❗️CONTEXT: On April 4, a 14-year-old was allegedly gang-raped at a birthday party organised by Braja Gopal Goala, the son of local Trinamool Congress leader Samar Goala, in West Bengal's Nadia district. The girl died due to excessive bleeding the next day.
🗯 ON THE RECORD: "It is known that there was a love affair. Even her family and neighbours knew about this. I cannot stop boys and girls from falling in love. This is not Uttar Pradesh. I cannot start a love jihad programme. It is a matter of personal liberty...If the son [Goala] does any love affair, why should TMC be dragged into it?"—West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
🚨 WHAT NOW: Braja Gopal Goala and one other person have been arrested. Two more are being questions. The High Court has asked the CBI to take over the case.
🗓 FYI: In the last 40 days, at least 15 cases of rape have been reported in West Bengal in many of which the accused are members of Banerjee's TMC. Some of them—
📍 March 3 | Sagar Islands, South 24 Parganas: Class 4 student allegedly raped by a TMC worker.
📍 March 22, 24 | Bashirhaat: Tribal woman and 11-year-old girl allegedly raped by TMC workers.
📍 April 1 | Burdwan: Government scheme worker allegedly raped by a TMC worker.
📍 April 10 | Bolpur: Minor girl allegedly gang raped, including by a TMC member.
📚 WHAT: Students will now be able to pursue two full-time undergraduate degrees, two postgraduate degrees, or two diploma programmes together simultaneously either at the same university or from different universities, the University Grants Commission has announced.
📜 It was one of the changes envisioned in the the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
💻 IMPORTANT: The two degrees could be completed either in physical classroom mode, one online and one offline, or both in online mode.
✏️ They can be a subjects from such as sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and a wide variety of disciplines. Admission will be granted depending on the eligibility of the student and the availability of programmes.
📌 If a student is eligible to pursue a postgraduate degree and also wants to enrol in a bachelor’s degree in a different domain, they will be able to pursue a UG and PG degree simultaneously.
🕰 For now, technical programmes, MPhil and PhD programmes will not fall under the same scheme.
💧 WHAT: After four seasons of failed rains and high temperatures, 90% of Somalia is dry and staring at its worst drought of the decade.
❗️DETAILS: 4.5 million people are hit. Malnutrition centers are overwhelmed. Somalia's largest river is almost empty. Prices for food and water are surging.
☀️ VISUALISE THIS: Rural roads littered with carcasses of animals—goats, donkeys and camels. Kids so weak, they succumb to malnutrition before reaching medical centers. Families torn apart; men leaving for towns to work, women and children moving towards wherever they can get aid; the elderly staying back, waiting for rain or help.
📣 SOS: If nothing is done, the UN projects that by the summer of this year, 350,000 of the 1.4 million severely malnourished children in the country, will perish.
🏠 Almost 700,000 people have left their homes in search of food and water for them and their animals.
🏫 70% of children are not attending school. More girls are being married off young.
⏰ WORST IS YET TO COME: Humanitarian agencies only have 3% of what is needed to intervene in Somalia. (BBC) It doesn't help that all aid efforts are focussed on Ukraine right now. The rainfall forecast for April is grim.
🌍 NOT JUST SOMALIA: The entire Horn of Africa—Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia—is looking at severe drought. In fact, the International Committee for the Red Cross says at least 25% of all Africans are facing a food security crisis right now.
🇨🇱 RELATED: Chile has entered the 13th year of a record-breaking drought.
🇺🇸 WHAT: In an escalation of rhetoric, US President Joe Biden used the word “genocide” for the first time in context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
🗯 ON THE RECORD: “Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting. We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me."
🎙 NOTE: Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal more than once since the war broke out.
🇺🇦 IN UKRAINE: “True words of a true leader POTUS. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”—President Zelenskyy on Twitter
🇷🇺 IN RUSSIA: Kremlin said it “categorically disagrees” with Biden’s use of the word "genocide". "Statements such as these are unacceptable from the President of the United States, whose own country has committed high profile crimes in recent history,” it said in a statement.
PUTIN SAYS: In his first public comments in over a week, Russia's President justified the war as “we were forced to do it”; “it was a matter of time”; “we didn’t have a choice”; “we couldn’t put up with it any longer”; and, “a clash was inevitable.”
❗️He also said Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its “military operation”.
RUSSIA'S WAR
UPDATES
Ukraine announced yesterday that Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the Opposition, and Putin's very close ally had been captured, and that if Russia wanted him, it would have to release Ukrainian POWs. Russia is yet to say yes.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has accused Russia of using phosphorous bombs on civilians.
European observers and experts in Ukraine are collecting evidence of Russia's alleged war crimes. They describe “clear patterns” of human rights violations by Russian troops.
Over 1.4 million people in eastern Ukraine now have no piped water, the UN says.
Hundreds of Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers, towed artillery and support equipment, are repositioning in eastern Ukraine. The first assault of this second phase of the war has begun with attacks on Kharkiv and Mariupol.
🦺 WHAT: On Tuesday morning, a man in a construction vest and gas mask boarded a crowded train at Brooklyn station, tossed two smoke grenades, and opened fire, before fleeing.
⛑ THE TOLL: 10 people were shot, five are critical. Another 13 people suffered injuries related to smoke inhalation, falls or panic attacks.
🔍 WHO: The New York police are hunting down Frank James, 62, the man initially a person of interest, now a suspect.
🚇 CONTEXT: The attack comes at a time when New York is witnessing a rise in crimes on trains. In 2021, rates of violent crime in the subway per million weekday passengers rose almost across the board compared to 2019, before the pandemic.
❗️ALSO: There were 19,384 gun-related homicides in 2020, which means nearly 53 people are killed each day by a firearm in the US.
#NEWSWORTHY SNIPPETS
MINI STORIES WORTH YOUR TIME
🇱🇰 At a time when Sri Lanka is desperate for dollars to import basics, Nepal's foreign currency reserves have also fallen by more than 16% in the seven months to the middle of February 2022.
🇵🇰 Pakistan's top investigative agency has opened an inquiry against former PM Imran Khan for allegedly selling an expensive necklace received as a gift during his tenure was to a jeweler for Rs 18 crore instead of depositing it to the state gift repository.
🏥 The Bombay High Court has rejected activist Varavara Rao’s plea seeking permanent bail on medical grounds in the Elgaar Parishad case. But it did extend Rao’s temporary bail by three months.
🚨 Police have booked Karnataka Rural Development KS Eshwarappa in connection with the alleged suicide of a contractor in Udupi. He refuses to resign. Two of his aides, Basavaraj and Ramesh, have also been booked.
🍸 Also not resigning: UK PM Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak despite being fined by police for breaking partying in Downing Street during lockdown in June 2020.
HAVE YOU SUPPORTED NEWSWORTHY?
Use any of the links below and make a monetary contribution to support Newsworthy.
.png)
Write a comment ...