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Angela Merkel pays a ‘private visit’ to Alexei Navalny in Berlin

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who had been admitted for having been allegedly poisoned, was discharged recently. On Monday, he came out to the press and said that Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel visited him privately in Berlin.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday evening, without citing sources, that Merkel had made a secret visit to Navalny when he was at the Charite hospital in Berlin. It didn’t specify when the visit happened, but Navalny was discharged from the hospital last week.

Navalny had said the above in clarification to the report, “There was a meeting, but one shouldn’t call it secret,” in a tweet, referring to media reports alleging that Merkel made a secret visit to the Charite hospital where he remained for 32 days. “Rather, (it was) a private visit and a conversation with the family. I’m very grateful to chancellor Merkel for visiting me in the hospital,” the politician wrote.

He had been critical in the hospital for 32 days after having been suspected to be poisoned by the World War II famed poisoning agent Novichok. Angela Merkel’s visit allegedly confirms this poisoning, after doctors deemed his condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged. He will remain in Germany for the time being to continue his rehabilitation.

Scientists find several underground lakes on the red planet

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

A team of researchers have found evidence confirming the presence of a large reservoir of liquid water that could possibly be present under the surface of Mars which was expected back in 2018. There are also three more subsurface saltwater lakes that have been confirmed around the main one.

Scientists believe that these lakes could potentially be serving as habitats for life. They had used data from the radar on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft that investigated the southern polar region of the planet.

Upon observing an area that’s around 75,000 square kilometres in size, they found locations that reflected those signals back in a way that indicates the presence of water trapped underneath a kilometre of ice. The main lake, the one discovered back in 2018, measures 30 kilometres or 19 miles across, while each of the three smaller lakes surrounding it is a few kilometres across.

This comes at a time when some experts are saying that despite the fact that these are promising, there is also a possibility of no lakes to be found on the planet. They believe that even if there are lakes present, they might not necessarily be in the liquid form for the simple fact that it does not have enough heat flow to cause the water to remain in its liquid state. This is because of the absence of life forms on the briny lakes in Antarctica, which is suspected to prevail on Mars as well, due to the similarity in the geographical conditions.

SpaceX to launch Crew Dragon 3 manned mission on October 31st

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Crew Dragon, the NASA SpaceX collaborative project, is all set to be launched this Halloween on October 31. This is the programme’s first-ever crewed operation flight, following the demo which flew NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS in August.

They had originally planned for an October 23rd launch but had to later push it to the end of October due to the delay in checking the issues of the Soyuz capsule.

In an announcement by NASA, they said, “The new target date will deconflict the Crew-1 launch and arrival from upcoming Soyuz launch and landing operations. This additional time is needed to ensure closure of all open work, both on the ground and aboard the station, ahead of the Crew-1 arrival. The increased spacing also will provide a good window of opportunity to conduct additional testing to isolate the station atmosphere leak if required. SpaceX continues to make progress on preparations of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, and the adjusted date allows the teams additional time for completing open work ahead of launch.”

This mission is set to take astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi to the ISS. The crew is to be docked at the ISS and the capsule will launch on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Halloween at around 2:40 AM Eastern time.

Maruti Suzuki to fund 5 new startups under its MAIL incubator program

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

India’s largest automobile company Maruti Suzuki India limited has shortlisted 5 new startups as part of its MAIL ( Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab) incubator, under its third cohort. This incubator was launched in 2019 as an initiative to support startups. Maruti co-creates innovative business solutions in the automobile and mobility sector in partnership with GHV accelerator, and incubates up and coming startups.

“The auto industry is extremely dynamic and faces new challenges frequently. The lookout for new technological aids to assist the industry and continue working efficiently is an ever-evolving task,” MSIL Managing Director & CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said.

The five new startups chosen in Cohort 3 are Clean Slate, Peer Robotics, Vicara, Hyper-Reality, and URJA. With the addition of these five startups, Maruti Suzuki is now engaged with 14 startups under the MAIL programme in the last 18 months, the company said in a statement. These startups had undergone a series of extensive shortlisting including several stages of screening and pitch sessions. They will now be engaging with Maruti for paid projects along with other benefits that are provided by the programme.

This is the third cohort, since there have already been two levels of incubation programmes with other startups that had several innovative ideas that solve real-life industrial challenges.

UN plays peacemaker in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has called for emergency talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia under closed doors following the conflict that is going between these countries over the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno Karabakh. This meeting is to be held at 5:00 PM ET on Tuesday, following a formal request by Belgium, and a push by France and Germany.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces fought over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day on Monday, with both sides blaming each other for resuming the attacks that reportedly killed and wounded dozens as the decades-old conflict has reignited. This conflict has been raging on since the last two decades, and broke out heavily on Sunday, over the region that has been under the control of the ethnic Armenian forces, although it lies within Azerbaijan since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Atleast 95 people have been killed in the most recent conflict, and over 11 of them had been civilians. Azerbaijani military officials also told the Interfax news agency that over 550 Armenian troops have been destroyed, including those wounded, a claim that Armenia denied.

This has raised fears of a potential war between these two republics, prompting the UNSC to intervene and play peacemaker. This is because the clashes have taken place in the middle of the annual UN general assembly.

Sonu Sood endowed with the Special Humanitarian Action Award by UNDP

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Sonu Sood has been awarded the prestigious SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He has been in the news for quite some time now throughout the lockdown for his various philanthropic deeds in terms of helping lakhs of non-resident labourers go back home and helping with education in medical facilities to those in need. This was presented at a virtual ceremony on Monday.

This award has been previously conferred onto celebrities like Angelina Jolie, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Emma Watson and Priyanka Chopra.

“This is a rare honour. A UN recognition is very special. I have done whatever little I have done, in my own humble way, for my fellow countrymen without any expectations. However, to be recognized and awarded feels good. I fully support the UNDP in its endeavours to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Planet Earth and mankind will greatly benefit from the implementation of these goals”, said Sonu Sood, on receiving the coveted award.

The Sustainable Development Goals Programme (SDG) or the Global Goals Programme had been adopted by all the United Nations member states as a universal call to action against poverty, and towards prosperity and to protect the earth by 2030. The United Nations Development Programme confers this award on to those who had contributed to making these “life-changing-zeroes” like zero poverty, zero hunger and zero discrimination, in an attempt to fast track progress towards their pledge of leaving no one behind.

“Who is that fellow? Throw that dog out!”: DMK MP A. Raja blurts out at party cadre in public meeting, triggers meme fest

By
The Commune
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DMK MP from Nilgiris and former Union Minister A. Raja in a public meeting, lambasted at a fellow party volunteer and called him a ‘dog’ for raising slogans in the middle of his speech.

The DMK Deputy General Secretary was addressing a public meeting in Perambalur organized against the Farm Bills that were passed recently by the Parliament. ,

A man from the crowd can be heard shouting “Long live brother Raja!” to which Raja blurts out at the man and calls him to be thrown out.

“Yarra avan? Veliya thooki podu da avana! Andha naai a velila thooki podu!” (Who is that fellow? Throw him out! Throw that dog out!), Mr. Raja bursts out in the middle of the speech and later continues with it.

This had shocked the members on the stage as well as the audience.

Following this, many had called out the leader disrespecting his own partyman who had praised him.

The hashtag #உபிஸ்_என்கிற_நாய்கள் started trending on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/BeingUniqueOne/status/1310872197632651264

Apart from receiving flak, the party became the butt of jokes.

https://twitter.com/writter_vambu/status/1310916449817436161

DMK’s language politics is a “dead horse”, will have no impact in 2021 state election, BJP TN leader Annamalai says

By
Balaji Subramanian
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Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer K Annamalai who had joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) as its vice-president of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit in an interview with  Deccan Herald said he and his party deny the accusations of ‘Hindi imposition’ that is often levelled against his party.

The whole Hindi language has again reared its ugly head as the legislative elections in the southern state fast approaching in 2021. However, Annamalai also said language politics which has been the bread and butter of the DMK is a dead horse in the state and will not work in the 2021 elections.

“Hindi was never imposed in Tamil Nadu by the BJP. Hindi was imposed in Tamil Nadu in 1965, 1968 and 1986 by the Congress governments. The three-language formula proposed in the New Education Policy (NEP) does not impose Hindi and it is very clear that the third language is optional, and it could even be a regional language,” Annamalai said.

He further added, “The only thing that Dravidian parties do is to play with the Tamil pride. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the one who propagated Tamil by quoting Thirukkural and Kanian Poongundranar. If this is the case, how can BJP be anti-Tamil?”

Much needed SIG716 Assault Rifles approved by the DAC headed by Rajnath Singh

By
Balaji Subramanian
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The Infantry of the Indian Army will soon receive its second batch for 72,000 US-built SIG716 G2 assault rifles as the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, cleared the procurement, as reported by Swarajya Magazine.

In February 2019, the army had placed the first order for 72,400 of these rifles “under the fast-track programme” at a cost of around ₹700 crore and from December 2019, the army started receiving the much needed assault rifles.

Sig Sauer Inc, will complete the delivery by the end of this year.

The go head by the DAC comes at a time when the Indian and Chinese Armies are practically standing toe to toe at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The Army has eqquiped its infantryinvolved in counter-interagency with SIG716 rifles,and assault rifles for regular infantry units will be met with the procurement of AK-103s manufactured by a joint venture of Russia’s Kalashnikov and India’s Ordnance Factory Board in Amethi.

For a long time the Indian Army has been asking for a effective assault rifle that could replace the INSAS rifles designed by the ordnance Factory Board. The INSAS proved very problematic for the infantry because of its poor performance.

Taataa, Bye-Bye Amnesty!: ‘Human Rights’ NGO shuts shop in India

By
The Commune
-

Coming just days after the passing of bill to amend Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 that seeks to bring transparency and prevent misuse of the funds, ‘human rights’ NGO Amnesty International has said that it is downing its shutters in India citing ‘continued crackdown’ and ‘witch hunt’.

In its statement, it said that the ‘complete freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India has brought the organization’s work to a grinding halt’ resulting in it being compelled to lay off its staff and stop ongoing research works and campaigns.

“The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental. The constant harassment by government agencies including the Enforcement Directorate is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the government, more recently for accountability of the Delhi police and the Government of India regarding the grave human rights violations in Delhi riots and Jammu & Kashmir. For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent,” said Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India.

It said that the it came to know of the freezing of accounts on September 10.

Earlier it was reported that Amnesty International was routing its foreign finances through commercial routes in an attempt to evade FCRA provisions. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had said that Amnesty International (UK) invested approimately ₹10 crore as FDI in M/s Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore by subscribing to the Debentures.

However, in its statement Amnesty International India has said that the government is portraying the lawful fundraising model as money-laundering and added that overbroad legal framework is maliciously activated. It said that the ‘attacks on Amnesty International India and other outspoken human rights organizations, activists and human rights defenders was only an extension of the repressive policies and sustained assault by the government ‘on those who speak truth to power’.

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
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