Celebrated Indian writer MT Vasudevan Nair dies at 91
MT Vasudevan Nair, one of India’s most renowned writers, died on Wednesday. He was 91.
Nair died in a hospital in Kozhikode city in the southern state of Kerala.
Madath Thekkepat Vasudevan Nair’s seven-decade career spanned literature, journalism and film, leaving a lasting impact on India’s cultural landscape.
His stories, often set in the countryside and drawing on his childhood, celebrated the range of human emotion and connection.
Nair was born on 15 July 1933 in Kudallur, a small village in Kerala’s Palakkad area, and grew up a voracious reader. He started writing very young.
“I was born in a village, on the banks of the Bharathappuzha, where the world of literature, writing and books was non-existent. Newspapers used to come by post, delayed by three days. Books reached me once in a blue moon,” he said in an interview with Sahapedia in 2019.
“Once I reached high school, I started reading everything. After reading, I wanted to write something. I knew I could not match the writing I had read, but, in my loneliness, I felt like scribbling something.”
After graduating college, Nair joined the Malayalam magazine Mathrubhumi in 1956 and went on to become its editor in 1968. In this role, which he stayed in until 1981, Nair is often credited with discovering and mentoring young writers who went on to have prolific careers.
He was awarded Jnanpith, India’s highest literary honour, in 1995 and the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honour, in 2005 . He received the highest civilian award given by Kerala’s state government, the Kerala Jyothi Award, in 2022.
Nair’s debut novel Naalukettu, meaning the legacy, about the decline of the traditional joint family in post-Independent India is considered a classic in Malayalam literature and won Nair his first Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 1959, when he was only 25.
The novel, first published in 1958, went on to be translated into 14 languages. It continues to feature on bestseller lists and was adapted into an award-winning television film in 1995.
“Characters, their predicaments — that’s what inspires me. The crossroads they find themselves in — they trouble us,” he said in 2023, in an interview with The Indian Express.
He wrote nine novels and 19 collections of short stories, multiple essay collections, memoirs, and travelogues, all known for his particular style which looked at complex human emotions and how they operated within their specific social circumstances. His 1984 work Randamoozham, translated as The Second Turn, a retelling of the Hindu epic Mahabharata from Bhima’s perspective, is considered a groundbreaking work in Malayalam literature.
Nair also worked as a screenwriter and director in Malayalam cinema. His first screenplay, Murappennu in 1965, was described by The Hindu as “one of the most significant films in the history of Malayalam cinema”. He won the national award for best screenplay a record four times—for Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989), Kadavu (1991), Sadayam (1992), and Parinayam (1994).
Nair made his debut as a director in 1973 with Nirmalyam, which went on to win the national award for best feature film.
Tributes poured in after news of Nair’s death broke, with the Kerala state government announcing two days of mourning.
“Saddened by the passing away of Shri MT Vasudevan Nair Ji, one of the most respected figures in Malayalam cinema and literature,” prime minister Narendra Modi said.
“His works, with their profound exploration of human emotions, have shaped generations and will continue to inspire many more. He also gave voice to the silent and marginalised. My thoughts are with his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”
Kerala’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, posted on X: “With MT Vasudevan Nair’s passing, we have lost a doyen of Malayalam literature who elevated our language to global heights. A true cultural icon, he captured the soul of Kerala through his timeless works. His steadfast commitment to secularism and humanity leaves behind a legacy that will inspire generations. Heartfelt condolences to his family and the cultural community.”
“I shared a long-standing relationship with him. He gave me some of the most significant characters in my acting career. I also had the opportunity to work with him on two films under his direction. He was one of the popular novelists and screenwriters, not just in Kerala but across India,” said Malayalam actor Mohanlal.
Kamal Haasan, one of the biggest names in Tamil cinema, wrote: “We have lost a great writer. The greatest personality of the Malayalam literary world, M.T. Vasudevan Nair, has left us. My friendship with him was fifty years old. He was the creator of ‘Kanyakumari,’ which introduced me to the Malayalam film world. Our friendship continued till the recent release of ‘Manorathangal.’ He has contributed great novels to the Malayalam literary world and became a successful screenwriter. His demise has caused me great pain. He contributed to all forms of writing with his own uniqueness and has retired. This is a huge loss. It will deeply distress South Indian literary readers. My heartfelt tribute to a great writer.”
India concerned as China approves world’s largest dam in Tibet
China has approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau despite protests over its ecological impact and concerns it could affect millions of people downstream in India and Bangladesh.
The dam, located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, could annually produce 300 billion kWh of electricity, according to an estimate provided by the Power Construction Corp of China in 2020. That is more than triple the 88.2 billion kWh capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, in central China.
The project is expected to play a major role in meeting China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, stimulate related industries such as engineering, and create jobs in Tibet, Chinese state media Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
A section of the Yarlung Zangbo falls a dramatic 2,000m within a short span of 50km, offering huge hydropower potential as well as unique engineering challenges.
The outlay for building the dam is expected to eclipse the 254.2bn yuan (£27.80bn) it cost to construct the Three Gorges Dam.
Constructing Three Gorges required the resettling of 1.4 million people.
Authorities have not indicated how many people the new project would displace and how it would affect the local ecosystem, one of the richest and most diverse on the plateau. The site of the project is located along a tectonic plate boundary which is a zone for earthquakes.
At least four 20km-long tunnels must be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain to divert half of the river’s flow to harness its power, according to reports.
But according to Chinese officials, hydropower projects in Tibet, which they say hold more than a third of China’s hydroelectric power potential, would not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.
India and Bangladesh have nevertheless raised concerns about the dam, with the project potentially altering the river’s course downstream.
India is concerned that Chinese projects in the region could trigger flash floods or create water scarcity downstream.
An Indian lawmaker previously raised concerns over China building the dam in the bordering region of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of southern Tibet.
The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra river as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and finally into Bangladesh.
“We cannot trust our ‘neighbour’. You never know what they can do,” Ninong Ering, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told the parliament in July.
“They can either divert the entire river flow drying up our Siang or release water at once causing unprecedented floods and havoc downstream.”
Additional reporting by agencies
South Korea becomes ‘super-aged’ society as demographic crisis deepens
South Korea is now officially a “super-aged” society, with one in five people 65 or older, according to data released on Tuesday, further worsening the country’s demographic crisis.
According to data released by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on 24 December, people aged 65 and above now number 10.24 million, making up about 20 per cent of the East Asian nation’s total population of 51.22 million.
The UN classifies a country where over 7 per cent of the population is 65 or older as an “ageing society”, with 14 per cent as an “aged society” and with over 20 per cent as “super-aged”.
In South Korea, 22.15 per cent of women and 17.83 per cent of men are 65 or older.
The government has called the demographic crisis a “national emergency” and taken steps to address it, ranging from offering financial incentives and childcare support to devising broader policies aimed at improving work-life balance.
The country’s fertility rate, which is the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, has been steadily declining since 2015. It fell below one child per woman for the first time in 2018, hitting 0.98, and further to a historic low of 0.72 in 2023.
The number is among the lowest in the world and significantly below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, the threshold required to sustain a population without relying on immigration.
The population could shrink by half by 2100, exacerbating existing social and economic challenges, experts have warned.
Releasing the data, the interior ministry said in a statement that the government needed to urgently set up a “population-focused ministry” to enact “fundamental and systematic response measures” aimed at tackling the population crisis.
“We will mobilise all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate which can be considered a national emergency,” the country’s now-suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, said in May, when he announced the creation of a “Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counterplanning”.
“I think the important thing going forward is indeed the economy. Corporate growth and job creation are important too but what I think is more important is to try harder to look for what is inconvenient in the life of each and every person and to resolve them.”
The creation of a “population-focused ministry” has been talked about for months but progress has been stalled due to the conflict within the National Assembly over the president’s declaration of martial law earlier this month, the subsequent impeachment trial and further investigations into allegations of insurrection.
Several reasons have been listed for South Korea’s falling fertility rate, such as the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and gender imbalance which leaves women with the majority of the emotional and physical burden of raising children.
It was reported in March that the number of marriages had dropped by 40 per cent over the past decade. The number of marriages recorded in 2023 was 193,673 as against 322,807 in 2013.
South Korea has introduced several initiatives to boost the population, but they have not made a significant difference.
A government scheme to motivate parents to have children offers couples financial assistance ranging from 35m won (£20,566) to 50m won (£29,380) through different incentive and support programmes from the time of the child’s birth until they reach the age of seven.
In September, a couple received 170m won (£95,757) in childbirth grants after giving birth to quintuplets.
In October, the health and welfare ministry awarded two women with civilian service medals for giving birth to 13 children each.
Israel kills 5 journalists in Gaza as three babies freeze to death
Ten people, including five journalists, were killed and 20 wounded in Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza, Palestinian authorities said.
The journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were killed in an airstrike at al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Al Jazeera reported.
The strike hit their broadcasting van, which was clearly marked “press”, the outlet said.
The slain were identified as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, and Ayman al-Jadi. Jadi’s wife was reportedly in the hospital at the time and in labour with their first child.
According to the Quds News Network, civil defence teams recovered the bodies of the victims and put out a fire at the scene. The journalists were reportedly sleeping in the vehicle at the time of the airstrike.
The Israeli military said its aircraft carried out a “targeted” attack on the vehicle as it contained members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.
“Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information,” the military said in a post on X.
Another Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood killed five people and wounded 20, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many people remained trapped under the rubble.
Israel has been waging a war on Gaza since a Hamas attack in October last year killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers and saw nearly 250 taken hostage.
Israel has so far killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the local health ministry. The dead include at least 141 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Its air and ground offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced around 90 per cent of the besieged territory’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
In a separate incident, a three-week-old baby girl named Sila reportedly froze to death in a tent camp in the Muwasi area outside the southern town of Khan Younis in the early hours of Christmas morning.
Sila was one of three babies to die of hypothermia over the past 48 hours, authorities said. The others were aged three days and one month.
Sila’s father, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, told the Associated Press that he had wrapped her in a blanket to keep her warm, but it wasn’t enough. He said the tent wasn’t sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, with temperatures dropping to 9C Tuesday night.
“It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm,” he said. In the morning, Sila was found unresponsive, and despite efforts to rush her to the hospital, her lungs had already deteriorated. A photo showed the baby with purple lips and blotchy skin.
“She was like wood,” said Mr al-Faseeh.
Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital, confirmed Sila and the other babies died from hypothermia, according to Sky News.
14 members of new Syrian regime killed in ‘ambush’ by Assad loyalists
Fourteen personnel of Syria‘s new security forces were killed in an ambush by suspected loyalists of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad in the Tartous countryside, the transitional government said on Thursday.
The security forces, made up mainly of armed rebels who seized power earlier this month, clashed with the Assad loyalists near the Mediterranean port in western Syria as they sought to arrest a former government official accused of issuing execution orders and arbitrary rulings against thousands of inmates in the Saydnaya prison.
New interior minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman said “14 interior ministry personnel were killed and 10 others wounded” after a “treacherous ambush by remnants of the criminal regime” in Tartus province “while performing their tasks of maintaining security and safety”.
He vowed to crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.
Armed militias led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an al Qaeda offshoot, took over the country in early December and forced the president to flee, ending five decades of the Assad family’s rule.
Syrian police had earlier imposed curfew in Homs city after unrest linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the minority Alawite and Shiite Muslim communities.
State media said the curfew was imposed overnight on Thursday.
The protests in Homs, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite community, broke out after “a number of residents refused to allow their houses to be searched”, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the UK, said. Some called for the release of soldiers from the former Syrian army now imprisoned by the HTS.
It said one demonstrator was killed and five wounded in Homs.
The protests were apparently sparked in part by a video showing the burning of an Alawite shrine. The interim regime insisted the video was old and not a recent incident.
There were also protests on Christmas Eve against the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting renewed calls for the new rulers to protect religious minorities.
The country’s new leaders have repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups who fear they could impose a conservative Islamist government.
The new regime claimed its forces raided warehouses in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, confiscating drugs like the stimulant Captagon and cannabis, which were allegedly used by Assad’s soldiers.
A million Captagon pills and hundreds of kilograms of cannabis were set ablaze, the interim administration said.
Additional inputs from agencies.
Japan Airlines hit by cyberattack causing delays
Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack Thursday December 26, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights, but the carrier said there was no impact on flight safety.
JAL said the problem started Thursday morning when the company’s network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning.
The airline said the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes, and the impact could expand later in the day.
The Kyodo News Service reported that the airline told police that it may have been the victim of a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS attack, in which networks are overwhelmed by data from multiple sources over a short period.
JAL’s ticket sales for both domestic and international fights scheduled for departure on Thursday were suspended temporarily.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference Thursday that the transport ministry told JAL to hasten efforts to restore the system and to accommodate affected passengers.
Television footage showed many passengers at Tokyo‘s Haneda airport held up by the attack that hit the year-end holiday travel season.
Other Japanese airlines, including ANA Holdings, Skymark and Starflyer, were not affected.
Japan’s main travel season is just picking up, as offices close from this weekend for the New Year holidays, the biggest celebration of the year, when millions of people travel back to their hometowns from the cities.
Children among 29 survivors as plane crash kills 38 in Kazakhstan
An international investigation has begun into how an Embraer 190 passenger jet with 67 people onboard crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people but leaving 29 survivors
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243, which had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia‘s Chechnya, crash-landed instead a few kilometres short of Aktau airport.
It was the first fatal accident anywhere in the world involving a passenger jet in 2024.
Unverified video footage of the crash showed the aircraft descending – apparently with control problems – and hitting the ground where it burst into flames.
Children were among the survivors being treated at a nearby hospital, authorities said in a statement.
Some of the videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage.
Russia’s aviation watchdog a preliminary investigation indicated the pilot decided to change landing site after “a collision with birds”.
But Reuters news agency noted that the plane had diverted from an area of Russia that Moscow has recently defended against Ukrainian drone attacks.
The news agency quoted Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, who also raised doubt over a bird strike.
“You can lose control of the plane, but you don’t fly wildly off course as a consequence,” he said.
However, Azeri president Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, and said bad weather in Grozny had forced the flight to divert.
Mr Aliyev said: “The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing.”
Commercial aviation-tracking websites monitored the flight as it flew north on its scheduled route along the west coast before it disappeared. It then reappeared on the east coast, where it circled near Aktau airport before crashing into the beach.
Kazakh officials said those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Five of the 67 were crew.
Transport prosecutor, Timur Suleimenov, told a briefing that the plane’s black box, which contains flight data to help determine the cause of a crash, had been found, Interfax reported.
President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences, while Mr Aliyev decided to return home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit.
“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg [where he had a summit]. Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said some of those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their recovery.
Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities said they were investigating the crash. Embraer said in a statement it is “ready to assist all relevant authorities”.
Azerbaijan Airlines suspended all its flights from Baku to Russia’s Chechnya until the investigation is finished, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported.
Additional reporting by agencies
South Korean president denies second government summons
South Korea’s suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol did not respond to a second summons from the government’s anti-corruption authorities, who are investigating his short-lived martial law decree imposed earlier this month.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials had summoned Mr Yoon for questioning on Christmas Day, but he failed to appear, marking the second time he has ignored their summons after doing so last week.
Mr Yoon did not appear for questioning as of 10am local time and the South Korean agency said it would continue to wait for the suspended president on Wednesday.
On 3 December, South Korea was thrown into political turmoil when then-president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, prompting troops to surround the parliament. He was subsequently impeached by the parliament as authorities began investigating allegations of rebellion related to the martial law decree.
Investigators are continuing to seek Mr Yoon’s cooperation, summoning him on Christmas Day despite his repeated refusals.
The agency would reportedly need to review the case of Mr Yoon imposing martial law in the country further before seeking an arrest warrant against him.
He also ignored a summons on 15 December from prosecutors investigating the martial law declaration.
As of now, the police, prosecutors, and the corruption investigation office have all launched probes into Mr Yoon and other officials over potential abuse of power, charges of insurrection, and crimes related to the recent declaration of martial law.
Mr Yoon’s repeated actions to avoid questioning by authorities have led to the opposition calling for his arrest, and criticism citing a potential destruction of evidence.
It is also counter to the suspended president’s own words earlier this month that he would not evade legal and political responsibility for his actions just days after the martial law declaration.
Police have so far arrested Mr Yoon’s defence minister, police chief, and several military commanders.
It is unclear what investigators can do if he continues to reject their demands to question him.
However, insurrection is one of the few charges for which a South Korean president does not have immunity.
Mr Yoon is willing to present his views during legal proceedings related to the martial law declaration, Reuters reported, citing a lawyer advising the suspended president.