Why an email about cows is intensifying concerns about academic freedom in #India.

Cows are revered as sacred by many Hindus, but critics say Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using India’s devotion to the bovine as a political tool to elevate its Hindu nationalist agenda.

Professors and students at Delhi University, long seen as bulwark of free speech in the country, say the directive is another example of the pressures placed on educational institutions by the Modi government as it pushes Hinduism in a democracy founded on secular values.

The “promotion of this dubious event juxtaposed with the suppression of a critical social science seminar, reveals a clear bias against scientific temper,” said the Democratic Teachers Front, an organization that advocates for the rights and interests of students and teachers, in a statement.

The canceled seminar, titled “Land, Property and Democratic Rights” was part of a lecture series that has been running at Delhi University for six decades.

Notice of the administration’s decision to cancel the October 31 event came the same day as a directive from the Dean of Colleges, Balaram Pani, to principals encouraging students and faculty members to attend the “National Godhan (cow herd) Summit,” according to a copy of an email seen by CNN.

The summit was billed as “a landmark event dedicated to the welfare of cows,” by organizers on its website.

Pani told local news outlet Times Now that the university was supporting, not promoting, the cow summit.

“If someone is working in the nation’s interest – supporting economic growth and improving the environment – why shouldn’t we support that? said Pani, according to the outlet.

“However, we are not promoting this event,” the dean added. “And if any event goes against national interests, we will not support it under any circumstance.”

CNN has reached out to Pani for further comment and to the registrar of Delhi University.
Summit to discuss cow welfare

The off-campus event, hosted by the National Godhan (Cow Herd) Organization, an NGO affiliated with the government, runs until November 10. The group describes itself as an “Idealistic Non-Violent Movement dedicated to the welfare of cows and the promotion of cow-based sustainable innovations.”

In its statement, the Democratic Teachers Front said the administration’s decision to support a cow summit over a seminar on democracy was “a deliberate effort to hollow out the legacy of India’s post-1947 achievements in both natural and social sciences,” referring to the end of British rule of India.

Nandini Sundar, a professor of sociology and the convener of the canceled seminar, accused the government of a deliberate ideological crackdown.

“(They) are trying to destroy public universities, critical thought, only allow Hindutva thought,” Sundar told CNN.

Hindutva is a political ideology that seeks to define the Indian national identity based on a shared Hindu culture and history. Critics say it is a vision that inherently excludes India’s diverse minority communities.

Around 80% of the country’s population were recorded as Hindu at the last Census in 2011, with around 14% listed as Muslim, India’s largest minority. There are also many followers of other faiths including Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and other local religions.

Namita Wahi, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, had been booked to deliver the seminar – she’s also the founding director of the Lands Rights Initiative, and a longtime critic of the Modi government’s use of land laws to acquire property for various projects in contravention of community land rights.

Sundar said no reasons were initially given for the cancelation, writing in a statement: “We can only speculate that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led government is scared of any discussion around land and democratic rights.”

Modi’s BJP has its ideological roots in the RSS, a century-old right-wing paramilitary organization that advocates Hindu supremacy within India. The group has repeatedly said it does not discriminate against minorities.

Local media outlets reported that the registrar said the seminar was cancelled because prior permission was not sought.

“Prior permission has not been needed for the last 60 years,” Sundar said in her statement. After checking with other departments, she said “nobody takes prior permission for each speaker in their regular seminar series.”

Aryan Maan, a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization affiliated with the RSS and the president of the Delhi University Student Union, said organizations like the RSS have no influence over the university’s administration and that its departments function independently.

CNN has reached out to the RSS but did not receive a response.

Sundar has since resigned from her position as convener of the seminar, a position she held for two years, due to the cancelation.
Shrinking freedoms

Institutions like Delhi University have long been celebrated as bastions of free speech and secular thought.

They were central to student movements during the struggle for independence from British rule and later stood as hubs of opposition to the authoritarian state of emergency imposed by the then ruling Indian National Congress party in the 1970s.

More recently, in 2019, these campuses became the epicenter of nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a controversial law that critics say discriminates against Muslims by making faith a criterion for citizenship.

“Public universities have been a space where people have been freely debating, and they’re accessible to everyone in theory: people of all classes, castes,” Sundar said. “They’ve played a very important role in generating social mobility and free inquiry in a way that private universities simply can’t.”

However, these institutions have also been increasingly branded as hotbeds of “anti-national” activity by many Modi supporters, with students and professors feeling the brunt of it.

Appointments to administrative positions within public universities are contingent upon government approval. This creates barriers to what can be taught and the production of academic work, Sundar said.

A PhD scholar at Delhi University told CNN he wanted to research the rise of right-wing governments but was forced to change his subject to secure admission to the university.

“Earlier, you could at least protest… but now the police crackdown on any student body movement is swift and immediate,” said the doctoral fellow, who asked to remain anonymous fearing backlash from the university.

“The ability to think critically and make rational arguments has shrunk because they hold your degree as ransom. They have taken away our academic freedom,” the PhD scholar said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Academic Freedom Network, which documents violations of academic freedom in Indian universities, noted that universities hosted more than 50 events and lectures on Hindutva, or those promoting the policies of the BJP, in the past year.

The network also documented dozens of instances of alleged interference with syllabi, including banning books considered critical of the government, and denying permission for, or disrupting seminars about subjects like democracy and freedom of expression.

However, Maan, the president of the Delhi University Student Union and member of an RSS-affiliated student group, said that rather than curtailing free speech, the RSS has had a positive impact on university spaces.

“There’s more academic freedom and the number of subjects have increased,” he said, pointing to recently established Centre for Hindu Studies as an example of the university’s expanding scope.

CNN has reached out to the federal and Delhi ministers of education for comment.
Cow as a political tool

The elevation of the cow from a religious symbol to an expression of national pride has been a cornerstone of the BJP’s agenda.

When Modi was elected with a roaring majority in 2014, his party’s manifesto pledged to protect the animal as part of preserving India’s cultural heritage, fulfilling a decades-long campaign by the RSS for stricter legislation against cow slaughter.

While some anti-slaughter laws existed previously, the BJP’s tenure has seen several states enact stricter legislation. This legal crackdown has been accompanied by a rise in vigilante violence against people, typically Muslims accused of disrespecting the revered bovine.

The 2021 report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project noted that right-wing Hindu nationalist groups like the RSS “have been emboldened to attack minority groups.”

Delhi University’s Sundar called the shrinking academic freedoms “tragic.”

“Many excellent public universities have already been destroyed; now the remaining ones will be finished as well.”

By Esha Mitra, CNN

#Lebanon to file complaint against Israel for wall inside its territory.

A statement released by President Joseph Aoun’s office said he has asked the foreign minister to include in the complaint statement issued by the United Nations peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL that is deployed along the border with Israel.

On Friday, UNIFIL said in a statement that the Israeli army erected a wall southwest of the Lebanese village of Yaroun.

UNIFIL said the wall crossed the border line, rendering more than 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) of Lebanese territory “inaccessible to the Lebanese people.”

UNIFIL said it has informed the Israeli army of its findings and requested that they remove the wall.

It said that construction of the wall violates the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended that 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in November last year. UNIFIL added that the wall violates “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The Israeli military said the wall, whose construction began in 2022, is part of a broader plan for reinforcements along the border.

It said that since the start of the war the Israeli army has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border.

The Israeli army said it should be emphasized that the wall does not cross the Blue Line, the boundary between Lebanon and Israel drawn up by the UN which UNIFIL monitors and patrols.

The Israel-Hezbollah war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.

The Associated Press

#Rocket attack in #Syria’s capital wounds 1 person and causes damage. It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the rocket attack in Damascus’ western neighborhood of Mazzeh 86. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said that security forces cordoned off the area and prevented anyone from getting close to the building that was struck.

State television reported that one woman was wounded in the blast, which was caused by an attack by “unknown assailants,” adding that security forces were investigating.

State news agency SANA also said that one woman was wounded in the Friday night explosion, and that the blast was caused by rockets that were fired from a mobile launcher.

Explosions aren’t uncommon in the Syrian capital, but have decreased in recent months.

Since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in December last year by insurgents who took over his seat of power in the capital, there have been several explosions in Damascus.

Israel has also carried out hundreds of airstrikes around the country since the end of the 54-year Assad dynasty, mainly targeting assets of the Syrian army.

Ghaith Alsayed, The Associated Press

#Iran seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. official says, as tensions remain high in region.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the seizure, though it comes as Tehran has been increasingly warning it can strike back after facing a 12-day war in June with Israel that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.

The ship, the Talara, had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, onward to Singapore when Iranian forces intercepted it, said the U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone had been circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday observing the seizure, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed.

A private security firm, Ambrey, described the assault as involving three small boats approaching the Talara.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center separately acknowledged the incident, saying a possible “state activity” forced the Talara to turn into Iranian territorial waters. Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement later said in a statement that it had “lost contact” with the tanker, which was carrying high sulphur gasoil.

The company has “notified the relevant authorities and is working closely with all relevant parties — including maritime security agencies and the vessel owner — to restore contact with the vessel,” the firm said. “The safety of the crew remains our foremost priority.”

The Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those attacks began after U.S. President Donald Trump in his first term in office unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and held them until November of that year.

Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed Houthis assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.

The years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the situation in the Gaza Strip, exploded into a full-scale 12-day war in June.

Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

#Israel says militants in Gaza have handed over a body believed to be a hostage.

Israel identified the returned body as that of Meny Godard, who was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. His wife, Ayelet, was killed during the attack.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said the body of an Israeli hostage was recovered in southern Gaza.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 10, the remains of 25 hostages have been returned to Israel. There are still three more in Gaza that need to be recovered and handed over.

Godard was a professional soccer player before enlisting in the Israeli military and serving in the 1973 Mideast War, according to Kibbutz Be’eri. He served in a variety of different positions in the kibbutz, including at its printing press.

Israel has been releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each hostage as part of the ceasefire agreement. The Gaza Health Ministry said the total number of remains received so far is 315.

Hamas has said recovering bodies is complicated by the widespread devastation in Gaza. Israel has pushed to speed up the returns and in certain cases has said the remains were not those of hostages. The body handed over on Thursday was brought to a forensics institute in Tel Aviv.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on Oct. 13. The further exchanges of the dead are the central component of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered agreement which requires Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible. The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others.

Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire at civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory. The number of casualties has dropped since the ceasefire took effect, but officials in Gaza have continued to report deaths from strikes, while Israel has said that soldiers have also been killed in militant attacks.

Health officials in Gaza have said identifying the remains handed over by Israel is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits.

With just three hostages left, the sides are close to wrapping up the first phase of the ceasefire.

The next parts of the 20-point plan call for creating an international stabilization force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas. Its makeup hasn’t been finalized, but diplomats are working to define its role, persuade Arab countries to take part, and win wider international support.

The fragile agreement aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

Israel responded with a sweeping military offensive that has killed more than 69,100 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.

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Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press

Remains of climber #missing since 1994 found on #Swiss glacier, After receiving the report from the #mountaineers, officers reached the site by helicopter to collect the remains and personal effects from the Ober Gabelhorn glacier.

Two climbers disappeared in the area on November 4, 1994.

“One of the two individuals had already been found in 2000. The discovery of the second mountaineer’s remains has now fully solved the disappearance of the two men,” the police said.

“The investigation led to the identification of the second missing person. He is a Swiss citizen born in 1969.”

The bodies of missing Alpinists occasionally turn up on Switzerland’s glaciers.

In 2022, two human skeletons were found on glaciers in Wallis.

In July 2017, the Tsanfleuron glacier turned up the bodies of a couple who disappeared in 1942.

The bones of three brothers who died in 1926 were found on the Aletsch glacier in June 2012.

And in 2022 the wreckage of a plane that crashed in 1968 was discovered on the Aletsch glacier.

The bodies of the three people on board were recovered soon after the crash but the wreckage was left.

The ascent of the Ober Gabelhorn, 4,063 metres (13,330 feet) high, is highly prized by experienced mountaineers.

Transgender members of the U.S. Air #Force sue over losing retirement pay.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Monday, comes several months after the Air Force confirmed that it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits.

It is just the latest in a series of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s policies that have sought to push transgender troops out of the military since the early days of his second term. The U.S. Supreme Court in May, however, allowed the ban on trans troops to be enforced while legal challenges proceed.

According to GLAD Law, one of the advocacy groups that helped bring the lawsuit, service members affected by the policy will now face a loss of up to US$2 million owed for their service over the course of their lifetimes in addition to the loss of health insurance benefits.

Michael Haley, a staff attorney with the group, said the revocation of the early retirement benefits was part of “the general cruelty in attacking transgender people.” He noted that many of the plaintiffs had received orders allowing their retirements and that some had even begun the process of getting out of the military.

Logan Ireland, a master sergeant in the Air Force with 15 years of service that includes a deployment to Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit after having his early retirement denied. He told The Associated Press that “the military taught me to lead and fight, not retreat.”

“Stripping away my retirement sends the message that those values only apply on the battlefield, not when a service member needs them most,” he added.

“These are folks who are going to move on with their lives, have received the OK to do so, and then have that taken away from them once again,” Haley said.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to comment but has a longstanding policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in what they say is an effort to make the military more lethal. Pentagon officials say 4,240 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which the military is using as an identifier of being transgender.

The Air Force has been unique in implementing policies that have gone beyond just separating troops from military service.

In addition to revoking retirement benefits, the service moved in August to deny transgender members of the Air Force the chance to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving.

The Pentagon rolled out a similar, military-wide version of that policy less than two weeks ago.

Konstantin Toropin, The Associated Press

Google denies removing W.Sahara border for #Morocco users. The dotted lines illustrating the border between Western Sahara and Morocco, indicating the former’s disputed territory status, have never been visible to people using Google Maps in the latter, the company told AFP on Tuesday.

After media reports last week highlighted the discrepancy, tying it to the UN Security Council endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the tech giant has released a statement saying the different border displays have always been the case.

“We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

“These labels follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions. People using Maps outside of Morocco see Western Sahara and a dotted line to represent its disputed border; people using Maps in Morocco do not see Western Sahara.”

Western Sahara is a vast mineral-rich former Spanish colony that is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is supported by Algeria.

The United Nations Security Council had previously urged Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania to resume talks to reach a broad agreement.

But, at the initiative of U.S. President Donald #Trump’s administration, the council’s resolution supported a plan, initially presented by Rabat in 2007, in which Western Sahara would enjoy autonomy under Morocco’s sole sovereignty.

‘It was torture and humiliation’: Civil suit unmasks convicted predator, While the publication ban in his criminal case prevents media from naming him in that context, it does not apply to this civil suit, filed by a woman known publicly as Melanie in the W5 documentary.

Melanie dated Beaulieu when she was a teenager. She had no idea that for three years, he had been secretly drugging and assaulting her.

“It wasn’t just rape,” she told W5. “It was torture and humiliation. There were just so many different things that were used and done.”
A survivor’s fight for accountability

Melanie’s lawyer, Gerald Chipeur, says the case is unlike anything he’s seen in four decades of legal work.

“I have practiced law for 40 years,” Chipeur told W5. “I have never seen this kind of horrific assault. Ever.”

Beaulieu could be eligible for release as early as 2029, something Melanie says terrifies her.

“I know he’ll be out in not a very long time,” she said. “And I don’t think someone like that stops. Future people he’ll be in contact with deserve to know that he’s a risk.”

The lawsuit notes that photos and videos of the assaults are still being distributed online. It seeks an injunction requiring ***no,***n sites to remove all images and videos associated with the attacks, and to prevent their re-upload.

Bridge partially collapses in southwest China, months after opening. Police in the city of Maerkang had closed the 758-metre-long Hongqi bridge to all traffic on Monday afternoon, after cracks appeared on nearby slopes and roads, and shifts were seen in the terrain of a mountain, the local government said.

On Tuesday afternoon conditions on the mountainside worsened, triggering landslides, leading to the collapse of the approach bridge and roadbed, it added.

Construction of the bridge finished earlier this year, according to a video posted by the contractor Sichuan Road & Bridge Group on social media.

(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen, Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Andrew Heavens)