Tag: facing

Two Missionary Schools Facing Music For Fee Hike

[ad_1]
SRINAGAR: Parents in Kashmir have raised concerns about abrupt increases in annual fees for the current academic session at Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson higher secondary school. They claim that the school has increased fees by over Rs 2000 without the approval of the school fee fixation committee, and without consulting with parents.
“In this era when business in the Kashmir valley has shuddered, Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson higher secondary school enhanced the annual fee,” parents claimed.
A group of parents has called the increase arbitrary and fears that the school will continue to raise fees annually if they don’t protest. The school has also charged additional Rs 3000 for summer camp, which was previously included in the annual fee.
Attempts to contact school authorities for comment have been unsuccessful.
Reports suggest that other private schools, even those with lower student enrolment and fewer facilities, have also increased their fees.
Director of Education in Kashmir, Mr. Tasaduq Hussain, has stated that schools must charge fees based on the facilities they offer, and parents should be able to pay in instalments. He has also warned that action will be taken against schools that charge extra fees. [KNT]

[ad_2]
#Missionary #Schools #Facing #Music #Fee #Hike

( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

May 9, 2023
Jailed Putin foe Navalny says he’s facing additional charges in Russia

[ad_1]

It signifies the continuation of a trend that has seen critics of Putin and his regime subject to ever harsher prison sentences amid the escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Navalny is serving an 11 ½ year prison term. In February 2021, he was sentenced to two years and eight months for violating the terms of probation from an earlier sentence. An additional nine years were tacked on in March 2022 for what critics say are trumped up charges of fraud and contempt of court. He’s long been a thorn in the side of Putin and the Russian ruling elite.
He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Moscow in 2013 and president of Russia in 2017, the latter campaign ended when the country’s Central Election Commission barred him from challenging Putin due to a fraud conviction he called politically motivated. And his 2021 film, “Putin’s Palace,” released with Navalny already behind bars, garnered 93 million views within a week of its arrival on YouTube.
As Putin has continued Russia’s war in Ukraine, Navalny and allies that have spoken out against it have run afoul of new laws criminalizing dissent. Fellow activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was earlier this month sentenced to 25 years in a “strict regime” penal colony for a cocktail of charges including “discrediting the armed forces” and treason. It is likely the longest sentence doled out by Russian authorities for political activities since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Leon Aron in POLITICO.
Fellow opposition leader Ilya Yashin was handed an 8 ½ year prison term in December 2022 for posts he made denouncing the treatment of Ukrainians by Russian troops in May. Also on Wednesday, a court in Yekaterinburg convened a trial of the city’s former Mayor, Yevgeny Roizman, who faces charges for critiquing the country’s invasion.
Navalny has languished in Russian prisons since shortly after he returned to the country from Germany in January 2021 after recovering from an assassination attempt he attributed to the Putin regime. His daughter, Daria, told CNN that authorities are now depriving him of food.
And he faces an additional trial on terrorism charges in connection with an April bombing in St. Petersburg that killed pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, according to the Associated Press. Navalny was behind bars at the time of the attack.
“For this criminal case, the military court will try me separately,” Navalny said in remarks reposted on his own Twitter account and translated from Russian.

[ad_2]
#Jailed #Putin #foe #Navalny #hes #facing #additional #charges #Russia
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 27, 2023
FIA president facing criticism over handling of alleged sexism

[ad_1]
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.

Quick Guide
F1 makes key changes to sprint race format
Show
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
Thank you for your feedback.

“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.
[ad_2]
#FIA #president #facing #criticism #handling #alleged #sexism
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 26, 2023
Are we facing a summer of sporting protests? – podcast

[ad_1]
It began with a protest at Britain’s biggest horse racing event. Members of the activist group Animal Rising scaled the fences at Aintree and attempted to stop the Grand National. As stewards and fans intervened, the protest managed only to delay the race for 14 minutes. As if to help prove the protesters’ point, one of the horses in the race was killed in a fall.
As chief sports reporter Sean Ingle tells Nosheen Iqbal, it was followed just days later by a stunt by another activist group. This time the target was the World Snooker Championship; play was postponed when a Just Stop Oil protester managed to clamber on to the the snooker table and launch an orange powder bomb over proceedings. This weekend, all eyes will be on the London Marathon.
As environment correspondent Damien Gayle reports, the pivot away from mass protest to high-profile stunts shows a divergence in philosophies that still divides the climate action movements. Is building popular support more important? Or bringing the maximum attention to the cause?

Photograph: VCG/Getty Images
Support The Guardian
The Guardian is editorially independent.
And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all.
But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.
Support The Guardian

[ad_2]
#facing #summer #sporting #protests #podcast
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 21, 2023
India, US facing same security challenge from China, says US Indo Pacom Commander

[ad_1]
Washington: India and the United States are facing the same security challenges from China, a top American commander said here Wednesday, noting that the Biden Administration is not only providing assistance to New Delhi with cold weather gear, as it defends its border on the northern side, but also helping India in its effort to develop its own industrial base.
“We value our partnership with India, and we’ve been increasing it and doing a lot more, over time. They have the same security challenge, primary security challenger that we do, and it’s real on their northern border. Two skirmishes now in over the past nine or 10 months on that border, as they continue to get pressurised by the PRC for border gains,” Admiral John Christopher Aquilino, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Indo-Pacific National Security Challenges.
Admiral Aquilino was responding to a question from Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna. “I would like you to reflect on the importance of the relationship — postcolonialism India and China had a relationship to emerge as the Asian voice. But that relationship now has really soured with a concern that there should not be a hegemon in Asia and that China is treating other countries as junior partners,” Khanna said.

“It seems to me that this gives us an opportunity to ensure that China doesn’t emerge as a hegemon to strengthen the relationship with India,” said the Indian American Congressman.
Aquillino said both India and the US have the same security challenges. “We also have the desire to operate together, based on the world’s largest democracy. We have common values, and we also have people, the people ties for a number of years. I met with General Chauhan, my counterpart, at the Raisina Dialogue not long ago. I’ve been to India five times now in the past two years.
“So, the importance of that relationship can’t be overstated. We operate together, frequently, with the Quad Nations. Again, the Quad is not a security agreement, it’s diplomatic and economic, but the Quad Nations come together, often, to operate together in multiple exercises. So, we continue to work to be interoperable and to expand the relationship,” he observed.
In response to another question from Congressman Patrick Ryan, the admiral said India is a critical partner and besides conducting joint war exercises in the Malabar, the US is providing assistance to India “as it applies to cold weather gear and other capabilities that they might need, as they defend their border on the northern side.”
“But additionally, we’re expanding our cooperation in the form of production as India tries to work to develop its own industrial base. So, C-130 critical components made in India, helicopter critical frameworks made in India. That is expanding the partnership and moving them towards self-sufficiency and increased partnership with the United States,” Aquilino added.

Referring to the recently launched India-US initiative for critical and emerging technology announced by the national security advisors of the two countries, Jedidiah P Royal, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security, said: “We’re already delivering offers under the context of the ISAT arrangement. This is a real moment of convergence for the United States and India and we’re looking to take full advantage of it, going forward.”
Testifying before the committee, Royal said: “India faces the same challenger that we face in the region. So what we’re seeing right now is a moment of strategic convergence in our relationship with the government of India. There’s a lot of momentum in that regard. With respect to your question on from whom do they buy their weapons, we believe that they are through a generational process of looking to diversify off of traditional suppliers.
“We want to make sure that the US defence industrial base is in the best position possible to be India’s partner of choice moving forward,” he said.
In response to another question, Aquilino said the US is working with our Indian partners both to advance their warfighting capabilities together to ensure that the US is sharing information that’s needed.
“We do have the same strategic competitor or whatever definition we want to put on it and in my time over in the theatre now for five years straight, it has increased exponentially. It’s trending in the right direction. They’re really good partners,” he said.
[ad_2]
#India #facing #security #challenge #China #Indo #Pacom #Commander
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
50 American mayors on the biggest issues facing their cities

[ad_1]

Being a mayor means being a manager, a problem-solver, a coach, an inspirational speaker, a people person and a punching bag. Anything and everything going on in town can wind up on your desk. And while you may have allies on your city council or in your state legislature, a mayor is the one most accountable to everyday people when something goes awry.
The 50 mayors we will survey throughout 2023 represent big cities and small towns, but many face the same challenges: recovering from Covid-era business shutdowns and remote schooling, stubborn spikes in crime, growing homelessness and a mounting affordability crisis. These mayors will bring us in on what they’ve learned on the job and what still vexes them. We will hear from this inaugural class of the Mayors Club through both surveys and interviews.
Here, you can learn about who they are in their own words — edited for length and clarity — and see their responses to our very first question: What keeps you up at night? The answers ranged from gun violence to homelessness to drugs.
This is what they had to say:
[ad_2]
#American #mayors #biggest #issues #facing #cities
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 13, 2023
Republicans facing a reckoning later this week

[ad_1]

“Talking at the NRA meeting in Indianapolis then going to the RNC meeting in Nashville all fits together,” said Paul Helmke, the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and president and CEO of the Brady Center/Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “You’re giving a single unified message: You don’t brook dissent or disagreement on guns.”
The cattle calls in Indiana and Tennessee, on the books for months and aimed at reaffirming core principles for the party, come at a moment when there are growing questions from within about its direction. Inside the party’s headquarters, there has been recognition that Republicans need to change their message on abortion with pollsters arguing for a more moderate tack. And among some committee members, there is a belief that the GOP’s image could be bolstered if it lessened its strident opposition to gun safety measures, especially among a group of voters who are just engaging in national politics.
“Every life matters,” said Oscar Brock, an RNC member from Tennessee. “Including those three 9-year-old kids in Green Hills,” the neighborhood in Nashville where they were shot and killed at school. Brock said he believes the party is suffering among swing voters on the issue of guns and abortion.
But while a corner of the party has begun pushing for nuance, others are making the case for staying the course on long-held policies.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old presidential candidate and wealthy biotech entrepreneur, warned that the party would not succeed “by compromising on its core principles.”
“We should be at once unapologetic on principles, and also live up to the principle instead of just uttering the slogan,” he said in an interview this week.
Ramaswamy suggested the party neither increase abortion access nor tighten gun laws, but instead take steps to make it easier for women to obtain child care or “tap into Social Security early” to fund a family. On guns, Ramaswamy, a father of two young children, said the GOP should get serious about funding armed guards in every school — and “none of us should tolerate kids being killed.”
It’s not uncommon for there to be disagreement within Republican ranks over whether to shore up the party’s standing with the base or adjust and moderate to appeal to independent voters. But the latest round of debate has taken on greater importance after a series of poor election performances, including a Democratic win in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. And it has been sparked by a series of events, including those recent mass shootings and a Trump-appointed federal judge’s ruling to suspend the FDA’s approval of a commonly used abortion pill.

The fissures were on vivid display Tuesday in deep-red Tennessee. After previously resisting calls for red flag laws — including from former President Donald Trump in 2019 — Republican Gov. Bill Lee publicly urged the state Legislature to pass a version of it, and announced he would sign an executive order strengthening background checks for firearm purchases.
Lee’s news conference, which came as a surprise even to GOP legislative leaders, followed a shooting March 27 that killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a Nashville Christian school. Lee said one of his wife’s closest friends — with whom she was planning to have dinner that night — was murdered.
It was a remarkable illustration of a GOP official moving swiftly to try and sand down the party’s image. Less clear is whether a GOP-controlled Legislature that has worked for years to roll back gun regulations will heed the governor’s call to act.
Republicans in the Legislature were already facing the reality that their plan to expel two Democratic House members for protesting the state’s gun laws inside the Capitol had backfired. One of the expelled members, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, quickly returned to his seat on Monday after being reappointed by local officials. The other, Justin Pearson of Memphis, is expected to return later this week.
But that wasn’t the only front on which the party was showing signs of retrenchment. On the topic of abortion, Republican anxieties have been building for months.
Last week, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declared that the party had a “messaging issue” surrounding abortion, citing recent GOP losses. The New York Times, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday that the RNC has been circulating a memo showing that voters are more comfortable with a 15-week abortion ban — even as state GOP lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, embrace far more restrictive measures. Left unsaid in the article was that the memo had been put together back in September, well before the midterm elections.
“She was right,” said Brock, referring to McDaniel’s call for a party messaging shift on issues such as abortion. “And yet she got shouted down by the hardcore pro-life wing of the electorate. And I’m sorry that happened.”
The party’s divides on the issue of abortion have erupted into clearer view since last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race and Friday’s ruling by the Trump-appointed Texas federal judge on mifepristone. Within hours of the ruling, the only likely 2024 GOP candidate to issue a statement of support was former Vice President Mike Pence. No other GOP candidates have commented on the matter.
Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, an anti-abortion group, said it was the silence itself, not the ruling, that was making life hard for Republicans.
“It’s foolish not to take these issues head on. They paint our side as extremist when there aren’t any counternarratives,” said Nance.
Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), a donor who operates Greater Georgia, a GOP voter outreach group in her purple Southern state, agreed, arguing that Democrats calling for gun reform and expanded abortion access are “gaslighting the issues that Americans care about, which is the economy, crime, education, open borders, fair elections.”
A Republican pollster who has conducted surveys on the issue but declined to speak on the record said the problem was that party officials were “not articulating our position very well and so voters in the absence of information fill the void with what’s provided to them, and it’s largely provided by Democrats.”
But when asked if there was anyone in the party singing the right tune on the issue, the pollster would only name only Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, Mace has repeatedly sounded the alarm that the GOP is wrong on abortion, and on Monday told CNN that the FDA should ignore the Texas judge’s ruling.
[ad_2]
#Republicans #facing #reckoning #week
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 12, 2023
Adams administration, facing new costs, mandates more budget cuts

[ad_1]

“We face these new needs and threats at a time when the city’s tax revenue growth is slowing, and many economists fear that stress in the banking sector increases the odds of an economic recession,” Jiha wrote. “Therefore, we must act now. We have less than a month to identify the resources needed to reduce the strain on our budget, decrease out-year gaps, and avoid disruption to programs and services that keep our city clean, safe, and healthy.”
Jiha was referring to the city’s executive budget proposal, the next step in the iterative process of passing a spending plan, which is typically released in late April.
“Savings initiatives must be submitted to [the Office of Management and Budget] by April 14; they cannot include layoffs and should avoid meaningfully impacting services where possible,” Jiha wrote. “OMB will identify savings opportunities for your respective agency if the PEG targets are not met.”
While most agencies will be required to make the cuts for the upcoming fiscal year and several thereafter, the Department of Education and the City University of New York will need to meet a lower savings target of 3 percent.
The announcement comes just a day after the City Council unveiled a budget proposal of its own.
Responding to the initial blueprint unveiled by the mayor in February, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams argued Monday that the city will have more revenue than it had initially predicted — so much, in fact, that the city could afford to fund more than $1 billion worth of new priorities.
The administration does not appear to agree.
“Mayor Adams has repeatedly said that we cannot sugarcoat the reality of the fiscal and economic challenges we are facing,” mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon said in a statement.

“While we continue to have positive conversations with our partners in Albany, we face a perfect storm of factors — including near historic levels of spending as a result of billions of dollars in costs related to asylum seekers and the need to fund labor deals that are years overdue. At the same time, we are facing a slowdown in city tax revenue growth and what is predicted by financial experts to be a weakening of the nation’s economy. Ignoring these realities would be irresponsible and would cost New Yorkers more in the end.”
The mayor most recently ordered a savings initiative in September that focused on wiping thousands of vacant positions off the city’s books. The latest move Tuesday drew praise from the Citizens Budget Commission, which has been sounding the alarm on several hidden costs in the spending plan.
“Yes, revenues may be higher than OMB projects, and the Council is right that the City has in-year reserves that can be used,” said the commission’s president, Andrew Rein, in a statement. “But still, the reported budget gaps, collective bargaining costs, city and state fiscal cliffs and under-budgeted programs dwarf estimates of higher revenues.”
[ad_2]
#Adams #administration #facing #costs #mandates #budget #cuts
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 4, 2023
Canadian Sikh facing assault, mischief charges turns himself in: Police

[ad_1]
Toronto: A 28-year-old Sikh, facing facing multiple charges including assault, uttering threats, and mischief, has turned himself in at Vancouver Provincial Court, police said.
Manveer Singh Dhesi, who turned himself in on March 31, is known to live in Surrey but police said he also frequents Burnaby in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had put out a notice earlier this week seeking public assistance in locating Dhesi wanted on a British Columbia wide arrest warrant.

According to information presented during a bail hearing on March 31, Dhesi’s charges relate to alleged incidents on March 13 at his ex-girlfriend’s home, Burnaby Now reported.
His ex-girlfriend, her sister, her brother-in-law and her brother-in-law’s brother were all at the house, according to Crown prosecutor Jennifer Dyck.
“There was an alleged incident where Dhesi turned up at their home, assaulted, allegedly, two of the individuals and barged into the home without consent,” Dyck told Burnaby Now.
British Columbia provincial court Judge Jeffrey Campbell ordered Dhesi to pay a fine of $500, and asked him not to go within two blocks of his ex-girlfriend’s house, or contact any of his alleged victims.
Dhesi’s next court hearing is scheduled for April 27.

[ad_2]
#Canadian #Sikh #facing #assault #mischief #charges #turns #Police
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 3, 2023
Bhutan-India relationship facing Chinese challenge, says Congress

[ad_1]
New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that the Bhutan-India relationship is facing a Chinese challenge, which also poses a threat to the Siliguri Corridor – the land bridge to the northeastern states.
“Bhutan and India’s so far unshakeable relationship is facing a challenge from an aggressive China. We urge the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to not hide behind smokescreens and ensure that this very long-standing partnership with Bhutan remains strong and is further deepened,” he said in a statement.
He said the Modi government presented the 2017 Doklam standoff as a “major victory”, but since then the Chinese have engaged in an unprecedented military infrastructure buildup in the area, and also built villages and roads adjacent to the Doklam plateau many kilometres inside Bhutanese territory.
“It is well-known that the adjacent Chumbi Valley poses a potential threat to India’s strategic Siliguri Corridor, the so-called Chicken’s Neck that connects the seven northeastern states with the rest of the country. In this context the remark by Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering that ‘there is no intrusion’ into Bhutan by China and that Beijing has an ‘equal’ say in any discussion over its illegal intrusions raises several concerns.”
The Congress leader also questioned if there a dilution in the unwavering Indian and Bhutanese contention that the tri-junction of India, China, and Bhutan lies at Batang La, and not at Mount Gipmochi as the Chinese claim? This could cause a serious problem for the security of the Siliguri Corridor, he warned.
The recent Chinese construction reportedly includes an all-weather road in the Amu Chu river basin inside Bhutan moving south towards the Jhamperi Ridge that overlooks the Siliguri Corridor. “Is China eyeing the coveted Jhamperi Ridge from a new angle? What is India doing to defend Bhutan and to prevent the Chinese from reaching this important geographical feature?
“When will the Modi government respond to China’s renewed verbal, geographical and military aggression?” Ramesh asked.

[ad_2]
#BhutanIndia #relationship #facing #Chinese #challenge #Congress
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 30, 2023