harden

Ukraine is also a candidate to join the EU, but is facing hardening opposition from Hungary and tensions along their shared border, after Kyiv accused Budapest of sending reconnaissance drones into western Ukraine.

The Center for Biological Diversity and others advocate for a “hands-off” approach to California’s forests and urge management of the wildfire crisis through home hardening and evacuation planning alone.

In fact, being at the centre of a storm about free speech seems to have hardened his resolve.

The real risk, he told the BBC, lies elsewhere: a broadened alliance could harden into an "Islamic Nato", complicating Delhi's 'Look West' strategy across trade, investment and strategic corridors in the Gulf.

"There's a Korean proverb that says, 'after the rain, the ground hardens'."