Here's why 2022 will not witness India and US becoming global strategic partners

The US is a global power—militarily the strongest, technologically the most advanced, besides being the world’s largest economy. It has shaped the post Second World War order according to its needs. It believes in the universality of its values and its exceptionalism is interventionist and controls in many ways the international political and financial institutions. It extends its domestic law to foreign countries as necessary to achieve its foreign policy goals, using the threat of sanctions to obtain compliance. The status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency gives the US tremendous financial clout through the control it exercises on all global financial transactions in dollars. It can block foreign funds, limit access to its capital markets and impact the world with its monetary policies.

America’s military power was challenged by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, the Russian challenge has diminished. The US looks upon Russia today as a regional power, not a global one, and has humiliated it with repeated sanctions and threats of more if its conduct does not meet American approval. The US has abandoned many of the critical Cold War-era disarmament agreements such as the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) and the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) treaties, implying that it no longer sees it as a strategic equal. Nato has been expanded to the borders of Russia despite its opposition.

China is now challenging US power in ways the Soviet Union could not. China today is the second-largest economy, the biggest exporting country, and the world’s manufacturing hub. It is the biggest trading partner of the US, which places a limit on the US capacity to confront it, unlike in the case of the Soviet Union or Russia with which the US had or has minimal economic ties. America has created dependencies on China that it cannot shed. China controls many of the critical global supply chains for raw materials and manufacturers, a reality that the COVID-19 pandemic drove home to the US and the rest of the world. China is using its huge financial resources and capacities in building infrastructure to expand its international reach through the Belt and Road Initiative. It now possesses deterrent military capabilities and is expanding them with space-based technologies, maritime power and nuclear arsenal.

All this is relevant for India as it rises and aspires to play a leading role in international governance in the years ahead. How much of India’s ambitions can be met by relying increasingly on the US, which will inevitably result in constraining India’s foreign policy choices, or maintaining the independence of its foreign policy as much as possible at the cost of some dilution of support from the US for the achievement of our political, economic and security goals remains a key question. Is it possible to maintain a balance between our ties with the US and other power centres in a way that we can gain the most and lose the least?

Charting a New Course

Our relations with the US have since 2005 entered into a new course and have become steadily stronger. With no other country our ties are today so wide-ranging. The US is our biggest single country trade, investment and technology partner. Our knowledge economy is closely tied to the US. Economic management, regulatory and reform ideas flow to us from the US. On the defence side, a major transformation has taken place, with massive Indian acquisitions of US defence equipment, signing of foundational agreements, expanding military exercises—bilateral as well as plurilateral—easier access to American military and dual-use technologies, shared strategic concepts such as the Indo-Pacific and membership of forums such as the Quad. Both countries underline shared values of democracy and human freedoms as binding factors, which has resonance in the context of the rising threat of authoritarianism to the international system. The people to people ties with the US are deep with the over 4 million-strong Indian American community, almost 200,000 Indian students in US universities and strong academic ties.

At the same time there are undercurrents in our relations that cause irritations, raise doubts and affect the relations negatively. The liberal press in the US contributes to creating negative perceptions about India by its biased reporting. US human rights organisations target India on minority, religious freedom and democracy issues. US laws have interfered with our relations with Russia and Iran. America’s Afghanistan policy has disregarded our security interests, while its soft policy towards Pakistan remains a source of concern.

While the US has been supportive during our stand-off with China in Ladakh diplomatically as well as by way of supply of some needed equipment and intelligence sharing, the principal axis of our strategic ties is in the maritime domain. This no doubt serves our interests as China’s maritime challenge is slated to grow and has to be met bilaterally and through the Indo-Pacific concept and the Quad as well. We should continue this cooperation, knowing that US support for our land-based confrontation with China will be limited.

The signals from Afghanistan are clear. The US is not taking any position on sovereignty issues in Ladakh. Even in the East and South China Seas, the US is not taking a position on such issues even though it involves its allies, whereas India is not one. In the Indian Ocean, the US is looking for burden-sharing which India can provide, given its geographical position and the strength of its navy. India has expanded choices in this regard, as it is already cooperating with France in the Indian Ocean. With the EU, UK, Germany also developing their Indo-Pacific strategies, broader cooperation in this zone to deter China’s expansionism is taking shape.

Retaining Freedom of Choice

The question of the US walking the talk in 2022 of India is a global strategic partner suggests that India is ready to be one in all domains but the US is reticent. The reality is that both countries want to retain their freedom of choice in this regard. The US does not want to assume responsibility for India’s defence and India is not looking for it either. For the US this would mean a fundamental change in its policy towards Pakistan and broadening the risks of a direct conflict with China. For us the handling of our ties with Russia, which remains our biggest defence partner, with more long-term relations being built in this area, would become unmanageable, given the deepening adversarial relationship between it and the US. Already the Russia-China strategic nexus is becoming stronger. If India and the US boost their ties to levels that effectively an alliance-like situation develops, the strengthening of the Russia-China axis could well become a response.

US and Indian policies are also not congruent in all areas. Becoming a global strategic partner would imply India partnering in policies, areas and issues, including in the UN, on which our interests as a regional power and a developing country differ from those of the US as a global power and an advanced economy. In any case, if the assumption is that we need the US to counter China with which our relations have entered into a period of uncertainty and prolonged tensions because of its open hegemonic conduct, we would be making a strategic mistake. We have to take into account the growing opposition in the US to involvement in wars abroad and the need felt there to devote more attention to solving problems at home.

So far, India has preserved its strategic options fairly effectively by strengthening ties with the US without loosening its ties with Russia and indeed looking for ways to broaden those ties in the economic domain, and keeping the channels of dialogue open with China despite the military confrontation on the border. India is conducting itself already as a major power in some sense, demonstrating its capacity to manage conflicting relationships. It subscribes to the Indo-Pacific concept, has deepened its commitment to the Quad, has instituted 2+2 dialogues (Foreign and Defence Ministers) with the US, Japan and Australia (now also with Russia), is developing another Quad eastwards with US, Israel and the UAE, and is, at the same time, a member of BRICS and SCO and still participates in the Russia-India-China dialogue. This policy is best suited to advance India’s interests as a rising country in whose future all other major powers have some stake. With this policy India can still strengthen its ties with the US in areas of mutual interest and benefit. Despite differences, the nature of ties with the US has changed from lack of trust and feelings of grudge to friendly and constructive engagement.

A global strategic partnership between the US and India means a strong understanding on global issues and a sharing of global responsibilities. If India supports multipolarity, wants a reform of the international system hitherto dominated by the West, has developing country perspectives in negotiations on various issues confronting the international community, wants international inequities to be reduced, such an across-the-board strategic partnership is an unrealistic proposition. What can be achieved and is in the process of becoming a reality is closer alignment on issues of shared concern and a non-contentious, friendly dialogue on issues on which we still have different perspectives and interests.

The author is a former Foreign Secretary. He was India’s Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3qDGNXp

Shanghai opens two new metro lines to take total network length to 831 km, longest in the world

Maintaining its position as the city with the longest metro network, Shanghai has opened two new driverless metro lines. With the two new lines, the total length of the city’s metro network extends to 831 kilometres.

The newly opened lines- Phase one of Line 18 and Line 14 –went into operation on 30 December, according to Xinhua News. As per the news outlet, Shanghai’s Line 14, which operates for 38 km, is the first fully automatic metro line for eight-car trains in the city. The line is expected to function as a pivotal part of the metropolis, serving 31 stations. As per reports, it will connect the areas of  Putuo, Jiading, Jing'an, Huangpu districts and Pudong New Area.

As per Wion News, Phase one of Line 18 extends to approximately 21 kms. The 18 station route is expected to help ease traffic in Shanghai’s downtown area.

The two new driverless metro lines take the total number of automatic lines in the city to five. Currently, Shanghai operates 167 km of fully automatic metro lines, making it the first in the world.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Shanghai now boasts of 508 metro stations in total. Many of the metro lines in the city have unofficial nicknames like Line 6, which has been termed “Hello Kitty Lane” due to its pinkish livery.
Similarly, the city’s Line 10, which connects some major tourist attractions such as Xintiandi, Nanjing Road and Yuyuan Garden, is called the “Golden Line”.

After Shanghai, Beijing and New Delhi take the second and third spot on the list of cities with the largest metro networks.
Beijing’s metro extends to about 780 km, with 450 stations, as per Beijing Daily reports. The city constructed 53 km of metro lines this year.

Delhi Metro’s Phase IV track, which totals 103.93 km, is expected to begin functioning in 2024. This will take the city’s metro network to 453 km.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3mMf59E

Woman punches, spits on elderly passenger in flight; watch viral video here

In a strange incident, a 51-year-old woman assaulted a fellow passenger in a Delta flight from Tampa to Atlanta. She was later arrested by the FBI. The video of the woman losing her temper soon went viral on social media.

The incident took place when Patricia Cornwall was walking back to her seat after using the flight’s toilet. When Cornwall was heading to her seat she found that the seat was blocked by a beverage cart. A crew member urged her to take a vacant seat until the cart could be moved.

Furious Cornwall refused to take the seat and yelled at the crew member saying, "Who am I, Rosa Parks?" Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist who in 1955 refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.

To stop the argument, an elderly man told Cornwall not to use Rosa Parks’ name as it was not a bus and she was not black. In the video, Cornwall could be seen punching and spitting on the man. A co-passenger recorded the attack on his mobile phone.

Watch video here

https://twitter.com/ATLUncensored/status/1474552407707242498?

Since being shared, the video has been viewed over 9 million times on Twitter. Cornwall could be heard asking the old man to wear his mask. However, her own face mask was pulled down to her chin.

In the video, Cornwall can be seen slapping the old man while the crew trying to stop her. The police arrested her when the flight landed in Atlanta.

According to the New York Post, the 51-year-old woman has a criminal history. Her stepdad also filed a restraining order against her in July 2020 after she attacked him.

Patricia Cornwall is a former Baywatch actor and one-time NFL cheerleader.

As per CNN, the woman appeared in federal court in Atlanta on 27 December and was accused of "assault by striking, beating, or wounding R.S.M. in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States." If found guilty, Patricia Cornwall can face up to one year of imprisonment and $1,00,000 fine.

 

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3zejdEf

From sizzling temperatures to pensioners in space, a look back at 2021's biggest records

The year 2021 draws to a close following some extraordinary successes in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, but there are challenges that are yet to be overcomed.

Scientists have conceived around 20 vaccines, which have drastically slowed fatality rates in first-world countries but left the developing world far behind - a major challenge in 2022, with a combined threat of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the world made a host of pledges on the climate change crisis that now need to be put into action, while natural disasters will continue to batter people across the globe.

Meanwhile, the very concept of democracy was shaken by the attack on the US Capitol, the Taliban takeover of Kabul and multiple coups in Africa.

From sizzling temperatures to Messi and Ronaldo and pensioners in space, here are some of the most significant records struck in 2021.

Hottest month

July 2021 was the hottest month globally ever recorded, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says.

And wildfires in Siberia, North America and around the Mediterranean caused record levels of CO2 emissions in July and August, the EU's Earth monitoring service says.

Record gas prices

As economies reopened from their COVID-induced slumber firing heightened gas demand, prices in Asian, European and British gas hit record peaks. Europe's reference Dutch TTF gas price hit 187.78 euros per megawatt hour.

Biggest airlift

The United States carried out its biggest ever airlift in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, bigger even than the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

It airlifted more than 123,000 people out of Kabul, including US citizens, Afghan interpreters and others who supported the US mission.

Around 55,000 people were evacuated from southern Vietnam in 1975.

Suez Canal blocked

The giant container ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal in March, bringing a halt to shipping for six days in one of the world's busiest waterways.

The ship, almost as long as New York's Empire State Building, caused a record traffic jam of 422 ships loaded with 26 million tonnes of merchandise, worsening supply difficulties already disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese incursions

The most dramatic Chinese incursion into disputed Taiwanese airspace occurred at the start of October as China marked its annual national day when a record 149 flights crossed into Taiwan's southwestern air defence zone in four days.

Bitcoin soars

Cryptocurrency bitcoin soared to record levels in late 2021, being valued at $68,513 on November 9. The digital currency increasingly won support from small and large investors, some of whom see it as a way of protecting themselves against inflation, which hit a 30-year high in the US in October.

Art goes wild

Art sales records in 2021 included works by Frida Kahlo, veteran French artist Pierre Soulages and Banksy reaching sky-high levels.

Revenues from sales of contemporary art have never been as high, totalling $2.7 billion, boosted in particular by the explosion in sales of unique digital works and NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

Space tourists

Captain Kirk of "Star Trek", alias veteran actor William Shatner, became the oldest person to go into space at 90.

He was among two dozen non-professionals who blasted off into space in 2021 on rockets owned by billionaires Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic).

Ronaldo versus Messi

Two of football's living legends, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina's Lionel Messi, rewrote the record books.

Ronaldo became the top scorer of all time for a national team with 115 goals and also the most capped European, having been selected 184 times.

Messi outstripped Brazil's Pele as the best Latin American striker with 79 goals for Argentina.

Everest and the Channel

Nepal's Kami Rita Sherpa beat his own record for climbing Everest, claiming a 25th successful ascent to the roof of the world in May.

Australia's Chloe McCardel, 36, became the person to have swum the Channel the most -- a remarkable 44 times.

With inputs from agencies

• Please read: Farewell 2021: Your A to Z guide of the biggest news events of the year

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3FDre8h

Watch | Spearfisherman encounters huge white shark, see what happens next here

A nail-biting video clip of a man coming face-to-face with a huge shark has gone viral on social media.

The jaw-dropping footage of the white shark was captured by a spearfisherman named David Scherrer near Outer Banks on the North Carolina coast. David captured the footage in his underwater camera while diving in the sea.

In the 44-second video, a shark can be seen going in the other direction, while David holds a speargun. Suddenly, the shark turns and starts coming to the spearfisherman. Scherrer’s speargun remains pointed at the shark which then turns and swims away.

Watch the video here:

Speaking to The Virginian-Pilot, Scherrer said that at first, it was awesome. "It’s a pretty unique experience just to see one, but as it started going towards me it wasn’t so cool anymore," he added. He further said that it’s not usual for sharks to swim up to diver. “Though some species of shark are known to be more aggressive,” Scherrer said.

While coming head-to-head with the shark, Scherrer was thinking of only two things - don’t panic and hold the speargun, and second, where to stab the predator if it attacks him. The spearfisherman shared his experience on his Facebook page.

During his school days, Scherrer took up spearfishing as a hobby. Later, as reports suggest that he turned it into a profession.

David Scherrer is currently working as a diver for Virginia Beach Seafood Company. It is a local business that catches and delivers fresh fish to the Virginia Beach oceanfront community.

The famous killer shark in Jaw movie was inspired by the great white shark in New Jersey, as per The National Geographic. However, most shark attacks are not fatal and the white sharks are by and large curious in nature.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3qwaARu

Why Pakistan’s new National Security Policy document will not change its age-old anti-India outlook

India is surrounded by an unfriendly neighbourhood, thanks primarily to China and Pakistan. Since its inception, Pakistan has followed a revisionist policy as far as India is concerned and its foreign policy has been framed around the perceived existential threat it faces from India.

On 28 December 2021, the Pakistan cabinet approved its first National Security Policy (NSP) document aimed at guiding its defence and foreign policies. Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser (NSA), said: “It is a truly historic achievement; a citizen-centric comprehensive national security policy with economic security at the core.”

The five-year policy document covering 2022-26 is being flaunted by the government as the first strategy paper of its kind that sets out the state’s national security vision and guidelines for the attainment of those goals. The policy, however, has not been publicly shared yet.

The security policy was unveiled at the 36th NSC meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, with participation from key ministers, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, all Services Chiefs, NSA and senior civil and military officers, according to a press release issued after the meeting.

The NSP-2022-26 was presented for approval by the NSA, who briefed the participants about the salient features of the policy. He highlighted that Pakistan was shifting to a comprehensive national security framework, whereby the ultimate purpose of national security was to ensure safety, security and dignity of citizens of Pakistan. “To ensure this citizen-centric approach to security, the NSP put economic security at the core,” said Moed Yusuf. According to him, a stronger economy would create additional resources that would in turn be judiciously distributed to further bolster military and human security.

A national security document is a vision of a path a nation should take in pursuit of its national objectives. It is, therefore, an outline of the country’s major security concerns and lays down the guidelines for dealing with them which include both external and internal security challenges and its comprehensive national power. To sum up, it is the base document for employing tools of national power in accordance with national policy to achieve its security objectives in accordance with national interests. All strategies flow from it, including the military strategy from which the joint land, air and maritime strategies are derived.

A National Security Policy document thus provides clarity and facilitates a synchronised whole nation approach while dealing with the various security challenges. The policy is devised with the consultation of all stakeholders concerned. A national security strategy has to integrate these components of policy in the focused pursuit of clearly articulated goals and priorities. It has to be more than a sum of the parts and provide an overarching, strategic focus to them.

Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said the policy was an important milestone in strengthening Pakistan’s national security. “Pakistan’s armed forces will play their due part in achieving the vision laid out in the policy.”

While the policy remains classified, it will no doubt shed light on major issues such as security, foreign relations and economic issues. As far as India is concerned what needs to be seen is the articulation of the Pakistan policy with regard to Kashmir, terrorism, the proxy war, their nuclear policy, relations with China, policies with regard to Afghanistan and as well their relations with other countries in the region and beyond. More importantly, the national objectives would need to be specified, with the capabilities and means required to achieve these.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has remained wedded in the belief that India seeks to divide Pakistan along ethnic lines, and even though there have been repeated attempts by India to rebuild relations, any peaceful initiative has been opposed by the military apparatus — as seen during then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February 1999 which was followed by Pakistan’s intrusion across the LoC and occupying heights overlooking Kargil; and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lahore in December 2016 which was followed by the Pathankot terrorist attack in January 2016.

While the attack derailed the attempts to engage by both leaders, the attack in Uri later that year and in Pulwama in February 2019 only reinforced the futility of trying to engage with Pakistan while it continued to support terrorist activities and therefore forced a change in India’s policy of strategic restraint by carrying out surgical strikes. There has been no bilateral meeting between the two Prime Ministers since 2015 as there remains a deeply embedded hostility towards India.

Due to its geostrategic location, Pakistan has always found itself to be at the centre of global geopolitics — be it the Cold War, Afghanistan’s occupation by the erstwhile USSR, and the global war against terrorism. Since its inception, its foreign policy has been largely driven by its security concerns rather than political, economic or social issues. Today, Pakistan is closest to China and this mutual trust emanates as both have a common goal in countering India.

What remains to be seen is that while publically the National Security Policy talks about economic growth and developmental progress, it is unlikely that these will take precedence over its primary security concern — India — for which it leans heavily towards China. Pivotal equations between India and Pakistan will continue to be dominated by Kashmir, the ongoing proxy war and terrorism; it is unlikely that this prevailing equilibrium is likely to be reset by this classified policy document. The India-centric security obsession will remain the core of this policy.

The author is an army veteran. Views expressed are personal.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3FHQE4H

Why one might think differently about new year resolutions for 2022 as we finish two years of the pandemic

At the beginning of each year, many people make vows to either do or not do something to improve their life in some way. The fresh start of a new year is magically equated with a fresh start to life and often imbued with renewed hope that this year things will be better.

As we enter 2022, after two years of living with COVID-19, this hope may be stronger than usual.

The pandemic’s impacts have ranged from deaths and other adverse effects on physical and mental health, to huge changes in employment, income, travel, leisure and the ability to socialise. The effect on individuals has varied considerably, depending on what their life was like beforehand, how much it has affected them personally, and their own resilience.

Based on discussions with colleagues and patients, we may see resolutions driven by loss, guilt and anger, plus a rush on common types of self-improvement resolutions and a greater drive for overall life changes.

Resilience

How we respond to the shocks of the pandemic depends in part on our resilience: the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress. It involves "bouncing back" from difficult experiences, and it can also involve personal growth.

People who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 may respond with New Year’s resolutions, but they may take positive or negative forms.

Positive resolutions might be commitments to honour the deceased in some way, or to live well because your loved one cannot. A pact or vow made with or to a deceased loved one to "live life better" can be a powerful, positive motivator to change bad health habits such as smoking, excessive drinking or gambling, although professional help is advisable to ensure safe and lasting change.

Negative resolutions, often driven by strong feelings of anger and despair, might be vows to seek revenge or punish those who may seem responsible for the death of their relative or friend.

"Revenge resolutions" are not usually helpful adaptations and may spring from a sense of guilt arising from not being able to save their loved one or spend time with them.

People who survived a COVID-19 infection while a loved one did not, in particular, often experience strong feelings of guilt.

Guilt-driven resolutions are driven by powerful emotions. They are likely to be realised in some form throughout the year, when hopefully the driving emotions become less intense by the following year.

Personal improvement

Since the virus has posed a major health risk, it would make sense for more people than ever to choose the New Year to resolve to improve their own health.

Quitting smoking is a very common New Year’s resolution, and it seems even more sensible than usual amid a global pandemic of a virus that mainly attacks the respiratory system. However, as many people have found in the past, giving up cigarettes is very difficult and often requires significant planning and help to succeed.

While the pandemic may have made the desire for change stronger, it does not magically make resolutions any easier to achieve. This applies similarly to resolutions to change the use of alcohol or other drugs, which would also benefit from planning and professional help.

Weight loss is another favourite New Year’s resolution. The famous "COVID kilos" will no doubt drive more people than usual to resolve to lose weight in 2022.

Crash diets are common, but are often abandoned by February. Careful eating and an exercise plan accompanying the resolution will make it more likely to succeed.

Bigger changes

While COVID-19 is likely to give an extra edge to common resolutions, we are also likely to see a surge in resolutions for overall "lifestyle change". Many people’s attitudes to work and family have changed dramatically over the past two years, due to travel restrictions, work or study from home, and little socialisation with those outside our immediate families.

This hugely significant alteration in our way of life has caused many people to reconsider their futures.

Many have found great enjoyment in spending time with family and are now rethinking their work–home balance. Discovering that working from home is possible has made many people reconsider their career options moving into 2022.

Some experts anticipate a post-pandemic work exodus, dubbed the "great resignation", in which millions of people, from frontline workers to senior executives, may resign from their jobs.

According to recent research by Microsoft, more than 40 percent of the global workforce are considering leaving their employers. This trend is expected to be replicated in different industries in the USA, UK and Europe. In Australia, this trend is not evident, but nonetheless, a New Year’s resolution may be to determine a different type of employment for 2022 and beyond.

Two paths for 2022

COVID-19 has left most of us drained and wary of the future. Many people believed the pandemic would end in 2020, but 2021 brought more infection, lockdowns and restrictions.

In times of trauma, when the future is uncertain, there can be a polarisation of behaviours. Some people adopt a “devil may care, live for now” attitude to life, with greater risk taking. Others take the opposite attitude, and exercise extreme caution and narrow their existence further.

Both groups may well make New Year’s resolutions to fit their approach to life.

Jayashri Kulkarni, Professor of Psychiatry, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3EIled1

New Year celebrations: From grapes to raw egg, here are some food traditions from around the world

Despite the pandemic, people are looking forward to celebrating the New Year 2022 with pomp and fervour. As the year comes to an end, take a look at these New Year food traditions from around the globe.

Sweets in India:

People in India start the New Year by offering sweets to Lord Ganesha or other deities. They do this in order to bring peace and prosperity in the family. Many families also prepare a plethora of sweet dishes including Gulab Jamun, Laddoo, Malpua and distribute them among friends and family.

12 Grapes in Spain:

In Spain, eating a dozen grapes at 12 am (midnight) is an age-old tradition. If people don't manage to eat all the grapes, then that signifies bad luck. It is also believed that sweet grapes bring good fortune in one’s life, while the sour ones foresee a not-so-good future.

Raw egg in El Salvador: 

People in El Salvador crack an egg into a glass of water as part of a tradition that they follow. They do this a minute before midnight. Then the next morning, the family decides what the coming year will bring to them as per the yolk’s appearance.

Whisky in Scotland: 

Scotland believes that the New Year celebration is incomplete without Scottish whisky as it signifies to ring in a merry year with laughter and fun. A few in Scotland also eat a Spiced Fruitcake on New Year's Eve. They believe that it is a sign stating the individual or family will have enough food in the years to come.

Pomegranate in Turkey: 

This country has an interesting tradition that they follow to date. On New Year’s Day, people smash pomegranates on their doorways. They believe that the more seeds they burst out, the better fortune the family will have in the coming year.

Soba noodles in Japan: 

At midnight on New Year's Eve, families in Japan eat buckwheat soba noodles, or toshikoshi soba. They practise this to bid farewell to the year gone by and welcome the year with open arms. This tradition dates back to the 17^th century and the long noodles symbolise prosperity and long life.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3sMDDTV

New Year's Eve 2021: Google unveils new doodle with a dash of year-end festivities

On the last day of the year, Google came up with a celebratory doodle marking New Year's Eve 2021 with tiny lights, giant candy, jacklights and confetti. On Google’s homepage, the doodle went live as soon as the clock struck 12 on Thursday midnight with an aim to prepare for the next year, 2022.

The doodle features a giant candy with '2021' written in the middle of it. It appears in a way that it awaits to pop as the clock strikes midnight on Friday (31 December). The idea behind the Google Doodle is simple as well as cute and the word Google displays a variety of colours.

This year Google Doodle did not come with various descriptions or designs. Instead, it has been kept unambiguous to usher in the new year. “That's a wrap for 2021 – Happy New Year's Eve!” wrote Google on its doodles' archive.

Last year, Google marked many fun and elaborate doodles on several occasions. A few to be remembered are the ‘Doodle Champion Island Games’ that was put up to honour Tokyo Olympics and even a pizza-cutting test which featured on 8 December.

Along with that, Google Doodle also gave tributes to several renowned celebrities including Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan, scientists Dr Kamal Ranadive, Swedish DJ Avicii and soft contact lens inventor Otto Wichterle.

Since 2020, the year has been ending on a grim note due to the coronavirus. This year too, the highly transmissible Omicron variant has started creating panic and is contributing to a steep rise in the number of cases. Due of the new infectious diseases, medical health professionals, experts and the governments all across the world are also in a state of high alert.

However, Omicron is considered to cause milder illness, but it has pushed infection levels to record high in countries including the United States, France and Great Britain, forcing authorities to reimpose restrictions in parts of the world.

 

 

Keywords: New Year's Eve 2021, Google, Google doodle, New year, Happy New Year 2022, Happy New Year, Google Doodle 2021, Google Doodle 2022

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/32QcioB

New Year 2022: Best games to ring in 2022 with friends and family

New Year's eve is round the corner and this is the time when people bask in the festivities of the holiday season. This year, yet again, the world is witnessing a steep rise in the number of COVID-19 cases with the onset of its new variant, Omicron. And, owing to the scare surrounding the new variant, many plan to celebrate the occasion at home. 

To make the celebration more interesting, you can plan a board game night with your friends and loved ones.

From board game competitions to musical chairs, we have curated some ideas for you to celebrate the occasion at home and ring in the New Year with zeal and fervour.

New Year's eve poker tournament

Call some friends and gather everyone to start an old-fashioned poker tourney at the top of each hour until midnight. Grab a pack of cards and chips to munch and make it more interesting with a surprise gift for the winner.

Catch Phrase

This is a game which you can play with your family. The game is full of fast-paced action as participants quickly give clues to for their teams to guess a word and then pass immediately to rival teams before the timer stops.

White elephant game

The same rule of the White Elephant game will apply here. You can spice up this game by giving interesting gifts like - spa gift cards, funny comics, cookbooks, etc.

Two resolutions and a lie New Year's Eve game

This is a virtual game and people who are far from their families can play it. Change the rules and make the game more interesting. Share three resolutions and let the participants guess which one is a lie.

New Year’s eve Bingo Game

This is the most classic game ever. You can recall your childhood memories associated with the game and share them with your family.

Champagne Relay Race

Challenge everyone to fill up Champagne flute from a big bowl. The catch is participants can only use a teaspoon to transfer it into their glass.

Charades Game

Gather a list of all important events from the past related to music, politics, etc. Mention each event on a piece of paper, put them into a bowl and use them in the game of Charades.

Balloon Countdown

You can end the party by popping the balloons. Alter the rules and make it more difficult for the participants.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/32KqMXe

Stand News comes to an end: Why Hong Kong’s pro-democracy news outlet was forced to shut down

Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News said Wednesday it will close after a police raid and arrests of seven current and former staff members, in the latest blow to the city's rapidly shrinking press freedoms.

Suppression of the semi-autonomous Chinese city's local press has increased in the wake of 2019's huge and often violent democracy protests and Beijing's subsequent imposition of sweeping national security law.

The erasure of dissent has extended to the city’s physical landscape, with the pre-Christmas removal of memorials commemorating Beijing’s deadly 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square democracy protesters, reports The Guardian.

Just months earlier the shuttered website had been held up by pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip as an example of press freedom still surviving in Hong Kong, amid widespread international condemnation of the closure of Apple Daily.

On Wednesday morning, police officers burst into Stand News' office, seizing phones, computers, documents and thousands of dollars, while hauling its acting editor-in-chief into the headquarters in handcuffs as it was searched.

"Because of the current situation, Stand News will stop operating immediately," the outlet said later in a statement on Facebook.

Stand News said its website and social media would no longer be updated and would be taken down soon. It added that acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, who was among those arrested, had resigned and all employees were terminated.

Why are Hong Kong officials clamping down on independent media?

Enacted in June last year by the Carrie Lam government in Hong Kong, the law criminalises any acts of secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign/external forces. More worryingly for the people of Hong Kong, the definitions of these terms are loose and fairly open to interpretation.

The new law has choked Hong Kong’s once politically diverse news landscape, which was markedly different from the CCP-controlled news media in mainland China.

According to the BBC, this law has given "Beijing powers to shape life in Hong Kong it has never had before. Critics say it effectively curtails protest and freedom of speech — China has said it will return stability."

Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2020 RSF World Press Freedom Index. The People's Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180

So what happened with Stand News?

Steve Li, senior superintendent of the national security police, accused the media outlet of publishing news articles and blog posts between July 2020 and November 2021 that incited hatred towards the Hong Kong government, among other alleged crimes.

"They described Hong Kong protesters as 'being disappeared' and 'violated'... These are malicious allegations without any factual basis," Li told a press conference.

The seven individuals were arrested under British colonial-era law for "conspiracy to publish seditious publication".

More than 200 officers were deployed to search the outlet's newsroom with court authorisation to seize journalistic materials, police said.

Around lunchtime on Wednesday, they could be seen hauling boxes from the office. Li said they seized about HK$500,000 ($64,100) in cash.

The national security unit also froze about HK$61 million ($7.8 million) worth of the outlet's assets, one of the largest sums it has ever frozen, Li said.

'Editorially independent'

Police arrested former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, as well as four board members who resigned in June -- Hong Kong pop star Denise Ho, barrister Margaret Ng, Christine Fang and Chow Tat-chi -- according to local media.

Former Apple Daily editor Chan Pui-man, the wife of Chung, was the seventh person arrested under the law, police confirmed later in the day.

Li would not rule out further arrests and said some individuals not in Hong Kong had been put on a wanted list.

Announcing its closure, Stand News thanked its readers, saying it was established as a non-profit in December 2014 to "take a stand in Hong Kong".

"Stand News was editorially independent, and was dedicated to protecting Hong Kong's core values such as democracy, human rights, freedom, rule of law and justice," it said.

Hong Kong has long served as a regional media hub, though it has tumbled down press-freedom rankings in recent years as Beijing asserts greater control over the city.

During 2019's unrest, police clashed with several Stand News reporters.

European Union spokesman Peter Stano wrote on Twitter that the raid and arrests marked "a further deterioration in #PressFreedom" in the city.

And Kyle Ward, deputy secretary-general for Amnesty International, said: "Authorities continue to weaponize Hong Kong's legal system by invoking a colonial-era law of 'seditious publication' and suggesting that articles might be 'inciting secession."

Meanwhile, exiled activist Nathan Law tweeted that the arrests illustrated the persecution of journalists and media that "dare to challenge them and speak the truth".

But Hong Kong's chief secretary John Lee told reporters those detained were "evil elements" and "bad apples abusing the position... of media worker".

Stand News is the second Hong Kong media company targeted by the authorities, after Apple Daily -- which shut down in June after its assets were frozen under the national security law. Li denied police were targeting the media, saying outlets would not face legal trouble if their journalists wrote "unbiased" reports.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3JwTEDs

Luxury lies: The real meaning of news these days

“Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians,” declared a front-page item in the New York Times two days before Christmas. It was a massive, well-illustrated story that I first read, or rather, experienced, richly in its online version.

The headline, in white letters, hung across an intense photograph of hands raised in prayer, framing a pastor and a Cross in the distance. It was composed, clearly, to engage, immerse, transport you to church in India from wherever you were reading it, whether a Manhattan high-rise, Brooklyn brownstone, or Silicon Valley suburb.

At least a dozen photographs followed, echoing for me many media memories such as old Life magazine spreads and Pearl S Buck’s The Good Earth type compassion-aesthetics. One image though followed a more recent media code for India stories, and that one involved a low-angle point of view, suggesting an ominous, horror movie mood. This was reserved for what otherwise seemed a serene image of Lord Rama on the wall of an alleged “Hindu nationalist”.

‘What’s That?’

The visual codes dominated at first glance (which, in our age of ever-glowing and never-relenting phone screens might well turn out to be the only glance), but the words offered up what to me seemed like familiar characterisations of people by identity in the New York Times. The Christians were “mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door” while “to many Hindu extremists… Christianity is a threat to their dream of turning India into a pure Hindu nation.” And in Bihar, where Pastor Patil is conducting a secret service in an unmarked farmhouse, a dog barks outside and instantly, “one woman whipped around and whispered, ‘what’s that?’”

This tone of particularly intense fear reminded me of not one but two lines, albeit identical ones, from the New York Times and National Public Radio in 2019. In an NYT article dated 11 April 2019 titled “Under Modi, a Hindu Nationalist Surge Has Further Divided India,” we are introduced to Adnan and other Muslims from old Delhi’s “catacombs” who are afraid to walk alone and whose “voices drop to a whisper” when they talk because they can be lynched. A few days later, NPR’s April 23, 2019 report titled “India is Changing Some Cities Names, and Muslims Fear their Heritage is Being Erased,” presents to us one Ashraf, whose voice, also, “drops to a whisper.” (Read my article on this from 2019 here)

Media critics and apologists

I see patterns, codes, tropes, in media because that is what I believe it is my professional responsibility to do. But I see it also as an act of human decency not to deny that these stories might be about real people and real suffering somewhere out there. It is not easy to do both at the same time, and in the days when I was active on social media, I used to find friends getting upset with me for “nitpicking” media reports when “Hindu Nationalism” was sweeping across India.

It is not uncommon for those of us who teach or write about media to be confronted with such charges. Just a few hours ago, I saw a tweet from Ashley Rindsberg, whose book on the New York Times’ egregious record covering world affairs has been making waves, sharing a similar complaint. How can you criticise an institution on “our side” just for a few small mistakes?, is the tone of this sort of pushback to media criticism.

The publishing establishment hates that I wrote a book about @nytimes. Here's one representative response I received.

Maybe they hate it because NYT Bestseller list is the most powerful tool in book marketing. Maybe it's just politics.

Either way, f' em. pic.twitter.com/Xk0ST3kzNR

— Ashley Rindsberg - TheGrayLadyWinked.com (@AshleyRindsberg) December 26, 2021

Of course, the fact is that while some of my friends might see my decoding of this NYT article as a distraction from the really important work of combating Hindutva, some of my friends will probably see what is quite obviously the trouble with NYT’s massive article already.

These friends, like me, would have probably seen not only the NYT’s claim about minority persecution in India but almost around the same time, also read the news that India’s “Hindu nationalist” government long criticised in the same media for minority persecution has actually managed to get a long-closed church going again in Srinagar (read this AJE piece for fun on the same news for its interesting slant on the whole thing).

These friends would have also seen the news about people being massacred over accusations of blasphemy, and not once by Hindus. These friends would probably also remember very well how the last time there was a blasphemy attack on Christians by Muslims in Pakistan, an NYT columnist blamed it on Pakistani Muslims having been influenced by the “Hindu Caste System.”

And most of all, these friends probably also remember, like me, the photo of the weeping archaka of the Ramateertham temple in Andhra Pradesh holding the head of his beloved Rama earlier this year when a spate of attacks broke out against Hindu deities and temples there.

Polarisation and News

I often wonder about the deceptive familiarity of our social media feeds, about how easy it is for X to assume that Y has also been seeing the same things and how on earth could he or she possibly think differently. That we live in silos, even as we seem to be always in each other’s lives and minds through our feeds, is the reality today. How can we hope to “agree to disagree,” as the saying goes, when we can’t agree even on what is actually happening in the world, on how much violence against Hindus there is, for example, beyond the pages of the New York Times?

I think one way for us to overcome the divide is to step back from the way we normally think about news. We are so accustomed to thinking of news as a source of information (or disinformation) that we forget that it is essential, and perhaps increasingly, only a consumer product, designed and delivered with marketing precision rather than lofty ideals about serving the cause of truth and so on.

In his recent book, Hate Inc, Matt Taibbi makes an even more compelling comparison — news is more like a drug than a discourse, the outcome of a “marketing process designed to create rhetorical addictions.” Scrolling, he writes, has become “a similar tactile trigger to grinding a lighter with a thumb.” The way we pick up our phones constantly is one part of it. The way we get sucked into rivers of anger and outrage at what we read, either in agreement, or in disagreement, is another part of it.

Pandemic of propaganda

As we come to the end of our second year under the crushing weight of a pandemic accompanied by a propaganda explosion that leaves us with ever lessening trust in institutions like media, it is perhaps useful to distance ourselves from the nitty-gritty of the claims and counterclaims around news these days.

I know that some of my friends will never feel the way I do about the pictures I saw earlier this year from Andhra Pradesh, and later from Bangladesh, of dozens of cruelly destroyed Hindu deities, to understand why I feel less and less persuaded by lavish photo essays of the sort the New York Times presented to its readers recently. But I can, perhaps, try to understand why this object, this phenomenon, this experience, exists in the first place, a little more. Even after three decades of studying, teaching and writing about media, it seems there is more to learn. And this year has been a particularly instructive if also humbling one.

The year began with the war on Hinduism in my home state, unsung and unnoticed in the New York Times, naturally. The year peaked to a devastating summer with families struggling for breath and life during the second wave while propagandists on one side preyed with drone-cams over funeral pyres and propagandists on the other went into uppity denials over it (at first at least).

The year ends now with depressing reports about hateful acts and words everywhere; poor pilgrims seeking food accused of blasphemy and getting lynched, lunatic “religious leaders” issuing calls for violence, and clever politicians assuring us that they only meant the police and not everybody really when they spewed fanatical calls for vendetta.

The year ends, as it began, as it was, with untruth and fear. But there is one optimistic footnote (though, I must caution you this I mean somewhat ironically). After reading the huge December 23^rd NYT piece on how Hindus are persecuting Christians in India, I took a look at the print version too, to get a sense of where it was placed in the paper.

Luxury lies

The story was at the bottom of the front page, and right under the headline was a bright colour advertisement for a luxury cruise company. It seemed an apt illustration of the point that this year’s best critics of media have made.

Behind all their walls of words about “Hindu nationalism” and “White Supremacism” companies like the New York Times were really elite productions selling elitist markers of belonging to elite audiences (Batya Ungar Sargon notes in Bad News that between 38-46 percent of readers of New York Times, National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal and the Economist fall into the $75K+ bracket).

What they sell, really, are customers who can afford to go on luxury cruises around the world in the middle of a pandemic at that, to advertisers who want just that sort of exclusive audience. And what they offer to keep those audiences hooked of course, is that sense of moral superiority; about race, religion, political ideology, everything that helps them deflect the obvious realities of class.

The phrase “luxury beliefs” are being used in some American circles to describe the worldview of this elite segment. I think “luxury lies” is a more appropriate term to describe what the New York Times delivers with its India stories though.

The writer teaches media studies at the University of San Francisco. Views expressed are personal.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3pFXZwc

Ghislaine Maxwell guilty in Epstein sex trafficking trial; a look at the case and what it's about

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York, and New Mexico.

The verdict comes more than two years after Epstein took his own life while in jail awaiting trial on charges including conspiracy to traffic underage girls for sex. Maxwell’s trial provided an opportunity for the victims of Epstein and Maxwell to give court testimony about the abuse they experienced.

Maxwell, a socialite, has denied allegations from four women who say they were teens when she helped the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse them. Her lawyers say she has been wrongly targeted by prosecutors intent on holding someone — anyone — accountable after Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on related sex-abuse charges.

Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. With the maximum prison terms for each charge ranging from five to 40 years in prison, Maxwell faces the likelihood of years behind bars — an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold her accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.

But what exactly was the case about? Let's take a look.

Who are Ghislaine Maxwell's accusers?

The prosecution, mounted by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, hinges on the accusations of four women who say they were teenagers when Maxwell and Epstein sexually exploited them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Three testified under the pseudonyms Jane, Kate and Carolyn. One, Annie Farmer, decided to tell her story publicly.

What have Maxwell's accusers said?

JANE

Jane spelled out an alleged pattern of deception by Maxwell that would be echoed by the others. She said she was 14 when she met Maxwell and Epstein at a music camp where Epstein was a benefactor.

Maxwell showered her with attention in a way that left her vulnerable the moment she was first instructed to follow Epstein into his pool house in his Palm Beach, Florida estate in 1994, she said.

When he began to sexually abuse her, “I was frozen in fear,” she said. “I’d never seen a penis before.”

Prosecutors wanted evidence that Maxwell was a direct participant. Jane gave it to them by claiming Maxwell and Epstein fondled her together.

When a prosecutor asked her why, as the defense pointed out, she didn’t initially reveal everything about her experiences with Epstein in initial interviews with law enforcement, she said fighting back tears: “Because it was too difficult — too difficult emotionally, too difficult on every level.”

KATE

Like the others, Kate recalled Maxwell praising and encouraging her, before Epstein sexually abused her during interactions that started in the early 1990s when she was 17.

The British woman described being intrigued by Maxwell, the daughter of a media mogul, and wanting to be her friend. She also testified about seeing Epstein naked for the first time after Maxwell stood next to him and asked her to massage him — and about feeling ashamed when it was over.

But there was a twist to her testimony when the judge ruled in favor of defense arguments that she shouldn't be allowed to testify about details of any sexual contact with Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan set that limit on her testimony because she was 17 when she first interacted with Epstein in Maxwell’s London home — the minimum age of consent in Britain. The same applied to later visits to Epstein’s Florida home when she was 18.

Kate still may have struck a blow for the government with her account of an interaction with Maxwell after a sexual massage with Epstein.

Maxwell “asked me if I had fun” and told her: “You are such a good girl.”

CAROLYN

A key role for Carolyn was to provide testimony about what prosecutors called “a pyramid of abuse,” allegedly encouraged by Maxwell.

While 14, she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s. Word spread that he was offering $100 bills for massages.

When an older schoolmate offered an introduction, Carolyn said she took the bait. She testified she made her age known, but that didn’t dissuade Maxwell and Epstein, she said.

Epstein, she said, masturbated and fondled her “every time" they got together. He also wanted her to bring along “any friends that were my age or younger,” she said.

She said found a friend for a threesome with Epstein. When it was over, “I was paid $600 and my friend was paid $300.” Why? “Because I brought her.”

She would learn that she hit her expiration at age 18 when Epstein, rather than hire her for massages, asked her to bring younger girls.

“And that’s when I realized I was too old," she said.

ANNIE FARMER

Farmer, now 42, is a psychologist who had told her story publicly before the trial through civil litigation against Epstein and in media interviews. She repeated how Epstein and Maxwell led her to believe they could be mentors, only to betray her trust.

On the stand, she walked the jury through her history with Epstein while 16 and in high school in 1996. She described how she was creeped out when Epstein held her hand at the movies in New York; when Maxwell touched her breasts while giving her a massage at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch; and when Epstein unexpectedly crawled into bed with her and pressed himself against her.

Feeling helpless, she made an excuse to go to the bathroom and hid there, thinking she “wanted to be in there long enough that this situation would be over,” she said.

The defence tried to rattle Farmer by suggesting she exaggerated her allegations in a $1.5 million claim awarded by a compensation fund set up for victims of Epstein by saying Maxwell had “groped” her and that Epstein had rubbed his genitals against her.

Farmer pushed back. Her goal all along, she said, was to see Maxwell “held accountable for the harm she's caused.”

What was Ghislaine Maxwell up to before her arrest?

Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 — almost a year after Epstein killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. After Epstein's death, she withdrew from public activities like running an oceans charity. Her whereabouts became a subject of public speculation. Was that her eating a burger and reading a book on CIA operatives in Southern California? Was she living in Britain or Paris or maybe even Massachusetts? Prosecutors say she went into hiding in New Hampshire — where she was eventually arrested — in a million-dollar home where she kept her cellphone wrapped in foil.

So has Ghislaine Maxwell been in jail this whole time?

Yes, despite multiple requests for bail, Maxwell has spent well over a year lodged in federal lockup in Brooklyn. Maxwell has triple citizenship with the US, UK and France, the last of which does not extradite its citizens. Her attorneys and family have lambasted jail conditions, which they say are punitive and inhospitable to Maxwell’s ability to mount a proper defense.

 

Is the case being aired on TV?

No. It's in federal court, which doesn't allow cameras. That's why all the images from the courtroom are sketched.

When did the testimony begin?

29 November.

Why didn't Maxwell testify?

When offered the chance, she told the judge — not without some defiance — that she had no need to testify, as the prosecution had failed to adequately prove their case. But regardless, it's rare for a high-profile defendant to put themselves on the stand, as it opens them up to a lot more scrutiny.

What was Maxwell's relationship with Jeffery Epstein?

They were romantically involved, but at some point — the timeline is unclear — she says she transitioned to being more of an employee, running his households. Prosecutors have accused of her functioning as Epstein's madam, procuring underage girls to satisfy him sexually.

Where did Epstein have homes?

All over the place: Palm Beach, Florida; New Mexico; Manhattan; the U.S. Virgin Islands; Paris.

What did Epstein do for a living?

He left his teaching career at a tony Manhattan prep school to work at Bear Stearns, an investment bank, and then started his own money-management business. He would not disclose his assets and income even after his July 2019 arrest, but he seems to have built fortune managing investments for others.

How is Prince Andrew involved in all of this?

He's not. Not exactly, at least. A woman is suing the British royal, saying he sexually abused her when she was 17. She says Maxwell facilitated her meetings with Andrew, who has denied the account. But the woman's accusations have been left out of this trial. That lawsuit won't go to trial until at least late 2022. Andrew's name has come up in this trial, though: a pilot of Epstein's private jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express” by the news media, testified he had flown Andrew and an accuser confirmed she told the FBI she had flown with the prince, as well.

Who is Maxwell's husband?

Also unclear! She was living with him when she was arrested in New Hampshire, but court documents have not made his name public. He did support her bail attempts, but has not been spotted at the trial.

Does Maxwell have any notable supporters?

Her family — the scions of the late publishing magnate, Robert Maxwell — is sticking by her. Two of her siblings, Kevin and Isabel, have attended each day of proceedings. The Maxwells strongly assert the U.S. justice system is making a patsy of their youngest sister. Ghislaine is notably the baby of the family and said to have been the favorite of her father, who died falling off a yacht named for her.

How has Maxwell been spending time in jail?

According to a website set up by her family, Maxwell has been working through a pile of books. Her reading list runs the gamut of criminal-justice-related books like the award-winning “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson to “Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department Justice” by Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and former lawyer for President Donald Trump. She's also been making her way through Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials” fantasy series and popular book club fiction pick “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” by Gail Honeyman.

Let's rewind: What exactly is Maxwell charged with?

The trial revolves around six charges:

1. conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

2. enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts

3. conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

4. transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity

5. sex trafficking conspiracy

6. sex trafficking of a minor

A superseding indictment in March also charged Maxwell with two counts of perjury, but the judge granted the defense's request to spin those off into a separate trial.

With inputs from AP

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3FFl5Z7

2021 Indian foreign policy: Looking back and then forward

It is relevant and appropriate to take stock of the performance by government in various fields, including its engagement with the outside world at the year-end. It helps in drawing inspiration from the successes, learning from the difficulties and preparing for years ahead in the least.

In this regard, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs must be bestowed with kudos for its proactive diplomacy, crisis management, promoting national interests and being at the centre of actions in bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral and multilateral activities in the world.

Despite the travel difficulties imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, India hosted many foreign leaders in Delhi for bilateral summits and meetings at other levels. The most significant and strategic bilateral summit that took place in New Delhi was between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That India could succeed in organising this in-person summit that resulted in an extension of Indo-Russian defence cooperation agreement for another 10 years and supply of Russian S-400 missiles to India is a matter of national gratification. The Russo-Chinese strategic alliance and the US threat of sanctions against the S-400 deal failed to prevent the deal from going through and, in fact, the delivery of the missiles has already commenced.

India has also been engaging various major powers in trilateral forums, such as Japan-India-US; Australia-Japan-India; and India-France-Japan at both official and second track levels of diplomacy. One of the most important trilateral engagements at the foreign minister level has been the Russia-China-India trilateral. The Indian foreign minister did have a virtual meeting with his counterparts in 2021 to promote, among other things, a multilateral world order.

India opposed the bipolar Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union and advocated non-alignment for decades. India emphasized the need to have a multipolar world even during the era when the United States was the sole superpower after the Soviet disintegration. And India continues to push for a multipolar world order when signs of a new kind of Sino-American Cold War are emerging in recent years.

***

Also Read

How Putin’s Delhi visit has reinvigorated a time-tested partnership between India and Russia

High honour for Narendra Modi! Bhutan confers its highest civilian award upon PM

How India changed direction of its engagement with major powers: From non-alignment to multi-alignment

How 2022 may see the meltdown of the China-Pakistan-Afghanistan axis

Why Indo-Russian relations continue to remain strong despite divergent geopolitical and strategic drift

Peace in Indo-Pacific and sharing democratic values: How Quad leaders took subtle digs at China

***

What is striking is the triumph of Indian diplomacy in teaming up with Russia and China and developing a common worldview of the need to have a multipolar world order as opposed to a single-power hegemony. In addition to Russia-China-India trilateral, there is a pentagon of major powers forum spanning four continents called BRICS or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. India hosted the virtual summit of BRICS in September last and the member countries in a joint statement pledged, among other things, “to promote a more inclusive, equitable and representative multipolar international system with the United Nations at its centre”.

Could India seek to promote the establishment of a multipolar order in the world, but settle for a single-power hegemony in the Indo-Pacific? Not at all. The world has witnessed the un-peaceful rise of Chinese power in recent decades. China, which advocated the theory of peaceful rise, began to assert its newfound power when the relative decline of the United States provided a propitious ground for it to do so. China’s claim of sovereignty in vast stretches of the waters in the South China Sea and its assertion of the same by use of military force has not been the sole issue. China has been doing the same in the East China Sea and even along the Sino-Indian Line of Actual Control.

China used its military muscle through 2021 to expand its territorial claims but continued to use its financial wealth to expand its economic control over a large number of countries in the Indo-Pacific and even beyond. The consequences of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China are now well known, but many countries have already fallen into the debt trap and some others seem to be trying to extricate themselves out of it.

India has opposed both Chinese military adventurism and its predatory foreign economic practices. But the most notable development in this regard that happened in 2021 is the QUAD Virtual Summit where India was an active participant. Quadrilateral Security Dialogue had almost gone into a decade long hibernation that was fortunately revived by US president Donald Trump. Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 US presidential election in a bitterly fought election and entered the White House in January 2021, took prompt steps to strengthen the Quad. In March, he convened the very first summit of the Quad member countries where the Indian prime minister actively participated.

The joint statement that was released after the summit did not even mention the word “China”, but the agreement among the members to work together in combating the coronavirus pandemic, securing the cyberspace, collaborating on emerging technologies and ensuring safe and uninterrupted supply chains would go a long way in preventing Sino-centric and Beijing-controlled hegemonic order in the Indo-Pacific.

Another significant development that took place in 2021, of course, was the sudden US decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. In no time after the US and NATO troops left Afghanistan, the Taliban re-entered Kabul and took control of the government institutions and agencies. One of the victims of this episode was India that faced both economic and security challenges. A couple of trillions of dollars of Indian investments faced issues and then there was the dire possibility of Pakistan directing developments in Afghanistan yet again and recharging the terrorism machine.

India’s role in coming to help the Afghan masses facing hunger and starvation and, second, seeking to contain the spread of Taliban influence has been extraordinary. While Russia, China and Pakistan were united in playing ball with the Taliban regime and advocating recognition of the Taliban and the United States was not in a position to address Indian concerns, India took its diplomatic initiatives to come to terms with the challenges.

India saw to it that the government in Kabul did not get international recognition until a broad-based governance system was in place, ethnic minorities were safe and steps were taken to prevent the Afghan soil from becoming the staging ground for terrorist activities. India coordinated its policies with Iran and the Central Asian Republics and with Western and Russian intelligence agencies to contain and confront terrorism. The Delhi Declaration of 10^th November was suggestive in this regard. Simultaneously, India provided thousands of tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance.

One of the most serious challenges that confronted India was the perceived loss of its soft power when the second wave of the pandemic struck India. India faced acute shortages of vaccines at home and could not fulfil its intention to supply vaccines to foreign countries. The government was resentfully criticised by the opposition parties within India and other countries expecting delivery of vaccines expressed their unhappiness.

But the way the government tackled the vaccine issue by manufacturing in millions, vaccinating almost 60 percent of the population and even exporting vaccines altered the image of India yet again and enhanced its power of attraction—soft power in the international community.

Thus Indian foreign policy in 2021 faced challenges from an aggressive China, the threat of terrorism in the Af-Pak region, loss of soft power, but came out successful.

As we enter the New Year, some of those challenges will remain. Indian diplomacy will have to be at work to promote a multilateral world order, a non-hegemonic Indo-Pacific order and engage in economic diplomacy to achieve the goal of Aatmanirnhar Bharat. The goal should be to make India an economic powerhouse that would facilitate global economic recovery and equitable globalisation.

The writer is a professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Views expressed are personal.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3mHPgHG

'Not a wave, but a tidal wave': COVID-19 daily infections hit record high in France and US as Omicron drives surge

The World Health Organization has warned that a 'tsunami' of Omicron and Delta COVID-19 cases will pile pressure on health systems is coming true as France and the United States reported record high infections.

The two western nations are struggling with rising number of infections and putting the healthcare infrastructure in both countries under massive pressure.

United States

New cases of COVID-19 in America soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

New cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks, eclipsing the old mark of 250,000, set in mid-January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has forced communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled amid staffing shortages blamed on the virus.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious-disease expert, said on Wednesday that there is no need to cancel small home gatherings among vaccinated and boosted family and friends.

But "if your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we not do that,” he said.

At present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of Americans in hospitals owing to COVID-19 is around 60,000, or about half the figure seen in January.

This is because of the vaccine protection and the possibility that Omicron is not making people as sick as previous versions.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 deaths in the US have risen over the past two weeks and the average stands at 1,200 per day to around 1,500.

France

The European nation set a new national record for COVID-19 on Wednesday with 208,000 new infections recorded over 24 hour, causing alarm in the government

According to figures given by Health Minister Olivier Veran to a parliamentary hearing, the number of cases have jumped by 15 percent since Tuesday when a record 179,807 new infections were reported, and had doubled since Saturday.

"I wouldn't call Omicron a wave anymore... I would call it a tidal wave," Veran said, referring to the new variant which is replacing the Delta variant as the dominant strain in France.

Some 10 percent of the French population had been in contact with somebody who is infected with the virus, Veran said, adding that the figures "make your head spin."
Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced several measures to try to contain the epidemic, but shied away from mass closures or lockdowns.

Some of the new restrictions are a ban on eating on high-speed trains and standing up in cafes and bars. Moreover, the country's around 1,600 nightclubs would remain closed for a further three weeks after they were ordered shut on 6 December.

According to official figures, daily hospital admissions in France are around 1,000 a day, still well below the peak of 3,500 during the first wave in April 2020 or nearly 3,000 in the second wave in November last year.

The rise in cases is forcing many hospitals, particularly those in the hotspots of France and the southern Mediterranean coast, to cancel non-essential operations.

WHO has reported that new COVID-19 cases worldwide increased 11 percent last week from the week before, with nearly 4.99 million recorded between 20-26 December. But the United Nations health agency also noted a decline in cases in South Africa, where Omicron was first detected just over a month ago.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/32OSLFn

Egyptian researchers 'digitally unwrap' mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I, all you need to know

Researchers from Egypt have ‘digitally unwrapped’ the mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I for the first time. The move has revealed many secrets about the king who ruled Egypt roughly 3,500 years ago, from 1525 to 1504 BC.
Egyptian researchers used advanced x-ray technology, digital 3D imagery and advanced computer software programs to digitally remove the wrappings of the mummy in a non-invasive method without even touching the body.

The results have unearthed details about the appearance of Amenhotep and jewellery he was buried with.

According to Sahar Saleem, a member of the research team and professor of radiology at the faculty of medicine at Cairo University, the pharaoh resembled his father and had good teeth, a narrow chin, curly hair and a small nose. Amenhotep died when he was about 35 years of age.  The mummy of the pharaoh was discovered by archeologists in 1881.

"He was approximately 169cm tall [5ft 6in], circumcised, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads,” said professor Saleem as quoted by The Guardian.
Unlike Tutankhamun and Ramses II and other Egyptian kings, Amenhotep’s brain is intact, according to the researchers.

Amenhotep who name means - “Amun is satisfied”, was the son of Ahmose I. He ascended to the throne after his father’s death and took the throne name Djeserkare – “Holy is the Soul of Re”. He. The warrior king ruled Egypt for about 21 years.

Amenhotep I, during his rule, concentrated on organising the kingdom's administration and the building temples. As per Egyptologists, his body was unwrapped by priests during the 21st dynasty that ruled the country in the 11th century BC, in order to repair the damage done by tomb robbers.

Egyptologists had earlier speculated that the priests unwrapped the pharaoh’s body to steal ornaments or to reuse royal burial equipment. However, later findings proved those theories wrong. Though the research team hoped to find evidence about the cause of Amenhotep's death, the results have so far proved inconclusive.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3pBIDZl