3 days ago
Daily Briefing: Carlsen claims 7th Norway Chess title; rail link that bridges Jammu and Kashmir Valley; Housefull 5 review
Good morning!
Magnus Carlsen won the Norway Chess 2025 title Friday evening, edging out recently anointed world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and Fabiano Caruana at the finish line. The world no. 1 claimed his seventh Norway Chess victory with a draw against Arjun Erigaisi, while Caruana defeated Gukesh in their final encounter. This result pushed Gukesh into third place in the final standings.
Train to Kashmir: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Katra-Sangaldan stretch of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link on Friday. With this, trains can, for the first time, travel between two regions joined at the hip by more than an ampersand—Jammu and Kashmir. Touted as a remarkable achievement of railway engineering, the direct rail link is viewed as a game-changer that can revolutionise trade, tourism, and the economy of the UT.
272 km, 27 stations, 38 tunnels, 931 bridges — and a gap closed: Among the several firsts of the milestone USBRL project is the 359-metre-high Chenab Bridge, the world's highest railway arch bridge. L Prakash was responsible for laying the roads as the Chief Engineer of the Konkan Railways then. Now an Executive Director, he called it a 'classic case of one step forward and two steps backwards'.
Lives along the (rail) line: With the Katra-Sangaldan stretch of Kashmir's rail link now open, trains can finally connect the Valley to the rest of the country. Dheeraj Mishra and Gajendra Yadav travel to stations new and old, from Katra to Baramulla, to see what changes for the people there when a train makes a stop.
Match-fixing Maharashtra: 'The people of India have a right to be assured that no records have been or will be trashed,' writes Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. With the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections case in point, the Congress leader terms match-fixed elections as 'a poison for any democracy'. In his column for The Indian Express, he elaborates on the 5 steps —from fake voters to concealing evidence trail— of the playbook, which he believes, led to the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance's landslide victory in the state.
The fifth installment of ensemble Bollywood comedy Housefull 5 hit the theatres. Critic Shubhra Gupta resorted to penning a dialogue between herself and her brain to review it, with the latter asking 'don't you know when to stop?' Gupta writes that 'compared to the previous Housefulls, this one has a slightly fuller house, but because no one expects anything else, it's pretty much like the older ones.' If that doesn't paint the full picture for you, here's more on this Akshay Kumar-starrer which maintains the franchise's signature chaos but is 'yet another loud, formulaic farce'.
Until next time
Vibha
Vibha B Madhava is a sub-editor at the news desk for She is interested in writing about gender, culture and politics of ableism. Having specialised in digital journalism, she is keen to explore various forms of interactive, multimedia storytelling. Apart from that, she also likes to experiment with social media.
Qualification, Degrees/other achievements: Bachelor's degree in Media and Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. PG Diploma in Integrated Multimedia Journalism from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.
With The Indian Express, this is Vibha's first stint in pursuing journalism in a full-time capacity. Previous internship experience: Deccan Herald, Bengaluru; The News Minute, Bengaluru; The Mojo Story; Radio Indigo 91.9 and Fever FM 94.3 (Hyderabad)
You can find her on Twitter as @VibhaBMadhava , on LinkedIn (Vibha B Madhava), or write to her at ... Read More
