Hindu prayers begin inside India’s Mughal-era mosque after court order
Hindu worshippers have begun praying inside a 17th-century mosque in the Indian city of Varanasi, hours after a court order gave them the go-ahead at the disputed site. The Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi is one of several Muslim places of worship that right-wing Hindu groups, backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have sought for decades to reclaim. Varanasi is Modi’s parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, also governed by the BJP. On Wednesday, a local court ruled that Hindu worshippers could pray in the building’s basement and ordered the authorities to “make proper arrangements” for worshippers within a week. Indian media reports said the family members of Hindu priests started praying in the mosque’s basement in the early hours of Thursday. #WATCH | A priest offers prayers at ‘Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana’ inside Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, after District court order. Visuals confirmed by Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer for the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case pic.twitter.com/mUB6TMGpET — ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2024 Akhlaq Ahmad, the lawyer representing Muslim petitioners, said the court order would be appealed. The Gyanvapi Mosque was built during the Mughal Empire in a city where Hindus from across the country cremate relatives by the Ganges river. Hindu worshippers claim the mosque replaced a temple to the Hindu deity Shiva. Last month, the Archaeological Survey of India said a survey of the site appeared to corroborate the belief that it was originally home to a temple. Emboldened right-wing Hindu groups have laid claim to several Muslim sites of worship they say were built atop ancient temples during Mughal rule. Centuries-old mosque razed in Indian capital Meanwhile, bulldozers have knocked down a centuries-old mosque in India’s capital, a member of the building’s managing committee said. The Masjid Akhonji in New Delhi, which its caretakers say is about 600 years old, was home to 22 students enrolled in an Islamic boarding school. It was torn down on Tuesday in a forest of Mehrauli, an affluent neighbourhood dotted with centuries-old ruins from settlements predating modern Delhi. In Mehrauli, Delhi, the Delhi Development Authority carried out an arbitrary demolition of a 600-year-old mosque on Tuesday. Imam Zakir Hussain stated that Masjid Akhonji, which housed Madrasa Bahrul Uloom and the graves of revered figures, was completely razed. pic.twitter.com/tjEWowUfQN — Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) January 31, 2024 Mohammad Zaffar, a member of the mosque’s managing committee, told the Agence France-Presse news agency it did not receive any prior notice before a demolition was carried out “in the dark of the night”. He said many graves in the mosque compound were also desecrated and no one was allowed to take out copies of the Quran or other materials from inside the mosque before it was razed. “Many of our revered figures and my own ancestors were buried there. There is no trace of the graves now,” Zaffar told AFP. “The rubble from the mosque and the graves has been removed and dumped somewhere else.” The officials said the demolition was part of a drive to remove “illegal” structures from a forest reserve. Calls for India to enshrine Hindu supremacy have grown rapidly louder since Modi took office in 2014, making its roughly 200-million-strong Muslim minority – the world’s third-largest Muslim population – increasingly anxious about its future. Last week, Modi presided over a grand inauguration ceremony in the nearby city of Ayodhya for a Hindu temple built on the former grounds of another Mughal-era mosque. Hindu zealots had torn down the Babri Mosque in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi’s party, sparking sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims. A decades-long court battle that ensued over the future of the Babri site ended in 2019 when India’s top court permitted the construction of a temple to the deity Ram, who, according to Hindu scripture, was born in the city. The consecration of the Ram temple by Modi fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of the BJP and has been portrayed by the party and its affiliates as a Hindu reawakening. It also came months ahead of national elections due by May and is expected to boost Modi’s chances of winning a third term. Critics accuse Modi of pushing a pro-Hindu agenda and promoting discrimination against Muslims, but he says his government does not do so. Last week, a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s far-right ideological mentor, questioned whether Gyanvapi Mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya, were mosques at all. “Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it. They should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?” Indresh Kumar told Reuters news agency in an interview. “Accept the truth. Hold dialogues and let the judiciary decide.” Adblock test (Why?)
Ex-Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren to be in one-day judicial custody as special court reserves order
Hemant Soren was arrested after a seven-hour grilling by the ED in a money laundering case on Wednesday night.
Updated Kentucky budget with increased school bus funding advances to House
Kentucky House Republicans proposed having the state pick up more of the costs for student transportation in K-12 schools under an updated budget plan that cleared a committee on Wednesday. The action by the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee sets up a full House vote on the main budget bill that covers the state’s executive branch. That vote could come as soon as Thursday. Republican House leaders said the measure meets current needs while putting the Bluegrass State on strong footing for the future. They emphasized the voluminous bill’s investments in education, infrastructure, public safety and human services. KENTUCKY BILL WOULD DOWNGRADE COLLEGE IDS AS VOTER IDENTIFICATION “It continues to reflect our mission of providing the necessary functions of state government and ensuring every dollar invested benefits all Kentuckians,” committee Chair Jason Petrie said. “We’re not looking to score political points or pander to political interests.” One key change was the level of state support for the costs to transport K-12 students to and from school. In the version headed to the House floor, the state would cover 100% of those costs in the second year of the biennium. The state would cover 80% of those expenses in the first year of the two-year budget cycle, which begins July 1. In the budget plan he submitted to lawmakers, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear called for the state to fully fund student transportation costs in both years. The House committee didn’t budge on its plans for achieving teacher pay raises. The House GOP plan doesn’t include the guaranteed pay raises for educators and other public school employees that Beshear requested. Instead, the House GOP plan encourages school districts to use additional state funding to award salary increases. Local administrators would decide the size of raises. Beshear called for a guaranteed 11% raise for teachers and all other public school employees — including bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria staff. The governor has made higher teacher pay a priority, saying it’s essential to make Kentucky more competitive with other states. Kentucky currently lags near the bottom nationally in average teacher starting pay and average teacher pay, he says. Crafting a budget is the top priority for lawmakers this year, and the House action is another step toward achieving it. Once the budget measure clears the House, it will be sent to the Senate, which will put its imprint on state spending for the next two fiscal years. The final version will be ironed out by a conference committee made up of House and Senate leaders. Both chambers have Republican supermajorities.
Nebraska lawmaker proposes bill aimed at simplifying process for removing names from referendum petitions
A Nebraska lawmaker behind a new law that allows millions in state income tax to go to private school tuition scholarships is now targeting the referendum petition process that could allow state voters to repeal it. Omaha Sen. Lou Ann Linehan on Wednesday presented to a legislative committee her bill that would simplify the process of enabling people to remove their names from referendum petitions they had signed earlier. The bill would allow a person to have their name removed by sending a signed letter to the Nebraska Secretary of State. Currently, the only way a voter can remove their name from a petition is by sending a letter along with a notarized affidavit requesting it. HOW MOST SCHOOL CHOICE POLICIES WILL ALLOW GOVERNMENT TO ‘DESTROY’ PRIVATE SCHOOLS: NONPROFIT PRESIDENT Linehan said she introduced the bill after hearing from constituents that signature gatherers were using misinformation to get people to sign a petition to put the question of whether to repeal her private school scholarship program on the November ballot. “They were spreading lies about the Opportunity Scholarships Act,” she said. The new law does not appropriate taxpayer dollars directly to private school vouchers. Instead, it allows businesses and individuals to donate up to $100,000 per year of their owed state income tax to organizations that award private school tuition scholarships. Estates and trusts can donate up to $1 million a year. That dollar-for-dollar tax credit is money that would otherwise go into the state’s general revenue fund. Opponents launched a petition effort immediately after the law passed last year to put the question of whether the state could use public money for private school tuition on the November 2024 ballot. The number of valid signatures gathered far exceeded the number needed, and Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen approved the ballot measure. Since then, Linehan has sent a letter to Evnen asking him to declare the ballot initiative unconstitutional and pull it from November’s ballot. Supporters of the ballot initiative have sent their own letter asking him to protect Nebraska voters’ constitutional right to the referendum petition process. Clarice Jackson of Omaha testified Wednesday before the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee that she was wrongly told by a signature gatherer outside an Omaha store she visited that the petition effort was to support Linehan’s bill. “I asked her four or five times,” Jackson said. “There were 10 to 15 people inside the store who had all been told the same thing and had signed the petition. When I told them that the petition was against school choice, they were upset. They were upset because they were misled.” THESE STATES PLAN AN AGGRESSIVE UNIVERSAL SCHOOL CHOICE PUSH IN 2024: ‘TEACHERS UNIONS OVERPLAYED THEIR HAND’ When they demanded to take their names off the petition, they were told they’d have to file an affidavit signed by a notary and send it to their county election office or the secretary of state’s office first, Jackson said. Linehan, a Republican in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, found an unlikely ally for her bill in state Sen. Danielle Conrad, a Democrat. Conrad argued that it should be as easy for a voter to remove their name from a petition as it is to sign it. One opponent testified that simplifying the process of removing a signature would embolden opponents of any given petition effort to badger signers to then remove their names. “That happens now,” said Conrad, an attorney and former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska. “And it is core-protected speech.” The committee will decide at a later date whether to advance Linehan’s bill to the full Legislature for debate.
Judge refuses action against DeSantis over effort to remove Students for Justice in Palestine off campuses
A federal judge delivered a win of sorts for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, refusing to take action against the recent Republican presidential drop-out over efforts to deactivate pro-Palestinian student groups protesting on college campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Wednesday denied injunctions sought by the University of Florida and University of South Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine to prevent their deactivation on free speech grounds, essentially because nothing has been done to follow through with the directive and the groups are still active. State university Board of Governors Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote to university presidents in October at DeSantis’ urging, directing them to disband chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. He argued the groups were violating Florida law deeming it a felony to “knowingly provide material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization.” In response to Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, “and leading up to a “Day of Resistance,” the National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) released a “toolkit” which refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as ‘the resistance’ and unequivocally states: ‘Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,’” Rodrigues wrote. “These chapters exist under the headship of the National Students for Justice in Palestine, who distributed a toolkit identifying themselves as part of the Operation AlAqsa Flood.” JUDGE DISMISSES DISNEY’S LAWSUIT ALLEGING RETALIATION BY DESANTIS The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of the University of Florida Students for Justice in Palestine chapter to prevent deactivation, but Walker wrote that Rodrigues overstepped his authority. “Neither the Governor, nor the Chancellor, nor the BOG (Board of Governors) have the formal power to punish student organizations,” Warner said. “This Court does not fault [the students] for feeling anxious about the fact that the Governor — arguably the most powerful man in Florida — has repeatedly disparaged [group] members as ‘terrorists,’” Walker wrote Wednesday, according to Politico. “But this Court rejects counsel’s suggestion that it should find … that [student groups have] standing simply because someone cloaked with great power makes coercive statements.” Individual university boards of trustees, which have that power, have not taken any steps to disband the groups, and Walker said Rodrigues has acknowledged that the student chapters are not under the control of the national organization. “In short, the record demonstrates that neither deactivation nor criminal investigation is imminent,” Walker wrote. “Instead, this Court finds that no actions have been taken in pursuit of deactivation under the Chancellor’s memorandum.” RON DESANTIS CALLS FOR ILHAN OMAR’S DEPORTATION, EXPULSION FROM CONGRESS FOR ‘SOMALIA FIRST’ COMMENTS Things could change if the deactivation order is enforced. “Florida officials are now on notice that if they attempt to enforce the deactivation order, we will be back in court to uphold our client’s First Amendment rights,” Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement. While campaigning for president, DeSantis, who has since dropped out of the race, claimed preemptive victory in kicking the pro-Palestinian groups off Florida campuses at a time when anti-Israel demonstrations fanned the flames of rampant anti-Semitism and even threats against Jewish students at other elite American universities. “We deactivated them,” DeSantis said during the Republican presidential debate in November. “We’re not going to use state tax dollars to fund jihad — no way.” In an unrelated case Wednesday, DeSantis achieved another win after a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by Disney against the governor. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
House, Senate GOP to roll out bill to block biological men from participating in US Olympic events for females
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Greg Steube and Sen. Tommy Tuberville will introduce a bicameral bill that would block biological men from participating in any U.S. Olympic Committee event intended for women, Fox News Digital has learned. The Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act would prohibit any governing body recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) from allowing biological men to participate in any female athletic event. The bill, obtained by Fox News Digital, defines a female as “an individual who has, had, will have — or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident — the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.” USA BOXING UNDER FIRE FOR ALLOWING TRANSGENDER ATHLETES TO COMPETE AGAINST WOMEN: ‘THIS IS NOT PROGRESS’ The bill defines a male as “an individual who has, had, will have — or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident — the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization.” The bill “prohibits a person whose sex is male from participating in an amateur athletic competition that is designated for females, women, or girls.” MCCARTHY CELEBRATES HOUSE PASSAGE OF BILL PROTECTING WOMEN’S SPORTS, SAYS VOTE FULFILLS GOP PROMISE “Congress should not have to take legislative action to prevent biological men from hitting women for championship titles,” Steube told Fox News Digital. “Due to the illogical USA Boxing transgender policy, I introduced legislation to prevent organizations who choose to live in delusion from being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee.” Steube, who will introduce the House version of the bill Thursday morning, added, “We must combat the erasure of women’s sports by standing for truth, reality, safety and fairness.” Tuberville, R-Ala., will also introduce a companion bill in the Senate Thursday. “It is deeply disturbing to see USA Boxing change its policy to allow men to box against women,” Tuberville told Fox News Digital. “Men should not be competing in women’s sports at any level — and especially not in a sport like boxing. Whether in Little League or the Olympics, it’s unsafe, it’s unfair and it’s just plain wrong. “This bill will ensure that the Olympics are fair to American women who train their whole lives to represent our country on the world stage.” PRO ATHLETE ‘SCARED’ FOR FEMALE BOXERS AMID CHANGE LETTING TRANS WOMEN IN THE RING: ‘ONLY A MATTER OF TIME’ The bill comes after USA Boxing announced its new policy, which states that both transgender men and women are allowed to compete in the biological divisions. The requirements to compete in each category include: USA Boxing is the latest sports organization to make allowances for transgender competitors to compete in the gendered divisions they identify with. After the regulations were first drafted in August 2022, the policy became effective Jan. 1, 2024. The House version of the bill is cosponsored by Republican representatives Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Randy Weber of Texas, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Paul Gosar of Arizona, William Timmons of South Carolina, Erin Houchin of Indiana, Neal Dunn of Florida, Doug LaMalfa of California and Brian Babin of Texas. Last year, Steube also sponsored The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The legislation passed the U.S. House April 20, 2023, and awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate. The bill allows women and girls a fair playing field in sports by ensuring that school athletics comply with the Title IX recognition of a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth. That bill ensures that biological females compete against other biological females in women’s sports that are operated, sponsored or facilitated by a recipient of federal funding.
Louisiana Gov. Landry signals push for state to resume death row executions
Louisiana hasn’t carried out a death row execution since 2010, but between a new conservative governor who is in favor of capital punishment and other states implementing alternative methods to lethal injections, the Deep South state could soon look at ways to resume. During a news conference Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry hinted at a willingness to explore expanding execution methods, saying he is committed to upholding “contractual obligations” between the state and victims’ families after a death sentence has been handed down in court. “I have committed myself to those (victims’) families because I have sat in front of those families. I have listened to those families from all over the state,” Landry said. “They deserve their day of justice. That is what the jury has granted them.” ALABAMA DEATH ROW INMATE EXECUTED WITH NITROGEN GAS, NATION’S FIRST BY A NEW METHOD IN 42 YEARS “I and the Legislature… are going to fulfill our commitments,” he added. Around 60 people currently sit on Louisiana’s death row, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. However, amid legal battles and a lethal injection drug shortage, executions in the state have stalled, with none currently scheduled. Over the past few years, a handful of states have sought to reinstate other execution methods, such as firing squads. Most recently, Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. When that state put Kenneth Eugene Smith, a convicted murderer, to death on Jan. 25, it was also the first time a new execution method had been used in the United States since lethal injection, now the most common one, was introduced in 1982. “States around us are finding ways and methods in order to execute those who have been tried, and convicted, and sentenced to death,” Landry said. The idea of using nitrogen gas for executions is gaining traction elsewhere in the country. The state of Oklahoma already has a law authorizing the use of nitrogen gas, as does Missouri, and some others, including Nebraska, have introduced measures this year to add it as an option. ALABAMA DEATH ROW INMATE SERVED STEAK AS LAST MEAL HOURS BEFORE NOVEL EXECUTION IN MURDER-FOR-HIRE KILLING Last year there were 24 executions carried out in five states, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty-nine states have either abolished the death penalty or paused executions. Last year, nearly every death row inmate in Louisiana asked for clemency — the commutation of a death sentence to life in prison — from then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who favored eliminating capital punishment. The handful of applicants who were granted a hearing were denied clemency. During Wednesday’s news conference, Landry said he still plans to call a special legislative session in February during which lawmakers will focus on addressing crime. Capital punishment could also on the table. Landry said he would be meeting with legislative leaders in the afternoon to discuss what would be on the special session’s agenda.
Top Biden official faces public staff revolt over ‘US-funded genocide’ in Gaza
USAID Director Samantha Power faced a public revolt from current and former staff condemning “U.S.-funded genocide” in Gaza when she attempted to deliver a speech on climate change in Washington on Tuesday. Staff members, some of whom had quit just days prior to the speech, interrupted her and demanded that she resign. “You wrote a book on genocide and you’re still working for the administration: You should resign and speak out,” said Agnieszka Sykes, who worked for USAID until quitting last week, according to The Washington Post. A current USAID employee, Hannah Funk, accused the U.S. of “hypocrisy” and suggested the Biden administration had squandered its “moral authority” by supporting Israel. DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S STRATEGY OF RELYING ON YOUNG VOTERS ‘NOW IN RUINS,’ WARNS LIBERAL COLUMNIST “The U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza has really left us unable to be moral leaders on climate change and all the other pressing development and humanitarian issues those of us who work at USAID care so much about,” Funk told Power later in the event. “How are you leading us to reckon with and overcome this hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy?” YOUNGER VOTERS HELP BOOST TRUMP’S EDGE OVER BIDEN IN LATEST FOX SURVEY Power then reportedly went on to describe the situation in Gaza as “devastating” and stated that over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed. That data comes from the Palestinian health authority, a Hamas-run organization that Biden and the White House have said should not be trusted. Nevertheless, Power defended Israel’s campaign as necessary to prevent any further attacks like the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. “When Hamas leadership is at large, you know, those same kinds of attacks, the same kind of hostage-taking, the same kind of sexual assault, that can happen again,” she said. COLUMBIA PROFESSOR CALLS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT A ‘COWARD’ IN FIERY SPEECH ABOUT CAMPUS ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVISM Power’s public spat with staff is only the latest sign of the growing division within the Democratic Party over Israel’s war against Hamas. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Even interns at the White House have urged Biden to push for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a letter first shared with NBC News and supported by more than 40 interns who work in the White House and other executive agencies. Biden has also faced criticism from within the Democratic Party by leftist “Squad” members and other politicians for not doing enough to push for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report
Understanding transgenerational inheritance and gaining insights for mental health and relationships
This inheritance goes beyond classical genetic transmission and encompasses environmental factors and ancestral experiences.
Watch: Puja performed in ‘Vyas Tehkana’ of Gyanvapi mosque after 31 years while muslim side challenges order
The prayers were performed at 3am for the first time in 31 years in the southern cellar of the mosque.