‘Gross misconduct’: TMC’s Derek O’Brien suspended from Rajya Sabha, here’s what happened
O’Brien had demanded a discussion on the security breach incident, in which two men jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the Lok Sabha and burst yellow smoke canisters.
2,366 farmers died by suicide in Maharashtra in 10 months this year
951 farmers ended their lives in the Amravati revenue division, followed by 877 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division, 257 in Nagpur division, 254 in Nashik division and 27 in Pune division, Maharashtra Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation Anil Bhaidas Patil informed the state assembly.
G20 Summit 2023: How India benefitted from G20 presidency and success of the event?
“This is a time for us to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood, and expand traditional constituencies of support,” said S Jaishankar. On each of these dimensions, India succeeded during the G-20 summit.
Parliament Security Breach: Lok Sabha Secretariat suspends eight security personnel
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with senior ministers inside the Parliament over security breach.
WATCH: Ramaswamy’s top moments on DEI, immigration, tax reform, Jan. 6 at CNN town hall: ‘This is important’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared in Des Moines, Iowa for a CNN town hall on Wednesday night and not only addressed a broad range of topics but also repeatedly clashed with CNN anchor Abby Phillip. The most contentious moment of the hour-long town hall was when Phillip attempted to grill Ramaswamy over his recent comment referring to Jan. 6 as an “inside job.” As Ramaswamy accused the government of systemically lying in recent years and claimed that federal agents were within the crowd on Jan. 6, he mocked Phillip’s interruptions as proof that “the establishment doesn’t approve this message.” “I know it’s very uncomfortable for you. I know this is an uncomfortable issue for many people but we have to do the truth here,” Ramaswamy told the CNN anchor. Ramaswamy’s comments were repeatedly welcomed with applause by the GOP-friendly audience as Phillip continued sparring with the White House hopeful. WATCH: DESANTIS’ TOP MOMENTS ON ISRAEL, IMMIGRATION, TRUMP AND HALEY AT CNN TOWN HALL: ‘AN EASY ANSWER’ Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants, laid out his hard-line immigration policies. He began by repeating his vow to send the military to secure the southern border but quickly pivoted to his proposal to “ending the illegal incentives to be here.” “End birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal migrants to whom the 14th Amendment does not apply, end federal funding to sanctuary cities using our own taxpayer money to pay effectively for breaking the rule of law,” Ramaswamy said. “I do believe that anybody who’s in this country illegally needs to be returned to their country of origin. Not because they’re all bad people. In fact, many of them are good people… So this is not a value judgment about those people. It’s a value judgment about this country. We’re founded on the rule of law. And as a father of two sons in the White House, I can’t look them in the eye and tell them they have to follow the rules when our own government isn’t following its own rules.” The political outsider explained that he could implement such mass deportations by invoking an obscure law called 287 G he says allows local law enforcement to carry out warrants issued by ICE. He also clarified that ending birthright citizenship of illegal immigrants would take effect after he takes office rather than be retroactively applied to those already born in the U.S. Ramaswamy was asked by an Iowa voter about how he’d be able to balance an authentic approach on the world stage while maintaining a “presidential demeanor.” He responded by saying he wants to act as president the way he wants his sons to view him. “Am I going to tell my kids to go to school and be a bully? No, I’m not. But I’m gonna tell them if somebody bullies you or hits you, you’re gonna hit them back ten times harder. And that’s the way I’m going to lead this country,” Ramaswamy said. “As we say in our family- you have to be strong enough to protect your kindness. So if you watch those debates carefully, I don’t engage in four-letter words. I mean, there are other candidates who have called me dumb, scum and worse that I’m not going to repeat here. I didn’t go after them but if they’re gonna come after me, I’m not going to be a president whether it’s Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin or anybody else who’s going to roll over. When I’m leading the United States, the same rule applies. If you hit us, we hit you back ten times harder.” TRUMP HOLDS MASSIVE LEAD IN IOWA 5 WEEKS FROM CAUCUSES THAT KICK OFF GOP RACE: POLL The GOP hopeful was asked about his past support of dramatically increasing the inheritance tax, telling Phillip it’s not part of his policy platform. “What we need is a 12% flat tax across the board,” Ramaswamy said. “Ordinary income, capital gain, corporate, flatten it out.” “And here is how we get money back for the system: end the croniest deductions, the deductions and the loopholes and the rebates that corporations, special interests have lobbied in. It’s about $700 billion a year, just the tax compliance costs, just the out-of-pocket costs not counting the time you spend preparing your taxes. Give that back to the people,” he continued. Ramaswamy was quick to reject the premise of a question from a Drake University professor who asked how he would promote “diversity and inclusion” and advance “underrepresented groups” in his administration and in the private sector. “So I think the Diversity Equity Inclusion agenda has been abused. In the name of diversity, we have at many of our universities totally sacrificed diversity of thought,” he said. “In the name of equity, we’ve perpetuated a lot of inequity and inequality of opportunity through affirmative action and otherwise. In the name of inclusion, we’ve created a new culture of exclusion where certain points of view aren’t welcome. So especially in a university setting, what do I care about? Diversity of viewpoint. This is important, actually, I think diversity of viewpoint is part of what this country was built on. Well, the best way to foster diversity of viewpoint is to screen candidates for the diversity of their views.” He later continued, “And I think the use of these racial and gender quota systems, I think, have actually created a new form of racism in the United States that otherwise would not have existed. It’s sad to me, I mean, I’ve hired, not because I was thinking about it consciously, plenty of Black women in different positions of authority in this campaign or other companies or whatever. And I can tell you it saddens me when people look at somebody who I hired on the basis of merit and say that they only got that job because of the race or gender. That doesn’t do anybody a favor. And so I think if we restore true meritocracy in this
Ministers quit as Japan’s PM Kishida battles for trust amid fraud scandal
Escalating scandal involving allegations of unreported kickbacks from ruling party fundraising claims key ministers. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is revamping his government as a major corruption scandal in the ruling party has forced the resignations of several ministers including close ally and government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno. Matsuno, whose official title is Chief Cabinet Secretary, announced his resignation on Thursday after Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura also quit. Jiji Press and other Japanese media said Internal Affairs Minister Junji Suzuki and Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita were also stepping down and that five deputy ministers would be let go. The ministers all come from the so-called Abe faction, which is named after the assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and is the biggest and most powerful faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Japanese prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation into the faction over allegations of receiving about 500 million yen ($3.5m) in fundraising proceeds missing from party accounts, news outlets reported. “In light of the various allegations made regarding political funds, which have shaken the public trust in politics, and the various allegations made regarding my own political funds, I have submitted my resignation,” Matsuno said at a press conference. He will be replaced by Yoshimasa Hayashi, who was the foreign minister until September. Kishida announced late on Wednesday that he would revamp his government as he battles to control the fallout from the scandal in the party, which has led Japan almost uninterrupted since the end of World War II. He said he regretted that the scandal had deepened political distrust and insisted he would take urgent steps to tackle it. “We will tackle the various issues surrounding political funds head-on… I will make efforts like a ball of fire and lead the LDP to restore the public’s trust,” he told reporters. Investigators are expected to start searching lawmakers’ offices for evidence as early as next week, according to broadcaster NTV, and to examine whether other LDP factions – including one led by Kishida until last week – are involved, according to the reports. Nishimura was quoted as telling reporters on Thursday: “The public’s doubts are around me over political funds, which is leading to distrust in the government. As an investigation is going on, I thought I wanted to set things right.” Since news of the latest scandal broke a few weeks ago, Kishida has seen his public support drop to about 23 percent, the lowest since he came into office in October 2021, according to a recent poll by national broadcaster NHK. Support for the LDP has also slumped. The prime minister, who has already reshuffled his cabinet twice, does not need to hold an election until October 2025, and a fractured and weak opposition has historically struggled to make sustained inroads against the LDP. Opposition groups led by the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDPJ) of Japan led an unsuccessful no-confidence motion against Kishida on Wednesday. “The LDP has no self-cleansing ability,” CDPJ leader Kenta Izumi said. “It is questionable if they can choose anyone who is not involved in slush funds.” Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii called the scandal “a bottomless, serious problem”. Matsuno allegedly diverted more than 10 million yen ($70,600) over the past five years from money he raised from faction fundraising events to a slush fund, while Nishimura allegedly kept 1 million yen ($7,000), according to media reports. While most senior figures mentioned in the media remained mum, Vice Defence Minister Hiroyuki Miyazawa said on Wednesday that he was told by the Abe faction that “it’s OK to not enter” his first kickbacks in 2020-2022 in the funds’ records and that he assumed it was a practice that had been going on for years and was legal. Miyazawa also said that while he had been ordered to keep quiet, he felt compelled to speak out. The amount he accepted was reportedly just 1.4 million yen ($9,800). Collecting proceeds from party events and paying kickbacks to lawmakers are not illegal in Japan if recorded appropriately under the political funds law. Not reporting such payments carries a penalty of as many as five years in prison but prosecution is difficult because it needs proof of a specific instruction to an accountant to not report the transfer. Adblock test (Why?)
Parliament attack: What suspect Sagar Sharma, e-rickshaw driver’s last Instagram post reads; know all about him
Sagar Sharma informed his family that he was heading to a protest when he left Lucknow two days ago.
Christie calls Sununu endorsement of Haley ‘disappointing’ but ‘doesn’t change my strategy’
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he’s “disappointed” that he didn’t land the endorsement of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu in the Republican presidential nomination race. But Christie said that Sununu’s backing former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar “doesn’t change my strategy here one bit.” And he pushed back on Sununu’s suggestion that Christie and Haley’s other Republican White House rivals should get out of the race, telling Fox News Digital that “I’m not going anywhere, so let’s be really clear about that.” Christie made his comments as he took questions from reporters following a town hall Wednesday night in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Christie returned to the Granite State on the same day that Sununu was continuing to campaign with Haley across New Hampshire after endorsing her the previous evening. SUNUNU ON HALEY’S 2024 RIVALS: ‘I THINK THEY SHOULD ALL GET OUT’ Sununu, a popular Republican governor who’s won election and re-election to four two-year terms as governor in the crucial northeastern battleground state, had said for weeks that his endorsement would come down to Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Christie, who he’s known for over a decade. Haley has been rising in the polls the past couple of months and is currently in second place in the surveys in New Hampshire, far behind former President Donald Trump, who remains the commanding front-runner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run. ‘WE’RE ALL IN’ – SUNUNU BACKS HALEY IN MAJOR 2024 ENDORSEMENT Christie, who’s repeating his strategy from his unsuccessful 2016 Republican presidential run of placing all his chips in New Hampshire, stands in third place in Granite State polls, a couple of points behind Haley. “I would have been happy to accept his support,” Christie said of Sununu. But he downplayed the significance of the Sununu endorsement, arguing that “I would have known exactly what it meant. It meant one vote. And it would have been nice to hang around with him, and we could have done a buddy show like he and Nikki are doing, but in the end, these voters are not going to be told by anybody who to vote for.” “I’m disappointed. I’m not going to be stupid about it. It’s disappointing not to get it but on the other hand, it doesn’t change my strategy here one bit,” he highlighted. CHRISTIE UPS HIS GAME IN A KEY PRIMARY STATE Asked after endorsing Haley on Tuesday if Christie should drop out of the race, Sununu told Fox News that “I’m behind Nikki Haley. I think they should all get out frankly, including former President Trump. I think everyone should kind of clear the way.” But he acknowledged “they’re going to keep campaigning.” A day later, Fox News Digital asked Christie about Sununu’s comments. “He should know better,” Christie responded. “It’s not his job to tell anybody when to get out. He can support whomever he likes, but it’s not his job to tell anybody when it’s time to get out of the race. That’s an individual choice to make and I’m not going anywhere, so let’s be really clear about that.” A night earlier, Sununu told Fox News that he had not given either Christie or DeSantis a heads-up that he was going to endorse Haley. “I learned about it on-line,” Christie told Fox News. “That’s not the way I would have done it but everybody has to account for their own sense of what represents integrity and what doesn’t.” Christie spoke with reporters after taking questions for more than an hour and a half from the crowd in a jam-packed American Legion post in this Republican-leaning town. The former New Jersey governor took aim at Haley early and often during the town hall, starting with what he called her “word salad” answers when it comes to the combustible issue of abortion. Later in the town hall he accused her of “political pandering.” “The voters in this state have a right to know where she stands. Not just her happy talk. They have a right to know where she stands,” Christie told reporters after the town hall. And he charged that Haley’s “unwilling to do it. She wants to be everything to everybody on that issue [abortion]. It’s too important an issue, it’s too personal an issue, and it’s too serious an issue to not answer it directly. I’ve answered it directly. She hasn’t.” Sununu’s much coveted endorsement was a disappointment for DeSantis, but he’s concentrating most of his time and resources in Iowa, whose Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar. But it’s much more of a setback for Christie, who along with Haley is aiming for a strong finish in New Hampshire. Veteran Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett noted that “Christie is planting the flag in New Hampshire and to have the governor of the state, who clearly likes him and has an affinity for him, go with someone else and affirm that someone else has a much better pathway, if that’s your only state, it’s almost impossible, not just in New Hampshire but nationwide, to get the nomination.” “He’s got to look in the mirror,” Bartlett said of Christie. Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, said that the Sununu endorsement “does not help Chris Christie, and it is certainly a blow to his campaign.” But he added that “I don’t think it changes the fact that he’s going to campaign here in New Hampshire and seek the votes, and you never know what’s going to happen.” State Rep. Wayne MacDonald, a former state GOP chair who heads Christie’s steering committee in New Hampshire, told Fox News that “certainly we would much prefer to have Gov. Sununu on board with us than with Gov. Haley.” But he emphasized that
Parliament security breach: 5th accused held, case under UAPA registered
The police said the four were part of a group of six people who planned the incident.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 659
As the war enters its 659th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, December 14, 2023. Fighting At least 53 people, including six children, were injured after Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, the second in a week. The city’s air defences shot down the missiles – Iskander-M and S-400s – but the falling debris blew out windows of apartment blocks as well as a children’s hospital and destroyed parked cars. Of the injured, 18 were taken to hospital. A group of hackers called Solntsepyok claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on Kyivstar, Ukraine’s biggest mobile phone network, after millions of people were left without phone access or air raid alerts. Kyiv believes the group is affiliated with Russian military intelligence. Kyivstar began restoring voice services to some people on Wednesday. Politics and diplomacy With European Union leaders due to meet on Thursday to decide whether to formally open Ukraine membership talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was on a visit to Norway after returning to Europe from the United States, said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had no reason to block Kyiv’s membership of the 27-member grouping. Zelenskyy said he had been “very direct” when he had a brief chat with Orban in Argentina on Sunday. Orban, a conservative nationalist who is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU and is blocking 50 billion euros in financial aid for Kyiv, appeared unmoved. “Our stance is clear. We do not support Ukraine’s quick EU entry,” Orban wrote in a post on Facebook, claiming Ukrainian membership would not serve the interests of Hungary or the EU. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, meanwhile, promised Zelenskyy they would “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”. The five countries have provided Ukraine with aid worth some 11 billion euros since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and said they were ready to continue giving extensive military, economic and humanitarian support. “Russia must end its aggression and withdraw its forces immediately and unconditionally from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders,” they said in a joint statement. Other EU leaders, including EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, reiterated their support for Ukraine, with Scholz suggesting the EU take enlargement decisions by majority vote rather than unanimity. Newly-elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he would try to persuade Orban to change course. “Apathy on Ukraine is unacceptable,” Tusk said, adding that he will try to convince “some member states”. A German court heard that Russia paid Carsten Linke, a former soldier working for Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND), at least 450,000 euros in return for information about weaponry with which the West was arming Ukraine. Linke and his accomplice, a Russian-born German diamond trader named Arthur Eller, are charged with high treason. Weapons Germany’s Scholz stressed that the aim of the West’s continuing military support for Ukraine was to strengthen Kyiv’s defence to such an extent that Russia would “never again dare to attack”. Adblock test (Why?)