5 stories you must read today, September 19: From Assamese singer Zubeen Garg’s death to DUSU election results and more

Zubeen Garg, one of the most influential musical artists from Assam, has died in a scuba diving accident in Singapore. The 52-year-old was in Singapore for the North East India Festival, organised by the High Commission of India, as a Cultural Brand Ambassador. Known for his voice that captivated generations, Garg has mostly worked in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi film and music industries but has sung in dozens more languages. Read more

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP has won three key posts in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections on Friday. Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) managed to win only one post, that of the vice president. ABVP’s Aryan Maan secured the president’s post with 28,821 votes — well ahead of NSUI’s Joslyn Nandita Choudhary at 12,645 and the Left-backed candidate Anjali at 5,385. With Maan’s victory, the ABVP, which has been the most dominant students' organistation in DU, reclaimed the post of president, which it lost to NSUI in 2024. Read more

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the bail plea of former JNU student leader Umar Khalid and others in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots case till September 22. The SC bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Manmohan adjourned the hearing, stating that the plea, which was originally listed before another bench, came to it late. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had denied bail to Khalid and others, saying the riots, which killed 29 people and injured hundreds, were not a “regular protest” but a “premeditated, well-orchestrated conspiracy”. Khalid has been behind bars since his arrest in September 2020. Read more

The Taliban government in Afghanistan has removed books authored by women from the country’s university curriculum. The religious fundamentalists who have been ruling Afghanistan since August 2021 have also banned the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment in universities. According to reports, around 140 books by women were among 680 flagged as “of concern” for being “anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.” In addition to this, universities have also been told to stop teaching 18 subjects, out of which six focus specifically on women, including Gender and Development, The Role of Women in Communication, and Women’s Sociology. Read more

A new study has found that smoking, vaping and nicotine pouches are a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. For this study, researchers analysed medical data from more than 3,300 people with Type 2 diabetes and almost 3,900 controls, who had participated in a previous diabetes study in Norway and a case-control study in Sweden. Smoking increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes due to its harmful effects on the body’s insulin sensitivity, inflammation and metabolic processes. Read more