Meet Indian astronauts Shubhanshu Shukla, Prashanth Nair who are selected for NASA-ISRO mission to space station
The National Mission Assignment Board has recommended two ‘gaganyatris’ as prime and backup mission pilots for this mission, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (prime) and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair (backup).
Delhi: Three die, many feared trapped after building collapse in Jahangirpur
They said a few more people might still be trapped underneath the rubble and a rescue operation is underway.
JD Vance rips Kamala Harris for more word salad — ‘significance of the power of diplomacy’
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance criticized the media and Vice President Kamala Harris over her comments following the repatriation of Americans jailed in Russia. Vance appeared to critique Harris’ unscripted remarks made while standing beside President Biden at Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland. “It’s amazing that journalists can look themselves in the mirror while letting this person coast to a major party nomination for president,” Vance said on X. “Is anyone going to ask this person a question?” Harris has not held a press conference in the nearly two-week span since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee upon Biden’s decision not to continue his re-election bid. KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE During a reporter gaggle, Harris said of the prisoner swap, “This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances.” The clip, first posted by the former President Trump campaign’s “war room,” included responses calling Harris’ comments “significance of the passage of time 2.0” – a reference to a prior instance wherein Harris repeated the same clause over and over while off-script. During a 2022 visit to Sunset, Louisiana, with then-Gov. John Bel Edwards and Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., Harris had praised the officials and reflected on a tour of a library she took part in that day. “We were … talking about the significance of the passage of time. Right? The significance of the passage of time,” Harris said. 9/11 TERRORIST FEARS TRUMP WILL GET ELECTED AND EXECUTE HIM “So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires, what we need to do to create these jobs,” she added. “And there is such great significance to the passage of time when we think about a day in the life of our children and what that means to the future of our nation, depending on whether or not they have the resources they need to achieve their God-given talent.” Harris has notably eschewed certain unscripted public events in the time since she became the nominee-apparent. The vice president did not appear at a National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago, where former President Trump made waves for some of his commentary and clashes with ABC News reporter Rachel Scott. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Harris has held two campaign rallies and plans to hold a third in Philadelphia next week with her yet-unnamed vice presidential pick. The site of the upcoming event offered the suggestion that she would choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who previously served as the state’s attorney general – and before that – chair of the board of the Montgomery County commissioners. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., have also been floated as potential running mate choices. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on Vance’s criticism.
Harris’ border remarks haunt down-ballot Dems as Lake ad previews GOP general election strategy
FIRST ON FOX: Vice President Kamala Harris’ posture on the southern border crisis is set to haunt down-ballot Democrats in the November election, with Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake previewing the GOP’s attack in battleground states following the Democratic ticket shakeup. “Ruben Gallego and Kamala Harris: Bad for the border. Bad for Arizona. Bad for America,” a narrator says in Lake’s first ad of the general election campaign. The words appear over footage of Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona, and Harris hugging. The video also slammed Gallego for his record of voting with President Biden and Harris 100% of the time in the 117th Congress between 2021 and 2022, according to FiveThirtyEight. REPUBLICANS LAMBASTE BIDEN FOR ISRAEL WEAPONS DELAYS: ‘STOP ACCOMMODATING IRAN’ The ad is part of a $10 million ad reservation previously announced by Lake in May. Harris is seen in the video saying that she doesn’t think the U.S. should treat people who “cross the border as criminals.” The footage is from a 2019 appearance on “The View” during her bid for the Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 election. “We’re not going to support a border wall that is not needed,” Gallego says in subsequent footage. The statement from the Arizona Democrat was made on CNN in 2018. ‘NO KINGS ACT’: SCHUMER ADVANCES BIDEN SCOTUS OVERHAUL WITH BILL TO STRIP TRUMP’S IMMUNITY In the next clip, Harris was asked by a CNN anchor whether she agreed with calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to which she replied that, “we need to probably even think about starting from scratch.” The then-senator said, “I think there is no question that we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way it is being administered and the work it is doing,” prior to the remark in 2018. ‘DANGEROUS MESSAGE’: TOP REPUBLICAN RAISES CONCERNS OVER TRADING AMERICANS FOR ‘ACTUAL RUSSIAN CRIMINALS’ A 2017 comment from Gallego describing the border wall proposed by former President Trump as “stupid” and “dumb” during a speech on the House floor is then played in the ad. The representative was criticizing the Trump administration for seeking to use military construction funds to continue the wall as the building process was otherwise stalled by Congress. “Ruben Gallego is a Marine combat veteran whose number one priority is securing our border and keeping Arizonans safe, which is why he is fighting tirelessly to hire more Border Patrol agents, fix our broken asylum system, crack down on fentanyl trafficking, and invest in proven technology — all to increase our border security,” a campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Meanwhile, Kari Lake is a power-hungry liar who will do or say anything to gain power, even if it means opposing a bipartisan, Border-Patrol backed bill to finally address the border crisis.” KAMALA HARRIS HIT FOR HER ROLE IN PROMOTING IRA FUNDING OF ‘ANTI-AMERICAN’ GROUPS The Harris campaign referred Fox News Digital to her remarks at a recent Georgia rally, during which she pledged to the crowd, “As President, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like.” Trump was blamed by many with squashing a bipartisan negotiated border security bill and preventing it from garnering enough support to advance. However, Senate Republicans have pushed back on this, suggesting several of the measure’s components were non-starters. When the measure came for a test vote in May, two of the three negotiators, Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., voted it down. Lake similarly argued that the bill didn’t secure the border and was a “complete joke.” Gallego said he would have supported the bipartisan negotiated bill, slamming Lake for her opposition. Lake officially won the Republican nod for Senate on Tuesday, defeating Sheriff Mark Lamb. Gallego ran for the Democratic nomination unopposed. Current incumbent Sinema revealed earlier this year that she wouldn’t be seeking re-election. She was first elected to the seat in 2018 as a Democrat before switching her party affiliation in 2022. The Arizona Senate race is rated “Lean Democratic” by non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report, alongside races in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania featuring vulnerable incumbent Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Bob Casey. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Biden admin freezes controversial migrant flight program after fraud revelations
EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration has put a controversial program that allows tens of thousands of migrants from four nations to fly or travel directly into the U.S. on hold, after a report circulated internally showing significant amounts of fraud in the program. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News Digital that “out of an abundance of caution” it has temporarily paused the issuing of advance travel authorizations for the program — which allows up to 30,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to travel into the U.S. each month and enter legally under the administration’s use of parole if they meet certain conditions. A congressional source had told Fox News Digital the pause came in mid-July after an internal report unearthed large amounts of fraud in applications for those sponsoring the applicants. DHS said the pause was occurring as it reviewed sponsor applications. DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING “DHS has review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Where fraud is identified, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.” “Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications. DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards,” they said. The program was initially announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, and allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S., and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel. In January 2023, the administration announced that the program was expanding to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans and that the program would allow up to 30,000 people per month into the U.S. It allows for migrants to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S. and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities. A congressional source tells Fox News Digital that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stopped issuing travel authorizations to Venezuelans on July 6 and authorizations for the three remaining nationalities on July 18. The internal report found that forms from those applying for the program included social security numbers, addresses and phone numbers being used hundreds of times in some cases. Parts of the report shared with Fox News Digital by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative immigration group, showed that 100,948 forms were filled out by 3,218 serial sponsors — those whose number appears on 20 or more forms. ‘ILLEGAL PROGRAM’: GOVERNOR VOWS TO FIGHT BIDEN FLYING MIGRANTS INTO US It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms. Those addresses included storage units. One sponsor phone number was submitted on over 2,000 forms, and there were 2,839 forms with non-existent sponsor zip codes, according to the leak. The report was created by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate to ensure DHS can quickly respond to fraud in immigration benefits programs. Sponsors must pass security and background vetting and demonstrate financial resources to support the individual they are sponsoring. DHS stressed to Fox News Digital that CHNV beneficiaries are “thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States.” “The multi-layered screening and vetting for advanced travel authorizations is separate from the screening of U.S.-based supporters,” the spokesperson said. “DHS has not identified issues of concern relating to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries.” The freeze is likely to raise additional questions from Republicans, who have alleged that the Biden administration’s use of parole is an abuse of congressionally-granted authority — which limits the power to be used only for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. “This is an indication that the administration was willing to cut every corner and endanger public safety in order to bring in as many illegal aliens as they could,” Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for FAIR, told Fox News Digital. The administration is also using the CBP One app to allow 1,450 migrants to enter the U.S. via a port of entry each day. It recently announced a “parole in place” for spouses of illegal immigrants. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said the program is a “safe and orderly way to reach the United States” and has “led to a reduction in numbers of those nationalities.” “It is a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere, and other countries around the world see it as a model to tackle the challenge of increased irregular migration that they too are experiencing,” Mayorkas said. DHS revealed this year that, as of October 2023, there were about 1.6 million applicants waiting for DHS approval to fly to the U.S. via the parole program. A lawsuit challenging the program was shot down earlier this year, but Republican states who filed it have indicated they intend to appeal.
Digant Sharma, CA Mahendra Turakhia signs Rs 341 crore deal to feed 1.2M children daily with Annamrita Foundation
Shri Sanjay Tikku is the Vice-Chairman, Trustee, and program director of the Jharkhand mid-day meal program under Annamrita Foundation (ISKCON Food Relief Foundation).
A comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution is still achievable
The landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19 calls for the immediate end of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid rule. This ruling reinforces a clear pathway to peace – based on a sovereign State of Palestine in the context of the two-state solution. According to the ICJ, Israel must withdraw from all of the occupied Palestinian territory, cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers and pay damages. Ending the illegal occupation is not conditional upon a bilateral peace process between Israel and Palestine. In his declaration, ICJ President Nawaf Salam stated: “[Israeli] withdrawal cannot be conditional on the success of negotiations whose outcome will depend on Israel’s approval. In particular, Israel cannot invoke the need for a prior agreement on its security claims for such a condition may lead to perpetuating its unlawful occupation.” The ICJ ruling is a vindication of the rights of the Palestinian people, who have endured decades of oppression. It is also a rejection of the position of the United States, which insists on Israel’s agreement on a political settlement as a condition for ending the occupation. The sovereignty of Palestine, based on the two-state solution and the borders of June 4, 1967, cannot be held hostage to Israel’s apartheid policies. The two-state solution is a matter of international law, not of Israel’s domestic politics, much less its extremism. Diplomatic negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations, can and should focus on the implementation of Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territory and mutual security arrangements of the two states living side by side. The US has been a decades-long proponent of a cynical “peace process” between Israel and Palestine that is designed to fail. The obvious truth is that the occupying power, Israel, and the people under occupation, Palestine, will never be on a fair footing in negotiations. Palestinians have been forced to negotiate under extreme duress while Israel has continued its blatant violations of international law. Yet the inequality of bargaining power has been far worse than the gross inequality of power between the occupier and the occupied. The US has held the cards for decades and has consistently been a dishonest broker. The US political elite is pro-Zionist to the hilt as it is notoriously financed by the Israel lobby (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and others) and deeply entwined with Israel’s military and security apparatus, especially CIA-Mossad links. The US blames Palestine for every failure in negotiations, even when Israel’s intransigence and opposition to the two-state solution are the obvious, indeed blatant, obstacles to peace. Most recently, the Israeli Knesset voted to reject the two-state solution. The latest display of the US politics was the reception given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the US Congress. Despite – or more accurately because of – the call by the ICC prosecutor for Netanyahu’s arrest for war crimes, Congress received Netanyahu’s lies with repeated ovations. The obeisance of Congress to the Israel lobby was especially vile given that the UN, the ICJ and the International Criminal Court have all recently concluded that the Israeli military is systematically targeting civilians, starving them, inflicting collective punishment and deliberately destroying the infrastructure of Gaza. A devastating regional war is just around the corner unless the international community acts quickly and decisively to secure the two-state solution. In Lebanon, cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel have intensified. The conflict also grows with attacks between Israel and Yemen’s Houthis. The US could end the war now if it chose. Without American financial and military support, Israel does not have the means to fight a war on multiple fronts. After rejecting multiple ceasefire proposals, even US-backed ones, it is clear that the Israeli government is not interested in ending the war. Israel’s extremist government wants a wider conflict that lures the US into an open war with Iran. The latest outrage is Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. This is a dangerous escalation, on foreign soil, that deliberately and flagrantly undermines negotiation efforts and a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the conflict. While Congress cheered Netanyahu’s lies, the more important story of US politics was occurring outside Congress on the streets of Washington (and the campuses across the nation). The American people, especially America’s young people, are tired of the US government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. By March, a majority of Americans had turned against Israel’s actions in Gaza. They want the war to stop, not to expand. The world’s governments are rallying on the side of justice as in the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming support for Palestine to become the 194th UN member state. Palestinian political factions have also joined together, supported by Chinese diplomacy, to form a national unity government. The world community has broadly welcomed the ICJ’s decision to end Israel’s illegal occupation. A comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution is achievable and within reach. According to the recent decision of the ICJ and the votes of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council (but for the US veto), the path to peace is clear: Palestine should immediately be welcomed as a UN member state with the borders of June 4, 1967, and with its capital in East Jerusalem. Peace, in short, is much closer than it may seem, built on the unity of the people of Palestine; the strong and repeated backing of the Arab and Islamic states for the two-state solution; the goodwill of almost all of the world community, including the American people; and the support of international law and the United Nations. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Mourners attend Hamas leader’s funeral in Qatar
NewsFeed Thousands of mourners including official representatives of several nations gathered in Doha to pay their respects to Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Iran this week. Published On 2 Aug 20242 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza and the death of Western journalism
On Wednesday, the Israeli army killed two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi were working when they were struck by Israeli forces in Gaza city. Al-Ghoul, whose Al Jazeera reports were popular among Arab audiences, was wearing a press vest at the time he was killed. The latest killings bring Israel’s world-record journalist kill total to at least 113 during the current genocide in Gaza, according to the more conservative estimate. No other world conflict has killed as many journalists in recent memory. Israel has a long history of violently targeting journalists, so their Gaza kill total is not necessarily surprising. In fact, a 2023 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report documented a “decades-long pattern” of Israel targeting and killing Palestinian journalists. For example, a Human Rights Watch investigation found that Israel targeted “journalists and media facilities” on four separate occasions in 2012. During the attacks, two journalists were killed, and many others were injured. In 2019, a United Nations commission found that Israel “intentionally shot” a pair of Palestinian journalists in 2018, killing both. More recently, in 2022, Israel shot and killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank. Israel attempted to deny responsibility, as it almost always does after it carries out an atrocity, but video evidence was overwhelming, and Israel was forced to admit guilt. There have been no consequences for the soldier who fired at Abu Akleh, who had been wearing a press vest and a press helmet, or for the Israelis involved in the other incidents targeting journalists. CPJ has suggested that Israeli security forces enjoy “almost blanket immunity” in incidents of attacks on journalists. Given this broader context, Israel’s targeting of journalists during the current genocide is genuinely not surprising, or out of the ordinary. However, what is truly surprising, and even shocking, is the relative silence of Western journalists. While there has certainly been some reportage and sympathy in North America and Europe, particularly from watchdog organisations like the CPJ, there is little sense of journalistic solidarity, and certainly nothing approaching widespread outrage and uproar about the threat Israel’s actions pose to press freedoms. Can we imagine for a moment what the Western journalistic reaction might be if Russian forces killed more than 100 journalists in Ukraine in under a year? Even when Western news outlets have reported on Palestinian journalists killed since the start of the current war, coverage has tended to give Israel the benefit of the doubt, often framing the killings as unintentional casualties of modern warfare. Also, Western journalism’s overwhelming reliance on pro-Israel sources has ensured the avoidance of colourful adjectives and condemnations. Moreover, overreliance on pro-Israel sources has sometimes made it difficult to determine which party to the conflict was responsible for specific killings. A unique case? One might assume here that Western news outlets have simply been maintaining their devotion to stated Western reporting principles of detachment and neutrality. But, in other situations, Western journalists have shown that they are indeed capable of making quite a fuss, and also of demonstrating solidarity. The 2015 killing of 12 Charlie Hebdo journalists provides a useful case in point. Following that attack, a genuine media spectacle ensued, with seemingly the entire institution of Western journalism united to focus on the event. Thousands of reports were generated within weeks, a solidarity hashtag (“Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie”) went viral, and statements and sentiments of solidarity poured in from Western journalists, news outlets and organisations dedicated to principles of free speech. For example, America’s Society of Professional Journalists called the attack on Charlie Hebdo “barbaric” and an “attempt to stifle press freedom”. Freedom House issued a similarly harsh commendation, calling the attack “horrific,” and noting that it constituted a “direct threat to the right of freedom of expression”. PEN America and the British National Secular Society presented awards to Charlie Hebdo and the Guardian Media Group donated a massive sum to the publication. The relative silence and calm of Western journalists over the killing of at least 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza is especially shocking when one considers the larger context of Israel’s war on journalism, which threatens all journalists. In October, around the time the current war began, Israel told Western news agencies that it would not guarantee the safety of journalists entering Gaza. Ever since, Israel has maintained a ban on international journalists, even working to prevent them from entering Gaza during a brief November 2023 pause in fighting. More importantly, perhaps, Israel has used its sway in the West to direct and control Western news narratives about the war. Western news outlets have often obediently complied with Israeli manipulation tactics. For example, as global outrage was mounting against Israel in December 2023, Israel put out false reports of mass, systematic rape against Israeli women by Palestinian fighters on October 7. Western news outlets, including the New York Times, were suckered in. They downplayed the growing outrage against Israel and began prominently highlighting the “systematic rape” story. Later, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures against Israel. Israel responded almost immediately by issuing absurd terrorism accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Western news outlets downplayed the provisional measures story, which was highly critical of Israel, and spotlighted the allegations against UNRWA, which painted Palestinians in a negative light. These and other examples of Israeli manipulation of Western news narratives are part of a broader pattern of influence that predates the current war. One empirical study found that Israel routinely times attacks, especially those likely to kill Palestinian civilians, in ways that ensure they will be ignored or downplayed by US news media. During the current genocide, Western news organisations have also tended to ignore the broad pattern of censorship of pro-Palestine content on social media, a fact which should concern anyone interested in freedom of expression. It’s easy to point to a handful of Western news reports and
New poll reveals how well voters know the candidates on Harris’ veep shortlist
A new poll revealed that Vice President Kamala Harris’ pool of potential running mates remains widely unknown to the public. A new AP-NORC survey asked Americans their opinions of three candidates being considered as Harris’ potential running mate: Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., and Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky. There was one candidate leading in favorability among the survey’s Democratic respondents. Kelly was found to have the highest favorability rate among those in the candidate pool, with about 45% of Democratic respondents having a favorable opinion of the senator. HARRIS HIT WITH BLISTERING AD TARGETING CATHOLIC, HISPANIC VOTERS ON KEY ISSUES IN CRUCIAL SWING STATE About four in 10 Democratic respondents said that they still do not know Kelly well enough as a candidate to form an opinion. According to the poll, about one quarter of Democratic respondents said they view Shapiro positively, while 16% have a negative view of him. TWO OUTRAGEOUS BILLS KAMALA HARRIS SPONSORED WOULD CRUSH TAXPAYERS Still, the Pennsylvania governor remains unfamiliar to most respondents. About 60% of respondents said they do not have enough information to form an opinion on Shaprio, with 57% of Democrats saying they do not know him well enough to say whether they favor him as a candidate. The majority of adults, 74%, said they also do not know enough about Beshear to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion. Politico recently reported that Harris’ vetting team met privately with both Shapiro and Kelly, but the vice president has yet to make a formal announcement on her running mate. Harris will hold the first campaign event with her vice presidential pick on Tuesday in Philadelphia, but is expected to announce her running mate in the days beforehand. The poll was conducted from July 25 to 29 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.