The United States, South Korea and Japan opened an air and naval exercise off a South Korean island on Monday (September 15, 2025) in their latest joint drill condemned by North Korea as a "reckless show of strength."

The exercise called Freedom Edge is aimed at strengthening the countries' combined operational capabilities in the sea, air and cyberspace and is necessary to counter North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats, South Korea's Defence Ministry said.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the exercise will include U.S. Marine and Air Force aerial assets and feature enhanced ballistic-missile and air-defence drills, medical evacuations and maritime operations training, making it "the most advanced demonstration of trilateral defence cooperation to date."

Albania has become the world's first country to appoint an 'AI minister' to oversee the growth and ethical use of artificial intelligence in the country - not a person but a virtual member of government, made of pixels and code. The AI minister is named Diella -- meaning 'sun' in Albanian -- and is tasked with tackling corruption, according to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Presenting his new cabinet at a meeting of his Socialist Party following a big May election victory, Rama said Diella will oversee public tenders, promising its artificial intelligence would make his government "corruption-free".

"Diella is the first cabinet member who isn't physically present, but is virtually created by AI," Rama said, introducing her. She will help make Albania "a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption".

Renowned Bharatanatyam exponent and Kalakshetra teacher Alladi Sarada (Sarada Hoffman), affectionately called Chinna Sarada and Sarada teacher, died on Sunday (14 September, 2025) in California. She was born on 15 June, 1929, in the Theosophical Society campus in Adyar.

One of her prominent disciples V.P. Dhananjayan said she played a significant role in shaping and standardising the Kalakshetra methodology for Bharatanatyam, and her efforts unified several loosely knit traditional training systems.

She had received many prestigious awards, including the Central Sangeet Natak Academy (1996) and the first ‘Rukmini Devi Medal for Excellence in the Arts’, instituted by the Centre for Contemporary Culture, New Delhi.

India pacer Mohammed Siraj of India was on Monday named ICC Player of the Month for August following his heroic effort in the fifth and final Test against England.

Orla Prendergast of Ireland too was named player of the month alongside Siraj.

Siraj’s superb match-winning effort on the final day of the Test series against England helped India win The Oval Test match by six runs.

Siraj grabbed three wickets on the dramatic final morning of the fifth match to finish with nine wickets in the match as the Indian team drew the series 2-2.

Bihar continues its rise as a hub for innovation, with the district of Muzaffarpur securing the top national rank in the prestigious INSPIRE Award Standard Scheme. A remarkable 7,403 students from the district submitted their pioneering ideas, eclipsing so-called educational hubs and setting a new national benchmark.

This achievement is a testament to the creative and inventive spirit of the district's youth. The students' historic performance under the Ministry of Science and Technology's scheme brings immense pride not only to Muzaffarpur but to all of Bihar, highlighting the state's growing potential as a leader in fostering creative thinking.

Bengaluru Urban (7306 ideas) remained at the second place, while Bagalkot of Karnataka (6826 ideas) was at the third place. Apart from this, Jaipur (6311) of Rajasthan, Lucknow (6182) of Uttar Pradesh and Vaishali (5805 ideas) of Bihar remained at the sixth place. Hardoi (5544 applications) was seventh, Allahabad (5507 applications) eighth, Pratapgarh (5380 applications) ninth and Unnao (5051) tenth.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), one of the world’s largest social security institutions with a corpus exceeding ₹25 lakh crore, proudly announces the selection of Shri Vivekanand Gupta, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, for the Public Financial Asset Management (PFAM) Program 2025–26, a prestigious initiative jointly organised by the World Bank and the Milken Institute.

This achievement marks a significant milestone for EPFO and its apex training institution, the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Academy of Social Security (PDUNASS). Through a rigorous internal nomination process, PDUNASS identified and recommended Shri Gupta for this global program—making him the sole participant from India and the first-ever representative from EPFO to be selected for the PFAM cohort.

At around the 50-page mark in Dapaan, Ipsita Chakravarty’s nonfiction book about Kashmir, there’s a brilliant passage where the author reproduces part of a bhand paether (a Kashmiri folk theatre form) skit. An armed soldier, looking for a man named Gani, is shocked when the man’s brother at the door calls out for “Gun Kak” (or ‘gun uncle’). The soldier, sputtering with rage, asks “gun cocked?”, before beating up Gani. This bit of Kafkaesque tragicomedy has been a part of bhand artists’ repertoire since the 1990s, as Chakravarty tells us.

Dapaan gets its name from a Kashmiri word often uttered at the beginning of a folktale, meaning ‘it is said’. This is a book of stories-about-stories, especially in terms of how people incorporate traditional forms of storytelling (like bhand paether or dastangoi) into their memories of tumultuous times—and for Kashmiris, the past three-four decades have been relentlessly tumultuous. We learn how tragic loss and despair are filtered through seemingly innocuous songs and chants, how collective fears about war, surveillance and imprisonment are manifested in the form of ghost stories, how we end up with urban legends about restless spirits looking for closure.

Ricky Hatton, British boxing icon has tragically passed away at the age of 46. The former world champion was found at his Greater Manchester home on Sunday morning, with police confirming the death is not suspicious.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson stated,"We can confirm that we have found a body at an address on Bowlacre Road in Gee Cross at 6.45am today, Sunday, September 14. The death is not being treated as suspicious." Notably, authorities are continuing their inquiries at the property in Hyde, where Hatton had been preparing for a comeback fight.

India and Norway held their first-ever Maritime Security, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation Dialogue on Friday in Oslo, the Ministry of External Affairs stated.

The Indian delegation was led by Muanpuii Saiawi, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs), Ministry of External Affairs, and the Norwegian delegation by Jon Elvedal Fredriksen, Director General, Department for Security Policy and the High North, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Further, the ministry stated that the two sides conferred on ways to sustain a secure and safe maritime environment in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS, conducive to economic growth, peace and progress in maritime matters.

Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL), marked a key milestone in its shipbuilding journey with the launch of the third indigenously built Diving Support Craft (DSC) for the Indian Navy. The vessel is part of a series of five DSCs being built by TRSL under the Make in India initiative of the Ministry of Defence.

The launch ceremony was graced by Mrs. Kangana Berry, wife of Vice Admiral Suraj Berry, AVSM, NM, VSM, Commander-in-Chief, who performed the traditional naming and launch of the vessel. The craft was side launched into the Hooghly River at 16:10 PM.

Diving Support Crafts are catamaran-type vessels designed and built with advanced equipment sourced from indigenous manufacturers. They are equipped to support the Indian Navy’s Command Clearance Diving Teams (CCDTs) in critical operations such as underwater repair, maintenance, and salvage of ships inside and around harbours.