Thousands of women and girls sought treatment for sexual violence in war-ravaged Sudan over nearly two years, with Doctors Without Borders saying Tuesday that rape is being used as a weapon in the country’s brutal conflict.The aid group, known by its French acronym MSF, said at least 3,396 survivors of sexual violence were treated at its facilities between January 2024 and November 2025. Most survivors identified the attackers as armed men, while 60% of the reported cases in South Darfur involved multiple perpetrators.In a report released Tuesday, as cited by AP, MSF documented accounts from women who were gang raped in South Darfur and North Darfur, highlighting what it said is a much wider crisis than current figures show.One survivor described her ordeal in the report, saying, “They took us to an open area. The first man raped me twice, the second once, the third four times.”MSF Emergency Coordinator Myriam Laroussi said the numbers recorded in the report reflect only a small part of the violence.Speaking at the report launch in Nairobi, Kenya, Laroussi, who was in Tawila in North Darfur in late 2025 after the fall of El Fasher, said the figures were just a “tip of the iceberg” and that the scale of sexual violence is likely far greater in areas where MSF has no access.Medical workers said survivors often face major delays in reaching treatment. MSF midwife Gloria Endreo said teams in Tawila were seeing an average of 10 to 15 women a day, with most arriving after the first 72 hours, a critical period for treating injuries and trauma, preventing infections and avoiding unwanted pregnancies.Many victims, she said, have to walk for days or travel by camel to reach care.“As healthcare practitioners, we consider the 72 hours as a golden period because we provide a lot of care within that period,” Endreo said.MSF sexual health specialist Andreza Trajano said the violence has also left a deep impact on entire communities.In some cases, girls were raped in front of their mothers and grandparents, she said. Fear of sexual assault has also stopped some people from carrying out daily activities such as farming.“Will we continue to just let women’s and girls’ bodies be used as a weapon of war?” she said.MSF urged the United Nations to strengthen its presence in Sudan to better respond to the needs of affected communities.Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 after a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into open fighting in Khartoum and other parts of the country. The International Criminal Court is investigating mass killings, gang rapes and other abuses linked to the conflict as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, though aid groups say the actual death toll is likely much higher.Fighting has recently intensified in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, where deadly attacks, mostly involving drones, have been reported daily. The UN Human Rights Office said more than 500 civilians had been killed in drone strikes this year as of mid-March.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India had handled the fallout of the West Asia crisis “effectively”, while accusing the Opposition of attempting to “spread anarchy” by fuelling panic over fuel shortages and rising prices.Addressing a rally in Vav-Tharad in Gujarat, Modi said global disruptions caused by tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran had affected energy supplies worldwide, particularly diesel, petrol and gas. He said India, however, had managed to keep the situation under control due to “strong foreign policy and national unity”.“The situation unfolding in West Asia is impacting the entire world,” he said, adding that despite rising global difficulties, India had avoided major disruption. “But at a time when the country needs unity, Congress leaders are spreading rumours and fear, trying to incite people to queue at fuel pumps,” he said, accusing the party of seeking political gains from the crisis.Modi also said India was capable of handling any crisis and would emerge as a global leader in renewable energy, pointing to ongoing investments in transmission and infrastructure.The Prime Minister’s remarks came as he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for development projects worth over Rs 20,000 crore across Gujarat, spanning sectors such as power, railways, road transport, health, urban development and rural infrastructure. Among the key projects was the Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway, built at a cost of over Rs 5,100 crore, along with multiple rail upgrades and urban initiatives aimed at improving connectivity and public services.He also referred to the strategic importance of Deesa, saying a long-pending airbase project had been stalled for years under previous governments. “Files were buried, but once you gave me responsibility, we revived the project. Today, a major Air Force base stands there,” he said.

Margaret Hamilton, standing tall with her back to the camera and proudly facing the mountain of Apollo code she had developed, is not only a historic picture, but it is also a representation of the human spirit, precision, and ingenuity. Indeed, the code developed by Margaret Hamilton played a very important role in 1969 in the safe landing of the astronauts on the moon, which is one of the biggest milestones in the history of human achievement. Today, as NASA is gearing up to send humans farther than ever before in nearly 50 years with its historic Artemis II mission, Margaret Hamilton’s work is alive. The move from code to software is a testament not only to technological progress but also to a belief in software as a tool in space exploration.

How Margaret Hamilton’s Apollo code made the Moon landing possible

Margaret Hamilton supervised a division at MIT called the Software Engineering Division, which designed flight software used in NASA’s Apollo missions. As NASA describes, “Margaret’s work in flight software was revolutionary not only because it enabled humans to land on the moon, but because it launched the term ‘software engineering’ itself.”The well-known photograph of Margaret Hamilton was taken in 1969 and depicts her standing beside printouts of the code written by her team for both the Command Module and the Lunar Module. This code wasn’t simply written; rather, it was written in a way that enabled it to process errors that might occur during a mission. During the descent of Apollo 11, when the computer went into overload, the code enabled the mission to continue by prioritising tasks.Speaking about her work on the mission, Margaret Hamilton said, “There was no second chance. We knew that.”

Apollo to Artemis II: A new era of lunar exploration

Fast forward to the year 2026, and NASA is set to send its Artemis II mission to the Moon with four astronauts on board. The mission is expected to take ten days. It is the first mission to fly by the Moon with humans on board since the Apollo 17 mission.One major difference between the Artemis II mission and the Apollo missions is the technology used. Unlike the Apollo missions, theArtemis II mission utilises the much more advanced computing technology. Nevertheless, the main aim of the mission is remarkably similar to the Apollo missions. It is meant to test the technology to take humans further into space.Additionally, the mission is historic because it is the first mission to send the first woman and the first person of colour farther than low Earth orbit. Space travel is not only technologically evolving but also socially.

Software engineering legacy in Artemis missions

While Artemis II uses far more advanced software than Apollo’s 72 kilobytes of memory, the basic premise is still the same. Hamilton’s approach to developing systems that can identify, prioritise, and overcome errors still influences NASA’s approach to engineering.Hamilton’s work demonstrated that software was not merely an auxiliary system, but a mission-critical system. She once said to TIME magazine after Apollo 11, “It worked.” These three simple words illustrate the heart of trust in software, a trust that still exists in Artemis II today.While today’s spacecraft possess a range of advanced technologies such as diagnostic systems, real-time communication systems, and navigation systems, they still follow the same basic premise: software has to be reliable, even in extreme conditions.

From handwritten code to the future of space exploration

The evolution from Margaret Hamilton’s handwritten listings to the sophisticated technology used in Artemis II is one such story. It is the story of human ingenuity evolving over the course of several decades. It is the story of innovation building on innovation.As Artemis II is about to make its way around the Moon, it is not only conducting a test of the latest technology but also a celebration of the pioneers who made it all possible. Margaret Hamilton’s work is a testament to the fact that behind every successful mission, it is not the technology but the lines of code written with foresight and courage.Artemis II is not only making its way back to the Moon but is also a continuation of a woman standing next to her code listings and showing the world that even in the vastness of space, it is the ingenuity of humans that remains the driving force.

Palmer Luckey was only 21 when Meta acquired his virtual reality startup, Oculus VR in March 2014. The company was acquired for a whopping $2 billion, making it one of biggest tech deals of the decade. With the acquisition, Palmer Luckey became one of the youngest self-made billionaires then. “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow. Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg then said. But what happened next was not what many had expected. Just three years after the billion dollar deal, Luckey was ‘fired’ from Meta.

Donation that got Palmer Luckey ‘fired’ from Facebook

In March 2017, Palmer Luckey left Facebook amid controversy surrounding his political contributions and financial support of far-right groups and internet trolls. In a later interview with CNBC, Luckey admitted hat he was fired from the social networking giant a few years ago, saying it was for “no reason at all.”“I gave $10,000 to a pro-Trump group, and I think that’s something to do with it,” he said, adding “it wasn’t my choice to leave” but selling Oculus to Facebook was “the best thing that ever happened to the VR industry even if it wasn’t super great for me.”Since leaving Facebook, Luckey has openly supported Donald Trump.

Palmer Luckey founded defence-tech startup Anduril

Following his exit from Facebook, Luckey founded the security and defense-tech startup Anduril Industries in 2017. The company has secured major contracts from US defence agencies. In a recent interview, Luckey admitted that moving from VR headsets to defense was a shift. “With VR, the only thing stopping us from launching a new headset was whether it was finished and ready to launch. You can’t do that with the military. You’re moving at someone else’s pace.”Cost-plus contracting has perverse incentives: people make more money when programs are slow, more money when things are more expensive, more money when things break all the time. If I relied on the government to give me money to start development, I’d have to wait years just to even start,” he said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg praises Palmer Luckey

In a taste statement about Luckey, Mark Zuckerberg told Tablet that he had “a huge amount of respect” for Palmer and hoped the two could “find ways to work together in the future.”“He’s an impressive free-thinker and fun to work with,” he said in the statement. “I was sad when his time at Meta came to an end, but the silver lining is that his work at Anduril is going to be extremely important for our national security. I’m glad an entrepreneur of his caliber is working on these problems.”

When Palmer Luckey commented on Meta layoffs

Earlier this year, Palmer Luckey shared an X post expressing sympathy for laid off Meta employees as the company cut 1,500 jobs at its Reality Labs division. Here’s what he said: I have an opinion on the Meta layoffs that is contrary with most of the VR industry and much of the media, but strongly held.This is not a disaster.They still employ the largest team working on VR by about an order of magnitude.Nobody else is even close.The “Meta is abandoning VR” narrative is obviously false, 10% layoffs is basically six months of normal churn concentrated into 60 days, strictly numbers wise.The majority of the 1,500 jobs cut in Reality Labs (out of 15,000) were roles working on first-party content, internally developed games that competed directly with third party developers.I think this is a good decision, and I thought the same back when I was still at Oculus.Change always sucks because people lose their jobs in the process, but in a world of limited resources, Meta heavily subsidizing their own (with money, marketing, placement, etc) at the expense of core technical progress and platform stability doesn’t make sense. Crowding out the rest of the entire ecosystem, even less so. Every developer big and small, even the hyper-efficient ones, have had an extremely hard time competing with games developed by Meta-owned teams with budgets and teams that spend vastly in excess of earning potential.People will point out that these teams did an awesome job and got awesome reviews from critics and customers alike – yes, and fucked up though it is, that makes the problem even worse!Some people will say “they should have just funded those developers as external studios rather than acquiring them, then!”.Yes, I agree, but hindsight is 20/20.Do you think Oculus expected to only sell 700 copies of Rock Band VR after spending eight figures to make sure it was ready and awesome for Rift CV1 launch, to the point of bundling the guitar adapter with every single headset?Of course not, but sometimes you learn what the world actually wants from you the hard way.TL;DR, I feel really bad for the people impacted, but this is a good thing for the long-term health of the industry, especially the ongoing incentives.

‘Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge’ continues its record-breaking run on day 13, surpassing the lifetime India net of ‘Dhurandhar Part 1’ in just 11 days. With a domestic net of Rs. 873.99 crore and a worldwide gross nearing Rs. 1,400 crore, the Ranveer Singh starrer is successfully defying the IPL 2026 season craze. Directed by Aditya Dhar, the film is now chasing the Rs. 900 crore and eventually the Rs. 1000 crore India net milestone, a feat previously seen only by the Allu Arjun starrer ‘Pushpa 2.’

‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh, continues its historic box office run as it enters day 13 of its theatrical release on Tuesday, March 31, 2026.’Dhurandhar 2 continues its phenomenal global run, amassing a worldwide gross of Rs. 1,392.23 crore. This massive total includes Rs. 1,042.23 crore from the Indian market and an additional Rs. 350 crore from overseas territories. On the domestic front, the film has recorded a staggering Rs. 872.17 crore in net collections by end of day 12 which marked the second Monday since its release. After a historic second weekend, the film is now on a steady march toward the Rs. 900 crore India net milestone. Notably, on Sunday, the spy thriller broke a nine-year-old record previously held by the Prabhas starrer ‘Baahubali 2,’ becoming the highest-grossing Indian film in North America by crossing the USD 22.7 million mark.Dhurandhar 2 Movie ReviewWith its strong word-of-mouth appreciation and repeat viewership despite the ongoing IPL season, ‘Dhurandhar 2’ continues to reign. The film has shown remarkable strength against the 19th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which began on March 28, 2026. Even with high-profile opening weekend clashes like RCB vs. SRH and MI vs. KKR, theater attendance for ‘Dhurandhar 2’ remained impressively steady. This indicates that the film’s drawing factor is compelling enough to withstand the massive viewership of major cricket tournaments. Here is a full live tracking update for day 13.

‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ first week and second week projections

The film’s opening week set the tone with an extraordinary preview haul of Rs 43 crore, followed by a historic opening day of Rs 102.55 crore which marked the milestone of being the biggest opening day in Hindi film history. The momentum held powerfully through the extended weekend, closing Week 1 at Rs 674.17 crore. The second week continued strongly with Rs 49.70 crore on day 8, Rs 41.75 crore on day 9, Rs 62.85 crore on day 10, and the record-breaking Rs 68.10 crore on day 11, before settling at Rs 25.30 crore on day 12.The film’s performance on its second Sunday was nothing short of legendary as it officially pushed its cumulative India net past the Rs. 840.20 crore lifetime collection of its predecessor, ‘Dhurandhar Part 1.’ With the ongoing IPL 2026 season, it usually causes a dip in evening cinema footfalls. However, the film has continued to retain massive footfalls even during prime match hours of 7:30 PM IST.

‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ day 13 live tracking

According to Sacnilk, on its thirteenth day, ‘Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge’ is maintaining a robust presence with 6,384 active shows nationwide. Live tracking reveals the film has already added Rs. 4.97 crore to its total today, pushing its domestic net collection to Rs. 877.14 crore.With this steady Tuesday performance, the film’s cumulative India gross has climbed to Rs. 1,048.09 crore, as the final official figures are tallied for the day.

Day wise collections for ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’

Day 0: Rs. 43 croreDay 1: Rs. 102.55 croreDay 2: Rs. 80.72 croreDay 3: Rs. 113 croreDay 4: Rs. 114.85 croreDay 5: Rs. 65 croreDay 6: Rs. 56.60 croreDay 7: Rs. 48.75 croreDay 8: Rs. 49.70 croreWeek 1 collection: Rs. 674.17 croreDay 9: Rs. 41.75 croreDay 10: Rs. 62.85 croreDay 11: Rs. 68.10 croreDay 12: Rs. 25.30 croreDay 13: Rs. 4.97 croreTOTAL: Rs. 877.14 crore

More about ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’

Directed by Aditya Dhar, this sequel serves as a gritty origin story for Jaskirat Singh, tracing his transformation into Hamza, India’s most lethal intelligence asset operating deep within Pakistan. The film features Ranveer Singh in a career-defining role, alongside Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal and Sanjay Dutt as SP Chaudhary Aslam. The supporting cast includes R. Madhavan, Rakesh Bedi, Danish Pandor, Udaybir Sandhu and Sara Arjun. Yami Gautam appears in a key special role. To achieve the gritty aesthetic of Lyari, Karachi, the team redesigned Ballard Estate in South Mumbai and utilized massive sets in Bangkok.Originally planned as a single movie, the scale of the footage led to a two-part duology. It currently holds a U/A certificate with a massive runtime of 3 hours and 49 minutes. The film’s climax features Jaskirat’s identity arc unanswered which was reportedly a conscious creative choice by director Aditya Dhar. The film features several timelines with historical moments such as the 2014 general elections and the 2016 demonetization included into the narrative.DISCLAIMER: The box office numbers and data in this article are compiled from diverse public and industry sources. All figures are approximate unless explicitly mentioned, offering a fair representation of the movie’s box office performance. These totals may change as official studio data is updated or as additional international market reports are finalized. This data is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Bank holiday today: As March comes to a close, several banks across India are observing a holiday today on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.Customers planning visits to bank branches are advised to check the holiday schedule in advance to avoid inconvenience.

States observing bank holiday

Banks are closed today in the following states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, New Delhi, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand.

Are all banks closed today?

While the holiday is observed in many states, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all agency banks (branches handling government receipts and payments) to remain open on March 31. These branches will process transactions related to the financial year-end, including government revenue, payments and settlements for FY 2025-26.RBI in a statement said: “The Government of India has made a request to keep all branches of the banks dealing with government receipts and payments open for transactions on March 31, 2026 (Tuesday-public holiday) so as to account for all the government transactions relating to receipts and payments in the Financial Year 2025-26 itself. Accordingly, agency banks are advised to keep all their branches dealing with government business open on March 31, 2026 (Tuesday).”

Digital banking services

Customers can continue to use online and mobile banking for transactions such as fund transfers and tax payments. However, it is recommended to check with individual banks for any specific instructions.

What are agency banks?

Agency banks are appointed under Section 45 of the RBI Act to conduct government transactions. Currently, all public sector banks and select private sector banks act as agents of the RBI. Only designated branches of these banks can carry out government-related banking business.Customers visiting banks today should remember that non-agency branches may remain closed and agency banks may conduct only government-related transactions.