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This Happened - March 9: Barbie's Debut

The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City on this day in 1959.

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What inspired the creation of the Barbie doll?

Ruth Handler was inspired to create the Barbie doll after watching her daughter play with paper dolls and imagining a three-dimensional version that would allow girls to role-play and imagine different careers and lifestyles.

What was the initial reaction to the Barbie doll?

The initial reaction to the Barbie doll was mixed, with some critics expressing concerns that it promoted unrealistic beauty standards and limited girls' imaginations to traditional gender roles. However, the doll quickly became popular among young girls and has since become an iconic toy and cultural phenomenon.

How has the Barbie doll evolved over the years?

The doll has been redesigned to include different skin tones, body shapes, and career options, and has also been used to promote diversity and social causes. The doll has also had a significant impact on popular culture, inspiring countless books, movies, and songs, as well as becoming a symbol of girlhood and feminine identity. It has been a subject of controversy and debate, with some arguing that it reinforces harmful stereotypes and others celebrating its ability to empower girls and promote creativity and imagination.

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Geopolitics

The Trudeau-Modi Row Reveals Growing Right-Wing Bent Of India's Diaspora

Western governments will not be oblivious to the growing right-wing activism among the diaspora and the efforts of the BJP and Narendra Modi's government to harness that energy for political support and stave off criticism of India.

The Trudeau-Modi Row Reveals Growing Right-Wing Bent Of India's Diaspora

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 9

Sushil Aaron

-Analysis-

NEW DELHICanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has brought Narendra Modi’s exuberant post-G20 atmospherics to a halt by alleging in parliament that agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national, in June this year.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said. The Canadian foreign ministry subsequently expelled an Indian diplomat, who was identified as the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, in Canada. [On Thursday, India retaliated through its visa processing center in Canada, which suspended services until further notice over “operational reasons.”]

Trudeau’s announcement was immediately picked up by the international media and generated quite a ripple across social media. This is big because the Canadians have accused the Indian government – not any private vigilante group or organisation – of murder in a foreign land.

Trudeau and Canadian state services seem to have taken this as seriously as the UK did when the Russian émigré Alexander Litvinenko was killed, allegedly on orders of the Kremlin. It is extraordinarily rare for a Western democracy to expel a diplomat from another democracy on these grounds.

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