Junior Digest

New Delhi,May 21,2022: Not satisfied with the proceedings of the Gyanvapi mosque case in a Varanasi court, the Supreme Court on Friday transferred the adjudication of the suit filed by the five-Hindu women plaintiffs from a Varanasi civil judge to a district judge. The apex court ordered the district judge to decide on priority the application by the committee of management of Anjuman e-Intezamia Masjid Varanasi challenging the maintainability of the suit under Order 7, Rule 11 of Civil Procedure Code (CPC). The mosque committee is contending that the suit is in the teeth of the Places of Worship Act 1991 and therefore barred.

Order 7 Rule 11(d) of CPC provides that the plaint shall be rejected “where the suit appears from the statement in the plaint to be barred by any law.”
Relieving the Varanasi civil judge from adjudicating the suit, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, said that in view of the complexity of the matter, a “senior and experienced” judicial officer of the Uttar Pradesh higher judicial service should examine the case.

“A slightly more seasoned and mature hand should hear this case. We are not making an assertion on the trial judge. But a more seasoned hand should deal with this case and it will benefit all the parties,” the court said in the course of the hearing.

Entrusting the case to Varanasi district judge, the top court said that the May 16 ex-parte order passed by the civil judge sealing the area where “shivling” is found and restricting the entry of Muslims for offering prayers is subsumed in its (the top court’s) May 17 order.
The top court said that its May 17 order to protect the shivling in the Gyanvapi Masjid without in anyway impeding the entry of Muslims in the mosque for offering prayers will remain in force till Varanasi district judge decides on the challenge to suit by the five-Hindu women plaintiff under Order 7, Rule 11 CPC. The court added that its May 17 will continue for another eight weeks after the decision, as either of the aggrieved parties may pursue legal remedies.

SEOUL,May 18,2022:North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed his country’s response to its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as immature, accusing government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country, state media reported on Wednesday.
North Korea reported 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths after country revealed the COVID outbreak last week. It did not say how many people had tested positive for COVID-19.

Presiding over a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday, Kim said the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” increased the “complexity and hardships” in fighting the pandemic, according to KCNA.

Since its first acknowledgement of the COVID-19 outbreak, the North has reported 1.72 million patients with fever symptoms, including 62 deaths as of Tuesday evening.
Yet the North also said the country’s virus situation was taking a “favourable turn,” adding the party meeting discussed “maintaining the good chance in the overall epidemic prevention front.”

The report did not elaborate on what grounds the North came to such a positive assessment. The country has not started mass vaccinations and has limited testing capabilities, leaving many experts concerned it may be difficult to assess how widely and rapidly the disease is spreading.

New Delhi , May 13,2022: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir administration, and Election Commission of India (ECI) on a plea challenging the government’s decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh sought responses from the Centre, Election Commission of India and the Union Territory within six weeks.

The apex court posted the matter for further hearing on August 30.

The order of the apex court came on two Srinagar residents Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr. Mohammad Ayub Mattoo saying that contrary to the scheme of the Constitution, this delimitation exercise was carried out and alteration of boundaries and inclusion of extended areas could not be done.

The bench asked the counsel of petitioners why have they not challenged the formation of the commission itself and do they challenge the abrogation of Article 370 also.

The counsel who was making objectionable submissions, was told by the bench to choose his words properly and said that “Kashmir was always part of India and just a special provision was removed”.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that delimitation can be conducted only by the Election Commission of India and not the delimitation commission.

The challenge is about the delimitation pursuant to the notifications of March 6, 2020, and March 3, 2021.

The plea sought declaration that the increase in the number of seats from 107 to 114 (including 24 seats in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) in Jammu and Kashmir is ultra vires the Constitutional Provisions such as Articles 81, 82, 170, 330, and 332 and Statutory Provisions, particularly under Section 63 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

It said that while Article 170 of the Constitution of India provides that the next delimitation in the country will be taken up after 2026 then why has the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir been singled out.

The plea said that the last Delimitation Commission was set up on July 12, 2002, in the exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002, after the 2001 Census to carry out the exercise throughout the country and the commission had issued guidelines and methodology for the Delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies vide letter dated July 5, 2004, along with the Constitutional and Legal Provisions.

It sought to declare the notification dated March 6, 2020, constituting the delimitation commission to take up delimitation in the UT of J&K and states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland by the Centre and consequential omission of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland from the process of delimitation vide., notification dated March 3, 2021, and conducting delimitation only for Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is unconstitutional as it amounts to classification and violates Article 14.

Ukraine,May 17,2022: Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol, ceding control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment.
The evacuation likely marked the end of the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukraine war and a significant defeat for Ukraine. Mariupol is now in ruins after a Russian siege that Ukraine says killed tens of thousands of people in the city.

With the rest of Mariupol firmly in Russian hands, hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians had holed up beneath the city’s Azovstal steelworks. Civilians inside were evacuated in recent weeks, and more than 260 troops, some of them wounded, left the plant for Russian-controlled areas late on Monday.

“The ‘Mariupol’ garrison has fulfilled its combat mission,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement announcing evacuations.
“The supreme military command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel… Defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time,” it added.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said 53 injured troops from the Azovstal steelworks were taken to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) to the east.

Another 211 people were taken to the town of Olenivka, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar said. All of the evacuees will be subject to a potential prisoner exchange with Russia, she added.

It was not clear how many troops remained in Azovstal. Ukraine’s military said efforts were under way to evacuate those still inside.

Reuters saw five buses carrying troops from Azovstal arrive in Novoazovsk late on Monday. Some of the evacuated troops were wounded and carried out of the buses on stretchers. Some 600 troops were believed to have been inside the steel plant.

May 13, 2022: Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that his $44-billion cash deal for Twitter Inc was “temporarily on hold” while he waits for the social media company to provide data on the proportion of its fake accounts.
Twitter shares initially fell more than 20% in premarket trading, but after Musk, the chief executive of electric car market Tesla Inc, sent a second tweet saying he remained committed to the deal, they regained some ground.

The shares were down 10% to $40.50 in morning trading on Friday, a steep discount to the $54.20 per share acquisition price.
Musk, the world’s richest person, decided to waive due diligence when he agreed to buy Twitter on April 25, in an effort to get the San Francisco-based company to accept his “best and final offer.” This could make it harder for him to argue that Twitter somehow misled him.

Since then, technology stocks have plunged amid investor concerns over inflation and a potential economic slowdown.

The spread between the offer price and the value of Twitter shares had widened in recent days, implying less than a 50% chance of completion, as investors speculated that the downturn would prompt Musk to walk or seek a lower price.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk told his more than 92 million Twitter followers.

Twitter is planning no immediate action as a result of Musk’s comment, people familiar with the matter said. The company considered the comment disparaging and a violation of the terms of their deal contract, but was encouraged by Musk subsequently tweeting he was committing to the acquisition, the sources added.
There was no immediate reaction from the investors that Musk tapped last week to raise $7.1 billion in funding.

May 17,2022:Russia said on Monday that the West should not have any “illusions” that the Kremlin will simply accept the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Nordic expansion (NATO). This comes a day after Russia’s neighbours Finland and Sweden announced that they will submit formal NATO membership bids.

President Vladimir Putin stated on Monday that Russia has no objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, but that the construction of military equipment on their soil would need a response from Moscow.
Putin, addressing at a summit of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Moscow, said NATO’s expansion was a concern for Russia, and that the country needed to pay close attention to the US-led military alliance’s efforts to expand its global influence.

Since the last day of 1999, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s supreme leader, has repeatedly highlighted NATO’s post-Soviet enlargement eastwards into Russia’s borders as a rationale for the invasion of Ukraine.

NATO, founded in 1949 to provide European security against the Soviet Union, ultimately outguns Russia in almost every military measure apart from nuclear weapons, though the backbone of the alliance’s military power is the United States – whose forces are mostly deployed far from Europe.

The battle, on the other hand, has sparked one of the most significant transformations in Europe’s security architecture in decades: Sweden and Finland, which share a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia, joining the military alliance.

“They should have no illusions that we will simply put up with it – and nor should Brussels, Washington and other NATO capitals,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the state RIA news agency.

“The general level of military tension will rise, predictability in this sphere will decrease. It is a shame that common sense is being sacrificed to some phantom provision about what should be done in this unfolding situation,” Ryabkov said.

May 18, 2022: Chitkara University was recognized as an Institution of Happiness (IOH) at the “Academic Excellence Conclave” organised by QS IGAUGE, the Indian subsidiary of UK-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds, in Delhi. The ‘Institution of Happiness’ status is awarded after a rigorous exercise that covers various institutes from all over India, which began in December last year in association with industry body ASSOCHAM.

Dr. Sandhir Sharma, Dean, Chitkara Business School, and Dr. Krishna K Mishra, Director, Accreditations, and Quality Assurance Cell, received the award on behalf of Chitkara University from Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Smt. Smriti J Irani. The university’s efforts were appreciated for taking care of happiness in every aspect of all the stakeholders, especially faculty and students.

On the occasion, Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University, said, “The award is a testimony to the practices followed at Chitkara University and is a result of the concerted efforts of the staff and students. We strive to provide quality and excellence in imparting education, as it enhances the capacities and capabilities of our students, and this would not be possible without the involvement of every stakeholder.”

During the event, Dr. K K Mishra also delivered a case study on “Chitkara Univesity: A Journey towards Excellence” and talked about the journey of the university from its inception and other aspects including its legacy, accolades, and future goals.

QS I-GAUGE was launched in 2018 at the hands of the Former President of India, Late Shri Pranab Mukherjee, and was set up as an international, independent, private-sector initiative specialized in rating colleges, universities, and schools. The system was designed after the highly recognized QS STARS University Rating System, and further adapted to capture the reality of the dynamic Indian higher education sector, while at the same time maintaining the strict quality standards that are synonymous with the QS brand.

Assam, May 17,2022: Incessant rains have triggered floods and landslides in Assam. Nearly 1.97 lakh people in 20 districts of the state have been affected by the current spell of floods.
According to the report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, as many as 51,357 people have been affected alone in the Cachar district. 652 villages under 46 revenue circles are affected by this wave of flood and floodwaters submerged 16,645.61 hectares of cropland.
The authorities have informed that two persons died in Cachar district while three others including two children are missing in Cachar district. The district administration has set up 55 relief camps and 12 distribution centres where 32,959 flood-affected people are taking shelter.
The water level of the Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger level mark at Neamatighat in Jorhat district and Kopili river in the Kampur area in Nagaon district. Normal life has been affected as the flood situation prevails in Nagaon district’s Kampur area.
Landslides have been reported from New Kunjung, Fiangpui, Moulhoi, Namzeurang, South Bagetar, Mahadev Tilla, Kalibari, North Bagetar, Zion and Lodi Pangmoul villages.

May 13,2022:Astronomers have published the first ever imagery of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”), confirming the hypothesis developed in the 1980s that this compact radio source is in fact a supermassive black hole that sits at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The results were presented at press conferences held simultaneously around the world.

The research was done by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, a grouping of 300 astronomers and hundreds more support staff at 60 universities and institutions in 20 countries. The observing campaign was conducted in April 2017 using eight telescopes in Europe, South America, North America and Antarctica. Thousands of terabytes of data recorded by the telescopes were analyzed and processed for five years using supercomputers around the world to produce the simple but stunning graphical result.
NASA’s Chandra, NuSTAR and Swift telescopes participated in the experiment to complement the EHT’s measurements. The space-based observatories are capable of observing in X-ray and gamma ray wavelengths of light, revealing further details about the large-scale clouds of gas and dust interacting with the black hole.

Sgr A* has been studied for many decades. Karl Jansky, one of the founders of the field of radio astronomy, rose to prominence after detecting radio waves emanating from the center of the Milky Way in 1933. In the decades after, further observations discovered that the source of these observations was a very compact object, suggesting a black hole. Further evidence was presented in the early 2000s when a team of physicists led by Reinhard Genzel at the Max Planck Institute reported on a star orbiting a single massive and invisible object, ruling out the possibility of a cluster of massive dark objects in the galactic core.

Observations of the black hole itself have only been possible thanks to developments in very-long-baseline interferometry. The technique was first developed in the 1960s as a way to combine observations from multiple telescopes in order to emulate a single, larger telescope that is effectively the size of the distance between the two farthest receivers. Over the years, incremental improvements to the technology have allowed astronomers to shrink the wavelengths used in this method from the 1 meter scale down to 1.3 millimeters, with corresponding increases in resolution.
Moreover, since the actual shape of the radio waves have to be recorded and processed, every aspect of the technology needs to improve: the design of the radio telescopes, more precise pointing of the telescopes and the ability to record titanic amounts of data, transmit the data and recombine them. Using advances made in the past 60 years, particularly in fiber optics and atomic clocks, the EHT team was able to take measurements to within a trillionth of a second between observatories that are separated as far as Spain and the South Pole, making a telescope effectively the size of Earth. In doing so, astronomers were able to achieve the necessary precision to directly image the area around the Milky Way’s central black hole.

The data presented is the second set of measurements studying the environment immediately surrounding a black hole, particularly of the radiation produced by matter accreting around and eventually spiraling into the super-dense objects. The first such measurements were also taken by the EHT team and released in 2019, showing the region around the central black hole of galaxy Messier 87 (M87). Those results were deemed so significant that the following year, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for research into black holes.

One the most important differences of the observations presented yesterday is that the black holes studied have vastly different masses. The black hole in the center of M87 is 6.5 billion times more massive than our Sun and occupies a region of space on the order of the entire Solar System. In comparison, Sgr A* is about 4.1 million times as massive as the Sun and it extends to about the orbit of Mercury, that is, it is 1,600 times smaller in mass and size than the black hole in M87.
The peculiarities of general relativity also mean that the timescales just beyond the event horizon of the two black holes (the point at which light can escape) also differ by a factor of about 1,600. Changes in the structure of the hot gas orbiting the black hole in M87, for example, might take one month. The same changes of the matter orbiting Sgr A* take about 30 minutes, making the neighborhood around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole much more dynamic than that of its larger counterpart.

The rapidity of events in the region around Sgr A*, however, made it much more difficult to study. The researchers had to keep track of how structures were evolving over the course of a night, and individual observations could rarely last more than a few minutes. In addition, the much lower flow of material into this black hole makes for a fainter target, making it even harder to acquire quality data. Whole new computer algorithms had to be developed and tested in order to account for and surmount these hurdles.

Once these technical challenges had been overcome, a whole new physical regime could be visualized. Despite the vast differences in size, mass and inflow into the two black holes now imaged, both show a characteristic image form which can only be explained by the warping of spacetime predicted by Einstein’s general relativity. At the same time, the differences between the two black holes confirms the theory holds even under diverse conditions.

The relative quiescence of Sgr A* also provided an opportunity to observe a super-massive black hole in what is likely the normal state of most of these astronomical objects. In doing so, it served as a chance to more deeply understand how they interact with galaxies more generally, how accretion disks are formed and how jets of energy, such as the one being emitted from the center of M87, are launched.

The data also provided a measurement of the spin of the black hole, its most important property after its mass. The researchers were thus able to test the validity of the so-called Kerr metric, the mathematical description of in the theory of general relativity of a rotating black hole. It was also determined that one of the poles of Sgr A* is pointing more or less at Earth.

And more is to come. Similar to their observations of M87, the EHT astronomers also collected the polarization of the light (the orientation of the electromagnetic waves) emitted from the accretion disk around Sgr A*, which will let them reconstruct the magnetic fields around the black hole and provide further insight into the dynamics of its environment.

The collaboration also announced further work, including data collected this past March using an upgraded network of telescopes that will potentially be used to make movies of black holes in the near future. They are also planning to try to observe black holes in the center of even more distant galaxies, particularly those with large accretion disks and emitting colossal amounts of radiation.

May 18,2022:Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has resigned from his position. He has cited personal reasons for taking this step. He has sent his resignation to the President, sources said.

His tenure lasted for more than five years. He took over office on December 31, 2016, after the sudden resignation of his predecessor Najeeb Jung.

A 1969 batch IAS officer from the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, Baijal has served as Union Home Secretary under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He also held key positions in other ministries.

He retired from service in 2006 as Secretary of the Urban Development Ministry. Following his retirement, he was associated with the planning and implementation of Rs 60,000 crore JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) by the UPA government.

DUBAI,May 13,2022: United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a pro-Western moderniser who had aligned the Gulf Arab state closer to the United States and its allies, died on Friday at age 73.

The Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced the death of Khalifa, who was also ruler of the UAE’s richest emirate, Abu Dhabi, but gave no details.

Khalifa, born in September 1948, had rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2014.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan served as the president of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi since November 3, 2004. The Royal was elected to succeed his father, the late His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who served as the country’s first president since the union in 1971 until he passed away on November 2, 2004.

New Delhi, May 14,2022: A massive fire broke out in a four-storey commercial building near West Delhi’s Mundka metro station on Friday evening, leaving 27 persons dead and 12 injured. The toll could go up.

The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital, some with severe burn injuries, the police said. The fire started on the first floor in the office of a company manufacturing CCTV cameras, and spread to the second and third floor.

Talking to the media, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sameer Sharma said Harish Goel and Varun Goel, the owners of the company, had been detained. “Rescue operations are on. About 15 fire tenders are on the spot and more are coming. Two floors have been gutted and 50-60 persons rescued,” he added. Delhi Fire Service officials said some of those trapped jumped off the building. Injured, they had been hospitalised.

President Ram Nath Kovind and PM Narendra Modi expressed grief. “Distressed by the tragic fire accident… My condolences to the bereaved families,” the President tweeted. “Extremely saddened by the loss of lives… My thoughts are with the bereaved families,” the PM said.

The PMO has announced Rs 2 lakh each from the PM National Relief Fund for the next of kin of those who died in the fire. A sum of Rs 50,000 will be given to each of the injured. “I am in constant touch with the officials…

Our priority is to evacuate the people and provide immediate treatment to the injured,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “Shocked and pained… I am constantly in touch with officers. Our brave firemen are trying their best to control the fire and save lives.”

LONDON, May 19,2022: The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert Wednesday night warning that more cases of the monkeypox virus could be reported in Britain.

An investigation is underway by British health officials to detect the cause of the outbreak which has hit mainly London, now affecting nine people.

“Based on currently available information, infection seems to have been locally acquired in the United Kingdom. The extent of local transmission is unclear at this stage and there is the possibility of identification of further cases,” the WHO added.

Three cases from the same household were initially confirmed on May 6, followed by four more cases a few days later. Two additional cases, one in London and one in the South East of England, were also detected.

“The latest cases bring the total number of monkeypox cases confirmed in England since 6 May to 9, with recent cases predominantly in gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men (MSM),” the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said Wednesday night on its official website.

The four laboratory confirmed cases were reported amongst people who attended a Sexual Health clinic with a vesicular rash illness in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), the WHO statement said.

Monkeypox is a sylvatic zoonosis with incidental human infections that usually occur in forested parts of Central and West Africa. It is caused by the monkeypox virus which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family, the WHO added.

A detailed contact tracing investigation is also being carried out to determine the likely route of acquisition and establish whether there are any further chains of transmission within Britain for all cases.

“No source of infection has yet been confirmed for either the family or GBMSM clusters,” the WHO said.

Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said these latest cases and reports of cases in countries across Europe confirmed their initial concerns that there could be spread of monkeypox within the communities.
“We are contacting any identified close contacts of the cases to provide health information and advice,” said Hopkins.

There have been eight previous cases of monkeypox reported in Britain, all linked to a travel history to or from Nigeria.

KYIV/BRUSSELS,May 12,2022: Finland is expected to announce on Thursday its intention to join NATO with Sweden likely to follow soon after, diplomats and officials said, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reshapes European security and the Atlantic military alliance.
NATO allies expect Finland and Sweden to be granted membership quickly, five diplomats and officials told Reuters, paving the way for increased troop presence in the Nordic region during the one-year ratification period.

In the wider Nordic region, Norway, Denmark and the three Baltic states are already NATO members, and the addition of Finland and Sweden would likely anger Moscow, which says NATO enlargement is a direct threat to its own security.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited the issue as a reason for his actions in Ukraine, which has also expressed a desire to eventually join the alliance.
Moscow has also repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining the alliance, threatening “serious military and political consequences”.

Asked on Wednesday if Finland would provoke Russia by joining NATO, President Sauli Niinisto said Putin would be to blame. “My response would be that you caused this. Look at the mirror,” Niinisto said.

On the frontlines, Ukraine on Wednesday said it had pushed back Russian forces in the east and shut gas flows on a route through Russian-held territory, raising the spectre of an energy crisis in Europe.

Ukraine’s armed forces’ general staff said it had recaptured Pytomnyk, a village on the main highway north of the second-largest city of Kharkiv, about halfway to the Russian border.

In another village near Kharkiv recaptured by Ukrainian forces in early April, resident Tatyana Pochivalova returned to find her home blasted to ruins.

“I have not expected anything like this, such aggression, such destruction,” a weeping Pochivalova said. “I came and I kissed the ground, I simply kissed it. My home, there is nothing. Where am I to live, how am I to live?”

The advance appears to be the fastest that Ukraine has mounted since it drove Russian troops away from the capital Kyiv and out of northern Ukraine at the beginning of April.

If sustained, it could let Ukrainian forces threaten supply lines for Russia’s main attack force, and put rear logistics targets in Russia itself within range of artillery.

In the south, Ukraine’s military said early on Thursday it had destroyed two tanks and an ammunition depot in the Russian-controlled Kherson region.

The Kremlin calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarise a neighbour threatening its security. It denies targeting civilians.

Ukraine says it poses no threat and that the deaths of thousands of civilians and destruction of towns and cities show that Russia is waging a war of conquest.

GAS SUPPLIES

Wednesday’s move by Ukraine to cut off Russian gas supplies through territory held by Russian-backed separatists was the first time the conflict has directly disrupted shipments to Europe.

Gas flows from Russia’s export monopoly Gazprom to Europe via Ukraine fell by a quarter after Kyiv said it was forced to halt all flows from one route, through the Sokhranovka transit point in southern Russia.

Ukraine accused Russian-backed separatists of siphoning supplies.

Should the supply cut persist, it would be the most direct impact so far on European energy markets.

Moscow has also imposed sanctions on the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe, as well as Gazprom’s former German unit, whose subsidiaries service Europe’s gas consumption.
The implications for Europe, which buys more than a third of its gas from Russia, were not immediately clear.

Berlin said it was looking into the announcement. An Economy Ministry spokesperson said the German government was “taking the necessary precautions and preparing for various scenarios”.

May 21,2022:The World Health Organization was holding an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common to west and central Africa, after over 100 cases were confirmed or suspected in Europe.
This development comes following Germany describing this as the largest outbreak in Europe ever, cases have been reported in at least nine countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom – as well as the United States, Canada and Australia.

Spain reported 24 new cases on Friday, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections.

While a hospital in Israel was treating a man in his 30s who is displaying symptoms consistent with the disease after recently arriving from Western Europe.
First identified in monkeys, the disease typically spreads through close contact and has rarely spread outside Africa, so this series of cases has triggered concern.

However, scientists do not expect the outbreak to evolve into a pandemic like Covid-19, given the virus does not spread as easily as SARS-COV-2. Monkeypox is usually a mild viral illness, characterised by symptoms of fever as well as a distinctive bumpy rash.

“This is the largest and most widespread outbreak of monkeypox ever seen in Europe,” said Germany’s armed forces’ medical service, which detected its first case in the country on Friday.
There is no specific vaccine for monkeypox, but data shows that the vaccines used to eradicate smallpox are up to 85% effective against monkeypox, according to the WHO.

British authorities said they have offered a smallpox vaccine to some healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed to monkeypox.
Since 1970, monkeypox cases have been reported in 11 African countries. Nigeria has had a large ongoing outbreak since 2017. So far this year, there have been 46 suspected cases, of which 15 have since been confirmed, according to the WHO.

May 13,2022: Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe detailed on Friday a three year plan to improve the country’s economy and tackle its significant debt burden.

His comments come as the World Bank and the IMF called on Sri Lanka to deliver on planned reforms.

“It is an urgent need to draw our attention on spending more than the revenue. We have initiated a process of fiscal consolidation based on revenue generation by passing the Inland Revenue Act, which is already yielding returns,” he said.

“In order to overcome these unprecedented challenges, the government has initiated a prudent debt management strategy. Our traditional approaches to debt management will have to change to cope with new risks and structural and regulatory changes.”

“Our policies will be targeted on forward-looking liability management strategies. Accordingly, the funds required by the government will be raised with transparency and predictability. Under the medium – term debt management strategy, the detailed strategies of government borrowings will be known in advance to the domestic and foreign debt portfolios. In addition, we will introduce a comprehensive secondary market trading platform and a liability management fund. These reforms and future reforms will come into effect under the new Fiscal Liability Management Act that provides legal framework for a prudent debt management strategy.”

“The changes we have made by introducing the new Inland Revenue Act have been commended by the international community as well as domestic economic actors.”

“With the reforms such as the new Inland Revenue Act, Foreign Exchange Act, Fiscal Liability Management Act, Corporate Intents of the State Owned Enterprises and close monetary-fiscal coordination, we will steer this country towards robust and judicious management of our financial resources and fiscal framework.”

Mr Wickremesinghe also drew attention to Free Trade Agreements the government would be pursuing, including with Singapore, China and India.

“These deals will give our economy a massive boost by opening huge new markets to our entrepreneurs,” he added.

Making the case for an effort to bolster the tourism industry, Mr Wickremesinghe said, “China and India are our biggest and most rapidly expanding markets. We must shift our tourism strategies accordingly.”

“We have to expand our connections with the countries from which the well-spending tourists are coming. We have to liberalise access to sea and air services. Therefore action will be taken to develop air access domestically and internationally, while facilitating cruise services and the establishment of yacht marinas.”

“The construction of the first stage of the port city which will be developed as a Financial City is nearing completion. We will develop the Kandy City by joining hands with the Japanese government. India and Japan are extending their assistance to construct LNG plants. Tourism Zones in the Southern have been planned. Acquisition of lands is taking place now. We will start working on tourism zones in Iranavila and the Eastern Province soon.”

May 11,2022: In a historic order, the Supreme Court has directed that Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code be kept in abeyance till the government’s exercise of reviewing the contentious law is complete.

The SC bench comprising the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli held that all pending cases, appeals and proceedings with respect to charges framed under Section124 A be kept in abeyance. Adjudication with respect to other sections may proceed with no prejudice be caused to the accused, it held.
No new cases under sedition law
The SC also directed the Center and states that no new cases should be registered under Section 124A until the government’s re-examination of the law is completed.
This is the first time in 162 years that the operation of the provision of sedition has been suspended.

The court said the provision would remain suspended indefinitely and till further orders. It added that the Union government is free to issue additional directions to the states.

Govt agrees to re-examine sedition law
The development comes days after the government, in a major U-turn of its policy told the SC that it was ready to reconsider the colonial era law.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs has told the Supreme Court that in the spirit of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and the Prime Minister’s unequivocal views in favour of protection of civil liberties and to shed colonial baggage, the government has decided to re-examine and re-consider the sedition law.

The use of the sedition law, which was introduced by the British to target freedom fighters in post-Independence India was always controversial.

Those opposed to the law have long argued that successive governments, both at the Centre and states have used it to target critics, activists and journalists.
They also point out that despite the high number of cases registered under the sedition law only a few have ever been convicted under it.

May 16,2022: Somali legislators have elected former leader Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the country’s next president, following a long-overdue election on Sunday in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who served as Somalia’s president between 2012 and 2017, won the contest in the capital, Mogadishu, amid a security lockdown imposed by authorities to prevent deadly rebel attacks.
After a marathon poll, involving 36 candidates, that was broadcast live on state TV, parliamentary officials counted more than 165 votes in favour of former President Mohamud, more than the number required to defeat incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

Supporters of Somalia’s new leader defied the curfew to pour onto the streets of Mogadishu, cheering and firing guns as it became clear that Mohamud had won the vote.

Many hope the vote will draw a line under a political crisis that has lasted well over a year, after Mohamed’s term ended in February 2021 without an election.

The president conceded defeat, and Mohamud was immediately sworn in.
The new leader struck a conciliatory tone in his acceptance speech from the airport compound in Mogadishu, which was patrolled by African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

New Delhi,May 13,2022: Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar was on Thursday appointed as the next chief election commissioner. He will assume charge on May 15 after incumbent Sushil Chandra demits office on May 14, a notification issued by the law ministry said. Putting the notification and a press note on his Twitter handle, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju extended his best wishes to Kumar. “In pursuance of clause (2) of article 324 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Rajiv Kumar as the Chief Election Commissioner with effect from the 15th May, 2022,” read the notification.

WASHINGTON, May 13,2022: President Joe Biden on Thursday commemorated the COVID-19 deaths of 1 million people in the United States, marking what he called “a tragic milestone” and urging Americans to “remain vigilant” during the ongoing pandemic.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden finally acknowledged that over 1 million Americans have now died from COVID-19. He did so by issuing a perfunctory written statement and a pre-recorded video, both of which were characterized above all by their cynicism and indifference to the lives of those lost and their loved ones still mourning.

Various COVID-19 trackers rely on different data sets, and the Biden administration artificially delayed official recognition of this horrific milestone, choosing to use the Reuters tracker. The 1 million death milestone was first reached by Worldometer nearly two months ago on March 22, which only the World Socialist Web Site commented on at the time. This was followed by the NBC and News Nodes trackers last week, which led to a handful of additional comments in the corporate media but continued silence from the White House.

Estimates of excess deaths, rarely referred to by politicians and the media, found that by mid-December over 1 million Americans had died directly or indirectly due to the pandemic. Today, excess death estimates place the real US death toll at above 1.2 million, while over 20 million people have likely perished worldwide due to the pandemic.

May 16,2022: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday participated in the foundation stone laying ceremony for the construction of a Centre of Buddhist Culture and Heritage in Lumbini, on the auspicious occasion of Buddha Jayanti.
The plot where the foundation was laid belongs to the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) and lies within the Lumbini Monastic Zone.

PM Modi today started his Nepal visit with a visit to the Maya Devi Temple. Prime Minister was accompanied by PM Deuba and his spouse Arzu Rana Deuba. The PMs paid their respects at the Marker Stone inside the temple premises, which pinpoints the exact birth spot of Lord Buddha. They attended the pooja conducted as per Buddhist rituals.

The two Prime Ministers also lit lamps near the Ashoka Pillar located adjacent to the temple. The pillar, which was erected by Emperor Ashoka in 249 BC, bears the first epigraphic evidence of Lumbini being the birthplace of Lord Buddha. Thereafter, the two Prime Ministers watered the Bodhi tree sapling from Bodh Gaya which was gifted by PM Modi to Lumbini in 2014 and also signed the temple’s visitor’s book.