‘PM Modi will hold roadshow, address public gathering on Dec 30 in Ayodhya’: Commissioner Gaurav Dayal
A review meeting was held with the top officials of the district as well as the officials of the Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust on Saturday regarding the Prime Minister’s visit to Ayodhya on December 30.
Drone hit tanker ship off Gujarat coast was ‘fired from Iran’, says US Pentagon: Here’s what we know so far
The Pentagon claimed in a statement on Sunday that the attack happened at around 10 a.m. local time and that no one was hurt on board the Japanese-owned ship.
Ayodhya Ram temple consecration on January 22; check details here
The consecration ceremony at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will take place during the auspicious Abhijeet Muhurat.
Covid-19 JN.1 variant: Is there a need for additional dose of vaccine? INSACOG chief reveals
“I would say prevention is required for all those who are 60 years of age or older, who are likely to have comorbidities and those who are on drugs that suppress our immunity, like cancer patients,” he said.
Tamil Nadu: Fire breaks out at commercial complex in Madurai
People inside the shops and cinema theatres were evacuated through emergency exits.
Gavin Newsom blasts effort to block Trump from California ballot: ‘We defeat candidates at the polls’
Gov. Gavin Newsom critized fellow Democrats for considering blocking former president Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, saying that, “we defeat candidates at the polls.” “There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. “But in California, we defeat candidates at the polls.” “Everything else is a political distraction,” Newsom said. RFK JR SLAMS CALIFORNIA LT GOV FOR EYEING BID TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM BALLOT The effort to boot Trump off the ballot has been gaining momentum after Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis sent a letter to California Secretary of State, Dr. Shirley Weber, and urged her to “explore” all legal options of removing the former President from the state’s ballot. “Based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling in Anderson v. Griswold (2023 CO 63), I urge you to explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” the letter to Weber said. In the letter, Kounalakis argued that persuing legal options for removing Trump is about “protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy.” CALIFORNIA LT. GOV CALLS FOR STATE TO ‘EXPLORE EVERY LEGAL OPTION’ TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM ’24 BALLOT “This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy,” Kounalakis wrote. Newsom’s comments come in the wake of this week’s ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court to remove Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot. The divided court ruled that Trump is ineligible to run for the presidency under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause, arguing that his actions fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing protesters aiming to disrupt congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. The blockbuster development was immediately condemned from nearly all corners of the GOP. Additionally, Trump’s Republican rivals for their party’s presidential nomination – who are aiming to defeat him at the ballot box – quickly rallied around the former president. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
House committee to launch investigation into UN agency for alleged ‘troubling connection’ to Hamas
A House Committee is expected to launch an investigation into a United Nations agency that provides aid to Palestinians for alleged ties to Hamas, according to a report. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is planning to investigate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East, which is also known as UNRWA, according to the New York Post. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told the outlet that there’s evidence of a connection between the UN agency and Hamas. “There is extensive evidence of a troubling connection between UNRWA and Hamas, and it is far deeper than was known,” Issa said. “Congress must now investigate and uncover the extent of what UNRWA knew, what it did, and what it may be hiding from the world.” LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL AT WAR WITH HAMAS Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel carried out by Hamas, troubling reports regarding the UNRWA have emerged. One Israeli citizen taken hostage by the Hamas terrorist group said they were held for 50 days inside an attic belonging to a UNRWA teacher, according to the Jerusalem Post. HAMAS SAYS ‘NO TALK ABOUT PRISONERS OR EXCHANGE DEALS’ UNTIL ISRAEL STOPS MILITARY CAMPAIGN: REPORT The State Department under former President Trump cut ties with UNRWA in 2018, with the agency calling the organization an “irredeemably flawed operation.” However, President Biden reestablished the relationship in June 2021. A spokesperson for Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who chairs the body’s oversight subcommittee, told the Post that “He is also supportive of a probe, to put it mildly.”
‘Did not ask for ceasefire’ in Gaza: Biden after phone call with Netanyahu
White House says the two leaders discussed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including its ‘objectives and phasing’. United States President Joe Biden says he did not ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in a telephone call between the two leaders. “I had a long talk with Netanyahu today [Saturday] and it was a private conversation,” Biden told reporters on Saturday. “I did not ask for a ceasefire,” he said, in response to a shouted question. In a statement later, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu discussed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including its “objectives and phasing”. Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting,” said the statement. “The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages.” The call between the two leaders came a day after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution calling for the scaling up of aid for Gaza but fell short of calling for a ceasefire or a pause in weeks-long fighting. The resolution, which demanded “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid to Gaza “at scale”, was passed after UNSC members wrangled for days over its wording and toned down some provisions at Washington’s insistence. The US and Russia abstained from the vote, whose impact on the ground, aid groups fear, will be close to nil. “This resolution has been watered down to the point that its impact on the lives of civilians in Gaza will be nearly meaningless,” Avril Benoit, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. “The way Israel is prosecuting this war, with US support, is causing massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and is inconsistent with international norms and laws,” Benoit added. The US also opposed the demand to create a UN monitoring mechanism for aid, assuring Israel would continue to have a role in inspecting deliveries. Netanyahu on Saturday “expressed his appreciation” for the stance taken by the US at the UN, his office said. He also “made it clear that Israel will continue the war until all its goals are completed”. More than 200 killed in 24 hours Israel has continued to bomb Gaza for nearly 80 days, with more than 200 people killed in the past 24 hours. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll since the start of the attacks rose to 20,258 on Saturday, most of them being women and children. According to UN estimates, the war has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population. The UN has described the situation in Gaza as “beyond catastrophic”, with residents struggling to find food, fuel and water, while living in crowded shelters or tents. In a post on X, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it “cannot deliver meaningful aid” while the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues. “It is extremely tragic that politics stand in the way of 2.2 million people’s survival in Gaza,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara al-Rifai said at a news conference on Saturday. Adblock test (Why?)
Biden admin’s top officials attempted to ‘conceal’ Chinese spy balloon from public, Congress exposed: report
Despite Biden administration officials assuring the American public that the Chinese spy balloon did not collect and transmit data, a previously unreported phone call paints a different picture of top officials hiding information about the balloon. According to NBC News, a previously unreported Jan. 27 phone call between President Joe Biden’s top military adviser, Gen. Mark Milley and NORAD chief Gen. Glen VanHerck sheds lights about China’s surveillance balloon. The administration initially hoped to keep the balloon’s existence a secret from Congress and the public, the outlet reported, citing multiple former and current administration and congressional officials. “Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” one former senior U.S. official told NBC. AIR FORCE WARNS CHINESE COMPANY’S NORTH DAKOTA MILL WOULD BE ‘SIGNIFICANT’ NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT A senior Biden administration official denied allegations that they attempt to conceal the incident, saying decisions were made to protect sensitive intelligence capabilities. CHINA SPY BALLOON SHOWS COUNTRY IS PREPARING CITIZENS FOR WAR THAT COULD COME ‘AT ANY POINT’ “To the extent any of this was kept quiet at all, that was in large part to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking them,” the official told NBC. “There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.” During the Jan. 27 phone call, Milley called VanHerck, and said the Pentagon planned to send up F-22 jets and other aircraft alongside the object and attempt to gauge its characteristics. US NAVY RECOVERS ‘SIGNIFICANT’ PORTION OF CHINESE SPY BALLOON OFF SOUTH CAROLINA, DEFENSE OFFICIAL SAYS Soon after that call, U.S. military jets used targeting pods to determine the object was a balloon the size of three school buses and equipped with a massive surveillance payload but no offensive capabilities, NBC reported. Biden was not briefed on the balloon until Feb. 1, NBC reported. The public did not hear about the Chinese spy balloon until Feb. 2, when NBC News broke the story. VanHerck warned that the Chinese balloon program remains active and that the U.S. has failed to develop systems to detect and track the craft. “It exposed significant gaps, long range gaps, for us to be able to see potential threats to the homeland.” VanHerck said. “I think that opened the eyes of a lot of people.” The top military official said that the U.S. is “not where it needs to be” in the development of “deterrence options.” “Time is the opportunity to create deterrence options or, if required, defeat options,” he said, adding that the U.S. is still “not where we need to be.” According to the outlet, Biden officials privately lamented the public outcry and consequences of the spy balloon’s reveal in early 2023. Officials, in their view, claimed that the spy balloon’s reputational consequences for China and U.S. relations posed a far graver threat than the balloon entering U.S. airspace. “It caused so many problems,” one senior administration official said. President Biden’s White House has stated the delay in shooting down the surveillance craft was due to safety precautions as the balloon was carrying several thousand pounds of equipment. The U.S. eventually shot down the craft over open water off the coast of South Carolina, leading to questions about why that wasn’t done as it crossed water near Alaska.
Gaza media office says 100 journalists killed since Israeli attacks began
Palestinian journalist Muhammed Abu Hweidy latest to be killed in Israeli attack on his home in the east of Gaza City. At least 100 journalists have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, according to new figures released by the government media office in Gaza. Palestinian journalist Muhammed Abu Hweidy was the latest to be killed in an Israeli air raid on his home in the east of Gaza City on Saturday, the media office said. “The number of journalists killed has risen to 100, men and women, since the start of the brutal war on the Gaza Strip, after the martyrdom of journalist Mohammed Abu Hweidy in an Israeli airstrike in the Shujaiya neighborhood,” the office said on Telegram social media. Palestinian officials in Gaza say the number could be much higher. However, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 69 journalists have been killed in the conflict, including Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa. More than 50 media premises or offices in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Hundreds of Palestinian journalists and their families have been forcibly displaced to the south. The media workers were also forced to abandon their reporting equipment in offices in the north to live and report under difficult conditions amid frequent communication blackouts. Journalists working in areas of armed conflict are protected under international humanitarian laws, which Israel is accused of violating repeatedly. Palestinian journalists have said Israel is deliberately targeting them to silence their stories. Tim Dawson, deputy general secretary at the International Federation of Journalists, told Al Jazeera it is becoming “impossible to ignore such a terribly, terribly high toll” of journalists. “I don’t think we have seen a death toll of journalists to this concentration in any conflict that I can think of. There were about 1,000 journalists in Gaza at the beginning of this conflict. And while there are slightly different counts of precisely how many have died, if between seven-and-a-half and 10 percent have died, that is an extraordinarily high number,” he said. Dawson said the journalists in Gaza “only have cameras, microphones and notebooks and continue doing their work despite this absolutely mind-blowing death toll”. When asked by Al Jazeera if Israel is targeting journalists, he said some Palestinian journalists have told him they “received threatening calls from people” purporting to be from the Israeli military, “warning them that they are going to be targeted or that their families are going to be targeted in the coming days”. Adblock test (Why?)