Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman and Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan will unite on India’s Independence Day (15) to raise funds for Covid-19 relief work.
Titled "We For India", the event will be streamed on Facebook on August 15 and aims to raise funds for the Covid-19 relief missions of philanthropic platform Give India.
The three-hour videothon will feature more than 100 artists - including filmmakers
Rajkumar Hirani, Imtiaz Ali, Farah Khan, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikram Bhatt and Ribhu Dasgupta.
Several interactions are planned with stars like Ajay Devgn, Akkineni Nagarjuna, R
Madhavan, Farhan Akhtar, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Pratik Gandhi among others.
The show will be hosted by actor Rajkummar Rao.
Reliance Entertainment is producing the event, in partnership with The World We Want (WWW) and supported by GiveIndia.
Namit Sharma, creative producer, Reliance Entertainment, said, "Our effort in putting together this fundraiser has taught us one thing - the world is one, and there is no dearth of goodness and kindness."
In addition to Jagger and Sheeran, international stars and musicians, who will take part in the show, are singer Annie Lennox alongside her daughter Lola Lennox, Africa origin actor Ini Dima-Okojie, Unicef goodwill ambassador Nancy Ajram, co-founder of CHIC, guitarist Nile Rodgers and music group Sister Sledge ft Sledgendary.
Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, dance maestros Prabhudeva and Remo De Suza, musicians Shankar Mahadevan, Usha Uthup, Pandit Bikram Ghosh, Mithoon, Amit Trivedi, Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant, Swanand Kirkire, Shantanu Moitra, Kanika Kapoor, Lisa Mishra will also perform.
Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupati will also be a participant. Besides, the show will also feature medical professionals who will share their experiences and urgent requirements to keep India safe.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sonakshi Sinha, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh, Malaika Arora, Dia Mirza, Kalki Koechlin, Sanya Malhotra, Ananya Panday and Alaya F will also feature on the videothon.
Proceeds from the event will fund oxygen concentrators, cylinders, ventilators, and essential medicines as well as ICU units.
Funds will also go towards supporting the staffing of vaccination centres. Meal and ration kits will also be provided to the rural and urban families hit financially by the pandemic.
Cash relief will be provided to families who have lost an immediate member.
A TEENAGER inspired by Adolf Hitler who planned to set fire to a Scottish mosque was sentenced on Thursday (21) to 10 years in custody.
Police arrested the 17-year-old in January carrying a military-style rucksack as he tried to gain entry to the building in Greenock, on the west coast of Scotland.
Inside the bag officers found a German-made Glock-type air pistol, ammunition, ball bearings, gas cartridges and aerosol cans, prosecutors said.
The teen had mapped out the building's interior on his phone.
A search of his home found Hitler's book Mein Kampf, knives and masks as well as instructions and ingredients for the manufacturing of explosives.
The High Court in Glasgow sentenced him after he pleaded guilty to two charges of terrorism, Scotland's Crown Office said.
The teenager -- who cannot be named for legal reasons due to his age -- will initially serve his sentence in youth custody before being moved to an adult jail.
He will be supervised for eight years after his release.
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Keir Starmer attends the Service of Remembrance to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day at the National Memorial Arboretum, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, Britain August 15, 2025. Anthony Devlin/Pool via REUTERS
PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer faced renewed criticism over his immigration policies on Thursday (21) after new official figures showed asylum-seeker claims hitting a record high, with more migrants being housed in hotels compared with a year ago.
According to a regular tracker of voters' concerns, immigration has overtaken the economy as the biggest issue amid anger over the record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel, including more than 27,000 this year.
The populist Reform Party, which advocates the deportation of "illegal immigrants", is now comfortably leading in the polls, putting Starmer, who has promised to cut net immigration, under increasing pressure to tackle the issue.
However, earlier this week the government was dealt a blow when a council to the northeast of London won a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from being housed in a hotel where protests had erupted after one resident was charged with sexual assault.
Other councils have indicated they would also seek similar court orders, while Reform leader Nigel Farage has called for more protests.
"Labour has lost control of our borders and they're engulfed in a migration crisis," said Chris Philp, the home affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservative party.
The new migration data showed more than 32,000 asylum seekers were housed in hotels in Britain at the end of June this year, an increase of eight per cent from the year before.
However, the total figure of just over 32,000 was 43 per cent lower than the peak of 56,042 recorded in September 2023, and slightly down compared with the previous quarterly figures in March.
Anti-immigration demonstrators display Union Jack and England flags as they gather outside the Cresta Court hotel, in Altrincham, Britain, August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble
The figures also showed 111,000 people had claimed asylum in the year to June, up 14 per cent from the previous year and surpassing the previous peak of 103,000 recorded in 2002.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said overall the figures showed their policies have been working since Labour took office last year, pointing to a 30 per cent increase in the returns of failed asylum seekers.
"We inherited a broken immigration and asylum system that the previous government left in chaos," she said in a statement.
"Since coming to office we have strengthened Britain’s visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs and sharply increased enforcement and returns, as today’s figures show."
The numbers arriving on small boats - up 38 per cent in the year to June - have become the focal point for the migration issue. Critics say the public are at risk from thousands of young men coming to Britain, while pro-migrant groups say the issue is being used by far right groups to exploit tensions.
The latest figures showed of the almost 160,000 people who had arrived on small boats and claimed asylum since 2018, 61,706 had been granted some form of protection status.
Nationals from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran made up the largest number of such arrivals in the year to June.
While the data showed overall enforced returns were 25 per cent higher in the year to June than the previous year, it also said since 2018 only 6,313 people who arrived by small boat had been returned, four per cent of the total number of such arrivals.
Starmer's government views clearing the backlog of cases as essential to fulfilling its pledge to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029.
Under a 1999 law, the Home Office "is required to provide accommodation and subsistence support to all destitute asylum seekers while their asylum claims are being decided".
But the use of hotels, which hit peak levels under the previous Tory government, costs Britain billions of pounds -- and they also have become flashpoints for sometimes violent protests.
Labour has said the use of migrant hotels has fallen from a high of 400 two years ago to around 230 presently.
Thursday's figures also showed that spending on asylum had fallen 12 per cent from £5.38 billion in 2023/24 to £4.76bn in 2024/25.
Starmer's government has signed several agreements with countries as it tries to break up gangs of people-smugglers facilitating the crossings.
It penned a new returns deal with Iraq this week and has struck a "one-in, one-out" pilot programme with Paris, which allows Britain to send some small-boats arrivals back to France.
(Agencies)
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Students queue to get their GCSE results at City Of London Magistrates Court on August 21, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images)
HUNDREDS of thousands of teenagers received their GCSE results on Thursday, with figures showing a slight increase in top grades but a growing number of pupils failing English and maths.
Data from the Joint Council for Qualifications showed that 21.9 per cent of entries were awarded at least grade 7 or A, up from 21.8 per cent last year. The overall pass rate at grade 4 or C fell slightly to 67.4 per cent, compared with 67.6 per cent last year, though still above pre-pandemic levels.
Among 16-year-olds, 39.8 per cent did not achieve a standard pass in English language and 41.7 per cent failed in maths, both worse than last year. More students are expected to retake exams in autumn or next year, The Times reported.
Among older students retaking exams, results were also low: only 18.2 per cent of those aged 17 or above passed maths, while 23.1 per cent passed English.
Regional disparities continued. London had the highest proportion of top grades, with 28.4 per cent at 7 or A, compared with 17.8 per cent in the northeast, the lowest performing region. London also had the highest pass rate at grade 4 or C, 71.6 per cent, down from 73.1 per cent last year.
Gender differences persisted. Girls achieved 24.5 per cent top grades, compared with 19.4 per cent for boys. The gap of 5.1 percentage points was the smallest in 25 years. At least grade 4 or C was achieved by 70.5 per cent of girls and 64.3 per cent of boys.
Ofqual figures showed 1,302 pupils achieved grade 9 in all their GCSEs, with girls making up 61.7 per cent.
Subject choices shifted, with Spanish overtaking French, and entries rising in statistics, music, business studies and physical education, while history, religious studies, English literature and single sciences saw declines.
AN 18-year-old British Pakistani girl from Slough, Berkshire, who achieved 23 A-level passes, has said she did not find the experience stressful.
Mahnoor Cheema told the BBCthat she studied less than most pupils, describing herself as “very lucky” with the ability to “read and pick up things quite easily”.
Cheema admitted that sitting exams for so many years had been “a constant presence” in her life, but added she was eager to move on. “It’s bittersweet, but I’m now ready to focus on medicine. I don’t think anyone could manage something like 24 degrees, so I’m just looking ahead to the future,” she was quoted as saying.
A former student of north London’s Henrietta Barnett School (HBS), the Asian girl has an IQ of 161, putting her in a highly gifted category, along with scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.
She explained her motivation began in Year 8, when she wanted to study nearly 50 subjects but was told schools allowed only 10. “I was really disappointed, so I decided to do more on my own – and it grew from there,” she said. The teenager stressed that she only chose subjects she enjoyed.
Her parents, Usman and Tayyaba, were described as her biggest supporters. Rejecting stereotypes, she said: “There’s a perception that parents from our background push too much, but mine have always been the opposite – they often told me not to do so many. Still, they’ve always been there whenever I asked them to book an exam or take me somewhere.”
Despite her workload, Cheema insisted she lived a balanced life. “People imagine I’m glued to books day and night, but it’s not true. I have time for fun, activities, and everything a normal teenager does,” she said.
The gifted student said studying at Oxford was “a lifelong dream”. She added: “I’ve always been fascinated by how the brain works, even my own. It’s such a joy that my dream has come true. Medicine is a long journey, and I’ll explore different fields, but for now neurosurgery is where my passion lies.”
A WOMAN listed on the FBI’s '10 most wanted fugitives' has been arrested in India on charges of murdering her six-year-old son, officials have confirmed.
Cindy Rodriguez Singh, 40, was apprehended in a coordinated effort involving the FBI, Indian authorities, and Interpol. This marks the fourth arrest from the FBI’s 'top 10 most wanted' list within the past seven months, FBI director Kash Patel announced in a post on X on Wednesday (20).
Patel credited the collaboration between law enforcement in Texas, the US Justice Department, and Indian authorities for the successful operation. Singh was wanted in the United States on state charges related to the death of her son, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez.
According to reports, Singh fled the US in 2023 to avoid prosecution. Fox News said that she was arrested in India and has since been transported back to the US, where she will be handed over to Texas authorities.
In March 2023, Texas authorities conducted a welfare check on Noel, who had not been seen since October 2022. Singh allegedly provided false information about his whereabouts, claiming he was in Mexico with his biological father and had been there since November 2022.
Kash Patel 201117-A-PZ314-002
Just two days after the welfare check, Singh flew to India with her husband—Noel’s stepfather of Indian origin—and six other children. However, Noel was not with them and did not board the flight, officials said.
The child reportedly suffered from multiple health and developmental conditions, including a severe developmental disorder, a social disorder, bone density issues, and chronic lung disease.
Singh was formally charged in October 2023 by a Texas district court. Following the issuance of an Iinterpol Red Notice, authorities submitted an extradition request to India last year.
She now faces charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and capital murder of a person under 10 years of age, according to Patel.