Current Final

Category: FOREIGN

  • Republic Day: Thousands of protesting farmers converge on Indian capital in convoy of tractors

    In a high-profile protest against controversial agricultural reforms, tens of thousands of farmers drove a convoy of tractors festooned with brightly-coloured flags through the outskirts of India’s capital of New Delhi on the country’s Republic Day.

    Growers, angry at what they see as laws that help large, private buyers at the expense of producers, have been camped outside Delhi for almost two months.

    Thousands more, steering tractors bearing the flags of India and farm unions, had streamed in from neighbouring states for several days ahead of the rally, planned to coincide with celebrations of Republic Day.

    “Our word should travel around the world, that we are fighting for our living,” said Devinder Singh, a 36-year-old farmer from Punjab, seated on his tractor. “If we lose our farmland, how will we survive?” he asked.

    Some took to Twitter to dispel rumours of the Indian flag being removed from Delhi’s Red Fort.

    The protests have so far been peaceful, and farm leaders have urged rally participants to refrain from violence. 

    Authorities used trucks to barricade the main route to the site, where hundreds of police, some armed with assault rifles, tear gas, and a water cannon, stood guard.

    Although some protesters breached police barricades at Singh and Tikri, another site, early on Tuesday, there were no immediate reports of violence.

    https://twitter.com/swatijaihind/status/1353941486673379328?s=21

    Agriculture employs about half of India’s population of 1.3 billion, and unrest among an estimated 150 million landowning farmers presents one of the biggest challenges to the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.

    Nine rounds of talks between the government and the farmers’ unions have failed to end the protests, with farm leaders rejecting the government’s offer to delay the laws for 18 months, as they push for repeal.

    “The farm organisations have a very stronghold,” said Ambar Kumar Ghosh, an analyst at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

    “They have the resources to mobilise support and to continue the protest for a long time. They have also been very successful in keeping the protest really focused.”

    Police have allowed farmers to rally along approved routes on the outskirts of Delhi. But the tractor march threatens to overshadow the annual Republic Day military parade in the centre of the capital on the anniversary of India’s 1950 adoption of its constitution.

    “They could have chosen any other day instead of January 26 but they have announced now,” Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told media on Monday. “Conducting the rally peacefully without any accident would be the concern for farmers as well as police administration.”

  • What’s the story behind ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans in New Delhi?

    What’s the story behind ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans in New Delhi?

    After an 11-hour long investigation, the Indian police have finally cracked the case of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans in New Delhi.

    Police had detained two men and three women following the reports that they were heard chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. However, after investigations, it was revealed that the slogans were raised in a “lighter vein” as a part of a cycling game near Delhi’s Khan Market metro station on late Saturday night.

    The police said that they have not registered a case against them following the investigation.

    “Ahead of Republic Day, police said, they were on high alert when they received a call around 1 am about a group shouting slogans, praising Pakistan,” Indian Express reported.

    “Two families…had rented Yulu bikes they were racing, and they had named each other after countries like India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia. They were cheering each other on by shouting these names when some locals heard them shout, ‘Pakistan zindabad’,” the report quoted the police officials as saying.

    During interrogation, police found the family had named the 14-year-old boy ‘Pakistan’ during the game, the newspaper reported.

    “When the boy was slow, others, which included his parents, shouted ‘Pakistan haar gaya… peechhe reh gaya,’ and when the boy started speeding, they cheered him with ‘Pakistan Zindabad’,” said the officer.

    However, following the questioning, all of them were allowed to leave.

  • Indian pilot dead after helicopter crashes in occupied Kashmir

    Indian pilot dead after helicopter crashes in occupied Kashmir

    An Indian pilot was killed while another received critical injuries after an army helicopter crashed in the occupied Kashmir’s Kathua district on Monday, reported Indian media.

    Both pilots were rushed to a hospital after the crash that occurred due to a technical error. According to media reports, the chopper was coming from Pathankot when it was forced to make a crash-landing in an army area in the Lakhanpur belt of the district.

    Two pilots of the helicopter were injured in the incident, he said, adding that they were rushed to a military base hospital. “Tragic news coming in. We have one pilot fatal casualty,” a defence spokesperson was quoted by the media as saying.

    In October 2019 a Dhruv helicopter of the Indian Army carrying the then chief of the force’s Northern Command Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh and other officers had made an emergency landing following a technical glitch in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

  • Larry King passes away at 87

    Larry King passes away at 87

    Iconic TV and radio broadcaster Larry King, who interviewed anyone worth interviewing over a career spanning six decades, passed away on Saturday at the age of 87.

    The company he co-founded, Ora Media, did not state a cause of death but media reports said King had been battling COVID-19 for weeks and had suffered several health problems in recent years.

    King, with his trademark suspenders and black rim glasses, was best known for a 25-year run as a talk show host on CNN’s Larry King Live. He retired in 2010 after recording more than 6,000 episodes of the show. He also conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews in his six-decade career.

    “For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster,” Ora Media said in a statement posted on Twitter.

    King is survived by three sons. Last year, two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons.

    Meanwhile, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry expressed his grief and condolences over King’s death.

  • Trash on Everest to be turned into art to highlight mountain’s garbage problem

    Trash on Everest to be turned into art to highlight mountain’s garbage problem

    Trash collected from Mount Everest is set to be transformed into art and displayed in a nearby gallery, to highlight the need to save the world’s tallest mountain from turning into a dumping site.

    Used oxygen bottles, torn tents, ropes, broken ladders, cans, and plastic wrappers discarded by climbers and trekkers litter the 8,848.86 metre (29,032 feet) tall peak and the surrounding areas.

    Tommy Gustafsson, project director and a co-founder of the Sagarmatha Next Centre – a visitors’ information centre and waste up-cycling facility – said foreign and local artists will be engaged in creating artwork from waste materials and train locals to turn trash into treasures.

    “We want to showcase how you can transform solid waste to precious pieces of art … and generate employment and income,” Gustafsson told Reuters. “We hope to change the people’s perceptions about the garbage and manage it.”

    The Centre is located at an altitude of 3,780 metres at Syangboche on the main trail to Everest base camp, two days’ walk from Lukla, the gateway to the mountain.

    It is due for “soft opening” to locals in the spring as the number of visitors could be limited this year due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, Gustafsson said.

    Products and artwork will be displayed to raise environmental awareness, or sold as souvenirs with the proceeds going to conservation of the region, he said.

    Trash brought down from the mountain or collected from households and tea houses along the trail is handled and segregated by a local environmental group, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, but the task in a remote region that has no roads is a huge challenge.

    Garbage is dumped or burned in open pits, causing air and water pollution as well as contamination of soil.

    IN PICTURES: Nepali mountaineers first to summit K2 in winter

    Phinjo Sherpa, of the Eco Himal group involved in the scheme, said under a “carry me back” initiative, each returning tourist and guide will be requested to take a bag containing one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of garbage back to Lukla airport, from where the trash will be airlifted to Kathmandu.

  • ‘Retro Bernie’: Bernie Sanders memes flood internet after Biden inauguration

    ‘Retro Bernie’: Bernie Sanders memes flood internet after Biden inauguration

    The oath-taking ceremony of President Joe Biden, though a low-key affair due to the coronavirus and security concerns, was still a star-studded and historic event.

    Donald Trump finally out of the White House; the US getting its first Black-South Asian, woman vice president; and Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga mesmerising the crowds: the US citizens had more than one reason to celebrate. But this wasn’t the headline of the event, at least on the internet.

    Shortly after the ceremony, tons of memes featuring Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — who was spotted sitting alone and bored (at least that’s how we see it) started flooding the internet. And we don’t want you to miss them!

    Bernie is friends with Deadpool?

    https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1352116679816454145

    He’s least bothered by what’s happening at The Capitol

    When you like work from home too much

    Simba won’t be happy

    Bernie will be there for you…

    https://twitter.com/BernieMemes2021/status/1352184130910482433

    Bernie giving moral support to Raj and Simran

    Retro Bernie

  • Biden rolls back Trump policies on Muslims, climate, health

    Biden rolls back Trump policies on Muslims, climate, health

     US President Joe Biden signed 15 executive actions shortly after being sworn on Wednesday, undoing policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, and making his first moves on the pandemic and climate change.

    Signing several actions in front of reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, Biden said there was “no time to waste” in issuing the executive orders, memorandums and directives.

    “Some of the executive actions I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the COVID crisis, we’re going to combat climate change in a way that we haven’t done so far and advance racial equity and support other underserved communities” said Biden. “These are just all starting points”

    Aides said the actions the Democratic president signed included a mask mandate on federal property and for federal employees, an order to establish a new White House office coordinating the response to the coronavirus, and halting the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

    Biden signed a document to begin the process of re-entering the Paris climate accord and issued a sweeping order tackling climate change, including revoking the presidential permit granted to the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline.

    Among a raft of orders addressing immigration, Biden revoked Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the construction of a border wall and ended a travel ban on some majority-Muslim countries.

    The Day One plans were just the start of a flurry of executive actions Biden would take soon after entering office, said his press secretary, Jen Psaki.

    “In the coming days and weeks, we will be announcing additional executive actions that confront these challenges and deliver on the president-elect’s promises to the American people,” Psaki said.

    Further actions would include revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing a policy that blocks U.S. funding for programs overseas linked to abortion.

    On the economic front, Biden asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend a moratorium on evictions until the end of March, and the Department of Education to suspend student loan payments until the end of September.

  • Vogue to release new Kamala Harris cover after original sparks outrage

    Vogue to release new Kamala Harris cover after original sparks outrage

    Vogue will publish a new limited edition of its latest issue featuring a different photo of Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris after the original cover image sparked controversy, the magazine has announced.

    Critics slammed the photo that graced the hard copy of the February issue, saying it was poorly composed and diminished Harris’s achievements as the first Black woman to be elected vice president.

    Social media users criticised the lighting of the photo — in which Harris wears a blazer, jeans and sneakers — and also questioned whether the magazine had lightened her skin.

    Following the backlash, Vogue announced it would release some copies with a more formal portrait of Harris wearing a light blue Michael Kors pantsuit. That image had been used for the digital cover.

    “In recognition of the enormous interest in the digital cover, and in celebration of this historic moment, we will be publishing a limited number of special edition inaugural issues,” a spokesperson for Vogue said.

    Editor Anna Wintour was forced to defend the original image after it circulated online earlier this month, insisting it was not the magazine’s intention to “diminish” Harris’s “incredible” election victory.

    “When the two images arrived at Vogue, all of us felt very, very strongly that the less formal portrait of the Vice President-elect really reflected the moment that we were living in which we are all in the midst — as we still are — of the most appalling pandemic that is taking lives by the minute,” Wintour had said in a statement to the New York Times.

    “And we felt to reflect this tragic moment in global history, a much less formal picture, something that was very, very accessible and approachable and real, really reflected the hallmark of the Biden-Harris campaign and everything that they are trying to, and I’m sure will achieve,” she added.

    Both photos were taken by American photographer Tyler Mitchell, who in 2018 became the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover with his portraits of music icon Beyonce.

    Harris, 56, did not publicly react but sources close to her told US media that she was surprised by the choice of the more relaxed photo.

    The controversy was the latest to hit Wintour, who found herself under pressure during the massive Black Lives Matter protests that swept the US last summer.

    She apologised for not making enough room for Black stylists and photographers in the magazine.

    Wintour added that she also took “full responsibility” for “publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant.”

    Meanwhile, Harris is all set to become the first Black person, the first woman, and the first South Asian to serve as vice president after she is sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina member.

    She and Joe Biden will take their oaths in a ceremony that will take place in front of a heavily fortified Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building two weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that November’s election was stolen with millions of fraudulent votes.

  • Facing crush of crises, Biden to take helm as president today

    Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, assuming the helm of a country beset by deep political divides and battered by a raging coronavirus pandemic.

    Biden, 78, will become the oldest US president in history at a scaled-back ceremony in Washington that has been largely stripped of its usual pomp and circumstance, due to both the coronavirus pandemic as well as security concerns following the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump.

    With only a small number of attendees present, the Democrat will take the oath of office before US Chief Justice John Roberts just after noon (1700 GMT), placing his hand on an heirloom Bible that has been in the Biden family for more than a century.

    His running mate, Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, will become the first Black person, first woman and first South Asian to serve as vice president after she is sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina member.

    The ceremony will unfold in front of a heavily fortified Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building two weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that November’s election was stolen with millions of fraudulent votes. The violence prompted the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives to impeach Trump last week for an unprecedented second time.

    Thousands of National Guard troops were called into the city after the siege, which left five people dead and briefly forced lawmakers into hiding. Instead of a throng of supporters, the National Mall will be covered by nearly 200,000 flags and 56 pillars of light meant to represent people from US states and territories.

    Biden, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” will call for American unity at a time of crisis in his inaugural address, according to advisers.

    In an early sign of his plan to reach across the political aisle, Biden has invited top congressional leaders, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, to join him at church on Wednesday morning.

    In a break with more than a century and a half of political tradition, Trump plans to depart the White House ahead of the inauguration, declining to meet with his successor and affirm the peaceful transfer of power.

    Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and both McCarthy and McConnell are all expected to attend Biden’s inauguration ceremony.

    Trump, who has grown increasingly isolated in the waning days of his tenure, has still not formally conceded the Nov. 3 election. He will hold a sendoff event at Joint Air Force Base Andrews in the morning, although top Republicans, including Pence, are not expected to attend.

    TRUMP PARDONS 140 PEOPLE ON LAST DAY:

    President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part of a flurry of clemency action in the final hours of his White House term that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.

    The last-minute clemency, announced Wednesday morning, follows separate waves of pardons over the past month for Trump associates convicted in the FBI’s Russia investigation as well as for the father of his son-in-law.

    Besides Bannon, other pardon recipients included Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a scheme to lobby the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian wealth fund, and Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce.

    Among them were rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both convicted in Florida on weapons charges.

    Other pardon recipients include former Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican who served three years for corruption, money laundering and other charges, and former Rep. Duke Cunningham of California, who was convicted of accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Cunningham, who was released from prison in 2013, received a conditional pardon.

    Trump also commuted the prison sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served about seven years behind bars for a racketeering and bribery scheme.

  • Pro-Modi anchor knew about ‘highly confidential’ Balakot strikes in advance

    Pro-Modi anchor knew about ‘highly confidential’ Balakot strikes in advance

    Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami knew about the Balakot strikes three days before the Indian air force bombed an alleged militant camp inside the Pakistani territory, revealed a Whatsapp chat between Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former head of India’s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BRAC).

    According to Indian media reports, the purported chat is mentioned in a transcript that is part of a 3,400-page supplementary chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police in their investigation into the alleged Television Ratings Point scam.

    In the conversation on Feb 23, 2019, Goswami said that ‘something big will happen’ and three days later, the IAF planes carried out a strike in Pakistan, bringing the two countries on the brink of a full-fledged war. The conversation also suggested that the strikes were conducted to boost ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) popularity ahead of the national elections.

    There are also many instances in the transcripts that show Goswami boasting about his proximity to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. There is another instance where he says that “all the ministers are with us”, reported The Hindu.

    In other conversations, Goswami also complained about other news channels getting better ratings than his (Republic TV) and Dasgupta assures him that necessary steps will be taken to “clean the data”, it reported.

    Following the release of these Whatsapp conversations, #ArnabGoswamiExposed started trending on Twitter, with Indian users demanding accountability of those involved in the episode.