Pramod Thomas is a senior correspondent with Asian Media Group since 2020, bringing 19 years of journalism experience across business, politics, sports, communities, and international relations. His career spans both traditional and digital media platforms, with eight years specifically focused on digital journalism. This blend of experience positions him well to navigate the evolving media landscape and deliver content across various formats. He has worked with national and international media organisations, giving him a broad perspective on global news trends and reporting standards.
A B de Villiers is not surprised that just days before South Africa renews it quest for an elusive World Cup, the talk back home is all about racial quota in the team.
It's a rinse-and-repeat sort of situation and de Villiers, who retired in 2018, is glad that he is a mere spectator to the situation now.
"...it's a shame going into a tournament to have the focus on that. I mean it's nothing new, it's just a shame," lamented one of the greats of South African cricket.
"Luckily this time around, I've had nothing to do with anything over there. I'm just a spectator," the 40-year-old said.
The cause of outrage is the presence of just one black player in the squad for the T20 showpiece that will take place in the Americas from June 1.
Considered the perennial bridesmaids, who tend to choke in crunch situations, South Africa somehow are always in the pre-tournament favourites bracket without actually living up to the tag.
And having a deeply divisive topic take centre-stage just days before they begin their campaign is a far-from-ideal build-up for a country that has a troubled past when it comes to race relations. The Proteas will start off against the Netherlands in New York on June 8.
Over the course of a season, six players of colour are required to be in the South Africa playing eleven including two from the black African community as per the policy introduced in 2016.
With Kagiso Rabada being the only black African in the T20 World Cup squad, the national team is set to miss its target. Another black-African, Lungi Ngidi, is part of the travelling reserves.
The other players of colour include Reeza Hendricks, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Ottniel Baartman.
"There are controversial moments back home as per usual with the South African squad just before a World Cup," de Villiers said.
"I think it's a good team. It's a shame about Lungi... lost a bit of form, had a couple of injuries. Otherwise, he most probably would have been in the squad and there wouldn't have been any controversial stuff back home," he added.
At the moment, Cricket South Africa doesn't have a committee of selectors and the team is picked by head coaches Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter .
"Sometimes these things happen and it puts you under a bit of pressure as a selection panel and as a coach and a captain," de Villiers said.
"From what I remember is with the quota system, it's an average team, an average number over the season and they don't really look at every series, but as journalists sometimes enjoy steaming up things a bit," he tried to put things in context.
Following the selection of the squad earlier this month, former sports minister Fikile Mbalula and former CSA and ICC president Ray Mali questioned the composition of the side.
"Only one African player selected in the Proteas Team for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 Team. Definitely a reserval of the gains of transformation and doesn’t reflect fair representation of all South Africans in the national cricket tea,” Mbalula wrote on X.
On SABC Sport, Mali said the game is heading backwards in the country.
"I believe a lot has been achieved, but I believe we have gone backwards in terms of cricket - we have taken a step backwards instead of going forward," said Mali.
But de Villiers was a bit more empathetic towards those who made the choices and said he does not see anything sinister in the process.
"Maybe they are short. Maybe they are well within their right to do whatever they were needed to do in this World Cup.
"Keeping in mind there were a couple of injuries, a couple of out of form players. It's never easy," he said.
Amanda Anisimova defeats world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in three sets
The American advances to her first Grand Slam final
Sabalenka’s run of Grand Slam finals ends
Anisimova will face either Swiatek or Bencic on Saturday
With the win, Anisimova is projected to reach world No. 7
American tennis star Amanda Anisimova produced the biggest win of her career by defeating world number one Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the semi-finals of Wimbledon on Thursday. The result sends the 23-year-old into her first Grand Slam final, where she will face either Iga Swiatek or Belinda Bencic on Saturday.
The contest on Centre Court lasted two hours and 37 minutes and was interrupted twice during the first set due to spectators feeling unwell in the heat. Despite the stoppages, both players maintained their focus in a match marked by intense rallies and shifting momentum.
Anisimova, currently ranked 12th, held her nerve in key moments. Although she was broken for the first time in the second set after leading 30-love, she regrouped in the deciding set. After losing her serve in the opening game, she immediately broke back and went on a run of three consecutive games to take control of the match.
Sabalenka’s defeat ends her streak of reaching the last two Grand Slam finals and marks her third straight Grand Slam loss to an American player this year, following defeats to Coco Gauff at Roland Garros and Madison Keys in Melbourne.
Anisimova, the last American woman remaining in the draw, is set to climb to a career-high world No. 7 following this result. Sabalenka will retain her No. 1 ranking for a 39th consecutive week despite the loss.
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HYBE Cine Fest 2025: How HYBE Cine Fest 2025 is India’s K-pop soft launch
You step into your local PVR today. The smell of popcorn hits you, but instead of previews for the latest Bollywood hit, the lobby is a sea of ARMY Bombs and CARAT Bong light sticks. Fans in TXT tees are swapping photocards. Someone’s already belting out a LE SSERAFIM chorus into a mic at the pop-up Noraebang station. Inside Screen 3? It isn’t a film, but a full-blown K-pop concert. Thousands of voices scream every word of BTS’s Dynamite, and tears well up during Jungkook’s solo. But this isn’t Seoul. It’s Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru, all this weekend. And HYBE? They’re taking notes, big ones!
What is Hybe Cine fest?
HYBE Cine Fest 2025 is a three-day cinema event (from 10 to 12 July) that brings some of the biggest K-pop concert experiences to the big screen across India. Organised by South Korean entertainment giant HYBE in partnership with PVR INOX and Trafalgar Releasing, the fest features full-length concert films from BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT, ENHYPEN, ILLIT, and Katseye. Expect stadium-level production with cinematic visuals, surround sound, and collective fan chants, everything fans love about a K-pop concert, recreated inside a cinema.
HYBE didn’t pick India at random. It’s a calculated move. The company has confirmed it will open an Indian office in Mumbai or Delhi by September or October 2025. This festival is a soft launch, a proof-of-concept to test the waters. By partnering with PVR INOX and global distributor Trafalgar Releasing (which brought in over 260,000 fans during the Latin American edition), HYBE is laying the groundwork for bigger things. With India’s entertainment market projected to grow from £22.9 billion to £32.2 billion (₹2.45 trillion to ₹3.45 trillion) by 2028, the timing is no accident.
HYBE isn’t just here to screen films. This is step one in a long-term strategy:
Live concerts: The biggest fan demand. Data from this weekend supports the case for bringing TXT, ENHYPEN, or SEVENTEEN to Indian stages post-2025.
Local talent & collaborations: HYBE’s upcoming Indian office could scout homegrown talent or spark Indo-Korean music projects, similar to what HYBE America did with Katseye.
Lifestyle takeover: Pop-up merch counters are only the beginning. HYBE wants to control K-pop fashion, fan experiences, and digital platforms (like Weverse) in India.
Expect ticket prices between £7.50–£14 (₹800–₹1,500), depending on location and seat type. Morning and midday weekday shows are filling up fastest, so book early if you want the full fan-crowd vibe.
While Indian ARMYs, CARATs, MOAs, and ENGENEs lose their voices this weekend inside packed theatres, HYBE’s executives are wide awake, analysing ticket data, fan turnout, and social media buzz. Every chant, every Noraebang sing-along, every sold-out show is a datapoint fuelling their next big move.
HYBE Cine Fest 2025 is more than a weekend spectacle. It’s a strategic push to embed K-pop deep into India’s entertainment ecosystem. The concert films are just the beginning, the real goal is long-term cultural presence, local talent scouting, and eventually, massive live tours. The light sticks are lit. The playbook is open. And HYBE’s Indian takeover has officially begun.
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Starlink will next need to acquire spectrum from the government, build ground infrastructure, and carry out testing and trials to meet the agreed security requirements. (Photo: Reuters)
INDIA’s space regulator on Wednesday granted Starlink a licence to begin commercial operations in the country, removing the final regulatory barrier for the satellite internet provider.
The company, led by Elon Musk, has been waiting since 2022 for licences to start operations in India. It received an initial approval last month from India’s telecom ministry and was waiting for clearance from the space regulator.
The licence, issued by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), is valid for five years.
Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing sources, that Starlink had secured the licence from IN-SPACe.
Starlink is now the third company to receive approval to enter the Indian satellite communications market. India has previously cleared applications from Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio.
The company will next need to acquire spectrum from the government, build ground infrastructure, and carry out testing and trials to meet the agreed security requirements.
Musk and Reliance Jio’s Mukesh Ambani had disagreed for several months over how spectrum should be allocated for satellite services. The Indian government later supported Musk’s position that spectrum should be assigned, not auctioned.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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The launch of Grok 4 comes amid criticism of the previous version
Elon Musk unveils Grok 4, calling it “the smartest AI in the world”
Grok 4 reportedly trained 100 times more than Grok 2
Musk says it performs at PhD-level across nearly all subjects
The launch follows controversy around Grok 3’s offensive responses
Musk launches Grok 4 AI model with bold claims of intelligence
Elon Musk has launched Grok 4, the latest artificial intelligence model developed by his xAI company, claiming it surpasses PhD-level intelligence across all academic fields.
Speaking at the launch, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said Grok 4 had been trained using 100 times more data than Grok 2, which was replaced by Grok 3 in February this year. Musk described the new model as “the smartest AI in the world” and said it could achieve near-perfect results in graduate-level exams in almost every subject.
“Grok 4 is smarter than nearly all graduate students in all subjects simultaneously,” Musk said. He referred to the current pace of AI development as an “intelligence big bang” and suggested the model may soon contribute to significant technological breakthroughs.
Potential and concerns over AI ethics
While praising Grok 4’s capabilities, Musk acknowledged that the model “may lack common sense” despite its advanced reasoning skills. He stressed that the most important quality for any AI system is to be “truth-seeking” and stated that it is possible to embed values such as honesty and honour into AI, much like instilling values in a child.
Musk also predicted that the first “watchable half-hour” of television produced entirely by AI could be released by the end of 2025.
The launch of Grok 4 comes amid criticism of the previous version, Grok 3, after it generated antisemitic content, including messages that praised Adolf Hitler. In response, the official Grok account on X (formerly Twitter) said: “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”
Musk distances Grok from 'woke' competitors
Musk has positioned Grok as an alternative to other chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which he has previously criticised for being “woke”. In June, he invited users on X to help train Grok using “divisive facts” — a term he used for politically incorrect but factually accurate statements.
The update also follows news that X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down, nearly two years after being appointed by Musk to lead the platform he acquired for $44 billion (£32.4 billion) in 2022.
PAKISTAN’S army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir on Monday (7) rejected Delhi’s allegation that his military received active support from longtime ally China in its conflict with India in May.
The Indian Army’s deputy chief, Lieutenant General Rahul Singh, said last week that China gave Islamabad “live inputs” on key Indian positions.
Singh did not elaborate on how India knew about the live inputs from China.
Regarding the possibility of China providing satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence, India’s chief of defence staff had said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China or elsewhere.
The “insinuations regarding external support” are “irresponsible and factually incorrect”, Munir said in an address to graduating officers of the national security and war course in Islamabad, according to an army statement.
Pakistani officials have previously dismissed allegations of receiving active support from China in the conflict.
Beijing and Islamabad have longstanding close relations, with billions of dollars of Chinese investment in the country’s energy and infrastructure.
India’s relationship with China meanwhile was strained after a 2020 border clash that sparked a four-year military standoff, but tensions began to ease after the countries reached a pact to step back in October.
India and Pakistan used missiles, drones and artillery fire during the four days of fighting in May – their worst in decades – triggered by an attack in April on tourists in Indian Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, before agreeing to a ceasefire.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack in April.
Singh also added that Turkey provided key support to Pakistan during the fighting, equipping it with Bayraktar and “numerous other” drones, as well as “trained individuals”.
Ankara has strong ties with Islamabad, and had expressed solidarity with it during the clash, prompting Indians to boycott everything from Turkish coffee to holidays in the country.
Turkey’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the allegations.