Taipei: Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have reaffirmed their commitment to remembering the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, marking the 36th anniversary of the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests—an event China continues to censor and suppress. The June 4 massacre, in which Chinese troops opened fire on students and civilians rallying for democratic reform in Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Square, remains one of the most sensitive political topics in China. The government neither acknowledges the event in public discourse nor permits any form of official commemoration, maintaining a strict veil of censorship over the tragedy. Despite China's silence, remembrance ceremonies and messages of solidarity continue abroad. In Taipei, where Tiananmen...

It's just a tale of a ‘girl’… Well, what a jolly little tale this is! Picture this: a wee lass born in the rather fancy-sounding "princely state of Tripura" (sounds like something from a fairy tale, doesn't it?). Until the ripe old age of four, she was living the dream, surrounded by more relatives than you could shake a stick at - pishis, kakus, thakumas, jethus and whatnot. A proper family circus, if you ask me! Her father, a rather important chap at the State Bank of India, suddenly gets shipped off to West Bengal - absolutely chuffed, he was! So off they pop to Kolkata, our little protagonist, her parents, and sister in tow. Talk about...