School Assembly News Headlines Today: Top national, international & other news of August 16
National
Red alert issued for Mumbai, Thane amid heavy rainfall and waterlogging
Studies show frequency of cloudbursts increasing
Rescuers scour debris as J&K flash flood toll hits 60, may rise
Hyderabad police raid drug-fuelled birthday party, 51 foreign nationals arrested
India to launch deep water exploration mission: Modi
Will stand as a wall to protect farmers: Modi
Nagaland governor La Ganesan, 80, dies at Chennai hospital
Modi launches ₹1L-cr scheme for private sector job seekers
Congress launches 'Vote Chori se Azaadi' campaign; urges for support by displaying picture
Education and jobs
₹100 for all prelims, no fee for mains exams in Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar
International
Conflict would not have happened if Trump was US President in 2022: Putin after Alaska meet
'Tariffing India won't stop Putin': US Democrats panel slams Donald Trump's trade move
Trump struggles to walk in a straight line at Putin summit, sparks fresh health rumours
5.4 magnitude earthquake strikes near Queensland, Australia
Sports
KKR join race for Sanju Samson, offers RR two players: Report
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Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
'SIR means stealing votes from the people of Bihar': Rahul slams BJP, ECI
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission (ECI) for "manipulating" voter lists, alleging that votes were being stolen in the name of "Special Intensive Revision" (SIR). The Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD Leader Tejashwi Yadav today held a 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Aurangabad district. Addressing the public at the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Aurangabad, the Congress MP said, "SIR means stealing votes from the people of Bihar. Earlier, they used to do it secretly. Now they are doing it openly in front of everyone." He launched a scathing attack on the ruling BJP, stating that neither he, nor Tejeshwar Yadav, nor the people of Bihar are afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and the Election Commission. "The people of the election commission say that yes, we will cut voters, and we will not tell you, we will not show you the voter list. What will you do? I will tell you what we will do. We are going to show you the power of the people. We are going to show you the power of Bihar. Modi ji, Amit Shah ji and people of the Election Commission should understand that I am not afraid of you, neither Tejeshwar Yadav nor Bihar. I am saying this as a guarantee, the truth of vote theft. We will put it in front of every citizen of India, in front of their eyes," he later added. The Congress MP alleged that the Election Commission, saying, "The Election Commission asks for an affidavit from me. But when Anurag Thakur says the same thing that I am saying, it does not ask for an affidavit from him." The Leader of Opposition further claimed that in Maharashtra, the INDI bloc won the Lok Sabha elections, but the BJP swept the Vidhan Sabha elections held four months later. "Wherever new voters came, the BJP won there. Our votes did not decrease. The INDIA alliance got as many votes in the Vidhan Sabha as it had in the Lok Sabha. BJP got all the new voters. So we got suspicious," Rahul Gandhi said. The Congress leader alleged that when the INDIA bloc asked the Election Commission to explain the sudden addition of new voters, the poll panel refused to respond. "Election Commission tells us that we will not explain. We do not need you to explain. Then we told them that you have installed CCTVs. The law is that CCTV cameras will have to be provided to any party asking for CCTV. They say they will not provide CCTV. Then we said give us the voter list. They say they will not provide the electronic voter list. The Election Commission and the BJP together have committed theft in Bengaluru Central. I am telling you this with a guarantee," the Congress MP added. The Congress party is currently holding a 16-day 'Voter Adhikar Yatra', protesting against the alleged 'vote chori' that Opposition parties have accused the Election Commission and the BJP of perpetrating. The yatra began from Bihar's Sasaram today, with several leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera, Kanhaiya Kumar and others participating. The Chief Election Commisioner of India on Sunday refuted allegations of "vote theft" by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked him to either furnish a signed affidavit or apologise to the nation for his remarks. The CEC also termed the allegations of bias by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabhas as an "insult" to the Constitution of India."...An affidavit will have to be given or an apology should be made to the country. Teesra koi vikalp nahi (There is no third option.) If the affidavit is not received within 7 days, it means that all these allegations are baseless..." CEC Gyanesh Kumar said while addressing mediapersons at a briefing at the National Media Centre in the national capital. Rahul Gandhi had on August 7 addressed a press conference in New Delhi, in which he presented Congress' research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, a part of the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. Gandhi alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes ,including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single locations. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV
30 minutes ago
- NDTV
"Said It Before PM Modi": Rahul Gandhi Jabs At BJP Over Caste Census
Sasaram: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday claimed that the Modi government announced a caste census only under pressure and it would neither get a "true" caste census done nor remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations. He made the remarks at the launch of the Voter Adhikar Yatra that started from poll-bound Bihar's Sasaram and saw the participation of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, Vikassheel Insaan Party's Mukesh Sahani. CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M)'s Subhashini Ali and CPI's P Sandosh Kumar also joined the launch ceremony of Gandhi's 1,300 km-long yatra. "We had said in Parliament, that we want a caste census and that the wall of 50 per cent cap on reservation should be brought down. I said it before PM Modi. "But the BJP and Narendra Modi, under pressure, announced a caste census but I know that they will not conduct a true caste census and will never bring down the wall of 50 per cent cap on reservations," Gandhi said in his address at the launch event. The Congress and INDIA bloc will get a caste census done in the whole country and remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations, Gandhi said. The Centre announced in April that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census, with the inclusion of caste details for the first time since independence. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have been demanding a nationwide caste census for long. Following the Union government's announcement, the Congress said many questions arise about the government's caste census decision, especially, the intention of the government, and the deadline for conducting the census. The Voter Adhikar Yatra will cover over 20 districts in Bihar to step up the Congress's campaign against what it claims to be "vote chori". It began on Sunday with Tejashwi driving a jeep which had Gandhi, Sahani, Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar and Bhattacharya in it.
NDTV
32 minutes ago
- NDTV
Black Mayors Slam Trump, Highlight Sharp Crime Drop In Cities
As President Donald Trump declared Washington, DC, a crime-ridden wasteland in need of federal intervention this week and threatened similar federal interventions in other Black-led cities, several mayors compared notes. The president's characterisation of their cities contradicts what they began noticing last year: that they were seeing a drop in violent crime after a pandemic-era spike. In some cases, the declines were monumental, due in large part to more youth engagement, gun buyback programs and community partnerships. Now, members of the African American Mayors Association are determined to stop Trump from burying accomplishments that they already felt were overlooked. And they're using the administration's unprecedented law enforcement takeover in the nation's capital as an opportunity to disprove his narrative about some of the country's greatest urban enclaves. "It allows us to say we need to amplify our voices to confront the rhetoric that crime is just running rampant around major US cities. It's just not true," said Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah, Georgia, and president of the African American Mayors Association. "It's not supported by any evidence or statistics whatsoever." After deploying the first of 800 National Guard members to Washington, the Republican president is setting his sights on other cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, calling them crime-ridden and "horribly run." One thing they all have in common: They're led by Black mayors. "It was not lost on any member of our organisation that the mayors either were Black or perceived to be Democrats," Johnson said. "And that's unfortunate. For mayors, we play with whoever's on the field." The federal government's actions have heightened some of the mayors' desires to champion the strategies used to help make their cities safer. Trump argued that federal law enforcement had to step in after a prominent employee of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was attacked in an attempted carjacking. He also pointed to homeless encampments, graffiti and potholes as evidence of Washington "getting worse." However, statistics published by Washington's Metropolitan Police contradict the president and show violent crime has dropped there since a post-pandemic peak in 2023. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson scoffed at Trump's remarks, hailing the city's "historic progress driving down homicides by more than 30% and shootings by almost 40% in the last year alone." Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, where homicides fell 14% between 2023 and 2024, called the federal takeover nothing but a performative "power grab." In Baltimore, officials say they have seen historic decreases in homicides and nonfatal shootings this year, and those have been on the decline since 2022, according to the city's public safety data dashboard. Carjackings were down 20% in 2023, and other major crimes fell in 2024. Only burglaries have climbed slightly. The lower crime rates are attributed to tackling violence with a "public health" approach, city officials say. In 2021, under Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore created a Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan that called for more investment in community violence intervention, more services for crime victims and other initiatives. Brandon Scott accused Trump of exploiting crime as a "wedge issue and dog whistle" rather than caring about curbing violence. "He has actively undermined efforts that are making a difference, saving lives in cities across the country, in favour of militarised policing of Black communities," Scott said via email. The Democratic mayor pointed out that the Justice Department has slashed over $1 million in funding this year that would have gone toward community anti-violence measures. He vowed to keep on making headway, regardless. "We will continue to closely work with our regional federal law enforcement agencies, who have been great partners, and will do everything in our power to continue the progress despite the roadblocks this administration attempts to implement," Scott said. Just last week, Oakland officials touted significant decreases in crime in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024, including a 21% drop in homicides and a 29% decrease in all violent crime, according to the midyear report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Officials credited collaborations with community organisations and crisis response services through the city's Department of Violence Prevention, established in 2017. "These results show that we're on the right track," Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference. "We're going to keep building on this progress with the same comprehensive approach that got us here." After Trump gave his assessment of Oakland this week, she rejected it as "fearmongering." Social justice advocates agree that crime has gone down and say Trump is perpetuating exaggerated perceptions that have long plagued Oakland. Nicole Lee, executive director of Urban Peace Movement, an Oakland-based organisation that focuses on empowering communities of colour and young people through initiatives such as leadership training and assistance to victims of gun violence, said much credit for the gains in lower crime rates is due to community groups. "We want to acknowledge all of the hard work that our network of community partners and community organisations have been doing over the past couple of years, coming out of the pandemic to create real community safety," Lee said. "The things we are doing are working." She worries that an intervention by military forces would undermine that progress. "It creates kind of an environment of fear in our community," Lee said. In Washington, agents from multiple federal agencies, National Guard members, and even the United States Park Police have been seen performing law enforcement duties from patrolling the National Mall to questioning people parked illegally. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the guard troops will not be armed but declined to elaborate on their assignments to safety patrols and beautification efforts. Savannah's Johnson said he is all for partnering with the federal government, but troops on city streets is not what he envisioned. Instead, cities need federal assistance for things like multistate investigations and fighting problems such as gun trafficking and cybercrimes. "I'm a former law enforcement officer. There is a different skill set that is used for municipal law enforcement agencies than the military," Johnson said. There has also been speculation that federal intervention could entail curfews for young people. But that would do more harm, Nicole Lee said, disproportionately affecting young people of colour and wrongfully assuming that youths are the main instigators of violence. "If you're a young person, basically you can be cited, criminalised, simply for being outside after certain hours," Lee said. "Not only does that not solve anything regarding violence and crime, it puts young people in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system." For now, Johnson said, the mayors are watching their counterpart in Washington, Muriel Bowser, closely to see how she navigates the unprecedented federal intervention. She has been walking a fine line between critiquing and cooperating since Trump's takeover, but things ramped up Friday when officials sued to try to block the takeover. Johnson praised Bowser for carrying on with dignity and grace. "Black mayors are resilient. We are intrinsically children of struggle," Johnson said. "We learn to adapt quickly, and I believe that we will and we are."
