Kerala student Alan Shuhaib, who was arrested under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, has been allowed by the Kannur University to write his second-semester law exams, reports said.

The Kerala High Court had asked the university to reply on how to complete the procedure after the court said Shuhaib had the right to take his exams, Mathrubhumi reported.

Alan Shuhaib’s petition in court said the university had banned him from writing his third-semester exams. He then asked the court for permission to write the second-semester exam due on Tuesday.

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Shuhaib was arrested along with Thaha Fasal in November last year for alleged links to Maoists. 

The two were arrested days after four suspected Maoists were killed in an encounter by the Kerala police in Palakkad.

CM Pinarayi Vijayan and the state’s LDF-led government has received considerable backlash for its handling of the case, including from the CPI(M) and the CPI. 

The two students, who were CPM members, were thrown out of the party earlier this month,  Malayala Manorama reported.

Party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters that Alan Suhaib and Taha Fazal used to “work with the CPI(M) and the Maoists simultaneously.”

Jameela, Thaha Fasal’s mother, told reporters that though the news of their expulsion hurt her, she was not ready to disown the party.

“Yes. It hurts when such news comes out. None of the local party leaders have informed us about this. I still believe in the party. Not going to disown the party,” Jameela told PTI.

The NIA took over the case in December and re-registered an FIR under Section 20 of the UAPA. 

Both the students have been kept at the Viyyur jail in Thrissur.

Alan Shuhaib was brought to the exam centre in Kannur by the police on Tuesday under tight security. The exams will be underway for the next five days and he will be allowed to write each one, Manorama’s report said.

NEW DELHI — A Delhi court on Tuesday sent Sharjeel Imam, who has been named as an “instigator” by the Delhi police in its charge sheet on violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act at New Friends Colony last year, to judicial custody till March 3.

Imam was arrested on sedition charges last month.

The Delhi police has filed a charge sheet before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur, naming Imam as an instigator of the violence.

It said it has attached CCTV footage, call detail records and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence in the charge sheet.

The court had on Monday sent Imam to one-day custody of Delhi Police in the case.

Protestors had torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia during the demonstration against the CAA on December 15, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire fighters injured.

Actor Jack Black drank a pint of Guinness during a recent trip to Ireland and ended up inspiring an amusing “Photoshop Battle” on Reddit.

“Thanks Dublin...you da best!” the “Jumanji” star captioned this snap that he shared on Instagram last week:

Redditors didn’t disappoint as they reimagined the picture by inserting Black into other movies, television shows and existing memes:

Constance Wu went undercover at a strip club to prepare for her role in the 2019 movie “Hustlers.”

And the star of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Fresh Off The Boat” earned $600 in the process.

Wu told all during Friday’s broadcast of “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

“I did work at a strip club to get ready for ‘Hustlers.’ I went undercover. I gave lap dances to strangers,” Wu told host Kelly Clarkson.

Clarkson initially doubted the claim.

“I’m not lying!” responded Wu, who played Destiny in the film (also starring Jennifer Lopez) about strippers who scam their wealthy clients.

“I made 600 bucks my friend,” she added, recalling changing her hair and putting “fake tattoos on my neck” so she wasn’t recognized.

The experience wasn’t “fun,” noted Wu, who also installed a stripper pole in her living room ahead of filming. But she said, “the stripping helped me to know that feeling, because you can’t duplicate it, the first time you walk into a club and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to have a job here,’ and then you go work that night.”

Check out the interview above.

AHMEDABAD — U.S. President Donald Trump will inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium when he arrives in Ahmedabad, the home base of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday at the start of a two-day visit aimed at smoothing ties strained by trade disputes.

Making his first official trip to India, Trump is also expected to visit the abode of Gandhi in Ahmedabad.

The leaders of China, Japan and Israel have all visited Ahmedabad since Modi became prime minister.

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If his Indian hosts can help it, Trump probably won’t see a slum as they’ve ordered for a 400-metre wall to be built along his route to block the view of where poor people live.

Authorities in Ahmedabad expect to spend around $11-12 million on preparations for the visit by the American president that is likely to last around three hours, two government officials with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters.

The sum is equivalent to about 1.5% of the annual budget for the home ministry in Gujarat.

Security-related costs, with more than 12,000 police officers expected to be deployed, will account for almost half the expense, said the officials, who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak publicly about the visit.

Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra, the city’s top civic official, told Reuters that authorities had already spent around $4.2 million on widening roads and improving infrastructure around the new cricket stadium.

With capacity for 110,000 spectators, the Motera Stadium will dislodge the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the world’s largest cricket stadium.

“Eighteen roads of about 20 kilometers in length from Ahmedabad Airport to Motera Stadium have been widened or re-laid,” Nehra said, adding that the improvements had been planned before Trump’s visit was confirmed.

A further $840,000 will go on “beautification” of the city, said Nehra, including erecting the wall to spare Trump’s view.

Ashok Brahmbhatt, secretary of Gujarat Cricket Association, which owns the Motera Stadium set to be opened by Trump, said it would also spend tens of millions of rupees during the event.

Going to the gym is a regular part of many people’s routines, and as with any public activity, it comes with many opportunities for rude behavior. 

“Because a gym is a shared space, one where adrenaline is in ample supply, members must be particularly mindful of how their behavior can adversely affect the experiences of others,” said Thomas P. Farley, an etiquette expert also known as “Mister Manners.” “Whether their commitment entails a once-a-week treadmill run or a daily heavy-lifting regimen, all members should remember they are part of a community and therefore need to follow common-sense guidelines to ensure everyone hits their goals.”

Of course, people are often not aware of the consequences of their actions in shared spaces ― gym or otherwise. To help make working out an enjoyable experience for everyone, HuffPost asked Farley and other etiquette experts to identify the faux pas they often see people committing at the gym. Read on for 11 examples.

Not Wiping Down Equipment 

After you sweat all over a piece of equipment, it’s important to wipe it down before moving onto the next machine. 

“Nobody wants to sit in your sweat,” said April Masini, an etiquette expert and fitness advocate. “So grab a towel or wipe to clean it.”

If you notice someone else failing to do this, there’s a polite way to confront them, said Jodi R.R. Smith, president of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting.

“You can say, ’Oh excuse me, I don’t think you realized it, but there are paper towels over there so you can wipe down the machine,” Smith said. “Most people are well-intentioned and will do that. But don’t engage further if they disagree. Just go tell some staff members.”

Failing To Return Weights

If you use the free weights at the gym, be sure to put them away when you’re finished. Leaving them on the floor is not only rude but can pose a safety hazard, as people may trip over them. 

“This is a kindergarten skill,” Smith said. “Once you’re done playing with your toys, put them away.”

Masini said it’s important to re-rack weight plates because you don’t know who will be using the equipment after you.

“These big guys are working out with multiple 45-pound plates on each side of a leg press, and then someone like me has to put them back ― it’s like having a workout before even getting to my workout,” she said. 

Be mindful when you’re using or returning your weights, as well. Farley noted that “dropping heavy weights rather than placing them gently” on the ground is “among the biggest etiquette lapses at the gym.”

Hogging Machines

In the age of iPhones, people often sit on equipment texting without realizing that people are waiting to use it. Other times, they use a particular machine for a long time and prevent others from completing their workouts. 

“If I’ve been waiting for a long time, I may say something like, ‘I hate to trouble you because it looks like you’re training for something, but I need two minutes on this machine. Do you mind getting off, so I can work through my circuit?’” Smith suggested. “Often people say, ‘Oh, I had no idea you were waiting!’ or, ‘Yes, I was just finished!’”

Playing Your Music Loudly

It’s common to listen to music while working out, but be sure to keep it in your earbuds. 

“Some people have their music playing so loudly that others nearby can hear it ― which is annoying to those people and also really bad for your ears,” said Smith. “People shouldn’t be able to stand by you and know what music you’re listening to. And be respectful about singing along. Even if you’re a Broadway star, don’t assume people in a confined space want to hear you singing.”

Laughing At Other People Working Out

“It’s disheartening when people are mean-spirited and stare or laugh at people who are somewhat out of shape,” Masini noted. “If you’re someone who hasn’t spent much time at the gym, you probably feel intimidated, so it takes a lot of courage to get there.”

Rather than encouraging inexperienced gymgoers, many people make them feel embarrassed, insecure and less inclined to return. 

“That’s why a lot of people quit,” Masini added. “They don’t feel confident, especially after feeling people staring and laughing at them.”

Talking On The Phone

Farley advised against “talking on one’s cell phone while others are nearby.”

Smith echoed this advice, noting that it can be OK to have a chat with the person on the machine next to you, but phone calls in the gym push the boundaries of etiquette. 

“It is infinitely more annoying to listen to half a conversation than it is to listen to a whole conversation, so don’t subject people to listening to you talk on the phone,” she said. She added that you can make an exception with something quick like an appointment confirmation.

Leaving A Mess In The Locker Room

The locker room is another shared space that gymgoers should respect.

“Among the missteps gym members might make here include leaving towels on the floor and benches rather than dropping them in a laundry bin,” Farley said.

“Don’t take forever in the shower and then leave your shampoo bottle or wrapping from the soap or hair in the drain,” Smith said. “If you’re shaving at the sink, rinse and wipe down the sink at the end. Nobody wants to see the evidence of your grooming regimen.”

Masini highlighted another unhygienic locker room behavior. “Don’t sit on a bench or sofa or chair completely nude,” she said. “Now the next person’s got to go and sit there.”

Showing Up Smelly

It’s natural to sweat and produce an odor while exercising, but you shouldn’t show up to the gym in dirty workout clothes you haven’t washed since your last visit.  

“There’s a difference between fresh sweat and old sweat,” Smith said. “People should wash their workout clothes in-between”

Mentioning another way people fail to be considerate in the gym-odor category, Masini said, “You’d be surprised how many people don’t shower and don’t wear antiperspirant.”. 

Treating It Like Social Hour

Although it can be OK to chat with the person exercising next to you, you should be mindful of your conversation’s volume level and whether you might be distracting others.

“Don’t act like it’s social hour,” Masini said. “Sure, some gyms are more socially inclined, but others, like the one where I go, are very serious. People there don’t want to be interrupted for chat time. And it’s a bad habit to go up and start talking to someone when they’re in the middle of a set.”

Going Overboard With Selfies

If you want to take a mirror selfie at the gym, don’t make a big production of it or expose others. 

“Don’t take pictures in the locker room. It’s disrespectful of others’ privacy,” Smith said, noting that people walk around in various states of undress. “Even if you aren’t trying to include other people in the photo, someone could walk by. People should be able to walk through the locker room with the expectation that they won’t be photographed.”

As for the gym floor, it’s best to take up minimal space and be quick with your selfie-taking. 

“You want to be careful. Minimize the number of other people you capture in the background,” Smith said. “And don’t use the guise of taking a selfie to get a picture of someone else working out to body-shame them. If someone else is doing something rude, don’t selfie-shame them, either. Speak with them directly and politely, and get the staff involved if that doesn’t work.” 

Staring At People

Overall, gymgoers should be respectful of each others’ personal space, whether that’s space in the locker room, at a fitness class or on the gym floor. And it’s not just physical space.

“No creepy staring,” said Smith. “Human beings are notoriously accurate at being able to tell when someone is staring at them, even from behind. And if somebody is more private about their body, don’t stare at them as you walk by in the locker room. Give them the space they need to change.”

Panchkula, Haryana — At little after sunrise on a cold winter morning, 52-year-old sanitation worker Bhanmati appeared as a green dot on a giant screen at the Command and Control Centre of the Municipal Corporation of Panchkula.

While Bhanmati shivered outdoors as she swept roads, bent low to scoop the garbage into her pushcart and moved from street to street, the climate-controlled control centre kept track of her every step by monitoring a smartwatch-sized “Human Efficiency Tracker” strapped to her wrist.

The tracker, or smartwatch as the municipal corporation calls it, had a microphone and a camera so a supervisor could hear and watch her as she worked, and a GPS tracker to ensure she stayed within her assigned area. A sim-card embedded in the tracker meant her supervisor could call her at any moment. If Bhanmati’s tracker switched off during duty hours, or if she strayed from her GPS-monitored geo-fence, the system would alert her supervisor who could punish her by docking her monthly salary. 

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A surveillance revolution is sweeping India’s government departments, aided abetted by private and state-owned companies who have spotted a lucrative opportunity to push largely untested, deeply invasive systems by pitching “digital innovations” for programmes favoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Municipalities that have “ICT enabled attendance” — a version of the Panchkula experiment— for their sanitation workers, for instance, earn 10 extra points under the national Swachh Survekshan rankings, an annual index of the so-called cleanest cities under the much ballyhooed Swachh Bharat initiative of the Government of India. 

As a consequence, Panchkula’s Municipal Corporation has spent over 35 lakhs in only 9 months in 2019 on this worker surveillance system, but has failed to provide basic safety equipment like masks, gloves and boots to its workers. Meanwhile, sanitation work across the country remains distressingly dangerous, with workers frequently succumbing to fatal accidents.

Panchkula isn’t alone; versions of this system, a Human Efficiency Tracking System in the jargon of the trade, has been implemented in at least seven other municipal corporations — Mysore, Lucknow, Indore, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, and Chandigarh — most of which are controlled by the BJP.

These intrusive surveillance systems are being implemented with little oversight, no worker consent, and no public conversation on how this data is being stored, tracked or analysed. Many of these human tracking experiments are being conducted on the most marginalised members of India’s workforce. 

Many of the sanitation workers tracked by Panchkula’s Municipal Corporation are contract workers from the Dalit caste. This raises troubling questions of dominant-caste supervisors literally tagging Dalit workers, tracking their every move, and penalising them by slashing their salaries for any perceived shortcoming. 

“In ancient India, dominant caste people would tag us by tying chains to our legs,” a Dalit sanitation worker told HuffPost India. “Now we are asked to wear smartwatches to track our movements.”

The tracking, workers interviewed by HuffPost India said, continues even after work ends as they must take their trackers home at the end of each shift and charge them overnight. Some women workers have stopped going to the bathroom during work shifts as they fear the camera on their trackers might be used to record them in the toilet. Others fear their supervisors might use the devices to snoop on conversations in workers homes.

“It amounts to slavery. Workers have privacy rights even during duty hours,” said Usha Ramanathan, a legal theorist who has worked extensively on data, privacy and surveillance. “The government has created an obnoxious level of hierarchy where a person sitting on top believes that he has a privilege to sit in his office and can see everyone working under him anytime in the day.”

Human Efficiency Tracking System

The Municipal Corporation of Panchkula’s creepy “Human Efficiency Tracking System” has been implemented by Indian Telephone Industries Ltd (ITIL), a state-owned company, using technology provided by the Indian subsidiary of Imtac Software Solutions, a private company headquartered in Oman, according to documents obtained by HuffPost India under the Right to Information Act. Imtac sells this particular suite of software and hardware as a product called Empyreal.

The contract, signed in February 2019, commits the Panchkula municipal corporation to renting 958 trackers for Rs 467 per worker per month for a minimum of 45 months — or a total sum of approximately Rs 2 crore — exclusive of taxes. The replacement cost for each tracker is Rs 8000.

Each tracker shows the time, has a camera for “manual face capture”, a microphone, and a GPS tracker that monitors the location of every worker and how much distance they have covered each day and transmits the data in real-time to a control centre. The tracker, Huffpost India learnt on a visit to the control centre, is fitted with a SIM card, and generates a unique id for each worker that is linked to their personal information including their name, employee id, salary account and Aadhaar number.  

It is unclear how this data is secured and who has access to it. The contract documents simply require Indian Telephones Industries Limited to provide a cloud-based storage system, but place no caveats on data security nor any penalties in case of a data breach.

The system in Panchkula, a representative for the company said, was based on a similar system implemented by the Municipal Corporation of Nagpur in 2018 to track over 7000 workers.

“That was our first human tagging programme in India. The surveillance device works on a mobile sim that can track the presence and movement of every sanitation worker inside the work fence assigned to him,” said Hargun Singh, a Panchkula based representative for ITI Limited. 

In two short years, Singh said, the project has expanded to at least seven other municipalities. In each case, Singh said, only contract workers have been tagged. The decision to tag only contract workers is no coincidence, workers told HuffPost India. 

“We have no opportunity to voice our complaints,” a contract worker said, seeking anonymity as he feared he might lose his job.

Singh claimed the system had improved efficiency and had stopped workers from sub-contracting their work. 

“The permanent employees used to run their own businesses,  hired local youths at a meagre amount to do their jobs. There was no check on them in the fieldwork,” Singh said. “With the help of HETS, MCP detected personal impersonation and deducted salaries of over 15 workers who were found negligent in their duties.” HETS is an acronym for Human Efficiency Tracking System.

Singh, however, refused to answer questions on data storage, privacy or security. 

Unhappy Workers

Workers told HuffPost India they were deeply unhappy with the new system.

As mentioned earlier, each active worker is represented as a green dot on a giant display. But should a worker stray out of their assigned area, or pause to catch their breath, the dot turns red — prompting a call from their supervisors.

The mindless monitoring of their movement, workers told HuffPost India, often forced them to keep walking even if they had finished their work. “Work that used to be finished in an hour, nor takes twice the time, and is more stressful and exhausting,” a worker said.

The presence of a camera and a microphone that can be controlled remotely has added to their concerns.

Women workers told HuffPost India that they were hesitant to go to the bathroom whilst wearing a tracker fitted with a camera. Yet, taking off their trackers while on duty was not an option.

“I don’t know how the watch works. What is the camera fitted on the screen works all the time?” a woman worker said. “I can’t even take it off as we are not allowed to do so.”

As a consequence, she only uses the bathroom once her shift ends at 6 in the evening. 

Bhanmati, the sanitation worker, said her tracker often switches itself off when the poorly designed power button presses against the bangles on her wrist. \

“I have to remind her to switch it on many times in a day,” said Suresh, her supervisor. “But I can’t tell her to take off her bangles as they are a symbol of her marital status.” 

Workers must also take the trackers home each night and charge them overnight to ensure they function through the day. But several workers told HuffPost India they were scared to take the devices home, as they feared the gadgets would record personal conversations with their family members.

“We do not have any option. A dead watch will not record our footsteps and we will be marked absent from work,” said one worker. “So, I lock it in my two-wheelers when I get home and bring indoors to charge only after midnight once everyone is asleep.” 

The SIM card fitted in the device has created its own problems. While ITIL, the company implementing the project, is supposed to ensure that the SIM cards have call restrictions, workers say their trackers ring almost incessantly with the usual assortment of spam, robocalls and call-centres offering loans and insurance.

“Every day, we keep on receiving calls from banks and insurance companies who offer us loans,” said Satish, a sanitation worker. “We are already under huge debt and cannot afford to get further loans.”

Satish also questioned how these telephone agents had found their numbers.

Data Security Concerns

Panchkula Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Jogpal told HuffPost India he had no idea how the data gathered by this system was being stored, and who the data was being shared with.

Neither Jogpal nor the officials sitting at the Command and Control Centre claimed to know if the system only tracked workers during duty hours or if it continues to monitor them once they logged out for the day. 

Commissioner KK Yadav of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh, a city that has just implemented the system, claimed he needed no consent to track his employees.

“How can I check 4000 people manually every day? The technology will promote efficacy and productivity in their work,” said Yadav. “There is nothing illegal as I am only tracking my employee during working hours.”

Ramanathan, the privacy expert, disagreed. “There is no reason why workers should be tagged for live surveillance,” she said, describing the department diktat for workers to wear trackers without their consent as unconstitutional and unethical.

Nonetheless, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will soon start crediting salaries only after checking worker performance statistics logged in their personal trackers. 

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has said he is “saving the big deal” with India for later and he “does not know” if it will be done before the presidential election in November, clearly indicating that a major bilateral trade deal during his visit to Delhi next week might not be on the cards.

“We can have a trade deal with India. But I’m really saving the big deal for later,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday afternoon (local time).

Trump is scheduled to visit India on February 24 and 25.

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The US and India could sign a “trade package” during the visit, according to media reports.

Asked whether he expects a trade deal with India before the visit, Trump said, “We’re doing a very big trade deal with India. We’ll have it. I don’t know if it’ll be done before the election, but we’ll have a very big deal with India.“

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the point-person for trade negotiations with India, is likely to not accompany Trump to India, sources said. However, officials have not ruled it out altogether.

In an apparent dissatisfaction over US-India trade ties, Trump said, “We’re not treated very well by India.” But he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he is looking forward to his visit to India.

“I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot,” Trump said.

“He told me we’ll have seven million people between the airport and the event. And the stadium, I understand, is sort of semi under construction, but it’s going to be the largest stadium in the world. So it’s going to be very exciting... I hope you all enjoy it,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) in a report said the latest quarterly data depict the continuation of overall positive bilateral trade trends. The third quarter data reflects some downslide in growth rates.

“It may be due to several reasons, including the unexpected economic slowdown in India’s economic growth, impact of US-China trade war, GSP withdrawal from the US side and retaliatory tariffs on specific US goods from the Indian side,” USISPF said.

According to the report, the data available for the first three quarters of 2019 (January-September) pulled the overall growth rate in cumulative bilateral trade down to 4.5 percent from 8.4 percent registered for the first two quarters.

Goods and services trade performance in third quarter was dismal at -2.3 percent, in contrast with the impressive 9.6 percent growth witnessed for the first two quarters of the year; while trade in services was up two percent goods trade dropped five percent, the report said.

The cumulative US-India trade in goods and services ($110.9 billion) for the first three quarters of 2019 increased 4.5 percent with US exports and imports growing at four percent and five percent respectively.

The US exported $45.3 billion worth of goods and services to India in the first three quarters 2019, up 4 percent from the corresponding period in the previous year; and the US imported $65.6 billion worth of goods and services from India, up five percent from the previous year’s $62.5 billion level for the same period, it said.

The USISPF has projected that the total bilateral trade can touch $238 billion by 2025 if the current 7.5 percent average annual rate of growth sustains; however, higher growth rates can result in bilateral trade in the range of $283 billion and $327 billion.

TOKYO — As an extraordinary two-week quarantine of a cruise ship ends Wednesday in Japan, many scientists say it was a failed experiment: The ship seemed to serve as an incubator for the new virus from China instead of an isolation facility meant to prevent the worsening of an outbreak.

Since the virus was identified late last year in central China, it has sickened tens of thousands of people and killed more than 1,800.

As of Tuesday, 542 cases of the virus, known as COVID-19, have been identified among the 3,711 quarantined passengers and crew, making the ship the site of the most infections outside of China. The Diamond Princess cruise ship is also the only place where health officials have seen the disease spread efficiently beyond China.

The question now is: Why?

The Japanese government has repeatedly defended the effectiveness of the quarantine. But some experts suggest it may have been less than rigorous.

In a possible sign of lax quarantine protocols, three Japanese health officials who helped in the quarantine checks on the ship were also infected.

“There are sometimes environments in which disease can spread in a more efficient way,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program. Ryan said cruise ships in particular were known to occasionally accelerate spread.

“It’s an unfortunate event occurring on the ship and we trust that the authorities in Japan and the governments who are taking back people will be able to follow up those individuals in the appropriate way,” he said.

Japan’s health minister, Katsunobu Kato, told reporters Tuesday that all passengers who remained on the cruise ship have had samples taken and that those who tested negative would start getting off the vessel beginning Wednesday, when their required 14-day quarantine is scheduled to end.

“They all want to go home as early as possible, and we hope to assist them so that everyone can get home smoothly,” Kato said.

The process is expected to take until Friday because of the large number of people involved.

“Obviously the quarantine hasn’t worked, and this ship has now become a source of infection,” said Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, an outbreak expert at King’s College London.

She said the exact mechanism of the virus’ spread was unknown. Although scientists believe the disease is spread mostly by droplets — when people cough or sneeze — it’s possible there are other ways of transmission.

“We need to understand how the quarantine measures on board were implemented, what the air filtration on board is like, how the cabins are connected and how waste products are disposed of,” MacDermott said.

“There could also be another mode of transmission we’re not familiar with,” she said, noting the possibility of environmental spread and the importance of “deep-cleaning” the entire ship to prevent people from touching contaminated surfaces.

During the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, a related virus, more than 300 people were infected through a defective sewage system in a Hong Kong housing estate. MacDermott said it was possible there was a similar issue aboard the Diamond Princess.

“There’s no reason this (quarantine) should not have worked if it had been done properly,” she said.

Cruise ships have often been struck by outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, which can spread quickly in the close quarters of a boat and among elderly passengers with weaker immune systems. But MacDermott said it would be highly unusual for an entire boat to be quarantined.

“They might quarantine the people affected in their rooms until they’re 48 hours clear of symptoms, but certainly not all passengers,” she said.

Some passengers on the Diamond Princess described the ship as a “floating prison” but were allowed to walk on the decks every day while wearing a mask and were told to keep their distance from others.

“I suspect people were not as isolated from other people as we would have thought,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in England. He said the continued spread of the virus could be due to compliance problems.

“It’s difficult to enforce a quarantine in a ship environment and I’m absolutely sure there were some passengers who think they’re not going to let anyone tell them what they can and cannot do,” he said. He suggested that if the passengers had been quarantined on land, having more space might have allowed for better infection control procedures. But he acknowledged that attempting to quarantine more than 3,700 people was logistically challenging.

Hunter said it was “a huge disappointment” that the quarantine hadn’t curbed the spread of the virus and that it was unfortunate some passengers returning to their home countries would now face a second period of isolation.

“Given how the virus has continued to spread, we have to presume everyone leaving the ship is potentially infected, and therefore they have to go through another two-week quarantine period,” he said. “Not to do so would be reckless.”

Japanese health officials say a 14-day quarantine on the ship is adequate, noting that all but one of more than 500 Japanese returnees from the epicenter of the virus in China who initially tested negative were found to be virus-free at the end of their 14-day quarantine.

Those officials also defended precautions taken on the ship. About 1,000 crew members were told to wear surgical masks, wash their hands, use disinfectant sprays and stop operations at restaurants, bars and other entertainment areas after Feb. 5, when the first group of 10 infections was reported and the start of the 14-day quarantine was announced.

Passengers were instructed to stay in their cabins and not walk around or contact other passengers. Those in windowless cabins could go out on the deck for about an hour each day.

The quarantine was largely for passengers because crew members kept sharing double rooms and continued to serve guests by delivering food, letters, towels and amenities, and entering passenger cabins for cleaning. Crew members also ate in groups in a crew mess hall.

“Unlike passengers, crew members share their rooms, they share food, and that’s why some of them are infected even after the quarantine started,” said Shigeru Omi, a former regional director for the World Health Organization.

Omi said quarantine is one of the measures considered effective early on. But the virus has already made its way into local communities across Japan, where untraceable cases have been popping up, he said.

At this stage, “the spreading of the virus will be inevitable, and that’s why quarantine is out of the question,” Omi said.

He said the focus now should shift from border control to preventing the spread in local communities.

Other scientists said that passengers should have been removed from the ship from the beginning.

“Boats are notorious places for being incubators for viruses,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the New York University School of Medicine. “It’s only morally justified to keep people on the boat if there are no other options.”

Caplan said that a second quarantine was warranted, but that officials had done a poor job of explaining what would happen if their original plan failed.

“It’s never good to lose your civil liberties and your rights of movement, but two more weeks of quarantine is not an undue burden if you’re trying to protect spread of a disease,” he said.

___

Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Ben Affleck says his divorce from Jennifer Garner is the biggest regret of his life.

The 47-year-old actor and filmmaker opened up about his battle with alcohol addiction, the divorce and his career in a candid interview with The New York Times published Tuesday.

Affleck, an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of Oscars Best Picture winner “Argo,” explained that his alcoholism and his crumbling marriage fueled one another in a vicious cycle in 2015 and 2016. He and Garner announced they were separating in 2015 and divorced in 2018.

The pair had first started dating in 2004 and married the following year. They share three children: Violet, 14; Seraphina, 11; and Samuel, 7.

Affleck told the Times that he was still struggling with guilt about the split, but had worked past the feelings of shame.

“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce,” he said. “Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing.”

Moving forward, Affleck said, is about picking himself up and learning from his mistakes. He spent a third stint in rehab around the time of the divorce and after the 40-day stay at a treatment facility, shared a statement on Instagram about his “lifelong and difficult struggle” with addiction, thanking his family, colleagues and fans for their support.

He suffered another relapse in October last year but said at the time he would not let the slip “derail” him.

“Relapse is embarrassing, obviously,” he told the Times of the incident when he was filmed drunk at a party by TMZ. “I wish it didn’t happen. I really wish it wasn’t on the internet for my kids to see. Jen and I did our best to address it and be honest.”

In his upcoming sports drama “The Way Back,” set for release next month, Affleck takes on a role with poignant parallels to his own experience. His character, a former basketball star, tries to make his comeback as a high school coach after his battle with alcoholism cost him his marriage. 

According to the Times (spoiler warning), in a moving scene toward the end of the film, Affleck apologizes to his ex-wife (played by Janina Gavankar) while in rehab. Director Gavin O’Connor said Affleck had a “total breakdown” on set after completing the scene.

At least 127 residents of Hyderabad have been served notices by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), asking them to prove their citizenship. At least three of them are Muslim. 

In a press statement released on Twitter on Tuesday, the UIDAI said that these notices were sent out after their regional office in Hyderabad received reports that these 127 people had obtained Aadhaar under “false pretences.”

“It may be noted that the RO Hyderabad received reports from the state police that 127 people have obtained Aadhaar on false pretences as in their preliminary enquiry they were found illegal immigrants who were not qualified to obtain an Aadhaar number,” the UIDAI said. 

Those who have been served notices have been asked to appear before the UIDAI deputy director in Hyderabad for a personal hearing on February 20.

This comes even as protest continue across the country against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act that offers citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have sought refuge in India. The contentious law conspicuously leaves out Muslims. 

Scroll.in accessed a notice sent to Talab Katta resident Mohd Sattar Khan that clearly states that he needs to prove his citizenship and he needs to bring documents to support it. The notice has been signed by UIDAI deputy director Amita Bindroo. 

Muzafarullah Khan Shafaat, a lawyer representing Khan told Scroll.in, “So with what authority is UIDAI asking people to prove their citizenship? As per the Aadhaar rules, if UIDAI finds that someone has fraudulently acquired Aadhar, they are supposed to deactivate the number and ask for proof of original documents, not for proof of citizenship.”

The UIDAI claimed in their statement that media reports about this were not presented in the correct perspective. “UIDAI clarifies that these reports are not presented in correct perspective and Aadhaar has got nothing to do with the citizenship issue as such.”

While the notice clearly mentions those sent notices need to bring documents to “prove all your claims of citizenship”, the UIDAI claimed that the notices were sent for “them to appear in person and to substantiate their claims for getting an Aadhaar number”.

The UIDAI further clarified, “These notices have nothing to do with citizenship and cancellation of Aadhaar number is in no way related to the nationality of any resident.” 

The New Indian Express quoted MP from Hyderabad and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi as saying, “Section 9 of Aadhaar Act says that it isn’t proof of citizenship. On what legal authority, does UIDAI, UIDAI Hyderabad have to demand proof of citizenship? The notices don’t even mention the grounds on which they were issued. This is illegal and unacceptable.”

Warning! “Game of Thrones” spoilers below.

Along with a significant portion of the fan base, Jon Snow is apparently upset after Season 8 as well.

Overall, the ending of “Game of Thrones” seemed like it was as good as it could get for the former King in the North. Sure, he had to kill his lover/aunt by stabbing her in the heart, but, hey, whose family doesn’t have drama, amirite? 

After killing Daenerys Targaryen, Jon seems to avoid any real punishment as he’s shipped off to the Wall. And since no one actually appears to know why there’s still a Night’s Watch after the White Walkers are defeated, he heads off into the woods to likely be King Beyond the Wall, or at the very least be a “Dexter”-like lumberjack.

But according to Tormund actor Kristofer Hivju, it seems there’s no happy ending for the perennial sad boy.

“Jon is in a huge depression,” Hivju told Entertainment Weekly, “so he needs Tormund to cheer him up, by the fire, warming each other.”

“Tormund is pretty heartbroken himself, so maybe they can bond over that,” he added.

The cast had continually said that the ending of the series would be “bittersweet,” but it’s decidedly more bitter. Though Season 8 appeared to conclude with the Starks taking over Westeros and Jon Snow getting off scot-free, if you take a closer look, the finale was much darker than it seemed.

Grey Worm is probably going to die, Arya’s probably going to die and Bran likely knew that all the people in King’s Landing were about to get toasted and may have just started a Big Brother-like dictatorship. At least the showrunners confirmed on the “Game of Thrones” Season 8 DVD commentary that Drogon didn’t eat Daenerys.

If there’s any consolation for Jon, it’s that he’s got Tormund and Ghost to rely on, because after the “Game of Thrones” finale, all men must cry. 

Thousands of protesters on Wednesday marched to the Secretariat at Fort St. George in Chennai carrying placards against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). 

The protesters demanded that the Tamil Nadu Assembly pass a resolution against the CAA. The rally stopped at Chepauk cricket stadium because the roads leading to the Secretariat were blocked, according to The Hindu. Members of the the Federation of Tamil Nadu Islamic and Political Organisations took part in the rally.

The Madras High Court had on Tuesday restrained the Federation from holding the agitation. A bench of justices M Sathyanaraya and R Hemalatha posted the matter for further hearing on 12 March. 

The city police, according to The News Minute, said that the protesters didn’t have permission for the march because they did not take the mandatory five-day advance permission. 

The police used drones to monitor the protest. Commissioner of Police AK Viswanathan confirmed to The Indian Express that thousands of police personnel were deployed in the area.

Several states, including Kerala and West Bengal, have passed resolutions demanding scrapping of the CAA. 

In Tamil Nadu, DMK president and Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin’s request to discuss a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw the CAA was disallowed by the Speaker. 

Chief Minister Palaniswami said on Tuesday that a resolution against CAA cannot be passed since it comes under the purview of the central government, according to The New Indian Express.

Justin Bieber’s latest “Carpool Karaoke” with James Corden aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Late Late Show.”

And viewers finally got to find out what that towing controversy was really all about.

Footage filmed by a bystander last month showed Corden and Bieber recording the segment inside an SUV that was being towed on a trailer. The video went viral, with many people mocking the apparent staging of the comedy bit.

Corden later revealed he always drives the car himself “unless we’re doing something where we think it might not be safe, like a dance routine.”

And a routine for Bieber’s hit “Yummy” is exactly what prompted Corden to take his hands off the wheel during the latest episode, presumably as they were being towed.

Elsewhere in the bit, Bieber explained challenging Tom Cruise to a fight, arm-wrestled with Corden and sang the “Smelly Cat” song from “Friends.” 

Check out the clip here:

Vodafone Idea’s business in India is in dire straits after the Supreme Court ordered it to immediately pay billions in unpaid government dues and interest.

The Supreme Court ruling last Friday asked telecom firms, including Vodafone Idea Ltd and Bharti Airtel, to deposit an estimated Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past dues for spectrum and licenses by March 17.

Vodafone Idea, a joint venture between Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc and India’s Idea Cellular, owes roughly $3.9 billion in dues and the company has said that it would not be able to pay this amount right away if they wanted to survive. 

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The company’s chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla had in December said it would need some relief on the statutory dues to stay in business. “If we are not getting anything, then I think it is the end of the story for Vodafone Idea,” Birla had said. “It does not make sense to put good money after bad... We will shut shop.”

On Tuesday, he met Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash as he looked for options to keep the company afloat. After the meeting, Birla said he “cannot say anything at the moment.“

Since the ruling, the company’s credit rating has been downgraded by two rating agencies.

On Tuesday, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has downgraded its rating on non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Rs 3,500 crore “on account of severe stress on the company’s near-term liquidity after the Supreme Court’s ruling”.

A day earlier, Care Ratings had downgraded the company’s rating on its long-term bank facilities and non-convertible debentures on account of “significant erosion” in the overall risk profile of the company. 

Vodafone’s share price

The Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday sought clarification from Vodafone Idea on the significant movement in price, “in order to ensure that investors have latest relevant information about the company and to inform the market so that the interest of the investors is safeguarded.”

Vodafone Idea’s shares closed at Rs 4.19 on Wednesday at the BSE, a jump of 38% against the previous day. 

On the BSE, nearly 10.38 crore shares changed hands today compared to an average of 6.33 crore shares traded daily in the past two weeks, NDTV reported.

Vodafone’s stock has been on a losing spree for the past seven trading sessions on the BSE. It had plunged 43.9% since February 7. Since then, the company has lost more than Rs 5,800 crore in market capitalisation.

On Tuesday, at the BSE, the stock plunged 17.25% to trade at a low of Rs 2.83. It settled with a loss of 11.40% at Rs 3.03.

The scrip plummeted 17.64% to Rs 2.80 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). It closed 10.29% lower at Rs 3.05. 

What happens if Vodafone shuts down in India?

According to the Hindu BusinessLine, the biggest impact of a shutdown will be an increase in tariff levels by upto 25-30%.  

Vodafone and Airtel had raised prices last quarter in the wake of massive losses.

Economist Vivek Kaul told the BBC increase in prices would be “a good thing, because that is the only way to have some competition in this market.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports India will face a multi-billion-dollar hit to its economy and a tarnished reputation as a place for multinationals to invest if it cannot keep Vodafone Idea in business.

With 13,000 direct employees and loans from banks of about $3.8 billion, Vodafone Idea’s potential exit would send shockwaves through India’s economy, which is already growing at its slowest pace in 11 years.

“A default of such a large scale could increase India’s fiscal deficit by about 40 basis points,” Aliasgar Shakir, a research analyst at Motilal Oswal, told Reuters.

A 40 basis point increase in fiscal deficit roughly translates to a revenue loss of about Rs 1 trillion rupees ($14.01 billion) for the Narendra Modi’s government, when it is facing the country’s first fall in direct taxes in decades.

A shutdown could benefit Airtel and Jio as they could potentially absorb subscribers left behind by Vodafone and increase market share.

But it would essentially leave a duopoly between Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.

That could dampen interest in an auction of 5G airwaves expected before the end of March, Reuters says.

A former executive at Vodafone Idea, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the risk of deterring investment was high.

“They have been beaten down by the environment here,” the executive said. ”(We’re sending investors) a very negative signal - it says the trust factor between the government and the industry doesn’t exist.”

The telcos still have some options, including filing a curative petition to the Supreme Court, although analysts see little chance of success, Reuters’ report said.

“The acceptance of a curative petition itself is an onerous task – and with the Supreme Court’s tough stance now, the merits of opting for this route may have diminished,” Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients.

How we got here

The company has said it cannot immediately pay the $3.9 billion it owes and its ability to survive was contingent on the government agreeing to a flexible payment schedule.

On Monday, Vodafone paid Rs 2,500 crore to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore before the end of the week.

But the amount paid for now is less than 5% of the dues that the DoT estimates the company owes to the government.

The department ― which last week drew flak for ordering no coercive action even after telcos missed the January 23 payment deadline set by the Supreme Court ― is mulling the option of encashing bank guarantees given by firms when they got telecom licences, as none of the telcos have paid the full amount.

Encashing of the bank guarantees may sound the death knell for companies such as Vodafone which has been struggling to garner the dues.

A financial bank guarantee is equal to two quarters of licence fee and other dues. This amount could be in the range of Rs 5,000 crore for Vodafone Idea.

The Supreme Court last week rejected a plea by companies such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for extension in the payment schedule and threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against top executives of these firms for non-payment.

With some telecom firms already struggling with mounting losses and debt, the additional liability has raised concerns of them defaulting on existing loans.

In its earnings statement for the third quarter of FY19-20, Vodafone said, “VIL is actively seeking various forms of relief from the Indian government to ensure that the rate and level of payments it makes to the Indian government is sustainable and it can meet its other commitments as they fall due.”

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said she would talk to the telecom department to find out “what position it wants to take on matter”.

Vodafone has been struggling in India for a while now. Chief Executive Nick Read had said in November 2019 that in India, where Vodafone formed a joint venture with Idea Cellular in 2017, had been “a very challenging situation for a long time”, but Vodafone Idea still had 300 million customers, equating to a 30% share of the sizable market.

“Financially there’s been a heavy burden through unsupportive regulation, excessive taxes and on top of that we got the negative supreme court decision,” he had said.

Reuters had also pointed out in the report that Reliance Jio Infocomm’s arrival in 2016 added to Vodafone’s problems by sparking a brutal price war. Vodafone had already been at loggerheads with Indian authorities over tax and regulatory issues ever since it entered the country in 2007 with a $11-billion deal to buy 67% of Hutchison Essar.

(With PTI and Reuters)

Donald Trump is visiting and the Indian government can’t keep calm. From building a wall to hide the poor to rounding up stray animals, the Narendra Modi government is doing a significant amount of window dressing to make sure the US President’s gaze doesn’t fall on anything deemed ‘unsightly’ during his India visit.

While to a casual observer, it may seem like the government is actually doing something to keep Bharat “swachh”, the exercise actually involves spending crores of rupees and upending the lives and livelihoods of people who already struggle to make ends meet. 

During his packed two-day visit, the highlight of which will be an extravagant event in Ahmedabad called ‘Namaste Trump’, the mercurial US President will inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium and visit Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram in Sabarmati. He is also likely to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra before heading to New Delhi. 

Reuters reported that the Gujarat exchequer alone will spend somewhere between Rs 80-85 crore in preparation for Trump’s scheduled three-hour visit to Ahmedabad. 

That the Indian government would go all out to lay out the red carpet for the US president’s first visit to the country was expected, but the sheer effort and resources being expended to airbrush reality is worrying. It is also reminiscent of the Congress government’s disastrous attempts to showcase Delhi as a “world-class city” ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 by arresting beggars, expelling migrants and demolishing slums.

Here are some of the extreme steps the Modi government is taking to make sure that Trump will only be looking at clean, shiny (and misleading) visuals during his visit.  

Hiding the poor

Trump, a big fan of walls, is getting one in Ahmedabad. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is building a wall to mask the Dev Saran slum that is on the route that Trump will take during his scheduled roadshow in Ahmedabad. 

Sushilaben Saraniya told The Indian Express, “They (AMC authorities) came here, demolished our houses and started constructing the wall. Now they are asking us to leave. Where would we go? We have no idea where they would rehabilitate us.”

This wall is reportedly half a kilometre long. 

In another slum, close to the Motera Stadium that Trump will inaugurate and where the Namaste Trump event will be held, 45 families have been handed eviction notices ahead of the event. While the residents, who have lived there for over two decades, claim that this is because of Trump’s visit, AMC has denied this, saying they just wanted to empty government land. 

“The AMC officials who came to serve the notices asked us to vacate as soon as possible. They told us that the head of the United States is visiting Motera stadium and they wanted us to move out,” 35-year-old Teja Meda told The Indian Express. 

Sealing paan shops

News reports say the AMC is sealing paan shops in the city so that people don’t spit on the road and dirty them. This is likely to affect the livelihood of the shop owners. 

The Times of India reported that three paan shops near the airport circle were sealed to prevent people from spitting and stubbing cigarettes on road. 

The AMC notice reportedly said that if the seal is removed, legal action will be taken. 

Caging dogs and eyeing monkeys

AMC’s Cattle Nuisance Control Department (yes, this exists) also plans to capture dogs and keep them away from the VVIP route, the Times of India reported.

The AMC, the report said, will also work to keep away nilgais that frequent the VVIP route. TOI reported that this step has been taken to avoid a possible repeat of an episode from 2015, when the cavalcade of John Kerry, former US secretary of state, hit a mongrel.

But the notoriously raucous monkeys of Taj Mahal may prove too big a challenge. India Today spoke to the monument’s security guards, who said the catapults they normally use are ineffectual if there are more than a handful of simians. 

Walls painted in Agra

Trump’s connection to Indian walls continues. The walls on the route leading to the Taj Mahal have been freshly painted for the US president. A fresh coat of paint, it seems, was not enough. News18 reported that artists were hired to beautify the walls with paintings. 

Roads cleaned, dividers get fresh coat of paint 

Not just the walls, machines have been hired to keep the roads spic and span before Trump’s arrival. 

Financial Express reported that the route from Kheria Airport to the Taj Mahal was being cleaned up and given a makeover.

Road dividers on this route have also been freshly painted with stripes. Even statues have been given baths, News18 reported. 

Water released into the Yamuna

The Uttar Pradesh government has also released 500 cusecs of water into the heavily polluted Yamuna river. Was this an effort to actually clean the river you ask? Not at all. This is apparently to get rid of the smell that emanates from the river because of the polluted water. 

While Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board assistant engineer Arvind Kumar made a bizarre claim that this will improve oxygen levels in Mathura and Agra, other experts have said this won’t help. 

Gopeshwar Nath Chaturvedi, who is associated with the Shri Mathur Chaturved Parishad which is working to clean the Yamuna, told PTI, “The move will hardly have any impact on the river.”

Checking homes on the Taj route

While former US president Barack Obama’s visit to the Taj Mahal was cancelled at the last minute because of security issues, this time, the Modi government is leaving no stone unturned.

“We are checking every house that falls on the route. The hotels have been asked to submit details of those staying with them to the local intelligence unit. Snipers will be placed on rooftops along the route,” Superintendent of Police (City) Botre Rohan Pramod told The Hindu.  

This exhaustive (and exhausting) list of all the measures in the unofficial Show-Trump-Only-A-Clean-India drive is only likely to get longer as D-Day approaches.

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Senior counsel Sanjay Hedge and advocate Sadhana Ramachandran, who were appointed as interlocutors by the Supreme Court, visited Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh to talk with the protesters. A peaceful sit-in has been continuing for over two months at Shaheen Bagh against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). 

The interlocutors explained the Supreme Court order to the protesters. “The Supreme Court order acknowledges your (people’s) right to protest, however, this agitation is leading to a blockade. It is causing disruption in people’s daily lives and as much as it is your right to protest, it is also their right to conduct their lives without interruption,” Ramachandran said while reading out the order, according to The Indian Express. 

“As a country, we must respect each other’s rights. We should resolve this issue together and should become a global example,” she added. 

Later, talking to reporters, Ramachandran said that they will come back on Thursday because it’s not possible to complete talks in a single day. 

Hegde said that they listened to the protesters and he “will keep all their words in mind”, according to News18.

The interlocutors also told the protesters that they have time till Sunday to talk because the Supreme Court has set February 24 as the next date of hearing. 

The top court had on Monday appointed Hegde and Ramachandran to talk with the protesters about moving the Shaheen Bagh protest to an alternate site which is earmarked for protests.

The court was hearing a plea by advocate Amit Sahni and former Delhi MLA Nand Kishore Garg, seeking directions to the Delhi Police to ensure smooth traffic flow on the Kalindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh stretch. 

The protesters, according to Hindustan Times, opposed the claims that the protest was causing inconvenience to commuters. A protester was quoted in the report as saying, “We are asked to move, we will move but the protests will continue.”

(With PTI inputs)

Kate Middleton joined the “Happy Mum, Happy Baby” podcast over the weekend and spoke about being a parent to her three children: Prince George, 6, Princess Charlotte, 4 and Prince Louis, 1. 

During the podcast with host Giovanna Fletcher, the Duchess of Cambridge discussed the “simple things” she wants her children to remember. She also mentioned a particular photo of little Charlotte that holds a special meaning for her as a mom. 

“I remember that from my childhood ― doing the simple things, going for a walk together, and that’s really what I try and do with my children as well because it totally strips away all the complications, all the pressures,” Kate said, adding that she didn’t want them to remember a “stressful household where you’re trying to do everything” instead. 

“It’s something I’m really passionate about,” the duchess said.

Extolling the virtues of being outside for “physical and mental wellbeing,” she said, “It’s such a great environment to actually spend time building those quality relationships without the distractions of ‘I’ve got to cook’ and ‘I’ve got to do this.’ And actually, it’s so simple.”

She continued, “I’ve got this one photo of Charlotte smelling a bluebell and I just ― really for me ― it’s moments like that that mean so much to me as a parent. And I try every day to put moments like that in, even if they’re small, even if I don’t have time.” 

Kensington Palace’s Instagram account later shared the sweet photo of Charlotte bending over to smell the little flower: 

Kate appeared on the podcast on behalf of her latest initiative, called 5 Big Questions on the Under 5s. According to Kensington Palace, the project is a “landmark survey which gives people across the UK an opportunity to provide their view on raising the next generation.”  

After a few whirlwind weeks of engagements, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge don’t have any appearances lined up this week, as George and Charlotte have a break from school.

NAGPUR, Maharashtra — The role of senior Maharashtra police officials who handled the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad cases is under scrutiny after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar once again took direct aim at them on Tuesday. 

Hours after HuffPost India reported that a senior state police official had sent an ‘SOS’ message to the home ministry, following which the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Pawar held a press conference in Mumbai, questioning the “alacrity” with which the central government had stepped in.

“When I wrote a letter to the Maharashtra government demanding a special investigative team (SIT) on this issue, the state home minister and deputy CM called a meeting of police officials associated with this case to understand it. This meeting happened between 9-11 am that day and by 4 pm on the same day, the central government’s message came that the case should be handed over to them (NIA),” Pawar said, referring to events that took place in January.

The NCP supremo, who is considered the chief strategist of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, said that deputy CM Ajit Pawar and home minister Anil Deshmukh, both from the NCP, had denied any role in tipping off the Centre.

“Was this adventure undertaken by some of the senior police officials present in that meeting? Because the investigation which the state government was planning to undertake was to check the misuse of power and position by police officials in this case. Had that been exposed, even the previous government’s real picture would have come out,” alleged Pawar, demanding a parallel investigation into the role played by the officials.

Police sources had told HuffPost India that the Union home ministry had been tipped off by a senior police officer in Maharashtra, but refused to name the person.

Pawar’s combative stance indicates that the Maharashtra government will put up a tough fight against attempts by the home ministry, led by Amit Shah, to interfere in the investigation.

After Pawar’s press meet, CM Thackeray took another U-turn, saying the state government will probe the Bhima Koregaon incident.

“We will not let injustice happen to our Dalit brothers and Bhima Koregoan incident will be probed by the state police,” Thackeray told reporters.

Like Pawar, Thackeray also drew a clear distinction between the investigations into the Bhima Koregaon riots and the alleged Elgaar Parishad conspiracy.

However, Pune police think otherwise and its top officials had been claiming that an investigation into a violent clash at Bhima Koregaon in December 2017-January 2018 led them to a conspiracy orchestrated by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).   

In June 2018, the police arrested several lawyers and human rights defenders including Surendra Gadling and Sudha Bhardwaj, accusing them of being involved in the conspiracy. 

HuffPost India reported in August 2018 that while the Pune rural police was investigating the role of two BJP-affiliated Hindutva activists — Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide — in fomenting the violence, their urban counterparts were investigating the so-called urban Naxal angle.

Since the Thackeray government took charge, Pawar had been demanding action against the police officials probing the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case and had objected to the behaviour of the Pune Police commissioner and some of his associates.

Last week, when HuffPost India asked Pune police commissioner K.Venkatesan about the Bhima Koregaon case, he refused to answer, saying, “ I have nothing to say. No more interrogation, please.”

ACP Shivaji Pawar, the investigating officer in the case, did not respond to repeated calls and messages.

Pawar, who alleged that police officials had “misused” their powers, also claimed that a large section of the state police thought that the case had been mishandled, allegedly at the behest of the previous government led by Devendra Fadnavis.

Back on the same page

Until Tuesday, it appeared that there was a rift between Thackeray and Pawar over the issue—after initially trying to stop the NIA from accessing the case files, the state government reversed its stance a day before a Pune court was scheduled to rule on the matter. People familiar with the matter said that Thackeray, after being briefed by some senior IAS and IPS officers based in Pune and Mumbai, agreed to hand over the case to the NIA without consulting anyone.

Sensing an opportunity, opposition leader Fadnavis issued a challenge to the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, asking them to call for an election to prove their mandate.

But Pawar soon swung into action when he heard of Thackeray’s move. He cancelled his Nashik trip and rushed to Mumbai to call a meeting of all NCP ministers. People present at the meeting told HuffPost India that Pawar gave a dressing down to the ministers for not asserting themselves in the government. 

Pawar’s refusal to back down left the chief minister in a bind.

A Shiv Sena MLC told HuffPost India on condition of anonymity that the state government would soon form an SIT to probe the case, as Pawar had demanded.

“There were issues in the home department over this case and even the CM did not want to be seen supporting people labeled as “urban Maoists”, but there is very little you can do when someone like Sharad Pawar takes a clear stand publicly,” he said.

The leader claimed that by bringing in the NIA, Amit Shah had turned this into a Pawar versus Shah-Modi battle.

“Pawar won’t miss this opportunity. It has gone far ahead of consolidating a vote bank now,” he added.

Priti Patel has admitted her own parents might not have been allowed to move to the UK if the immigration system she is introducing had been in place at the time.

Under the plans unveiled by the home secretary on Wednesday, the rules will be changed to cut the number of low-skilled migrants entering the UK.

Patel’s parents moved to Britain from Uganda in the 1960s, shortly before Idi Amin’s decision to deport all Asians, and set up a chain of newsagents around south-east England.

LBC’s Nick Ferrari told Patel this morning he did not think one of his parents would have been allowed into the country under the new rules – and neither would hers.

“You wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Your parents, I understand, came from Uganda and were very successful in setting up newsagents. They wouldn’t have qualified, would they?”

Patel defended her new policy, but admitted that could be the case.

“Yeah, but also let’s not forget we are not changing our approach to refugees and asylum seekers, which is very different to a points-based system for employment and that particular route,” she said.

“This isn’t about my background or my parents.

“This is a very different system to what has gone on in the past and don’t forget this is a points-based system based on the labour market.”

The home secretary added: “The policies are changing. This is the point. We are changing our immigration policy to one that’s fit for purpose for our economy, based on skills.

“This is not about refugees and asylum and people being persecuted around the world. We must differentiate between the two.”

People who want to live and work in the UK will need to gain 70 points to be eligible to apply for a visa.

Points will be awarded for key requirements like being able to speak English to a certain level, having a job offer from an approved employer, and meeting a minimum salary threshold.

Other points will be awarded for certain qualifications and having secured a job in a particular occupation where there is a shortage of labour.