Zelensky and Biden may be on their way out

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There is no doubt now that Bakhmut will soon fall to the Russians. How soon? Probably a few days and no more than one week.

Ukraine says it has managed to evacuate its elite forces from the city, leaving only rearguard elements to hang on until the end. Efforts by Ukraine to provide counterattacks have not borne fruit, and all efforts have been stopped by Russian paratroopers and Wagner PMC fighters, along with generous amounts of Russian artillery.

Meanwhile, the Russians themselves are refocusing on the newly created Ukrainian brigades that are supposed to lead the counteroffensive. These are the brigades that have been stuffed up to their ears with Western hardware but lack well-trained troops. 

Such brigades also face complex, perhaps impossible, logistical challenges, since the Western supplies require spare parts, repair centers and in many cases different types of ammunition. Even the Leopard II tanks supplied can’t all use the same ammunition.

More worrisome for Ukraine’s army is the lack of replacement supplies if their coming offensive drags on. Simply put, there are almost no supplies around. The US is mostly out of ammunition and has been stripping stockpiles in South Korea and Israel – something that has alarmed Israel’s generals, who think a hot war with Iran is only weeks away.

The South Koreans have kept quiet, mostly because President Yoon Suk Yeol has just completed a visit to Washington that was stage-managed to make Joe Biden look good. So far as can be determined, the visit was completely ceremonial and basically fruitless.

(Strictly speaking, the only result was that Yoon used the occasion of a state dinner to sing “American Pie,” no matter whether Joe drove his Chevy to the levee, or went over the side. The fact that the levee was dry is a current-time social commentary.)

At the eleventh hour, Ukraine is trying hard to recruit more soldiers, sometimes using rough tactics to dragoon young men.  Such troops can’t possibly be trained in time. Practically speaking they are, at most, cannon fodder. 

But the Ukrainians want to look credible to their American masters, so not only do they grab young people from street corners or in front of popular watering holes such as McDonald’s, but they beat them up if they resist.

The same is happening to any Ukrainian journalist who tries to write anything the so-called democratic government of Ukraine does not like. Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime has arrested political opponents or chased them out of the country, or worse. And these days Ukrainian special operations groups are assassinating journalists and commentators in Russia and elsewhere who oppose Ukraine.

After Bakhmut is gone, it is possible the Russians will suggest negotiations with the United States. Biden, who is running for re-election, does not want any status quo change until he is re-elected. 

But Biden’s re-election is getting more and more remote as the semi-senile president stumbles and bumbles and as a number of his government’s policies will, in the end, bring down his administration notwithstanding his faltering mental status or how many dead Ukrainians pay the price for his re-election effort. 

A vast wave of immigrants will soon flood across the southern border of the US; new taxes will soon be slapped on mortgages for people with good credit scores (without bothering to get congressional approval); inflation keeps killing the middle class; and worst of all, the Biden administration demands control of all children’s sexuality without the parents having any say-so. 

Without negotiations, the Russians will attempt to systematically destroy Ukraine’s new brigades. With larger forces, better tactics, and more air power, air defenses and ground equipment, the Russians could very well defeat the Ukrainian army and force regime change in Kiev.

In short, in the not-too-distant future, Biden may have to hang up his walker and Zelensky may be looking for a job in California.

Stephen Bryen is a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and at the Yorktown Institute.

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‘Not a black-and-white’ matter: Mufti of Singapore sets out detailed views on LGBT issues

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Dr Janil: Did you personally have an intellectual struggle?

Dr Nazirudin: I do, of course. And my particular struggle is again in trying to place values that are taught in my faith. Compassion, empathy, kindness, charity, in the context of what we’re dealing with, with people who hold on to different values, in terms of sexuality, and even the ideas of family and relationships. At the same time to recognise there is a line that has to be drawn at some point between religious authority and individual autonomy.

At some point, our authority stops, and the individual’s autonomy takes over. They have the choice to make their own decisions, guided by the moral conscience and compass. Our role is to provide that moral compass from a religious standpoint. How do we do that? How do we balance it very carefully? And this is for the longer term good of society and the community. I think that is a struggle that continues with me. And I think we are just in the process of starting to talk about it more openly and trying to find what are the best directions ahead.

Dr Janil: Have your views and positions changed as a result of the struggle?

Dr Nazirudin: I think it’s a cardinal rule, in my job and in in issuance of guidance, religious guidance, to really understand and understand correctly and comprehensively what we’re dealing with. And I think that there’s a lot to be, still yet to be understood. So we can’t pretend that we know everything and I think as we move on, certain things will evolve. And our thoughts on this will also mature accordingly.

Dr Janil: You talked about taking time to consult, to gather views. But society and the world can change quite fast. How do you ensure the relevance of religion to that process then if there’s a need to go slow to gather all the views, and yet, the world is changing fast around you?

Dr Nazirudin: If you look at the LGBT issue in other parts of the world, in some countries they are very far ahead on the scale of how they deal with homosexuality and LGBT issues. Some have gone way beyond in terms of gender identity and dealing with those kinds of issues. But at the same time, you also see that in those kinds of societies, the discourse is getting a lot more complicated. In other words, there are counter-movements within the society, because there are new concerns that emerge.

So I think, if anything, it tells us that with this kind of very profound social changes, I think it needs time, in as much as there is a very strong desire for things to move quickly and change quickly, I think we need time to process what is going on around us. We’re not speaking of decades of thinking about issues, but at least you need to think of a thorough, robust and comprehensive process of hearing different voices, to first understand the issues accurately, and then look at your traditions, look at the principles and values and how these relate to those kinds of changes.

Today, we look at the implications, for example of massive industrialisation and the impact on the climate. So we are beginning to ask ourselves very fundamental questions of our duties and responsibilities to the world, to the climate to the environment. And so there is always a kind of a rethink as to what would have been the better approaches in dealing with progress in that sense. And I think this social challenge that we have, social issue that we’re dealing with, it’s also an example of why we should spend enough time to think about it and put forth a response that I think, would at least relate to the challenge and resonate with people in dealing with the challenge and not to take a quite a simplistic approach in the interest of, you know, rushing through things.

And I could be wrong, but I personally feel that it is my responsibility to exhaust all avenues of thinking about issues, and give the issues due consideration before coming up with any particular position. In particular this involves a very fundamental shift in our society.

Dr Janil: But along the way, there are frictions within the community as these matters remain unresolved. I’ve met individuals who say they are gay and Muslim. I’ve met individuals who will say that you can’t be both. One of the individuals that I’ve met says that he’s welcome in the mosque, even though he is known as someone who’s gay. But his friends wonder why he’s allowed in the mosque. How do you deal with and resolve these types of frictions within the community?

Dr Nazirudin: Specifically to the issue of Muslims, I think one of the important aspects of talking about friction is really, what are the sources of friction in these kinds of situations. One of which is that there is still some level of uncertainty for many people on what is the religious attitude towards homosexuals and homosexuality in general. As it relates to religious practice, as it relates to religious spaces. So some may think that you should welcome anyone who comes to the mosque, some others may think that, well, the mosque is not a place for homosexuals, for example. When someone comes to the mosque, what is the first question that we ask and you think of? I think the first question should be that this is a Muslim, who wants to go to the mosque, and get closer to God, have a closer relationship with his or her Creator. 

As a Muslim, as a believer, whatever the sexual orientation, which, in most cases, would be a private matter for the individual, is something not for us to question, not for us to judge at the point in which someone comes to the mosque. Otherwise, you would need to ask, and it’s, it’s completely wrong practice. Everyone who comes to the mosque, on their private life, or other aspects of their, of their personal life. And I think that is not the right thing to do as Muslims, and as a religious institution.

So one of the sources of friction is really about understanding the religious position and attitude towards such individuals or segments within the community. And this is something we are working on as well. But the other important thing, insofar as the source of friction, I think, is really because for some people, this is a conflict that needs to be resolved with one winner at the end, whether it’s mainstream Islam or the majority, and that’s almost a kind of a zero-sum game mentality, which I think it’s not the right attitude to adopt in dealing with this kind of complex challenges.

Dr Janil: You talked about not wanting a zero-sum game mentality amongst the people who consider this. Why is that important? Is there a danger that you’re worried about?

Dr Nazirudin: I think it’s because we recognise that for some individuals there have been accounts of their personal struggles of abuse, of ridicule, of rejection, that has led to various types of harm that they have been through and put through.

Dr Janil: Because they’re LGBT?

Dr Nazirudin: Because they’re LGBT. But there’s also the very genuine fear and concern and anxiety within the larger segment of the community insofar as what the future will look like. We share this fear and anxiety. But we are also aware of the hurt and pain that people have gone through, and I don’t think, and especially in our religious institutions, that our role, or what we do, should exacerbate that hurt and pain and prolong it. 

Our role is to find ways for people to heal, that hurt and pain to heal. So, if you have a winner, then you have someone who will basically be happy with an outcome in which LGBT individuals, for example, are not allowed to come to the mosque. But then it destroys their faith, it destroys their identity as Muslims, and vice versa, as well.

So I think we need to find ways in which you know, we can meet in between, and recognising that there are aspects of the faith that are very personal and private. There are aspects of the faith that are public. And it’s about managing this, which we have to look into very carefully and find ways. And that would be the next steps that we will need to think of.

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Young voters see little hope from Turkey’s elderly candidates

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With more than half of Turkey’s eligible voters made up of millennials and those from the younger Generation Z, the opposition may think they have a chance finally to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after 20 years in power.

But while 51% of the 64 million voters are young – 20 million voters were born after 1981, including 13 million Gen Zers and 6 million who are eligible to vote for the first time – they are far from a certainty at the presidential and parliamentary polls on May 14.

Meet Turkey’s Gezi Park generation, an apolitical and politically apathetic group who have grown weary of politics and have little to no belief they live in a functioning democracy. 

In such a crucial election, young people appear to lack a voice or be included in any candidate’s political platform, including that of Erdogan, 69, or his main challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74.    

It would seem Kilicdaroglu could benefit from the generational angst. Eight out of 10 Gen Zers believe it is harder to be a young person in Turkey than in any country in the European Union.

A report by Turkish researcher KONDA in October revealed that four in five Turks between ages 18 and 30 said they were not affiliated with any political party. Furthermore, 90% rated the functionality of Turkey’s democracy 5 on a scale of 10, and 62% said the country is poorly managed. 

These young Turks have never really experienced a time when the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader, Erdogan, were not in power. 

These weren’t exactly the salad days of their young lives. Fifty-four percent of those between 17 and 30 said in a recent survey that they are in need of psychological help. Meanwhile, 71% said they are unable to imagine a different future.

Under the two-decade reign of the AKP, young people’s lives have become worse. Although Turkey’s older population argues otherwise, labeling younger generations as ungrateful, the numbers speak a different truth.

Economic woes

Opportunities are scarce for young people amid Turkey’s deteriorating economy. Research shows 69% of Turks between the ages of 18 and 29 are financially dependent on their families.  

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is 21% among people between 15 to 24, while other estimates put the figure as high as 33%. If included with European countries, Turkey has the fifth-highest youth unemployment rate in the region. 

The low employment rates do not stem from a lack of higher education. Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data from 2019 show the number of unemployed university graduates in Turkey has increased tenfold in the past 15 years. One out of four unemployed people is a university graduate. 

This has all led to a massive brain drain under the AKP’s watch. According to TUIK, between 2019 and 2021, more than 250,000 citizens aged between 20 and 29 left the country. And those who have stayed want to leave – and in big numbers.

Research by Kondrad-Adenuer-Stifftung in 2021 found that 72% of those between 18 to 25 would live in another country if given the chance. And who can blame them? In the past two years, the annual inflation rate has risen more than 100%, the Turkish currency has been mired at record lows, and a devastating earthquake has claimed the lives of thousands.

All these factors have immensely lowered the living standards of young people in Turkey. No wonder 82% believe they are worse off than in 2021. 

The fact the opposition has done so little to woo young voters amid this turmoil is mind-boggling. More than 80% of young people between 18 and 35 said they do not believe any party can solve their problems, according to an October report by the nongovernmental organization SOMDER. 

The campaign of Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party has made some gestures including a pledge to not tax purchases of mobile phones, vehicles and video-game consoles. But this does not appear to be enough to support its promise of a better future for the younger generation.

Kilicdaroglu will, however, be buoyed by the response to a video message to young people in which he discussed his Alevi identity. The tweet itself received more than 110 million views.

But the overall tone-deaf approach to young voters highlights an unspoken problem within Turkey: the exclusion of the young from the conversation about the country’s present and future.

The age distribution of the current parliament is reflective of the ageism tilted in favor of the older generations. Out of 600 members of parliament, 319 are aged 40 and above while only eight are below 30. 

Turkey, with a median age of 31, is considered a relatively young country, but like most countries it is run by people decades older. The upcoming election should represent a generational clash, however neither side is fighting for the rights of the youth. That is why it is safe to call millennials and Gen Zers Turkey’s betrayed generation. 

Not only have these young people lost all hope for the future, they live with the constant notion that their future has been stolen. Although youth have the power to sway elections, they have been bullied into silence and robbed of a will to take part in their own destinies.

This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright. Follow Alexandra de Cramer on Twitter @aedecramer.

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Gunfight leaves 2 dead, 2 wounded after wedding party

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Forensic police collect evidence at the scene of gunfight at a car park of a hotel in Surat Thani province on Friday. Two men were killed and two women wounded in the shooting after leaving a wedding party. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)
Forensic police collect evidence at the scene of gunfight at a car park of a hotel in Surat Thani province on Friday. Two men were killed and two women wounded in the shooting after leaving a wedding party. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)

SURAT THANI: Two men – an amulet expert and a pub owner – were killed and two women wounded in a gunfight at a car park of a hotel in Muang district after attending a wedding party on Friday night.

The fatal shooting occurred in the car park of Bunjongburi Hotel on Liang Muang Road in tambon Makham Tia, said a police officer at 191 radio centre of Muang police station. The incident was reported around 8.25pm.

Police, forensic officers and rescue workers rushed to the scene and found the bodies of the two men lying there. The first body was that of Panuphong  Suwannasin, 35, a popular amulet exert known as “Khunphaen Surat’’ of Surat Thani’s Tha Chang district. He had been shot in the head, body and legs.  A pistol was found near his left hand.

About two metres away, the body of 39-year-old Wirat “Jane Thonglor’’ Sudphakdee, owner of Thonglor, a popular pub in Muang district, was found. He sustained gunshot wounds to his head, body, hip and right leg. 

Fifteen spent bullets were found scattered over the area.

There were two women injured in the gunfight. They were later identified as Kansiri Suwannasin, 30, wife of the amulet expert, and Thanaithorn Luetheng, 20, of Trang province.

According to a police investigation, the four victims attended a wedding party at a building behind the hotel. Panuphong and Wirat used to be friends and later got involved in a conflict that lasted more than two years. After the wedding party, the two men went to the car park and talked for a while before the shooting erupted.

A source said Panuphong and Kansiri had been arrested in Bangkok by the Crime Suppression Division on May 15, 2021, on drug charges. The couple had been imprisoned. After serving his jail term, he ran an amulet trade online with more than 100,000 followers on his Facebook page.

Police cordon off a section of a hotel car park in the southern province of Surat Thani following the fatal shooting on Friday night. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)

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One family, five candidates: dynasties rule rural Thailand

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This picture taken on April 22, 2023, shows campaign posters for the upcoming general election in the Thai province of Sa Kaeo. - Politics is a family affair for the Thienthong clan, one of Thailand's most enduring political dynasties, with five members running in next month's general election, for two different parties. (Photo: AFP)
This picture taken on April 22, 2023, shows campaign posters for the upcoming general election in the Thai province of Sa Kaeo. – Politics is a family affair for the Thienthong clan, one of Thailand’s most enduring political dynasties, with five members running in next month’s general election, for two different parties. (Photo: AFP)

They are one of several families woven into the fabric of Thai politics — the most famous of which is the Shinawatras, whose patriarch Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and continues to loom large from exile abroad.

The financial rewards of elected office — an MP earns around 113,000 baht (US$3,500) a month — may be little more than loose change to these ultra-wealthy clans, but the influence it brings can be highly profitable to their business interests.

The Thienthong family built their wealth on a successful logistics business in their eastern heartland — which includes a major border crossing to Cambodia — and have dominated the region’s politics since the 1970s.

In the run-up to the May 14 vote, theirs is the name plastered on campaign posters along the rough country roads of poor, rural Sa Kaeo province.

Kwanruen Thienthong, her daughter Treenuch and nephew Sorawong are all contesting the three constituency seats up for grabs in this northeastern province.

Mr Sorawong is running for Pheu Thai, the main opposition party riding high in the polls, while the two women are with the army-backed Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) which led the outgoing ruling coalition.

Mr Sorawong’s brothers are also running for Pheu Thai: Surachart in a Bangkok constituency, and Surakiat, on the party list.

This picture taken on April 22, 2023, shows Sorawong Thienthong, local candidate for the Pheu Thai Party in the upcoming general election, outside his home in the northeastern province of Sa Kaeo. (Photo: AFP)

“Politics is politics. Family is family. We have different standpoints in politics but we’re still family,” Mr Sorawong tells AFP.

Ms Treenuch began her career as an MP with a forerunner party of Pheu Thai more than 20 years ago but switched to PPRP, was re-elected in 2019 and serves as education minister.

For voters in Sa Kaeo the family’s track record on the ground matters more than party names or political ideology.

“They go down to every area and when there’s work or there are requests for help from the locals, they help,” Treenuch supporter Sirinthip Sawangkloi told AFP at a noisy rally.

– Local base –

Rural Thailand is threaded with the influence of these rich, powerful clans and part of their local support rests on personal as well as political interventions.

“When my cousin died, I went to ask them to be in charge of the funeral and they did, so that’s why I cannot abandon them,” Boonma Noinamkhum, another Treenuch supporter, told AFP.

To voters, they can offer a measure of local stability and influence in a kingdom with a turbulent political history, marked by a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

Pasuk Phongpaichit, an economist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said this flourished in the upheavals that shook Thailand in the 1970s and 1980s.

“In that period… they could make a lot of money and influence from a system with no rule of law, and symbiotic relationship with local military, local police and influential bureaucrats,” Ms Pasuk told AFP.

“Once they became rich, they could establish power over the local MPs. They then saw an opportunity to enter politics.”

But political power was not enough to save Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon ousted in a coup in 2006 and now living in self-exile abroad to avoid corruption charges he says are politically motivated.

Despite these reverses, Forbes still values his fortune at over $2 billion, though this puts him only 14th on its Thai rich list, far behind the Chearavanont brothers who own Thailand’s biggest conglomerate, CP Group.

And the Shinawatras’ influence in Thai politics has not waned: Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was PM from 2011-14 and his daughter is one of Pheu Thai’s candidates for the job this time.

– Resilience –

For nearly 50 years, in the National Assembly and in the cabinet, the Thienthongs have been part of the Thai political landscape and in the 1990s, they had a reputation for making or breaking governments.

Aside from the five candidates this year, Ms Treenuch’s brother Thanit was elected as an MP five times, last time defeating another Thienthong, Sonthidej.

This picture taken on April 21, 2023, shows Treenuch Thienthong, centre, Education Minister and local candidate in the upcoming general election, arriving for a Palang Pracharath Party campaign rally in the Thai province of Sa Kaeo. (Photo: AFP)

But in the wake of the youth-led street protests calling for political change in 2020, the upcoming election could mark a turning point for these clans, said Ms Pasuk.

“This election has two systems. The one that has been dominated by political families, and the new generation of young voters who are more likely to find parties with ideology and long-term programmes more attractive. Which one will win this time? It is very uncertain,” she told AFP.

But the dynasties have shown a remarkable resilience and adaptability to survive in the topsy-turvy world of Thai politics.

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Singapore’s first execution in 2023

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Hello, Globe readers,

We hope you’re having a happy last Friday of April. Today is also the last day for you to receive a free one-month membership to Southeast Asia Globe by taking our survey. We would love to hear from our readers like you.

This week, Singapore carried out its first execution of 2023. Despite concerns over the judicial process and alleged violation of international human rights, the state executed Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, on a conviction of participating in a scheme to traffic cannabis. The state had produced minimal evidence in the case against Suppiah, claiming that he’d been linked to the crime by a pair of phone numbers in the contact list of another man arrested as part of the same crime.

On Wednesday here in Cambodia, the Globe released the third episode of our Anakut podcast on China’s Belt & Road Initiative in the Kingdom. It’s the first episode of our new, narrative reported format, and we hope you like it.

In the meantime, Laos is finally clearing its air with rainfall after three months of hazardous air pollution, and the global primate industry is struggling to account for the global flow of Cambodian macaque monkeys — and their assorted body parts, resold as specimens — after breeders in the Kingdom were rocked by corruption allegations.

Finally, we checked in with Vietnam-based photographer Boris Zuliani to learn more about his quest to produce analogue images in a digitised world and his latest exhibition, WANTED.

That’s all for today, so enjoy this week’s features and have a wonderful weekend.

Globe’s Amanda Oon,

Tangaraju Suppiah was executed on 26 April in the first execution of the year by the Singaporean government despite the public outcry over the unfair trial and violation of international human rights.

Globe’s Anton L. Delgado & Beatrice Siviero

This year, Laos has suffered from exceptionally high levels of air pollution that threatened public health, local businesses, and tourism.

3 [EN] [KH]– How the race for a Covid vaccine enriched monkey poachers and endangered macaques

Globe’s Anton L. Delgado, with Rich Schapiro, Anna Schecter, Andrew W. Lehren

As the U.S. demand for macaques for pharmaceutical research increased during the Covid pandemic, illegal wildlife trafficking in Cambodia quickly accelerated.

Globe’s Amanda Oon & Andrew Haffner

Our third podcast episode explored the China Belt & Road Initiative in Cambodia through discussions on the Phnom Penh – Sihanoukville expressway.

James Compton

WANTED is the latest exhibition by Hoi An-based photographer Boris Zuliani whose entire studio is a functioning camera shooting photographic images directly onto glass panes.

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Elderly woman who died tests positive as cases rise

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People get a Covid-19 jab at a vaccination centre managed by City Hall at the Thai-Japanese Youth Center in Din Daeng district, Bangkok on January 8, 2023. (Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb)
People get a Covid-19 jab at a vaccination centre managed by City Hall at the Thai-Japanese Youth Center in Din Daeng district, Bangkok on January 8, 2023. (Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb)

A 70-year-old woman who was found dead at her home in Bangkok’s Bang Phlat district tested positive for Covid-19, according to rescue workers and police called to the scene.

A special team from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation, a rescue organisation, arrived at the victim’s house in soi Charansanitwong 40 on Friday along with a forensic doctor from Siriraj Hospital and police from Bang Yi Khan police station after the family reported the woman’s death.

An ATK test on the dead woman returned positive. Her body was handed over to a temple to be cremated after the body was examined and the scene inspected, according to the Ruam Katanyu Foundation.

Four people who lived in the same house also tested positive for Covid-19. They were put under quarantine and given medical care and treatment according to their symptoms.

Dr Theera Worathanarat, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, on Friday warned people about a surge in Covid-19 infections and urged patients to isolate themselves until their ATK tests are negative.

He wrote on Facebook that those who test positive should isolate for seven to ten days or until the ATK tests are negative, and maintain Covid-19 measures for 14 days.

Citing studies in the US and the UK, the chance of Covid-19 still being transmitted after five days is between 50-75%. This drops to 25-30% after seven days and 10% after ten days.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry stepped up calls on Friday for the elderly to get Covid-19 vaccines or boosters following a surge in Covid-19 infections.

Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said the number of Covid-19 cases is expected to soar during the rainy season, so vulnerable groups were strongly advised to get jabbed. He said vulnerable groups can safely get flu vaccines at the same time.

According to the WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Update, the number of new cases decreased globally from March 27-April 23 compared to the previous 28 days.

However, cases and deaths are still rising in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean regions and in several other countries.

A study of Covid-19 variants showed that from April 3-9, XBB.x was the dominant strain, accounting for 75% of all cases, whereas the XBB.1.16.x variant — which was being closely monitored — made up 4.3%.

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Parkinson’s disease: The patients finding joy through dance in India

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A dance class in Pune city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra aims to make a difference to the lives of elderly people with Parkinson’s disease.

It was started in 2009 by Hrishikesh Pawar, a dance teacher, who says his students dance “only for joy” in these classes.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative condition which affects how the brain communicates with muscles in the body. Symptoms include involuntary tremors, slow movement and stiff and inflexible muscles.

While there is no cure for the disease currently, studies show that exercise and physical movement can help improve balance and co-ordination.

Video by Omkar Karambelkar and Nitin Nagarkar, BBC Marathi

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.

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