Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a surprise visit to Beijing on Monday where Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for a global effort to push Russia and Ukraine toward a “cease-fire” and praised Orban’s diplomatic initiatives — a powerful display of how Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are seeking to create a multipolar world order not dominated by the United States.

Nearly 100 people have been crushed to death at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India, with many others injured, says a government official.

A large crowd had gathered on Tuesday in a village in Uttar Pradesh state’s Hathras district, about 200km (125 miles) southeast of national capital New Delhi, for a sermon by a preacher but a fierce dust storm sparked panic as people were leaving.

This year is critical for democracy, with roughly half of the world’s population living in countries holding elections. These contests are being held at a time when international migration is at a record high and has emerged as a central topic in electoral campaigns.

To better understand the role of migration in democratic politics, we invited a small group of scholars to reflect on how migration is influencing elections and democratic institutions in their country or region, with particular focus on Asia and Latin America.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to secure a historic third term, but his party has now lost its majority rule for the first time in a decade.  

While Modi, 73, celebrated his smallest victory ever on Tuesday, things looked grim for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which maintained a majority rule in India since 2014. 

The latest outcome shocked the nation, as Modi and BJP members were predicted to win by another landslide. India’s stock market fell by 6% after the votes were tallied. 

The election outcome in India has turned out to be a huge political blow for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling party, and has significant implications on how he intends to govern the country, observers say.  

Modi did not get the landslide victory that was widely predicted by exit polls ahead of results. Instead, he will enter his third term with a much-weaker mandate than initially anticipated.

Indian voters have delivered an unexpected repudiation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership as electoral tallies Tuesday showed his Hindu nationalist party falling short of a majority in Parliament, piercing the aura of invincibility around the most dominant Indian politician in decades.

If the basic test of whether a country remains a democracy is that the party in power can still suffer a setback at the ballot box, India passed on Tuesday. Results from the nation’s parliamentary elections — the largest in the world — indicate a shocking electoral setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed a third term in office on Tuesday as early results in India’s general election delivered a far narrower than expected victory for the country’s most powerful leader in generations.

Mr. Modi, who would be only the second Indian leader to secure a third consecutive term, hailed “a historical feat in India’s history,” even as his party appeared likely to lose a significant number of seats in Parliament, meaning it would need to rely on smaller parties in its coalition to form a government.

Hundreds of millions of votes cast, more than six weeks of polling, and billions of dollars spent: India on Tuesday will declare a new leader after a mammoth nationwide election that has become a referendum on the last decade of leadership by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.