Islamabad: The United States has reiterated its support to Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, saying the latter will continue to be a “stalwart partner” of the US in the face of recent terrorist attacks, according to a media report.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price made this statement in response to a query at a weekly press briefing, Dawn reported.
On January 30, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar’s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people mostly police officers had gathered for prayers. The suicide blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof, claiming 84 lives.
The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) initially claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group, Dawn reported.
Commenting on the renewed wave of terrorism in Pakistan, Price said, “This is a scourge that affects Pakistan, it affects India, it affects Afghanistan. It is something that we’re focused on throughout the entire region.”
When it comes to Pakistan, he said, “They are an important partner of the US, and a partner in any number of ways,” Dawn reported.
“We’ve talked in recent days about our commitment to stand with Pakistan in the face of these security threats,” the spokesperson underlined.
Over the past few months, terrorism has been rearing its head again in the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorist attacks across the country, believed to have been planned and directed by TTP leaders based out of Afghanistan.
The TTP, which has ideological linkages with the Afghan Taliban, executed more than 100 attacks last year, most of which happened after August when the group’s peace talks with the Pakistan government began to falter. The ceasefire was formally ended last year on November 28 by the TTP.
Aurangabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will contest all elections in Maharashtra henceforth by showcasing the progress Telangana has made in nine years under chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), a party minister said on Friday.
Speaking to PTI, Telangana Minister for Forests and Environment Indrakaran Reddy said CM Rao will address a “joiners’ meeting” in Nanded, some 280 kilometres from here, on February 5.
Reddy, who is touring Nanded as part of preparations for the meet, said, “CM KCR will visit Sachkhand Gurdwara in Nanded, then address the joiners’ meet and follow it up with a press conference on Sunday.”
“Telangana has progressed a lot in the past nine years. It shares a 974-kilometre border with Maharashtra and the difference in the development in villages in the two states is clearly visible. Maharashtra has Mumbai, which is the nation’s financial capital. Why can’t Maharashtra see the same kind of development as has taken place in Telangana,” Reddy asked.
Criticising the political leadership in Maharashtra for the lack of development, Reddy claimed villages in his state were getting electricity and water round the clock, while those in Yavatmal were in the news for farmer suicides.
“The Bharat Rashtra Samithi will fight all polls here showcasing the development of Telangana. Our slogan will be ‘ab ki baar, kisan sarkar’. We are not going to forge an alliance with any party in Maharashtra as of now,” he added.
“Imagine if… [your] employer said you’re allowed to see your kids on Saturday. And we need you to work that day. That’s the current life under the old system,” said Liberal MP Terry Beech, who represents a riding in the western province of British Columbia. “I don’t think any Canadian would see that as reasonable.”
Since the height of the pandemic, when working remotely was the rule, many members of Parliament have returned to Ottawa on a regular basis, preferring to stand in the House of Commons than to appear on a screen.
But some have not. POLITICO reached out to a group of MPs who’ve chosen to mostly stay home, based on an analysis of travel expense reports since the last federal election in September 2021.
Some have had serious health problems, and say working remotely was their only option. Some still worry about contracting Covid. But some, like Beech, say they don’t plan on returning to the way things were.
Beech and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, both Liberal MPs with young children, are open about choosing to spend more time away from Ottawa.
“I’ve spent a large majority of my time in the constituency,” said Erskine-Smith, who lives in Toronto. “If you want serious people, younger people, people who want to be good spouses and be good parents to do this job … there has to be a certain level of flexibility to work remotely.”
If Parliament went back to fully in-person proceedings, he added, “there is no chance I would run again.”
This may be a moot point, given that Erskine-Smith is seriously considering a run for the leadership of the provincial Liberal party in Ontario. But he’s not alone. Last fall, NDP MP Laurel Collins, who has a young daughter, told the parliamentary committee considering the future of hybrid Parliament that she wasn’t sure she’d run again after the next election if virtual appearances weren’t an option.
Beech said the pre-pandemic system was particularly unfair for MPs from western Canada, who travel long distances to Ottawa. As a parliamentary secretary — essentially an assistant to a Cabinet minister — Beech had to be in the House of Commons on Fridays, while many MPs head back to their ridings on Thursday evenings. After arriving home late Friday night, he would have Saturday to see his family and do constituency work, before heading back to Ottawa on Sunday.
The hybrid Parliament has changed all that. “Managed correctly, you have more time to hit the gym, kiss your wife and pick up your kids from childcare,” he said in written comments to POLITICO. “I have to say I really enjoy attending national caucus meetings on my treadmill from time to time.”
Beech said his new schedule also allows him to spend more time attending events in his constituency.
Others view things differently, however. The opposition Conservatives have long called for a full return to in-person proceedings, claiming the hybrid option allows the government to dodge accountability. Still, some within their ranks have relied heavily on virtual appearances and remote voting.
Conservative MP Todd Doherty said he wants to be back in the House of Commons full-time, but a serious injury has prevented him. Shortly after the 2021 election, he had knee-replacement surgery. Then, during the first week of the parliamentary session, he slipped on a wet floor and damaged his leg so badly he was at risk of losing it. He’s now recovering from a second surgery last December.
“I took full advantage of hybrid because it was out of necessity,” he said.
Despite a 17-hour commute between Ottawa and his northern B.C. riding, Doherty said he wants to get back to the way things were. “There’s not many Canadians that can say that they’ve been able to deliver speeches on the floor of the House of Commons,” he said. “And I think there’s nothing that will ever take that place.”
If hybrid proceedings hadn’t been an option, he said, “I would have made it work. There’s no two ways about it — I would have done the best I could.”
A few other Conservatives have also been conspicuously absent. Manitoba MP Ted Falk, one of a small group of Conservatives who disappeared from the House of Commons after a Covid vaccination requirement was imposed in the fall of 2021, appears to have spent very few sitting days in Ottawa between the election and the following summer break. Falk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Other MPs say illness or fragile health has kept them on Zoom and out of Ottawa. Liberal MP Parm Bains, who has spent almost no time on Parliament Hill since he was elected as a rookie in 2021, has spoken openly about the dialysis treatment and kidney transplant that have kept him home in Richmond, B.C.
“If it were not for the hybrid Parliament provisions, I could not have safeguarded my health and kept my commitment to represent my constituents in Parliament,” he wrote in a recent op-ed.
Hedy Fry, another Liberal MP from B.C., told POLITICO she’s immunocompromised and has been staying home in Vancouver to avoid catching Covid. But Fry, 81, said it isn’t the same as being on the Hill, where she’s been an MP for nearly 30 years. “It has been difficult not to see [my] colleagues,” she said. “You can’t build relationships, either with your constituents or other people, when you’re always on a Zoom with them.”
Erskine-Smith said there’s likely a “distinction on generational grounds” when it comes to how MPs view remote work.
Tracking the physical presence of legislators in Parliament is challenging. Unlike with the American proxy voting system, data on remote voting in the House of Commons is not publicly available. Travel expense reports shed light on when MPs are in Ottawa, but they aren’t always up to date and can be difficult to interpret.
Still, there are other cases that stand out. Liberal MP Serge Cormier, who represents a riding in Atlantic Canada, appears to have spent roughly five sitting days in Ottawa between the fall of 2021 and the summer of 2022. He did not respond to multiple interview requests. Neither did Toronto-area Liberal MP Shaun Chen, who seems to have spent about 10 sitting days in the capital.
NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents a remote riding in northern Manitoba, also appears to have been in Ottawa for about 10 sitting days. She did not respond to POLITICO’s requests, though she has previously proclaimed that “a family friendly Parliament means a hybrid Parliament.”
The decision of some lawmakers to spend much less time in Ottawa raises other questions. Many of the MPs who’ve been more often in their home ridings, including Beech, Erskine-Smith, Doherty, Fry, Chen and Ashton, still claim expenses for apartments or condos in the nation’s capital, often charging between C$1,000 and C$2,500 a month.
Erskine-Smith said he’s been trying to sell his condo for more than a year. Beech said he needs to keep his home base in Ottawa, even though he’s spending less time there, so that his wife and kids have somewhere to stay when they join him.
But Doherty said it weighs on him. “It is definitely something that you think about all the time,” he said. “These dollars aren’t ours. These dollars are taxpayer dollars.”
The Liberal government must now decide whether to propose permanent changes to the rules governing the House of Commons. But in a possible indication of the direction it will take, Government House leader Mark Holland has spoken out forcefully in favor of hybrid provisions. He told the committee last fall about the impact that being a parliamentarian had on his personal life early in his career, including a failed marriage and a suicide attempt.
Divorce and mental health issues are all too common among federal politicians, Beech told POLITICO. “I am so happy to still be married to my wife… to be able to watch my kids grow up,” he said. “Hybrid needs to stay… the country will be better for it.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“The states are not going to reach an agreement. We are just too far apart,” said Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), who represents the Phoenix area. “Now is the time that we need this administration to come up with a solution to this dilemma, and we need it now.”
California is insisting on its legal claims under a compact dating back to 1922 as the river faces unprecedented strain because of climate change and population growth in the Southwest. The standoff thrusts the Biden administration into the position of deciding how to resolve competing claims on water shared among 40 million people from Wyoming to Mexico.
The Interior Department, which asked the states to come up with a joint plan to reduce use by roughly 30 percent, is expected to impose cuts as early as this summer.
On one side are six states, including Arizona and Nevada, where growing cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix are in an existential battle to avoid exhausting their supplies from the Colorado River. On the other is California, where farmers could go to the courts to protect their water rights.
Decisions taken by California in this most sensitive of battles could one day hurt Gov. Gavin Newsom if he runs for president and needs political support in Nevada and Arizona, two battleground states.
A bipartisan group of Western representatives, excluding officials from California, urged President Joe Biden to support the proposal offered by the six states in a letter Wednesday morning.
California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, a Newsom appointee, as well as the state’s two senators have criticized the six-state plan, saying it would disproportionately burden California cities and farmers.
Western senators are planning to meet to discuss the issue Thursday.
The Interior Department is keeping up talks with states and tribes and wants “as much support and consensus as possible,” said a spokesperson on Wednesday.
The proposal from the six states would impose additional cuts to every user, including California and Mexico.
Their plan relies on a new tool to preserve some water for Arizona and Nevada users by accounting for evaporation and leaks along the river as it flows downstream to California.
That infuriated California’s farmers, who see the concept as a way to cut into their legal claims to the water.
Instead, California’s proposal would alter operations at the river’s two main dams, forcing states to take modest cuts to which they’ve already agreed. If that’s not enough it would then force cuts using the priority system, effectively drying out central Arizona cities and tribes before the Golden State takes additional mandatory cuts.
“We agree there needs to be reduced use in the Lower Basin, but that can’t be done by just completely ignoring and sidestepping federal law,” said J.B. Hamby, the chair of the Colorado River Board of California and an Imperial Irrigation District director.
California, he said, already volunteered additional reductions back in October to ease the burden on other states.
The Interior Department said it plans to release a draft analysis of the options it is considering this spring. It could step in as soon as this summer to slash deliveries.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: Taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi’s picture playing with snowballs, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that Rahul Gandhi should remember the time when the Bharatiya Janata Party hoisted the flag at the Lal Chowk amid fear of bombs and guns.
“We saw Rahul and Priyanka playing with snowballs, saw them enjoying a picnic, but maybe they forgot to thank PM Modi, who after coming to power abrogated Article 370 and 35-A,” he said.
“And who was it who sowed this seed (Article 370), it was Congress,” he added.
He further said that Jammu Kashmir was given special status after independence. More than 45,000 people have been killed there. He asked Rahul Gandhi who is responsible for it.
Bharatiya Jansangh Chief Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee sacrificed his life to keep Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India. He had started a yatra to integrate India. He died under suspicious circumstances. There is no answer to that to date, “Union Minister Anurag Thakur added.
“In 1992, BJP chief Murli Manohar Joshi and the then party worker Narendra Modi hoisted the tricolor at the Lal Chowk between bombs and guns. That time was a time of bombs, not snowballs,” he said.
“In 2011, as the Yuva Morcha Chief, I started tiranga yatra from Kolkata to Kashmir. The whole of Jammu was surrounded by police, we were arrested and put in jail. Our workers were beaten when the tricolor was hoisted and they were jailed,” he recalled.
“The then Prime minister Manmohan Singh said that Anurag Thakur should refrain from hoisting the tricolor, it deteriorates the situation,” he said while recalling the former PM’s statement.
“Peace and tourism have increased in Kashmir. More than 2 crore tourists visited after the abrogation of 370 and 35-A. This happened after the Modi government took the steps that were necessary,” he added.
He blamed Rahul Gandhi for allowing those people in the yatra that have always wanted to break India. “In your yatra, more people who want to break India were visible. At every place, people who have tried to break India were present,” he said probably pointing out at Mufti and Abdullah.
He further said that Rahul forgot to thank Prime minister Narendra Modi who abrogated 370 and 35A, because of which, hoisting the tricolor at the Lal Chowk was possible.
Both measures are typical examples of the not-gonna-pass messaging bills that a party offers when it takes over a chamber of Congress, although the China bill picked up significant Democratic support. Senate Republicans led by Energy Committee ranking member John Barrasso of Wyoming have released similar legislation on the oil reserve this week, as the GOP uses the issue to express frustration with Biden’s broader efforts to wean the economy off fossil fuels to combat climate change.
But Republicans are casting their latest proposal in national security terms — accusing Biden of recklessly making politically timed sales from an emergency reserve created in response to the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.
“The SPR was created during a time of energy scarcity,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said in an interview, adding that Biden should instead unleash production from the nation’s fracking hot spots. “You don’t need an emergency reserve to bail you out of high energy prices. You just need to use the Bakken or Permian Basin.”
Congress has also turned to the petroleum reserve for non-emergency reasons over the years, with lawmakers of both parties pushing oil sales to raise money for needs such as highway construction and drug approvals, and former President Donald Trump once proposed selling off half the SPR’s supplies to shrink the federal deficit. Now, though, Republicans argue that Biden has left the U.S. vulnerable to a severe supply disruption by ordering emergency drawdowns after gasoline prices spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The GOP voiced similar complaints when then-President Barack Obama sold oil from the reserve in response to supply disruptions amid the Arab Spring.
Biden’s releases last year — including a massive release just before the election — totaled more than 200 million barrels of oil from the reserve, a network of underground salt caverns that now holds 372 million barrels. That’s down from 638 million barrels when Biden took office and the reserve’s lowest level since 1983.
The Treasury Department has estimated that the Biden administration’s releases reduced gasoline prices by up to 40 cents per gallon. The national average price was $3.446 a gallon Tuesday, down from an all-time high of $5.016 in June.
The Biden administration has initiated a plan to begin refilling the reserve, but Republicans accuse the president of failing to explain why Russia’s invasion and the subsequent spike in fuel prices qualified as an emergency. They also complain that he hasn’t tended to preserving the physical condition of the reserve’s infrastructure, saying its pipelines, pumps and caverns have been degraded from frequent drawdowns.
“What has caused this and why he [Biden] has had to use it [the SPR] is because of the war on fossil fuels this administration declared when they first went into office,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in an interview. “He is jeopardizing our energy security, which jeopardizes our national security.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are welcoming the GOP effort as an opportunity — to remind the public that gasoline prices have fallen on their watch.
The price drop is thanks in part to Biden’s appropriate use of the SPR, Democrats say.
The administration has “used it very reasonably for exactly the situation it should be used — for an emergency situation that is brought on by worldwide factors, whether it’s a war in the Middle East or a war in Ukraine,” said Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, in an interview.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm went to the White House on Monday to argue that the latest House bill “needlessly aims to weaken” the efficacy of the SPR as a tool to respond to crises, and would drive up gas prices during an oil shortage. (The bill would provide an exception “in the case of a severe energy supply interruption,” caused by hurricanes or other natural disasters).
Her comments were followed by a White House statement warning that Biden would veto the bill.
House Democrats led by Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey are countering with their own bill that would create an “Economic Petroleum Reserve” within the SPR, allowing the Energy Department to buy oil when prices are low and sell it when they are high, essentially making the U.S. government an oil trader. They plan to offer the measure as an amendment to the GOP legislation.
“This is not serious legislating,” Pallone said of the GOP effort at a news conference Tuesday. “It’s just a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry that’s already profiting from high oil prices. And it’s hypocritical. Because releasing oil from the SPR has been done by presidents from both parties for decades.”
Democrats also say Republican calls for increasing fossil fuel production on federal lands as part of their legislative push is misplaced because only 10 percent of U.S. oil and natural gas production occurs on federal lands. And they say that while Biden has limited leasing of new federal acreage for oil and gas sales, his administration has issued permits to drill at a rate outpacing the early months of the Trump administration.
House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) countered by noting that gasoline prices have increased over the past month by an average of 30 cents a gallon nationwide, offsetting much of the 40-cent price decrease the administration has been touting.
And Republicans say Pallone’s amendment would amount to anti-competitive government intervention in the global oil marketplace that would lead to higher prices over time.
“Republicans want durable, long-lasting relief at the pump,” McMorris Rodgers said in a statement Tuesday. “The best way to do this is by unleashing American energy, which is what H.R. 21 helps accomplish.”
The oil and gas industry is staying largely silent on the bill, instead placing a priority on issues such as easing permit rules for pipelines and natural gas export terminals.
“Industry generally wants the feds to stay out of markets,” an energy industry lobbyist told POLITICO, insisting on anonymity to speak candidly. “But they also like market stability, which SPR sales helped provide. This is all messaging.”
One exception was the American Exploration and Production Council, a trade group representing independent oil and gas producers, which came out in support of the GOP bill. The Biden administration “should not use our Strategic Petroleum Reserves as a tool to increase crude supply while simultaneously pursuing policies that suppress domestic production of crude and natural gas,” council CEO Anne Bradbury said in a statement.
Kelsey Tamborrino contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Jammu, Jan 24: Congress leader and Member Parliament Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said that Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) has largely succeeded to fight against the narrative of hatred spread across the country and bring the folks together yet again.
“Let me tell you that we have been able to bring the people across the country together yet again through BJY. There were a lot of lessons for us in the Yatra and we have learnt a lot after meeting people of various shades during our journey,” Rahul said addressing a press conference in Jammu, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
He said that there is no scope for hatred in the country as Congress believes in spreading the message of love. “Our endeavour is to open the shops of love across J&K that has been made a scapegoat of politics,” Rahul said. “Through BJY we have largely been able to fight the disastrous narrative of hatred spread by the BJP in the country.”
He said that primary focus of Congress is to get Statehood and Assembly restored in J&K. Asked if BJY was apolitical, why he was continuously targeting BJP, Rahul said that since Congress is the grand old political party, there will surely be a bit of politics in his speeches during the Yatra. “When KPs, farmers and unemployed youth would meet me during the Yatra and hope that I will definitely rake up their issues, there would obviously be a problem for me if I don’t talk about them,” the Congress leader said. He said there was not even a tinge of hatred for anybody including PM Narendera Modi. “I am not afraid of anybody so why should I have hatred for anyone,” he asid.
He said J&K youth are suffering from depression and discomfort. “We are here to listen to them and understand their issue,” he said, adding that media too has been suppressed to an extent as if Yatra is not happening at all.
To a query about Lal Singh, Rahul said that Singh supported Yatra and Congress appreciates that. “As far as Ghulam Nabi Azad, 90 per cent of his supporters and party men were on our stage. I would like to tender my apology if we have hurt Azad or Lal Singh,” Rahul said. On there are reports that crores are being spent for his BJY, Rahul said that to tarnish his image, BJP and RSS spent thousands of crores and yet didn’t succeed. “I want to tell BJP that money can’t burry the truth which has a nasty habit of come out. BJP has started to understand this reality gradually,” he said. Pertinently, Rahul led BJY will enter Srinagar on January 30—(KNO)
“What matters is really what the House can create,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent cross-aisle negotiator. “They’re in a position, they have the gavels. We have to see what sort of strategy they think works to a successful outcome.”
After two years of bipartisan progress on issues Washington once only dreamed of tackling, from gun safety to infrastructure, the current dynamic means the Senate Republican minority is effectively handing the keys to McCarthy to cut a deal with Biden. Senate Democrats had hoped to clear a clean debt ceiling bill early this year to demonstrate to the House they could get a filibuster-proof majority well ahead of the impending spring deadline, but their Republican colleagues say that’s not happening right now.
That’s in part because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his lieutenants spent much of their political capital in December, aggressively moving to pass a government funding bill that had McCarthy complaining loudly and often. Many GOP senators feared that kicking the spending measure to this year could risk a shutdown.
And now some Republicans doubt McConnell could muster the nine votes needed to break a filibuster on a debt limit increase, even if he wanted to. On Monday, all McConnell would say was: “We won’t default.”
“I don’t think he could get it, personally, right now. I think he squeezed all that he could to get the omnibus done, as well as it went,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), referring to the spending bills passed late last year.
Cramer added: “I don’t want to say hard feelings, but people feel the cost of that. And I don’t think they’re going to be ready to take another bullet, if you will.”
With the government funded until the end of September, many Republicans believe it’s McCarthy’s turn to make the tough calls during the new era of split government. Take Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s about as amenable to lifting the debt ceiling as any Republican you’ll find in the Capitol.
At the moment, she said, her “preference would be for the president to sit down with Speaker McCarthy, listen to one another and work out an agreement.” She said she did not know whether a so-called clean debt ceiling increase could even pass the Senate.
McCarthy’s challenge isn’t just to pass a bill lifting the debt ceiling, it’s to assuage his conservatives who are eager for draconian fiscal cuts in return — while eventually reaching an agreement with some House Democratic support to show momentum in the Senate. Those competing agendas could be difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile by the time the Treasury Department is finished using what are known as extraordinary measures to maximize the country’s remaining borrowing authority.
“If it’s purely a party-line vote there [in the House], it probably won’t get 60 votes here,” Tillis said, outlining the at-odds nature of the House and Senate imperatives. “And so that’s why we’ve got to look and see what they can put down that would actually garner at least some number of Democrat votes.”
Of course, it’s still early in what could be a long and bruising fight. Back in 2021, as the only bulwark against unified Democratic control in the last Congress, Senate Republicans took a hard line on the debt ceiling only to bend when the deadline neared. A handful of them voted for a two-month debt ceiling patch in the fall, then again to neutralize a filibuster for a larger debt ceiling increase.
It was a difficult moment within the GOP; McConnell relied on his leadership team, moderates and retiring GOP senators to push those through.
Some senators who supported that approach are now gone, however. And others aren’t in a mood to fold.
“We need to have a serious discussion about our long-term debt,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who supported both the debt ceiling solutions two years ago. “It’s early. I know the drumbeats have already started. But, you know, it’ll be at least June before we do it. The irresponsible position is to say ‘we’re not going to negotiate.’”
Yet that’s Democrats’ opening salvo, with several of the party’s senators reiterating their long-running stance that the debt ceiling is not negotiable. They believe negotiating on broader fiscal concessions in 2011 was a tactical mistake that led to a U.S. credit downgrade and emboldened a hardline GOP approach during the Obama administration.
Furthermore, those dug-in Senate Democrats see a GOP that only cares about the debt ceiling when a Democratic president is in office, citing the ballooning debt and deficit under former President Donald Trump.
“While President Trump was in office and Republicans had the House and Senate, Democrats voted to raise the debt ceiling,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor on Monday. “Both parties should work together to ensure we can continue to pay our debt on time, and we Democrats are ready to move quickly in order to make that happen.”
Ultimately, the Senate GOP may be in a position to break the impasse and help find a solution that can satisfy all parties: Senate Democrats, House Republicans and the president. By virtue of the design of the Senate and its legislative filibuster, its Republicans are more used to bipartisan cooperation than some of their House counterparts.
But it may be months before any bailout like that occurs. For now, it’s the McCarthy and Biden show.
“In the end it’s going to have to be something that House Republicans and the president agree on. Let’s see what they can figure out,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “That’s the best strategy, for us.”
Caitlin Emma contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
There’s almost no hip-hop in the first episode of BBC Two’s new four-part documentary about the genre, a series that labours under the vanilla title Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five only drop The Message in the last five minutes. Instead, we are given an hour-long history lesson on New York City in the 60s and 70s – the decades leading up to hip-hop’s birth.
This, however, is the correct approach, and it signals that Fight the Power will treat its subject with the respect and rigour it deserves – not surprisingly, since Chuck D of Public Enemy is an executive producer as well as one of the main interviewees. Any music documentary with ambitions to inform as well as entertain is a trade-off between sociology and musicology: the records say this and sound like that because this is what was happening in the world at the time. In the case of hip-hop, the scene was a more direct response to political circumstances than any popular music before it, and those conditions – black citizens marginalised by racist authorities – have resonance beyond the US and beyond the 20th century.
Back we go, then, to 1960, and John F Kennedy promising to improve black Americans’ life chances. By the end of the decade, their leaders were assassinated or imprisoned, their political movements infiltrated and undermined, their family members drafted into the US army and killed in Vietnam, their protests viciously put down. Fight the Power namechecks Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud by James Brown, Is It Because I’m Black by Syl Johnson and Seize the Time by future Black Panther party leader Elaine Brown as evidence of revolutionary spirit coursing through records released in 1969.
The 1970s began with The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron prefacing hip-hop by talking, not singing, about black power on records with “revolution” in the title. Fight the Power’s fine roster of contributors – KRS-One, Grandmaster Caz, Melle Mel, Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC, and indeed Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets – recall a decade in which black consciousness continued to rise, boosted by Shirley Chisholm’s run for the presidency in 1972 under the slogan “unbought and unbossed”, and in reaction less to overt state violence and more to administrative oppression. The documentary cites the phrase “a period of benign neglect”, used by one of Richard Nixon’s advisers in a January 1970 memo to the president and taken here as summing up the period when, with social programmes persistently underfunded and the South Bronx bisected by a new expressway that seemed designed to hasten urban decay, richer New Yorkers fled the city’s astronomical crime rates and left the poor black and Hispanic folk to it.
Fight the Power’s central observation is that hip-hop comes from a community that has been abandoned. The New York police, no longer minded to intervene in poor neighbourhoods, happily allowed hundreds of working-class youths to attend block parties, at which a generation that hadn’t had the money to buy or learn to play instruments made a new kind of music by setting up two turntables, so that a funky horn motif from one record could be segued into a tight drum break from another. The documentary makes the point that one of hip-hop’s most important influences wasn’t musical: at the end of the 70s, no effort was made to stop graffiti covering every inch of the New York subway, so spray-painted slogans and art became an ocean of protest and propaganda, impenetrable to some observers but vital as a form of expression for artists and activists with no other outlet.
Graffiti was, in other words, exactly what hip-hop lyrics would soon become, and was one of the four phenomena – along with rap, breakdance and DJing – brought together by DJ Kool Herc, credited here as hip-hop’s great pioneer. Then, as the 80s began, Ronald Reagan campaigned for the presidency by visiting the Bronx – we see him verbally jousting with angry residents in the rubble – and promising more federal aid, before gaining power and instead beginning the further systematic redistribution of wealth from poor to rich. Conditions are now perfect for a fierce new genre of music to take hold, as Chuck D explains: “Hip-hop is creativity and activity that comes out of the black neighbourhood when everything has been stripped away.”
And so we arrive at 1982 and The Message, with its eerily contemporary lyrics (“Got a bum education, double-digit inflation / Can’t take a train to the job, there’s a strike at the station”). The story of hip-hop itself – some of the greatest American pop music ever made – begins next week. We’re ready.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Civil society groups need to be mobilised to stop drug trafficking at the local level. Parents should monitor the activities of their children and protect them from getting addicted to drugs and falling into the clutches of drug addicts.
Drug addiction is a hot topic in Jammu and Kashmir because there is an alarming increase in drug addiction cases. The recent extremely upsetting report by the Government Medical College’s Psychiatry department has revealed that Kashmir has surpassed Punjab in drug abuse cases and is currently at the number two position among the top drug abuser states in the country. With the Northeast topping the drug abuse list, Kashmir is not far behind. Jammu and Kashmir is on the powder keg of drug addiction.
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterised by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviours, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person’s brain and behaviour and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medicine. Substances such as alcohol, marijuana and nicotine are considered drugs. When you are addicted, you may continue using the drug despite the harm it causes.
Drug addiction can start with the experimental use of a recreational drug in social situations, and, for some people, drug use becomes more frequent. For others, particularly with opioids, drug addiction begins when they take prescribed medicines or receive them from others who have prescriptions.
Globally, some 35 million people are estimated to suffer from drug use disorders who require medical treatment, according to the latest World Drug Report, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The most widely used drug globally continues to be cannabis, with an estimated 188 million people having used the drug in 2017.
As per the study conducted by Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Kashmir (IMHANS-K) titled Prevalence and Pattern of Substance Use in 10 districts of Kashmir:A 2022 survey, Jammu and Kashmir has surpassed the number of drug abuse cases in Punjab.
Thousands of youth in Kashmir are slipping into the dark alleys of drug addiction as the valley has been flooded with a huge quantity of heroin usage. The Jammu and Kashmir administration had said as per a consumption survey there are at least six lakh residents affected by drug related issues in the region.
Over 33 thousand syringes are used to inject heroin by drug abusers in the Kashmir on a daily basis. Heroin is among the most common drugs used by these abusers. The study shows 90 percent of drug abusers are using heroin while the rest are using cocaine, brown sugar, and marijuana. The survey has also revealed that most of the drug abusers are in the age group of 17-33 years. Unemployed youth are the main consumers of these drugs. And the number of drug abusers in the valley has crossed 67000, while 33000 are injected heroin using syringes. Drug use has become an easy escape from the fluctuating situations of life.
Among the most potential causes attributed to the skyrocketing drug abuse in Kashmir are, an unusual increase in psychiatric disorders, the uncertainty of the conflict, unemployment among the youth and non-availability of recreational activities.
The youth see it as an escape from the uncertainty and trauma of living in a conflict region. But it has unnecessarily taken a heavy toll on youth who are the future of the society.
Kashmir is in the grip of an epidemic and the biggest victims of this epidemic are youth. Over the last few years, there has been an extraordinary increase in crimes in Kashmir. It is said that the main reason for these crimes is the increasing use of drugs among the youth. Drug use has become a scourge, which is giving rise to many social evils. The growing trend of drugs in the Valley should be of concern to the society.
Couple held for drug peddling in Hazratbal on September 30, 2022 by Jammu and Kashmir Police.
Diagnosing drug addiction (substance use disorder) requires a thorough evaluation and often includes an assessment by a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or a licensed alcohol and drug counsellor. Although there’s no cure for drug addiction, treatment options can help you overcome an addiction and stay drug-free.
The eradication of drug addiction needs a multi-pronged approach. There is an urgent need for legal, social and religious measures to prevent drug addiction. Although the government has taken strict measures to eradicate the scourge of drugs, several serious measures are needed to eradicate this epidemic. The laws that are in force for the prevention of drug abuse should be implemented in a better way and these laws should be enforced and made stricter. The cultivation, sale and misuse of cannabis and opium should be completely banned. It is necessary to have cooperation between the administration and the people. Only then can our society get rid of this evil.
Bilal Gani
There is an urgent need for measures not only by the government but also by society to end this scourge. Civil society groups need to be mobilised to stop drug trafficking at the local level. Parents should monitor the activities of their children and protect them from getting addicted to drugs and falling into the clutches of drug addicts. Although there has been a lot of awareness among people about the harmful effects of drugs, this awareness needs to be spread to those areas and people who are unaware of it.
Another aspect of drug abuse prevention is the rehabilitation of victims of this scourge. But recovery must be consistent and victim-focused. The rehabilitation centres should take proper care of the psychological and emotional needs of the victims so that they can fully recover and move towards a prosperous future. These rehabilitation measures include preventive education and awareness building, capacity building, skill development, vocational training and livelihood support for ex-drug addicts, among other relevant measures to stop this epidemic before it is too late.
(The author is pursuing his PhD from the Central University Kashmir in politics and international relations.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kashmir Life.)
