The real estate magnate footed the $6,000-per-month bill for Hidden Lake Academy, a private school in Georgia, for one year, the ProPublica report said, and then paid for tuition at another boarding school in Virginia. It’s unclear how much Crow put down, but if he paid for all four years at the two schools, the bill would be more than $150,000, the report found.
“Let’s be clear about what is supposedly scandalous now: Justice Thomas and his wife devoted twelve years of their lives to taking in and caring for a beloved child — who was not their own — just as Justice Thomas’s grandparents had done for him,” Paoletta said in the statement.
Paoletta called the fresh accusations of wrongdoing by the justice “malicious,” and said that “this story is another attempt to manufacture a scandal about Justice Thomas.”
The ProPublica report included a statement from Crow’s office in response to their questions: “Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” the statement said. “It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political.”
Thomas’ ties with Crow have come under a microscope ever since ProPublica reported last month that Crow had financed luxury vacations for the justice for over two decades, which Thomas did not report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Karnataka’s Vijayapura constituency Basanagouda Patil Yatnal on Saturday defended his ‘Visha Kanye’ (poisonous woman) jibe at former Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a huge gathering in Vijayapura, Yatnal, who spoke ahead of PM Modi, also mentioned Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as the “first prime minister of the country”.
“Our Sanatan Dharm, our mother and our Bharat Mata are everything to us. We will not tolerate and can give our lives if anyone dares to talk against Bharat Mata. Along with this, if anyone speaks foul about our world leader Narendra Modi, we Indians would not tolerate that,” he said.
Addressing the opposition leaders, he said: “If you try to wag your dirty tongue, we will answer in the same pitch. Under the leadership of PM Modi, India has become a ‘Vishwa Guru’. He is a replica of our first Prime Minister Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and treading on the path of former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri,” he said.
PM Modi, addressing the gathering, said the Congress is indulging in breaking of society, and that the party should never be pardoned.
“Jagajyothi Basaveshwar fought for equality. But, Congress leaders are indulging in divisive acts. Quoting Rastra Kavi Kuvempu (revered by the Vokkaliga community as their iconic figure, he maintained that Kuvempu described Karnataka as a garden of all sects of people and underlined that the communities in society must have mutual respect for each other.
“On May 10, you will vote to make Karnataka the number one state in the country. On May 10 you will vote to bring a double engine government to power,” PM Modi stated.
“I am a servant of Karnataka and want to do everything for the state. For me, Karnataka is an important state. I need your blessings. The new team has been made ready to play an important role in Amrit Kaal. It is a mixture of new spirit and old roots. The strong team is ready. This team also needs your support,” PM Modi said.
He further said that the coalition government would only be bothered about its survival.
“Political instability has cost the state a lot. Whoever works for the poor, Dalit, backwards and Adivasis, Congress will start hating them. They had used words like ‘desh drohi’, ‘kathputli’ and all the words in the dictionary against B.R. Ambedkar. The party was the same in the old days, and it remains the same even today,” PM Modi added.
Trump also said he had fulfilled his promises when it came to Iowans and also to conservative values.
“Together we achieved more for our values than any other administration in the history of our country, and it is not even close,“ he said, saying he took “historic action to protect the unborn.“ He also touted his support for “religious liberty“ and Israel.
On Thursday, Trump had been criticized by the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization for saying abortion “is an issue that should be decided at the state level,” instead of being subject to a national ban. “President Trump’s assertion that the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion solely to the states is a completely inaccurate reading of the Dobbs decision and is a morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold,” President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
It’s not clear when Trump made his remarks, but he didn’t directly address Dannenfelser’s criticism.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to enter the 2024 presidential race, addressed the group in person in Clive, Iowa. In remarks that focused heavily on his own faith and devotion, Pence commended Trump for his Supreme Court appointments and explained his rationale for supporting American aid to Ukraine.
Other 2024 contenders who addressed the group included former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
He also pointed to recent changes that tightened the regulations governing judges’ annual financial disclosures. “It is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.”
The new regulations, quietly put into place March 14 by a Judicial Conference committee, now require Supreme Court justices and all federal judges to disclose complimentary trips, plane rides and other gifts they receive. They must report their stays at commercial property, such as hotels, and their travel using private planes. Lodging or entertainment at a friend’s private residence are still exempt from the new guidelines.
Lawmakers expressed outrage at Thomas’ failure to report the gifted trips, which could potentially violate ethics laws. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for Thomas’s impeachment. “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish,” she wrote.
House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) urged Republicans to pass a bill Democrats introduced last Congress that would require the establishment of a judicial code of conduct for judges and justices of U.S. courts.
“Why did Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas keep these ultra luxury gifts from a GOP donor secret? Because Justice Thomas knew it was wrong to accept these secret gifts,” Lieu wrote on Twitter.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) called for an “independent investigation,” stating that “it’s the Chief Justice’s job to make sure that occurs.”
The ProPublica report detailed two decades of Thomas’ travel on a private jet and yacht owned by Crow to luxury destinations such as the California resort Bohemian Grove, Crow’s ranch in Texas, Crow’s private lakeside resort in the Adirondacks and a vacation in Indonesia.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Washington: Joe Biden’s administration has defended its decision to pull American troops out of Afghanistan and blamed former US President Donald Trump for the chaotic withdrawal from the war-torn country.
The White House on Thursday released a 12-page document on the conditions that led to US’ exit from Afghanistan in 2021 and sent related classified documents to various Congressional committees.
The report places much of the blame on the previous Trump administration, saying President Biden was “severely constrained” by former president Trump’s decisions.
The Trump administration had negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that Biden pledged to honour. But Thursday’s report criticised the former Republican president for a lack of planning to carry out the deal.
According to the report, when Biden took office on January 20, 2021, “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”
At the same time, the US had only 2,500 troops on the ground, the lowest since 2001, and President Biden was facing Trump’s near-term deadline to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by May 2021, or the Taliban would resume its attacks on US and allied troops, it said.
It said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified on September 28, 2021, “The intelligence was clear that if we did not leave in accordance with that agreement, the Taliban would recommence attacks on our forces.”
John Kirby, White House National Security Coordinator for Strategic Communications, told reporters here that the Biden administration was “proud” of its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The president’s very proud of the manner in which the men and women of the military, the Foreign Service, and the intelligence community conducted this withdrawal,” he said.
“I’ve been around operations my entire life, and there’s not a single one that ever goes perfectly according to plan,” he said.
Kirby said Biden’s choice was stark, either to withdraw all US forces or resume fighting with the Taliban.
“He chose the former, but even in doing so, secured extra time to conduct that withdrawal, stretching it out to August. Despite having his options curtailed, President Biden led a deliberate, rigorous and inclusive decision-making process that was responsive to facts on the ground,” he said.
Noting that the administration focused keenly on the need for proper planning, he said Biden directed his top national security leaders to begin planning for a withdrawal even before he had made the final decision to leave Afghanistan.
He ordered troop reduction plans, plans to turn over bases and equipment to the Afghan government as the previous administration had negotiated, plans to draw down the diplomatic presence and plans to evacuate both American citizens and Afghan allies alike, Kirby said.
The White House official said the evacuation planning started in the spring of 2021 and the president ordered additional military forces pre-positioned in the region by mid-summer in case they were ever needed.
Throughout, President Biden insisted that his team plan for worst-case scenarios such as the fall of Kabul, even though the intelligence community’s assessment when he was making the decision in early 2021, was that Taliban advances would accelerate only after the withdrawal of US forces, Kirby said.
The president repeatedly requested assessments of the trajectory of the conflict from his military and his intelligence professionals, he said.
The long-awaited report also cites intelligence failure in not predicting rapid Taliban victory.
Responding to a question on inaccurate intelligence assessment, Kirby said no agency predicted a Taliban takeover in nine days.
“No agency predicted the rapid fleeing of President Ghani who had indicated to us his intent to remain in Afghanistan up until he departed on the 15th of August,” he said.
The internationally backed Afghan government collapsed and then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in August 2021 as the Taliban took over the capital, Kabul, amid the withdrawal of US forces.
During the evacuation, a suicide bombing by the Afghanistan branch of ISIS killed at least 175 people, including 13 US service members.
“No agency predicted that the more than 300,000 trained and equipped Afghan National Security and Defense Forces would fail to fight for the country, especially after 20 years of American support,” Kirby said.
The mission that was originally sent into Afghanistan was accomplished a long, long time ago, he said.
“Remember, they were ordered under President Bush to avenge the 9/11 attacks and to go specifically after Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. And decimating and degrading al-Qaida’s capability in Afghanistan was a mission that we accomplished a long, long time ago,” he said.
“Over time, the president has talked about this, the mission in Afghanistan morphed into something it wasn’t intended to originally be,” Kirby said.
The Biden administration has faced mounting criticism, especially from Republicans, over its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The letter was sent a day after Bragg’s office acknowledged that they had issued the first-ever indictment of a former president. Officials have also indicated they are working with Trump’s lawyers to negotiate his surrender. Though the timing of both his surrender and arraignment hasn’t been finalized, they are tentatively planned for Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It’s uncharted territory for the legal system, the government and the country, which has never seen the indictment and prosecution of a former president. Though the precise evidence against Trump remains unknown, the case appears centered on hush money payments to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, in 2016 to silence her allegations of a sexual relationship during Trump’s first presidential bid.
The indictment, which remains under seal, prompted a torrent of attacks from Trump’s allies, many of whom denounced it as a political witch hunt. While Trump himself has called for protests in the streets — and on Friday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) echoed that call — most House Republicans have instead vowed to train a microscope on the Democratic district attorney, requesting information and documents about the probe.
Bragg’s office used the letter to the lawmakers, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, to respond to those allegations of political bias.
“Like any other defendant, Mr. Trump is entitled to challenge these charges in court and avail himself of all processes and protections that New York State’s robust criminal procedure affords. What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State,” the letter reads.
State judge Juan Merchan is expected to preside over the arraignment and may ultimately be called upon to preside over the criminal proceedings, according to a person familiar with the process.
Bragg’s office also used the letter to plead with Capitol Hill Republicans to encourage calm, accusing them of engaging in “unlawful political interference” in the same breath.
“We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference,” Dubeck wrote in the letter to Judiciary, Oversight and Administration Chairs Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.).
“As Committee Chairmen, you could use the stature of your office to denounce these attacks and urge respect for the fairness of our justice system and for the work of the impartial grand jury,” she continued. “Instead, you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations that the Office’s investigation, conducted via an independent grand jury of average citizens serving New York State, is politically motivated.”
Trump dialed up his rhetoric Friday, taking aim this time at Merchan, the judge he anticipates would be presiding over his case.
“The Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case … HATES ME,” Trump posted on social media, complaining about Merchan’s handling of the separate proceedings brought by the district attorney’s office against the Trump Organization, which Trump said Merchan treated “viciously.”
Bragg’s office suggested that the House GOP inquiries appeared to be functioning more as interference for Trump than as legitimate congressional oversight, a concern Dubeck said was “heightened” by some of the committee members’ own statements about their goals.
She cited Greene’s statement that “Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this!” as well as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) call to scrutinize lawmakers who are “being silent on what is currently happening to Trump.”
From a legal standpoint, individual lawmakers’ comments and motives aren’t typically given weight when a congressional committee takes actions. Trump routinely pointed to the comments of individual committee members’ plans to make use of his tax returns in his failed efforts to block Congress’ effort to obtain them.
Greene called for Trump supporters to gather Tuesday in New York, indicating she would be there herself. “We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!” she tweeted. Her tweet was a departure from her reaction a day after Trump first suggested that he could be arrested, when she told reporters on the sidelines of the House GOP retreat that she would not be going to New York.
As of Friday, though, there were no indications of significant street protests or organized activities centered on the courthouse. Bragg arrived at around 7:30 a.m., amid signs of significantly heightened security, with little other movement aside from a large media presence.
In her letter, Dubeck also provided some details about the federal funding Bragg’s office has used in connection with Trump-related matters — money that House Republicans have suggested could now be under threat because of the indictment. Additionally, House Republicans received a second document on Friday detailing federal grant money the office has obtained.
None of that federal grant funding, she noted, has been used in the current investigation. She said the office has spent approximately $5,000 of federal funds — funds that the district attorney’s office helped recover during forfeiture actions — on expenses related to the investigation of Trump or the Trump organization.
“These expenses were incurred between October 2019 and August 2021,” Dubeck noted, adding that most were used to support Bragg’s predecessor’s successful defense of its probe of the Trump organization before the Supreme Court.
A spokesperson for Jordan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from Bragg’s office. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y) said at an event on Friday that Republicans should “cease their intervention in an ongoing prosecution in a local prosecutor’s office.”
But House Republicans have already started laying some groundwork for a potential subpoena of the Manhattan district attorney, a move they haven’t publicly ruled out. They also appeared to make the case in their second letter to Bragg that they believe a subpoena would survive a legal challenge.
Comer, who noted that he hasn’t spoken with Trump recently, called the indictment a “political stunt” but said he needed more information before Republicans decided where to go next.
“I think before the next step we’ll have to see what, in fact, these charges were and then go from there,” Comer said in an interview on Friday.
Dubeck, in her letter, urged them to reach a “negotiated resolution … before taking the unprecedented and unconstitutional step of serving a subpoena on a district attorney for information related to an ongoing state criminal prosecution.”
Wesley Parnell contributed to this story.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in an interview a few days ago: “Look they (China) are a bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with bigger economy? It is not a question of being a reactionary; it is a question of common sense.”
Obviously, Jaishankar is advising caution in dealing with China because its bigger economy translates into greater military strength and stronger diplomatic clout. Most political and diplomatic commentators have kept quiet about the far-reaching implications of this statement and those who have spoken, have reacted adversely generally characterizing it as ‘capitulatory mentality’.
Leaving aside the question whether External Affairs Minister should have publicly broached the subject or left it to closed-door conclaves of policymakers, one must frankly accept that the whole issue of Economy and Diplomacy is extremely important and needs to be openly discussed. Informed public opinion is essential for the success of Government policies in a democracy. One hopes that Jaishankar’s frank articulation of the problems of pursuing a viable security policy vis a vis China because of economic asymmetry will start a much-needed debate on the importance of economy for defense and diplomacy.
Public should be made aware of facts
China’s GDP is $18 trillion while that of India is $3.47 trillion or 1/5 that of China. In 1950 the GDP of both countries was about the same.
For perspective it may be noted that US GDP is 25 trillion, that of Japan 4.94 trillion and Germany 4.25 trillion. When US power was at its peak in the 1950s after the Second World War, its GDP was 40% of the world’s total. Today its economic and military preeminence is not the same, because other economies have risen and its share of world GDP has shrunk to about 23%.
China’s diplomatic clout has been increasing in the step with its economic power. Mao had famously said that “power flows from the barrel of a gun,” but it is Deng’s pragmatic economic policies exemplified by his famous declaration “no matter it is white cator black as long as it can catch mice” that has transformed China into a global power. With this one sentence he jettisoned three decades of ideological dogmatism in economy and substituted it with result-oriented pragmatism. Within 40 years China became an economic giant and manufacturing hub of the world.
Diplomatic muscle of Japan and Germany
Other examples of diplomatic muscle because of their economic strength are Japan and Germany the third and the fourth largest economies in the world. With large foreign exchange reserves these countries can pursue economic diplomacy to promote their national interest very effectively. The relationship between economy and diplomacy is the same as between body and fist, the power of the latter depends on the strength of the former.
India’s own international footprint has increased since 1991 when under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the economy was unshackled and the suffocating “license Raj” relaxed. In 1991 India was about to default on its foreign payment obligations. With foreign exchange reserves adequate only for about three weeks of imports it had to pledge gold in international market to borrow hard currency for its foreign exchange requirements. Today, with its foreign exchange reserves position comfortable, India is in a position to stand up to international pressures much better and pursue foreign policy dictated by its national interest. The frequent difficulties faced by the Latin American countries to effectively pursue independent foreign policy due to external debt and inadequate foreign exchange reserves, clearly establishes the relationship between economy and diplomacy.
It is easy to establish the correlation between economic strength and diplomatic clout but impossibly difficult to attain it. Often there is a tendency to attribute China’s economic progress to its authoritarian system. It is a mistake. Soviet Union despite its authoritarian decision-making failed to achieve economic progress and collapsed. China’s economic progress took off when it allowed free enterprise in economy while retaining one-party rule politically. Many in India attribute its slow economic growth to the elaborate consultative decision-making progress inherent in a democracy. This is a mistaken notion.
Democracy can outperform authoritarianism
Democracy can outperform authoritarian system in all respects–economic, political, technological–if it has the honest commitment of the people and the leaders for its success. Democracy and economic success need political leadership which truly adheres to the rule of law, justice, equality, individual freedom, human rights, transparency and accountability. Democracy has a self-correcting mechanism which prevents things from going over the cliff as has happened to so many authoritarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries e.g., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet communism, dictatorships in Middle East.
On the part of captains of business and industry it requires honest commitment to rule of open and free competition, not pursuit of cronyism for quick wealth. Cronyism is feudalism in economics. It prevents inclusive and sustained growth which alone can make a society stable and strong.
Comparative studies of democracies and authoritarian regimes in 20th century clearly show that democracies have achieved much more economically and have shown more sustaining power politically than authoritarian systems.
But democracy requires patience and honesty on the part of the people for its success. Impatience leads to shortcuts to attain political power and cronyism in business and industry.
Democracy is a government of the patient, for the patient and by the patient just as authoritarianism is a government of the impatient, by the impatient and for the impatient.
All authoritarian leaders display impatience while good democratic leaders act with patience and stamina. Impatience is inherently unsustainable and quickly self-destructs. A study of the 20th century dictatorships and democratic regimes establishes the validity of this proposition. Dictators are gone while democracies plod on.
China will have to one day reconcile its one-party political system with the free enterprise economy. It cannot go on with this dichotomy between its political and economic systems without tensions and conflicts. India for its part will have to protect, preserve, and strengthen its democracy.
Ishrat Aziz is an expert on a variety of subjects including democracy and its connectivity with Islam. A former ambassador of India to several Middle Eastern countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he now resides in the US.
The speech reiterated a litany of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently offered as justification for the widely condemned war and ignored international demands to pull back from occupied areas in Ukraine.
Observers are expected to scour it for signs of how Putin sees the conflict, which has become bogged down, and what tone he might set for the year ahead. The Russian leader vowed no military let-up in Ukrainian territories he has illegally annexed, apparently rejecting any peace overtures in a conflict that has reawakened fears of a new Cold War.
Instead, he offered his personalized version of recent history, which discounted arguments by the Ukrainian government that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover.
“Western elites aren’t trying to conceal their goals, to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia,” Putin said in the speech broadcast by all state TV channels. “They intend to transform the local conflict into a global confrontation.”
He added that Russia is prepared to respond to that as “it will be a matter of our country’s existence.”
While the Constitution mandates that the president deliver the speech annually, Putin never gave one in 2022, as his troops rolled into Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks.
Before the speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian leader would focus on the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s economy and social issues. Many observers predicted it would also address Moscow’s fallout with the West — and Putin began with strong words for those countries.
“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin said before an audience of lawmakers, state officials and soldiers who have fought in Ukraine.
Putin accused the west of the West of launching “aggressive information attacks” and taking aim at Russian culture, religion and values because it is aware that “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield.”
He also accused Western nations of waging an attack on Russia’s economy with sanctions — but declared but they hadn’t “achieved anything and will not achieve anything.”
Putin also said that Russia would suspend its participation in a treaty aimed at keeping a lid on nuclear weapons expansion. The so-called New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the U.S. in 2010. It caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Putin said Tuesday in a major address that Russia was not fully withdrawing from the treaty yet. He said Russia must stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so.
Underscoring the anticipation ahead of time, some state TV channels put out a countdown for the event starting Monday, and Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday morning said the address may be “historic.”
The Kremlin this year has barred media from “unfriendly” countries, the list of which includes the U.S., the U.K. and those in the EU. Peskov said journalists from those nations will be able to cover the speech by watching the broadcast.
Peskov told reporters that the speech’s delay had to do with Putin’s “work schedule,” but Russian media reports linked it to the multiple setbacks Russian forces have suffered on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Russian president had postponed the state-of-the-nation address before: In 2017, the speech was rescheduled for early 2018.
Last year the Kremlin has also canceled two other big annual events — Putin’s press conference and a highly scripted phone-in marathon where people ask the president questions.
Analysts expected Putin’s speech would be tough in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv on Monday. Biden plans to give his own speech later Tuesday in Poland, where he’s expected to highlight the commitment of the central European country and other allies to Ukraine over the past year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden’s address would not be “some kind of head to head” with Putin’s.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,” said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and Telangana Cheif Minister KCR’s daughter, K Kavitha on Thursday defended his father’s statement of calling the Central government as No Data Available government and said that the party stand by it.
“Our CM said that the NDA government is a ‘No Data Available’ government, and we stand by it as BRS party. After the Modi government came, there has been no census conducted and they (Centre) say that there are no data available for demonetisation, per capita income, Right to Information,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman retorted to K Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement of calling the government as ‘No Data Available’ government and said that the State government itself don’t have any data on medical colleges in Telangana.
“When the centre asked for the list of places to put up medical colleges, the state listed Karimnagar and Khammam, but those places already had medical colleges. Now you are telling that you did not receive a single medical college in the 157 medical colleges from the centre. You do not have the data of which places in Telagana have medical colleges and you are blaming NDA as No Data Available,” Sitharaman told reporters in Hyderabad.
The minister also aimed at KCR for dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious target of reaching a USD 5 trillion economy as a “joke”.
“How can you tell that aim of a 5 trillion economy is a joke? Every state should contribute towards it. Who are you laughing upon, the people? In 2014, the debt of Telangana was Rs 60,000 crores, but in the last 7-8 years it has crossed Rs 3 lakh crores,” she said.
It was a highly anticipated match as the UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, faced off against the featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, at UFC 284. The crowd was on their feet, eager to see the two champions collide in the octagon.
Volkanovski started strong, swinging with power and determination. However, Makhachev quickly shifted the momentum in his favor by landing a powerful left hand that sent Volkanovski to one knee. From there, Makhachev seized the opportunity to take control on the ground, taking Volkanovski’s back and grappling for the rest of the first round.
The second round was where Makhachev truly took control of the fight. He landed another devastating left hand, sending Volkanovski stumbling and giving Makhachev the advantage. The third round was more evenly matched, with both fighters trading blows on their feet, but it was anyone’s game at this point.
The fourth round was a strange one, with Makhachev having the upper hand for most of it, but Volkanovski landing numerous small punches from the bottom position. Volkanovski refused to give up, and in the final round, he came out with a vengeance. He caught Makhachev in the pocket with a big shot, sending him to the ground. Volkanovski pounced on the opportunity and pounded away at Makhachev until the final bell.
In the end, Makhachev emerged victorious with a unanimous decision, successfully defending his lightweight title. The crowd erupted in cheers as Makhachev celebrated his hard-fought victory over the featherweight champion. It was a wild and unforgettable night of MMA action, and the fans left the arena talking about the incredible showdown between two of the UFC’s best champions.
