Delhi woke up to a chilly morning on Monday, with light rain and thunderstorms predicted during the day. The air quality remained in the ‘very poor’ category.
Elon Musk on Sunday appeared to do a U-turn on his support for Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, after the former Brexit figurehead publicly disagreed with the US tech billionaire.
“The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk said on his X platform, in the latest in a series of critical comments about UK politics.
Farage said recently he was in talks with Musk over a potential big donation for his party, which helped Labour into power in July’s general election by splitting the right-wing vote.
But in a post on X on Thursday, Musk expressed support for jailed British extremist agitator Tommy Robinson, sparking a disagreement with Farage.
Robinson was imprisoned in October after he admitted committing contempt of court over a long-running libel case involving a Syrian refugee.
In one of his X posts Musk asked why Tommy Robinson was “in solitary confinement prison for telling the truth?”
He alleged that it was “for telling the truth” over a major grooming scandal that rocked Britain over recent years.
The affair saw groups of men, mostly of South Asian origin, convicted of the sexual abuse of vulnerable, mostly white girls in a string of UK cities.
Musk said Robinson “should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell”.
Weighing in on the row, Farage said that Musk saw Robinson “as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs”.
“But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson’s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court,” Farage said.
Farage said Robinson himself had encouraged a narrative that he was a “political prisoner… but it isn’t quite true”.
Farage added that Musk was “very supportive” of him and his party.
Ex-football hooligan
Hitting back at Musk’s latest message on Sunday, Farage said on X that he continued to disagree with the US businessman over his views on Robinson.
“Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree,” Farage wrote.
“My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles,” he added.
Robinson, a one-time football hooligan with a string of UK criminal convictions, is serving an 18-month jail term for repeated contempt of court breaches.
He has amassed a big online following after years spearheading an anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movement.
The grooming scandal involving the widespread abuse of girls, which emerged more than a decade ago in a number of English towns and cities, has long stirred controversy.
A series of court cases eventually led to the conviction of dozens of men.
Subsequent official reports into how police and social workers failed to halt the abuse in some cases found that officials turned a blind eye to avoid appearing racist.
The abuse scandals have been seized upon by far-right figures, in particular Robinson.
In his flurry of tweets last week, Musk also criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer and child welfare minister Jess Phillips over what he called “rape gangs”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
All We Imagine As Light, directed by Payal Kapadia, did not take home the award for Best Non-English Language Motion Picture at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards. The film, which was nominated alongside Emilia Perez, I’m Still Here, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig was bested by Emilia Perez, which claimed the coveted honour. While it didn’t take home the prize, All We Imagine As Light made history as the first Indian film to be nominated in this category.
ICYDK, Payal Kapadia’s film All We Imagine As Light is on a roll. The film has also been longlisted for three BAFTA awards.
The British Academy recently revealed the longlists for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, where the film is nominated in the categories of Best Director, Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language.
The film also earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards last month. Starring Kani Kasruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon, the film has earned a place in a competitive category alongside Emilia Perez, Flow, I’m Still Here, Kneecap and The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
All We Imagine As Light made history earlier this year as the first Indian film to win the coveted Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It has since collected a range of prestigious honours, including the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best International Feature at the Gotham Awards, and Best International Film at the New York Film Critics Circle, among others.
Due to its growing recognition, the film has been re-released in select Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bhubaneswar, following its initial theatrical release on November 22.