Supreme Court last week suspended the conviction, allowing Gandhi to return to parliament and contest next year's elections.

On Monday, Gandhi entered the parliament building after showing respect to the statue of freedom movement leader Mahatma Gandhi in the complex. He did not speak to reporters.

"I have returned to parliament after paying my respects to Bapu," Gandhi later posted on Facebook, referring endearingly to Mahatma Gandhi as father. JUBILANT OPPOSITION

Lawmakers from Congress and other opposition parties gathered outside the parliament's entrance to cheer Gandhi and their new alliance called INDIA, or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.

The alliance is making plans to run against the BJP in national elections due by May 2024.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the decision to reinstate Gandhi "brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad", his constituency in the southern state of Kerala.BJP has said the Supreme Court has only suspended Gandhi's conviction and had not overturned it.Gandhi's disqualification from parliament galvanised India's splintered opposition to form the INDIA alliance to jointly take on BJP.

Leaders of the alliance, which has less than half of BJP's 301 members in the lower house of parliament, have held two meetings since June and are due to meet again on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 to name a convenor and a co-ordination panel.Ghanshyam Tiwari, spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party, a key member of the INDIA alliance, said Gandhi had "emerged as a formidable architect and leader" of the alliance."A strong Congress party with the rising stature of Rahul Gandhi and determined leadership of Kharge will make the alliance the leading force in every state," he told Reuters.Analysts, however, cautioned that Gandhi taking centre stage again risked overshadowing the national ambitions of regional party leaders in the alliance and could destabilise it."It is very likely that any strident attempts by Congress to project Gandhi as their PM candidate would scupper the goal of broad opposition unity heralded by the INDIA alliance," political analyst Asim Ali wrote in the Times of India newspaper on Monday.

2) Rahul Gandhi says BJP’s Manipur politics is an onslaught on ‘Bharat Mata’

Congress leader says the Prime Minister has not visited Manipur as he does not consider the State to be a part of India

The politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have resulted in the death of ‘Bharat Mata’ (‘Mother India’) in Manipur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a blistering the no-confidence debatethe no-confidence debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The exact words used by Mr. Gandhi were removed from the official records by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, according to a bulletin issued late on Wednesday evening. Until the filing of this report, the Lok Sabha Secretariat, however, had not issued any bulletin regarding the expunction of the same words that were used by Union Minister Smriti Irani as a retort to Mr. Gandhi’s speech.  Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inaction over deadly ethnic conflict in the northeast in his first parliamentary speech since his defamation conviction was suspended.

Gandhi’s fiery address to parliament on Wednesday was part of a no-confidence debate demanding the government’s resignation for letting the unrest spread in Manipur state for months. “You are throwing kerosene in the whole country. You threw kerosene in Manipur and lit a spark,” Gandhi said as his supporters cheered and rival lawmakers jeered.

“You’re set on burning the whole country. You are killing Mother India,” he said.

Gandhi delivered the address after months of violence in Manipur in which at least 150 people have been killed, many hundreds more wounded and tens of thousands rendered homeless since May.

Until last month, Modi had failed to publicly address the violence in a state controlled by his own Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Soldiers have been rushed in from other parts of India to contain the violence in Manipur, and a curfew and internet shutdown remain in force across most of the state.

The clashes erupted over the BJP state government potentially extending special benefits to the mostly Hindu ethnic majority Meiteis. Those benefits have been reserved for Manipur’s minority Kuki people, who are mostly Christian.

The state government denies accusations by the Kukis and political rivals that it failed to act more forcefully to quell the trouble.

The BJP is regularly accused by opponents of fomenting divisions for electoral purposes, and India will hold a general election early next year. The BJP has a large majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the lower house, and is expected to comfortably defeat the no-confidence vote against Modi. His party has dismissed it as a headline-grabbing gimmick.

VISIT TO MANIPUR

Gandhi, who spoke in Hindi, said the Indian army could bring peace to Manipur in one day but is not being used, "because you want to kill India in Manipur", addressing the government side.

New Delhi has rushed tens of thousands of additional security forces to the state of 3.2 million people but sporadic violence continues.

The clashes erupted over the BJP state government potentially extending special benefits to the mostly Hindu ethnic majority Meiteis. Those benefits have been reserved for minority, mostly Christian, Kuki tribals in the state.

The state government denies accusations by the Kukis and political rivals that it failed to act more forcefully to quell the trouble.

Gandhi, scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, recalled his visit to Manipur in June and his experiences of meeting women in relief camps there, something, he said, "our prime minister has not done so far".

"Our prime minister has not gone to Manipur because for him Manipur is not in India," Gandhi said.

"You are pouring kerosene over the entire country. You threw kerosene in Manipur and lit a spark, now you are doing that in Haryana, you are burning the entire country," he said, referring to Hindu-Muslim clashes in the northern state of Haryana last week in which seven people have been killed.

BJP-ruled Haryana, on the fringes of New Delhi, has blamed the violence on Muslim mobs attacking a Hindu religious procession and called it a larger conspiracy.

Modi was not present in parliament when Gandhi spoke but he is due to address it on Thursday before it is put to vote.

Modi had not made any public comments about the conflict until last month when videos showing women being paraded naked and molested in Manipur surfaced and sparked national outrage.He called the assault of women "shameful" and that his heart was filled with pain and anger and promised tough action.

3) In a 2-Hour-Long Speech in Parliament, PM Modi Spoke for Less Than 10 Minutes on Manipur

Opposition leaders, who had urged PM Modi to address the three-month-long violence during the entire parliamentary session, staged a walkout when, after 1 hour and 40 minutes of the speech, there was no mention of Manipur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (August 10) broke his silence on the floor of the parliament about the ongoing violence in Manipur while replying to the no-confidence motion moved against his government.

However, in his speech that lasted around 2 hours 20 mins, Modi spoke about the violence hit-state for barely ten minutes in which he said that his government is working towards peace.

The remaining part of his extensive speech was devoted to attacking the Congress, previous UPA governments, the opposition INDIA alliance and the developmental initiatives brought to the North East in the nine years of the Modi government.

This occurred despite the opposition saying that the goal of the no-confidence motion was to get the prime minister to address the ongoing violence in Manipur inside parliament.

Modi’s speech saw high drama amid loud protests from the opposition, which staged a walkout after 1 hour and 40 minutes of the speech as there was no mention of Manipur.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, was suspended for “misconduct”. The no-confidence motion was ultimately defeated by a voice vote in the absence of the opposition MPs in the House.

Barely ten minutes on Manipur

While Prime Minister Modi began speaking at 5 pm, he first mentioned Manipur only at 6.42 pm as opposition MPs started walking out of the House.

“Yesterday, Amit bhai (Shah) said that an order came from the high court of Manipur, which saw a sequence of events that led to violence in the state. Many families lost their loved ones. Terrible crimes were committed against women and this is condemnable,” he said. “To punish the perpetrators both central and state governments are trying their best. I want to assure all citizens that all our efforts are underway and peace will soon be restored. Manipur will move forward with new atma vishwas (self confidence) towards development soon.”

“I also want to tell the people of Manipur, to the women, daughters and sisters that the country is with you and this House is with you. Together we will confront this challenge and bring back peace. I want to tell Manipur that we are trying our best to ensure Manipur moves towards peace soon,” he said.

While the no confidence motion debate began on Tuesday (August 8), Modi only appeared in the House for the first time on Thursday afternoon – first, briefly during Chowdhury’s speech, and later, just before he was due to give his reply shortly before 5 pm.

Even in his brief comments on Manipur, Modi took aim at the opposition. “If they had agreed to Shah’s requests, we could have had a good discussion. Shah gave a detailed statement yesterday and the country was shocked by the lies spread by the opposition about the situation in Manipur,” he said.

“We had said come and discuss Manipur, the home minister even wrote a letter. But they had no intention or courage..”

Modi said that Shah’s speech on Wednesday continued for over two hours and was a detailed reply on Manipur “without any politics” that took into account “the concerns of the citizens and the government”.

“The purpose [of the speech] was also to make the people aware and send a message of peace,” said Modi. Modi also said that as Shah explained the day before, Manipur’s problems have not developed over the last few years.

“Manipur’s problems are being presented as if these problems have started recently. As Shah explained extensively yesterday – the genesis of problems in the Northeast is Congress. It is not the people of the North East but the Congress’s politics that is responsible for this (situation),” he said.

The prime minister also said that the previous Congress governments did little for the Northeast.“You (Congress) have never tried to understand the emotions of the Northeast,” he said. “I have visited (Northeast) 50 times. This is not just data, this is dedication towards Northeast.”

“Who’s government was there in Manipur when Mahatma Gandhi’s picture was not allowed in government offices, whose government was there in Manipur when the decision to not allow the national anthem in schools was taken?”

Accusing the opposition of “selective” outrage, Modi said, “They cannot think beyond politics.”

When the opposition staged a walkout at around 6.40 pm (about an hour and 40 minutes into Modi’s speech), the prime minister accused them of not being ready to listen to him.

“Those who don’t believe in democracy are ready to speak but not listen. If you speak the truth they leave. They throw garbage and run away, they spread lies and run away. The country has no hopes from them,” he said.

‘The Congress divided India into three’

Hitting out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who on Wednesday accused Modi of “murdering Bharat Mata in Manipur”, Modi said that his words had hurt every Indian.

“(Those) words on Bharat Mata have hurt every Indian,” he said. “I don’t know what has happened…without power some people cannot live. What kind of a language is this?

“These people talk about murdering the constitution. Have they forgotten August 14?” he asked, referring to India’s partition.“We are still living with that pain. The same people who divided Ma Bharat into three pieces, when they had to make our country independent?”

Congress likes dynasty politics

Modi said that the Congress has always favoured dynastic politics.

“We have always opposed dynastic politics but the Congress likes parivarvaad, durbaarbaad,” he said.Modi said that because of dynastic politics, the rights of leaders like B.R. Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh were taken away.Taking aim at Gandhi’s speech on Wednesday, where he said that Lanka was not set ablaze by Hanuman but by his arrogance, Modi agreed that that was true. “This is true, that is why the people of this country have behaved like Ram and ended that arrogance. From 400 seats they are now down to 40,” he said.

“The truth is the people of this country have given full majority to this government twice. But their problem is – how can a gareeb ka beta (son of a poor man) sit here. You thought this seat was your dynastic right.”

“In the end they are naamdar (dynast) and we are kaamdar (those known by their work),” he said.

‘Changing name to INDIA won’t change your fortunes’

Hitting out at the opposition INDIA bloc, Modi said that changing their name from UPA to INDIA will not change their fortunes.

“They feel that by changing their alliance’s name to INDIA they will rule the country. But this is a ghamandiya (arrogant) alliance and I want to tell them that by changing your name you cannot change your fortunes,” he said.

He said that the name INDIA was also decided by taking the NDA’s help and [that it] defined corruption. PM absolved himself of all responsibility’The opposition that staged a walkout after an hour and 40 minutes said that they took the step as Modi was giving a political speech and not talking about Manipur.

Speaking to The Wire, deputy leader of the Congress in the house, Gaurav Gogoi, who had moved the motion last month, said that the INDIA bloc decided to walk out because the prime minister absolved himself of all responsibility.

“The prime minister absolved his government – at the centre and the state – of all failures in Manipur and did not take any responsibility for the violence and rapes in Manipur. It seems they want a divided Manipur and the nexus of the drug mafia with the chief minister (N. Biren Singh) will continue. He also avoided answers on key issues like unemployment and China and remarks made on Pulwama by former J&K governor Satyapal Malik. For all these reasons the INDIA alliance decided to stage a walkout.”

When asked about the prime minister’s focus on his government’s achievements instead of Manipur, Gogoi said that Modi had no answers.

“The prime minister did not have answers on the three questions I raised in Lok Sabha about why he didn’t go to Manipur, why he was silent for 80 days, and why he hasn’t sacked the chief minister. He only tried to overrule us by bureaucratic achievements of his government,” he said.

Leader of Congress suspended

Modi’s speech also saw Adhir Chowdhury’s suspension for “misconduct” after Union minister for parliamentary affairs Pralhad Joshi moved a motion against him.

Joshi moved a motion “that this House having taken the serious note of the gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in utter disregard to the House and authority of Chair resolve that the matter of his misconduct be referred to Committee of Privileges of the House for further investigation and reported to the House, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury be suspended from the service of the House till the Committee submits its report.”

Earlier, during his speech, Chowdhury had criticised Modi’s silence on Manipur and compared the prime minister with Nirav Modi and said that when he saw that the fugitive businessman was in the Caribbean he felt relieved.I thought Nirav Modi has left India and gone far away but now I know Nirav Modi has not gone far away,” he said.He also compared Modi to Dhritarashtra and said when Draupadi was disrobed Dhritarashtra “was blind”.There is no difference between Manipur and Hastinapur Dhritarashtra is still blind.”

His remarks were expunged after protests from the treasury benches who demanded an apology.

During the prime minister’s speech as well, Chowdhury led several interruptions demanding that he address Manipur.

3) Manipur reports fresh violence, 15 houses torched, 1 person shot

Fifteen houses were set on fire in Manipur’s Imphal West district where fresh violence broke out, officials said on Sunday. The incident happened on Saturday evening at Langol Games village as a mob went on a rampage, they said.

Security personnel fired several rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control, they added.

A 45-year-old man was shot during the violence. He was admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) with bullet wounds on his left thigh, and is stated to be out of danger at present, officials said. Fresh violence was also reported from Imphal East district’s Checkon area where a large commercial establishment was torched on Saturday, officials said. Three nearby houses were also set on fire, they said, adding that firefighters doused the blaze.

The incidents of violence were reported amid the 24-hour general strike called by the coordinating committee of 27 assembly constituencies, which paralysed normal life in the Imphal valley on Saturday.

4) Rajya Sabha passes Delhi services Bill, with support of 131 MPs

Bill is to ensure corruption-free, pro-people administration in the Union Territory, says Amit Shah; 102 MPs voted against it; move to refer it to select committee rejected The Rajya Sabha passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill in New Delhi on August 7, four days after the Lok Sabha cleared the Bill. According to the Centre, the Bill is for the “maintenance of democratic and administrative balance in the governance” of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

After an extensive 8-hour debate on Monday, the Rajya Sabha approved the Delhi Services Bill, granting the Central government authority over bureaucrats in the city. AAP leader Atishi stated that despite this outcome, her party and the residents of the national capital will persist in their struggle against the BJP.

Union Home Minster Amit Shah on 7 August is set to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha. This comes after the bill was passed in the lower house i.e. in Lok Sabha on 3 August by voice vote. The ordinance on the control of services in Delhi was promulgated in May days after the Supreme Court verdict on the issue.

Currently in Rajya Sabha, there are a total of 245 seats of which eight are vacant and makes the total number of seats to 237. The majority mark to pass the Bill in Rajya Sabha will be 119. On the other hand, with the combined numbers of all parties who have extended support to AAP, including the Congress, is 105.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks to replace the ordinance brought by the Centre in May which excluded ‘services’ from the legislative competence of the Delhi legislative assembly. The Delhi ordinance was promulgated by the central government a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government, headed by CM Arvind Kejriwal.

5) Monsoon Session Highlights: Delhi Services Bill Passes Parliament, To Be Law With President's Assent

The politically contentious Delhi Services Bill has cleared the parliament after it was passed in Rajya Sabha today. The Bill will become a law after the President's assent.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday amid a walkout by the opposition parties.

In the Lok Sabha, the government has listed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023; the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill, 2023; The Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill, 2023; and the Mediation Bill, 2023 for consideration and passage on Monday.

The Lok Sabha has passed 15 bills so far during the Monsoon session, of which 13 were passed after the no-trust motion was admitted on July 26.

The Rajya Sabha has passed 12 bills during the session so far, while nine bills have been passed by both Houses.

1) India vs West Indies 3rd T20I Highlights: SKY, Tilak lead India to 7-wicket win

Suryakumar Yadav smacked 83 in 44 balls while Tilak Varma was unbeaten on 49 off 37.

India vs West Indies 3rd T20I Highlights: Suryakumar Yadav was back to his belligerent best as India stayed alive in the series with a seven-wicket win over the West Indies in the third T20I here on Tuesday. West Indies skipper Rovman Powell's whirlwind 40 not out off 19 balls pushed the hosts to 159 for five after Kuldeep Yadav (3/28) stemmed the flow of runs in the middle overs. Debutant Yashavi Jaiswal (1) and Shubman Gill (6) got out cheaply in run chase before Suryakumar came up with a special 83 off 44 balls to help India gun down the target in 17.5 overs. Tilak Varma (49 not out off 37) was happy to play second fiddle to his senior Mumbai Indians teammate in their 87-run stand. Tilak missed his second straight fifty in his debut series as skipper Hardik Pandya (20 not out off 15) hit the winning six. West Indies lead the five-match series 2-1 with the next game to played in Lauderhill, Florida, on Saturday.

West Indies vs India 3rd T20I Match Summary: India win by 7 wkts

India- 164/3      West Indies 159/5

Suryakumar Yadav- 83 Brandon King- 42

Tilak Varma- 49*           Rovman Powell- 40

             

Alzarri Jospeh- 2/25     Kuldeep Yadav- 3/28

Obed McCoy- 1/32        Mukesh Kumar- 1/19

2) Asian Champions Trophy Hockey: India knock out Pakistan with 4-0 win, finish as table toppers in group stage

 Skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored twice as India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 in their final round-robin league match here on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals unbeaten. India now leads the standings with 13 points after four wins and one draw.

India beat Pakistan 4-0: Highlights

Harmanpreet (15th, 23rd minutes) converted two penalty corners, while Jugraj Singh (36th) added another. In the 55th minute, India's final goal came from the sticks of Akashdeep Singh on a field play. Pakistan were eliminated from the tournament on goal difference despite finishing with the same five points as Korea and Japan. Pakistan needed a draw or a one-goal loss to advance to the semifinals.          

Pakistan's first attempt at a goal came in the form of a penalty corner, which Indian custodian Krishan Bahadur Pathak brilliantly saved. Pakistan appealed for a penalty corner in the ninth minute after three Indian attacking attempts from Karthi Selvam, Jarmanpreet Singh, and Mandeep Singh, but the video referee ruled against the Men in Green.

At the stroke of the first quarter, India earned a penalty corner, which Harmanpreet converted with a powerful low flick to the left of Pakistan custodian Akmal to put India ahead. In the 23rd minute, India won their second penalty corner, and Harmanpreet scored with a fierce drag-flick in between Pakistan goalkeeper Akmal's legs to double the lead.

India maintained the same intensity after the change of ends and secured another penalty corner six minutes into the third quarter. Jugraj found the back of the net once more to triple the lead. After a series of attacks, India found the net in the 41st minute once more, as Harmanpreet flashed it in while it deflected off a Pakistani stick. However, the goal was overturned after a video referral for the dangerous ball.Selvam passed the ball comfortably inside the box to an unmarked Akashdeep, who pushed the ball wide with an open net in front of him, giving the Indians another chance

Pakistan earned their second penalty corner in the 43rd minute but squandered it. India increased their lead to 4-0 in the 55th minute when Akashdeep deflected Mandeep Singh's strike.India will face Japan in the semifinals, while Malaysia will face Korea on Friday

3) Jyothi, Kaur, Swami win India's first-ever gold medal at Archery Worlds

The trio defeated Dafne Quintero, Ana Sofía Hernandez Jeon and Andrea Becerra of Mexico 235-229 in the final

In a World Championships where India's recurve archers haven't had much to smile about, the compound archers on Friday gave the country a big reason to cheer.The Indian women's compound team of Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami and Parneet Kaur won the gold medal at the 2023 Berlin World Archery Championships beating Mexico 235-229 in the final. In the process, the trio became the first Indian women's compound team to carry the tag of world champions, and ensured India opened its medal account in spectacular style —although in a non-Olympic compound discipline — in an otherwise underwhelming World Championships.

Perhaps fittingly, it was Jyothi — she had previously won four silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships—who shot the final arrow to seal the elusive gold for herself and for the country.

“This is very special for us because it’s the first time India has won the gold medal and become world champion," the 27-year-old Jyothi, who bagged three silver medals (team, individual and team mixed) from the 2021 edition, was quoted as saying by World Archery. “We are hopeful that going forward, we will win more medals for the country.”

The experienced Jyothi had for company two young talents, 17-year-old Aditi and Parneet, 18. Aditi has taken some rapid strides in her promising career already. Last month, she became the Under-18 compound world champion at the Youth World Championships in Limerick and in the month before that, shattered the Under-18 compound women qualifying record. Parneet, meanwhile, had won an individual bronze in the Asia Cup Leg 2 held in Tashkent in April-May this year. On a stage much bigger and accompanied by a lot more pressure, the two youngsters stood up to the challenge.

“We are very happy to win gold," Parneet said. "Our complete focus was on winning and ensuring that we followed the process... (and) therefore we could win gold. There was a lot of noise and everybody was cheering but we were not affected by that, we just concentrated on how to shoot our best.” After a bye in the first round, the second-seeded Indian team began the run by eking out a close 230-228 win over Turkey before also edging past Chinese Taipei 228-226 in the quarter-finals. The trio was a lot more clinical in its 220-216 semi-final victory against Colombia, seeded third, and carried the momentum into the final against the top seeds.

India set the pace against Mexico from the first round itself, where the three shot an impressive 59 — including two Xs (closer to the centre) from the five 10s — out a possible 60 to Mexico's 57. Jyothi, Aditi and Parneet continued to hit more than miss, shooting just one 9 each in the second and third round to register two more scores of 59 and open up a comfortable 177-172 lead heading into the final round. Needing just 5 from the last shot for the gold, Jyothi's arrow landed at 9 for a final round score of 58. A wide grin on her face was followed by fist bumps between the three history-makers.

They’re not done yet. All three of them have also made the quarter-finals of the individual women's compound event, and will battle for more glory on Saturday. While one of Jyothi or Parneet will advance from an all-India last-eight clash, Aditi will face on Dutchwoman Sanne de Laat for a place in the semi-finals.

The compound archers' show has been in contrast to that of the recurve archers battling for spots for the 2024 Paris Olympics. None of the Indian recurve archers secured a Paris spot or came close to winning a medal from this event. India topped the medal tally with 4 medals(3 gold and 1 bronze) at the 52nd edition of the Hyundai World Archery Championships 2023, .

4) India topped the medal tally with 4 medals(3 gold and 1 bronze) at the 52nd edition of the Hyundai World Archery Championships 2023, .

India have moved to the top of the 2023 World Archery Championsips medal table with three gold medals and one bronze on Saturday. Ojas Pravin Deotale took the men's compound title to follow up on Aditi Gopichand Swami and the women compound team's earlier success. India had never won a gold medal in the 92 years since the start of the World Archery Championships before this. India had won 11 medals - 9 silver and 2 bronze - but no gold medals. The previous best haul at the WAC by the Indian contingent was at the last edition four years ago, when three silver medals had been won. While India have come out as surprise medal table toppers with one day to go in the event, South Korea are second with two golds while hosts Germany, with one gold, sit third.

The 2023 World Archery Championships are set to conclude on Sunday with the individual recurve men's and women's finals. It was a historic day for compound archers in Berlin on Saturday. Ojas Deotale's gold medal made him the first male archer from India to be crowned world champion. This was after Aditi Gopichand Swami scripted history by becoming the youngest-ever world champion at the WAC. Jyothi Surekha Vennam made up for her semi-final defeat with a 150-146 win over Ipek Tomruk of Turkey to claim bronze.

5) Australian Open Super 500 badminton championship: H.S. Prannoy misses out on title, bows out in final

World No. 24 Chinese shuttler Weng Hongyang had a hard-fought victory in a battle that lasted for three gamesIndia's ace shuttler H.S. Prannoy fell short in the finals match of the Australia Open 2023 men's singles title on Sunday in a dramatic fashion.

World No. 24 Chinese shuttler Weng Hongyang had a hard-fought victory in a battle that lasted for three games. Hongyang started the game on a strong foot as he kept the Indian struggling for points.

6) Australian Open Super 500 badminton championship: H.S. Prannoy beats Rajawat; reaches final

The world number nine Prannoy took 43 minutes to ward off 21-year-old Rajawat's challenge 21-18 21-12.Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy entered the Australian Open final after defeating compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat in straight games in Sydney on August 5.

The world number nine Prannoy took 43 minutes to ward off 21-year-old Rajawat's challenge 21-18 21-12.

7) India vs Japan Asian Champions Trophy Highlights: India Thrash Japan 5-0, To Meet Malaysia in Final

India sealed a 5-0 win against Japan in the Asian Champions Trophy 2023 semi-final, at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai on Friday. After a goalless first quarter, Akashdeep Singh opened the scoring in the second to make it 1-0 for India in the 19th-minute. Before half-time, Harmanpreet Singh (23') and Mandeep Singh (30') made it 3-0 for the home side. Sumit then scored in the third quarter to extend India's lead to 4-0, before Selvam Karthi scored in the final quarter to seal a 5-0 victory.

Akashdeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Sumit and Karthi Selvam scored the goals. The Indian hockey team will play Malaysia in the final on Saturday.

1) Made In Heaven Season 2

Release Date: August 10, 2023

OTT platform: Amazon Prime Video

Genre: Romantic Drama

Language: Hindi

Cast: Sobhita Dhulipala, Arjun Mathur, Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Shashank Arora, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Vijay Raaz, Vinay Pathak, Natasha Singh, Neel Madhav

Season 2 will continue the storyline from Season 1, with Tara confessing to Adil about the video and escaping the mansion with some jewellery. Karan has also reconciled with Nawab, his former love, resolving the tension between them.

2) Commando

Release Date: August 11, 2023

OTT platform: Disney+ Hotstar

Genre: Action Thriller

Language: Hindi

Cast: Prem Parrijaa, Adah Sharma, Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Shreya Singh Chaudhry, Amit Sial, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Mukesh Chhabra, Ishteyak Khan

The Commando web series draws inspiration from the highly successful Commando film franchise, which starred Vidyut Jammwal as the protagonist. This exciting upcoming web series will revolve around Commando Virat and his dangerous missions around the globe. Packed with thrilling action, the show promises to be an enthralling thriller that explores themes of bravery and patriotism.

3) Heart of Stone

Release Date: August 11, 2023

OTT platform: Netflix

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller

Language: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu

Cast: Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi, Paul Ready

Rachel Stone, played by Gal Gadot, is a highly skilled CIA operative. She holds the critical responsibility of safeguarding her multinational peacekeeping organization's most powerful and precarious asset as the sole woman in this role.

4) Abar Proloy (transl. Doomsday Again)

is a 2023 Bengali crime thriller web series written and directed by Raj Chakraborty and produced by Raj Chakraborty Entertainment and Subhashree Ganguly. The show features an ensemble cast including Paran Bandopadhyay, Saswata Chatterjee,Ritwick Chakraborty, June Maliah, Koushani Mukherjee, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Sohini Sengupta. The series serves as a spin-off of the 2013 film Proloy and is set to be released on the ZEE5 OTT platform on 11 August 2023.

5)Rajinikanth's 'Jailer'

Superstar Rajinikanth's much awaited film, 'Jailer', finally released in theatres on August 10. It has created a fan frenzy all around. The film marks his first collaboration with director Nelson Dilipkumar. It also stars Mohanlal and Shiva Rajkumar. Meanwhile, the first reviews for the film are already in. Many fans took to Twitter to share their views and called 'Jailer' a blockbuster. The reactions are majorly positive.

The Nelson Dilipkumar-directorial marks Rajinikanth's return to the big screen after two years. Fans lined up outside theatres to watch the Rajini mania unfold. Many even burst crackers, poured milk, and danced with drums outside theatres. Fans are now taking to Twitter to share their reviews of 'Jailer'.

A fan tweeted, "Best climax in the history of Indian Cinema (sic)." Many others called it a 'blockbuster'.

Book of This Week:

Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey through Opium's Hidden Histories By Amitav Ghosh:

When Amitav Ghosh began his research for the Ibis Trilogy some twenty years ago, he was startled to find how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by a precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those opium. Most surprising of all was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story. Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural. Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as on the world at large. Engineered by the British Empire, which exported opium from India to sell in China, the trade and its revenues were essential to the Empire's survival. Upon deeper exploration, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, several of America's most powerful families and institutions, and contemporary globalism itself. In India the long-term consequences were even more profound. Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, Smoke and Ashes reveals the pivotal role one small plant has played in the making of the world as we know it - a world that is now teetering on the edge of catastrophe. --- 'In thinking about the opium poppy's role in history it is hard to ignore the feeling of an intelligence at work. The single most important indication of this is the poppy's ability to create cycles of repetition, which manifest themselves in similar phenomena over time. What the opium poppy does is clearly not random; it builds symmetries that rhyme with each other. It is important to recognize that these cycles will go on repeating, because the opium poppy is not going away anytime soon. In Mexico, for instance, despite intensive eradication efforts the acreage under poppy cultivation has continued to increase. Indeed, there is more opium being produced in the world today than at any time in the past. Only by recognizing the power and intelligence of the opium poppy can we even begin to make peace with it.'

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh is one of India's best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances, The Hungry Tide. His most recent novel, Sea of Poppies, is the first volume of the Ibis Trilogy.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He studied in Dehra Dun, New Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford and his first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. He earned a doctorate at Oxford before he wrote his first novel, which was published in 1986.

The Circle of Reason won the Prix Medicis Etranger, one of France's top literary awards, and The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Ananda Puraskar. The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997 and The Glass Palace won the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-Book Awards in 2001. The Hungry Tide won the Hutch Crossword Book Prize in 2006. In 2007 Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Turin, Italy. Amitav Ghosh has written for many publications, including the Hindu, The New Yorker and Granta, and he has served on the juries of several international film festivals, including Locarno and Venice. He has taught at many universities in India and the USA, including Delhi University, Columbia, the City University of New York and Harvard. He no longer teaches and is currently writing the next volume of the Ibis Trilogy.

He is married to the writer, Deborah Baker, and has two children, Lila and Nayan. He divides his time between Kolkata, Goa and Brooklyn. (less)