PANIGHATA, West Bengal — West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is suffering from ‘haratanka’, a phobia of losing elections and is trying to win in the state by dividing the people on communal lines.

“He(Modi) knows that he will lose the elections and that is why his face has turned pale. He is now suffering from ‘haratanka’ and everyday is uttering nonsense thinking about losing in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, New Delhi, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and others,” she said at a rally here in support of party candidate for Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency Mohua Moitra.

“I do not mind if BJP wins in Tripura but that will not give him 543 seats. That is the reason he is roaming around in Bengal hoping to get votes by dividing people along Hindu-Muslim lines,” she added.

Reacting to BJP’s allegations that she as chief minister of the state has done nothing for West Bengal, Banerjee said that people will seek answers from her if it is so.

Speaking at a rally in support of TMC’s Krishanagar candidate Mohua Moitra, Banerjee urged the people not to vote for BJP to save the country.

“Do not cast your votes for the BJP if you want to save the country ... Have you forgotten demonetisation, the suffering you underwent? Crores of people had suffered. Now when the elections have come will you not give him (Modi) the reply ?” she said.

“Give them (BJP) a tight slap for demonetisation by casting your votes against them,” she added.

BHOPAL — Facing flak for her remarks against Hemant Karkare, the then Maharashtra ATS chief killed in the 26/11 terror attack, Malegaon blast accused and BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur on Saturday demanded an apology from those who “tortured” her for “nine years”.

After her statement that Karkare died in the 26/11 terror attack because she had “cursed” him for “torturing” her led to a furore, Thakur had apologised on Friday.

However, when reporters reached her residence on Saturday and asked her about the controversial statement, Thakur lost her cool and said, “Will you get an apology from those who tortured me for nine years?”

“I have myself apologised yesterday... I give you the authority to get an apology from those who tortured me,” she added.

Out on bail, Thakur (48) is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Six people died in the blast at Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in North Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008, with the ATS claiming that it was the work of a group of Hindu extremists.

The BJP on Wednesday announced Thakur’s candidature from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, where she would be facing senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

Her statement about Karkare triggered a political storm with opposition parties attacking the BJP, and the Congress demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The saffron party distanced itself from her comment, saying it was her “personal view” which she might have made “due to years of physical and mental torture”.

On Friday, Thakur was quoted as saying by her aide that she felt the “enemies of the country” were benefiting from her statement, so “I take back my statement and apologise for it”.

NEW DELHI — Citing the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission Saturday directed Eros Now to immediately take down a web series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all related contents till further orders.

The EC order said the streaming of five-episode web series, “Modi - Journey of a Common Man”, should be “stopped forthwith”.

After watching the trailer, the EC said, it is apparent that the web series showcases different phases of Modi’s life ― from childhood to becoming a national leader.

The poll watchdog cited its April 10 order banning the screening of a biopic on the PM till the Lok Sabha elections are over, to bar the streaming of the series.

There was no immediate response form Eros Now producers.

In its order staying the release of the biopic, the EC had said that “any biopic material in the nature of biography/hagiography sub serving the purposes of any political party or any individual entity connected to it, which is intended to, or which has the potential to disturb the level playing field during the elections, should not be displayed in electronic media including cinematograph during the operation of MCC”.

The EC Saturday said, in view of the admitted facts and material available on record, the web series is based on Modi, who, besides being the PM, is also a political leader and a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.

Therefore, the EC said, the series cannot be streamed.

“In view of the above, you are hereby directed to stop forthwith the online streaming and remove all connected contents of the web series till further orders,” it told Eros Now.

It also asked the company to send a compliance report immediately.

Earlier, the producers of biopic “PM Narendra Modi” approached the Supreme Court challenging the EC stay.

The apex court asked the Election Commission to watch the biopic and come up with a considered view. The matter will come up for hearing on Monday.

The district of Parel in Mumbai consists mostly of towering glass buildings. A separate island until the 19th century, home to several cotton textile mills in the 20th century, today several homegrown billion-dollar companies have their head offices here. Almost every bank in India — nationalised and private — has significant floor space in the area. But Ganesh Dattatrey Shinde, 46, who sweeps the streets outside Elphinstone station that leads to the towers of commerce, has never been able to access the loans that these banks offer.

Shinde sweeps an assigned stretch of two kilometres, thrice, during his shift. “We drag along a bin into which we put large trash. We don’t sit down for tea; we take a break standing, and barely manage to wash our hands and legs wherever we find water through someone’s benevolence. There are no soaps,” he said. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) provides funds to the contractor that Shinde works for, to purchase gloves, masks and boots for the workers. But Shinde said that he and his colleagues never receive them because the contractor would rather keep the money.

Shinde lives with his ageing parents, his wife and his two children aged seven and four. Until the age of 32, he worked at his uncle’s saree store. When the opportunity to take up the job as a sweeper came up in 2004, he took it. After all, it meant the possibility of the job being a permanent one. Shinde earns a daily wage of Rs 576 ($8.20); it used to be Rs 70 ($1.00) when he began to work in 2004. However, with a 12% deduction that goes into a pension fund, he receives a sum of Rs 12,580 ($180) into his bank account every month.

In 2007, Shinde needed Rs 50,000 ($711), to repair and formalise the ownership of his home, which is located in Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia. He approached the Maharashtra Bank for a loan, where he opened an account in 2004, right after taking up the street sweeping job.

Shinde’s employment is with a contractor, who is in turn employed by the richest municipal body in India, the MCGM. Contractors hire workers for seven months, or 210 days, to avoid adhering to the Industries Disputes Act of 1947 which stipulates permanent positions if a worker works continuously for 240 days. Even though the principal employer (the MCGM) and the employees like Shinde stay constant, there is a new contractor every six months. However, Shinde has no document to prove his employment, because of this tangled web of legal provisions which the contractors circumvent. There are no papers signed; people like Shinde are required to report to a different person every seven months.  

The Contract Labour Act of 1970 lays down the rights of workers in establishments with more than 20 workers, which should help people like Shinde. However, the vast number of contractors that MCGM outsources the sanitation work to hire fewer than 20 people, meaning that Shinde and others aren’t able to argue for their rights.

Shinde was aware of the deduction from his pay for a pension fund, and in 2007 he tried to access it. But after his contractor only mumbled a response, he learnt from his colleagues that there was no such fund. An organisation which represents contract sanitation workers, named “Kachra Vahtuk Shramik Sangh” (KVSS), had discovered, by trawling through boxes of records, that the contractors only needed to submit photocopies of the handwritten cheques that were being issued to the workers. 

“There was tampering in the amount, suggesting that we were being paid a higher amount,” said Shinde, “when the reality was that we were being paid less, and were told that this was because of the deduction.” This prompted Shinde to join KVSS.

In 1996, KVSS approached the Bombay High Court representing 1,200 workers, with a plea to end the contract system and ensure that the workers are directly hired by MCGM. They were unsuccessful. Dialogue with the MCGM also failed to bear fruit. 

In 2007, another case filed in an industrial tribunal ruled in the favour of the workers, but the MCGM challenged this in the Bombay High Court. In December 2016, the court ruled in favour of the workers, directing the MCGM to pay arrears to the workers amounting to approximately Rs 250,000 ($3,500) per worker.

The MCGM’s subsequent appeal in the Supreme Court was dismissed. Instead, in April 2017 the court directed the MCGM to change the status of the workers to permanent, as well as to deliver the mandatory pension fund, gratuity, house rent allowance, leave travel allowance, and “ghaan kaam bhatta” (dirty work allowance), but did not set any timeline by which these things must be delivered. 

The Supreme Court directive will undoubtedly change the lives of the 2,700 workers who were part of the petition, including Shinde. His salary should rise to anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 28,000 ($350 to $400) per month. The court win was a year ago, but Shinde has still not received any letter that confirms his new job status as a permanent employee of the MCGM, nor has he received any arrears. And that’s because of his middle name.

Shinde’s father’s name is Dattatrey. In the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, the father’s name is added as a person’s middle name. In the phonetic Devanagari script that Marathi is written in, there is only one way of writing his father’s name. But when it’s rendered in the Latin alphabet, there are many ways to spell that name, meaning that his middle name is now spelled differently across his various documents.

On his driving license, it says “Dattatray”. On his voter ID card, it is “Dattatreya”. And on his PAN card, which is issued by the income tax department, his father’s name is written as “Dattatrya”, but his own name is written as “Ganesh D Shinde”. When he enrolled with KVSS to become a member — after he learnt about their work with the pension fund — he received an ID card and that lists his middle name as “Dattatray”. He has no ID card issued by either the MCGM or his contractor. 

In March this year, he received a letter which said that these discrepancies mean that it is impossible to verify if he is the same person who is indirectly employed with the MCGM.

When Shinde needed a loan in 2007 to formalise the ownership of his apartment, he approached a Makadwala. The Makadwala community were once nomadic tribes from across the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and a section of them have become moneylenders. According to one research paper, they have acquired the reputation for being mean recovery agents.

“A Makadwala was recommended to me by my friend,” Shinde says. “He gave me the loan of Rs 50,000 ($700) at a 10 percent interest rate. It took me about three years to return the sum, in small installments, because my wages were still the same.” Shinde took up a second job to be able to repay the loan without falling prey to the notorious ways in which Makadwalas behave with defaulters.

“I usually leave home at 6am to get to my location, which changes every six months with the new contractor. I get home by 1:30pm. During that period when I had to repay the loan, I requested the contractors to let me work the second shift too, from 3pm onwards. They obliged,” he explained.

Recently, Shinde needed a second loan, and contemplated going to the jewellers instead, with his wife’s few pieces of jewellery. Jewellers have been moneylenders across India for decades. But most of them are discreet about their practices and processes.

Manish Patel (name changed) is a is a jeweller and moneylender who explained briefly how it works.“Jewellers and moneylenders have intermediaries who can vouch for those who wish to borrow money,” he says. “In both cases, the interest rates may depend on how well each person knows the other. We charge one month’s interest even as we lend the money. Most mortgages are for a short period: between three-six months, as the interest is steep, and the value of the gold erodes quickly compared to the payments,” Patel said.

Some jewellers have licenses to mortgage and some – like Patel – don’t. A vast segment of the process of lending works unofficially, without a paper trail. And this is why gold is preferred over diamond and silver, as it can be sold and melted quickly, leaving no trace.

“We charge one month’s interest even as we lend the money. The interest rate varies between 3-5 per cent, per month. But 80 percent of the borrowers do not show up to claim the gold, unless they are able to repay the entire borrowed amount or if the jewellery has sentimental value. When the jewellery is not claimed, it is sold and melted easily,” says Patel.

In August 2018, Shinde was injured while working. He cut his foot when he accidentally stepped on a sharp object. He continued to work that day, even though he was bleeding, and afterwards he went to a private doctor’s clinic. The doctor did not tend to the wound well, and so the wound became infected. He had to go to the municipal hospital near his home daily for a dressing.

When we met, he was limping, and wore a plastic bag on his leg. Through the flimsy plastic, his foot, bandaged, looked swollen. Shinde said that he had already spent close to Rs 4,000 ($57) for treatment, for something that should have been a minor wound. “I could have accessed medical care for free by showing that I am indirectly employed by the MCGM,” he said, “but the spelling errors in my name have delayed the process. Now I need to undergo a test to see if this healing or not.”

Shinde is thankful for KVSS’ help in ensuring that people like himself get their due. “What I earn today is not a lot and is often not enough when emergencies show up, like the injury on my foot. But I have begun to invest in two small insurance policies for which I pay a total monthly premium of Rs 1,515 ($22),” he said, taking him broom and limping along. “In the long run, we have to take care of ourselves.”

Identities of the World is a series about financial inclusion and identity, published by Storythings in partnership with Experian. Visit identitiesoftheworld.com for more.

 Chandigarh : At least 42 people were killed and over 280   injured in multiple explosions that hit two churches  and three five star hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. At the time of incident, over hundreds  of devotees  were inside the churches to attend the Easter mass.

One of the explosions was a St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade of the capital, Colombo. Another church in Katuwapitiya, Katana was also hit.

Police also reported explosions at the Shangri-La Hotel, Cinnamon Grand  and Kingsbury Hotel in the capital.

 As per Sri Lanka media reports,  the blasts occurred around 8:45 am (local time) as the Easter mass was in progress.

The Police urged the public to stay indoors and not to gather at the explosion sites, and outside the National Hospitals where the injured are being brought in.

 No group has claimed the responsibility of the blasts so far.

More details awaited. 

As Cersei says in the “Game of Thrones” Season 8 premiere, “You want a queen? Earn her.” Or, you can probably just give it another minute or two.

Perhaps the most confusing moment of the episode occurs when Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) finally brings the Golden Company, an army of mercenaries, to Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). In exchange for the army, Euron wants to sleep with Cersei, and even possibly marry her.

Initially, she denies him and turns away, though Euron protests, “I’ve given her justice, an army and the Iron Fleet. Yet she gives me no sign of affection. My heart is nearly broken.”

Cersei, who is also angry that the Golden Company didn’t bring its elephants ― she really wanted those elephants ― calls him “insolent,” but, after refusing his offer moments earlier, takes him to her chambers anyway.

And everyone was like, “Wait, what? Why would Cersei do this?” It seems completely out of character.

Even Headey was initially against the idea of Cersei sleeping with Euron, telling Entertainment Weekly, “I kept saying, ‘She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t,’” and trying to explain “that she would keep fighting.” Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, though, “were adamant Cersei would do what she had to do,” Headey said.

She trusted their judgment.

Asbæk told Making Game of Thrones, HBO’s behind-the-scenes site for the show, he was part of a “big discussion” with Headey and the showrunners about the moment. “She was like, ‘It’s ... a pretty big thing that in the final season I’m sleeping with this guy,’” he added.

Sure, it’s possible Cersei was lonely. Part of the reason she slept with Lancel Lannister (Eugene Simon) was because her brother and lover Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) was away at war. 

But her decision in Season 8 is a strategic one.

Cersei’s face says it all as she turns away from Euron and he protests. If she doesn’t sleep with him, she’s in danger of losing him.

Asbæk explained to Making Game of Thrones: “He’s not an idiot: He also knows, ‘I have the Golden Company, I have the biggest fleet in the world, and you need to pay up.’”

Did you see how empty the throne room was during the Season 8 premiere? At this point, Cersei is definitely trying to shore up what few alliances she has left. Remember, this is the character behind one of the series’ most famous lines, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”

She certainly hasn’t died yet. Cersei’s theme song would surely be “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child. If she believes she’s backed in a corner and could lose Euron’s support, she, as the showrunners suggested, would take this course of action.

Beyond assuring allegiances, Cersei is also likely taking measures to protect her unborn child. In Season 7, Cersei once again becomes pregnant by Jaime. This isn’t her first rodeo. Just as she convinced the realm that King Robert (Mark Addy) had fathered the other children she shared with her brother ― Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free) and Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) ― sleeping with Euron could allow her to use a similar cover story for her newest “twincest” baby.

Continuing to deny her love for Jaime could also explain Cersei’s tears when Euron leaves.

“She goes to the place where she doesn’t want to go, which makes it more powerful sad because of who she’s not with,” Headey also told EW, talking about Jaime.

There’s also a darker theory behind Cersei’s tears: She may have already lost the baby.

In Season 7, during the scene where Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) realizes Cersei is pregnant, she appears to pass on a glass of wine. We’re not saying Westeros is at the forefront of prenatal care, but the fact that Cersei, who drinks wine like water, is refraining from partaking appears to be a tipoff to Tyrion that she’s expecting.

If she’s drinking wine again in Season 8, it could mean she’s had a miscarriage.

In the Season 5 premiere, there’s a flashback of a young Cersei being warned by a witch that she would have only three children, who would all meet an early demise. “Gold will be their crowns, gold their shrouds,” the witch forecasts. Cersei has already had three children, and each has met their end. If the prophecy is true, there won’t be a fourth.

And if Cersei doesn’t have a child to live for, anyone getting in her way should watch out. As Tyrion once told her, “You love your children. It’s your one redeeming quality.”

President Donald Trump spent Good Friday golfing with controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh at Mar-a-Lago ― and ranting about the Mueller report on Twitter.

It was two of the president’s posts in particular, however, that set social media alight.

One involved Trump calling “total bullshit” on some of the statements about him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible Trump campaign collusion, which was released in redacted form on Thursday. The report contained damning details about the president.

Trump later shared Twitter user Scott Atkins’ attack on The Washington Post about its Friday front page. The newspaper’s main headline read: “Mueller details Russian interference, Trump’s attempts to disrupt probe.”

Atkins’ tweet featured the term “circle jerk.” Dictionary.com defines it as slang for “mutual masturbation among three or more persons.”

It is also figuratively used, the website notes, to denote a “group of people who are ‘getting themselves off’ in the echo chamber of their own opinions or activities.”

The two presidential posts inevitably caught the attention of fellow Twitter users, who struggled to contain their disbelief:

The overtly masculine image of amber liquid sloshing gently on rocks of ice as gentlemen hold their glasses and clouds of cigar smoke swirl around is changing rapidly with whisky brands tapping into a diverse customer base and experimenting with flavours as diverse as coffee and tea.

The staid whisky spirit is getting a fun makeover with cocktail connoisseurs joining in too, either using ingredients to enhance the velvety smooth flavour of whisky or disguising it, to woo those who usually stayed with sweeter fruity cocktails.

Shreshta Saha, who kept away from whisky for almost half a decade, now says Whiskey Sour is her drink of choice.

“Whip up a cocktail or dilute it enough with water to make the taste of hard liquor go away,” 26-year-old Shreshta told PTI.

A sweet-n-sour concoction, a classic Whiskey Sour mellows the flavour of hard liquor with the addition of a sweetener, a dash of lemon and sometimes egg white.

Leading brands are hoping to break the old school imagery of whisky in their bid to attract non-conventional whisky drinkers like Saha.

Dewar’s India, a blended scotch whisky brand owned by Bacardi, is aiming at making millennials aware of scotch’s “versatility”.

Ernest Reid, brand ambassador for Dewar’s India, said the company is expanding on the flavours present in the base spirit.

“All expressions of Dewar’s have a base line of honey,” he said, adding that apple or cinnamon would be natural extensions of a Dewar’s peg.

Going for traditional flavours like ginger, scotch and lemon is another trick that proves to be a safe bet for beginners.

“New whisky drinkers usually tend to start with something light and comfortable on their palate. The idea is to introduce people slowly and step by step by first acquainting them with basics,” said Emily Thompson, also a brand ambassador.

Whisky happened to 25-year-old Shreya Nanda after she repeatedly found herself socialising with a bunch of whisky drinkers.

But the smell continued to feel overwhelming, until she finally found her calling - Pure Sin.

“It is my favourite probably because I simply don’t realise it contains whisky,” she said.

he creamy cocktail uses a fine blend of Irish whisky and Irish creme liqueur, topped with dollops of vanilla ice-cream and an assortment of frozen berries.

Glenfiddich’s recent initiative - Cocktail

Colombo : Six near simultaneous explosions rocked three churches and three hotels frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning, killing at least 129 people and injuring over 400 others, in one of the deadliest blasts in the island nation’s history, officials said

The blasts targeted St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, St Sebastian’s Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital

Hospital sources said that 129 have been killed so far in the blasts

”42 people died in Colombo, 60 in Negombo and 27 in Batticaloa,” they said

The Colombo National Hospital spokesperson, Dr Samindi Samarakoon, said more than 300 people have been admitted with injuries

The blast left 73 injured in Batticaloa, officials said

”Many casualties including foreigners,” said Harsha de Silva, the Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm

”I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary,” Sirisena said

The Sri Lankan government has summoned an emergency meeting called. All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, a minister said, adding that an official statement will be issued soon

”Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over. Emergency crews are at all locations in full force. We, at 1990 also have close to 20 units at the various locations. We took multiple casualties to hospital. Hopefully saved many lives,” Harsha de Silva said

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka

”We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789,” the High Commission tweeted

”In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176,” it said.

PUNE, Maharashtra: Raj Thackeray has just finished taking apart a claim made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar last year, that 8.50 lakh toilets were built in one week.

“8.50 lakh toilets in one week means 84 toilets in one minute. That’s seven toilets every  five seconds, which is impossible,” he rattles off sternly, as the crowd at the rally in Satara in Maharashtra claps.

And then comes the line that makes the audience roar.

“It (pressure) doesn’t even happen that fast, and this is the speed at which he claims to have built the toilets,” Thackeray delivers with a casual downward gesture that makes it clear what he is referring to.

This is how Thackeray, the man once seen as Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s rightful heir in oratory skills as well as whipping up xenophobia, is making himself relevant this election season: trolling Modi, and essentially fact-checking his claims.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief isn’t contesting from any Lok Sabha seat himself, nor is his party part of any alliance, but after he held two rallies in the state, the BJP complained to the Election Commission about him.

Why?

Thackeray hasn’t openly been asking his supporters to vote for any party—instead, he tells them to vote against Modi and his right-hand man, BJP president Amit Shah.

“If they come back to power again, Indian democracy will be in danger and you all will be made slaves,” he thunders at his rallies.

The expenditure for Thackeray’s programmes, says a rattled BJP, should be put on the account of Congress-NCP candidates.

So what does a man who has no visible skin in the game gain from travelling across the state on an anti-BJP plank? And is it even making a difference?

From violent rhetoric to fact-checking

It’s been a long time since Thackeray was discussed with any seriousness in Maharashtra’s political discourse.

It was in 2006 that Thackeray broke away from the Shiv Sena to form the MNS. He had been discontent for a few years after his uncle Bal Thackeray chose his photographer son Uddhav to lead the party.

The MNS’s initial rise was nothing short of meteoric. Stitched together by Thackeray’s charisma and strong anti-immigration rhetoric, the party won 13 assembly seats in 2009, with ‘Marathi pride’ its sole agenda.

From beating up Bihari migrants to forcing top Bollywood stars to apologise, Thackeray channeled his famous uncle’s hate rhetoric (which had been aimed mainly at South Indians in Mumbai in the 1960s and ’70s) and exploited growing anxiety about the lack of jobs to turn the city into a riot ground in the first few years since the MNS’s birth.

But his downfall was as swift.

In the 2014 assembly elections, the MNS had only one MLA, who soon left the party to join Shiv Sena.

In the 2017 civic body elections, Thackeray’s party lost Nashik, where they had held the mayor’s post some years ago. In 2018, seven MNS councillors in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation defected to the Shiv Sena.

A former MNS MLA who is now with the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance thinks there are two reasons for this.

“The party was overtly centered around Raj. From 1st to the 1,000th position in the party, everything was only for Raj. He has a dynamic personality which attracts a crowd but even Salman Khan can attract large crowds and that doesn’t make him a leader,” this person said on condition of anonymity, adding that Thackeray would not listen to even party district chiefs, who would have to wait outside his house for hours to meet him.

The second reason, this person claimed, was that Thackeray would not take his protests and agitations to their logical conclusion, instead  being content to just let them taper off.

A political observer from Mumbai says Thackeray’s decision to attack Modi has been prompted by the Shiv Sena’s uneasy alliance with the BJP and the MNS’s existential crisis.
“Uddhav abused BJP for four-and-a-half years but aligned with them again. This has made a large section of Shiv Sena cadre anxious and crestfallen. When Raj aggressively goes after Modi, this section could move towards him as Maharashtra is slated to go for assembly polls in October. The Shiv Sena and MNS cadre feed on negative enforcement, not positive. With this move by Raj, the MNS cadre now know that they are taking on someone like Modi,” informed this veteran journalist from Mumbai.

Thackeray has also never considered NCP leader Sharad Pawar his enemy.

He had dropped some hints of his shifting stance in February 2018, when he interviewed Pawar at an event to mark the latter completing 50 years in politics.

A senior NCP leader, who spoke to HuffPost India on condition of anonymity, said there were some discussion about MNS also joining the Congress-NCP alliance.

“NCP and Congress don’t really have a strong organization in Mumbai but MNS has a strong support base despite its electoral downslide. But Congress was averse to bringing MNS in the coalition, fearing a backlash in UP and Bihar. NCP had no hesitation in taking him along but it could not work out. Now, the Congress leaders are asking us to arrange his rallies in their constituencies,” said this leader.

So what about the expenditure for Thackeray’s rallies?

It’s all “being properly arranged”, said this person, refusing to disclose any more details.

The party’s official stand is different.

“Raj was the brand ambassador of PM Modi in 2014. He himself had been upset and he realized that Modi showed him a false picture of Gujarat. And since a long time, he had been opposing Mr.Modi and Mr.Amit Shah. In an election, it’s good if anyone is opposing this government. There has been no formal alliance of the MNS with Congress or NCP neither was there any understanding. But if anyone is opposing Modi in this election, definitely we are going to benefit from that,” said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.

A few weeks ago, Thackeray’s call for the opposition to unite for a ‘Modi-mukt Bharat’ had had little impact. Commentators had pointed out that this was a U-turn from 2011, when Thackeray had visited Gujarat for a “study tour” and praised Modi liberally.

The BJP is not amused

“We are not taking him seriously. He is a spent force. He doesn’t have a single MLA in Maharashtra. He has single-digit councilors in the state. He doesn’t have the vote-pulling capacity. We are not worried about him at all,” assured BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, even as he confirmed that the BJP had complained to the Election Commission about Thackeray’s public meetings.

And what about Thackeray’s allegations about Modi’s tall claims?

The impact, says Bhandari, is limited to “Modi-hater media, including HuffPost India”.

“You people have got one more poster boy. Why should we counter him or give him some importance? Is it not enough that you people are giving him importance and coverage? He is having an open and clear settlement with the Congress and NCP. The script of this entire drama has been provided by Mr.Sharad Pawar” he claimed.

But even chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been attacking the MNS chief, calling him everything from a “mimicry artist”, “a person who is dancing at someone else’s wedding” and “supari contractor”.

“He is going to damage us. There is no doubt about it. He did that in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as well,” said a senior Shiv Sena leader from Mumbai.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, MNS candidates had eaten into a big chunk of Shiv Sena-BJP votes in Mumbai and the surrounding areas, resulting in the Congress-NCP sweeping all the seats in the city. Thackeray’s spoiler factor had also propelled the NCP-Congress combine back to power with a comfortable majority in the state assembly elections later that year.

This time around, Thackeray seems to want more. If some NCP insiders are to be believed, Pawar will make sure he gets a respectable share of seats in the assembly election, hardly five months away.

 ‘Jara lav re’

With last week’s anti-Modi tirades, Thackeray has not only rejuvenated his dispirited cadre and created an atmosphere in favour of the Congress-BJP, his oratorical skills have ensured that TV cameras are focused on his rallies.

At these rallies, he suddenly pauses while speaking and says “jara lav re” (“play it”) to his technical team, who immediately play video clips of Modi’s speeaches on the two giant LED screens set up on each side of the stage. And the crowd sits up, sure that some innovative skewering will follow.

At his Solapur rally, he brought with him a young man who was featured in BJP’s ad campaign on Digital India and told the crowd that the BJP’s advertisement was fake.

“My party is not contesting this election. There is no candidate from the MNS this election. But I took this decision very carefully not to contest this election but to campaign against Narendra Modi all over Maharashtra. This is only my anger (at Modi),” he said.

 When tried to reach for his comments, Raj Thackeray’s close associate Anil Shidore informed that the MNS chief was busy in his rallies across the state and that this reporter’s request for an interview “being considered”.

Aegon Targaryen, Sixth of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, has entered the game.

But yeah, we’re going to go ahead and keep calling him Jon Snow.

The second installment of the last season of “Game of Thrones” didn’t leave us wondering what Jon (Kit Harington) would do with the shocking information he just learned about his parents.

First, a recap: The season premiere, whatever its shortcomings, at least gave us the series’ most pivotal moment to date, when Jon learned about his real parents and real birthright as the true-born son of Lyanna Stark (Aisling Franciosi) and Rhaegar Targaryen (Wilf Scolding). The whole kingdom believes Lyanna was abducted by Rhaegar, who sparked a rebellion when he “stole” her from Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) ― but the couple really just ran away to elope.

Jon’s pal Sam (John Bradley) even has some weird proof in the form of visions from Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and an old diary kept by the maester who annulled Rhaegar’s previous marriage to Elia Martell, making Jon a legitimate Targaryen heir. Were it not for the war that preceded the events of “Game of Thrones,” Rhaegar would have been king after his father, and Jon after Rhaegar.

Now everything is a mess. 

When, in the final seconds of Sunday’s episode, Jon and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) are standing before Lyanna’s tomb, Jon finds the courage to tell Daenerys that he is actually the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.

And Jon’s royal heritage creates more problems than one. 

First off, Daenerys is his father’s sister. It may seem less gross at this point when we’ve all been fairly desensitized to the intimate sibling relationship between Jaime and Cersei Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey), but, yes, an intimate relationship between aunt and nephew is still very gross. (Even if the earlier Targaryens thought otherwise.)

Also, incest aside, Daenerys did not spend the last several years walking around the desert, collecting ships and setting slaveholders ablaze only to stand down after she finally reached Westeros. Nor is she likely to be particularly pleased that her identity is built on a lie. She amassed a great amount of power ― armies, an armada ― as the exiled queen striving to take back her family’s titles.

For her part, Daenerys is immediately skeptical of Jon’s story and makes the pretty good point that it was relayed to him via Bran and Sam: “Your brother and your best friend. That doesn’t seem strange to you?”

Fair question. But what happens now?

Daenerys’ followers seem to like her for her, regarding her as a just ruler with a fearsome power to withstand heat and flame ― not to mention the two giant lizards. So it seems likely they’ll stick around.

But still. Her claim is now problematic.

We see three possible scenarios coming out of this revelation. In no particular order:

1. Jon doesn’t actually want the titles and still wants to see Daenerys on the Iron Throne.

Dismay, chagrin, straight-up explosive rage ― many emotions passed over Daenerys’ face as she learned her bootstrapping boyfriend has the better claim to the Iron Throne. Luckily for Jon, she does seem to like him, which reduces his odds of becoming food for emaciated dragons after the battle for Winterfell. Jon’s very existence, however, sullies her claim, and much would depend on the strength of her supporters.

2. Jon doesn’t actually want the titles, but thinks Daenerys might have a cruel streak.

Daenerys did not tell Jon that she executed Sam’s family, and he seems a bit shocked once he learns that fact from his friend. Perhaps he has come to believe she isn’t the savior Westeros really needs, after all.

3. Jon actually does want the titles.

However reluctantly, however much brooding he needs to finally come to the decision, Jon could potentially see himself as a better ruler for Westeros than his aunt-slash-girlfriend. Obviously, he can’t make any moves before the Night King and his zombie army are defeated, but this would undoubtedly become the darkest timeline.

In any case, at least these Targaryen-Stark lovebirds have already enjoyed their Magic Carpet moment. 

“Game of Thrones” fans will no longer be ghosted.

On Sunday, during the second episode of Season 8, Ghost, the direwolf of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), finally made his return.

It’s been a long time coming. The direwolf didn’t appear in Season 7, and he was scarcely in Season 6, though he showed up when Jon Snow came back to life. He was also cut entirely from one of the most memorable episodes of the series, “Battle of the Bastards.” 

Fans took notice after the direwolf was again absent in the Season 8 premiere, and the memes began to pour in.

Prior to the season, “Game of Thrones” visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer told HuffPost that “Ghost does show up, and... he’s very present and does some pretty cool things in Season 8.”

On Sunday, that promise came true.

As Jon Snow, Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) and Dolorous Edd (Ben Crompton) stood on the walls of Winterfell, reminiscing about their fallen brothers of the Night’s Watch and awaiting the arrival of the army of the dead, Ghost finally appeared in the background. 

He didn’t do a lot. In fact, he kind of just stood there, chillin’. But that was enough. The fandom has been waiting for this longer than we’ve been waiting for winter to arrive, and people could not keep their cool.

Bauer previously explained the absence of the direwolves to HuffPost, saying they’re a lot trickier to bring to life than you might expect. According to Bauer, real wolves are filmed and then scaled up, but they can “only behave in certain ways.”

“I think that has something to do with why the direwolves are in the show, but they’re not maybe as integral as they are in the books,” he said at the time.

If you blinked, you might’ve missed Ghost’s appearance in Episode 2, but you can certainly expect to see more of him on the way.

“He has a fair amount of screen time in Season 8,” Bauer told us.

With the Battle of Winterfell coming in Episode 3, however, it’s not looking great for the direwolf’s longevity. Until then, we’ll be saying our new mantra for the show: All wolves must not die.

The death toll from the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday explosions now stands at 207 with 450 people injured, a police spokesman has said.

The blasts caused fatalities among worshippers and guests at three churches and three hotels.

A total of eight explosions are understood to have taken place with two of them suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers.

Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris said: “We understand that some British citizens were caught in the blasts but we are unable to say how many people are, or might have been, affected.”

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was shocked by the attacks.

He tweeted: “I’m deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka today.

“To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked.

“My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the response.”

According to local media, 283 people were admitted to hospitals for treatment.

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan said his thoughts were with “everyone affected by the awful attacks in Sri Lanka”.

“Such a wonderful country with great people,” he tweeted.

The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, also reacted to the news on Twitter.

“I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation.

“The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation,” he wrote.

Karu Jayasuriya, the Speaker of Parliament in Sri Lanka, blasted the ‘cowardly’ attacks.

“Multiple cowardly attacks this morning were not against any religion or ethnic group, but the whole Sri Lankan nation, bound together by friendship and brotherhood. In this difficult time, let us stand stronger to wipe out these heinous forces from our country, whoever they are,” he wrote.

Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.

Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.

Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

St Sebastian’s appealed for help on its Facebook page.

The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St Sebastian’s, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, local TV footage showed.

Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.

A seventh explosion was reported in Dehiwela, near Sri Lanka’s capital, on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: “The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

“We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.”

Sri Lankan police have arrested 13 men in connection with bomb blasts on churches and hotels that killed more than 200 people, officials said Monday, AFP reported.

Authorities have not made public details on those held after Sunday’s attacks. 

Sri Lankan authorities blocked most social media after Easter Sunday attacks killed more than 200 people, with officials saying the temporary move was meant to curtail the spread of false information and ease tensions.

COLOMBO — Death toll from attacks on Sri Lankan churches and hotels has risen to 290 with about 500 wounded, police spokesman said.

Multiple bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago.

The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp. It was unclear when the curfew would be lifted.

But in a sign that the attacks on three churches and four hotels could lead to communal violence, police reported on Sunday night that there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwestern district of Puttalum and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the western district of Kalutara.

The government has acknowledged that it had “prior information” of attacks on churches involving a little known local Islamist group but didn’t do enough about it.

Out of Sri Lanka’s total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the country’s 2012 census.

In February-March last year, there were a series of religious clashes between Sinhalese Buddhists and Muslims in the towns of Ampara and Kandy.

POLICE KILLED

On Sunday afternoon, three police officers were killed during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the attacks, many of which officials said were suicide bomb explosions. Police reported an explosion at the house.

Thirteen arrests have been made, all of whom are Sri Lankans, police said.

“Altogether, we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters.

Government officials said that 32 foreigners were killed and 30 injured in the explosions that tore through congregations and gatherings in hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

They included five British people, two of whom had dual U.S. citizenship, and three Indians, according to officials in those countries.

Also among the fatalities were three people from Denmark, two from Turkey, and one from Portugal, Sri Lankan officials said. There were also Chinese and Dutch among the dead, according to media reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S. nationals were among those killed, but did not give details.

PRIOR INFORMATION

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009, a time when bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe acknowledged that the government had some “prior information of the attack,” though ministers were not told.

He said there wasn’t an adequate response and there needed to be an inquiry into how the information was used.

He also said the government needs to look at the international links of a local militant group.

Agence France Presse reported that it had seen documents showing that Sri Lanka’s police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit “prominent churches.” He cited a foreign intelligence service as reporting that a little-known Islamist group was involved.

A Sri Lanka police spokesman said he was not aware of the intelligence report.

BLOOD ON CHURCH PEWS

Dozens were killed in one of the blasts at St. Sebastian’s Gothic-style Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Gunasekera said the police suspected a suicide attack there. Pictures from the site showed bodies on the ground, blood on the church pews and a destroyed roof.

Local media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The hotels hit in Colombo were the Shangri-La, the Kingsbury, the Cinnamon Grand and the Tropical Inn near the national zoo. There was no word on casualties in the hotels, but a witness told local TV he saw some body parts, including a severed head, lying on the ground beside the Tropical Inn.

The first six explosions were all reported within a short period in the morning just as church services were starting.

One of the explosions was at St. Anthony’s Shrine, a Catholic church in Kochcikade, Colombo, a tourist landmark.

The explosion at the Tropical Inn happened later and there was an eighth explosion at the house that was the subject of the police raid in Colombo.

“I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong,” said Sri Lanka’s prime minister in a Tweet.

“Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.”

President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.

The military was deployed, a military spokesman said, and security stepped up at Colombo’s international airport. Schools, universities and the Colombo Stock Exchange will be closed on Monday as the island state tries to recover from the attacks.

ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS

The Christian community had already felt under pressure in Sri Lanka in recent years.

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organizations.

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

The heads of major governments condemned the attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said America offered “heartfelt condolences” to the Sri Lankan people and stood ready to help, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there was “no place for such barbarism in our region,” and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the bombings were “an assault on all of humanity.”

Pope Francis, addressing people in St. Peter’s Square, said: “I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.”

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day after his death on the cross.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, where a gunman shot 50 people dead in two mosques last month, said in a statement: “Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence.”

It was the look that iced over Winterfell.

Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), arriving North to fulfill his pledge to fight for the living, spots Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) across the courtyard in the closing moments of the Season 8 premiere of “Game of Thrones.” His face says it all: “Oh, shit.”

Of course, Jaime should be freaking out. He is the reason the Starks and the Lannisters don’t get along in the first place, seeing as he kicked off their feud by pushing a 10-year-old Bran out of a window after the young lad caught him in the act with his twin sister, Cersei (Lena Headey), back in the show’s pilot episode. Bran survives the fall but is left paralyzed. Then, an assassin comes to finish the job wielding the Valyrian steel dagger supposedly owned by Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), leading Bran’s mother, Catelyn (Michelle Fairley), to assign blame to the whole Lannister family.

When Catelyn captures Jaime at the end of Season 1, he confirms Bran didn’t fall from the tower ― Jaime pushed him. 

“l hoped the fall would kill him,” Jaime states, never revealing the reason for his terrible act. (Back then, not many knew about his and Cersei’s incestual romance.)

In Episode 2 of Season 8, which aired Sunday, Jaime and Bran finally come face to face to talk over the incident that incited one of the central conflicts of “Game of Thrones.”

“The things we do for love,” Bran ominously states in front of everyone in the great hall during Jaime’s trial of sorts. Although he doesn’t tell anyone about their little secret, Bran, all the wiser, does alert Jaime to the fact that his push led the crippled Stark boy to become the Three-Eyed Raven. 

“I’m sorry for what I did to you,” Jaime tells Bran, going on to explain why he’s not such a bad guy anymore. 

“You still would be if you hadn’t pushed me out of that window, and I would still be Brandon Stark,” Bran responds. “I’m something else now.”

Jaime has had quite a transformation throughout the series, going from the “Kingslayer” to a true heroic figure by way of his various interactions with characters like Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), Tyrion and Bronn (Jerome Flynn). And although Cersei has had a tight hold on him, he finally leaves her to fend for herself in King’s Landing in Season 7 when she lies about heading North to fight in the Great War between the living and the dead.

Of course, Bran’s situation is a very different one. Following the events of Season 1, he embarked on an epic journey with Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and co. and eventually became the all-seeing Three-Eyed Raven. His newfound skills make that past incident with Jaime a bit less important.

So, why was Bran waiting up all night in the freezing cold for Jaime? What does he need from his mortal enemy?

Help, apparently. 

Bran didn’t tell anyone the truth about his fall from the tower because he knows the North needs Jaime in the war against the dead. And, being privy to Bran’s visions, perhaps Jaime knows he will play a bigger part in that war, too. (Like, by protecting Bran or his siblings, maybe?)

Still, Jaime clearly reveals in Sunday’s episode his fear that, if the living survive the Night King’s attack, Bran will eventually tell the Seven Kingdoms the truth. 

Bran responds in the way only Bran can: “How do you know if there is an afterwards?”

Touche, dear Raven man. 

Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Sunday after an exit poll showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had easily won enough votes to become the next president of a country at war.

The apparent landslide victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko who tried to rally Ukrainians around the flag by casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity.

The national exit poll showed Zelenskiy had won 73 per cent of the vote with Poroshenko winning just 25 per cent.

If the poll is right, Zelenskiy, who plays a fictitious president in a popular TV series, will now take over the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West’s standoff with Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy plays a high school teacher who is elected Ukraine’s president on a TV series, but has never held political office.

Zelenskiy said after the poll suggested his overwhelming victory that his apparent win could be a model for other ex-Soviet states that want to move beyond ossified politics.

He said: “While I am not yet president, I can speak as a citizen of Ukraine: To all the countries of the former Soviet Union, look at us. Everything is possible.”

Zelenskiy said after the poll results were released on Sunday night: “I promise, I will never let you down.”

Shortly after exit polls showed Poroshenko getting only a quarter of the vote in Sunday’s runoff election, he said he was willing to help Mr Zelenskiy transition into the presidency.

Poroshenko said: “I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics.”

Zelenskiy, whose victory fits a pattern of anti-establishment figures unseating incumbents in Europe and further afield, has promised to end the war in the eastern Donbass region and to root out corruption amid widespread dismay over rising prices and falling living standards.

But he has been coy about exactly how he plans to achieve all that. Investors want reassurances that he will accelerate reforms needed to attract foreign investment and keep the country in an International Monetary Fund programme.

The Sri Lankan government has imposed a nationwide block on some social media platforms in what it says is an effort to stop the spread of misinformation after hundreds of people died in several bombings Sunday.

According to Sri Lanka’s official news portal, the country’s presidential secretary Udaya Seneviratne released a statement saying that the government has shut down access to Facebook and Instagram in response to “false news reports” on social media relating to the eight blasts that swept through Sri Lankan churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, killing more than 200 people and injuring at least 450. The statement said that the block will continue until security forces conclude their investigations into the explosions.

NetBlocks, an independent internet freedom monitoring group, reports that Sri Lanka has also blocked Facebook Messenger, messaging app WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat and phone-call app Viber. The group cited a study on network shutdowns from this month to say that nationwide internet blockages “accelerate the spread of disinformation during a crisis because sources of authentic information are left offline.”

Organizations like the Red Cross have already had to clarify misinformation on the internet after false rumors began spreading that one of its buildings was attacked in the Sri Lanka blasts.

The decision to block the social media platforms came just about a month after some of those same companies were criticized for their handling of the New Zealand terror attack at two mosques. The attacker livestreamed the March 15 shooting on Facebook, which did not remove it until New Zealand police notified the social media giant of the video. The video was replicated and shared on several platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time that social media has “a lot of work” to do to curb the fast spread of misinformation and content that displays or promotes violence.

Sri Lanka also temporarily blocked Facebook and its subsidiaries back in March 2018 after authorities said members of the majority Sinhalese Buddhist group were reported to have launched deadly attacks against the country’s Muslim minority in Kandy. Human rights activists said Facebook put little effort into preventing misinformation and propaganda on the platform regarding the attacks.

A spokesperson for Facebook, which also owns Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, told HuffPost that the platform is working to identify and remove any content that violates its standards. Facebook said that people rely on the company’s service to communicate with loved ones and “are committed to maintaining our services and helping the community and the country during this tragic time.”

Representatives for Snap Inc. and Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately respond. Viber posted a tweet Sunday encouraging “everyone to be responsible and rely on updates from official and trusted sources.”

Hanumantharayappa and Rangappa were part of a seven-member team of JDS workers from Karnataka who were touring Colombo, Kumaraswamy said. 

They went missing after the blasts took place in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The blasts targeted St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, St Sebastian’s Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

The police said on Monday that at least six Indian nationals have been reported among the foreigners who died in the blasts.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday identified two individuals killed in the blasts on Sunday.

On Sunday, Swaraj, in a series of tweets, identified the three Indians as Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

On Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan identified a Keralite, P S Rasina (58), among those killed in the deadly bomb blasts.

Around 500 people, including Indians, were injured in the blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks.

(With PTI inputs)

It didn’t take long for the death threats to start. Alexandria Villaseñor, a 13-year-old environmental activist, had just been featured in an Agence France-Pressearticle republished by Breitbart News about dozens of students staging a “die-in” at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Villaseñor was protesting that day in mid-March for the same reason that she decided to start a school strike four months earlier: to demand that world leaders quit dragging their feet and take swift action to combat global climate change.

“Don’t stage it, just die,” one Breitbart reader commented on the right-wing publication’s website. “I would be more impressed if they doused theselves with gas and set themselves on fire,” wrote another. “You don’t deserve a future, you pathetic halfwit,” said a third.

The repugnant online trolling might send most seventh graders cowering, but Villaseñor shrugged it off. Her fight is about ensuring that her generation and future ones are left with a habitable planet. She wasn’t about to let a bunch of angry deniers get in the way. 

“I think if more people really understood the climate science, the extinction rate and just all the terrible statistics about what we’re doing to our planet, they would be motivated, too,” she told HuffPost. “If everyone just paid attention to the facts, everyone would be a climate activist.”

The last five years were the five hottest on record. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has soared past 410 parts per million ― a concentration that hasn’t been seen in 3 million years, when sea levels were up to 66 feet higher, according to a recent study. Human-caused climate change is driving sea-level rise, drought, extreme weather and a biodiversity crisis that scientists have declared Earth’s sixth mass extinction event. As many as 150 species die off each day.

Monday is Earth Day, the 49th anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement and a day of action celebrated by more than a billion people around the globe. 

Villaseñor has emerged as a leader within the youth climate movement ― a movement that scientists say has moved the needle on action to address the climate emergency.

Her debut in activism came after a life-changing trip last November to visit family in Davis, California, where she was born and raised. During her visit, the state experienced its deadliest and most-destructive fire on record. The blaze, named the Camp fire, torched more than 153,000 acres, destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and killed at least 86 people. The town of Davis was choked by a thick blanket of smoke. Villaseñor, who suffers from asthma, was forced to cut her trip short.

“Once I got back to New York City, I was really upset,” she said. The teen started researching climate change, made the connection that the crisis is a driver of catastrophic fires and extreme weather, and came to the sobering realization that her generation would bear the brunt of decades of global inaction. In that process, she found Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, went on strike from school last year after Sweden experienced its hottest summer on record. For weeks she sat outside her country’s parliament, holding a “School strike for climate” sign and demanding that local politicians enact policies in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate action. She passed out flyers that read, “I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future.”

She has also taken repeated swings at world leaders, including during a speech at the U.N. climate conference in Poland last December.

“You are not mature enough to tell it like it is,” Thunberg said. “Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet.”

Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement inspired Villaseñor and hundreds of thousands of other students around the globe. An estimated 1.4 million young people in more than 100 countries went on strike from school March 15. Villaseñor organized U.S. strikes along with Isra Hirsi, the 16-year-old daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Haven Coleman, a 13-year-old from Colorado. 

Villaseñor is nearly 20 weeks into her own strike. Instead of going to school on Fridays, she protests outside U.N. headquarters in New York City, almost always alone and often in the rain and cold. She sits on a bench with a pair of signs, one on each side of her, that read “School strike 4 climate” and “COP24 failed us,” a reference to the December climate conference in Poland.

Villaseñor says American schools have also failed to inform students about the urgent, existential threat the world is facing.

“Why go to school if we’re going to be in the future running from the next extreme weather events?” she asked. “I’ve been learning more protesting at the U.N. than I would at school.”  

Villaseñor and other up-and-coming climate leaders have faced plenty of criticism. 

When 29-year-old freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced the Green New Deal in February, a nonbinding climate resolution to rapidly decarbonize the U.S. economy, senior Republicans were quick to dismiss it as a pie-in-the-sky proposal ― “tantamount to genocide,” one said ― from a naive young lawmaker.

“You only have to be 25 years old to be a member of Congress,” Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), 64, said at a congressional hearing in February. “We have young people that bring a lot of great qualities, but maybe they don’t bring a lot of life experience.”

When a group of children ages 7 to 16 showed up in February at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office in San Francisco to demand that she support the Green New Deal resolution, the 85-year-old Democrat lectured them and argued. 

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing,” the senator told them. “You come in here and you say it has to be my way or the highway. I don’t respond to that.”

And when students went on strike from schools around the world in March, people in power insisted they were out of line. British Prime Minister Theresa May, 62, criticized students for wasting valuable class time, and an Australian education minister warned that children and teachers would be punished for participating in March 15 rallies.

“We hear you. And we don’t care,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter in response to the Australian official’s demands. “Your statement belongs in a museum.” (Thunberg has since been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.)

That hopeful day of action was ultimately overshadowed by tragedy. In Christchurch, New Zealand, just a few miles from where thousands of students were striking, a gunman opened fire on two mosques, killing 50 people in the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history.  

“The young people who took part in the #climatestrike, you gave us hope on a dark day,” the New Zealand chapter of the environmental group Greenpeace wrote in a post to Twitter. School Strike 4 Climate NZ, the organization that coordinated strikes in New Zealand, vowed to continue to build momentum. “The forces of hate and exploitation of people and of the environment cannot be separated ― this is one fight,” the group wrote in a series of posts.  

Some older Americans, those of generations largely responsible for today’s crisis, may shrug at vocal, persistent youngsters trying to change the status quo. But this activism and pressure were born out of a feeling of desperation, and the youth on the front lines of this fight for a more sustainable future have made it clear they’re here to stay.

“The youth movement, it will get more radical,” Villaseñor said. “We’ll continue to go outside of the system, because a lot of us realize we can’t change a broken system within the system. We’ll have larger protests.”

The science and scientists are on their side.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told HuffPost that incremental actions won’t be enough to prevent dangerous planetary warming, that it requires a massive international mobilization.

“That’s what I see these kids doing ― creating a groundswell of demand for that mobilization,” Mann wrote in an email. “They speak with a moral clarity and determination that is unmatched by anyone or anything else.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading U.N. consortium of researchers studying anthropogenic planetary warming, issued a dire report in October warning world governments that they have just 12 years to stave off potentially irreversible climate change. Without swift action to overhaul the global economy and rein in carbon emissions, the IPCC said, humans will soon live in a world where coastal cities are inundated by rising seas, oceans are largely devoid of tropical corals, and drought, extreme weather and wildfires wreak havoc. The report pegged the cost of climate-related damages that would result from global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels at $54 trillion.

It was a wake-up call that galvanized young people. And this month, thousands of scientists signed onto a letter, posted in Science magazine, in support of the youth protests. The authors wrote that the activists’ “concerns are justified and supported by the best available science” and that “without bold and focused action, their future is in critical danger.”

Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University and a co-author of the letter, said the movement is “an important inflection point that has changed the dialogue.” Youth are passionate, honest and “bring much-needed energy, urgency and hope to the conversation,” she said.  

As Hayhoe sees it, the shift started with the landmark lawsuit that 21 children and young adults from around the country brought against the United States. The complaint, filed by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, asserts that the federal government is violating the youth plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by promoting fossil fuel production and failing to take action on climate change.

“It’s very much that same spirit that motivates the climate strikes, that this is our world and the choices you are making we do not agree with,” Hayhoe said. “And we are the ones who have to pay for your choices, and that is not fair.”

Originally filed in 2015 against the Obama administration, the lawsuit, called Juliana v. U.S., now targets the Trump administration, which has worked hard to derail U.S. actions to combat climate change. Plaintiff Vic Barrett, a 20-year-old first-generation Honduran American from White Plains, New York, joined the lawsuit as a way to fight for climate justice at a time when she was still too young to vote. She told HuffPost it’s been amazing to watch the engagement of young people explode over the last year. It’s the sort of moment that she’s been waiting to see since she got into activism at age 14.

“We’ve seen that young people are just saying, ‘This is the future we want and we’re going to do anything possible to get that,’” she said. “And I think that’s a huge motivator, knowing that I’m not alone doing it.”  

After being thrust into the national spotlight, climate change looks poised to be a major issue in the 2020 election. A recent poll found that 84% of likely Democratic voters in five early primary states ranked addressing the climate crisis as “essential” or “very important.” All Senate Democrats running for the White House are co-sponsors of the Green New Deal. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled Monday an ambitious policy proposal to protect public lands that includes a ban on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and in U.S. waters. That same day, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released his own climate platform, which calls for a ban on fracking, new fossil fuel infrastructure, and oil, gas and coal leases on federal land, as well as stopping all exports of fossil fuels.

It’s these sort of ambitious initiatives that groups like Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate advocacy group that stormed Democratic leaders’ offices last year to garner support for the Green New Deal, expect from political candidates. On Thursday, Sunrise launched its Road to a Green New Deal Tour, an eight-stop speaking event to boost support for the already wildly popular climate policy. The tour includes stops in several states, including Michigan, Louisiana and Kentucky.

With scientists making it clear that there is little time to act, Sunrise is focused on holding all politicians’ “feet to the fire,” Stephen O’Hanlon, the group’s 23-year-old co-founder, told HuffPost.

“It’s no longer acceptable for politicians who say they want to take action on climate change to just acknowledge the science and propose piecemeal solutions,” O’Hanlon told HuffPost. “If they want to be taken seriously by our generation, they need to back solutions that actually take action.”