Araf hashmi on LinkedIn: Russia weighs up its biggest tax shake-up in almost 25 years as Putin… (2024)

NEW DELHI – India’s marathon election enters its final phase on Tuesday with the counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power.The 6-week-long election was seen as a referendum on Modi. If the 73-year-old wins, it will only be the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.Exit polls on Saturday by major television channels projected a comfortable win for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies over a broad opposition alliance led by the Congress party and its main campaign leader, Rahul Gandhi.Indian television channels have had a mixed record in the past in predicting election results.Nearly 970 million people, more than 10% of the world’s population, were eligible to vote. Turnout averaged 66% across the seven phases, according to official data.The tallying of votes at counting centers in each of the 543 constituencies where polls were held could stretch into the evening before a final result is declared by the Election Commission of India.But leads will emerge earlier and indicate where the results may be headed.In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape. His popularity has outstripped that of his party’s, and has turned a parliamentary election into one that increasingly resembles a presidential-style campaign. The result is that the BJP relies more and more on Modi’s enduring brand to stay in power, with local politicians receding into the background even in state elections.“Modi was not just the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar.His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world, and credit his pro-business policies with making the economy the world’s fifth-largest.But a decade of his leadership has also left the country deeply divided. Modi’s critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance, hate speech and brazen attacks against the country’s minorities, especially Muslims, who comprise 14% of the population.India’s economy, one of the fastest-growing, has become more unequal under Modi. While stock markets reach record-highs and millionaires multiply, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefitting from the economic boom.The country’s democracy, Modi’s critics say, is faltering under his government, which has increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and say democracy is flourishing.As polls opened in mid-April, a confident BJP initially focused its campaign on

For the vocal portion, applicants are to choose one of the following songs: Atlantis Princess by BoA, Merry-Chri by BoA, All About You by Taeyeon, Bad Boy by Red Velvet, When This Rain Stops by Wendy, Spicy by aespa and Better Things by aespa.Likewise, there are assigned songs for the dance portion. Applicants are to choose among Better by BoA, Into The New World by Girls’ Generation, Feel The Rhythm by Red Velvet and Illusion by aespa.Those who pass the first round will be invited for an in-person second round. Selected applicants will be notified individually of the date and location for the audition.Finalists will have the opportunity to debut as members of SM’s new girl group. For more information, visit the official Instagram page.

Bharatiya Janata Party supporters wearing a hat with Narendra Modi’s face during a nomination filing rally by in Kolkata, India on May 10, 2024.Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty ImagesIndia started counting votes for its 2024 general election on Tuesday, with Narendra Modi projected to win a rare third consecutive term as prime minister as per exit polls.Exit polls released on Saturday showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was set to win an overwhelming majority, with the NDTV poll of polls pegging the coalition’s seats at 365 in the lower house of the parliament. Exit poll projections may not always be accurate.The party or coalition that wins at least 272 seats out of 543 forms the government.Markets reacted euphorically to exit polls predicting an emphatic victory for the BJP, with key stock benchmarks, the Nifty 50 and the Sensex, gaining more than 3% and hitting record highs on Monday.The Nifty 50 closed the day at 23,263.90 after reaching a record high of 23,338.70, while the Sensex closed at 76,468.78 after hitting 76,738.89 earlier Monday.This was the world’s largest democratic exercise with almost a billion registered voters. Voting, which started on April 19, was spread over seven phases and more than six weeks.Under Modi’s 10-year rule, India’s economy has seen solid growth, with the latest GDP data showing the economy expanded by 8.2% in the fiscal year 2024 which ended in March.This was higher than the government’s initial forecast of 7.6%, and kept the country on track as the world’s fastest growing large economy.“Modi is going to ride that winning horse and focus on India’s growth in ways we have not seen before,” said SamirKapadia, CEO ofIndia Indexand managing principal at Vogel Group.One of the main priorities for the new government will be boosting the country’s infrastructure development, which has improved over the past few years, but severely lags behind that of neighbor China’s.“You can’t compare the infrastructure of India to China yet. India will catch-up, but they’re not there yet, ” said Steve Lawrence, chief investment officer of Balfour Capital Group, adding that the two countries can however go head-to-head in “intellectual horse power.”“You have two societies that are hardworking, educated, getting smarter, and understand the diversifications of global markets,” Lawrence told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.Get a weekly roundup of news from India in your inbox every Thursday.Subscribe now

The financialhead of the publisher ofthe Epoch Times is facing money laundering charges in an apparent $67-million US scheme to benefit himself and the company.The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York alleges Weidong Guan, also known as Bill Guan, conspired with others in a “sprawling, transnational scheme” to “benefit himself, the media company and its affiliates.”Financial records on the ProPublica websiteshow thatGuan is the chief financial officer of the New York-headquartered Epoch Times Media Group, which publishes the conservative newspaper and website of the same name.The 61-year-old from New Jersey is charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and two counts of bank fraud, which each carry a maximum sentence of 30 years.In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for the Epoch Times said Guan is “innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” and that the company would co-operate with any investigation into the allegations against him, but that he has been suspended “until this matter is resolved.”In a statement on Monday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams accused Guan of “laundering tens of millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits and other crime proceeds.”A copy of a special edition of the Epoch Times that was delivered to homes across Canada in 2020.<!-- --> <!-- -->(Submitted by Lisa Armstrong)Williams alleges thatmembers of the Epoch Times’ “Make Money Online” team, which Guan managed, used stolen personal identification information to launder illegally obtained fundsthrough bank accounts set up in the media company’s name, as well through using prepaid debit card and cryptocurrency accounts.“After the crime proceeds reached those bank accounts, they were often further laundered through other bank accounts held by the media entities, Guan’s personal bank accounts, and through Guan’s personal cryptocurrency accounts,” the district attorney’s statement says.It also says the media company’s increased annual revenue jumped from approximately $15 million US to about $62 million US year over year, during a period “in or around the same time the money laundering scheme began.”Guan allegedly oversaw the scheme from at least some time in 2020 through May of this year while working for the company, which is not named in the statement.The news release clearly states that the charges against Guan “do not relate to the media company’s news-gathering activities.”Controversies and conspiracy theoriesThe Epoch Times was founded by Chinese immigrants as a non-profit media organization in 2000 and is closely associated with followers of Falun Gong, a religious practicedeclared a cult by the Chinese government in 1999.Falun Gong’s global headquarters are located in a 1.73-square-kilometre compound in upstate New

Israel confirms deaths of 4 more hostages amid pressure to reach cease-fire deal – CBS News<!-- Fly Version: d7bbca61a2ddd34e0cfc8fb46aec1df3 --> Watch CBS News The Israeli military reported that four more hostages are dead and that their bodies are still being held by Hamas. It comes amid increasing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal. Imtiaz Tyab reports from Tel Aviv. <!-- CBSN Live Video --> Be the first to knowGet browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On

It was a moment of horror from Gaza which went viral – a video of an amputation on a dining table. No anaesthetic. No bandages. Just a bucket, some soap and a kitchen knife. It was 19 December 2023, and the war in Gaza was in its third month. Israel’s bombardment of the northern part of the narrow strip of land was at its most intense.Inside the Bseiso family home, an apartment on the ground floor of a six-storey block not far from Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, 17-year-old Ahed Bseiso was laid across the kitchen table.The table, where Ahed’s mother had been making bread moments before, was now a scene of unimaginable horror, as Ahed’s uncle Hani, who is a doctor, carried out an emergency operation.Ahed’s left leg was badly wounded, and her right lower leg was in shreds.Desperate, she had pleaded with her uncle not to amputate it but Hani knew he had no choice.It was her leg or her life.Minutes earlier, Ahed had been on the top floor of their building, trying to call her father who lives in Belgium. The high floors were best for phone signal and every day, she and her older sister, Mona, would head up there to tell him they were still alive. Image: Ahed (left) had no anaesthetic as her uncle (right) amputated her leg On this particular morning, as she struggled to get a connection, she noticed some large Israeli tanks outside on the street. Then a huge explosion split the air.“I heard a bang and a wall came tumbling on top of me,” Ahed told Sky News. “There was dust all over the place and I couldn’t understand where I was.”Trapped in the rubble, Ahed was disorientated. She called for Mona. Her mother and her cousins rushed to help. They managed to free her from the rubble, revealing the young Gazan – alive but with one leg broken and the other in pieces.“I asked my cousin, ‘Is my leg gone?’ and he said, ‘No, don’t look’.”Her cousins carried Ahed down the stairs to their apartment. There was gunfire outside.“There was no surgical equipment,” Ahed recalled. “My uncle got soap and the scrubber from the kitchen and started to clean my leg… He started to cry. Then he cut my leg off.“I remained conscious the entire time without anaesthesia. My only solace was my cousin, who stood next to me, reciting the Koran.” Image: The spot where Ahed was injured Her uncle Hani saved her life. He had also felt compelled to film the procedure; to show the world what had come of life, and death, for the people of Gaza.“What is this injustice that has befallen us?” he screamed straight at the camera as he cleaned Ahed’s wound.“We have been surrounded for 15 days. I had to amputate my niece’s leg without anaesthesia. Where is the mercy? Where is humanity? What have we done to deserve this?”The decision to upload the video to social media would in time precipitate a journey for Ahed

Janis Paige, a popular Hollywood and Broadway actress who danced with Fred Astaire, has died aged 101.Paige also toured with US comedy giant Bob Hope during her career which continued into her 80s.She died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday, her long-time friend Stuart Lampert said on Monday.Paige made her Broadway debut opposite Jackie Cooper in mystery comedy Remains To Be Seen in 1951, and appeared with John Raitt in smash hit musical The Pajama Game three years later.In 1957 she appeared opposite iconic dancer Astaire in the film Silk Stockings.The movie is famous for her and Astaire spoofing new-fangled movie gimmicks in the Cole Porter number Stereophonic Sound, including swinging from a chandelier.“I was one mass of bruises. I didn’t know how to fall. I didn’t know how to get down on a table – I didn’t know how to save myself because I was never a classic dancer,” she told the Miami Herald in 2016. Follow Sky News on WhatsAppKeep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News Tap here Paige would go on to appear in a string of movies in the 1960s, including the Hope comedy Bachelor In Paradise, the Doris Day comedy Please Don’t Eat The Daisies and the Richard Thorpe-directed film Follow The Boys.She also supplied glamour for Hope’s Christmas visits to US troops in Cuba and the Caribbean in 1960, Japan and South Korea in 1962, and Vietnam in 1964.Paige also sang in clubs with Sammy Davis Jr, Alan King, Dinah Shore and Perry Como.In 1968, she replaced Angela Lansbury in the New York production of Mame on Broadway and toured with the show in 1969. She also toured in Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun, Born Yesterday and The Desk Set.Her last time on Broadway was in 1984’s Alone Together.In May 2003, Paige resumed entertaining after a long absence. She opened a show she called The Third Act at San Francisco’s Plush Room, telling stories about Astaire, Frank Sinatra and others and singing tunes from her films and stage musicals.Read more entertainment newsAgadoo singer dies suddenlyBat bites singer as she performs onstageDe Niro stripped of award after Trump rant Image: Janis Paige with Bob Hope entertaining troops in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1964 Pic: AP In 2018, she added her voice to the MeToo movement, alleging an assault when she was 22 by the late department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale.“I could feel his hands, not only on my breasts, but seemingly everywhere. He was big and strong, and I began to fight, kick, bite and scream,” she wrote. “At 95, time is not on my side, and neither is silence. I simply want to add my name and say, ‘Me too’.”The actress, who grew up in Tacoma, Washington, was born Donna May Tjaden but adopted her grandfather’s name of Paige.She took her first name from

LONDON: <!-- -->Nigel Farage<!-- -->, who helped champion Britain’s departure from the EU, said on Monday he would stand as a candidate in next month’s election and will lead the rightwing <!-- -->Reform Party<!-- --> in a major blow to PM <!-- -->Rishi Sunak<!-- -->.The surprise U-turn by Farage, now a TV host, will challenge Sunak’s <!-- -->Conservatives<!-- --> for the support of right-leaning voters at a time when the governing party is already badly trailing the <!-- -->Labour Party<!-- --> in the polls.Farage, 60, had previously said he would not stand in the July 4 vote in order to help Donald Trump fight the US election later this year. But Farage said he changed his mind because he felt guilty not standing up for people who had become disillusioned with politics and had always backed him. “We are going to be the voice of opposition, and I tell you what, I have done it before, I’ll do it again, I’ll surprise everybody,” Farage told a news conference, saying it was a fait accompli that Labour would win but he wanted to position Reform as its main opponent. He said he would lead a “political revolt” in Britain because “nothing in this country works anymore”, citing problems with public services such as healthcare and roads.Although Farage has stood unsuccessfully for parliament seven times he is still one of the most influential British politicians of his generation, putting pressure on a succession of PMs to take tougher positions on the EU and on tackling immigration. Farage has previously made comments that his political opponents have called racist. Farage appeared in front of a poster during the <!-- -->Brexit<!-- --> campaign showing lines of migrants under the slogan “Breaking Point” and last month said Muslims did not share British values.!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) { function loadFBEvents(isFBCampaignActive) { if (!isFBCampaignActive) { return; } (function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) { if (f.fbq) return; n = f.fbq = function() { n.callMethod ? n.callMethod(...arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments); }; if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n; n.push = n; n.loaded = !0; n.version = '2.0'; n.queue = []; t = b.createElement(e); t.async = !0; t.defer = !0; t.src = v; s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s); })(f, b, e, ' n, t, s); fbq('init', '593671331875494'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); }; function loadGtagEvents(isGoogleCampaignActive) { if (!isGoogleCampaignActive) { return; } var id = document.getElementById('toi-plus-google-campaign'); if (id) { return; } (function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) { t = b.createElement(e); t.async = !0; t.defer = !0; t.src = v; t.id = 'toi-plus-google-campaign'; s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is looking past resistance from key Israeli officials as he presses Israel and <!-- -->Hamas<!-- --> to agree to a three-phase agreement that could immediately bring home dozens of Israeli hostages, free Palestinian prisoners and perhaps even lead to an endgame in the nearly eight-month-old Gaza war. Biden’s big swing – during a tough reelection battle – could also demonstrate to a significant slice of his political base demoralized by his handling of the conflict that he’s doing his part to end the war that has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands struggling to meet basic needs. White House officials on Monday said Biden’s decision to make public what it describes as an Israeli <!-- -->proposal<!-- --> – just one day after it was delivered to Hamas – was driven by a desire to put Hamas on the spot. The move diverged from the US administration’s position throughout the conflict to allow the Israelis to speak for themselves about hostage negotiations. “The president felt that where we are in this war, where we are in the negotiations to get the hostages out, that it was time for a different approach and a time to make the proposal public, to try to energize the process here and catalyze a different outcome,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. Almost immediately after Biden detailed the proposal – which includes a <!-- -->cease-fire<!-- --> and phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza if Hamas releases all hostages – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would continue its war until Hamas was destroyed.Netanyahu’s political survival depends on a far-right coalition that is adamant about eradicating Hamas. He sowed further doubt about proposal’s viability Monday when he told an Israeli parliament committee that there are certain “gaps” in how Biden laid out the proposal. The prime minister said Israelis “reserve the right to return to war.” Kirby played down differences between Biden and Netanyahu and underscored that the proposal was an Israeli one. He added that Biden agrees with Israelis that Hamas should not govern postwar Gaza nor does he “expect that Israel should have to live next door to that kind of a terrorist threat.” “This wasn’t about jamming the prime minister, the war cabinet,” Kirby said. “This was about laying bare for the public to see how well and how faithfully and how assertively the Israelis came up with a new proposal. It shows how much they really want to get this done.” But even if Hamas agreed to terms, it would require Netanyahu to make some difficult political calculations. Two leading members of his far-right coalition – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – have threatened to leave Netanyahu’s government if he signs off on the proposal. That would cause the coalition to collapse. Smotrich said Monday that

<!-- -->Antony Fauci became the nation’s most trusted expert in the chaotic early days of the 2020 outbreak.Washington: Former US government scientist Anthony Fauci angrily denied covering up the origins of Covid-19 Monday in his first public congressional testimony since retiring as the face of the fight against the pandemic.Fauci became the nation’s most trusted expert in the chaotic early days of the 2020 outbreak, but his clashes with former president Donald Trump over the response sparked fury on the right, and he now lives with security protection following death threats against his family.Republicans accuse the 83-year-old immunologist of helping to set off the worst pandemic in a century by approving funding passed on to Chinese scientists they accuse of manufacturing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19.He was pressed by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on his knowledge of “gain of function” research, which seeks to enhance viruses as a way of finding ways to combat them.The controversial technique is at the center of a theory that the pandemic originated in a lab leak.But Fauci said it would be “molecularly impossible” for the bat viruses studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to be turned into the virus that caused the pandemic.And he dismissed as “absolutely false and simply preposterous” Republican claims that he influenced the CIA’s analysis of whether the pandemic started naturally or escaped from the lab.The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for 38 years until he stepped down in December 2022, Fauci helped craft federal policy during an outbreak that killed 1.1 million Americans.His regular TV appearances correcting Trump’s misinformation about the pandemic earned him enemies among allies of the billionaire, who is bidding for a second term in November.The panel has taken more than 100 hours of testimony and sifted through a mountain of documents in a 15-month investigation but has failed to turn up any evidence linking Fauci to potentially dangerous research in Wuhan.The World Health Organization and scientists across the world have investigated the origins of the virus, most believing it to have spread from animals to humans in China.A US intelligence analysis released last year said it was also possible that the virus was genetically engineered and escaped from the Wuhan lab.Fauci told lawmakers it was “not a conspiracy theory” to discuss the merits of the lab leak theory.“What is a conspiracy theory is the kind of distortions of that particular subject, like, it was a lab leak and I was parachuted into the CIA like Jason Bourne and told the CIA that they should really not be talking about a lab leak,” he said.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)