Month: August 2021

US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke on Monday about the ongoing evacuation operations in Kabul and planned to discuss a common approach to Afghanistan during the upcoming virtual meeting with G7 leaders.

“President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom spoke today about Afghanistan. They discussed the ongoing efforts by our diplomatic and military personnel to evacuate their citizens, local staff, and other vulnerable Afghans,” the White House said in a statement.
They also discussed plans for the G7 virtual leaders’ meeting tomorrow, underscoring the importance of close coordination with allies and partners in managing the current situation and forging a common approach to Afghanistan policy, the statement added.

Last week, UK prime minister had informed that G7 countries will have urgent talks on the situation in Afghanistan on August 24.

“I will convene G7 leaders on Tuesday for urgent talks on the situation in Afghanistan. It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years,” Johnson had tweeted.

Later on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the participation of Biden in the virtual meeting. She had said that the talks will revolve around the evacuation of US citizens and “vulnerable” Afghans and humanitarian assistance for refugees.

Several nations have resorted to evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan due to the precarious security situation. (ANI)

In its first “fatwa” after the siege of Kabul, the Taliban in Herat province have ordered all government and private universities to end co-education in their centres, a media report said.

In western Herat province, the Taliban have ordered that girls will no longer be allowed to sit in the same classes with boys in government and private universities, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported.

In a three-hour-long meeting between university lecturers, owners of private institutions, and the Taliban, the latter said that there is no alternative and justification for continuing with co-education and it must be ended, the report said.

The country has separate classes boys and girls in schools and there is co-education in government and private universities.

Officials have raised their concerns over the decision as separate classes can be managed in public universities and institutions but it’s difficult in private institutes as there are fewer female students.

Mullah Farid, who represented the Taliban during the meeting, said that co-education should be ended because this system is the root of all evils in society.

Taliban entered Kabul on August 15. The city has witnessed chaotic scenes over the past week with people rushing to the airport to flee the country. Many countries have also started evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from the war-torn country. (ANI)

A large number of people across the world are unhappy with China due to its destructive policies and unreasonable global attitude that have been hampering the world, a media report said on Sunday.

Beijing’s handling of the pandemic, human rights violation and its harassment of neighbouring countries over baseless border claims have fuelled hatred against the communist regime in people worldwide.

Pew Research Centre’s survey on China (PRC Survey) of June finds that in the 14 advanced economies of Europe, in Asia-Pacific, Canada, and the US, surveyed in 2020 and in New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan surveyed in Spring 2021, most citizens had openly expressed unfavourable views about China, The Times of Israel reported.

The Trump administration had dragged China to the limelight of criticism as then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had slammed severe sanctions on Beijing over its repressive policies.

Not a one-off sentiment, poll records reflect that this sort of an adverse response to China has consistently grown over the last decade. With an 81% negative outlook, Australia has seen a rise of up to 24 percentage points since last year whereas, in the UK, around 75% of survey respondents seemed to have negative views up by almost 19 points, the Times of Israel added.

In all, China’s handling of the pandemic has been significant in making people unpleasant with Beijing. The criticism of Chinese conduct at the time of the outbreak made 61% of people surveyed across the 14 nations dissatisfied with that country’s response to the situation, Fabien Baussart mentioned in The Times of Israel.

During the pandemic, when countries scrambled to prevent economies due to a massive fall, the Chinese economy was on the rise. And it gave Beijing a boost to sustain its aggressive actions against its rivals whether it’s about the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan or others. These all fulled China’s negative image worldwide.

Last year, when Australia raised its voice against China over coronavirus and called for an investigation to find China’s role in coronavirus’ origin, Canberra and Beijing’s relations strained significantly.

Since then, Bejing has been taking aggressive actions against Canberra and blocked Australian interests in world bodies to hamper the rival financially.

The Asia-Pacific region has been hit badly by Beijing’s policies as the region is afraid of being vocal about China’s human rights abuse due to its financial interests. While a majority of the population in New Zealand (80%), Australia (78%) and Japan (54%) concentrate on supporting human rights, many in South Korea and Singapore focus on boosting economic interactions, The Times of Israel said. (ANI)

With only 17 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, Delhi on Monday recorded its lowest number of fresh infections this year.

The national capital’s positivity rate today was reported to be 0.04 per cent, and with 374 active cases, the total cases in Delhi stand at 14,37,334, informed the Delhi Health Department.

For the fourth consecutive day, Delhi has not recorded a single Covid fatality. The cumulative death toll of COVID-19 stands at 25,079.

As many as 41 patients recovered from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative recoveries to 14,11,881 and the recovery rate to 98.22 per cent.

The Delhi Health Department also reported that of the 46,251 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 7,966 were rapid antigen tests and 38,285 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests.

The number of cumulative beneficiaries vaccinated so far in Delhi crossed 1.23 crore (1,23,17,272), including 2,566 beneficiaries vaccinated in the last 24 hours. Out of those who received the shots in the last 24 hours, 825 were vaccinated with the first dose and 1,741 were inoculated with the second dose. (ANI)

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday approved Zydus Cadila’s DNA vaccine for emergency use in adults and children aged 12 years and above.

It is considered a timely move amid warnings of an upcoming third wave in the country. Recently, a committee of experts under the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) warned of the third COVID-19 wave that could peak around October and sought better preparedness for children.
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, while speaking exclusively to ANI on vaccines for children in India and use of Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D for above 12 years adolescents, said, “So far the vaccines which were in the market were those which were for above 18 years. This is the DNA vaccine that has just received emergency use authorization is for 12 to 18 years and above. For the younger children, maybe 5 to 12 years, and even below there are different stages of the research which is still going on, and mostly all the vaccine manufacturers on different platforms are doing their trials.”

Dr Swarup added, “We know that Bharat biotech has already got permission for the trial of a vaccine which is again for younger children five years and above. Similarly, the biological E is still in their phase three trials. Currently, it’s now doing its phase 2, phase 3 for which it got approval for the trials on children.”

“So, most of the vaccine developers are working but that’s going to take a little while it’s very difficult to say when. But they are already working on it, but this is for 12 and above. It is a good development, and we hope that this is going to make a major difference,” she further said.

When asking about the administering of ZyCoV-D to Children she said, “DNA vaccine which has just received emergency use authorization. we’ve just been informed that this was going to take about four weeks before they can bring out the doses for the immunisation programme, which children will get immunised. It will be taken by the entire NTAGI Working Group on COVID because they will have to decide, considering how much volume is going to be available. Knowing this, that this is a new technology, a new platform, it does take time for the scale-up of this vaccine.”

“The schedule of the dosing for which category of children will be guided by the NTAGI the working group based on a number of parameters that they will consider, and that’s how the decision will be taken,” she added. (ANI)

Two persons out of the 146 passengers who landed in Delhi from Afghanistan on Monday were found positive for COVID-19.

Speaking to ANI, Rajendra Kumar, Sub Divisional Magistrate said, “Two people coming from Afghanistan have been found COVID positive. They have been sent to LNJP Hospital.”
The second batch of 146 Indian nationals who were evacuated from Afghanistan via Doha arrived in the national capital on Monday on various flights.

India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people including 329 of its nationals in three different flights.

Up till now, around 400 individuals from Kabul have been evacuated that covered Indian citizens as well as Afghan nationals including Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan.

Earlier on Saturday, government sources told ANI that India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan.

Permission has been granted by the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces, which have been controlling operations of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Afghan capital was taken over by the Taliban on August 15.

Hundreds of Indian nationals have to be taken out of Kabul, which is now under the Taliban’s control. India is airlifting its citizens through Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Qatar. The Indian Air Force has already evacuated around 180 passengers including its Ambassador to Afghanistan and all other diplomats. (ANI)

From Ayushmann Khurrana to Anushka Sharma, a slew of Bollywood celebrities have taken to their social media handles to wish actor Vaani Kapoor as she turned 33 on Monday.

Ayushmann, who will be sharing the screen with Vaani in their upcoming film ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’, posted a cool selfie with the birthday girl on his Instagram Story.
“Happy birthday @vaanikapoor. Can’t wait for the world to see you as Maanvi in #ChandigarhKareAashiqui,” he captioned the selfie.

Actor Anushka Sharma shared a happy picture of the ‘Bell Bottom’ star on her Instagram Story.

“Happy birthday! Wishing you love and light always,” she wrote.

‘Toofaan’ actor Mrunal Thakur also shared a gorgeous picture of Vaani along with the message, “Happy Birthday @vaanikapoor. Keep shining always.”

Designer Manish Malhotra wished Vaani by sharing a stunning picture of the two together. He wrote the birthday wish, “Happy Birthday gorgeousssssss and Charming @vaanikapoor.”

‘Guilty’ actor Akansha Ranjan Kapoor posted a boomerang on her Instagram, in which Vaani can be seen pouting and smiling.

“Happy birthday my angel baby girl! I love you,” she penned the message.

Actor Athiya Shetty also shared a glamourous picture of Vaani on her Instagram Story and wrote, “Happy birthday @vaanikapoor. Lots of love and happiness to you.”

On the work front, Vaani was recently featured in the film ‘Bell Bottom’, co-starring actors Akshay Kumar, Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta Bhupathi.

Apart from ‘Bell Bottom’, Vaani has big entertainers like ‘Shamshera’ with Ranbir Kapoor and ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ with Ayushmann Khurrana in her kitty. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to brief the floor leaders of political parties in view of recent developments in Afghanistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.

“In view of developments in Afghanistan, PM @narendramodi has instructed that MEA brief Floor Leaders of political parties. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs @JoshiPralhad will be intimating further details,” tweeted Jaishankar.
This comes at a time when the Indian government is evacuating its citizens from the war-ravaged country in wake of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

On August 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and instructed all concerned officials to undertake all necessary measures to ensure the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the MEA has said the government is committed to the safe return of all Indian nationals from Afghanistan. The MEA said that the main challenge for travel to and from Afghanistan is the operational status of the Kabul airport.

India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people on three different flights. Another group of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals were brought back in a special Air India flight from Dushanbe, a day after they were evacuated to the Tajikistan capital in an IAF aircraft.

Separately, 135 Indians evacuated from Kabul to Doha in the last few days by the US and NATO aircraft were flown back to Delhi on a special flight.

On August 15, the Taliban entered the presidential palace in the Afghan capital on Sunday and declared its victory over the government after months of violence in Afghanistan. (ANI)

Amid the controversy of her husband’s arrest in the pornography case, actor Shilpa Shetty on Monday shared a motivational yoga video, encouraging her fans and followers to become their own warriors.

After a long hiatus, Shilpa is back on social media and recently she shared a video with her millions of Instagram followers in which she can be seen performing multiple asanas. Sharing the video, the ‘Hungama 2’ actor wrote, “Be your own warrior; strong enough to effect and defend positive change in your life.”

“Whether it’s a low or high point, I only turn to yoga. It’s the best remedy for me to stay positive, focused, and balanced. One of the most calming yet energising routines is that of the empowering ‘Virbhadrasana, Malasana, and the dynamic hip opening’ flow,” she further wrote.

The Atharvaveda: Shanti Sukta or the chant for peace is playing in the background of the video, which Shilpa described as “a complete package for the mind, body, and soul.”

In the video, Shilpa looked peaceful and composed. She signed off her post with, “Time to prove, ‘Yoga se hi hoga'”.

On a related note, Shilpa also made her comeback to the dance reality show ‘Super Dancer 4’ as a celebrity judge. She was on a break from the show because of the ongoing controversy of her husband Raj Kundra’s arrest in the pornography case.

On Saturday, the ‘Dhadkan’ star also shared pictures of a photoshoot from the dance reality show along with a powerful message, “There is no force more powerful than a woman determined to rise.”

On August 2, Shilpa issued her first statement in reaction to the ongoing controversy stating that the case is sub judice and attributing false quotes on her behalf should be stopped.

The Bollywood actor had posted a statement on Twitter. “Yes! The past few days have been challenging, on every front. There have been a lot of rumours and accusations. A lot of unwarranted aspersions on me cast by the media and (not so) well-wishers as well. A lot of trolling/questions posed… not only to me but also to my family.”

Kundra was arrested by police on July 19 along with 11 other people on charges related to the alleged creation of pornographic films. (ANI)

The construction of a new degree college in the Boniyar area of Uri sector in Baramulla district of north Kashmir is in full swing.

The foundation stone for this new college was laid by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha last year.
Locals and students of the Uri sector in Baramulla district hailed the construction of a new degree college.

The absence of degree college in the Uri sector has forced a large number of students to discontinue their studies and those who wish to pursue their further education have to travel long distances to reach their respective educational institutions.

Speaking to ANI, Aquib Ahmad, a student, said that they don’t have to travel to other places for education after the college is inaugurated.

“The construction has been started, and hope that the construction is done as soon as possible because Tehsil Boniyar is a far-flung area and there is a village near the international borders, so to take our degree we have to go to Baramulla or Uri and both the places are around 20-25 kilometres away from here. Travelling takes hours, if the college is constructed sooner, we don’t have to travel to other places,” Ahmad added.

Dr Tariq Hussain, Principal of Government Degree College Boniyar said the total cost of the construction of the college is about Rs 13.92 crore.

“Among the 52 newly establish colleges in state one of them is Government Degree College, Boniyar. The ongoing construction in the campus we are building two laboratory blocks at cost of Rs 21 lakhs and the cost is estimated around Rs 13.92 crore,” he said.

“The LG laid the foundation stone in October 2020. The first phase of the construction will be completed within 15 months, the second phase will be started in 2023. We have enrolled around 230 students for the 1st year. We are offering Arts course,” Hussain further said.

Mushtaq Mir, District President, BJP Baramulla said that students had to travel to Baramulla or Uri for further studies earlier.

“I am very grateful to LG for the Degree college in Boniyar, the college is a great development for the students of the area. The students had to travel to Baramulla or Uri for further studies, but the government took the notice that a college should be established here in Boniyar and I want our LG to inaugurate the college after completion,” he said. (ANI)