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A photograph of a large group of Palestinian children, seated and lying amid the rubble and ruin in Gaza, watching the ‘Lion King’ projected on a screen, has gone viral on ‘X’. Shot by freelance photojournalist Omar Ashtawy, the image is a stark commentary on how the fast pace of the global news cycle, focused largely on self-absorbed world leaders and their erratic actions, has a way of obscuring some of the biggest stories of our time.
Nearly three years into Israel’s war on Gaza — now widely acknowledged as a genocide — claiming over 70,000 lives so far, this is the everyday reality of children in Gaza.
The violence simply does not let up. The killings have not ceased. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child, in the central Gaza Strip. Israel is now threatening to expel them for flying kites. Reports also tell us that the killing of Palestinian children and teens by Israel has surged in West Bank. The children watch Uncle Scar’s power-hungry schemes, that place little value on life, perhaps unaware of how his human counterparts in the real world have upended own lives.
If we were to turn the spotlight on India, New Delhi’s stance is hardly inspiring hope. Speaking to The Hindu, Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said India needs to be more vocal about violations of international law and use its global weight to push for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. New Delhi must also examine arms transfers to Israel seriously, she told Stanly Johny in this interview. “They need to be vocal about what is right and what is wrong, and they need to be vocal about violations of international law. This is what is expected of India,” she said. You could also watch it here.
As the United States and President Donald Trump, who have been steadfastly backing Israel’s war on Gaza, get more confrontational with Iran yet again, the news cycle is focussed on that. Iran’s attacks on American warships outside the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S.’s retaliatory strikes on three Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf waters recently pointed to another escalation in a war that has already persisted six-months. The Hindu editorial today weighed in on the development and contended: “As both sides seek escalation dominance, the war risks spiralling out of control. America is visibly under pressure. Mr. Trump has to accept the cold fact that he has lost this war and return to reviving the MoU before it is too late.”
The other recent event that hogged headlines was the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from August 31 to September 1, 2026. Notably, PM Modi joined the statement slamming the US and Israel for the war in Iran. Is India shifting its position, or just making friends ahead of the upcoming BRICS summit in New Delhi and Pakistan’s Presidency of the SCO next year?
Do read Kallol Bhattacherjee’s profile of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or the house of multilaterals, and watch Worldview with Suhasini Haidar for a breakdown of what transpired.
Region in focus
An arial view shows buildings and car damaged and covered in mud near Trishuli River following deadly flash floods and a mudslide, in Betrawati Bazaar in Rasuwa district, Nepal, August 30, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
| Photo Credit:
ANGAD DHAKAL
Closer to home, we are tracking Nepal’s painful recovery from the recent devastating floods. The disaster posed an unprecedented challenge, Australian rescue expert Arnold Dix said on Monday (September 7, 2026), with multiple search operations underway in Himalayan hydropower tunnels. The August 26 glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,385 people, with more than 5,500 missing across the two countries.
However, fresh concerns triggered by the glacial collapse are unlikely to sway Beijing’s plans to go ahead with the construction of a mega dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, or the Brahmaputra River, in a seismically active region in Tibet near the border with India, our China Correspondent Ananth Krishnan reported. “ Of concern to India is how much water is likely to be stored in the reservoir and how the tunnel will affect downstream flows, as well as possible broader ecological impacts. The lack of information has posed an obstacle in assessing the possible impact.”
Our Notebook column this week was a reflection on the major climate shocks witnessed in the region in quick succession. The floods in Pakistan in 2022, floods in different parts of India over the last few years, the cyclone in Sri Lanka in 2025, and now, Nepal’s staggering floods. A Pakistani friend recently shared a 2009 piece from Himal Southasian on her social media. Authored by former diplomat Shyam Saran, it contended that South Asia is an ecologically interconnected system and called for a collaborative response to the climate crisis. Journalists in the region, however, have had more stories about natural disasters than collective strategies to tell.
Another exclusive we bring to you this week is Suhasini Haidar’s interview with Bangladesh’s ousted, former PM Sheikh Hasina. “How can a press conference damage India-Bangladesh relations? I did not know that I was so powerful that one press conference of mine could damage Bangladesh’s foreign policy,” she said.
Published – September 07, 2026 01:56 pm IST
