News18.com Daybreak | Trump-Kim meet, Atal Bihari Vajpayee admitted at AIIMS hospital & Other Stories You May Have Missed
In case you missed it
The photo-op at HD Kumaraswamy’s swearing in ceremony in Bengaluru was just the beginning of the bonhomie among the titans of India’s opposition parties. It has now translated into an actual battle plan. Sources told News18.com, that out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats that will be up for grabs in 2019, the opposition parties have identified 400 where it wants to pin the BJP down in a one-on-one contest. The plan is in full motion.
US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un have kicked off a momentous summit that could determine historic peace or raise the specter of a growing nuclear threat. Trump and Kim planned to meet with their interpreters for most of an hour before aides join the discussion and talks continue over a working lunch. But even before they met, Trump announced plans to leave Singapore early, raising questions about whether his aspirations for an ambitious outcome had been scaled back. Track all the live updates here.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been admitted to the ICU at AIIMS Hospital. The veteran BJP leader, who has been ailing for quite some time now, underwent dialysis following complaints of lower respiratory tract infection and kidney issues.
Many startling facts came to light in the confession by KT Naveen Kumar, arrested in March this year for his role in the plot to kill Prof Bhagwan for his “anti-Hindu” opinions. Kumar is also being investigated for involvement in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe her murder having taken his custody.
“Leaving a seat in alliance is like chopping off a finger,” Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav once made this observation in a meeting with his close associates. Now his son Akhilesh as party president is willing to play second fiddle and 'sacrifice' seats to foe-turned-friend BSP as the two parties give final touches to the poll pact for 2019 elections. Addressing a rally, Akhilesh said, “We are committed to the alliance with the BSP and will continue working with them, even if we have to sacrifice 2-4 seats, we are not going to stop. We will bring the BJP down.”
The Uttarakhand High Court has put a stop to the ongoing construction of hydro power projects in the state and has put the onus on demarcating sites for muck disposal on District Magistrates. In a landmark verdict on Monday, a division bench of the High Court headed by Justice Rajeev Sharma said,"The District Magistrates throughout the State of Uttarakhand are directed to ensure that no muck, debris or excavated material is dumped directly into the rivers by any hydro-electric company, developers and the authorities responsible for construction of roads.”
After completing his two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review the security situation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre will soon take a call on whether to extend the Ramzan “ceasefire” or not. Since the beginning of this ceasefire, armed forces have stopped active operations and are not taking any action on inputs regarding militants. Most of the action has been limited to the border areas where infiltrators trying to sneak into the Valley have been neutralised affectively. Now as Ramzan draws to a close, will the relative calm in the Valley continue. Here’s an explainer.
Aam Aadmi Party National Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at the Centre and claimed that his government was a victim of political witch hunt. Kejriwal, who had been muted in his criticism of the Narendra Modi government since his loss in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections last year, was his old combative self. He claimed that the Centre had filed 14 cases of corruption against his ministers but had failed to convict or arrest even a single one.
A couple from a village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district has set a goal for all of us. At their wedding, they did away with all the unnecessary pomp and asked the guests to bring educational books as gifts. Now, they are setting up a library with those books.
Agree or disagree?
Even if there are goof-ups, the people of Kozhikode are very forgiving and do not get into the dirty habit of fault-finding. The mutual trust that people have of each other is in many ways indicative of the high social bonding that exists beyond religion or caste compartmentalisations. In short, Kozhikode is reaping the rich dividends of a high social capital that has knowingly or unknowingly grown and bettered over the years. Prasanth Nair, a former district collector of Kozhikode, writes how the community strength helped during the Nipah virus crisis.
The G7 summit in Canada’s rural Quebec ended on an acrimonious note. US President Donald Trump arrived late on the first day and left the two-day summit midway on the pretext of his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Soon after the summit host Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released the joint G7 communiqué, announcing that all seven countries signed it, Trump lashed out on Twitter calling him “dishonest and weak”. The unprecedented public spat between world leaders on social media that preceded G7 was triggered by Trump hitting France and Canada of “unfair” trade practices against US companies. Trump's trade row has overshadowed climate change agenda at G7 Summit, writes Harjeet Singh.
On reel
In Ramsipur village, about 17 kms away from Varanasi, a 'gang' of women have pledged to end alcoholism, gambling and domestic violence. In this video watch how are they are working to remove the social evils.