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A controversy over sartorial freedom and cultural sensitivity has erupted in India after a major jewellery brand withdrew its Rakshabandhan festival advertisement, triggering a fierce national debate over women’s autonomy over their clothing choices. The pulled campaign for domestic jewellery brand Giva centered on popular Bollywood star Kriti Sanon, who was featured marking the traditional Hindu festival — where sisters tie a sacred rakhi thread around their brothers’ wrists to symbolize mutual protection and affection. The backlash against the ad focused on two points of criticism: Sanon’s modern cropped top and draped skirt ensemble, and a separate scene that showed her tying a rakhi to her pet dog.
The controversy ignited early this week when actor and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut publicly condemned the spot, describing it as “intentionally creepy” and questioning why a woman would tie a rakhi in what she framed as bikini-adjacent undergarments. Though Ranaut did not name Sanon directly, her social media post left no ambiguity about the target of her criticism. “It is a wonderful time to be a woman, our closets are full of a variety of clothes… From all the options that are available to us today why would you tie your brother a Rakhi in your bikini/under garments? Where are all your styling options?” Ranaut wrote.
Ranaut’s remarks quickly went viral, drawing both agreement and fierce pushback across Indian social media. Conservative social media users echoed her criticism, arguing that Sanon’s outfit was inappropriate for a sacred traditional festival. One commentator referred to Sanon’s top as a bralette, writing on X that “there is a clear line between modern styling and basic sensitivity towards Hindu festivals,” adding that pairing the garment with a Rakshabandhan campaign felt “completely out of touch and unnecessary.” Critics also raised objections to the scene of Sanon tying a rakhi to her pet, arguing it diluted the festival’s focus on sibling bonds.
But Sanon quickly hit back at her critics, issuing a defiant defense of her choices that quickly won widespread support from advocates of women’s rights. In an Instagram story posted Tuesday night, the actor called out the pervasive cultural mindset that judges women’s respect for tradition solely based on their clothing. “The essence of festivals is not in the clothes you wear, it is in the emotions and meaning you hold for the traditions… When will we stop telling women what to wear?? Ethnic fashion has evolved over the years, but still a woman’s respect for her culture is measured with just her clothes!! Culture & Traditions are in her heart, not in her neckline!” Sanon wrote.
Addressing the controversy over tying a rakhi to her pet, Sanon added that the core spirit of Rakshabandhan is protecting all loved ones, a category that extends to furry family members for many modern people. Sanon’s stance received high-profile backing, including from opposition Congress party MP Rahul Gandhi, who affirmed that a woman’s clothing choice is entirely her own. Other critics hit back at Ranaut for what they called moral policing, also pointing out that Ranaut frequently wore short and Western-style outfits throughout her early acting career, shifting to more conservative clothing only after entering politics.
Despite Sanon’s spirited defense, Giva announced Wednesday that it would withdraw the advertisement from all media platforms. In a public statement posted to Instagram, the brand emphasized its longstanding respect for Indian culture and traditions, noting that it had intended to expand the spirit of Rakshabandhan celebration to include pets as beloved family members. “If our recent advertisement has inadvertently hurt the sentiments of some segments of society, that was not our intent at all. Out of respect, we have withdrawn the advertisement from all media,” the brand added.
The incident is far from unprecedented for Indian brands: in 2020, leading jewellery brand Tanishq pulled an advertisement featuring an interfaith couple after facing widespread backlash from right-wing social media groups. The current controversy also reflects a years-long pattern of charged national debates over women’s clothing in India. In 2021, a 19-year-old student was forced to wrap a curtain around her legs to sit an exam after a teacher objected to her wearing shorts, sparking national outrage. Later that same year, thousands of women shared photos of themselves in ripped jeans on social media after the chief minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand publicly shamed a woman for wearing the garment. Last year, a beauty pageant contestant won national praise after pushing back against a group of men who bullied contestants for wearing skirts and Western dresses.

A devastating early-morning fire at a leading state-run hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad has claimed the lives of at least 14 newborn infants, leaving one infant rescued and triggering urgent official investigations into the preventable tragedy, authorities confirmed this week.

The blaze erupted on the third floor of the maternal and child care wing at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) — the largest public health facility in the capital — just after dawn on Wednesday. Hospital spokespersons confirmed the fire originated from a faulty air conditioning unit in the neonatal ward, where 15 babies were being cared for at the time. Most of the infants were placed in incubators or connected to oxygen support, a combination that turned a small electrical fire into an uncontrollable inferno: while pure oxygen is not flammable, it dramatically accelerates combustion, making surrounding materials burn hotter and spread flames far faster than in normal conditions.

Emergency response teams rushed to the scene after the fire was reported, evacuating more than two dozen people trapped in the building. Alongside the 14 neonatal fatalities, responders successfully pulled 19 other people — including 10 women, seven children, and two men — to safety. Only one newborn from the affected ward survived the blaze.

The toll of the disaster has left families grieving and officials scrambling to untangle what went wrong. Police officials confirmed all 14 deceased infants suffered extensive burn damage, meaning formal DNA testing will be required to positively identify the remains before they can be released to grieving family members for burial.

Grief-stricken family members gathered outside the hospital’s main entrance in the hours after the fire, many openly weeping as they waited for updates on their loved ones. One father told reporters his three-day-old child, born just days earlier, was among those killed. Hivsa Walid, who was at the hospital visiting her recently delivered sister-in-law, described the chaotic moment the fire broke out. She and her family were in a nursery across the hall from the burning AC unit when they heard shouts that were initially mistaken for a report of a natural patient death. When they spotted thick smoke filling the corridor, they grabbed the unnamed newborn and fled for their lives.

In the aftermath of the blaze, broken glass from shattered hospital windows littered the sidewalk outside the facility, mixed with discarded medical masks, as police maintained a perimeter to control access to the site.

PIMS, which operates a 156-bed maternal and child health division, is one of the most relied-upon public hospitals in Islamabad. This tragedy is far from an isolated incident for Pakistan: the country has seen a string of deadly large-scale fires in recent years, almost all linked to inadequate fire safety regulations, outdated building codes, and consistent lax enforcement of existing safety rules. Just eight months earlier, a massive fire tore through the Gul Plaza shopping mall in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, killing 67 people in one of the country’s deadliest commercial fires in recent history.

In a statement released hours after the fire, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed profound grief and sincere regret over the loss of the infants, calling the loss of young children an irreparable tragedy. He ordered national and local authorities to launch an immediate full investigation into the cause of the blaze. A fact-finding committee was quickly convened by Islamabad’s District Magistrate, which has been ordered to submit a full investigative report within 24 hours of the fire.

One of South Korea’s most beloved tourist destinations, the volcanic island of Jeju famous for its palm-fringed coastlines and crystal clear waters, has become the center of a national controversy over systemic failures in police handling of missing person cases. After four people reported missing on the island were found dead in recent days, widespread public outrage has forced top political leaders to order sweeping overhauls of the national police force.

The most recent discovery was the body of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, who went missing back in May. Investigators located her remains just 500 meters from her residence on a local palm tree farm, and authorities have preliminarily ruled her death a suicide. The other three recovered bodies include a man in his 60s from Jeju City who disappeared in late June, with two more found in coastal villages in the past week.

At the heart of the scandal is a serving police sergeant identified only by his surname Bu, who has been taken into custody on charges of deceiving the families of missing people and improperly closing active cases before confirming the whereabouts of the missing individuals. According to witness testimony and local reporting, Bu falsely told Jang Mi-ran’s boyfriend that he had spoken with Jang by phone, and that she had explicitly refused to contact her partner. In the case of the 60-year-old missing man, Bu informed the man’s family that he had been located alive and safe, but simply did not want to share his location with relatives. The man’s son told reporters that the family trusted the police’s account and waited patiently for 51 days, only to receive his father’s corpse in the end.

In response to the revelations, four senior officers in Bu’s chain of command have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced sweeping police force reforms during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, addressing the growing public anger over the mishandling of the cases. “The recent breakdown in police discipline and irresponsibility in public safety matters have become serious problems,” President Lee told attendees, adding that “the Korean people are questioning whether [the police] deserve this large power” the institution currently holds.

South Korea’s national police chief faced intense questioning from lawmakers at an emergency National Assembly hearing on Monday, where he publicly acknowledged fundamental flaws in the current system of handling missing person reports. Authorities have now launched a full review of the nearly 300 missing person cases Bu processed during his tenure, and it remains unclear whether Bu was involved in the premature closure of the two other cases connected to the recently recovered bodies.

Experts point to structural factors that have contributed to the lax handling of missing adult cases in South Korea. While the country boasts one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, it also struggles with one of the highest suicide rates globally. Lee Yung-hyeock, a police science professor at Konkuk University, explained to Yonhap News Agency that the high rate of quickly resolved missing person cases has led to complacency among officers. More than 70,000 adults are reported missing across South Korea every year, and official data shows 99% of these cases are marked as resolved within 30 days. This track record has led many officers to automatically assume that most missing adults will turn up quickly, leading to premature case closures.

The scandal comes at a particularly sensitive political moment for South Korean law enforcement. The national government recently passed a landmark reform bill that shifted full investigative authority from public prosecutors to the national police, a change framed as a way to reduce prosecutors’ outsized political influence. However, the reform has faced widespread public skepticism, as many South Koreans have long raised concerns about systemic corruption and incompetence within police ranks.