 "Indian students celebrate the safe return from the International Space Station (ISS) of American astronaut of Indian origin Sunita Williams in her ancestral village Jhulasan in Mehsana district of Gujarat, India. AP")
Deportations and a big homecoming… if one asked how would you sum up the week gone by, this would be our answer.
The Trump administration continues to make headlines — be it their deportation policy or their stance on the Russia-Ukraine war. This week came the news of Indian student at Columbia University, Ranjani Srinivasan, self-deporting from the US. There’s also the blocked deportation bid against Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri.
But it wasn’t just deportations that made the news this week. Perhaps, the biggest and happiest story of the past days was the return of Nasa astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore. The two made a homecoming after an eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned into a nine-month stay, causing concerns about the health of the two. However, after many delays, the Nasa astronauts have returned to Earth where they will now undergo 45 days of rehabilitation.
Beyond all of this, Donald Trump also held phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy following which both parties have agreed to a partial ceasefire in the war.
Flyers across the world hit a rough patch on Friday after UK’s Heathrow airport shut down owing to a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
Turkey also experienced violent protests after the police arrested Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is considered to be a rival of President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The release of Netflix’s new mini-series Adolescence has also get everyone talking. The four-part show focuses on incels and the influence of the manosphere on young boys in the UK.
But if you have missed all of this and want to catch up, here’s our weekly roundup of explainers from around the world.
1) This week, US President Donald Trump held phone calls with his counterparts from Russia as well as Ukraine. Following these calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the two warring sides announced that they would adhere to a 30-day partial ceasefire, which would see no attacks on ‘energy infrastructure’. The two in their conversation to Trump also agreed to hold further talks on ending the war in Saudi Arabia on Monday (March 24).
The White House hailed the move, saying, “We have never been closer to peace than we are today.”
But not everyone feels this way. Many experts have expressed scepticism about the partial ceasefire and if the Russian leader will adhere to his words. We explore this in our report here .
2) After being stuck in space for nine months, Nasa astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore made a splashdown to Earth on Tuesday (March 18) in a SpaceX capsule. Williams’ return to earth even prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to welcome her back, saying, “Welcome back, #Crew9! The Earth missed you.”
But Williams’ return to Earth won’t be easy. She will now have to undergo 45 days of rehabilitation to get accustomed to gravity. She will also have to contend with changes to her body — namely her getting shorter. Here’s why this happens .
3) Donald Trump’s crackdown on ‘pro-Palestine’ sympathisers continues. The US administration issued a deportation order against Indian scholar, Badar Khan Suri. The researcher at Georgetown University in Washington DC was arrested on Monday by federal immigration authorities in an attempt to deport him on charges of spreading pro-Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media. However, on Thursday, a federal judge has blocked the deportation, saying Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court issues a contrary order”.
But who exactly is Suri and what has he been accused of?
4) As we discuss the deportations in the US, the tale of Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan can’t be ignored. A student at Columbia University, the 37-year-old self-deported on March 15 after her student visa was revoked over pro-Palestine protests. She fled the country, boarding a flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Canada.
However, the manner in which she fled the country is almost unbelievable. Read our full essay to understand how she escaped US immigration authorities.
5) This week also saw the tenuous truce between Israel and the Hamas collapsing on Tuesday, March 18, with the Israel Defense Forces unleashing its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since January, killing more than 350 people. The Jewish nation followed this up with a new ground offensive, taking over control of the Netzarim Corridor, a key strip of land that divides Gaza. But what led to Israel’s actions?
6) Flying on Friday (March 21) turned into a nightmare when a fire at a nearby substation led to the closure of UK’s Heathrow airport. Over, 1300 flights had to be cancelled, while thousands of others had to be rerouted, affecting over 2,91,000 passengers. Experts say that the disruptions will continue for the next few days.
Soon enough, many conspiracy theories also emerged as to what caused the fire.
7) The country of Turkey is in the grips of mass protests with over 30 people being detained. The reason for the agitation: The arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the Istanbul mayor and rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on charges of corruption and links to terror groups. Imamoglu’s supporters have dismissed these allegations, saying the arrest is politically motivated and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on his rivals.
Read on to find out more about the 54-year-old , who has brought Turkey to a near standstill.
That’s all from us this week.
P.S: This weekend set aside some time to watch the Netflix hit show Adolescence. But before that read our explainer on incel culture which features prominently in the series.