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Eye on LS polls, BJP reaches out to former allies Premium Story
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

As the Opposition parties step up to build a united platform against the ruling BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party has returned to kickstart talks with its erstwhile allies in a bid to breathe a new life into the NDA, even as the party has sought to firm up ties with its existing partners.Its rout in the recent Karnataka Assembly polls coupled with the rapidly-changing political situation seems to have forced the BJP to shed its tough stance against ex-partners that walked out of the party-led NDA on a sour note. Clearly, the party is again looking to stitch up a formidable coalition for the next general election.BJP sources said the party leadership has already resumed alliance talks with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab. The BJP top brass has also reaffirmed the party’s ties with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Also, it will soon meet and hold discussions with smaller allies in other states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, sources said.In a recent meeting with the BJP Chief Ministers and Deputy CMs in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was said to have advised the BJP to be open to accommodate the regional parties by forging ties with them.A number of BJP leaders have admitted that the exit of parties like the TDP, Uddhav Sena, SAD and JD(U) from the NDA over the years has given the party an image in public that it does not want to accept regional parties that are formidable forces in their respective states. Its friendly parties – the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh or the BJD in Odisha – had not been ready for a formal alliance while remaining unwilling to be a part of the party-led government at the Centre.According to sources, the BJP leadership has decided to keep aside its disenchantment with the SAD, which quit the NDA over the now-repealed contentious farm laws, after evaluating the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll outcome.The May by-election to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, a traditional Congress bastion, was won by the AAP with 34.1 per cent votes while the SAD and the BJP candidates, respectively, got 17.9 per cent and 15.2 per cent votes. “The fact that the votes won by the BJP and the SAD almost equalled the votes the winning AAP candidate got has made the leadership review its stance. The BJP is a party that drops hard or adamant positions if it is necessary for electoral wins,” said a party leader who is familiar with developments in the Punjab unit.After its decimation in the Punjab polls last year, the SAD – it could win only three seats in the 117-member state Assembly – was keen on returning to the NDA fold, said the leader. The BJP had then fought the election in a coalition with smaller parties, including the ex-Congress CM Capt Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress, managing to win only two seats.Although the JD (S) was interested in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP in the Karnataka elections, the BJP did not go for it in a “strategic move” to let the regional party keep its Vokkaliga-Muslim support base, according to BJP sources. However, the BJP was disappointed with the “surprising drop in its vote share” in the elections. “For the Lok Sabha elections, it makes sense for both the parties to forge a formal alliance as the JD(S) does not have much hope to regain its minority votes in the near future,” said a BJP leader.Some recent statements from the JD(S) leaders, including ex-prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s praise for Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for his handling of the Balasore triple-train disaster, indicate that there could be a tie-up between the two parties for the 2024 polls. In the wake of the Congress’s spectacular victory in the state elections, the BJP is keen to consolidate the Vokkaliga votes in its favour, sources said.The Karnataka lessons also appear to have pushed the BJP into resuming coalition talks with TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. Although Naidu had made several attempts for a thaw in their ties earlier too, the BJP leadership was then reluctant, primarily due to vehement resistance from its state unit. Last week, however, Naidu met top BJP leaders, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president J P Nadda, with both sides apparently agreeing to work together in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.With several crucial state elections lined up later this year in which it will face off the Congress directly, the BJP’s current focus has turned to curbing the re-emergence of the Congress in these states.While Naidu is keen on forging an alliance with the BJP to mount a bid to return to power in Andhra Pradesh by ousting the incumbent Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP from power, the BJP is looking to secure its position as the most potent alternative force in Telangana. In both these states, the BJP wants to restrict the Congress to a distant third position or push it to the margins.After a hiatus in Maharashtra, the BJP leadership sent out fresh conciliatory signals to the Shinde Sena earlier this month, sources said. Both the allies share power in the state government led by CM Shinde, whose party has also been demanding berths in the Union Cabinet for its MPs who have extended support to the BJP in Parliament. Sources said fresh moves are afoot in the government to explore any possible changes in the Union Cabinet in order to create space for some alliance partners and new faces.Shinde along with Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met Shah earlier this week in the national capital, following which the CM announced that both the allies will contest all future elections in the state together. “During the meeting, it was decided that all future elections (including the Lok Sabha, Assembly and civic bodies) will be contested jointly by the Shiv Sena and BJP. We will contest and win the elections with a majority,” he tweeted.The BJP is expected to launch fresh efforts to strengthen its ties with the Apna Dal in UP, even as it would explore partnership with other smaller parties in both UP and Bihar.

Eye on LS polls, BJP reaches out to former allies Premium Story
Mumbai murder: She was ‘like daughter’, says man accused of cutting partner into pieces
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

The man accused of killing his alleged live-in partner in their flat in Geeta Nagar area of Mira Road, near Mumbai, and allegedly chopping the body into innumerable pieces, has told police during interrogation that he is HIV-positive and had never had physical relationship with Vaidya, as she was “like his daughter”, a senior police officer told The Indian Express.The officer said that accused Manoj Ramesh Sane, 56, who was arrested on Thursday, has claimed that Saraswati Vaidya, 32, died by suicide on June 3. Fearing that he would be booked in the case, he allegedly tried to dispose of the body, and told police that he planned to end his life thereafter, the officer said.The officer, who visited the spot on Wednesday night, after the death came to light, said details of Sane’s claims during interrogation are being verified.After cutting the body into small parts with an electric tree cutter, Sane allegedly boiled parts of it in a pressure cooker and roasted them on gas to dump them easily, police said. He had allegedly kept the pieces in a bucket, tub, cooker and other vessels in the kitchen, and cut them so small that police could not even count them, an officer said.Police have invoked IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) in the FIR. “He was produced in a Thane court and has been remanded in police custody until June 16,” DCP Jayant Bajbale, zone-1, Mira-Bhayander Vasai Virar police, said.“During preliminary inquiry, Sane told police that in 2008 he discovered that he was HIV positive,” the senior officer said. “Since then, he has been on medication. He said that he suspects he contracted the disease due to use of infected blood during his treatment a long time ago, after he had met with an accident.”According to Sane’s confession to police, Vaidya was very possessive in nature and suspected that he was being unfaithful to her whenever he returned home late, the officer said. She was planning to appear for Class 10 SSC exams and Sane was teaching her math, the officer said, quoting from his admission during interrogation.The officer said they found a board on one of the walls of the seventh-floor flat, with math equations scribbled on it.Sane told police that he saw Vaidya lying on the floor of their flat on June 3 morning, froth coming out of her mouth. He checked her pulse and found her dead, he told police. Fearing action against him, Sane reportedly told police, he decided to get rid of the body.Sane has told police that he has an Industrial Training Institute certificate but has been working at a PDS shop for 10 years as he did not get a decent job. The body parts collected from the kitchen have been sent to Sir JJ Hospital for forensic analysis, DCP Bajbale said.Police are taking the help of medical experts and trying to ascertain which parts of the body are missing. They have seized an electric cutter. Police suspect the crime took place earlier and emerged on Wednesday, when neighbours reported foul smell from the couple’s flat. After police were informed, they broke open the door to gain entry into the flat and found the woman’s body, chopped into pieces, in the kitchen. Unaware of police presence, Sane returned home in the evening. He was nabbed as he tried to escape, an officer said.A senior officer said when the accused was being questioned, he showed no remorse.

Mumbai murder: She was ‘like daughter’, says man accused of cutting partner into pieces
El Niño is here: NOAA flags dramatic warming in Pacific Ocean after 7 yrs, what does this mean?
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Seven years after 2016, El Niño is back in the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States federal administration, announced on Thursday (June 8). Though expected, this confirmation by NOAA is of significant concern to India. Here’s why.El Niño, which in Spanish means “little boy”, is a climate pattern that develops along the equatorial Pacific Ocean after intervals of a few years ranging between 2 and 7 years.Essentially, water on the surface of the ocean sees an unusual warming in a band straddling the equator in the central and east-central pacific — broadly extending from the International Date line and 120°W longitude, i.e., off the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Galapagos islands.When the so-called El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is in its neutral phase, the trade winds blow west along the equator and take the warm water from South America towards Asia. However, during an event of El Niño, these trade winds weaken (or may even reverse) — and instead of blowing from the east (South America) to the west (Indonesia), they could turn into westerlies.In this situation, as the winds blow from the west to east, they cause masses of warm water to move into the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, and reach the coast of western America. During such years, there prevails warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific Ocean.Globally, El Niño has been associated with severe heatwaves, floods, and droughts in the past.“Depending on its strength, El Niño can cause a range of impacts such as increasing the risk of heavy rainfall and droughts in certain locations around the world,” Michelle L’Heureux, climate scientist at the Climate Prediction Center, NOAA, said in a press statement.The 2023 event is the fifth since 2000 — which means they develop every 4-5 years on average. At the start of this year, an El Niño was predicted to emerge by August, which would have meant it would coincide with the second half of the June-September southwest monsoon season in India.This, however, did not happen as predicted. Sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific Ocean, especially along the various Niño regions, have been showing signs of much more rapid warming than had been predicted by the weather models.The Niño 3.4 index value — the vital indicator confirming an event of El Niño — jumped from minus 0.2 degrees Celsius to 0.8 degrees Celsius between March and June this year. Whereas, the threshold value of this index is 0.5 degrees Celsius.Meteorologists have noted that such accelerated rates of warming, following three years of La Niña (the opposite phase of ENSO) that ended in February this year, was unusual.How worried should India be about this development?In the Indian context, over the last hundred years, there have been 18 drought years. Of these, 13 years were associated with El Niño. Thus, there seems to be a correlation between an El Niño event and a year of poor rainfall in India.Also, between 1900 and 1950, there were 7 El Niño years but during the 1951-2021 period, there were 15 El Niño years ( 2015, 2009, 2004, 2002, 1997, 1991, 1987, 1982, 1972, 1969, 1965, 1963, 1957, 1953 and 1951). This suggests that the frequency of El Niño events has been increasing over time.Of the 15 El Niño years in the 1951-2021 period, nine summer monsoon seasons over the country recorded deficient rain by more than 90 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA).“Climate change can exacerbate or mitigate certain impacts related to El Niño. It could lead to new records for temperatures, particularly in areas that already experience above-average temperatures,” the NOAA scientist said.(Anjali Marar works at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru.)

El Niño is here: NOAA flags dramatic warming in Pacific Ocean after 7 yrs, what does this mean?
Lucknow courtroom murder and a UP leader who could have been CM
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Brahm Dutt Dwivedi belonged to the old school of BJP leaders. A poet and a gentleman, he had once even been a contender for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s chair, after he had protected BSP supremo Mayawati from Samajwadi Party workers, in the infamous 1995 ‘guesthouse’ incident in Lucknow. He was murdered in 1997 by gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva — an aide of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. On Wednesday, the killing was back in the news as Maheshwari was shot dead on the premises of a Lucknow court.The then BJP MLA from Farrukhabad, Dwivedi was killed on February 10, 1997, while he was seated in his car, ready to leave for home after attending a tilak ceremony. His gunner B K Tiwari was also killed in the attack, while his driver suffered injuries.On July 17, 2003, the CBI court in Lucknow sentenced Maheshwari and former SP MLA Vijay Singh to life imprisonment in the case. Both convicts challenged the judgment in the High Court. In 2017, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad HC upheld the trial court judgment.Dwivedi was a tall leader in UP politics, and was well-connected with the top BJP leadership. After his murder, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi came to Farrukhabad to pay their tributes. Then Governor Romesh Bhandari and SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav too paid a visit. Vajpayee also visited Dwivedi’s ancestral village in Amritpur to attend other rituals after 13 days.As a lifelong RSS worker, Dwivedi had taken part in the Sangh’s training programme in Nagpur. He was also associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He had started his electoral career with the Jan Sangh and became a municipal corporator in Farrukhabad Nagar Palika Parishad in 1971. He was later elected the vice-chairman of the same municipal board.His ticket to fame came during the Emergency, when, with the police on his tail, he had slipped past the administration to attend an event in Farrukhabad, where he managed to reach the stage to welcome then Governor Marri Chenna Reddy with a flower bouquet.Dwivedi was elected MLA for the first time in 1977 from Farrukhabad as a Janata Party candidate. He was elected MLA three times more and also served as the Minister of Revenue and Power in the Kalyan Singh government (1991-92).In June 1995, after Mayawati decided to withdraw from the SP-BSP alliance government that had been in power since December 1993, SP workers gheraoed the guesthouse where she was staying. Mayawati locked the door from inside, with SP workers roaming outside.Dwivedi, then the BJP MLA from Farrukhabad, was staying in an adjacent building. Alerted about the brewing trouble, he reached out to protect the BSP supremo, with other BJP leaders also reaching within minutes to bring the situation under control. Immediately after the incident, Dwivedi contacted Vajpayee, upon whose advice, the BJP escorted Mayawati to the Governor House and extended support to her party. Next morning, she took oath as CM.Sources said since that incident, Mayawati held Dwivedi in high regard and once even demanded that if the BSP were to form an alliance government in UP with the BJP, in which the chief minister would be someone from the BJP for the first half of the five-year term, she would only accept Dwivedi as the CM. Eventually, she came around to accepting Kalyan Singh as the CM after the BJP stuck to their choice.Dwivedi’s wife Prabha was elected MLA from Farrukhabad in the bypoll that followed his murder. She was also inducted as a minister in the Kalyan Singh government.At present, Dwivedi’s son Major Sunil Dutt Dwivedi is a second-term MLA from Farrukhabad. Sunil’s cousin Pranshu Dutt Dwivedi is the UP president of the BJP Yuva Morcha and an MLC from the Farrukhabad-Etawah local bodies constituency.Dwivedi’s nephew Sudhanshu Dutt Dwivedi, who fought the legal battle over his murder, said his uncle was also a lawyer who had appeared in court for senior BJP leaders, including Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, in a case related to the Babri Masjid demolition.He added that Dwivedi was also a poet of some repute going by the nickname “Manjul”, that Vajpayee had himself written words of praise for one of his books, Jab Hum Na Honge (When I’m Not There) — a compilation of Dwivedi’s poems published after his death.

Lucknow courtroom murder and a UP leader who could have been CM
Donald Trump indicted in classified documents case: What happens now?
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Former US President Donald Trump was indicted late on Thursday (June 8) on charges of mishandling classified official documents after he stepped down as President in 2021, making him the first former president in US history to face criminal charges brought by the federal government.The AP reported that the US Justice Department was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a “historic” court appearance next week, even as Trump has launched a bid to contest the 2024 US Presidential elections. Here’s what this case is about.In May 2021, a few months after Trump left office in January of that year after losing the 2020 Presidential election, he was asked to hand over certain classified government documents in his possession. The government’s National Archives and Records Agency (NARA) notified him that he had failed to turn over at least two dozen boxes of original records.The New York Times had reported at the time, “The investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents began in earnest in May 2022 with a subpoena. It sought the return of any classified material still in his possession, after he had voluntarily handed over an initial batch of records that turned out to include almost 200 classified documents.”In December that year, his team told the Archives that they had located some of the records and proceeded to return them. Trump’s lawyer M. Evan Corcoran gave investigators more than 30 documents in response to the subpoena. Around the same time, another lawyer, Christina Bobb, asserted that a “diligent search” had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private estate in Palm Springs, Florida, assuring prosecutors there were no more documents with classification markings.However, in August 2022, the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago to conduct a search and discovered more than 100 additional classified documents.It must be mentioned that Trump’s Vice-President Mike Pence and current US President Joe Biden have also faced scrutiny for having classified materials in their possession and an investigation is underway in Biden’s case.However, the Biden and Pence cases differ from that involving Trump. A signiifcant difference is that documents in their possession were voluntarily turned over to investigators as soon as they were found, the AP reported.“In the case of Trump, prosecutors have focused on a few key questions: Did Trump knowingly remove the sensitive records from the White House and did he willfully hold on to them in violation of the Espionage Act? Moreover, did he try to hinder investigators from figuring out why or where he kept them,” The New York Times said.What can happen as a result of this?Trump has now been charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defence secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter, The New York Times reported.The Justice Department lodged federal criminal charges against Trump and the former President is expected to appear in court on Tuesday (June 13).Trump’s lawyer James Trusty said on Thursday (June 8) on CNN that the indictment includes charges of willful retention of national defence information, obstruction of justice, false statements and conspiracy.If Trump is charged, that won’t legally affect his ability to run for the post of President. “There are no legal obstacles to running for president as a convicted felon or even from behind bars,” Politico reported.Assuming he wins the elections, determining whether he could actually take on the job would “open a constitutional can of worms”, it added, saying many legal experts believe it would ultimately be possible for him to do so.What has Trump said about this?Trump announced on Truth Social, his social media platform, that he had been indicted, saying that he had been charged “over the boxes [of documents] hoax”. He has previously described the case – and the other cases against him – as part of a “witch hunt”.He termed the indictment “a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” and said in a video, “I’m innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly and hopefully very quickly.” Within 20 minutes of breaking the news, his 2024 presidential campaign sent out a fundraising call from his supporters.In what other cases is he in trouble?In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E Jean Carroll, a writer and former advice columnist for Elle magazine, and awarded her $5 million in damages. However, it rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump had raped her.Before that, Trump was in the middle of a New York criminal case related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He is also under investigation over alleged attempted interference in the state of Georgia during the 2020 election and for his role in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump has denied all the allegations.(With AP, The New York Times inputs)

Donald Trump indicted in classified documents case: What happens now?
  • Donald Trump, Mar-a-Lago raids, and previous cases of missing classified documentsPremium Story
  • The Indian Express

    Former US President Donald Trump is facing a number of active lawsuits, including the case involving missing White House documents. Accused by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of stashing classified material at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump was asked to return what he took. Instead, his team returned only some of the documents, with the rest discovered by the FBI during a search of the property this August. It is unclear whether more documents are still in his possession.The FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs during its search as well as 90 empty folders labelled as “classified,” according to unsealed court records. The agency found that at least 18 documents were labelled top secret, 54 were marked as secret and 21 were deemed confidential.For both taking the documents and refusing to surrender them, Trump faces multiple investigations.In May 2021, just four months after leaving office, Trump was notified by the NARA that he had failed to turn over at least two dozen boxes of original records. In December, his team told the Archives that they had located some of the records and proceeded to return them.In February this year, the US House of Representatives announced that they were launching an investigation into the matter. In April, the Justice Department (DOJ) followed suit and later that month, the White House Counsel’s Office formally requested that the NARA give the FBI access to the documents they recovered in December.In June, Federal investigators served Trump with a grand jury subpoena, seizing more documents from his private estate. However, even that failed to uncover all that was taken.On August 8, Federal agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Florida property after receiving reports that the former president had not been forthcoming with authorities. They found more than twice the amount of documents than Trump voluntarily parted with. Some of the material was so sensitive that the FBI and Justice Department officials conducting the search required special clearances to review it.Two weeks later, Trump asked the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida for an independent arbiter to review the documents. Earlier this month, the Court ruled on his behalf, blocking government agencies from accessing the material retrieved until an arbiter assessed them. The judge in question was appointed by Trump.Despite that temporary respite, the judge’s decision is likely to be overturned on appeal and once the investigation resumes, Trump could be criminally charged.The main charge levied against Trump is violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA), a piece of legislation passed to prevent former president Richard Nixon from destroying classified information related to the Watergate scandal after he resigned from office. Under the PRA, every presidential document is supposed to go directly to the NARA as the material is considered to be the property of the American people.Anne Weismann, a lawyer who represented watchdog groups that have sued Trump over violations of the Presidential Records Act, told CBS News that the former president “clearly violated” the Presidential Records Act in “multiple ways,” including by ripping up records.But “the real problem is there’s absolutely no enforcement mechanism in the Presidential Record Act and there’s no administrative enforcement provision,” she said.Although the PRA itself doesn’t specify any penalties, violations could trigger two federal statutes that make it a penalty to mishandle government property.The first law states anyone who “willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States” faces a fine or up to one year imprisonment if convicted. The second law states anyone who “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys … any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited … in any public office” is subject to a fine or up to three years in prison if convicted.Additionally, the Justice Department is investigating if Trump violated the Espionage Act by gathering, transmitting, or losing national defence information.Trump for his part has argued that he didn’t violate any federal laws because he declassified the documents in question before leaving office. However, even if he did, and there is no evidence of the same, he could still be charged for removing or destroying them.Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, argues that the declassification of documents for an improper purpose could be a crime in and of itself.Beyond criminal prosecution for violating federal law, the Justice Department could pursue civil lawsuits against Trump. They could also drop the charges altogether.Depending on the severity of the findings, Trump could face a lengthy jail term. He could also potentially be prohibited from running from office again. However, it’s worth noting that although the law pertaining to destroying government documents stipulates that a convicted offender would be disqualified from holding office, many legal scholars point out that the Constitution may supersede legislation. As per Constitutional requirements for presidential candidates, being behind bars does not preclude them from running.According to veteran journalist Timothy L. O’Brien, there are three potential reasons why Trump would want to keep top secret information to himself.The first stipulates that Trump took the documents simply because he was careless, indifferent to legal procedures and/or unaware of what he was doing. There is some precedent from his time in office that this may be the case.During his presidency, Trump was alleged to have blurted out classified information provided by Israel during a meeting with two high level government officials. Two years later, he tweeted a sensitive photo of a failed Iranian rocket launch despite being advised against doing so by his advisors.Trump also demonstrated a flagrant disregard for record keeping. In 2018, Politico reported that Trump had a habit of tearing up official papers that were handed to him after he was done with them. The problem became so bad that multiple civil servants were reportedly tasked full time with repairing the documents with scotch tape to comply with the PRA.In February, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s team routinely used burn bags to incinerate a wide range of records based on personal discretion. Additionally, The New York Times wrote that staff periodically found clumps of documents clogging White House toilets. They later released photos of some of the alleged found documents.According to O’Brien, another reason why Trump could have stolen the documents was to satiate his lifelong “unfettered greed.”O’Brien writes that Trump’s financial pressures raise alarms “for any rational observer concerned that Trump might have been inspired to use the powers and access to records that his presidency provided to rake in lucre by peddling classified information after he left the White House.”Lastly, according to O’Brien, Trump could have been motivated by a desire to preserve his own reputation. Amongst the missing documents there is believed to be communications between Trump and a litany of foreign leaders including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Given that his exchanges with the latter led to the first of his two impeachment proceedings, Trump may have been trying to cover up evidence that would further implicate him.Trump for his part has denied all the allegations, arguing at different times that he declassified the documents, that he took them with him to work from home, that the FBI search was a witch hunt, and that former president Barack Obama also kept 33 million documents after leaving office. While all those claims are dubious, the last was blatantly debunked by the National Archives.The most obvious example of presidential misconduct pertains to Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. Nixon was believed to have complied with requests to turn in information after leaving office.Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s national security advisor held onto records for years before turning them over to the Johnson Presidential library. Those records showed that the campaign of his successor (Nixon), was secretly communicating with the South Vietnamese government in the final days of the 1968 presidential race in an effort to delay the opening of peace talks to end the Vietnam war. Confident of his impending victory, Nixon’s team was believed to have wanted to stall talks until he assumed the presidency so that he could claim all the credit.It is worth noting that the PRA was not in operation at that time and before it was activated, former presidents were free to handle official documents as they saw fit.After the act was passed, it was violated by Fawn Hall, a secretary in Ronald Reagan’s administration. Hall testified that she altered and helped shred documents related to the infamous Iran-Contra affair to protect Oliver North, her boss at the White House National Security Council.Similarly, Sandy Berger, national security advisor under Bill Clinton, pleaded guilty in 2005 to removing and destroying classified records from the NARA. Berger was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay a USD 100,000 fine.More recently, Obama’s CIA director, David Petraeus, was forced to resign and plead guilty to a federal misdemeanour for sharing classified material with a biographer with whom he was having an affair.Lastly, Hillary Clinton, while serving as Secretary of State under Obama, faced scrutiny pertaining to her use of a private server to handle sensitive information. While the FBI recommended that no criminal charges be brought against her, it did criticise Clinton for her “extremely careless” behaviour. That rebuke (timed days before the election) played a huge role in Trump’s victory, especially because he repeatedly called for her to be “locked up” over the matter.In May 2021, Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to all Justice Department personnel, warning them that “law enforcement officers and prosecutors may never select the timing of public statements (attributed or not), investigative steps, criminal charges, or any other action in any matter or case for the purpose of affecting any election,” nor should they take any action that may create “the appearance of such a purpose.”Garland’s memo echoed similar memorandums issued by his predecessor Bill Barr in 2020, by AG Loretta Lynch in 2016, AG Eric Holder in 2012, and AG Michael Mukasey in 2008. In other words, the Justice Department has long been cautious about taking any action that could change the result of an election or cast doubt on the institution’s impartiality. It is because of these norms that FBI Director James Comey’s decision to publicly disparage Clinton’s email server was met with much criticism.The US institutions are justifiably cautious in levying charges against any high profile politicians, let alone a former president. The DOJ knows that it took a considerable risk when it started an investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents and it is unlikely to have done so without sufficient evidence. We may not know all the details, but if we go by the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute, we can reasonably suspect that there is more to matter than meets the eye.

Cyclone Biparjoy to intensify in next 36 hours: IMD
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

In the next 36 hours, the very severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy is set to intensify and will be heading north-northwestwards in the next two days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted.As per the weather agency, the cyclone over the east-central Arabian Sea was located 840 kilometers west-southwest of Goa and 870 km west-southwest of Mumbai at 11:30 pm on June 8.“Very severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy over east-central Arabian Sea at 2330 hours IST of 08th June, 2023 over about 840 km west-southwest of Goa, 870 km west-southwest of Mumbai. To intensify further gradually during next 36 hours and move nearly north-northwestwards in next 2 days,” IMD said in a tweet.The IMD has advised fishermen not to venture into cyclone-hit areas in the Arabian Sea.Meanwhile, coastal districts of Gujarat are gearing up for the likely impact of cyclone Biparjoy brewing in the east-central Arabian Sea. The administration has readied cyclone shelters and drawn plans to evacuate people from vulnerable areas and activate control rooms at the block levels.Collectors of coastal districts, including Kutch, Jamnagar, Dwarka, and Porbandar, held meetings with officers of the respective district administrations to prepare for the likely impact of Biparjoy.Moreover, in Maharashtra, the progress of the southwest monsoon that brings rain across the Indian sub-continent is being monitored after it arrived in Kerala on Thursday, seven days later than the normal arrival date, an India Meteorological Department official said.The normal date for onset of monsoon in Maharashtra is June 10 and in Mumbai is June 11, said S G Kamble, the Mumbai head of IMD Regional Meteorological Centre.Weather forecastConditions are favourable for further advance of the Southwest monsoon into some more parts of the central Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Kerala, some parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, IMD predicted.The Southwest monsoon might advance into some more parts of the southwest, Central and northeast Bay of Bengal, and some parts of northeastern states during the next 24 hours, as per the weather department.🌧️ GujaratLight to moderate rain is very likely at isolated places in the South Gujarat region namely Navsari, Valsad, and in Daman, Dadara Nagar Haveli, the IMD said.Further, dry weather is expected in all the districts of Saurashtra-Kutch, and Diu.🌧️ South IndiaLight rainfall with thunderstorms is very likely over Kerala, Lakshadweep, Coastal & South Interior Karnataka whereas isolated to scattered activity is expected over North Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh during the next 5 days, as per IMD.Meanwhile, heavy rainfall is very likely at isolated places over Andaman & Nicobar Islands on June 9 and 10; Kerala from June 9 to 13; Lakshadweep from June 9 to 11; and Coastal & South Interior Karnataka during June 10-13.🌧️ Northeast IndiaScattered to fairly widespread rainfall with thunderstorms very likely over the northeast region during the next 5 days, the weather agency reportedMoreover, very heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places over Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura on June 9 and Assam and Meghalaya on June 12 and 13; isolated heavy rainfall over Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and Meghalaya and Manipur & Mizoram during June 09-13.Northwest IndiaAccording to IMD, a rise in maximum temperatures by about 2°C is very likely over the plains of NorthwestIndia (except Rajasthan) during the next two days. (With ANI inputs)

Cyclone Biparjoy to intensify in next 36 hours: IMD
  • Cyclone Biparjoy likely to intensify into severe cyclonic storm today
  • The Indian Express

    A cyclonic storm that formed over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea near Goa at 11.30 pm on Tuesday, is likely to move nearly northwards and intensify into a severe cyclonic storm, and then into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours, the India meteorological department (IMD) said in its morning bulletin.“The cyclonic storm ‘Biparjoy’ (pronounced as ‘Biporjoy’) over eastcentral and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea remained practically s stationary during last 3 hours and lay centred at 0230 hours IST of 7th June, 2023 over the same region near latitude 12.5°N and longitude 66.0°E, about 900 km west-southwest of Goa, 1,020 km southwest of Mumbai, 1,090 km south-southwest of Porbandar and 1380 km south of Karachi,” the meteorological department bulletin read,Cyclonic storm “Biparjoy” over eastcentral and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea at 0230 IST of 07 June near lat 12.5°N and lon 66.0°E, about 900km WSW of Goa. Likely to move nearly northwards and intensify into SCS during next 06 hour.@WMO@ndmaindia@DDNewslive@airnewsalerts pic.twitter.com/jXdgDJcHFR— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) June 7, 2023Gale winds with speed 80-90 km per hour to 100 km per hour are expected to prevail over the eastcentral Arabian Sea and the adjoining areas of westcentral and southeast Arabian Sea. It is likely to escalate to 105-115 km per hour to 125 km per hour over the same area from Wednesday evening. the IMD said. The areas adjoining westcentral and south Arabian Sea and those along the north Kerala-Karnataka-Goa coasts are likely to experience squally winds with speed 40-50 km per hour to 60 km per hour.According to the IMD, the intensity of Cyclone Biparjoy, its location of formation in the Arabian Sea and its subsequent movement are likely to affect the onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala.This is the second cyclone to form within three weeks in the North Indian Ocean. Cyclone Mocha, which formed in the Bay of Bengal, barrelled into Bangladesh and Myanmar causing massive destruction.In 2021, Cyclone Yaas had formed at the time of the monsoon onset. 

Manipur crisis reveals the limits of BJP's politics in the Northeast
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

The continuing violence in Manipur ought to be shocking for many reasons. But its sheer scale, endurance and brutality is still not getting national attention. As is typical, the prime minister who is never shy of taking leadership credit, is completely absent when there is an actual crisis that goes to the heart of both constitutional values and national security. In this instance, it seems like the double-engine sarkar, even after invoking Article 355, is unable to control the violence.It takes nothing away from the culpability of the present dispensation to acknowledge the long-standing and irresolvable contradictions of Manipur politics. Whenever the central organising axis of politics is a distributive conflict between identity-based groups, there is a high chance of violence. This is particularly the case where the conflict inherently has the character of a zero-sum game. In Manipur, the politics of distribution between Kukis and Meiteis turns on four goods whose inherent logic is zero-sum.The first is inclusion in the ST quota which is the proximate background to the current conflict. By its very nature, the inclusion of more groups in the ST quota will be a threat to existing beneficiaries. The second is land, and the tension between the valley and the hills. This is also a zero-sum resource, where protecting the land rights of Kukis is seen as foreclosing the opportunities for other groups. The third is political representation, where historically Kukis have felt dominated by the Meiteis. The fourth is patronage by the state in the informal economy, in which groups compete against one another for control of informal trade. Each state intervention in regulating trade becomes a locus of conflict.Place on top of that a default demand that the boundaries of ethnicity and territorial governance should, as much as possible, coincide. In principle, these demands could be negotiated through building inclusive democratic institutions. But this is easier said than done, when every policy instrument in contention — quotas, land, representation, and the state-economy nexus — are defined in terms of zero-sum games. The tragedy of Manipur was that, in part, there was no other game in town, one that could prise politics away from this zero-sum alignment of distribution and ethnicity.Dealing with such a situation requires at least three things. It requires a capable state impartially enforcing constitutional values. It requires a political culture that respects identity but does not politicise it. It requires a development narrative that all sections of society can potentially participate in.Instead, the Indian state made Manipur a charnel house of human rights violations, abetted violence and militarisation to unprecedented levels. It opportunistically used ethnicity both for electoral alliances and divide and rule. In some ways, under colonial divide and rule, the state pretended to hover above the various contending groups. The point of divide and rule was to present the state as neutral and shore up its legitimacy. But in democratic India divide and rule has meant the state itself getting implicated with one group or the other. The result was a weakening of the state’s capacity to govern. We can see the long-term effects of this even in the present crisis, where there is widespread agreement that the state security forces and police cannot be trusted to be neutral and impartial. This creates a vicious cycle where all ethnic groups feel the need to preemptively protect themselves. And finally, the state was not a neutral actor in the economy.It is worth remembering this structural contradiction when we diagnose the present moment. The politics of majoritarianism in Manipur was always more complicated. It was this history that had first given the BJP an opening, where the Congress was seen as an instrument of the Valley, so much so that the Kukis called for supporting the BJP. But the current dispensation, rather than seizing the opportunity to create a new politics, has made the same mistakes. Only this time, the consequences are even more tragic and irrevocable.The violence has given a lie to the BJP’s project in three senses. The first is that the BJP can build a capable law and order state. In this instance, that state has proven to be both deeply incompetent and partisan. The ease with which literally thousands of weapons have been looted would shame any half capable state. But more disturbingly, the pattern that the state is seen to be a partisan actor in the violence continues unabated. Second, it exposes the ideological dangers of the BJP’s project.The BJP tried for a brief moment to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. It tried to capitalise on Kuki construal of Congress in Manipur as majoritarian at the same time as it politicised and promoted Meitei identity. Now that contradiction has burst open: A visible demonstration of the limits of Hindutva accommodation. Contingently convenient alliances will, in the end, be overrun by the ideological juggernaut. And third, it has shown that the BJP’s political instincts can be overrated: Its capacity to negotiate complicated social fissures in the North-east has been overestimated. What the BJP had touted as the moment of its greatest ideological triumph, winning in the North-east, is turning out to also expose the limitations of its politics.It is not going to be easy for Manipur to recover from this violence. There are no credible public institutions that can hold perpetrators of violence to account, impartially. The nature of the violence is such that both the Kukis and Meiteis will be left with a deep sense of victimhood. But there is a deeper question: Is there any political force left in the state that can do the job of political mediation? In a situation where, singly, all parties are considered partisan, the only possibility would be an all-party mediation, one that tries to lift Manipur out of a fatal combination of zero-sum identity politics. But such imaginative gestures are now beyond our ruling establishment.When I first read journalist Sudeep Chakravarti’s book, “The Eastern Gate”, one line stood out. He recounts a visit to Churachandpur, ground zero of the current violence, where he sees a sign by a church: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death.” Alas, these words seem all too prophetic at the moment, when no one is prepared to break the mould of politics in Manipur. Nero will, of course, continue to fiddle, while Manipur burns.The writer is contributing editor, The Indian Express

Manipur crisis reveals the limits of BJP's politics in the Northeast
More Indians are getting diabetes, belly fat, cholesterol and high BP, says ICMR-backed studyPremium Story
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Are Indians becoming a sicker nation? One of the biggest and representative studies on lifestyle markers, which determine the burden of non-communicable diseases, has shown that we have a prevalence of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, central obesity or abdominal fat and high cholesterol. Not only that. The country’s diabetes burden is likely to shoot up over the next five years, especially in rural areas and states where the prevalence of diabetes is currently low. The study, which was spearheaded by Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre with support from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was based on 113,000 people from 31 states.Published on Thursday in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, it shows that 11.4 per cent or 101 million people in India have diabetes. What is more concerning, however, is the finding that 15.3 per cent or 136 million people have prediabetes. “There is almost no rural and urban divide when it comes to the prevalence of prediabetes. Also, prediabetes levels were found to be higher in states where the current prevalence of diabetes was low. It is a ticking time bomb,” said Dr RM Anjana, lead author of the study and managing director at Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre. She further explained: “If you have prediabetes, conversion to diabetes is very, very fast in our population; more than 60 per cent of people with prediabetes end up converting to diabetes in the next five years. Moreover, almost 70 per cent of India’s population lives in villages. So if the prevalence of diabetes increases by even 0.5 to 1 per cent, the absolute numbers will be huge.”The second area of concern was the high prevalence of central obesity at 39.5 per cent. The generalised obesity, measured using the body mass index, was lower, at 28.6 per cent. Considering that belly fat is a major risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, there is an urgent need for Indians to prioritise sustainable weitght loss routines.The study also found that the prevalence of hypertension to be very high at 35.5 per cent and high cholesterol levels at 24 per cent. “In our country, the abdominal or central obesity is a more important marker because in Asian Indian phenotype, we have seen that the BMI could be under control but people have high abdominal fat precipitating diabetes. Almost 40 per cent have a high abdominal obesity in urban areas and 23 per cent in rural India,” said Dr Anjana.Indiab is a decade long study with over 1.13 lakh participants over the age of 20 years across 31 states and Union Territories studied between October 2008 and December 2020. Of the 1.13 lakh participants, 79,506 are from rural areas representing the 70 per cent demography living in rural areas.This is the best and biggest representative estimate of the prevalence of metabolic disorders in the country. “If you look at the Indiab demographic graph, it matches exactly with the census graph, meaning it is a highly representative study,” said Dr V Mohan. “No country has ever done such a big study representative of all their states. Even the biggest study from China had 40,000 participants from five or six places in the country. We have conducted door-to-door screening of 113,000 people representing all states and the 1.4 billion people living in it,” he added.While the earliest data for the study was collected in 2008 and has been conducted in phases, the data has been extrapolated for 2021 using NFHS-5 demographics. The data from across the states are now comparable.Compared with their rural counterparts, urban residents were significantly younger and had higher BMI, waist circumference, diastolic blood pressure, according to the study.Prevalence of diabetes was found to be 16.4 per cent in the urban areas as compared to 8.9 per cent in rural areas. The prevalence is high is almost all urban centres with more heterogenicity seen in rural areas, with prevalence being higher in South India and some parts of North India such as Delhi and Punjab and lower prevalence in the East. There was almost no divide in prevalence of prediabetes in rural and urban centres.When it came to prevalence of obesity, it was almost 40 per cent in urban India and 23 per cent in rural parts of the country. Hypertension ranged between 40.7 per cent in urban India and 33 per cent in rural India.

More Indians are getting diabetes, belly fat, cholesterol and high BP, says ICMR-backed studyPremium Story
In Uttarkashi, ‘love jihad’ row weighs heavy on some shopkeepers, residents
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Zahid Malik came to Purola town in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district over 30 years ago, and has been running a readymade garments shop for 18 years. He had also joined the BJP six years ago. However, on Wednesday night, he had packed everything up and loaded it into a truck as he got ready to shut the shop for good.He is one of at least seven Muslim shop owners in Purola market to permanently close their shops and leave the town in the past two-three days.Zahid’s elder brother, Abdul Wahid, had moved to Purola much before Zahid. The tailoring shop that Abdul ran for more than three decades has been managed by his son, Shahnawaz, ever since Abdul’s death a few years ago. Now, Shahnawaz is also considering leaving town.Tensions in the Purola area erupted on May 26 after two men were allegedly found with a minor girl by some local residents. One of the two men was Muslim, leading to allegations of “love jihad”.Police identified the two men as Ubaid Khan (24) and Jitendra Saini (23), who were booked under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC, as well as under the POCSO Act. They are currently in judicial custody.Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand: Muslim owned shops forcibly closed by Hindutva outfits! Posters have come up asking Muslim traders to vacate their shops before a Panchayat for “targeting Hindu women” to be held on June 15! Some Muslim shopkeepers have left Uttarkashi & came to Dehradun! pic.twitter.com/FQ6vYJD0bL— Muslim Spaces (@MuslimSpaces) June 6, 2023An officer familiar with the investigation said, “The girl did not know these people… There is no love jihad angle. We can call it love jihad only if the girl and boys knew each other, or the guy introduced himself as someone else, or they already had a friendship. But that is not the case here.”The day after the incident, protest rallies were organised by right-wing groups, the local Vyapar Mandal (trade union), and some residents. They demanded strict action against the accused and called for a stringent verification process of “outsiders” who come to the town.Posters also came up threatening Muslim traders with consequences if they did not shut down their shops.There are around 35-40 shops run by Muslims in Purola, and all have been shut for the past 12 days.The district administration have meanwhile formed joint teams of revenue and police officials to verify the antecedents of those coming from outside.“There are around five-six (Muslim) families living here for decades, including ours, and they, too, are being targeted now. They are using social media to threaten us. We have also been removed from the WhatsApp group of the Vyapar Mandal. Instead of giving us security, the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) jawans deployed here are asking us not to leave our houses,” said Mohammad Ashraf (41), who runs a garment shop in the area. Ashraf is one of the few members of the community to own a house in Purola.“My family came to Purola in 1978 from Bijnor. Our shop was one of the first few in the area. Three generations of my family lived here, but we have never seen anything like this before… I was born here. I studied in the local Saraswati Shishu Mandir. Most of my friends here are Hindus. We cannot leave this place,” he said.Those who have already left include three traders of toys and crockery, two who were running garments shops, one car wash owner, and one mobile repair shop owner.Having shut down his garment shop, Zahid said he would leave the BJP. He claimed that he was the Uttarkashi district president of the BJP’s minority wing, but the party’s district president Satendra Rana denied this, saying that post was currently vacant and that Zahid had once been a district general secretary.On his decision to shut his business in Purola, Zahid said, “There was a big rally on May 28, during which some people vandalised the hoardings and flex boards of shops owned by Muslims. At that time, I came to Dehradun. We thought we would wait a few days until the situation gets normal. But then, there was another rally in Badkot. Four days ago, we decided to leave Purola.”He said he would look for a shop to rent in Dehradun’s Vikas Nagar area.Local resident Abhishek Semwal, a BJP member, said several Muslim families had been living in the area for decades, but that “problems” started when “new people started coming and opening shops”.Semwal and others, like BJP office bearer Pawan Nautiyal, alleged that such “outsiders” were involved in illegal activities.Meanwhile, Purola sub-divisional magistrate Devanand Sharma Thursday held a Peace Committee Meeting with local public representatives, influential members of society, and local members of the Muslim community. He said that the situation was under control.On Friday, another meeting will be held with local residents to decide the future course of action.Brij Mohan Chauhan, president of the Purola Vyapar Mandal, said: “It is expected that we will ask the administration to make sure that those coming from outside present a character certificate from their local police station. Those already living here for several decades will be allowed to stay here. We will give them a date when they can open their shops.”

In Uttarkashi, ‘love jihad’ row weighs heavy on some shopkeepers, residents
'I tried to be dignified through the entire process': Sunny Leone on her journeySign In to read
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Indian actors on the Cannes red carpet representing global fashion brands are a familiar sight. But walking that most glamorous stretch of the Croisette, as part of an officially selected film, is a rare thing. And that’s exactly what Sunny Leone, as part of Anurag Kashyap’s noir thriller Kennedy, managed to do at the recent 76th edition of the festival.Sunny Leone, 42, was still flying when she spoke to The Indian Express a day after Kennedy’s buzzy midnight premiere, on her tumultuous journey from being in the adult entertainment sector to being in a Kashyap movie, battling negativity, and hoping for all good things from now on.Edited excerpts:How was the experience of working on the film?It was amazing. I was so excited, so happy when Anurag sir called and said he wants me to possibly play Charlie (her character in the film) and audition for the part.From the women you’ve played in the past whose sexuality is used as bait-and-switch, to this woman, who is very aware of her looks, but is also something more, what was it like to play this part?Shooting was great. Anurag sir had given me references, that he wanted me to laugh in a certain way, and those references were of real people! I kept practicing in the car, with my family, on set. Everybody thought I was crazy!From the adult entertainment business, to here on the Cannes red carpet, how do you look at your journey till now?Unbelievable. The entire journey coming from the adult entertainment stream, going to Big Boss (2011) and getting my first film offer as soon as I came out of the house, and everything just taking off.We all do things that we need to do in certain moments. How we evolve is how we build our character in life. So that entire journey — fighting different groups, trying to get my foot in the door, because everyone says ‘No no no’, trying to be brand ambassador for certain products and someone saying ‘No, you cannot.’ Fighting through different stigmas, these nasty articles, it was definitely not easy. I tried to be dignified through the entire process.So when he called, (eyes glistening) sorry, I’m emotional about this, I was so happy, because no one had picked up the phone like this before, to give me a chance to prove myself.I saw your eyes well up on the red carpet…I was really trying hard to not have big tears rolling down. Last night, I was thinking oh my gosh, I’m such a baby, I keep getting so emotional. This morning, getting ready, I was hoping this feeling never goes away. I hope I can hold on to it forever.Whether you like Charlie, or not, it doesn’t matter because I’m standing here, on the Cannes red carpet for this film I’m a part of, at one of the most prestigious places in the film world. I hope this feeling doesn’t fade, doesn’t end.What happens now?I’m hoping for all good things now (laughs). I have two films from the South coming out this year. I learnt all my dialogues (in Tamil), every single word.But you’re comfortable in Hindi?Well, my parents are Punjabi, and I grew up watching Bollywood films.Was Bollywood always your aim?I never thought of myself as being in any mainstream film or on national TV. I believe right or wrong, whatever was placed on the plate, I shouldn’t say no. There’s a saying, if people are listening, you should definitely go for it. If news outlets want to hear what you are saying, or if producers and directors want to hire you, go for it. Anurag sir didn’t see any of my bad films that didn’t do well, he saw my interview (with Bhupendra Chaubey, CNN IBN, 2016), so that’s mission accomplished, no?Does the past negativity, around your profile as an adult entertainer, weigh you down?It took me a long time to get rid of that tag. It’s done now.I believe God loves me very much, but he also says, Sunny, you’re going to have to work for it. Lots of things happened in the last 10 years, emotionally draining, hurtful. Lots of people had written me off, had no faith in me. I’ve tried to navigate through that with a smile, and being as grateful as possible, that’s why this moment is so special.So yeh duniya is no longer pittal di, it’s sone di?Yeah (laughs).

'I tried to be dignified through the entire process': Sunny Leone on her journeySign In to read
Bloody Daddy: Predictable plot, been-there-seen-this thrills
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

More than anything else, an actioner unfolding over 24 hours needs to gallop along at break-neck speed. Bloody Daddy, a remake of the French language Nuit Blanche, which in turn was adapted in Tamil as ‘Thoonga Vanam’ starring Kamal Hasan, has all the ingredients of a pacey thriller. But, despite the occasional burst, it slumps back into a been-there-seen-this category, and that’s got a lot to do with its run-time of over two hours, flattening a plot that isn’t as unpredictable as it thinks it is.At stake is a bag of cocaine worth Rs 50 crore, and a bunch of cops and crooks are after it, chasing each other through Delhi and Gurugram. The film makes it a point to tell us that it is set after the second phase of the pandemic, when things had started opening up. After months of forced abstinence, people want to get back to partying hard, and that, of course, translates into a surge in demand for drugs. The suspense of not knowing which cop is a crook takes the film only that far, because all the signs are visible from the beginning, when an early morning shoot-out leaves two drug runners dead, and the two people who recover the bag, on the run.So who amongst the narcotics cops are working for the bad guys? Could it be Sumair (Shahid Kapoor), who acquires a bullet wound within the opening five minutes, and nurses it through the film, as he plays buddy with his young son who is, of course, going to be used as bait in short order? Or Samir (Rajeev Khandelwal) who keeps getting mysterious calls on his phone? Or Aditi (Diana Penty) who ricochets between the two, trying to be tough and on-point?There’s no such confusion with those working on the other side of the law. There’s Ronit Roy, flaunting a scarlet designer jacket, lording it in his den conveniently located in his own ‘seven star hotel’. And Sanjay Kapoor, in matching red glares, accompanied by a right-hand man who aces both the sniff-and-tell and loyalty test. Other assorted goons periodically march through the hotel, where a big-ticket wedding is taking place, and where the guests are waiting for the singer Badshah to take the festivities a notch higher.Watch Bloody Daddy movie trailer:It is we, the viewers, who are left waiting for the excitement to ratchet up, as Sumair-Shahid, sporting a spiffy hair cut, and alternating between a leather jacket and a formal black suit, goes through his paces. The few moments where Shahid appears vulnerable and in pain stand out, and Roy gets some scenes he makes his own. A couple of running jokes – the young lad’s insistence on ‘lactose-free milk’ and ‘gluten-free bread’ causes mild amused horror among his daddy and the mobsters alike — raise their head and then lie back. Just like the film.Bloody Daddy movie cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Rajeev Khandelwal, Diana Penty, Sanjay Kapoor, Zeeshan Qadri, Ankur Bhatia, Vivan BhatenaBloody Daddy movie director: Ali Abbas ZafarBloody Daddy movie rating: 2 stars

Bloody Daddy: Predictable plot, been-there-seen-this thrills
Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara fail in the art of leaving
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Two of India’s key batsmen died a stroke-less death, shouldering arms and watching the ball bend back to hit the stumps. It’s the most mind-crushing path to perdition, torn until your next success, with the guilt of not shielding the ball with your only weapon in hand. You could have nicked, you could have chopped on, you could have been beaten, but you could console yourself that you at least played a stroke.The shocked anguish on the face of victims captures the story. Shubman Gill was reaction-less after his ill-timed leave of Scott Boland left his stumps and heart in tatters. There were no signs of a stroke of indiscretion. He was judging lengths well; moving well. Getting behind the line and playing the right stroke to the right ball. Gill had unzipped his innings with a gorgeous punch through extra-cover off Pat Cummins. Later, he would pull him through long-on for another four. Two salivating strokes, before an unwatchable error in judgement kicked in. It was no shrewd set-up, no hooping devil, but a staple in-ducker. Rather, it was an imagined set-up.It was just the fourth ball Boland had bowled to Gill. The first three — all angled in and not seaming either way — were defended stoutly on the front-foot. Gill sniffed a trap. His instinct would have whispered to him that the next ball would bend away. But Boland’s deadliest gift is the one that snakes back in from a good length, he is not much of an out-swing proponent. So it turned out to be. Gill’s front-foot strode out. Then it stopped, frozen by the inward angle. The existential dilemma of Test openers set in — to leave or not to leave. He shouldered arms, nervously and unsurely. Perhaps, he trusted the bouncy nature of the deck — Oval is bouncier than most other surfaces in England and you could at the start of the inning, leave safely on length. Perhaps, he thought he had covered the line of the ball with his pads outside the off-stump.pic.twitter.com/40W7RI4wZb— Shami Khan (@x2fb8) June 8, 2023Whatever he imagined was far from reality. It could happen to green batsmen in England — it was just his third innings in the country. You hear so much about the virtues of the leave and are almost mentally bound to execute it. There is little doubt that it’s a prerequisite for success in any condition — so indispensable that it is the second most employed (non) stroke in cricket after the forward defensive. Call it the phantom stroke. It has game changing potential, as one of the greatest leavers in Test cricket, Geoff Boycott would observe: “Let him (bowler) see you refusing to drive so that he is tempted to land the ball a foot closer to you. Then bang. Get on the front foot and drive the ball away.” At the hands of an efficient purveyor, it becomes as much an attacking weapon as a defensive one. Without even putting bat on the ball, it could disrupt the bowler’s thinking. “If a batter is leaving the ball well, you can see their game is in good order and for me I thought if they were leaving me easily then they were imposing themselves on me as well,” former England quick Simon Jones would once say.Every successful cricketer has it. Then every cricketer had misjudged the leave at least once, if not more times, in their career. Even some of the finest leavers could end up misjudging, like Cheteshwar Pujara. The leave is one of the bricks that had gone into the making of one of the finest stonewallers of this era. But here, the usual faithful judgment deserted him. Like Boland, Cameron Green too was angling most of his balls in. Just one of Green’s five previous balls to Pujara had shaped away. As were most of the balls he faced off Boland.Perhaps, Pujara was spooked by the past, where Cummins would make one ball hold the line after angling in. Boland had produced a similar delivery in the previous over. Maybe, it was playing in his mind. The fuller length almost convinced him that the ball would seam away after landing. Rather, it swerved back in, not lavishly but just enough to peg his off-stump. He just swayed the bat in shame rather than anger and rushed back to the solitude of the dressing room. Like Gill, he too was batting fluently and positively, before the moment of miscalculation.Pujara misjudging just like shubhman. #WTC23Final pic.twitter.com/yRjFUMUH9t— John Haseena Shah (@johnHaseena) June 8, 2023Should Pujara have hung on the back-foot and defend it, as he so often does to similar lengths in similar conditions? But in this innings, he was making a conscious effort to get forward to most of the balls. It was perhaps to eliminate the half-prod position that he often gets into. But here, it backfired — there was a bit of predetermination — as he left a ball that he would have defended comfortably.Then this is what pitches in England do. They weigh and play on your mind, they make you imagine, they make you see illusions. Even in the mind of someone scoring a bucketful of runs in County cricket, and even in the mind of the most talented young batter. It’s not the easiest of strokes — judgment, prudence, reflexes and second-guessing go into it. But to die a stroke-less death is an agony that has few equivalents in the game. Not even self-goals. The guilt consumes you like fire.

Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara fail in the art of leaving
  • WTC Final: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara fail in the art of leaving
  • The Indian Express

    Two of India’s key batsmen died a stroke-less death, shouldering arms and watching the ball bend back to hit the stumps. It’s the most mind-crushing path to perdition, torn until your next success, with the guilt of not shielding the ball with your only weapon in hand. You could have nicked, you could have chopped on, you could have been beaten, but you could console yourself that you at least played a stroke.The shocked anguish on the face of victims captures the story. Shubman Gill was reaction-less after his ill-timed leave of Scott Boland left his stumps and heart in tatters. There were no signs of a stroke of indiscretion. He was judging lengths well; moving well. Getting behind the line and playing the right stroke to the right ball. Gill had unzipped his innings with a gorgeous punch through extra-cover off Pat Cummins. Later, he would pull him through long-on for another four. Two salivating strokes, before an unwatchable error in judgement kicked in. It was no shrewd set-up, no hooping devil, but a staple in-ducker. Rather, it was an imagined set-up.It was just the fourth ball Boland had bowled to Gill. The first three — all angled in and not seaming either way — were defended stoutly on the front-foot. Gill sniffed a trap. His instinct would have whispered to him that the next ball would bend away. But Boland’s deadliest gift is the one that snakes back in from a good length, he is not much of an out-swing proponent. So it turned out to be. Gill’s front-foot strode out. Then it stopped, frozen by the inward angle. The existential dilemma of Test openers set in — to leave or not to leave. He shouldered arms, nervously and unsurely. Perhaps, he trusted the bouncy nature of the deck — Oval is bouncier than most other surfaces in England and you could at the start of the inning, leave safely on length. Perhaps, he thought he had covered the line of the ball with his pads outside the off-stump.pic.twitter.com/40W7RI4wZb— Shami Khan (@x2fb8) June 8, 2023Whatever he imagined was far from reality. It could happen to green batsmen in England — it was just his third innings in the country. You hear so much about the virtues of the leave and are almost mentally bound to execute it. There is little doubt that it’s a prerequisite for success in any condition — so indispensable that it is the second most employed (non) stroke in cricket after the forward defensive. Call it the phantom stroke. It has game changing potential, as one of the greatest leavers in Test cricket, Geoff Boycott would observe: “Let him (bowler) see you refusing to drive so that he is tempted to land the ball a foot closer to you. Then bang. Get on the front foot and drive the ball away.” At the hands of an efficient purveyor, it becomes as much an attacking weapon as a defensive one. Without even putting bat on the ball, it could disrupt the bowler’s thinking. “If a batter is leaving the ball well, you can see their game is in good order and for me I thought if they were leaving me easily then they were imposing themselves on me as well,” former England quick Simon Jones would once say.Every successful cricketer has it. Then every cricketer had misjudged the leave at least once, if not more times, in their career. Even some of the finest leavers could end up misjudging, like Cheteshwar Pujara. The leave is one of the bricks that had gone into the making of one of the finest stonewallers of this era. But here, the usual faithful judgment deserted him. Like Boland, Cameron Green too was angling most of his balls in. Just one of Green’s five previous balls to Pujara had shaped away. As were most of the balls he faced off Boland.Perhaps, Pujara was spooked by the past, where Cummins would make one ball hold the line after angling in. Boland had produced a similar delivery in the previous over. Maybe, it was playing in his mind. The fuller length almost convinced him that the ball would seam away after landing. Rather, it swerved back in, not lavishly but just enough to peg his off-stump. He just swayed the bat in shame rather than anger and rushed back to the solitude of the dressing room. Like Gill, he too was batting fluently and positively, before the moment of miscalculation.Pujara misjudging just like shubhman. #WTC23Final pic.twitter.com/yRjFUMUH9t— John Haseena Shah (@johnHaseena) June 8, 2023Should Pujara have hung on the back-foot and defend it, as he so often does to similar lengths in similar conditions? But in this innings, he was making a conscious effort to get forward to most of the balls. It was perhaps to eliminate the half-prod position that he often gets into. But here, it backfired — there was a bit of predetermination — as he left a ball that he would have defended comfortably.Then this is what pitches in England do. They weigh and play on your mind, they make you imagine, they make you see illusions. Even in the mind of someone scoring a bucketful of runs in County cricket, and even in the mind of the most talented young batter. It’s not the easiest of strokes — judgment, prudence, reflexes and second-guessing go into it. But to die a stroke-less death is an agony that has few equivalents in the game. Not even self-goals. The guilt consumes you like fire.

It is time to embrace AI and upskill, writes IIT Ropar professor
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

— Abhinav DhallA Lesson from IIT is a weekly column by an IIT faculty member on learning, science and technology on campus and beyond. The column appears every Friday)A paradigm shift around the corner is typically met with both excitement and unease. We are witnessing one such shift in the world of computing, with the progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI)  in the form of Large Language Models (LLM).With access to vast amounts of data and massive computing facilities, newly-generated LLMs such as ChatGPT have shown potential in assisting users with few tasks. For obvious reasons, this has raised concerns across sections of the society, a common refrain being job cuts.The popular adage that the only thing persistent is change holds true here. The current possibilities of AI are going to generate opportunities and the workforce across different industries need not feel alarmed by it. We need to embrace AI  and upskill in order to learn the ways the new AI enabled-tools can enhance creativity, productivity and safety.The adoption of these AI-enabled tools will automatically open up opportunities for AI skill-trainers. This AI skillset training is not just for software engineers but for other professions too such as human resources, office assistants, accountants, doctors and lawyers.We are already witnessing a demand in AI up-skilling courses in the form of certifications and workshops being conducted by both academia and industry.Moving forward, there will be demand for experts in the AI domain. These professionals will be advising small and large organisations regarding the areas in which they can deploy AI-enabled tools.As a developing country, we have seen the adoption of digital technology in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). A popular example is MSME businesses using accounting software platforms such as Tally for accounts and inventory digitisation.This has created jobs for Tally professionals who specialise in company specific customisation, deployment and supporting of the software platform. Drawing from this analogy, we will witness AI and AI enabled tools implementation and deployment professionals.NIRF 2023 Best Engineering colleges | IIT Madras grabs first position, IITs dominate listHigh quality audio-visual content generation has been limited to studios with sophisticated equipment. With the availability of AI-enabled content generation and editing apps, content creators in Tier 2 and 3 cities across the country can generate high quality content. It is nowpossible to generate content in multiple languages. Moving forward, content creators with access to AI enabled tools will be able to create high quality content fast and this will generate more jobs.AI-enabled tools are deployed on a cloud platform or on a device. Currently, learning the LLMs requires massive amounts of energy. Demand in AI scientists and AI Ops engineers will increase for continuous progress in more accurate, energy efficient, fair and explainable AI systems.The same will also see a push in higher education for training of graduate researchers in AI systems. As ChatGPT was launched, a new job title — “prompt engineer” — was posted on job portals. These professionals are experts in interacting with LLM systems to extract the most relevant information. This is just an example of a new category of jobs, which has been created in the past six months.Remote medicine and diagnostics will see a major boost with AI-enabled tools. This may lead to jobs generated for professionals who can assist clinical experts. On similar lines, experts who can validate reports generated by AI-enabled imaging tools will be required. Drug discovery already is getting a massive push due to AI.We are living in exciting times. In the next few years, we will see new job descriptions and opportunities coming up.There are concerns too. For one, there is an immediate need for AI ethics, law and policy professionals. There are important questions about the ownership of the data used for training AI systems and the ownership of the AI systems trained ondata created by third parties. Furthermore, there are concerns about fairness – How well an AI- enabled tool work when presented with data of person(s)/situation(s) of a particular culture, gender which are relatively hard to collect during the training process is an important question to think about.The writer leads the Centre for Data Science at IIT Ropar and is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Monash University.

It is time to embrace AI and upskill, writes IIT Ropar professor
As BJP appoints election heads in Maharashtra, Shinde Sena downplays move, says ties intact
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

With the BJP on Thursday appointing election heads for all 48 Lok Sabha and 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has found itself on the back foot. The party, however, tried to downplay the move, saying that it will not sour their alliance as it was an attempt to build the party base and asserted that it will contest all 22 seats like the undivided Shiv Sena did in the 2019 elections.“We have an alliance with BJP. There is nothing wrong if BJP appoints election heads. These election heads have been appointed for building the organisational network and expanding its base,” Shinde Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske told The Indian Express on Friday.“Our leaders and BJP leaders will be working in coordination in all Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. The election heads appointed by BJP will help its candidate in a particular constituency from where the party is contesting. Similarly, the election heads will also work for our candidate where BJP is not contesting,” he added.Mhaske said the Shinde Sena will contest 22 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections. “In 2019, the Shiv Sena which was in alliance with BJP had contested 22 seats. This time too, we will contest 22 seats,” he said. In 2022, the Shiv Sena split following a rebellion led by Shinde; the other faction is led by Uddhav Thackeray.MP Shrirang Barne, who was elected twice from the Maval Lok Sabha constituency, also said that the appointment of an election head does not mean that the same person would be fielded by the BJP. “It is their strategy to build their party and organisational network. But one thing is certain. I will be contesting from Maval Lok Sabha in 2024,” Barne told The Indian Express on Friday. The BJP has appointed Prashant Thakur, party MLA from Raigad district, as its Maval Lok Sabha election head. Three Assembly seats from Raigad district are part of the Maval Lok Sabha constituency.On the other hand, BJP’s Bhosari MLA Mahesh Landge has been appointed as the Shirur Lok Sabha election head. Landge is keen to contest the Lok Sabha election. “I am one of the aspirants for the Shirur Lok Sabha seat,” he said.Amit Gorkhe, who has been appointed as BJP’s election head for Pimpri, said that he was an aspirant for the Pimpri Assembly seat. “But my appointment does not mean I will be automatically contesting the Assembly seat. My job is to expand the party’s network and make the party stronger in the seat. If a Sena candidate contests from here, both BJP and Sena will work together in the constituency for his victory,” Gorkhe said.

As BJP appoints election heads in Maharashtra, Shinde Sena downplays move, says ties intact
  • 'BJP-Shiv Sena will fight all elections together': Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde after meeting Amit Shah
  • The Economic Times

  • BJP, Shiv Sena to jointly contest all future elections in state: CM Shinde
  • The Indian Express

    Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced Monday that the Shiv Sena and BJP have decided to jointly contest all elections including the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, state Assembly and local body polls. This was decided during a meeting between Shinde, Deputy CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, and Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.In a tweet, Shinde said, “It was also decided in this meeting that Shiv Sena and BJP will jointly contest all upcoming elections in the state (including elections to Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, local bodies)”.काल, रविवारी रात्री मी आणि उपमुख्यमंत्री @Dev_Fadnavis यांनी दिल्लीत केंद्रीय गृह आणि सहकार मंत्री @AmitShah यांची भेट घेतली.कृषि, सहकार विभागाशी संबंधित विविध बाबींवर आम्ही चर्चा केली. राज्यात शेतकरी, महिला सक्षमीकरण अशा विविध क्षेत्रात गतीने कामे सुरू असून अनेक रखडलेले… pic.twitter.com/MdLoqiPoy2— Eknath Shinde – एकनाथ शिंदे (@mieknathshinde) June 5, 2023Shinde said that the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance for Maharashtra’s development is “strong”. “In the future, we will contest elections together and win with a majority to make Maharashtra the number one state in the country in all fields, to continue the race of development,” he added.Several issues of the state including agriculture and cooperation were discussed during the meeting with Shah. Shinde said that pending projects in the state have been streamlined now and they are on way to completion.“We have always received guidance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for various projects. We met Shah to discuss issues related to the cooperation sector,” the chief minister said.The visit comes ahead of the completion of one year of Shinde-Fadnavis led government in the state.

  • Shiv Sena, BJP will contest all future elections jointly: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde
  • The Economic Times

    Shiv Sena and BJP will contest all future elections together, including civic polls, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde sadin on Monday. Shinde, whose Shiv Sena shares power with the BJP in Maharashtra, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in Delhi on Sunday.“During the meeting, it was decided that all future elections (including the Lok Sabha, Assembly and civic bodies) will be contested jointly by the Shiv Sena and BJP. We will contest and win the elections with majority,” the CM tweeted.— mieknathshinde (@mieknathshinde) Shinde and Fadnavis went to Delhi on Sunday evening and held a meeting with Shah."Our alliance for the development of Maharashtra is strong and since the last 11 months we have taken various development decisions and implemented them, clearing stalled projects. In the future, we will contest elections together and win with a majority to make Maharashtra the number one state in the country in all fields, to continue the race of development," he added.The CM said issues related to agriculture and cooperation were discussed during the meeting with Shah.Several pending projects in the state have been streamlined now and they are on way to completion, he said."We have always received guidance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for various projects. We met Shah to discuss issues related to the cooperation sector," Shinde said in the tweet.Last year, Shinde along with 39 other MLAs revolted against the Shiv Sena (then undivided) leadership.The revolt led to a split in the Shiv Sena and collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.Shinde later joined hands with the BJP and became the CM.

Sumbul Touqeer’s father to get married again, ex-Bigg Boss contestant is excited to welcome baby half-sister to family
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

TV actor Sumbul Touqueer is happy for her father, Touqueer Khan, who is getting married for the second time. Sumbul had previously spoken about how her father raised her and her sister Saniya single-handedly. Touqeer Khan will marry a woman named Nilofer next week, according to an ETimes report.Nilofer is divorced, and has a two-year-old daughter from her previous marriage. Sumbul said in the ETimes interview that she is looking forward to welcoming them into her family. “Along with our father’s wife, a new sister will join the family,” she said, adding that her father played a huge role in raising her and her sister, and described him as their ‘greatest source of inspiration’.She also expressed gratitude to ‘bade papa’ Iqbal Hussain Khan, who, she said, ‘played an instrumental role’ in arranging the marriage. In a separate interview with ETimes, Touqueer Khan said that Sumbul and Saniya have been encouraging him to re-marry for the past decade. “Yeh inki saazish hai, bade papa ke saath mil kar, ghabrahat ho rahi hai (This is a conspiracy that they hatched with my elder brother, and I’m nervous),” he said jokingly.Sumbul is best known for her stint on Bigg Boss 16, and for appearing in the show Imlie. Recently, she made headlines for a rumoured fallout with her Imlie co-star Fahmaan Khan, but she told the paparazzi that everything is OK between them.Recently, veteran actor Ashish Vidyarthi spurred a conversation about older people finding love again, when he announced his marriage with an entrepreneur named Rupali. Ashish said in an interview with India Today that just because he is beyond the conventionally accepted marriageable age, that shouldn’t mean that he is supposed to ‘die unhappy’.

Sumbul Touqeer’s father to get married again, ex-Bigg Boss contestant is excited to welcome baby half-sister to family
Vignesh Shivan pens sweet note for wife Nayanthara on first wedding anniversary, shares pics of twins: ‘The proof of my life’
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Filmmaker Vignesh Shivan penned a sweet note for his wife and actor Nayanthara on their first wedding anniversary. Taking to Instagram, Vignesh Shivan shared a string of pictures of Nayanthara with their twin sons, Uyir and Ulagam. He captioned the post, “En uyiroda Aadharam neengaldhaneyyy (the proof of my life is you) 1 year filled with a lotta moments! Lotta Ups and downs. Unexpected setbacks! Testing times!”He added, “But coming home to see a blessed family with immense love and affection reinstates soo much confidence and gives all the energy to keep running towards all the dreams and goals already manifested! Holding everything together, together with my – My Uyirs and Ulagams. The strength given by the family makes all the difference! Blessed with the best of people, striving to give them a good life is all the motivation that’s needed for hustlers like me.”“PS: Negative comment addicts kindly excuse, may be you should try to ignore positivity”, he further added, asking haters to keep away.  A post shared by Vignesh Shivan (@wikkiofficial)In the first picture, Nayanthara is posing for the camera with one of the kids wearing a red Santa romper. All smiles, as Nayanthara pose with their little kids in the other pictures, exuding motherhood vibes.As soon as he shared dropped the pictures, netizens flooded the comment section with best wishes. A fan commented, “Very happy to see this post. Happy anniversary both of you.” “You’re a man to look up to when girls get married I would say find a man like viki. you re a natural person common man yet a celebrity I would say . You’re a best example when a women raises a man,” another commented. “Look at them, the way one holding other’s shoulder”, a social media user wrote.Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan married in Chennai on June 9, 2022. It was an intimate wedding with only their close friends and select guests, including Shah Rukh Khan, AR Rahman, Suriya, and Rajinikanth, in attendance. Four months after their wedding, they welcomed their sons via surrogacy. The news was shared by Vignesh on his Instagram handle where he shared pictures of his twin newborns named Uyir and Ulagam. In the images, the duo was seen kissing the feet of their babies.Meanwhile, on the work front, Nayanthara will be seen starring in director Atlee’s next action thriller film ‘Jawaan’ along with Shah Rukh Khan.

Vignesh Shivan pens sweet note for wife Nayanthara on first wedding anniversary, shares pics of twins: ‘The proof of my life’
Nutrition alert: This is what (about) 100 grams strawberries contain
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Strawberries can be consumed in various ways — from jams, pies, and cakes, to ice-creams, and salads. Known for their sweet and sour flavour, strawberries are, however, best consumed as they are to reduce the consumption of added sugar (except in salads, of course). But, apart from being a much-loved ingredient for desserts, strawberries are also relished for their many health benefits. Eating strawberries may protect the heart, help manage blood sugar levels, boost the immune system, regulate blood pressure levels, and also improve brain function. Strawberries are also a good source of antioxidants, dietary fibre and are low in calories and fats.Speaking with indianexpress.com, Dr G Sushma – Consultant – Clinical Dietician, CARE Hospitals, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad said, “Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C that plays a vital role in supporting our immune system, promoting collagen synthesis for healthy skin, and acting as a potent scavenger of harmful free radicals in the body”.“Additionally, strawberries offer a good source of dietary fiber and also have essential minerals that contribute to proper heart and muscle function. Folate, also known as vitamin B9, is yet another nutrient that supports cell division and DNA synthesis and is present in strawberries,” added Dr Sushma.Strawberries mainly consist of water (91%) and carbohydrates (7.7%). They contain only minor amounts of fat (0.3%) and protein (0.7%). The approximate nutritional profile of around 100 grams of strawberries, as shared by Dr Sushma is as follows:Calories: 32Water: 91%Protein: 07. gramsCarbs: 7.7 gramsSugar: 4.9 gramsFiber: 2 gramsFat: 0.3 gamesVitamin C: 98% of Daily Value (DV)Calcium: 1% of DVIron: 2% of DVPotassium: 3% of DVStrawberries are not only delicious but also offer various health benefits. Dr Sushma shared them as:* Rich in antioxidants: Strawberries are high in antioxidants such as anthocyanins, ellagic acid, and quercetin. These elements aid to combat oxidative stress and lower the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and neurological disorders. Antioxidants also possess anti-inflammatory properties that promote general health and overall well-being.* Boosts immune system: The high vitamin C content in strawberries strengthens the immune system and supports the body’s defense against infections and illnesses.* Boost cognitive function and memory: The antioxidants present in strawberries promote brain health and lower the risk of age-related cognitive decline.* Good for eye health: Strawberries come with a whole lot of antioxidants like vitamin C and flavonoids that play a vital role for eye health, lowering the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.* Promotes collagen production: Strawberries also contribute to healthy skin by promoting collagen production, reducing wrinkles, and protecting against damage from environmental factors.* Improves digestive health: The fiber content in strawberries promotes good digestion, prevents constipation, and contributes to a healthy gut microbiota.The glycemic index scale is used to rank the food with carbohydrate content. Food that comes with a high ranking raises the blood sugar level immediately, while food with low scores only gradually raises the blood sugar.“Strawberries have a low glycemic index (GI), therefore, they can be consumed in moderation by diabetic people as part of a balanced diet. With a little portion control, diabetic people can safely enjoy a 1¼-cup serving. Owing to the low GI of the fruit, the impact on blood sugar levels is limited,” explained Dr Sushma.Some things to keep in mind when consuming strawberries are:Allergies: Some individuals may have allergies to strawberries. If you have a known allergy, it’s important to avoid consuming them.Pesticides: Strawberries are part of the “dirty dozen” list, which means they are among the fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues. Consider purchasing organic strawberries or washing them thoroughly before consumption.Individual health conditions: While strawberries have numerous health benefits, it’s important to consider individual health conditions and dietary restrictions. It is therefore important that you consult with a healthcare professional, or a registered dietitian for personalized advice.📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!

Nutrition alert: This is what (about) 100 grams strawberries contain
It was the long-sleeved sweater: Justin Langer’s bizarre theory to explain Usman Khawaja’s WTC final failure
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Former Australia coach Justin Langer has put forward a bizarre theory to explain opener Usman Khawaja’s duck in the first innings of the World Test Championship Final versus India at The Oval.Langer believes Khawaja’s failure may have been caused by the ‘long-sleeve sweater’ he was sporting.“He came out wearing a long-sleeve sweater. I felt if I had a long-sleeve sweater, especially early, you need to be sharp – I never felt right. And he came out wearing that long-sleeved sweater today and didn’t get going. He will be disappointed to be out in the first half an hour,” Langer said on air.Khawaja out for a duck as India strike early! #WTCFinal pic.twitter.com/4adpuKmoXW— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 7, 2023In the fourth over of Australia’s innings, Khawaja was out for a duck. He hung his bat out in response to a length ball pitched across by Siraj but it resulted in him edging the ball and being caught. This was his seventh single-digit score during his 13th Test innings in England.Meanwhile, on Day 2, India’s batting performance was disastrous as skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were quickly dismissed. Adding to their misery, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were gone after cheap dismissals. Despite being under pressure, seasoned all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja played a fantastic innings. 48 runs were scored in 51 deliveries by the 34-year-old.

It was the long-sleeved sweater: Justin Langer’s bizarre theory to explain Usman Khawaja’s WTC final failure
NCRTC to build 3 bridges at Anand Vihar RRTS station
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

In order to provide a safe crossing for pedestrians and decongest roads, the National Capital Regional Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System – India’s first rapid rail project – is constructing three bridges at Anand Vihar Rapidx station in Delhi.“A dedicated pedestrian bridge is being constructed at Anand Vihar RAPIDX station of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor. Apart from this, two separate bridges are also being built for segregated entry and exit of vehicles into the station premises as a part of multimodal integration with all existing modes of transport at this point,” an NCRTC official said.The three bridges will be built over the Ghazipur drain passing between Anand Vihar RAPIDX station and Chaudhary Charan Singh Marg.While the right bridge will be used for vehicular entry inside the Anand Vihar RAPIDX station, the left bridge will be used for vehicular exit. The middle bridge will be used only for the to-and-fro movement of pedestrians inside the station premises.The bridge being constructed over the Ghazipur drain for the entry of vehicles into the Anand Vihar RAPIDX station is about 10 metres wide. Taxis, private vehicles etc will be able to enter the premises from this entrance bridge and drop passengers at the station gate. The exit bridge being constructed over the drain at the left end of the station is 13 metres wide and will enable these vehicles to drive back to the main road. The pedestrian-only bridge is 6 metres wide.Lakhs of commuters travel daily from Anand Vihar via various modes of transport. It has been often observed that passengers have to go through a lot of trouble to change their modes of transport. This leads to overcrowding, which hinders the movement of vehicles and leads to traffic jams on the road, officials said.Keeping these problems in mind, the NCRTC decided to construct separate entry and exit routes to ensure the smooth, convenient and safe travel of commuters. The location of the station has also been strategically planned in such a way that it is built as close as possible to existing public transport means, officials added.The station is being integrated with six modes of public transport, which include Swami Vivekananda (Anand Vihar) inter-state bus stand, city bus stand, Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation bus stand at Kaushambi, two Metro lines (pink and blue line) and the Anand Vihar railway station.A bus stop is also proposed to be built on the main road along these bridge routes. Commuters can get down here and enter the station through these bridges. Stairs, lifts and escalators will also be provided.The NCRTC aims to make the entire 82 km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor operational by 2025. Before that, it will commission the 17 km-long priority section of this corridor this year.

NCRTC to build 3 bridges at Anand Vihar RRTS station
Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Before-and-after images of the area downstream from a dam that collapsed Tuesday vividly show the extent of the devastation of a large, flooded swathe of southern Ukraine.Before the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River broke, farm fields appear green and crossed by peaceful streets and farm roads and dotted with trees. Afterward, only metal roofs and treetops poke above the murky water. Greenhouses and homes are almost entirely submerged.The pre-collapse satellite photos were taken in May and early June. Photos of the same area taken after the dam collapsed clearly show how much of it has become unlivable. Brown water as high as people covers much of the territory captured in the images.Paired with exclusive drone footage of the Ukrainian dam and surrounding villages occupied by Russia, the before-and-after satellite images illustrate the profound changes wrought by the disaster.Ukraine has warned since last October that the hydroelectric dam was mined by Russian forces, and accused them of touching off an explosion that has turned the downstream areas into a waterlogged wasteland. Russia said Ukraine hit the dam with a missile.But while the AP footage clearly shows the extent of the damage to the region, it offered a limited snapshot of the partially submerged dam, making it difficult to categorically rule out any scenario. Experts have said the structure was in disrepair, which could also have led to its collapse.

Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse
  • What is the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine – and what happened?
  • The Indian Express

    By Guy FaulconbridgeA huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine was breached on Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across the war zone. Ukraine said Russia had destroyed it, while Russian officials gave conflicting accounts, some saying it was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling and others saying it collapsed due to earlier damage.What is the dam and what happened – and what do we not know?THE KAKHOVKA DAMThe dam, 30 metres (98 feet) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.* The reservoir also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia claims to have annexed in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.* It holds an 18 km3 reservoir – a volume about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah.WHAT HAPPENED?* Ukraine, which commented first, said Russia was responsible: “Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.“The Kakhovka (reservoir) was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. “The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified.”* Some Russian-installed officials blamed Ukraine:The Russian-installed Kherson administration said Ukraine shelled the dam at around 2300 GMT, damaging the hydraulic valves. “On Tuesday, June 6, the Ukrainian armed forces hit the Kakhovsky hydroelectric dam, as a result of which the upper part of the hydraulic structure was damaged,” it said.* Other Russian-installed officials said no attack took place.Vladimir Rogov, a Russian installed official in Zaporizhzhia, said the dam collapsed due to earlier damage and the pressure of the water. Russia’s state news agency TASS carried a report to the same effect.WHAT IS THE HUMAN IMPACT?With water levels surging higher, many thousands of people are likely to be affected. Evacuations of civilians began on both sides of the front line.22,000 people living across 14 settlements in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region are at risk of flooding, Russian installed officials said. They told people to be ready to evacuate. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that up to 80 settlements were at risk of flooding.CRIMEAThe Russian-backed governor of Crimea said on Tuesday that there is a risk that water levels in the North Crimea Canal, which carries fresh water to the peninsula from the Dnipro river, could fall after rupture of the dam.The Crimean peninsula is dependent for fresh water on the canal. Ukraine previously blocked water supplies to Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, causing water shortages in the region.NUCLEAR PLANTThe Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, gets its cooling water from the reservoir. It is located on the southern side, now under Russian control.The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Twitter it was closely monitoring the situation but that there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at (the) plant”.Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Tuesday there was no threat to the Moscow-controlled nuclear plant.

England looking to burst Steve Smith’s bubble in Ashes, says Ollie Pope
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

England’s Ollie Pope said they have to get Steve Smith out of his bubble during the Ashes series and will look for ways of making the Australian run machine as uncomfortable as possible at the crease.Smith batted for 5-1/2 hours against India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval before he was out for 121 from 268 balls on day two.It was his 31st test hundred, and seventh in England, and served as a reminder of the threat the former Australia captain poses for the Ashes.The 34-year-old will look to reprise his performance from the 2019 Ashes series in England, where he amassed 774 runs in his four tests, and Pope said the hosts may look to “quirkier” ways of getting his wicket.“It’s obvious he knows these conditions,” he told British media on Thursday. “He’s been an amazing player for a long time and had a lot of success in all different conditions … What’s made him successful is his stubbornness.“We know exactly how he’s going to operate, how he’s going to want to score his runs and he’s not going to move from that during this five-match series whether he scores runs in the first two or three matches or not.“That’s exactly the bubble that we’ve got to try and get him out of … We might be looking at even quirkier ways to challenge him, test him out and make him as uncomfortable as we possibly can to try and get his wicket.”The five-test Ashes series begins at Edgbaston on June 16.

England looking to burst Steve Smith’s bubble in Ashes, says Ollie Pope
Pune Weekend Watch: The Pride month surfaces, street food remains to be at the city’s core
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

What makes up for a perfect weekend – music, books, art, and most importantly food? As the plight of the summer has almost come to an end, you may wish to step out and see what the city has to offer this weekend.Queer ways, talksWhere: Pagdandi Bookstore, BanerWhen: June 10Contact: 9890992470‘Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India’ written by K Vaishali is her memoir where she takes us through her anxieties of discovering her sexuality along with her dyslexia. In conversation with Shyam Konnur, founder of Mist LGBTQ Foundation. He is also Mr. Gay India 2020 and has intensively worked for queer rights.Interaction with writer Anil MenonWhere: Pagdandi Bookstore, BanerWhen: June 11Contact: 9890992470‘Ecosophies of Freedom’ by Milind Wani and Sucharita Dutta – Asane explores the root cause of human suffering with the aim to attain equilibrium. In conversation with Anil Menon, a writer and editor, along with Priya Sarukkai Chabria, a well-known translator and writer. Together, they will shed light on this socio-political conflict.Stage play writing contestWhere: Online Google Form on Facebook page- Sanhita Manch and Instagram Page Being AssociationWhen: Till June 30Contact: 07038708893, 09168012997Sanhita Manch 2023 brings about a nationwide pursuit to find original plays. This competition is open to all across the globe. Plays can be scripted in Hindi, Marathi, or English. Famous theatre personalities like Atul Tiwari, Purva Naresh will be adjudicating the submissions.Walking toursWhere: JJ Garden, CampWhen: June 11Contact: 9405591758, 9011040773The Snack Walk across the Camp area will unravel the unique combination of traditional, authentic, and fusion cuisine. It will be guided by Jayesh Paranjpe.Art fest to celebrate 50 years of Venus TradersWhere: Raja Ravi Varma Art Gallery, Ghole RoadWhen: June 9- June 11Contact: 9689308745Organised to celebrate 50 years of Venus Traders, this Art Fest will comprise over 100 paintings made by veteran artists, college students, and hobby artists. The event aims to give an opportunity to artists from varied backgrounds to showcase their art.A musical treat and exhibition of photographsWhere: Yashwantrao Chavan SabhagruhaWhen: June 10 and June 11Contact: 992290780Organised on the occasion of the Padma Vibhushan Pandit Kumar Gandharva’s birth centenary, this event will give Punekars the opportunity to listen to renowned artists such as Vidushi Prabha Atre, and Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande. An exhibition of rare photographs from the collection of Kumar Gandharva Pratishthan will also be displayed.

Pune Weekend Watch: The Pride month surfaces, street food remains to be at the city’s core
Steven Spielberg was ‘amazed’ Amrish Puri was doing 22 films at the same time, came to India to audition him: ‘You are terrific human being’
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Veteran actor Amrish Puri played many iconic characters in his lifetime and his role as Mola Ram in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is considered one of his most popular roles in the West. Amrish was an extremely busy actor when Steven’s team zeroed him down for the role and was working in almost 22 films at the time. When Spielberg learnt the same, he traveled to India to audition Puri and finalised him for the role.Amrish’s son Rajeev Puri shared this story with ETimes in an interview and said that Steven was “absolutely amazed” at the fact that an actor could be doing 22 films at a time so he flew to India to see Amrish. “What I am told is that that was the only time that Spielberg came to India to audition an actor because he was curious to meet dad. He met him and he signed the movie over here,” he said.Rajeev shared that Steven was so impressed by Amrish’s bald look that he asked him to keep the same look for Temple of Doom. “That’s what dad told me that Steven told me ‘he loves this look’,” shared Rajeev. After the shoot wrapped, Spielberg signed a handwritten note to Puri which the family has preserved till date. “To my best villain, you are unique in all the world as a bad guy and in the real world we live in. You are a terrific human being. I loved every minute of our work together, can’t wait to work with you again,” the note read.He shared that after the success of Temple of Doom, Amrish got various offers from the West but he chose to work in the Indian film industry. “His agent over there asked him to sign (other offers) but dad was very devoted to his Indian film industry. He said ‘no, I want to be over here because by God’s grace, I am doing very well over here and I want to be here and do movies for my country,” Rajeev recalled.Amrish Puri starrer Gadar is re-releasing in theatres this Friday.

Steven Spielberg was ‘amazed’ Amrish Puri was doing 22 films at the same time, came to India to audition him: ‘You are terrific human being’
WTC Final: Mohammed Siraj ‘ultimate competitor’ but India should’ve bowled fuller, says Ricky Ponting
The Indian Express | 18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm
The Indian Express
18 hours ago | 09-06-2023 | 12:45 pm

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels India “let themselves down” by not bowling fuller in the ongoing World Test Championship final but praised pacer Mohammed Siraj for his tenacity, calling him the “ultimate competitor”.Siraj (4/108) bowled his best but the other India could not stop Australia from amassing 469 runs in the first innings at The Oval with Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) scoring centuries.Siraj was perhaps the only bright spot for India with the ball as he accounted for Usman Khawaja (0), Head, Pat Cummins (9) and Nathan Lyon (9) to bring up his 50 wickets in Test cricket.“I loved seeing that and he looks like the ultimate competitor. Maybe sometimes he gets carried away and goes a little bit over the top, but you need those guys in your side when things aren’t going well,” Ponting told the ICC on Thursday.The right-arm bowler attacked Australia with short pitch deliveries and also showed much-needed aggression on the field, which impressed Ponting.“He was the one today (Thursday) who said I am going to be the guy that is going to turn things around and what I loved was that his pace didn’t drop at all during the whole innings.“From the first ball yesterday morning until late this afternoon, his pace was hovering around that 86 or 87-mile and hour mark and that says a lot about a great attitude.” Ponting feels Indian bowlers should have looked to bowl fuller lengths instead of bowling short.“I think where they let themselves down was in the first hour yesterday and bowling too short. With the wicket conditions, the overhead conditions they had and the brand new Dukes ball, they had to bowl fuller and get the ball driven back down the ground,” he said.“They needed to have Australia four or five down at lunch and they only had them two down which was a pretty good result (for Australia),” said Ponting, recalling the first session on the opening day, which so far has been the best in terms of assistance to fast bowlers.Without getting into the discussion of whether India should have played Ravichnadran Ashwin in the WTC final, Ponting said India’s decision to play four seamers might pay its dividends later in the game.“I know the captain wears the brunt of it (criticism), but I know it’s not only his decision. I saw Rahul Dravid and him (Rohit Sharma) out in the middle yesterday morning and they had a long discussion about what they wanted to do at the toss.” Ponting said.“If they wanted to bowl first I think they had to play the four seamers. So far you would say it hasn’t paid off — but there is a long way to go and we probably shouldn’t be too quick to judge,” he added.

WTC Final: Mohammed Siraj ‘ultimate competitor’ but India should’ve bowled fuller, says Ricky Ponting