Month: February 2021

Sharing a love-soaked video of herself with her actor-husband Riteish Deshmukh, actor Genelia Deshmukh on Wednesday marked her 9th wedding anniversary with him.

The ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ actor shared the adorable video on Instagram and penned down a short note showering love on her doting husband.

The video sees Genelia teasing Riteish as the classic romantic number ‘Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyaar’ plays in the background.

“Dearest @riteishd, You don’t find love, it finds you, It’s got a little bit to do with destiny, fate, what’s written in the stars, and a lot to do with special kind of you,” she wrote in the caption.

“There is no me without you..I’m totally madly, crazy in love you, Happy Anniversary Love,” she added.

The gorgeous couple tied the knot in 2012. They are proud parents to two kids, 5-year-old Riaan Deshmukh and 3-year-old Rahyl Deshmukh.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Riteish, who was last seen in the 2020 Bollywood film ‘Baaghi 3’, has three movies in the pipeline — ‘Bachchan Pandey’, ‘Housefull 5’ and ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji’. (ANI)

Ayesha Aziz, the 25 -year-old from Kashmir who is the youngest female pilot in the country acts is a source of inspiration and a beacon of empowerment for numerous Kashmiri women.

In the year 2011, Aziz became the youngest student pilot to get a license at the age of 15 and underwent training to fly a MIG-29 jet at Russia’s Sokol airbase the following year.

She later graduated in aviation from the Bombay Flying Club (BFC) and obtained a commercial license in 2017.

While speaking to ANI, Aziz said that she believed that Kashmiri women had progressed immensely in the last few years and have done exceptionally well in the field of education.

“I think Kashmiri women are doing very well, especially in education. Every other woman in Kashmir is doing her Masters or her doctorate. People of the Valley are doing great,” she said.

Despite the odd timings required by the job and a dynamic work environment, the 25-year-old said that she was happy to take on the challenge.

“I chose this field because I have loved traveling since a very young age and was very fascinated by flying. One gets to meet so many people. This is why I wanted to be a pilot. It is quite challenging because this is not like a normal 9-5 desk job. There is no fixed pattern and I have to constantly be ready to face new places, different types of weather and meet new people,” she told ANI.

“In this profession, one’s mental state should be very strong because you’ll be carrying 200 passengers and it is a great responsibility,” she added.

She also expressed gratitude towards her parents, who have supported her and enabled her to achieve her dreams.

“I am very lucky that I have parents who have supported me in everything. Without them, I would not have been able to get to where I am today. I am constantly looking for growth, on a professional and personal level. My father is my greatest role model,” she said. (ANI)

As relations between Washington and Beijing continue its downward spiral, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) has warned that the efforts made by the Chinese Communist Party to obtain US health data, particularly DNA, through hacking had stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has collected large healthcare data sets from the US and nations around the globe, through both legal and illegal means, for purposes only it can control,” the NCSC wrote in a fact sheet, as quoted by The Hill on Monday (local time).

“The PRC’s collection of healthcare data from America poses equally serious risks, not only to the privacy of Americans but also to the economic and national security of the US,” it added.

According to the American daily, the agency noted that these efforts had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Chinese biotech group BGI offering COVID-19 testing kits to the majority of countries and establishing 18 testing labs over the past six months alone, allegedly as part of an effort to obtain health data.

The NCSC wrote that US health data was an attractive target for the Chinese government due to the diversity of the population and because of the nation’s comparably lax safeguards for personal data.

“The PRC understands the collection and analysis of large genomic data sets from diverse populations helps foster new medical discoveries and cures that can have substantial commercial value and advance its Artificial Intelligence and precision medicine industries,” the agency wrote.

The Hill further reported that the report was released the the day after former NCSC Director William Evanina warned of the risks China posed to US health care data during an appearance on CBS News’s “60 Minutes”.

“We have probably five or six health care companies in the last five years who have been, I would say, penetrated, exfiltrated, hacked by China,” Evanina said.

“Current estimates are that 80 percent of American adults have had all their personally identifiable information stolen by the Communist Party of China.”

The NCSC warned on Monday that the Chinese government was using the health data to outpace the US biotech industry, which posed the threat of the U.S. being “left more dependent on Chinese innovation and drug development for its cures” and hurting the US job market. They also expressed concerns on Chinese hackers targeting US health data and research.

“China’s access to US healthcare and genomic data poses serious privacy and national security risks to the US,” the agency wrote and added, “Through its cyber intrusions in recent years, the PRC has already obtained the Personal Identifying Information (PII) of much of the US population.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last year of these threats, telling a Senate committee that the FBI was seeing “very aggressive activity by the Chinese, and in some cases by others, to target our COVID-related research, whether it’s vaccines, treatments, testing technology, etc.”

The US agency also expressed concerns that China used the pandemic to “aggressively” market its COVID-19 testing kits across the world and open labs in many countries.

Under the Trump administration, ties between the two countries had deteriorated over issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang, encroachment on the special status of Hong Kong, accusations of unfair trade practices by Beijing, lack of transparency concerning the pandemic and China’s military aggression in various parts of the world. (ANI)

US President Joe Biden has signed three executive orders to address concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including one to reunite migrant families separated at the southern border under the previous administration’s zero-tolerance policy.

“With the first action today, we’re going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, mothers, and fathers at the border with no plan, none whatsoever, to reunify the children, who are still in custody, and their parents,” Biden said in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Biden said the second executive order he signed will address the root causes of migration to the US southern border. The third executive order directs a full review of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Biden said.

In 2018, former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the United States had adopted a “zero-tolerance policy” for immigration offenses that required prosecution of all illegal entry referrals at the southwest border including misdemeanors and regardless if the migrant adult was with a family unit.

Last week, US acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson formally terminated the Trump administration’s so-called zero-tolerance immigration policy. More than 1,000 migrant families were separated in 2017 under the so-called zero-tolerance policy.

In October, US media reported, citing the American Civil Liberties Union, that the Trump administration is unable to find the parents of nearly 600 migrant children in US custody.

Biden on his first day in office on January 20 took executive action to halt the ongoing construction of the border wall and to suspend the Migrant Protection Protocols program, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy, while his team reviews the Trump-era policies. (ANI/Sputnik)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will step down as the chief executive of the company — which he founded almost 27 years ago, the company announced on Tuesday (local time).

According to The New York Times, Bezos will transition to the role of executive chairman in the third quarter of 2021. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services would take over as CEO of Amazon.

The announcement came as Amazon released its financial results for its fourth quarter that ended December 31, 2020. The company recorded USD 100bn in sales for last three months of 2020.

“Amazon is what it is because of invention,” Bezos, 57, said in a statement released by the company.

“If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention.

“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition”.

Bezos had stepped back from much of the day-to-day business over several years, though the pandemic pulled him back in last spring.

“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition,” Bezos said in a statement.

Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994 had stepped back from much of the day-to-day business over several years, though the pandemic pulled him back in last spring. (ANI)

International pop star Rihanna extended her support to farmers protesting on the borders of India’s capital against the three agriculture laws introduced by the Central government last year and asked why people were not talking about it.

Taking to Twitter, the 32-year-old pop star shared a news story by CNN on the internet shutdown in several districts of Delhi’s neighbouring state Haryana after protestors broke barricades to enter New Delhi and clashed with police in several parts of the national capital during the January 26 ‘tractor rally’ protest organised by farmers. The protestors also entered the iconic Mughal Era monument Red Fort and unfurled their flags from its ramparts.

“Why aren’t we talking about this?!”, wrote Rihanna, as she added the hashtag #FarmersProtest along with the post on the micro-blogging site.

The ‘Umbrella’ crooner’s tweet evoked reactions from fans and celebrity followers and caused her to trend on the microblogging platform. With over 241,000 tweets, Rihanna was trending at Number 1 spot in India on the site. Till 11:10 pm (IST), her tweet garnered 144,000 likes and over 70,000 retweets.

Actor Kangana Ranaut, who had supported farm laws called Rihanna a “fool” and said that the protestors were not farmers but “terrorists who are trying to divide India”.

“No one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA… Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies,” the ‘Panga’ actor tweeted.

Others like Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Diljit Dosanjh have earlier come out in support of the farmers on Twitter. Diljit also had a Twitter spat with the ‘Queen’ actor following their contrasting views on the protesting farmers.

“Yes! Thank you so much Rihanna. This is a humanity issue! #IStandWithFarmers and this narrative is TIRED,” Canadian YouTuber, comedian, talk show host, and actress Lily Singh tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government has extended the suspension of mobile internet services in several districts of the state till 5 pm on February 3.

Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year 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)

Russian’s Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to the result of an interim analysis of the phase 3 trials published by the journal Lancet on Tuesday.

“In the interim efficacy analysis of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, where data on 19,866 volunteers were included in the efficacy analysis (14,964 of whom received the vaccine and 4,902 the placebo), the two-dose treatment of Sputnik V administered 21 days apart demonstrated the efficacy of 91.6 per cent against COVID-19,” read the Lancet’s paper.

Sputnik V, which is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vectors platform, was the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said that the publication of internationally peer-reviewed data on Sputnik V’s clinical trial results is a great success in the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Russian vaccine’s safety and high efficacy are shown by the hard scientific data presented and I congratulate the entire team of Gamaleya National Research Center for this monumental achievement,” he said. (ANI)

Nepal is very grateful to the Indian government for gifting 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the country’s envoy Nilamber Acharya said on Tuesday, adding that the Himalayan nation is “confident” of getting more doses of the vaccine.

Speaking to ANI, Acharya said India is a good neighbour and friend.

“We are grateful to the Indian Government for gifting 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. We are confident that we will get more vaccines, that we have ordered. We thank the Indian government and people, they are a good neighbour and friend,” the ambassador said.

Nepal with a population of nearly 30 million has turned out to India for help to procure vaccines as it plans to inoculate nearly 75 per cent of its population.

The Government of Nepal, on January 15, approved the use of Covishield developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) for emergency use.

Last week, Nepal began its nationwide inoculation drive after receiving one million Covishield vaccines, manufactured by the SII from the Indian government.

Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli expressed his gratitude towards India for providing one million dosages of Covishield vaccine within a week of its rollout in India.

The vaccination drive in Nepal that started across 62 hospitals and 120 vaccine centres across the country is expected to continue for 10 days. Frontline workers who took the jab have encouraged others falling under the criteria set by the government to come forward and take part in the drive.

In the first phase of its inoculation drive, the Nepal government has planned to vaccinate a total of 450,000 frontline workers of various fields with two doses of Covishield vaccine to each.

When asked about reports of increased infrastructure projects by China in Nepal, the ambassador said: “India and Nepal have close cultural, historical and social connections. We share many values and we are inheritors of a common civilization. We should think about maintaining it and not about other areas”. (ANI)

At least 50 rockets, which were fired from Pakistan since Monday night, landed in Shelton district of Kunar province of Afghanistan, said provincial governor Mohammad Iqbal Saeed.

The rockets have caused “financial damage to local residents”, Tolo News quoted the provincial governor as saying.

The Pakistani and Afghan governments often accuse each other of initiating fire in the border region, where terrorist groups are often interlinked on both sides of the border, according to Al Jazeera.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are divided by Durand Line. It is a 2,400 km (1,500-mile) frontier with villages straddling the border and mosques and houses having one door in Pakistan and another in Afghanistan.

In 2017, Pakistan said it had started building a fence along the border as part of efforts aimed at curbing fighting. But the move sparked condemnation in Kabul.

In July 2020, the Afghan police said that at least four civilians were killed and nine others including women and children, were wounded in the rocket firings.

Afghanistan had then condemned the rocket firing by the Pakistani army on its soil. (ANI)

Professing her love for India, Bollywood actor Janhvi Kapoor treated fans with her happy pictures from a fort on Tuesday.

Kapoor posted multiple photos on her Instagram and shared about the affection for her motherland. In the series of pictures shared by the 23-year-old star, she is seen roaming in a fort and adoring its heritage.

With the post that garnered more than two lakh likes within a few hours, the actor said that she has ventured to the far corners of the world, however, it is India that takes her leap with euphoria.

The photos see Kapoor sporting a cozy chic winter style where she donned a pullover with grey-blue warm trousers. She completed her look by accessorizing it with reflective sunglasses and teaming the outfit with a bright blue woolen muffler and mustard coloured boots.

Taking it to the caption, the ‘Dhadak’ actor noted, “Travelled the world but no place makes me jump like IN”.

On a professional note, Kapoor who was last seen in ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl,’ will be next seen starring in Aanand L Rai’s ‘Good Luck Jerry’ in the lead.

Presented by Subaskaran and Aanand L Rai, ‘Good Luck Jerry’ is a Colour Yellow Production with LYCA Productions in association with Sundial Entertainment, directed by Sidharth Sengupta and written by Pankaj Matta.

The first schedule of the film is expected to continue till March. It marks Janhvi Kapoor’s first collaboration with Colour Yellow Productions. (ANI)