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(Clockwise) Police use tear gas to disperse the protesters who stormed the compound of prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe 's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, A covid vaccination centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi being welcomed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar upon his arrival at Jai Prakash Narayan Airport, in Patna. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, triggering a fresh wave of protests in the country which is witnessing the worst economic crisis in seven decades. Hours later, protesters stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo, demanding his resignation as well. Sri Lanka’s Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced that Rajapaksa has conferred powers on Wickremsinghe to function as the Acting President under Article 37.1 of the Constitution. This means that Rajapaksa has not yet resigned. The President had been reported to have previously made attempts to fly to the United States, but had apparently failed to get a visa. So why did he ultimately choose the Maldives? There is a Mohamed Nasheed connection.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s military and the police requested the Speaker of Parliament to call an all-party leaders’ meeting and inform them of the steps they will take to ensure a political resolution to the “current conflict”. Follow our live coverage as the crisis unfolds in the island country.
Former vice president Hamid Ansari has denied reports that he had invited or met a Pakistani journalist, Nusrat Mirza, who then shared the information collected during his visits with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). His statement came hours after the BJP attacked the former vice president, demanding a response from him and the Congress. “Mirza said during his India visit, he met him (Ansari) and shared information that is sensitive and secret. We should not forget that the post of Vice President is a Constitutional post and there are many issues that cannot be shared as they are linked to the nation’s security,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference. Ansari dismissed the reports, calling them “a litany of falsehood.”
The Centre today announced that all adults will be given free booster doses for the next 75 days from July 15. “India is celebrating 75 years of independence. On the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Kaal, it has been decided that from 15th July, 2022, till the next 75 days, citizens above 18 years of age will be given booster doses free of cost,” Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said. The free Covid booster doses will be available at all government centres.
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Surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted US inflation to a new four-decade high in June. Consumer prices soared 9.1 per cent compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, the biggest 12-month increase since 1981, and up from an 8.6 per cent jump in May. Meanwhile, the euro dropped below parity against the dollar on Wednesday for the first time in almost two decades. It tanked as much as 0.4 per cent to a low of $0.9998 at 1245 GMT (6:15 pm IST), its lowest level since December 2002. It was last down 0.1% on the day at $1.005 and has lost more than 10% so far this year.
Political Pulse
If Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s two recent visits to Patna to meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were part of an effort to clear recent misgivings between the BJP and the Janata Dal (United), Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise for Kumar at the concluding ceremony of the Bihar Legislative Assembly’s centenary celebrations in Patna on Tuesday is being seen by political observers as a message that all is indeed well between the allies and their differences are now a thing of the past. Modi’s praise for the CM went down well with the JD(U), with the party’s national spokesperson KC Tyagi saying that “NDA ties are only getting stronger.” “The PM’s visit has put to rest all rumours about fissures in Bihar NDA,” he said.
Among the first moves of the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra was to reverse the previous government’s decision to shift the Metro car shed project from Aarey Colony to Kanjur Marg. The government also brought back Ashwini Bhide, the IAS officer who helmed the Metro project under the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government. Bhide’s return as the Managing Director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation is a sign that the government intends to double down on the Metro project, especially the Metro 3 Corridor, a 33.5-km underground stretch from Colaba to Seepz. The project had turned into a prestige battle between Fadnavis and the Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray, who, even while his party was part of the BJP-led coalition, had been critical of the decision to cut down trees in Aarey Colony. Shubhangi Khapre reports.
Express Explained
The Unification Church confirmed on July 11 that the mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, the man arrested for assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was its member. Yamagami told police that he held a “grudge” against the organisation because his mother had made large donations to the church, which had caused financial ruin to his family. What is the Unification Church? What are the alleged ties between Abe’s family and the Unification Church? We explain.
The Global Gender Gap Index for 2022 released by the World Economic Forum ranks India at 135 out of 146 countries. In 2021, India was ranked 140 out of 156 countries. What is the Global Gender Gap Index? How has India fared on different sub-indices? Read here.
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