Author: Tirthankar Mitra
While football is a beautiful game, there is nothing to be said in favour of fake news.
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In a stunning cultural inversion, France—the historic epicentre of wine connoisseurship—is now consuming more beer than wine. Data from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine reveals that beer consumption has eclipsed wine by a precise 10 million litres, signaling the decline of traditional, formal sit-down meals in favor of on-the-go lifestyle choices. This shift is heavily driven by a global 20% drop in alcohol sales among Gen Z, who reject the “stuffy” ceremonies of Merlot and Chardonnay in favor of digital socialization and cheaper, more casual alternatives. However, wine snobbery hasn’t vanished entirely; it has simply migrated. The explosive boom in France’s craft beer industry proves that the same elitist obsession with terroir and refinement once reserved for fine vintages is now being sought in the perfect pint.
The historic May 2026 West Bengal Assembly election results have exposed a stark reality for the INDIA bloc: their greatest adversary was not the BJP’s organizational strength, but their own structural disunity. While the BJP secured its maiden triumph with 45.84% of the vote, a simple look at the electoral arithmetic reveals that a united opposition would have fundamentally altered the outcome. The Trinamool Congress (40.80%), CPI(M) (4.45%), and Congress (2.97%) commanded a combined 48.22% of the electorate, yet old grassroots rivalries and a proprietorial mindset from Mamata Banerjee fragmented the anti-BJP vote. This tactical isolation culminated in the shocking fall of the TMC’s Bhabanipur bastion to Chief Minister-designate Suvendu Adhikari. As Rahul Gandhi extends a post-verdict olive branch on social media, the defeat serves as a definitive warning that without humility and compromise, favorable demographics remain nothing more than meaningless statistics
United Kingdom is facing a leadership crisis. Health minister Wes Streeting has resigned challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the post.
The Beatles sang divinely. The applause often brought the roof down; little do the fans of this rock group knew that these superb singers and musicians also climbed roofs.
The appointment of Suvendu Adhikari as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal on May 9, 2026, represents one of the most ironic and stark shifts in Indian political history. The very “Grammar of Singur-Nandigram” that birthed the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year reign has effectively collapsed, dismantled from within by the man who once served as its premier field commander. Unlike a mandate imposed by a national wave, Adhikari’s triumph is a surgical deconstruction of the TMC system—leveraging its own district networks and emotional vocabulary to replace regional autonomy with a narrative of border security and demographic anxiety. As West Bengal begins to mirror the political trajectory of Assam, Adhikari faces the Herculean task of transitioning from a combative street mobilizer to an administrator capable of nursing a fragile economy back to health, lest the state merely trade one culture of confrontation for another.
A man’s legacy is defined by what he has achieved. Going this yardstick, Ted Turner leaves a legacy which to be described rich would be an understatement.
With the death of Raghu Rai, the country has lost one of its most influential visual storytellers. His portraits reflected the aesthetics he had perfected over the decades.
In a masterstroke of “street food diplomacy,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned humble Bengali snacks into the center of a national digital frenzy. After the PM sampled Jhal Muri in Jhargram and Bhabra Bhaja in Purulia, search queries for the spicy puffed rice reportedly crossed 10 crore, thrusting local delicacies into the global spotlight. Modi used the gesture to launch a rhetorical broadside against the Trinamool Congress, promising to serve these very snacks at the BJP’s “victory celebrations” on May 4. While the TMC remains uncharacteristically quiet—wary of contradicting Mamata Banerjee’s own past endorsements of the “telebhaja” economy—analysts view this culinary outreach as a powerful effort to connect with the common man, mirroring the crunch and heat of a high-decibel election trail.
In the most anticipated showdown of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faces a fierce challenge from her former ally turned rival, Suvendu Adhikari, in her home bastion of Bhabanipur. While the TMC holds a psychological edge following the defection of the lone BJP councilor from Ward 73, Adhikari is banking on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, which saw over 44,000 names deleted or flagged for discrepancy. With the BJP having narrowed the TMC’s lead to just 8,297 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron camp is eyeing a historic upset. However, Banerjee—the “girl next door” who won by over 58,000 votes in 2021—has launched an intimate, three-pronged campaign to reaffirm her bond with the constituency’s diverse Hindu, Sikh, and Gujarati communities before the crucial April 29 vote