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Mamata Banerjee sustains injury after falling at home, receives stitches on forehead

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Mamata Banerjee sustains injury after falling at home, receives stitches on forehead

New Delhi, INDIA (NDTV) – West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suffered a “major injury” to her forehead after a fall at her home. The chief minister received stitches and was later discharged from the hospital.
The chief minister was taken to her residence after necessary tests were conducted. Ms Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and other family members accompanied her.

READ MORE : India China trade barbs over Modi’s visit to disputed region

The All India Trinamool Congress today shared photos of Ms Banerjee on a hospital bed with a deep cut in the middle of her forehead and blood on her face. The Chief Minister suffered a fall at her home and was taken to the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.

“Our chairperson Mamata Banerjee sustained a major injury. Please keep her in your prayers,” the party said in a post on X. 

Mamata Banerjee sustains injury after falling at home, receives stitches on forehead. Photo @AITCofficial

“Wishing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a speedy recovery. Our prayers are with her for a quick return to good health,” Sukanta Majumdar, state president of Trinamool Congress said in a post on X.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Ms Banerjee a quick recovery and said, “I pray for a quick recovery and the best health for Mamata Didi.”

Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankar inquired about the health of the Chief Minister expressing his deep anguish and wishing a speedy recovery.

In a video, the Chief Minister was being seen taken to the Neurosciences Department of the hospital in a wheelchair and a bandage on her forehead.


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North Korea’s Kim test drives a new tank and orders troops to prepare for war

North Korea’s Kim test drives a new tank and orders troops to prepare for war

Seoul, SOUTH KOREA (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un joined troops training on a new tank model and drove one himself, state media reported Thursday, as his rivals South Korea and the U.S. wrapped up their annual military exercises.

U.S. soldiers participate in a joint live fire exercise at a military training field in Pocheon, South Korea Thursday, March 14, 2024 as part of the annual Fredom Shield joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States. Photo : Jung Yeon-je/via AP

It’s the third time Kim was reported to have observed military exercises since the start of the 11-day South Korean-U.S. drills, which he views as rehearsals for an invasion. That’s a less provocative option than missile tests. North Korea has intensified launches since 2022 and ramped up belligerent rhetoric this year.


READ MORE : South Korea says presumed North Korean hackers breached personal emails of presidential staffer

At the tank drills Wednesday, Kim praised the country’s latest tank as “the world’s most powerful” and told his troops to bolster their “fighting spirits” and complete “preparations for war,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The other two drills he inspected recently were dedicated to artillery firing and maneuvering exercises.

The tank was first unveiled during a military parade in 2020, and its rolling during Wednesday’s drill indicates that it’s ready to be deployed, South Korean experts say.

Photos of the tank released by North Korea show it has a launch tube for missiles, a weapons systems the former Soviet Union already operated in the 1970s. The new tank could pose a threat to South Korea, said Yang Uk, an analyst at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, but it remains to be seen whether it can be mass produced.

The North’s Defense Ministry last week threatened “responsible military activities” in reaction to the South Korea-U.S. military drills, which involved a computer-simulated command post training and 48 kinds of field exercises, twice the number conducted last spring. The U.S. and South Korea have been expanding their training exercises in a tit-for-tat response to the North’s weapons testing spree.

Concerns about North Korea’s military preparations have deepened since Kim vowed in a speech in January to rewrite the constitution to eliminate the country’s long-standing goal to seek peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and cement South Korea as its “invariable principal enemy.” He said the new constitution must specify North Korea would annex and subjugate the South if another war breaks out.


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The reunion of Season 6 of “Love Is Blind” doesn’t shy away from confrontation

The reunion of Season 6 of “Love Is Blind” doesn’t shy away from confrontation

ENTERTAINMENT (THR) – After a season that ended with just two couples making it to the altar — and only one pair saying “yes” — Netflix aired the highly anticipated reunion special for the sixth iteration of Love Is Blind Wednesday night.

Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, the episode reunited season six cast members Amber Desiree, aka “AD,” Amy, Brittany, Chelsea, Jessica, Sarah Ann, Clay, Jeramey, Jimmy, Johnny, Kenneth and Trevor in person with Laura joining from Barcelona via satellite. Some of the series’ past success stories — Brett and Tiffany, Chelsea and Kwame, Alexa and Brennon, and Colleen and Matt — were also in attendance in the audience along with past cast members Micah, Izzy and Gianna (Gigi).


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Gigi shared the first big news of the night, announcing her pregnancy with her current partner, Blake, with whom she’s expecting her first child. And Amy and Johnny, the only couple to marry this season, showed up holding hands as steady as they were throughout the entire season of the show. But there were a number of far less happy surprise details to follow during the episode. Read below for the top revelations about the cast from the Love Is Blind season 6 reunion.

Jeramey and Sarah Ann

At the end of episode nine, Laura and Jeramey’s engagement came to an end when he returned home at 5:00 a.m. after claiming to have only been talking with another cast member whom he’d connected with in the pods, Sarah Ann.

Their reunion was prompted by a DM Sarah Ann sent to Jeramey while he was still engaged saying she would love to meet him, and at a lake party with the cast in the following episode, Jeramey and Sarah Ann went riding off into the sunset on jet skis together and haven’t separated since. After joining the rest of the season six cast on stage, Sarah Ann told Nick, “We’ve been dating for almost a year now; We live together.”

Jeramey’s status with Sarah Ann wasn’t the only relationship he had to answer to, however. When questioned about a woman on social media whose mother said they were engaged while he was on the show, he said, “It’s not true. Yes, I was previously engaged. Everybody I dated was well aware of that. I sold my house and I did go ahead and apply [for the show] after I was out on my own doing my own thing.”

Sarah Ann had to answer to her own interrogation, as Jessica and Laura took her to task for not being a “girl’s girl” and “making a mockery” out of Laura and Jeramey’s engagement with her inappropriate contact with Jeramey. In the end, Sarah Ann apologized to Laura, and Jeramey finally took the accountability for his actions that his ex-fiancé had been seeking.

Trevor

Trevor was another cast member who had to answer for a relationship he allegedly had in the real world while he was dating in the pods. Confronted with screenshots of text messages he sent to the woman telling her that he loved her and was going to marry her, Trevor, seemingly embarrassed, confessed, “I guess I’ll start by saying that I was not dating her technically, like I never said, ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ before the show started but, obviously, we were close. She was the typical girl I’d go for in real life and I told her before, ‘I want to go on this to try to experiment with something else.’”

Admitting to behavior he labeled as “toxic,” Trevor later added, “There’s no justifying it. I wanted to do this. I wanted to meet somebody I wouldn’t go for in real life.”

Chelsea, who’d connected with Trevor in the pods, took the news in stride, noting there was a reason she didn’t choose him that she couldn’t put her finger on and now she knew what it was.

Clay and AD

Clay and AD made it to their wedding day in the final episode of Love Is Blind, but after AD said “yes” to tying the knot, Clay shockingly told her he wasn’t ready at the altar. Asked whether he would’ve done anything differently, Clay confessed he’s been in therapy since appearing on the show, and told Nick, “I couldn’t get out of my own way. I just kept looking at myself in the mirror like, ‘I’m not the guy that deserves love and marriage,’ and AD really seen me through. She’s honestly the love of my life and I will tell you honestly, I did make a mistake going to the altar and saying ‘no.’”

Visibly upset as he talked, when AD was asked how she felt about what Clay shared, she responded, “It’s like what am I supposed to do with that information?” She then confronted her former fiancé, telling him, “You played in my face, Clay, because you knew you didn’t want to get married.”

Despite her anger in the moment, when asked if she’d be open to dating again, AD playfully answered, “Next question.” Clay, on the other hand, responded without hesitation, “One thousand percent.”

Jessica and Jimmy

Though Jimmy chose Chelsea over Jessica in the pods, the two have remained friends since the show, or so Jessica thought, as she tells Jimmy during the reunion, calling him out for a recent interview in which she felt he threw her under the bus about their past dating relationship. Jimmy, still struggling to express himself, which was a source of frustration for Jessica in the pods, claimed to simply be answering questions about why he didn’t choose her, noting, “The way you talk to me,” as one of the reasons, which was met with a response of rolled eyes from Jessica. The two went back and forth on their differing opinions regarding the details of their final date, to the point producers had to play back parts of the footage. Still, in the end, they came to no resolution on the cause of their demise.

Kenneth and Brittany

Kenneth and Brittany were the first couple to call it quits during season six after Brittany called out Kenneth’s lack of affection, and he failed to put up a fight to stay together and work on their connection. Addressing accusations from viewers that he didn’t care about their relationship, Kenneth said he called Clay “in shambles” after breaking up with Brittany, explaining his lack of emotion on-screen by saying, “Everyone processes things differently.”

The pair have been seen on social media together in recent days, prompting speculation of a romantic reunion. However, after sharing they talk to each other on the phone every day, Brittany said, “Although we’re no longer in a relationship together, the bond we have is going to last for an eternity and I’m happy with that.”


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Nitin Gadkari, ML Khattar, and Anurag Thakur Included in BJP’s Second List for Lok Sabha Election

Nitin Gadkari, ML Khattar, and Anurag Thakur Included in BJP’s Second List for Lok Sabha Election

New Delhi, INDIA (NDTV/DT) – The BJP unveiled its second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections today, following a brief delay due to a seat allocation issue in Bihar. The list features 72 names, including seasoned leaders like Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, who is contesting elections for the first time, along with Anurag Singh Thakur.

Another notable inclusion is Manohar Lal Khattar, who stepped down from the post of Haryana Chief Minister recently. Additionally, former Chief Ministers Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai are also among the candidates fielded by the party.


READ MORE : India’s Supreme Court orders state bank of India to share names of political donors

Sources said there was an eleventh-hour negotiation over one seat in Bihar.

Candidates have been declared for two seats in Delhi, seven seats in Gujarat, six seats in Haryana, two seats in Himachal Pradesh, 20 seats in Karnataka, 5 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 20 seats in Maharashtra, 6 seats in Telangana, one seat in Tripura and two seats in Uttarakhand. Candidates have also been announced for Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

In Delhi, the BJP has nominated two fresh candidates: Harsh Malhotra for the East Delhi constituency and Yogendra Chandolia for North West Delhi.

In Karnataka, where the party holds significant influence, the BJP is introducing approximately 10 new candidates following its major setback in the recent state assembly election.

Among the prominent figures, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi will contest from Dharwad, while former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s son, BY Raghavendra, will vie for the Shimoga seat.

Tejasvi Surya, the BJP’s youth wing chief, will seek re-election from Bengaluru South. Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar, from the former Mysore royal family, has replaced Pratap Simha as the candidate for the Mysore constituency.

In Maharashtra, the BJP has nominated Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, along with former state minister Pankaja Munde, as its candidates. The party has revealed its choices for 20 out of the state’s 48 seats. After Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra contributes the second-highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Nitin Gadkari has been re-nominated from Nagpur, which serves as the headquarters of the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Among the eight new faces are Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who will contest from Mumbai North, and Pankaja Munde, who will represent Beed. All Union ministers from Maharashtra have been renominated.

In Uttarakhand, BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni has been nominated to contest from Garhwal.

Earlier this month, the BJP unveiled its initial list of over 190 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for this summer.

Among the prominent names announced in that list were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be contesting from Varanasi for the third consecutive time, as well as Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, who will be contesting from Gandhinagar and Lucknow, respectively. In total, the list included 34 Union ministers.


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Vladimir Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

Vladimir Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

Moscow, RUSSIA (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin told the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

Putin, speaking ahead of a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, added that the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA when asked whether Russia was really ready for a nuclear war.


READ MORE : Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory – or to Ukraine – Russia would treat the move as an intervention. Moscow claims to have annexed four regions of Ukraine and says they are now fully part of Russia.

“(In the U.S.) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint,” said Putin.

“Therefore, I don’t think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this.”
The Biden administration has said it has no plans to send troops to Ukraine but has stressed the need to approve a stalled security aid bill that would ensure Ukrainian troops got the weapons they need to continue the war, now in its third year.

Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview in Moscow, March 12, 2024. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS

It did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment on Putin’s remarks, but the White House has said in the past it has seen no sign that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons despite what it calls Putin’s “nuclear saber-rattling”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian presidential official, told Reuters in a statement he viewed Putin’s nuclear warning as propaganda designed to intimidate the West.

“Realising that things are going the wrong way, Putin continues to use classic nuclear rhetoric. With the old Soviet hope – ‘be scared and retreat!’,” said Podolyak, who said he believed such talk showed Putin was afraid of losing the war.

The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war but says he has never felt the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Nuclear Policy

In a U.S. election year, the West is grappling with how to support Kyiv against Russia, which now controls almost one-fifth of Ukrainian territory and is rearming much faster than the West and Ukraine.
Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Putin says he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in Feb. 2022 to bolster Russia’s own security against a hostile West.

Putin reiterated the use of nuclear weapons was spelled out in the Kremlin’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which it would use such a weapon: broadly a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat”.
“Weapons exist in order to use them,” Putin said.
Putin’s nuclear warning came alongside another offer for talks on Ukraine as part of a new post-Cold War demarcation of European security. The U.S. says Putin is not ready for serious talks over Ukraine.

Reuters reported last month that Putin’s suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the U.S. after contacts between intermediaries.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said this week that, without more Western support, Ukraine would lose more territory to Russia which would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told the Senate Intelligence Committee it was in U.S. interests to help Kyiv get into a stronger position before talks.

Putin said Russia would need written security guarantees in the event of any settlement.

“I don’t trust anyone, but we need guarantees, and guarantees must be spelled out, they must be such that we would be satisfied,” Putin said.


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Malaysia to correct gender bias with citizenship amendment promising equal rights for foreign-born children

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Malaysia to correct gender bias with citizenship amendment promising equal rights for foreign-born children

Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA (SCMP) – Malaysia is rectifying a gender bias in its constitution next week according to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, allowing foreign-born children to Malaysian mothers and their non-Malaysian spouse to automatically get citizenship, ending years of struggle for many.

Under the current law which goes back to 1963, only Malaysian men who marry non-citizens and have a child abroad can pass their citizenship to their children, while children born to Malaysian mothers under the same arrangement are deprived of the same right.


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The prime minister, who was in Berlin on an official visit, said the constitutional provision was wrong, and the cabinet had approved to table the amendment to parliament next week, saying the matter was “done”.

“The issue now is “parent” in the present constitution, for decades means father. We realise it is not right. Parent means father and mother,” Anwar said.

The amendment will affect Article 14 of the constitution which made no mention of mothers when it comes to conferring citizenship to a person born outside of Malaysia.

International rights group Equality Now cited Malaysia as one of the small group of six countries – alongside the Bahamas, Barbados, Iraq, Liberia and Mauritania – that continues to prevent women from passing their citizenship to their children on equal basis as men if the child is born abroad.

Anwar was asked on that matter by a Malaysian woman living in Berlin, whose children are not Malaysian citizens due to this provision, at a Ramadan dinner with the Malaysian diaspora in the German capital.

Such constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority vote in parliament, a figure commanded by Anwar, that backs his confidence in it being passed.

Plaintiffs in a case challenging a law preventing women in Malaysia passing their citizenship on to children born overseas, stand outside the Kuala Lumpur High Court in April 2021. Photo: Family Frontiers/AFP

In 2020, the advocacy group Family Frontiers sued the government over the gender bias in the law and won when a Kuala Lumpur High Court judge ruled that foreign-born children of these mothers are entitled to citizenship.

The ruling, however, was overturned in 2022 by the appellate court after a legal challenge by the government, which wished to maintain the status quo.

Family Frontiers then pressed for the case to be heard by the Federal Court, the country’s apex court, which had set a date in June to hear the case.

In parliament on Monday, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said that despite the amendment not being tabled yet, his ministry had resolved all the citizenship cases, adding that Family Frontiers’ cause for struggle was “no more”.

“On the case of Malaysian mothers giving birth abroad with their [non-Malaysian] partners, all 3,000 [cases] have been resolved last week,” Saifuddin said.

His comment, understood to mean that all pending cases had been resolved, raised eyebrows among many Malaysian mothers who took to social media to show that their cases are still pending.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim with the Malaysian diaspora at the Grand Hyatt Berlin in Germany on Tuesday. Photo: Afiq Hambali/Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia

On X, user Tee Li Li, a single mother, is one of many who showed screenshots of their citizenship applications to register their child which are currently still marked as “being processed”, with her application dating back to 2017.

“My child’s citizenship application has not been resolved,” she said in response to the home minister’s comment.

The discrepancy between the prime minister’s response and the home minister’s comment in parliament is causing further anxiety to these families, as the lack of citizenship sets up hurdles in their daily lives, including hospital visits and schooling, with the latter costing exorbitant sum for non-citizens compared to the token 1 ringgit (20 US cents) for citizens.

Non-citizens are also barred from attending government schools, forcing parents to spend money to have their children educated at private schools.

Family Frontiers’ lead coordinator Bina Ramanand said these children should be granted citizenship immediately, regardless of when the constitutional amendment was done.

“This should be done without further delay, they have suffered enough,” she said.


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Why is Trump now defending TikTok in the US after trying to ban it?

Why is Trump now defending TikTok in the US after trying to ban it?

Washington, US (SCMP) – Former United States president Donald Trump has markedly changed his tune on TikTok, the popular short-video app that he once sought to ban over concerns about its Chinese ownership.

Throughout his term in the White House and in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, the presumptive Republican nominee with a reputation for mercurial moves has repeatedly touted his toughness on Beijing, citing trade tariffs he pushed the US to impose on China that remain in place.

But as legislation that could ban the social media platform from the US moves at lightning speed through Congress, he has now spoken out against such an action.


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Trump’s public U-turn coincides with his recent meeting with a billionaire Republican megadonor deeply invested in ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that owns TikTok, fuelling speculation among pundits that business interests are driving the former president’s positions on the matter.

Trump has argued of late that if the US were to shut the door on TikTok, competitors like Facebook would reap undue advantage.

“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” he said in an interview on Monday (Mar 11).

Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, a resort where former US president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lives and entertains visitors. Photo: AP

Asked about his earlier concerns about the app, Trump replied that “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with TikTok. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”

But in 2020, as president, Trump signed an executive order to get the app removed from all US app stores while also telling ByteDance to divest within 90 days.

A federal court ruled against the push, calling it “arbitrary and capricious”. The ruling was hailed by TikTok supporters who argued that the ban would have violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment guaranteeing free speech.

Now American lawmakers from both parties are again ramping up efforts to do away with TikTok, which has about 170 million US users, over renewed fears around data privacy, foreign influence and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

On Monday, Avril Haines, America’s director of national Intelligence, told the House Intelligence Committee that Beijing could tap into TikTok to influence the 2024 US elections.

“We cannot rule out that the CCP would use it,” Haines said, referring to China’s Communist Party.

And earlier this month, leaders of the House select committee on the CCP introduced a Bill calling for either a divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance or an outright ban.

The House is expected to vote on Wednesday on the legislation, which unanimously cleared an energy and commerce committee vote last week. US President Joe Biden later said he would sign the bill if Congress approves it.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to visit Capitol Hill this week to meet with members of Congress in a last-ditch effort to halt the Bill in the Senate.

While many congressional Republicans have voiced support for the measure, some in the party have aligned with Trump’s reversal.

Former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, for instance, said “all forced data transfers to the CCP, regardless of ownership” needed to end, posting on X, formerly Twitter. Ramaswamy has endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House.

“Bashing TikTok is easy. Understanding the actual issue is harder,” Ramaswamy also wrote, saying American tech companies like Google and Facebook were likewise transferring private user data to domestic and foreign governments.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to sign a House bill banning TikTok from the US, if it passes. Photo: Bloomberg

Meanwhile, ByteDance has spent millions in lobbying since Trump’s failed executive order.

The Chinese tech giant last year spent more than US$8 million in its quest, according to Open Secrets, a Washington-based non-profit group that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying.

That outlay dwarfed what ByteDance spent in 2019, when it first reported payments to federal lobbyists and doled out just US$270,000.

In 2021, the year after Trump said he intended to ban TikTok, the tech company spent a whopping US$4.7 million on lobbying, according to Open Secrets, and last year its expenditure nearly doubled to US$8.7 million.

American media have linked Trump’s change of heart to billionaire conservative donor Jeff Yass, whose company reportedly has a 15 per cent stake in ByteDance.

“Put simply, Trump supported a ban, then, after receiving Yass’s patronage, immediately opposed a ban.”

Caitlin Chin-Rothmann of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said Trump’s “flip-flopping could hurt his ‘anti-China’ image among Republican politicians and possibly cause confusion for members of Congress who might be on the fence about banning a popular app” in an election year.

Trump’s claim that a ban on TikTok would “double the size” of Facebook’s business was highly unlikely to prove true, she added.

“It is theoretically possible that Trump has personal or business interests that could influence his policy proposals,” said Chin-Rothmann, noting numerous conflict-of-interest claims arising while he was president.

“But we can only speculate [as] to his reasoning at this point.”


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India China trade barbs over Modi’s visit to disputed region

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India China trade barbs over Modi’s visit to disputed region

New Delhi, INDIA (EFE) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a state controlled by New Delhi but disputed by Beijing sparked an exchange of accusations between both countries on Tuesday.

Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Friday as part of a trip to northeast India during which he inaugurated multimillion-dollar development projects, including a strategic tunnel at an altitude of 3,000 meters in the disputed region.

“Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other States of India. Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.


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On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin slammed Modi’s visit to the state, which China calls Zangnan, meaning South Tibet.

Wang said that India had no right to “arbitrarily develop” the area and warned that India’s recent measures would complicate the border disputes that have erupted in the past between both countries.

The spokesperson said that China had lodged a protest with India over Modi’s visit.

Both India and China have been locked in a dispute over the sovereignty of Arunachal Pradesh practically since its creation in 1947.

Both countries also dispute other regions of the Himalayas, including Aksai Chin, which is administered by Beijing and claimed by India.

Bilateral relations between the world’s two most populated countries are at one of their lowest points in decades, especially after a border clash in the Galwan Valley, in the western Himalayas in June 2020.

At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed and 76 wounded during the clash, in which four Chinese died and one was seriously injured.

Since then, India and China have held multiple rounds of military talks to de-escalate tensions along the border, although diplomatic incidents occasionally arise.

The last border clash occurred in April last year, when China unilaterally renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh. EFE


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India’s Supreme Court orders state bank of India to share names of political donors

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India’s Supreme Court orders state bank of India to share names of political donors

New Delhi, INDIA (EFE) – India’s top court gave an ultimatum to government-run State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday to reveal anonymous donations made to political parties through an opaque funding system in the last five years.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ordered the bank to disclose the information “by the close of business hours” on Mar. 12, thus rejecting SBI’s request to publish details by Jun. 30.

The judge ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI), the body in charge of conducting and regulating elections in the country, to compile the details disclosed by the bank and publish it on its website “no later than by 5 pm on Mar. 14.”


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The verdict comes almost a month after the apex court struck down the so-called electoral bonds scheme, as “unconstitutional” as it permitted anonymous funding to political parties.

The scheme, introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2018, allowed individuals and companies to purchase these electoral bonds issued only by the SBI.

Donors used these bonds to fund political parties of their choice.

Before 2018, political parties were required to disclose the identity of donors contributing more than 20,000 Indian rupees ($242).

The logo of State Bank of India (SBI) is seen on the facade of its headquarters in Mumbai, India, April 12, 2023. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni/File Photo

The contentious scheme allowed them to reveal the amount received in electoral bonds but not the identity of the donor.

During the hearing on Feb.15, the court criticized the scheme for allowing “unlimited corporate funding to political parties,” describing it as “arbitrary and violative” of the Indian constitution.

The court had ordered SBI to submit details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 2019 to the ECI by Mar. 6.

The bank, however, sought more time from the court, stating it had to decode and compile the data of over 22,200 electoral bonds purchased by the donors and encashed by the parties.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, an independent election watchdog, Indian political parties received over 165 billion rupees in election funding from March 2018 to January 2024.

That decision was a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been the largest beneficiary of the system introduced in 2017, and came ahead of a national election expected to be held in April or May.

SBI had been asked to share names of the donors, the beneficiaries and the amounts with the independent Election Commission of India (ECI) by March 6 and the poll panel was directed to make it public by March 13.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received 66 billion rupees, or 55 percent of the total, from electoral bonds. In all, more than 121 billion Indian rupees worth of electoral bonds were sold until 2023.

The opposition Indian National Congress received less than 10 percent of the total funds in the five years, amounting to around 11 billion rupees, as per audited reports cited by the watchdog.

The BJP has staunchly defended the electoral bond system, arguing that it eliminates the possibility of funneling unaccounted cash into India’s political system.

However, rights groups have often noted that the alleged nexus between politics and business poses a significant challenge to democracy.

India is expected to hold general elections in either April or May, the largest in the world with some 960 million voters, where Modi is seen as an overwhelming favorite to win his third consecutive term. EFE


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Landslide and flash floods hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island as At least 19 dead and 7 missing

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Landslide and flash floods hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island as At least 19 dead and 7 missing

Padang, INDONESIA (AP) — Torrential rains have triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing at least 19 people and leaving seven others missing, officials said Sunday.

Tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees rolled down a mountain late Friday, reaching a river that burst its banks and tore through mountainside villages in Pesisir Selatan district of West Sumatra province, said Doni Yusrizal, who heads the local disaster management agency.

Rescuers by Saturday pulled out seven bodies in the worst-hit village of Koto XI Tarusan, and recovered three others in two neighboring villages, Yusrizal said.


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Rescuers retrieved six bodies in Pesisir Selatan and three more in the neighboring district of Padang Pariaman, bringing the death toll to 19, the National Disaster Management Agency said on Sunday.

The agency in a statement said at least two villagers were injured by the flash flood and rescuers are searching for seven people who are reportedly still missing.

It said more than 80,000 people had fled to temporary government shelters after the flood and landslide buried 14 houses, while 20,000 houses were flooded up to the roof in nine districts and cities in West Sumatra province.

“Relief efforts for the dead and missing were hampered by power outages, blocked roads covered in thick mud and debris,” Yusrizal said.

Heavy rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains.


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