Indian writer-lawyer-activist Banu Mushtaq has scripted history by winning the International Booker prize for the short story anthology, Heart Lamp.

It is the first book written in the Kannada language, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, to win the prestigious prize.

The stories in Heart Lamp were translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi.

Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq over three decades from 1990 to 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India.

Mushtaq’s win comes off the back of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand – translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell – winning the prize in 2022.

Her body of work is well-known among book lovers, but the Booker International win has shone a bigger spotlight on her life and literary oeuvre, which mirrors many of the challenges the women in her stories face, brought on by religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

It is this self-awareness that has, perhaps, helped Mushtaq craft some of the most nuanced characters and plot-lines.

“In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention — to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. That is Banu Mushtaq’s quiet power,” a review in the Indian Express newspaper says about the book.

Mushtaq grew up in a small town in the southern state of Karnataka in a Muslim neighbourhood and like most girls around her, studied the Quran in the Urdu language at school.

But her father, a government employee, wanted more for her and at the age of eight, enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was the state’s official language – Kannada.

Mushtaq worked hard to become fluent in Kannada, but this alien tongue would become the language she chose for her literary expression.

She began writing while still in school and chose to go to college even as her peers were getting married and raising children.

It would take several years before Mushtaq was published and it happened during a particularly challenging phase in her life.

Her short story appeared in a local magazine a year after she had married a man of her choosing at the age of 26, but her early marital years were also marked by conflict and strife – something she openly spoke of, in several interviews.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said, “I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29”.

In the another interview to The Week magazine, she spoke of how she was forced to live a life confined within the four walls of her house.

Then, a shocking act of defiance set her free.

“Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, ‘Don’t abandon us’,” she told the magazine.

In Heart Lamp, her female characters mirror this spirit of resistance and resilience.

“In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else’s moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives,” according to a review of the book in The Indian Express newspaper.

Mushtaq went on to work as a reporter in a prominent local tabloid and also associated with the Bandaya movement – which focussed on addressing social and economic injustices through literature and activism.

After leaving journalism a decade later, she took up work as a lawyer to support her family.

In a storied career spanning several decades, she has published a copious amount of work; including six short story collections, an essay collection and a novel.

But her incisive writing has also made her a target of hate.

In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, she spoke about how in the year 2000, she received threatening phone calls after she expressed her opinion supporting women’s right to offer prayer in mosques.

A fatwa – a legal ruling as per Islamic law – was issued against her and a man tried to attack her with a knife before he was overpowered by her husband.

But these incidents did not faze Mushtaq, who continued to write with fierce honesty.

“I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same. Even though the context evolves, the basic struggles of women and marginalised communities continue,” she told The Week magazine.

Over the years Mushtaq’s writings have won numerous prestigious local and national awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.

In 2024, the translated English compilation of Mushtaq’s five short story collections published between 1990 and 2012 – Haseena and Other Stories – won the PEN Translation Prize.

(BBC News)

Actress and singer Halle Bailey has been granted a restraining order against rapper and YouTube star DDG, her former boyfriend and the father of their one-year-old son.

The Little Mermaid star alleges he was repeatedly violent with her and made her fear for herself and their child.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles judge ordered DDG, whose full name is Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr, to stay away from Bailey and their son until a hearing on 6 June.

Bailey, 25, alleged there had been “multiple acts of physical violence” from Granberry since their split in October. BBC News has asked representatives for Granberry for comment.

In documents requesting the order, reported by the Associated Press, Bailey said: “Throughout our relationship, Darryl has been and continues to be physically, verbally, emotionally, and financially abusive towards me.

“I am seeking orders to protect myself and our son Halo from his ongoing abuse.”

Bailey and Granberry, 27, were in a relationship from 2022 until last year.

In the documents, the actress claims “things got physical between us” after Granberry repeatedly insulted her as she strapped the baby into a seat in his car in January.

“We fought each other, wrestling and tussling,” she said. “At one point, Darryl was pulling my hair. He then slammed my face on the steering wheel, causing my tooth to get chipped. I then stopped fighting back as I was in a lot of pain.”

Bailey included photos of her tooth and bruises on her arms in her filing, which have since been published by some US media outlets.

Two months after the alleged altercation, Bailey alleges that Granberry entered her house when she wasn’t home and texted her a photo of her bed along with a threatening message suggesting she was having sex with other men.

A few days later, she claimed, Granberry berated her when she did not want to send their unwell baby on a visit with him, then smashed the Ring doorbell camera on her porch when he realised it was recording their confrontation.

She further alleged that, when she called a relative for help, he took her phone and slammed a car door on her as she was holding the baby. Bailey filed a police report over the incident.

As part of the restraining order, Granberry was also instructed not to possess any weapons. The judge can extend the order for up to five years at the 6 June hearing.

Bailey also requested that Granberry be ordered to stop using his social media platforms to continue “bad mouthing me to his several millions of fans”.

“He claims I am withholding our son and that I am with other men. As a result, I then receive threats and hate on social media,” she said in the documents.

Bailey shot to fame as part of Chloe x Halle, a pop duo with her sister, and later released music as a solo artist. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards.

As an actress, she appeared in sitcom Grown-ish from 2018 to 2022. Her biggest role to date, however, was playing the titular character in Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

DDG rose to fame in the mid-2010s by posting videos on YouTube, and signed a record deal in 2018. He has released four studio albums.

(BBC News)

Dua Lipa, Sir Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen and Florence Welch are among a list of stars calling on the prime minister to update copyright laws in a way that protects them from artificial intelligence.

A letter signed by more than 400 British musicians, writers and artists, addressed to Sir Keir Starmer, says failing to give that protection would mean them “giving away” their work to tech firms.

Also at risk, they write, is “the UK’s position as a creative powerhouse”.

They want the PM to back an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require developers to be transparent with copyright owners about using their material to train AI models.

A government spokesperson said: “We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we’re consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors.

“We’re clear that no changes will be considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators,” they added.

Other signatories include author Kazuo Ishiguro, playwright David Hare, singers Kate Bush and Robbie Williams, as well as Coldplay, Tom Stoppard and Richard Curtis.

Sir Paul McCartney, who told the BBC in January he was concerned about AI ripping off artists, has also signed the letter.

“We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills,” it states.

They say their concerns can be met if the government backs an amendment proposed by Baroness Beeban Kidron ahead of a key vote in the House of Lords on Monday.

Baroness Kidron’s amendment, it says, would “allow both AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future.”

Not everyone agrees with the artists’ approach.

Julia Willemyns, co-founder of the Centre for British Progress think tank, said such proposals could hamper the UK and its bid for growth.

The measures would “do nothing to stop foreign firms from using content from the British creative industries,” she told the BBC.

“A restrictive copyright regime would offshore AI development, chill domestic innovation, and directly harm the UK economy,” she said.

However, the letter comes amid mounting concern from artists over the inclusion of their works, and material protected by copyright, in the data used to develop generative AI systems.

These tools, which can produce new content in response to simple text prompts, have become increasingly popular and available to consumers.

But their capabilities have been accompanied by concerns and criticism over their data use and energy demand.

What is AI, how does it work and what are the concerns about it?

In February, artists including Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn released a silent album to protest about the government’s proposed changes to copyright law.

The government carried out a consultation around its proposal to allow developers to be able to use creators’ content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to “opt out”.

According to The Guardian, ministers were reconsidering the proposal following creator backlash.

Mr Ishiguro pointed the BBC to an earlier statement in which he wrote, “why is it just and fair – why is it sensible – to alter our time-honoured copyright laws to advantage mammoth corporations at the expense of individual writers, musicians, film-makers and artists?”

The Nobel Prize-winning author added that since then the only limited advance was that it now appeared the government had accepted the opt-out proposals were not likely to be workable, He thought a new consultation to find a fairer scheme was possible, though it remained to be seen how meaningful any consultation would be.

“It’s essential that they get this right,” he wrote.

MPs recently rejected a separate amendment tabled by Baroness Kidron that aimed to make AI developers accountable to UK copyright law.

Now, she says transparency obligations for tech firms under the new proposed amendment could support the development of licensing agreements between creators and companies.

“The UK is in a unique position to take its place as a global player in the international AI supply chain, but to grasp that opportunity requires the transparency provided for in my amendments, which are essential to create a vibrant licencing market,” Baroness Kidron said.

In their statement the government said: “It’s vital we take the time to work through the range of responses to our consultation, but equally important that we put in the groundwork now as we consider the next steps.

“That is why we have committed to publishing a report and economic impact assessment – exploring the broad range of issues and options on all sides of the debate.”

(BBC News)