India’s good news this week: • Poverty: 50 crore Indians moved out of extreme poverty. • Wildlife: 30+ Nagaland villages banned pangolin hunting. • Pollution: Delhi can now forecast air pollution 72 hours ahead. • Space: Manastu Space secured ₹116 crore for cleaner propulsion. • Para sports: India won 114 medals, including 30 gold. • Heritage: 1 lakh people celebrated Rakhigarhi’s Harappan heritage. Which story surprised you most?

Passports have basically been "solved" now. Where you used to have to go to a chemist to get a photo taken, hope they were suitable, get a policeman's signature, and wait weeks to get one, you can now renew online with a self-taken photo in about 5 mins, and it comes in a week.

Iran is cancelling passports, freezing bank accounts, and confiscating homes — not just of dissidents but also of their families. The government’s strategy: make protest too costly. @specialreports investigates

The Most Powerful Passports in 2016 (Visa-Free Destinations) 🇬🇧 UK: 175 🇺🇸 U.S.: 174 🇪🇺 EU: 174 🇯🇵 Japan: 173 🇸🇬 Singapore: 173 🇨🇦 Canada: 172 🇨🇭 Switzerland: 172 🇳🇴 Norway: 172 🇰🇷 South Korea: 172 🇳🇿 New Zealand: 171 🇦🇺 Australia: 169 🇮🇸 Iceland: 167 🇲🇾 Malaysia: 164 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein: 164 🇲🇨 Monaco: 160 🇸🇲 San Marino: 156 🇨🇱 Chile: 155 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: 154 🇧🇷 Brazil: 153 🇦🇩 Andorra: 152 📌 Source: Henley & Partners

Two Chinese nationals handed over their real passports to a stranger on WeChat, got American ones back, and tried walking into the US. Jin Fu Wei and Xiaodan Lei flew from Mexico into John Wayne Airport in California in August, presenting US passports belonging to actual American citizens. Facial recognition caught them instantly, their faces didn't match. Neither man's real name was even on the flight manifest. Here's how it allegedly worked. A contact on WeChat arranged everything: travel to Mexico, a passport swap with an unknown person there. The men handed over their genuine Chinese passports and got American ones in return. The plan was to enter the US, then meet someone who'd swap the documents back. Wei was also carrying an expired Texas driver's license belonging to the real passport holder. The two claim they didn't know each other before this trip, and say they had no idea who the actual American citizens were whose identities they were using. One of those passports reportedly belonged to someone with a prior arrest record. Prosecutors aren't treating this as simple fraud. One official called it a national security concern, pointing out that foreign citizens entering under false identities raises bigger questions about who's actually crossing the border. Both men face up to 10 years if convicted. The FBI is still trying to find out who supplied the passports in the first place. A WeChat contact, a stranger in Mexico, and two real Americans whose identities ended up in someone else's hands.