Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday lent a touch of cricket diplomacy to their ties as they inaugurated a Test match between their teams in the Indian city of Ahmedabad.
Albanese and Modi handed caps emblazoned with national emblems to rival captains Steve Smith and Rohit Sharma. They clasped their hands and raised them to the delight of thousands of cricket fans.
The prime ministers were cheered by cricket fans as they went around the stadium named after Modi, and later sat down to watch the start of the game.
Photo: Bloomberg
Modi and Albanese saw a photo exhibition highlighting their countries’ cricketing ties. The India-Australia cricket rivalry is considered one of the most intense in the world, comparable to the Ashes Test series played between England and Australia.
Albanese arrived on Wednesday in Ahmedabad, a key city in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, at the start of his four-day visit to India.
He paid tributes to Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi during a visit to the Sabarmati Ashram, which was one of Gandhi’s abodes in India.
Photo: AFP
Albanese also attended an event related to the Hindu Holi festival at Governor of Gujaratthe Acharya Devvrat’s residence.
Albanese was later yesterday to leave for Mumbai, where he is scheduled to visit India’s homemade aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
The two leaders are to hold official talks today in New Delhi.
“Australia and India are important partners,” Albanese said in Perth before leaving for India.
India, along with Indonesia, would grow to be the third and fourth-largest economies in the world, which presented “an incredible opportunity” for Australia, he said.
India’s goods exports to Australia were worth US$8.3 billion, and imports from the country aggregated to US$16.75 billion from 2021 to 2022, the economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative said.
Apps and Web sites that use artificial intelligence (AI) to undress women in photos are soaring in popularity, researchers said. In September alone, 24 million people visited undressing Web sites, the social network analysis company Graphika said. Many of these undressing, or “nudify,” services use popular social networks for marketing, Graphika said. For instance, since the beginning of this year, the number of links advertising undressing apps increased more than 2,400 percent on social media, including on X and Reddit, the researchers said. The services use AI to recreate an image so that the person is nude. Many of the services only
IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL: About 80 percent of Russians approve of Putin, a survey shows, but that might be misleading due to his intolerance to criticism Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election in March that he is all but certain to win. Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting an immensely costly war in Ukraine that has taken thousands of his people’s lives, provoked repeated attacks inside Russia — including one on the Kremlin itself — and corroded its aura of invincibility. A short-lived rebellion in June by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin raised widespread speculation that Putin could be
TAKING STOCK: It was not yet clear how damaging the espionage, dating to 1981, has been, as authorities are still assessing the situation, the State Department said A former US ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested and charged with spying for Cuba over a 40-year span, the US Department of Justice announced on Monday, detailing a shock betrayal by a suspect who called the US “the enemy.” US Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out the allegations against Victor Manuel Rocha, a onetime member of the White House’s National Security Council now accused of using his positions within the government to support Cuba’s “clandestine intelligence-gathering mission” against the US. The charges against Rocha, 73, expose “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign
As pro-EU parties prepare to take power in Poland, a new star has shot to fame: a parliament speaker whose wit has drawn thousands of new followers to the chamber’s social media channels. Polish Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Holownia is no stranger to a wide audience as a former TV personality who notably hosted the Polish edition of the Got Talent! franchise. The 47-year-old left show business for politics four years ago, and now enjoys the spotlight chairing plenary proceedings following his success in the Oct. 15 parliamentary elections. “Ladies and gentlemen, stock up on popcorn ... because I suspect there will
RSS