SRINAGAR: Border security forces on Saturday fired in air after a suspicious drone like object was seen flying in Ramgarh sector of Samba district on Saturday.
Officials said that on Saturday early morning one suspicious flying object possibly a drone with blinking red and white light was seen flying over BOP Narayanpur. The flying object was seen at a height of approx 600 – 700 metre above the ground level and was spotted by troops of 148 bn who fired about 20 rounds towards the drone, he said.
He said that the said object came from the border side and left towards the Pakistan side. He added that further investigation has been taken up in this regard. (KS)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters he planned a National Security Council meeting to discuss the launch. Asked over the accuracy of Japan’s information dissemination about future North Korean launches, Kishida said the government is checking related information including alerts.
North Korea commonly test-launches missiles toward the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. All its past ICBM launches were made in the area, but on elevated trajectories to avoid neighboring countries.
South Korea and Japan typically don’t issue evacuation orders for North Korean launches unless they determine weapons flew in the direction of their territories.
But after Thursday’s launch, the Japanese government urged people on the northernmost island of Hokkaido to seek shelter. The government then corrected and retracted its missile alert, saying its analysis showed there was no possibility of a missile landing near Hokkaido.
It was unclear why Japan issued the order for a missile that didn’t fall near the island, but the incident suggested it was being cautious about North Korea’s evolving missile threats.
Last October, Japanese authorities issued a similar evacuation order when a North Korean intermediate-range missile flew over Japan in a launch that demonstrated the potential to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. At the time, Japanese authorities alerted residents in its northeastern regions to seek shelter and halted trains, although no damages were reported before the weapon landed in the Pacific.
Thursday’s launch came days after its leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more “practical and offensive” ways.
North Korea has launched about 100 missiles this year and in 2022, many of them nuclear-capable weapons that place the U.S. mainland, South Korea and Japan within striking distance.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: The Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department in its annual report for the year 2022 stated that the state saw 3969 fire accidents due to ‘careless smoking’.
Fires of electrical origin, due to gas coal furnaces, chimneys, arson, spontaneous combustion, due to oven stoves/ open fires and fires due to mechanical heat/sparks top the list consecutively.
The Department stated that in 2022, it has responded to 104 serious, 135 medium, 7129 small and 574 rescue and emergency calls, making it a total of 7942 calls in the year 2022, which is 718 calls more than in 2021.
The department also said that 45 lives have been lost in these accidents and property damage worth Rs 212.36 cr has occurred. On the other hand, 213 lives were saved and Rs 723.14 cr worth of property was saved from destruction, the department said.
Major fire accidents in 2022 in Telangana, according to the Fire department
A major fire accident occurred on January 16 at the Secunderabad Club, Plot No.220, Picket, Secunderabad around 02.40 am in the morning. The property lost in the Fire was Rs.15,27,00,000 and the property saved was Rs. 14,73,00,000. The Department launched prosecution on the said owner/occupier as per Section-31 of the Fire Service Act.
Another major fire accident occurred on January 31 at Sri Sri Institute of Holistic Health in Hydemnagar Village, Kukatpally Mandal, Medchal District around 10.30 pm. The Department has initiated prosecution against the said owner/occupier as per the provisions of the Fire Service Act, 1999.
A massive fire incident occurred on March 23 at a Scrap Godown in Bhoiguda, Secunderabad around 03:15 pm. It is opined that ‘Electrical origin’ is the supposed cause of a fire accident. No Fire NOC was issued by the Telangana Fire Service Department to the scrap Godown as it is not covered under the provision of section 13 of the Fire Act. 11 members lost their lives in the incident and 1 person escaped from the fire.
One more fire accident occurred on June 3 at around 10.54 am. near Fire Station, Sanathnagar, government medical store depot under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Sanathnagar, Hyderabad. The property lost in the fire was Rs. 14,34,38,127 and the saved was Rs.5,65,61,873. The Department has issued notice to the Owner/Occupier of the said premises to provide the Fire Fighting systems as per Table 23 of Part-IV of NBC,2016.
Another major fire accident occurred at Ruby Hotel, Gemopai (Electrical Scooters), Opp. Saptagiri Hotel Secunderabad on September 12 around 12.32 am and resulted in the death of 8 persons and 10 individuals were injured in the incident. The above said building consisted of a cellar, ground and 4 upper floors with a height of 17.50 meters with Residential Occupancy (Hotel). Electrical Scooters were stored in the cellar unauthorizedly by the owners and action was initiated against the owner of the building by the Police.
Also, in 2022, the fire safety department conducted a total of 103 fire safety awareness programmes and mock drills to sensitize citizens about fire prevention and safety.
The Department strongly appealed to all the citizens to adopt the best possible fire precautions and fire safety measures and thereby save ‘precious human lives and national wealth’. It also asked people to call fire Services by dialling ‘101’ in case of fire accidents.
It’s unusual for Congress to subpoena a line prosecutor — and Jordan, in his Thursday letter, alleges that Bragg’s office directed Pomerantz not to cooperate with oversight. Pomerantz didn’t immediately respond to questions about that claim.
Bragg’s office issued a fiery rebuke of the subpoena, painting it as House Republicans’ latest attempt to meddle by “intruding on the sovereignty of the state of New York by interfering in an ongoing criminal matter in state court.”
“The House GOP continues to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation. Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law,” Bragg’s office added.
But Pomerantz has also written a book where he included details of the New York investigation into Trump and the Trump organization that could make the subpoena harder to resist.
The Jan. 6 select committee used a similar argument against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ resistance to a summons, arguing he waived any potential privileges by releasing a book that describes some of his interactions with the former president. Meadows was later held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, though the Justice Department declined to prosecute him.
However, another Jan. 6 committee witness who wrote a book before refusing to appear — Peter Navarro — is currently being prosecuted for contempt of Congress.
Jordan told Pomerantz that “you have no basis to decline to testify about matters before the Committee that you have already discussed in your book and/or on a prime-time television program with an audience in the millions, including on the basis of any purported duty of confidentiality or privilege interest.”
The subpoena comes just days after Trump appeared in court in New York and pled not guilty to 34 felony counts of “falsifying business records.” Prosecutors allege that Trump, the first former president ever indicted, tried first to bury and then cover up damaging allegations about an extramarital affair by falsifying company records.
It also comes as Republicans weigh their next steps in their probe of Bragg’s office.
They’ve returned multiple rounds of volleys seeking testimony and official documents from Leslie Dubeck, Bragg’s general counsel. Dubeck replied to Jordan, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) last week requesting a list of questions they would want to ask Bragg as well as what documents they think they could receive that wouldn’t disclose private details of an investigation.
Dubeck, while urging Republicans to negotiate before a potential subpoena of Bragg, also offered a blistering critique of the investigation in her letter calling their accusations of political persecution as “baseless and inflammatory.”
“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,” she added.
Bragg’s office has contended that congressional Republicans have no “legitimate legislative purpose” behind the inquiry into the DA’s Trump probe. But Jordan has contended the inquiry is linked to the national implications of prosecuting a former president — from conflicts between state and federal law to the Secret Service’s role in protecting an ex-president who is also a criminal defendant.
Republicans haven’t yet responded to Dubeck’s latest letter, but Jordan defended the investigation in his letter to Pomerantz — reiterating that Republicans could use findings from it to draft bills on the use of federal forfeiture funds.
That would include, Jordan said, a potential prohibition of those funds’ use to investigate a current or former president, or a presidential candidate. (The Manhattan DA’s office disclosed that it has used federal forfeiture funds on expenses related to investigations of Trump or the Trump organization.)
Jordan has stressed in a series of TV interviews this week that a subpoena of Bragg remains on the table. He’s also left the door open to the DA voluntarily appearing or even Republicans focusing first on other individuals in Bragg’s orbit.
Pomerantz and Carey Dunne are of particular interest to House Republicans, since both resigned from Bragg’s office earlier this year — reportedly because of Bragg’s doubts at the time about moving forward with the Trump case. Thursday’s subpoena comes after Jordan fired off letters to both Pomerantz and Dunne last month, but has not issued a similar subpoena to Dunne.
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“There are a number of things happening globally that indicate that we could be in a contest on any one given day,” Austin said. “Not approving the recommendations for promotions actually creates a ripple effect through the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.”
“The effects are cumulative and it will affect families. It will affect kids going to schools because they won’t be able to change their duty station,” he added. “It’s a powerful effect and will impact on our readiness.”
On the other side is Tuberville, a member of the Armed Services Committee, who is following through on a threat to object to quick confirmations of Pentagon civilian nominees and senior military officer promotions after Austin rolled out policies that cover expenses and permit leave for troops who have to travel to obtain abortions.
President Joe Biden’s civilian nominees have been mired in Senate gridlock for much of his term. But senior military promotions typically cruise to Senate approval with little opposition, with the chamber sometimes approving hundreds of moves at once.
The volume of senior military promotions makes it harder for Senate Democrats to get around Tuberville’s objections than it is for civilian nominees. And Tuberville has indicated he won’t stop his obstruction of nominees unless the abortion policy is reversed or suspended.
Tuberville and Austin spoke last week, but the Alabama Republican hasn’t budged. Tuberville’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who teed up the question at Tuesday’s hearing, agreed with Austin. He warned of senior military positions that would come open in the coming months, including the next Joint Chiefs chair.
“As I look forward, I have never in my almost three decades here seen so many key military positions coming up for replacement,” Reed said.
“If we cannot resolve the situation, we will be, in many respects, leaderless at a time of great conflict,” the chair warned. “So, I would hope we would expedite and move quickly on this front.”
A Defense Department official said the Pentagon projects that, between now and the end of the year, 650 general and flag officers will require Senate confirmation. Eighty of those are three and four-star generals or admirals, the official noted.
A plethora of senior military leaders are set to retire in the coming months, including top officers in the Marine Corps, Navy and Army. Multiple combatant commanders, including the heads of U.S. Northern Command, Space Command and Cyber Command, are also set to rotate out of their posts.
Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley, who testified alongside Austin, is also set to retire in the fall when his four-year term as the military’s top officer expires.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has noted that the list includes officers tapped to command naval forces in the Pacific and Middle East, as well as a military representative to the NATO Military Committee.
In a speech Monday criticizing Tuberville, Schumer said the impasse risks “permanently politicizing the confirmation of military personnel.”
“If every single one of us objected to the promotion of military personnel whenever we feel passionately or strongly about an issue, our military would simply grind to a halt,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Paul McLeary and Lara Seligman contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signaled that the prime minister and his allies will barrel ahead this week with the overhaul plan. Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.
In a brief statement, Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday the prime minister had dismissed Gallant. Netanyahu later tweeted “we must all stand strong against refusal.”
Tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets in protest after Netanyahu’s announcement, blocking Tel Aviv’s main artery, transforming the Ayalon highway into a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags and lighting a large bonfire in the middle of the road.
Demonstrations took place in Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, where thousands of people gathered outside Netanyahu’s private residence. Police scuffled with protesters and sprayed the crowd with a water cannon.
Inon Aizik, 27, said he came to demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s private residence in central Jerusalem because “bad things are happening in this country,” referring to the judicial overhaul as “a quick legislative blitz.”
Netanyahu’s decision came less than a day after Gallant, a former senior general, called for a pause in the controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holidays, citing the turmoil in the ranks of the military.
Gallant had voiced concerns that the divisions in society were hurting morale in the military and emboldening Israel’s enemies. “I see how the source of our strength is being eroded,” Gallant said.
While several other Likud members had indicated they might follow Gallant, the party quickly closed ranks on Sunday, clearing the way for his dismissal.
Galit Distal Atbaryan, Netanyahu’s public diplomacy minister, said that Netanyahu summoned Gallant to his office and told him “that he doesn’t have any faith in him anymore and therefore he is fired.”
Gallant tweeted shortly after the announcement that “the security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life mission.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Gallant’s dismissal “harms national security and ignores warnings of all defense officials.”
Israel’s consul general in New York City, Assaf Zamir, resigned in protest.
Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet security agency, is expected to replace him. Dichter had reportedly flirted with joining Gallant but instead announced Sunday he was backing the prime minister.
Netanyahu’s government is pushing ahead for a parliamentary vote this week on a centerpiece of the overhaul — a law that would give the governing coalition the final say over all judicial appointments. It also seeks to pass laws that would grant parliament the authority to override Supreme Court decisions with a basic majority and limit judicial review of laws.
Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.
But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets over the past three months to demonstrate against the plan in the largest demonstrations in the country’s 75-year history.
Leaders of Israel’s vibrant high-tech industry have said the changes will scare away investors, former top security officials have spoken out against the plan and key allies, including the United States and Germany, have voiced concerns.
In recent weeks discontent has even surged from within Israel’s army – the most popular and respected institution among Israel’s Jewish majority. A growing number of Israeli reservists, including fighter pilots, have threatened to withdraw from voluntary duty in the past weeks.
Israel’s military is facing a surge in fighting in the occupied West Bank, threats from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and concerns that archenemy Iran is close to developing a nuclear-weapons capability.
Violence both in Israel and the occupied West Bank has escalated over the past few weeks to heights unseen in years.
Manuel Trajtenberg, head of an influential Israeli think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies, said, “Netanyahu can dismiss his defense minister, he cannot dismiss the warnings he heard from Gallant.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli good governance group on Sunday asked the country’s Supreme Court to punish Netanyahu for allegedly violating a conflict of interest agreement meant to prevent him from dealing with the country’s judiciary while he is on trial for corruption.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a fierce opponent of the overhaul, asked the court to force Netanyahu to obey the law and sanction him either with a fine or prison time for not doing so. It said he was not above the law.
“A prime minister who doesn’t obey the court and the provisions of the law is privileged and an anarchist,” said Eliad Shraga, the head of the group, echoing language used by Netanyahu and his allies against protesters opposed to the overhaul. “The prime minister will be forced to bow his head before the law and comply with the provisions of the law.”
The prime minister responded saying the appeal should be dismissed and said that the Supreme Court didn’t have grounds to intervene.
Netanyahu is barred by the country’s attorney general from directly dealing with his government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, based on a conflict of interest agreement he is bound to, and which the Supreme Court acknowledged in a ruling over Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption. Instead, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant of Netanyahu, is spearheading the overhaul.
But on Thursday, after parliament passed a law making it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, Netanyahu said he was unshackled from the attorney general’s decision and vowed to wade into the crisis and “mend the rift” in the nation. That declaration prompted the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to warn that Netanyahu was breaking his conflict of interest agreement.
The fast-paced legal and political developments have catapulted Israel into uncharted territory and toward a burgeoning constitutional crisis, said Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
“We are at the start of a constitutional crisis in the sense that there is a disagreement over the source of authority and legitimacy of different governing bodies,” he said.
Netanyahu is on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs involving wealthy associates and powerful media moguls. He denies wrongdoing and dismisses critics who say he will try to seek an escape route from the charges through the legal overhaul.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced to sack an additional 10,000 employees via several job cut rounds in the coming months.
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said overall, “we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired” in the company’s “year of efficiency”.
In a separate filing with the US SEC, Meta said the new job cuts will lower the high end of its expense guidance for the year by $3 billion.
Over the next couple of months, organisation leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening the organisations, cancelling lower priority projects, and reducing hiring rates.
“We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May,” the Meta CEO said.
In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes, he added.
“Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details,” said Zuckerberg.
The fresh cuts come just four months after he laid off 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of the company, in November last year.
Zuckerberg said that after restructuring, Meta plans to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group.
“Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year,” he added.
In its ‘Year of Efficiency’, Meta will make the organisation flatter by removing multiple layers of management.
“As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster,” Zuckerberg noted.
Their proposal stood in contrast to Biden’s budget proposal released Thursday; his plan calls for a 7 percent increase over current non-defense spending levels and higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
The OMB director said it was good the House Freedom Caucus put their plan out, as it allows for a clear contrast of the priorities between the president and House Republicans. She also noted that the debt ceiling was raised three times during the Trump administration without these type of conditions.
Though the Freedom Caucus plan did not call for cuts to Social Security, Young said that Republican policies post a threat to it.
“Let me be clear, the top existential threat to Social Security is those in this town that want to cut it,” Young told Collins.“I wish we were in the part of the debate where we could talk about extending. This president chose to focus on protecting benefits.”
Speaking later on the same CNN program, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said she was bothered by Young’s remarks on the debt ceiling and negotiations.
“The comments by the director of OMB on this program a few moments ago were disturbing to me just not even as a member of Congress, but as an American,” Mace said, adding: “We should be negotiating on this issue. This shouldn’t be one-sided.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
London: Britain’s former premier Boris Johnson on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal with the European Union, saying he will find it “very difficult” to vote for it in Parliament.
Sunak has been riding high on a largely positive wave since the British Prime Minister declared a “decisive breakthrough” with the EU in the form of a Windsor Framework, which replaces his former boss’ controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
The British Indian leader told the House of Commons that the new pact puts “beyond all doubt that we have now taken back control”.
However, Johnson now a disgruntled backbench Conservative Party MP told a Global Soft Power Summit in London on Thursday that he would find it “very difficult” to vote for the new deal in Parliament.
“I’m conscious I’m not going to be thanked for saying this, but I think it is my job to do so: we must be clear about what is really going on here,” said Johnson.
“This is not about the UK taking back control, and although there are easements this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to (former British prime minister) Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary. This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws but by theirs,” he said.
“I’m going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself because I believe that we should have done something different. No matter how much plaster came off the ceiling in Brussels,” he added.
Johnson said he hopes the new deal works but if it doesn’t, the government should have “the guts” to re-table the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill he had drafted which would allow the UK to unilaterally change parts of the previous Brexit protocol without the EU’s permission. While the EU claims such a move breaches international law, Johnson believes it is the Bill that ultimately “brought the EU to negotiate seriously”.
Sunak had pulled the Bill from Parliament after he agreed a new deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Windsor on Monday, following months of intensive talks.
It is hoped the Windsor Framework would break the deadlock over the contentious and unworkable Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to prevent a post-Brexit hard border on the island of Ireland between UK territory Northern Ireland and EU member-state Ireland but which effectively created a trade divide.
Now, Sunak is waiting for the response of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the clear backing of hard Brexiteers within his own Tory party for the new framework. Johnson’s intervention is expected to influence the latter to some extent but there is a general consensus that Sunak is unlikely to face any major rebellion in the ranks over the issue.
After what has been widely seen as a win for his leadership abilities, the Prime Minister has decided to treat his party colleagues to an “away day” in Windsor the site of the new Brexit framework.
According to The Times’ newspaper, Conservative Party MPs have been bussed from London to Windsor on Thursday morning for 24 hours of bonding, teambuilding and strategising.
The rescue service was alerted about the fire at half past six in the evening. The fire is on the island about 50 meters from the beach.
Länsiväylän burns nearby. The rescue service was notified at half past six and arrived to state that there was almost nothing that could be done.
The fire is on the island, which is about 50 meters from the shoreline in front of the Lapinlahti park area. According to the rescue service, the fire is caused by smoke damage For the area of Kamppi and the city center.
An uninhabited board building is completely destroyed in the fire. Picture: Petri Sajari HS
An uninhabited cottage covered with clapboards is burning on the island. At six o’clock there was only one wall left of the cottage.
“When we got there, the fire had already progressed far. Extinguishing the fire would have been a slow and tedious operation,” says the fire marshal on duty Kari Ursin.
According to Ursini, extinguishing the “shack” would have required the transportation of firefighting equipment on a surface rescue raft or, alternatively, breaking the ice in order to obtain firefighting water from the sea.
The police are investigating the cause of the fire.
#Fires #Hökkeli #burns #island #center #Helsinki
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( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )
