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Looking at the long-term significance of the fire and fury of May
India successfully tested some of its advanced weapons and systems in the four-day conflict with Pakistan. Now, India should bolster and diversify its arsenal to raise its military profile: Experts
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India and Pakistan engaged in conventional gunfight and cyberwar in the buildup to the latest military clash. Then, the night of May 8-9 became treacherous for India when villages, towns and cities along its entire northwestern border came under attack. Of the hundreds of drones that Pakistan sent towards India over the four-day conflict, the vast majority were sighted then. The drones, many carrying explosives, aimed to inflict damage across 36 locations in India, Indian military officials have said. India's automated air defence systems intercepted the drones, as well as the missiles fired from fighter jets by Pakistan. India used
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Winnipeg Free Press
38 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pharrell Williams brings India and Beyoncé to Louis Vuitton's Pompidou runway
PARIS (AP) — The birds scattered in every direction as the first drumbeat thundered across the plaza outside Paris' Pompidou Center Tuesday, clearing the way for a different kind of flight: Beyoncé and Jay-Z swept into the front row. The star couple anchored a guest list at Pharrell Williams' latest Louis Vuitton spectacle that doubled as a map of contemporary culture now: Bradley Cooper, J-Hope, Karol G, Pinkpanthress, Future, Pusha T, Jackson Wang, Bambam, Mason Thames, Miles Caton, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Malcolm Washington, Jalen Ramsey, and A$AP Nast. If there was any question about the gravitational pull of Louis Vuitton under Williams, it evaporated before the first look hit the runway. This was no ordinary catwalk: Williams — half showman, half pop impresario — staged a cultural passage from Paris to Mumbai, fusing Indian tradition and modern dandyism into a punchy, sunstruck vision of the Vuitton man in 2026. In Vuitton's world, a show is never just a show. It's a takeover, a mood. On Tuesday, the Pompidou's iconic colored pipes served as a sci-fi backdrop for a set dreamed up with Studio Mumbai architect Bijoy Jain: a life-size 'Snakes and Ladders' board, alluding to both the child's game and the adult risks of fashion's global game. For Williams, the house's mantra of travel is less about destination, more about movemen. Up, down, sideways, sunward. The clothes? This season, they marched to their own drumbeat. Out came models in Indian-style chunky sandals, striped boxy shorts and blue preppy shirts with sleeves billowing like monsoon sails. Silken cargo pants shimmered in the sun; pin-striped puffers added a louche, almost Bollywood-kitsch edge. Cricket jerseys appeared with jeweled collars or — why not? — a puffy hood dripping with rhinestones. Blue pearlescent leather bombers flirted with the bling of Mumbai's film sets, while pin-striped tailoring riffed on both the British Raj and Parisian boulevardiers. If all this felt like cultural collision, that's by design. Williams' Vuitton has become a mood board for global wanderlust: the checked silks, the mismatched stripes, the trompe l'oeil fabrics that look sun-faded by actual adventures. It's a nod to the itinerant dandyism that's fast becoming his Vuitton calling card. Less about nostalgia, more about now. But don't mistake the globe-trotting optimism for naivety. There's calculation in the chaos. Williams' references bounce from Kenzo 's Nigo (his onetime collaborator) to Indian contemporary artisans — like the hand-beaded snakes slithering across shirts, or the sandalwood-scented linens that recall a summer in Rajasthan. The 'worldwide community' Vuitton preaches is real, but it's also realpolitik: What could be more luxurious in 2025 than clothing that tries to please everyone and everywhere, without losing itself? Of course, with Vuitton, the accessories make the man and this season's bags, bejeweled sandals and hardware-heavy necklaces delivered the requisite Instagram bait, each a covetable passport stamp in leather or gold. It's maximalism, sure, but not just for the TikTok set: the craftsmanship, from sun-bleached cloth to hand-loomed stripes, rewards anyone who bothers to look twice. If there's a criticism, it's that sometimes the noise of references threatens to drown out the signal. Williams piles motif on motif, color on color, joy on joy, until coherence blurs into sheer, Dionysian energy. But maybe that's the point: In a season of global anxiety the Vuitton man chooses to strut, sparkle, and swerve. LVMH, the world's largest luxury group, posted record revenue of 84.7 billion euros in 2024, with its Fashion & Leather Goods division anchored by Louis Vuitton still leading the pack. With a market value near $455 billion and over 6,300 stores worldwide, Vuitton remains the world's most valuable luxury brand. Even with a recent dip in sales, its scale and influence are unmatched. As the last look circled the Pompidou and the birds resettled, Vuitton's odyssey felt less like a fashion show and more like an announcement: the world is a game board, the ladders are real, and Louis Vuitton is still rolling the dice.
Deccan Herald
an hour ago
- Deccan Herald
Maestro A V Anand, 90, to be feted on Saturday
Anand has toured countries such as the US, UK, and Malaysia, helping introduce the beauty of Indian rhythms to global audiences.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Remains of all but one AI-171 victim identified
All the remains found from the Air India flight 171 crash site in Ahmedabad have been identified using DNA matching or facial recognition, barring one case, Gujarat health department officials said on Tuesday, tentatively putting the death toll from India's worst aviation disaster in decades at 260. Ahmedabad: Wreckage of the crashed Air India plane being lifted through a crane, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (PTI) 'So far, the death toll due to the plane crash is 260. This includes 241 people on board and 19 non-passengers. No new bodies have been recovered from the site in the last few days,' said a senior government official. One DNA sample that probably is of a passenger is yet to be matched successfully, said Dr. Rakesh Joshi, Superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. An official aware of the matter said the DNA sample extracted seems to be in a fragmented or degraded state, creating difficulties in matching it with samples provided by relatives. 'Fresh re-sampling is required,' said the official. Also Read | Shifting process of crashed Ahmedabad plane's remains continue for third day Dr. Joshi said that so far 253 victims were identified through DNA testing while six were identified through facial recognition. 'The site of the crash is still being cleared. Unless we are certain that no additional victims are going to be found, we cannot declare the final death toll,' news agency Reuters quoted Dr Joshi as saying. A total of 318 body parts were recovered from the crash site at Meghaninagar, said a senior police official. The London-bound Air India Dreamliner aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff on June 12 from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin, emerged as the lone survivor. The impact devastated the residential block of a nearby medical college, claiming several lives on the ground. Also Read | Black box of crashed Ahmedabad plane being probed in India, says Aviation minister Additional chief secretary of the health and family welfare department, Dhananjay Dwivedi, told HT as many as 250 relatives of the deceased, including non-passengers, gave DNA samples for identification. He said that while the DNA samples of the relatives of the victims were collected at Ahmedabad Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), the DNA matching was conducted at FSL Gandhinagar and the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU). 'In some cases, multiple DNA samples from relatives were required, while in others, a single relative's sample was sufficient to identify multiple family members who died in the crash,' he added. 'This was one of the biggest DNA-matching efforts that India has seen,' said Dr. Bhargav Patel, Head of the Center of Excellence in DNA Forensics at the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU). A DNA matching exercise such as this typically takes months. But in the case of the AI 171 crash, identification of viable samples has been completed in about two weeks. Dr. Vishal Mewada, assistant professor at NFSU, developed specialized in-house software that significantly accelerated the DNA matching process. 'One of the biggest challenges we faced was that it took 5-7 minutes for a single match using the existing technology, but with the new software, we could match 500 samples in just five minutes,' he explained.
