On a bright morning in Jinhua, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, a group of Somali civil servants file into a lecture hall at Zhejiang Normal University. They have travelled thousands of miles from Mogadishu, leaving behind a country where media work is not simply a profession but a daily negotiation with political pressure, security threats and public distrust. These 27 officials—directors, heads of government media departments, and other personnel from Somalia’s Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism—are not attending a ceremonial exchange. They have come for a 21-day training programme, and their schedule is packed with seminars on…

On a tense Thursday in Rampur, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav stepped into the district jail not as a routine politician, but as an old comrade visiting a man whose political life has become a symbol of both loyalty and suffering. After landing at the Jauhar University helipad, where Azam Khan’s family members and party workers were waiting with anxious hope, Akhilesh made his way to the prison ward. The meeting lasted long enough to send a message: this was not a drive-by gesture. Emerging before reporters, Akhilesh delivered a phrase that seemed intended to echo beyond the prison walls:…