Former cricketer, actor Salil Ankola’s mother found dead in Pune flat
The former cricketer has shared a post regarding his mother’s demise.
SC rejects petitions seeking review of judgement allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes
The judgement was delivered by the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud which overruled earlier judgments in EV Chinnaiah case which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes.
Chhattisgarh: 30 naxals killed in encounter with police along Dantewada border
A huge amount of automatic weapons recovered. All security personnel are safe, and more details awaited.
‘Lies throughout’: Trump-backed challenger, longtime Dem senator face off in heated battleground debate
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick squared off in their first debate Thursday evening, less than five weeks ahead of what is expected to be one of the most closely watched races this election cycle. Casey and McCormick took the debate stage Thursday at 8 p.m. in Harrisburg, where the two traded barbs over issues such as the economy and inflation, immigration, abortion. The race, which is rated as “leans Democrat” by the Cook Political Report, is expected to be one of the tightest Senate races across the country, with Casey himself acknowledging earlier this year that it will be a “close, tough race.” Casey has long been a Pennsylvania Democratic stalwart, first winning his election to the U.S. Senate in 2007. The Casey name also has deep roots in the state, with Bob Casey Sr., the senator’s father, serving as the Keystone State’s governor from 1987 to 1995, following years of serving in various other elected roles. McCormick is an Army combat veteran and former CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, who served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security as well as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs under former President George W. Bush’s administration. Former President Donald Trump endorsed McCormick in April, lauding him as a “a good man” who “wants to run a good ship.” MCCORMICK SEIZES ON PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE GAP, LAYING BORDER BLAME ON CASEY The Senate race comes as the federal election spotlights Pennsylvania once again as a key battleground state that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election. Former President Donald Trump narrowly won the state in his successful 2016 election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while President Biden declared victory in the Keystone State in the 2020 election. As the pair squared off for the first of two debates ahead of Nov. 5, Fox News Digital compiled the top five moments of Thursday’s event. PHILLY VOTERS SOUND OFF ON ECONOMY: ‘EVERYBODY IS STRUGGLING RIGHT NOW’ Casey and McCormick both weighed in on the federal election, including Casey lauding Harris following his staunch support of Biden before the president ultimately dropped out of the 2024 race as concerns about his mental acuity and age mounted over the summer. “From your perspective, who is the better candidate for Pennsylvania? Biden or Harris?” moderator and ABC27 anchor Dennis Owens asked Casey. “I think Vice President Harris, who’s running a strong campaign, I think she’ll carry Pennsylvania. It’s going to be very close, just like the Senate race will be close. But she’s running a strong campaign. But the people of our state have to make two basic decisions – in addition to other statewide races. They have decided in the presidential race, and they have to decide our race, and this race is very clear,” Casey responded. When asked whether he believes Biden or Harris would be a better president for Pennsylvania voters, Casey brushed off delivering a direct answer. “Oh, I don’t know, Dennis. I mean, we’ll never know the answer to that, but the voters are gonna make a decision,” he said. McCormick, on the other hand, was asked if he could offer one example where he does not agree with Trump after slamming Casey during the debate for overwhelmingly voting with Biden over the last three and a half years. FOX NEWS POLL: HARRIS, TRUMP LOCKED IN TIGHT RACE IN BATTLEGROUND PENNSYLVANIA “[Trump] recently said that he wanted to get rid of the ban on SALT taxes, which Sen. Casey supported, too” McCormick responded. “Listen, that’s a that’s a tax break for millionaires in New York and California at the expense of PA taxpayers. So I wouldn’t support that.” “But listen, Senator Casey stood next to Joe Biden when he could hardly finish a sentence. We saw this on the debate stage, he said ‘he’s ready to go,’” McCormick continued, referring to Casey’s support of Biden remaining in the presidential race until Biden ultimately dropped out. “Then Sen. Casey said, ‘Kamala Harris is great. You’re going to love her when you get to know her.’ This is a woman who, in the last few years, says she wanted to ban fracking, legalize illegal immigration, give them federal benefits, take away our guns, defund the police. This is her position, so she’s flip-flopped on everything, and Bob Casey standing there by her.” Both candidates accused the other of “lies” throughout the debate, including McCormick touting a new website called CaseyLies.com, and Casey accusing McCormick of misrepresenting himself as a Pennsylvanian. “For your viewers tonight, I have a website that’s been established today, it’s just been launched, CaseyLies.com. You can go and see the actual facts by third-party sources of all the things he’s saying. There will be lies throughout. But you should ask yourself, ‘Why is a senator with an 18-year track record, who should be able to run on his record, running his entire campaign with a negative set of attacks on me, most of them lies?’” McCormick said towards the start of the debate. McCormick claimed that Casey often launched “lies” at him during the debate because he “doesn’t have a track record” in the Senate to run on. Casey shot back during the debate that McCormick has misrepresented himself as a full-fledged Pennsylvanian. “We’ve heard a couple of times tonight about telling lies, but probably the biggest lie told in this whole election, that probably most Pennsylvanians have never heard a bigger lie, was the lie when my opponent said he lived in Pennsylvania, when he was living in Connecticut. The Associated Press on August the 14th, 2023, did a story that proved that he was living in Connecticut,” Casey said. McCormick defended that he was born in Pennsylvania and has spent “the majority of my life” there, but also lived in Connecticut for years when he served as CEO of Bridgewater Associates. PENNSYLVANIA SURVEY FINDS HARRIS LEADING TRUMP NARROWLY, IDENTIFIES HER ‘BIGGEST WEAKNESS,’ POLLSTER
Trump calls Liz Cheney a ‘low IQ war hawk’ after appearance in support of Harris
Former President Donald Trump let loose on former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney following her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Citing her historic defeat by a 2-to-1 margin in 2022 — and the controversial leadership of her father, Vice President Dick Cheney, during the U.S. invasion of the Middle East — Trump called the former Wyoming Republican a “low IQ war hawk.” “Liz Cheney lost her Congressional Seat by the largest margin in the history of Congress for a sitting Representative. The people of Wyoming are really smart!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. KAMALA HARRIS TEAMS UP WITH LIZ CHENEY IN BIRTHPLACE OF REPUBLICAN PARTY He continued, “She is a low IQ War Hawk that, as a member of the J6 Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs, ILLEGALLY DESTROYED & DELETED all documents, information, and evidence.” Cheney, a one-time rising conservative star in the GOP, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol vowed to do everything she can to prevent Trump from returning to power. The former representative campaigned for Harris in battleground Wisconsin on Thursday — pushing a message of unity against their mutual enemy’s campaign to return to the Oval Office. The campaign event took place in Ripon, where a one-room schoolhouse was designated a national historic landmark due to its role in holding a series of meetings in 1854 that led to the formation of the Republican Party. NIKKI HALEY DEFENDS TRUMP SUPPORT AFTER BEING CALLED OUT BY LIZ CHENEY: ‘THIS IS ABOUT AMERICA’ “I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney told the Wisconsin audience as she formally endorsed the Democrat presidential nominee. “As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.” Cheney, who has been vocal in emphasizing the importance of defending the nation’s democratic process and of putting country before party, was one of only two Republicans who served on a special select committee organized by House Democrats that investigated the riot at the Capitol. Trump’s social media remarks lumped together Liz Cheney and her former vice president father — who has also endorsed Harris — writing them off as “two fools” who are “suffering gravely from Trump Derangement Syndrome.” “Her father, Dick, was a leader of our ridiculous journey into the Middle East, where Trillions of Dollars were spent, millions of people were killed – and for what? NOTHING! “Well, today, these two fools, because the Republican Party no longer wants them, endorsed the most Liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate, further Left than even Pocahontas or Crazy Bernie Sanders – Lyin’ Kamala Harris. What a pathetic couple that is, both suffering gravely from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Good Luck to them both!!!” Cheney on Thursday warned that “our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before: a former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our republic.” She argued that Trump “can never be trusted with power again” and emphasized that “in this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty.” “What January 6 shows us is there is not an ounce, not an ounce, of compassion in Donald Trump. He is petty. He is vindictive. He is cruel. And Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation,” Cheney said. Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
‘Rs 25 charge per toilet seat..’: Himachal Pradesh govt clarifies on sewerage charges
He explained that in all urban areas, 30 percent of water supply bills are levied as sewerage charges, and this has been standard practice.
Obama to campaign for Harris in Pennsylvania, other key states
Former President Obama is preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for Vice President Harris, focusing on key battleground states in the lead up to Election Day, according to a senior campaign official with anonymity to discuss the matter. Obama, who served back-to-back terms as president from 2009 through 2017, will kick off his drive in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania on Thursday, a state which remains one of the tightest contests in the nation and which could tip the scales for either candidate. A Fox News survey of Pennsylvania voters last week found Harris narrowly ahead of Trump by 2 points (50-48%) among registered voters, while the race is tied at 49% each among likely voters. President Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes in 2020. ‘GOING TO BE A CLOSE ONE:’ DETROITERS REVEAL IF THE CITY IS LEANING TOWARDS HARRIS OR TRUMP President Obama’s Senior Advisor Eric Schultz tells Fox News that the 44th president is determined to help Harris and other Democrats get elected. “President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor Walz and Democrats across the country,” Schultz said. “His goals are to win the White House, keep the U.S. Senate, and take back the House of Representatives. Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races. Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted.” Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama officially endorsed Harris for president in July, five days after President Biden ended his 2024 re-election in a blockbuster announcement. President Obama then stumped for Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, saying she “is ready for the job.” “It’s up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in,” Obama said. “And make no mistake: It will be a fight.” “This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion. Kamala wasn’t born into privilege. She had to work for what she’s got, and she actually cares about what other people are going through.” NEW POLL INDICATES WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP IS MAKING GAINS WITH YOUNGER VOTERS Harris and Obama’s friendship goes back 20 years to when they met on the campaign trail while he was running for Senate in Illinois, the senior campaign official says. Harris was an early supporter of his 2008 presidential campaign and even knocked doors for him in Iowa ahead of the caucus, per the official. Last month, former President Obama headlined a fundraiser for Harris that raised $4 million, per the Washington Post. His fundraising efforts so far on her behalf have raised $76 million, per the outlet, according to Schultz. In the coming weeks President Obama will sign additional fundraising emails, record candidate-specific ads and robocalls for down-ballot races and travel the country for a coordinated “get out the vote” effort, Schultz says. Harris’ campaign is headed by Jen O’Malley Dillon Harris, a veteran of Obama’s two campaigns who also managed President Biden’s 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House. Other former Obama advisers on the Harris team, include David Plouffe, who was manager of Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and a senior aide during his 2012 re-election victory. Harris campaigned in battleground Wisconsin on Thursday where she campaigned with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. Trump, meanwhile, is scheduled to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday for a campaign event. It will mark his first return to Butler since the attempted assassination on July 13. During a rally Wednesday in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump said that he wanted to return to the venue to “finish our speech.” Reuters contributed to this report.
Harris leads Trump by 2 in national poll, but shows vulnerabilities with non-White voters
A recent poll shows that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck-and-neck ahead of the November election. According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll, Harris maintains a razor-thin lead of 2% over Trump in a national survey of likely voters. The poll shows similar results among registered voters, with Harris at 50% and Trump just a few points behind at 47%. TRUMP EDGES HARRIS IN NORTH CAROLINA POLL, STATE THAT HASN’T VOTER DEMOCRATIC SINCE 2008 Notably, Trump leads Harris among independent voters who are likely to cast a ballot in November, 50% to 46%. Voters who intend to cast ballots early via mail or absentee ballot are much more likely to favor Harris (71%) compared to Trump (28%). Voters who intend to cast ballots the traditional way on Election Day break for Trump 58% to 40%. WISCONSIN POLL SHOWS HARRIS LEADING TRUMP BY 4, FORMER PRESIDENT AHEAD ON KEY ISSUES Individuals intending to vote early via in-person ballot break for Trump, 50% to 48%. A majority of respondents reported being either concerned or very concerned about the potential for voter fraud in this year’s election. Republicans (86%) and independents (55%) are much more likely to suspect the potential for voter fraud compared to Democrats (33%). Trump leads Harris among white voters, 53% to 45%. Harris leads Trump among non-white voters (60% to 39%) but still lags behind the support shown for Biden among non-white voters (71%). A staggering gap of 34% separates men and women in this election. About 57% of men intend to vote for Trump, compared to 41% for Harris. Meanwhile, 58% of women intend to vote for Harris, compared to 40% for Trump. The NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll was conducted from Sept. 27 through Oct. 1 and surveyed individuals via phone, text and online. Results for registered voters are statistically significant within ±3.5%, while results for likely voters are statistically significant within ±3.7%.
Khamenei says Iran and its allies will not back down from Israeli attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran and its regional allies will not back down against Israel and called for unity among Muslim nations as he delivered a rare Friday sermon. Khamenei led prayers at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran in his first public appearance since Iran launched a massive barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday. That attack was in retaliation for Israel’s killings of senior Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) figures, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and escalating attacks in Lebanon. “The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” Khamenei said, calling Iran’s attack on Israel “legal and legitimate”. “The operations were … in return for the heinous crimes committed by this bloodthirsty criminal entity,” he said. He said Iran would fulfil its “duty” to allies in a considered manner. “We will not act irrationally … not act impulsively”, he said, adding that the country would follow decisions “handed down by our political and military leadership”. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said the event was being held at a “delicate and intense time”. Khamenei’s sermon sent a message to Israel that the Iranian authorities “are not hiding, they are not seeking shelter, they are not going underground”, Serdar said. It was the supreme leader’s first such sermon in more than four years, coming just before the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which led to a war that has so far killed more than 41,700 Palestinians and recently spilled over into Lebanon. Iran’s proxies in its “axis of resistance” – Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq – have carried out attacks in the region in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza war. Addressing massive crowds, Khamenei issued a rallying call to Muslim nations – “from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon” – saying they should unite against common “enemy” Israel, which he claimed had deployed “psychological”, “economic” and “military” warfare against them. “Our enemy is one,” he said. “If their policies are sowing the seeds of division in one country, they may prevail and once they seize control of one country, they move to the other.” Al Jazeera’s Serdar said that the message of unity countered “criticism over the past decade” that Iran had been isolating itself from the region. “His speech was focused on unity because he has seen now that the possibility of a regional war is real and that’s why he is asking Muslims to be united, to somehow eliminate this threat as a common action, so a regional war can be aborted.” Khamenei last led Friday prayers after the United States killed revered general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020. His speech on Friday was preceded by a commemoration for Nasrallah, killed last week in the southern suburbs of Beirut in an Israeli strike, alongside Abbas Nilforoushan, a general from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. On Tuesday, Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, an expansion of the war that has seen it repeatedly bomb Beirut and its southern suburbs. Later that same day, Iran made a retaliatory attack on Israel, its second this year. In April, it had sent a volley of missiles following a deadly Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus. In both attacks, nearly all missiles were intercepted by Israel or its allies, according to Israeli authorities. Early on Friday, Israel hit Beirut with a barrage of attacks reportedly targeting senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine, a putative successor to Nasrallah. There was no comment from Israel or Hezbollah on his fate. Tehran has told the US via an intermediary that any Israeli attack against Iran would meet an “unconventional response” that includes targeting infrastructure, according to an Iranian official who spoke to Al Jazeera. US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Israel’s response could include a strike on Iran’s oil facilities. Adblock test (Why?)
No place for foreign workers being displaced in Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon – Over the last 11 months, as air raids hit villages near their home, Lakmani and her mother Sonia decided to stay in their south Lebanese village of Jouaiya, about a 25-minute drive east of Tyre and a little under an hour from the southern border. “There were some raids not far away,” Lakmani, 26, said. “And they broke the sound barrier a few times,” her 45-year-old mother Sonia added. Sonia came from Sri Lanka to Lebanon to work as a cleaner shortly before giving birth to Lakmani, who has lived her whole life in Lebanon and works as a private tutor. “But then Monday bombs started falling and we said: ‘OK, we should go,’” Lakmani told Al Jazeera, sitting on a park bench in downtown Beirut, where she and her mother now sleep. That day, September 23, would go on to become the deadliest day since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. Israeli bombs rained down on villages in the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east of Lebanon, killing at least 550 people. Lakmani and Sonia gathered a few belongings, mostly clothes, and fled to Tyre, thinking they would be safe there. But after three days, the air raids around Tyre were so violent that they decided to move north to Beirut. On Friday, September 27, the Israeli military sent evacuation orders for large parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, creating a displacement crisis in the capital. They, like other foreign workers in Lebanon, are now sleeping rough. Lakmani and her mother found space in a small, grassy public garden with a few trees next to a busy street in Saifi, near Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut. About 102,000 people had already been displaced in the last 11 months. Now that figure is about one million, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). A gross underestimation The Education Ministry opened shelters for the displaced in schools around the country but limited them to displaced Lebanese citizens. Those without Lebanese nationality, and many with it, have taken refuge by Beirut’s seaside or in public spaces. Zeinab from Sudan holds her newborn baby girl in a temporary shelter for migrants at St Joseph Church in Beirut on October 1, 2024 [Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters] The International Organization for Migration estimates about 176,500 migrants live in Lebanon, though the real number is thought to be much higher. A regularly cited figure is about 200,000 but even that is a “gross underestimation”, according to experts and activists in the sector. Many of them work as cleaners or nannies and are beholden to the country’s kafala labour system, which binds a foreign worker to a local sponsor and often results in the labourer being abused. The recent Israeli attacks have highlighted the vulnerability of these foreign workers. Activists who specialise in working with them told Al Jazeera that the war has left them in a variety of troubling situations. “Some of them were left behind in their [employers’] houses in targeted areas, mainly in south Lebanon or the Bekaa region and they had to find their way back to safe areas often without passports or papers,” Diala Ahwash, a Lebanese migrant rights activist, told Al Jazeera. Others were brought to safe areas by their employers but then left on the streets, being forced to sleep rough in parks or by Beirut’s seaside. Some were taken to temporary shelters but then expelled when administrators decided to give places to Lebanese instead. “There’s no understanding that these women have rights. [This situation] goes back to kafala and how it operates, turning migrant domestic workers into an accessory or commodity,” Salma Sakr, of the Anti-Racism Movement (ARM), told Al Jazeera. “And when you don’t need this commodity you throw it away in the street.” “Basically the majority of migrant workers are now facing a precarious situation in varying degrees but it’s a disaster in a general sense,” Ahwash said. There’s no place without war As the war expanded, some embassies began extracting their citizens. The Philippines embassy repatriated its citizens without charging them. Others are making their citizens pay, and many foreign labourers are on low wages and cannot afford expensive plane tickets home. Then there are citizens of countries that have an honorary consulate instead of an embassy in Lebanon. Many embassies do not want to pay to repatriate their citizens, demanding that the people pay for their evacuations themselves [Courtesy of Dara Foi’Elle, Migrant Workers’ Action] “These consulates are completely useless and some exploit workers in this situation and make them pay more,” Sakr said. “With the embassies, there’s a higher-level response.” But, Sakr added, many embassies still require citizens to pay their way home. In the park in Saifi, Rose, 30, sat with two of her Ethiopian compatriots. All were living in Beirut’s southern suburbs until last Friday when Israel began sending evacuation orders. Rose has been in Lebanon for 12 years. She works as a freelancer and lives in her own place with her Sudanese husband and two children. “Everyone comes here to speak to us but what do we benefit from these interviews?” she said, her fatigue showing through. She said she could not afford to pay for evacuation but even if she could, “My husband is from Sudan and I’m from Ethiopia. There’s no place without war.” Some nationals from countries enduring ongoing conflicts – Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, and others – can register with UNHCR and apply for resettlement, though “the process takes years and years and serves a very small population,” Sakr said. “So it’s not really a sustainable situation.” The Lebanese government has also been of little help, according to activists. In some cases, Lebanon’s General Security, which is responsible for border control, has levelled fines in the hundreds or thousands of dollars on workers with expired papers. Most workers make at most a few hundred dollars a month. “As Lebanon is facing relentless, indiscriminate attacks, it is