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.

Security forces in capital were readying for potential friction on Wednesday afternoon, when the Jerusalem Day Flag March was slated to take place amid already heightened tensions over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The parade will follow its usual route, with tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis waving blue-and-white flags marching through Damascus Gate and the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to the Western Wall.

As the protests in Malmo over Israel’s inclusion in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, like the anguished defences of taking part by British and Irish contestants show, the kitschy spectacle is an inherently geopolitical format. In the interests of fairness then, should Palestine, like its neighbour Israel, enter Eurovision?

The first of India's almost one billion voters cast ballots on Friday in the country's multi-day election, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a rare third term on the back of issues such as growth, welfare and Hindu nationalism.

The vote pits Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against an alliance of two dozen opposition parties that promise greater affirmative action and more handouts while stressing what they call the need to save democratic institutions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his power at home secured and his Hindu-first vision deeply entrenched, has set his sights in recent years on a role as a global statesman, riding India’s economic and diplomatic rise. In doing so, he has distanced himself from his party’s staple work of polarizing India’s diverse population along religious lines for its own electoral gain.

The greatest exercise of democracy in the history of mankind — by the numbers, at least — kicked off Friday as almost 1 billion people began casting votes for the next leader and government of India.

In 2023, India overtook China as the world’s most populous country, with 1.4 billion citizens. Up for grabs in its elections are 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, which translates to “House of the People,” the lower house of the Indian Parliament.

Last summer, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood next to President Biden in the White House and said regarding India’s democracy, “there is absolutely no space for discrimination.” He was speaking during a rare press briefing and was challenged by an American journalist on concerns regarding India’s democratic values and discrimination against its Muslim citizens. Over the weekend, in an election campaign rally in northwest India, Modi referred to Muslims as “infiltrators.” His critics have called it hate speech.

Ramesh Singh had been waiting for this day for five years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it a tradition to kick off general election campaigns in Mr. Singh’s city, and this year was no different. So the sugarcane farmer joined the adoring throngs, who are all but guaranteed to deliver Mr. Modi a resounding third-term victory in elections that begin Friday. 

Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert Jones shared new data this week that shines light on the disturbing popularity of Christian nationalism — summed up as a belief that America's national identity is interwoven with Christianity — in regions of the country controlled by Republicans. 

The MH17 killer has been sentenced, but not in the Netherlands, not for life, and not for the murder of 298 people.  

Igor Girkin, a pro-war Russian nationalist, was instead found to be complaining too much on social media about President Vladimir Putin’s leadership of the war against Ukraine.

A court in Moscow on Thursday found Girkin guilty on charges of inciting extremism after his series of diatribes against the Russian leader appeared to go too far.