The death toll climbed to 5,28,778 with 24 fatalities including 12 reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.
There are 29,251 active COVID-19 cases in India which comprise 0.07 per cent of the total infections. The national recovery rate has increased to 98.75 per cent, the ministry said.
A decline of 1,111 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
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Idol vandalised at Hindu temple in Bangladesh
Unidentified miscreants vandalised the idol of a deity at a Hindu temple in Bangladesh’s Jhenaidah, prompting police to launch a manhunt for the vandals, local media reported.Authorities of the Kali temple in Dautiya village found the idol broken into pieces on Friday morning, news portal bdnews24.com quoted Sukumar Kunda, president of the temple committee as saying. According to Amit Kumar Burman, the district’s Assistant Superintendent of Police, a case had been lodged and investigations began on Thursday.
Volleyball Federation of India can select and send teams, says HC
The Madras High Court has held that the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) can select and send teams from the States to the ongoing national games in Gujarat while the state association cannot independently nominate the teams. Setting aside a single judge order allowing Tamil Nadu State Volleyball Association (TNSVA) to select and send men’s and women’s teams to the national games, a division bench comprising justices G R Swaminathan and N Mala on Friday said the VFI is the apex body in the country representing this game.
Thane records 51 new COVID-19 cases
With the addition of 51 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Maharashtra’s Thane district has gone up to 7,45,334, a health official said on Saturday. With these cases reported on Friday, there are now 292 active cases in the district.
PM Modi greets air warriors on Air Force Day
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday greeted air warriors and their families on the Air Force Day. Modi said the Indian Air Force has shown exceptional dexterity for decades, has secured the nation, and has shown remarkable human spirit during disasters. He tweeted, “On Air Force Day, my greetings to the courageous air warriors and their families. In line with the motto of ‘Nabhah Sprisham Deeptam’ the Indian Air Force has shown exceptional dexterity for decades. They have secured the nation and also shown remarkable human spirit during disasters.”
Britain could face blackouts this winter, warns report
British households could face blackouts this winter if there are reduced European electricity imports and insufficient gas supplies in the country, a report warned.
In the extreme scenario, it could erode the security of supply margins and mean some customers could be without power for pre-defined periods during the day, said the Winter Outlook Report published by National Grid ESO, the electricity system operator for Britain. However, the event is “unlikely”, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.
K-pop group BTS members face possible military conscription
South Korea’s military appears to want to conscript members of the K-pop supergroup BTS for mandatory military duties, as the public remains sharply divided over whether they should be given exemptions.
Lee Ki Sik, commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration, told lawmakers on Friday that it’s “desirable” for BTS members to fulfill their military duties to ensure fairness in the country’s military service.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup made almost identical comments about BTS at a parliamentary committee meeting, and Culture Minister Park Bo Gyoon said his ministry would soon finalize its position on the issue.
UN expert says Japan should do more for Fukushima evacuees
A United Nations human rights expert urged Japan’s government on Friday to provide evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster with more support, including housing, jobs and other needs, regardless of whether they fled forcibly or not.Wrapping up an investigation of the evacuees’ human rights conditions, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary said Japan has adequate laws to protect internally displaced people. They include a nuclear disaster compensation law that requires the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, to cover damages, and other government-led revitalization and reconstruction programs. But she said they have not been effectively used to address the vulnerability of the evacuees.
Alpine sign Gasly alongside Ocon for 2023 in all-French line-up
Frenchman Pierre Gasly will join compatriot Esteban Ocon in a race-winning line up at Renault-owned Alpine next season with Dutchman Nyck de Vries stepping up to replace him at AlphaTauri, the two Formula One teams said on Saturday.
Gasly, 26, will fill the seat vacated by double world champion Fernando Alonso, who is leaving the Enstone-based team for Aston Martin at the end of the season, on a multi-year deal.
“Driving for a team that has French roots is something very special,” said Gasly, who has been linked to an Alpine move for some time, in a statement.
AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann on two-day Gujarat visit from today
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will begin their two-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat from Saturday. Both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders will jointly address a public meeting at Dahod town in tribal-dominated Dahod district on Saturday, the party’s state general secretary Manoj Sorathiya said. Later in the day, they will participate in a ‘Tiranga Yatra’ in Vadodara city, he said.
NCERT stalls National Talent Search Examination scheme
The NCERT has stalled the National Talent Search Examination scheme till further orders, according to an official order. The popular scholarship programme is funded by the Ministry of Education and hosted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The scholarship exam is conducted annually in two stages — stage 1 (state level) and stage 2 (national level).
“The National Talent Search Scheme is a central sector scheme fully funded by the Ministry of Education, government of India. NCERT is an implementing agency for the NTS scheme. The scheme was approved till 31st March 2021,” the NCERT said in an official order.
Yacht owned by sanctioned Russian tycoon docks in Hong Kong
A superyacht connected to Russian tycoon Alexey Mordashov has anchored in Hong Kong this week amid moves by Western governments to seize yachts connected to sanctioned Russian businessmen. The megayacht Nord, worth over USD 500 million, arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon after travelling for over a week from Vladivostok, Russia, its last port of call.
Moody’s downgrades Pakistan with ‘C rating’ after seven years
The New York-based credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Pakistan’s local and foreign currency and senior unsecured debt ratings to Caa1 from B3, citing increased government liquidity and external vulnerability risks and higher debt sustainability risks, local media reported. “The outlook remains negative,” the New York-based rating agency said amid the devastation floods in Pakistan, Dawn reported.
Debt affordability, a long-standing credit weakness for Pakistan, will remain extremely weak for the foreseeable future. The downgrade has pushed the country into the C-category after seven years (March 2015).
Pakistan: Police baton-charge, arrest protesting schoolteachers in Peshawar
Dozens of Pakistani schoolteachers, who have been demanding the upgradation of their pay scales and restoration of allowances, have been arrested by Peshawar police, according to local media.
Dawn reported that the police arrested dozens of schoolteachers after resorting to baton-charge and tear gas firing to disperse their rally on Thursday. Meanwhile, in response to police action against teachers, the Primary School Teachers’ Association of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced the closure of all government primary schools in the province from Friday.
Cattle smuggling: CBI files chargesheet against TMC’s Anubrata
The central agency submitted the chargesheet before special vacation judge Ratna Roy Biswas in the CBI court at Asansol. The TMC’s Birbhum district president was arrested on August 11 from his residence at Bolpur by a team of CBI sleuths for allegedly not cooperating in its investigation into the cattle smuggling case.
Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians in West Bank amid tensions
The Israeli army fatally shot two Palestinian teenagers during confrontations in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The teenagers were among the more than 100 Palestinians killed in the territory so far in 2022 — the deadliest spasm of violence in seven years. The ministry identified the two Palestinians, killed in separate episodes, as 14-year-old Adel Daoud, shot in the head at Israel’s separation barrier near the northern Palestinian town of Qalqilya, and 17-year-old Mahdi Ladadweh, shot during clashes in a village northwest of Ramallah.
Active COVID-19 cases drop below 5,000 in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu has logged 387 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally in the state to 35,86,218, while the death toll remained unchanged at 38,047 as no new fatalities were reported, the health department said on Friday. As many as 482 more people have recovered from the disease in the state, taking their number to 35,43,194 and leaving 4,977 active infections, a medical bulletin said.
Chandrayaan-2 spectrometer maps abundance of sodium on moon for first time
The X-ray spectrometer ‘CLASS’ on the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has mapped an abundance of sodium on the moon for the first time, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (C1XS) detected sodium from its characteristic line in X-rays which opened up the possibility of mapping the amount of sodium on the Moon, it said.
In a recent work published in ‘The Astrophysical Journal Letters’, Chandrayaan-2 mapped the abundance of sodium on the Moon for the very first time using CLASS (Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer), the national space agency said in a statement on Friday.
US stocks slump on fears about rates, recession after jobs data
Good news on the economy remains bad news for Wall Street, and stocks are falling sharply Friday on worries a still-strong U.S jobs market may actually make a recession more likely.The S&P 500 was 2.7% lower in afternoon trading after the government said employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. Wall Street is worried the Federal Reserve could see that as proof the economy has yet to slow enough to get inflation under control. That could clear the way for the Fed to continue hiking interest rates aggressively, something that risks causing a recession if done too severely.
Bialiatski joins small group of jailed Nobel Peace laureates
Belarussian pro-democracy campaigner Ales Bialiatski, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with human rights groups in Russia and Ukraine, is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prizes to receive the award while in prison or detention.
Bialiatski, 60, who founded the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Center Viasna, was detained following protests in 2020 against the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He remains in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Bihar BJP seeks Governor’s intervention in deferment of civic polls
A delegation of Bihar BJP leaders on Friday met Governor Phagu Chouhan and sought his intervention in deferment of civic polls in the light of the Patna High Court declaring “illegal” reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes.
The saffron party’s OBC morcha leaders, led by its president Jaynath Chauhan, also submitted a memorandum to the governor. They alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar “failed to comply with a Supreme Court order, which led to the deferment of the urban local body elections” in the state.
‘No one has told us not to buy oil from Russia’
The Indian government has a moral duty to provide energy to its citizens and it will continue to buy oil from wherever it has to, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday, asserting that no country has told India to stop buying oil from Russia.
The Russia-Ukraine war has had a far-reaching impact on the global energy system, disrupting supply and demand patterns and fracturing long-standing trading relationships. It has pushed up energy prices for many consumers and businesses around the world, hurting households, industries and entire economies of several nations.
India’s crude oil imports from Russia have jumped over 50 times since April and now it makes up for 10 per cent of all crude bought from overseas. Russian oil made up for just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India prior to the Ukraine war.
“Demonetisation, GST are BJP’s weapons aimed at India’s poor”
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the BJP’s policies of demonetisation, GST and farm laws are weapons aimed at India’s poor and small businessmen. Addressing a rally at the end of the 30th day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said the BJP has destroyed businesses with its polices.
“Demonetisation and GST, both these are weapons. The farm laws that are applied here, is a weapon. These are not policies. These are weapons aimed at India’s poor, at India’s labourers, at India’s small and medium businesses, and they are very effective weapons,” he said.
