Jaipur: A man who was wanted in connection with duping people on the pretext of helping them get jobs in the Railways and was on the run for three years was arrested here, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, Pawan Kumar Sharma, a resident of Sawai Madhopur district, allegedly duped 10 people of Rs 70 lakh, they said.
On January 10, 2020, Omprakash Meena filed a complaint at Manpur police station alleging that Sharma and his wife Poonam Devi had cheated him, said Dausa Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Nain.
The couple had duped 10 people of Rs 70 lakh on the pretext of helping them get jobs in the Railways. They would give the victims a fake appointment letter, he said.
A team of Manpur police station arrested Sharma from a house in Jaipur’s Pratap Nagar, the SP said.
After 2020’s redistricting, Allred’s district became safely Democratic, meaning he could likely hold his current seat for as long as he chooses. His decision to give it up to run for Senate instead, in a state where his party has struggled to win statewide, sets up a potentially high-profile general election race next fall.
Cruz, now serving his second term in the Senate, faced a tougher-than-expected challenge from then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in 2018. Though O’Rourke lost by about 2.6 percentage points, the former House member developed a national profile that he parlayed into an unsuccessful 2020 presidential run.
Allred may well follow O’Rourke’s model. Even if he doesn’t win, he will raise his political cachet with a 2024 run against Cruz — giving himself national exposure and building a massive donor list.
He has demonstrated an ability to excite Democrats and pick up independents or moderate Republicans, earning endorsements from the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his congressional runs.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024. She is not planning to primary Gillibrand,” Lauren Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson, told POLITICO.
Other possible challengers have already opted out of the race. Former New York Rep. Mondaire Jones, a progressive, has decided he won’t run for Gillibrand’s seat next year after privately considering a bid, according to a person familiar with his plans who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about internal deliberations. Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres
(D-N.Y.) also told POLITICO they are not interested in the race.
“Sen. Gillibrand has represented our state incredibly well,” said Isaac Goldberg, a Democratic consultant based in New York. “There’s no energy right now to go after someone who spends her time protecting the right to choose, fighting for paid leave, family leave, workers’ rights and a green economy and everything else Democrats in this state value.”
Political calculations can change, of course. Ocasio-Cortez saying she isn’t planning to run is different from her declaring that she won’t. But her comment is the most definitive statement to date that a 2024 Senate campaign is not in the cards. If the congresswoman follows through with her intention to skip a Senate bid, it would go a long way toward smoothing the path to reelection for Gillibrand, whose main concern has been the political challenges she faces from within her party. Previously, there had been talk among Ocasio-Cortez’s former aides that she could run.
Indeed, Gillibrand maintains strong personal relationships that may have deterred some challengers, allies and supporters said. That included having what she called a “lovely lunch” with Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff in the Senate Dining Room in January.
Gillibrand is also benefiting from the bruises New York Democrats suffered in 2022. The party saw four House seats flip to Republican during the midterms. And many top state Democratic officials said they want to avoid an acrimonious primary in order to focus on recovering those House seats and protecting battleground members like Rep. Pat Ryan.
“I think it’s divisive. And unless you think you can win, it’s divisive unnecessarily,” said Jay Jacobs, chair of the New York Democratic Party. “It’s using up resources we need to preserve for more coordinated work and the rest.”
Camille Rivera, a New York-based progressive strategist, said competitive primaries often benefit democracy and candidates, but that a Democratic contest at this time in New York “could be pretty bruising and give a Republican a leg up.”
A Democratic strategist close to the Working Families Party, a liberal group founded in New York, said there isn’t any appetite within the organization to challenge Gillibrand.
“2024 will be a big year and [New York] will be vital to taking back Congress,” the person said. “That will be an important focus for the WFP.”
State party officials are already developing a collaborative campaigning and fundraising effort led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Gillibrand’s also in “regular” conversation with Jeffries about the coordinated campaign, according to a person close to Gillibrand’s campaign.
In a statement, Gillibrand spokesperson Evan Lukaske said she is “excited to run on her record of delivering for New York families. From making gun trafficking a federal crime to securing health benefits for 9/11 survivors to bringing home hundreds of millions of dollars for projects that will boost the economy, Senator Gillibrand has consistently gotten real results.”
But it wasn’t too long ago when Gillibrand’s future was less certain. She had come off a presidential bid that ended before the first primary contests, faced criticism for her role in former-Sen. Al Franken’s resignation, and accepted donations from crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. (Gillibrand’s team said she has donated the money to a nonprofit.)
“[Gillibrand] effectively hasn’t been here until it’s been election time,” said Michael Blake, a former Bronx-based assembly member and Democratic National Committee vice chair. “She made a previous run for president. I don’t think her family even goes to school here in New York anymore. I mean, I think there’s a fair question of: Does she truly want to represent?”
Gillibrand’s perceived weaknesses are partly due to the state she represents and the era in which she represents it. Many progressives view New York as a liberal bastion and think its senator should reflect that. And though Gillibrand would be considered very liberal in numerous states around the country — having voted with President Joe Biden 95 percent of the time — many on the left aren’t comfortable with her Wall Street ties and view her as an ideological interloper.
Among those who would be best equipped to challenge Gillibrand would be Ocasio-Cortez, who has national name ID and major cash on hand ($5 million in the bank compared with the senator’s $6 million). But the congresswoman has long been coy about her future ambitions. There was talk that she might challenge Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last year and the prospect of that happening did — to the delight of progressives — nudge the Senate majority leader to the left. But a campaign against him never materialized.
Bowman, an ally to Ocasio-Cortez, said “weeks ago or months ago maybe, I heard her name” mentioned as a primary contender. But he said he hasn’t heard that “for months or weeks.”
Though most of the chatter about Gillibrand’s vulnerability comes from her left, another Democrat whose name has been floated as a potential opponent is former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo resigned amid accusations that he sexually harassed multiple women. He denies the allegations.
A spokesperson for Cuomo declined to comment for this story. The former governor sits on a war chest of about $10 million, but in a state — not federal — elections account.
“I’ve heard rumors and I’ve heard speculation, but I have not heard from any specific candidate that is giving it serious thought or beginning to raise money or hire staff,” Jacobs said. “So my guess is, unless something emerges soon, it’s going to be just a lot of talk.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Prince Harry’s attempt to arrange a high court showdown with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper company depends on one thing: did the prince meet a deadline to file his legal paperwork?
This week’s legal hearing at the high court in London has been full of fresh revelations about the relationship between royalty and the media. There have been claims that Prince William struck a secret phone-hacking settlement with Murdoch’s company for a “huge” sum of money; that King Charles tried to stop Harry’s legal cases so he could get favourable coverage in the Sun; and that Piers Morgan was aware Diana, Princess of Wales had been illegally targeted by his reporters.
Harry even claims that his war on the Murdoch newspaper business had the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II, his late grandmother.
But that does not necessarily mean he has a strong case in relation to this week’s hearing. The judge is looking at a much narrower issue, and he has already challenged Harry’s account.
The legal argument boils down to this: when did Prince Harry fully understand that he was potentially a victim of phone hacking? And then did he start his legal claim in time?
Murdoch’s company wants a judge to rule that the prince missed his deadline and therefore the entire case should be thrown out before going to a messy and expensive public trial.
Claimants have six years to bring a case in the civil courts, starting from the claimed wrongdoing or the moment they were aware of the alleged illegal behaviour. As Harry’s barrister David Sherborne argued, it is easy to know exactly when you were run over by a car if you want to start a legal case against the driver. It’s harder to know when you became a victim of phone hacking.
Harry alleges he only became aware of the full scale of phone hacking at the Sun and News of the World in 2019, shortly before he filed his claim.
The court heard that Harry had been relatively ignorant because did not have access to the newspapers that were reporting on phone hacking allegations in the late 2000s. The prince’s barrister said: “He was on active service in Afghanistan and they didn’t have the Guardian.”
Harry’s legal argument partly relies on the existence of a supposed secret deal between the royal household and “senior executives” at Murdoch’s company. Under the alleged deal, the royals would hold off bringing legal cases against the publisher of the Sun, in return for receiving an apology and settlement when all the other legal cases were concluded.
The challenge is that there is apparently no written copy of the deal and leading lawyers who worked with Murdoch’s business deny any knowledge of such a deal.
Sherborne, Harry’s lawyer, told the court that the focus should instead be on whether the leading Murdoch executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson knew about it.
Emails from 2017 and 2018 released as part of the hearing suggest the queen was kept updated on the case, only for Thomson to fail to reply to one message for several months – suggesting the email had been “lost” in his inbox.
When Thomson did reply, he told the royal household that he had an “understanding” that “we would wait for the civil cases to be resolved” before acting.
Harry says he learned about the supposed secret arrangement in 2012, which Murdoch’s lawyers argue should have been the moment to bring a case and start the six-year legal countdown clock.
Mr Justice Fancourt has already raised questions about “inconsistencies” in Harry’s paperwork, and Murdoch’s company has claimed it is “fanciful” that Harry could not have started on preliminary legal claims at an earlier date.
Sherborne told the court that Harry took his time because evidence was concealed by the publisher of the Sun. The barrister said that if Murdoch’s company succeeded in blocking the trial, it would show that “crime does pay”.
A judgment on whether the case can proceed is expected in July. If Harry is successful, the full trial would take place in January 2024.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Italian authorities have announced the arrest of a top boss of the ’Ndrangheta mafia after he spent almost five years on the run.
Pasquale Bonavota, 49, who featured on the police’s list of most dangerous criminals, had been sought since November 2018 after escaping an arrest warrant for homicide and mafia association issued by a magistrate in Calabria, southern Italy.
He was arrested on Thursday morning in the northern port city of Genoa, carabinieri officers said. Local media said Bonavota was leaving the city’s cathedral when he was arrested and was carrying a fake ID.
Bonavota is considered the brains of the ’Ndrangheta’s Bonavota clan, which includes his two brothers, based in the Sant’Onofrio area of the Calabrian province of Vibo Valentia.
The clan also operates around Rome and in the northern regions of Piedmont and Liguria, which includes Genoa.
The ’Ndrangheta is Italy’s most powerful and wealthy mafia, controlling the bulk of cocaine flowing into Europe. It operates in more than 40 countries.
It has successfully expanded well beyond its traditional domains of drug trafficking and loan sharking, now using shell companies and frontmen to reinvest illegal gains in the legitimate economy.
Bonavota went on the run shortly after being sentenced by a lower court to life in prison for two murders committed in 2014 and 2004 of a lower-ranking member of his clan and a rival boss of a nearby clan.
That sentence was overturned in 2021 by a court of appeal while he was on the run. However, Bonavota was the last remaining fugitive suspect implicated in a massive case against the Vibo Valentia ’Ndrangheta that led to the 2021 maxi-trial against more than 300 alleged mafia members and their helpers. The trial is ongoing.
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In that indictment, Bonavota is described as being a leader who “took the most important decisions” along with other top ’Ndrangheta bosses, and “looked after the interests of the association in the Rome area and in the gambling sectors and drug trafficking”.
The arrest of Bonavota comes three months after the high-profile capture of the Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. The Cosa Nostra boss had been a fugitive for 30 years.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Former Vice President Mike Pence said that he would expect to announce his 2024 presidential decision “well before” late June.
“I think if we have an announcement to make, it’ll be well before late June,” the Indiana Republican told Robert Costa in an interview that will air Sunday morning on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Pence stopped short of confirming that he’s “leaning in” toward a presidential campaign, but told Costa, “Well, I’m here in Iowa, Robert.”
It’s not Pence’s first time in Iowa, home to the season-opening 2024 GOP caucuses, in recent months. He traveled there at the beginning of March for a foreign policy forum.
He’s also made recent appearances in New Hampshire, the first primary state, and he’s taken other steps that indicate he’s preparing for a run, like building out his political staff.
Pence’s implying that he might be planning to make a bid for president is not new: He said late November that he was giving “prayerful consideration” to a run.
Pence told Costa there was a clear rationale behind his timing.
“Anyone that would be serious about seeking the Republican nomination would need to be in this contest by June,” Pence said during the CBS interview.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: After removing all legacy Blue check marks and asking individual users to pay for being verified, Elon Musk-run Twitter on Friday asked advertisers to either pay for the verification or they will not be able to run their ads on the platform.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared the letter sent by Twitter to advertisers, which read that starting April 21, “your account must have a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads on Twitter.”
“Business accounts spending in excess of $1,000 per month already have gold checks or will soon, and they’ll continue to enjoy access to advertising without interruption at this time,” the company posted.
The company said it aligns with the broader verification strategy to elevate the quality of content on Twitter and enhance experience as a user and advertiser.
“This approach also supports our ongoing efforts to reduce fraudulent accounts and bots. Subscribing to either of these services means you have been verified by Twitter as a real person and/or business,” said the micro-blogging platform.
Navarra tweeted: “Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads!”
Twitter had told businesses to pay $1,000 per month for retaining gold badges and brands and organisations which do not pay the money will lose their checkmarks.
The Musk-run company, which is busy monetising its platform via various means, will also charge an extra $50 per month to add badges to each account affiliated with the brand, The Information reported recently.
Earlier, all legacy verified accounts lost their Blue badges, creating chaos on the platform all over the world. Several celebrities lost their Blue check marks.
Mumbai: The trailer of the upcoming movie ‘Afwaah’ was unveiled on Wednesday. The film, directed by Sudhir Mishra of ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi,’ stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar, Sumeet Vyas, T.J. Bhanu and Sharib Hashmi.
The trailer, which is two minutes and thirty seconds in length, shows Sumeet as a politician who is in hot pursuit of his fiancee (played by Bhumi) after she runs away from home and Nawaz’s character comes to her rescue. A rumour that Bhumi and Nawaz’s character eloped together is unleashed by those in power.
Director Sudhir Mishra said: “What if the monster chasing you is a bloody rumour? Basically you’re screwed because there’s no place to hide. The monster will always get there before you. What is worse is that sometimes the monster comes in the shape of a friend or a lover or a parent. If this is not the basis of a f****g good thriller, then I don’t know what is! Presenting my reaction to our times: ‘Afwaah’.”
The film is a quirky thriller and speaks about how a rumour has the power to turn someone’s life upside down. This is Sudhir’s second outing with Nawazuddin after the ‘Serious Men’.
Producer Anubhav Sinha said: “It’s been an enriching experience collaborating with Sudhir on this important film. I believe ‘Afwaah’ is a very important film that accomplishes our objective of producing films that are high on content.”
Produced by Anubhav Sinha under his banner Benaras Mediaworks, the film will release theatrically on May 5, 2023.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bertagnolli would take control of a sprawling agency charged with investigating a range of diseases and finding new treatments. The NIH has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, with a budget that now exceeds $45 billion.
But the role would also thrust her into the center of a prolonged fight over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. House Republicans have prioritized investigating the NIH’s funding of research projects, in search of evidence that some of its grants may have inadvertently triggered Covid’s spread.
The NIH has not had a permanent director since December 2021, when Francis Collins stepped down after more than a decade atop the agency. Lawrence Tabak, the NIH’s longtime principal deputy director, has since served as acting director.
The White House had struggled for months to settle on a nominee, hampered by difficulties attracting top talent from more lucrative private sector jobs and concerns among potential candidates that their time in the role may come to an end along with the president’s first term.
President Joe Biden had also pushed hard for the NIH nominee to be an oncologist, the people familiar with the matter said. Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot during the Obama administration, and maintains a deep interest in cancer research in part due to the death of his son, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.
Bertagnolli, who previously did stints at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had won internal praise during her short time at the NCI.
She also made headlines shortly after taking the job for disclosing her own early-stage breast cancer diagnosis following a routine mammogram. She wrote at the time that “it’s one thing to know about cancer as a physician, but it is another to experience it firsthand as a patient as well. To anyone with cancer today: I am truly in this together with you.”
If confirmed, Bertagnolli would be the second woman to head the NIH.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
London: A UK-based woman from Odisha has gone viral since she was pictured running a marathon in the city of Manchester in north-west England clad in a traditional Sambalpuri saree from the Northeast region.
Madhusmita Jena, 41, covered over 42-km over the course of four hours and 50 minutes in her brightly coloured saree and sneakers on Sunday, a feat being showcased across social media since then.
“Madhusmita Jena, an Indian living in Manchester, UK, comfortably runs the Manchester marathon 2023 in a lovely Sambalpuri Saree. While proudly showcasing her Indian heritage, she also presents an inviting perspective on the quintessential #Indian attire,” tweeted the Friends of India Society International (FISI) UK diaspora organisation.
It was soon picked up by several others, a majority of whom applauded the achievement, while some also wondered about the practicality of the outfit.
“Kudos to the spirit of the lady to run the marathon. No mean feat by any stretch of imagination. It’s an inefficient choice of clothing to run though could easily have shaved time off and reduced effort in running attire. Each to his/her own,” noted one Twitter user.
Jena enjoys running marathons and has completed other runs around the world over the years. Meanwhile, her choice of garment in Manchester to showcase Indian culture and inspire others to take up running continues to make waves.
“Imagine how fast she would run with normal marathon clothes. Well done,” noted another Twitter user.
The Adidas Manchester Marathon is one of the UK’s premier running events, known for its “fast, flat and friendly” 26.2 mile route.
