From the Editors: UAE achieves 100m meals target, India's unwanted COVID-19 records, Guru Kohli takes a backseat

UAE ACHIEVES 100M MEALS TARGET: The philanthropic nature of citizens and residents of the UAE were once again brought to the limelight as the country’s target to raise 100 million meals was achieved in just 10 days. The campaign, which aims to provide meals to disadvantages individuals and families across 30 countries, raise Dh100 million from 185,000 persons in this short span of time. Donations, starting from as little as Dh1, have helped the campaign raise these funds for those less fortunate, especially as COVID-19 continues to ravage lives across the planet. The UAE remains a trailblazer in spreading humanitarian values. [COMMENT BY: Somshankar Bandyopadhyay, Assistant Editor]

INDIA CONTINUES TO SET UNWANTED COVID-19 RECORDS: India is being ravaged by COVID-19 and the virus is accelerating beyond anywhere else in the world. It reported the world's highest daily tally of coronavirus cases for the second day today, surpassing 330,000 new cases. Its health system is totally overwhelmed and patients are not getting the care they so desperately need. Hospitals are full and are running out of oxygen. In the past 24 hours, deaths have jumped to a record 2,263. Bodies piling up at crematoriums and burial grounds across the country. The situation is dire. With now over 16 million cases, it is the second-worst affected country in the world, lagging only the US. The really scary thing is that with the vast majority of deaths in rural villages often going unregistered, the numbers could be even higher. [COMMENT BY: Imran Malik, Assistant Editor]

‘GURU’ KOHLI TAKES A BACKSEAT AS PADIKKAL THRIVES FOR RCB: Devdutt Padikkal, the young Indian opener who set up the Wankhede Stadium alight on Thursday for Royal Challengers Bangalore, gave enough signals that the Indian selectors cannot ignore him for long now. The 21-year-old left his captain and arguably the greatest batsman of this generation, Virat Kohli, in the shade for a while with an array of strokes round the wicket for his first century in IPL – of what could be certainly more to come. It will take some doing to beat the two centuries the IPL has seen so far this season – first one by Sanju Samson in a losing cause and now Padikkal. Keep ‘em coming! [COMMENT BY: Gautam Bhattacharyya, Senior Associate Editor]

END OF AN ERA: If you grew up on a staple of Bollywood music from the 1990s, then there’s a good chance that music composer duo Nadeem-Shravan were a part of your reality. Shravan Rathod – one part of the hit duo -- died on Thursday in a hospital in Mumbai battling COVID-19. While their artistic relevance may be questionable in today’s music scene filled with re-mixes and vulgar lyrics, there’s no denying that Nadeem-Shravan gave Bollywood a sturdy stream of feel-good, sometimes cheesy, romantic songs. These two valiantly brought back melody into Bollywood and with one half of the musical pair gone, it’s truly the end of an era. [COMMENT BY: Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Editor Features]