With anti-Shia street protests by radical groups of Sunni Right rising in Pakistan, sectarian tension has made a comeback. In episode 579 of Cut The Clutter, Shekhar Gupta traces the tension back to its root, lists the evolving Sunni sectarian outfits in Pakistan and explains the conflict. 

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Read the Dawn article here: https://www.dawn.com/news/1571733

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Read the Arab News article here: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1732981/world

----more----Read the Smithsonian Magazine article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/iraqs-oppressed-majority-95250996/

----more----Read Ayesha Siddiqa's article here: https://theprint.in/opinion/shia-sunni-rift-on-rise-in-pakistan-but-imran-khan-govts-silence-may-be-strategic/511942/

Oldest ally of the BJP, the Shiromani Akali Dal has exited from the NDA, in the footsteps of the Shiv Sena. In episode 578 of Cut The Clutter, Shekhar Gupta underlines the big fundamental shift it marks in national politics. Also, a word on Vajpayee era BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh.

New evidence has emerged about China’s large-scale destruction of mosques, mazars and continued building of detention centres for its Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang. In episode 577 of Cut The Clutter, Shekhar Gupta explains where the tensions rise from, the geo-strategic picture of Xinjiang & the Muslim World’s silence.

Research by Taran Deol, Unnati Sharma & Srijan Shukla

Astronomers working on the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission have discovered pieces of the asteroid Vesta on the asteroid Bennu. ThePrint’s Sandhya Ramesh looks at these findings and how they got there.

After the arrest of Rhea Chakraborty in a drugs case following the death of her boyfriend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor & others are summoned by NCB. In episode 576 of Cut The Clutter, Shekhar Gupta explains India’s messy drug laws, how they evolved & the price of over-criminalisation.