Hyderabad: “It was imperative for Citizens to be aware of the misinformation ecosystem and counter it through truthful information. Misinformation threatens democracies across the world, as there is a divergence of opinion and no shared understanding of basic facts,” said David Moyer, Public Affairs Officer at the United States Consulate General in Hyderabad on Tuesday at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU). He was addressing the inaugural session as the chief guest of the one-day Training Workshop ‘Countering Disinformation for Urdu Journalists’ organized by the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism (MCJ), MANUU in collaboration with the Department of MCJ, Osmania University (OU) and US Consulate General, Hyderabad.
Prof Syed Ainul Hasan, Vice Chancellor, MANUU presided over the function.
David Moyer said, “There is a need to change the nature of discourse in the media towards positive and factual information on the issues relevant to the public.” The workshop will help strengthen democratic foundations by empowering Urdu journalists with fact-checking skills and provide reliable news to the public, he added.
Prof Ainul Hasan urged the media to work to build trust by strengthening digital media literacy and empowering individuals to identify, critically analyse and counter disinformation. It is also our responsibility to know whether the information provided is correct or not. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of Independent India, and Maulvi Muhammad Baqir, who was the first martyr from the Indian journalist community, used journalism as a weapon during the freedom struggle, he remembered.
The guest of honour B. Sumathi, DIG, Women Safety, Government of Telangana, opined that countering disinformation may be used for the promotion and protection of women’s rights. Disinformation should not become a pretext to intimidate and harass critical voices, denigrate opponents or obstruct the legitimate activities of human rights, she remarked.
Prof. Stevenson Kohir, Project Coordinator and Head, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, OU outlined various topics of training sessions conducted by noted fact checkers led by Lead Trainer, U Sudhakar Reddy, Md. Abdul Basith, Media Advisor, US consulate General Hyderabad.
Prof. Mohammad Fariyad, Dean and Head, School/Dept. of MCJ delivered the welcome address. Prof. Ehtesham Ahmad Khan, Dept of MCJ proposed a vote of thanks. Ms. Uzma Sadaf, a student introduced the Chief Guest. A booklet “Standard Operating Tools” for Urdu Journalists was also released.
The resource persons – Mr. Krishna Sastry Pendyala, Umam Noor, Sudhakar Reddy Udumula, and M. A. Majid provided insights on various aspects pertaining to Countering Disinformation, Visual Content Verification, and misinformation.
The bill “targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget wrote. “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams.”
The statement notes that local schools, coaches and athletic associations are already working on participation rules for transgender children. A national ban would disrupt that more nuanced process, it said.
The threats come ahead of House Republicans’ plan to bring the two proposals to the floor as early as this week in their latest bid to advance agenda items that force congressional Democrats into politically tough votes.
House Democrats had sought strongly worded veto threats from the administration, particularly when it came to the transgender sports bill, several Hill aides said.
Democrats are also trying to avoid a repeat of the confusion over Biden’s position on GOP-led bills that prompted many lawmakers to vote against an earlier policing reform rollback in February — only to see Biden decide to support the measure weeks later.
Mumbai: Star Nayanthara was seen losing her cool at a fan during a temple visit with her husband and filmmaker Vignesh Shivan.
The two were recently seen in a temple in Kumbakonam district on the occasion of Panguni Uthiram. However, the couple got mobbed as they entered the holy place, according to reports.
Nayanthara saw a fan filming her on their mobile. This made her angry and she reportedly threatened to break the fan’s phone, who was trying to record her.
Vignesh and Nayanthara tied the knot last year. The close-knit affair was attended by Rajanikanth and Shah Rukh Khan.
Months after their wedding, the two announced that they welcomed twin boys via surrogacy.
Hyderabad: A member of the BJP legal legal cell Neelam Bhargava Ram threatened Warangal police commissioner A.V. Ranganath for arresting Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay. The threat came after a court granted bail to Bandi Sanjay on Thursday, who had been arrested in connection with allegations of a class 10 Hindi second language question paper leaking. The police denied this, and said that the leak was not true.
Ram, who is the joint convener of the BJP Legal Cell in central Hyderabad, wrote on Twitter, “Commissioner(@cpwrl) try ur best to save your job, everything including your call logs will be probed, who insisted you to falsely implicate @bandisanjay_bjp Aanna in this Case will be brought to public domain, BC Commission waiting in Delhi, over to you @BjpAchary.”
After this tweet, Director of Digital Media for the Telangana government, Konatham Dileep, questioned the BJP member’s statement.
Dileep tweeted, “Openly threatening and abusing sincere and committed police officers is the new norm for BJP? The other day BJP MLA @RaghunandanraoM abused @TelanganaDGP now another BJP functionary is threatening @cpwrl Hope @IPS_Association is taking note!”
Telangana BJP chief gets bail
Bandi Sanjay was arrested from his in-laws’ house in Karimnagar earlier this week in the paper leak case for spreading false information. The arrest triggered protests by the BJP, who called it illegal. On Thursday, a court in Warangal district granted bail to Bandi Sanjay, subject to certain conditions.
The Warangal police named Bandi Sanjay as the main accused in the alleged leak of the Hindi question paper of the SSC exam from an exam center in Kamlapur, Warangal district, on Tuesday.
Bandi Sanjay and nine other accused were booked under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 505 (circulating any report or statement with an intent to cause alarm to the public), and sections 4 (A), 6 of TS Public Examinations (Prevention of Malpractices) Act and 66-D of the Information Technology Act. Four have been arrested in the case so far.
Eatala Rajender received notice
The Warangal police have also issued notice to BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, asking him to appear before it on Friday for the investigation of the case. Rajender and his personal assistants Raju and Narendra were among the persons to whom accused number three had sent the leaked paper on April 4.
Rajender informed the police he would not be able to appear before it on Friday and communicated that he would appear on April 10.
BRUSSELS — The next big transatlantic trade fight is primed to explode.
Negotiators from Brussels and Washington are scrambling to solve a five-year dispute over steel and aluminum dating back to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on European imports. They have until October to get a deal but are still so far apart that European officials now fear the chances of an agreement are slim.
Without a deal, both sides could reimpose billions of dollars worth of trade tariffs on each other’s goods — potentially spreading well beyond steel to hit products including French wines, U.S. rum, vodka and denim jeans.
While U.S. negotiators are still hopeful that an agreement can be reached in time, the political fallout of failure for President Joe Biden would be serious, with U.S. exports facing a hit just ahead of his potential re-election battle in 2024. More broadly, another breakdown in trade relations between Europe and the United States would heap further pressure on a relationship that is already under strain from Biden’s green subsidies package for American industries.
With a more assertive China threatening to disrupt supply lines, and Russia’s war in Ukraine straining global commerce, the last thing world trade needs is a new crisis between major Western allies. Six EU officials briefed on the talks worry that’s exactly what will happen.
“The start positions are just too far away,” said one of the officials, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive matters. “The huge concessions that would have to be made are politically not realistic in that timeframe.”
The transatlantic disagreement is a hangover from the days of Trump, who imposed tariffs on €6.4 billion worth of European steel and exports in 2018. The tariffs were extra sensitive because Trump had imposed them on grounds of national security.
After he came to power, Biden agreed to a temporary cessation of hostilities rather than a complete end to the dispute. His aim was for negotiators to work jointly on making steel production greener and fighting global overcapacity. The unofficial U.S. goal is also to squeeze Beijing’s dumping of Chinese steel, which is made with far more coal-fired power.
But unless a new deal is struck by October, the risk is that tariffs return. A summit between Biden and EU leaders has now been penciled in for October, potentially to coincide with the final leg of talks on the dispute.
China hawks
Officials in Brussels see the ongoing negotiations as just another push from the U.S. to force them into taking a harder line against China. “The language just seems written to tackle one country specifically,” said one of the European officials.
Discussions only recently picked up pace through the exchange of a U.S. concept paper and then an EU response. Those texts showed how far apart the two sides are on key issues, the officials said.
Washington wants to impose tariffs on imported steel or aluminum products, which would increase progressively based on how carbon-intensive the manufacturing process is, according to the proposal seen by POLITICO. Countries that join the agreement, which would be open to nations outside the EU, would face lower tariffs, or none at all, compared to those that do not.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump at a rally at Waco airport | Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The EU’s response — also seen by POLITICO — does not include any form of tariffs, according to the officials. Brussels fears the American plan for tariffs goes against the rules of the World Trade Organization, which is a no-go for the EU.
But a senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, told POLITICO that tariffs should not be off the table.
“That’s a pretty powerful tool for driving the market both to reduce carbon intensity as well as to reset the playing field to counteract non-market practices and excess capacity,” the U.S. official said. “What we’ve been trying to understand and respond to, in part, is what are those reasons that the EU has to have concerns about a tariff-type structure.”
Karl Tachelet, deputy director general of European steel association Eurofer, said: “We haven’t seen any real ambition or vision to use this as an opportunity to tackle excess capacity or decarbonization. So it can only lead to a clash of views.”
Americans don’t see it that way.
“The U.S. and the EU share a commitment to tackling the dual threat of non-market excess capacity and the climate crisis, and the Biden administration is committed to developing a high-ambition framework that accomplishes those objectives for our workers and these critical industries,” said Adam Hodge, spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
A student does steel work in Dayton, Ohio | Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images
But the senior Biden administration official argued that the EU proposal lacks ambition. It makes “tweaks around the margin” without actually attacking “the fundamental problem” that the two sides agreed to address when they called their truce.
“Our concern with the EU’s paper is that it doesn’t really change the dynamic of trade,” the U.S. official said.
“If we’re going to change the course of the impact of non-market excess capacity on market economies like the U.S. and EU, as well as really thinking about how can we use trade as a tool to drive decarbonization, we need to produce something that’s different and more ambitious,” the official added.
Several officials said Washington is also seeking an exemption from the EU’s carbon border tax, which imposes a tax on some imported goods to make sure European businesses are not undercut by cheaper products made in countries with weaker environmental rules.
Such an exemption for the U.S. is another no-go for Brussels. A European Commission spokesperson said giving the U.S. a pass on the carbon border tax would constitute a breach of WTO rules and “cannot be compared with” the U.S. steel and aluminum measures.
Workers at LB Steel LLC in Illinois manufacture wheel assemblies for high-speed trains | Scott Olson/Getty Images
Another European concern is that the U.S. wouldn’t scrap the possibility of re-imposing tariffs on the EU, even though the WTO branded them as illegal. Under Trump, Brussels argued only a complete withdrawal of the tariffs would satisfy the EU, contending the duties were an illegal slap in the face of an ally.
The senior U.S. official said that using national security to justify the tariffs — a rationale that would surely draw opposition in Brussels — “hasn’t been a part of our conversation with the EU to date.” But the Biden administration’s concept paper wasn’t written with WTO compliance top of mind, the official added.
Landing zone
Brussels and Washington are now negotiating to find a landing zone.
“Both sides are coming from two different positions on this,” said one of the European officials, while stressing that “there is a mutual interest to find a solution.”
Others were more pessimistic. Either way, a Plan B is taking shape in the background. Several of the European officials stressed the EU and the U.S. can also buy more time by prolonging the current ceasefire. “The deadline is always flexible,” said Uri Dadush, a Washington-based fellow at the Bruegel think tank. “Both sides can easily agree to extend.”
Steven Overly reported from Washington. Sarah Anne Aarup and Camille Gijs contributed reporting from Brussels.
[ad_2]
#Trumps #tariff #time #bomb #threatens #blow #transatlantic #trade
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Bhopal: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh on Monday threatened to sue Bharatiya Janata Party’s Madhya Pradesh in-charge P Muralidhar Rao for defamation for allegedly claiming the former was a “friend” of extremists and neighbouring Pakistan.
Singh during the day tweeted on the issue along with the image of a news report that claimed Rao made such a remark.
As per new reports, the remarks, including that Singh considered the BJP a bigger enemy than Pakistan, was allegedly made by Rao at a function in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s official residence on Saturday.
“Are you out here? You have to reply in the court for the allegations you have levelled,” Singh tweeted.
Incidentally, Singh himself is facing some defamation cases, including for alleging that MP BJP chief VD Sharma was involved in the Vyapam scam.
Singh was granted bail in the case, which was filed in 2014, in February this year.
Dehradun: Ahead of the three-day G20 meeting in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has received pre-recorded threat calls from Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, chief of the banned organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
The pre-recorded audio was also sent to mediapersons and government officials on Sunday.
In the message, allegedly sent by spoofed numbers, the SFJ president threatened to raise Khalistani flags during the G20 meeting claiming that Ramnagar is a part of Khalistan and not India.
Pannu also warned Dhami against taking action against people of his organisation in the state.
“If any case is filed against the people of my organisation in Uttarakhand, then the Chief Minister will be responsible for it,” the pre-recorded call said.
Earlier this month, the SFJ chief also made similar calls regarding the G20 conference held in Amritsar on March 15.
Director General of Police (DGP) Uttarakhand Ashok Kumar said that he has issued instructions to get it probed by the state Special Task Force (STF) immediately and the STF has started tracing all these numbers.
This is not the first time that such messages of Pannu have gone viral. In the past also people have been getting calls like this.
According to police officials, the SFJ has no base in Uttarakhand.
Pannu lives in America and practices law in New York. He is considered to be the face of Sikhs for Justice.
Pannu has been involved in a number of terrorist activities. He tried to organise “Referendum 2020” two years ago, in which he appealed to Sikhs around the world to vote in support of Khalistan and he has been provoking the youth to support Khalistan.
Pannu was declared a terrorist under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) in July 2020.
Lucknow: Electricity department employees of Uttar Pradesh have announced a three-day strike starting Thursday night over the selection process for chairman and the managing director in power companies and other issues, including “pay anomalies”.
Taking a tough stand, the government said if the strike creates problems for the public, the government will take action against the protesting employees under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and warned of sacking contractual workers who do not return to work.
It also said action would be initiated under the National Security Act in case vandalism occurs during demonstrations.
The employees began their protest under the umbrella of Vidyut Karmacharis Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, a union of electricity department employees, on Wednesday and held demonstrations across the state on Thursday.
About 1 lakh employees would participate in the strike starting at 10 pm, Samiti Convenor Shailendra Dubey told PTI.
Dubey said the government and the employees had agreed on some points on December 23 last year but several of those have not been implemented even after three months.
He claimed the government had agreed that the chairman and the managing director of the power companies would be selected through a committee headed by the chief secretary but these posts are now being filled on the basis of transfers.
Some other points of the agreement yet to be fulfilled are implementation of the Power Sector Employees Protection Act, stopping outsourcing of operation and maintenance of power sub-stations for transmission, equal honorarium for different corporations, revision of allowances and removal of salary anomalies, he said.
The samiti office-bearers say the employees were forced to go on strike because of the “stubbornness” of the top management of energy corporations. Those who would go on strike include engineers, junior engineers, technicians, operating staff, clerical and contractual employees, they added.
In a late evening press conference, State Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma took a tough stand regarding the strike.
He said if the contractual employees join the strike, they will be sacked. In view of the strike, an alert has been declared across the state. Many employees want to work. If someone stops the power workers from working then action will be taken against such people and if any damage is caused during the strike then action will also be taken under NSA.
The government has made arrangements to keep the state’s electricity system in order, he added.
The power minister said that the government is in talks with the group which has announced the strike.
“We even held a meeting with them today for two hours but they are not ready to listen,” Sharma said.
“However, the government has still kept the door open for talks,” he added.
“He said that the government has taken action on many points of the agreement signed with the electricity workers on December 3. Rest of the points are also being discussed,” he said.
On the other hand, Dubey said after about 23 years, a complete strike of electricity department employees is taking place in the state.
Earlier, employees of emergency services were exempted from boycotting work on different occasions, but this time all 1 lakh employees will participate in the strike, he said.
As per the plan, the employees on strike will boycott work in their respective departments as part of the strike.
Dubey said on the call of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE), about 27 lakh electricity department employees from across the country have extended support to the strike.
In this edition of The Interview we speak with Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine about how far away an eventual peace agreement between kyiv and Moscow seems. Ukraine recently signed a document refusing to negotiate with President Vladimir Putin due to the escalation in the conflict in recent months. Vereshchuk blamed Russia for wanting to cause terror and said the only option for now is to keep its soldiers on the front lines. #Interview #Iryna #Vereshchuk #Russia #terrorize #threatens #democracies #world
[ad_2]
#Interview #Iryna #Vereshchuk #Russia #terrorize #threatens #democracies #world
( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )
Bengaluru: Karnataka Law Minister J.C. Madhu Swamy said on Tuesday that if the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru refuses to provide 25 percent reservation for Kannadiga students, the BJP government in the state would initiate action against it.
“If the university fails to provide reservation lawfully, we will not hesitate to take action,” he reiterated on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday.
BJP MLA S. Suresh Kumar had raised the question in this regard.
“The stand of the state is very clear on this issue. We are committed to providing reservation to our children,” Madhu Swamy said.
“The matter is coming up before the Supreme Court on February 24 and we are hopeful that we will get justice. The Supreme Court has also expressed the same feelings which we have. NLSIU was questioned as to why reservation is not given in Karnataka when it has been provided in other states,” he said.
Karnataka has appointed Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to argue its case.
“If reservation is not provided, initiating legal action would become inevitable. Let’s wait. As we are reposing faith in the judiciary, let us not go for harsh action at this stage,” Madhu Swamy ssaid.
Suresh Kumar said that the NLSIU is not providing reservation to Kannadiga students, flouting the law.
“The college management has not followed the law for two years. The state had given land to establish the university. There is no gratitude from the university towards the state. The funds to the university should be stopped,” Suresh Kumar demanded.
The institution was given 23 acres of land and Rs 22 crore funds by the Karnataka government.
“But our children are not getting seats there,” Suresh Kumar said.
Former Speaker and BJP MLA K.G. Bopaiah said the university is behaving as if it doesn’t have any accountability towards the Karnataka government.
Congress MLA Krishna Bhyregowda said that the matter is very sensitive as the Chief Justice of India is the President of the administrative board of NLSIU.
