[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”E- Edition” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” google_fonts=”font_family:Istok%20Web%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theindianpanorama.news%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F11%2FTIP-November-25-Dual-Edition.pdf”][vc_single_image image=”133427″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.theindianpanorama.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TIP-November-25-Dual-Edition.pdf”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”82829″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.theindianpanorama.news/advertising-media-kit-portal-indian-panorama/”][vc_single_image image=”82828″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.theindianpanorama.news/advertising-media-kit-portal-indian-panorama/”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Lead Stories This Week” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” google_fonts=”font_family:Istok%20Web%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theindianpanorama.news%2F”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_wp_posts number=”8″ show_date=”1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Month: November 2022
-
Drew Barrymore says giving up drinking was ‘one of the most liberating things’
Actress Drew Barrymore said that giving up alcohol let her escape an “awful cycle”. The 47-year-old ‘E.T.’ actress opened up about being three-and-a-half years sober in an essay published in ‘Take Care of Yourself’, the December edition of her monthly ‘Drew’ magazine, reports aceshowbiz.com. Barrymore, who is a single mother to her two daughters Olive (9) and Frankie (8), after she divorced her husband Will Kopelman, 44, in 2016, said: “One of the bravest things you can do is slay those dragons and finally change an awful cycle in which you’ve found yourself stuck.” “For me, it was to stop drinking. Take a moment, take a breath, and give yourself a squeeze. We’re all just doing our best out here. And that in and of itself is something to celebrate.” She added that giving up drinking was “one of the most liberating things” in her “journey of life”, saying it allowed her to “finally become free” of the “torture of guilt and dysfunction.” Drew has said she first drank aged nine, smoking marijuana began a year later and did cocaine aged 12, before going to rehab twice by the age of 13. She has told CBS’ This Morning that “alcohol did not serve her,” adding in the 2021 interview: “I would like to move forward in a more honest fashion that is more conducive to my mental peace. Maybe people think I figured out so many problems when I was young, because it was so hard then.” “We continue to confront things with each decade of our life that almost surpasses what we thought we had seen. I’m interested in that conversation.. we don’t fix it, move on and it never breaks again. We are on that roller coaster.
-
Ayushmann felt he was making his debut again during shoot of ‘An Action Hero’
Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana, who is known for portraying the boy next door and relatable characters in his movies, will be seen as a flamboyant Hindi movie star in his upcoming film ‘An Action Hero’. While shooting for the film, the actor felt like he was making a debut all over again.
He had to unlearn a lot of things to get into the groove for the character. Talking about it, the actor said, “It felt like I was making my debut in the Hindi film industry while filming for ‘An Action Hero’. I have never explored this genre in my career so I had to unlearn and learn many things to pull off this role effectively on screen. I had a lot of fun and I hope audiences will appreciate what I have tried to do on screen with a disruptive film like ‘An Action Hero’”. He mentioned that the character is far from who he is in real life, “Also, my character, Manav, is far removed from who I am in real life. Manav is extravagant, spoiled, moody and a brat. So, to play him, I had to become someone else completely and channelise these traits.” Ayushmann is ecstatic that the trailer of ‘An Action Hero’ has been widely appreciated by audiences. “I’m thrilled that people have loved the trailer of ‘An Action Hero’. I always want to present myself in a new way on screen and hunt out scripts that sparkle with newness every single time. It feels great to see how people have connected to ‘An Action Hero’ as being that kind of film”, he adds. ‘An Action Hero’, directed by Anirudh Iyer and produced by Aanand L. Rai and Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar, is set to release on December 2.
Source: IANS
-
Eva Mendes refers to Ryan Gosling as ‘husband’
Hollywood actress Eva Mendes may have accidentally revealed that she has tied the knot to Ryan Gosling. The ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ actress referred to the ‘La La Land’ actor as her ‘husband’ in an Australian TV show.
“I’m loving it here,” the actress said. “Everybody is amazing, everybody is welcoming us, it’s been so beautiful. My husband Ryan is here … and our children are here, we’re having the best time,” the mother of two added.
As per Page Six Style, Mendes has two daughters with the 42-year-old actor – Esmeralda and Amada. She went on to joke about her “ordinary” looking spouse after the show’s hosts played a shirtless clip of Gosling from his film “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” “Yeah, that’s my life, unfortunately,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “And he’s a great cook and he bakes. I got the short end of the stick, didn’t I!” she added.
The couple, who have been together for over a decade now, always kept their relationship under wraps.
Hence, fans of the actors became immensely surprised at Mendes’ comment.
A fan took to twitter to post the clip of Mendes’ interview.
‘We have never heard Eva or Ryan speak about each other with the term of wife and husband, but now we can say that Eva and Ryan are MARRIED!!!’ the caption read.
A slew of comments from overjoyed fans came on the post.
“Finally we got it. I hope there’s no other reason for announcing this now,” one fan said.
“She has a wedding ring on,” another fan pointed out, while a third wished the “beautiful” couple “congratulations.” According to a report by Page Six Style, Mendes may have teased the marriage in her own subtle manner through a post on Instagram earlier this week.
The ‘Ghost Rider’ actress shared a snap of her wrist which had a tattoo on it, which read ‘de Gosling’.
Eva Mendes was last seen in the television series ‘Bluey’. Ryan Gosling, on the other hand, last starred in the Netflix release ‘The Gray Man’. Source: ANI
-
Aaftab threatened to kill me, cut me into pieces: Shraddha told cops in 2020
New Delhi (TIP)- Shraddha Walkar in 2020 filed a complaint with the police against her live-in partner Aaftab Ameen Poonawala, that he had threatened to kill her and cut her into pieces, India Today has learnt. In her complaint with Tulinj police station in Maharashtra’s Palghar, she complained that her boyfriend, the prime accused in her murder case now, had assaulted her and threatened to kill her.
Shraddha, 27, was allegedly strangled and murdered by her boyfriend, Aaftab Ameen Poonawala, in May this year, Delhi police said. Aaftab chopped her body into 35 pieces, stored the chopped parts in a fridge and then dumped them across the national capital over several days. The couple met on a dating app in 2019 and moved in together in Mumbai and later shifted to Chhatarpur in south Delhi.
The letter has reportedly been shared by Shraddha’s neighbour in Vasai, with whom Shraddha had gone to file the complaint. The Maharashtra police have also confirmed that the letter was written by Shraddha in 2020 at the Tulinj police station. Shraddha in her complaint letter, dated November 23, 2020, wrote, “Aaftab Amin Poonawala has been abusing me and beating me up. Today, he tried to kill me by suffocating me and he scares and blackmails me that he will kill me, cut me in pieces and throw me away. But I don’t have the guts to go to the police because he would threaten to kill me.”
-
Sachin Pilot a traitor, can’t be made Rajasthan CM: Gehlot
New Delhi (TIP)- Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called Sachin Pilot a “gaddar” (traitor) on Thursday and said he cannot replace him as he had revolted against the Congress in 2020 and tried to topple his own government. The remarks have further widened the fissures in the Congress party in Rajasthan, where Assembly polls are slated next year. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, is also set to enter the desert state. Pilot, who walked alongside Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, November 24, did not immediately react to Gehlot’s remarks.
Gehlot also alleged that Union Home Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah was involved in Pilot’s rebellion, when some Congress MLAs loyal to him were holed up in a Gurugram resort for more than a month and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited them often, claiming that he has proof that an amount of Rs 10 crore was paid to each of those legislators, including Pilot.
The veteran leader also said the Congress can replace him with any of its 102 MLAs in Rajasthan except Pilot if the top leadership feels that the prospects of the party would improve in next year’s Assembly polls.
“The MLAs will never accept someone who has revolted and has been dubbed as a gaddar. How can he become the chief minister? How can the MLAs accept such a person as the chief minister? I have proof that Rs 10 crore each were distributed to the MLAs holed up in a Gurugram resort for toppling the Congress government in Rajasthan,” Gehlot told NDTV. He said one will never find an example where a party president “tries to topple his own government”. Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Punia has, however, denied the charge that the saffron party was involved in paying money to Congress legislators in 2020 to defect.
Gehlot said if Pilot had apologised to the MLAs and won them over, things would have been different.
“Till now, he has not apologised. If he had apologised, I would not have had to apologise,” the chief minister said, referring to his apology to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi after more than 90 MLAs close to him did not allow a Congress Legislature Party meeting to take place. Asked if Pilot can still replace him if the high-command decides so, Gehlot said it is a hypothetical question. “How will that happen? That cannot happen,” he said. He said a recent meeting of the party MLAs after they did not allow the CLP meet to take place was not a rebellion but a “revolt against Pilot who tried to topple his own government”.
Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads over chief ministership ever since the Congress won the Rajasthan polls in 2018. Name-calling, mud-slinging serve no purpose: Sachin Pilot
Responding to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s ‘traitor’ remark about him, Congress MLA from Tonk Sachin Pilot said that “name-calling and mud-slinging serve no purpose”.
“I have seen Ashok Gehlot ji’s statements today aimed against me. Someone who is so experienced, senior and whom party has given so much, it is unbecoming of someone with such experience to use this language, make such completely false and baseless allegations,” news agency PTI quoted Sachin Pilot as saying.
“It serves no purpose when we have to fight BJP unitedly….previously also Ashok Gehlot ji has been making such allegations against me for a long time,” the former Union minister said.
-
India upset at ‘unnecessary’ reference to Modi by US
New Delhi (TIP)- India is upset at a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a US State Department official while defending the immunity it had extended to Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammad bin Sultan, who is facing allegations of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “Frankly, I fail to understand how the comment on Prime Minister Modi was either relevant, necessary or contextual,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said responding to questions about a US official referring to Modi while explaining the reasons for granting immunity to the Saudi ruler. “Our two countries enjoy a very special relationship which is growing from strength to strength and we look forward to working with the US to further deepen it,” he said, referring to the bilateral ties between India and the US. When asked about giving immunity to the Saudi Crown Prince over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a briefing last Friday that this is not the first time that the US has done this and it has been applied to a number of heads of state previously, including PM Modi, according to reports. Bagchi also said reports about the prime minister’s visit to the US in December were incorrect. “No proposal for a visit by the Prime Minister to the US in December has been made by our side. Media reports in this regard are incorrect,” Bagchi said. He also dismissed social media posts about “false comments” attributed to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and White House spokesperson with regard to the brief bilateral meeting between Modi and US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the recent G-20 summit in Bali.
“We have seen some incorrect social media posts which attribute false statements to the External Affairs Minister, who has not made any comment on this to the press or on social media. It also attributes false statements to the White House press secretary. So, I would request you all not to lend credence to such incorrect information,” Bagchi said.
-
At UNSC, India condemns Russian strikes on civilians, infra in Ukraine
New Delhi (TIP)- India has told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that it continues to remain concerned about the situation in Ukraine, including the targeting of infrastructure and civilians deaths.
“History has shown us that the killings of civilians and devastation of civilian infrastructure have been used, regrettably, as legitimate weapons of war. India strongly condemns the use of oppressive violence against innocent civilians and targeting of civilian objects in armed conflicts, regardless of who commits them,” said India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj at an emergency session on Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, India has consistently called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the violence. Our PM’s statement that this cannot be an era of war has been appreciated across the world. India’s position on the Ukraine conflict is premised on this principle. We continue to support all efforts aimed at de-escalation,” she said.
India’s approach to the Ukraine conflict will continue to be people-centric, said Kamboj while recalling that it has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine and neighbouring countries of Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovak Republic. “We, therefore, sincerely hope for an early resumption of peace talks to bring about an immediate ceasefire and early resolution to the conflict. We reiterate that the global order is anchored on respect for principles of the UN Charter, international law and sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,’” she observed.
Meanwhile, nearly all members of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), including China, appreciated India’s hosting of its meeting over two days recently in Mumbai and New Delhi.
“We welcome the adoption of the forward-looking Delhi Declaration and appreciate that it will serve as a non-binding benchmark for countering the new narratives of terrorists,” said Harold Adlai Agyeman, UNSC president. China’s Deputy Permanent Representative Geng Shuang said, “India, as the chair of the CTC, hosted a special session this October and adopted the Delhi Declaration, thereby giving impetus to member states’ efforts in better tackling the new counter-terrorism challenges.” Source: TNS
-
India must be cautious in dealing with US: Army ex-chief Bikram Singh
Former Army chief General Bikram Singh has urged the government to exercise caution while dealing with the United States on strategic matters, saying the world’s mightiest nation so far has not proved its trustworthiness to its close allies. He said despite India being a member of the Quad grouping, it should move cautiously when it comes to dealing with the US, which has expanded and deepened its ties with New Delhi in recent years.
The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, comprises India, the US, Japan and Australia.
“While it’s good that we are part of the Quad (seen as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region), it will be in our interest that we move cautiously with the US, because Washington has never made itself trustworthy in its dealings with any of its strategic and defence allies,” he told the SBI Banking & Economic conclave on Thursday, November 24, evening. Further explaining his call for a cautious approach in strategic dealings with Washington, General Singh, who was the 24th Army chief and served between May 31, 2012 and July 31, 2014, said, “The US extricated itself first from Vietnam, then twice from Iraq, and recently from Afghanistan. We must be very cautious in dealing with the US.” He maintained the US has failed in all its external military interventions and one of the main reasons for the same was that Washington has been outsourcing its work to others.
-
EC appointment: ‘What’s the tearing hurry?’ SC asks; ‘hold your mouth,’ says Centre
New Delhi (TIP)- The Supreme Court on Thursday (November 24) questioned the government on the “haste” and “tearing hurry” in appointing Arun Goel as the Election Commissioner (EC). As the apex court observed that the file pertaining to Goel’s appointment was cleared with “lightning speed,” the Centre through Attorney General R Venkataramani asked the court to “hold its mouth” and requested it to look into the matter in its entirety. “What kind of evaluation is this? Although, we are not questioning the merits of Arun Goel’s credentials but the process,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph said.
Perusing the files it had sought on Goel, a 1985-batch IAS officer on Wednesday, the bench asked why his name was cleared for the top post the same day it was pitched by the minister of law.
“Minister of Law picks the names from the list of four names shortlisted…The file was put up on November 18; moves the same day. Even PM recommends the name of the same day. We don’t want any confrontation, but was this done in any haste? What’s the tearing hurry?” the court asked. This is the third consecutive day of the court’s questioning of the government on the appointment of the EC. The top court also sought to know why no initiative was taken so far to fill the post that fell vacant on May 15 and suddenly the same was filled within 24 hours.
“Not even in 24 hours, the process was completed and notified. What kind of evaluation (was carried out) here?” the apex court asked. Urging the bench to stop its volley of questions, Attorney General Venkataramani said the court should see the entirety of the issue. “Please hold your mouth for a while. I request to look into the issue in entirety,” Venkataramani said. It perused the original file of Goel’s appointment as EC which was placed before the bench by the Centre in pursuance of Wednesday’s direction given by the top court. The bench is hearing a batch of pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of ECs and the Chief Election Commissioner.
Need CEC who can’t be bulldozed: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stressed the need for a Chief Election Commissioner with the integrity and strength of character of the late TN Seshan and one who cannot be “bulldozed”.
While hearing petitions seeking reforms in the appointment of election commissioners, a five-judge bench headed by Justice KM Joseph said the Chief Justice of India (CJI) should be included in the appointment committee to ensure neutrality. The top court noted that enormous powers have invested in the “fragile shoulder” of the CEC and the two election commissioners and it is only pertinent that someone like Seshan is selected for the job. Source: The Federal
-
Long-time reformist Anwar sworn in as Malaysia’s PM
Kuala Lumpur (TIP): Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as prime minister on November 24, capping a three-decade political journey from a protege of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to protest leader, a prisoner convicted of sodomy and opposition leader. Anwar vowed to fight corruption and focus on the economy, as well as promising to uphold Islam as the official religion of the multi-ethnic country and also special rights of ethnic Malays. “Thank God, because we have seen a change that has awaited the people of Malaysia,” he told reporters at a late-evening address, hours after he was sworn in by the constitutional monarch who appointed him after an inconclusive election.
His appointment ends five days of unprecedented post-election crisis, but could usher in a new instability with his rival, former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, challenging him to prove his majority in Parliament.
Both men failed to win a majority in elections, but the constitutional monarch, King Al-Sultan Abdullah, appointed Anwar after speaking to several lawmakers.
Anwar takes over at a challenging time: the economy is slowing and the country is divided after a tight election that pitted Anwar’s progressive coalition against Muhyiddin’s mostly conservative ethnic-Malay, Muslim alliance.
The 75-year-old Anwar had time and again been denied the premiership despite getting within striking distance over the years: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and the official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018.
In between, he spent nearly a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption in what he says were politically motivated charges aimed at ending his career. The uncertainty over the election threatened to prolong political instability in the Southeast Asian country, which has had three prime ministers in as many years, and risks delaying policy decisions needed to foster economic recovery.
Anwar’s supporters expressed hope that his government would head off a return to historic tension between the ethnic Malay, Muslim majority and ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities in the country. His coalition, PakatanHarapan, won the most seats in vote with 82, while Muhyiddin’sPerikatanNasional bloc won 73. They needed 112, a simple majority, to form a government. — Reuters
-
Former top spy Lieutenant General AsimMunir appointed Pakistan Army chief
Islamabad (TIP): Pakistan’s former spy master and senior-most Lt General AsimMunir was named as the new Army Chief by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on November 24, ending speculation over the most powerful position in the coup-prone nation, where the military wields considerable power in matters of security and foreign policy.
Lt Gen Munir has served as chief of two most powerful intelligence agencies—the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI) — but his stint as the spy chief at the ISI was the shortest ever as he was replaced by Lt Gen Faiz Hamid within eight months on the insistence of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2019.
He would replace Gen QamarJavedBajwa, who retires on November 29 after two consecutive three-year terms. Gen Bajwa, 61, was appointed as the army chief in 2016 for a three-year term. He was given a three-year extension by the Khan government in 2019. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced on Twitter that Prime Minister Sharif has named Lt Gen Munir as the new army chief. Lt Gen SahirShamshad Mirza had been picked as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). “The summary about (appointments) has been sent to the President,” Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted. The CJCSC is the highest authority in the hierarchy of the armed forces but the key powers including mobilisation of troops, appointments and transfers lie with the COAS which makes the person holding the post the most powerful in the military.
The powerful Army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 75-plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in matters of security and foreign policy. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party earlier quoted Imran Khan as saying that “when the summary comes, I and the President of Pakistan will act according to the constitution and laws.” The appointment coincides with a dispute between the military and Imran Khan, who blames the army for playing a role in his ouster in April this year through a no-confidence vote.
Khan’s close aide and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Wednesday that “until we see the conduct of the new army chief, we cannot say anything about it, but the role of the army in politics in the last 6 months is controversial, this role will need to be changed.” Lt Gen Munir is the senior-most general. Although he was promoted to the rank of two-star general in September 2018, he took charge two months later. As a result, his four-year tenure as Lt Gen will end on November 27. But with his appointment as COAS, he would get a three-year extension in the service. (PTI)
-
South Korea in demographic crisis as many stop having babies
Seoul (TIP): Yoo Young Yi’s grandmother gave birth to six children. Her mother birthed two. Yoo doesn’t want any. “My husband and I like babies so much … but there are things that we’d have to sacrifice if we raised kids,” said Yoo, a 30-year-old Seoul financial company employee. “So it’s become a matter of choice between two things, and we’ve agreed to focus more on ourselves.” There are many like Yoo in South Korea who have chosen either not to have children or not to marry. Other advanced countries have similar trends, but South Korea’s demographic crisis is much worse. South Korea’s statistics agency announced in September that the total fertility rate — the average number of babies born to each woman in their reproductive years — was 0.81 last year. That’s the world’s lowest for the third consecutive year. The population shrank for the first time in 2021, stoking worry that a declining population could severely damage the economy — the world’s 10th largest — because of labour shortages and greater welfare spending as the number of older people increases and the number of taxpayers shrinks.
President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered policymakers to find more effective steps to deal with the problem. The fertility rate, he said, is plunging even though South Korea spent 280 trillion won (USD 210 billion) over the past 16 years to try to turn the tide. Many young South Koreans say that, unlike their parents and grandparents, they don’t feel an obligation to have a family.
They cite the uncertainty of a bleak job market, expensive housing, gender and social inequality, low levels of social mobility and the huge expense of raising children in a brutally competitive society. Women also complain of a persistent patriarchal culture that forces them to do much of the childcare while enduring discrimination at work.
“In a nutshell, people think our country isn’t an easy place to live,” said Lee So-Young, a population policy expert at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. “They believe their children can’t have better lives than them, and so question why they should bother to have babies.”
Many people who fail to enter good schools and land decent jobs feel they’ve become “dropouts” who “cannot be happy” even if they marry and have kids because South Korea lacks advanced social safety nets, said Choi Yoon Kyung, an expert at the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education.
She said South Korea failed to establish such welfare programs during its explosive economic growth in the 1960 to ’80s. Yoo, the Seoul financial worker, said that until she went to college, she strongly wanted a baby. But she changed her mind when she saw female office colleagues calling their kids from the company toilet to check on them or leaving early when their children were sick. She said her male coworkers didn’t have to do this. “After seeing this, I realized my concentration at work would be greatly diminished if I had babies,” Yoo said.
Her 34-year-old husband, Jo Jun Hwi, said he doesn’t think having kids is necessary. An interpreter at an information technology company, Jo said he wants to enjoy his life after years of exhaustive job-hunting that made him “feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff.” There are no official figures on how many South Koreans have chosen not to marry or have kids. But records from the national statistics agency show there were about 193,000 marriages in South Korea last year, down from a peak of 430,000 in 1996. (Agencies)
-
Kim’s sister calls South Korean president and his govt ‘idiots’ and ‘a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the US’
Seoul (TIP): The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made insult-laden threats against South Korea on November 24 for considering unilateral sanctions on the North, calling the South’s new president and his government “idiots” and “a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the US”.
Kim Yo Jong’s diatribe came two days after South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it was reviewing additional unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent barrage of missile tests. The ministry said it would also consider sanctions and clampdowns on North Korea’s alleged cyber-attacks—a new key source of funding for its weapons program—if the North conducts a major provocation like a nuclear test. “I wonder what sanctions the South Korean group, no more than a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the US, impudently impose on North Korea,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. “What a spectacle sight!” She called South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk Yeol and his conservative government “idiots who continue creating the dangerous situation”. She added that South Korea “had not been our target” when Moon Jae-in—Yoon’s liberal predecessor who sought reconciliation with North Korea—was in power. It could be seen as a possible attempt to help foster anti-Yoon sentiments in South Korea. “We warn the impudent and stupid once again that the desperate sanctions and pressure of the US and its South Korean stooges against (North Korea) will add fuel to the latter’s hostility and anger and they will serve as a noose for them,” Kim Yo Jong said. (AP)
-
2-day-old baby killed as missile hits Ukraine maternity hospital
Kyiv (TIP): An overnight rocket attack destroyed a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a 2-day-old baby, Ukrainian authorities said on November 23. Ukraine’s first lady said the attack caused “horrible pain,” vowing that “we will never forget and never forgive.” The baby’s mother and a doctor were pulled alive from the rubble in Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia. The region’s governor said the rockets were Russian. The strike adds to the gruesome toll suffered by hospitals and other medical facilities in the Russian invasion that will enter its tenth month this week.
“At night, Russian monsters launched huge rockets at the small maternity ward of the hospital in Vilniansk. Grief overwhelms our hearts — a baby was killed who had just seen the light of day. Rescuers are working at the site,” said the regional governor, OleksandrStarukh, writing on the Telegram messaging app. Medical workers’ efforts have been complicated by recent attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure that have damaged the power grid. State grid operator Ukrenergo said that all regions of Ukraine would see power outages on Wednesday.
“Breathing machines don’t work, X-ray machines don’t work… There is only one portable ultrasound machine and we carry it constantly,” said a doctor, VolodymyrMalishchuk. — PTI
‘Russia sponsoring terrorism’
The European Parliament on Wednesday designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing Moscow’s military strikes on civilian targets violated international law. Reuters
-
Search effort intensifies after Indonesia quake killed 271
Cianjur (Indonesia) (TIP): More rescuers and volunteers were deployed on November 23 in devastated areas on Indonesia’s main island of Java to search for the dead and missing from an earthquake that killed at least 271 people. With many missing, some remote areas still unreachable and more than 2,000 people injured in the 5.6 magnitude quake on Monday, the death toll was likely to rise.
Hospitals near the epicentre on the densely populated island were already overwhelmed, and patients hooked up to IV drips lay on stretchers and cots in tents set up outside, awaiting further treatment.
More than 12,000 army personnel were deployed on Wednesday to increase the strength of search efforts that being carried out by more than 2,000 joint forces of police, the search and rescue agency and volunteers, said Suharyanto, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief. Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said aid was reaching thousands of people left homeless who fled to temporary shelters where supplies can be distributed only by foot over the rough terrain.
He said rescuers recovered three bodies Wednesday and rescued a 6-year-old boy who was found alive next to the dead body of his grandmother after spending two days trapped under the rubble of his collapsed house.
Television reports showed police, soldiers and other rescue personnel using jackhammers, circular saws and sometimes their bare hands and farm tools, digging desperately in the worst-hit area of Cijendil village where tons of mud, rocks and trees were left from a landslide. The government appeared to be focused on finding bodies, and wherever possible, survivors. Authorities struggled to bring tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads after earthquake triggered landslides crashing onto the hilly hamlets.
But still, residents said the government was slow to respond to the earthquake.
Muhammad Tohir, 48, was sitting in his living room with family in Cijendil when the catastrophe struck. Although his family managed to make it out, his sister and her two children was crushed by a landslide, a few kilometres (miles) of his house. “When I came to my sister’s house, I was devastated by what I saw,” Tohir said. “Dozens of houses had been buried by landslides. … I feel like doomsday.” He said more than 40 houses in his sister’s neighbourhood in Cijendil were buried under tons of mud with at least 45 people were buried alive, including Tohir’s sister and her two children. Tohir, along with other residents in the area, searched for the missing using farm tools and managed to pull out two bodies buried under as much as 6 metres (10 feet) of mud. Two days later, rescue personnel arrived to help in the search. “The government too slow to respond to this disaster,” Tohir said. “They should be bringing in heavy equipment to speed this up,” he said. But he said that he will not give up until they can pull his sister and his nieces out of the mud. In several hard-hit areas, water, food and medical supplies were being distributed from trucks, and authorities have deployed military personnel carrying food, medicine, blankets, field tents and water tankers. (AP)
-
Religious freedom and related human rights in India are under threat: USCIRF alleges
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Religious freedom and related human rights in India are under ongoing threat, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom alleged on Tuesday in an unusual year-end update of the status of its assessment of religious freedom in the country. India has previously rejected the USCIRF’s observations, terming them as “biased and inaccurate”. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a Congressional-appointed body. Its recommendations are, however, not mandatory to be implemented by the US State Department. In its 2022 Annual Report early this year USCIRF recommended that the US Department of State designate India as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as set forth by the International Religious Freedom Act.
The US State Department has refused to incorporate the commission’s recommendations so far. Reiterating its recommendations of early this year, USCIRF argued that such a designation would reinforce the United States’ concern regarding the conditions discussed in this country update and would encourage the Indian government to diverge from policies that violate religious freedom and promote communal divides. In its six-page country update report on India, USCIRF has published its map three times.Two of the maps are distorted and do not reflect a true geographical map of India. The report said in 2022, religious freedom conditions in India remained poor. During the year, the Indian government at the national, state, and local levels continued to promote and enforce policies, including laws targeting religious conversion, interfaith relationships, and cow slaughter, that negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and Adivasis. The national government also continued to suppress critical voices — particularly religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf — including through surveillance, harassment, demolition of property, arbitrary travel bans, and detention under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and by targeting nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) under the Financial Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), the report said. The pilot implementation of the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state of Assam continued to exacerbate fears of losing citizenship among Muslims, who lack protection under the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), it said.In July this year, the Ministry of External Affairs, responding to the USCIRF’s report said, “We have seen the biased and inaccurate comments on India by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).”
“These comments reflect a severe lack of understanding of India and its constitutional framework, its plurality and its democratic ethos. Regrettably, USCIRF continues to misrepresent facts time and again in its statements and reports in pursuance of its motivated agenda. Such actions only serve to strengthen concerns about the credibility and objectivity of the organization,” the spokesperson of MEA said in New Delhi.
(Source: PTI)
-
India played essential role in negotiating G20 declaration: White House
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): India played an essential role in negotiating the Bali Declaration of the just concluded G-20 Summit in Indonesia, the White House said on Friday and applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying that today’s era must not be of war. “India played an essential role in negotiating the summit’s declaration. Prime Minister Modi made clear today’s era must not be of war,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference.
“Among other priorities addressed, we have a path forward to addressing current food and energy security challenges while continuing our efforts to build a resilient global economy,” she said. US President Joe Biden returned from Indonesia on Thursday after attending the G-20 Summit in Bali. India takes over the presidency of G-20 in December, which all its members and international community say would be an important milestone in the history of the grouping. “Prime Minister Modi’s relationship was critical to this outcome, and we look forward to supporting India’s G-20 presidency next year. We look forward to that next meeting,” Jean-Pierre said. She said Biden spoke with Modi and the Indonesian president on the margins of the summit.
(Source: PTI)
-
2022 huge year for US-India ties, 2023 to be even bigger: White House
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): In the history of India-US ties, 2022 has been a huge year and the next year will be even bigger, a top White House official has said, asserting that the Biden administration sees this alliance as among the most consequential relationships for America anywhere in the world.
Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being instrumental in forging a consensus during the recently concluded G-20 Summit in Indonesia’s Bali province.
“Looking around the world when the United States and (its) President (Joe) Biden look for partners that can truly help carry the load, truly helped move forward a global agenda, India and Prime Minister Modi are very high on that list,” Finer told a gathering of several hundred Indian-Americans here on Sunday.
“We just saw this in real-time at the G-20 where the prime minister was instrumental in forging a consensus around a joint statement among a far-flung group of countries and in the comments and work that the prime minister has done and others in the Indian government have done to highlight the increasing risk related to nuclear issues,” he said. This relationship is being steered by Prime Minister Modi and President Biden who have met more than 15 times, the latest one being in Bali last week, said India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, addressing the gathering at a lunch reception hosted by him to celebrate the ‘Festival Season’. The unique event organized by the Embassy of India showcased the syncretic nature of Indian culture. The event saw festivals of different faiths – from Diwali to Hanukkah, Eid to Bodhi day, and from Gurpurab to Christmas celebrated with aplomb.
Attended by top officials of the Biden administration, including Senior Advisor to the President Neera Tanden and Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy, the event demonstrated amply India’s unique stature as the embodiment of ‘Unity in Diversity’ – a land where various faiths have not only coexisted but flourished.
“This event really demonstrates so much about what President Biden is talking about when he talks about an inclusive country, a country that celebrates our diversity and our strength in diversity,” Tanden said. “I’m grateful for this partnership between the United States and India. I think it has been important in the past, but it will be even more important going forward,” Murthy said.
Reflecting on his views on the India-US relationship, Finer reiterated the administration’s commitment to it and said 2022 and 2023 are two critical years for this. “The year 2022 was huge in US-India relations. We think we have an even bigger year ahead in 2023. We have the Quad summit on the agenda coming up. We have India’s G20 presidency, which I know we’re all looking forward to, including Prime Minister Modi,” Finer said in his address.
He referred to the 2+2 Quad ministerial meetings taking place this spring, the relaunch of Indi US CEO dialogue and launch of critical and emerging technology dialogue early in 2023.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Finer said, adding that both 2022 and 2023 are emblematic of how this relationship has proceeded for decades now.
The entire Biden administration and certainly the president sees this as among the most consequential relationships for the US anywhere in the world, but also almost uniquely one of the relationships that still retains some of the greatest potential to continue to evolve and strengthen and improve, Finer said.
“We are deeply committed to doing just that. It’s easy to see why that is the case. At a time that can be extremely difficult to forge a bipartisan consensus in Washington on almost anything, there is a strong bipartisan consensus in support of the US-India relationship and has been for decades and a high degree of continuity from one administration to the next,” he said. “There is obviously an increasing alignment of our interests, both geopolitically and as two world-leading democracies. And then, of course, the deep ties and incredible dynamism of our diaspora community, our cultural ties or commercial ties. “And then finally, and I don’t want this to be lost, there are the ties of our leadership, which we consider to be hugely important,” he said. Among those who attended the event included an array of important dignitaries, with friends of India from the administration, the US Congress, from different states, the think-tank community, private sector organizations, and the Indian diaspora.
Notable attendees included Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein and Lieutenant Governor-Elect of Maryland Aruna Miller.
(Source: PTI)
-
Committed to getting Eric Garcetti as US envoy to New Delhi: WH
WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Biden administration is committed to getting Eric Garcetti as the US envoy to New Delhi, the White House has said, hoping that the Senate will confirm his nomination soon. “India is a very important relationship that we have. You saw the President (Biden) greet and meet very briefly with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi just last week when he was in Bali. So clearly, it’s an important relationship that we truly respect,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters here on Monday. She exuded confidence that the presidential nominee for the US Ambassador to India, Garcetti, would be soon confirmed by the Senate. The nomination has been pending before the upper chamber of the US Congress for more than a year now. “As for Mayor Garcetti, we are committed to getting him through the process. We’re continuing to talk to the Senate about making that happen. That is a priority of ours,” Jean-Pierre said. In July 2021, US President Biden nominated Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti as his Ambassador to India.
But the Senate confirmation of Garcetti has been pending for more than a year now. His nomination was initially blocked by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley because of allegations of inappropriate behavior by one of his senior staffers. Though the hold on his nomination has been lifted, the ruling Democrats are reluctant to bring his nomination for confirmation before the full Senate as they think they don’t have enough votes for it. Earlier this month, the White House had exuded confidence that Garcetti would be confirmed by the Senate.
(Source: PTI)
-
Ukrainian capital Kyiv plunges into darkness
Kyiv (TIP): About 70 per cent of the Ukrainian capital was left without power, Kyiv’s mayor said on November 24, a day after Moscow unleashed yet another devastating missile and drone barrage on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Haluschenko said three out of four nuclear power stations that are fully functioning and which had been forced offline by Wednesday’s strikes were subsequently reconnected to the grid.
“In the next few hours, we will start supplying energy to critical infrastructure, and then to the majority of household consumers,” Lunin said on Telegram, noting that power has already been restored for 15,500 people and 1,500 legal entities in the region.
Wednesday’s renewed Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure caused power outages across large parts of the country, further hobbling Ukraine’s already battered power network and adding to the misery for civilians as temperatures plunge. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Thursday morning that Russian forces fired 67 cruise missiles and 10 drones during Wednesday’s “massive attack on residential buildings and energy infrastructure” in Kyiv and several other regions in Ukraine.
Governor of the Poltava region DmytroLunin said “an optimistic scenario” suggested that electricity will come back to residents of his central Ukrainian region on Thursday.
Lunin added that water supplies resumed in several parts of the city of Poltava, and four boiler stations have started to heat regional hospitals across the country.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, power has been restored for up to 50 per cent of consumers, GovValentynReznichenko said, but noted that “the power situation is complicated.” — AP
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro, voted out, challenges election results
Brasilia (TIP): Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has challenged his electoral defeat last month to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to a complaint filed with the country’s federal electoral court (TSE) that alleges votes from certain electronic voting machines should be “invalidated.”
Bolsonaro’s claim seems unlikely to get far, as Lula’s victory has been ratified by the TSE and acknowledged by Brazil’s leading politicians and international allies. But it could fuel a small but committed protest movement that has so far refused to accept the result. Bolsonaro’s right-wing electoral coalition, which filed the complaint, said its audit of the vote count had found “signs of irreparable… malfunction” in older voting machines.
“There were signs of serious failures that generate uncertainties and make it impossible to validate the results generated” in several older models of the voting machines, Bolsonaro allies said in their complaint. As a result, they urged that the votes from those models should be “invalidated.” Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has for years made baseless claims that the country’s electronic voting system is liable to fraud, without providing substantiating evidence.
Brazil’s currency deepened losses after news of the electoral complaint, losing 1.5% against the U.S. dollar in afternoon trading.
The TSE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters
-
Lankan President rules out early poll
Colombo (TIP): Sri Lankan President RanilWickremesinghe on November 23 rejected the opposition’s demand for early parliamentary elections and vowed to use the military to crush any future anti-government protests aimed at regime change. Wickremesinghe, 73, who took over as the President of Sri Lanka in July this year after then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Colombo in the face of the country’s worst economic crisis since 1948, said that he will not dissolve the parliament until the economic crisis is resolved.
“I will not dissolve parliament early until the economic crisis can be resolved,” he said while speaking in Parliament.
Wickremesinghe has a mandate to serve out the rest of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in November 2024. However, the opposition parties are demanding early parliamentary elections, claiming that Wickremesinghe’s government lacks electoral credibility. The next presidential election is scheduled to be held in 2024.
The president said a radical political party named Frontline Socialist Party was behind the protests for their political benefits. — PTI
-
Nepal Airlines seeks restoration of four flights per week to Delhi amid tiff with aviation authority
Kathmandu (TIP): Nepal Airlines Corporation, the Himalayan nation’s flag carrier, has urged the civil aviation authority to drop its unilateral decision to cut the number of flights on the lucrative Kathmandu-Delhi sector from 14 to 10 per week for not utilising the newly-opened Gautam Buddha International Airport.
In a statement on November 22, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) said that its income has been sliced and it is having to bear the additional cost of rerouting passengers after the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) slashed the number of flights to Delhi from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Nepal’s first international airport here. The authority reduced the number of flights to Delhi from TIA to 10 from 14 per week from October 30. The Gautam Buddha International Airport is 300 km west of Kathmandu, the country’s capital. The reduction of four flights per week during the peak season has caused a weekly loss of around Rs 90.5 million to the national flag carrier, The Himalayan Times newspaper reported, quoting an NAC official. “We’d been operating two Kathmandu-Delhi flights per day at near full occupancy, which was one of the major income sources for NAC,” the official said.(PTI)
-
Dispirited Opposition seems muted against loud BJP
In spite of the presence of committed young leaders in the Congress, the party’s overall image is that of a jaded force. It may be rooted in Gujarat, but it lost its credibility after defections from its ranks on many seats. Except for some individually wealthy candidates, the party is also stretched for resources and even the rally of Rahul Gandhi, held on November 21 in a tribal pocket of Gujarat, was organized on a modest scale.
By Saba Naqvi The hegemony of the BJP is all too visible in travels across Gujarat, not because all people are deliriously happy with the uninterrupted 27-year reign of the party; some indeed are die-hard fans of what can be called ‘Moditva’, which combines personality worship of the Prime Minister with regional and Hindutva pride. But there are also many among the Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims and a section of the urban working class who are distressed by price rise, unemployment and poor public infrastructure in education and health. They could stay with the Congress, the traditional opposition, or explore the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) the second time. Yet, scratch beneath the surface and they too believe that neither opposition party is in a position to eventually defeat the BJP. Therein lies the rub for when people do not believe that there can be a change through the electoral process, what we get is a relatively dull election in Gujarat. Never mind the razzmatazz of the many rallies of the PM: he is out there campaigning because he would know there is a certain ennui among the electorate and the huge cadre mobilization is designed to change that, add an edge to the process, and bring voters to the polling booth.
It is a particularly flat election compared to the last contest in 2017, when the Patidar agitation, led by Hardik Patel, had made a strong impact and resulted in the worst-ever performance of the BJP, which got just 99 seats in a House of 182 (more were added later through defections from the Congress, but that is now a routine story). Many observers believe that the Congress could have won that election, had it not been for some last-minute reversals in the Surat belt. Since then, Hardik Patel has become a spent force who lamely joined the very BJP he abused day and night. Ahmed Patel, long-time Congress treasurer and financier of all campaigns in Gujarat, has passed away and there is none among the traditional state leadership who can do anything beyond attempting to maintain the status quo. Still, it’s not as if there are no exciting young figures in the Congress. There is 42-year-old MLA Anant Patel (an Adivasi Patel), who led a strong protest against the Par-Tapi-Narmada river-linking project in tribal areas outside Surat and compelled the Narendra Modi-led Central Government to withdraw it for now. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the project in her Budget speech and instantly a protest erupted in the tribal pockets of south Gujarat along the Narmada and Tapi rivers. The Congress was at the forefront of those protests and has its hopes pinned on doing well in the Adivasi belt.
Also, there is 41-year-old Jignesh Mevani, a Dalit politician, contesting this time on the Congress ticket from his constituency Vadgam in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat. He had won the seat in 2017 as an Independent, but given the huge machinery that the BJP is unleashing against him, it is a David versus Goliath contest in which Mevani is short of resources. So much so that he has started a crowd-funding initiative to finance his campaign and can be seen poring over every bill in the midst of electioneering. An advocate of land reforms and labor rights, he runs platforms and agitations for the Dalit community and was prominent in the protest against the public flogging of Dalits at Una, Gujarat, in 2016. A former journalist, was arrested by the Assam police in April for a tweet criticizing the PM. In spite of the presence of committed young leaders in the Congress, the party’s overall image is that of a jaded force. It may be rooted in Gujarat, but it lost its credibility after defections from its ranks on many seats. Except for some individually wealthy candidates, the party is also stretched for resources and even the rally of Rahul Gandhi, held on November 21 in a tribal pocket of Gujarat, was organized on a modest scale. What the Congress is spending is peanuts, grown in abundance in Gujarat, compared to the BJP in an age when the wealthiest businessmen of India are from Gujarat (there is a road in Ahmedabad referred to as Billionaire Street).
The AAP, meanwhile, has the energy and audacity that the Congress is missing in this campaign. Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has set the agenda, but AAP does not have the necessary organizational base to make a mark in many parts of Gujarat. Meanwhile, conventional wisdom says that the young party could cut into the Congress’ vote share. But if it does well in Surat, where it is visibly in the contest, it would also be damaging the BJP that dominates the city and indeed all urban centers in the nation’s most urbanized state.
Congress candidates admit that there is public interest in AAP and it’s hard to predict how much impact the new party will eventually have in the election. A visit to an AAP office, however, also reveals the troubles confronting the party: as the countdown to the voting day begins, some volunteers have vanished due to pressures from family, community and fear of reprisal. The starkest example of this was the ‘disappearance’ of AAP candidate from Surat East, Kanchan Jariwala, who later turned up to withdraw his nomination at the last minute.
The AAP actually remains the X-factor in this election as traditional parameters cannot be applied to it. Will it crash or singe other players remains to be seen. What can be said about this election in Gujarat is that if there is an undercurrent against the BJP, it is muted, while the supporters and cadre of the ruling party are emphatic about their faith in Prime Minister Modi in an age of Gujarati ascendancy.
(The author is a Senior Journalist)