A few Indians have joined other plaintiffs in an ongoing litigation that challenges the Covid-related travel ban to the US. An amended complaint (lawsuit petition) was recently filed with the district court of Columbia to include the travel ban for those physically present in India. On April 30, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation restricting the entry of non-immigrants who were in India 14 days preceding travel. The measure was announced following a surge of cases across India due to Covid variants. The US also has in place virus-related travel ban for several other countries. While green card holders were exempt, it hit those holding H-1B visas or H-4 dependent visas who were visiting India for various reasons, including to care for Covid-stricken kin. “Several plaintiffs are long-term employees of US companies, who have been stuck outside of the US and whose careers are at risk, as they cannot return to their jobs and homes,” the petition said.
Asian woman attacked at subway station
A 23-year-old Asian woman was attacked with a walking cane by a man at a subway station in Manhattan last month, and the police are now asking for the public’s help in tracking down the suspect. The incident happened on 12 May as the woman exited the northbound 1 train at Broadway and West 116 Street in Morningside Heights, the police said. The NYPD’s Hate Crime task force, which is investigating the attack, said in a tweet that an unknown man swung his cane at her multiple times, striking her on the head and hip. The woman had pain and swelling after the attack, but the police said she refused medical attention. The woman, who did not want to be named, told NY Daily News: “Each time I talk about it, I’m having a flashback. I’m still recovering from that mentally.”
India-China can end conflict between them: Putin
Asserting that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are “responsible” leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin said they both are capable of solving issues between the two countries, and that it was important that no “extra-regional power” should interfere in the process. With Russia publicly critical of the Quad, Putin said that though it was not up to Moscow to assess how any nation should participate in an initiative and to what extent they should build their relations with other countries but no partnership should be aimed at making friends against anyone. The Russian president's remarks, in response to a question on India's participation in the grouping, were a veiled reference to the Chinese claim that the grouping is to contain Beijing's influence in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
Sindh CM accuses Pak govt of treating province with bias
Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah accused Imran Khan -led Pakistan government of treating the country's province with abject bias and urged him to reconsider the proposed Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Shah urged Khan to reconsider the PSDP terming it lopsided as it was 'detrimental' to the interests of people living in Sindh. Giving the four-year break-up of the number of schemes and their allocation for provincially executed projects for Sindh in the PSDP, he said only six schemes with a total allocation of Rs 5,069.14 million were proposed in 2021, while the number of schemes in 2017-18 was 27 with a total allocation of Rs 23,387.21mn. He said there were 10 schemes with the allocation of Rs 8,302m in 2020-21, 13 schemes of Rs 8.508.85m in 20019-20 and 22 schemes with allocation of 14,266.72 m in 2018-19. "As you note above, grave injustice is being meted out to the people of Sindh ever since the current federal government came into power in August 2018," the letter read.
China jails blogger over remarks on Galwan toll
China has jailed a popular blogger for “defaming martyrs” after he suggested the death toll of the China-India border clash last year was higher than the official count. Qiu Ziming was sentenced to eight months in prison, a court in Nanjing city said. He is the first person to be jailed under a new provision of China’s criminal law that bans “defamation of martyrs and heroes”. After months of silence, the Chinese military in February said four soldiers were killed in a skirmish with Indian troops in Galwan Valley last June. In social media posts, Qiu had suggested that the actual death toll might have been higher than the official count. He also said that a commanding officer survived “because he was the highest-ranking officer there” - a comment that irked officials.
Trump shuts down his blog, frustrated by low readership
Former US President Donald Trump has removed himself entirely from the internet. Still banned from Twitter and Facebook, and struggling to find a way to influence news coverage since leaving office, Trump decided to shutter his do-it-yourself alternative, a blog he had started just a month ago called “From the Desk of Donald J Trump”. Trump had become frustrated after hearing from friends that the site was getting little traffic and making him look small and irrelevant, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Last month, after Washington Post reported that the blog was attracting virtually no readership, Trump played down its purpose, calling it a stopgap measure until he figured out what came next.
Over 100 killed in Burkina Faso attack
Suspected extremists have massacred at least 114 civilians in Burkina Faso’s volatile north in the deadliest attacks since Islamist violence erupted in the west African country in 2015, officials said.
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore denounced an attack near the borders with Mali and Niger where extremists linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State have been targeting civilians and soldiers. “We must remain united against these obscurantist forces,” Kabore said, condemning a massacre that left at least 100 people dead in Solhan as “barbaric” and “despicable”. The worst attack occurred during the night of Friday to Saturday when “armed individuals staged an incursion” into Solhan, a security source said.
MP ousted from House over ‘tight trousers’
Women lawmakers in Tanzania have called for an apology to a Member of Parliament who was asked to leave the National Assembly because of her tight-fitting trousers. Condester Sichwale, a female Tanzanian lawmaker, was expelled from parliament for wearing “strange” clothing. Following a protest about her dress from another legislator, Hussein Amar, she was thrown out by Job Ndugai, the speaker of the house. Amar argued that the parliament was a reflection of society, citing a portion of the parliament’s rules forbidding female legislators from wearing tight jeans. “Go dress up well, and...Join us back later,” the Speaker Job Ndugai told Condester Sichwale. Ndugai said this after a male MP said, “Some of our sisters are wearing strange clothes...What are they showing to society?” Speaker Job Ndugai said that this was not the first time, and instructed chamber orderlies to refuse access to anyone who was dressed inappropriately.
Judge overturns California’s assault weapons ban
A federal judge in California overturned the state’s 3-decade old ban on assault weapons, which he called a “failed experiment”, prompting a retort from the state’s governor. California prohibited the sale of assault weapons in 1989. The law was challenged in a suit filed in 2019. US district court Judge Roger Benitez wrote that sections of the state’s penal code that defined assault weapons and restricted their use were “declared unconstitutional and shall be enjoined”. But the judge said he had granted a 30-day stay of the ruling at the request of state attorney general Rob Bonta, a move that would allow Bonta to appeal. Benitez wrote that the case was about “what should be a muscular constitutional right and whether a state can force a gun policy choice that impinges on that right with a 30-year-old failed experiment.” He wrote the firearms banned under the state’s law were not “bazookas, howitzers or machine guns,” but rather “fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles.”
Pentagon bars Pride flags on installations
The Pentagon said that it would not make an exception to allow US military installations to fly rainbow pride flags in June, keeping a policy set by former President Donald Trump that limited the type of flags that could be flown on bases. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden said that nearly 1,500 of his federal agency appointees identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, in a proclamation marking the start of Pride Month. In July 2020, Trump’s Pentagon issued a policy authorising only certain flags on military installations and was seen as a way for then defence secretary Mark Esper to issue a de facto ban on displaying the Confederate flag without specifically mentioning it. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the decision was made because it could open the door for other challenges to the rule.
Mysterious brain syndrome hits 48 in Canada
Forty-eight people from a small Canadian province struck with a baffling mix of symptoms, including insomnia, impaired motor function and hallucinations such as nightmarish visions of the dead. A quixotic neurologist is working 12-hour days to decipher the clues. Swirling conspiracy theories blaming the illness on cellphone towers, fracking or even Covid-19 vaccines. These are just some plots of a mystery that has stumped the medical establishment, attracted the attention of some of the world’s top neurologists and fanned fears among residents of New Brunswick, a province of about 770,000. In the past six years, dozens have fallen ill from the disease, and six people have died. Medical experts said the murkiness surrounding the illness also reflected how, despite extraordinary advances in medical science, some conditions, in particular neurological diseases involving dementia, can puzzle even the world’s best scientific brains.
2 Myanmar journos jailed; EU to impose new curbs on junta
A military court in Myanmar has sentenced two journalists to two years in prison for their reporting, a move that has been decried by rights groups as the latest assault on the free press since the country's coup. Aung Kyaw, 31, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, and Zaw Zaw, 38, a freelance reporter for online agency Mizzima, were convicted for “spreading misinformation that could incite unrest”. Meanwhile, the EU foreign affair chief Josep Borrell said the group of nations will impose a new round of sanctions on Myanmar’s junta and its economic interests in the coming days. Since the coup, EU sanctions have frozen assets or applied travel bans on 21 military and civilian members.
Elephants on ‘China tour’ travel 500 km
A herd of 15 wandering elephants on an epic trek through southwestern China have entered villages to gorge on crops, broken into barns and caused a million dollars of losses. Initially, there were 17 elephants in the herd, but, on April 24, two appeared to have turned back while the rest moved to towns near the city of Yuxi, about 90 km south of Kunming, according to South China Morning Post. It is unclear why the wild elephants strayed from the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan province. Experts believe the leader of the group might have led it astray, adding that it is rare for them to trek so far. Their destination so far is unknown as well. But since April, the large animals have embarked on a 500 km journey, closely watched by residents and authorities, with hundreds of people mobilised to ensure public safety. The elephants have wrecked around 56 hectares of crops, causing an estimated 6.8m yuan ($1.07m) in losses, CCTV said.
N Korea ruling party creates a 2nd-in-command post
North Korea’s ruling party has amended its rules to create a de facto second-in-command under leader Kim Jong-un as he looks to revamp domestic politics, reports said. The report said the holder of the new post of “first secretary” would chair meetings on behalf of Kim. Kim used the “first secretary” designation from 2012 to 2016. Kim cemented his power at a congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in January, when he was elected its general secretary, taking a title last held by his father, Kim Jong Il. Now Kim wants a greater role in government for the party, as compared to the more-military centred administration of his father, the report added.
