Relations between India and Pakistan are cratering following a deadly attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir that left more than two dozen tourists dead, raising fears of another military escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals.

New Delhi downgraded ties with Islamabad, summoned its top diplomat, suspended for the first time its involvement in a crucial water-sharing treaty and shut a key border crossing, among other punitive measures in the wake of what was the region’s worst assault on civilians in years.

All but one of the 26 people massacred were Indian citizens, prompting a new wave of unrest in a region claimed by both Pakistan and India and that has been the epicenter of often violent territorial struggle between the two countries.

For decades, several domestic militant groups, demanding either independence for Kashmir or for the area to become part of Pakistan, have fought Indian security forces, leaving tens of thousands killed in the violence.

On Wednesday, India accused Pakistan of supporting terrorist groups in the region, after a little-known militant group called The Resistance Front claimed responsibility. Pakistan has denied any involvement.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to pursue the attackers “to the ends of the earth,” during a speech in the northeastern state of Bihar.

“From the soil of Bihar I say to the whole world, India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backers,” he said, using English rather than his usual Hindi.

“India’s spirit will never be broken by terrorism. Terrorism will not go unpunished. Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done. The entire nation is firm in this resolve.”

Here’s what you need to know.

What happened in Pahalgam?

Gunmen on Tuesday opened fire on sightseers in a popular travel destination in the mountainous destination of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, a rare assault on tourists.

At least 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali national were killed in the massacre, which unfolded in a meadow in the Baisaran Valley – which is only accessible by foot or on horseback.

Eyewitnesses described scenes of horror as the gunmen approached, opening fire on tourists from close range. Some recalled how the men were singled out and shot at. Other survivors speaking to local media said the gunmen accused the families of supporting Prime Minister Modi before shooting.

Photos and videos of the aftermath – showing lifeless bodies strewn on the ground and grieving loved ones wailing in fear – have reverberated across social media, a vivid portrayal of the pain and suffering endured by families whose holidays ended in horror.

Indian authorities have heightened police and military deployment to the region and personnel are on the hunt for the perpetrators.

Modi in his Thursday speech vowed punishment for the perpetrators of the attack.

“I want to say in clear words that whoever has carried out this attack, those terrorists, and the people who devised this attack, will be punished in a manner worse than anything they can imagine,” he said.

Who are The Resistance Front?

Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front (TRF), is a relatively new militant outfit that has claimed killings of civilians from minority communities residing in Kashmir in recent years. Not a huge amount is known about them.

TRF declared its existence in 2019 through the encrypted messaging app Telegram, after claiming responsibility for a grenade attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s largest city of Srinagar, according to research by the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

The arrival of TRF is portrayed as the “inception of a new indigenous resistance in Kashmir,” ORF said in 2021.

India has classified TRF as a “terrorist organization” and linked it to the outlawed Islamist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which was behind the deadly Mumbai attacks in 2008 and has a much higher profile.

“TRF positions itself as a political resistance force, born in Kashmir and one for Kashmir, against illegal occupational forces, having no centralised jihadi figure or leadership,” according to ORF.

Kashmir police on Thursday published notices naming three suspects allegedly involved in the attack. Two of the three are Pakistani nationals, according to the notices. They did not say how the men were identified.

Why is Kashmir important to India and Pakistan?

Kashmir is one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. Claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, the mountainous region has been the epicenter for more than 70 years of an often-violent territorial struggle between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

The festering issue has spurred three wars between the countries and a de facto border called the Line of Control divides it between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Tensions between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan over the disputed region have surged in recent years, after the Modi-led government revoked its constitutional autonomy in 2019, bringing it under the direct control of New Delhi.

While the Indian government has said that militancy has since declined amid a heavy military presence, attacks have continued to plague the region, sparking unrest and protests. Meanwhile, there has been heavy media censorship and communication blackouts.

Analysts say Tuesday’s massacre shattered the illusion of calm that Modi has projected of the region and raises questions of how such a security lapse could have occurred in one of the most militarized zones in the world.

How have India and Pakistan responded?

India has not publicly blamed any group for the attack but has justified its retaliatory moves as a response to Pakistan’s alleged “support for cross-border terrorism.”

Pakistan has denied any involvement and will convene a national security meeting on Thursday to discuss next steps.

New Delhi announced several punitive measures against Islamabad a day after the attack, including shutting a key border crossing and further restricting already limited visas for Pakistani citizens. It also expelled military, naval and air advisors from the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

But perhaps among the most significant acts of retaliation thus far is New Delhi suspending its role in the Indus Water Treaty, an important water-sharing pact between India and Pakistan that has been in force since 1960 and is regarded as a rare diplomatic success story between the two fractious neighbors.

The enormous Indus River system, which supports livelihoods across Pakistan and northern India, originates in Tibet, flowing through China and Indian-controlled Kashmir before reaching Pakistan. The vast volume of water is a vital resource for both countries, and the treaty governs how it is shared.

“Downgrading diplomatic ties and holding the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance does not bode well for stability in the region,” said Fahd Humayun, assistant professor of political science at Tufts University.

“Not only does the suspension amount to a violation of international treaty obligations, but the right to water as a lower riparian country is seen as a national security issue by Pakistan and suspending (it) will be read as a belligerent action.”

Pakistan’s Minister of Power Awais Leghari on Wednesday called the move “an act of warfare.”

“Every drop is ours by right, and we will defend it with full force — legally, politically, and globally,” said Leghari.

What is the situation like in Kashmir?

Thousands have flocked to the streets to condemn the deadly attacks as business owners express concerns over the impact it has already had on the popular tourist destination during peak season.

“There has been 80-90% cancellation of all our tours and travels in the coming days and weeks,” said Mohsin, who goes by one name, and manages a tour company in the region. “We are in complete monetary loss. I might have to shift to another business if this continues.”

Schools and businesses have resumed after being shut on Wednesday in many parts of Kashmir, while demonstrations of solidarity erupted in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, the city square.

“We all could not just sit by and watch. We came out to show emotion, solidarity, and condemn the killings,” said local resident Umar Nazir Tibetbaqan. “Our protests (on Wednesday) were a signal to everyone that all Kashmiris stand with the country in this hour of grief.”

Meanwhile, anti-Pakistan protests have erupted in India’s capital Delhi and several other cities, raising fears of fueling anti-Kashmiri and anti-Muslim sentiment.

What happens next?

All eyes are now on how New Delhi and Islamabad will respond. And the question, analysts say, is not if there will be military retaliation but when.

“Modi will have a very strong, if not irresistible, political compulsion to retaliate with force,” said Arzan Tarapore, a research scholar from Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

“We don’t know what that would look like, and it’s somewhat meaningless to speculate at this point, but I think the 2019 Balakot crisis provides some cues on what to watch for in India’s response,” Tarapore said, referring to New Delhi’s response to a militant attack on Indian troops which killed at least 40 paramilitary personnel in Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi retaliated by launching airstrikes on Pakistan, the first such incursion into its territory since the 1971 war.

“The key question will be will they seek to impose more meaningful, tangible costs on terrorist groups, including by targeting their leadership or headquarters facilities? Or will India go even further, crossing the threshold to attack the Pakistan army?” said Tarapore.

“India’s military capabilities have grown since 2019, so it may feel emboldened to take on such bigger targets.”

And while India’s military prowess has grown in the years since, Pakistan has been rocked by political instability and economic disarray.

Yet Humayun, the professor from Tufts, said should the Indian government choose to resort to military action, there is “every reason to believe that Pakistan will respond in kind.”

“Absent strategic restraint or third-party intervention, the chances of uncontrolled escalation in the coming days is thus not insignificant,” he said.

The family of a jailed Egyptian dissident has expressed renewed fears for his life as his health worsens more than 50 days after he went on hunger strike.

Prominent government critic Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a 42-year-old dual Egyptian British citizen, has remained in prison despite completing his sentence last September, according to his family, which has appealed to the UK prime minister to help secure his release.

The activist’s health has deteriorated since he began his third full-scale hunger strike in less than two years on March 1 in solidarity with his mother’s own partial hunger strike to call for his release, his family said in a statement on Facebook Tuesday.

Abd El-Fattah has suffered from vomiting, stomach flu and severe fatigue. He has been diagnosed with chronic inflammation of the esophagus and his body is rejecting previously prescribed medication because of his prolonged hunger strike, according to the statement.

His mother, Laila Soueif, “expressed her deep concern for her son and his health, saying he could not bear the strike. She renewed her demand for his release,” the statement said.

Abd El-Fattah’s more than decade-long imprisonment has long drawn international condemnation.

Arrested repeatedly since the height of the Egyptian uprising in 2011, he was sentenced in 2021 to an additional five years in prison for spreading false news and assaulting a police officer – charges that human rights organizations say were politically motivated.

Amnesty International says Abd El-Fattah is a political prisoner who remains imprisoned in “arbitrary” detention, according to a statement from the rights group in February.

Abd El-Fattah was granted British citizenship in 2022, through his British-born mother, in what his family said was part of the campaign for his release and to shed light on the struggle of his fellow inmates.

On Tuesday, his sister Sanaa Seif issued an urgent plea to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to raise his case with Egyptian authorities.

“I’m always afraid that we are on the verge of a tragedy. We need Keir Starmer to do all he can to bring Alaa home to us,” she said.

Starmer, who met with the jailed activist’s mother in February, previously vowed to “do all that I can to secure (Alaa’s) release.”

In 2022, then-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised the activist’s case during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit, a Downing Street spokesperson said at the time.

Sisi, a former military general, has long faced criticism for cracking down on dissent, imprisoning activists, journalists, and opposition figures since he came to power in 2014.

Abd El-Fattah’s mother launched her own hunger strike last September to demand her son’s release.

She was hospitalized in February on her 149th day of protest after her blood sugar, blood pressure, and sodium levels plummeted to critical lows. Abd El-Fattah escalated his protest following her hospitalization, according to relatives.

Pangolins have two claims to fame: first, that they are the world’s only scaly mammal, and second, they are one of the most trafficked animals globally.

Beyond that, most people know very little about them. But the new Netflix documentary “Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey,” hopes to change that.

The 90-minute film follows the story of a three-month-old ground pangolin, Kulu, who is rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, and the slow, intensive process to return him to the wild in South Africa.

“Kulu’s got an incredible personality, he’s very much his own pangolin,” says director Pippa Elrich, best known for the Oscar-winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher.”

“He’s incredibly stubborn, determined to go where he wants to go, not that keen to have this strange two-legged creature following him around everywhere he goes,” she adds.

The two-legged creature in question is Gareth Thomas, a conservation volunteer who took part in the sting operation that rescued Kulu.

Rehabilitating rescued pangolins is an “incredibly intensive process,” says Elrich: they rarely eat in captivity so they require daily walks, sometimes up to six hours a day, to feed on ants and termites. These daily walks aren’t just for feeding: they are also getting the pangolin ready for the sights, sounds, and smells of its new habitat, and helping it overcome the trauma of captivity.

“The rehabilitation team asked (Gareth) if he would take Kulu into the wild and set him free. And I don’t know if he realized that that was going to be the next 18 months of his life,” says Elrich.

The film follows the duo into the wild savanna of Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, a four-hour drive from Johannesburg, immersing the viewer in the world of pangolins.

“They’ve got a magical quality; they are a mammal but they’re covered in scales,” says Elrich. “You just don’t want pangolins to be seen only as the world’s most trafficked mammal. You want them to be seen as these joyful, unique, special little creatures.”

A ‘deep bond’

The ground pangolin, also known as Temminck’s pangolin or the Cape pangolin, is one of eight species found globally, and the most widely distributed of the four species in Africa, with a territory ranging from South Africa to Sudan.

When Kulu arrived at the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, staff called him Gijima, which means “to run” in Zulu, as the severely underweight yet feisty pangolin was constantly trying to run away during his feeding walks. It was during the six-month stint in the savanna that Thomas nicknamed the pangolin Kulu, a variant of the word for “easy” in Zulu, to try to soothe him.

Thomas grew up spending summers in the wilderness in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where he was born; but after school, he became “detached” from nature, instead spending most of his time in the city. “I had a bit of a yearning to be out there again,” he recalls. So in 2019, after picking up wildlife photography, he started volunteering with the African Pangolin Working Group and the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital.

Thomas’ self-shot footage of the pangolins was pivotal to the film, says Elrich: Pangolins are incredibly sensitive creatures, so Elrich says the production team had limited shooting days and relied heavily on Thomas for videos of the rehabilitation process and close-ups of Kulu.

“I realized, he has a very deep bond with these animals, and he understands them,” says Elrich. “He understands how to get this very intimate footage, which almost makes you feel like you’re seeing the world through the eyes of a pangolin.”

While viewers will likely observe thematic similarities between “My Octopus Teacher” and “Kulu’s Journey” — both explore human-wildlife relationships and our emotional connection with nature— Elrich says the drastically different ecosystems changed her approach to the film.

“One of the things that was so compelling about (My Octopus Teacher) is that you’re going underwater, and that immediately takes you into this other universe,” she explains. “Being in the terrestrial world, even if you don’t know the bush, it is way more relatable.”

Trafficking terror

The biggest threat to the pangolins is poaching for the $20-billion illegal wildlife trade, where their scales, meat and body parts are sold for traditional medicine, and their skins used for leather products.

According to NGO Traffic, pangolins are largely trafficked to China and the US. With three of the four Asian species critically endangered, and difficulty breeding pangolins in captivity, poaching has increased in Africa: between 2017 and 2019, more than half of illegal pangolin seizures in Asia were from African pangolin species, accounting for 244,600 kilograms of scales and 10,971 individual animals.

Ray Jansen, the co-founder of the African Pangolin Working Group, who features in the documentary, has witnessed the scale of this threat firsthand: the zoologist-turned-sting operative helped rescue 301 live pangolins, including Kulu, between 2016 and 2024, leading to the arrest of nearly 700 wildlife traffickers.

Prior to 2017, Jansen says arrests in South Africa were met with meager fines, rather than jail time. But in recent years, conservationists like Jansen began providing expert witness testimony in court, resulting in sentences of up to 10 years.

“It sent out a huge warning message to these traffickers about pangolins,” Jansen says, adding that while he’s observed a decrease in “opportunistic” poaching in the country, “sophisticated” organized crime networks continue to traffic for the international trade.

Pangolins rescued from the wildlife trade are incredibly difficult to treat and rehabilitate, says Dr. Karin Lourens, the co-founder and head veterinarian of the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, the first hospital in South Africa to treat pangolins (all pangolins are kept off-site in an undisclosed location).

“Because they haven’t eaten, they don’t have enough protein,” says Lourens, adding that this then causes a build-up of fluid in their lungs. “Then, their pancreas stops working, so they can’t digest food either.”

“It was a steep learning curve in the beginning,” says Lourens, adding she had no medical guidelines for the first ground pangolins in the hospital, but over the years, the survival rate has soared from 40% to 80%.

The film crew also worked with Lapalala Wilderness, the 48,000-hectare reserve where Kulu was ultimately released, to secure filming permits and coordinate with the on-site anti-poaching unit to ensure safety for the pangolins and those transporting them.

While poachers are an unavoidable topic when talking about pangolins, Elrich made the deliberate choice to highlight the emotional side of the little-known creatures. “You’ve got to be careful about anthropomorphism, and I’m sure that’s the criticism that we’re going to get,” Elrich says.

Lourens said she would have preferred for the documentary to focus on Africa’s pangolin trade, something she says is “sorely needed.” She also expressed concern about Kulu’s overexposure to people during filming. Elrich says Thomas was “incredibly strict” about when the additional videographers could film; “I think I only did two shoots with Kulu, most of the time it was just Gareth and him,” she adds.

Initially, Jansen too wanted the film to focus on the wildlife trade, a subject close to his heart — but after viewing the documentary, he changed his mind. “It’s a much, much better angle to focus on,” he says. “I’m hoping that it spreads a huge awareness, and the world can fall in love with these incredible creatures.”

A new threat — and a new hope

While poaching remains a major threat for pangolins globally, Jansen says electric fences in game reserves are now “responsible for the large majority of Temminck’s pangolin deaths” in South Africa, illustrated in one terrifying scene when Kulu nearly runs straight into one, saved at the last minute by Thomas.

Together with Thomas and Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, Jansen is working on a large-scale electric fence study and exploring new designs that could save wildlife.

And a new “pangolarium,” operated by the African Pangolin Working Group at Lapalala Wilderness, opened earlier this year — a kind of halfway house for pangolins between hospital and release, and a networking hub for conservationists. While it can house multiple pangolins, each one will still need its own dedicated walker for its daily mealtime.

Despite global conservation efforts, pangolin numbers are in decline, with all eight species considered vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered by the IUCN.

“Pangolins really are a symbol of the fragility that we see in one another and in nature all around us,” says Elrich.

She hopes audiences will connect with Kulu’s story, and be moved to protect them and their environment: “There is just nothing else like a pangolin.”

William Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway may have been happier than previously thought, according to new research.

It has been long believed that the playwright left his wife behind when he moved to London, but new findings from the University of Bristol suggest that the couple were living together in London for some period of time between 1600 and 1610.

Shakespeare married Hathaway in 1582 and the couple shared three children. Experts have long thought that Shakespeare then moved to London from his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, leaving his family behind.

Now, a long forgotten letter may turn that theory on its head, according to Matthew Steggle, a professor of English at Bristol University.

The fragments of the letter, addressed to “good Mrs Shakspaire,” (the name’s spelling at the time) were found sewn into the binding of a 1,000-page theological book in the city of Hereford, about 50 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Although the letter’s writer hasn’t been identified, they refer to a fatherless apprentice called John Butts.

Steggle found just one person by Butts’ name who fit the criteria and lived in London at that time.

The letter writer accuses the husband of “Mrs Shakspaire” of withholding money from Butts and asks her for the funds. In what may be a reply from Hathaway herself, the recipient stands by her husband and refuses to settle the claim.

The letter also refers to a “Shakspaire” couple who lived in a place called Trinity Lane. Out of the four couples living in London with the surname, Steggle believes only the playwright and his wife could have afforded to live in the relatively prosperous area.

Steggle said the discovery opens the path to more revelations about the playwright’s life.

“We know so little about exactly where Shakespeare lives in London, so it’s another sort of data point for that,” he said. “It’s another kind of anchor on where he might have been living, how he might have been, and how he might have been living in his London career.”

As for challenging views about Shakespeare’s relationship with his wife, Steggle credits a shift in attitudes towards women and greater academic work in this area.

“There’s this narrative, like the film ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ where he’s got this wife who’s this kind of distant encumbrance in Stratford, and (Shakespeare is) having all these romantic love affairs in London separately,” he said, referring to the Oscar-winning 1998 movie.

The letter is a “game-changer” that suggests Hathaway was not absent from her husband’s London life, but present and engaged in his financial and social networks, argues Steggle.

“The reason it’s gone unnoticed for so long is that it’s not in London… where there’s been a lot of quite intensive searching for Shakespeare,” Steggle said of the letter’s discovery.

Looking outside the city – and in the binding of books printed by the Bard’s old friend – could point the way “towards the possibility of more discoveries.”