Category: National

90% of India, entire Delhi in ‘danger zone’ of heatwave impacts: Study

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New Delhi: Heatwaves in India are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, with over 90 percent of the country in the “extremely cautious” or “danger zone” of their impacts, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by Ramit Debnath and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, also revealed that Delhi is particularly vulnerable to severe heatwave impacts, though its recent state action plan for climate change does not reflect this.
It suggested that heatwaves have impeded India’s progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more significantly than previously thought, and that the current assessment metrics may not fully capture the impacts of heatwaves linked to climate change on the country.

Heatwaves claimed more than 17,000 lives in 50 years in India, according to a paper authored by M Rajeevan, former secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences, along with scientists Kamaljit Ray, S S Ray, R K Giri and A P Dimri.
The paper published in 2021 said there were 706 heatwave incidents in the country from 1971-2019.
Thirteen people died from heatstroke at a Maharashtra government award function in Navi Mumbai on Sunday, making it one of the highest death tolls from a single heatwave-related event in the country’s history.
To assess India’s climate vulnerability and the potential impact of climate change on SDG progress, researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted an analytical evaluation of the country’s heat index with its climate vulnerability index.

The heat index (HI) is a measure of how hot it feels to the human body, taking into account both temperature and humidity. The climate vulnerability index (CVI) is a composite index that uses various indicators to account for socioeconomic, livelihood, and biophysical factors to study the impact of heatwave.

The researchers accessed a publicly available dataset on state-level climate vulnerability indicators from the government’s National Data and Analytics Platform to classify severity categories.
They then compared India’s progress in SDGs over 20 years (2001-2021) with extreme weather-related mortality from 2001-2021.
The study showed that more than 90 percent of India is in the “extremely cautious” or “danger” range of heatwave impacts through HI, otherwise considered “low” or “moderate” vulnerability through CVI.
States that were categorized as “low” in CVI rankings were found to be in “danger” HI categories, indicating that heatwaves put more people at extreme climate risk across India than estimated by CVI.
The authors concluded that the use of CVI may underestimate the actual burden of climate change concerning heat, and suggested that India should consider reassessing its climate vulnerabilities to meet the SDGs.
They warned that if India fails to address the impact of heatwaves immediately, it could slow progress towards achieving sustainable development goals.
The study also highlighted that the current heat-action plans designed and implemented according to the Delhi government’s vulnerability assessment do not include HI estimations, which is concerning since even the “low” climate-vulnerable areas in Delhi are at high heatwave risks.
The high intensity of development in Central, East, West, and North-East districts can further elevate the HI risks through heat island formation, it said.
The authors said some of the critical variables in Delhi that will aggravate heat-related vulnerabilities include concentration of slum population and overcrowding in high HI areas, lack of access to basic amenities like electricity, water and sanitation, non-availability of immediate healthcare and health insurance, poor condition of housing and dirty cooking fuel (biomass, kerosene and coal).
The threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, at least 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas, and at least 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius.
Earlier this month, the India Meteorological Department predicted above-normal maximum temperatures for most parts of the country from April to June, except parts of the northwest and the peninsular regions.
Above-normal heatwave days are expected in most parts of central, east, and northwest India during this period.
In 2023, India experienced its hottest February since record-keeping began in 1901. However, above-normal rainfall in March kept temperatures in check.
March 2022 was the warmest ever and the third driest in 121 years. The year also saw the country’s third-warmest April since 1901.
In India, about 75 percent of workers (around 380 million people) experience heat-related stress.
A report by the McKinsey Global Institute warns that if this continues, by 2030, the country could lose between 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
No religious event allowed on roads in Uttar Pradesh

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Lucknow: No religious events will be allowed to take place on roads, obstructing traffic during the upcoming festivals of Eid, Akshay Tritya and Parshuram Jayanti in Uttar Pradesh.
All district officials in the state have been directed to ensure that religious programmes should be held indoors, and no person should be allowed to block roads.
Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad and Special Director General of Police (SDGP) Prashant Kumar have issued directives in this regard to all field officers such as ADGs, Inspector Generals (IG), Deputy IGs, district police chiefs, Divisional Commissioners and District Magistrates (DMs) during a virtual review meeting, said an official note.

Prasad has asked that all officers in the field should ensure that religious programmes take place at their designated places only.
“Under no circumstances should any religious event be held by obstructing the road and traffic. In the past, we have been able to do this through proper communication and coordination. This year, too, we have to make a similar effort,” he remarked further.
The officials have been asked to remain alert against fake news or information shared on social media that might hurt people’s sentiments, and not allow any religious procession for which prior permission was not taken.
“The safety of citizens is our primary responsibility. Eid-ul-Fitr, Akshaya Tritiya and Parshuram Jayanti may be celebrated on the same day on April 22. In view of the present environment, the police will have to be extra careful,” said Prasad.

Special DGP Prashant Kumar suggested frequent police patrolling to strengthen law and order in the state. “We should keep an eye on suspicious activities. Videography of every important event must be done,” he said and added that notorious elements would be dealt with strictly.

Director General of Police R.K. Vishwakarma also reviewed the preparations for the upcoming festivals by zonal, range and district officers.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
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April 20, 2023
Florida poised to make DeSantis’ travel records secret

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Republicans contend they are pushing for the bill, SB 1616, at the urging of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency which now manages the state plane used by the governor and which has been inundated with record requests. GOP lawmakers asserted that releasing the information would allow someone to look for “patterns” that could jeopardize DeSantis’ security.
“Everything we do is monitored,” said Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples). “Bad actors can find out a lot. … I think it’s perfectly appropriate. Here we have a young governor who has young children, a young family. God forbid something would happen because information is out there.”
Republican supporters also said there was nothing in the legislation that would alter campaign finance laws that require state political officials to disclose when they use political committees or campaigns to pay for travel.
But Democrats ripped the bill as a way to keep DeSantis’ actions out of public view while open government advocates called it one of the worst ever proposed exemptions to the state’s much-lauded Sunshine Law.
“It’s so clearly an attempt to protect this information from reporters wanting to know how taxpayer money is being spent,” said state Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat.
Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, called the legislation “stunning” and “unbelievable.”
“It’s beyond the pale,” said Petersen, an attorney who has tracked open records laws and issues for 30 years. “It blows a hole in the public records law. … This is a governor who doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s doing.”

Under then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott — a multimillionaire who owned his own jet — the state sold off planes used by the governor and other top officials. Scott sharply criticized two of his rivals in the 2010 governor’s race by pointing to news articles that detailed how they had used the state plane at the expense of taxpayers. In one instance, a state auditor questioned whether then-Attorney General Bill McCollum had misused state resources in how he used the state plane.

After DeSantis took office, state legislators authorized spending millions to acquire a jet that could be used to get the governor around the large state and where commercial travel in and out of Tallahassee is not easy.
DeSantis routinely will use the state plane if he travels somewhere to hold a press conference or to deal with emergency response efforts. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been slow to turn over record requests showing when and where the state plane has been dispatched.
Flight tracking websites show that this year, DeSantis has used private chartered planes — or planes used by prominent Floridians — on out-of-state trips such as those connected with his book promotional tours. The governor’s office has said no state dollars have been used on those trips, but DeSantis’ political operation has not answered questions about the private planes.
But the bill legislators are poised to pass would essentially shield all information related to “security and transportation services” provided to DeSantis, his family, as well as visiting governors and their families, legislative leaders, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court and members of the Florida Cabinet.
Passidomo asserted that she was not worried about DeSantis misusing the state plane if his travel records were no longer public.
“He thinks about these things,” she told reporters.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
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April 20, 2023
Teachers union chief hires seasoned lawyer ahead of Hill testimony

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She’s turned to Michael Bromwich, senior counsel at the white shoe Steptoe law firm, for help.
“It is undeniable that the pandemic resulted in tragic and continuing consequences for children,” Bromwich wrote on the union’s behalf Wednesday to subcommittee chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.).
“We make no progress towards addressing those very real problems by engaging in the type of scapegoating built on false allegations that appear to be the basis for this Subcommittee’s ‘investigation,’” Bromwich wrote in his letter to lawmakers, which was obtained by POLITICO.
Bromwich is widely known in Washington for his work representing former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe during the Trump-Russia investigation and Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
A former Justice Department inspector general, Bromwich has garnered a reputation as a pugnacious defender. His message to congressional Republicans on Wednesday suggests he will deploy a similar strategy.
Earlier this month, Wenstrup asked Weingarten to testify at an April 26 hearing on the consequences of Covid-19’s school closures.
That request followed a March 28 letter from Wenstrup to Weingarten, which informed the teachers’ union chief that the select committee was investigating “potential political interference” with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on reopening schools issued in February 2021.

Wenstrup’s March 28 letter alleged the union was granted “uncommon” access to edit the guidance before its release, citing media reports at the time, which it said ultimately resulted in the CDC advising that schools should remain closed in much of the country.

Bromwich countered that the union shared its views on the planned guidance in late January 2021 during a conference call between Weingarten, senior union staff, CDC officials and President Joe Biden’s office.
AFT officials then followed up in February 2021 to suggest language related to accommodations for high-risk educators and staff, and also proposed that the CDC include language that said its guidance may need to be updated in light of new virus variants.
In addition, the union also proposed a “trigger” threshold that would determine when schools should be closed based on positive test cases. But the CDC rejected that suggestion, according to Bromwich.
“The claim that the AFT’s agenda was ‘keeping schools closed,’ and that it shifted CDC’s guidance to match that agenda, is utterly false,” Bromwich wrote to lawmakers on Wednesday.
“In fact, the AFT’s role was extremely limited,” he wrote. “It proposed changes that amounted to a few sentences in a 38-page document. The need to clarify these points was obvious and should have been uncontroversial.”
Wenstrup has asked Weingarten to supply documents, communications and a list of meetings between the AFT and the CDC, department of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of the President regarding the guidance, among other items.
Wenstrup also issued similar requests to more than a dozen other organizations — including the National Education Association, AASA, The School Superintendents Association; the National Association of Secondary School Principals the National Association of Elementary School Principals and National School Boards Association.
Weingarten “welcomes the opportunity to testify and cooperate with the committee’s work,” an AFT spokesperson said on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Wenstrup did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
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April 20, 2023
House GOP debt limit plan would block Biden’s student loan agenda, prohibit future relief

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The legislation would also bar the Biden administration from moving forward with a new income-driven repayment plan that cuts monthly payments for most borrowers and shortens the timeline to loan forgiveness for some borrowers.
In addition, the GOP plan would permanently prohibit the Education Department from issuing any significant regulation or executive action that would increase the long-term cost to the government of operating the federal student loan programs.
Such a sweeping prohibition would imperil efforts by the administration to provide additional relief or benefits to student loan borrowers. That would include any backup option for canceling large amounts of student debt if the Supreme Court rejects Biden’s student debt relief plan in the coming months.
Key context: The provisions are among dozens of policy changes and spending caps that House Republicans included in their 320-page legislation to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or until March of next year, whichever comes first.
Republicans have argued that they want concessions from the administration that lower the federal deficit and reduce spending in exchange for their votes to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
McCarthy said he hopes to pass it in the House next week. But the proposal stands no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Biden swiftly dismissed McCarthy’s proposal as a nonstarter. “That’s the MAGA economic agenda: spending cuts for working and middle class folks,” Biden said of the plan on Wednesday. “It’s not about fiscal discipline, it’s about cutting benefits for folks that they don’t seem to care much about.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
DeSantis-backed board moves closer to nixing Disney pact

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The DeSantis administration, however, learned about the agreement in March and then scrambled to respond.
David Thompson, the managing partner from Cooper & Kirk, a Washington, D.C. law firm hired by the newly-installed board, said Disney’s agreements giving it developmental power were not following state law, quoting that they were “illegal, and they will not stand.” Thompson then compared Disney to Scrooge McDuck.
Thompson and Alan Lawson, former Supreme Court Justice, who was also hired by the board, said the district was in violation of the Florida constitution because it gave authority to a private company, and also did not establish procedures before accepting a new developmental agreement at a Feb. 8 meeting.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fight against Disney and DeSantis began nearly a year ago after Disney opposed the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed as the “Don’t Say Gay,” that prohibits teachers from leading classroom discussions on gender identity and sexual identity in kindergarten through third grade.
DeSantis, who signed the bill into law in March, criticized Disney as a “woke” corporation and pushed the GOP-controlled Legislature to strip the company of much of its authority over the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which allowed Disney to operate its own local government.
The board will meet again on April 26, where staff has been asked to make a resolution voiding the agreements.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
Judge OKs subpoena from House GOP to former Trump prosecutor

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The district attorney’s office planned to ask an appeals court to intervene quickly and stop the deposition, a spokesperson for the office said.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and the Judiciary panel, which he chairs. Bragg sought a court order preventing the House from enforcing the subpoena, arguing that the House had no legitimate legislative purpose in issuing the subpoena and that it intends to examine the district attorney’s internal deliberations regarding the criminal case it brought against Trump last month.
But Vyskocil, who was appointed by Trump, found that Jordan and the committee “have identified several valid legislative purposes underlying the subpoena,” including the committee’s interest in investigating federal forfeiture funds used in connection with the investigation of Trump, as well as possible legislative reforms to “insulate current and former presidents from state prosecutions.”
The Judiciary committee also has contended that its purpose in issuing the subpoena is to study the potential effects that the threat of a future prosecution could have on a president while he is in office.
And though Bragg argued that the true purpose of Jordan’s inquiry was to “undermine and obstruct” the case against Trump, the judge said the motivations of the committee were “irrelevant.”
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court earlier Wednesday, the judge challenged lawyers for both sides aggressively and focused extensively, as she did in her written ruling, on a book Pomerantz wrote about his experience investigating Trump at the district attorney’s office.
At the hearing, Vyskocil questioned whether Pomerantz had already disclosed privileged information in his writings and in related television interviews, at one point holding up a copy of the book, “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” which had been heavily bookmarked with colorful flags.

And she questioned whether the district attorney’s office had taken steps to prevent or address Pomerantz’s disclosures. Leslie Dubeck, Bragg’s general counsel, said that after publication, the office had alerted the New York City Department of Investigation to potential misdemeanor violations by Pomerantz in disclosing certain information.

“Does it preserve your confidences?” the judge asked Dubeck of Pomerantz’s book. After a pause, Dubeck replied, “no.”
In her written decision, Vyskocil found that the district attorney’s office had taken no action either before or after the publication of Pomerantz’s book to protect privileged information. “This repeated inaction constitutes acquiescence to the disclosure of any otherwise privileged information,” she wrote.
Though Pomerantz has argued that if he is deposed he will be caught between either violating privilege rules or potentially being held in contempt of court, Vyskocil offered no sympathy.
“Pomerantz is in this situation,” she wrote, “because he decided to inject himself into the public debate by authoring a book that he has described as ‘appropriate and in the public interest.’”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023