AGARTALA —The Tripura unit of the Congress has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, seeking the immediate arrest of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for allegedly spreading communal hatred in the state.

Tripura Pradesh Congress vice-president Tapas Dey filed the complaint on Friday with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, accusing Deb of repeatedly making false statements with “a motive to divide communities in the state on the lines of caste, creed and religion”.

Dey also called for the chief minister’s immediate arrest.

The office of the CEO has confirmed receiving the complaint against the chief minister. 

“Our party has urged the CEO to register an FIR against Deb for his immediate detention to judicial custody,” another state Congress leader said.

Dey also claimed that BJP activists were threatening voters to not go to the polling stations and were attacking Congress workers and candidates.

Despite repeated complaints to police, no action has been taken, he added.

When contacted, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya cited an earlier slogan raised by AICC member and former acting president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, Deb Burman.

Bhattacharya alleged that the slogan ― “Poila Jati, Ulo Party (caste is first and then political parties)” ― in indigenous Kokbarak language had communal overtones.

“This phrase raised by Deb Burman had communal hints. Let EC investigate the truth, and then everything would be clear to the people,” he told PTI. 

In Tripura, there are 23 tribal communities, together constituting one third of the state’s population. 

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, a last-minute pre-election promise likely to enrage Palestinians and the Arab world.

In an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News three days ahead of the April 9 poll, Netanyahu was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, as Israel did without international recognition in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in the 1967 Middle East war. 

“Who says that we won’t do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it,” Netanyahu said. 

“You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements.”

The veteran right-wing Israeli leader, who has dominated Israeli politics for a generation, is fighting for his political survival against former top general Benny Gantz, a political novice campaigning on a centrist platform.

Netanyahu has cast Gantz as a weak leftist who would endanger Israel’s security by giving territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

But Netanyahu, who has fought the election campaign under the shadow of corruption allegations, is also competing for votes with far-right parties who advocate annexation. His comments are likely to appeal to hardline voters, who oppose ceding lands.

Palestinian leaders immediately reacted with anger.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and a close aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump Administration’s support and endorsement of Israel’s violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine.”

In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri urged Abbas’s western-backed Palestinian Authority to halt its security cooperation with Israel in the occupied West Bank.

“Netanyahu’s dreams of annexing the West Bank will never be achieved and we will not allow that to happen,” he said.

“It is time for (the PA) to stop security coordination with the occupation, and to get united in the face of the challenges.”

WEST BANK

Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014.

After decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, according to Israeli figures, among about 2.9 million Palestinians according to the Palestinian Statistics Bureau.

A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, all territory Israel captured in 1967. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and withdrawn from Gaza. The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation with limited Palestinian self rule.

Netanyahu’s remarks follow a series of announcements and policy changes by U.S. President Donald Trump that were seen to favour Israel.

In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria.

That followed his December 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the U.S. embassy there. Both moves delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinian and Arab leaders, and were opposed by most U.S. allies.

With Trump’s moves on Jerusalem and The Golan, the Israeli leader may feel emboldened to advocate for annexation.

U.S. officials have said they would unveil a long-awaited Trump administration Middle East peace plan after the Israeli election, but prospects to restart negotiations appear dim.

The Palestinians have been boycotting the Trump administration over its Jerusalem moves and other recent decisions they view as pro-Israel bias.

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

The U.S. State Department declined to comment about Netanyahu’s remarks, which were viewed in the Israeli media as an attempt to draw right-wing votes rather than an immediate change of policy.

Netanyahu has been plagued by corruption allegations throughout the election campaign, after Israel’s attorney general publicly announced in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in three cases of alleged bribery and fraud, but the allegations could cloud his political future and that of any government he might head, possibly leading to a new election.

His main election rival, Gantz, has vowed to pursue peace with the Palestinians, but he has also stopped short at embracing their quest for statehood.

A spokeswoman for Gantz declined comment on Netanyahu’s remarks.

On Friday, the last day polling is allowed, Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party was projected to take 30 seats, more than the 26 forecast for Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud, according to a poll in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

But this and other polls also projected a majority of the Knesset’s 120 seats will go to the parties in Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc, giving Netanyahu a slim but workable majority.

A few days before the previous Israeli election in 2015, Netanyahu vowed there would never be a Palestinian state under his watch but then backtracked on that statement after a rebuke from Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Last year, however, Netanyahu told members of his right-wing Likud party that Israel and the United States were discussing the possibility of Israel annexing settlements. The White House swiftly denied that.

While vowing that he would not evacuate settlers from their homes, Netanyahu has also said in the past that the future of the settlements should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians.

ALIPURDUAR/JALPAIGURI—West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “liar”, who has been blabbering lies in the last five years and not fulfilling a single promises made during the last general election in 2014.

Banerjee also mocked Modi’s 56 inch chest rhetoric and wryly said even Ravan (demon king) had a big chest does that mean we would support “Ravan raj” in the country.

She criticised Election Comission over removal of police officers in Bengal and challenged the poll panel to remove her first. 

Sharpening attack at PM, who early this week had made a scathing attack at the TMC supremo describing her a “speedbreaker” in the path of development of the state and also who wants poverty to stay so her “politics of poverty” can flourish,Banerjee launched no holds barred attack on Modi.

Banerjee wondered how a person who didn’t look after his wife would look after the citizens of the country, taking an apparent dig at Modi.

She further accused the BJP of trying to turn legal citizens of the country into foreigners in the name of NRC and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Banerjee, who has emerged as an important leader of the anti-BJP bloc, said addressing a rally at Barobisha area of Alipurduar district,“TMC will lead the formation of the new government at the centre. Bengal will show the way.”

West Bengal with 42 Lok Sabha seats, third highest after Uttar Pradesh’s 80 and Maharashtra 48, is witnessing a fierce political fight between Trinamool Congress and the saffron party, buoyed after good performance in last year rural election and a few bypolls.

“We welcome the central forces, but they must work hand in hand with the state forces for proper and smooth voting. They have changed good police officials, but that will not affect us. Whoever you bring as replacement is our officer, it won’t affect us. If you can, replace me first,” Banerjee said.

Her comments comes in the backdrop of Election Commission of India (ECI) decision to remove four IPS officers, including Kolkata and Bidhannagar Police Commissioners. Banerjee has also written a letter to EC protesting against the decision.

“Let me warn you, if the BJP wins, the independence of the country and its people will be at stake. Freedom of religion, what to eat, what to wear will all be dictated to you”, she said and gave a clarion call to oust the “anti-Bengali, anti-minority” BJP.

“The BJP has to be defeated in order to save the people of this country. The TMC will lead the formation of the new government at the centre. Bengal will show the way,” she said.

“Even Ravan had a big chest does that mean we would support ‘Ravan raj’ in the country”, the TMC supremo said mocking Modi’s 56 inch chest rhetoric.

“Prime Minister Modi is a liar. He has been blabbering lies in the last five years. He has not fulfilled a single promises he made in 2014,” she said.

Hitting out at BJP over NRC and Citizenship (Ammendment) Bill, Banerjee said it is another ploy to turn legal citizens of this country into refugees.

NRC is being imposed by the BJP in Assam. They are excluding Bengalis, even Hindus. Chasing away Bengalis is not that easy. We will not allow it. Citizen Amendment Bill - they are saying will give citizenship after six months of stay. But what will families do during that time? How will they access day to day necessities?, she questioned.

Modi during his 2014 election rallies had promised re opening of closed tea gardens in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri.

But he has not opened a single one.

He used to call himself a “chaiwala” (tea seller). Now the chaiwala after failing to fullfill his promises has turned into a “Chowkidar” (watchman), the TMC supremo mocked.

Questioning the credentials of John Barla, BJP’s candidate in Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat, the fiesty TMC boss said Barla was one of the main accussed in the riots that took place few years back bewteen the Gorkhas and Adivasis in the region.

“It is quite obvious that a party like BJP which preaches the policy of riots could not find a better candidate. But we will not allow him to win. We will not vote for him. We will not vote for a party that causes riots and creates trouble,” she said.

At the time of election, BJP comes here with sacks full of money, distributes and seeks votes, but don’t pay heed to their words. We all should fight unitedly to oust them, she alleged.

The Kardashians have finally responded to Jameela Jamil’s criticism of their ads for detox teas and shakes – but it doesn’t sound like they’ll ditch the brands any time soon.

Jamil has called the Kardashians “irresponsible” and also referred to them as “double agents for the patriarchy” for promoting brands including Flat Tummy Co. The actor also called on them sisters to be honest about the personal trainers and nutritionists that help them achieve their physiques. 

But in an interview with the New York Times the reality stars defended their position, with their “momager” Kris Jenner saying: “I don’t live in that negative energy space.” 

Khloé Kardashian argued that she shows her workouts on Snapchat while Kim Kardashian said sponsored posts allow the family to work from home without having to leave their children. 

“You’re going to get backlash for almost everything so as long as you like it or believe in it or it’s worth it financially, whatever your decision may be, as long as you’re okay with that,” Kim added. 

But an NHS dietician and a registered nutritionist have told HuffPost UK they’re concerned about the impacts these products have on health. 

Chloe Hall, a community dietician at Dorset Healthcare University NHS foundation trust, said detox products do “very little if you’re lucky” and may leave you “running to the bathroom if you’re not”.

“The ingredients in most of them are herbs and there is no evidence that they will help you lose weight,” she said. “Some of the products contain caffeine and if taken in excessive quantities caffeine can leave people feeling anxious, shaky and with heart palpitations.”

Some detox teas contain an ingredient called senna, which is more problematic and is in some of Flat Tummy Co’s products. The plant extract acts as a laxative, according to Laura Thomas PhD, a nutritionist registered with the Association for Nutrition. 

“It’s only intended to be used in the short term, usually around one week, to help relive the symptoms of constipation,” she explained. “Many of these products are sold in courses of 28-days – far more than the one-week recommendation.” 

Side effects of senna include stomach cramps and diarrhoea, particularly in those with irritable bowel syndrome, Thomas said. “Long-term diarrhoea can lead to dehydration which can be a risk for other health problems. Furthermore, prolonged use can lead to problems with the bowel working properly on its own.”

Thomas said her main concern is the way in which some teas are marketed to influenceable young women “at higher risk of abusing laxatives, a symptom of disordered eating, by popular social media influencers”.

“Vulnerable people are also far more likely to take more than the recommended dose in a desperate attempt to control their weight and look like the social media influencers who are endorsing these products,” she said. “However, any weight lost with these types of products is just water weight and can lead to diarrhoea and dehydration.”

Focusing on weight as a predictor of health isn’t particularly helpful, said Thomas. “If you’d like to make positive health improvements, think about what you can add in to your diet, rather than take away, such as fibre from whole grains or fruits and vegetables, or heart healthy fats from oily fish,” she said.

“On top of that, making sure you’re getting enough sleep and moving your body for fun and enjoyment, rather than worrying about how many calories you’re burning.” 

Hall agreed that making small changes is the best way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. “There is no one specific food that is going to help it is about the balance of your overall lifestyle which includes diet, activity, sleep and social aspects,” she said. “Reducing portion sizes gradually can help, as can finding an activity you enjoy.”

HuffPost UK has contacted Flat Tummy Co for comment and will update this piece if we receive a response. 

Just when you think there’s nothing Zayn Malik hates more than once being in One Direction, the former boy bander has come out swinging at haters trying to drive a wedge between him and maybe ex-girlfriend Gigi Hadid. 

The “I Don’t Want To Live Forever” singer has had quite a bumpy few days on social media after he unleashed his expletive-laden wrath at no one in particular on Twitter earlier this week. 

Malik broadcast to his millions of followers a message to “go fuck yourselves with your irrelevant bullshit” in a series of tweets many interpreted were referencing his rumored split with Hadid.

The on-again, off-again couple have reportedly been spending less time together amid reports that the supermodel was spotted out with Selena Gomez’s ex-boyfriend Samuel Krost.

Back in January, reports circulated that Malik and Hadid had called it quits yet again, but the singer confused everyone by tweeting about how much he loves Hadid months later. 

But Mailk had no love to share on social media this time around, continuing to tweet about being betrayed on Wednesday by an unknown person. 

“This ain’t a place for feelings,” he wrote, later adding, “And you aren’t the person you said you were.” 

The internet, of course, ran wild with theories about who or what Mailk was ranting about ― some even speculated he was responding to his latest album underperforming on the charts ― resulting in another meltdown on Thursday. 

His tweets were directed at “any dumb fuck out there that wants to make they’re own stories up” with the singer making special mention of Hadid, whom he called the “most amazing woman I’ve ever known.” 

“My tweet was not about @GigiHadid so leave her the fuck alone she is the most amazing woman I’ve ever known,” he wrote. “And does nothing but love and support me when lord knows I don’t deserve it.” 

Hadid even weighed in on the social media storm on her own account Wednesday, presumably referencing photos of her out and about with Krost making the internet rounds. 

The supermodel pointed a finger at the media for creating “unneeded confusion” by writing sensational headlines every time she steps out with a “friend of the male gender.” 

Mailk capped off his Twitter tirade with a bluntly worded final message to anyone that has something to say about his relationship. 

“So if you have anything to say @ me and I’ll put you the fuck straight, he wrote. “If you know nothing shut your fucking mouth.” 

BENGALURU, Karnataka — “I’m unable to get a water tanker to my house/apartment. Please help.”

This has become a common message in WhatsApp and email groups across Bengaluru in recent summers. A tanker carrying 7,000 litres of water, which used to cost around Rs 400 10 years ago, is now anywhere between Rs 800-1000  or more. What was once a buyer’s market has now become a seller’s market, as the city’s groundwater reserves keep dwindling.

A BBC article published in February 2018 placed Bengaluru in a list of 12 cities most likely to run out of water, in the unenviable company of places like Cape Town and Beijing. The situation may not be as dire as the article portrayed, but it is still grim. Why is Bengaluru, once called a pensioner’s paradise and coveted for its pleasant weather and greenery, in the grip of a water crisis now? And how did it get here?

Water conservation began early

For a landscape with evidence of human settlement for at least 6,000 years, Bengaluru is unusual in many ways—most notably in its relationship to water. The city is located in a semi-arid landscape and receives a limited amount of rainfall each year. Most old settlements grew near large, year-round sources of water, such as the Great Lakes system of North America, or the fertile valleys of the Indo-Gangetic region in South Asia. The landscape surrounding Bengaluru has none of these. How did early settlers survive during the long dry spells between monsoons?

They did so by clever, locally crafted approaches to rain water harvesting. Natural depressions in the ground were deepened and used to create tanks (now called lakes) to store water. As one inscription from 1307 AD, from the village of Vibhutipura (near Bengaluru’s old airport) states, the village was created by local residents who “cleared the jungle… levelled the ground, built a village, constructed a tank by removing the sand…”.

Large tanks were built for irrigation while smaller tanks were constructed to wash cattle and clothes. These tanks were interconnected through a series of rainwater channels, with tanks on higher ground overflowing into channels that took the water to the tanks on lower ground. This careful channeling of monsoon water helped prevent floods and stored water for the dry months. This approach of interlinking tanks was common across much of peninsular South India, where water was a scarce resource. In Bangalore, the number and types of tanks grew sharply during the period of Hoysala rule between the 13th and 14th centuries AD, ranging from large water bodies (called samudras or sandras) used for irrigation, to smaller water bodies (kattes and kuntes) used to wash clothes and for cattle to drink.

Water planning was supported by the structure of the landscape around tanks, and built around ideas of water control and management. Each tank had at least two large open wells on the east and west side, which supplied water for drinking. Water from heavy downpours was trapped by wetlands located above the tank and slowly channeled into the tank. Plants and reeds growing in the wetland slowed down the progress of the water, keeping it in one place long enough for much of it to seep into the ground, from where it made its way into the surface water system that fed the wells. Orchards of fruiting trees were planted around the tank, keeping the environment cool, reducing water evaporation and providing fruits and fodder for local communities.

When the lakes vanished

One of Bengaluru’s largest lakes, Sampangi lake, had at least three kalyanis — small reservoirs of water surrounded by series of steps — and several massive open wells around the lake, one of which was so large that it supported eleven the pulleys that were used to take out water. Now, only one kalyani remains in a morphed form, devoid of water. The wells have disappeared, marked only by occasional remnants of pulleys. The lake is long gone too, converted into the city’s famous Sri Kanteerava sports stadium. Only a tiny patch of water now remains, protected because it plays a central role in an important local festival, the Karaga.

Other prominent lakes and tanks have also disappeared from central Bengaluru. Dharmambudhi lake, which many people believe to have been built by Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru, now hosts Bengaluru’s central bus terminus, maintaining a steady flow of Bengaluru’s buses instead of water. The Millers lake series—Subhashnagar lake, Kodihalli lake and Sinivagilu lake—are now residential settlements, while Akkithimmanahalli lake is a hockey stadium. Challaghatta lake is now a golf course and Agrahar lake is yet another bus terminus. As the lakes disappeared, so did the wells. A research study conducted from old maps found that there were 1,960 open wells in central Bengaluru in 1885. This number dropped sharply to 490 wells by 1935, and 149 in 1973. By 2014, a field survey found only 49 wells remaining, of which very few were in useable condition. The remaining were filled with garbage or debris, and had been abandoned.

Bengaluru’s tanks, wells and kalyanis were valued when they provided the main sources of water. By the 1890s, the city began to receive piped water, first from the Hessarghatta lake outside the city, later supplemented by water from the nearby Thippagondanahalli reservoir in the 1930s, and eventually from the Cauvery river, more than 100 km away, in the late 1960s. People and planners no longer considered rain water harvesting as important or essential for their water security. Tanks that were worshipped and revered were now polluted with sewage, reviled as malarial swamps, and drained and converted into built real estate. Corpses and garbage were thrown into wells, and they were filled in, and built on. Of the kalyanis, and small eris, kattes and kuntes (small ponds) that once dotted Bengaluru’s landscapes, very few remain.

Not a drop to drink

As this summer’s water crisis shows, Bengaluru cannot completely rely on distant sources of water to take care of its needs. The city has grown at too fast a pace for the piped water infrastructure to keep up with. As a result, the peripheral areas of Bengaluru do not get piped water supply, and have to depend on groundwater. Bore wells, which have exploded in number across Bengaluru, as they have across much of India, are now running dry in many parts of the city. This is why water tankers are at such a premium.

If the wealthy and middle class complain about water prices, how do the poor manage? As Malini Ranganathan’s research shows, residents of Bengaluru’s slums purchase water by the pot, and pay a much higher price – often running into thousands of rupees a month – for water. Bengaluru’s municipality has now installed water kiosks at a number of ward offices across the city, providing clean drinking water at affordable prices. But water is heavy and difficult to carry over long distances on foot, and many cannot access this affordable water supply.

New schemes for water supply to the city include a number of increasingly impractical options – bringing water from the Cauvery river (which is already running low on water), from other distant water sources like Yettinahole, and even from desalination plants located off the coast of Mangalore. Yet, rain water harvesting, which was made mandatory in Bengaluru in 2016, is not being aggressively followed up and enforced, as it should. Local civic groups and organisations such as Biome Environmental Trust have stepped in to try and fill this gap, promoting water conservation through recharge wells and attempting to revive the culture of open wells in Bengaluru. A  number of lake conservation groups, such as MAPSAS(Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrudhi Samiti), PNLIT (Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust) and JalaPoshan, have taken up and revived lakes in Bengaluru with government support. But individuals and civic groups can only do so much. Bengaluru needs systematic government coordination, funding and enforcement of water conservation at a large scale. The eyes of planners seem to be focused on large infrastructure projects, missing the need for local, small-scale revival and interconnection of wells, kalyanis, lakes and water channels.

Bengaluru may not completely run out of water in the near future, but it is clearly in the throes of a growing crisis. Many of the city’s residents spend a substantial part of their earnings and time trying to get water. The wealthy are more fortunate, but beginning to feel the pinch. Across the world, the challenges of growing cities can be traced to the loss of a culture of connection to the land that feeds and shelters them. Cities are seemingly infinite centres of growth, which can be supplied with food, water and energy from distant sources, and send their waste out to be dumped in distant villages. But in reality, cities still depend on their landscape for many resources. Water, essential for human survival, must be locally conserved and managed. For this, Bengaluru needs to look to its past, to plan for a better future. The city must learn to reconnectwith the culture of water awareness that helped it to establish itself and thrive in a water-scarce landscape.

The writer is professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University.

INDORE — The Income Tax department on Sunday conducted raids at the residence and other premises of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Praveen Kakkad, sources said.

The raids were conducted by a team of officials, who arrived from Delhi, at Kakkad’s residence in Vijay Nagar area here and other places associated with him, sources in the IT department said.

They said documents seized during the searches were being scrutinised in detail. 

Further details were awaited.

Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year.

He had earlier served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime.

Kakkad’s family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality.

PUNE—NCP chief Sharad Pawar Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming there were disputes in the former’s family.

Pawar said the insinuation was coming from a man who did not have any experience of a family, nor does he know where they are presently.

PM Modi, during a rally in Wardha on 1 April, had said that Pawar was losing his grip on the Nationalist Congress Party which was hit by a “family feud”.

“Pawar’s grip on the party is loosening. The situation is that Pawar saheb’s nephew (Ajit Pawar) is trying to take control of the party. Because of this, the NCP faced problems in ticket distribution,” the PM had claimed at the rally.

Hitting back, Pawar Saturday said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his rally in Wardha said there are disputes in the Pawar family. That Ajit Pawar has taken control of the family and that the Pawar family is no longer united.”

“I would like to tell him that we brothers were raised in a cultured atmosphere and our mother gave us virtues,” the NCP chief said.

He went on add that his brothers were all reputed in their own fields and said how great his mother was that her sons have got Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.

While Pawar is a Padma Vibhushan, his brother Pratap is chairman-managing director of Sakal newspapers and has been awarded the Padma Shri.

“A person who does not have any experience of a family nor any idea where his family is presently is trying to inquire into (that of) others,” Pawar said.

Pawar said he had got values and virtues of politics from stalwarts like former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and YB Chavan, Maharashtra’s first chief minister and a former Deputy Prime Minister.

“Now these people, in order to hide their failures, are criticising the Gandhi family. Now my family is also included (in the attacks),” he added.

Stating that a BJP MP had spoken about changing the Constitution, he said the people would oppose any such move and “your ideology would burn in their (public) anger”.

He asked the gathering to commit themselves to defeating the BJP in the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

Like so many of us, Rose Armitage, a 20-year-old from Las Vegas, is a crier during arguments.

It doesn’t matter how well-reasoned her points are or how much of the moral high ground she has, when she and her boyfriend start arguing, the waterworks begin.

“I can’t remember an argument in which I haven’t cried, but then I’m generally a crier,” she told HuffPost. “I cried this morning about a hard math equation. For me, I find that in a fight with my partner, I cry because I care. And sometimes because I don’t feel heard.”

Charles Darwin once declared emotional tears “purposeless,” but as Armitage’s example shows, tears aren’t just cathartic, they serve a purpose, communicating when our words fail. We might cry out of empathy for our partner, shock at hearing about something we’d been oblivious to or anger if another’s argument comes across as accusatory.

As Time magazine science writer Mandy Oaklander put it, “Tears are a signal that others can see.”

It’s a natural response to high-stress moments, but tears can be a pesky thing when they come mid-argument, especially if your partner sees them as a sign of weakness.

“Many partners grow resentful of the crier and feel that it’s a conditioned manipulation to gain control of the disagreement,” Carder Stout, a Los Angeles-area psychotherapist told HuffPost. “The crier also may be judged as emotionally unstable: ‘Why do you always cry? Get it together!’”

Why do we cry?

From Stout’s experience working with couples, the crier is usually responding from an authentic place.

“Perhaps they are traumatized, even frightened by confrontation, and the tears are a product of their fear,” he said. “Perhaps they feel that arguments lead to abandonment and they cannot bear even the thought of that consequence and therefore express their fragility.”

While some criers may feel ashamed and weak over their emotional display, “others are healing themselves through tears if they’re supported correctly,” Stout said.

Our inclination to cry may also be tied up in our attachment styles, or the way we relate to others in intimate relationships, said Stacey Rosenfeld, a psychologist in Coral Gables, Florida.

If you’re an anxious type, you’re hyper-aware of even the smallest fluctuations in your partner’s mood or behaviors. You might even consider those changes a personal slight or an indictment of your relationship. And you may get highly emotional and jump to conclusions in the midst of a Very Important Relationship Conversation, especially one that seemingly comes out of nowhere. 

“If we’re anxious, we might be afraid that the conflict could lead to separation or loss,” Rosenfeld said. “Instead of standing our ground or speaking our truth, we might be more worried that our partners will leave in the face of intense conflict.” Hence, the waterworks.

Your tears might be met with empathy by a fellow anxious type or a securely attached partner, but they won’t go over well with an avoidant partner, Stout said. The avoidant wants nothing more than to walk away from what they perceive as histrionics. By their very nature, an avoidant type feels unnerved by too much closeness in a relationship; crying is the ultimate clingy offense.

It’s a toxic cycle that will continue to play out if the couple doesn’t learn how to deal with it.

There’s a gender dynamic at play here, too. Culturally, we tend to think of women as criers and men as stonewallers. But as Rosenfeld notes, that’s probably only because women are socialized to avoid expressing anger.

“As such, we often communicate anger in a diluted way, and crying is one way to dilute our anger,” she said. “We might fear, rightly so, how others will respond to our anger, as it could lead to rejection, loss or even violence.” 

OK, so how do you bridge the emotional gap between a crier and a non-crier?

In the heat of the moment, don’t be afraid to call a timeout if tears come, Stout said. You know how some couples have safe words they use when sex gets too rough? Come up with one for when your argument starts to get too heavy, too. 

Then, leave the room for a bit. Go catch your breath in the bathroom or take a walk.

“I often advise my patients to find a patch of earth and put their bare feet on the ground as a way to let go of anxious energy,” Stout said. “A 10minute break, however you choose to do it, works great.”

You also should come up with a game plan on how to deal with future fights. If you’re the crier, dig to understand what function your tears serve: What emotions lie behind the reaction? What worries or concerns are you trying to convey to your partner?

“Have a conversation with your S.O. when not in conflict about your tendency to cry and what the tears mean,” Rosenfeld said. “This can help them understand why this happens and what it means in the context of your relationship.”

The solution isn’t tear-free arguments for the rest of your life together but rather knowing how to cope with your emotions when the tears inevitably do come. 

For Armitage, when a fight reaches a fever pitch, she and her boyfriend try to remind each other that they’re not fighting each other, they’re fighting the problem itself.

“And at this point, my partner is pretty used to me crying,” she said. “Really, I don’t think we should be afraid to cry, especially when you feel conflict creating some resentment. Like I said before, we cry because we care.”

Dozens of endangered killer whales were spotted off Monterey Bay on the central California coast last week in the first such sighting since 2011.

While “transient” orcas are normally seen at this time of year in the region, these rare southern resident killer whales of the Pacific Northwest are usually found in Puget Sound in Washington state now. There are only 75 of them left in three pods tracked by researchers: the J, K and L pods.

The group spotted last Sunday was identified as the L pod. There are at least 30 animals in the group, including a three-month-old calf, according to marine biologist Nancy Black, owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch. The oldest member of the pod, identified as L25, is believed to be in her 90s, The Seattle Times reported.

The whales may have been after chinook, according to the Times.

“They will go where the fish are,” said Ken Balcomb, founding director for the Center for Whale Research, who said it takes the whales about a week to reach California waters from their home territory.

COOCH BEHAR—In a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday “speed-breaker Didi” has applied brakes on several central schemes, denying people of the benefits available in other parts of the country.

Addressing a rally at Rash Mela ground in West Bengal, he alleged that Banerjee has let loose goons in the state, dashing the hopes of people.

“Didi has maligned Bengal with Saradha Scam, Rose Valley scam and Narada scam. I want to promise you all that this Chowkidar (Modi) will seek answers for each and every paisa looted,” he said.

Noting that a venue with limited space was allotted for today’s rally, Modi said, “Didi tried her best to stop people from attending the rally in large numbers. How does she expect to win the elections with such childish antics.”

“The way Mamata expressed her anger against Election Commission only shows how perplexed she is. Didi is fast losing her political ground in Bengal,” the PM said.

Banerjee had expressed her displeasure when the Election Commission announced seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.

Modi also charged Banerjee with protecting illegal immigrants to secure her vote bank.

“Didi has betrayed the Centre by giving protection to the intruders. This chowkidar has brought NRC and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to drive out infiltrators. But Didi with her ‘Mahamilawati’ (opposition alliance) colleagues are trying to stop the government from pursuing them,” he said.

Sharing his plans for the development of the country, Modi said, phone calls will soon become free in the country and the charges for Internet will be the least in the world.

“Every poor has a bank account and a debit card. Women have easy access to gas connections. What seemed impossible a few years ago has been made possible by the Modi government,” he added.

Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal will be held in seven phases between 11  April and 19 May.

MUMBAI — Five sanitation workers, all from the lowest rung of India’s caste system, were chosen in late February to meet a very important guest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As cameras flashed, Modi proceeded to wash the feet of the workers, one by one, using water and his hands, a gesture intended to honour staff who clean toilets at the Kumbh Mela, a massive religious gathering in north India.

But sanitation workers, scores of whom die each year from asphyxiation while removing waste from underground drains, have had enough, said Bezwada Wilson, the head of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), or Sanitation Workers’ Movement.

Ahead of general elections that begin on Thursday, the workers are reminding Modi of his promise to eradicate by this year the practice of manual scavenging — the cleaning, carrying or disposing of human excreta from dry latrines and sewers.

“(Modi) has done nothing for us in the past five years,” Wilson said.

India has laws banning the hiring of manual scavengers, but they have not been properly enforced, mostly due to difficulty collecting evidence and apathy by successive governments. Workers picking up human waste with bare hands is a common sight at railway stations.

While government estimates peg the number of manual scavengers at anywhere between 14,000 and 31,000, the SKA says the figure is closer to 770,000, with nearly 1,800 sewer cleaners asphyxiating to death in the last decade.

The community has little political power and Modi remains the front-runner to win the election, but critics point to their condition as another example of lofty promises undone and the empty symbolism of washing their feet.

Wilson has launched a hashtag #StopKillingUs on Twitter and demanded government help workers find jobs that give them dignity.

Most sanitation workers find it difficult to get other work because of caste-based barriers, while many operate without formal contracts and are unaware of the terms of their employment, a study by US-based advisory firm Dalberg shows.

The workers whose feet Modi washed in February are not satisfied with their jobs and want an end to manual scavenging, they told The Indian Express newspaper last month.

One said he was grateful for the honour, calling Modi a great man. But, he added: “There is no difference in our lives. We were doing this cleaning work before too, we continue to do it.”

More than 90% of latrine cleaners are women, and all sanitation workers are Dalits, the social group at the bottom of India’s caste system.

NEW DELHI/BHOPAL — The Income Tax Department Sunday launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh against people linked to state Chief Minister Kamal Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, officials said. 

A team of about 200 IT department and police officers swooped down on these premises around 3 am and some undisclosed cash was recovered, they said.

The searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing polls season and tax evasion, they said.

Locations in Indore, Bhopal and Delhi (Green Park) were being raided and those being searched included Nath’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkad, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law’s firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri’s company, they said.

Both Kakkad and Miglani resigned from their posts just before the Lok Sabha polls were declared.

In Indore, the raids were conducted by a team of officials, who arrived from Delhi, at Kakkad’s residence in Vijay Nagar area and other places associated with him, sources in the I-T department said.

Searches were also conducted at Kakkad’s house in Bhopal’s Nadir Colony and a couple of other places in the state capital, they said.

They said documents seized during the searches were being scrutinised in detail.

The raids are also being conducted against Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, the sources added.

Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year.

He earlier served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime.

Bhuria is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha poll from Ratlam-Jhabua seat in MP.

Kakkad’s family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality.

Ratul Puri was last week grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi in connection with the Rs 36,000 AgustaWestland helicopters purchase probe.

Reacting to the raids, a Congress leader in MP accused the BJP-led central government of targeting opposition leaders for “political vendetta”.

MP Congress’ media cell vice president Bhupendra Gupta, also a former OSD to Nath, charged, “The BJP government has been targeting opposition leaders across the country due to political enmity. Due to such act of political vendetta, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (N Chandrababu Naidu) and DMK leader M K Stalin had to stage protest against the Centre.” 

However, the BJP hit back, saying thieves were now having a complaint against the ‘watchman’.

“Black money worth crores was recovered during the Income Tax department’s raid at the house of private secretary of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. This has made one thing clear that those who are thieves have a complaint against the watchman,” BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

KARACHI — Pakistan has “reliable intelligence” that India will attack again this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, as tension over a February standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours had appeared to ease.

The attack could take place between April 16 and 20, he said, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council of its concerns.

A suicide car bombing by Pakistan-based militants in Kashmir’s Pulwama killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel on February 14 and the risk of conflict rose dramatically on 27 February , when India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant training base in Pakistan’s Balakot.

The following day Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and captured its pilot who was later released.

“We have reliable intelligence that India is planning a new attack on Pakistan. As per our information this could take place between 16 and 20 April,” Qureshi told reporters in his hometown of Multan.

He did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had or how he could be so specific with the timing, but he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to share the information with the country.

India’s foreign office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Khan blamed India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “whipping up war hysteria” over claims that India shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the February standoff.

India said it, too, had shot down a Pakistani aircraft and the air force displayed pieces of a missile that it said had been fired by a Pakistani F-16 before it went down.

The success of Indian air strikes on a camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in northwestern Pakistan has also been thrown into doubt after satellite images showed little sign of damage.

Pakistan closed its airspace amid the standoff but most commercial air traffic has since resumed and major airports have opened.

Love and marriage are rocky subjects in the world of Westeros. Siblings get busy in towers, aunts and nephews rendezvous on the Narrow Sea and sworn virgins run off with wildling women.

But there is one marital mystery that still stumps “Game of Thrones” fans, and it involves lawfully wedded couple Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), who will surely see each other again when Tyrion arrives in Winterfell with Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) in Season 8.

The question remains: Are Tyrion and Sansa technically still married? And, if so, what does it mean for the final outcome in the quest for the Iron Throne? 

First, a quick recap. Tyrion and Sansa officially said “I do” in Season 3 at the demand of Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), and it becomes a humiliating affair for both bride and groom. Despite being forced to marry the imp of House Lannister, however, Sansa ― the “traitor” Ned Stark’s daughter ― begins to bond with him over their shared status in King’s Landing. 

“The disgraced daughter and the demon monkey,” Tyrion, who’s in a committed relationship with Shae (Sibel Kekilli) at this point, tells Sansa. “We’re perfect for each other.”

But just when they have all the makings to become a power couple in Westeros, Tyrion is informed that his family conspired with the Freys and Boltons to savagely murder Sansa’s brother Robb (Richard Madden) and mother Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) at what’s known as the Red Wedding. Once she learns what happened, Sansa no longer trusts anyone in the capital, let alone her Lannister husband who “swore to protect her.”

When chaos erupts following the poisonous death of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) at the start of Season 4, Tyrion and Sansa are separated. Sansa quickly escapes King’s Landing with the help of Littlefinger, and Tyrion eventually makes his way to Meereen to sync up with Dany following his victorious escape from prison.

Littlefinger then stupidly arranges a marriage between Sansa and the cold-hearted bastard son of Roose Bolton, Ramsay (Iwan Rheon), who is currently ruling Winterfell. She is raped on her wedding night, beaten and tormented — a storyline many disapprove of — before she is able to break free of Ramsay’s clutches and find her way back to Jon. She, with help from the Knights of the Vale, wins back control of the North in the Battle of the Bastards and gloriously feeds Ramsay to his own, very hungry, dogs. Sansa is now Lady of Winterfell, set to protect her people from the army of the dead alongside her Stark siblings. 

Which brings us back to our question about the status of Tyrion and Sansa’s marriage.

In Westeros, most marriages begin with a religious ceremony involving the exchange of vows in the presence of a sacred witness, depending on the couple’s faith. A septon unites those who follow the Faith of the Seven, a priest or priestess does the same for believers in the Drowned God or R’hllor, and a Godswood heart tree is used by followers of the Old Gods. The ceremony is followed by a feast with the bride and groom before the bedding takes place, where the marriage is consummated.

The thing is, Tyrion and Sansa never consummated their marriage, as he didn’t feel it appropriate to lie with a woman who was not ready to be with him.

Now, Westeros is clearly a fantasy world created by A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, but it does resemble medieval Europe. Martin has also said that the Faith of the Seven is inspired by the Catholic Church, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the laws of medieval marriage somewhat apply to Westeros.

That’s why we reached out to some history experts to get their takes on Tyrion and Sansa’s relationship status.

Nancy F. Cott, Jonathan Trumbull Research Professor of American History at Harvard University, who’s an expert in marriage history, believes it’s all quite simple.

“In ecclesiastical law, the Church would say they are married to each other forever so long as they had pledged themselves and consummated the marriage with sex,” Cott told HuffPost. 

One medieval history expert, however, gives a vastly different answer.  

“Consummation was not necessary for a marriage,” Ruth Mazo Karras, Lecky Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin, told HuffPost. “As long as both parties are of age, not too closely related to each other and all other things that would make it a valid marriage, once they have said their vows, they are married and they stay married. Even if they separated, they wouldn’t be able to marry anybody else.” 

Karras believes that, according to this late 12th-century law, Sansa and Ramsay’s marriage was an adulterous one. They were never fully married, even though Littlefinger told Roose Bolton that Sansa and Tyrion’s union was invalid because it was never consummated.

“Westeros might have different laws, but to get a marriage annulled, you have to show that it’s not valid in the first place. Saying they never consummated it was not sufficient to get it annulled,” Karras said. “In practical terms, the pope ― and again, this is in medieval Europe ― might have been more willing to annul a marriage that hadn’t been consummated on other grounds, but the fact that it was not consummated was not grounds for annulment.”

One other Westerosi marriage was successfully annulled on the show to make Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark’s marriage valid. We find out that, before their wedding ceremony, the groom first secured permission from the High Septon to annul his marriage to Elia Martell. Per medieval law, the fact that Sansa’s first marriage had not been approved for annulment prior to her marriage to Ramsay would make the latter marriage invalid.

There’s a hitch, though. Sansa married Tyrion before the Seven Gods and Ramsay before the Old Gods — so the latter could be valid under the other religion. It truly comes down to what makes or who approves a legitimate annulment.

In Lysa Arryn’s opinion, for example, death frees a spouse to marry another, as she tells her niece Sansa in Season 4: “You’ll be a widow soon. They’ll execute that dwarf for murdering the king and you’ll be free to marry Robin [her cousin].”

Stephanie Coontz, a history and family studies professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, told HuffPost that the Church controlled access to marriage, divorce and remarriage in the former Roman Empire, especially after the eighth century. But there were instances in which the papacy was not the decision-maker.  

“Where the Church was not powerful or present, marriage was controlled by private families, who made up their own rules more or less,” Coontz said. “It was not uncommon for a man to take a second wife or a concubine if his first didn’t produce an heir, or to repudiate one wife for a more fertile or better-connected one. Parents or other kinfolk arranged the marriages of aristocrats, and often of commoners as well. Or powerful individuals arranged their own, sometimes by murdering a rival and marrying his widow to take over his land or kingdom.”

So, by Coontz’s logic, Sansa and Tyrion could still be married if those who witnessed the initial union are still committed to it. A second ceremony could even be held to validate it. 

“They would probably have invented an occasion for another very public ceremony, with exchanges of gifts between the families, invitations of other nobles, feasting, etc,” Coontz said. 

Karras disagreed. “Under medieval canon law, they would still be married and wouldn’t need any kind of ceremony,” she said.

“Now, if you looked earlier in the 12th century, there’s considerable disagreement among canon lawyers about whether consummation is necessary for a completed marriage,” Karras said. “There is an opinion that if you have one marriage that’s not consummated and then you have a subsequent marriage that is consummated, the one that is consummated takes precedence. So it totally depends on which set of laws you apply.” 

Medieval standards aside, it all comes down to what “Game of Thrones” showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff decide are the laws of the Seven Kingdoms. “This is not historical drama, so they could take whatever liberties with medieval canon law that they like,” Karras said.

The writers could easily reveal that Tyrion and Sansa’s marriage is still valid, or they could land on the fact that Sansa is a single woman after Ramsay’s death. 

As Cott pointedly said, “It’s fantasy anyway, why aim for ‘real’ detail?”  

In recent days, former Vice President Joe Biden’s behavior has been called into question after a number of women have spoken out about his handsy, out-of-touch nature.

But in his lengthy résumé, there is one policy that Biden and his supporters tout as a nearly unimpeachable feminist success: the Violence Against Women Act. Biden, who wrote the landmark 1994 bill, calls it his proudest legislative achievement.

From the very beginning, VAWA’s goal was to improve how police and prosecutors responded to the insidious problem of domestic violence, moving it out of the realm of private family matter and into the criminal justice system.

And it did, according to Biden’s frequent boasts.

Annual rates of domestic violence have dropped by 63 percent since VAWA’s enactment, even though experts say it’s unclear if the law is directly responsible for the decrease.

But 25 years after its passage, some advocates and scholars question whether VAWA’s steadfast emphasis on law enforcement to solve domestic abuse was indeed the right call. In particular, they point to how the law resulted in some battered women being sent to prison, alongside their abusers.

On Thursday the House voted to reauthorize VAWA, though it faces opposition in the Senate where Republicans are protesting new gun safety provisions. And with Biden widely expected to run for president in 2020, HuffPost is examining the law’s track record. 

A Man With A Plan

Years before the passing of VAWA, arrests were rarely made in cases of domestic violence. Fights between husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend — domestic abuse, back then, was almost always categorized as male vs. female — were not taken seriously by law enforcement. In fact, many departments had policies specifically discouraging arrest in domestic violence cases.

“The laws at the time, which should have sought to protect the most vulnerable, were furthering the horrific abuse women were experiencing,” Biden wrote to HuffPost in an email.

He wanted to fix that, and VAWA included a novel idea.

The bill incentivized collaboration between victim services organizations and criminal justice agencies, offering them grants if they partnered up. Cops weren’t making necessary arrests, and advocates complained criminal justice enforcers didn’t understand domestic violence. VAWA brought both sides together, creating an uneasy and sometimes uncomfortable alliance.

“We wanted the advocates to educate police officers and prosecutors,” said Victoria Nourse, then a staffer at the Senate Judiciary Committee who helped Biden author the bill. A grant from VAWA would force them to work side by side, she said in an interview with HuffPost.  

The legislation encouraged states to adopt mandatory arrest policies, which required police officers responding to domestic violence calls to arrest someone at the scene. At the time, some advocates welcomed the provision. Federal law couldn’t tell a jurisdiction to have a policy or not, but it could dangle a carrot. Having a robust arrest policy on the books allowed for local agencies to apply for grants.

After much debate, VAWA passed as part of the now-controversial Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Since then, it has been reauthorized three times ― in 2000, 2005 and 2013. A reauthorization bill passed the House on Thursday over the opposition of the National Rifle Association.

While Biden consistently credits VAWA with reducing domestic violence, others are more skeptical.

Leigh Goodmark, a law professor at the University of Maryland, notes that the reduction in domestic violence rates from 1994 to 2000 simply mirrored the overall crime rate decrease. Between 2000 and 2010, domestic violence rates dropped even less than the overall crime rate did. 

“No reliable social science data ties the drop in the rates of intimate partner violence to criminalization or to increases in [VAWA] funding,” Goodmark wrote in her book Decriminalizing Domestic Violence. “Crime has declined and the funding to address intimate partner violence has increased, but the problem persists.”

When HuffPost asked Biden about this, he said that tens of thousands of women have reaped the benefits of VAWA, and noted that victims who have access to advocates and legal help are more likely to find safety. VAWA created the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a toll-free number anyone across the country can call for confidential help, he said, and funds shelters, programs on campus assault, and education for judges and prosecutors.

The law saves money too, he said, pointing to a 2002 study which found that VAWA averted an estimated $12.6 billion in social costs in its first six years alone.

“We ripped the Band-Aid off a shameful secret and exposed the ugly truth of domestic violence to the public eye,” he said. “It helped change America.”

Unintended Consequences

While VAWA was being drafted, a number of advocates — mostly women of color — warned that the bill’s reliance on the criminal justice system could backfire. They said the bill funneled millions of dollars into the criminal justice system at the expense of meeting urgent victim needs. And they worried that more policing could be especially harmful for marginalized communities.

“Any time we are looking at criminalization as a solution to problems, we know that men of color and communities of color are going to be disproportionately represented in the system,” said Nan Stoops, the executive director of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, who recalled advocates voicing similar concerns at the time.

Those mandatory arrest policies had the potential for negative consequences. And that’s exactly what happened. While some states adopted mandatory arrest policies before VAWA’s passage, the law encouraged others to follow suit. Nowadays, the majority of states have mandatory policies on the books. And in the years since, arrest rates have risen as intended. But there is compelling research to suggest that a significant part of the increase is due to battered women being arrested alongside their abusive partners.

It turned out that when police can’t easily discern who is the primary aggressor, they end up putting female victims in handcuffs.

For abused women struggling to survive a violent relationship, an arrest can have disastrous effects. They may lose jobs and housing, and face issues when it comes to custody hearings. Not surprisingly, victims who’ve been arrested tend to avoid calling the cops in the future. There’s also research showing that mandatory arrest policies discourage victims from reporting abuse in the first place, rendering them even more isolated and alone.

At the time of VAWA’s passage, some feminists raised the alarm about the anti-violence movement teaming up with a historically racist criminal justice system.

Writing in Ms. Magazine in 1994, Mari Matsuda, professor at Georgetown Law at the time, lamented the decision to include VAWA in the crime bill, which imposed tougher prison sentences, expanded the number of death penalty offenses, provided money for new prisons and put more cops on the street.

“We know that the police are a source of violence in our communities, not just a deterrent to it,” she wrote. “We also know that violence against women is endemic and that the police don’t come when a woman from the ‘wrong’ part of town dials 911.”

Brenda Smith, a law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, said she expressed concerns with VAWA while it was being drafted because it did not allow funds to be used for women who were incarcerated.

Back then, Smith was working closely with victims who were involved in the criminal justice system, and she knew many of them had histories of domestic or sexual abuse, either as children or adults.

“The legislation cut out a very significant group of women who had been underrepresented in the discourse,” Smith said.

Follow The Money

Biden said at the time he wrote the law, he was aware of the limitations of the justice system to address the root problem.

In the years since its passage, he explained to HuffPost, he’d heard feedback from women and community leaders that the response had to expand to address other victim needs. Later reauthorizations of VAWA added programs for training for health care providers and civil legal assistance to survivors who need representation in family courts and housing, he said.

“I’ve met women who told me they slept in their car when they first escaped, if they had a car at all,” he said. “In 2005 and again in 2013, we created and then strengthened new protections for victims in subsidized housing so that women would not lose their homes as a result of the violence.”

But according to research by Jill Messing, a social work professor at Arizona State University, over time, more and more money has been allocated to the criminal side of things.

When VAWA was first enacted, the bill appropriated 62 percent of funds for criminal justice and 38 percent for social services, Messing found. But by 2013, only 15 percent of funds were left going to social services.

A 2017 report conducted by the National Network to End Domestic Violence found that victims were not receiving enough resources for emergency shelter, transitional housing, transportation and legal help.

Critics of VAWA’s criminal focus believe that increased investment in victim services may actually be a more effective intervention than pumping money into law enforcement.

“We’re continuing to fund courts, cops and prosecutors and community-based agencies and it’s hard for me to know exactly what that money is doing,” Goodmark, the author, said in an interview with HuffPost.“If it’s supposed to be for training, one would think that 25 years of funding would have given people the training they need.”

A Complicated Legacy 

Some advocates interviewed by HuffPost were hesitant to criticize VAWA — especially now as it is seeking reauthorization. (For the first time ever, the National Rifle Association is opposing the bill due to gun provisions.) Some said they did not want to give any ammunition to its detractors. For Smith, the law professor, that line of reasoning reminds her what she faced when she raised issues about VAWA all those years ago.

“Obviously I support addressing violence against women,” she said. “But we have to talk about all of the women, not just the women who fit the narrative of the story you’re trying to tell.”

Advocates interviewed by HuffPost stressed that VAWA has accomplished a herculean amount over the years and is still a crucial piece of legislation, despite its shortcomings.

“This is not a VAWA is good or VAWA is bad — it is not that simple,” said Stoops, the director of a domestic violence coalition. “VAWA has provided many benefits for many survivors. But we’ve got to look way beyond the criminal legal system if we actually want to bring an end to the problem.”

Nourse, who drafted VAWA with Biden, refuted the characterization of the law as overly focused on criminalization.

“What are you going to do?” Nourse said. “I don’t think you can social services your way out of it.”

Goodmark didn’t entirely agree.

She said VAWA’s criminal focus “isn’t working” and makes it impossible to try other, more novel approaches.

“It’s only by taking a step away from the [criminal justice system] that we’re going to be able to experiment,” she said.

“My goal isn’t to trash VAWA,” she added. “It’s to note that we could be using this desperately needed funding in ways that are more likely to prevent violence.”

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if re-elected, a dramatic policy shift apparently aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of the tight race.

Netanyahu has promoted Jewish settlement expansion in his four terms as prime minister, but until now refrained from presenting a detailed vision for the West Bank, seen by the Palestinians as the heartland of a future state.

An Israeli annexation of large parts of the West Bank is bound to snuff out any last flicker of hope for an Israeli-Palestinian deal on the terms of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in 1967.

A so-called two-state solution has long been the preferred option of most of the international community. However, intermittent U.S. mediation between Israelis and Palestinians ran aground after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital early in his term. The Palestinians, who seek Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, suspended contact with the U.S.

More recently, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967. The move was viewed in Israel as a political gift by Trump to Netanyahu who is being challenged by former military chief Benny Gantz.

The U.S. State Department declined to comment on Netanyahu’s statement.

Polls have indicated a close race, though Netanyahu’s Likud Party is expected to have a better chance than Gantz’s Blue and White slate to form a ruling coalition. Polls forecast more than 60 out of 120 parliament seats for the Likud and smaller right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties

On Saturday, Netanyahu gave an interview to Israel’s Channel 12 TV at the top of the prime-time newscast. Netanyahu portrayed the U.S. policy shifts on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as his achievements, saying he had managed to persuade Trump to take these steps.

Netanyahu pledged that he would not dismantle a single Jewish settlement and that Israel would retain control of the territory west of the Jordan River — the West Bank. More than 600,000 Israelis now live on war-won lands, two-thirds in the West Bank.

The interviewer asked why he hadn’t annexed some of the larger settlements during his current term. “The question you are asking is an interesting question, whether we will move to the next stage and the answer is yes,” he said, adding that the next term in office would be fateful. “We will move to the next stage, the imposing of Israeli sovereignty.”

“I will impose sovereignty, but I will not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements,” he said. “From my perspective, any point of settlement is Israeli, and we have responsibility, as the Israeli government. I will not uproot anyone, and I will not transfer sovereignty to the Palestinians.”

In any partition deal, the more isolated Jewish settlements would likely have to be uprooted to create a viable Palestinian state.

Saeb Erekat, a veteran former Palestinian negotiator, said he held the international community, especially the Trump administration, responsible for Israel’s policies.

“Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration’s support and endorsement of Israel’s violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine,” he said in a statement.

___

Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Netflix on Sunday announced that “Homecoming,” reportedly about Beyoncé’s jaw-dropping performances at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year, will be available to stream on April 17 ― and her fans are freaking out on Twitter.

The “Drunk in Love” singer, the first black woman to headline Coachella, nearly broke the internet in April 2018 when she treated festivalgoers to a two-hour, whirlwind set that was a nod to historically black colleges and universities.

Coinciding with her Coachella appearance last year, Beyoncé announced the Homecoming Scholars Award Program, an initiative that provides scholarships to students at HBCUs for study in various fields. 

US Weekly magazine reported last week that Beyoncé was teaming up with Netflix to work on a special about her 2018 Coachella appearance, featuring additional footage.

Representatives for both Beyoncé and Netflix did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.

Queen Bey’s fans went wild on Twitter, following Netflix’s release date announcement Sunday.

George R.R. Martin is very good at leaving fans hanging. He’s done it for years ― nearly eight, in fact ― as readers continue to await the sixth installment of his Song of Ice and Fire series, which begat the HBO hit “Game of Thrones.” 

Annoyingly, the writers behind the beloved TV show are also fairly good at leaving stories untold ― and one in particular continues to haunt us.

At least twice in the series so far, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) has started a joke only to be cut off just before he could finish it. The first time, he was speaking to Lysa Arryn (Kate Dickie) in Season 1 as he sarcastically ticked off the “crimes” he’d committed in his life. The second time, in Season 6, Tyrion was attempting to teach Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) to appreciate comedy while the trio waited for news in Meereen. 

But now that the series is finally coming to an end ― with just six episodes left ― we worried that we’d never get to hear how the joke really goes.

“I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says―” 

Says what?

We asked some comedians to fill in the punchline.

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Hey, you can’t bring that in here.”

I said, “Please, it’s a gift.”

She said, “I meant the jackass.”

I said, “So did I. It’s his birthday.”

Then, I added, “Seriously, whatever else happens in the finale, can Sansa please just get a happy ending? I mean, come ON.”

―Daniel Kibblesmith and Jennifer Wright

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Sorry, only one Lannister at a time.”

―Gibran Saleem

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Is that hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees and a donkey or are you just happy to see me?”

And then I said, “Can I use your sink? My ass is sticky.”

―Matt O’Brien

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “What’s with these things, are they gifts?”

And so I say, “Indeed! I’m told I’m a bitter little man so I bring you a sweet ass in my hands to distract you from the long snake between my pants.”  

―Alex Kojfman

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Is it Tuesday already?”

―Katrina Davis

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Sweet ride.”

―David Drake

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Tyrion, I don’t care what kind of lube you brought, I won’t do it!” 

―Ryan Beck

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Oh honey, I’m down for role play but this seems like a sticky situation.”

―Atsuko Okatsuka

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “You must be drinking Honey Jack.” 

―Aminah Imani

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “What’s with the donkey?”

I said, “I just wanted a sweet piece of ass that wouldn’t talk back. I named him Hodor.” 

―Heather Pasternak

I once walked into a brothel with a honeycomb and a jackass. The madam says, “Do you watch ‘Game of Thrones’?”

The jackass says, “No, I don’t watch much TV.”

The madam says, “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

And the jackass says, “I guess you don’t watch much TV either. I’m Johnny Knoxville!”

―Jared Goldstein

“Game of Thrones” Season 8 premieres Sunday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.