Expresso Top National and International Headlines of the Week on 4 May 2024 Transcript
In top political news: The Congress continued its attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over sex abuse allegations against JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, with both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stepping up their attack on Wednesday. JD(S) and BJP are allies in Karnataka. In a post online, Rahul wrote, “As usual, Narendra Modi has maintained a shameful silence on the gruesome crimes against women in Karnataka. He will have to answer why, despite knowing everything, they (BJP) promoted the monster who exploited hundreds of daughters, just for the sake of votes? How did such a big criminal escape from the country with such ease?”
The BJP Thursday named Karan Bhushan Singh as its candidate from the Kaiserganj seat in Uttar Pradesh, replacing his father and sitting MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who has been accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers. Kaiserganj votes on May 20 in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Wrestler Bajrang Punia, one of the key faces of the protests against Brij Bhushan, said the decision to give the Kaiserganj ticket to Karan Bhushan shows that the “BJP does not care about the safety of women” and that “parivarvad” or dynastic politics is prevalent in the ruling party. Karan is the Uttar Pradesh wrestling federation’s president.
The principal of the Somaiya School in Mumbai has been asked by the school management to resign, allegedly over her posts on social media platform X on the issue of Palestine and the Hamas-Israel conflict. Parveen Shaikh, who has had a 12-year association with the Somaiya School in Vidyavihar and became its principal 7 years ago, has refused to resign “because I have given hundred per cent to the organisation”. Web portal OpIndia published a report on April 24, highlighting Shaikh’s likes and comments, via her X handle, on posts that were pro-Palestine and sympathetic to Hamas.
In news from South: Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna, who is at the centre of a sexual abuse case, travelled to Germany on a diplomatic passport, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on Thursday. Addressing a press briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the Ministry has not issued any visa note for any other country for the MP. He said, quote, “No political clearance was either sought from or issued by MEA in respect of the travel of the said MP to Germany. Obviously, no visa note was issued either…The Ministry has also not issued any visa note for any other country for the said MP…Yes, he travelled on a diplomatic passport,” he said.
In top international news: Police forcibly removed scores of defiant pro-Palestinian protesters at several colleges on Thursday, including taking down an encampment at UCLA in a jarring scene that underscored the heightened chaos that has erupted at universities this week. In the pre-dawn hours, helmeted police swarmed a tent city set up at the University of California in Los Angeles, using flash bangs and riot gear to push through lines of protesters who linked arms in a futile attempt to halt their advance. Hundreds were arrested at UCLA and other schools.
The US on Thursday called on both Israel and Hamas to ensure that aid bound for civilians in Gaza is not disrupted, after a shipment from Jordan was attacked by Israeli settlers and subsequently diverted by Palestinian militants. Secretary of State Antony Blinken viewed the aid on Tuesday just before it departed from the headquarters of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman bound for the newly opened crossing into Gaza at Erez. The visit was part of a US push to increase the aid getting to civilians in Gaza amid warnings of imminent famine after nearly seven months of war stemming from Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
In other news: Elon Musk made progress towards rolling out Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance package in China on a whirlwind weekend trip to Beijing, sending the company’s shares up by almost 18% on Monday. Key questions remain, however, on whether Tesla can secure government approvals to transfer data overseas that could prove pivotal in its development of autonomous vehicles. Musk arrived in the Chinese capital on an unannounced visit on Sunday, intending to discuss the rollout of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the data-transfer permissions, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Lastly: Energy ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies reached a deal to shut down their coal-fired power plants in the first half of the 2030s, in a significant step towards the transition away from fossil fuels. “There is a technical agreement, we will seal the final political deal on Tuesday,” said Italian energy minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, who is chairing the G7 ministerial meeting in Turin. Today, the ministers will issue a final communique detailing the G7 commitments to decarbonise their economies. Pichetto said the ministers were also pondering potential restrictions to Russian imports of liquefied natural gas to Europe which the European Commission is due to propose in the short term.
