Public databases that shine a light on online political ads - launched by Facebook and Google before Tuesday's US&nbsp;elections - offer the public the first broad view of how quickly the companies yank advertisements that break their rules.

The databases also provided campaigns unprecedented insight into opponents' online marketing, enabling them to capitalize on weaknesses, political strategists told Reuters.

Facebook Inc and Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, introduced the databases this year to give details on some political ads bought on their services, a response to US&nbsp;prosecutors' allegations that Russian agents who deceptively interfered in the 2016 election purchased ads from the companies.

Russia denies the charges. American security experts said the Russians changed tactics this year.

Reuters found that 436 ads - 375 on Facebook and 61 on Google - from May through October related to 34 US House of Representatives contests declared competitive last month by RealClearPolitics, which tracks political opinion polls.

Of the 258 removed ads with start and end dates, ads remained on Google an average of eight days and Facebook 15 days, according to data Reuters collected from the databases.

Based on ranges in the databases, the 436 ads were displayed up to 20.5 million times and cost up to US $582,000, amounting to a fraction of the millions of dollars spent online in those races.

Asked for comment, Google said it is committed to bringing greater transparency to political ads. Facebook said the database is a way the company is held accountable, "even if it means our mistakes are on display."

In some cases, the companies' automated scans did not identify banned material such as hateful speech or images of poor quality before ads went live.

Ads that are OK when scanned may also become noncompliant if they link to a website that later breaks down.

Google's database covers US $54 million in spending by US&nbsp;campaigns since May and Facebook US $354 million, according to their databases.

Facebook's figure is larger partly because its database includes ads not only from federal races but also for state contests, national issues and get-out-the-vote efforts.

The databases generally do not say why a particular ad was removed, and only Facebook shows copies of yanked ads.

The American Conservative Union political organization, which had 136 ads removed through Sunday on Facebook, said some commercials contained a brief shot of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a decapitated head meant to portray US&nbsp;President Donald Trump.

Removing the bloody image resolved the violation for sensational content, and the organization said it had no qualms about Facebook's screening.

Some removals were errors. The Environmental Defense Action Fund said Facebook's automated review wrongly misclassified one of its ads as promoting tobacco.

Ryan Morgan, whose political consulting firm Veracity Media arranged attack ads for a US&nbsp;House race in Iowa, said Google barred those mentioning "white supremacy" until his team could explain the ads advocated against the racist belief.

Five campaign strategists told Reuters they adjusted advertising tactics in recent weeks based on what the databases revealed about opponents' spending on ads and which genders, age groups and states saw the messages.

Ohio digital consultant Kevin Bingle said his team reviewed opponents on Facebook's database daily to take advantage of gaps in their strategy.

Morgan said his team tripled its online ad budget to US $600,000 for a San Francisco affordable housing tax after Facebook's database showed the other side's ads were reaching non-Californians.

That political intelligence "let us know that digital was a place we could run up the score," he said.

Public databases that shine a light on online political ads - launched by Facebook and Google before Tuesday's US elections - offer the public the first broad view of how quickly the companies yank advertisements that break their rules.

Public databases that shine a light on online political ads - launched by Facebook and Google before Tuesday's US elections - offer the public the first broad view of how quickly the companies yank advertisements that break their rules. The databases also provided campaigns unprecedented insight into opponents' online marketing, enabling them to capitalize on weaknesses, political strategists told Reuters. Facebook Inc and Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, introduced the databases this year to give details on some political ads bought on their services, a response to US prosecutors' allegations that Russian agents who deceptively interfered in the 2016 election purchased ads from the companies. Russia denies the charges. American security experts said the Russians changed tactics this year. Reuters found that 436 ads - 375 on Facebook and 61 on Google - from May through October related to 34 US House of Representatives contests declared competitive last month by RealClearPolitics, which tracks political opinion polls. Of the 258 removed ads with start and end dates, ads remained on Google an average of eight days and Facebook 15 days, according to data Reuters collected from the databases. Based on ranges in the databases, the 436 ads were displayed up to 20.5 million times and cost up to US $582,000, amounting to a fraction of the millions of dollars spent online in those races. Asked for comment, Google said it is committed to bringing greater transparency to political ads. Facebook said the database is a way the company is held accountable, "even if it means our mistakes are on display." In some cases, the companies' automated scans did not identify banned material such as hateful speech or images of poor quality before ads went live. Ads that are OK when scanned may also become noncompliant if they link to a website that later breaks down. Google's database covers US $54 million in spending by US campaigns since May and Facebook US $354 million, according to their databases. Facebook's figure is larger partly because its database includes ads not only from federal races but also for state contests, national issues and get-out-the-vote efforts. The databases generally do not say why a particular ad was removed, and only Facebook shows copies of yanked ads. The American Conservative Union political organization, which had 136 ads removed through Sunday on Facebook, said some commercials contained a brief shot of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a decapitated head meant to portray US President Donald Trump. Removing the bloody image resolved the violation for sensational content, and the organization said it had no qualms about Facebook's screening. Some removals were errors. The Environmental Defense Action Fund said Facebook's automated review wrongly misclassified one of its ads as promoting tobacco. Ryan Morgan, whose political consulting firm Veracity Media arranged attack ads for a US House race in Iowa, said Google barred those mentioning "white supremacy" until his team could explain the ads advocated against the racist belief. Five campaign strategists told Reuters they adjusted advertising tactics in recent weeks based on what the databases revealed about opponents' spending on ads and which genders, age groups and states saw the messages. Ohio digital consultant Kevin Bingle said his team reviewed opponents on Facebook's database daily to take advantage of gaps in their strategy. Morgan said his team tripled its online ad budget to US $600,000 for a San Francisco affordable housing tax after Facebook's database showed the other side's ads were reaching non-Californians. That political intelligence "let us know that digital was a place we could run up the score," he said.

Facebook, Google tools reveal political ad removal data used before US midterm elections

Singer Taylor Swift has now come out after breaking her age old refusal to talk about politics by endorsing Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, who are running for Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.

Swift paired social media and social activism in a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday evening. One month before the midterm elections, she endorsed the two Democrats and entreated her followers to register and show up to the polls.&nbsp;

"I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country," she wrote in a lengthy post.

"I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent."

"In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," Swift wrote in an Instagram post.

The pop star - who spent later years growing up in Tennessee - also slammed Republican candidate and US Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her lengthy post on Sunday.&nbsp;

"As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry."&nbsp;

"These are not MY Tennessee values."

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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BopoXpYnCes/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway. So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting! 🗳😃🌈</a>

<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/taylorswift/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Taylor Swift</a> (@taylorswift) on <time datetime="2018-10-07T23:33:38+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Oct 7, 2018 at 4:33pm PDT</time>
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By early Monday, more than a million Instagram users had registered their approval.&nbsp;

She plans to vote for Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Senator Phil Bredesen (D-TN), who sparked controversy for voicing support for Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings. &nbsp;

Bredesen was quick to trumpet Swift’s endorsement. "Thank you for the kind words @taylorswift13. I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done. We’re ready for it. Last day to register to vote is October 9," he wrote on Twitter.&nbsp;

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Thank you for the kind words <a href="https://twitter.com/taylorswift13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@taylorswift13</a>. I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done. We’re ready for it. Last day to register to vote is October 9. <a href="https://t.co/6Xd6YyaJCG">https://t.co/6Xd6YyaJCG</a> <a href="https://t.co/CatUBkXPKe">pic.twitter.com/CatUBkXPKe</a>
— Phil Bredesen (@PhilBredesen) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilBredesen/status/1049092137944530944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Swift, who spent much of her teenage life in Tennessee, previously endorsed the March For Our Lives movement, though has faced criticism in the past for largely remaining silent on her political views.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Singer Taylor Swift has now come out after breaking her age old refusal to talk about politics by endorsing Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, who are running for Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.

Singer Taylor Swift has now come out after breaking her age old refusal to talk about politics by endorsing Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, who are running for Senate and House of Representatives, respectively. Swift paired social media and social activism in a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday evening. One month before the midterm elections, she endorsed the two Democrats and entreated her followers to register and show up to the polls. "I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country," she wrote in a lengthy post. "I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent." "In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," Swift wrote in an Instagram post. The pop star - who spent later years growing up in Tennessee - also slammed Republican candidate and US Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her lengthy post on Sunday. "As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry." "These are not MY Tennessee values." View this post on Instagram I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway. So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting! 🗳😃🌈 A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Oct 7, 2018 at 4:33pm PDT × By early Monday, more than a million Instagram users had registered their approval. She plans to vote for Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Senator Phil Bredesen (D-TN), who sparked controversy for voicing support for Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings. Bredesen was quick to trumpet Swift’s endorsement. "Thank you for the kind words @taylorswift13. I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done. We’re ready for it. Last day to register to vote is October 9," he wrote on Twitter. Thank you for the kind words @taylorswift13. I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done. We’re ready for it. Last day to register to vote is October 9. https://t.co/6Xd6YyaJCG pic.twitter.com/CatUBkXPKe — Phil Bredesen (@PhilBredesen) October 8, 2018 × Swift, who spent much of her teenage life in Tennessee, previously endorsed the March For Our Lives movement, though has faced criticism in the past for largely remaining silent on her political views.

Taylor Swift breaks silence on politics, endorses two Tennessee Democrats for midterms

A "mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance) of the opposition to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS is the sentiment of the people and not just political parties, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said today.

Lashing out at Modi and the ruling party, Gandhi alleged that the prime minister and the BJP were attacking the Constitution and other institutions of the nation.

"It is the sentiment of the people and not just political parties which are opposed to the BJP, to have a 'mahagathbandhan' that can take on the BJP, the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Gandhi told reporters here.

However, he remained silent when asked who would lead the grand alliance of the opposition parties.

"Prime Minister Modi and the BJP are attacking the Constitution and institutions of the nation," he alleged, saying the question faced by the people was how to stop this.

The Congress is trying to join together these voices and the work is going on, Gandhi said.

The 47-year-old Congress leader is on a two-day visit to Maharashtra since yesterday.

He said the opposition has been asking Modi to bring prices of petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to provide relief to the common man, but "he is not interested."

"There was an attack on Mumbai (through demonetisation). There are small industries, traders here... the leather industry and the cloth industry are all here. They were attacked by the 'Gabbar Singh Tax' (implying the GST by drawing a reference to the celluloid bandit Gabbar Singh)," Gandhi said.

"The whole country is sad, small businessmen are sad because of demonetisation and we are fighting for them," he said. 
Gandhi said during the UPA government's rule, the crude price was USD 130 a barrel that has now come down to USD 70 a barrel.

"However, the benefit has not been passed on to the common man. Where does this money go? In the pockets of a handful of 15 to 20 rich people," he alleged.

Gandhi had yesterday accused the Modi government of creating hatred and division in the society and betraying farmers as well as youth in the country.

Addressing a convention of Mumbai booth-level Congress workers here last evening, he alleged that Modi was a "chowkidar" only for a handful of industrialists and not the common man.

He had also accused Modi of "humiliating" BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Jaswant Singh and their families, and alleged that it was his "way of protecting Indian culture".&nbsp

'It is the sentiment of the people and not just political parties which are opposed to the BJP, to have a 'mahagathbandhan' that can take on the BJP, the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,' Gandhi told reporters in Mumbai

A "mahagathbandhan" (grand alliance) of the opposition to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS is the sentiment of the people and not just political parties, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said today. Lashing out at Modi and the ruling party, Gandhi alleged that the prime minister and the BJP were attacking the Constitution and other institutions of the nation. "It is the sentiment of the people and not just political parties which are opposed to the BJP, to have a 'mahagathbandhan' that can take on the BJP, the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Gandhi told reporters here. However, he remained silent when asked who would lead the grand alliance of the opposition parties. "Prime Minister Modi and the BJP are attacking the Constitution and institutions of the nation," he alleged, saying the question faced by the people was how to stop this. The Congress is trying to join together these voices and the work is going on, Gandhi said. The 47-year-old Congress leader is on a two-day visit to Maharashtra since yesterday. He said the opposition has been asking Modi to bring prices of petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to provide relief to the common man, but "he is not interested." "There was an attack on Mumbai (through demonetisation). There are small industries, traders here... the leather industry and the cloth industry are all here. They were attacked by the 'Gabbar Singh Tax' (implying the GST by drawing a reference to the celluloid bandit Gabbar Singh)," Gandhi said. "The whole country is sad, small businessmen are sad because of demonetisation and we are fighting for them," he said. Gandhi said during the UPA government's rule, the crude price was USD 130 a barrel that has now come down to USD 70 a barrel. "However, the benefit has not been passed on to the common man. Where does this money go? In the pockets of a handful of 15 to 20 rich people," he alleged. Gandhi had yesterday accused the Modi government of creating hatred and division in the society and betraying farmers as well as youth in the country. Addressing a convention of Mumbai booth-level Congress workers here last evening, he alleged that Modi was a "chowkidar" only for a handful of industrialists and not the common man. He had also accused Modi of "humiliating" BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Jaswant Singh and their families, and alleged that it was his "way of protecting Indian culture".

Grand alliance against Modi 'is sentiment of people, not just political parties': Rahul Gandhi

When strongman Ramzan Kadyrov last month opened The Local, a United Arab Emirates-funded luxury hotel in the Chechen capital of Grozny and prepared to receive Egypt's World Cup qualifying a national team as its first guests, he was cashing in on more than the Russian region's Muslim identity.

Eager to forge close ties to Middle Eastern nations, Mr. Kadyrov, who tightly controls Chechen sports, was cashing in on the fact that he has aligned himself with like-minded governments that not only stand out in their repression of dissent but also their efforts to oppose Saudi-inspired ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Islam.

Mr. Kadyrov, a barrel-chested man who recognizes the political utility of sports and is widely seen as a henchman of Russian President Vladimir Putin, earned his credentials by brutally suppressing an Islamist insurgency in Chechnya during his decade-long tenure.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Beslan Visambiev, a manager of a Grozny-based UAE investment fund, suggested that Mr. Putin was using Mr. Kadyrov as his point man in the Muslim world. "It seems like Putin delegated those powers to Kadyrov," Mr. Visambiev said.

Mr. Visambiev echoed Mr. Kadyrov's own words four years earlier when he addressed 20,000 members of his militia in a Grozny stadium.

"The time has come for us to make our conscious choice, and we say this to the whole world that we are the combat infantry of Vladimir Putin," Mr. Kadyrov said quoting a speech given by his father shortly before he was assassinated in 2004.

Criticism by human rights groups of the UAE's investment and Egypt's choice of Grozny has focussed on Chechnya rather than the Emirates and Egypt, even if both countries have recently been in the news for their own alleged violations of basic rights.

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<h5>A close US ally, the UAE stands accused of being a "colonizing force" in Yemen that supports extremist militias responsible for violence against Yemeni activists and Islah</h5>
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The US the House of Representatives last week voted to investigate a potential US role in torture in a UAE-operated network of prisons in Yemen.

A close US ally, the UAE stands accused of being a "colonizing force" in Yemen that supports extremist militias responsible for violence against Yemeni activists and Islah, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked political party, and a bete noire of UAE crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

In recent days, Egypt, whose prisons are filled with an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, arrested &nbsp; Hazim Abdelazim, a one-time campaigner turned critic for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and prominent blogger and activist Wael Abbas.

Mr. Kadyrov, whose human rights record, like that of Prince Mohammed and Mr. Al-Sisi, has been questioned, has denounced allegations of abuse as a "myth" designed to destabilise his government.

Yet, Mr. Kadyrov's notion of a more liberal interpretation of Islam is not dissimilar to that of Mr. Al-Sisi or Prince Mohammed, even if the effective UAE ruler has been not quite as harsh in measures against transgender, gay, and gender non-conforming people.

Both Chechnya and Egypt have in the last year brutally targeted gays, prompting Human Rights Watch to demand that world soccer body FIFA oppose a proposed Egyptian anti-LGBT law and to demand the release of Oyub Titev, the head of Chechnya's only still operating human rights group.

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<h5>The fact that Egypt and the UAE are the vehicles Mr. Kadyrov is using to exploit this month's World Cup in Russia in a bid to project Chechnya on the world stage in a more positive light and polish his tarnished image is no coincidence</h5>
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The bullet-riddled body of Mr. Titev's predecessor, Natalia Estemirova, was dumped by the road shortly after she was kidnapped in 2009.

The fact that Egypt and the UAE are the vehicles Mr. Kadyrov is using to exploit this month's World Cup in Russia in a bid to project Chechnya on the world stage in a more positive light and polish his tarnished image is no coincidence.

Both the UAE and Egypt have been in the forefront of efforts to counter political Islam and promote more quietist, apolitical interpretations of the faith that counter Saudi-style ultra-conservatism and are more in line with their vision of autocratic rule even if both countries are closely aligned with the kingdom.

The UAE has quietly nurtured the creation of moderate Islamic institutions such as the Muslim Council of Elders, the Global Forum for Prompting Peace in Muslim Societies and the Sawab and Hedayah Centres in a bid to counter the influence of controversial, Qatar-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and more militant Islamist forces.

Mr. Al-Sisi, an observant Muslim who in a 2006 paper argued that democracy cannot be understood without a grasp of the concept of the caliphate, has been advocating with limited success that Al Azhar, one of the Muslim world's foremost institutions and the world's oldest seat &nbsp;of Islamic learning, spearhead "a religious revolution" to counter militancy.

Mr. Kadyrov, who professes to be a Sufi, a more mystical interpretation of Islam, facilitated in 2016 a high point of the Emirati and Egyptian efforts when he hosted in Grozny a gathering of prominent Sunni Muslim leaders that effectively excommunicated Saudi-backed ultra-conservatism.

In a frontal assault on Saudi-backed religious movements such as Wahhabism, Salafism and Deobandism, the conference charged that the label Sunni had been hijacked by heretics whose deviant practices distorted Islam.

In defining Sunni Islam, the conference explicitly excluded Wahhabism, the version of Islam long propagated by Saudi Arabia, as well as Salafism and Deobandism from its definition.

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<h5>Mr. Kadyrov’s alliance with the UAE and Egypt has allowed him to exploit Russia’s hosting of the World Cup even if Chechnya will not be a venue for any of the competition’s matches</h5>
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Mr. Kadyrov's alliance with the UAE and Egypt has allowed him to exploit Russia's hosting of the World Cup even if Chechnya will not be a venue for any of the competition's matches.

The alliance has also paid off in other ways. The UAE last year created the Zayed Fund that aims to support Chechen businesses and is funding construction of a gleaming skyscraper in the Chechen capital. UAE-based carrier Air Arabia launched in April direct flights from Sharjah to Grozny.

The UAE-Egypt-Chechnya alliance may have produced economic benefits but appears to have done little to improve the tarnished image of the Russian republic or Mr. Kadyrov himself.

"FIFA's decision to use Grozny for a World Cup team camp is absolutely shocking and outrageous. FIFA should reverse their decision and move the training camp to another city," said Human Rights Watch associate director Jane Buchanan.

FIFA last year conceded that anti-LGBT attacks in Chechnya were in "sharp contradiction to the values of FIFA as an organization and we firmly condemn them" but more recently insisted that it had "no grounds to believe that the choice of the Egyptian FA to locate its base camp in Grozny will cause particular adverse human rights impacts."

Countered Ms. Buchanan, the author of a report on World Cup worker abuses in Russia: Mr. Kadyrov runs Chechnya "like his own fiefdom and commits human rights abuses with impunity. FIFA's decision will only legitimize the utterly abusive Kadyrov regime."

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

The UAE-Egypt-Chechnya alliance may have produced economic benefits but appears to have done little to improve the tarnished image of the Russian republic or Mr. Kadyrov himself

When strongman Ramzan Kadyrov last month opened The Local, a United Arab Emirates-funded luxury hotel in the Chechen capital of Grozny and prepared to receive Egypt's World Cup qualifying a national team as its first guests, he was cashing in on more than the Russian region's Muslim identity. Eager to forge close ties to Middle Eastern nations, Mr. Kadyrov, who tightly controls Chechen sports, was cashing in on the fact that he has aligned himself with like-minded governments that not only stand out in their repression of dissent but also their efforts to oppose Saudi-inspired ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Islam. Mr. Kadyrov, a barrel-chested man who recognizes the political utility of sports and is widely seen as a henchman of Russian President Vladimir Putin, earned his credentials by brutally suppressing an Islamist insurgency in Chechnya during his decade-long tenure. Speaking to The Washington Post, Beslan Visambiev, a manager of a Grozny-based UAE investment fund, suggested that Mr. Putin was using Mr. Kadyrov as his point man in the Muslim world. "It seems like Putin delegated those powers to Kadyrov," Mr. Visambiev said. Mr. Visambiev echoed Mr. Kadyrov's own words four years earlier when he addressed 20,000 members of his militia in a Grozny stadium. "The time has come for us to make our conscious choice, and we say this to the whole world that we are the combat infantry of Vladimir Putin," Mr. Kadyrov said quoting a speech given by his father shortly before he was assassinated in 2004. Criticism by human rights groups of the UAE's investment and Egypt's choice of Grozny has focussed on Chechnya rather than the Emirates and Egypt, even if both countries have recently been in the news for their own alleged violations of basic rights. A close US ally, the UAE stands accused of being a "colonizing force" in Yemen that supports extremist militias responsible for violence against Yemeni activists and Islah × The US the House of Representatives last week voted to investigate a potential US role in torture in a UAE-operated network of prisons in Yemen. A close US ally, the UAE stands accused of being a "colonizing force" in Yemen that supports extremist militias responsible for violence against Yemeni activists and Islah, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked political party, and a bete noire of UAE crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed. In recent days, Egypt, whose prisons are filled with an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, arrested Hazim Abdelazim, a one-time campaigner turned critic for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and prominent blogger and activist Wael Abbas. Mr. Kadyrov, whose human rights record, like that of Prince Mohammed and Mr. Al-Sisi, has been questioned, has denounced allegations of abuse as a "myth" designed to destabilise his government. Yet, Mr. Kadyrov's notion of a more liberal interpretation of Islam is not dissimilar to that of Mr. Al-Sisi or Prince Mohammed, even if the effective UAE ruler has been not quite as harsh in measures against transgender, gay, and gender non-conforming people. Both Chechnya and Egypt have in the last year brutally targeted gays, prompting Human Rights Watch to demand that world soccer body FIFA oppose a proposed Egyptian anti-LGBT law and to demand the release of Oyub Titev, the head of Chechnya's only still operating human rights group. The fact that Egypt and the UAE are the vehicles Mr. Kadyrov is using to exploit this month's World Cup in Russia in a bid to project Chechnya on the world stage in a more positive light and polish his tarnished image is no coincidence × The bullet-riddled body of Mr. Titev's predecessor, Natalia Estemirova, was dumped by the road shortly after she was kidnapped in 2009. The fact that Egypt and the UAE are the vehicles Mr. Kadyrov is using to exploit this month's World Cup in Russia in a bid to project Chechnya on the world stage in a more positive light and polish his tarnished image is no coincidence. Both the UAE and Egypt have been in the forefront of efforts to counter political Islam and promote more quietist, apolitical interpretations of the faith that counter Saudi-style ultra-conservatism and are more in line with their vision of autocratic rule even if both countries are closely aligned with the kingdom. The UAE has quietly nurtured the creation of moderate Islamic institutions such as the Muslim Council of Elders, the Global Forum for Prompting Peace in Muslim Societies and the Sawab and Hedayah Centres in a bid to counter the influence of controversial, Qatar-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and more militant Islamist forces. Mr. Al-Sisi, an observant Muslim who in a 2006 paper argued that democracy cannot be understood without a grasp of the concept of the caliphate, has been advocating with limited success that Al Azhar, one of the Muslim world's foremost institutions and the world's oldest seat of Islamic learning, spearhead "a religious revolution" to counter militancy. Mr. Kadyrov, who professes to be a Sufi, a more mystical interpretation of Islam, facilitated in 2016 a high point of the Emirati and Egyptian efforts when he hosted in Grozny a gathering of prominent Sunni Muslim leaders that effectively excommunicated Saudi-backed ultra-conservatism. In a frontal assault on Saudi-backed religious movements such as Wahhabism, Salafism and Deobandism, the conference charged that the label Sunni had been hijacked by heretics whose deviant practices distorted Islam. In defining Sunni Islam, the conference explicitly excluded Wahhabism, the version of Islam long propagated by Saudi Arabia, as well as Salafism and Deobandism from its definition. Mr. Kadyrov’s alliance with the UAE and Egypt has allowed him to exploit Russia’s hosting of the World Cup even if Chechnya will not be a venue for any of the competition’s matches × Mr. Kadyrov's alliance with the UAE and Egypt has allowed him to exploit Russia's hosting of the World Cup even if Chechnya will not be a venue for any of the competition's matches. The alliance has also paid off in other ways. The UAE last year created the Zayed Fund that aims to support Chechen businesses and is funding construction of a gleaming skyscraper in the Chechen capital. UAE-based carrier Air Arabia launched in April direct flights from Sharjah to Grozny. The UAE-Egypt-Chechnya alliance may have produced economic benefits but appears to have done little to improve the tarnished image of the Russian republic or Mr. Kadyrov himself. "FIFA's decision to use Grozny for a World Cup team camp is absolutely shocking and outrageous. FIFA should reverse their decision and move the training camp to another city," said Human Rights Watch associate director Jane Buchanan. FIFA last year conceded that anti-LGBT attacks in Chechnya were in "sharp contradiction to the values of FIFA as an organization and we firmly condemn them" but more recently insisted that it had "no grounds to believe that the choice of the Egyptian FA to locate its base camp in Grozny will cause particular adverse human rights impacts." Countered Ms. Buchanan, the author of a report on World Cup worker abuses in Russia: Mr. Kadyrov runs Chechnya "like his own fiefdom and commits human rights abuses with impunity. FIFA's decision will only legitimize the utterly abusive Kadyrov regime." (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Football World Cup offers Chechnya opportunity to play Middle Eastern politics

Chinese businessman Sheng Kuan Li didn’t worry about sanctions when he decided in 2010 to invest $200 million in a steel mill in Iran that started producing ingots and billet within months of the lifting of punitive measures against the Islamic republic as part of 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran.

With no operations in the United States, Mr. Li was not concerned about being targeted by the US Treasury. Mr. Li, moreover, circumvented financial restrictions on Iran by funding his investment through what he called a "private transfer," a money swap that was based on trust and avoided regular banking channels.

In doing so, Mr. Li was following standard Chinese practice of evading the sanctions regime by using alternative routes or establishing alternative institutions that were in effect immune.

To be able to continue to purchase Iranian oil while sanctions were in place, China, for example, established the Bank of Kunlun to handle Chinese payments.

The Chinese experience in circumventing the earlier sanctions will come in handy with Beijing rejecting US President Donald J. Trump’s renewed effort to isolate Iran and force it to make further concessions on its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs as well as the Islamic republic’s regional role in the Middle East by walking away from the 2015 agreement and reintroducing punitive economic measures.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in response to Mr. Trump’s announcement that the People’s Republic was committed to the deal and would "maintain communication with all parties and continue to protect and execute the agreement fully."

China’s likely willingness to circumvent US sanctions is one factor that will influence Iran’s decision on whether it will stick to the agreement. Iran’s decision depends on the readiness and ability of the other signatories - Britain, France, Germany and Russia – to also stand up to the United States.

China’s experience in circumventing sanctions could come in handy as Europe, that like China has rejected Mr. Trump’s move and vowed to ignore the sanctions, weighs ways of putting its money where its mouth is by attempting to shield European companies from potential US punitive action. One possibility would be to use alternative Chinese financial networks.

Nonetheless, this time round, rejecting and violating US sanctions may prove for China as well as the other signatories to be a trickier undertaking. Last time round, China and the other signatories were part of an international consensus that aimed to force Iran to accept restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program even if they at times circumvented the sanctions.

China and other signatories are in the wake of the re-imposition of US sanctions likely to be operating in a far more confrontational environment in which the subtext of Mr. Trump’s decision as well the positions of Saudi Arabia and Israel appears to be a policy that seeks to achieve regime change in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates, have suggested in recent months in their 11-month old economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar that they are willing to quietly sanction those who fail to support them.

There is little reason to doubt that they would do the same in their confrontation with Iran with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman describing the dispute with Qatar as "trivial’ in comparison to the kingdom’s existential battle with Iran.

Saudi Arabia demonstrated its greater assertiveness by forcing major multi-national financial institutions to choose sides in the Gulf spat. In response to Saudi pressure, JP Morgan and HSBC last month walked away from participating in a $12 billion bond sale.

Earlier, Doha Bank, Qatar’s fifth-biggest lender, was forced to reduce the size of a two-year, $575 million bank loan that it had raised in December 2015 to $400 million, when it sought a one-year extension of the facility because Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese banks opted not to participate.

In the utmost consequence, China’s concerted effort to remain aloof of the Middle East’s multiple conflicts could be severely compromised if it were forced to take sides in a conflict between Iran, a country with which China feels that it has much in common and that it in the past has helped develop its ballistic and nuclear programs, and Saudi Arabia, a more recently found friend that is economically important to the People’s Republic.

To be sure, greater Saudi assertiveness does not mean that the kingdom does not have to tread carefully in potentially seeking to penalize China and others for their potential refusal to go along with Mr. Trump’s confronting of Iran.

Saudi Arabia desperately needs foreign investment to implement Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030, a far-reaching plan for social and economic reform that aims to diversify the kingdom’s conservative society and oil-dependent economy and turn it into the 21st century, knowledge-based state.

China, moreover, is one of Saudi Arabia’s foremost oil export markets. While the Saudi military remains focussed on US and European arms purchases, China, at a time that a military confrontation with Iran is not beyond the realm of the possible, is a source of weaponry the United States has been so far unwilling to sell to the kingdom.

With the United States refusing to share its most advanced drone technology, China agreed last year to open its first overseas defense production facility in Saudi Arabia. State-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will manufacture its CH-4 Caihong, or Rainbow drone as well as associated equipment in Saudi Arabia. The CH-4 is comparable to the US armed MQ-9 Reaper drone.

The stakes in the battle to save the Iranian nuclear deal in the wake of Mr. Trump’s decision go however far beyond a belief that the nuclear deal is serving its purpose in curbing potential Iranian nuclear ambitions and economic opportunity.

Leveraging its experience, an effort by China together with Russia and Europe that keeps the Iranian nuclear deal in place and thwarts US sanctions would deliver one of the heaviest body blows to US credibility and perceptions of US power since Mr. Trump came to office in January of last year.

Said a Middle Eastern diplomat: "A successful countering of US sanctions would demonstrate beyond doubt limits to America’s ability to impose its will. That would have wide-reaching consequences, not in the least question marks in Saudi Arabia and Israel on the degree to which they can risk continuing putting most of their eggs in Washington’s basket."

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Leveraging its experience, an effort by China together with Russia and Europe that keeps the Iranian nuclear deal in place

Chinese businessman Sheng Kuan Li didn’t worry about sanctions when he decided in 2010 to invest $200 million in a steel mill in Iran that started producing ingots and billet within months of the lifting of punitive measures against the Islamic republic as part of 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran. With no operations in the United States, Mr. Li was not concerned about being targeted by the US Treasury. Mr. Li, moreover, circumvented financial restrictions on Iran by funding his investment through what he called a "private transfer," a money swap that was based on trust and avoided regular banking channels. In doing so, Mr. Li was following standard Chinese practice of evading the sanctions regime by using alternative routes or establishing alternative institutions that were in effect immune. To be able to continue to purchase Iranian oil while sanctions were in place, China, for example, established the Bank of Kunlun to handle Chinese payments. The Chinese experience in circumventing the earlier sanctions will come in handy with Beijing rejecting US President Donald J. Trump’s renewed effort to isolate Iran and force it to make further concessions on its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs as well as the Islamic republic’s regional role in the Middle East by walking away from the 2015 agreement and reintroducing punitive economic measures. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in response to Mr. Trump’s announcement that the People’s Republic was committed to the deal and would "maintain communication with all parties and continue to protect and execute the agreement fully." China’s likely willingness to circumvent US sanctions is one factor that will influence Iran’s decision on whether it will stick to the agreement. Iran’s decision depends on the readiness and ability of the other signatories - Britain, France, Germany and Russia – to also stand up to the United States. China’s experience in circumventing sanctions could come in handy as Europe, that like China has rejected Mr. Trump’s move and vowed to ignore the sanctions, weighs ways of putting its money where its mouth is by attempting to shield European companies from potential US punitive action. One possibility would be to use alternative Chinese financial networks. Nonetheless, this time round, rejecting and violating US sanctions may prove for China as well as the other signatories to be a trickier undertaking. Last time round, China and the other signatories were part of an international consensus that aimed to force Iran to accept restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program even if they at times circumvented the sanctions. China and other signatories are in the wake of the re-imposition of US sanctions likely to be operating in a far more confrontational environment in which the subtext of Mr. Trump’s decision as well the positions of Saudi Arabia and Israel appears to be a policy that seeks to achieve regime change in Tehran. Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates, have suggested in recent months in their 11-month old economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar that they are willing to quietly sanction those who fail to support them. There is little reason to doubt that they would do the same in their confrontation with Iran with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman describing the dispute with Qatar as "trivial’ in comparison to the kingdom’s existential battle with Iran. Saudi Arabia demonstrated its greater assertiveness by forcing major multi-national financial institutions to choose sides in the Gulf spat. In response to Saudi pressure, JP Morgan and HSBC last month walked away from participating in a $12 billion bond sale. Earlier, Doha Bank, Qatar’s fifth-biggest lender, was forced to reduce the size of a two-year, $575 million bank loan that it had raised in December 2015 to $400 million, when it sought a one-year extension of the facility because Chinese, Hong Kong and Japanese banks opted not to participate. In the utmost consequence, China’s concerted effort to remain aloof of the Middle East’s multiple conflicts could be severely compromised if it were forced to take sides in a conflict between Iran, a country with which China feels that it has much in common and that it in the past has helped develop its ballistic and nuclear programs, and Saudi Arabia, a more recently found friend that is economically important to the People’s Republic. To be sure, greater Saudi assertiveness does not mean that the kingdom does not have to tread carefully in potentially seeking to penalize China and others for their potential refusal to go along with Mr. Trump’s confronting of Iran. Saudi Arabia desperately needs foreign investment to implement Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030, a far-reaching plan for social and economic reform that aims to diversify the kingdom’s conservative society and oil-dependent economy and turn it into the 21st century, knowledge-based state. China, moreover, is one of Saudi Arabia’s foremost oil export markets. While the Saudi military remains focussed on US and European arms purchases, China, at a time that a military confrontation with Iran is not beyond the realm of the possible, is a source of weaponry the United States has been so far unwilling to sell to the kingdom. With the United States refusing to share its most advanced drone technology, China agreed last year to open its first overseas defense production facility in Saudi Arabia. State-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will manufacture its CH-4 Caihong, or Rainbow drone as well as associated equipment in Saudi Arabia. The CH-4 is comparable to the US armed MQ-9 Reaper drone. The stakes in the battle to save the Iranian nuclear deal in the wake of Mr. Trump’s decision go however far beyond a belief that the nuclear deal is serving its purpose in curbing potential Iranian nuclear ambitions and economic opportunity. Leveraging its experience, an effort by China together with Russia and Europe that keeps the Iranian nuclear deal in place and thwarts US sanctions would deliver one of the heaviest body blows to US credibility and perceptions of US power since Mr. Trump came to office in January of last year. Said a Middle Eastern diplomat: "A successful countering of US sanctions would demonstrate beyond doubt limits to America’s ability to impose its will. That would have wide-reaching consequences, not in the least question marks in Saudi Arabia and Israel on the degree to which they can risk continuing putting most of their eggs in Washington’s basket." (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Playing US sanctions - China walks a fine line in Iran

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena is not likely to retire from politics in 2020. Refuting the media reports, Sirisena said that he will not retire in 2020 as more work needs to be done in the country, as reported by the Columbo Page on Tuesday.

While addressing a May Day rally (Labour Day rally) held at Mawadiwembu Ground, Chenkaladi Sri Lankan President said he will use the experiences he gained through the past three years in this regard and will join with honest politicians, who love the country and the people to achieve success in those programs.

He noted that there are certain social media sites which have published about his retirement in 2020.

He further said that his Sri Lanka Freedom Party will introduce a new political process to build the nation and further bring reforms within the party. SLFP will turn into a people-centric party as claimed by Sirisena.

He further requested new people to join the party.

He said the working class and the trade unions can play a pivotal role in building the national reconciliation.

While commenting about the age-old Sinhalese-Tamil conflict in the country, the President said, "As you know all of us faced a nearly three-decade-long brutal war and in that conflict irrespective of nationality the lives of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims were lost, leaders belong to every nationality died,"

Former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Senior Ministers including Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, SLFP General Secretary Minister Duminda Dissanayake, UPFA General Secretary Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and others participated in the May Day rally.&nbsp

Chenkaladi Sri Lankan President said he will use the experiences he gained through the past three years in this regard and will join with honest politicians, who love the country and the people to achieve success in those programs

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena is not likely to retire from politics in 2020. Refuting the media reports, Sirisena said that he will not retire in 2020 as more work needs to be done in the country, as reported by the Columbo Page on Tuesday. While addressing a May Day rally (Labour Day rally) held at Mawadiwembu Ground, Chenkaladi Sri Lankan President said he will use the experiences he gained through the past three years in this regard and will join with honest politicians, who love the country and the people to achieve success in those programs. He noted that there are certain social media sites which have published about his retirement in 2020. He further said that his Sri Lanka Freedom Party will introduce a new political process to build the nation and further bring reforms within the party. SLFP will turn into a people-centric party as claimed by Sirisena. He further requested new people to join the party. He said the working class and the trade unions can play a pivotal role in building the national reconciliation. While commenting about the age-old Sinhalese-Tamil conflict in the country, the President said, "As you know all of us faced a nearly three-decade-long brutal war and in that conflict irrespective of nationality the lives of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims were lost, leaders belong to every nationality died," Former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Senior Ministers including Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, SLFP General Secretary Minister Duminda Dissanayake, UPFA General Secretary Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and others participated in the May Day rally.

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena is not likely to retire from politics in 2020

By:&nbspConn Hallinan*

The unusual triple alliance coming out of Syria could change the regional balance of power and unhinge NATO — if it holds together at all.

An unusual triple alliance is emerging from the Syrian War — one that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East, unhinge the NATO alliance, and complicate the Trump administration’s designs on Iran. It might also lead to yet another double cross of one of the region’s largest ethnic groups, the Kurds.

However, the "troika alliance" — Turkey, Russia and Iran — consists of three countries that don’t much like one another, have different goals, and whose policies are driven by a combination of geo-global goals and internal politics. In short, "fragile and complicated" doesn’t even begin to describe it.

How the triad might be affected by the joint American, French and British attack on Syria is unclear, but in the long run the alliance will likely survive the uptick of hostilities.

Consolidating Erdogan's grip

Common ground was what came out of the April 4 meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meeting in Ankara, the parties pledged to support the "territorial integrity" of Syria, find a diplomatic end to the war, and to begin a reconstruction of a Syria devastated by seven years of war. While Russia and Turkey explicitly backed the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, Iran was quiet on that issue, preferring a regional solution without "foreign plans."

"Common ground," however, doesn’t mean the members of the "troika" are on the same page.

Turkey’s interests are both internal and external. The Turkish army is currently conducting two military operations in northern Syria, Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield, aimed at driving the mainly Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) out of land that borders Turkey. But those operations are also deeply entwined with domestic Turkish politics.

Erdogan's internal support has been eroded by a number of factors: exhaustion with the ongoing state of emergency imposed following the 2016 attempted coup, a shaky economy, and a precipitous fall in the value of the Turkish lira.

Rather than waiting for 2019, Erdogan has called a snap election for June 24, and beating up on the Kurds is always popular with right-wing Turkish nationalists. Erdogan needs all the votes he can get to implement the newly minted executive presidency that will give him virtually one-man rule.

Driving a wedge in NATO

To be part of the alliance, however, Erdogan has had to modify his goal of getting rid of Syrian President Bashar Assad and to agree — at this point, anyhow — to eventually withdraw from areas in northern Syria seized by the Turkish army. Russia and Iran have called for turning over the regions conquered by the Turks to the Syrian army.

Moscow's goals are to keep a foothold in the Middle East with its only base, Tartus, and to aid its long-time ally, Syria. The Russians aren’t deeply committed to Assad personally, but they want a friendly government in Damascus. They also want to destroy al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which have caused Moscow considerable trouble in the Caucasus.

Russia also wouldn't mind driving a wedge between Ankara and NATO. After the US, Turkey has NATO’s second-largest army. NATO broke a 1989 agreement not to recruit former members of the Russian-dominated Warsaw Pact into NATO as a quid pro quo for the Soviets withdrawing from Eastern Europe.

Since the Yugoslav War in 1999, the alliance has marched right up to the borders of Russia. (The 2008 war with Georgia and 2014 seizure of the Crimea were largely a reaction to what Moscow sees as an encirclement strategy by its adversaries.)

Turkey has been at odds with its NATO allies around a dispute between Greece and Cyprus over sea-based oil and gas resources, and it recently charged two Greek soldiers who violated the Turkish border with espionage.

Erdogan is also angry that European Union countries refuse to extradite Turkish soldiers and civilians whom he claims helped engineer the 2016 coup against him. While most NATO countries condemned Moscow for the recent attack on two Russians in Britain, the Turks pointedly did not.

Turkish relations with Russia have an economic side as well. Ankara wants a natural gas pipeline from Russia, has broken ground on a $20 billion Russian nuclear reactor, and just shelled out $2.5 billion for Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft system.

The Kurdish question

The Russians don't support Erdogan’s war on the Kurds and have lobbied for the inclusion of Kurdish delegations in negotiations over the future of Syria. But Moscow clearly gave the Turks a green light to attack the Kurdish city of Afrin in March, driving out the YPG that had liberated it from the Islamic State and Turkish-backed al-Qaeda groups. A number of Kurds charge that Moscow has betrayed them.

Will the Russians stand aside if the Turkish forces move further into Syria and attack the city of Manbij, where the Kurds are allied with American and French forces? And will Erdogan's hostility to the Kurds lead to an armed clash among three NATO members?

Such a clash seems unlikely, although the Turks have been giving flamethrower speeches over the past several weeks. "Those who cooperate with terrorist organisations [the YPG] will be targeted by Turkey," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a pointed reference to France's support for the Kurds. Threatening the French is one thing, picking a fight with the US military quite another.

Of course, if President Donald Trump pulls US forces out of Syria, it will be tempting for Turkey to move in. While the “troika alliance” has agreed to Syrian "sovereignty," that won’t stop Ankara from meddling in Kurdish affairs. The Turks are already appointing governors and mayors for the areas in Syria they have occupied.

Keeping the US at bay

Iran's major concern in Syria is maintaining a buffer between itself and the very aggressive American, Israeli and Saudi alliance, which seems to be in the preliminary stages of planning a war against the second-largest country in the Middle East.

Iran is not at all the threat it’s been pumped up to be. Its military is minuscule and talk of a so-called "Shia crescent" — Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon — is pretty much a Western invention (although the term was dreamed up by the Sunni king of Jordan).

Tehran has been weakened by crippling sanctions and faces the possibility that Washington will withdraw from the nuclear accord and re-impose yet more sanctions. The appointment of US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who openly calls for regime change in Iran, has to have sent a chill down the spines of the Iranians.

What Tehran needs most of all is allies who will shield it from the enmity of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. In this regard, Turkey and Russia could be helpful.

Iran has modified its original goals in Syria of a Shia-dominated regime by agreeing to a "non-sectarian character" for a post-war Syria. (Erdogan has also given up on his desire for a Sunni-dominated government in Damascus.)

War and oil

The war between the US or its allies and Iran would be catastrophic — an unwinnable conflict that could destabilise the Middle East even more than it is now. It would, however, drive up the price of oil, currently running at around $66 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia needs to sell its oil for at least $100 a barrel or it will very quickly run of money. The ongoing quagmire of the Yemen War, the need to diversify the economy, and the growing clamor by young Saudis — 70 per cent of the population — for jobs require lots of money, and the current trends in oil pricing are not going to cover the bills.

War and oil make for odd bedfellows. While the Saudis are doing their best to overthrow the Assad regime and fuel the extremists fighting the Russians, Riyadh is wooing Moscow to sign on to a long-term OPEC agreement to control oil supplies.

That probably won’t happen — the Russians are fine with oil at $50 to $60 a barrel — and are wary of agreements that would restrict their right to develop new oil and gas resources.

The Saudis' jihad on the Iranians has a desperate edge to it. The greatest threat to the kingdom has always come from within.

The rocks and shoals that can wreck alliances in the Middle East are too numerous to count, and the "troika" is riven with contradictions and conflicting interests. But the war in Syria looks as if it’s coming to some kind of resolution — and at this point Iran, Russia and Turkey seem to be the only actors who have a script that goes beyond lobbing cruise missiles at people.

*Conn M. Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus, "A Think Tank Without Walls," and an independent journalist.&nbsp

(This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/ ">Fair Observer</a>. Read the original <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/syrian-war-turkey-iran-russia-world-news-headlines-43093/">article</a>.)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

The unusual triple alliance coming out of Syria could change the regional balance of power and unhinge NATO — if it holds together at all

By: Conn Hallinan* The unusual triple alliance coming out of Syria could change the regional balance of power and unhinge NATO — if it holds together at all. An unusual triple alliance is emerging from the Syrian War — one that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East, unhinge the NATO alliance, and complicate the Trump administration’s designs on Iran. It might also lead to yet another double cross of one of the region’s largest ethnic groups, the Kurds. However, the "troika alliance" — Turkey, Russia and Iran — consists of three countries that don’t much like one another, have different goals, and whose policies are driven by a combination of geo-global goals and internal politics. In short, "fragile and complicated" doesn’t even begin to describe it. How the triad might be affected by the joint American, French and British attack on Syria is unclear, but in the long run the alliance will likely survive the uptick of hostilities. Consolidating Erdogan's grip Common ground was what came out of the April 4 meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meeting in Ankara, the parties pledged to support the "territorial integrity" of Syria, find a diplomatic end to the war, and to begin a reconstruction of a Syria devastated by seven years of war. While Russia and Turkey explicitly backed the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, Iran was quiet on that issue, preferring a regional solution without "foreign plans." "Common ground," however, doesn’t mean the members of the "troika" are on the same page. Turkey’s interests are both internal and external. The Turkish army is currently conducting two military operations in northern Syria, Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield, aimed at driving the mainly Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) out of land that borders Turkey. But those operations are also deeply entwined with domestic Turkish politics. Erdogan's internal support has been eroded by a number of factors: exhaustion with the ongoing state of emergency imposed following the 2016 attempted coup, a shaky economy, and a precipitous fall in the value of the Turkish lira. Rather than waiting for 2019, Erdogan has called a snap election for June 24, and beating up on the Kurds is always popular with right-wing Turkish nationalists. Erdogan needs all the votes he can get to implement the newly minted executive presidency that will give him virtually one-man rule. Driving a wedge in NATO To be part of the alliance, however, Erdogan has had to modify his goal of getting rid of Syrian President Bashar Assad and to agree — at this point, anyhow — to eventually withdraw from areas in northern Syria seized by the Turkish army. Russia and Iran have called for turning over the regions conquered by the Turks to the Syrian army. Moscow's goals are to keep a foothold in the Middle East with its only base, Tartus, and to aid its long-time ally, Syria. The Russians aren’t deeply committed to Assad personally, but they want a friendly government in Damascus. They also want to destroy al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which have caused Moscow considerable trouble in the Caucasus. Russia also wouldn't mind driving a wedge between Ankara and NATO. After the US, Turkey has NATO’s second-largest army. NATO broke a 1989 agreement not to recruit former members of the Russian-dominated Warsaw Pact into NATO as a quid pro quo for the Soviets withdrawing from Eastern Europe. Since the Yugoslav War in 1999, the alliance has marched right up to the borders of Russia. (The 2008 war with Georgia and 2014 seizure of the Crimea were largely a reaction to what Moscow sees as an encirclement strategy by its adversaries.) Turkey has been at odds with its NATO allies around a dispute between Greece and Cyprus over sea-based oil and gas resources, and it recently charged two Greek soldiers who violated the Turkish border with espionage. Erdogan is also angry that European Union countries refuse to extradite Turkish soldiers and civilians whom he claims helped engineer the 2016 coup against him. While most NATO countries condemned Moscow for the recent attack on two Russians in Britain, the Turks pointedly did not. Turkish relations with Russia have an economic side as well. Ankara wants a natural gas pipeline from Russia, has broken ground on a $20 billion Russian nuclear reactor, and just shelled out $2.5 billion for Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft system. The Kurdish question The Russians don't support Erdogan’s war on the Kurds and have lobbied for the inclusion of Kurdish delegations in negotiations over the future of Syria. But Moscow clearly gave the Turks a green light to attack the Kurdish city of Afrin in March, driving out the YPG that had liberated it from the Islamic State and Turkish-backed al-Qaeda groups. A number of Kurds charge that Moscow has betrayed them. Will the Russians stand aside if the Turkish forces move further into Syria and attack the city of Manbij, where the Kurds are allied with American and French forces? And will Erdogan's hostility to the Kurds lead to an armed clash among three NATO members? Such a clash seems unlikely, although the Turks have been giving flamethrower speeches over the past several weeks. "Those who cooperate with terrorist organisations [the YPG] will be targeted by Turkey," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a pointed reference to France's support for the Kurds. Threatening the French is one thing, picking a fight with the US military quite another. Of course, if President Donald Trump pulls US forces out of Syria, it will be tempting for Turkey to move in. While the “troika alliance” has agreed to Syrian "sovereignty," that won’t stop Ankara from meddling in Kurdish affairs. The Turks are already appointing governors and mayors for the areas in Syria they have occupied. Keeping the US at bay Iran's major concern in Syria is maintaining a buffer between itself and the very aggressive American, Israeli and Saudi alliance, which seems to be in the preliminary stages of planning a war against the second-largest country in the Middle East. Iran is not at all the threat it’s been pumped up to be. Its military is minuscule and talk of a so-called "Shia crescent" — Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon — is pretty much a Western invention (although the term was dreamed up by the Sunni king of Jordan). Tehran has been weakened by crippling sanctions and faces the possibility that Washington will withdraw from the nuclear accord and re-impose yet more sanctions. The appointment of US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who openly calls for regime change in Iran, has to have sent a chill down the spines of the Iranians. What Tehran needs most of all is allies who will shield it from the enmity of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. In this regard, Turkey and Russia could be helpful. Iran has modified its original goals in Syria of a Shia-dominated regime by agreeing to a "non-sectarian character" for a post-war Syria. (Erdogan has also given up on his desire for a Sunni-dominated government in Damascus.) War and oil The war between the US or its allies and Iran would be catastrophic — an unwinnable conflict that could destabilise the Middle East even more than it is now. It would, however, drive up the price of oil, currently running at around $66 a barrel. Saudi Arabia needs to sell its oil for at least $100 a barrel or it will very quickly run of money. The ongoing quagmire of the Yemen War, the need to diversify the economy, and the growing clamor by young Saudis — 70 per cent of the population — for jobs require lots of money, and the current trends in oil pricing are not going to cover the bills. War and oil make for odd bedfellows. While the Saudis are doing their best to overthrow the Assad regime and fuel the extremists fighting the Russians, Riyadh is wooing Moscow to sign on to a long-term OPEC agreement to control oil supplies. That probably won’t happen — the Russians are fine with oil at $50 to $60 a barrel — and are wary of agreements that would restrict their right to develop new oil and gas resources. The Saudis' jihad on the Iranians has a desperate edge to it. The greatest threat to the kingdom has always come from within. The rocks and shoals that can wreck alliances in the Middle East are too numerous to count, and the "troika" is riven with contradictions and conflicting interests. But the war in Syria looks as if it’s coming to some kind of resolution — and at this point Iran, Russia and Turkey seem to be the only actors who have a script that goes beyond lobbing cruise missiles at people. *Conn M. Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus, "A Think Tank Without Walls," and an independent journalist. (This article was originally published on Fair Observer. Read the original article.) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: An emerging Russia-Turkey-Iran alliance could reshape the Middle East

"In the middle of difficulties, lies opportunity", said Albert Einstein.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Each tragedy leaves the hint of a comedy yet to be unfolded, each misfortune comes seeded in felicity yet to be born. In the same way, the latest action of the opposition parties to impeach the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the subsequent developments, no matter how "unfortunate and mischievous" they may be, have the potential to open up and settle many academic debates that would eventually go to strengthen the constitutional jurisprudence in India once the ominous dust kicked up around the matter is settled. The issue, although denting the image of the judiciary in an unfathomable way, is nothing less than a seed falling on the fertile ground. 
&nbsp; 
In the evolutionary process of society, each event has its significance. In the ontological argument, the question whether the opposition should have initiated a motion of impeachment against the CJI, and whether the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha should have shot it down on his own, both carry equal significance.

To the students of constitutional law, the development leads to a rich mine of potentialities where the outcome is likely to put forth a windfall of lessons that would help in setting definite regulations and precedents in areas that hitherto suffer from constitutional uncertainties.

Let’s talk on the motion of removal of the CJI, which is popularly known as 'impeachment motion' in media, though the word 'impeachment' comes with specific reference to President of India under Article 61 of the Constitution for judges of the Supreme Court, Article 124(4) of the Constitution mentions the word 'removal' instead of impeachment.

The motion of removal of the CJI, as submitted to Rajya Sabha by Ghulam Nabi Azad last Friday containing signatures of 71 Members of Parliament of Rajya Sabha (7 have retired now) from the Congress and 6 other parties, contained 5 'grounds of misbehaviour', hence the opposition pitched the case to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha for removal of the CJI. 
&nbsp; 
However, on Monday, Venkaiah Naidu, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, drew the curtain on the motion by rejecting it altogether. While doing so he had observed - "Members of Parliament who have presented the petition are unsure of their own case... the phrases used by the Hon'ble MPs themselves indicate a mere suspicion, a conjecture or an assumption. The same certainly does not constitute 'proof beyond reasonable doubt', which is required to make out a case of 'proved misbehaviour' under Article 124 (4)… I am also aware it is imperative that we should have extraordinary, important and substantial grounds for the removal of a judge.” (Italics added) 
&nbsp; 
Though the Congress found the decision "ill-conceived and hasty", the decision of the Chairman stands in complete conformity with the existing law. In a series of cases, the courts have taken this position that the Speaker/Chairman is the final authority to decide whether the accusation against a judge of the Supreme Court requires investigation before consideration of his removal proposal by the Parliament. Section 3(1) of the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968 provides for the admission of such motion by the Speaker or the Chairman and subsequent action on it.

In Sarojini Ramaswami Vs Union of India (1992), the SC had set the guidelines in unambiguous terms: "Every Judge of the Supreme Court and the High Courts on his appointment is irremovable from office during his tenure except in the manner provided in clauses (4) and (5) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India.

The law made by the Parliament under Article 124(5), namely, the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 and the Judges (Inquiry) Rules, 1969 framed thereunder provides that… the Speaker/Chairman is to decide whether the accusation requires investigation. If he chooses not to act on the accusation made in the form of the motion by the specified minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there." This position has been reiterated in a series of judgments, the most recent being Justice PD Dinakaran vs Hon'Ble Judges Inquiry Committee (July 2011).

Incidentally, Justice S. Ramaswami was the first judge against whom a motion of removal was initiated in the Parliament and during the investigation on the corruption charges against him, 10 out of 14 charges were found to be true by the inquiry committee.

However, despite concrete evidences of corruption and misuse of power against justice Ramaswami, Kapil Sibal, assisted by JS Khehar, who was then an advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and who later became the 44th CJI of India, put up a 5-hour long spirited defence of Ramaswami as his counsel in the Parliament on May 10, 1993 and ensured that the impeachment motion failed in the House.

Whereas the Kapil Sibal of 1993 hated the idea of impeaching a judge with proven misbehavior, the Kapil Sibal of 2018 is hell-bent on impeaching a judge by inventing and imputing misbehavior to him. Chief Justice Dinakaran of Sikkim High Court, on the other hand, saved himself from the ignominy by resigning from his post in 2011.

The present episode leaves open many questions.

The opposition says that the CJI is guilty of misbehavior while the Vice-President says there is no proof prima facie. In such a scenario, the first and foremost question is, what constitutes "standard of proof"?

In common law jurisdictions, the standard of proof is nothing but clear and convincing evidence that happen to be beyond reasonable doubt and carry a level of certainty around them. However, the 'preponderance of probabilities' may also constitute a standard of proof.&nbsp;

In various decisions of the Supreme Court, such as in Dr. NG Dastane v. Mrs. S Dastane (AIR 1975 Supreme Court 1534), it was held that the Court can "act on the preponderance of probabilities and arrive at a conclusion, and need not expect that all the conditions prescribed are to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt."

So, while Naidu believes 'suspicion, conjecture and assumption'&nbsp;have no role to play in establishing proof beyond reasonable doubt, will preponderance of probabilities, if any, play a role in framing a jigsaw fit of charges from the 5 grounds of misbehavior listed against the CJI, once the matter reaches the court? 
&nbsp; 
Secondly, can the Chief Justice of India be considered as an institution of trust himself? 
&nbsp; 
The question was settled by a Supreme Court bench led by the CJI Deepak Mishra himself when it rejected a petition on April 11th this year filed by a Lucknow-based lawyer Ashok Pandey who sought a writ of Mandamus to "evolve a procedure for constituting benches and allotment of jurisdiction to different benches".

Quoting an earlier judgment of the State of Rajasthan Vs Prakash Chand (1998) and also a recent judgment of a Constitution Bench in Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms v Union of India (2018), the CJI-led bench affirmed that the Chief Justice of India is the undisputed master of roasters. Writing the judgment, Justice Chandrachud had opined, "as a repository of constitutional trust, the Chief Justice is an institution of trust in himself."

The judgment implies there should be no occasion to deny the trust reposed in the CJI and hence he should be constitutionally trusted. However, with the opposition attacking on this very ‘repository of constitutional trust’, the question remains whether the repository of constitutional trust vested in the Chief Justice is absolute or is still open to judicial scrutiny?

The third question is whether this legislative decision of Venkaiah Naidu to reject the motion of removal of the CJI is subject to judicial review?

The settled position of law is that conducting businesses of the House, such as admitting or rejecting a motion, including a removal motion under Art 124(4), which is no different from any other motion under rules and procedures of Rajya Sabha under Art 118, is an exclusive right of the Chairman, and hence the courts can’t interfere in his legislative right. However, after the historic Keshvanand Bharti Vs State of Kerala case (1973) decision, where it was famously settled that Parliament can’t interfere with the 'basic structures' of the Constitution, the Congress can cling on to the thin argument that 'independence of judiciary', which certainly is a basic structure of the constitution, stands today in peril hence the Supreme Court must step in and review the decision of the Chairman. 
&nbsp; 
The three important questions raised above can finally and comprehensively be answered once the matter reaches to the doorsteps of the Supreme Court. To the Congress, the battle is electoral, guided by its political insinuations, hence the party is certain to take the issue to the Supreme Court.

However, from a value-neutral perspective, the episode presents an excellent opportunity to the constitutional institutions to fix the matter by plugging those nagging gaps in procedures and set definite precedents to avoid recurrence of similar situations in future. That's why the episode is nothing less than an opportunity in disguise.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

The opposition says that the CJI is guilty of misbehavior while the Vice-President says there is no proof prima facie

"In the middle of difficulties, lies opportunity", said Albert Einstein. Each tragedy leaves the hint of a comedy yet to be unfolded, each misfortune comes seeded in felicity yet to be born. In the same way, the latest action of the opposition parties to impeach the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the subsequent developments, no matter how "unfortunate and mischievous" they may be, have the potential to open up and settle many academic debates that would eventually go to strengthen the constitutional jurisprudence in India once the ominous dust kicked up around the matter is settled. The issue, although denting the image of the judiciary in an unfathomable way, is nothing less than a seed falling on the fertile ground. In the evolutionary process of society, each event has its significance. In the ontological argument, the question whether the opposition should have initiated a motion of impeachment against the CJI, and whether the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha should have shot it down on his own, both carry equal significance. To the students of constitutional law, the development leads to a rich mine of potentialities where the outcome is likely to put forth a windfall of lessons that would help in setting definite regulations and precedents in areas that hitherto suffer from constitutional uncertainties. Let’s talk on the motion of removal of the CJI, which is popularly known as 'impeachment motion' in media, though the word 'impeachment' comes with specific reference to President of India under Article 61 of the Constitution for judges of the Supreme Court, Article 124(4) of the Constitution mentions the word 'removal' instead of impeachment. The motion of removal of the CJI, as submitted to Rajya Sabha by Ghulam Nabi Azad last Friday containing signatures of 71 Members of Parliament of Rajya Sabha (7 have retired now) from the Congress and 6 other parties, contained 5 'grounds of misbehaviour', hence the opposition pitched the case to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha for removal of the CJI. However, on Monday, Venkaiah Naidu, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, drew the curtain on the motion by rejecting it altogether. While doing so he had observed - "Members of Parliament who have presented the petition are unsure of their own case... the phrases used by the Hon'ble MPs themselves indicate a mere suspicion, a conjecture or an assumption. The same certainly does not constitute 'proof beyond reasonable doubt', which is required to make out a case of 'proved misbehaviour' under Article 124 (4)… I am also aware it is imperative that we should have extraordinary, important and substantial grounds for the removal of a judge.” (Italics added) Though the Congress found the decision "ill-conceived and hasty", the decision of the Chairman stands in complete conformity with the existing law. In a series of cases, the courts have taken this position that the Speaker/Chairman is the final authority to decide whether the accusation against a judge of the Supreme Court requires investigation before consideration of his removal proposal by the Parliament. Section 3(1) of the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968 provides for the admission of such motion by the Speaker or the Chairman and subsequent action on it. In Sarojini Ramaswami Vs Union of India (1992), the SC had set the guidelines in unambiguous terms: "Every Judge of the Supreme Court and the High Courts on his appointment is irremovable from office during his tenure except in the manner provided in clauses (4) and (5) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India. The law made by the Parliament under Article 124(5), namely, the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 and the Judges (Inquiry) Rules, 1969 framed thereunder provides that… the Speaker/Chairman is to decide whether the accusation requires investigation. If he chooses not to act on the accusation made in the form of the motion by the specified minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there." This position has been reiterated in a series of judgments, the most recent being Justice PD Dinakaran vs Hon'Ble Judges Inquiry Committee (July 2011). Incidentally, Justice S. Ramaswami was the first judge against whom a motion of removal was initiated in the Parliament and during the investigation on the corruption charges against him, 10 out of 14 charges were found to be true by the inquiry committee. However, despite concrete evidences of corruption and misuse of power against justice Ramaswami, Kapil Sibal, assisted by JS Khehar, who was then an advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and who later became the 44th CJI of India, put up a 5-hour long spirited defence of Ramaswami as his counsel in the Parliament on May 10, 1993 and ensured that the impeachment motion failed in the House. Whereas the Kapil Sibal of 1993 hated the idea of impeaching a judge with proven misbehavior, the Kapil Sibal of 2018 is hell-bent on impeaching a judge by inventing and imputing misbehavior to him. Chief Justice Dinakaran of Sikkim High Court, on the other hand, saved himself from the ignominy by resigning from his post in 2011. The present episode leaves open many questions. The opposition says that the CJI is guilty of misbehavior while the Vice-President says there is no proof prima facie. In such a scenario, the first and foremost question is, what constitutes "standard of proof"? In common law jurisdictions, the standard of proof is nothing but clear and convincing evidence that happen to be beyond reasonable doubt and carry a level of certainty around them. However, the 'preponderance of probabilities' may also constitute a standard of proof. In various decisions of the Supreme Court, such as in Dr. NG Dastane v. Mrs. S Dastane (AIR 1975 Supreme Court 1534), it was held that the Court can "act on the preponderance of probabilities and arrive at a conclusion, and need not expect that all the conditions prescribed are to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt." So, while Naidu believes 'suspicion, conjecture and assumption' have no role to play in establishing proof beyond reasonable doubt, will preponderance of probabilities, if any, play a role in framing a jigsaw fit of charges from the 5 grounds of misbehavior listed against the CJI, once the matter reaches the court? Secondly, can the Chief Justice of India be considered as an institution of trust himself? The question was settled by a Supreme Court bench led by the CJI Deepak Mishra himself when it rejected a petition on April 11th this year filed by a Lucknow-based lawyer Ashok Pandey who sought a writ of Mandamus to "evolve a procedure for constituting benches and allotment of jurisdiction to different benches". Quoting an earlier judgment of the State of Rajasthan Vs Prakash Chand (1998) and also a recent judgment of a Constitution Bench in Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms v Union of India (2018), the CJI-led bench affirmed that the Chief Justice of India is the undisputed master of roasters. Writing the judgment, Justice Chandrachud had opined, "as a repository of constitutional trust, the Chief Justice is an institution of trust in himself." The judgment implies there should be no occasion to deny the trust reposed in the CJI and hence he should be constitutionally trusted. However, with the opposition attacking on this very ‘repository of constitutional trust’, the question remains whether the repository of constitutional trust vested in the Chief Justice is absolute or is still open to judicial scrutiny? The third question is whether this legislative decision of Venkaiah Naidu to reject the motion of removal of the CJI is subject to judicial review? The settled position of law is that conducting businesses of the House, such as admitting or rejecting a motion, including a removal motion under Art 124(4), which is no different from any other motion under rules and procedures of Rajya Sabha under Art 118, is an exclusive right of the Chairman, and hence the courts can’t interfere in his legislative right. However, after the historic Keshvanand Bharti Vs State of Kerala case (1973) decision, where it was famously settled that Parliament can’t interfere with the 'basic structures' of the Constitution, the Congress can cling on to the thin argument that 'independence of judiciary', which certainly is a basic structure of the constitution, stands today in peril hence the Supreme Court must step in and review the decision of the Chairman. The three important questions raised above can finally and comprehensively be answered once the matter reaches to the doorsteps of the Supreme Court. To the Congress, the battle is electoral, guided by its political insinuations, hence the party is certain to take the issue to the Supreme Court. However, from a value-neutral perspective, the episode presents an excellent opportunity to the constitutional institutions to fix the matter by plugging those nagging gaps in procedures and set definite precedents to avoid recurrence of similar situations in future. That's why the episode is nothing less than an opportunity in disguise. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why is the impeachment saga an opportunity in disguise?

Bangladesh, in a twist of irony, is looking to Saudi Arabia to fund a $ 1 billion plan to build hundreds of mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam that for much of the past decade traced its roots to ultra-conservative strands of the faith promoted by a multi-billion dollar Saudi campaign.

The Bangladeshi plan constitutes the first effort by a Muslim country to enlist the kingdom whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has vowed to return Saudi Arabia to an undefined form of 'moderate Islam,' in reverse engineering.

The plan would attempt to roll back the fallout of Saudi Arabia's global investment of up to $100 billion over a period of four decades in support of ultra-conservative mosques, religious centres, and groups as an antidote to post-1979 Iranian revolutionary zeal.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and various countries, including Malaysia, has focused until now on countering extremism in cooperation with defense and security authorities rather than as a religious initiative.

Saudi religious authorities and Islamic scholars have long issued fatwas or religious opinions condemning political violence and extremism and accused jihadists of deviating from the true path of Islam.

The Saudi campaign, the largest public diplomacy effort in history was, nevertheless, long abetted by opportunistic governments who played politics with religion as well as widespread discontent fuelled by the failure of governments to deliver public goods and services.

The Bangladeshi plan raises multiple questions, including whether the counter-narrative industry can produce results in the absence of effective government policies that address social, economic and political grievances.

It also begs the question whether a change in Saudi Arabia has advanced to a stage in which the kingdom can claim that it has put its ultra-conservative and militant roots truly behind it. The answer to both questions is probably no.

In many ways, Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism and militancy, violent and non-violent, despite sharing common roots with the kingdom's long-standing theological thinking and benefitting directly or indirectly from Saudi financial largess, has created a life of its own that no longer looks to the kingdom for guidance and support and is critical of the path on which Prince Mohammed has embarked.

The fallout of the Saudi campaign is evident in Asia not only in the rise of militancy in Bangladesh but also the degree to which concepts of supremacism and intolerance have taken root in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. Those concepts are often expressed in discrimination, if not persecution of minorities like Shia Muslims and Ahmadis, and draconic anti-blasphemy measures by authorities, militants and vigilantes.

Bangladesh in past years witnessed a series of brutal killings of bloggers and intellectuals whom jihadists accused of atheism.

Moreover, basic freedoms in Bangladesh are being officially and unofficially curtailed in various forms as a result of domestic struggles originally enabled by successful Saudi pressure to amend the country's secular constitution in 1975 to recognise Islam as its official religion.

Saudi Arabia withheld recognition of the new state as well as financial support until the amendment was adopted four years after Bangladeshi independence.

In Indonesia, hard-line Islamic groups, led by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), earlier this month filed a blasphemy complaint against politician Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of Indonesia's founding father Sukarno and the younger sister of Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads President Joko Widodo’s ruling party.

The hardliners accuse Ms Sukarnoputri of reciting a poem that allegedly insults Islam. The groups last year accused Basuki Tjahaja Purnama aka Ahok, Jakarta’s former Christian governor, of blasphemy and spearheaded mass rallies that led to his ouster and jailing, a ruling that many believed was politicised and unjust.

Pakistan's draconic anti-blasphemy law has created an environment that has allowed Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatives and powerful political forces to whip up popular emotion in pursuit of political objectives. The environment is symbolised by graffiti in the corridor of a courthouse in Islamabad that demanded that blasphemers be beheaded.

Pakistan last month designated Islamabad as a pilot project to regulate Friday prayer sermons in the city's 1,003 mosques, of which only 86 are state-controlled, in a bid to curb hate speech, extremism and demonisation of religions and communities.

The government has drafted a list of subjects that should be the focus of weekly Friday prayer sermons in a bid to prevent mosques being abused "to stir up sectarian hatred, demonise other religions and communities and promote extremism." The subjects include women rights Islamic principles of trade, cleanliness and health and the importance of hard work, tolerance, and honesty.

However, they do not address legally enshrined discrimination of minorities like Ahmadis, who are viewed as heretics by orthodox Muslims. The list risked reinforcing supremacist and intolerant militancy by including the concept of the finality of the Prophet Mohammed that is often used as a whip to discriminate against minorities.

Raising questions about the degree of moderation that Saudi-funded mosques and religious centres in Bangladesh would propagate, Prince Mohammed, in his effort to saw off the rough edges of Saudi ultra-conservatism, has given no indication that he intends to repeal a law that defines atheists as terrorists.

A Saudi court last year condemned a man to death on charges of blasphemy and atheism. Another Saudi was a year earlier sentenced to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing atheist sentiments on social media.

Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations have long lobbied for the criminalisation of blasphemy in international law in moves that would legitimise curbs on free speech and growing Muslim intolerance towards any open discussion of their faith.

To be sure, Saudi Arabia cannot be held directly liable for much of the expression of supremacism, intolerance and anti-pluralism in the Muslim world. Yet, by the same token, there is little doubt that Saudi propagation of ultra-conservatism frequently contributed to an enabling environment.

Prince Mohammed is at the beginning of his effort to moderate Saudi Islam and has yet to spell out in detail his vision of religious change. Beyond the issue of defining atheism as terrorism, Saudi Arabia also has yet to put an end to multiple ultra-conservative practices, including the principle of male guardianship that forces women to get the approval of a male relative for major decisions in their life.

Prince Mohammed has so far forced the country's ultra-conservative religious establishment into subservience. That raises the question whether there has been real change in the establishment's thinking or whether it is kowtowing to an autocratic leader.

In December, King Salman fired a government official for organising a mixed-gender fashion show after ultra-conservatives criticised the event on Twitter. The kingdom this week hosted its first ever Arab Fashion Week, for women only. Designers were obliged to adhere to strict dress codes banning transparent fabrics and the display of cleavages or clothing that bared knees.

In February, Saudi Arabia agreed to surrender control of the Great Mosque in Brussels after its efforts to install a more moderate administration failed to counter mounting Belgian criticism of alleged intolerance and supremacism propagated by mosque executives.

Efforts to moderate Islam in Saudi Arabia as well as Qatar, the world’s only other Wahhabi state that traces its ultra-conservatism to the teachings of 18th-century preacher Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahhab, but has long interpreted them more liberally than the kingdom, have proven to be easier said than done.

Saudi King Abdullah, King Salman’s predecessor, positioned himself as a champion of interfaith dialogue and reached out to various groups in society including Shiites and women.

Yet, more than a decade of Saudi efforts to cleanse textbooks used at home and abroad have made significant progress but have yet to completely erase descriptions of alternative strands of Islam such as Shiism and Sufism in derogatory terms or eliminate advise to Muslims not to associate with Jews and Christians who are labelled kaffirs or unbelievers.

Raising questions about Saudi involvement in the Bangladeshi plan, a Human Rights Watch survey of religion textbooks produced by the Saudi education ministry for the 2016-2017 school year concluded that “as early as first grade, students in Saudi schools are being taught hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school of thought.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle noted that Prince Mohammed has remained conspicuously silent about hate speech in textbooks as well as its use by officials and Islamic scholars connected to the government.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League last year documented hate speech in Qatari mosques that were disseminated in Qatari media despite Qatar’s propagation of religious tolerance and outreach to American Jews as part of its effort to counter a United Arab Emirates-Saudi-led economic and diplomatic boycott of the Gulf state.

In one instance in December, Qatari preacher Muhammed al-Muraikhi described Jews in a sermon in Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque as “your deceitful, lying, treacherous, fornicating, intransigent enemy” who have “despoiled, corrupted, ruined, and killed, and will not stop.”

No doubt, Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, which much earlier moved away from Puritan and literal Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism, is sincere in its intention to adopt more tolerant and pluralistic worldviews.

Getting from A to B, however, is a lengthy process. The question remains whether the kingdom has progressed to a degree that it can credibly help countries like Bangladesh deal with their demons even before having successfully put its own house in order.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Bangladesh is looking to Saudi Arabia for funds to build mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam

Bangladesh, in a twist of irony, is looking to Saudi Arabia to fund a $ 1 billion plan to build hundreds of mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam that for much of the past decade traced its roots to ultra-conservative strands of the faith promoted by a multi-billion dollar Saudi campaign. The Bangladeshi plan constitutes the first effort by a Muslim country to enlist the kingdom whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has vowed to return Saudi Arabia to an undefined form of 'moderate Islam,' in reverse engineering. The plan would attempt to roll back the fallout of Saudi Arabia's global investment of up to $100 billion over a period of four decades in support of ultra-conservative mosques, religious centres, and groups as an antidote to post-1979 Iranian revolutionary zeal. Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and various countries, including Malaysia, has focused until now on countering extremism in cooperation with defense and security authorities rather than as a religious initiative. Saudi religious authorities and Islamic scholars have long issued fatwas or religious opinions condemning political violence and extremism and accused jihadists of deviating from the true path of Islam. The Saudi campaign, the largest public diplomacy effort in history was, nevertheless, long abetted by opportunistic governments who played politics with religion as well as widespread discontent fuelled by the failure of governments to deliver public goods and services. The Bangladeshi plan raises multiple questions, including whether the counter-narrative industry can produce results in the absence of effective government policies that address social, economic and political grievances. It also begs the question whether a change in Saudi Arabia has advanced to a stage in which the kingdom can claim that it has put its ultra-conservative and militant roots truly behind it. The answer to both questions is probably no. In many ways, Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism and militancy, violent and non-violent, despite sharing common roots with the kingdom's long-standing theological thinking and benefitting directly or indirectly from Saudi financial largess, has created a life of its own that no longer looks to the kingdom for guidance and support and is critical of the path on which Prince Mohammed has embarked. The fallout of the Saudi campaign is evident in Asia not only in the rise of militancy in Bangladesh but also the degree to which concepts of supremacism and intolerance have taken root in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan. Those concepts are often expressed in discrimination, if not persecution of minorities like Shia Muslims and Ahmadis, and draconic anti-blasphemy measures by authorities, militants and vigilantes. Bangladesh in past years witnessed a series of brutal killings of bloggers and intellectuals whom jihadists accused of atheism. Moreover, basic freedoms in Bangladesh are being officially and unofficially curtailed in various forms as a result of domestic struggles originally enabled by successful Saudi pressure to amend the country's secular constitution in 1975 to recognise Islam as its official religion. Saudi Arabia withheld recognition of the new state as well as financial support until the amendment was adopted four years after Bangladeshi independence. In Indonesia, hard-line Islamic groups, led by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), earlier this month filed a blasphemy complaint against politician Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of Indonesia's founding father Sukarno and the younger sister of Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads President Joko Widodo’s ruling party. The hardliners accuse Ms Sukarnoputri of reciting a poem that allegedly insults Islam. The groups last year accused Basuki Tjahaja Purnama aka Ahok, Jakarta’s former Christian governor, of blasphemy and spearheaded mass rallies that led to his ouster and jailing, a ruling that many believed was politicised and unjust. Pakistan's draconic anti-blasphemy law has created an environment that has allowed Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatives and powerful political forces to whip up popular emotion in pursuit of political objectives. The environment is symbolised by graffiti in the corridor of a courthouse in Islamabad that demanded that blasphemers be beheaded. Pakistan last month designated Islamabad as a pilot project to regulate Friday prayer sermons in the city's 1,003 mosques, of which only 86 are state-controlled, in a bid to curb hate speech, extremism and demonisation of religions and communities. The government has drafted a list of subjects that should be the focus of weekly Friday prayer sermons in a bid to prevent mosques being abused "to stir up sectarian hatred, demonise other religions and communities and promote extremism." The subjects include women rights Islamic principles of trade, cleanliness and health and the importance of hard work, tolerance, and honesty. However, they do not address legally enshrined discrimination of minorities like Ahmadis, who are viewed as heretics by orthodox Muslims. The list risked reinforcing supremacist and intolerant militancy by including the concept of the finality of the Prophet Mohammed that is often used as a whip to discriminate against minorities. Raising questions about the degree of moderation that Saudi-funded mosques and religious centres in Bangladesh would propagate, Prince Mohammed, in his effort to saw off the rough edges of Saudi ultra-conservatism, has given no indication that he intends to repeal a law that defines atheists as terrorists. A Saudi court last year condemned a man to death on charges of blasphemy and atheism. Another Saudi was a year earlier sentenced to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing atheist sentiments on social media. Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations have long lobbied for the criminalisation of blasphemy in international law in moves that would legitimise curbs on free speech and growing Muslim intolerance towards any open discussion of their faith. To be sure, Saudi Arabia cannot be held directly liable for much of the expression of supremacism, intolerance and anti-pluralism in the Muslim world. Yet, by the same token, there is little doubt that Saudi propagation of ultra-conservatism frequently contributed to an enabling environment. Prince Mohammed is at the beginning of his effort to moderate Saudi Islam and has yet to spell out in detail his vision of religious change. Beyond the issue of defining atheism as terrorism, Saudi Arabia also has yet to put an end to multiple ultra-conservative practices, including the principle of male guardianship that forces women to get the approval of a male relative for major decisions in their life. Prince Mohammed has so far forced the country's ultra-conservative religious establishment into subservience. That raises the question whether there has been real change in the establishment's thinking or whether it is kowtowing to an autocratic leader. In December, King Salman fired a government official for organising a mixed-gender fashion show after ultra-conservatives criticised the event on Twitter. The kingdom this week hosted its first ever Arab Fashion Week, for women only. Designers were obliged to adhere to strict dress codes banning transparent fabrics and the display of cleavages or clothing that bared knees. In February, Saudi Arabia agreed to surrender control of the Great Mosque in Brussels after its efforts to install a more moderate administration failed to counter mounting Belgian criticism of alleged intolerance and supremacism propagated by mosque executives. Efforts to moderate Islam in Saudi Arabia as well as Qatar, the world’s only other Wahhabi state that traces its ultra-conservatism to the teachings of 18th-century preacher Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahhab, but has long interpreted them more liberally than the kingdom, have proven to be easier said than done. Saudi King Abdullah, King Salman’s predecessor, positioned himself as a champion of interfaith dialogue and reached out to various groups in society including Shiites and women. Yet, more than a decade of Saudi efforts to cleanse textbooks used at home and abroad have made significant progress but have yet to completely erase descriptions of alternative strands of Islam such as Shiism and Sufism in derogatory terms or eliminate advise to Muslims not to associate with Jews and Christians who are labelled kaffirs or unbelievers. Raising questions about Saudi involvement in the Bangladeshi plan, a Human Rights Watch survey of religion textbooks produced by the Saudi education ministry for the 2016-2017 school year concluded that “as early as first grade, students in Saudi schools are being taught hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school of thought.” Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle noted that Prince Mohammed has remained conspicuously silent about hate speech in textbooks as well as its use by officials and Islamic scholars connected to the government. The New York-based Anti-Defamation League last year documented hate speech in Qatari mosques that were disseminated in Qatari media despite Qatar’s propagation of religious tolerance and outreach to American Jews as part of its effort to counter a United Arab Emirates-Saudi-led economic and diplomatic boycott of the Gulf state. In one instance in December, Qatari preacher Muhammed al-Muraikhi described Jews in a sermon in Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque as “your deceitful, lying, treacherous, fornicating, intransigent enemy” who have “despoiled, corrupted, ruined, and killed, and will not stop.” No doubt, Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, which much earlier moved away from Puritan and literal Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism, is sincere in its intention to adopt more tolerant and pluralistic worldviews. Getting from A to B, however, is a lengthy process. The question remains whether the kingdom has progressed to a degree that it can credibly help countries like Bangladesh deal with their demons even before having successfully put its own house in order. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Can Saudi help Bangladesh in rolling back militancy?

Seven national parties declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore in 2016-17, with BJP having the highest -- Rs 1,034.27 crore, says a report.

"This forms 66.34 percent of the total income of national parties added together during 2016-17," Delhi-based think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report released today.

Indian National Congress (INC) followed with Rs 225.36 crore -- 14.45 percent of the total income, it said, adding that CPI has declared the lowest income of Rs 2.08 crore which forms a mere 0.13 percent.

The data has been compiled from Income Tax returns filed by the parties across the country.

The seven national parties declared a total expenditure of Rs 1,228.26 crore, the report added.

BJP declared the maximum expenditure of Rs 710.05 crore in 2016-17, while Congress incurred a total expenses of Rs 321.66 crore (Rs 96.30 crore more than its total income).

The report further said that 70 percent of the total income of BSP, 31 percent of the total income of BJP and CPI and 6 percent of the total income of CPM during 2016-17 was declared unspent.

BSP's total income was Rs 173.58 crore during 2016-17, while its total expenditure was Rs 51.83 crore. Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18 percent from Rs 570.86 crore to Rs 1,034.27 crore, while that of INC decreased by 14 percent from Rs 261.56 crore to Rs 225.36 crore.

Income of BSP increased by 266.32 percent from Rs 47.38 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 173.58 crore in 2016-17, while that of NCP increased by 88.63 percent from Rs 9.137 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 17.235 crore in 2016-17.

The report further noted that between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of AITC decreased by 81.52 percent and that of CPM fell by 6.72 percent.

BJP and Congress have declared donations/ contributions as one of their three main sources of income.

"Grants/donations/contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by BJP formed 96.41 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.64 crore under revenue from issuance of coupons by INC forms the top most income of the party, contributing 51.32 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17," ADR said.

The maximum expenditure for BJP during 2016-17 was towards election/general propaganda, which amounted to Rs 606.64 crore followed by expenses towards administrative cost, Rs 69.78 crore.

INC spent the maximum Rs 149.65 crore on election expenditure followed by expenditure of Rs 115.65 crore on administrative and general expenses, the report said.

Seven national parties have collected maximum 74.98 percent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17.

During 2016-17, national parties received Rs 128.60 crore income from interest from banks and FD.

The report added that 7.98 percent or Rs 124.46 crore was the income generated through revenue from issuance of coupons by national parties during 2016-17.

ADR had earlier released the “Analysis of Income & Expenditure of National Political Parties for FY2016-2017” on February 7, 2018 without the details of BJP and INC as the audit reports of these parties were not available in the public domain.

The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017. BJP submitted its audited report on February 8, 2018 (delayed by 99 days) and Congress on March 19, 2018 (delayed by 138 days).&nbsp

Congress is second richest with ₹225.36 crore income in in 2016-17; CPI declares the lowest income of ₹2.08 crore.

Seven national parties declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore in 2016-17, with BJP having the highest -- Rs 1,034.27 crore, says a report. "This forms 66.34 percent of the total income of national parties added together during 2016-17," Delhi-based think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report released today. Indian National Congress (INC) followed with Rs 225.36 crore -- 14.45 percent of the total income, it said, adding that CPI has declared the lowest income of Rs 2.08 crore which forms a mere 0.13 percent. The data has been compiled from Income Tax returns filed by the parties across the country. The seven national parties declared a total expenditure of Rs 1,228.26 crore, the report added. BJP declared the maximum expenditure of Rs 710.05 crore in 2016-17, while Congress incurred a total expenses of Rs 321.66 crore (Rs 96.30 crore more than its total income). The report further said that 70 percent of the total income of BSP, 31 percent of the total income of BJP and CPI and 6 percent of the total income of CPM during 2016-17 was declared unspent. BSP's total income was Rs 173.58 crore during 2016-17, while its total expenditure was Rs 51.83 crore. Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18 percent from Rs 570.86 crore to Rs 1,034.27 crore, while that of INC decreased by 14 percent from Rs 261.56 crore to Rs 225.36 crore. Income of BSP increased by 266.32 percent from Rs 47.38 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 173.58 crore in 2016-17, while that of NCP increased by 88.63 percent from Rs 9.137 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 17.235 crore in 2016-17. The report further noted that between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of AITC decreased by 81.52 percent and that of CPM fell by 6.72 percent. BJP and Congress have declared donations/ contributions as one of their three main sources of income. "Grants/donations/contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by BJP formed 96.41 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.64 crore under revenue from issuance of coupons by INC forms the top most income of the party, contributing 51.32 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17," ADR said. The maximum expenditure for BJP during 2016-17 was towards election/general propaganda, which amounted to Rs 606.64 crore followed by expenses towards administrative cost, Rs 69.78 crore. INC spent the maximum Rs 149.65 crore on election expenditure followed by expenditure of Rs 115.65 crore on administrative and general expenses, the report said. Seven national parties have collected maximum 74.98 percent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17. During 2016-17, national parties received Rs 128.60 crore income from interest from banks and FD. The report added that 7.98 percent or Rs 124.46 crore was the income generated through revenue from issuance of coupons by national parties during 2016-17. ADR had earlier released the “Analysis of Income & Expenditure of National Political Parties for FY2016-2017” on February 7, 2018 without the details of BJP and INC as the audit reports of these parties were not available in the public domain. The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017. BJP submitted its audited report on February 8, 2018 (delayed by 99 days) and Congress on March 19, 2018 (delayed by 138 days).

BJP richest national party, total income Rs 1,034 cr in FY17: ADR

Increasingly hardline Catalan separatists are taking advantage of the void left by the decapitation of the region's independence movement to step up their protests by blocking roads and clashing with police, raising fears of radicalisation, analysts say.

Spanish authorities have jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders and called for the extradition of six others who have fled abroad, including Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont who was arrested Sunday in Germany.

This crackdown on the independence movement's established leaders "generates incentives for the adoption of a hardline" by radical separatists, said Berta Barbet, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

"Since the conflict is increasingly more raw and social divisions are greater, the risk of radicalisation is ever more real," she added.

But Barbet said she did not believe Spain will see a return to the armed violence that plagued the country when Basque separatist group ETA and Catalan nationalist group Terra Lliure were active.

ETA, accused of killing more than 800 people in a decades-long campaign of bombings and shootings to establish an independent Basque state, announced it was disarming in April 2017.

Terra Lliure, which disbanded in 1995, committed its only killing with a bomb attack in 1987. After years of peaceful protests in Catalonia in favour of independence, demonstrations on Sunday against Puigdemont's arrest led to clashes with police that left nearly 100 people injured.

Catalan police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Madrid government's representative in Barcelona.

Demonstrators set fire to recycling containers and threw glass bottles, cans, and eggs at police.

Despite appeals for calm from some separatist leaders, the protests called by the radical Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) continued Tuesday with protesters blocking major motorways in the wealthy northeastern region of Spain.

"The Catalan spring has erupted," the group said in a statement on Sunday, in a reference to a series of protests which began in Arab nations in 2011.

"We have crossed the point of no return... we will reappropriate the streets and stop the country," the statement added in a call for a general strike in Catalonia like the ones held late last year when the region's separatist crisis heated up.

During those strikes, demonstrators blocked dozens of roads across Catalonia and forced the closure of key tourist spots such as Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church.The legal action against Catalan separatists "is activating the social movement in the streets again, reinforcing it and making it more tense," said Jordi Amat, the author of several essays on the independence movement.

The failure of Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence, which led Spain's central government to take direct control of the region in October and launch the crackdown on separatist leaders, has caused the pro-independence movement to change strategy, he added.

Whereas before the goal was to "gain legitimacy internationally", now "the only strategy they can use is destabilisation" of the Spanish state, Amat said.

This explains why Catalan separatist lawmakers, who regained their absolute majority in the Catalan parliament at snap polls in December, keep proposing candidates for regional president who are disqualified by their legal problems such as Puigdemont, he added.

"For many separatists, this destabilisation also should be taken to the streets... there is a will to paralyse the mechanics of the state," Amat said.Catalonia's two main separatist parties, the conservative PDeCAT and the leftist ERC, tried timidly to lower tensions at the end of last year while the smallest separatist party, the far-left CUP, has called for greater disobedience.

The conservative party is under pressure from its leader, Puigdemont, to take a tougher line against Spain while the ERC has been severely shaken up by the jailing of its leader, Oriol Junqueras, and the flight abroad of its number two, Marta Rovira.

"The leaders who could channel the movement have found themselves offside and this is a scenario that allows the CUP to promote its strategy," said Amat.

The CRD organisers of demonstrations are aligned with the CUP party.

Barbet, however, believes that the threat posed by the courts may divert the separatists from a more radical path.

"Virtually everyone in power can end up with serious legal problems and many think twice before making a decision," she said.

That`s why no separatist leader "clearly defends the option of a hard break (with Spain) and in this way, it is very difficult for radicalisation to go very far," she added.

Spanish authorities have jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders and called for the extradition of six others who have fled abroad

Increasingly hardline Catalan separatists are taking advantage of the void left by the decapitation of the region's independence movement to step up their protests by blocking roads and clashing with police, raising fears of radicalisation, analysts say. Spanish authorities have jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders and called for the extradition of six others who have fled abroad, including Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont who was arrested Sunday in Germany. This crackdown on the independence movement's established leaders "generates incentives for the adoption of a hardline" by radical separatists, said Berta Barbet, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. "Since the conflict is increasingly more raw and social divisions are greater, the risk of radicalisation is ever more real," she added. But Barbet said she did not believe Spain will see a return to the armed violence that plagued the country when Basque separatist group ETA and Catalan nationalist group Terra Lliure were active. ETA, accused of killing more than 800 people in a decades-long campaign of bombings and shootings to establish an independent Basque state, announced it was disarming in April 2017. Terra Lliure, which disbanded in 1995, committed its only killing with a bomb attack in 1987. After years of peaceful protests in Catalonia in favour of independence, demonstrations on Sunday against Puigdemont's arrest led to clashes with police that left nearly 100 people injured. Catalan police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Madrid government's representative in Barcelona. Demonstrators set fire to recycling containers and threw glass bottles, cans, and eggs at police. Despite appeals for calm from some separatist leaders, the protests called by the radical Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) continued Tuesday with protesters blocking major motorways in the wealthy northeastern region of Spain. "The Catalan spring has erupted," the group said in a statement on Sunday, in a reference to a series of protests which began in Arab nations in 2011. "We have crossed the point of no return... we will reappropriate the streets and stop the country," the statement added in a call for a general strike in Catalonia like the ones held late last year when the region's separatist crisis heated up. During those strikes, demonstrators blocked dozens of roads across Catalonia and forced the closure of key tourist spots such as Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church.The legal action against Catalan separatists "is activating the social movement in the streets again, reinforcing it and making it more tense," said Jordi Amat, the author of several essays on the independence movement. The failure of Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence, which led Spain's central government to take direct control of the region in October and launch the crackdown on separatist leaders, has caused the pro-independence movement to change strategy, he added. Whereas before the goal was to "gain legitimacy internationally", now "the only strategy they can use is destabilisation" of the Spanish state, Amat said. This explains why Catalan separatist lawmakers, who regained their absolute majority in the Catalan parliament at snap polls in December, keep proposing candidates for regional president who are disqualified by their legal problems such as Puigdemont, he added. "For many separatists, this destabilisation also should be taken to the streets... there is a will to paralyse the mechanics of the state," Amat said.Catalonia's two main separatist parties, the conservative PDeCAT and the leftist ERC, tried timidly to lower tensions at the end of last year while the smallest separatist party, the far-left CUP, has called for greater disobedience. The conservative party is under pressure from its leader, Puigdemont, to take a tougher line against Spain while the ERC has been severely shaken up by the jailing of its leader, Oriol Junqueras, and the flight abroad of its number two, Marta Rovira. "The leaders who could channel the movement have found themselves offside and this is a scenario that allows the CUP to promote its strategy," said Amat. The CRD organisers of demonstrations are aligned with the CUP party. Barbet, however, believes that the threat posed by the courts may divert the separatists from a more radical path. "Virtually everyone in power can end up with serious legal problems and many think twice before making a decision," she said. That`s why no separatist leader "clearly defends the option of a hard break (with Spain) and in this way, it is very difficult for radicalisation to go very far," she added.

Catalonia separatist movement risks taking radical path

Nepal&#39;s first woman president Bidya Devi Bhandari was today re-elected for a second term in office.&nbsp;

Incumbent President Bhandari defeated Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai with an overwhelming majority in the presidential election.&nbsp;

Bhandari, 56, won since her nomination was backed by the ruling Left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties.&nbsp;

She became Nepal&#39;s first woman president in 2015.&nbsp;

Main opposition party Nepali Congress had fielded former lawmaker Kumari Laxmi Rai against incumbent President Bhandari in the run for the top post.&nbsp;

Bhandari had been endorsed by the left-alliance. Federal Socialist Forum Nepal, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, and other fringe parties had also backed Bhandari.

President Bhandari received 39,275 votes, while NC lawmaker Rai received 11,730 votes. President Bhandari has won by 27,545 votes. Vote-weightage of each voter of the House of Representatives and National Assembly was 79, while that of each Provincial Assembly member was equivalent to 48.

The voting had begun from 10:00 am and went on till 3:00 pm today. Meanwhile, the counting of votes started at 4:00 pm following the conclusion of ballot casting. An electoral college comprising Members of Federal Parliament and Province Assemblies had cast their votes to elect the President.

As many as 862 votes were cast in the presidential election today at the Federal Parliament Building in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Incumbent President Bhandari defeated Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai with an overwhelming majority in the presidential election

Nepal's first woman president Bidya Devi Bhandari was today re-elected for a second term in office. Incumbent President Bhandari defeated Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai with an overwhelming majority in the presidential election. Bhandari, 56, won since her nomination was backed by the ruling Left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties. She became Nepal's first woman president in 2015. Main opposition party Nepali Congress had fielded former lawmaker Kumari Laxmi Rai against incumbent President Bhandari in the run for the top post. Bhandari had been endorsed by the left-alliance. Federal Socialist Forum Nepal, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, and other fringe parties had also backed Bhandari. President Bhandari received 39,275 votes, while NC lawmaker Rai received 11,730 votes. President Bhandari has won by 27,545 votes. Vote-weightage of each voter of the House of Representatives and National Assembly was 79, while that of each Provincial Assembly member was equivalent to 48. The voting had begun from 10:00 am and went on till 3:00 pm today. Meanwhile, the counting of votes started at 4:00 pm following the conclusion of ballot casting. An electoral college comprising Members of Federal Parliament and Province Assemblies had cast their votes to elect the President. As many as 862 votes were cast in the presidential election today at the Federal Parliament Building in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu. (With inputs from Agencies)

Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari re-elected to second term in office

A statue of Dr BR Ambdekar was vandalised in Meerut on Tuesday.&nbsp;

The news agency ANI reported that the vandalism, by unidentified people, took place late last night in Meerut&#39;s Mawana.&nbsp;

ANI added that the Dalit community held a protest and blocked traffic Wednesday morning. They ended their protest only after assurance from the district administration that a new statue of Ambedkar would be installed.&nbsp;

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Dr BR Ambedkar&#39;s statue vandalised by unidentified people in Meerut&#39;s Mawana late last night; Dalit community held protest &amp; blocked traffic in the morning, ended the protest after assurance from the administration of installation of new statue <a href="https://t.co/DAAcq6g5Wf">pic.twitter.com/DAAcq6g5Wf</a>
&mdash; ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANINewsUP/status/971305543720669184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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India has recently found itself in the middle of a &quot;statue&quot; war.&nbsp;

Opinion: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/opinion-why-indians-are-waging-war-over-statues-of-lenin-periyar-shyamaprasad-34991" target="_blank">Why Indians are waging war over the statues of Lenin, Periyar, and Syama Prasad</a>

The desecration of statues started with the bringing down of a statue of Lenin in Tripura after the BJP won the recent state elelction. That was followed by the vandalism of a statue of Periyar in Tamil Nadu&#39;s Vellore last night. Police said a BJP and a CPI worker were arrested. The BJP has since expelled its party worker.&nbsp;

And this morning a statue of Jan Sangh (the predecessor of the BJP) leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee was vandalised in Kolkata&#39;s Jadavpur University.&nbsp;

The vandalism, by unidentified people, took place late last night in Meerut's Mawana

A statue of Dr BR Ambdekar was vandalised in Meerut on Tuesday. The news agency ANI reported that the vandalism, by unidentified people, took place late last night in Meerut's Mawana. ANI added that the Dalit community held a protest and blocked traffic Wednesday morning. They ended their protest only after assurance from the district administration that a new statue of Ambedkar would be installed. Dr BR Ambedkar's statue vandalised by unidentified people in Meerut's Mawana late last night; Dalit community held protest & blocked traffic in the morning, ended the protest after assurance from the administration of installation of new statue pic.twitter.com/DAAcq6g5Wf — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 7, 2018 × India has recently found itself in the middle of a "statue" war. Opinion: Why Indians are waging war over the statues of Lenin, Periyar, and Syama Prasad The desecration of statues started with the bringing down of a statue of Lenin in Tripura after the BJP won the recent state elelction. That was followed by the vandalism of a statue of Periyar in Tamil Nadu's Vellore last night. Police said a BJP and a CPI worker were arrested. The BJP has since expelled its party worker. And this morning a statue of Jan Sangh (the predecessor of the BJP) leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee was vandalised in Kolkata's Jadavpur University.

Now, Ambedkar statue vandalised in Meerut

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/live-updates-kamal-haasan-gears-up-for-political-debut-33564">Kamal Haasan</a>, 62, is all set to announce his political party in Madurai today.&nbsp;

&quot;I will start my rally from Rameswaram and will announce party flag and ideology in Madurai. All are invited,&quot; the actor was quoted as saying ahead of his trip to Madurai on Tuesday. He picked Madurai as it is the cultural and political capital of the state.&nbsp;

Hassan said that he will address the crowd in his hometown in Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram and in Sivaganga on the way.&nbsp;

Several posters were put up along the route in&nbsp;Rameswaram. The one that caught everyone&#39;s attention was that of former president APJ Abdul Kalam. The posters tried to depict Haasan as the &quot;second Dr Kalam&quot;, as he aims to fulfill the dream of his &quot;hero&quot;. The posters around the city say&nbsp;&quot;Kamal is a second Kalam.&quot;

&quot;Kalam is an inspirational figure for me,&quot; Haasan was quoted saying earlier as he plans to start his political journey by evoking the legacy of Dr Kalam as they both belonged to the same district - Ramanathapuram. Kalam is still considered a political icon, known as the &quot;rocket man&quot; for many, Hassan clearly is trying to associate himself with Kalam as he begins his political journey. Haasan also seeks to attract the young generation who were tied to Kalam&#39;s ideas.

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Several posters were put up along the route from Rameswaram. (Others)
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Posters of him were also seen with other iconic leaders including rationalist leader Periyar and BR Ambedkar plastered across the streets of Madurai and Rameswaram.

Also, another poster showed him following Mahatma Gandhi&#39;s footsteps. He has always been vocal about his admiration towards Mahatma Gandhi. &quot;I am a big fan of Gandhiji,&quot; he said.&nbsp;

Hassan visited late president A P J Abdul Kalam&#39;s residence in Ramanathapuram and met&nbsp;the former president&#39;s brother and sister-in-law. He also visited&nbsp;Dr Kalam&#39;s memorial after the meeting.&nbsp;

On visiting the late President A P J Abdul Kalam&#39;s residence, Haasan said, &quot;Glad to start my journey from a great man&#39;s simple abode.&quot;

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Greatness can come from simple beginnings. Actually it will come only from simplicity. Glad to start my journey from a great man&rsquo;s simple abode. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#maiam</a>
&mdash; Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) <a href="https://twitter.com/ikamalhaasan/status/966153339397222400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Several posters inspired by memorable roles the actor has played in films. &quot;Nammavar&quot; or &quot;our man&quot;, released in 1994, were&nbsp;most used.&nbsp;

Haasan said the colour of his politics is &quot;black&quot; and he is concerned about saffron colour. He said black in his politics reflects a Dravidian tone and the dark skin.

Haasan plans to start his political journey by evoking the legacy of Dr Kalam as they both belonged to the same district - Ramanathapuram

Kamal Haasan, 62, is all set to announce his political party in Madurai today. "I will start my rally from Rameswaram and will announce party flag and ideology in Madurai. All are invited," the actor was quoted as saying ahead of his trip to Madurai on Tuesday. He picked Madurai as it is the cultural and political capital of the state. Hassan said that he will address the crowd in his hometown in Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram and in Sivaganga on the way. Several posters were put up along the route in Rameswaram. The one that caught everyone's attention was that of former president APJ Abdul Kalam. The posters tried to depict Haasan as the "second Dr Kalam", as he aims to fulfill the dream of his "hero". The posters around the city say "Kamal is a second Kalam." "Kalam is an inspirational figure for me," Haasan was quoted saying earlier as he plans to start his political journey by evoking the legacy of Dr Kalam as they both belonged to the same district - Ramanathapuram. Kalam is still considered a political icon, known as the "rocket man" for many, Hassan clearly is trying to associate himself with Kalam as he begins his political journey. Haasan also seeks to attract the young generation who were tied to Kalam's ideas. Several posters were put up along the route from Rameswaram. (Others) × Posters of him were also seen with other iconic leaders including rationalist leader Periyar and BR Ambedkar plastered across the streets of Madurai and Rameswaram. Also, another poster showed him following Mahatma Gandhi's footsteps. He has always been vocal about his admiration towards Mahatma Gandhi. "I am a big fan of Gandhiji," he said. Hassan visited late president A P J Abdul Kalam's residence in Ramanathapuram and met the former president's brother and sister-in-law. He also visited Dr Kalam's memorial after the meeting. On visiting the late President A P J Abdul Kalam's residence, Haasan said, "Glad to start my journey from a great man's simple abode." Greatness can come from simple beginnings. Actually it will come only from simplicity. Glad to start my journey from a great man’s simple abode. #maiam — Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) February 21, 2018 × Several posters inspired by memorable roles the actor has played in films. "Nammavar" or "our man", released in 1994, were most used. Haasan said the colour of his politics is "black" and he is concerned about saffron colour. He said black in his politics reflects a Dravidian tone and the dark skin.

Ignited Minds: 'Kamal is a second Kalam' posters hit Madurai streets

Leading actor Kamal Haasan today formally entered politics by launching a party named <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/kamal-haasan-takes-political-plunge-launches-peoples-justice-party-in-madurai-33638">Makkal Needhi </a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/kamal-haasan-takes-political-plunge-launches-peoples-justice-party-in-madurai-33638">Maiam</a> (People&#39;s Justice Party) at a public meeting in Madurai.&nbsp;

&quot;I am not a leader, I am among the people. You are the crowd of leaders. Memorise the name. We have a responsibility from now one. This is not a one day thing. It is going to be a way of life,&quot; Haasan said.&nbsp;

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also present at the meeting where the actor said he is &quot;going to create a people&#39;s government&quot; amid much fanfare.&nbsp;&nbsp;

He also launched the party&#39;s website as well as Twitter and Facebook pages which have already become active.

&nbsp;

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Kamal Haasan&#39;s party - Makkal Needhi Maiam (Others)
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&quot;A prosperous Thamizh Nadu is my vision&quot; read the message on the party&#39;s new website. In perhaps an indication of where the party will stand on language politics, the website spelled the name of the state as &#39;Thamizh Nadu&#39;. That is significant since it is a departure from the formal spelling of &#39;Tamil Nadu&#39;, and underlines the syllable considered unique to the Tamil language, which is usually rendered in English as &#39;zh&#39;.

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Welcome to the official twitter handle of Makkal Needhi Maiam 
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#maiam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/makkalneedhimaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#makkalneedhimaiam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/isupportkamal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#isupportkamal</a>
&mdash; Makkal Needhi Maiam (@maiamofficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/maiamofficial/status/966314986556411904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The leader of Makkal Needhi Maiam, a party with the people at it&#39;s core! 
Join us at <a href="https://t.co/s6zHqHUNdQ">https://t.co/s6zHqHUNdQ</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#maiam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/isupportkamal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#isupportkamal</a> <a href="https://t.co/NNH99IeDgG">pic.twitter.com/NNH99IeDgG</a>
&mdash; Makkal Needhi Maiam (@maiamofficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/maiamofficial/status/966320555417743360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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#MakkalNeedhiMaiam soon started trending on Twitter as thousands of people took to the social media portal to express their thoughts on the major announcement.

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. <a href="https://twitter.com/ikamalhaasan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ikamalhaasan</a> is a real life hero. He is not only honest, he has a great vision. Kamal has the courage to speak against communal injustice in the country - <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArvindKejriwal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KamalPartyLaunch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KamalPartyLaunch</a>
&mdash; Rajasekar (@sekartweets) <a href="https://twitter.com/sekartweets/status/966327003195453440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

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ICONIC picture . Three legends sharing a stage at Kamal hassan political party launch. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a> will surely bring change in Tamil Nadu under guidance of Shri Shri <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArvindKejriwal</a> ji. <a href="https://t.co/1vduLQc2Hq">pic.twitter.com/1vduLQc2Hq</a>
&mdash; Sumit kadel (@SumitkadeI) <a href="https://twitter.com/SumitkadeI/status/966317763802222592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

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No shawls! I will hug you, because I am one among you! No special thrones, just the chair! 
 
You and me, against the evil! I am just a tool! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a>
&mdash; S Abishek (@cinemapayyan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cinemapayyan/status/966318964228804608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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To the man who survived 34 accidents in real life..i hope you will survive this one too <a href="https://twitter.com/ikamalhaasan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ikamalhaasan</a> ???????? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a> <a href="https://t.co/AUFRFxojwt">pic.twitter.com/AUFRFxojwt</a>
&mdash; TrivikramFan (@4ever_PK) <a href="https://twitter.com/4ever_PK/status/966318738885705728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Welcoming Dr Kamal Hassan to TN Politics. Its indeed a welcoming moment for TN political as we finally see an intellectual addition to this insane crowd . With that said , Its a a huge loss to Indian Film Industry <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a>
&mdash; Deepan Chakravarthy (@RDeepan_Chakr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RDeepan_Chakr/status/966313715413987330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Excellent time to start a new political party when there is a political instability in the state. Will see how his political career goes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KamalPartyLaunch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KamalPartyLaunch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MakkalNeedhiMaiam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MakkalNeedhiMaiam</a>
&mdash; Mohd Ibrahim Ahmed (@IbrahimAhmed455) <a href="https://twitter.com/IbrahimAhmed455/status/966317374860271618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

#MakkalNeedhiMaiam soon started trending on Twitter as thousands of people took to the social media portal to express their thoughts on the major announcement

Leading actor Kamal Haasan today formally entered politics by launching a party named Makkal Needhi Maiam (People's Justice Party) at a public meeting in Madurai. "I am not a leader, I am among the people. You are the crowd of leaders. Memorise the name. We have a responsibility from now one. This is not a one day thing. It is going to be a way of life," Haasan said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also present at the meeting where the actor said he is "going to create a people's government" amid much fanfare. He also launched the party's website as well as Twitter and Facebook pages which have already become active. Kamal Haasan's party - Makkal Needhi Maiam (Others) × "A prosperous Thamizh Nadu is my vision" read the message on the party's new website. In perhaps an indication of where the party will stand on language politics, the website spelled the name of the state as 'Thamizh Nadu'. That is significant since it is a departure from the formal spelling of 'Tamil Nadu', and underlines the syllable considered unique to the Tamil language, which is usually rendered in English as 'zh'. Welcome to the official twitter handle of Makkal Needhi Maiam #maiam #makkalneedhimaiam #isupportkamal — Makkal Needhi Maiam (@maiamofficial) February 21, 2018 × The leader of Makkal Needhi Maiam, a party with the people at it's core! Join us at https://t.co/s6zHqHUNdQ #MakkalNeedhiMaiam #maiam #isupportkamal pic.twitter.com/NNH99IeDgG — Makkal Needhi Maiam (@maiamofficial) February 21, 2018 × #MakkalNeedhiMaiam soon started trending on Twitter as thousands of people took to the social media portal to express their thoughts on the major announcement. . @ikamalhaasan is a real life hero. He is not only honest, he has a great vision. Kamal has the courage to speak against communal injustice in the country - @ArvindKejriwal #MakkalNeedhiMaiam #KamalPartyLaunch — Rajasekar (@sekartweets) February 21, 2018 × ICONIC picture . Three legends sharing a stage at Kamal hassan political party launch. #MakkalNeedhiMaiam will surely bring change in Tamil Nadu under guidance of Shri Shri @ArvindKejriwal ji. pic.twitter.com/1vduLQc2Hq — Sumit kadel (@SumitkadeI) February 21, 2018 × No shawls! I will hug you, because I am one among you! No special thrones, just the chair! You and me, against the evil! I am just a tool! #MakkalNeedhiMaiam — S Abishek (@cinemapayyan) February 21, 2018 × To the man who survived 34 accidents in real life..i hope you will survive this one too @ikamalhaasan ???????? #MakkalNeedhiMaiam pic.twitter.com/AUFRFxojwt — TrivikramFan (@4ever_PK) February 21, 2018 × Welcoming Dr Kamal Hassan to TN Politics. Its indeed a welcoming moment for TN political as we finally see an intellectual addition to this insane crowd . With that said , Its a a huge loss to Indian Film Industry #MakkalNeedhiMaiam — Deepan Chakravarthy (@RDeepan_Chakr) February 21, 2018 × Excellent time to start a new political party when there is a political instability in the state. Will see how his political career goes. #KamalPartyLaunch #MakkalNeedhiMaiam — Mohd Ibrahim Ahmed (@IbrahimAhmed455) February 21, 2018 ×

Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam aims to build progressive 'Thamizh Nadu'

President Donald Trump was faced Friday with the prospect of marking the first anniversary of his inauguration at the head of a <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/with-no-deal-in-sight-us-congress-faces-looming-government-shutdown-30110" target="_blank">broke </a>government, after senators failed to pass a stop-gap funding measure.

Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the crisis, which came to a head when the Senate failed to agree to bring forward a motion to fund federal spending and the military from midnight.

Essential services and military operations will continue, but many American civil servants and diplomats could arrive at work on Monday only to find themselves sent home without pay until the political crisis is resolved. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Trump, who cancelled a trip weekend trip to his Florida golf resort to join 11th hour horsetrading accused the Democratic opposition of putting US troops and border security at risk to score political points.

But Democratic leaders accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump&#39;s populist base by refusing to fund a program that protects 700,000 &quot;Dreamers&quot; -- undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children -- from deportation. &nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;Not looking good for our great Military or Safety &amp; Security on the very dangerous Southern Border,&quot; Trump tweeted, shortly before the 100-member Senate failed to muster the minimum 60 votes needed to get an emergency funding motion to the floor.

&quot;Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy,&quot; he alleged.

After the Senate vote failed and with half an hour to go before the shut down was to start, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeted: &quot;Democrats can&#39;t shut down the booming Trump economy. Are they now so desperate they&#39;ll shut down the government instead?&quot;

Earlier, after meeting top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, Trump had sounded more upbeat, saying the two New Yorkers were &quot;working on solutions&quot; to share with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

But Schumer admitted a &quot;good number of disagreements&quot; remain between the two sides, despite a &quot;long and detailed meeting&quot; at which they discussed &quot;all of the major outstanding issues.&quot;

The president shelved plans to fly to Florida to celebrate at his Mar-a-Lago estate the first anniversary of his inauguration to remain in Washington to ride out the storm.

&quot;He&#39;s not leaving until this is finished,&quot; White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said.

Republicans have a tenuous one-seat majority in the Senate but would have needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60 vote supermajority to bring the motion forward.

After around 15 minutes of voting more than 40 senators had voted against the motion, which is not technically closed until the last vote is cast.

When it became clear that this threshold was not going to be reached, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell launched into a private debate with Schumer on the senate floor.

Democrats had insisted on a deal that would protect from deportation the so-called &quot;Dreamers&quot; -- immigrants who entered the country illegally but as children.

The measure brought to Congress would have extended federal funding until February 16 and reauthorized for six years a health insurance program for poor children -- a long-time Democratic objective.

But it would have cut the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that affects Dreamers.

White House officials insisted there was no urgency to fix DACA, which expires March 5.

&quot;This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats led by Schumer -- why we call it the &#39;Schumer shutdown&#39; -- to try and get a shutdown the president gets blamed for,&quot; Mulvaney said.

With mid-term congressional elections looming later this year, Republicans risk being blamed by voters when the government stops functioning over lack of funds.

A new Washington Post/ABC poll found that 48 percent of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for a potential shutdown, and only 28 percent hold Democrats responsible.

There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

Essential functions like the military, law enforcement, the White House and Congress would continue working but with reduced staff. Some agencies would shut altogether.

But others in the massive bureaucracy will be sent home without pay.

International ratings agency Fitch said a partial shutdown was unlikely to affect America&#39;s AAA/stable rating for US sovereign debt.&nbsp;

Negotiations with the White House on a bipartisan compromise on DACA blew up last week after Trump reportedly referred to African nations and Haiti as &quot;shithole countries.&quot;

&quot;Tonight&#39;s failure in US Senate can be laid squarely at Donald Trump&#39;s feet,&quot; Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly tweeted.

&quot;Mr. Art of the Deal showed indecision, profound vulgarity and racist sentiments. Today he was barely active in trying to get a deal. Exactly one year in the job he proves he&#39;s not up to it.&quot;

Trump&#39;s unpredictable Twitter outbursts and sudden changes of position also have bedeviled Republican leaders as they maneuver to cut a deal.

Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the crisis, which came to a head when the Senate failed to agree to bring forward a motion to fund federal spending and the military from midnight

President Donald Trump was faced Friday with the prospect of marking the first anniversary of his inauguration at the head of a broke government, after senators failed to pass a stop-gap funding measure. Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the crisis, which came to a head when the Senate failed to agree to bring forward a motion to fund federal spending and the military from midnight. Essential services and military operations will continue, but many American civil servants and diplomats could arrive at work on Monday only to find themselves sent home without pay until the political crisis is resolved. Trump, who cancelled a trip weekend trip to his Florida golf resort to join 11th hour horsetrading accused the Democratic opposition of putting US troops and border security at risk to score political points. But Democratic leaders accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump's populist base by refusing to fund a program that protects 700,000 "Dreamers" -- undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children -- from deportation. "Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border," Trump tweeted, shortly before the 100-member Senate failed to muster the minimum 60 votes needed to get an emergency funding motion to the floor. "Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy," he alleged. After the Senate vote failed and with half an hour to go before the shut down was to start, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeted: "Democrats can't shut down the booming Trump economy. Are they now so desperate they'll shut down the government instead?" Earlier, after meeting top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, Trump had sounded more upbeat, saying the two New Yorkers were "working on solutions" to share with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. But Schumer admitted a "good number of disagreements" remain between the two sides, despite a "long and detailed meeting" at which they discussed "all of the major outstanding issues." The president shelved plans to fly to Florida to celebrate at his Mar-a-Lago estate the first anniversary of his inauguration to remain in Washington to ride out the storm. "He's not leaving until this is finished," White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said. Republicans have a tenuous one-seat majority in the Senate but would have needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60 vote supermajority to bring the motion forward. After around 15 minutes of voting more than 40 senators had voted against the motion, which is not technically closed until the last vote is cast. When it became clear that this threshold was not going to be reached, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell launched into a private debate with Schumer on the senate floor. Democrats had insisted on a deal that would protect from deportation the so-called "Dreamers" -- immigrants who entered the country illegally but as children. The measure brought to Congress would have extended federal funding until February 16 and reauthorized for six years a health insurance program for poor children -- a long-time Democratic objective. But it would have cut the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that affects Dreamers. White House officials insisted there was no urgency to fix DACA, which expires March 5. "This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats led by Schumer -- why we call it the 'Schumer shutdown' -- to try and get a shutdown the president gets blamed for," Mulvaney said. With mid-term congressional elections looming later this year, Republicans risk being blamed by voters when the government stops functioning over lack of funds. A new Washington Post/ABC poll found that 48 percent of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for a potential shutdown, and only 28 percent hold Democrats responsible. There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave. Essential functions like the military, law enforcement, the White House and Congress would continue working but with reduced staff. Some agencies would shut altogether. But others in the massive bureaucracy will be sent home without pay. International ratings agency Fitch said a partial shutdown was unlikely to affect America's AAA/stable rating for US sovereign debt. Negotiations with the White House on a bipartisan compromise on DACA blew up last week after Trump reportedly referred to African nations and Haiti as "shithole countries." "Tonight's failure in US Senate can be laid squarely at Donald Trump's feet," Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly tweeted. "Mr. Art of the Deal showed indecision, profound vulgarity and racist sentiments. Today he was barely active in trying to get a deal. Exactly one year in the job he proves he's not up to it." Trump's unpredictable Twitter outbursts and sudden changes of position also have bedeviled Republican leaders as they maneuver to cut a deal.

One year on, Trump leads divided US into government shutdown

Social activist Anna Hazare on Monday said that he will make sure that anyone joining his movement will not become a part of a political party or contest elections again.&nbsp;

&quot;Before joining me, a person has to give an affidavit saying he/she will not join any political party or fight elections,&quot; he said to reporters here.

Hazare said this when he was asked if a leader like Arvind Kejriwal will come out of his movement again, Anna assured this wouldn&#39;t happen, as he is &#39;more aware&#39; now.

&quot;I was not very alert then. But now, I will make sure that it will never happen again,&quot; he said.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
No it will never happen again,I will make sure. I was not very alert then but now before joining me person has to give affidavit saying they won&#39;t join any political party or fight elections: Anna Hazare on being asked if a leader like Kejriwal will come out of his movement again <a href="https://t.co/aPCnJRaHL6">pic.twitter.com/aPCnJRaHL6</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/952957739977736192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Kejriwal had earlier had close ties with Hazare when he joined him for the anti-corruption movement in 2011. However, he soon parted ways and formed his own party.&nbsp;

Strongly condemning the Delhi Chief Minister for violating laws and the Constitution, Hazare said he will never be in favour of Kejriwal&#39;s actions. The Shunglu committee report showed Kejriwal&#39;s government for bypassing law, nepotism and financial irregularities among others, reports said.

Earlier in December, Anna announced that he would start a &quot;peaceful protest&quot; from March 23, 2018, for bringing an improvement in the conditions of farmers in the nation.

&quot;We will start a peaceful protest from March 23 next year in Delhi. I have toured nine states till now and urged everyone to join me,&quot; he told ANI.

He further said the protest would be peaceful and there would be no ounce of violence.

Hazare said this when he was asked about if a leader like Arvind Kejriwal will come out of his movement again, Anna assured this wouldn't happen, as he is 'more aware' now

Social activist Anna Hazare on Monday said that he will make sure that anyone joining his movement will not become a part of a political party or contest elections again. "Before joining me, a person has to give an affidavit saying he/she will not join any political party or fight elections," he said to reporters here. Hazare said this when he was asked if a leader like Arvind Kejriwal will come out of his movement again, Anna assured this wouldn't happen, as he is 'more aware' now. "I was not very alert then. But now, I will make sure that it will never happen again," he said. No it will never happen again,I will make sure. I was not very alert then but now before joining me person has to give affidavit saying they won't join any political party or fight elections: Anna Hazare on being asked if a leader like Kejriwal will come out of his movement again pic.twitter.com/aPCnJRaHL6 — ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2018 × Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Kejriwal had earlier had close ties with Hazare when he joined him for the anti-corruption movement in 2011. However, he soon parted ways and formed his own party. Strongly condemning the Delhi Chief Minister for violating laws and the Constitution, Hazare said he will never be in favour of Kejriwal's actions. The Shunglu committee report showed Kejriwal's government for bypassing law, nepotism and financial irregularities among others, reports said. Earlier in December, Anna announced that he would start a "peaceful protest" from March 23, 2018, for bringing an improvement in the conditions of farmers in the nation. "We will start a peaceful protest from March 23 next year in Delhi. I have toured nine states till now and urged everyone to join me," he told ANI. He further said the protest would be peaceful and there would be no ounce of violence.

Will make sure anyone joining my movement does not enter politics: Anna Hazare

The White House on Saturday denied and corrected a quote attributed to President Donald Trump that suggested he had a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

&quot;I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un,&quot; Trump was quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Thursday.&nbsp;

But Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insisted that Trump said &quot;I&#39;d,&quot; not &quot;I&quot; as the newspaper reported.

Both The Wall Street Journal and the White House posted audio recordings of Trump&#39;s remarks on Twitter. These, while not completely clear, appeared to support Sanders&#39; account.

Sanders had earlier tweeted a written message disputing the newspaper&#39;s article.

&quot;President Trump said, I&#39;D probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I&#39;D -- I&#39;D -- I&#39;D. NOT I!&quot; the message read, with &quot;I&#39;D&quot; in red ink, under a red banner reading &quot;FAKE NEWS.&quot;

Mockingly mimicking the newspaper&#39;s front page, it then reads &quot;THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- FAKE NEWS IS AT IT AGAIN! -- FALSELY QUOTING PRESIDENT TRUMP.&quot;

Washington and Pyongyang are in a standoff over North Korea&#39;s missile and nuclear programs, which could be used to target the United States and its allies.

Trump has repeatedly insulted the North Korean leader, describing him as mad and a &quot;rocket man.&quot;

Asked if by The Wall Street Journal if he had spoken to Kim, Trump said: &quot;I don&#39;t want to comment on it. I&#39;m not saying I have or haven&#39;t. I just don&#39;t want to comment.&quot;

Trump suggested his variable position on individuals was part of a broader strategy.

But it was not clear how his remarks fitted with his self-described policy of &quot;maximum pressure&quot; on Pyongyang.

In the coming week the United States and Canada are to host a meeting in Vancouver on the nuclear standoff with North Korea, bringing together friendly powers from around the world.

Washington and Pyongyang are in a standoff over North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, which could be used to target the United States and its allies.

The White House on Saturday denied and corrected a quote attributed to President Donald Trump that suggested he had a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un," Trump was quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Thursday. But Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insisted that Trump said "I'd," not "I" as the newspaper reported. Both The Wall Street Journal and the White House posted audio recordings of Trump's remarks on Twitter. These, while not completely clear, appeared to support Sanders' account. Sanders had earlier tweeted a written message disputing the newspaper's article. "President Trump said, I'D probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I'D -- I'D -- I'D. NOT I!" the message read, with "I'D" in red ink, under a red banner reading "FAKE NEWS." Mockingly mimicking the newspaper's front page, it then reads "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- FAKE NEWS IS AT IT AGAIN! -- FALSELY QUOTING PRESIDENT TRUMP." Washington and Pyongyang are in a standoff over North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, which could be used to target the United States and its allies. Trump has repeatedly insulted the North Korean leader, describing him as mad and a "rocket man." Asked if by The Wall Street Journal if he had spoken to Kim, Trump said: "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment." Trump suggested his variable position on individuals was part of a broader strategy. But it was not clear how his remarks fitted with his self-described policy of "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang. In the coming week the United States and Canada are to host a meeting in Vancouver on the nuclear standoff with North Korea, bringing together friendly powers from around the world.

White House pushes back over Trump North Korea quote

Germany&#39;s veteran chancellor Angela Merkel, often called the world&#39;s most powerful woman, will embark on a fourth term with diminished influence and little vision for shaping Europe&#39;s future, analysts say.&nbsp;

After wrapping up more than 24 hours of talks Friday between her conservatives and the Social Democrats on forming a new &quot;grand coalition&quot; government, Merkel insisted the preliminary deal would break the deadlock in Germany and pave the way to a &quot;fresh start&quot; for Europe.

But before the ink was even dry on the roadmap for her new administration, observers branded Merkel and the team she&#39;s likely to lead a &quot;losers&#39;&quot; coalition with little ambition or power to tackle the major challenges facing the country and the continent.

&quot;In fact this &#39;grand coalition&#39; is only a mini-coalition with just 53 percent&quot; of seats in parliament following the September election that saw both parties cede millions of voters to the far-right, anti-immigration AfD party, political scientist Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University said.

This compares with the lavish, nearly 80-percent majority the parties enjoyed during Merkel&#39;s previous term, he told public broadcaster ZDF.

Merkel insisted the accord with the Social Democrats, which must still be approved by the party&#39;s rank and file, would ensure Germany&#39;s enduring stability and prosperity.

&quot;We will work earnestly, today and during the next term, to create the conditions so that we can also live well in Germany in the next 10 years and 15 years,&quot; she told reporters, flanked by SPD leader Martin Schulz and the head of Bavaria&#39;s Christian Social Union, Horst Seehofer. 
However influential news magazine Der Spiegel branded the alliance led by Merkel, who has been in power since 2005, a &quot;paleo-coalition&quot; of political dinosaurs bereft of fresh blood to propel renewal.

While France&#39;s young president Emmanuel Macron said he was &quot;happy&quot; about progress in ending Germany&#39;s four-month-long political limbo, critics at home savaged the tired-looking troupe.

&quot;The losers of the September election have come together again and you have to say that this programme blueprint doesn&#39;t even begin to address the problems in our society,&quot; charged Dietmar Bartsch, a leading figure with the far-left Linke opposition party. &nbsp;

Nicola Beer of the pro-business Free Democrats said the deal showed little imagination or &quot;future-oriented pragmatism&quot; and would thus feed disillusionment and support &quot;for the extreme right and left&quot; of the political spectrum.

The 28-page joint policy outlines included pledges to join France in a push to &quot;strengthen and reform&quot; the eurozone, to limit the influx of asylum seekers to Germany to around 200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes given the healthy state coffers.

But the absence of grand new initiatives led political scientist Werner Patzelt of Dresden&#39;s Technical Institute to conclude that more-of-the-same from Berlin could boost the AfD in particular.

&quot;It will hand them success in upcoming state elections and they&#39;ll step up calls for Merkel to resign,&quot; he said, attributing her relative weakness to the record refugee influx in 2015 that undermined her standing with many voters.

Although Merkel stunned many observers abroad by winning re-election despite her controversial open-border stance, her struggle to form a viable coalition has revived speculation about the twilight of her reign. &nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;Angela Merkel is past her zenith,&quot; Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin&#39;s Free University told business daily Handelsblatt.

&quot;In the interest of her party&#39;s electoral strength, she should not stay in office for the entire legislative term&quot; running until 2021.

A majority of Germans now share this view according to a poll published this week, with 56 percent calling for her to leave the stage before the next scheduled elections.

Germany's veteran chancellor Angela Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman, will embark on a fourth term with diminished influence and little vision for shaping Europe's future, analysts say

Germany's veteran chancellor Angela Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman, will embark on a fourth term with diminished influence and little vision for shaping Europe's future, analysts say. After wrapping up more than 24 hours of talks Friday between her conservatives and the Social Democrats on forming a new "grand coalition" government, Merkel insisted the preliminary deal would break the deadlock in Germany and pave the way to a "fresh start" for Europe. But before the ink was even dry on the roadmap for her new administration, observers branded Merkel and the team she's likely to lead a "losers'" coalition with little ambition or power to tackle the major challenges facing the country and the continent. "In fact this 'grand coalition' is only a mini-coalition with just 53 percent" of seats in parliament following the September election that saw both parties cede millions of voters to the far-right, anti-immigration AfD party, political scientist Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University said. This compares with the lavish, nearly 80-percent majority the parties enjoyed during Merkel's previous term, he told public broadcaster ZDF. Merkel insisted the accord with the Social Democrats, which must still be approved by the party's rank and file, would ensure Germany's enduring stability and prosperity. "We will work earnestly, today and during the next term, to create the conditions so that we can also live well in Germany in the next 10 years and 15 years," she told reporters, flanked by SPD leader Martin Schulz and the head of Bavaria's Christian Social Union, Horst Seehofer. However influential news magazine Der Spiegel branded the alliance led by Merkel, who has been in power since 2005, a "paleo-coalition" of political dinosaurs bereft of fresh blood to propel renewal. While France's young president Emmanuel Macron said he was "happy" about progress in ending Germany's four-month-long political limbo, critics at home savaged the tired-looking troupe. "The losers of the September election have come together again and you have to say that this programme blueprint doesn't even begin to address the problems in our society," charged Dietmar Bartsch, a leading figure with the far-left Linke opposition party. Nicola Beer of the pro-business Free Democrats said the deal showed little imagination or "future-oriented pragmatism" and would thus feed disillusionment and support "for the extreme right and left" of the political spectrum. The 28-page joint policy outlines included pledges to join France in a push to "strengthen and reform" the eurozone, to limit the influx of asylum seekers to Germany to around 200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes given the healthy state coffers. But the absence of grand new initiatives led political scientist Werner Patzelt of Dresden's Technical Institute to conclude that more-of-the-same from Berlin could boost the AfD in particular. "It will hand them success in upcoming state elections and they'll step up calls for Merkel to resign," he said, attributing her relative weakness to the record refugee influx in 2015 that undermined her standing with many voters. Although Merkel stunned many observers abroad by winning re-election despite her controversial open-border stance, her struggle to form a viable coalition has revived speculation about the twilight of her reign. "Angela Merkel is past her zenith," Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin's Free University told business daily Handelsblatt. "In the interest of her party's electoral strength, she should not stay in office for the entire legislative term" running until 2021. A majority of Germans now share this view according to a poll published this week, with 56 percent calling for her to leave the stage before the next scheduled elections.

Merkel risks leading weak 'losers' coalition for Germany

The US government announced on Monday the end of protected status for about 200,000 Salvadorans in the country since before 2001, a move that threatens tens of thousands of well-established families with children born in the United States.

Homeland Security Department Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the end of the 17-year-old &quot;temporary protected status&quot; (TPS) for the Salvadorans, which had shielded them from deportation ever since two major earthquakes rocked El Salvador in early 2001.

They were given 18 months to leave or be deported, enough time that a legislative solution could be crafted by Congress to allow them to stay.

&quot;Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years,&quot; said the DHS.

The move came in the wake of the termination of similar TPS protections for 59,000 longtime resident Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans late last year, after having been allowed to set deep roots inside the United States for decades.

They were given 18 months to leave or be deported, enough time that a legislative solution could be crafted by Congress to allow them to stay.

The US government announced on Monday the end of protected status for about 200,000 Salvadorans in the country since before 2001, a move that threatens tens of thousands of well-established families with children born in the United States. Homeland Security Department Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the end of the 17-year-old "temporary protected status" (TPS) for the Salvadorans, which had shielded them from deportation ever since two major earthquakes rocked El Salvador in early 2001. They were given 18 months to leave or be deported, enough time that a legislative solution could be crafted by Congress to allow them to stay. "Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years," said the DHS. The move came in the wake of the termination of similar TPS protections for 59,000 longtime resident Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans late last year, after having been allowed to set deep roots inside the United States for decades.

US ends protected status for 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants

Tamil superstar Rajnikanth today announced his much-awaited&nbsp;entry into politics.

The legendary Tamil actor, who has a cult status in Tamil Nadu, said he will form his own political party and contest all constituencies in Tamil Nadu in the next assembly elections.

&quot;Anyone who runs away from a fight is known as a coward. Now its time to do my bit for the people. I will launch my own party and stand in all 234 Tamil Nadu constituencies in the next assembly elections,&quot; he said.

&quot;Truth, work and growth will be the three mantras of our party,&quot; the superstar said.&nbsp;

Rajinikanth said democracy was in bad shape at the moment and he would feel &quot;guilty&quot; if he did not take his decision to enter politics.

He stated that his aim for joining politics is not name, fame or money and that he got all of that from the people of Tamil Nadu and&nbsp;declared that &quot;spiritual politics&quot; needs to be ushered in, sans shades of any caste or religion with transparency.

The superstar talked about bringing about a change in the nation and further talked about how &#39;politicians are robbing us of our own money on our own land&#39;.

The actor&#39;s remark is seen as a reference to the bitter infighting in the ruling AIADMK, allegations of rampant corruption, perceived political instability, and also the tax raids held at premises in the State including those linked to the ruling establishment, notably a Minister and his associates.

The RK Nagar Assembly bypoll in April was also cancelled following allegations of money distribution.

Stressing that he knew that launching a party, capturing power and governing was not an &quot;ordinary thing,&quot; he said it was akin to extracting pearl from sea.

&quot;This was possible only with the blessings of the God and full support of people,&quot; he said and expressed confidence that he will get both of it.

Quoting a shloka from Bhagawad Gita, which stresses the importance of doing one&#39;s duty and leaving the result to the Lord, he said &quot;this is the compulsion of time.&quot;

&quot;Engage in war, if you win you will rule the nation if you die you will go to heaven. If you go without waging war, they will call you a coward,&quot; he said quoting the scripture amid thunderous applause.

He further thanked his fans, Tamil Nadu police and the media for their support and appreciation.&nbsp;

Fans broke out on the streets in celebration upon Rajnikanth&#39;s announcement.

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Fellow actor Kamal Haasan had also hinted that he was willing to work with Rajinikanth if the superstar ever decided to enter politics.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The 67-year-old star&#39;s entry into politics has been debated for about two decades.

On an earlier occasion, while addressing his supporters, he had urged them to be &quot;ready for war&quot; when the time came and said the &quot;system is rotten&quot;.

The legendary Tamil actor, who has a cult status in Tamil Nadu, said he will form his own political party in the next assembly elections and contest all constituencies in Tamil Nadu

Tamil superstar Rajnikanth today announced his much-awaited entry into politics. The legendary Tamil actor, who has a cult status in Tamil Nadu, said he will form his own political party and contest all constituencies in Tamil Nadu in the next assembly elections. "Anyone who runs away from a fight is known as a coward. Now its time to do my bit for the people. I will launch my own party and stand in all 234 Tamil Nadu constituencies in the next assembly elections," he said. "Truth, work and growth will be the three mantras of our party," the superstar said. Rajinikanth said democracy was in bad shape at the moment and he would feel "guilty" if he did not take his decision to enter politics. He stated that his aim for joining politics is not name, fame or money and that he got all of that from the people of Tamil Nadu and declared that "spiritual politics" needs to be ushered in, sans shades of any caste or religion with transparency. The superstar talked about bringing about a change in the nation and further talked about how 'politicians are robbing us of our own money on our own land'. The actor's remark is seen as a reference to the bitter infighting in the ruling AIADMK, allegations of rampant corruption, perceived political instability, and also the tax raids held at premises in the State including those linked to the ruling establishment, notably a Minister and his associates. The RK Nagar Assembly bypoll in April was also cancelled following allegations of money distribution. Stressing that he knew that launching a party, capturing power and governing was not an "ordinary thing," he said it was akin to extracting pearl from sea. "This was possible only with the blessings of the God and full support of people," he said and expressed confidence that he will get both of it. Quoting a shloka from Bhagawad Gita, which stresses the importance of doing one's duty and leaving the result to the Lord, he said "this is the compulsion of time." "Engage in war, if you win you will rule the nation if you die you will go to heaven. If you go without waging war, they will call you a coward," he said quoting the scripture amid thunderous applause. He further thanked his fans, Tamil Nadu police and the media for their support and appreciation. Fans broke out on the streets in celebration upon Rajnikanth's announcement. Chennai: Fans celebrate after #Rajinikanth announces political entry pic.twitter.com/K1Vul6UFCZ — ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2017 × Fellow actor Kamal Haasan had also hinted that he was willing to work with Rajinikanth if the superstar ever decided to enter politics. The 67-year-old star's entry into politics has been debated for about two decades. On an earlier occasion, while addressing his supporters, he had urged them to be "ready for war" when the time came and said the "system is rotten".

'I do not come for money or fame, as I have enough of it,' says Rajinikanth as he enters politics

Superstar Rajnikanth, who kept everyone under suspense over his <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/rajinikanth-to-decide-on-political-debut-on-dec-31-meets-fans-in-chennai-27711" target="_blank">political plans,&nbsp;</a>will be announcing his decision on whether he will be joining politics today.&nbsp;

Rajnikanth has spent the last six days meeting over 1,000 fans in Tamil Nadu and had announced that he will reveal his final decision on the last day of the year, December 31.&nbsp;

&quot;I am not new to politics. I&#39;m there since 1996. I got delayed. Entering is equal to victory. I will announce a decision on December 31,&quot; he had said.

Posters have come up in Chennai that say if Rajinikanth decides to join politics, he will be the next chief minister, media reports said.&nbsp;

The iconic actor had earlier said: &quot;I am hesitating about joining politics since I know the difficulties. If we go for a war we ought to win. Valour alone won&#39;t do. We need strategy,&quot; he said.

Also read:<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/rajinikanth-to-enter-politics-says-close-friend-27476" target="_blank">&nbsp;Rajinikanth to enter politics? Actor to disclose &#39;plan of action&#39;</a>

Rajinikanth&#39;s wife Latha had also said it was her husband&#39;s decision and she would accept and respect whatever decision he takes.

Fellow actor Kamal Haasan has also hinted he was willing to work with Rajinikanth if the superstar ever decided to enter politics. 
&nbsp;

Rajnikanth has spent the last six days meeting over 1,000 fans in Tamil Nadu and announced that he will reveal his final decision on the last day of the year, December 31

Superstar Rajnikanth, who kept everyone under suspense over his political plans, will be announcing his decision on whether he will be joining politics today. Rajnikanth has spent the last six days meeting over 1,000 fans in Tamil Nadu and had announced that he will reveal his final decision on the last day of the year, December 31. "I am not new to politics. I'm there since 1996. I got delayed. Entering is equal to victory. I will announce a decision on December 31," he had said. Posters have come up in Chennai that say if Rajinikanth decides to join politics, he will be the next chief minister, media reports said. The iconic actor had earlier said: "I am hesitating about joining politics since I know the difficulties. If we go for a war we ought to win. Valour alone won't do. We need strategy," he said. Also read: Rajinikanth to enter politics? Actor to disclose 'plan of action' Rajinikanth's wife Latha had also said it was her husband's decision and she would accept and respect whatever decision he takes. Fellow actor Kamal Haasan has also hinted he was willing to work with Rajinikanth if the superstar ever decided to enter politics.

Rajnikanth to announce decision on entering politics today

Zimbabwe&rsquo;s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday named the former army chief who led a coup that ended Robert Mugabe&#39;s 37-year rule, as one of his two deputies in the ruling party, the presidency said.

Presidential press secretary George Charamba said in a statement, retired general Constantino Chiwenga and long-serving state security minister Kembo Mohadi were appointed as Mnangagwa&rsquo;s deputies in the ZANU-PF party &ldquo;with immediate effect.&rdquo;

The party appointment is the first step in their elevation to state vice presidents. Two other top military officials were earlier this month awarded ministerial posts.

Chiwenga retired this week, slightly over a month after the military temporarily took control of the country on November 15 as internal feuding escalated in&nbsp; ZANU-PF over then-president Mugabe&rsquo;s succession.

The takeover which the army said was targeting Mugabe&rsquo;s corrupt allies came days after the 93-year-old leader had fired then deputy Mnangagwa who has strong military ties and was widely tipped as the likely successor.

Mugabe&#39;s wife Grace had indicated interest in succeeding her husband.

The army&rsquo;s intervention was followed by mass street protests against Mugabe and a motion to impeach the veteran ruler who resigned in a letter to parliament as proceedings to recall him began.

The ruling ZANU PF party then appointed Mnangagwa as Mugabe&rsquo;s replacement, leading to his inauguration as the country&#39;s president on November 24.

Zimbabwe?s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday named the former army chief who led a coup that ended Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule, as one of his two deputies in the ruling party, the presidency said.

Zimbabwe’s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday named the former army chief who led a coup that ended Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule, as one of his two deputies in the ruling party, the presidency said. Presidential press secretary George Charamba said in a statement, retired general Constantino Chiwenga and long-serving state security minister Kembo Mohadi were appointed as Mnangagwa’s deputies in the ZANU-PF party “with immediate effect.” The party appointment is the first step in their elevation to state vice presidents. Two other top military officials were earlier this month awarded ministerial posts. Chiwenga retired this week, slightly over a month after the military temporarily took control of the country on November 15 as internal feuding escalated in ZANU-PF over then-president Mugabe’s succession. The takeover which the army said was targeting Mugabe’s corrupt allies came days after the 93-year-old leader had fired then deputy Mnangagwa who has strong military ties and was widely tipped as the likely successor. Mugabe's wife Grace had indicated interest in succeeding her husband. The army’s intervention was followed by mass street protests against Mugabe and a motion to impeach the veteran ruler who resigned in a letter to parliament as proceedings to recall him began. The ruling ZANU PF party then appointed Mnangagwa as Mugabe’s replacement, leading to his inauguration as the country's president on November 24.

Zimbabwe's ex-army chief named ruling party VP: Official

Japan and South Korea urged China to do more to &quot;pressure&quot; North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programmes, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Tuesday, as tension builds amid a standoff between North Korea and the United States.

North Korea has boasted of developing a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching the mainland United States in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and international condemnation, including from its lone major ally, China.

&quot;China is currently implementing the United Nations Security Council resolutions (on North Korea), but China can probably do more&quot;, Kono said after talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.&nbsp;&quot;We agreed on the need to put pressure firmly on North Korea&quot;.

The US Navy&#39;s top officer said on Tuesday said that vessels from eastern Pacific could be brought forward to reinforce US naval power in Asia as Washington contends with increased threats in the region.

North Korea has defended its weapons programmes as necessary to counter US aggression and sees the military drills the United States holds with South Korea and Japan as preludes to invasion.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks, with Trump threatening to destroy North Korea if provoked, while US diplomats have stressed the importance of diplomacy.

Trump on Monday unveiled a new national security strategy, again saying Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea&#39;s weapons programmes.&nbsp;

Japan and South Korea are seeking to boost cooperation over North Korea, despite lingering tension between them over the issue of &quot;comfort women&quot;, a Japanese euphemism for women - many of them Korean - forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War Two.

The United States has also pressured China and other nations to cut trade and diplomatic ties with North Korea as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang&#39;s illegal cash flows that could fund its weapons programmes.

North Korea has defended its weapons programmes as necessary to counter US aggression

Japan and South Korea urged China to do more to "pressure" North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programmes, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Tuesday, as tension builds amid a standoff between North Korea and the United States. North Korea has boasted of developing a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching the mainland United States in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and international condemnation, including from its lone major ally, China. "China is currently implementing the United Nations Security Council resolutions (on North Korea), but China can probably do more", Kono said after talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. "We agreed on the need to put pressure firmly on North Korea". The US Navy's top officer said on Tuesday said that vessels from eastern Pacific could be brought forward to reinforce US naval power in Asia as Washington contends with increased threats in the region. North Korea has defended its weapons programmes as necessary to counter US aggression and sees the military drills the United States holds with South Korea and Japan as preludes to invasion. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks, with Trump threatening to destroy North Korea if provoked, while US diplomats have stressed the importance of diplomacy. Trump on Monday unveiled a new national security strategy, again saying Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea's weapons programmes. Japan and South Korea are seeking to boost cooperation over North Korea, despite lingering tension between them over the issue of "comfort women", a Japanese euphemism for women - many of them Korean - forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War Two. The United States has also pressured China and other nations to cut trade and diplomatic ties with North Korea as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang's illegal cash flows that could fund its weapons programmes.

Japan and South Korea urge China to do more to 'pressure' North Korea

President Donald Trump on Wednesday retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy head of a British far-right group who has been convicted of a hate crime, Jayda Fransen.

The first one shows&nbsp;a Muslim hitting a boy on crutches. The second one is seen as an Islamist mob pushing a teenager of a rooftop.

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Video 1 (Twitter)
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The third allegedly shows a Muslim throwing down and smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary.

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The video of the Virgin Mary statue being destroyed has been on YouTube for a long time.

Fransen was declared guilty last year with a hate crime after abusing a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

Brendan Cox, the widower of MP Jo Cox who was killed by a right-wing extremist last year, said: &quot;Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he&#39;s trying to do it in ours.&quot;

&quot;Spreading hatred has consequences &amp; the President should be ashamed of himself,&quot; he said.

David Lammy, an MP for the opposition Labour Party, said: &quot;The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted.

&quot;He is no ally or friend of ours,&quot; he said.

Stephen Doughty, another Labour MP, said the videos were &quot;highly inflammatory&quot; and his colleague Yvette Cooper said Trump had given Fransen a &quot;huge platform&quot;.

Fransen appeared to celebrate the retweets saying: &quot;THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN&#39;S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!&quot;

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THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN&#39;S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA! OCS <a href="https://twitter.com/JaydaBF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JaydaBF</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> <a href="https://t.co/BiQfQkTra9">pic.twitter.com/BiQfQkTra9</a>
&mdash; Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) <a href="https://twitter.com/JaydaBF/status/935842051991711745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Trump&#39;s pokes&nbsp;in British politics and controversial foreign policy have weakened the so-called &quot;special relationship&quot;.

He has infuriated British authorities with his tweets on terrorism in Britain, including highly publicised run-ins with London mayor Sadiq Khan.

Wednesday&#39;s retweets were part of an early morning burst in which Trump again dismissed CNN as &quot;Fake News&quot; and insisted the US economy was in &quot;record territory&quot; by many measures.

US President Donald Trump was &quot;wrong&quot; to retweet three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy head of British far-right group Britain First, Prime Minister Theresa May&#39;s spokesman said.

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I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.
&mdash; Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/935867651859079168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&quot;Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law abiding people,&quot; he said.

&quot;British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents -- decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the president to have done this.&quot;

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour party, had tweeted earlier: &quot;I hope our government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.&quot;

Trump's pokes?in British politics and controversial foreign policy have weakened the so-called "special relationship"

President Donald Trump on Wednesday retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy head of a British far-right group who has been convicted of a hate crime, Jayda Fransen. The first one shows a Muslim hitting a boy on crutches. The second one is seen as an Islamist mob pushing a teenager of a rooftop. Video 1 (Twitter) × Video 2 (Twitter) × The third allegedly shows a Muslim throwing down and smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary. Video 3 (Twitter) × The video of the Virgin Mary statue being destroyed has been on YouTube for a long time. Fransen was declared guilty last year with a hate crime after abusing a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. Brendan Cox, the widower of MP Jo Cox who was killed by a right-wing extremist last year, said: "Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he's trying to do it in ours." "Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself," he said. David Lammy, an MP for the opposition Labour Party, said: "The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. "He is no ally or friend of ours," he said. Stephen Doughty, another Labour MP, said the videos were "highly inflammatory" and his colleague Yvette Cooper said Trump had given Fransen a "huge platform". Fransen appeared to celebrate the retweets saying: "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN'S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!" THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN'S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA! OCS @JaydaBF @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/BiQfQkTra9 — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017 × Trump's pokes in British politics and controversial foreign policy have weakened the so-called "special relationship". He has infuriated British authorities with his tweets on terrorism in Britain, including highly publicised run-ins with London mayor Sadiq Khan. Wednesday's retweets were part of an early morning burst in which Trump again dismissed CNN as "Fake News" and insisted the US economy was in "record territory" by many measures. US President Donald Trump was "wrong" to retweet three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy head of British far-right group Britain First, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said. I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society. — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 29, 2017 × "Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law abiding people," he said. "British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents -- decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the president to have done this." Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour party, had tweeted earlier: "I hope our government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society."

Trump retweets anti-Muslim videos posted by British far-right group head Jayda Fransen

Donald Trump said Sunday he backed US intelligence agencies who concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, but repeated his trust in the sincerity of Vladimir Putin&#39;s denials and slammed critics of his relationship with the Russian leader.

Key former Trump aides are under US investigation for possible collaboration with the Kremlin and the issue of whether Moscow interfered with last year&#39;s vote has overshadowed the tail end of the president&#39;s ongoing Asia tour.

Trump returned to the subject in an early morning Twitter storm, which also saw him take a sarcastic dig at North Korea&#39;s &quot;short and fat&quot; leader Kim Jong-Un.

Addressing a press conference in Hanoi, Trump was asked to clarify comments he had made on Air Force One the day before about Putin&#39;s insistence that Moscow had never tried to affect the outcome of the US vote.

&quot;I believe he feels he and Russia did not meddle in the election,&quot; Trump said.

&quot;As to whether or not I believe it or not, I&#39;m with our agencies. I believe in our... intelligence agencies,&quot; he added.

In May, US intelligence chiefs told Congress they agreed with their analysts&#39; conclusion that Russia had interfered in the election.

CIA director Mike Pompeo, who was appointed by Trump, said he still believed in that evaluation in a statement to CNN Saturday.&nbsp;

In his barrage of tweets earlier Sunday, Trump slammed &quot;haters and fools&quot; who questioned his efforts to improve ties with Russia.&nbsp;

&quot;There (sic) always playing politics - bad for our country. I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and Russia can greatly help!&quot; he said.

Trump was in Hanoi for a brisk visit with Vietnam&#39;s top communist leaders to drum up trade deals and seek further support on containing North Korea&#39;s nuclear weapons ambitions, which have been a dominant theme on each leg of his Asia tour.

Citing descriptions by North Korean officials and state media of him as an &quot;old&quot; man, another Trump tweet suggested he was disappointed by what he took to be a personal attack from the North&#39;s young leader.

&quot;Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me &quot;old,&quot; when I would NEVER call him &quot;short and fat?&quot; Trump wrote.

&quot;Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!&quot; he added.

Later at the press conference, he insisted he hadn&#39;t been joking about eventually befriending a man he denounced just last week as a &quot;twisted&quot; dictator.

&quot;It&#39;s certainly a possibility. If that did happen, it would be a good thing,&rdquo; he told reporters.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to any remarks that might appear disrespectful of the country&#39; ruling Kim dynasty, whose members are revered as near deities.

Since becoming president, Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with Kim, trading personal insults and threats of military strikes and raising concerns about an outbreak of hostilities.

Over the past week, Trump has urged Asian leaders to take a united front against the threat posed by the isolated North, warning at APEC that the region &quot;must not be held hostage&quot;.

Late Saturday, Pyongyang hit back, calling his Asia trip &quot;a warmonger&#39;s visit for confrontation&quot; and saying it would only serve to accelerate Pyongyang&rsquo;s push for nuclear statehood.

In another tweet Sunday, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed to toughen sanctions against North Korea, whose impoverished economy is hugely reliant on trade with its giant neighbour.

&quot;President Xi of China has stated that he is upping the sanctions against (North Korea). Said he wants them to denuclearise. Progress is being made,&quot; he wrote.

The US administration thinks China&#39;s economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

Trump leaves Hanoi for the Philippines later Sunday, which will be last stop in his marathon tour through Asia.

Philippines and Vietnam are two countries that have sparred with Beijing on overlapping claims in the resource rich South China Sea.

Vietnam has sought military support from Washington on the dispute, and dealmaker Trump said Sunday he could help mediate the conflict.

&quot;If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know... I am a very good mediator,&quot; Trump told Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang.&nbsp;

In the past, China has reacted angrily to any suggestion of US mediation, saying Washington has no role in the dispute.

Trump told reporters in Hanoi that he believes his intelligence agencies.

Donald Trump said Sunday he backed US intelligence agencies who concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, but repeated his trust in the sincerity of Vladimir Putin's denials and slammed critics of his relationship with the Russian leader. Key former Trump aides are under US investigation for possible collaboration with the Kremlin and the issue of whether Moscow interfered with last year's vote has overshadowed the tail end of the president's ongoing Asia tour. Trump returned to the subject in an early morning Twitter storm, which also saw him take a sarcastic dig at North Korea's "short and fat" leader Kim Jong-Un. Addressing a press conference in Hanoi, Trump was asked to clarify comments he had made on Air Force One the day before about Putin's insistence that Moscow had never tried to affect the outcome of the US vote. "I believe he feels he and Russia did not meddle in the election," Trump said. "As to whether or not I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies. I believe in our... intelligence agencies," he added. In May, US intelligence chiefs told Congress they agreed with their analysts' conclusion that Russia had interfered in the election. CIA director Mike Pompeo, who was appointed by Trump, said he still believed in that evaluation in a statement to CNN Saturday. In his barrage of tweets earlier Sunday, Trump slammed "haters and fools" who questioned his efforts to improve ties with Russia. "There (sic) always playing politics - bad for our country. I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and Russia can greatly help!" he said. Trump was in Hanoi for a brisk visit with Vietnam's top communist leaders to drum up trade deals and seek further support on containing North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions, which have been a dominant theme on each leg of his Asia tour. Citing descriptions by North Korean officials and state media of him as an "old" man, another Trump tweet suggested he was disappointed by what he took to be a personal attack from the North's young leader. "Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Trump wrote. "Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!" he added. Later at the press conference, he insisted he hadn't been joking about eventually befriending a man he denounced just last week as a "twisted" dictator. "It's certainly a possibility. If that did happen, it would be a good thing,” he told reporters. North Korea is extremely sensitive to any remarks that might appear disrespectful of the country' ruling Kim dynasty, whose members are revered as near deities. Since becoming president, Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with Kim, trading personal insults and threats of military strikes and raising concerns about an outbreak of hostilities. Over the past week, Trump has urged Asian leaders to take a united front against the threat posed by the isolated North, warning at APEC that the region "must not be held hostage". Late Saturday, Pyongyang hit back, calling his Asia trip "a warmonger's visit for confrontation" and saying it would only serve to accelerate Pyongyang’s push for nuclear statehood. In another tweet Sunday, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed to toughen sanctions against North Korea, whose impoverished economy is hugely reliant on trade with its giant neighbour. "President Xi of China has stated that he is upping the sanctions against (North Korea). Said he wants them to denuclearise. Progress is being made," he wrote. The US administration thinks China's economic leverage over North Korea is the key to strong-arming Pyongyang into halting its nuclear weapons and missile programmes. Trump leaves Hanoi for the Philippines later Sunday, which will be last stop in his marathon tour through Asia. Philippines and Vietnam are two countries that have sparred with Beijing on overlapping claims in the resource rich South China Sea. Vietnam has sought military support from Washington on the dispute, and dealmaker Trump said Sunday he could help mediate the conflict. "If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know... I am a very good mediator," Trump told Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. In the past, China has reacted angrily to any suggestion of US mediation, saying Washington has no role in the dispute.

Trump backs US intelligence agencies on Russia election meddling

Priti Patel&rsquo;s ignominious departure from the UK cabinet after it emerged that she had held undeclared meetings with Israeli officials during a personal holiday exposes many flaws in her conduct. The commentariat tells us she showed a lack of judgement, a lack of awareness of due process and a willingness to conduct what, in effect, was her own foreign policy.

One word that hasn&rsquo;t come up so frequently is &ldquo;corruption&rdquo;. That&rsquo;s in many ways understandable. Corruption is generally understood in transactional terms with four key parts. An act is understood as corrupt if there is a (i) deliberate attempt (ii) to abuse (iii) entrusted power (iv) for some sort of private gain. Corruption is normally regarded as a process rather than an outcome and acts that tick all of those boxes are subsequently judged as such. That all of those terms can and do require some sort of external judgement to be made ensures that we can&rsquo;t talk about objective realities. We do, however, have a decent starting point for making sense of a complex world.

This understanding of corruption is, however, relatively new. Indeed, it&rsquo;s only in the past few decades that corruption has been understood in this form. Yet corruption has, of course, been around for as long as humans have sought to organise themselves. Aristotle, for example, argued corruption is a symbol of the dysfunctionality of states that have moved away from their &ldquo;pure&rdquo; state of being. For Aristotle and a number of his contemporaries, corruption has a clear moral dimension and that moral core is the very essence of corruption, leading inevitably to decay, degradation and ultimately state failure.

Why Rome fell

A similar logic has been used by historians such as Ramsay McMullen when they argue that the ever-deepening problem of corruption is the primary reason the Roman Empire fell.

MacMullen&rsquo;s thesis is straightforward and well documented: Corruption led successive governments to concentrate more on the need to generate private gains (of whatever sort) for themselves and their supporters, and less on the demands of running a large and complex empire. The moral core that characterised much of the thinking of Rome&rsquo;s founders had withered away over time; subsequent Roman leaders not only lost control of the government, but the government lost sight of what it existed to do. Even when it became apparent that corruption was at the core of the administration&rsquo;s work, attempts at reform came too late. Like cancer, corruption had penetrated too many parts of the public ethos.

The fall of Rome was also pivotal in Montesquieu&rsquo;s thinking on corruption (and state failure). He explained in detail how the virtuous thinking of Rome&rsquo;s founders helped it become an empire, but how the corruption of Rome&rsquo;s moral fibre ultimately brought the empire down. For Montesquieu and MacMullen, as well as many others, corruption was at the very core of Rome&rsquo;s descent into dissolution.

A question of morals

Corruption, no matter how it is defined, certainly has a moral dimension to it. That remains so regardless of the fact that many would prefer to couch their analysis, and, indeed, their prescriptions, in the language of rationality, interests, costs and benefits.

Much of the recent work on corruption &ndash; produced largely by those with the economist&rsquo;s mindset &ndash; has purposefully avoided the moral minefield and instead aspired to embrace some sort of objective understanding of corruption. That&rsquo;s ultimately unlikely to be a fruitful way forward in terms of actually fighting corruption in practice; morals drive understandings of what&rsquo;s appropriate and ignoring them doesn&rsquo;t mean that they simply go away.

Bringing issues of morality back into our analysis subsequently helps us comprehend much more about what we understand corruption to be as well as how (and, indeed, whether) we go about tackling it. The moral dimension to the corruption challenge, therefore, cannot be an optional extra.

It&rsquo;s with that in mind that the behaviour of Priti Patel is so interesting. There is little evidence to suggest that she might be guilty of corruption in the modern understanding of the term, but she certainly did do things that corruption analysts of yesteryear would recognise as falling into that category. At a push, one could certainly argue she broke the ministerial code and that&rsquo;s clearly a process violation. But it is really by looking at broader normative issues of what&rsquo;s right, why it&rsquo;s right and how we can recognise it as such do we really see why behaviour such as Patel&rsquo;s can be so corrosive.

Rome ultimately didn&rsquo;t fall because of the specific acts of one person. Rome&rsquo;s problems escalated over time as the moral core that characterised the thinking of Rome&rsquo;s founders ceased to shape their decision-making. Theresa May is hardly Romulus Augustus, but a government that neglects the importance of moral leadership is in dangerous waters. If nothing else, Priti Patel&rsquo;s resignation should give us reason to ponder the ramifications of that.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/priti-patel-ancient-rome-and-moral-leadership-87206" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

Prime Minister Theresa May could not have ignored the moral implication of Priti Patel's act

Priti Patel’s ignominious departure from the UK cabinet after it emerged that she had held undeclared meetings with Israeli officials during a personal holiday exposes many flaws in her conduct. The commentariat tells us she showed a lack of judgement, a lack of awareness of due process and a willingness to conduct what, in effect, was her own foreign policy. One word that hasn’t come up so frequently is “corruption”. That’s in many ways understandable. Corruption is generally understood in transactional terms with four key parts. An act is understood as corrupt if there is a (i) deliberate attempt (ii) to abuse (iii) entrusted power (iv) for some sort of private gain. Corruption is normally regarded as a process rather than an outcome and acts that tick all of those boxes are subsequently judged as such. That all of those terms can and do require some sort of external judgement to be made ensures that we can’t talk about objective realities. We do, however, have a decent starting point for making sense of a complex world. This understanding of corruption is, however, relatively new. Indeed, it’s only in the past few decades that corruption has been understood in this form. Yet corruption has, of course, been around for as long as humans have sought to organise themselves. Aristotle, for example, argued corruption is a symbol of the dysfunctionality of states that have moved away from their “pure” state of being. For Aristotle and a number of his contemporaries, corruption has a clear moral dimension and that moral core is the very essence of corruption, leading inevitably to decay, degradation and ultimately state failure. Why Rome fell A similar logic has been used by historians such as Ramsay McMullen when they argue that the ever-deepening problem of corruption is the primary reason the Roman Empire fell. MacMullen’s thesis is straightforward and well documented: Corruption led successive governments to concentrate more on the need to generate private gains (of whatever sort) for themselves and their supporters, and less on the demands of running a large and complex empire. The moral core that characterised much of the thinking of Rome’s founders had withered away over time; subsequent Roman leaders not only lost control of the government, but the government lost sight of what it existed to do. Even when it became apparent that corruption was at the core of the administration’s work, attempts at reform came too late. Like cancer, corruption had penetrated too many parts of the public ethos. The fall of Rome was also pivotal in Montesquieu’s thinking on corruption (and state failure). He explained in detail how the virtuous thinking of Rome’s founders helped it become an empire, but how the corruption of Rome’s moral fibre ultimately brought the empire down. For Montesquieu and MacMullen, as well as many others, corruption was at the very core of Rome’s descent into dissolution. A question of morals Corruption, no matter how it is defined, certainly has a moral dimension to it. That remains so regardless of the fact that many would prefer to couch their analysis, and, indeed, their prescriptions, in the language of rationality, interests, costs and benefits. Much of the recent work on corruption – produced largely by those with the economist’s mindset – has purposefully avoided the moral minefield and instead aspired to embrace some sort of objective understanding of corruption. That’s ultimately unlikely to be a fruitful way forward in terms of actually fighting corruption in practice; morals drive understandings of what’s appropriate and ignoring them doesn’t mean that they simply go away. Bringing issues of morality back into our analysis subsequently helps us comprehend much more about what we understand corruption to be as well as how (and, indeed, whether) we go about tackling it. The moral dimension to the corruption challenge, therefore, cannot be an optional extra. It’s with that in mind that the behaviour of Priti Patel is so interesting. There is little evidence to suggest that she might be guilty of corruption in the modern understanding of the term, but she certainly did do things that corruption analysts of yesteryear would recognise as falling into that category. At a push, one could certainly argue she broke the ministerial code and that’s clearly a process violation. But it is really by looking at broader normative issues of what’s right, why it’s right and how we can recognise it as such do we really see why behaviour such as Patel’s can be so corrosive. Rome ultimately didn’t fall because of the specific acts of one person. Rome’s problems escalated over time as the moral core that characterised the thinking of Rome’s founders ceased to shape their decision-making. Theresa May is hardly Romulus Augustus, but a government that neglects the importance of moral leadership is in dangerous waters. If nothing else, Priti Patel’s resignation should give us reason to ponder the ramifications of that. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Why Theresa May asked Priti Patel to quit

Tamil superstar Kamal&nbsp;Haasan has created a stir with his decision to join politics.&nbsp;On occasion of his 63rd birthday on Tuesday, the actor launched a unique app for whistleblowers.&nbsp;

While addressing the media, the actor said&nbsp;the app was being launched keeping in mind the welfare of the people.&nbsp;

In conversation with WION&#39;s Kartikeya Sharma, Kamal&nbsp;Haasan spoke about his decision to join politics,&nbsp;demonetisation, Hindutva, future of Tamil Nadu and more...&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Q: You are a successful artist. How and when you decided to join politics?

A: 35 years back MGR asked me to join politics. Even Karunanidhi had asked me to join politics years back. But didn&rsquo;t entertain the idea much but things changed 10 years back. My families too are averse to the idea of me joining politics. My family felt that people become corrupt after joining politics. Even in the film industry, I ensured that I don&rsquo;t touch black money. I even suffered financial loss because of it but never compromised.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Did anyone support you?

A: My daughters supported me but were afraid whether I will stop being an artist and I said how can that be possible? I said that I&rsquo;m an artist and that cannot be changed. I told that artist doesn&rsquo;t only mean becoming a protagonist in a film.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Is there any particular issue which made you finally take the call to join politics? 
&nbsp;

A: I have been running a welfare movement for 39 years. The idea of converting fan&nbsp;clubs for politics is not new in Tamil Nadu. I disbanded the fan clubs and turned them into welfare associations. Even then politics was an impediment to social service. We rubbed many people including the government the&nbsp;wrong way. We had to keep ourselves in good books to do our job. MGR and Karunanidhi allowed us to do the job but it changed during Jaya.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Why?

A: Jaya didn&rsquo;t appreciate it. She didn&rsquo;t like it. She was a powerful politician. It took me a&nbsp;long time to understand that it was emanating from her as she disliked such voices and by the time I realised it Vishwaroopam was already in trouble.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: So, you were toying with the idea?

A: I had a great career going and I was thinking as to why I should rough it out.

In 2011-12, I decided to take the plunge and without hesitation, I decided to take on the government and that&nbsp;I believe was an act of politics. People say that I was silent when Jaya was present but I did sue the government. I did affect the government and went on to win the case against them. They again banned the film and we lost almost 60 crores by the time of release. &nbsp;But I still went ahead because I felt it was the right thing to do. Later my brother said, leave it, the battle is won but I said it has just started.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: You are launching an app&nbsp;which will act as a device for whistleblowers? Are you saying that government has&nbsp;failed on corruption?

A: It is one part of the spectrum. It gives voice to the people. It is a platform for dialogue. It will have broad spectrum utility. It is a longwinded explanation which I will do in January. It is to get people together. It will have many versatile points of contact. 
&nbsp; 
Q: The detractors would say that it can lead to civic vigilantism?

A: It is about vigil. In real life, vigilantism is a pedestrian dream to be put in practice. That is only done in films. It is about boldly talking to the government. It is within the parameters of the law. 
&nbsp; 
Q: Election funding is the motherboard of corruption. How will you resolve this issue of funding? Will you also need funding?

A: Why should the fund be black. It can be neat and clean money.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: There is also an inducement. Look at the politics of inducement in your state. Freebies before elections?

A: They are paid Rs 2000 rupees in cash apart from freebies as most of the freebies are broken and substandard. A lot of people would say prove it but it is a fact. My argument is that because you take Rs 2000 rupees you lose the moral authority to question politicians.

He can always look back at you and say what about Rs 2000 I gave you. In the process, five&nbsp;years of authority gets sold for 90 paisa per day. We need to restore people&rsquo;s authority and they need to participate in it.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: What is your vision for Tamil Nadu and where does the malice lie?

A: Unemployment is the issue but it doesn&rsquo;t emerge from the government. People also need to understand. Everyone want&nbsp;their children to be engineers and doctors. This culture needs to end. That&rsquo;s the problem. Other areas should be explored. I think after satyagraha and khadi movement, a &quot;skill-set&quot;&nbsp;movement is very important. To make India strong, a &quot;skill-set&quot;&nbsp;movement has to be strong. I&rsquo;m already working on it. I want to expand it further when I go into politics.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Past 40 years, Tamil politics has been divided into&nbsp;two poles. Is Tamil Nadu ready for a third party?

A: It is not about space but it is about intent and productive plan for people. 
&nbsp; 
Q: Arvind Kejriwal met you lately. Did he ask you to join AAP?

A: He was a gentleman. He gave me three options including the choice to join them. I made it very clear as to what my intent was. It was very touching. I&rsquo;m already meeting other chief ministers to educate myself. He was only exploring the possibility. Our understanding was that our pursuit is the same and that is to build the nation and hence we are tied to a common ideology.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: There is a debate on GST and demonetization taking place. What is your view on demonetisation?

A: The reason why I enthusiastically supported the idea was because I still feel that it is a workable idea. I don&rsquo;t know how it was planned but I&rsquo;m an enthusiast for the progress of the country. Like Satyamev Jayate is a beautiful idea. But how do you make satya win? It is not easy. There is a difference between an idea and its execution. 
&nbsp; 
Q: Is politics losing its sense of equanimity? Artists are getting arrested over cartoons films like Mersal faced political outrage?

A: Absolutely. I don&rsquo;t want to make BJP a whipping boy. The ear for dialogue is non-existent. Leave alone politician, lower level bureaucrats and policemen get affected and angry when asked questions. People abused Gandhi after the partition but he continued the dialogue. His didn&rsquo;t cancel his meetings. The worst form of criticism is assassination and that too happened to Mahatma Gandhi. 
&nbsp; 
Q. Culture, films and cinema are fused in Tamil Nadu. Does it make Tamil Nadu a unique state?

A: It exists in other states but maybe Tamil Nadu got the idea of using cinema as a propaganda tool from Germany. Germany proved to the world the power of propaganda and later the US also did a similar thing to counter Hitler. Tamil Nadu is unique and a forerunner.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: You had said that you are not an atheist but a rationalist. Please elaborate?

A: It is a name given by aastiks. I have a mindset of being rational. It is not my primary focus. For me, I have no religion or any God. A rational man would ask for certain proofs. Atheism is a name I refuse. Rational is good enough. My larger purpose is not to say where is God. There are Gods whose stars are fading. Maybe a new God would come. Look at it historically. Where is Zeus?

Q: You have been talking about a middle path. Today politics is swinging between caste equations and Hindutva? Where do you see yourself?

A: Hindutva is different. Hinduism is an umbrella under which Saivism, Vaishvanism and other forms of worship were brought together by the British. Neither Tamil literature nor Vedas record Hinduism as a sect. It is a large umbrella. You have to go to its finer points. My elder brother calls himself an atheist. He doesn&rsquo;t believe in the concept. I would say that show me God. That is why I&rsquo;m a rationalist. He is an atheist as he doesn&rsquo;t wish for a God.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: National anthem is being played in cinema halls. Does its playout before films make&nbsp;people more patriotic?

A: It is like a commitment towards the nation. It cannot be forced upon anyone. In my time&nbsp;in 70s, they played the anthem in theatres and I found people casual about it as they wanted to go home or catch a bus. Never take it there. Keep it for solemn occasions.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: But current discourse has led to politicisation of patriotism?

A: You don&rsquo;t have to remind people of it everytime. I sing national anthem with my children. In&nbsp;August it used to rain and I would go out in the rains with my children and sing the&nbsp;national anthem.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Your recent remarks on Hindu terror generated a&nbsp;lot of controversy. What were you trying to imply?

A: It was a remark which was badly translated. I used words to describe extreme. I was talking about slow marshal and violent attitude creeping in the Hindu fold. We were a peaceful lot. I was being critical of it.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Are you saying that Hindus are being radicalized?

A: Yes, and it is being facilitated by rhetoric. That&rsquo;s what I was trying to criticise. To become a stronger country, we have to shun any form of violence.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: The rhetoric has political acceptance?

A: It is there because there is a belief that it is another way to establish Hindu hegemony. But there are other ways of showing largeness. Let us begin by showing a large heart and accommodate and let&rsquo;s make it an inclusive society. I have nothing against the Hindu society. My elders believe in Sanatan Dharma. My daughters believe in God and I have to keep in mind that I don&rsquo;t hurt them when I write something on the subject.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: Many people said that you failed to criticize someone like Zakir Naik while you were addressing the issues related to Hinduism?

A: I will criticise them also. They should not indulge in violence be it Christians or Muslims. No religion implies violence. All great books talk about love but we have become selective about them.&nbsp;

Q: Did the BJP ever approach you?

A: No. But PM selected me as the ambassador of Swachh Bharat and I accepted it because I&rsquo;m willing to do for any party who wants to contribute to nation building.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Q: So, you are all set for a new chapter?

A: I want to change the culture of politics. I&rsquo;m not interested in taking anyone down. And people are ready too. New voters are coming of the age. I&rsquo;m focused on that demography. They want change and I want to be part of it.

In conversation with WION's Kartikeya Sharma, Kamal Haasan spoke about his decsion to join politics, his mobile app, demonitisation, the future of Tamil Nadu and much more. ?

Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan has created a stir with his decision to join politics. On occasion of his 63rd birthday on Tuesday, the actor launched a unique app for whistleblowers. While addressing the media, the actor said the app was being launched keeping in mind the welfare of the people. In conversation with WION's Kartikeya Sharma, Kamal Haasan spoke about his decision to join politics, demonetisation, Hindutva, future of Tamil Nadu and more... Q: You are a successful artist. How and when you decided to join politics? A: 35 years back MGR asked me to join politics. Even Karunanidhi had asked me to join politics years back. But didn’t entertain the idea much but things changed 10 years back. My families too are averse to the idea of me joining politics. My family felt that people become corrupt after joining politics. Even in the film industry, I ensured that I don’t touch black money. I even suffered financial loss because of it but never compromised. Q: Did anyone support you? A: My daughters supported me but were afraid whether I will stop being an artist and I said how can that be possible? I said that I’m an artist and that cannot be changed. I told that artist doesn’t only mean becoming a protagonist in a film. Q: Is there any particular issue which made you finally take the call to join politics? A: I have been running a welfare movement for 39 years. The idea of converting fan clubs for politics is not new in Tamil Nadu. I disbanded the fan clubs and turned them into welfare associations. Even then politics was an impediment to social service. We rubbed many people including the government the wrong way. We had to keep ourselves in good books to do our job. MGR and Karunanidhi allowed us to do the job but it changed during Jaya. Q: Why? A: Jaya didn’t appreciate it. She didn’t like it. She was a powerful politician. It took me a long time to understand that it was emanating from her as she disliked such voices and by the time I realised it Vishwaroopam was already in trouble. Q: So, you were toying with the idea? A: I had a great career going and I was thinking as to why I should rough it out. In 2011-12, I decided to take the plunge and without hesitation, I decided to take on the government and that I believe was an act of politics. People say that I was silent when Jaya was present but I did sue the government. I did affect the government and went on to win the case against them. They again banned the film and we lost almost 60 crores by the time of release. But I still went ahead because I felt it was the right thing to do. Later my brother said, leave it, the battle is won but I said it has just started. Q: You are launching an app which will act as a device for whistleblowers? Are you saying that government has failed on corruption? A: It is one part of the spectrum. It gives voice to the people. It is a platform for dialogue. It will have broad spectrum utility. It is a longwinded explanation which I will do in January. It is to get people together. It will have many versatile points of contact. Q: The detractors would say that it can lead to civic vigilantism? A: It is about vigil. In real life, vigilantism is a pedestrian dream to be put in practice. That is only done in films. It is about boldly talking to the government. It is within the parameters of the law. Q: Election funding is the motherboard of corruption. How will you resolve this issue of funding? Will you also need funding? A: Why should the fund be black. It can be neat and clean money. Q: There is also an inducement. Look at the politics of inducement in your state. Freebies before elections? A: They are paid Rs 2000 rupees in cash apart from freebies as most of the freebies are broken and substandard. A lot of people would say prove it but it is a fact. My argument is that because you take Rs 2000 rupees you lose the moral authority to question politicians. He can always look back at you and say what about Rs 2000 I gave you. In the process, five years of authority gets sold for 90 paisa per day. We need to restore people’s authority and they need to participate in it. Q: What is your vision for Tamil Nadu and where does the malice lie? A: Unemployment is the issue but it doesn’t emerge from the government. People also need to understand. Everyone want their children to be engineers and doctors. This culture needs to end. That’s the problem. Other areas should be explored. I think after satyagraha and khadi movement, a "skill-set" movement is very important. To make India strong, a "skill-set" movement has to be strong. I’m already working on it. I want to expand it further when I go into politics. Q: Past 40 years, Tamil politics has been divided into two poles. Is Tamil Nadu ready for a third party? A: It is not about space but it is about intent and productive plan for people. Q: Arvind Kejriwal met you lately. Did he ask you to join AAP? A: He was a gentleman. He gave me three options including the choice to join them. I made it very clear as to what my intent was. It was very touching. I’m already meeting other chief ministers to educate myself. He was only exploring the possibility. Our understanding was that our pursuit is the same and that is to build the nation and hence we are tied to a common ideology. Q: There is a debate on GST and demonetization taking place. What is your view on demonetisation? A: The reason why I enthusiastically supported the idea was because I still feel that it is a workable idea. I don’t know how it was planned but I’m an enthusiast for the progress of the country. Like Satyamev Jayate is a beautiful idea. But how do you make satya win? It is not easy. There is a difference between an idea and its execution. Q: Is politics losing its sense of equanimity? Artists are getting arrested over cartoons films like Mersal faced political outrage? A: Absolutely. I don’t want to make BJP a whipping boy. The ear for dialogue is non-existent. Leave alone politician, lower level bureaucrats and policemen get affected and angry when asked questions. People abused Gandhi after the partition but he continued the dialogue. His didn’t cancel his meetings. The worst form of criticism is assassination and that too happened to Mahatma Gandhi. Q. Culture, films and cinema are fused in Tamil Nadu. Does it make Tamil Nadu a unique state? A: It exists in other states but maybe Tamil Nadu got the idea of using cinema as a propaganda tool from Germany. Germany proved to the world the power of propaganda and later the US also did a similar thing to counter Hitler. Tamil Nadu is unique and a forerunner. Q: You had said that you are not an atheist but a rationalist. Please elaborate? A: It is a name given by aastiks. I have a mindset of being rational. It is not my primary focus. For me, I have no religion or any God. A rational man would ask for certain proofs. Atheism is a name I refuse. Rational is good enough. My larger purpose is not to say where is God. There are Gods whose stars are fading. Maybe a new God would come. Look at it historically. Where is Zeus? Q: You have been talking about a middle path. Today politics is swinging between caste equations and Hindutva? Where do you see yourself? A: Hindutva is different. Hinduism is an umbrella under which Saivism, Vaishvanism and other forms of worship were brought together by the British. Neither Tamil literature nor Vedas record Hinduism as a sect. It is a large umbrella. You have to go to its finer points. My elder brother calls himself an atheist. He doesn’t believe in the concept. I would say that show me God. That is why I’m a rationalist. He is an atheist as he doesn’t wish for a God. Q: National anthem is being played in cinema halls. Does its playout before films make people more patriotic? A: It is like a commitment towards the nation. It cannot be forced upon anyone. In my time in 70s, they played the anthem in theatres and I found people casual about it as they wanted to go home or catch a bus. Never take it there. Keep it for solemn occasions. Q: But current discourse has led to politicisation of patriotism? A: You don’t have to remind people of it everytime. I sing national anthem with my children. In August it used to rain and I would go out in the rains with my children and sing the national anthem. Q: Your recent remarks on Hindu terror generated a lot of controversy. What were you trying to imply? A: It was a remark which was badly translated. I used words to describe extreme. I was talking about slow marshal and violent attitude creeping in the Hindu fold. We were a peaceful lot. I was being critical of it. Q: Are you saying that Hindus are being radicalized? A: Yes, and it is being facilitated by rhetoric. That’s what I was trying to criticise. To become a stronger country, we have to shun any form of violence. Q: The rhetoric has political acceptance? A: It is there because there is a belief that it is another way to establish Hindu hegemony. But there are other ways of showing largeness. Let us begin by showing a large heart and accommodate and let’s make it an inclusive society. I have nothing against the Hindu society. My elders believe in Sanatan Dharma. My daughters believe in God and I have to keep in mind that I don’t hurt them when I write something on the subject. Q: Many people said that you failed to criticize someone like Zakir Naik while you were addressing the issues related to Hinduism? A: I will criticise them also. They should not indulge in violence be it Christians or Muslims. No religion implies violence. All great books talk about love but we have become selective about them. Q: Did the BJP ever approach you? A: No. But PM selected me as the ambassador of Swachh Bharat and I accepted it because I’m willing to do for any party who wants to contribute to nation building. Q: So, you are all set for a new chapter? A: I want to change the culture of politics. I’m not interested in taking anyone down. And people are ready too. New voters are coming of the age. I’m focused on that demography. They want change and I want to be part of it.

I want to change the culture of politics: Kamal Haasan

&nbsp;

US President Donald&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;toured the Forbidden City with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday as he began the crucial leg of an Asian tour intended to build a global front against North Korea&#39;s nuclear threats.

After warning North Korea&#39;s &quot;cruel dictatorship&quot; against testing the United States during a speech in Seoul,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;and First Lady Melania&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;were met by Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan for tea at the former imperial palace.

But the genial gathering will be followed on Thursday by a full day of thorny talks, with&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;looking to prod Xi into doing more to squeeze North Korea economically and to address China&#39;s massive trade surplus with the United States.

The&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;administration sees Beijing as the key to controlling Pyongyang, which depends on China for its economic survival and for 90 percent of its trade.

Earlier,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;congratulated Xi on his reappointment as China&#39;s Communist Party chief, tweeting: &quot;I very much look forward to meeting with President Xi who is just off his great political victory.&quot;

Trump&#39;s use of the term &quot;political victory&quot; for the outcome of last month&#39;s Communist Party congress was seen by analysts as an attempt to conciliate Xi before tough talks on trade and North Korea.

&quot;He&#39;s laying it on thick to put Xi in a good mood because he will have unpleasant things to tell him,&quot; said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, China politics specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Xi has prepared an extravagant &quot;state visit-plus&quot; for&nbsp;Trump, with opera and a lavish banquet, and the US leader has brought a business delegation along for the ride. Deals are expected to be signed, though they may not be enough to allay US concerns about China&#39;s massive trade surplus, which narrowed in October but remained high at a monthly $26.6 billion.

US President Donald?Trump?toured the Forbidden City with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday as he began the crucial leg of an Asian tour intended to build a global front against North Korea's nuclear threats.

US President Donald Trump toured the Forbidden City with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday as he began the crucial leg of an Asian tour intended to build a global front against North Korea's nuclear threats. After warning North Korea's "cruel dictatorship" against testing the United States during a speech in Seoul, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were met by Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan for tea at the former imperial palace. But the genial gathering will be followed on Thursday by a full day of thorny talks, with Trump looking to prod Xi into doing more to squeeze North Korea economically and to address China's massive trade surplus with the United States. The Trump administration sees Beijing as the key to controlling Pyongyang, which depends on China for its economic survival and for 90 percent of its trade. Earlier, Trump congratulated Xi on his reappointment as China's Communist Party chief, tweeting: "I very much look forward to meeting with President Xi who is just off his great political victory." Trump's use of the term "political victory" for the outcome of last month's Communist Party congress was seen by analysts as an attempt to conciliate Xi before tough talks on trade and North Korea. "He's laying it on thick to put Xi in a good mood because he will have unpleasant things to tell him," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, China politics specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University. Xi has prepared an extravagant "state visit-plus" for Trump, with opera and a lavish banquet, and the US leader has brought a business delegation along for the ride. Deals are expected to be signed, though they may not be enough to allay US concerns about China's massive trade surplus, which narrowed in October but remained high at a monthly $26.6 billion.

Watch: Trump arrives in China amid North Korea tensions

The national general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saroj Pandey today raked up a controversy by making a comment that if the killing of her party workers continued in Kerala, &quot;eyes of the attackers will be gouged out&quot;. 
 
Her comment drew strong criticism from the main opposition Congress. 
 
Pandey was speaking to media on the sidelines of a programme in Kumhari area of Chhattisgarh&#39;s Durg district. 
 
&quot;Our national president has taken out a march (referring to Jan-Suraksha Yatra in Kerala) because in future, if they (attackers) continue to show eyes to our workers, we will gouge them out (humare rashtriya adhyaksh ne march ki shuruwaat isliye ki hai ki aane vale samay me agar hamare karyakarta ke sath isi prakar se aankh dikhane ki sthiti hogi to hum ghar me ghuskar aankh nikla lenge ye tay baat hai),&quot; Pandey said. 
 
She further said her party has a strength of about 11 crore workers across the world and the killing of people related to RSS and BJP in the coastal state is not acceptable in a democracy. 
 
&quot;Our party has a strength of 11 crore members across the world more than 300 workers in Kerala who were 20, 22 and 25 years of age were murdered. Everybody has right to present their thoughts. But as far as the politics is concerned, I believe politics should not be done like this,&quot; she said. 
 
&quot;We have government (at the Centre) and based on our numbers (in Lok Sabha), we can dismiss such (state) governments. 
 
&quot;But we believe in democracy and the party ruling in Kerala and West Bengal should also respect democracy and should not be based on these issues,&quot; she said. 
 
Meanwhile, state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, talking to PTI, condemned the statement made by BJP general secretary. 
 
&quot;A senior woman politician should not make such kind of comment. It has exposed the real face of her party and its mindset. Any kind of violence is not justified in a democracy,&quot; Baghel said.

&nbsp;

Saroj Pandey was speaking to reporters in Chhattisgarh's Durg district at the time

The national general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saroj Pandey today raked up a controversy by making a comment that if the killing of her party workers continued in Kerala, "eyes of the attackers will be gouged out". Her comment drew strong criticism from the main opposition Congress. Pandey was speaking to media on the sidelines of a programme in Kumhari area of Chhattisgarh's Durg district. "Our national president has taken out a march (referring to Jan-Suraksha Yatra in Kerala) because in future, if they (attackers) continue to show eyes to our workers, we will gouge them out (humare rashtriya adhyaksh ne march ki shuruwaat isliye ki hai ki aane vale samay me agar hamare karyakarta ke sath isi prakar se aankh dikhane ki sthiti hogi to hum ghar me ghuskar aankh nikla lenge ye tay baat hai)," Pandey said. She further said her party has a strength of about 11 crore workers across the world and the killing of people related to RSS and BJP in the coastal state is not acceptable in a democracy. "Our party has a strength of 11 crore members across the world more than 300 workers in Kerala who were 20, 22 and 25 years of age were murdered. Everybody has right to present their thoughts. But as far as the politics is concerned, I believe politics should not be done like this," she said. "We have government (at the Centre) and based on our numbers (in Lok Sabha), we can dismiss such (state) governments. "But we believe in democracy and the party ruling in Kerala and West Bengal should also respect democracy and should not be based on these issues," she said. Meanwhile, state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, talking to PTI, condemned the statement made by BJP general secretary. "A senior woman politician should not make such kind of comment. It has exposed the real face of her party and its mindset. Any kind of violence is not justified in a democracy," Baghel said.

Eyes of attackers will be gouged out: BJP gen secy on killing of party workers in Kerala

Jared Kushner used a personal email account to communicate with White House aides in his capacity as a senior adviser to his father-in-law&nbsp;US President Donald&nbsp;Trump, according to reports.

As a candidate,&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;routinely attacked his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, telling supporters &quot;she has to go to jail&quot; over the affair.

Following an investigation, the FBI recommended that no charges be brought against her, but noted she had been &quot;extremely careless&quot; in her handling of sensitive information.

Citing four officials, Politico said Kushner used a personal server to send messages to senior White House officials and outside advisers about media coverage, planning events, and other issues.

There is no suggestion the emails contained highly sensitive information or were classified, it added, but they could fall foul of the Presidential Records Act, which requires all documents related to the president&#39;s personal and political activities to be archived.

Kushner&#39;s numerous responsibilities within the&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;administration include brokering peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, confirmed the report in a statement to the media.&nbsp;

&quot;Fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account,&quot; he said.

&quot;These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address.&quot;

In addition to the email controversy, Kushner is facing scrutiny over the&nbsp;Trump campaigns alleged collusion with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, which is the subject of multiple ongoing probes including by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller.

In June 2016,&nbsp;Trump&#39;s eldest&nbsp;son&nbsp;Donald&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;Jr, Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort met with a Russian government attorney who an intermediary claimed had incriminating information about Clinton.

As a candidate,?Trump?routinely attacked his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, telling supporters "she has to go to jail" over the affair.

Jared Kushner used a personal email account to communicate with White House aides in his capacity as a senior adviser to his father-in-law US President Donald Trump, according to reports. As a candidate, Trump routinely attacked his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, telling supporters "she has to go to jail" over the affair. Following an investigation, the FBI recommended that no charges be brought against her, but noted she had been "extremely careless" in her handling of sensitive information. Citing four officials, Politico said Kushner used a personal server to send messages to senior White House officials and outside advisers about media coverage, planning events, and other issues. There is no suggestion the emails contained highly sensitive information or were classified, it added, but they could fall foul of the Presidential Records Act, which requires all documents related to the president's personal and political activities to be archived. Kushner's numerous responsibilities within the Trump administration include brokering peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, confirmed the report in a statement to the media. "Fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account," he said. "These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address." In addition to the email controversy, Kushner is facing scrutiny over the Trump campaigns alleged collusion with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, which is the subject of multiple ongoing probes including by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller. In June 2016, Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr, Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort met with a Russian government attorney who an intermediary claimed had incriminating information about Clinton.

Kushner used personal email for White House business: Report

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