Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday termed the criticism of Uddhav Thackeray in Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar’s autobiography as “wrong information” and downplayed the issue by claiming books are read for two days and then put into libraries.
He also said Thackeray would soon respond to what has been written about him in the book.
In his revised autobiography Lok Majhe Sangati’, which focuses on events post-2015 and was released on Tuesday, Pawar wrote it was difficult to fathom why Thackeray as chief minister chose to visit Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai, only twice during the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is wrong information. He (Thackeray) was regularly going to office. His visits (to Mantralaya) reduced during coronavirus pandemic because there was a central government directive to work from home,” Raut said, adding that the prime minister, Union ministers and other chief ministers too were not going to office during the pandemic.
In his book, Pawar also blamed Thackeray for failing to to quell the discontent within his own party and for resigning as Maharashtra chief minister without putting up a fight.
A rebellion by Eknath Shinde in June last year brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi government under Thackeray. Shinde went on to become CM with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Pawar wrote that a CM needs “political acumen” and must remain well-informed about political goings-on, and “we all felt that these things were lacking”.
Speaking on the issue, Raut said, “I have not read the book. I will read it. People read a book for two days and then it goes into the library. Let it go. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief (Uddhav Thackeray) is giving an interview on this very soon. He will respond to the what is written about him.”
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said on Twitter that Harris was “an invaluable, relentless voice for the American people.”
Harris also had some public stumbles early on in the administration. The vice president faltered in early interviews and was given tricky portfolio items, such as stemming migration to the southern border. She also saw a number of top aides leave her office.
Klain, who was President Joe Biden’s chief of staff for two years before resigning earlier this year, told Swisher that he thinks Harris “takes a lot of grief unjustifiably.”
“Because this is a country that always thinks dubiously about someone who’s the No. 2,” Klain said. “We’re a No. 1 kind of country. I lived with that when Al Gore and Joe Biden were vice president. She makes a major contribution to the administration, and I think, hopefully, she’ll get more and more recognized for that.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
For more than a decade, Prince William has spoken out vehemently against the use of ivory, calling it “a symbol of destruction, not of luxury”. The royal patron of the anti-ivory charity Tusk has lobbied leaders in China, the US and countries across Africa.
He has even said that he wants to destroy all the ivory owned by the royals. In 2019, a spokesperson for William clarified that while destroying all the ivory in the royal collection was beyond the prince’s control, he had “ensured there is no ivory from the collection at Kensington Palace”, his place of residence.
Prince William feeding a baby elephant at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation at Panbari Reserve Forest in Assam, India, in April 2016. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/AFP/Getty Images
However, the Guardian has discovered that nine items containing ivory have been displayed at Kensington Palace since the beginning of the year. Each of them were displayed not far from Apartment 1a, the official London residence of Prince William and his family.
The ivory on show at the palace includes a ring with a miniature portrait of George III painted onto ivory, a desk made partly of ivory and Queen Victoria’s ivory quill. A Kensington Palace exhibition earlier this year included six miniature portraits, delicately painted on to thin sheets of ivory, which was used regularly in the 18th century due to it luminosity.
All of the items except for the ivory quill, which is privately owned by King Charles, are among a total of 1,849 ivory pieces discovered by the Guardian in a catalogue of the royal collection, an enormous trove of national heritage held in the “right of the crown”. Among the many ivory pieces are carved thrones, Fabergé ornaments, armchairs and elephants.
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In 2016, at an event organised by the conservation charity Tusk, William stood at the podium before a crowd of campaigners and policymakers and explained that if the rate of ivory poaching continued, by the time his daughter, Princess Charlotte, was 25, “the African elephant will be gone from the wild”.
Two of the seven portraits on ivory displayed at Kensington Palace earlier this year were of another Princess Charlotte of Wales: the daughter of King George IV.
One of the two portraits on ivory of Princess Charlotte displayed at Kensington Palace. Photograph: Todd-White Art Photography/Royal collection
Prince William’s father, King Charles, who is the patron of the royal collection, has also spoken out against the use of ivory. In a speech in 2014, with William by his side, Charles described how the illegal wildlife trade had “reached such unprecedented levels of killing and violence that it now poses a grave threat, not only to the survival of some of the world’s most treasured species but also to economic and political stability in many areas around the world”.
This raises the question of why the king, too, has ivory at his home; in this case, a snuff bottle with an ivory handle. It is kept in the library of his palatial London residence, Clarence House.
There are 23 ivory items on display in the ballroom in Sandringham House, the king’s privately owned residence in Norfolk. A tour guide told visitors that these items were Charles’s private property.
Buckingham Palace declined to respond questions about the ivory on display in royal properties, saying that for “operational reasons” it would not have the capacity to answer such queries until after the king’s coronation next month.
A throne and footstool made from ivory. Photograph: Royal collection
Unlike William, the king has not gone so far as to suggest the ivory in the royal collection should be destroyed, with one palace insider reportedly saying Charles viewed his son’s comments on the matter as “naive”.
A Guardian analysis of the royal collection identified 126 items on show in 24 palaces and museums around the UK and abroad.
They include a pair of carved leopards looted by British forces from the kingdom of Benin in 1897 and presented to Queen Victoria. The statues are on long-term loan from the royal collection to the British Museum and are exhibited alongsidethe controversial Benin bronzes, which were captured by the British forces at the same time.
Elsewhere, a model Indian temple made, in part, of ivory is on loan to a museum in Ontario, Canada.
Opinion is divided over how art custodians should handle legacy collections of ivory. Tusk said as long as galleries and museums were “in no way glamourising the ivory trade” it was highly unlikely their displays would fuel extra demand. But Dr Mark Jones, the head of policy at the conservation charity Born Free, said ivory items should be exhibited only in exceptional circumstances and that care should be taken when they were.
“We would urge museums and galleries to provide information to their visitors on the detrimental impacts the demand for elephant ivory has had on the conservation of elephants and the welfare of individual animals, alongside any historical information, in order to discourage further demand for ivory products,” Jones said.
The pair of leopards, made from ivory with metal inlay, looted from the kingdom of Benin. Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images
While the royal collection’s online catalogue logs items made of ivory, there is no mention on the website of any concerns or controversies surrounding the material. And there is no such information accompanying the public displays of ivory at royal palaces or residences, including Windsor Castle.
Close to half a million people visited the castle in 2021-22, taking in the treasures inside. Those included 12 items made of ivory, the most striking of which is the elaborately carved ivory throne, which takes pride of place in the Garter Throne Room. There is no information about the animal cruelty that created it on show anywhere in the palace.
William’s 2019 commitment to ensuring no ivory would be on display at Kensington Palace was made to the former Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, the author of a book on the royals. “I was given the clear indication that William found these ivory items distasteful and as soon as he was in a position to do so they would be disposed of,” he said. “I’m perplexed that they haven’t been.”
With respect to the king’s personal ownership of ivory, Baker said: “If you make statements saying that you don’t want ivory and then he has ivory in his own collection, that’s the definition of hypocrisy.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Collection Trust said “it is to be expected” that a collection of its size would include ivory but that, in keeping with international regulations, no modern ivory was used in the conservation of those works.
They added: “Works of art in the official royal residences (including Windsor Castle) and historic royal palaces (including Kensington Palace) are not generally labelled as they are displayed as part of historic interiors, rather than a museum display.”
Visitors wanting more information, the spokesperson said, could visit the collection’s website, consult an onsite guidebook or speak to a warden.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Mohammed ben Sulayem, the president of Formula One’s governing body the FIA, is facing fresh criticism following a claim of alleged sexism within his organisation. The Guardian understands the allegations were not taken seriously in what is the latest in a series of incidents considered poorly handled by Ben Sulayem which have led to widespread unhappiness with his leadership in the F1 paddock.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Shaila-Ann Rao, the FIA’s former interim secretary general for motorsport who left the organisation suddenly last December, had sent a letter to Ben Sulayem and to the president of the FIA senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, detailing instances of sexist behaviour at the FIA and also complained that the complaint was not investigated properly.
A senior source within the sport confirmed the existence of the complaint. The FIA, however, issued a rebuttal stating it took the allegations seriously and that it had followed procedures.
“With regards to the specific allegations surrounding Shaila-Ann Rao, due process was followed, with an amicable negotiation conducted by the president of the senate and, as such, no referrals were made to the ethics committee. As previously stated, both parties agreed she would leave her position in November 2022 and mutual privacy terms were agreed as is common business practice,” the statement read.
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Formula One has agreed to implement a new format for its sprint race weekends, beginning at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With unanimous support from the teams the decision was confirmed at a meeting of the F1 commission on Tuesday.
The sport hopes the new structure will address the shortcomings of the previous format to encourage drivers to race harder in what will now be a standalone race on a Saturday.
The sprint weekend will now consist of a single practice session on Friday after which the cars will enter “parc fermé conditions”. Qualifying for the grand prix will follow using the current three-session format across an hour and deciding the grid for Sunday’s race and where pole position will be awarded.
Saturday morning will now host another qualifying session, which will be known as the sprint shootout. It will be run in the same three-session format but over a shorter time, across 12, 10 and eight-minute runs, with the intent on putting greater pressure on drivers to deliver their best lap. It will decide the grid for the sprint which will be a standalone race over 100km on Saturday afternoon and from which points will be awarded for the top eight, from eight points to one. Giles Richards
“With regards to the other allegations, there have been no complaints received against the president. Should the FIA ethics committee or compliance officer receive any complaint from a member of staff it will be dealt with in a comprehensive manner by our panel of independent elected ethics committee members which has been in place since 2012.”
The row is the latest in a series of controversies for Ben Sulayem that have caused confidence in the 61-year-old from the UAE to plummet. In relation to this latest altercation one insider told the Guardian: “He is, sadly, an open and running joke in the paddock.”
Ben Sulayem had already become embroiled in accusations of sexism when quotes he had made on his old personal website more than 20 years ago became public in which he stated he did “not like women who think they are smarter than men … for they are not, in truth”.
The FIA reacted to that by stating that the comment did not reflect the president’s current beliefs but Ben Sulayem made no formal statement or apology.
Ben Sulayem has become increasingly at odds with F1’s owners, not least after he made public comments questioning the sport’s commercial value, to which F1 reacted strongly with a legal letter, warning he had interfered with their rights in an “unacceptable” fashion. His initial objection to the increase in sprint races, supported by all the teams and F1, was contentious as was the FIA’s insistence on policing the letter of the law in relation to Lewis Hamilton wearing jewellery while racing. Both were agendas understood to have been pushed personally by Ben Sulayem.
The FIA’s investigation into the controversial decision at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP which decided the championship that season was also dismissed as ineffectual, while its decision to clamp down on drivers expressing their opinions on social and political issues has been met with condemnation from within and without the sport.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde on Saturday evening embarked on the tour of Ayodhya where he will offer prayers to Lord Ram by boarding a flight for Lucknow from Mumbai airport.
He is accompanied by leaders of Shiv Sena, MPs and MLAs, and leaders of ally BJP. Thousands of Shiv Sainiks are expected to reach Ayodhya on Saturday to welcome Shinde.
Anil Agrawal, convenor of Ayodhya Hotels’ Association, said: “The Shiv Sainiks from Maharashtra have booked the hotel rooms online in advance. We are ready to host the guests who are coming from Maharashtra with chief minister Eknath Shinde.”
It will be Shinde’s maiden visit to Ayodhya after taking charge as Maharashtra chief minister in June 2022 and after the Election Commission recognised the faction led by him as Shiv Sena and allotted it the “bow and arrow” poll symbol.
Shinde will travel to Ayodhya from Lucknow on Sunday afternoon and perform a ‘maha aarti’ at the under-construction Ram temple with others and later at the Sharayu River in the evening. He is also scheduled to visit the ongoing construction of the Ram temple and will address a press conference in Ayodhya on Sunday afternoon. He will return to Mumbai on Sunday night, as per his aides.
The Shiv Sena has booked almost all the hotels, guest houses and dharamshalas to accommodate the Shiv Sena ministers, party MPs and MLAs.
Speaking to reporters at the Mumbai airport, the chief minister said he would respond to criticism of his Ayodhya visit through his work.
#WATCH | Today is a big day for our workers and Ram devotees. Today 2 trains have left from here for Ayodhya, one from Thane & one from Nashik. More than 3000 Ram devotees have left by train: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde
“It is good that because of our work, those who never ventured out of their homes are going out to meet people,” he said in a veiled swipe at Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
“Ayodhya is a matter of faith for us. I thank PM Modi for expediting the construction of Ram temple,” said Shinde who shares power with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
Last November, Shinde and his loyalists paid a “gratitude visit” to the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar has slammed the “publicity” around the Ayodhya visit of Shinde and also ridiculed relentless media updates on the latter’s programme there.
“When I offer prayers anywhere, I do not create such publicity. The chief minister is visiting there to seek blessings,” he told reporters.
The former Maharashtra deputy chief minister also said there are pressing issues related to unemployment, crime, and farmers’ distress that require more attention.
A special train carrying activists of Shiv Sena to Ayodhya left Thane railway station on Friday evening amidst slogans of Jai Shri Ram.
Mumbai: Varun Dhawan has reacted after he was criticised for picking supermodel Gigi Hadid on stage and giving a peck on her cheek. The Bollywood actor said that it was planned for her to be on stage.
Varun faced severe backlash online after a video of his dance performance at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) went viral on social media. The video shows him picking Gigi up, spinning her and giving her a peck on the cheek as she was leaving the stage.
Reacting to a tweet by a woman, which read: “If you are a woman, you are not safe anywhere with anyone. Even if you are Gigi Hadid, invited to a party with an ‘elite’ crowd, guys like Varun Dhawan will randomly pick you up and kiss you without your consent, all in the name of fun. Disgusting.”
The actor reacted and said: “I guess today you woke up and decided to be woke. So lemme burst ur bubble and tell u it was planned for her to be on stage so find a new Twitter cause to vent about rather then going out and doing something about things. Good morning.”
The supermodel was attending the opening of the NMACC on Friday. Other celebrities who attended the gala included Tom Holland, Zendaya, Penelope Cruz, Karlie Kloss, Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, and global icon Priyanka Chopra and her husband Nick Jonas, Kareena Kapoor, and Saif Ali Khan.
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said his government is not afraid of criticism and will keep introducing governance reforms.
His comments came in the wake of opposition parties targeting the state government’s flagship Parivar Pehchan Patra (family ID) scheme and several sarpanches opposing the e-tendering system in development works in rural areas.
“We are not afraid of criticism, will keep introducing governance reforms. We took challenge of bringing changes in system. We will not be deterred by the opposition to our good works,” he said in his two-hour reply to the debate on the Budget in the state assembly.
The CM, who also holds the finance portfolio, had presented the state Budget for 2023-24 in the assembly last month.
The Budget was unanimously passed in the House after the chief minister’s reply on its estimates.
Khattar had on February 23 presented the Rs 1.83 lakh crore Budget, announcing many new initiatives while laying emphasis on various sectors especially social and agriculture and also proposed no fresh tax.
During his reply, Khattar announced that now MLAs can spend an amount of Rs 2 crore being given under the ‘Vidhayak Adarsh Gram Yojana’ for the development works in the urban areas as well.
“Earlier the MLA used to spend the said grant in rural areas only but now this amount can be used for the development works in the urban areas as well,” he said.
He also announced to rename this scheme as ‘Adarsh Nagar Evam Gram Yojana’. The director, panchayat will be the nodal officer for this, he said.
Khattar also announced that the women’s college to be constructed at Balsamand, Hisar will be named after former chief minister late Bhajan Lal.
He also said that apart from already announced 4,000 playway schools in the year 2022-23, an additional 4,000 such schools would be further opened in the state.
He took on Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was not present in the House due to illness, saying the former CM has been giving contradictory figures about state debt.
The CM also touched upon steps taken for water conservation. Water table is going down every year, he said, while adding the government has started several schemes to conserve water.
During Khattar’s reply, some Congress members kept interrupting him on various issues.
He sought to clarify the definition of debt, and said that in the public debt three different heads are included. The Opposition should not confuse one with the other while calculating the final debt figures, he said.
The State Public Enterprises loan figure in 2014-15 was Rs 69,922 crore, while in the year 2021-22, the figure was Rs 47,211 crore. The debt graph of the state at present has declined, he claimed.
Khattar said Haryana is in the third position in the country in terms of investments after Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The chief minister said that for 2023-24, Rs 7,314 crore was allocated for agriculture and allied sectors, which is 3.9 per cent of the total Budget.
He stated that in 2014-15, the total allocated budget for this sector was Rs 2,156 crore which was only 3.4 per cent.
Responding to an issue raised by the Opposition regarding why Haryana gets less financial help from the Centre as compared to neighbouring states, the chief minister said the Centre follows the formula that “the more progressive a state is, lesser the financial grant will be”.
He said the government is focused on making panchayats and civic bodies financially independent. They have been directed to prepare their budgetary allocation and ensure the same is spent on carrying out various development works, he said.
Khattar also said that the local audit system would be meticulously implemented. Whatever public money will be spent on development works, local audit would be conducted for the same, said the chief minister.
He said that before finalizing the Budget, suggestions from all the stakeholders were taken, and out of around 700 suggestions, those which were feasible have been incorporated.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has asked local administrations across the state to organise special religious events at temples during the nine-day Chaitra Navratri and Ram Navami festivals this month, triggering criticism from the opposition.
The state’s BJP government will make available Rs 1 lakh to each district to pay as honorarium to artists picked to perform at these events.
In an order dated March 10, state culture department’s principal secretary Mukesh Meshram said Chaitra Navratri has a special significance during which the nine “swaroops” of Goddess Durga are worshipped to end negative energy.
So organising religious and cultural events during this period is proposed, he said.
The order, which went out to all district magistrates and divisional commissioners, said organising committees should be set up in each block, tehsil and district. Suggestions for the events include recitation of Durga Saptashati and Akhand Ramayan at temples and shaktipeeths’.
The organisers are expected to upload pictures on the culture department website.
Public representatives should be invited and large public participation ensured, the order said.
The Chaitra Navratri begins on March 22 and Ram Navami will be celebrated on March 30.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not directly criticise the order, choosing instead to make a sarcastic comment.
“The proposal to give Rs 1 lakh to district magistrates of UP is welcome but what can Rs 1 lakh do? At least Rs 10 crore should be given so that festivals of all religions can be celebrated,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
He added that the BJP government should give free cooking gas cylinders on festivals, beginning this Ram Navami.
Yadav’s party colleague Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently kicked up a row by suggesting that portions of Ramcharitmanas should be deleted, took a dig at the government.
He said the government is now forced to conduct the recitation of Ramcharitmanas at its own expense as people have stopped doing it.
The SP legislator said promotion of a particular religion by a secular, democratic government is a violation of the Constitution. Giving money from government funds to “promote all religions equally” would be welcome, he added.
Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said, “It’s good to organise religious events but what about the issues on which people voted for the BJP.”
Awasthi asked where are the jobs promised by the party, and said no day passes without news of atrocities on Brahmins and Dalits in UP.
“The BJP has failed on issues and promises that were made to the people of the state,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya dismissed the opposition criticism.
“If any religious event related to Lord Shri Ram and Ramcharitmanas is being organised, it should be welcomed. There should be no questions or answers on it. All I want to say is Jai Shri Ram and Jai Mata Di.”
Principal Secretary Meshram said there was nothing new in the order.
“Such programmes have been held earlier too and this is not the first time they are being held in the state. Holding these programmes will provide a platform to the artistes at the local level to showcase their talent,” he told PTI.
The official has asked the local administrations to organise Durga Saptashati, Devi Gaan and Devi Jagran at temples and ‘shaktipeeths’ under a special drive to ensure participation of women and girls.
On Ashtami and Ram Navami (March 29 and 30), Akhand Ramayan paath should be organised at major temples and ‘shaktipeeths’ to spread human, social and national values, the order said.
Two nodal officers have been appointed at the state level for coordination. A committee headed by the district magistrate in each district will select artistes for the events, the order said.
The government has asked local administrations to upload photographs of these events on the website of the culture department.
All preparations should be made by March 21, by which time GPS locations, photographs of the temples and the contact details of the temple management bodies should be shared with the department, the order said.
Srinagar, Mar 12: Amid growing criticism over imposition of property tax in Jammu & Kashmir, the administration of the Union Territory has sought feedback from the general public over the proposed tax.
In a notice , a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Housing & Urban Development has sought suggestions/ comments from the general public over imposition of property tax in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Any suggestions/ comments in this regard are welcome and may be sent to the Housing & Urban Development Department at the email address [email protected] within 10 days ,” reads the notice lying with KNO
The notice states that UT of Jammu & Kashmir is levying property tax on residential houses/apartments, commercial establishments, within the municipal areas from April 01, 2023 in terms of two notifications issued by the H&UDD on Feb 21.
On February 21, 2023, J&K’s Housing and Urban Development Department issued two separate notifications for levying, assessment and collection of property tax in the urban areas of Jammu and Kashmir, where 27% of the UT’s population resides as per the 2011 census figures.
The Jammu & Kashmir Property Tax (Municipal Corporation) Rules, 2023 and the Jammu & Kashmir (Other Municipalities) Rules, 2023, notified by the government, define the procedure for collection of property tax within the limits of municipal corporations, committees and councils in the UT.
As per these rules, property tax is to be 5% of the taxable annual value (TAV) on residential properties and 6% of the taxable annual value on commercial properties.
The rules faced widespread criticism, with political parties including National Conference, Congress, Peoples Conference, and Peoples Democratic Party assailing the move. Even the State BJP distanced itself from the move—(KNO)
Staff departures from any administration are common following a midterm election. But news of the impending exits comes days after the Biden administration announced its most restrictive border control measure to date: a proposed rule that will bar some migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they cross the border illegally or fail to first apply for safe harbor in another country. The proposal — which immigrant advocates refer to as the “transit ban” or the “asylum ban” — will take effect on May 11 and serve as its policy solution to the long-awaited end of Title 42, a pandemic-era restriction that lifts the same day.
The policy prompted immediate backlash from immigrant advocates and Democrats who accused the White House of perpetuating a Donald Trump-like approach to border politics that President Joe Biden pledged on the campaign trail to end. Advocacy groups also said they were considering lawsuits.
Amid the blowback, administration officials criticized Congress, arguing that the White House has been left to roll out new policies to fill the “void” left by inaction on the Hill.
“To be clear, this was not our first preference or even our second. From day one, Biden has urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures to ensure orderly, safe and humane processing of migrants at our border,” a senior administration official said in a call with reporters on Tuesday.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the departures.
Clavel and Perez-Davis’ exit from the administration are just the latest changes on Biden’s team handling migration and the border in his first two years. Tyler Moran, Biden’s senior adviser for migration, left in January 2022, after replacing Amy Pope the previous summer. Esther Olavarria, the deputy assistant to the president for immigration at the Domestic Policy Council, also retired that month.
Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s “border czar” left in April 2021, and some mid and low-level aides have also departed.
Jason Houser, who POLITICO reported was preparing to depart as chief of staff at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will also leave in the coming days. He was the highest-ranking political appointee at the DHS agency since there is no Senate-confirmed director.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
