Domination of Indian-American children in US Spelling Bee continues
The National Spelling Bee has ended in a tie for the second straight year: Indian-Americans Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam are co-champions, cementing the community’s hold on an event which has come to be dubbed the Indian Super Bowl.
Shivashankar and Venkatachalam won the contest easily Thursday night after the pronouncer ran out of words lined up to decide a dragged out final round.
Shivashankar’s victory set an event record as the first by two members of the same family — her sister Kavya Shivashankar, who was there in the audience, won in 2009.
Shivashankar's final word was "scherenschnitte." After being informed he'd be the co-champion if he got the next word right, Venkatachalam didn't even bother to ask the definition before spelling "nunatak."
Venkatachalam finished third last year.
Indian-Americans have won the contest eight years running now, and twice jointly in consecutive years, and 14 times in all, since the community’s first in 985, Balu Natrajan.
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In a major shift, Nato identifies China as a systemic challenge
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) on Wednesday for the first time in its history recognised China's “stated ambitions and coercive policies” as a threat to the alliance's interests, security and values in a sign of the rapid shift in European geopolitical attitudes. The much-anticipated strategic concept, the first since 2010, was released during a historic Nato summit in Madrid that saw the participation of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Korea.
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'If Putin were a woman...': UK PM Boris Johnson on Ukraine war
Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have started the war in Ukraine if he was a woman, said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday days after G7 members mocked the bare-chested pictures of the Russian leader. During his interview, the British PM also emphasized that everyone wants the Russia-Ukraine war to end. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked other leaders sitting around a table. "We all have to show that we're tougher than Putin."
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South Korea approves first homemade Covid-19 vaccine
Health officials in South Korea on Wednesday approved the country's first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years or older, adding another public health tool in the fight against a prolonged pandemic.
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Sri Lankans struggle for petrol due to fuel shortage, demonstrations to continue
Sri Lankan doctors and other medical staff as well as teachers will take to the streets on Wednesday to demand that the government solve a severe fuel shortage at the heart of the South Asian country's worst economic crisis in decades. The government, left with only enough fuel to last about a week, on Tuesday restricted supplies to essential services, like trains, buses and the health sector, for two weeks.
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TTP says no breakthrough in talks with Pak General
The chief of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has said there won't be a dissolution of or surrender by the group even if the peace talks with the Pakistan government succeeds. In a video released by TTP, its chief, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, who has been leading the peace talks for the group, revealed that former Director-General of ISI and Core Commander Peshawar (Gen) Faiz Hameed has been representing the Pakistan government.
