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1) Experiment could test quantum nature of large masses for the first time:by University College London

Technicians inspect the First Contact coating on one of LIGO's Input Test Masses (mirrors)

An experiment outlined by a UCL (University College London)-led team of scientists from the UK and India could test whether relatively large masses have a quantum nature, resolving the question of whether quantum mechanical description works at a much larger scale than that of particles and atoms.Quantum theory is typically seen as describing nature at the tiniest scales, and quantum effects have not been observed in a laboratory for objects more massive than about a quintillionth of a gram, or more precisely 10-20g.

The new experiment, described in a paper published in Physical Review Letters and involving researchers at UCL, the University of Southampton, and the Bose Institute in Kolkata, India, could, in principle, test the quantumness of an object regardless of its mass or energy.

The proposed experiment exploits the principle in quantum mechanics that the act of measurement of an object can change its nature. (The term measurement encompasses any interaction of the object with a probe—for instance if light shines on it or if it emits light or heat).

The experiment focuses on a pendulum-like object oscillating like a ball on a string. A light is shone on one-half of the area of oscillation, revealing information about the location of the object (i.e., if scattered light is not observed, then it can be concluded that the object is not in that half). A second light is shone, showing the location of the object further along on its swing.

If the object is quantum, the first measurement (the first flash of light) will disturb its path (by measurement-induced collapse—a property inherent to quantum mechanics), changing the likelihood of where it will be at the second flash of light, whereas if it is classical, then the act of observation will make no difference. Researchers can then compare scenarios in which they shine a light twice to ones where only the second flash of light occurs to see if there is a difference in the final distributions of the object.

Lead author Dr. Debarshi Das (UCL Physics & Astronomy and the Royal Society) said, "A crowd at a football match cannot affect the result of the game simply by staring strongly. But with quantum mechanics, the act of observation or measurement itself changes the system."

"Our proposed experiment can test if an object is classical or quantum by seeing if an act of observation can lead to a change in its motion."

The proposal, the researchers say, could be implemented with current technologies using nanocrystals or, in principle, even using mirrors at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) in the United States which have an effective mass of 10kg.The four LIGO mirrors, which each weigh 40kg but together vibrate as if they were a single 10kg object, have already been cooled to the minimum-energy state (a fraction above absolute zero) that would be required in any experiment seeking to detect quantum behavior.Senior author Professor Sougato Bose (UCL Physics & Astronomy) said, "Our scheme has wide conceptual implications. It could test whether relatively large objects have definite properties, i.e., their properties are real, even when we are not measuring them. It could extend the domain of quantum mechanics and probe whether this fundamental theory of nature is valid only at certain scales or if it holds true for larger masses, too.

A silica nanoparticle has been cooled to its quantum ground state.

"If we do not encounter a mass limit to quantum mechanics, this makes ever more acute the problem of trying to reconcile quantum theory with reality as we experience it."

In quantum mechanics, objects do not have definite properties until they are observed or interact with their environment. Prior to observation they do not exist in a definite location but may be in two places at once (a state of superposition). This led to Einstein's remark: "Is the moon there when no one is looking at it?"

Quantum mechanics may seem at odds with our experience of reality, but its insights have helped the development of computers, smartphones, broadband, GPS, and magnetic resonance imaging.Most physicists believe quantum mechanics holds true at larger scales but is merely harder to observe due to the isolation required to preserve a quantum state. To detect quantum behavior in an object, its temperature or vibrations must be reduced to its lowest possible level (its ground state), and it must be in a vacuum so that nearly no atoms are interacting with it. That is because a quantum state will collapse, a process called decoherence if the object interacts with its environment.

The new proposed experiment is a development of an earlier quantum test devised by Professor Bose and colleagues in 2018. A project to conduct an experiment using this methodology, which will test the quantum nature of a nanocrystal numbering a billion atoms, is already underway, led by the University of Southampton.

That project already aims for a jump in terms of mass, with previous attempts to test the quantum nature of a macroscopic object limited to hundreds of thousands of atoms. The newly published scheme, meanwhile, could be achieved with current technologies using a nanocrystal with trillions of atoms.

Oscillating nanocrystal

In 2018, the theoretical physicist Sougato Bose at University College London and colleagues proposed doing such a test on a cooled nanocrystal that oscillates back and forth in an optical harmonic trap. The position of the nanocrystal would be determined by focusing a beam of light on one side of a trap. If the light passes through without scattering, the object is in the other side of the trap. By observing the same side of the trap later on, one can calculate whether or not the Leggett-Garg inequality is violated. If it is, an initial non-detection of the object would have disturbed its quantum state, and therefore the nanocrystal would display quantum behaviour.

The problem, says Bose, is that the mass must be measured in the same side of the trap twice. This is viable only for masses with short periods of oscillation because the quantum state must remain coherent throughout the measurement. However, large masses of interest will have periods that are too long for this to work. Now, Bose and colleagues propose that the second measurement be made at a location that, if the object obeys classical mechanics, it is expected to have reached.

“It is much better to go to the place where it would go due to its normal oscillation and find out how much it differs about that place,” says Bose.The benefit of this scheme is that, as long as the object remains in a coherent state, it should be possible to do the experiment for objects of any mass as it is always possible to calculate the expected position of a classical harmonic oscillator. It does become more difficult to isolate larger object, but Bose believes these apparently classical states would be more robust to noise than exotic macroscopic quantum states such as superpositions.

2) How disease-causing microbes load their tiny syringes to prep an attack By Elise Cutts

Swallow the wrong microbe, and you might end up in the hospital with a needle or two in your arm — and plenty of itty-bitty bacterial needles poking at you from the inside. That’s because many bacteria that make us sick use microscopic, syringelike structures to inject our cells with proteins that wreak havoc from the inside. Now, researchers have shown how these microbes load their nanoscale needles with proteins.

Tracking individual proteins as they jittered around inside living bacteria revealed the microbes use a shuttle bus–like system to load their syringes: shuttle proteins travel random paths within the microbes’ interiors, grabbing cargo destined for injection as they go and dropping it off at the syringes, scientists report January 3 in Nature Microbiology. Knowing how these bacterial needles work could help scientists learn how to disrupt them — or commandeer them for medical applications, like using bacterial needles to inject cancer cells with targeted drugs while leaving healthy tissue unscathed. Shuttling proteins to the syringe is “a really novel molecular mechanism that was not known before,” says microbiologist Andreas Diepold of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany.

Under the microscope, the syringelike structures, called a type-III secretion system, look like hollow needles just wide enough for a single unfolded protein to slither through, Diepold says. A microbe’s entire surface might be covered in such needles, giving the bacterium the look of a sinister little pincushion. Scientists know the protein structure of these nanoscale needles quite well. But “we don’t know the basic question of how they recruit whatever is injected,” he says. Previous studies suggested that a ring of proteins at the base of the secretion system, where it attaches to the bacterial cell membrane, might act something like a sorting platform that grabs target proteins and loads them into the syringe. But that work wasn’t done in living cells, says microbial geneticist Kelly Hughes of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who was not involved in the new study.

Other studies in live cells, including recent work by Diepold and his colleagues, hinted that the components of the sorting platform might not stay put at the bases of the syringes. Instead, they might wander around the gel-like jumble of fluids, proteins and other biological bits enclosed within a bacterium’s cell membrane, picking up and dropping off target proteins as they go — like shuttle buses.The new study put the shuttle-bus idea to the test by using fluorescence microscopy to track the movement of individual sorting platform proteins in Yersinia enterocolitica, a stomach bug that lurks in undercooked pork. Maps of the proteins’ paths show them wandering random, zigzag paths through the cells. And experiments with mutant Y. enterocolitica that lack injectable proteins revealed that the shuttle-bus proteins move more quickly in the mutants — without any injectable targets to bind to, the shuttle-bus proteins don’t get weighed down by cargo and can diffuse faster through the cells. This showed that the sorting platform proteins don’t just wander; they also pick up passengers along the way.

“What I loved about this paper was that it was all set in vivo,” in living cells, Hughes says. “You get these beautiful pictures. And you know, a picture’s worth a thousand words.”

Unraveling more of the outstanding mysteries surrounding these microscale needles will make it easier for scientists to throw a wrench in these machines, or to tinker with them. This type of secretion system, one of a handful of different types of needles bacteria have at their disposal, is widespread across different species of bacteria, Diepold says, so they’re good targets for new types of antibacterial drugs (SN: 3/30/22).They’re also promising tools for medicine and biotech, Hughes says. But as much as they look like medical syringes, bacterial syringes work differently — and scientists still don’t know exactly how bacteria push proteins through their needles. It’s also unclear how the proteins that load up the needles recognize their targets. “We want to understand the riddle of how these systems work,” Diepold says. “We want to understand which solutions evolution came up with to allow bacteria to infect us.”

3) Artificial intelligence helped scientists create a new type of battery :By Emily Conover

Batteries made with the new material are tested to see how they charge and discharge power. (Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Microsoft’s AI Helps Find Promising New Battery Material With 70% Less Lithium.

In the hunt for new materials, scientists have traditionally relied on tinkering in the lab, guided by intuition, with a hefty serving of trial and error.

But now a new battery material has been discovered by combining two computing superpowers: artificial intelligence and supercomputing. It’s a discovery that highlights the potential for using computers to help scientists discover materials suited to specific needs, from batteries to carbon capture technologies to catalysts.

A materials scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assembles a prototype battery using the newfound material. (Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Calculations winnowed down more than 32 million candidate materials to just 23 promising options, researchers from Microsoft and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or PNNL, report in a paper submitted January 8 to arXiv.org. The team then synthesized and tested one of those materials and created a working battery prototype.While scientists have used AI to predict materials’ properties before, previous studies typically haven’t seen that process through to producing the new material. “The nice thing about this paper is that it goes all the way from start to finish,” says computational materials scientist Shyue Ping Ong of the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved with the research.The researchers targeted a coveted type of battery material: a solid electrolyte. An electrolyte is a material that transfers ions — electrically charged atoms — back and forth between a battery’s electrodes. In standard lithium-ion batteries, the electrolyte is a liquid. But that comes with hazards, like batteries leaking or causing fires. Developing batteries with solid electrolytes is a major aim of materials scientists.

The original 32 million candidates were generated via a game of mix-and-match, substituting different elements in crystal structures of known materials. Sorting through a list this large with traditional physics calculations would have taken decades, says computational chemist Nathan Baker of Microsoft. But with machine learning techniques, which can make quick predictions based on patterns learned from known materials, the calculation produced results in just 80 hours.

First, the researchers used AI to filter the materials based on stability, namely, whether they could actually exist in the real world. That pared the list down to fewer than 600,000 candidates. Further AI analysis selected candidates likely to have the electrical and chemical properties necessary for batteries. Because AI models are approximate, the researchers filtered this smaller list using tried-and-tested, computationally intensive methods based on physics. They also weeded out rare, toxic or expensive materials.

That left the researchers with 23 candidates, five of which were already known. Researchers at PNNL picked a material that looked promising — it was related to other materials that the researchers knew how to make in the lab, and it had suitable stability and conductivity. Then they set to work synthesizing it, eventually fashioning it into a prototype battery. And it worked.

An Indian-origin scientist, Vijay Murugesan-led team has discovered a new battery material using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supercomputing that

“That’s when we got very excited,” says materials scientist Vijay Murugesan of PNNL in Richland, Wash. Going from the synthesis stage to the functional battery took about six months. “That is superfast.”The new electrolyte is similar to a known material containing lithium, yttrium and chlorine,  but swaps some lithium for sodium — an advantage as lithium is costly and in high demand (SN: 5/7/19).Combining lithium and sodium is unconventional. “In a usual approach … we would not mix these two together,” says materials scientist Yan Zeng of Florida State University in Tallahassee, who was not involved in the research. The typical practice is to use either lithium or sodium ions as a conductor, not both. The two types of ions might be expected to compete with one another, resulting in worse performance. The unorthodox material highlights one hope for AI in research, Zeng says: “AI can sort of step out of the box.”In the new work, the researchers created a series of AI models that could predict different properties of a material, based on training data from known materials. The AI architecture is a type known as a graph neural network, in which a system is represented as a graph, a mathematical structure composed of “edges” and “nodes.” This type of model is particularly suited for describing materials, as the nodes can represent atoms, and the edges can represent bonds between the elements.

To perform both the AI and physics-based calculations, the team used Microsoft’s Azure Quantum Elements, which provides access to a cloud-based supercomputer tailored for chemistry and materials science research.The project, Baker says, is an example of a practice known in tech circles as “eating your own dog food,” in which a company uses its own product to confirm that it works. In the future, he says he hopes others will pick up the tool and use it for a variety of scientific endeavors.

4) Key moment in the evolution of life on Earth captured in fossils :by Curtin University

The Welsh countryside near the Coed Cochion Quarry, where the fossils were found

Curtin-led research has for the first time precisely dated some of the oldest fossils of complex multicellular life in the world, helping to track a pivotal moment in the history of Earth when the seas began teeming with new lifeforms—after 4 billion years of containing only single-celled microbes. The research paper, "U–Pb zircon-rutile dating of the Llangynog Inlier, Wales: Constraints on an Ediacaran shallow 1 marine fossil assemblage from East Avalonia," appears in the Journal of the Geological Society.

Lead author Ph.D. student Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group within Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said to determine the age of the fossils, researchers used volcanic ash layers like bookmarks in the geological sequence.

"Located in the Coed Cochion Quarry in Wales, which contains the richest occurrence of shallow marine life in Britain, we used outfall from an ancient volcano that blanketed the animals as a time marker to accurately date the fossils to 565 million years, accurate down to 0.1%," Clarke said.

"With similar Ediacaran fossils found at sites around the world including in Australia, dating the fossils identifies them as being part of an ancient living community that developed as Earth thawed out from a global ice age.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION : Photographs of the Ediacaran biota from the Llangynog Inlier. The variable scale for the images should be noted. (a) Group of Aspidella s.s. (b) Pair of Ediacaria-type morphs of Aspidella s.l., showing growth interference. (c) Ediacaria-type morph of Aspidella s.l. (d) Hiemalora. (e) Palaeopascichnus sp. (f) Yelovichnus sp. (g) A pair of Spriggia-type morphs of Aspidella. (h) Sinusoidal trace fossil. The Llangynog fossils have been deposited in Amgueddfa Cymru–Museum Wales under the registered number NMW.79.16G.

"These creatures would in some ways resemble modern-day marine species such as jellyfish, yet in other ways be bizarre and unfamiliar. Some appear fern-like, others like cabbages, whereas others resembled sea pens."Study co-author Professor Chris Kirkland, also from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin, said the fossils are named after the Ediacara Hills in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, where they were first discovered, leading to the first new geological period established in over a century.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION  iostratigraphic charts for major fossil sites within the Avalonian microcontinent. Superscript letters denote the source of age data. All TIMS age uncertainties show internal and external error components, including decay constant and tracer uncertainty. LA-ICP-MS age uncertainties are reported to one decimal place. Sources: age data: (a) Compston et al. (2002), (b) Noble et al. (2015) and (c) Matthews et al. (2020). Fossil occurrences for the Llangynog Inlier are from Cope (1977, 1983). Occurrence data for Newfoundland are from Matthews et al. (2020) and references therein. For the Charnwood Forest assemblage, fossil occurrences are after Wilby et al. (2011) and Kenchington et al. (2018). Long Mynd fossil occurrences are from Peat (1984), Callow et al. (2011) and Menon et al. (2015, 2017).

"These Welsh fossils appear directly comparable to the famous fossils of Ediacara in South Australia," Professor Kirkland said."The fossils, including creatures like the disk-shaped Aspidella terranovica, showcase some of the earliest evidence of large-scale multicellular organisms, marking a transformative moment in Earth's biological history."Ediacaran fossils record the response of life to the thaw out from a global glaciation, which shows the deep connection between geological processes and biology.

"Our study underscores the importance of understanding these ancient ecosystems in order to unravel the mysteries of Earth's past and shape our comprehension of life's evolution."

5) Study suggests that physical processes can have hidden neural network-like abilities :by University of Chicago

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:Conceptual framework for pattern recognition by nucleation. When one set of molecules can potentially assemble multiple distinct structures, the nucleation process that selects between outcomes is responsive to high-dimensional concentration patterns. Assembly pathways can be depicted on an energy landscape (schematic shown) as paths from a basin for unassembled components that proceed through critical nucleation seeds (barriers) to a basin for each possible final structure. Seeds that colocalize high-concentration components will lower the nucleation barrier for corresponding assembly pathways. The resulting selectivity of nucleation in high-dimensional self-assembly is sufficiently expressive to perform complex pattern recognition in a manner analogous to neural computation. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06890-z

We tend to separate the brain and the muscle—the brain does the thinking; the muscle does the doing. The brain takes in complex information about the world and makes decisions, and the muscle merely executes. This has also shaped how we think about a single cell; some molecules within cells are seen as 'thinkers' that take in information about the chemical environment and decide what the cell needs to do for survival; separately, other molecules are seen as the 'muscle,' building structures needed for survival.But a new study shows how the molecules that build structures, i.e., the muscle, can themselves do both the thinking and the doing. The study, by scientists with the University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology, and Maynooth University, was published in Nature and may suggest avenues for new ways to think about computation using the principles of physics.

A new study shows how molecules draw on the rules of physics to perform computations similar to neural networks

"We show that a natural molecular process—nucleation—that has been studied as a 'muscle' for a long time can do complex calculations that rival a simple neural network," said UChicago Assoc. Prof. Arvind Murugan, one of the two senior co-authors of the paper. "It's an ability hidden in plain sight—the 'doing' molecules can also do the 'thinking.' Evolution can exploit this fact in cells to get more done with fewer parts, with less energy and greater robustness."

Thinking using physics

To survive, cells need to recognize the environment they are in and respond accordingly. For example, some combinations of molecules might indicate a time of stress that requires hunkering down, while other combinations of molecules might indicate a time of plenty. However, the difference between these molecular signals can be subtle—different environments might involve the same molecules but in different proportions.Constantine Evans, the lead author of the study, explained that it is a bit like walking into a house and smelling freshly baked cookies versus smelling burning rubber. "Your brain would alter your behavior depending on you sensing different combinations of odorful chemicals," he said. "We set out to ask if just the physics of a molecular system can do the same, despite not having a brain of any kind."

The traditional view has been that cells might be able to sense and respond in this way using molecular circuits that conceptually resemble the electronic circuits in your laptop; some molecules sense the amount of salt and acid in the environment, other molecules make a decision on what to do, and finally 'muscle' molecules might carry out an action in response, like building an internal protective structure or a pump to remove unwanted molecules.

Murugan and his colleagues wanted to explore an alternative idea: that all of these tasks—sensing, decision making, response—can be accomplished in one step by the physics inherent to the 'muscle' molecules that build a structure.

They did so by working with the principle of "phase transitions." Think of a glass of water freezing when it hits 32F; first, a little fragment of ice 'nucleates,' and then grows out until the whole glass of water is frozen.

On the face of it, these initial steps in the act of freezing—called 'nucleation' in physics—does not resemble 'thinking'. But the new study shows that the act of freezing can "recognize" subtly different chemical combinations—e.g., the smell of oatmeal raisin cookies versus chocolate chip—and build different molecular structures in response.

Robustness in experiments

The scientists tested the robustness of 'phase transitions'–based decision-making using DNA nanotechnology, a field that Erik Winfree (BS'91) helped pioneer. They showed that a mixture of molecules would form one of three structures depending on what concentrations of molecules were present in the beaker.

"In each case, the molecules came together to build different nanometer-scale structures in response to different chemical patterns—except the act of building the structure in itself made the decision on what to build," Winfree said.

The experiment revealed that this 'muscle'-based decision making was surprisingly robust and scalable. With relatively simple experiments, the researchers could solve pattern recognition problems involving about a thousand kinds of molecules—nearly a 10-fold larger problem than had been done previously using other approaches that separated 'brain' and 'muscle' components.The work points at a new view of computation that does not involve designing circuits, but rather designing what physicists call a phase diagram. For example, for water, a phase diagram might describe the temperature and pressure conditions in which liquid water will freeze or boil, which are 'muscle'-like material properties. But this work shows that the phase diagram can also encode 'thinking' in addition to 'doing,' when scaled up to complex systems with many different kinds of components."Physicists have traditionally studied things like a glass of water, which has many molecules, but all of them are identical. But a living cell is full of many different kinds of molecules that interact with each other in complex ways," said co-author Jackson O'Brien (Ph.D.'21), who was involved in the study as a UChicago graduate student in physics. "This results in distinct emergent capabilities of multi-component systems."

The theory in this work drew mathematical analogies between such multi-component systems and the theory of neural networks; the experiments pointed to how these multi-component systems can learn the right computational properties through a physical process, much like the brain learns to associate different smells with different actions.

While the experiments here involved DNA molecules in a test tube, the underlying concepts—nucleation in systems with many kinds of components—applies broadly to many other molecular and physical systems, the authors said.

"DNA lets us experimentally study complex mixtures of thousands of kinds of molecules, and systematically understand the impact of how many kinds of molecules there are and the kinds of interactions they have, but the theory is general and should apply to any kind of molecule," explained Winfree.

"We hope this work will spur work to uncover hidden 'thinking' abilities in other multi-component systems that currently appear to merely be 'muscles,'" said Murugan.

1) Most corrupt CM, says Rahul Gandhi in Assam; Himanta Biswa Sarma hits back

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a public meeting during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, on Thursday

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma responded to Rahul’s attack, saying the Gandhi family was “the most corrupt family in the country” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stepped up his attack on Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government soon after the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered Assam, describing Sarma as the “most corrupt” chief minister, an accusation that drew a swift and sharp counter from Sarma who called the Gandhi family, the country’s most corrupt. “The government in Assam is one of the most corrupt. You are all aware of it. We will highlight it during our yatra… probably Assam’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is the most corrupt,” Gandhi, 53, said soon after the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered Assam from Nagaland on Thursday The yatra started from Tuli in Nagaland early on Thursday before entering Assam at Haluating in Sivasagar district around 9am. From there, it moved to Jorhat district where Gandhi will spend the night before proceeding to Majuli district on Friday morning.

“Not just him (Himanta), Sarma’s wife and other family members are mired in corruption. He thinks that he can buy the people of Assam, but he is wrong” Gandhi added. The Wayanad MP also repeated his attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, accusing them of spreading hatred in the country and make followers of one religion fight with the other. “Their aim is to make the public fight and then loot their money,” he said, presenting the yatra as a sharp contrast. The yatra, he added, was inspired by the teachings of Srimanta Sankardev, the 15th-16th century saint-scholar and socio-religious reformer from Assam who sought to unite all communities of the state.

Sarma, who exited the Congress in 2014 and is widely credited for playing a key role in the BJP’s expansion in the northeast, hit back within hours. “According to me, the most corrupt family in the country is that of the Gandhis,” Sarma told reporters.

“From the Bofors scam to allowing (Warren) Anderson (of Union Carbide) to flee the country after the Bhopal gas tragedy, they are responsible for all. They are not just corrupt, but duplicate as well,” Sarma said.Sarma, who has been accusing the yatra led by Rahul Gandhi of being against the Hindus, on Thursday said the yatra was meant only for ‘miyas’ (a reference for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam with origins in Bangladesh) and said that only some people from that community will go to attend Gandhi’s events in the state.

Rahul Gandhi’s yatra hit the headlines minutes after crossing into the state when his specially designed bus didn’t stop at Amguri in Sivasagar district where a woman Congress leader, who was expelled from the party in 2023 for six years, was sitting on the roadside along with hundreds of supporters seeking ‘nyay’, or justice.

Angkita Dutta, daughter of a late Congress minister and the former chief of the Assam chief of Indian Youth Congress, was expelled from the party last year after she filed a police complaint against IYC national president Srinivas BV accusing him of harassment. “I was expelled from the party without hearing my side of the story. I’ve been in exile for 10 months now and have not joined any other party. I was hoping to meet Gandhi and get justice, But that didn’t happen,” Dutta told reporters.

Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah attributed motives for her protest. “She (Dutta) has become a victim of a political conspiracy. Everyone knows that I had assured her of providing justice at our party platform. But the next day chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that if she files a police complaint, he will ensure justice and Dutta lodged her police complaint. Now it’s a matter of investigation and sub judice issue and we can’t intervene in it. We will accept whatever judgement the court gives,” said Borah. Dutta, the eldest daughter of late Anjan Dutta, a former Congress minister from Assam, had been grilled by both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2022 for her alleged involvement in the Saradha Group financial scam.

The 6,700 km long yatra in hybrid mode (on foot and by bus) which started from Thoubal in strife-torn Manipur on Sunday will culminate in Mumbai on March 20 after passing through 15 states.

Gandhi’s yatra did stop at a pachayat office in Mariani of Jorhat district where application forms for a welfare scheme to promote entrepreneurship among women self-help group (SHG) members were being distributed.

As the dates of issue of the forms, which would help nearly 3.9 million applicants get ₹10,000 each in the first year, clashed with the Assam leg of the yatra, the Congress unit in Assam alleged that it was a deliberate move by the state’s BJP-led government to try and keep women away from coming to Gandhi’s event.The Assam government tried to keep women away from meeting Gandhi, but he chose to go and meet them instead. They are very happy and are thanking Gandhi for the yatra as they feel if he hadn’t visited Assam, the state government might not have announced the scheme,” said Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah.

2) ‘Has to be built’: The temple at the heart of Modi’s India re-election bid

A construction crew works on Ram Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ram, being built at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, December 29, 2023

For Modi’s BJP, the Ram Mandir, built on the ruins of the demolished Babri Masjid, represents a promise fulfilled – and a trap for opponents. For hundreds of years, a journey to Ayodhya for many Hindu pilgrims meant a walk down narrow lanes to the Hanuman Garhi Mandir, a temple honouring Hanuman, the monkey god. Now a wide street leads to the shrine, with shops on both sides selling sweetmeats as offerings to the deity. Hanuman Garhi has a brooding dark dome, and the temple has a new coat of red and saffron paint. Its young priests are sprightly and quick.

But the 10th-century temple in the northern Uttar Pradesh state is no longer the main attraction here. Some 500 metres (547 yards) away, a brand new, as yet incomplete, construction has taken hold of India’s attention. Long queues of young men and women chant “Jai Shri Ram” (Victory to Lord Ram) as they try to enter the complex, guarded zealously by police officers. One policeman helpfully tells them to deposit their mobile phones in a safe. Inside, craftsmen work on large horizontal prefab structures. Others chisel away painstakingly at pillars and rock features. It is not noisy, but there is a buzz of construction activity everywhere.

The queue leads to a statue of Ram, which will give way to a new one that has been selected in a nationwide competition and will be moved to the venue on January 17. Meanwhile, workers race against time, repairing the steps of a nearby baoli or step-well, and building accommodation for pilgrims.

They have a deadline to meet – January 22 – by when they must build enough of the Ram Mandir for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate it, amid nationwide frenzy around the project fed and fuelled by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied Hindu majoritarian outfits.

Built on the ruins of a mosque of the 16th century, Babri Masjid, which Hindu activists demolished in December 1992, the temple is close to the site that is believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Lord Ram, a personification of the victory of good over evil. In 1990, the BJP and quasi-religious bodies like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launched a massive campaign demanding that a temple be built where the mosque stood, culminating in the physical assault on the existing shrine two years later. The movement catapulted the BJP, which had won only two out of the 543 seats in the lower house of India’s parliament, to national centre stage.

Now, the semi-constructed temple is poised to serve as the backdrop for what many analysts and opposition leaders say is effectively the launch of Modi’s campaign for re-election in the 2024 national polls, expected to be held between March and May.

‘No one disputes the importance of the temple’

To many Ayodhya residents, and those visiting the temple town, it is a moment to cherish.“We are very happy with the temple,” said Daudas, the chief priest at Hanuman Garhi, adding that it would be good for the economy of the city too. Deepak Gupta, a shopkeeper near Hanuman Garhi, agreed and said many tourists were already visiting the city to see the construction that has been under way. More pilgrims would come, he said, after the January 22 consecration.

At a petrol station on his way from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to Ayodhya, businessman Dalip Chopra acknowledged that political reasons might be driving the project. But, he added, “No one disputes the importance of the temple and the fact that it has to be built.” Had he ever prayed to Ram before? “We will do it now,” he said, defiantly. Vijay Mishra, an astrologer and priest who divides his time between Lucknow and Ayodhya, said a brand new international airport and a railway station, both inaugurated by Modi on December 30, “could make many bigger cities envious” of Ayodhya. Politics or religion?

Across Ayodhya, flags of the governing party lazily flutter alongside banners of a victorious Ram and an angry Hanuman, reinforcing the idea that the temple is a gift to India’s Hindu majority from the BJP.

Only 6,000 specially chosen invitees will be allowed in on January 22, and the security blanket, it appears, is aimed at preparing for the possibility of excited crowds trying to enter. On October 30, 1990, the state police had fired on devotees and religious workers, known as karsevaks, as they tried to force their way to the site. At least 50 people were killed. The party in power then in Uttar Pradesh is now in opposition. And a BJP government in the state will not want even the possibility of a repeat. “What would happen if thousands come to Ayodhya,” wondered Shyambabu, owner of a sweetmeat shop in front of the Hanuman Garhi temple. Besides Modi, others who will be part of the consecration include Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent; Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a priest chosen to perform the ceremony.

That the inauguration is taking place before the temple is complete, and that it focuses on Modi — who is not from the Brahmin or priestly community — has upset some Hindu gurus. Four of the most prominent seers, called the Shankaracharyas, are boycotting the event.

Also skipping the event is the opposition Congress party, which described the inauguration as a political show rather than one meant to honour Ram. India’s mostly pro-government mainstream media has savaged the Congress over its decision — the BJP and its allies portray India’s Grand Old Party as anti-Hindu and focused on the interests of Muslims.

But political analyst Harish Khare said the Congress decision was a reflection of the leadership of the party’s current president, veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who in 2022 took over from the Nehru-Gandhi family that has controlled the Congress for much of the past 75 years.

“Unlike the Gandhis, the new Congress president will not allow himself to be on the backfoot on this matter,” Khare said. “Mr Kharge has brought in new clarity that the new president would not be part of any congregation in which the RSS chief would be a major presence.”

The Congress is the hub around which the opposition alliance, called INDIA, has been built. With elections coming up, Congress cannot be seen as complicit in a ceremony orchestrated by the party it wants to replace.

For the BJP, meanwhile, the Congress decision is a chance to reinforce its narrative that it alone cares about the country’s Hindus. On January 22, as the Ram Mandir is consecrated, a re-election campaign too, will in effect be inaugurated.

3) Pakistan, Iran agree to ‘de-escalate’ tensions after tit-for-tat attacks

Pakistan and Iran’s foreign ministers emphasised ‘close brotherly relations’ during their phonecall on Friday. Pakistan and Iran have decided to “de-escalate” tensions after an exchange of missile and drone strikes this week raised fears of further instability in the region.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and Foreign Minister of Iran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, spoke via phone on Friday, Islamabad’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The two Foreign Ministers agreed that working level cooperation and close coordination on counter terrorism and other aspects of mutual concern should be strengthened. They also agreed to de-escalate the situation,” the statement read.

“The return of Ambassadors of the two countries to their respective Capitals was also discussed.”

Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javid, reporting from Islamabad, said there has been “a lot of diplomacy in the last 24 hours from both sides” to try and come out of the growing tensions.

“For the first time, we’re seeing both countries’ militaries get involved in what has been a slow-burner proxy war that has continued in these two provinces of Balochistan and Sistan-Baluchestan, and now, as we’ve been hearing from various sources and analysts, things seem to be going back on track towards normalcy.” Pakistan’s top military and civilian leaders also conducted a national security review, called by Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, over the situation on Friday, where one source told Javid that officials were discussing a resumption of diplomatic ties.

But Pakistan’s action followed Iran’s air raids against the armed group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s southwestern border province of Balochistan, in which two people died.

A security official said the chief of army staff and head of the intelligence services were attending the meeting, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported. Kakar cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, following the attack.Javid said the attendees will discuss the fallout of what is happening in the southern part of the country.

“These areas are problem areas for both Pakistan and Iran, and proxies aligned to both countries have been operating in this region for years now,” he said.

“They have carried out tit-for-tat attacks against each other, but the recent developments are unusual as both countries militaries are involved this time around, using ballistic missiles, drones and heavy ammunitions against each other,” our correspondent said.The tit-for-tat strikes have been the largest cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about the potential for wider instability since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.

However, both Pakistan and Iran have signalled a desire to calm tensions.Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that it was committed to good neighbourly relations with Pakistan but called on Islamabad to prevent the establishment of “terrorist bases” on its soil.Pakistan issued a similar statement with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that its “sole” reason for the retaliatory attacks was “in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised”.China, a close ally of both Pakistan and Iran, said it was willing to mediate.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the two countries to “exercise maximum restraint to avoid a further escalation of tensions”.Guterres “underlines that all security concerns between the two countries must be addressed by peaceful means through dialogue and cooperation in accordance with the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and good neighbourly relations,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

4) Jarange-Patil rejects Shinde’s new appeal, says there’s a limit to everything

Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil plans to begin an indefinite hunger strike after the march reaches Mumbai on January 26

The protest march to demand inclusion of Maratha community under OBC will start from Jalna on Saturday and cover the 400 km distance in 7 days Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Friday rejected an appeal by chief minister Eknath Shinde to put off his march to Mumbai to demand inclusion of the Maratha community in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) for quotas in government jobs and education “There is a limit to everything. The youth (from the Maratha community) are coming to seek justice. CM Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis should closely watch as we are leaving for Mumbai tomorrow morning,” Jarange-Patil said on Friday

The statement was his response response to the chief minister Eknath Shinde who asked him to review the decision to march to Mumbai when the government was still making efforts. “We have made the promise and are working on it. I urge and request Jarange-Patil to take a conciliatory stand when the government is positive. He should avoid holding a protest,” Shinde said.

The government was bringing legislation in February for reservation to the Maratha community, Shinde said, underlying that this would be done without affecting reservation to the OBC and other communities. ”This reservation will pass legal scrutiny... A curative petition has also been filed before the Supreme Court,” he said.

5) Bilkis Bano case convicts not ‘missing’, under police watch, official says

A file photo of Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped during the 2002 riots in Gujara

On January 8, the Supreme Court scrapped the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and directed them to surrender in two weeks.All the 11 men convicted in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case of 2002, who are currently out on remission, are under ‘police watch’ and are not missing, PTI reported on Friday, quoting a senior Gujarat Police officer.

“They have been under police watch ever since the SC gave its verdict (on January 8, quashing the remission granted by the Gujarat government),” Assistant Superintendent of Police, Limkheda division, Bishakha Jain said. "We contacted all of them on that day itself and it did not appear that they had any intention of going incommunicado after the verdict."On January 8, a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court scrapped the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the case and directed them to surrender in two weeks.

The bench said Gujarat usurped the power of Maharashtra, where the original trial of the convicts happened, to grant remission, and nullified a 2022 judgment by another bench of the top court, which had directed Gujarat to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts, saying it was obtained by “playing fraud” on court.

 

1) IND beat AFG in 2nd Super Over:

India vs Afghanistan 3rd T20I Highlights

Afghanistan incredibly made 212/6 to tie the scores and the first Super Over ended in a tie as well.The match looked to be done and dusted when India had dismissed both of Afghanistan's openers after the 120th over as they defended a target of 213. However, Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib put up a sensational fightback that pegged back the Indians. Nabi fell for 34 off 16, thus ending a 56-run stand between him and Gulbadin that came in just 22 balls. However, Gulbadin carried on as wickets fell at the other end. He ended up being unbeaten on 55 off 23 and Afghanistan tied the scores, thus incredibly pushing the match into a Super Over. Both teams ended up scoring 16 runs in the first one, which meant that a second Super Over is now needed to decide the match. India scored 11 runs and lost two wickets in their second Super Over innings which means Afghanistan needed 12 runs to record their first-ever T20I match win over India. But they ended up scoring just one run and lost their two wickets, which meant that India won the second Super Over.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh first took India out of a disastrous situation and then completely turned the tables on Afghanistan to help the post a total of 212/4 in 20 overs. India were left reeling early on as Afghanistan's Fareed Ahmed and Azmatullah Omarzai descended down on them on a Chinnaswamy pitch that seemed to take the batters by surprise. India lost four wickets in the powerplay, three of which were picked by Fareed alone. Two of those wickets - those of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, came off back to back deliveries, with the latter falling for a golden duck. Sanju Samson, brought in for Jitesh Sharma in this match, also fell for a golden duck while Shivam Dube, who scored unbeaten half-centuries in both the previous matches, fell for one.

The pair weathered the storm and then switched gears afterthe 10th over. Rohit eventually got to a gritty half-century as he and Rinku took India past the 100-run mark. They unleashed carnage in the death overs, creaming 103 runs off the last five overs. In the process, Rohit scored his fifth T20I century and India smashed 36 runs off the last over. Rohit finished on 121 off 69 balls with 11 fours and eight sixes. Rinku Singh on 69 off 39 with two fours and six sixes. The partnership between the two was unbeaten on 190 off 95 balls.

2)  Dube, Jaiswal carnage ensures 6-wicket win, IND confirm series win

India vs Afghanistan 2nd T20I Highlights

Dube starred with the bat once again as whirlwind fifties from him and Jaiswal ensured a comprehensive win for India. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube have made a mockery of the 173-run target that Afghanistan set for India to chase and the hosts won the match with six wickets and 26 balls to spare. Jaiswal scored 68 off 34 balls in a 92-run partnership with Dube that came in just 42 balls before falling to Karim Janat in the 13th over, by which point India were already on the cusp of victory. Dube remained unbeaten on 63 off 32 balls while Virat Kohli smashed 29 in just 16 balls in his first T20I since November 2022. Rohit Sharma, though, fell for a second consecutive duck in the series, being dismissed off his very first ball by Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Jaiswal raced to his half-century in just 27 balls, which was the fastest by an Indian against Afghanistan in T20Is. However, Dube ended up breaking that record a few balls later, reaching his fifty in just 22 deliveries. Gulbadin Naib earlier powered the Afghanistan innings and a late push then helped them get to a score of 172. Naib 57 in 35 balls after being promoted to No.3 and Afghanistan then smashed 63 runs in the last five overs.

3) Olympic heartbreak in Ranchi as India go down to Japan

The Indian women’s hockey team will not go to the 2024 Paris Olympics after throwing away another chances-littered, high-pressure, must-win contest.

In a must-win match, the hosts were simply unable to find the goals they so desperately needed The moment the final hooter went off, India goalkeeper Savita Punia took off her helmet and trudged straight towards the dugout. The other Indian players, each of them parked in the Japanese half for the large part of the final quarter desperately hunting for the equaliser, soon followed, one heavy step after another.

They all sat on the dugout benches without uttering a word to the other, staring into the abyss. The smoky haze from the day before had long made way for a brighter Friday, but the cold reality would only bite them now The Indian women’s hockey team will not go to the 2024 Paris Olympics after throwing away another chances-littered, high-pressure, must-win contest. India’s plethora of nine penalty corners (PC) yielded no returns. Japan converted one from their four in the sixth minute to get the one goal that mattered and the final Paris spot from the FIH Women’s Hockey Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi.

Breaking their silenced stares, the women got up and into a huddle with head coach Janneke Schopman and the rest of her staff. Fewer words were spoken, certainly a lot quieter than the animated chants before the game. That seemed a long time ago.So does the fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a potentially defining moment in Indian women’s hockey that only returned to the Olympic stage in 2016 Rio for the first time after 1980. Many of these players who experienced the crest of Tokyo will now have to live by the trough of not being able to qualify for Paris.

“This is really hard for us to take," said Savita, the captain as teary-eyed as most of her players after the game. “I didn't think that our team did not deserve to go the Olympics.”

After giving Germany a run for their money only to go broke in the sudden death of penalty shootouts, the players woke up believing they could do it all over again less than 24 hours against Japan. However, like their opening loss to USA with a similar scoreline, they did not turn up with the same finishing flair to get past a resolute opposition.“We dominated the game after 1-0. But you need to score a goal. And we didn't,” Schopman told reporters.

India were playing a team they had beaten thrice last year, once for the Asian Games bronze (where they would've sealed the Paris berth with gold) and twice for the Asian Champions Trophy gold in the same stadium in Ranchi. But something seems to switch mentally for this team in matches where the stakes surge, especially at home.And Jude Menezes, the former India goalkeeper and Japan head coach, knew it well. "I have played for India so I know what the pressure of expectation is and I know that a home game always has an added pressure in a must-win game. So we pressed higher at the start, and said let’s hope for mistakes," Menezes said.

Japan's plan executed to a fault, the fault lines in India's start were evident. Savita was made to work in the second minute itself, and within six minutes Japan earned their game’s second PC. Kana Urata fired the ball that deflected off Savita's left leg into the goal.

India did not seem to have a plan to construct a goal, relying on deflections from long slaps to somehow find the goal. Japan, in contrast, knew exactly what to do. They initially used a lot of high balls to not allow India to turn to their free-flowing pressing game, and then sat back to defend for their lives.

The hosts grew into the game and earned a couple of PCs in the 18th and 19th minutes. Both dragflicks by Deepika, who struck against Germany, were saved. Four further PC opportunities came raining down in the third quarter — Udita also took a shot — yet the drought continued (one of Deepika's PC hit the top of the bar). Japan's PC defence remained efficient, their goalkeeper Eika Nakamura exceptional.

She pulled off two brilliant saves early in the final quarter, denying Lalremsiami and Vaishnavi Phalke. India kept pressing hard but went soft in the finishing. Three more PCs came and went. Symbolic of India's show was Salima Tete's almost open shot at goal with around 90 seconds to go. It went wide.

“It's going to hurt for a long time, because when the Olympics is on the TV, we know we wanted to be there," said Schopman, whose contract runs till the Paris Games.

Asked if she thought she would be around in her role till then, she replied: "That I don't know. That I don't know."

Can’t blame the coach: Tirkey

Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey, though, said he was happy with the way the team was performing under the former Dutch player, and that the coach can’t be blamed for this tournament. “We're quite happy with how the team is playing and performing under her. If you don't convert the several PC chances, and can't finish things off being 2-0 up in the shootout (against Germany), then we can't blame the coach," Tirkey said. "At the same time, it is really sad that the women's team won't play at the Olympics, especially after qualifying for the past two Games."

4) Praggnanandhaa stuns world champion Liren in Tata Steel tourney; surpasses Anand as No.1 Indian

Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa

The win also helped Praggnanandhaa surpass the legendary Viswanathan Anand as the top-rated Indian player. Teenaged Indian chess superstar R Praggnanandhaa defeated world champion Ding Liren of China in the fourth round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands), a win which also helped him surpass the legendary Viswanathan Anand as the top-rated Indian player.

After the victory late on Tuesday night, the 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa has 2748.3 points as against 2748 of five-time world champion Anand in the FIDE live ratings. The world chess body publishes the ratings at the start of each month With the 62-move win with black pieces, Praggnanandhaa became the second Indian after Anand to defeat a reigning world champion in classical chess.

Praggnanandhaa had also beaten Liren at the 2023 Tata Steel tournament.

"That feels good!" Praggnanandhaa said after the win.

He is now third in the standings with 2.5 points in the Masters event.

The teenaged Indian GM has been in good form in recent times, having finished runner-up in the World Cup to Magnus Carlsen last year to qualify for the Candidates tournament to be held in April to identify the challenger to Liren.The Masters group saw Dutch player Anish Giri emerge as the sole leader heading into the first rest day. Giri's endgame prowess secured him victory against teenaged Indian GM D Gukesh to take him to 3.5 points.

Alireza Firouzja is half a point behind the leader on 3 points.

The third Indian player in the fray, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was held to a draw by Jorden Van Foreest in round four. He has 2 points from four rounds.

In the fifth round on Thursday, Praggnanandhaa runs into the leader Anish Giri while his compatriots Gukesh and Gujrathi will take on Ian Nepomniachtchi and Max Warmerdam respectively.

5) Dakar Rally: Harith becomes first Indian to win Rally 2 class

Harith Noah Koitha Veettil in action

He also finished 11th overall, missing the coveted top 10 spot by just six minutes. It is the best ever ranking achieved by an Indian in Dakar rally. Harith Noah capped two gruelling weeks in the Saudi Arabian desert with a slice of history on Friday, becoming the first Indian ever to win at the Dakar Rally in the Rally 2 class and finishing 11th overall, missing the coveted top 10 spot by six minutes. Competing in his fifth Dakar Rally, Noah was over four minutes clear of second-placed Romain Dumontier.

This is the best ranking achieved by an Indian in Dakar rally. The 12-stage race saw the TVS Sherco rider come into his own in the second week after battling some health issues in the opening week. Stage 6 saw him jump from P18 to P13 overall and he climbed two more places after Stage 8, a position he maintained till the end of the rally. Noah set the fastest time in Stage 8 and Stage 10.

He finished Stage 11 in second place behind BAS World KTM Racing Team's Bradley Cox. The South African defeated Noah by eight minutes and 29 seconds, but a strong finish meant the Indian took the lead in the Rally 2 general rankings. Romain Dumontier, on top in overall rankings after Stage 10, lost more than 18 minutes and 30 seconds to Cox on Thursday.

6) Slick Uzbekistan punish sloppy India in Asian Cup Group B game

India's players react at the end of the Qatar 2023 AFC Asian Cup Group B football match(

Hopes of attacking football dashed by three first-half goals

Igor Stimac had predicted that Uzbekistan would come hard from the start. What was not expected was that India would ship three soft goals in the first half in this Asian Cup group B game on Thursday. In what was possibly the worst first half under the Croat head coach, Uzbekistan pulled ahead through Abbosbek Fayzullaev in the fifth minute, made it 2-0 through Igor Sergeev in the 18th and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Sherzod Nasrullaev tapped home in added time.

A rasping left-footer from Mahesh Naorem late in the first half that goalie Utkir Yusupov palmed away for a corner-kick, Rahul KP beginning the second by thudding into the upright and Rahul Bheke’s header that was tipped over were the closest India came to giving their fans, who again comprised a large part of the 38,491 that turned up at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, some cheer.

Naorem’s attempt to press Yusupov was proof of how India, buoyed by the fight in the 0-2 loss against Australia, had wanted to start. It unspooled in the fifth minute and after the first move Uzbekistan managed. Nasrullaev found space on the left and the ease with which his delivery was headed forward by Otabek Shukurov for an unmarked Fayzullaev would embarrass the backline. By the time Sandesh Jhingan realised what was happening, Uzbekistan were ahead. It as 2-0 after Bheke lost the ball near the halfway line, one of the many unforced errors that ruined whatever hopes India had of taking the game to their superior rivals who started with three Europe-based players. Down 0-2, his team suitably chastened, Stimac was seen sitting in the dug-out, hand on his mouth. India’s worst performance under him was a 0-6 defeat against UAE in 2021 but even in that friendly, they had leaked two goals before half-time.

A smart save by Sandhu in the ninth minute and skipper Jaloliddin Masharipov’ free-kick hitting the framework prevented more goals in a game where India struggled to contain CSKA Moscow’s Fayzullaev on the left. Uzbekistan played short, crisp passes in the front third, their maturity in finding space leaving India chasing crooked shadows. Against Australia, it was backs-to-the-wall defending. When it came to trying to play against a team not that good, gaps showed up.That Uzbekistan didn’t exert themselves but still forced India into a string of bodies-on-the-line saves in the second half where Jamshid Iskanderov rocked the horizontal showed how much work needs to do be done if Stimac has to realise the aim of making the top 10 in Asia in four years. Three players converging on Suresh Wangjam leaving him nowhere to go encapsulated the gulf between teams and showed why Uzbekistan are under-20 Asian champions, won the Asian under-23 title in 2018 and were runners-up in 2022.

Making the defeat worse was how disjointed India were. The press wasn’t coordinated, twice Bheke conceded throw-ins while trying to find Akash Mishra and Naorem, Lalengmawia Ralte and Mishra collided in the middle of the park and when Nasrullaev sneaked in for the goal, Manvir Singh was ball watching as was Jhingan for the first goal. Anirudh Thapa was supposed to provide the spark but Uzbekistan gave him, or any one in a blue shirt fir that matter, no room in midfield. Add to that a free header Sunil Chhetri couldn’t put on target for the second time in as many defeats. His replacement Ishan Pandita had a chance late in the game but didn’t have the legs.

 

 

 

Indian Police Force

An action-thriller series helmed by Rohit Shetty, Indian Police Force is an extension of the director’s fictional cop-universe. The show stars Sidharth Malhotra, Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Overoi in pivotal roles.

Release Date: 19 January 2024 Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

The Marvels

The 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels is ready to debut on OTT after its theatrical run. The film focuses on the aftermath of Carol Danvers’ (Brie Larson) actions that destroyed the Supreme Intelligence and led to a civil war in the Kree empire. She is joined by Captain Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan in her journey to save the universe against the new evils.

Release Date: 16 January 2024

Available to buy and rent on Apple TV and Prime Video

Kübra

The Turkish drama-thriller, Kübra is based around Gökhan Ahinolu, a regular man whose monotonous life in the suburbs of Istanbul is turned around by enigmatic messages from an unknown titular entity.

Release Date: 18 January 2024

Streaming on Netflix

Sixty Minutes

A high-stakes sports film, Sixty Minutes is the story of MMA fighter Octavio “Ox” Rodriguez who is faced with a difficult choice: attend his daughter’s birthday party instead of his match or lose custody forever.

Release Date: 19 January 2024

Streaming on Netflix

Main Atal Hoon

Follows the extraordinary life and political journey of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, an iconic figure in Indian politics and delves into the multifaceted persona of Vajpayee Ji, capturing his essence as a poet, a gentleman, and a statesman.

Director

Ravi Jadhav

Writers

Ravi JadhavRishi Virmani

Stars

Pankaj TripathiBenedict GarrettHarshal Gire

BOOK OF THIS WEEK:

Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way: by Roma Agrawal (Author)

Some of humanity’s mightiest engineering achievements are small in scale—and, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, structural engineer Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the string, and the pump.

Tracing the evolution from Egyptian nails to modern skyscrapers, and Neanderthal string to musical instruments, Agrawal shows us how even our most sophisticated items are built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs. She explores an array of intricate technologies—dishwashers, spacesuits, microscopes, suspension bridges, breast pumps—making surprising connections, explaining how they work, and using her own hand-drawn illustrations to bring complex principles to life.

Alongside deeply personal experiences, she recounts the stories of remarkable—and often uncredited—scientists, engineers, and innovators from all over the world, and explores the indelible impact these creators and their creations had on society. In preindustrial Britain, nails were so precious that their export to the colonies was banned—and women were among the most industrious nail makers. The washing machine displayed at an industrial fair in Chicago in 1898 was the only machine featured that was designed by a woman. The history of the wheel, meanwhile, starts with pottery, and takes us to India’s independence movement, where making clothes using a spinning wheel was an act of civil disobedience.

Eye-opening and engaging, Nuts and Bolts reveals the hidden building blocks of our modern world, and shows how engineering has fundamentally changed the way we live.

Roma Agrawal:

I'm an award-winning engineer, author and broadcaster and am best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe's tallest tower. I studied at Imperial College London and have an MA in Physics from the University of Oxford.

My first book, BUILT (Bloomsbury, 2018) won an AAAS science book award and has been translated into eight languages. The children's version, How Was That Built? (Bloomsbury, 2021) will be published soon.

I'm currently writing another book called Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions that Changed the World (In a Big Way) (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023) where I will explore the seven building-blocks of engineering that have come to underpin our lives: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump.

I've had the absolute pleasure of presenting television shows for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery, and I host own podcast, Building Stories.

I'm particularly passionate about promoting engineering and technical careers to young people, particularly under-represented groups such as women and people of colour. In 2017 I won the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering's Rooke Award, and in 2018 was appointed an MBE for my services to engineering.