TOP NEWS

Russia has said that 63 of its troops were killed during a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on a makeshift barracks in the partly-occupied Donetsk region.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday that Ukraine’s military had launched six projectiles at the “provisional base” in the eastern city of Makiivka using the HIMARS guided rocket system supplied by the United States.

Two of the missiles were shot down by Russian air defences, it added, but four struck the building.

The Covid-19 sub-variant fuelling the unprecedented rise in cases in China may be undergoing a scary change. As per researchers, this subvariant of coronavirus may be evolving to attack the brain. 

The new study by scientists is challenging assumptions that viruses become less dangerous as they evolve. Covid-19 may be changing the way to attack the human body and might increasingly make the brain its target instead of the respiratory system, the study reported by South China Morning Post said. 

The subvariant BA.5 behind the China surge caused much severe damage to brains of mice and cultured human brain tissues compared to the earlier BA.1 subvariant, researchers from Australia and France have said. The attack on the brain led to brain inflammation, weight loss and death, the China-based daily reported.

As the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh came to a close at the end of 2022, the country has welcomed a new year that will feature nine state assembly elections and will serve as a trial run for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It will also lay the groundwork for Lok Sabha polls in 2024.

The states that will see an election in 2023 are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, and the northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Mizoram. The Central government may also consider announcing elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which will be the first polls after the abrogation of Article 370 and the scrapping of the special status.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that he would prefer to settle down in life with a partner who has a mix of qualities of both his mother Sonia Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi.

In an interview to a YouTube channel during the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', he termed his grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi as "the love of my life and my second mother".

Asked whether he would settle down with a woman like her, Gandhi said, "That is an interesting question... I would prefer a woman... I do not mind... she has got qualities. But, a mix between my mother's and grandmother's qualities is good."

Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday said Rahul Gandhi will be the opposition's prime minister candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In an email interview with PTI, Nath lauded Gandhi for leading the Congress' countrywide Bharat Jodo Yatra, saying he is not doing politics for power but for the common people of the country. "As far as the 2024 Lok Sabha election is concerned, Rahul Gandhi will not just be the face of the opposition but will be its prime ministerial candidate too," he said. Nath also said that no one in the history of the world has undertaken such a long 'padayatra'. No family other than the Gandhi family has given so many sacrifices for the country, the Congress leader said.