Two months into office, Nepal’s Gen Z icon and Prime Minister Balendra Shah, popularly known as Balen, is already facing questions over whether his ambitious reform agenda is slipping behind schedule, with a government tracker showing multiple key promises marked “overdue” and early signs of political and administrative strain emerging inside his administration.The pressure has…
TOI correspondent from Washington: In the summer of 1976, a Kanpur-born teenage engineering student from BITS Pilani stood in the lobby of the US embassy in New Delhi after being denied a student visa for the third time. His father, who had accompanied him, refused to leave. He had seen the photo of the consular…
Some quotes survive because they sound wise. Others survive because they create a small moment of discomfort. They stay in people’s minds because they touch something that still feels real long after the world around them changes. This line linked to Plato belongs in that second category. It does not sound gentle or reassuring. It…
For a long time, astronomers treated the early universe as a place where galaxies were still finding their footing, small systems forming stars rapidly, while the larger cosmic structures familiar today had not yet settled into existence. Galaxy clusters, the sprawling cities of the cosmos, were thought to become influential much later. Yet fresh observations…
A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The result was a milestone that engineers and space scientists have been working toward for decades, and one that brings the prospect of humans setting…
At several hundred metres below the surface, the limestone caves around Minamidaito Island are mostly untouched by sunlight, currents, and routine marine surveys. The landscape is narrow, uneven, and difficult to navigate even with modern submersibles. During one of those deep exploratory dives last year, a remotely operated vehicle passed close to a colony of…
For most of the twentieth century, the story of how humans arrived in North America felt settled. They came from Siberia, crossed a land bridge called Beringia, moved south as the ice sheets retreated, and by around 13,000 years ago had given rise to the Clovis culture, the earliest widely accepted evidence of human presence…
North Korea on Wednesday tested a mix of tactical ballistic missiles, artillery rockets and AI-guided precision cruise missiles designed for modern warfare, according to state news agency KCNA.The tests came a day after South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch of multiple projectiles, including a ballistic missile. The projectiles reportedly travelled around 80…
In what is said to be the biggest renewable energy plan ever proposed by any nation, China is making plans to develop the most extensive clean energy plant outside its shores. From reports about this plan, it appears that China aims to develop 1,000 wind turbines along with millions of solar panels, which will be…
TOI correspondent from Washington: For Republican politicians in Donald Trump’s America, there are now only two career paths: obedience or obituary.On Tuesday night in Texas, the political undertaker came for Senator John Cornyn — a four-term Republican heavyweight, former Senate whip, longtime conservative stalwart, and co-chair of the Senate India Caucus — who was steamrolled…
