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The Spy Who Stirred Balochistan

A Bollywood thriller has put Pakistan’s restive province in the spotlight—and provoked an unexpected backlash from the very people it claims to champion   WHEN Ranveer Singh strides across a dusty Balochistan hillside in a black shalwar kameez, sunglasses glinting and Bahraini rap blaring, Indian audiences erupt in applause. In Dhurandhar , a big-budget espionage thriller released on December 5th, Mr Singh plays Hamza Ali Mazari, an Indian RAW agent posing as a Baloch gangster to thwart terror plots against India. The film, which has already grossed over ₹58 crore ($6.9m) in its opening weekend, is unapologetically patriotic. Yet in the real Balochistan—the impoverished, rebellion-scarred province that provides the movie’s most dramatic backdrop—the reaction has been far more complicated. Dhurandhar is loosely stitched together from several real events: the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814, the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai massacre and the 2012 Pakistani ...
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The Silent Collapse: How Modern Society is Cultivating a Generation Incapable of Thinking

In an age overflowing with information, humanity paradoxically finds itself increasingly misinformed, distracted, and intellectually fragile. This raises a critical question: how did we, with all our technological advancements, foster a generation that struggles with independent thought? According to the video " How We Created a Stupid Generation Incapable of Thinking ," this decline isn't a mere accident or a sign of diminishing intelligence. Instead, it's the unsettling outcome of systems deliberately designed to suppress critical thinking, shaping our minds, perceptions, and even our very understanding of reality.   The Architecture of Unthinking: Education, Media, and Culture The video delves into several core pillars that have contributed to this "silent collapse of human reasoning": The Modern Education System: A Factory of Conformity For centuries, education was envisioned as a means to cultivate critical thinking, as philosophers like Socrates a...

China’s spies keep their jobs while the generals fall

Xi Jinping is purging the People’s Liberation Army with Mao-era ferocity. One man, however, remains untouched: the intelligence chief Xu Youming In the bloodiest shake-up of China’s armed forces since the Cultural Revolution, Xi Jinping has removed nearly a fifth of the generals he personally elevated after the 20th party congress in 2022. The vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the admiral who ran political indoctrination, the former defence minister, the head and political commissar of the Rocket Force—all gone. Some have vanished without explanation; others have been accused of corruption so severe it amounts to “betraying the first killer of combat readiness”, in the party’s inimitable phrase. Yet amid the carnage, one senior officer has not only survived but strengthened his position: Xu Youming, the low-profile commissar of the PLA’s Intelligence Bureau. Mr Xu runs the closest thing China has to a combined CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency. His bureau, a dir...

China’s stealth drone exporter: Hangzhou Qifei goes from fields to battlefields

Why it matters Under the cover of civilian tech for agriculture and logistics, Hangzhou Qifei is quietly arming authoritarian regimes in Russia, Libya, and the Sahel with dual-use drones like the X15. This expansion highlights China's growing role in low-cost drone warfare, evading Western sanctions and fueling conflicts while Beijing promotes "peaceful" exports. The big picture Hangzhou Qifei Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., based in eastern China, specializes in "plant protection" drones for farming but produces models easily adapted for military strikes, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Flagship: X15, a versatile UAV marketed for spraying pesticides but convertible into an attack drone with modular payloads. Debut: Showcased at Dubai Airshow 2025 as civilian gear, securing interest from Middle Eastern buyers amid a boom in Chinese drone deals (e.g., a rival firm landed 1,600 orders). Covert clien...

The myth of India’s rising Muslim population

  The former election commissioner's new book is a rigorous study on family planning in India, specifically among Indian Muslims An infant girl from Andhra Pradesh hugs her mother (Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock Photo) By  Omkar Khandekar LAST PUBLISHED https://tcpd.ashoka.edu.in/sy-quraishi-debunks-the-myth-of-indias-rising-muslim-population  07.02.2021   |   07:00 AM IST SOURCE : https://tcpd.ashoka.edu.in/sy-quraishi-debunks-the-myth-of-indias-rising-muslim-population Growing up, SY Quraishi, like many people around him, thought Islam was against family planning. “We’d heard this as long as I can remember—that Muslims produce too many children. For want of contrary information, I believed it too," the former chief election commissioner recalls, speaking about his new book  The Population Myth  on a Zoom call. In 1994, the India chapter of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) approached him to write a strategy paper on the issue. It was an unusual re...

Hadramaut on the Edge: How a Gulf Rivalry Is Reviving Yemen’s Forgotten Front

In the arid heart of southern Yemen, the oil‑rich governorate of Hadramaut is once again becoming a flashpoint, not because of a resurgence of al‑Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) but due to a subtle yet potent rivalry between two of the Gulf’s most powerful patrons: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have quietly begun to arm and mobilise local militias, a development that analysts describe as putting the region “on the brink of war”. The stakes are high. Hadramaut produces roughly eighty thousand barrels of crude a day, a lifeline for a country whose overall output has been crippled by a decade of conflict. Moreover, the governorate straddles the Bab al‑Mandab, the narrow strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, a chokepoint through which a significant share of the world’s oil passes. Any disruption there reverberates far beyond Yemen’s battered borders. A rivalry reborn The Saudi‑UAE partnership that underpinned the anti‑Houthi coaliti...