Author: www.newsworldbird.com

NEW DELHI: A rift has emerged between Maharashtra deputy chief ministers Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis ahead of the assembly polls on November 20, over Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s slogan ‘Batenge toh Katenge‘.
While Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar said he does not endorse the slogan, BJP leader Fadnavis, his coalition partner in the Mahayuti alliance, said there is nothing wrong with the slogan.
Fadnavis on Friday responded to Ajit Pawar’s comments on the ‘batenge toh katenge’ slogan, suggesting Pawar will take time to comprehend public sentiment.
Speaking to ANI, Fadnavis explained that Pawar’s background with groups opposing Hindutva whilst claiming secularism may have influenced his perspective.
“For decades, Ajit Pawar stayed with such ideologies which are secular and anti-Hindu. There is no real secularism amongst those who call themselves secularists. He has stayed with people for whom opposing Hindutva is secularism. It will take some time for him to understand the mood of the public,” Fadnavis told ANI.
“These people either did not understand the sentiment of the public or did not understand the meaning of this statement or while speaking they probably wanted to say something else,” he added.
Fadnavis clarified that “‘Batenge to katenge’ means everyone has to stick together.

Addressing allegations over anti-Muslim bias, he highlighted that government programmes, including the Ladki Bahin Yojana, serve all communities equally.
Fadnavis defended the slogan, saying, “I don’t see anything wrong in Yogi ji’s slogans. Look at the history of this country. Jab jab bate hai tab gulam bane hai. Whenever this country divided into castes, into states, divided into communities, we became slaves.”
Mahayuti partner and NCP chief Ajit Pawar had said ‘batenge toh katenge’ was not acceptable in Maharashtra.
Pawar in an interview with ANI said, “”I have expressed my disagreement on this (Batenge toh Katenge) in a public rally and media interviews. Some BJP leaders have also expressed the same. ‘Sabka saath, Sabka vikas’ means together with all, development for all…Now, ‘Ek hain toh safe hain…I see it from this angle.”

The slogan, used by chief minister Yogi Adityanath at several rallies, has been widely condemned by the opposition leaders.
Former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan expressed disapproval, stating the slogan lacks appropriateness.
“There is no relevance of this (slogan). Slogans are given at election time. This particular slogan is not in good taste and I don’t think people will appreciate it. Personally speaking, I am not in favour of such slogans,” Chavan told news agency PTI.
BJP leader Pankaja Munde also distanced herself, emphasising her focus on development-oriented politics.
The electoral campaign continues for Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats, with both Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) actively seeking voter support. The elections are set for November 20, with results scheduled for November 23.

Adblock test (Why?)

NEW DELHI: An after-party night out turned tragic on Monday when a rashly-driven multi-utility vehicle (MUV) snuffed out six young lives in Dehradun.
The speeding MUV collided with a container truck, killing Guneet Singh, Kamakshi Singhal, Navya Goyal, Rishabh Jain and Atul Agrawal—all residents of Dehradun—and Kunal Kukreja from Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, instantly.

The sole survivor, Siddhesh Agrawal, remains hospitalised in stable condition but is currently unable to recount details of the accident.
The youngsters were returning from a party hosted by Siddhesh.
Police findings suggest speeding as the cause
Inspector KC Bhatt from the Cantt police station, who is heading the investigation, noted that early findings do not indicate fault by the truck driver. The collision occurred when the MUV, moving at high speed, struck the truck’s left rear side—a known blind spot on large vehicles.
Bhatt added, “Since the MUV’s driver, who owned the vehicle, did not survive, we are looking into legal alternatives as no charges can be filed posthumously.”

‘A luxury overtook’
According to initial investigation findings, the MUV, which was likely new and without license plates, was traveling from Ballupur Chowk toward Garhi Cantt.

A luxury car reportedly overtook the MUV at high speed, prompting the driver to accelerate in an attempt to catch up. Meanwhile, a container truck was crossing the intersection at a steady pace.
CCTV footage shows sudden acceleration
CCTV footage reveals the MUV initially driving at a moderate pace through checkpoints but accelerating sharply just before the crash near the ONGC intersection.
The truck was seen moving steadily, covering 1.5 kilometers in six minutes, when the MUV struck it from behind.
Devastating impact of the crash
The force of the impact was so severe that it tore off the MUV’s roof, resulting in two passengers’ decapitation.
The MUV was left mangled and twisted beyond recognition. Reports indicate that the group had been returning from a party hosted by Siddhesh, the sole survivor.
Eyewitness account from restaurant owner
A nearby restaurant owner recalls narrowly avoiding a collision with the MUV around 1am near Pacific Mall. “The car was speeding on the wrong side toward us. I had to swerve quickly,” he recounted.
Alarmed by the recklessness, he alerted police at a nearby checkpoint but observed no action was taken.
He later reported the incident via the emergency helpline and even emailed officials, including the SSP and CM’s office but was devastated to learn the next morning that the same vehicle had been involved in the fatal accident.
A split-second misjudgment
Based on the initial investigation, it appears the young driver of the MUV attempted to overtake another car, misjudging the timing.
The police believe he tried to pass the truck before it crossed the intersection, leading to the fatal collision with the truck’s left side.

Adblock test (Why?)

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police investigating the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique have uncovered a chilling link to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang‘s plans to target Aftab Poonawalla, the accused in the Shraddha Walkar murder case 2022.
In his confession, Shivakumar Gautam, alias Shiva, the main suspect in Siddique’s killing, revealed that Shubham Lonkar, a Bishnoi gang member, had discussed attacking Poonawalla. However, the gang allegedly refrained due to Poonawalla’s heightened security.
Baba Siddiqui murder: Lawrence Bishnoi gang shooter Shiv Kumar arrested from UP’s Bahraich with 4 others
A police official involved in the probe revealed, “Shiva disclosed that Shubham Lonkar, a member of the Bishnoi gang, and other senior figures had expressed intentions to target Aftab. This intelligence has now been shared with Delhi police for further security measures.”
The Shraddha Walkar murder
Aftab Poonawalla, Walkar’s live-in partner, is accused of strangling her during an argument in May 2022. He then dismembered her body into 35 pieces, which he stored in a refrigerator and disposed of over 18 days at various locations across Delhi.
Man chops live-in partner into 35 pieces, dumps them in Delhi forest
The couple, who had relocated from Mumbai to Delhi’s Mehrauli area, were estranged from Walkar’s family, who disapproved of their relationship.
Shocking confessions
On October 12, Gautam, along with two accomplices, Dharmaraj Kashyap and Gurmail Singh, shot and killed Baba Siddique outside his son Zeeshan’s office in Bandra East. After the attack, Gautam attempted to blend in with the crowd, but his efforts were foiled when two police officers questioned him about the shooters. He managed to flee the scene, while his accomplices were arrested.
In his confession, Gautam admitted to discarding his bag and weapon under a parked car immediately after the shooting. “I changed my shirt, dumped the bag, and checked the crowd’s reaction to see if the job was done properly,” Gautam told police. The bag, later recovered by authorities, contained a Turkish Tisas pistol, more than two dozen bullets, and Gautam’s discarded shirt.
‘Stood in crowd to confirm job done’: Shooter waited outside hospital to check if Baba Siddique survived
Gautam, who had been on the run for nearly a month, was eventually apprehended near the Nepal border on November 10. According to his statement, he fled immediately after the shooting and traveled through Pune, Lucknow, and other locations, changing his appearance to avoid detection. Gautam was reportedly promised a reward of Rs 10 lakh, a foreign trip, and a monthly allowance for his role in the murder.
The investigation also revealed that Gautam and his associates, including Gaurav Apune, Rupesh Mohol, and Shubham Lonkar, traveled to Jharkhand for specialized weapons training. According to police sources, they spent several days in remote forest areas, learning to handle AK-47 rifles. The training was conducted in regional dialects to maintain secrecy and avoid detection.

Adblock test (Why?)

The UK’s economy barely grew between July and September, with uncertainty about the Budget being blamed for the weak growth.

The economy grew by just 0.1% over the three-month period, and shrank during September itself.

Labour made boosting economic growth its top priority when it came into power but Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she was “not satisfied” with these latest figures which cover the first three months of the new government.

However, many businesses have criticised tax rises in the Budget which they say will hit employment and push up prices.

The latest growth figure was weaker than expected and was a sharp slowdown from the 0.5% growth seen in the April to June period.

A number of economists said that concerns about what measures would be included in October’s Budget had affected decision making by firms and households.

Ben Jones, lead economist at the CBI business group, said firms had widely reported “a slowdown in decision making” prior to the Budget. He added that once it had been announced it had “set off warning lights for business”.

The increase in National Insurance Contributions for firms together with other measures “is expected to trigger a more cautious approach to pay, hiring and investment”, Mr Jones said.

“The economy was always going to slow from the famously “gangbusters” pace of the first half of this year, but the extent of the slowdown is a bit more pronounced than expected,” said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at Abrdn.

With September being “particularly weak”, he added it was “plausible that some of slowing is the result of elevated uncertainty… as firms and households speculated about possible tax changes ahead of the Budget”.

‘It felt like people were holding back’

Andy Crisp, manager of pasta and pizza restaurant Vapiano in Manchester, said he had noticed a slight slowdown in the run up to Reeves’ Budget.

The summer was “a game of two halves”, he said, which finished quite strongly with sales up between 2-3% from a year ago.

However, the week before the Budget he “did see a downturn” in footfall.

“The only thing we could potentially put that down to was it felt like there was a nervousness prior to the Budget coming out as to ‘what does it mean to me? What does it mean to the general public?’

“So it almost felt like people were holding back to find out what the end result was going to be.”

Growth was affected by a weak performance in the services sector – which accounts for more than three-quarters of the economy.

Economists expect the outlook to remain fairly patchy.

In October, Reeves presented what she called a “Budget for growth”.

But the government’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said the Budget measures would only “temporarily boost” the UK.

It said the size of the economy would be “largely unchanged in five years” compared with its previous estimate.

Adblock test (Why?)

A vote in New Zealand’s parliament was suspended and two lawmakers ejected on Thursday (November 14, 2024) when dramatic political theatre erupted over a controversial proposed law redefining the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Maori and the British Crown.

Under the principles laid out in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which guide the relationship between the government and Maori, tribes were promised broad rights to retain their lands and protect their interests in return for ceding governance to the British. The bill would specify that those rights should apply to all New Zealanders.

The bill has scant support and is unlikely to become law. Detractors say it threatens racial discord and constitutional upheaval, while thousands of New Zealanders are traveling the length of the country this week to protest it.

Despite its unpopularity, however, the proposed law passed its first vote on Thursday after dominating public discussion for months, due to a quirk of New Zealand’s political system that allows tiny parties to negotiate outsized influence for their agendas. It also reflects unease among some New Zealanders about more rapid progress in recent years toward upholding the promises made to Māori when the country was colonized.

Treaty of Waitangi

For decades after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, differences between the English and Māori texts and breaches by New Zealand governments intensified the disenfranchisement of Māori.

By the middle of the 20th century, Indigenous language and culture had dwindled, much tribal land was confiscated and Māori were disadvantaged on every metric. As the Indigenous protest movement surged in the 1970s, lawmakers and the courts slowly began to elucidate what it understood the treaty to promise Māori: partnership with the Crown, participation in decision-making and protection of their interests.

“What all of these principles have in common is that they afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders,” David Seymour, leader of minor libertarian party ACT and the bill’s author, said Thursday.

To those who have championed the treaty, that is the point. Work has involved billion-dollar land settlements, embrace of the Māori language, guaranteed representation in central and local government and attempts through policy to reverse the stark inequities Indigenous people still face.

But Mr. Seymour — who is Māori — said no law or court had actually settled for good a definition of the treaty’s principles, and that had caused division. His bill filled “a silence this parliament has left for five decades,” he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon disagrees, but his party voted for the bill Thursday to fulfil the political deal with Mr. Seymour that handed Mr. Luxon power. Without enough seats to govern after last October’s election, Mr. Luxon curried support from two minor parties – including Mr. Seymour’s ACT, which won less than 9% of the vote – in return for political concessions.

Mr. Luxon told Mr. Seymour his party would vote for the treaty bill once, while promising publicly that it would go no further.

The treaty’s principles had been negotiated and debated for 184 years, Mr. Luxon told reporters Thursday, and it was “simplistic” for Mr. Seymour to suggest that they could be resolved “through the stroke of a pen”.

Opposition leaders protest

Government lawmakers made awkward speeches in parliament explaining that they opposed the bill before voting for it to jeers from opponents, who demanded they break ranks. Luxon was spared that; he left the country for the meeting of leaders from the Asia-Pacific APEC bloc hours before the vote.

New Zealand PM delivers landmark apology to survivors of state abuse

His political horse-trading drew scorn from opposition lawmakers.

“Shame! Shame! Shame on you, David Seymour,” roared Willie Jackson, a veteran Māori lawmaker. “Shame on you for what you’re trying to do to this nation.”

Mr. Jackson was thrown out of the debating chamber by Speaker Gerry Brownlee for calling Mr. Seymour a liar.

“You are complicit in the harm and the division that this presents,” said Rawiri Waititi, a lawmaker from Te Pāti Māori, an Indigenous group, speaking to all who advanced the bill.

“If you vote for this bill, this is who you are,” Green party leader Chloe Swarbrick told Mr. Luxon’s lawmakers.

No one deviated from their planned votes and the bill passed. But not before one final flashpoint.

The haka

When asked how her party’s lawmakers would vote, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke of Te Pāti Māori stood and began a ringing haka – a rhythmic Māori chant of challenge – which swelled to a roar as first opposition lawmakers, and then spectators in the public gallery, joined in.

An irate Mr. Brownlee was unable to quiet the fracas as opponents approached Mr. Seymour’s seat. The live broadcast of Parliament’s proceedings was cut and Mr. Brownlee ordered the public be removed before the vote resumed.

He suspended Ms. Maipi-Clarke, 22, from Parliament for a day.

The bill will proceed to a public submission process before another vote. Mr. Seymour hopes for an outpouring of support to change Luxon’s mind about vetoing it.

The proposal will shortly roil Parliament again. Thousands of protesters are due to arrive in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday for what is likely to be one of the largest race relations marches in New Zealand’s history.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

A showdown between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and social media influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul on Friday is the latest one-two punch from Netflix, as the media giant hopes to cash in on sports’ sprint to streaming.

The intergenerational showdown has all the makings of a crossover hit, with 58-year-old Tyson bringing in the old guard and 27-year-old Paul, who achieved early fame on YouTube, appealing to the younger, screen-toting social media junkies.

Available to all of Netflix’s more than 280 million subscribers for no additional fee, it could be a welcome change for American boxing fans accustomed to shelling out extra to watch marquee matches on long-time broadcaster HBO.

“The trend in all sports right now is moving some of their properties to streaming,” said Bob Dorfman, a veteran San Francisco-based sports marketing analyst.

“This is two huge personalities – it does have the potential to be the biggest streaming sports event.”

The American subscription television network HBO announced in 2018 it was dropping live boxing from its programming, ending a 45-year relationship with the sport and leaving a broadcasting vacuum in its wake.

Netflix has dabbled in sports content before, with exhibition golf and tennis events and the wildly popular docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” which is credited with boosting the auto racing circuit’s popularity in the U.S.

The fight at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, its first live boxing event, works in favour of Netflix’s strategy of providing proprietary content that viewers cannot find elsewhere.

While the fight will not have traditional advertising, it has sponsors whose messages will be part of the live streamed event.

Advertising is not a major contributor to the streamer’s current revenue, though its ad-supported tier is quickly growing, with 70 million subscribers reported this week, up from 40 million in May.

The mega-event is the sign of a lasting love affair between sport and streaming, said Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, though he predicts streaming and traditional broadcast will exist side-by-side for the foreseeable future.

“This is a one-time-only event… It’s more as a novelty in my view. It doesn’t change the industry,” said Pilson, president of Pilson Communications.

“The industry is still going to be driven by the league deals (like) MLS, NFL, Major League Baseball.”

Amazon Prime picked up Thursday Night Football in 2021 and MLS signed a 10-year mega-deal with Apple TV in 2022 worth a reported $2.5 billion.

Major League Baseball signed a deal with Apple for “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader, in 2022, as well.

Amazon Prime Video India to show ads in movies and TV shows in 2025

Leagues have been gravitating to streaming both because it reaches a global audience, including younger viewers, who are not watching traditional television.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the Apple streaming platform allows MLS to better take advantage of the sport’s global fanbase.

“We were seeing the difficulty of getting an audience and getting the economics right with local and regional television – we saw that in 2018,” Garber said this week at the Paley International Council Summit.

“We wanted to go to the market with a global package… We have a subscription that’s global, every one of our 600 games is treated like ‘Monday Night Football’.”

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

“A magnitude 6.6 earthquake rattled Papua New Guinea on Friday (November 15, 2024),” the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, striking off the country’s eastern coast.

The USGS said the quake was 51 km (31.6 miles) deep and located 123.2 km from the closest town of Kokopo.

The Papua New Guinea National Disaster Centre said it was assessing for damage. A hotel receptionist in Kokopo, Vernon Gash, told AFP the earthquake was “a bit intense” and lasted under a minute.

“We are used to it, it happens all the time,” he said, adding there was no damage to the hotel. There were no tsunami warnings issued following the earthquake.

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Although they seldom cause widespread damage in sparsely populated areas, they can trigger destructive landslides.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

The annual UFO sightings report, released jointly by the Pentagon and director of national intelligence, reveals that whilst no extraterrestrial evidence was found amongst over 700 new reports from the previous year, approximately two dozen cases remain particularly intriguing.
The intelligence community and Pentagon utilise the term UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) instead of UFOs. The all-domain anomaly resolution office (AARO) is responsible for analysing incidents reported by military personnel and federal agencies.
AARO documented 757 new incidents between May 2023 and June 2024, comprising 485 current cases and 272 previously unreported cases from 2021-2022. This marked increase from the previous year’s 281 reports is attributed to enhanced reporting awareness rather than increased occurrence rates, according to Pentagon officials.
The cumulative number of cases examined by AARO since its establishment has reached 1,652.
This year’s report confirms that AARO has found “no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology”. Whilst some reports have terrestrial explanations and many require additional investigation, none indicate any “breakthrough” technology.
During Thursday’s press briefing, AARO’s leadership disclosed that 21 reports from the past eighteen months remain unexplained.
Dr Jon Kosloski, AARO’s new director, said, “There are interesting cases that with my physics and engineering background and time in the I.C. I do not understand, and I don’t know anybody else understands them”. These incidents occurred near national security locations and were documented through video, multiple witnesses, or sensor recordings.
Regarding the appearance of these unexplained UAPs, Kosloski described them as “Orbs, cylinders, triangles, in one of the cases, it has been happening over an extended period of time, and it is possible that there’s multiple things happening”, suggesting some incidents might involve drone activity misidentified as UAPs.

Adblock test (Why?)

South Africa’s government says it won’t help a group of illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country’s North West province who have been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.

The miners in the mineshaft in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.

It is part of the police’s Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation, which includes cutting off miners’ supplies to force them to return to the surface and be arrested.

Police had earlier indicated that information received from those who recently helped bring three miners to the surface indicated that up to 4,000 miners may be underground.

However, on Thursday (November 14, 2024) afternoon, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that they believed the number was exaggerated and maybe be far less than that, estimating a figure of between 350 and 400 miners.

“We feel that the numbers are being exaggerated. We have deployed maximum resources to this case including our intelligence operative who are on the ground who have engaged with all stakeholders.

“We have managed to estimate the numbers to be between 350 and 400,” Mathe said.

South African ministers of police and defense are on Thursday expected to visit the mine to engage with officials and community members on the ground, Mathe said.

Stilfontein is one of the mines that were targeted by police as they intensified their operation in the North West province from Oct. 18.

It’s unclear how long the current group of miners have been underground as the groups are reported to often stay underground for months, depending on supplies of basic necessities like food and water from the outside.

“We have taken a decision that no police officer, no soldier or government official will go down to an abandoned mine. There is a high risk of loss of life,” she said.

Mathe said they had information that the miners may be heavily armed, adding that since embarking on operations against illegal miners since last December, police had seized more than 369 high caliber firearms, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, 5 million rand ($275,000) in cash and 32 million rand ($1.75 million) worth of uncut diamonds.

In the past few weeks, more than 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in North West province, with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.

Police continue on Thursday to guard areas around the mine to catch all those appearing from underground.

Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government wouldn’t send any help to the illegal miners, because they are involved in a criminal act.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped. We didn’t send them there,” Mr. Ntshavheni said.

Illegal mining remains common in South Africa’s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.

The illegal miners are often from neighboring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.

Their presence in closed mines have also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.

Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed, and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

KYIV: The toll from a massive Russian attack that set apartments alight and knocked out heating to thousands in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa rose to one dead and 10 wounded, authorities said Friday.
The Thursday night strikes on the Black Sea city damaged residential buildings, the heating system, churches and educational institutions, according to Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, who said it had been “a massive combined enemy strike”.
Trukhanov said early Friday that a 35-year-old woman sleeping near a window at the time of the attack had died.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said another 10 people were wounded, including two children.
Fires broke out in several places but were quickly extinguished, while the main heating pipeline was damaged, leaving tens of thousands in the cold as nightly temperatures plunge to freezing.
“More than 40,000 people (as well as) medical and social institutions are without heating,” Trukhanov wrote on Telegram. “Generators and heaters are working in medical institutions.”
The mayor’s office said hot drinks and blankets were being distributed while the pipeline was restored.
After fleeing during the air raid siren, Odesa resident Oleksandra said she saw pictures of her damaged home.
“When everything happened, we were hiding in a shelter. We saw that this was our house in the photos from the local channels,” she told public broadcaster Suspilne Odesa.
Ukraine is bracing for its toughest winter of war yet, with Moscow having destroyed swathes of its generating capacity and continuing to strike energy sites.
In previous winters, millions of Ukrainians endured regular blackouts and lost heating in sub-zero conditions.
The attack on Odesa, which has frequently been targeted since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022, is the latest in an uptick in strikes on Ukrainian cities, mainly in the south of the war-battered country.
Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the east and concerns are mounting in Kyiv over the future of foreign military aid after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States presidential election.
Kyiv has for months been appealing to its Western allies to provide more air-defence systems to fend off Russian attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.

Adblock test (Why?)

Iran announced plans to establish a ‘treatment facility’ for women who do not comply with the country’s compulsory hijab regulations, drawing immediate condemnation from human rights groups and Iranian women.
The head of the Women and Family Department Mehri Talebi Darestani of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, stated the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal.” The announcement has sparked fear and anger, with many viewing it as an escalation of the government’s crackdown on women’s rights.
“It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison. We are struggling to make ends meet and have power outages, but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about. If there was a time for all of us to come back to the streets, it’s now or they’ll lock us all up,” said one Iranian woman, as quoted by the Guardian.
The announcement followed reports of a university student, arrested for removing her clothing on campus after allegedly facing harassment by security guards for hijab violations, being transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have raised concerns about the use of forced medication and torture against protesters and dissidents deemed mentally unstable by Iranian authorities. “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology,” said Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist and target of an assassination attempt last year.
Human rights lawyer Hossein Raisi criticiced the clinic idea as “neither Islamic [nor] aligned with Iranian law.” He also expressed alarm that the announcement originated from a department under the direct authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
This incident follows reports of increased arrests, disappearances, and business closures linked to alleged hijab law violations. Rights organisations, including Amnesty International, reported evidence of mistreatment and forced medication of protesters in state psychiatric facilities. They also noted increased enforcement of dress codes, including arrests, disappearances, and business closures related to hijab violations.
Recently, the Center for Human Rights in Iran reported the arrest of Roshanak Molaei Alishah, aged 25, following a confrontation with a man who had harassed her about her hijab. Her location remains unknown.
The hijab in Iran has been a deeply symbolic and contentious issue, tied to both religious identity and political control. Strict hijab enforcement has persisted under successive leaderships, including the deceased President Ebrahim Raisi. His successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, vowed to stop the morality police’s harassment of women over hijab violations, although Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei still holds the ultimate authority and maintains that unveiling is strictly forbidden. Despite a slight relaxation of enforcement, the Iranian government actively monitors hijab compliance, using surveillance technologies and targeting businesses and events where women appear without hijabs.
These mandates and restrictions have fueled public frustration over the years, but tensions reached a tipping point with the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Her death, after being detained for allegedly violating hijab laws, ignited months of widespread protests with severe consequences for thousands who opposed the strict policies under Khamenei’s regime.

Adblock test (Why?)

NEW DELHI: New Zealand’s youngest MP, 22-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, once again grabbed international headlines as she staged a powerful haka, a traditional Māori challenge, while tearing up a copy of the controversial Treaty Principles Bill during a parliamentary session.
The Te Pati Maori MP’s video went viral that showed her ripping apart a document, following it up with a stirring haka that quickly drew support from the public gallery. The haka quickly spread through the opposition benches and the public gallery, leading to the chamber being cleared and Maipi-Clarke being suspended.
Despite the uproar, the bill passed its first reading and will now move to a public submission process before another vote. Thousands of protesters are expected to march on Parliament next week in opposition to the bill, highlighting the deep divisions it has exposed in New Zealand society.
The bill, focused on the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840, seeks to define the treaty’s principles as applying equally to all New Zealanders. This move has drawn sharp criticism, with opponents arguing it undermines Māori rights and incites racial division.
The bill’s author, David Seymour, leader of the ACT party, argues that his proposal aims to bring clarity to the treaty’s principles. “What all of these principles have in common is that they afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders,” Seymour stated.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, while disagreeing with the bill, allowed his party to vote in favor of it as part of a political deal with Seymour’s party. This decision sparked fury from opposition members. “Shame! Shame! Shame on you, David Seymour,” shouted Willie Jackson, a Māori lawmaker, before being ejected from the chamber. “Shame on you for what you’re trying to do to this nation.”

Adblock test (Why?)

North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and leader Kim Jong Un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media said on Friday (November 15, 2024).

The country’s latest military demonstration came as the United States, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a U.S. aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display of their defense posture against North Korea.

Also Read | North Korea launches a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to threaten U.S.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency published photos of Mr. Kim talking with officials near at least two different types of unmanned aerial vehicles. They included those with X-shaped tails and wings that look similar to the ones the country disclosed in August, when Mr. Kim inspected another demonstration of drones that explode on impact.

The drones flew various routes and accurately struck targets, KCNA said. Its images showed what appeared to be a BMW sedan being destroyed and old models of tanks being blown up.

Mr. Kim expressed satisfaction with the weapons’ development process and stressed the need to “build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production,” noting how drones are becoming crucial in modern warfare.

KCNA paraphrased Mr. Kim as saying drones were easy to make at low cost for a range of military activities. The report didn’t say if Mr. Kim spoke directly about rival South Korea, which the North Korean drones are apparently designed to target.

North Korea last month accused South Korea of sending its own drones to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the North’s capital of Pyongyang, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea’s military has refused to confirm whether or not the North’s claims were true.

Tensions in the region have escalated as Mr. Kim flaunts his advancing nuclear and missile program, which includes various nuclear-capable weapons targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the U.S. mainland.

Mr. Kim is also allegedly sending military equipment and troops to Russia to support President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, which raised concerns in Seoul that he would get Russian technology in return to further develop his arsenal.

In addition to his intensifying nuclear threats, MR. Kim has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash in the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.

Also Read | North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea

South Korean officials say North Korea will be a key topic in a trilateral summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba this week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Peru.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on the margins of the APEC on Thursday and discussed “strong concerns” over deepening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, particularly the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, the U.S. State Department said.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

NEW DELHI: India’s star batter KL Rahul was forced to retire hurt after being struck by a rising delivery during the Indian team’s intra-squad match simulation at the WACA ahead of the opening Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).
Rahul was seen leaving the ground in discomfort, escorted by a physio. Photos of him exiting the field quickly went viral, as injury added to the growing concerns about his form.
The first Test of the BGT begins on November 22 at he Optus Stadium in Perth.Rahul’s performance has been under scrutiny, especially after his recent struggles in the home series against New Zealand, where India faced a 0-3 series defeat.
In his only Test appearance in that series, held in Bengaluru, Rahul was dismissed for scores of 0 and 12, leading to his exclusion from the next two Tests.
Rahul, along with Abhimanya Easwaran, is a candidate to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first BGT Test, with skipper Rohit Sharma likely to be unavailable as his wife is expecting their second child.
Rahul’s rough patch continued in a recent India A game against Australia A, where he scored only 4 and 10. With mounting pressure, Rahul is eager to regain his form as India looks to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the challenging Australian conditions.
India are aiming for their third consecutive Test series victory in Australia.

Adblock test (Why?)

NEW DELHI: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has imposed GRAP Stage 3 in Delhi NCR from 8am today, following a surge in the Air Quality Index (AQI) to ‘severe.’
This action, aimed at curbing pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), halts all non-essential construction, demolition, and activities in polluting industries, while restricting BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel vehicles.
Check Delhi AQI here
Delhi’s air quality remained in the ‘severe’ category for the third consecutive day on Friday, with a thick layer of smog enveloping the region and trapping toxic gases.
This year, a combination of seasonal pollution factors, stubble burning, and traffic emissions have compounded the crisis, pushing authorities to intensify measures.

Delhi recorded its highest AQI of the season on January 14, with a reading of 447. The day also saw the city’s first very dense fog, reducing visibility to zero at Palam between 8 am and 9.30 am. At Safdarjung, the capital’s base station, visibility dropped to 200 meters at 7am.
With low visibility persisting throughout the day and little sunlight, the maximum temperature plummeted to a season’s low of 27.8°C, five degrees lower than the previous day. The minimum temperature was recorded at 17°C, three degrees above normal.
While GRAP-2 measures were initially imposed to limit particulate matter, the worsening conditions have led to an upgrade to GRAP-3, which entails stricter restrictions to prevent the city’s air from slipping further into hazardous levels.

When GRAP-1, 2, 3, and 4 are triggered?

Key Restrictions Under GRAP-3 in Delhi NCR
The implementation of Stage 3 under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) introduces targeted restrictions to curb air pollution, particularly from construction and vehicle emissions.
GRAP 3 curbs to be imposed from November 15 as residents choke

Construction and demolition restrictions

To limit pollution from construction activities, GRAP-3 imposes the following restrictions:

Exemptions for critical projects

Essential infrastructure and public service projects may continue if strict dust control and waste management practices are observed. These include:

Enhanced vehicle emission norms

GRAP-3 tightens emission norms for vehicles to reduce vehicular pollution:

Measures for public health and school safety

With the worsening air quality, the Delhi government has shifted physical classes for students up to Class V online to limit their exposure to hazardous air conditions.

Guidelines for residents

Residents are encouraged to adopt pollution-reducing practices, including:

Enhanced Delhi metro services

In response to GRAP-3, Delhi Metro has introduced 20 additional weekday trips, totaling 60 extra trips to support commuting needs while reducing pollution from private vehicles.

Adblock test (Why?)

MUMBAI: Two days after Ajit Pawar said industrialist Gautam Adani was part of political talks that took place between BJP and the undivided Sharad Pawar-led NCP in 2019, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said that the meeting, where he was present, was held at Adani’s residence in New Delhi. He, however, added that Adani hosted the dinner but “was not participating in the political discussions.”
Pawar Senior made these remarks in an interview with The News Minute-Newslaundry. He said that apart from him, those present were Adani, Amit Shah, and Ajit Pawar. The power-sharing talks took place before Ajit Pawar’s early morning swearing-in as deputy chief minister, with Devendra Fadnavis as CM, to form a govt that lasted barely 80 hours.

Pawar Senior was quoted by the news portal as saying that his NCP colleagues, many of whom faced cases from Central agencies, told him they had been assured that if they joined hands with BJP, the cases would go away. Pawar, according to the report, said he pushed back as he was not convinced that BJP would keep its promise, but his colleagues said “why not hear it from the horse’s mouth” and that was how he found himself at a dinner at Adani’s residence, with Amit Shah present.
Referring to the meeting, Ajit Pawar had said, “It has been five years, everyone knows where the meeting happened, it was in Delhi at a businessman’s house, everyone knows it. Yes, there were five meetings… Amit Shah was there, Gautam Adani was there, Praful Patel was there, Devendra Fadnavis was there, Ajit Pawar was there, Pawar Saheb was there… All were there… Everything was decided.” He had further said, “Blame for it has fallen on me, and I have taken it. I took blame and made others safe.”
When he was asked why Pawar Senior had later hesitated and not gone with BJP, Ajit had said he didn’t know. “Pawar Saheb is a leader whose mind no one in the world can read. Not even our aunty (Sharad Pawar’s wife Pratibha) or our Supriya (Sule),” he had said.
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar on Thursday visited Chinchwad assembly constituency in Pune district to campaign for his party’s candidate, Rahul Kalate, who is contesting against BJP’s Shankar Jagtap in the Maharashtra elections on Nov 20. Pawar criticised the current govt, stating that Maharashtra has “fallen into the wrong hands” in recent years, resulting in a decline and stagnation in development.

Adblock test (Why?)

Mumbai:

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has termed the upcoming assembly elections in the state as a battle for development and criticised the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government for allegedly stalling projects and veering away from the ideological roots laid by Shiv Sena’s founder, Bal Thackeray.

“This election is focused on local issues and development. We are fighting this election on the platform of development, and today, the people are so confident that they say, ‘This is our government; this is our Chief Minister’. There is a strong connection, and the people are determined to bring the Mahayuti government back to power in this state,” Mr Shinde told NDTV. 

The Chief Minister alleged that the ruling Mahayuti alliance – the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sena and NCP factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy, Ajit Pawar – has restored momentum to projects that the previous Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) government – an alliance which includes the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Sharad Pawar – stalled. 

“Over the past two and a half years, while the Mahavikas Aghadi government held power, they put a hold on numerous projects, slowed things down, and set up roadblocks. I won’t list all the projects now, but there were many significant ones across Mumbai, including the Atal Setu, Coastal Road, and the Metro. Projects that extended beyond Mumbai, like the Nagpur-Mumbai expressway, initiatives for Maharashtra’s farmers, the Marathwada Water Grid, and river-linking projects – all of these were hindered. When our government took office, we removed those roadblocks, work resumed, and development is now visible everywhere,” Chief Minister Shinde claimed. 

‘Betrayed Bal Thackeray’

Elections for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly are set to take place on November 20, while the counting will take place three days later. The 2019 polls saw the BJP with 105 seats, Shiv Sena with 56, and Congress securing 44. The MVA alliance gained momentum in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning 30 out of 48 seats, while the Mahayuti coalition claimed 17 seats.

Mr Shinde projects himself as a “common man’s Chief Minister,” insisting that he remains grounded and accessible, contrasting his style with that of the previous Maharashtra government. “Earlier, Varsha (Maharashtra Chief Minister’s official residence) was restricted; everyone was not allowed to come in. Today, everyone is coming here,” he said. 

The Maharashtra Chief Minister accused Uddhav Thackeray of betraying Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology. 

“As a worker, my mission is to advance this state. Uddhav ji abandoned the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray, he left those principles behind, betrayed the BJP, and betrayed the public trust. The mandate the people gave to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance was broken by Uddhav ji,” Mr Shinde alleged. 

The Maratha Reservation Issue

Mr Shinde also addressed the Maratha reservation issue, a topic that has sparked protests and hurt the Mahayuti alliance in the Lok Sabha elections this year. The Maharashtra assembly in February this year unanimously passed a bill providing 10 per cent reservation for the Maratha community in education and government jobs. However, protesters are demanding the Maratha quota under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

“We gave to the Maratha community what should have been granted long ago. Previous governments used the Maratha community without delivering real benefits. When I became Chief Minister, and even during Devendra ji’s term, we introduced a 10 per cent quota and upheld it in the High Court. But then the MVA government took over and failed to protect it. When we returned, we reinstated that 10 per cent,” Mr Shinde told NDTV. 

“On two other fronts, our government has worked to issue certificates and established the Justice Shinde Committee and the Backward Commission, which we reconstituted. We have gathered data proving social and educational backwardness per Supreme Court standards,” he added. 

Abuse Of Power Allegations 

Defending his government against accusations of misusing agencies, Mr Shinde was quick to point fingers at the previous MVA administration, which he claimed had targeted political opponents. 

“People were arrested for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, including women and journalists. Have we jailed anyone unfairly? After the Lok Sabha elections, we corrected course where needed. Over the past four months, the opposition has spread false narratives, claiming constitutional changes or that reservations will disappear. They’ve tried to intimidate Muslims, Christians, tribals, Dalits, and other minorities,” Mr Shinde claimed. 

His administration, he maintained, is working to uplift these communities by “bringing the Dalit and backward class to the mainstream.”

Adblock test (Why?)

Ahead of Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh’s ‘Dil-Luminati’ concert in Hyderabad on Friday, the Telangana government has served him a legal notice, directing him not to sing any songs promoting alcohol, drugs, and violence.

The notice was issued after a complaint was filed by a Chandigarh-based professor, Panditrao Dharenavar, against Dosanjh to prevent him from singing such songs at the live show.

According to the notice, issued on November 7 by the district welfare officer of the Department of Welfare of Women and Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens, Rangareddy district, video evidence was submitted by the complainant showing Dosanjh singing songs promoting alcohol, drugs, and violence during the live show at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 26 and 27.

“We are issuing this notice in advance to deter promoting these in your live show,” the notice said.

In the notice, Dosanjh has also been directed not to bring children on stage during his concert.

“According to the World Health Organisation, adults should not be exposed to sounds with a peak sound pressure level above 140 decibels. For children, the level is reduced to 120 decibels. Therefore, children should not be used on stage during your live show where peak sound pressure is above 120 decibels,” it said.

“Your concert guidelines say that children are allowed below 13 years of age. Concert guidelines also say that concerts may include loud sounds and flashing lights – both of which are harmful to children,” the notice added.

Punjabi singers have often been accused of promoting gun culture and glorifying gun violence through their songs. In 2020, late Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was booked on charges of promoting gun violence and gun culture in his song ‘Sanju’. In the song, he had made references to the case registered against him under the Arms Act. 

Later in 2022, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had also warned singers against promoting violence and drugs.

Diljit Dosanjh is set to hold the ‘Dil-Luminati’ concert on Friday at 7 pm in GMR Arena, Airport Approach Road in Hyderabad.

“The crowd is expected to be over 20,000 people. Police have been deployed for traffic, crowd control, and crime. There are no specific curbs from our side,” Cyberabad police commissioner Avinash Mohanty said.

The singer landed in the city on Wednesday and shared a glimpse of his city tour on social media. In a video on X, Diljit can be seen taking an auto-rickshaw ride and visiting the famous Charminar.

Adblock test (Why?)

New Delhi:

Delhi continues to be wrapped in a blanket of smog, with the air quality in the “severe” category for the third consecutive day. With AQI 498, Delhi is the world’s second most polluted city, after Pakistan’s Lahore with AQI 770 recorded at 7 am. IQAir, a Swiss company, ranks major cities based on Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) data.

The top five polluted areas in Delhi this morning are Jahangirpuri (with AQI 458), Bawana (455), Wazirpur (455), Rohini (452), and Punjabi Bagh (443), according to Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer App.

Delhi’s Palam and Safdurjung reported 500m and 400m visibilities respectively.

Low visibility due to smog has affected flight and rail operations across India. Several IndiGo flights to and from Amritsar are affected. Many SpiceJet flights to and from Delhi and Darbanga are running late.

Various trains are running late by over two hours. More than 25 trains arriving at New Delhi railway station are also delayed.  

With no respite in sight, all primary schools in Delhi have been moved online, Chief Minister Atishi announced in a post on X. She said the online classes for primary school children will continue “until further directions”.

Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions.

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) November 14, 2024

On Thursday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) enforced stage 3 of the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP). Under GRAP 3, the following restrictions and measures have been imposed:

• A ban on non-essential construction and demolition work.
• A ban on the operation of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers in Delhi and parts of the NCR like Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Noida.
• Restricted use of diesel generator sets for emergency purposes only. Industrial operations not running on fuels in the standard list of approved ones are banned.
• Intensified mechanized road sweeping and water sprinkling to suppress dust.
• Increasing public transport services and promoting off-peak travel through differential rates.
• Major welding and gas-cutting operations. Minor welding activities for MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) works are to be, however, permitted.
• Painting, polishing and varnishing works etc. Cement, Plaster / other coatings, except for minor indoor repairs/ maintenance. Cutting/grinding and fixing of tiles, stones and other flooring materials, except for minor indoor repairs/ maintenance. Waterproofing work (Excluding Chemical waterproofing).
• Movement of vehicles carrying construction materials on unpaved roads. Long-term exposure to “severe” AQI can affect even healthy people and seriously impact those with existing diseases. Doctors have cautioned people to stay indoors as much as possible as air pollution affects physical and mental well-being and can cause health problems ranging from respiratory issues to cardiovascular.

READ | GRAP 3 In Delhi Explained: What Is Banned, What Is Allowed

“We have been witnessing several gastrointestinal and metabolic conditions due to air pollution,” Dr. Sukrit Singh Sethi, Consultant – Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Liver Transplantation, Narayana Hospital, Gurugram told news agency IANS.

“The harmful particles and gases in polluted air, when inhaled, can lead to systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, which disturb gut health and impact the microbiome — the collection of trillions of bacteria in our intestines that play a critical role in digestion, immunity, and overall health,” Dr Sethi said.

The health experts recommend limiting outdoor activities during peak pollution times, typically in the early morning and evening; and using masks, especially in highly polluted environments.

READ | Construction Halted, Buses Restricted: Stricter Anti-Pollution Measures In Delhi

Adblock test (Why?)

UK must rebuild post-Brexit relations with EU, says Bank boss

The UK must “rebuild relations” with the EU “while respecting the decision of the British people” who voted to leave in 2016, the Bank of England’s governor has said.

Andrew Bailey’s Mansion House speech to investors marked some of his strongest comments yet on Brexit, saying one of its consequences has been weaker trade.

He has previously avoided commenting on the topic because of the Bank’s independence from Westminster politics.

“As a public official, I take no position on Brexit per se,” he said. “But I do have to point out consequences.”

Mr Bailey said the changed relationship with the EU has “weighed” on the economy.

“The impact on trade seems to be more in goods than services… But it underlines why we must be alert to and welcome opportunities to rebuild relations while respecting that very important decision of the British people.”

Mr Bailey also said that the UK should not focus “just on the effects of Brexit”, warning about “geopolitical shocks and the broader fragmentation of the global economy”.

His Brexit comments go much further than he previously has on the topic. Last November, he said the decision had “led to a reduction in the openness of the UK economy”.

Assessing the impact of the UK’s decision to leave the EU on the economy has been tricky given the multiple economic shocks in recent years.

The Office for Budget Responsibility and other independent analysts estimate the economy will take a 4% hit over 15 years as a result.

Goods trade, especially in food and farm exports, has been especially hit by the imposition of new trade barriers. Trade in services, such as banking, has done better than expected, however.

The government remains opposed to rejoining the EU, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer and some EU politicians have said there could be a better relationship.

Spain’s Finance Minister Carlos Cuerpo told the BBC: “We need to be positive here and optimistic that a better deal can be actually closed on that front.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “We are committed to resetting our relationship with our European partners… and improving our trade and investment relationship.”

Vicky Pyce, chief economic advisor to the Centre for Economics & Business Research, said Mr Bailey may have made his comments due to the election of Donald Trump as US president.

Trump made a repeated campaign promise to levy a 20% tax on all imports of goods into the US, and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports.

Ms Pryce said if that were to happen “it is actually quite questionable whether the UK could have a special relationship with the US when it still trades quite substantially with Europe”.

Mr Bailey’s Mansion House address came alongside a speech by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who talked about her plans to shake up the UK pension system in a bid for growth.

She wants council pension pots to be merged so they can make bigger investments to generate higher returns, a move criticised as risky by some.

“The UK has been regulating for risk, but not regulating for growth,” she said.

The annual event comes as the government also faces criticism from businesses for holding back growth through tax raises, which Reeves has said are necessary to “properly fund” public services.

Reeves said that regulations brought in after the 2008 global financial crisis “resulted in a system which sought to eliminate risk-taking”, adding that has now “gone too far”.

She said financial services in the UK “were the crown jewel in our economy” but that “we cannot take the UK’s status as a global financial centre for granted”.

The government will publish a financial services strategy in the spring, she said.

It will focus on fintech, sustainable finance, asset management, insurance, and capital markets, she said, “laying the foundations for more private investment”.

She said sustainable investments represented “a huge opportunity”.

‘Bottom line’

Mr Bailey’s speech went on to address the wider UK economy and its lack of growth.

He described how productivity has fallen since the 2008 economic crash and has not recovered since.

He said that the UK is not alone in having this problem, which he said also affects other parts of Europe, but noted that the US has “a better story to tell”.

Mr Bailey also echoed Reeves’ concern that the UK pension system is “fragmented” and requires “heavy lifting” to fix it.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the Conservatives would “study the detail of these reforms, many of which follow on from those we were pursuing in government”.

But he added that reforms “aimed at increasing growth will be significantly undermined by Labour’s budget, which sent precisely the wrong signal to investors and wealth creators”.

Adblock test (Why?)

UN climate talks ‘no longer fit for purpose’ say key experts

The United Nations’ COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said.

In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.

This week the Azerbaijani president told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from God” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market.

That came days after the BBC reported that a senior Azerbaijani official appeared to have used his role at COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

The UN’s climate talks have made significant progress in recent years, despite the fact that unanimous agreement is needed among almost 200 countries to take action.

The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, outlines a long-term plan to rein in rising temperatures, as countries strive to keep that rise under 1.5C this century.

They have also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and to treble renewable power by 2030.

But while the authors of this letter recognise these achievements, they feel that the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with a fast-moving climate crisis.

“Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity,” said its signatories. They include former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.

This year will likely be the warmest on record, with emissions of planet warming gases still rising, while the impacts of warming often outpace the ability of countries to cope.

“Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockström, another signatory.

“There is still a window of opportunity for a safe landing for humanity, but this requires a global climate policy process that can deliver change at exponential speed and scale,” Prof Rockström said.

The letter has been prompted by growing concerns about some of the countries chosen to host COP talks and their ability to deliver a significant advance in the fight against rising temperatures.

Just before the latest conference started, a secret recording showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

At the start of COP29, the country’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production by a third in the next decade.

“It’s a gift of God,” he told an audience in Baku.

“Every natural resource whether it’s oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources,” he said.

“And countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them, the people need them.”

The use of oil and gas are major causes of global warming, as they release planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide when they are burned.

President Aliyev also hit out at France for carrying out colonialist “crimes” and “human rights violations” in overseas territories.

Such strongly expressed views are extremely rare from the leader of a COP host, where the aim is to build consensus on how to tackle rising temperatures.

The authors of the letter are also concerned by the selection process for hosting COPs. Azerbaijan followed on from another major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, which held the conference in Dubai last year.

“At the last COP, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations,” said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.

“We cannot hope to achieve a just transition without significant reforms to the COP process that ensure fair representation of those most affected.”

The authors say that host countries “must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement.”

They also want smaller, more frequent COPs with clear accountability for the promises that countries make.

Adblock test (Why?)

The European Union’s drugs regulator on Thursday (November 14, 2024) recommended approval of Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi for some patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, reversing its initial decision from four months ago. The backing could make it the EU’s first treatment for the brain-wasting condition if this recommendation is accepted by the European Commission.

The regulator’s human medicines committee (CHMP) recommended approval for a narrower set of patients than those evaluated in the drug’s trial.

Eisai and Biogen had tested the drug in patients with one or no copy of the ApoE4 gene variant, which is linked with an earlier onset of the disease. The trial also included patients who had two copies of the gene variant.

In July, the regulator rejected the drug saying that the risk of serious brain swelling did not outweigh its small impact on slowing cognitive decline.

The agency said benefits of Leqembi in slowing down progression of disease symptoms are greater than its risks in patients with one or no copy of the gene variant, which was assessed during the re-examination.

Explained | Will new drug slow progress of Alzheimer’s?

Patients with only one or no copy of ApoE4 are less likely to experience serious side effects of brain swelling and potential bleeding seen in trials, the EU regulator said.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

Russian authorities ordered the closure from Thursday (November 14, 2024) of Moscow’s award-winning Gulag History Museum, dedicated to the victims of Soviet-era repression.

The closure was officially put down to alleged violations of fire safety regulations but comes amid an intense campaign being waged by the Kremlin against independent civil society and those who question the state’s interpretation of history.

“The decision to temporarily suspend the activities of the State Gulag Museum was taken for safety reasons,” the Moscow city culture department told AFP on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

The museum removed content from its website, replacing it with an announcement of the “temporary” closure.

They declined to comment further when contacted by AFP on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

Established in 2001, the Central Moscow Museum brings together official state documents with family photographs and objects from gulag victims.

Moscow authorities said 46,000 people visited in the first nine months of the year.

The gulag was a vast network of prison labour camps set up in the Soviet Union.

Millions of alleged traitors and enemies of the state were sent there, many to their deaths, in what historians recognise as a period of massive political repression.

The Council of Europe awarded the site its Museum Prize in 2021, saying it worked to “expose history and activate memory, with the goal of strengthening the resilience of civil society and its resistance to political repression and violation of human rights today and in the future.”

‘Great loss’

Outside the museum on Thursday (November 14, 2024), worker Mikhail, who declined to give his last name, lamented its possible closure.

“It’s a strong museum, very impressive. It’s disappointing that this happened. It’s a loss, a great loss if, God forbid, it’s permanent,” he told AFP.

“We need people to see it, to understand, to know that it must not be repeated.”

But Moscovite Yulia, a musician in her 50s who also declined to give her last name, welcomed the closure.

“I’m against such establishments, I’m not sad,” she told AFP while walking her dog in a nearby park.

“I’m a Stalinist… people die in every era, right now as well. We can’t make monuments for every era.”

Through his 24 years in power, President Vladimir Putin has sought to revise Russia’s historical narrative and its relationship with the Soviet Union.

While occasionally condemning the vast repression under Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, Putin more often hails him as a great wartime leader.

School textbooks pay little attention to the millions of victims of the Great Terror, seen as inconvenient in the promotion of the Soviet Union as a great power that defeated Nazi Germany.

Authorities have increasingly targeted individuals and groups who push back against this approach — a campaign that has stepped up amid the Ukraine offensive.

In 2021, authorities ordered the liquidation of Memorial, the Nobel Prize-winning NGO that records victims of both Soviet repression and allegations of human rights violations by the current regime.

Last month the Gulag History Museum staged a “Return of the Names” event — when individuals read out the names of people killed during Soviet terror.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

More than 1,000 glaciers have disappeared in Tajikistan over the last three decades, the Central Asian nation’s Energy Minister said on the sidelines of the COP29 climate conference in Baku.

The thousands of glaciers across mountainous Central Asia are crucial to the region’s food and water security, typically draining fresh water into rivers to replenish them during arid periods.

“Over the past 30 years, out of 14,000 glaciers in Tajikistan, more than 1,000 glaciers of vital importance to the entire region have disappeared,” Daler Juma, Tajikistan’s Energy and Water Resources Minister said, according to a statement published by the Ministry on Wednesday (November 13, 2024).

“The rapid melting of glaciers due to climate change is a serious threat in the global context of protecting water resources,” he added, speaking at an event organised by Kyrgyzstan, another Central Asian nation also facing the issue of melting glaciers due to rising temperatures.

UN scientists say glaciers could completely disappear from Central Asia by the end of the century.

That would lead to severe water shortages in a region of some 80 million people.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

Donald Trump has returned to power in the United States following a decisive win in both the popular vote and electoral college vote in the presidential elections. This emphatic win made it easy for journalists to cover the results. It was clear fairly early during the counting process that Mr. Trump was going to win the election and also sweep the ‘swing States’.

This is in marked contrast to the 2020 election, which was full of controversies, both manufactured and real. A staggering number of Americans cast their ballots before voting day in that election, held during the COVID-19 pandemic; this stretched the counting process by days. Mr. Trump lost, but refused to concede the election to Joe Biden. The results were much closer than what the opinion polls had anticipated. The slow counting process strained the coverage.

In the U.S., on counting day, data is provided by the news agency, Associated Press (AP), and a few others. This means that the result is “called” by media outlets, which estimate the chances of a candidate winning a State based on trends that are available from this data. While the U.S. Federal Election Commission monitors implementation of campaign finance laws and the conduct of federal elections, it does not provide live electoral data. This is either collated by agencies such as AP, and released to subscribers via an Application Programming Interface, or is provided by each respective State, mostly by their Secretaries of State.

This is unlike the process in India, where the Election Commission of India (ECI) provides live counting data for each constituency, whether Assembly or parliamentary. Media outlets, especially television journalists, also use agencies or their own reporters to provide information on trends from counting centres. However, these are not always accurate. The slower and steadier trends that trickle in from the ECI website, which are authenticated by polling agents at counting centres, give media outlets and the general public a clear picture on electoral trends. The structured manner in which the ECI presents its results also helps media outlets and data enthusiasts, such as those in The Hindu, to parse that information and present it separately with more granular information. This includes, for instance, data on rural and urban voting trends across States.

While U.S. news agencies and media outlets are efficient in presenting results, the situation in India is different: the information is not available to only a select few outlets, and is collated and displayed in a structured manner by the ECI for anyone to use. The ECI also presents ‘deep-dive data’ — for instance, information from polling booths on how voters choose their candidates. It also provides Assembly segment-wise data for parliamentary constituencies. While this information is uploaded onto the website after a lag — it can take a few weeks after results are announced — the fact that it is made available is useful for social scientists and journalists to analyse the results even further, long after the excitement over elections dies down.

For a data journalist, the Indian model of providing electoral results via a public authority works much better than the American one. In recent years, the ECI has received a lot of flak for various issues, such as the robustness of the Electronic Voting Machines (an overblown controversy), the patchy implementation of the Model Code of Conduct (a legitimate criticism), the dilation of the voting process in some States (unavoidable in a few cases), and the relative laxity in regulating campaign expenditure (which is becoming a problem). But what must be appreciated by publicly minded people in India is that the ECI releases structured voting data in a transparent, timely, and efficient manner.

srinivasan.vr@thehindu.co.in

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Mr. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Mr. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Mr. Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Mr. Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.

He and Mr. Trump have since become good friends, with Mr. Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Mr. Trump’s rallies.

The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday (November 14, 2024).

A longtime vaccine sceptic, Mr. Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.

With the Mr. Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Mr. Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”

Trump taps former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as US intel chief; Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

It remains unclear how that will square with Mr. Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Mr. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.

Mr. Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising questions about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Mr. Kennedy has espoused misinformation about the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.

He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.

HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.

Trump 2.0: No need to worry yet, says Commerce Ministry

Mr. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

The ruling National People’s Power party led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is poised for a sweeping victory in the Sri Lankan parliamentary election held on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

As of 11 p.m. local time, with partial results declared, the NPP has secured a substantial 70% of the vote. The main opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and the National Democratic Front (NDF), backed by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, have been reduced to just 11% and 5% of the vote, respectively.

In the only polling division result announced so far, the NPP won decisively in the southern province capital of Galle with over 70% of the vote.

Analysts note that the NPP has increased its vote share compared to the September presidential election. If this trend continues, the party will surpass the 150-seat mark, achieving an absolute majority in the 225-member parliament.

Thursday’s (November 14, 2024) election was the first major test for NPP. The snap parliamentary polls were the first after the 2022 economic crisis.

Read Comments

Adblock test (Why?)

Al Fayed’s brother Salah also abused us, women say

One of Mohamed Al Fayed’s brothers also abused women who worked at the Harrods department store, according to three ex-employees who have made allegations including sexual assault and trafficking to the BBC.

The women allege that Salah Fayed abused them in London, the south of France and Monaco between 1989 and 1997. One woman believes she was raped by Salah after she was drugged.

All three women say they were also sexually assaulted or raped by Mohamed Al Fayed, then chairman of the company.

Harrods, which came under new ownership in 2010, said in a statement that the new claims point to the “breadth of abuse” by Al Fayed and “raise serious allegations” against his brother.

Salah Fayed, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010, was one of three Fayed brothers who purchased the luxury Knightsbridge department store in 1985. Mohamed added the Arabic “Al” prefix to his surname some time in the 1970s.

One of the three women, Helen, has waived her right to anonymity. She was 23 and had been working at her “dream” job in Harrods for almost two years when Mohamed Al Fayed raped her in a Dubai hotel room.

Months later, when Mohamed offered her some personal assistant work with his younger brother, she saw it as an escape route – but instead she says she was drugged by Salah and believes she was then raped by him while unconscious.

“He [Mohamed Al Fayed] shared me with his brother,” she says.

Helen is speaking for the first time, after feeling silenced for 35 years, in part because of a Harrods non-disclosure agreement that she was told to sign.

“They’ve stolen a part of me,” she says. “It’s changed the course of my entire life.”

The BBC has also spoken independently to two other women who say they were abused by both Mohamed and Salah.

They say they were trafficked abroad and tricked by Salah into smoking crack cocaine.

“He was trying to get me hooked on crack so he could do whatever he wanted to me,” one of the women told the BBC.

Warning: this story contains details of sexual violence

Like many of the women who have told the BBC they were abused by Mohamed Al Fayed, Helen says she was spotted by him on one of his routine walks of the Harrods shop floor.

On a business trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in February 1989, she was unnerved to find she had been booked to travel alone with Al Fayed and to stay in his hotel suite, while the rest of his entourage were staying in a separate accommodation.

On the first evening, Helen was in her bathroom getting ready for bed when Mohamed Al Fayed appeared in the mirror behind her without warning.

“It was like out of a horror film,” Helen says. “I was in my nightie and he grabbed my hand, started pulling me out the bathroom. I was really trying to stop him, but I couldn’t.”

She says he took her into his room, pushed her onto the bed and climbed on top of her.

“He raped me that night,” she says.

Helen says she was terrified to find herself so far from home and unable to talk to anyone about what had happened.

She was told to sign a Harrods non-disclosure agreement two months after the trip – the BBC has seen this document. Helen says this, and the fear of reprisal, stopped her from speaking out for more than three decades.

Over the next few months, Helen began making plans to leave Harrods. “I didn’t want to see his face again,” she says.

So when Al Fayed asked her to do some filing work for his brother, Salah, at his Park Lane home, she saw it as a way out.

“I’d met Salah and he seemed really friendly, he didn’t seem in the slightest bit like his brother.”

After working for two days with Salah, Helen recalls him offering her a glass of champagne to thank her.

“Within a few sips I was starting to feel a bit groggy, but I can’t describe it as drunk. It was a really dizzy and weird feeling. I wasn’t feeling right.”

Salah began playing music and Helen felt “it was definitely time to go, he was getting too cozy”.

Helen says Salah pressured her to “just have one puff” of a bong containing crack cocaine. “This will make you feel better,” she remembers him telling her. “That’s the last thing I knew of that whole evening,” she says.

She recalls waking up lying on a settee in a completely different room, with double vision and her whole body shaking. Salah was sitting at her feet holding a glass of water and a tablet, looking “nervous and panicky”, she says.

As she got up, she noticed her jeans’ button was undone and her belt was missing.

Helen recalls feeling a sensation between her legs and discovering semen. “It wasn’t just in one place, it was in another.”

She adds: “I knew then what had happened. I knew.”

Helen says Salah Fayed then made a call to his brother, Mohamed, in front of her to let him know she would not be going to work at Harrods that day. Their conversation was in Arabic, and Helen says all she could hear “was them laughing to each other”.

Because she was still feeling the effects of the drugs, Helen says she needed help walking back to her own apartment. As Salah was walking her home, he suggested they make a stop to visit a friend.

The first thing Salah’s friend said to her, she recalls, was: “Hi Helen, how are you this morning?”

She says she did not know the man and when she looked at Salah quizzically, she says he told her: “He saw you last night.”

Helen decided to leave. “I just needed to be on my own. As I shut the door, I could hear those two men laughing.”

Helen now believes that Salah’s friend also raped her that night while she was unconscious and feels sure that she was raped vaginally and anally.

“That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say,” says Helen.

Shortly after, Helen resigned from Harrods.

Two other women working at Harrods say they believe the way they were brought to Monaco and the south of France to be abused by Salah would now be considered trafficking, because they were lured with deceptive offers of work and sexually exploited.

Rachael was 23 and working at Mohamed Al Fayed’s private office in 1994, when she was rung by the Harrods human resources team and offered a position as personal assistant to Salah.

On starting the job, Rachael says she was not given any personal assistant work to do and instead felt like a “companion”, attending dinners and “getting to know him”.

One night in Monaco, Rachael says she woke up “petrified” to find Salah getting into her bed. She lay awake frozen in fear all night and in the morning he left.

During her time working as his personal assistant, Rachael recalls being introduced to older men by Salah who she says “sexually propositioned” her. She now wonders: “Was I there to be passed around?”

She says Salah encouraged her to smoke “hubbly bubbly” – a hookah pipe used to smoke flavoured tobacco – but she later discover it contained crack cocaine.

Rachael says she felt his goal was to get her addicted to make it easier to abuse her.

If you’ve been affected by issues involving sexual abuse and violence, information and support is available at BBC Action Line.

She had been told that if the role with Salah did not suit her, she could return to Harrods. She went back, but Rachael says 18 months later she was lured to Mohamed Al Fayed’s Park Lane home where he sexually assaulted her.

A third woman, who we are calling Rebecca, says she was also sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al Fayed in Park Lane. It was 1997 and she was aged 19, working at Harrods.

She was later asked by him to go to Monaco to work as a personal assistant for his younger brother, Salah, but on her arrival, she found there was very little work to do.

In Monaco, she recalls, Salah put her on the phone to his brother, Mohamed, who she says asked: “Is my brother looking after you?” He ended the call by telling her to “just have fun”.

She remembers experiencing a “really uncomfortable feeling” in her stomach at that moment. “It’s like the penny was dropping, the expectation is that you’re there for a job, and actually you’re just there as a potential piece of meat.”

Rebecca says she was pressured to sit with Salah in a hot tub in his Monaco apartment where he sexually assaulted her.

She also told the BBC he had encouraged her to smoke what he told her was “tree resin” from a homemade bong. In fact, it was crack cocaine.

Harrods said: “We encourage these survivors to come forward and make their claims to the Harrods scheme, where they can apply for compensation, as well as support from a counselling perspective and through an independent survivor advocate.”

It said it hoped they are also looking at “every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice”, including the police “or the Fayed family and estate”.

In her final days at Harrods, Helen remembers a new girl starting who seemed “so young and naive”, like she once had been. Finishing a shift together away from the office, Helen says she confided in her and warned her about Mohamed Al Fayed.

Looking back, she says she is pleased she did what she could to try to dissuade her from staying.

“I told her he’d be trying to have sex with her, he’d be touching her, putting her under pressure. I did tell her that I’d been raped by him. She looked horrified but I don’t know to this day whether she stayed or left.”

Before she left, Helen says she was given cash which, at the time, she thought was a normal severance procedure – now she thinks it was to keep her quiet.

She says what she thought would be her dream job ended up leaving her with lifelong trauma.

“It’s taken 35 years to speak, that’s how frightened I’ve been of speaking,” she says. “I want to stand up for victims of abuse, whether corporate or domestic, to let them know that they can speak up too.”

Additional reporting by Erica Gornall

Adblock test (Why?)