1. Quarter of diabetics globally are Indians, says Lancet study  India TV News
2. India has the highest number of diabetic people in the world, even more than China: Report  The Economic Times
3. Why Lancet study on diabetes is a red flag: A quarter of diabetics globally are Indians  The Indian Express
4. 800 million diabetics worldwide and most aren't getting treatment, finds study  The Times of India
5. 800 mn people living with diabetes, rates double in 30 years: Study in Lancet  Firstpost

1. iPhone SE 4 is expected to launch in March 2025, according to the latest report  India TV News
2. iPhone SE 4 leaks: 7 big upgrades  India Today
3. iPhone SE 4 launching in 2025: Refreshed design, powerful specs—minus the premium price  Mint
4. Apple iPhone SE 4 to launch next year, likely to become the cheapest iPhone to support Apple Intelligence...  Moneycontrol
5. iPhone SE 4 Camera Production to Begin Soon Ahead of Anticipated Debut in March 2025: Report  Gadgets 360

1. World Diabetes Day 2024: Early signs of high blood sugar level you should not ignore  India TV News
2. World Diabetes Day 2024  PIB
3. World Diabetes Day: Why diabetes is more than abnormal blood sugar level  The Times of India
4. World Diabetes Day 2024: 10 Foods That Are Secretly Increasing Your Risk Of Diabetes  NDTV
5. World Diabetes Day 2024: 5 ways to detect diabetes quickly  Health shots

1. Wedding Invitation Scams at rise: A single click may put you in grave danger  India TV News
2. Police warns: Wedding invites on WhatsApp are taking control of smartphones; stealing money, photos and m  The Times of India
3. All about the 'wedding invitation' scam on WhatsApp that can get your phone hacked  Moneycontrol
4. WhatsApp wedding invitations are the new cyber trap — here's how scammers are stealing your data  CNBCTV18
5. WhatsApp wedding invite scam: What to know about this and how to be alert  India Today

Anchor of Channel 2 news circa 1960, an era before video tape and color. Photo of Mr. Martin with NBC national anchor Chet Huntley in GroupBlog 324.

Channel 4 and ITN have joined together to offer viewers the chance to develop their own ‘citizen journalism’. Breaking the News – developed by indie producer Illumina Digital - enables viewers to produce their own news stories through an online...

1. Bev Priestman out at Canada Soccer in wake of Olympic drone-spying scandal  CTV News
2. Canada Soccer’s drone-spying redactions tell us a whole lot of nothing while it waits out the rage clock  The Globe and Mail
3. Key findings from Sonia Regenbogen's independent review into Olympic drone-spying  CP24
4. What comes next in Canada Soccer drone-scandal investigation?  Sportsnet.ca

1. John Krasinski named People magazine's 2024 Sexiest Man Alive  CTV News
2. Sexiest Man Alive John Krasinski on His 'Beautiful Life' – and Wallpapering His House with His Sizzling PEOPLE Cover  PEOPLE
3. Krasinski thought he was being 'punked'  CTV News Calgary
4. John Krasinski Reveals Wife Emily Blunt's Hilarious Response to His Sexiest Man Alive Title - E! Online  E! NEWS
5. Emily Blunt reacts after husband is named 2024 Sexiest Man Alive  The Independent

1. Ottawa businesses brace for possible Canada Post strike before the holiday season  CTV News Ottawa
2. Tougher work conditions for postal workers at the heart of labour dispute, union says  The Globe and Mail
3. Ottawa businesses worry about potential postal disruption  CBC.ca
4. Calgary workers 'ready to go' if Canada Post, CUPW unable to reach agreement by Friday: union president  Calgary Herald
5. ‘Feeling the pinch’: Potential postal strike may be first of many, Manitoba prof says  Global News Toronto

Overwhelmed families surrendering custody of their children to CAS  CTV News Northern Ontario

1. Bear encounter recorded in Whistler Village prompts conservation officer warning  CTV News Vancouver
2. Tourists 'shocked' to see man approach black bear in Whistler  Pique Newsmagazine

Earthquake strikes Sussex/Surrey border | Meridian - ITV News  ITV News

Largest tremor yet detected at Lancashire fracking site  ITV News

West Cornwall hit by 2.2 magnitude earthquake | West Country - ITV News  ITV News

Reports of an earthquake felt in Leicestershire | Central - ITV News  ITV News

'Sonic boom' as small earthquake shakes Cornwall  ITV News

Regional communities have been left reeling, following WIN News' announcement it would be axing four commercial television newsrooms in New South Wales and Queensland.

There’s no better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than becoming a mom for the first time on that very day.

It felt totally like a eureka moment to me at the grounds of Jaipur Literature Festival, 2012, soon as my eyes turned and I saw on stage, Oprah Winfrey, seated for a conversation, with Barkha Dutt.

Up until then, one had, of course, followed Dutt's work as an indefatigable newscaster, best known for lending a human touch to her dispatches/reports. Quite literally so sometimes — as she'd tenderly pat her interviewees on the shoulder, gently goading them to reveal issues they faced, before a camera. Audiences were hopefully moved, witnessing the plight of the socially distant other!

Many may have had issues with this style of emotional/exploitative news-casting, as if it was a Bollywood film. But the fact is the penny dropped only when I saw Dutt with Winfrey. It's totally my bad that I had misinterpreted her form of communication as journalism alone. Firstly, given the subject, no, not gonna fall into the tiring Twitter-troll trap that, for years, has been demonising Dutt and the lot as 'biased'/'paid' media. As if there can be any other!

Which loser works in a profession without ever being paid for it? And does the fact that you can't possibly publish all that's fit to print not indicate bias anyway? One only hopes this doesn't veer towards prejudices. And that whatever calls a news-outlet takes, don't involve sneaky, private deals, or peddling blatant lies in public.

Making motivations known only helps consumers make a choice. Mahatma Gandhi, like Bal Thackeray, ran one-sided newspapers. Neither is accused of bad journalism. Do the same arguments apply to news television?

Though all that there is to it are debates and arguments, anyway? It's odd what the medium grew into, given satellite television in India itself owes its origin to a news event—the 1991 Gulf War, that led to an enterprising South Bombay hotel (then Taj President) placing a satellite dish on the terrace, for its guests to access news on CNN!

The first TV channel delivering 24-hours news, of course, came up only at the fag-end of last millennium. For a medium with a history as short as the story of a boy, who's grown up on steroids, neglected by parents, with a much brighter younger sibling (Internet), and having just about attained legal age for marital sex, it's impossible to tell where it stands currently, let alone where it's headed into the future.

Here are a few facts still. That in less than a decade since the launch of the first Indian round-the-clock news station, there were 300 in competition, for unique eye-balls, often across the nation. All these viewers should ideally have been interested in exactly the same visual-item on screen, while the importance of news per se, is determined by the proximity of the event to the consumer!

How does one compete then? In 2002, when the medium was too nascent, all its three main channels were accused of partisanship in reporting the Gujarat riots — ostensibly aimed at their respective viewerships. Wherein Zee and Aaj Tak were called out for mentioning the religion of victims in the Godhra carnage, but conveniently concealing so while covering the riots that followed. Likewise Star/NDTV was accused of overplaying the possible complicity of the state/police; fanning negativity against both.

But this is still within purview of news. By mid 2000s, when the scene had totally exploded with too many channels to keep count, the country, it was assumed, could only be united by cricket and Bollywood. That's what you saw a whole lot of on Hindi channels. And that you don't anymore. Also, religion (bhakti) and superstition (UFO landings/sightings) reigned supreme.

The creative crescendo of this movement away from news though occurred in July, 2006, with the fall of a five-year-old Prince, into a 55-feet pit, in a village called Aldeharhi, 150 kms off Delhi. For 50 hours that it took for the boy come out of the well, several channels had broadcast his rescue (or the lack of it) for over 24 hours! Since general entertainment had possibly failed, this was television news acknowledging its competition was reality TV. No knock.

The turning point for this genre was of course the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks—live-television for three days straight, involving cameras stationed mainly outside hotels Taj and Oberoi-Trident, but with obviously no fresh footage to upload. What do you do then? Open live commentary, package it as debate, express shock, rally around pent-up emotions. 26/11, a reporter's story, turned TV news into an anchor's medium, with Arnab Goswami at Times Now as its patron saint.

Pretty much all stations feel/sound the same since. Leader dictates competition. Goswami, a pop-culture phenomenon inspiring skits and memes, runs his own channel, heating up a studio, introducing nightly villains, firing at folk on multiple windows, picking up cues primarily from social media—feeding off the mob and feeding right back into it. But come what may, delivering weekly ratings at the box-office of television.

It's been 12 years. Obviously he's not just a journalist. Now he has a rep to protect, and expectations of core-audiences to meet. He defined the era he belongs to, and people are used to seeing him a certain way. Read again. Sounds like Shah Rukh Khan to me.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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David Rhodes to report to Rebekah Brooks as group seeks to challenge BBC’s broadcast dominance

Conditions in East Renfrewshire, just south of Glasgow, were so bad that ITV's Scotland correspondent Peter Smith struggled to speak through the snow and the rain. The clip has since gone viral.

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Back in 2004, in the run-up to the U.S. Presidential election, I was invited to take part in a special edition of the BBC's Question Time, live from Miami.

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Back in 2004, in the run-up to the U.S. Presidential election, I was invited to take part in a special edition of the BBC's Question Time, live from Miami.