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A politically charged atmosphere has gripped the state of Bihar, fuelled by high-decibel campaigns, allegations of voter suppression, and the deployment of polarising narratives. The first phase of polling on November 6 recorded a historic 65.08% voter turnout--an electoral milestone that set the tone for a fiercely contested race across the remaining 122 constituencies voting on November 11. Image Source: Nitish Kumar The Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA is seeking continuity under the banner of development and national security, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah leading an aggressive campaign to consolidate voter sentiment in the outer belt of the state, particularly in the Seemanchal region, where security and demographic concerns have taken centre stage.  PM Modi has framed infiltration as a "national challenge" and promised decisive action, referring to his government’s crackdown on illegal migrants as part of a broader effort to “lock out...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi closed the Bihar campaign on Saturday with a high-decibel pitch for the NDA, declaring at a packed rally in Chanpatia, West Champaran, that he would return to the state “after the spectacular victory on November 14” for the government’s swearing-in.  Modi Closes Bihar Campaign With NDA Pitch, Vows Return After Victory; Image Via: PM NaMo Addressing two rallies within hours -- the second in Sitamarhi -- PM Modi sought to frame the election as a binary between what he called a development-driven NDA and the “jungle raj” of past RJD regimes. Speaking to a sea of supporters under cellphone lights, Modi invoked the symbolic glow as Bihar’s aspiration for progress, vowing that the state would not allow a return to the lawlessness associated with the Lalu-Rabri era.  He reeled off welfare measures under the NDA government, including the Rs 10,000 direct transfer to 1.4 crore Jeevika didis , 50% reservation for women in panchayati raj, and 35% quot...

In a good beginning to the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, the first phase of polling across 121 seats on November 6 recorded a voter turnout of 64.66%,  among the highest in the state’s history for an Assembly election.  Image Source: Election Commission of India The previous record was 62.57% set in 2000. This surpasses even Bihar’s Lok Sabha turnout peak of 64.6% in 1998. The Election Commission credited voters and polling staff for the “festive mood” and peaceful conduct. But behind the celebration lies a more complex political terrain shaped by massive voter roll revisions, a fractured political landscape, and strategic voter mobilisation. Electoral Enthusiasm or Statistical Mirage? The turnout spike comes against the backdrop of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls earlier this year, during which 47 lakh names were deleted. The voter base dropped from 7.89 crore to 7.42 crore. The opposition alleged the deletions targeted marginalised and poor communitie...

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared Nigeria a “ country of particular concern ,” citing what he described as a genocidal wave of killings targeting Christians in the West African nation.  File Photo: Bola Ahmed Tinubu Trump’s statement, made in a public video released Thursday, paints a dire picture of the country’s deteriorating religious freedoms and urges immediate U.S. intervention.  “ Thousands and thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter ,” Trump said, referencing what he called a global crisis of religious persecution. According to Trump, 3,100 Christians have been killed in Nigeria this year alone, a figure he contrasted against a global death toll of 4,476, underscoring the country's outlier status in religious violence. While independent figures vary, multiple human rights watchdogs, including Open Doors USA and the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), have pr...

In what is being described as the most sweeping state intervention in the UK’s education architecture in a generation, the British government has announced a structural redesign of how children and young adults will be taught, assessed, and socially moulded from primary years through to university and vocational streams. Education Secretary: Bridget Phillipson; Via: ChamberVoice This is a reassertion of the state’s ideological vision over what constitutes knowledge, which futures matter, and which lives are worth preparing for. Behind the polished language of “modernisation” and “skills for a changing world” lies a deeper attempt to engineer social outcomes through education, a sector already grappling with austerity, inequalities, and policy fatigue.  From the compulsory teaching of citizenship starting at age 5, to reworked pathways that steer 16-year-olds toward employment routes, the new roadmap formalises an old premise that education is also about sorting. 🚨🎥 WATCH: K...

In a move that has sharpened international focus on nuclear posturing, the United States Air Force’s Global Strike Command launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, just days after President Donald Trump publicly declared his administration’s intent to resume nuclear weapons testing. US Tests Minuteman III Missile; Via: Nexta The missile, which carried no warhead, was launched as part of what the Air Force has termed a “routine reliability test” and landed near the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.  The launch was confirmed by Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson via social media, though no formal statement had been issued at the time by Vandenberg Space Force Base or Global Strike Command, the U.S. military authority that oversees both strategic bombers and silo-based nuclear missiles. ‼️‼️🇺🇲🚀 BIG NEWS - The United States is preparing for a nuclear weapons test: Washington plans to conduct a tes...

Amid rising strategic uncertainty, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday instructed his top security, intelligence, and defence leadership to begin formal consultations on the potential resumption of nuclear weapons testing. This is a dramatic signal that Moscow is prepared to mirror any similar moves by the United States. File Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin; Via: Visegrad24 Putin’s remarks came during a high-level operational meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council , including Defence Minister Andrei Belousov , FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov , Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Chief Sergei Naryshkin , and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov , among others. At the centre of the meeting was an interjection from State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who pressed Putin for clarity on the Kremlin’s position following Donald Trump’s public call for renewed U.S. nuclear weapons testing.  Trump, currently leading the 2026 presidential race, had e...

Brussels is preparing to invoke Article 4 of the NATO treaty, a rarely used but symbolically powerful clause, after a series of drone incursions raised serious concerns over airspace security and national defense.  The country’s Defense Minister, Theo Franken, confirmed that consultations with NATO allies are under consideration in the "coming hours and days" as Belgium grapples with escalating unmanned aerial activity over sensitive civilian and military zones. Theo Franken; Via: PutinPulse on X The immediate trigger: Brussels International Airport was temporarily shut down on the night of November 4 following confirmed sightings of unidentified drones.  Air traffic was halted for hours, causing widespread chaos. At least 41 flights were canceled and 24 diverted, according to Skeyes, Belgium’s air traffic control authority.  Seven remaining flights were cleared to depart shortly before the airport’s scheduled midnight closure.  But the incident at Brussels Airport w...

The political climate in India has further polarised just ahead of voting in Bihar, as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India) and prominent Indian politician Rahul Gandhi accused the ruling BJP of orchestrating what he called “one of the biggest electoral frauds in Indian democratic history.”  Citing what his party calls “H Files” -- a cache of alleged evidence -- Rahul Gandhi claimed that 25 lakh fake votes swung the 2024 Haryana Assembly election, which the BJP narrowly won. Image from LoP Rahul Gandhi's powerful presentation. Via: INC India In an extended presentation in New Delhi, Rahul Gandhi alleged that voter rolls were manipulated at scale. He cited examples of duplicate voter IDs, including 22 instances of a Brazilian model’s photo being used under different names like “Sweety” and “Seema,” and a separate case of one woman’s face appearing on 223 voter IDs across polling booths.  “This isn’t random -- it’s industrialis...