France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain start 2024 with the world’s most powerful passport, allowing visa-free entry to 194 global destinations, according to the latest Henley Passport Index. The ranking is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

For the past five years, Japan and Singapore have consistently dominated the No. 1 spot. However, this quarter’s ranking showcases European nations jumping up the tanks. Finland and Sweden tied with South Korea in second place, offering visa-free access to 193 destinations. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands secure the third position, providing passport holders access to 192 destinations.

India’s passport ranked 80th spot in the list, with citizens allowed to travel to 62 countries without a visa, including popular tourist destinations like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. India shares its current rank with Uzbekistan while neighboring Pakistan is positioned at 101st.

Christian H Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and the creator of the passport index highlighted the widening global mobility gap between countries. Despite an overall trend toward increased travel freedom over the past two decades, the disparity between the top and bottom of the index has reached an all-time high.

Mr Kaelin said, “The average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.”

He emphasized that the top-ranked countries now enjoy the privilege of traveling to an astonishing 166 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan, which occupies the bottom spot on the list, with access to just 28 countries without a visa. Syria, with visa-free access to only 29 destinations, holds the second-lowest position, followed by Iraq with 31 and Pakistan with 34.

In a shocking case of assault and invasion of privacy, six men barged into the room of a lodge in Karnataka and thrashed a couple for the ‘crime’ of being together despite practising different faiths. Videos of the assault have emerged just days after two cousins were beaten up in the state after being mistaken for an interfaith couple.

Filmed by the attackers themselves – indicating that they wanted to make a name for themselves – the videos show the six men waiting outside the room of the lodge in Hanagal Taluk of Haveri District. After recording the room number, they knock on the door and wait. When the door is opened by a man, they barge in and head straight to the woman, who tries to cover her face with a burqa. 

Muttering expletives, the men hit the woman so hard that she falls to the floor. The man is also assaulted and then caught by two or three of the attackers when he tries to run out of the room. One of the attackers corners the woman near the bed while another hits her and drags her to the floor again.

Another video, which appears to be shot outside the lodge after the attack, shows the woman desperately attempting to cover her face but the men lift her hijab and film her. 

The couple filed a complaint at the Hanagal police station and two out of the six men, who are from the minority community, have been arrested.

“The attack took place on January 7 at Nalhara Cross in Hanagal. The six accused, who are from the minority community, have been charged with attempt to murder, kidnapping and outraging the modesty of a woman. Two of the six have been arrested and we are trying to locate the other four,” a police officer said.

In the other incident on Tuesday, seven men were arrested for beating up two cousins in Belagavi after mistaking them for an interfaith couple. Police had said the men, who were also from the minority community, continued to beat up the boy and the girl even after they said they were cousins.

In the upcoming heist film Lift, The Italian Job director F. Gary Gray assembles a crew that includes Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen and more. The film follows ambitious thieves who set out to pull off a high-stakes heist.