Author: Rajalakshmi Venkataraman

Iconic Soviet car brand ‘Moskvich’ to be brought to life in Renault Plant. Highlights: Renault joins a long line of foreign companies to exit RussiaMcdonald’s exited the country just last week. MOSCOW: The French automobile manufacturer has announced that they will cease all Russian operations due to political conditions. The City of Moscow will acquire all assets in the coming days. This includes a 68% stake in soviet-era car maker Avtovaz. NAMI, a science institute will take control of Avtovaz. The CEO Luca de Meo said that the move is to protect the interests of their 45,000 employees. Both parties…

DMK cadre from Manali, Chennai, found murdered and disposed of in the Adyar river. CHENNAI: Partial remains of a 65-year old DMK party worker were found in a Royapuram home stuffed in a gunny bag on the 14th of May. Police later identified the deceased as S Chakrapani who had suffered extensive injuries before his death. Nagendran, the Victim’s son reported him missing on the 11th of May after not seeing or hearing from him. Police apprehended Thameem Banu(39), her brother Washim Basha(35) and his friend Dilip Babu (29)for the crime. This was due to Nagendran’s reports of spotting a…

After a year of sub-par and average commercial releases, trailer of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram drops to rave reviews from fans and critics alike! Chennai: A power-packed trailer, intense dialogue, and a menacing score. From the looks of it, Vikram has all the marks of a classy action-thriller. The title is inspired by Kamal Hasan’s Vikram(1986), but the plots are reportedly unrelated. The star-studded cast include Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Fasil and Arjun Das. Later reports suggest that Jai Bhim frontman Suriya could appear in a cameo towards the end of the film.The film is set to hit theatres on the 3rd…

The story of Anna Delvey, a socialite who conned an entire city, or so they say. Old Money, New Money, Dirty money. New York City is the center of the financial world. The rich, famous, and the famously rich converge upon this city and form their cliques. The highly fashionable, the Wall Street moguls, the foreign oil barons, and many more. They wined and dined in exclusive clubs peppered all over the swankiest spots in Manhattan. In 2015, 281 Park Avenue was one of them. The historical building lay empty for now, but someone was watching, circling a 4 million…

The “Hermit Kingdom” declares the first COVID-19 death amid a devastating first wave of infections. PYONGYANG: After 2 years of declaring itself “COVID-19-free”, North Korea reports its first death. State television confirmed speculations of wide-spread COVID infections. KCNA(Korean Central News Agency) reported 6 deaths, of which one tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly 200,000 citizens are reportedly under isolation and monitoring. There is no official count for cases as the regime has no mass testing protocol in place. In fact, the founder of NKNews reports that only 64,000 COVID-19 tests are on record. Official KCNA COVID-19 Release: The release notes that…

Sri Lankan media reports that a new cabinet will take over by the end of the week. Highlights: Reports say opposition ministers are gearing up to form a new government. Mahinda Rajapakse is reportedly in Trincomalee under heavy protection. 17 members of the ruling SLPP party are banned from leaving the country by courts. Sri Lanka has been in a severe food and finance crisis since late February. COLOMBO: Reports coming out of Sri Lanka suggest opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe could be the new prime minister. Wickramasinghe previously served as PM for 5 terms, the last one ending in 2018.…

The ex-CSK skipper will miss the rest of the season due to a rib injury. Highlights: · CSK’s premier all-rounder suffered a nasty blow during a fielding mishap vs RCB. · Jadeja was announced as the captain of CSK in April but stepped down to focus on personal performance. MUMBAI: CSK announced that ex-skipper Ravindra Jadeja will miss the rest of the tournament due to injury. Rumors of the early exit circulated when he was noticeably absent in the playing XI vs DC. An official CSK release stated that his exit comes after a period of medical observation. Jadeja becomes…

Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh had been reporting for Al Jazeera Arabic at the time of her death. Sources report one more critical, but non-fatal injury. Highlights: A local hospital declared Abu Akleh dead on arrival. Israeli security forces deny responsibility; blame Palestinian militants. Palestine rejects an offer to hold a joint autopsy with Israel. Late journalist’s home raided by Israeli police just hours after her death. JENIN: A raid in the West Bank, Palestine, took the life of an Al Jazeera correspondent and critically wounded another. Journalist Ali Samoudi from a local outlet suffered non-fatal injuries. A team of 7 journalists travelled…

Three dead and multiple injured at polling station shootout amid widespread election fraud allegations. Highlights: Ferdinand Marcos Jr becomes 17th president of the Philippines. Two violent incidents reported in Mindanao, leaving 3 injured and multiple others injured. Both incidents allegedly tied to local mayoral election candidates. Frontrunners Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Leni Robredo eye rise to power following the controversial Duterte administration MINDANAO: Just a few hours into the highly anticipated May 9th election, violence broke out in the southern Philippine district involving two groups on opposing sides of the local elections. NYT reported that a polling station came under attack…

An opinion leak from last week has shaken onlookers as Supreme Court discusses the strike-down of landmark abortion rights legislation. The conversation surrounding abortion and reproductive rights has been highly divisive and polarising in the United States for the past 40 years. The landmark decision made in 1973 became a lightning rod for political narratives, putting the pro-life/pro-choice movement at the helm of American politics. The SCOTUS leak: Politico reported on May 2nd that the Supreme court had already voted to strike down Roe v Wade behind closed doors stating that abortion rights were not originally part of the constitution. …