Moscow on Saturday said there would be a “harsh” reaction and consequences for Poland’s interests in Russia, after Polish authorities seized a building near Moscow’s embassy in Warsaw — a step Russia labeled “illegal.”
The building, used as a high school for the children of diplomats, belongs to the Warsaw city hall, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Łukasz Jasina told AFP, adding that authorities had acted on a bailiff’s order.
But Russia’s foreign ministry slammed the move as a “hostile” act in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and as an encroachment against Russian diplomatic property in Poland.
“Such an insolent step by Warsaw, which goes beyond the framework of civilized inter-state relations, will not remain without a harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Polish interests in Russia,” the ministry added.
“Our opinion, which has been confirmed by the courts, is that this property belongs to the Polish state and was taken by Russia illegally,” the Polish foreign ministry’s Jasina told Reuters.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
There was a moment, shortly before half-time, when the Chelsea left wing-back Niamh Charles thought she had done it. ‘It’ being escaping from one-on-one duel with Barcelona’s Caroline Graham Hansen at the umpteenth time of asking with the ball in her possession.
Charles skated free of the forward, who scrambled to stay on her feet in front of the dugouts, with all the enthusiasm of a child that had just beaten their older sibling in a card game for the first time. Except it was a false alarm, the referee’s whistle halting Charles’ charge and pulling the ball back towards the spot where Graham Hansen was fouled by the England player.
As in the first leg of Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final showdown with Barcelona, Charles’s flank quickly became the focal point of Barcelona’s attack, leaving the Chelsea captain Magda Eriksson brutally exposed on the left-hand side of the back three. It was a familiar story. In the 2021 Champions League final, Barcelona left inexperienced full-backs Charles and Jess Carter in their wake as they scored four inside 36 minutes.
Two years later, in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea were a goal down inside four minutes. Graham Hansen was the architect, driving towards the edge of the box as Chelsea players stood off her, before unleashing a wicked left-footed strike into the far corner. In contrast to the final, a collapse was staved off, but the gulf in class between the two sides was more than evident.
At Camp Nou, which began to heave from about 15 minutes in as fans filtered in for the early kick-off at the end of the working day, Graham Hansen was rampant and unsparing as she ravaged Chelsea’s left flank. The Norwegian forward would put the ball in the back of the net early again, in the ninth minute this time, having ducked in front of Charles to collect the ball left for her by Eriksson before VAR ruled the effort out for her having controlled the ball with her arm in the process.
There was no halting the forward though, who before the half-hour mark would leave Charles on the ground before picking out Marta Torrejon to fire over the bar.
Charles struggled, but there can be little shame in struggling to contain one of the best wingers in the game, one who is criminally underrated. That Graham Hansen has never even made the short-list for the Ballon d’Or, frankly, makes a mockery of the award that bids to recognise the world’s best players. After she was omitted from the list in the year when Barcelona swaggered to that 4-0 Champions League final victory over Chelsea, the forward felt the need to respond on Twitter, such was the noise over her absence.
“To everyone who is wondering. It’s all good,” she said. “We won the treble and we are working our asses off to achieve this again. All that matters and the only thing that matters.”
Also absent that year, 2022, was Aitana Bonmatí, who is the metronome of the Barcelona attack and whose link-up play with Graham Hansen against Chelsea was a highlight. It was fitting, then, that the goal that would put Barcelona two goals up in the tie, albeit with Chelsea getting one back through fellow Norwegian forward Guro Reiten, would come from the deadly Bonmatí-Graham Hansen axis.
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Aitana Bonmati celebrates after Barcelona reached the Champions League final. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Released by Mariona Caldentay, Bonmatí’s deft first touch set her sweeping length of the Chelsea half, she played the ball through to Graham Hansen and the forward’s strike could only be cleared into the inside side netting by an overstretched Carter, with the goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger beaten.
The Spaniard Alexia Putellas may be the crown jewel of a Barcelona side with a wealth of talent that has coped unerringly well with the loss of her sparkle following her ACL injury on the eve of the Euros last year, but it is the Norwegian Graham Hansen that is the driving force of Barcelona’s unstoppable wide play.
There are rumours that the golden girl of Norwegian women’s football and the first woman to win the Ballon d’Or, Ada Hegerberg, could be tempted away from eight-time European champions, Lyon, by the Catalan club. She would be a Galactico-style signing. In Graham Hansen though, who extended her contract with the club in January until June 2026, Barcelona have a quality Norwegian forward deserving of a similar spotlight.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Human rights activist and author Harsh Mander was reportedly refused permission to speak on Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom day at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai.
The postponement of Mander’s event at TISS comes a day after the Ministry of Home Affairs’ request for a CBI investigation into Aman Biradari, an organisation founded by Mander, for suspected violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
The event organisers, Progressive Students’ Forum, claimed that the TISS administration placed unjustified limitations on the Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture (BSML) just one day before the event.
“BSML is an event held in the campus premises annually for the remembrance of revolutionary figure Bhagat Singh to offer alternative perspectives to the Sangh appropriation of the legendary freedom fighter. It involves cultural events and an address by guest lecturers. For the fifth edition, renowned social activist and ex IAS officer Harsh Mander who has spearheaded campaigns such as Karwan-e – Mohabbat and Right to food and Aishe Ghosh, President of the JNU student’s union and political activist who came into prominence during the anti-CAA protest were set to join the gathering,” read the statement by PSF.
Students protested in front of the Director’s Bungalow on March 21st and 22nd in response to the cancellation. Following the demonstration, the administration granted permission to the left student body but rejected permission to outside guest lecturers or specialists.
Delhi University professor and writer Apoorvanand called the incident, ‘Indian democracy is at work’.
“Indian democracy at work: Harsh Mander told that he was not welcome in TISS, Bombay to give his talk to mark the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh. Before that NLU, Lucknow canceled his talk. CBI, ED, NCPCR have already initiated action against him,” he tweeted.
Indian democracy at work: Harsh Mander told that he was not welcome in TISS, Bombay to give his talk to mark the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh. Before that NLU, Lucknow canceled his talk. CBI, ED, NCPCR have already initiated action against him.
— Apoorvanand अपूर्वानंद (@Apoorvanand__) March 23, 2023
Mander’s talk was also recently cancelled by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in Lucknow.
“Pete Buttigieg has taken a lot of bullets for the president on this,” one senior Democrat said Wednesday, insisting on anonymity to talk about a crisis that the person was not authorized to discuss.
Still, Buttigieg acknowledged in a CBS News interview Tuesday that he “could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident, and that’s a lesson learned for me.”
For Buttigieg, a former Indiana mayor and one of the Biden administration’s most avid political communicators, what began as a rail and ecological calamity has mushroomed in just 20 days into his most serious test yet as leader of the sprawling Department of Transportation.
Three people in Buttigieg’s orbit admit to being exasperated by the furor, saying nobody asked him about the derailment in any of the 23 media interviews he conducted during the first 10 days after the accident. Then critics lambasted him for not speaking sooner.
Since then, conservative media outlets have used images of the Feb. 3 wreck — including the flames, plumes of black smoke and piles of dead fish — to lambaste his oversight of rail safety. They’ve also criticized his failure to visit the crash site, a chorus of “Where’s Pete?” that didn’t let up even after he announced he would be visiting East Palestine on Thursday.
The “effort by Fox News and Republicans” to use the pain of the East Palestine community “as a political weapon is both enraging and demeaning,” the senior Democrat said.
Buttigieg first tweeted about the disaster on Feb. 13, when he said he continued to be “concerned about the impacts” to those living in the area. He pledged to use all “relevant authorities to ensure accountability and continue to support safety.”
The White House said Wednesday night that it’s standing behind Buttigieg, rejecting calls from some GOP lawmakers for him to resign or be fired. It also echoed Buttigieg’s criticisms of past Republican actions that rolled back Obama administration rail safety regulations.
“These are bad faith attacks from Republicans who have been in lockstep with the rail lobby to unravel safety protections,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said.
The Ohio derailment comes after a series of other transportation-related snarls that have happened on Buttigieg’s watch, including a threatened nationwide rail strike, airline scheduling meltdowns and a Federal Aviation Administration computer failure that grounded flights nationwide. These have brought him unsparing criticism from GOP lawmakers and conservative media outlets, which have portrayed him as overwhelmed by or detached from the job — and mocked his interest in issues such as racial justice and climate change.
Fox News’ prime-time coverage of the derailment on Tuesday included a Photoshopped image portraying him as a suit-wearing bicyclist grinning in front of the wreckage. Former President Donald Trump weighed in during a visit to East Palestine on Wednesday, telling reporters, “Buttigieg should’ve been here already.”
That criticism could just as easily be aimed at other Biden appointees, the senior Democrat who discussed the attacks on Buttigieg said. Those could even include Environmental Protection Agency chief Michael Regan, who first visited the disaster site last week — the first trip there by any of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet-level leaders.
Regan, whose agency is overseeing the cleanup of toxic chemicals in East Palestine, returned to the village Tuesday. There, he sipped tap water with Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Rep. Bill Johnson to reassure residents that it’s safe to drink. On Wednesday night, he appeared during a CNN town hall about the disaster.
Employees of both DOT and EPA were at the scene within hours after the derailment, as were crash investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board. The heads of DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration and the department’s hazardous materials agency visited East Palestine on Wednesday, though their trip was upstaged by Trump’s appearance.
Still, “there’s a plume, and there’s a chemical spill. If anyone should have been there right away, it’s Regan,” the senior Democrat said. “But he’s not a political target. And so what’s happened here is they’ve picked a political target. And they’ve just beaten that drum as often as they can, despite facts.”
Bates, the White House spokesperson, also called it misguided for Republicans to expect Buttigieg to personally rush to the site of a train wreck.
“It’s like them pretending they think the State Department takes point on rescuing people in the water during hurricanes instead of the Coast Guard,” Bates said. “Case in point, under the last administration EPA was also in the lead on similar derailments.”
Buttigieg’s critics include Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has accused him of being “m.i.a. on the derailment” and urged Biden to fire him last week.
“For two years, Secretary Buttigieg downplayed and ignored crisis after crisis, while prioritizing topics of little relevance to our nation’s transportation system,” Rubio wrote.
During his visit to East Palestine on Thursday, Buttigieg plans to meet with community members, NTSB officials and DOT employees.
“During the initial response phase, I’ve followed the norm of staying out of the way of the independent NTSB,” he tweeted Wednesday. “Now that we’re into the policy phase, I’ll be visiting.”
The department separately announced a series of policy actions the department planned to take in response to the disaster as well as calls for railroads and Congress to make their own changes. “[W]e hope this sudden bipartisan support for rail safety will result in meaningful changes in Congress,” DOT said in a statement.
Buttigieg also sent a scathing letter to the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the railroad involved in the disaster, for what he called the “vigorous resistance by your industry to increased safety measures.”
Buttigieg’s supporters have accused Republicans of showing only newfound interest in rail safety, noting that Trump’s administration had shelved an Obama-era rule that would have required faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials. (The rule would not have applied to the train that derailed in Ohio, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy wrote on Twitter last week.) Trump’s DOT also ended regular rail safety audits of railroads and killed a pending rule requiring freight trains to have at least two crew members.
More than 1,000 train derailments happen in the U.S. during a given year, and Transportation secretaries don’t normally go to the scene. Rail safety veteran Bob Lauby said that in his 23 years at the NTSB and the Federal Railroad Administration, he remembers just one time when a secretary visited the site — and it was 30 years ago, when the deadliest incident in Amtrak’s history killed 47 people near Mobile, Ala.
But the East Palestine disaster has generated a much fiercer, longer-lasting backlash than usual.
A senior DOT official said department leaders were satisfied during the days after the derailment that the situation was in good hands, with a dozen staff members assisting the NTSB investigation, as well as officials from EPA and other government agencies.
Buttigieg was prepared to speak about the incident if asked, according to the DOT official — but for 10 days, no interviewer asked him.
Then on Feb. 13, “we started to see a large uptick in mentions on the secretary’s social media accounts, particularly on Twitter,” said a spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes events. “That afternoon we began to see stories on television and get inquiries about the DOT and secretary’s role in this derailment.”
It has kept going since then.
On Tuesday, a Daily Caller reporter approached Buttigieg while he was out walking with his husband, Chasten, and asked him about the derailment. Buttigieg referred her “to about a dozen interviews I’ve given today” and suggested she contact his press office. The exchange generated even more headlines in conservative media.
A host of factors could explain why the Ohio wreck has stayed in the headlines long past the point when national media have lost interest in similar disasters, including those with equally striking footage of smoke and flames and equally valid fears of contamination.
For one thing, the derailment comes months after last year’s threatened rail strike, which put freight rail on the front pages given a work stoppage’s potential to kneecap the U.S. economy. An incident Feb. 8 in which police arrested a reporter covering a DeWine news conference in East Palestine also stoked more headlines about the derailment’s aftermath — despite conspiracy theories on social media accusing news organizations of covering up the disaster.
Beyond that, “anytime air and water are involved, communities feel extremely anxious and vulnerable, for good reason,” said former FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg, who dealt with several high-profile derailments during the Obama era.
Relatedly, she said, “we are in an era of severe corporate and government distrust.” So when Norfolk Southern or EPA tell communities the air and water are safe, people don’t believe them.
That skepticism hasn’t kept Regan, the EPA chief, from getting the warm welcome from Republicans that has eluded Buttigieg. Those include DeWine and others who have met Regan during his two trips to East Palestine.
“Thank you, administrator, for this partnership,” DeWine told Regan at a news conference Tuesday.
Alex Guillén contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: Former minister Harsh Dev Singh on Thursday announced his decision to quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to revive the Panthers Party.
Quoting a video statement news agency KNO reported that Harsh Dev announced his decision revive Panthers Party which was formed by Prof. Bhim Singh in 1982.
“We have held consultations and arrived at a decision to revive the Panthers Party. Our ancestors have given sacrifices for the party,” he said.
Singh, who was chairman of AAP’s state coordination committee, said revival of the Panthers Party would be in interest of the people.
Hyderabad: The residents of Hyderabad who were witnessing the chilly winter season for the past few weeks are likely to see harsh summer in the coming months as El Nino event may make 2023 hotter.
The last three years were La Nino years whereas, the upcoming year is likely to be El Nino which not only makes summer harsher but also results in monsoon failure.
What are El Nino and La Nino?
El Nino and La Nino are two climate patterns. While El Nino is known for the abnormal warming of surface water in the eastern tropical pacific ocean whereas, La Nino results in the unusual cooling of the tropical eastern pacific.
Due to this unusual warming and cooling of surface water, the monsoon in India is adversely affected. In intense La Nino, flood poses risk to crops whereas, in El Nino, the agriculture sector faces drought conditions.
Their impact on seasons in Hyderabad
The duration of the La Nino event is between one to three years whereas, El Nino continues for less than a year.
For the past three years, Hyderabad along with other parts of the country was seeing chilly winter season and good monsoon due to La Nino, however, El Nino which is likely to be witnessed in the upcoming months may make summer hotter.
Hyderabad may see harsh summer after chilly winter
During the past few weeks, Hyderabad saw chilly winter season. The minimum temperate dropped to 6.5 degrees Celsius last week.
However, in the next few months, the city is likely to see rise in temperature. Even the monsoon season in the city is likely to be impacted due to the El Nino event.
In 2015, the El Nino event has significantly increased the temperature in the city during the summer. It has also affected rainfall and crop output in India.
