Today’s Latest News Transcript at 10:30 AM on 21 June 2024
In top national news: The Bihar government’s communication to the Centre that its probe “clearly suggests a paper leak” in the NEET-UG exam is based on the fact that its Economic Offences Unit (EOU) is said to have matched 68 questions (of the estimated 200) retrieved from the burnt remains of a purported photocopy of the question paper with the original one that the National Testing Agency (NTA) shared with the EOU five days ago, The Indian Express has learned. The EOU took the help of a forensics laboratory to match the burnt scraps with the original paper and its questions.
The Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit, which has handed over the probe into the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG to the CBI, Sunday said it has arrested a “solver gang” member who had received a PDF of the solved question paper on his phone on May 4, a day before the exam. Baldev Kumar, alias Chintu, was among five people arrested by the EOU from Jharkhand’s Deoghar district Sunday. The EOU produced them before a Patna court, which sent them to judicial custody. In a statement, the Bihar Police agency said Baldev Kumar is associated with the alleged kingpin of the “solver gang”, Sanjeev Kumar, who is at large. “
In other news: The first Parliament session of the 18th Lok Sabha will begin today and, unlike in 2014 and in 2019, the mood in the House is expected to be different. A resurgent Opposition, united in spirit and upbeat since their numbers and heft have gone up, appears combative and is gearing up to crank up pressure on the NDA Government on several fronts, especially over the alleged irregularities related to NEET-UG and NET exams. The government, on the other hand, appears to be in no mood to be on the backfoot.
Those found helping terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir should be tried by probe agencies under the Enemy Agents Ordinance, which is much harsher than the UAPA and has the punishment of either life term or death sentence, J&K DGP R R Swain said Sunday. “In Jammu and Kashmir, we have a special law — Enemy Agents Ordinance,” Swain told reporters after inaugurating a cyber police station building here. The law was made to tackle foreign fighters and invaders, especially from Pakistan, who come here and try to disturb and destabilise the government, he said. “Enemy Agent [Ordinance] mein minimum saza hai life imprisonment or death. There is no other option in punishment.” he added.
In top international news: Vice President Kamala Harris said “everything is at stake” with reproductive health rights in November’s election as the Biden campaign steps up its focus on contrasting the positions taken by Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump on the issue before their debate this week. Harris’s comments come as the campaign announced it would hold more than 50 events in battleground states and beyond to mark Monday’s second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned the federal legal right to an abortion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mutual defence agreement with North Korea has the potential to create friction with China, which has long been the reclusive state’s main ally, the top US military officer said on Sunday. “We’ve got someone else who’s kind of nudging in now, so that may drive a little bit more friction between (China) and Russia,” Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during an overseas trip. “So it’ll be interesting to see how these three countries, how this plays out.” Analysts said the pact, signed on Wednesday, could undercut Beijing’s leverage over its two neighbours and any heightened instability could be negative for China’s global economic and strategic ambitions.
In other news: North Macedonia’s lawmakers on Sunday approved a new nationalist-dominated government of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, whose party won general elections in May banking on voters’ anger at the slow pace of European Union integration. A third vote due to technical issues made the final tally 77 for and 22 against in the 120-seat parliament, where the ruling coalition is composed of Mickoski’s VMRO-DPMNE party, the Albanian alliance VLEN/VREDI and ZNAM, an ethnic Macedonian splinter from the Social Democrats (SDSM). Declaring the session “historic”, Mickoski, in his first term as premier, told the lawmakers it was the time to “roll up the sleeves and start solving problems in the country”.
Lastly: The Yemeni Houthi group said on Sunday its forces had attacked two ships in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The first ship, Transworld Navigator, had been targeted in the Red Sea using “an uncrewed surface boat” which led to a direct hit against the ship, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said. The second vessel, Stolt Sequoia, was attacked in the Indian Ocean with a number of cruise missiles, he said. It was not clear when the attacks took place. He said the ships belonged to companies that “violated the ban on entering the ports of occupied Palestine.”
