Month: February 2021

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Saturday lambasted Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, saying that they are not real heroes but are ‘kagaz ke sher’ and black flags will be shown to them whenever their films are released.

Amid the political row over his earlier comments on the actors for not tweeting on the current hike in fuel prices, Patole, while talking to media here, said, “I didn’t speak against Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan but against their work. They are not real heroes. If they were, they would have stood beside people during their sufferings. If they want to continue being ‘kagaz ke sher’, then we don’t have any problem.”
“We haven’t stepped back. We will show black flags to them whenever their films are released or when we spot them. We’ll follow democratic ways. We are not ‘Godse wale’ but ‘Gandhi wale’,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan’s residence in Jalsa witnessed an increase in its security, following Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole’s threat to stop the shoot of the star’s films.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Friday said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi should take action against Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole for demanding actors Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar to tweet on the recent fuel price hike. (ANI)

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader, Rakesh Tikait was denied permission to hold a rally in Maharashtra amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state.

“Lockdown has been put into place in certain districts of Maharashtra. Also, Section 144 has been imposed in certain areas. All these steps have been taken because of a rise in COVID-19 cases. Hence, the authorities have denied permission to hold a rally in the state,” Tikait said.
“Farmers will continue to protest at Delhi’s borders,” he asserted.

Karnataka government also issued a circular in view of rising cases of COVID-19 in neighbouring Maharashtra.

“A negative RT-PCR certificate that is not older than 72 hours shall be compulsory for those arriving by flights/ buses/trains/personal transport,” it reads.

Maharashtra reported 6,112 new COVID-19 cases, 2,159 discharges, and 44 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per State Health Department on Friday.

Following a rise in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra’s Amaravati, district collector Shailesh Naval on Thursday announced a lockdown in the district.

“Owing to rising cases, lockdown declared in Amravati District from Saturday 8 pm to Monday 7 am,” Naval told reporters.

“I advise all the people of the district to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines failing which strict action will be taken by the concerned authorities,” he added.

Following this information, the Yavatmal district also tightened its COVID-19 restrictions the same day.

Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (ANI)

Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone, on Saturday revealed her favourite shows she watched during the lockdown with her husband and actor Ranveer Singh through a quirky video for fans.

Taking to a video clip on Instagram, the ‘queen of hearts’ disclosed how she and hubby Ranveer used to discuss watching binge-worthy shows in lockdown. She also revealed how they both engaged in discourse over the selection of a show.

In the witty video, Deepika can be seen getting ready in her vanity van as she says “To tell about my favourite show, I have to find an intelligent and safe answer” with a worth-seeing expression.

Replying to one of his team members sitting beside her in the vanity, Padukone also confessed that she hasn’t watched all episodes of the blockbuster hit crime drama series ‘Money Heist’.

As the video continues, she chuckled and told, “The Crown, the safest answer”.

While concluding the video, she can also be seen confessing about ‘Scooby Doo’ as her favourite show.

Alongside the video clip that accumulated more than four lakh views within an hour of being posted, she noted: “Show suggestions please… “.

Scores of fans of the ‘Padmaavat’ star chimed into the comments section and dropped suggestions of binge-worthy shows for Deepika.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Deepika Padukone announced her upcoming action flick with Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan titled ‘Fighter’.

Apart from this, she will be seen in Shakun Batra’s directorial unnamed film co-starring Ananya Panday and Sidhant Chaturvedi and in the upcoming sports flick ’83’ with her husband. She also has ‘Baiju Bawra’, ‘Sanki’, ‘Pathan’, an Indian adaptation of Nancy Meyers’s 2015 hit Hollywood film ‘The Intern’ in the pipeline. (ANI)

Stepping up its presence in the South China Sea, France has planned two voyages through the disputed waters.

According to South China Morning Post, the French Navy said an amphibious assault ship the Tonnere and the frigate Surcouf had left their home port Toulon on Thursday and would travel to the Pacific on a three-month mission.
The website Naval News reported that the ships would cross the South China Sea twice and take part in a combined exercise with the Japanese and US militaries in May.

Capt Arnaud Tranchant, commanding officer of the Tonnerre, told Naval News that the French navy would “work to strengthen” France’s partnership with the US, Japan, India and Australia – Quad.

When asked whether he was planning to transit the Taiwan Strait, he said he has “not yet traced our roads in this area”.

Similar missions in 2015 and 2017 also saw French navy vessels sailing through the South China Sea, but analysts said the latest exercise is a sign of France stepping up engagement in the Indo Pacific region.

Last week, France deployed a nuclear attack submarine in the South China Sea, in line with US President Joe Biden’s call to mount a multilateral challenge to China.

In a tweet earlier this week, France’s Defense Minister Florence Parly announced that the European power has deployed the nuclear attack submarine Emeraude along with naval support ship Seine to the maritime area to “affirm that international law is the only rule that is valid, whatever the sea where we sail.”

Other European powers such as the United Kingdom and Germany are also expected to deploy warships to the area in what increasingly looks like a concerted Western pushback against China’s maritime ambitions.

European powers’ growing involvement in regional geopolitics is consistent with the strategic priorities of the Biden administration, which has underscored its commitment to “working with our allies and partners” based “on the international rules of the road”.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, something which is contested heavily by several countries in the region.

China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and its efforts to advance into the Indian Ocean are seen to have challenged the established rules-based system.

China has been increasing its maritime activities in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea over the past few months, partly in response to Beijing’s concerns over the increasing US military presence in the region because of escalating Sino-US tensions. (ANI)

The total number of cryptocurrency bitcoin trading is now collectively worth more than one trillion dollars (about Rs 72.73 lakh crore).

CNN reports that the price of a bitcoin hit a number of new all-time highs on Friday. One bitcoin currently costs around 55,000 dollars and there are about 18.6 million bitcoins in circulation, according to Coinbase.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are anonymous and are made with no brokers or intermediaries.

One cannot physically use bitcoin as it is a digital currency. And it is decentralised, meaning that it is not controlled by a bank or government.

CNN said bitcoin prices have surged more than 80 per cent so far this year, and investors are enthusiastically scooping up other cryptocurrencies as well.

Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency with a total value of 220 billion dollars, has more than doubled this year.

And the price of dogecoin, a currency that originally started as a dog meme-based joke, also has skyrocketed this year following several bullish tweets about it by Tesla founder Elon Musk and support from traders on Reddit.

According to CNN, corporate America is validating bitcoin. Payments giants Square and PayPal let their users buy and sell it. Credit card processing behemoths Visa and Mastercard are also embracing cryptocurrencies. (ANI)

An edge of the seat narrative helmed by a fresh face, MX Player’s Hello Mini Season 1 starring Anuja Joshi wowed viewers in 2019 and rates a massive 8.9/10 on IMDB.

Gearing up for the release of the much-anticipated season 2 of this psychological thriller series, the vivacious actress Anuja Joshi has now shared some BTS images from the sets of ‘Hello Mini 2’. The image sees her with her on-screen lover, Danny played by Mrinal Dutt – as they are seen rehearsing the scenes for their show.

Re-living the moments from the set of Hello Mini 2, Anuja Joshi who is seen reprising her role as Rivanah Banerjee aka Mini and she’s taken to Instagram to share a cute, fun moment of herself with Mrinal Dutt. She captions this image as “BTS Danny and Rivanah can never actually make an omelette also @crimrinal your mask is showing Hello Mini Season 2 out Feb 26th!”

Here’s another post wherein she’s seen looking for the positives during the stressful Covid times as she shares some fun BTS with her director from the shoot as well.

She says, “BTS alert! My amazing director @arjunsrivasstava and incredible makeup artist @makeupbyjanak kept me laughing during the stressful times. Shooting during the height of the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic was no easy feat. Hello Mini Season 2 out Feb 26th you don’t want to miss this one. #hellomini #hellomini2”

This season sees Mini being sucked into yet another vortex by the Stranger. Mini must follow the Stranger’s order and enlist herself to play the dangerous game of Dare Defy on the dark web – or face dire consequences.

As things begin to unfold and rapidly spiral out of control for Mini, she becomes a key suspect in a murder investigation because of her participation in this illegal game. Will Mini be able to beat Stranger and his game is what the fast-paced series will follow.

MX Original Series Hello Mini 2 is produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Goldie Behl’s Rose Audio Visual. Directed by Arjun Srivasstava, it is adapted from Novonveel Chakraborty’s ‘Stranger Trilogy’ and written by Anand Sivakumaran and Ayushee Ghoshal.

The 10 episodic series sees Anuja Joshi reprise her role as Mini (Rivanah Banerjee) alongside Gaurav Chopra, Mrinal Dutt, Anshul Pandey, Nikhita Chopra, Darshana Banik, Vinit Sharma, Abhinav Sharma, Ambika Nayak, Joy Sengupta, Summer Jacobs in pivotal roles.

After a US-trained defence minister got appointed as Taiwan’s defence minister, eight Chinese fighter aircraft flew into the southwestern part of its air defence zone.

CNN cited Taiwan’s Defence Ministry as announcing on Friday (local time) that four Chinese J-16s, four JH-7s and an electronic warfare aircraft flew near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the top part of the South China Sea.

“Nine PLA aircraft (J-164, JH-74 and Y-9 EW) entered Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ on Feb. 19, 2021,” the ministry said in a tweet.

The air force scrambled, with “radio warnings issued and air defense missile systems deployed to monitor the activity,” the ministry said.

Shortly before the defence ministry’s announcement, CNN quoted Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang as saying that National Security Bureau Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng, who graduated from the US Army War College in 1999, would replace Yen De-fa as defense minister.

He further said that President Tsai Ing-wen expects Chiu to complete the next stage of military reforms, including planning for “asymmetric warfare,” focusing on high-tech, mobile weapons designed to make any Chinese attack as difficult as possible.

In recent months, China has increased its military activities around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

According to China, it is responding to what it calls “collusion” between Taipei and Washington, Taiwan’s main international backer and weapons supplier, CNN said.

Amid these intrusions, the Taiwan President has pledged to defend its territories and even modernise its armed forces.

In order to bolster its defensive capabilities, Taiwan is building a submarine fleet to mitigate Chinese nefarious designs to invade the island or install a naval blockade.

In November, the United States and Taiwan signed a blueprint for closer economic ties in Washington.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has already made his intentions clear about Taiwan as he has vowed to never allow the island to become independent and has refused to rule out the use of force if necessary. (ANI)

The ethnic and LGBTQ groups of Myanmar on Saturday came out on the streets to protest against the military junta for overthrowing the democratically elected government.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, members of the LGBTQ community are among the most visible participants in the continuing protests against the coup leaders, expressing their opposition in creative ways, using costumes.
“There are some people who don’t like NLD (National League for Democracy) but we’re not talking about the NLD,” said Salai Mon Boi, a youth leader from the Chin minority.

He further informed that the Saturday’s protest, which fell on Chin National Day, was focused on four demands: getting rid of the Constitution, ending dictatorship, a federal system and the release of all leaders, Al Jazeera said.

On Friday, a woman died after being shot in the head last week during an anti-coup protest in Myanmar’s capital.

Mya Thweh Thweh Khine, who was 20 years old, is the first known casualty of pro-democracy protests that have been going on since the military’s seizure of power on February 1.

Her death sparked calls for an investigation into the use of force by the military’s security forces.

Since the shooting, Mya Thweh Thweh Khine has become a symbol of the protests, which have intensified over the past two weeks. Illustrations of her image were seen on signs and banners as protesters called for the military to hand back power to civilian control and for the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected officials, reported CNN.

Moreover, public anger at the coup has intensified in recent days, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in towns, cities and villages across the country.

The coup has been condemned globally; the UK and Canada had imposed sanctions on three generals from Myanmar’s junta.

The United States has sanctioned 10 individuals and three entities for their association with the military apparatus responsible for the coup in Myanmar.

Myanmar is under a state of emergency for one year, after the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing, seized power over alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 elections. That poll gave civilian leader Suu Kyi’s NLD a landslide victory and a second term in power. (ANI)

Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor on Saturday dropped an intriguing glimpse from the upcoming song ‘Panghat’ from her forthcoming horror-comedy film ‘Roohi’.

The ‘Gunjan Saxena’ actor gave the poster a rather quirky ‘Pawri’ (party) twist and shared it on Instagram. The poster sees the actor dressed in a beautiful lehenga. Not giving away much from the look, Janhvi’s face can be seen covered with a dupatta.

The actor is seen sitting in the dark as the room is lightly lit by a chandelier with candles. The song will be released on Monday.

The poster also had a ‘pawri’ twist. It read, “Panghat par hai Pawri! Are you ready?”

Janhvi wrote in the caption of the post, as she teased the song, “Stay tuned for #Panghat! Song out soon.”

The forthcoming horror-comedy, which also stars Rajkummar Rao and Varun Sharma, is being helmed by Hardik Mehta. A Jio Studios Presentation, ‘Roohi’ is being produced by Dinesh Vijan and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba.

The film marks the first-ever collaboration of Rajkummar and Janhvi. Rajkummar and Varun have earlier shared screen space in the 2015 release ‘Dolly Ki Doli’.

‘Roohi’, which is the first major Bollywood release post lockdown, was set to hit the cinemas in the first week of June last year, but the film had to be postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The upcoming horror-comedy will also become the first film to arrive in theatres after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting allowed cinema halls nationwide to operate at full capacity from February 1 with COVID-19 safety protocols put in place.

The film is set to hit the theatres on March 11, this year, and is based on the lines of the 2018 hit film ‘Stree’, which featured Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao in lead roles. (ANI)

A group of citizens comprising former judges and former senior police officers have written to President Ram Nath Kovind expressing concern over “unsubstantiated allegations being presented to the media as well the public in general through social media” with regard to arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi by Delhi Police in ‘toolkit’ case.

In a letter to the President, the signatories including former Chief justice of Sikkim High Court Justice Permod Kohli and former Karnataka DGP Raghavendra Auradkar said the central government should ensure that Delhi Police is able to do its investigation in a free and fair manner without any undue pressure from vested interests and “to bring to book all those rogue elements who have allowed themselves to be used by secessionist forces in India and abroad, trying to spread anarchy and provide intellectual cover to anti-national forces to serve their own selfish ends”.

Referring to Disha Ravi, they said she has been arrested “for being a member of a group of conspirators that prepared a toolkit that contains a document, meant for circulation among a few people to guide them on…to defame India in the international forum and incite anti-social and anti-national acts by using some farmer groups protesting on the outskirts of Delhi”.

They strongly denounced “the narrative being created by some individuals and organisations against national interests” and stressed that it is the onerous duty of every citizen to unite against the forces of disruption and protect the sovereignty and integrity of India.

The signatories said a democratically-elected government has constitutionally passed the farm laws and is conscious about its duty towards the people of India.

“Few immature individuals with vested interests are making attempts to magnify the legal action by the police to hide their anti-national activities by making such baseless allegations and indulging in slander against the Delhi police to demoralise them,” they said.

“Information available on open sources clearly establishes that the toolkit document contains the list of persons or groups to be followed having linkages with ISI and Khalistani groups,” the signatories said, adding that the petitioners also noted that a few Indian citizens had actively engaged with banned elements and organisations who planned and organised protests outside Indian embassies, High Commissions and Consul-General offices abroad.

“Such actions to instigate protests against Indian embassies and thereby building international pressure against India’s farm laws need to be condemned as these are highly objectionable that is normally not undertaken by people of ordinary prudence,” they said.

The letter said it has now been well established that “the so-called environmental activist has been conspiring with banned anti-national elements and persons who were acting in a manner which would adversely affect the friendly relations with foreign countries and create unrest affecting the public order in our country”.

Disha has been sent to three days in judicial custody by a Delhi court on Friday in connection with the ‘toolkit’ case on the farmers’ protest.

She was produced before Patiala House Court by the Special Cell of Delhi Police, as her five-day police custody ended today.

Disha was arrested from Bengaluru on February 13.

The police had earlier registered an FIR against unidentified persons in connection with the creators of the ‘toolkit’. (ANI)