Kerala Congress leader predicts CPM win in local body poll in leaked audio, resigns
He was speaking to A Jaleel, the Vamanapuram Block General Secretary of the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram. Following the leak, the Congress leadership expelled Jaleel from the party's primary membership, citing prima facie evidence of anti-organizational activities.In the wake of Ravi's resignation, senior Congress leader and former Speaker N Sakthan has been given temporary charge as the president of the Thiruvananthapuram DCC.The local body elections in Kerala are tentatively scheduled for December this year, while the assembly elections are expected in April-May 2026.- EndsMust Watch
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First Post
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- First Post
Trump pushes to expand Abraham Accords with Azerbaijan, Central Asian nations, say sources
The Trump administration is in advanced talks with Azerbaijan and preliminary discussions with Central Asian nations to expand the Abraham Accords, according to sources. The initiative aims to solidify symbolic ties with Israel, despite regional tensions and the ongoing war in Gaza. read more The administration of US President Donald Trump is in discussions with Azerbaijan about the possibility of the country, along with some Central Asian partners, joining the Abraham Accords, with the aim of strengthening their current relationships with Israel, according to five sources familiar with the matter. As part of the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 and 2021 during Trump's first term, four Muslim-majority nations agreed to normalise diplomatic ties with Israel following US mediation. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Azerbaijan and all Central Asian countries, on the other hand, already have longstanding relations with Israel, so any expansion of the accords to include them would be largely symbolic, focussing on strengthening ties in areas such as trade and military cooperation, according to the sources, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss private conversations. Such an expansion would demonstrate Trump's willingness to consider less ambitious agreements than his administration's objective of persuading regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to re-establish ties with Israel while conflict rages in Gaza. The kingdom has repeatedly said that it will not recognise Israel until Israel recognises a Palestinian state. A rising death toll in Gaza and malnutrition caused by Israel's blockade of supplies and military operations have fuelled Arab outrage, hindering efforts to expand the Abraham Accords to include additional Muslim-majority nations. The war in Gaza, where over 60,000 people including tens of thousands of women and children have died according to local health authorities, has provoked global anger. Canada, France and the United Kingdom have announced plans in recent days to recognize an independent Palestine. Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan's conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said. While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump's special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said. As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia - which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan - were contacted. The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. 'We are working to get more countries to join,' said a US official. The Azerbaijani government declined to comment. The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel. Obstacles remain The original Abraham Accords - inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan - were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power. Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region. Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories. Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic - but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh - an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population - broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict. Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan. Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near. 'Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,' Trump told reporters earlier in July. 'And it's pretty close.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
The Hindu
30 minutes ago
- The Hindu
House of wars: on Parliament, Operation Sindoor discussion
The government and the Opposition crossed swords in Parliament during a discussion on Operation Sindoor this week. There was unanimity in praising India's armed forces, but there was little common ground beyond that. Operation Sindoor was India's military response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 lives. The elimination of three terrorists behind the attack, just before the parliamentary debate, helped the government's case. It told Parliament that these terrorists were Lashkar-e-Taiba members from Pakistan. The Narendra Modi government's strident approach seeks to change the behaviour of Pakistan and reassure its domestic audience. The success of this approach is debatable and the Opposition sought to put the government on the spot on both counts. A demonstrated willingness to use force against Pakistan in the event of a terrorism incident is a definitive turn in India's strategy, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) takes pride in that. But there is no evidence yet that it is working though there has been chest thumping around it by the ruling party. The discussion in Parliament barely addressed the implications of this approach, which is being touted as the new normal. The Opposition and the government agreed on the need to punish Pakistan, and also disagreed on who would do it better. The government claimed success in meeting its objectives of launching a military operation and denied that it had acted under pressure in ending the war. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanded a pointed response to repeated claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that he mediated the ceasefire but the Prime Minister evaded a direct response on it. The government contradicts itself when it says that the operation was a success, and that it is continuing. It is also exasperating to hear a party that is now in its eleventh year of uninterrupted power, blame people who passed away decades ago for any challenge that India faces now. There was little self-reflection regarding the lapses that led to the terrorism incident, and whether and how the government plans to address them. The government had sent joint teams including several MPs from the Opposition abroad to garner support for India in the aftermath of the operation, but that sign of statesmanship was a short-lived aberration, as it turns out. The world is changing rapidly and India's capacity to navigate those changes will be largely determined by its own character. Questioning the patriotism of political opponents is an easy route to take to evade tough questions, but the BJP must realise that such an approach has diminishing returns.
The Hindu
30 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Delhi court dismisses defamation case filed by AAP's Satyendra Jain against BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj
A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed an appeal filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Kumar Jain in a defamation case against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Bansuri Swaraj, citing that merely repeating information already in the public domain does not amount to defamation. The court also criticised the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had initially posted on X the information shared by the BJP MP, saying that the central agency holds the responsibility of sharing only accurate and non-misleading information with the public. Special Judge Jitendra Singh of the Rouse Avenue Courts observed that sufficient ground does not exist for taking cognisance of the offence as defined and punishable under Section 356 of the BNS. The case filed by Mr. Jain is based on 'defamatory' comments about him during a television interview by Ms. Swaraj. The AAP leader stated that during the interview, Ms. Swaraj allegedly claimed that ₹3 crore in cash, 1.8 kilograms of gold, and 133 gold coins were recovered from the AAP leader's house. The ED also shared this information on its social media handle. Mr. Jain alleged that the statement made on TV had damaged his reputation. Mr. Jain had challenged a trial court order that rejected his criminal defamation complaint against the BJP MP earlier this year. In a strongly worded message, the court said that it is incumbent upon an investigative agency such as the ED to act impartially and uphold the principles of fairness and due process. 'Any dissemination of information, including but not limited to official social media platforms, must be accurate, non-misleading, and free from sensationalism,' the court said. 'The presentation of facts in a manner that is misleading, scandalous, or inten to defame or politically prejudice an individual would not only undermine the integrity of the agency but may also amount to an abuse of power and violation of the individual's fundamental rights, including the right to reputation under Article 21 of the Constitution,' it said. While dismissing the defamation case, the court added that there was no 'willful misrepresentation or malicious intent' of the accused, hence Ms. Swaraj cannot be held liable for the alleged offence of defamation. 'If at all any statement is perceived as defamatory, the liability, if any, would lie with the source agency, i.e., the ED, which originally disseminated the information. The proposed accused, being a secondary communicator of officially released material, cannot be fastened with criminal liability, especially in the absence of intent to harm the reputation of the Complainant,' it added.
