President Donald Trump on Tuesday predicted that his 2020 rival from the Democratic Party will be either Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or former Vice President Joe Biden.
But then he referred to them with a phrase typically used when speaking of the dead:
Trump did not elaborate on the odd sentiment, which left Twitter users to wonder what he meant by the morbid turn of phrase:
Over 30 people have been killed in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat due to unseasonal rain and dust storm, according to reports.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 10 people died due to lightning and storm in Gujarat. Five died in Rajasthan.
In Madhya Pradesh, at least 16 people were killed, the Hindustan Times reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of those who lost their lives. The PMO also announced Rs 50,000 each for those injured due to unseasonal rain and storms.
In Rajasthan, several trees and electric poles were uprooted in different parts due to high velocity winds. The weather turned rough due to Western Disturbance and winds with moisture from Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal.
(With PTI inputs)
On Wednesday, Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures released a motion poster for Mental Hai Kya, a film starring Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao.
In a tweet that’s meant to be a pun on the razor blades in the poster, the production company said, “Get ready for craziness that cuts through.”
The film also stars actors like Amyra Dastur, Amrita Puri, Jimmy Shergill and reportedly, reported “extended cameo” by none other than Shah Rukh Khan.
From the looks of it, the film seems to deal with the sensitive subject of mental health and perhaps aims to begin a conversation on the topic. However, many people may find the imagery of the posters triggering.
The motion poster begins with the message “This June, witness two mentals collide”. Then it shows a cross-eyed Ranaut (yep, really) and Rao showing us the middle finger.
In one of the photos, Rao stubs out a cigarette on his forehead while Ranaut put out a lit a matchstick with her tongue. There’s also a photo of Rao with crime scene tape around him and Ranaut in a chalk body outline with bloodstains nearby. Then comes the actual poster where Rao and Ranaut are balancing a razor blade on their tongues.
While hashtag #MentalHaiKya began trending on Twitter, with some people saying they couldn’t wait to watch the film, there were others (especially mental health experts) who pointed out how problematic the imagery was. The film does boast of an award-winning director and a talented cast, but the photos have made them wonder if the film will do justice to the misunderstood subject.
Not much is known yet about the film and how it plans to deal with the topic, but the posters, unfortunately, resort to the same hackneyed stereotypes and mental health activists and professionals have been fighting against.
Here are some reactions from Twitter:
Over the past couple of years, political conversations about Assam have been dominated by the NRC and citizenship debates. This has only increased as campaigning heats up for the Lok Sabhaelection. But women were missing from the forefront through most of the protests and debates. Even though they otherwise occupy a prominent place in Assam’s markets and streets, their voices seemed eerily absent.
So we decided to ask women vendors and traders in Guwahati what they wanted from political parties as they get ready to vote. Did we spend our time speaking of the NRC?
Surprisingly, no.
The women we spoke to—they run tea stalls, sell fish and vegetables for a living and are often missing from the discussion around elections and manifestos—were concerned with issues of livelihood, of how to feed their families, alcoholism and, crucially, the absence of toilets in the public spaces where they work. They come from communities with disparate histories and political identities, some from rural homesteads, others from illegal migrant colonies, but many of their concerns were similar.
Most women say the government isn’t doing enough for them. And yet, the answer to whether they will vote is almost always “yes”. As vegetable seller Anita Medhi puts it, “we live on hope”. Migrants to the city who haven’t managed to get their polling booths shifted are set to travel back to their villages to exercise their franchise. Many of these vendors live in rural areas around Guwahati and travel for hours into the city and back every day.
In Guwahati, which will vote in the third phase of elections on 23 April, the two main contenders are both women—Queen Ojha from the BJP and Bobbeeta Sharma from the Congress. While both have considerable achievements and influence—Ojha, in particular, has been mayor of Guwahati and is the richest among Assam’s women candidates this time—they aren’t free of the prejudice and sexism that accompanies women in public life either. “Catfight between Queen Ojha and Bobbeeta Sharma” is how one website described the fact that two women were contesting against each other in a high-stakes election in 2019.
The women in Ojha and Sharma’s constituency, especially those in subsistence jobs, face a lot of prejudice and challenges in their working lives as well. So what do they really want from political parties?
When I begin this conversation in Sumati Narzary’s tea shop in Kharghuli, it takes us a while to get to the point. Everyone agrees they will vote, but no one believes anything will come out of it. Election promises are just that—for a few months now, the subsidised rice will come because of the elections, then it will stop. And the leaders will forget we exist. Again and again, this phrase is repeated to me: whoever sits on the throne in Lanka, becomes Ravan…
Lakhi Brahma from the nearby Joypur village sells chicken from her stall, set against the stone wall of a building on the Kharghuli hill. A large umbrella, a table, a slab of wood and a chicken coop close by—this makes up the stall.
Every morning at 6 , Lakhi cycles about 6 km from Kharghuli to Anuradha Colony to buy a few birds that she then brings back to slaughter and sell.
After her husband died, she had worked as a household help for a while before opening her shop a year ago. She will vote on 23 April, but has no hopes that any government will do anything for her. But persuade her a little to speak freely, and the worries pour out.
There’s price rise. For businesses like hers to run, she needs prices to be stable: even a minimal price rise in chicken (whole) from Rs 95 to Rs 115 in the past two months has led to losses for her.
She would like protection for her shop: influential men from the area, who have political connections, are harassing her, threatening to evict her and destroy the shop.
They would rather she work as a domestic help in their houses than run her own shop, she says bitterly.
‘Xihotor pise pise dourile bhaal paai…’’ Narzary adds from behind her shop counter—These men would rather we run around working for them…
A stall of one’s own—however precarious—is freedom of sorts.
Without this, says Lakhi, how would she feed and send her young children to school?
Both Lakhi and Narzary are popular with the students of the nearby Don Bosco Institute (DBI), who are regular visitors to the market. Ámy Lyngdoh, who is graduating with an MBA, says she is deeply inspired by Lakhi’s work ethic. “Every day we see her just working so hard!,” she says.
Narzary has been running the shop since 2017, and usually employs two people to help with the cooking and serving. These are mostly neighbourhood women, who come in and work for a few months when they need the money. When I visit, the two women are Sapna and Archana Momin.
Archana is a young, articulate woman who will go back to her village, a Rs 30 bus ride from Nagaon town on the Diphu road, to vote. A Class X pass in her twenties, she had earlier worked a few years in the housekeeping sector at a nearby institution, followed by a year-long stint at a garment factory in Gujarat. The hours were long, the work hard and the money not worth it, so she returned to Guwahati to work with Narzary in her shop.
Archana has many ideas on what the government should do, but her vote will be decided only when she returns to her village.
“Eta gaon, eta vote.” One village, one vote.
Archana identifies herself in many ways—as ‘job card’ people , referring to MNREGA work, as a young person responsible for her family and so on. But when it comes to voting, one identity stands out among everything else.
“We are Garo people in Assam, we have to decide as a community who to vote for.”
Voting, especially for the Lok Sabha, is often influenced by community allegiance. Narzary, for instance, has been trying to shift the constituency for both her and her husband to Guwahati for the past ten years, but each time something goes wrong or a document is not accepted. As always, she will go back to Kokrajhar, 225 km away, to vote. She is still seething at the chaos wreaked by demonetisation and struggling with high prices and does not want the BJP back at the centre, but her vote in Kokrajhar will likely be for Bodoland People’s Front, a BJP ally.
Kumkum Begum, who lives close by and has stopped by for a cup of tea and to ask if there’s any work going, chips in. She is still struggling to get the benefits she’s entitled to under government schemes. “Kagoz pelai pelai, haar maanisu…” “I’ve given up after putting in so many application,” she says.
She has not been able to access anything from these schemes: toilets, loans, her widow pension, a road near her house. But more than anything else, what she wants is a working streetlight and the dangerous road near their house to be repaired.
Eventually, everyone in the shop agrees on two things: first, that the incoming government should simply give women, especially those with little support or migrants to the city, better access to existing government schemes.
And second, any political party promising to stop alcohol—sulai mod—in the Kharghuli area will get their support. Young and old, everyone is animated as they speak of the havoc that alcohol has caused in this area. Sapna, who was cutting onions and professed herself as too cynical to even think of voting for a cause, is suddenly garrulous: Every morning at 5 am, gallons and gallons of sulai mod and bakhor come into the area, let them stop this.
Alcoholism in this area is high (even though there isn’t a licensed liquor shop), leading to premature deaths, ill health and domestic abuse. The police, the student unions, they all make promises to protesting women, they say, but do nothing. Everyone agrees that if they could, they would make prohibition a campaign plank in the elections.
Hiron Das isn’t very impressed by the fact that there are women candidates running for important seats this time. Das is one of the few women who sell fish in the Uzanbazar ghat as well as run an evening stall in the Uzanbazar main market. She is an imposing figure, known to hold her own in the market dominated by men.
There is no one watching out for you if you are poor and helpless, she says. She had never imagined that she would be running a shop, but her husband died 12 years ago, leaving her with three children. She did everything to feed her children—working in people’s homes and at construction sites. Her youngest boy was still at her hip and suckling when she started to sell fish.
“Ididn’t know how to cut fish, how to calculate money, I had to learn it all with people shouting and abusing me. The children sat at the fish stall in the rains and there was nothing, no help I could seek from the government. I filed paper after paper for a widow’s pension but being unlettered, I didn’t get a rupee.
“Surely, the government can do something for widows, those with no way to feed their children?
Even now, there is an eviction notice where we live, can the government not assure us of a place to stay, make a living, give us some help? Instead of giving us more pain...”
Many of the women who travel to Guwahati daily to sell vegetables take a train into the city. Anita Medhi takes the morning train along with a group of women from the Singira railway station in Boko, the rural part of Kamrup district. She sells her vegetables on the road outside the main post office, surrounded by male hawkers selling job application forms.
Anita will vote in her village Teteli Komarbari in Boko, which falls in the Guwahati constituency. She began her trips to Guwahati when her son passed the Class X examination and there was no money to send him to college. More than a decade since then, both her boys have completed their education, but she continues to travel to Guwahati to sell vegetables.
Anita hopes for a more stable income and better work conditions, particularly an end to the harassment of women vendors by the TT in the train, who regularly extorts money despite the women having tickets. Sometimes they lose their whole day’s earnings to these extortions.
As for these elections, she is not happy with the government—bahut harasasti korise—they have caused us a lot of harassment . But she doesn’t see an alternative and feels the current regime should be given another chance to see if they can make things work. Her eyes twinkle as she says with a half-resigned smile: “Give them another chance, no?”
The Uzanbazar market has more women vendors bringing vegetables from Boko, Khetri and other rural areas outside Guwahati. One such group comes regularly from the village Boko Phalukota in a hired mini-truck. For most of these women, the day begins a couple of hours before the truck arrives at 5 am. Once it comes, they pick up vegetables from different houses in the village where they have placed orders earlier, and reach the city by 10 am. They are here till 7 or 8 at night before the drive home. Their husbands, or in some cases other relatives, look after the children, cook and tend to the fields, cows and crops through the day. As for their hopes for the elections, they need sohoi and subidha, help and facilities, for both their village and their place of work in the city. But mostly, Jaya Rabha tells me, dukhiya khini’k soku meli saabo laage—these politicians need to open their eyes to the needs of the poor.
It is as simple as that.
The village is a mess, they say: no bridge, bad roads, no support yet for Indira Yojana houses. Every election, there are hundreds of promises but little change.
For Guwahati, the women have a plan (if anyone is listening) : give us a ‘khula bazaar’, an open bazaar, demarcate a space in the city for all the traders who come from Boko and Goalpara so we won’t have to struggle with evictions by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and police, or fight with people who want to park vehicles. Put in facilities for toilets. It will be good for everyone—customers and traders.
Right now, everything is a struggle. Toilets, for instance, have been set up in many rural areas, but not the markets in the city. What do women traders do? Uzanbazar does not have a public ladies toilet, only one for the GMC office and it is filthy. Even a pay-for-use would be welcome, Ila Boro say. Now, they use the open fields outside Jalukbari when they are driving into the city and try to hold it in until it is time to return. It feels heartless to even ask about Swacch Bharat or smart cities in the light of these everyday impossibilities.
Have they ever considered mobilising to put their demands forward?
“Kaak bisarim? Kaak Kom? Aaami aahi bostu bikri kori gusi jao…”
“Who do we approach? Who will hear us? We come, sell our wares and leave...”
Design inputs from Joel Rodrigues
Update: BJP has released a list of four candidates in Bhopal and made it official that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur will contest from Bhopal.
Malegaon blast-accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur said on Wednesday that she has joined the BJP and is likely to contest from Bhopal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Thakur told ANI that she was confident that she will win.
If BJP gives her a ticket from Bhopal, she will be pitted against Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
A contest between the two would be significant, as Thakur has alleged that Singh conspired to get her falsely accused in the 2008 bomb blasts in Maharashtra’s Malegaon.
Speaking to Aaj Tak’s Aapki Adalat, she had said she was tortured during her stay in prison. She said, “I call Digvijaya Singh ‘dikbhramit’ because his direction is never right. He conspired against over personal vendetta.”
She also blamed the UPA government for “conspiring” against her. She also said that Singh used the ATS to conspire against her.
After she got bail in 2017, her family had also accused Singh and said they want to see him in jail.
Thakur’s sister Upama Singh had told Mail Today:
“My sister was called what not: from a terrorist to someone who feigned sainthood as she wanted to marry someone; that she had an affair. For us who have known this devout soul from when she was a child, these words fell as molten iron in the ears. While she is a religious mind and she has forgiven her tormentors, we are common people and we have been pained so much that we want to sue Digvijaya Singh and those news channels that assassinated her character for vested interests. I want to teach them a life lesson so that they cannot do this to anyone else in future.”
Though the motorcycle used in the blast was owned by her, according to one of the witnesses, it was in the possession of Ramchandra Kalsangra, an absconding accused, she had said.
Some of the witnesses, whose statements were used to implicate her, later retracted and filed complaints of torture by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), her plea said.
Earlier, the central agency, in its charge sheet filed on 13 May, had dropped all the charges against Pragya and five others, citing lack of evidence.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had given Thakur a clean chit in 2016 by dropping her name from the chargesheet in the Malegaon case.
Thakur was given bail by the Bombay High Court in 2017.
Eight persons were killed and nearly 80 were injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle had exploded in Malegaon on 29 September 2008.
Thakur was arrested the same year.
K Sudhakaran strikes again!
The Congress candidate for Kerala’s Kannur constituency decided this week that he needed to unleash his infamous sexist views once again, this time as part of his Lok Sabha election campaign.
A campaign video released by Sudhakaran on Monday alludes to his opponent, CPM candidate PK Sreemathi, known as Sreemathi teacher, who is the sitting MP from the seat.
It’s not really clear how this video, centred on a property dispute, helps Sudhakaran’s campaign, but there is no subtlety involved in the misogynistic manner it attacks Sreemathi.
Sample this.
The despondent patriarch of a family is heard saying, “If she goes and speaks (presumably in the Parliament), nothing will get done. We’ve already sent her once. They did not understand a word she said. It was useless to educate her and make her a teacher.”
In a response that is meant to be both admonishing and encouraging, the man’s friend says that he should sent his son instead. “He is a man! If he goes, the work will definitely get done,” he proclaims.
Then, the woman who is being insulted by three men and has just been staring blankly throughout, breaks into an approving smile.
A photo of Sudhakaran alongside the Congress symbol slides in, saying vote for him.
Sudhakaran shared the video on his Facebook page, saying it did not refer to any characters, dead or alive, or to “those who have made speeches in Parliament”.
Sudhakaran’s senseless video is presumably in reference to a speech in English Sreemathi teacher made in Parliament that led to many classist memes making fun of her English skills.
Sudhakaran is not new to such controversies. Earlier this year, he called Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan “worse than a woman”, then apologised.
And he is not just any Congress leader. Sudhakaran is the working president of the party’s state unit.
As the Congress’ female candidates, especially Priyanka Gandhi, face sexist attacks this election season, and party president Rahul Gandhi espouses equal treatment of women, perhaps the party should consider schooling its own first.
In the thick of the election season, all political parties are scrambling to woo (threaten or even scare) voters. This may not be new, but the ways in which political leaders are canvassing for votes are getting more bizarre everyday.
And no, there is simply no other word to describe the various statements (read: warnings) that have been issued during the campaigning for the 2019 elections.
We will start with the most bizarre one yet.
A Chhattisgarh minister told voters that they will feel an “electric shock” if they press any button other than that of the Congress candidate on the EVM, according to NDTV.
“You have to press the first button to vote for Biresh Thakur. The second button will give you a ‘current (shock)’. The third button will also give you one. But we have fixed the first button,” the minister, Kawasi Lakhma, was quoted as saying in the report.
He was speaking at a rally in the state’s Kanker district. Lakhma has been issued a notice by the Election Commission.
A video surfaced on social media purportedly showing a Gujarat BJP MLA telling electors that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has installed cameras in polling booths to find out who was not voting for party candidates.
The MLA, Ramesh Katara, allegedly made the remarks while addressing a small campaign rally in support of BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Dahod, Jasvantsinh Bhabhor, in a village.
“Press the button (on EVM) having the photo of Bhabhor and lotus (BJP’s) symbol. This time, Modi saheb has installed cameras (in polling booths). While sitting there, he would know who had voted for the BJP and who voted in favour of the Congress,” Katara is heard saying in the video.
“If votes (to the BJP) are less in your booth, you will be given less work. Modi saheb, while sitting there, would find out that you did something wrong. Your photos are there on election card, Aadhaar card and even on ration card,” said Katara, warning the villagers.
After threatening Muslim voters that she would have second thoughts about helping them if she wins from the Sultanpur seat without the community’s help, Union minister Maneka Gandhi came up with an ‘ABCD’ formula.
Gandhi said that villages will be divided according to the percentage of votes the BJP gets and development work will be carried out accordingly.
″The village where we get 80% votes is A, the village in which we get 60% is B, the village in which we get 50% is C and the village where we get less than 50% is D. The development work first happens in all A category villages. After work at A category regions is done, then comes B and only after work in B is done, we start with C. So this is up to you whether you make it to A, B or C and no one should come in D because we all have come here to do good,” she had said.
BJP candidate from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj has been caught on camera saying if people don’t vote for his party, he will curse them.
“Ek sanyasi aapke darwaaze par aaya hai. Jab ek sanyaasi aapke darwaaze par aata hai, bhiksha maangta hai aur agar usko bhiksha nahi milti hai toh jaante hain wo grihasti ke punya le jaata hai aur apne paap de jata hai. (A saint has has come to your door. When a saint comes to beg and isn’t given what he asks for, he takes away all the happiness of the family and in turn gives a curse to the family. This I am not saying, but quoting from sacred scriptures),” he was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
While the politicians are finding their weird ways of asking for votes, we can only guess what the voters are thinking.
Abhishek Varman’s Kalank, the latest all-star vehicle from Karan Johar, is an occasionally moving, largely unsatisfying melodrama that suffers from the same syndrome plaguing many period sagas: obnoxiously liberal doses of ‘mohabbat,’ ‘shiddat’ and ‘haqeeqat’ and not enough ‘mehnat’ on the writing.
In the movie, set against the backdrop of the years leading up to India’s bloody Partition, Alia Bhatt’s Roop finds herself becoming the reluctant wife of Dev Chaudhry (Aditya Roy Kapur), a prosperous newspaper editor who’s yet to reconcile to the thought of his first wife, Satya, (Sonakshi Sinha) dying of an unspecified terminal illness.
As Roop enters the opulent Chaudhry household, headed by patriarch Balraj (Sanjay Dutt), she is soon inexorably drawn to Varun Dhawan’s Zaffar, a bastard child who lives on the wrong side of the tracks, in the notorious Heera Mandi, an area known as much for its razor-sharp blacksmiths as much as for its most famous inhabitant, a courtesan called Bahhar Begum (Madhuri Dixit).
Varman, who made the fairly enjoyable 2 States before this, spends a chunk of the film’s first half neatly constructing the complex plot, placing all his characters in such emotional proximity that they are set to conflict with one another.
The visual grammar of the film is borrowed from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s melancholic template and several scenes—curtains billowing, and windows and doors opening and shutting with dramatic flair—pay homage to Bhansali’s arresting yet over-the-top visual panache. Binod Pradhan, a cinematography veteran, conjures beautiful, poetic frames, but is betrayed by the lack of soul that could give life to his imagery.
That’s precisely the problem with Kalank: it’s beautiful but its beauty is purely ornamental. The Dharma-tization of the production design, whether it’s a palace or a ghetto, ensures that everything looks slick, sharp and sexy, with not even a strand of hair out of place. The inhabitants of this gorgeous universe mouth lines that reach their lips but never their eyes.
Hussain Dallal’s dialogue is heavy with meaning. There’s genuine poetic brilliance to the proverbs and parables through which the characters interact, but the delivery fails. Sonakshi Sinha, stunning even in sickness, utters her lines without actually feeling them while Aditya Roy Kapur looks like he’s reading out from a teleprompter.
The characters actually talk like they have been handed a Rumi dictionary except that instead of musing about it on Instagram, they’ve to play the parts in real life.
Trouble. Because no filter can save a bad performance.
Even Sanjay Dutt, who appears understated for the most part, falters in the dramatic sequences, overplaying and hamming it out. The usually reliable Alia Bhatt, caught between pursuing a forbidden romance and saving honour and dignity of the household, appears disinterested in her character, as if she’s consciously trying to disassociate herself from the hyper-stylised syntax of the Kalank universe.
Varun Dhawan sears with the intensity and rage stemming out of childhood neglect and societal oppression but in a mediocre ensemble where Kunal Khemu shines the brightest, it isn’t saying much.
The film’s third act is so abrupt and muddled, it feels detached from the rest of the movie, which works purely on layered, emotional complexities. An interesting sub-plot develops between Roy Kapur and Bhatt’s characters but the desire for melodramatic impact overpowers any subtleties that could’ve potentially risen.
Somewhere in Kalank, there was an interesting story about societal conventions dictating our romantic narratives and how any subversion of the status quo leads to violent outbursts, but the film is so obsessed with looking poetic and lyrical that these ideas take a backseat and the shimmering lehengas and colour co-ordinated kurtas dominate.
There’s artistry in technical flourish and Kalank does a commendable job of this, no doubt. Through its title and some hyper-verbose monologue, the film also insists on destigmatising the idea of love, letting love win in times of raging hate, and the the horrors of communalism, but in the end these just end up being mere words to serve an undercooked love story.
A love story that you don’t root for is a love story that perhaps lacks love. Repeating ‘shiddat’ and ‘mohabbat’ do not an epic romance make.
NEW DELHI — NaMo TV, sponsored by the BJP, cannot display ‘election matter’ during the silence period prescribed in the electoral law in a particular phase of the poll, the Election Commission has concluded.
The EC has now asked the chief electoral officer of Delhi to ensure that its directions are followed in each of the remaining six phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The directions were issued to the Delhi CEO as he is the nodal officer to pre-certify political content in TV channels and similar platforms which are beamed nationally. He has also been provided with a committee specifically for the purpose, a source aware of the development said.
Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act “prohibits” display of any “election matter” by means of “cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus”, 48 hours before the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in a particular constituency
This phase is called the ‘silence period’ as it allows a voter to make up his or her mind on whom to vote without being influenced by political campaigning.
Section 126 is not applicable on the print media.
The direction, sources said, was issued to bring clarity on the applicability of ‘silence period’ on NaMo TV.
On Thursday last week, the EC had concluded that since NaMo TV is sponsored by the BJP, all recorded programmes displayed on the platform should be pre-certified by media certification and monitoring committee of Delhi and all political publicity contents being displayed without pre-certification should be removed immediately.
After the Congress filed a complaint with the poll panel about the channel disturbing the level playing field, the EC had asked the Delhi CEO to file a report on the issue.
Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told the poll panel that it was an advertising platform that did not require a license from the ministry.
The Delhi CEO had approved the logo of NaMo TV, which the BJP said is part of the NaMo App that it owns, but did not “certify” the content as it contained the old speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“It has been brought to the notice of the commission that NaMo TV/content TV is a platform service offered by DTH operators to the BJP on a paid basis any political publicity material or contents being displayed on electronic media without the requisite certification from competent authority (MCMC in this ease) should be removed immediately and any political content shall only be permitted strictly in accordance with the EC’s instructions in this regard,” the April 11 directive of the EC read .
The world stopped for Beyoncé fans when the singer dropped her much-anticipated Netflix documentary alongside a surprise live album of her performance at last year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The album and the documentary, both titled “Homecoming,” capture Bey’s history-making performance ―she was the first black woman to headline the festival ― in a nearly two-hour set heavily rooted in black Southern tradition as part of a glorious celebration of the culture of historically black colleges and universities.
The documentary takes fans behind the scenes of the performance, which featured some 100 dancers, a full marching band and special guests that included husband Jay-Z, sister Solange Knowles and former Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.
“Homecoming” offers an intimate look at how Beyoncé prepared to headline the festival with candid footage of her family and professional life as the film “traces the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement,” according to Netflix.
After the festival, Beyoncé announced plans to give $100,000 to four historically black schools as part of her new scholarship program.
Beyoncé was originally set to headline Coachella in 2017, but delayed her performance after she welcomed twins, Sir and Rumi.
“I would dance and go off to the trailer and breastfeed the babies, the days I could I would bring the children,” Beyonce recalled in the documentary.
Netflix had been teasing the documentary for weeks, but fans were completely unprepared for the 40-track album, which includes classic hits like “Crazy In Love,” “Say My Name” and “Single Ladies,” alongside new offerings that include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is considered to be the black national anthem.
The double drop caught the Beyhive completely unprepared, keeping fans up way past their bedtimes and getting just about everybody into formation. Many praised their queen for blessing us with some new music.
Beyoncé proclaimed that she “changed the game with that digital drop” back in 2013, when she dropped a surprise self-titled album and then released “Lemonade” three years later.
The singer and Jay-Z teamed up for a joint album “Everything Is Love” in June, which picked up the Grammy award for “Best Urban Contemporary Album” at last year’s ceremony.
Listen to “Homecoming” below.
The Time 100 most influential people of 2019 includes lawyers Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, who were instrumental in the Supreme Court partly striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
Actor Priyanka Chopra wrote for the magazine that Katju and Guruswamy became beacons of hope for the Indian LGBTQ+ community.
“Their perseverance and commitment led an entire community to a historic win by humanizing their struggles and giving them the freedom to love,” wrote Chopra.
Katju and Guruswamy were among the lead lawyers representing petitioners to have the ban on consensual gay sex struck down in the country.
They argued that sexuality and its expression are fundamental human experiences, and to enable discrimination on the basis of sexuality and its expression denies individuals their fundamental human rights.
“How strongly must we love knowing we are unconvicted felons under Section 377? My Lords, this is love that must be constitutionally recognised, and not just sexual acts,” Guruswamy had asked the Supreme Court bench, according to The Wire.
Katju, according to The New Indian Express, said that when she met a lot of people belonging to this section, she was shocked by the treatment meted out to them. “Hence, I decided to be a part of this team.”
Katju and Guruswamy have helped take a giant step for LGBTQ+ rights in India, Chopra wrote.
The Supreme Court struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in a unanimous vote in September 2018. The colonial era-law had rendered all sexual activities “against the order of nature” punishable by law.
The Time 100 Most Influential People 2019 list was released on Wednesday, naming the world’s most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of the year.
Indian-origin comedian Hasan Minhaj is also part of the Time list. Comedian Trevor Noah praised his show ‘Patriot Act’ and said that it is the “manifestation of Hasan’s whip-smart commentary, charisma and sincerity”.
The list also includes Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. US President Donald Trump, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, golfer Tiger Woods and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, among others.
If a cup of coffee is your go-to remedy for a pesky headache, here’s some confusing news: You may or may not be making your headache worse.
According to experts, caffeine can both relieve and worsen a headache; the outcome depends on multiple factors specific to you and your habits. So before you head to the vending machine for a cola to numb the pain, there are a few things you should consider. Here’s what you should know:
“To be clear, caffeine does not always help headaches,” said Kirsten Ransbury, lead registered dietitian at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, California.
For headaches caused by swelling of blood vessels in the brain ― a condition known as vasodilation ― caffeine may help by causing the blood vessels to constrict, reducing the swelling. Caffeine might also help soften tension headaches by relaxing the tense muscles over the scalp or the back of the head, explained Kiran F. Rajneesh, director of the neurological pain division at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
But here’s where it gets a little tricky: If you have too much caffeine, your tense muscles could get tenser, Rajneesh said, which would worsen the pain.
As nice as it would be to know exactly how much caffeine you’d need to kill a headache, there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription. This is in part because caffeine affects everybody differently.
“Some people are more genetically predisposed to be sensitive to caffeine,” Rajneesh said, and these folks should probably refrain from using caffeine as a pain reliever.
When it comes to coffee, Rajneesh said, “usually one or two cups” is enough in terms of daily consumption, and three to four cups should probably be the cutoff. So if you’ve already consumed your morning cup(s), caffeine may not be the best headache-soothing option.
Coffee, tea, chocolate and soda are some of the most common sources of caffeine. Ransbury said any of those sources shouldn’t make a difference, though she suggested using particular caution when it comes to energy drinks, since ingesting too much has been associated with dizziness, seizures and strokes.
Rajneesh advised against energy drinks completely because many contain “neurostimulants that can worsen your headaches.” When it comes to treating patients with migraines, Rajneesh said, energy drinks are off the table.
Something to consider is the amount of caffeine in the source. Ransbury said coffee has about 106 to 164 milligrams of caffeine per 5-ounce cup, while a 12-ounce can of caffeinated soda contains 38 to 46 milligrams.
“I think out of all of them, coffee is probably the most benign,” Rajneesh added, noting that soda contains sugar and chemicals, variables that could have an effect on your well-being (and headaches).
Some people swear by ibuprofen and a nap, while others find putting a cold compress over their eyes for a few minutes does the trick when it comes to headache treatment.
The theme of this? Everyone is different, and different kinds of headaches will respond best to different kinds of treatment. Rajneesh said he would most likely first pick caffeine in the form of coffee over an over-the-counter medication because he considers coffee the “more natural” option.
When advising patients, he said he first recommends what he calls a “lifestyle modification,” which includes adjusting your sleep schedule, maintaining hydration and incorporating a moderate amount of exercise into your routine. Before considering medication, Rajneesh said it’s important to attempt to figure out what in a person’s life could be causing headaches and make changes from there. Lack of sleep, a healthy diet and exercise can all contribute to feeling out of balance, which includes headaches, he said.
There are, of course, quicker ways to abate headache pain. Ransbury suggested many caffeine-free and natural remedies, including turning off the lights, relaxing in a quiet space and taking a warm bath. She also said avoiding heavy meals, alcohol, nicotine, excessive screen time and ― surprise ― even too much caffeine may also be enough to ease the pain.
Jet Airways on Wednesday decided to temporarily halt operations. The decision came after its lenders rejected the airline’s plea for emergency funds.
In a statement, the airline said that it is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will be from Amritsar to Mumbai at 10.30 pm tonight.
The airline also said, “Jet Airways is hopeful that it will be able to bring the Joy of Flying back to its guests as soon as possible.”
The airline, saddled with roughly $1.2 billion of bank debt, has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stop-gap loan of about $217 million from its lenders, as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March.
“Bankers did not want to go for a piecemeal approach which would keep the carrier flying for a few days and then again risk having Jet come back for more interim funding,” a source told Reuters.
(With Reuters inputs)
A new supercut video shows Fox News hosts slamming former US President Barack Obama for the same actions that they either ignore or praise when it comes to US President Donald Trump.
The footage, assembled by NowThis News, highlights personalities on the right-wing network attacking the former president for golfing, tweeting, executive actions, criticizing the press and being “almost obsessed with cable TV,” among other things. However, the footage was edited to remove Obama’s name ― and with that context excised, most of the commentary could just as easily refer to Trump:
The video features Fox News personalities who were on the air during the Obama years, and several are no longer with the network. Bill O’Reilly, for example, left in disgrace in 2017 amid New York Times reports that he spent a total of $45 million to settle multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Many of the hosts who’ve joined Fox News since then are very supportive of Trump. A few on the “news side” of the operation, including anchor Shep Smith, have been more critical of the president and the network’s hosts who uncritically support him.
“Some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining,” Smith told Time magazine last year. “I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there.”
6:20 am: This Assam polling booth has a red carpet!
There are 45 minutes to go for polling to start, but officials have been working round the clock to ensure everything goes well. Here are some visuals that ANI tweeted from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Vadodara. Also this “model” polling booth is Assam is all kinds of extra with balloons and a red carpet!
6:15 am: Voting Round 2 To Begin At 7 am
Listen up, folks. Phase 2 of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be conducted on Thursday, with 11 states and 1 union territory voting for 95 seats. Will there be more sneaky ad placing (remember the NaMo food packets)? Will candidates break more EVMs? Phase 1 has left us with so many questions.
As voting begins at 7 am, we will bring you live updates through the day—the good, the bad and the ugly.
If the first phase is anything to go by, the day is likely to be filled with activities ranging from ridiculous to plain sad, as the day progresses. (Want to know what the 7 most WTF moments from Phase 1 were? Of course you do.)
But here’s some quick info on how polling is spread across all the states. In Tamil Nadu, all the 39 constituencies will go to polls. So will the lone seat in neighbouring Union territory Puducherry. The other states are Karnataka (14 seats), Maharashtra (10 seats), Uttar Pradesh (8 seats), Assam (5 seats), Bihar (5 seats), Odisha (5 seats), Chhattisgarh (3 seats), West Bengal (3 seats) Jammu and Kashmir (2 seats) and Manipur (1 seat).
Tripura East, one of Tripura’s two constituencies, was also expected to vote but polling was deferred to 23 April because, according to the chief electoral officer, “the law and order situation” was not conducive to conduct polling.
In Tamil Nadu, voting holds even more significance this year. With the deaths of AIADMK matriarch J Jayalalithaa and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who have been the faces of the state’s politics for decades, both the parties face a huge leadership void. While the DMK is in better shape than the rudderless AIADMK, the leaders of both parties are finding it difficult to wield the kind of emotional connect with the public as ‘Kalaignar’ and ‘Amma’ did. Factionalism in the AIADMK has divided its party cadre. Its ally, the BJP, has tried hard to make inroads into the state, but has found few takers for its Hindutva politics. Trending Twitter hashtags like #GoBackModi and #GoBackSadistModi every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has campaigned in the state, are perhaps on indication of how successful the BJP may be. But it still leaves us with the question — who will Tamil Nadu vote for? Also, what impact will the unsuccessful late-night raid on DMK candidate Kanimozhi have?
In Karnataka, the Congress and the JD(S) managed to stitch together an alliance in Karnataka during the 2018 elections, but this hasn’t been free of trouble. As Karnataka votes on Thursday, it will be a high-stakes battle in the state with important candidates and constituencies in fray. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda is fighting from Tumkur while his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy have been fielded from Hassan and Mandya respectively. Union Minister Sadananda Gowda is fighting from Bangalore North and senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily will contest from Chikkaballapura and KH Muniyappa from Kolar.
Self-proclaimed bigot and the youngest BJP candidate Tejasvi Surya is trying his luck from Bangalore South. Actor Prakash Raj, a vocal critic of the BJP, is contesting from Bangalore Central as an independent candidate.
In Maharashtra, while the BJP is trying to hold on to as many seats as it can (it won 8 of the 10 seats going to polls in 2014), the Congress is trying to come back to power. One of the most interesting fights will be in Nanded, which the Congress managed to win even during the 2014 Modi wave. Prominent candidates in the fray are former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress, who are contesting from Nanded and Solapur seats, respectively.
Beed has the highest number of contestants at 36 while 10 candidates are contesting from Latur. The home constituency of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, his daughter Pritam is seeking another term. She is facing Bajrang Sonawane of the NCP.
In Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of lawmakers to Parliament, Nagina, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura and Agra will go to polls. One candidate everyone will be interested in will be sitting Mathura MP Hema Malini, who is seeking another term. The actor-turned politician, who has claimed that she has done a lot of work for her constituency (except she can’t remember what exactly it was), was recently trolled on Twitter for her insensitive remarks.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar and Uddhampur will go to polls.
In Bihar, 86.01 lakh voters will cast their votes across Bhagalpur, Banka, Kishanganj, Katihar and Purnea Lok Sabha constituencies. Purnea MP Santosh Kumar Kushwaha of the JD(U) is in a straight fight with Uday Singh of the Congress. Another major candidate is former Union minister Tariq Anwar who is seeking to retain Katihar as a Congress nominee. He had won the seat on an NCP ticket five years ago.
In Banka, RJD MP Jayaprakash Narayan Yadav faces a three-cornered contest with JD(U)’s Giridhari Yadav and former MP Putul Kumari, who has thrown her hat in the ring as an Independent.
Meanwhile, as we wait to see what happens in the second phase here’s what you need to know if you are voting today:
North Korea tested a new type of tactical guided weapon on Wednesday, the regime’s state-run news agency said.
Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, oversaw the testing of the weapon this week. It’s unclear what type of weapon it is, but KCNA said it had a “powerful warhead” and a “peculiar mode of guiding flight,” according to Yonhap News.
“The completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power,” Kim reportedly said through KCNA.
Experts said the phrasing of KCNA’s statement appears to show that the weapon was not a long-range missile and that if a missile had been fired the American military would have already known. An American defense official told CNN that no missile launch had been detected by U.S. Strategic Command.
North Korea has held to its 2018 pledge to stop tests of long-range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear weapon and has not conducted such a launch since November 2017. The move came amid an unprecedented effort by Kim to engage with President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, while at the same time garnering an international stage for his regime during a series of high-profile summits.
Trump has repeatedly touted his administration’s efforts to rein in the North’s missile program, saying he “fell in love” with Kim after their first meeting. Their most recent summit in Vietnam ended abruptly in February, however, with no new nuclear deal in place.
Kim alluded last week that any further breakdown in negotiations with the United States could inflame diplomatic tension again. He told KCNA that he would wait until the “end of this year” for the U.S. to “approach us” with a new strategy on nuclear negotiations.
Trump said on Twitter after the comments that he still believed his relationship with Kim was “very good” and that “perhaps the term excellent would be even more accurate.”
“I look forward to the day, which could be soon, when Nuclear Weapons and Sanctions can be removed, and then watching North Korea become one of the most successful nations of the World!” the president wrote.
In an episode from Season 4 of “Sex and the City,” Carrie Bradshaw is adjusting to living with her boyfriend, Aidan, and grappling with the loss of privacy and solitude she had while living alone. It also meant saying goodbye to some of the treasured rituals of her single days, which she refers to as her “secret single behaviors,” or SSBs, for short.
An SSB can be any weird little habit or indulgence people enjoy when they’re home by themselves — the kinds of things they would probably be too shy, uncomfortable or embarrassed to do in the presence of another human being, namely a significant other.
“I like to make a stack of saltines. I put grape jelly on them. I eat them standing up in the kitchen reading fashion magazines,” Carrie said. (To be honest, eating crackers with jam is something I could easily do in front of just about anyone without hesitation. But to each her own.)
My SSB requires a bit more privacy. I like to grab my tweezers and use the flashlight on my phone to scan my bikini line for any ingrown hairs (I know, I know, I’m not supposed to pluck those, but whatever). Then I bask in the overwhelming sense of satisfaction I get after I unearth one of those pesky little hairs. It’s euphoric.
Since I moved in with my boyfriend last summer, I’ve made an effort to take care of this business when he’s not home. But sometimes I just can’t resist the temptation, and I do it in while lying next to him in bed, much to his dismay.
We asked other women — some single, some coupled-up — to reveal their SSBs. Here’s what they told us:
“I order an entire cheesecake from Eileen’s Special Cheesecake on Uber Eats for delivery and then eat the entire thing for dinner. I leave a suitcase of dirty clothes from my last vacation spilling out onto the floor, even though I returned from that trip a month ago. I wash my hair extensions in the sink and then leave them on the handle of the bathroom door or on the towel rack to air-dry.
“I leave my entire makeup kit on the floor in front of my full-length mirror and say a prayer before stepping over it (hoping that I don’t step on my favorite eyeshadow palette again and break it) instead of just picking it up. I see how long I can get one of my chin hairs to grow and then examine it thoroughly with both admiration and disgust when I finally pluck that bad boy.” — Devyn Simone, senior matchmaker for Three Day Rule in New York City
“First and foremost, I’m braless, I belt out Sia songs and sound exactly like her, of course. I dip ALL things in ranch.” — June F.
“The second I’m home by myself, I start talking to the cat. Pets are the perfect vessel for externalizing your inner monologue. Usually our one-sided discussions are trivial, like debating if I need to take a shower or whether or not it is, in fact, her dinnertime. But I can find myself diving into my deepest existential concerns with her as well. The other day I found myself talking through my five-year plan with her, and she wasn’t even in the room: Basically, I use the cat as just the slimmest glimmer of an excuse to talk to myself.
“I also make up songs to sing to her, typically centered on the same theme of her being hungry and it not yet being time for her dinner. Classics include, ‘Oh, Ginny, please believe me, I’ll never feed you your food” (to the tune of ‘Oh! Darling’ by The Beatles). And also, ‘Hey! Ginny! Leave that plant alone!’ to the tune of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’ because it’s the plants that suffer the most from her campaign for kibble.” —Sarah Zucker, writer and artist at YoMeryl
“My SSB is pretending like I’m a model. While at home, I turn on either rap or trap music, get on my tiptoes (pretending I have heels on) and sashay my behind up and down my living room like it is a runway. I have never admitted that before, and it’s super embarrassing, but it actually feels liberating to say that it makes me feel pretty. And while it’s liberating, I will still only do it when no one is around to see!” — Valencia Morton, financial coach at Millionairess Mama
“Usually to pass the time I would binge Asian soap operas on my laptop, not even understanding the language half the time, and then just stuff my face with buns or other Asian junk food until I pass out, wake up 20 minutes later and start the cycle all over again. On nights when I didn’t have any takeout, I would take whatever food I had in my fridge and dump it all into my one pan. And these were not complementary ingredients we’re talking about here — Beans? Throw ’em in! Oatmeal? Adds volume! — making an awful food paste, and just mindlessly eat that.” — YaoYao Ma Van As, illustrator
“I turn my favorite album on the highest volume and sing in the shower. I dance around (clothed or naked) like no one is watching. I binge on pizza AND ice cream just because I can. I watch my favorite tearjerkers with a box of tissues in hand because sometimes you just need a good cry! I have a date night with my favorite bottle of wine and binge on ‘Gossip Girl’ reruns.” — Brittney Smiejek, matchmaker for Three Day Rule in Chicago
“Plucking away nipple hair in the bathroom post-shower.” — Amanda Oleander, artist
“I eat while soaking in the bathtub. Pizza pairs best with a bath, but macaroni and cheese is good too. Add a glass of wine and it’s the ultimate in relaxation!” — Marzi Wilson of Introvert Doodles
“When I’m home alone cooking, I keep it interesting by narrating my own adult cooking show, ‘Ursula Unwrapped.’ You’d be surprised how many engrossing things can be said about butter and cream.” — Ursula B., @3sunzzz on Twitter
“First and foremost, I let dishes pile up in the sink. It doesn’t even matter what I’ve eaten. Then I’ll fire up a ‘Snapped’ marathon on the Oxygen channel. While the intro music plays, I’ll open up a bottle of white wine and head to the couch. By the end of the night, I’ll be trying on various shades of lipstick that I would never wear in public, something named like ‘City’ or ‘Meow,’ and using Snapchat to take selfies with huge doe eyes and fairies flying around my glittered hair. I honestly don’t know how to use Snapchat for anything else. I’ll fall asleep eating cookies in bed, which is normally strictly forbidden! It’s honestly the best vacation ever!” — Jennifer J.
“My favorite thing to do is binge-watch shows all weekend from dawn to falling asleep.” — Netta B.
“As soon as I’m left alone, I like to try on all of my boyfriend’s pants and see how many I can get on at one time, just to compare our proportions. I’m also super-obsessed with these Hungarian choreographers and this dude that does these insane calisthenics on Instagram. So as soon as I’m in costume (many pairs of men’s jeans) I try to re-create the dances and handstands, which is an uber-challenge with how I’ve constricted the range of motion in my legs. I can never get the dances down, but my handstands have been on point. Just did a one-hander yesterday. Pretty sure the pants are holding me up, though!” — Mara Marek, comedian and host of “The Happy Never After Podcast”
“Being completely alone is not something I get to enjoy very often being a married mom of two. But when those wonderful moments come along, my SSB is to put on my flying pig onesie and watch Harry Potter movies in chronological order while reciting them (accents and all) from beginning to end. I am solid on movies one, two and three. Four through seven I don’t know word for word — yet! Usually all the while stuffing my face with my kids’ school lunch snacks, something I can’t get away with in their presence due to a strict no-eating-school-lunch-snacks-at-home rule!” — Jess Grogan, blogger
A real estate agent’s racist comments targeting the popular K-Pop band BTS cost him his job.
Brian Hughes, who worked with real estate firm Highline Residential in New York, attacked BTS on Twitter following their performance last week on “Saturday Night Live” ― the first-ever appearance by a K-Pop group on the show.
Hughes wrote that the band’s seven members ― all in their early-to-mid 20s ― “look like kids,” and questioned whether Asian women were “even attracted to their own men.”
Before long, Hughes’ tweets ― which perpetuated the offensive emasculation of Asian men in Western culture ― caught the attention of several social media users in the Asian community, who alerted his employers. The following day, the firm fired him.
While Hughes’ account has since been deleted, social media users had been quick to screengrab the tweets. And Highline Residential tweeted a statement concerning its decision.
Hughes’ tweets sparked a deluge of criticisms from the Asian community as well as BTS’ fiercely loyal fans, the BTS ARMYs.
Highline Residential’s statement regarding Hughes’ termination also went viral and BTS fans thanked the firm for its actions.
Don’t mess with BTS.
The whole world witnessed the massive fire that destroyed Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, but some people claim they saw something even more amazing: an image of Jesus.
“When I looked at this photo last night, I was really astounded by what I saw,” 38-year-old Lesley Rowan told Scotland’s Daily Record. “When I look at it I see a silhouette of Jesus. I really see a vivid image.”
Rowans said she believed the image was a positive one.
“I feel like it will bring comfort to people in Paris and all over the world at this sad time,” she said.
Others who’ve seen photos of the cathedral are also convinced they see a divine image in the flames.
However, some wondered, if Jesus was there, what message was he sending?
And there were some skeptics....
Although some people find the image inspirational, it may be more of an example of “pareidolia,” than a message from God.
Kang Lee, a psychologist at the University of Toronto who released a study of face peridolia earlier in 2014, told HuffPost that “human brains are uniquely wired to recognize faces, so that even when there’s only a slight suggestion of facial features, the brain automatically interprets it as a face.”
When Michelle Obama walked onstage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in December 2018 wearing a pair of sparkly, thigh-high stiletto Balenciaga boots to promote her book “Becoming,” one thing became abundantly clear: her book tour style would prove as exciting ― and perhaps even more fun to watch ― as her style over four years in the White House.
Following that iconic moment, Obama has traveled to a slew of both American and European cities delivering powerful messaging and insight via the interviews and appearances she’s made to promote it.
And more often than not, she has done so wearing perfectly fitting power suits.
She paid homage to British designer Stella McCartney in an embellished black jumpsuit during a stop in London (which we’re counting as a power suit). In Copenhagen, she wore a show-stopping sparkly pink suit by Danish designer Stine Goya.
Whether two-piece, jumpsuit or coordinating set, Obama has once again used her clothing to send a message ― one that is fierce, fun and fashionable as ever.
