War-ravaged Sudan battles cholera outbreak
Lying on a hospital bed, Aisha Mohammed said she was suffering from cholera symptoms, an increasingly common disease in Sudan where a prolonged war has ravaged the healthcare system. Cholera, caused by contaminated water or food, had been common in Sudan, particularly during the rainy season even before a conflict broke out in April 2023 between rival generals. But more than 16 months of fighting have forced most hospitals out of service, leaving the country of 48 million people struggling to control the sometimes deadly but treatable disease. In the southeastern town of Wad al-Hulaywah, 40-year-old Mohammed received intravenous medicine to ease her symptoms and said she had acute diarrhoea. Sudanese authorities and the United Nations have reported a surge in cholera cases amid several weeks of torrential rains that have battered parts of the country and displaced thousands. Rains and floods have contributed to a resurgence of the largely waterborne disease, which can cause severe dehydration and lead to death within hours if not treated. The Ministry of Health on Monday declared an epidemic, later reporting 556 cholera cases including 27 deaths, most in Kassala state where Wad al-Hulaywah is located. Nearby Gadarif state has also been hit particularly hard, the ministry said. The World Health Organization said Sudan has had at least 11,327 cholera cases, 316 of them deadly, since June 2023. Health Minister Haitham Ibrahim said “climatic conditions and water contamination” were behind the epidemic. In Wad al-Hulaywah alone “we’ve counted 150 cases so far, among them seven dead” since late July, local health official Adam Ali told the AFP news agency. Before the start of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the UN had said that about 40 percent of Sudanese did not have access to clean water. Conditions have since worsened. “Our problem is drinking water,” said Ali. Most residents of Wad al-Hulaywah “drink water directly from the river – polluted water”, he said. During the rainy season, large amounts of silt are washed into the Setit river, which begins in neighbouring Ethiopia, increasing pollution levels, the health official added. Near the local hospital, workers spray insecticide to fight the proliferation of flies, which Ali said was a symptom of poor sanitation. Dam construction in 2015 on the Setit river had displaced “entire villages”, he said, and their inhabitants “dug makeshift latrines, which attract flies because they are not maintained”. Access to clean water has been hampered across the country, in areas under either the SAF or the RSF, both fighting for control of Sudan. Adblock test (Why?)
DNC paints Harris as ‘law and order’ standard-bearer as past comments on ‘militarization of police’ resurface
In the video introduction to Rep. Jamie Raskin’s, D-Md., speech on Monday evening, the Democratic National Convention aired a parody narration of an opening segue from “Law & Order.” “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders,” the narration went, in similar form to the NBC standard. The video went on to paint former President Trump as a criminal defendant on the program, with the narrator saying, “He lies, he rips off workers, he sexually abuses women.” “[T]o take on this case, we need a president who has spent her life prosecuting perpetrators like Donald Trump,” the narration continues, clearly referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. PGH DINERS FUME AFTER RESTAURANT CLEARED FOR ‘STAGED’ HARRIS CAMPAIGN STOP Harris has recently called out her opponent in a similar light: “I know Donald Trump’s type.” Prior to her time in the Senate, she served as California attorney general and San Francisco County district attorney. She notably won her attorney general’s race by the narrowest margin in state history. In 2009, Harris wrote a book: “Smart on Crime,” which sought to “mak[e] the criminal justice system truly, not just rhetorically, tough.” In the interim, she made several comments critical of the state of law enforcement and has been criticized by Republicans for actions including soliciting donations for the Minnesota Freedom Fund – which paid bail for Minneapolis riot suspects. During a June 2019 presidential candidates’ forum hosted by the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), Harris joined Hialeah, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for a panel hosted by PPC’s Liz Theoharis and MSNBC pundit Joy Reid. In response to a multi-tiered question by Theoharis, Harris said, “On the issue of militarization of police, I have a long-standing record of saying we need to demilitarize police, and we really need to get to a point where communities frankly don’t need a law enforcement response to what’s happening in their communities because they are safe communities.” AS DNC WRAPS UP DAY 2, DEMS FALL IN LINE BEHIND HARRIS CNN and other networks have recently flagged Harris’ past statements on policing, as the left-leaning network revisited her June 2020 comments on a New York radio show that the Defund the Police movement “rightly sa[id] we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.” The Democrat also said some municipalities were “militarizing police” while “defunding public schools.” In 2020, Harris sparred with then-“View” host Meghan McCain, after the Republican scion pressed the future vice president as to whether she supports “defunding the police.” Harris replied by asking how McCain would define defunding police, while separately offering that the U.S. needs to “reimagine how we are achieving public safety.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “And to have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing, but yet there’s a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation. Come on.” During a discussion with celebrities Andy Cohen and Laverne Cox in 2020, Harris said the “status quo thinking” that more police on the street translates to safer streets is wrong. “It is outdated, and it is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety,” she added on an episode of Chris Hayes’ MSNBC program. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response at press time.
Walz to accept Democrat vice presidential nomination on night 3 of DNC
CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to formally accept the Democrat vice presidential nomination on Wednesday night after Vice President Harris announced him as her running mate this month. Walz is expected to address the third night of the convention under the theme of “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” Walz was elected to the House in 2006 and re-elected five times, representing Minnesota’s 1st congressional district, a mostly rural district covering the southern part of the state that includes a number of midsize cities. During his last two years on Capitol Hill, he served as ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He won election as governor of Minnesota in 2018 and re-election four years later. CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES FROM THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION In 1981, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard soon after graduating from high school. He was deployed to Italy to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002 before retiring two years later. Walz’s military record has drawn scrutiny, with critics accusing Walz of being misleading when referencing deployments “in support” of Operation Enduring Freedom and public claims that he retired as a command sergeant major when he never completed the necessary coursework to keep the rank and instead retired as a master sergeant. But Walz pushed back against critics last week, saying he was “proud to serve my country, and I always will be.” JD VANCE ACCUSES TIM WALZ OF ‘LYING’ ABOUT MILITARY SERVICE: ‘STOLEN VALOR GARBAGE’ EMOTIONAL JOE BIDEN PASSES TORCH TO KAMALA HARRIS, ENDING 5 DECADES IN ELECTED OFFICE Walz can showcase a slew of progressive policy victories in Minnesota, including protecting abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and restricting gun access to curb shootings. In 2023, Walz signed a law banning “conversion therapy,” which also included prohibiting counselors from withholding recommendations for transgender surgical procedures or hormonal treatments for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria. Another key component of his transgender policy agenda is a law requiring free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms. Often called the “tampon law” in the media, it mandates that tampons and pads be provided at no cost in public schools for grades 4-12 to accommodate transgender students. Walz’s address to the convention Wednesday night will come after former President Clinton makes an appearance. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the convention Monday night before President Biden gave his speech, a move to formally pass the torch to Vice President Harris as the Democrat presidential nominee. The Clintons quickly endorsed Harris after Biden dropped out of the race last month. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also expected to address the convention on Wednesday night. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Trump, rejecting advice, tries mockery, insults, AI against Kamala, but is it working?
There’s really no other choice but to let Trump be Trump. While Kamala Harris rocked the DNC with an unexpected appearance and short speech to the rapturous crowd, Donald Trump continued to attack his new opponent, sometimes in odd ways. He is ignoring public advice from such close Republican allies as Lindsey Graham. “If you have a policy debate, he wins,” the senator said on “Meet the Press.” “Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.” PUT POLICY ASIDE: KAMALA HARRIS WILL WIN OR LOSE BASED ON THE EXCITEMENT FACTOR Nikki Haley, who’s only nominally endorsed Trump, delivered a similar message to Fox’s Bret Baier: “The campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win talking about whether she’s dumb. I think the campaign needs to focus.” With the man he really wanted to run against, Joe Biden, pushed out of prime time to deliver a fiery speech that mainly touted his own accomplishments – and attacked Donald – Trump adopted the mindset that characterizes many White House occupants: If you geniuses are so smart, how come I’m the one who was elected president? That’s especially true of Trump in 2016, when nearly everyone, including Hillary Clinton, was convinced that she would win. Perhaps that’s why she obviously enjoyed taunting Trump at the Chicago convention, smiling contentedly to the chants of “Lock him up!” – a play on the Trump crowds in that campaign shouting that she should be locked up. When Barack Obama clashed with John McCain at a meeting after the 2008 campaign, Obama felt compelled to remind his former adversary that he had beaten him in that race. Trump, who is expanding his operation, bringing in his first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and other past loyalists, is trusting his instincts. One of the strangest moves by the 45th president was to use AI to post pictures of women wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts. The women don’t exist. But it came a week after Trump, who seems enamored of Taylor Swift, falsely accused Harris of using AI to artificially create a big crowd at the Detroit airport – which was quickly disproven by wider shots of the thousands of people there. Maybe that was just shtick. And perhaps that term also applies to a fake image depicting Trump and Harris as a couple, with him touching her enormously pregnant bare belly. JD VANCE TEARS INTO DEM GOVERNOR FOR ‘WISHING’ TRAGEDY ON HIS FAMILY More concerning is the video he posted on Truth Social. It begins with a fake image of Harris holding a sign that says “I am a moron.” In a parody version of the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic,” Trump accuses Biden (there’s that name again) of having dementia and says Harris was “pulling the strings to cut his rope.” But that’s the mild part. “Make the ballots fake on election day; no matter who votes, count’s on the take. Spent her whole damn life down on her knees; To be commander in chief, that’s how you say please.” We all know that “down on her knees” is an unmistakable sexual allusion. It’s a reference to her relationship with future San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who she openly dated in the 1990s. (Brown was technically still married but had been separated from his wife for many years; he appointed Kamala to two state boards.) Trump generally has a gut-level feel for an opponent’s weakness. Maybe he believes mockery is the best way to deal with a woman of color. The jabs don’t seem to be landing, but Trump is right that he’s the one who got elected. Everyone else is staff or spectators. The Trump campaign yesterday tried to knock down Harris’ claim that crime was higher during his administration. He cited a 2021 change in the way the FBI estimates crime statistics as making that an apples-and-oranges comparison, and independent reporting backs that up. But as I wrote yesterday, the election is largely not going to turn on wonky arguments about border statistics or price-gouging. Go to Kamala’s home page and there is no listing of policy proposals, none. She may come to regret that. Harris has still offered no explanation of why she abandoned her far-left positions of 2020 – Abolish private health insurance! Ban fracking! – but she’s got to confront that at some point rather than leaving it to unnamed aides. Instead, she’s hoping to ride a wave of excitement – which should be boosted by the star-studded DNC – to a seat behind the Resolute Desk. She is running as a 59-year old happy warrior against Trump, who’s now the old man in the race at 78. But her polling numbers will eventually deflate to earlier levels, and she’ll have to withstand a furious two-month attack by Trump and MAGA World. TRUMP’S ‘SWIFTIES FOR TRUMP’ POST TRIGGERS SOCIAL MEDIA OUTCRY The Trump campaign assailed the first night of the Democratic convention by saying “they would rather talk about President Trump than the problems facing our nation due to Kamala Harris’ failures.” The mentions on Monday night: Trump: 147 times Border: 8 times Economy: 27 times Inflation: 3 times Prices: 5 times Crime: 6 times. The Harris camp, meanwhile, castigated her opponent for comments at a Pennsylvania rally: “Trump’s advisors are desperately trying to get Donald to stick to his script. But he can’t help but veer off into rants about whether or not he and JD Vance are weird, yell that he believes the American dream is dead, and…whatever this was.” (A comment about Russian ships pulling up to New England.) Keep in mind that Trump is also running against a hostile press corps that is quite enamored of Kamala-mentum. Many pundits push the argument that he’s a threat to democracy. I haven’t seen such unbalanced coverage since the Clinton-Gore bus tour of 1992. Most journalists have given Harris –
Who is Ujjwal Nikam appointed special public prosecutor in Thane sexual assualt case?
Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam has been appointed as the special public prosecutor in the alleged Thane sexual assault case.
Weather update: IMD predicts heavy rainfall in these states; light rain expected in Delhi
The IMD has issued an orange alert for several states. Moreover light rain is expected in the national capital today, i.e., August 21.
Three candidates advance in ranked choice primary for Alaska’s At-Large district
Three candidates advanced to Alaska’s general election to represent the state’s At-Large Congressional District on Tuesday, according to a call by the Associated Press. Alaska has a non-partisan, ranked-choice primary system that selects the four candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, to proceed to the general election. Tuesday’s primary saw 12 candidates vying for a position in the top four, including incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Ala., who advanced to the general election with 50.7% of the vote. Republican Nick Begich, who ran for the seat against Peltola in 2022, finished in 2nd place with 26.8%. Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who was endorsed by former President Trump, was the number three candidate with 19.9% of the votes in the Last Frontier primary. BIDEN SET TO BLOCK MILLIONS OF ACRES IN ALASKA FROM OIL, GAS DRILLING IN EARTH DAY ACTION The Associated Press didn’t make a call on the 4th place finisher. None of the remaining candidates broke the 1% mark. The race also saw David Ambrose, Samuel Claesson, Lady Donna Dutchess, Richard Grayson, Eric Hafner, Gerald Heikes, John Wayne Howe, Richard Mayers, and Matthew Salisbury vying for the seat.
Obama lauds ‘brother’ Biden at DNC weeks after reported role ousting him for Kamala Harris
CHICAGO – Former President Barack Obama took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday evening, where he praised President Biden just weeks after reportedly helping oust Biden from his re-election effort. “It’s been 16 years since I had the honor of accepting this party’s nomination for president. And I know that’s hard to believe since I haven’t aged a bit, but it’s true. And looking back, I can say without question that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best. And that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as vice president,” Obama said on Tuesday evening from the DNC. “Other than some common Irish blood, Joe and I come from different backgrounds. But we became brothers. And as we worked together for eight – sometimes, pretty tough – years, what I came to admire most about Joe wasn’t just his smarts and experience, but it was his empathy and his decency. And his hard-earned resiliency and his unshakable belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot.” FLASHBACK: OBAMA WAS ONE OF EARLIEST BIG-NAME DEMS TO ENDORSE WALZ AT DAWN OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER “History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger. And I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend,” the 44th president continued of his former vice president. Harris became the Democrat nominee for president upon Biden’s withdrawal from the race after his disastrous June debate performance against former President Donald Trump, which included the president losing his train of thought, stumbling over his words and appearing more subdued than during other public events in recent years. The debate performance opened the floodgates to traditional Democrat allies and legacy media outlets joining conservatives in their concerns over Biden’s mental acuity and age. After the White House and Biden campaign repeatedly denied the president would drop out of the race, Biden announced in a tweet on a Sunday afternoon last month that he was ending his campaign and would carry out his final months in the White House. Ahead of Biden dropping out of the race, Obama allies notably helped lead the charge in calling for the president to get out of the race in favor of a candidate they believed was more suitable to take on Trump. Obama’s former chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, said last month for example that Biden is “not winning this race.” While actor and longtime friend of the Obamas, George Clooney, called on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was published just weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, at a ritzy campaign event in Los Angeles. OBAMA ALLIES, ADVISERS HELPED LEAD THE CHARGE AMONG DEMS LOOKING TO SINK BIDEN AHEAD OF OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT Another ally in Obama’s orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also called on Biden to drop out of the race last month, saying he attended the fundraiser in L.A. with Clooney and Obama and witnessed firsthand Biden’s state of mental acuity. Harris and Walz were notably nearly 100 miles away from the DNC during Obama’s speech, holding a rally in Milwaukee instead. Fox News was told the plan for Harris and Walz to be away from the DNC on Tuesday came together to avoid the optics of Harris appearing alongside one of the figures Biden views as responsible for helping end his reelection bid. “[The] Obamas are still not on the White House good side,” a source familiar with the situation told Fox News. “It would not be helpful to their relationships.” “We are in tricky territory,” this source added. Harris currently has fewer than 76 days to inspire voters to rally behind her White House run, which has notably included adding a bevy of Obama orbit insiders and advisers to her election effort, such as David Plouffe, Eric Holder, and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. Obama’s connections to Harris run deep, with the pair having a longstanding friendship that stretches back to the early 2000s. Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate. OBAMA TAKES SUBTLE SWIPE AT VANCE WHILE PRAISING WALZ AS ‘IDEAL’ HARRIS RUNNING MATE Harris was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator. “Barack Obama will be a president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country,” Harris said during California’s Democratic convention in 2008. As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, she was even dubbed “the female Obama” by some political analysts. Obama went on to laud Harris’ political and legal career in California before her vice presidency during his DNC speech. “As a prosecutor, Kamala stood up for children who had been victims of sexual abuse. As an attorney general of the most populous state in the country, she fought big banks and for-profit colleges, securing billions of dollars for the people they had scammed. After the home mortgage crisis, she pushed me and my administration hard to make sure homeowners got a fair settlement. Didn’t matter that I was a Democrat. Didn’t matter she had knocked on doors for my campaign in Iowa – she was going to fight to get as much relief as possible for the families who deserved it,” he said. “Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She’ll be focused on yours. As president, she won’t just cater to her own supporters and punish those who refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee. She’ll work on behalf of every American,” he continued. “That’s who Kamala is. And in the White
Meet man who became officer through lateral entry, is brother of famous Bollywood star, he is…
Dr Sujit Kumar Bajpayee currently serves as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. His appointment to this high-ranking position surprised many, given that he previously worked as a Senior Manager at the public sector power producer NHPC.
Weather update: IMD predicts heavy rainfall for these states; light rain expected in Delhi
The IMD has issued an orange alert for several states. Moreover light rain is expected in the national capital today, i.e., August 21.