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Kamala Harris calls hip-hop ‘ultimate American art form’

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The US Vice President Kamala Harris had celebrated the 50th Anniversary of hip-hop, during which she called hip-hop the ‘the ultimate American art form’

Published Date – 12:30 PM, Sun – 10 September 23


Kamala Harris calls hip-hop ‘ultimate American art form’

IANS Photo

Los Angeles: The US Vice President Kamala Harris had celebrated the 50th Anniversary of hip-hop, during which she called hip-hop the ‘the ultimate American art form’.

Harris is a hip-hop enthusiast herself, and had held a massive party to celebrate the music at her residence in Washington D.C., which she called “the first-ever hip-hop house party at the Office of the Vice President of the US,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She celebrated the anniversary party from a stage built on her lawn with a guest list of rap luminaries, including Common, Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte and Fat Joe. Taking to the stage of her lawn, she told the audience: “Hip-hop is the ultimate American art form.

“Hip-hop now shapes nearly every aspect of America’s popular culture, and it reflects the incredible diversity and ingenuity of the American people,” she added.

“It combines rhythms from the continent of Africa, from the Caribbean, from Latin America, with the sounds of soul and gospel and R&B and funk to create something entirely new.” “And to be clear, hip-hop culture is America’s culture,” she continued.

“It is a genre. It is music and melody and rhyme. And hip-hop is also an ethos of strength and self-determination, of ambition and aspiration, of pride, power and purpose.”

Concluding her statement, she said: “And why did we all love our hip-hop so much? Well, one reason is it speaks truth, raw, unfiltered, without apology?”

Harris danced alongside her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who joked about his old nickname being Doug E. Fresh. Emhoff then pointed out that the real Doug E. Fresh was set to perform at the event.

Lil Wayne closed the multi-hour concert with a performance of his hits ‘A Milli’, ‘Mrs. Officer’ and ‘Uproar’.

He thanked Harris and the White House for inviting him. “I appreciate this. My mom appreciates this too,” he said.

For the occasion Harris partnered with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective and Live Nation Urban. The guest list, included more than 400 guests attendees.

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IRGC chief to Tel Aviv: Threats against Iran will only shorten Israel’s life

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The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned Israel that threats against the Islamic Republic will only shorten the Israeli regime’s life.

Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks in a meeting with a group of individuals active in the field of cyberspace on Wednesday, three days after David Barnea, director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, threatened to hit Iran’s “highest echelon … in the heart of Tehran.”  

“The Zionists are grappling with many problems, and signs of their decline are evident. Thus, they have resorted to empty rhetoric and threats to assassinate our commanders,” he said.

“Go ahead if your previous assassination operations have increased your security. However, you should know that if you make threats against [Iran’s] security, we will have more options and your life will be cut short,” he said, addressing the Israeli officials.

The IRGC chief commander also noted that the Islamic Republic has managed to thwart almost all of the enemy’s destructive and dangerous strategies over the past 45 years while the US has failed to even support its allies.

“The wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq showed that the military option is no longer a viable solution for them (the Americans) and that their plots to install puppet governments have failed in this region,” he added.

“They cannot even provide full support for the Zionist regime, and this inability has turned into an unwillingness to some extent,” he said, adding that the Israelis are gradually losing hope of continued US support.

After months of being snubbed by US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will finally meet him next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, not at the White House.

Washington has on several occasions expressed unease with several of Tel Aviv’s policies, including its plan to radically overhaul the regime’s judicial system and surging atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salami said that the enemies can no longer intimidate Iran with military aggression and sanctions as their 10-year embargo has only led to Iran’s progress in the fields of technology, innovation and societal management.

Iran, he asserted, has launched satellites into space, constructed power plants, dams, roads and railways, and unveiled large petrochemical projects despite the sanctions.

“These facts show that Iran is a real power that cannot be forced to … submit to any superpower,” Salami said.

He also emphasized that the enemies’ strategies to isolate Iran and destabilize the country have all failed.

World

Massive flooding in Eastern Libya kills over 8,000 people

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Floodwater swept the living away, and on Wednesday it was washing bodies back onto the shores of eastern Libya faster than the devastated city of Derna could bury them.

Libyan officials on Wednesday put the number of deaths at 8,000 and said 10,000 people are missing.

Broken roads, failed communications networks, the legacy of years of civil conflict and the effects of climate change have all contributed to making Libya one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, said Elie Abouaoun, country director for Libya with the International Rescue Committee.

“It is devastating,” he told NBC News.

The eastern Libyan port city was destroyed beyond recognition when two dams burst on the Wadi Derna River during a storm this week, causing waves 23 feet high to rush through the town and into the sea.

A total of 5,300 people had been confirmed dead in the floods so far, the Ministry of the Interior of Libya’s eastern government said. But aid groups and officials have said that some 10,000 people are missing, also feared dead either beneath the wreckage of homes or lying somewhere in the floodwaters.

The staggering statistics only go so far in conveying the tragedy.

MP/PR

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Taiwan’s foreign minister slams Elon Musk for calling it “integral part of China”

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Slamming Elon Musk for calling Taiwan an “integral part of China,” the Taiwan foreign minister has asserted that Taiwan is “not for sale”

Published Date – 12:30 PM, Thu – 14 September 23


Taiwan’s foreign minister slams Elon Musk for calling it “integral part of China”



Taipei: Slamming Elon Musk for calling Taiwan an “integral part of China,” the Taiwan foreign minister has asserted that Taiwan is “not for sale”.

Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), as well as the Tesla (TSLA.O) electric car company and Starlink satellite network has stated that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

His remarks at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles were recorded and posted to YouTube this week.

“Their (Beijing’s) policy has been to reunite Taiwan with China. From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the US Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force,” Musk said.

Responding to this, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, posted on X on Wednesday night, “Hope @elonmusk can also ask the #CCP to open @X to its people. Perhaps he thinks banning it is a good policy, like turning off @Starlink to thwart #Ukraine’s counterstrike against #Russia. Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC & certainly not for sale! JW.” Taiwan has been claimed by the People’s Republic of China as its territory.

However, Taiwan’s government claims that because the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island, it has no authority to claim sovereignty over it, speak for it, or represent it on the global stage, and that only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.

Taiwan was formally recognised by just 13 countries: Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini, and the Vatican City.

However, after Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s president in 2016, nine countries shifted allegiances to China, and Beijing has amplified its diplomatic efforts to isolate Taiwan. Taiwan’s government claims that it is a sovereign country with the right to state-to-state ties.

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India demands action over US cop joking about Indian student’s death

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On Wednesday, the Indian Consulate in San Francisco expressed deep concern over the incident.

Updated On – 10:20 AM, Thu – 14 September 23


India demands action over US cop joking about Indian student’s death



New York: India said it has “strongly” taken up the case of its national Jaahnavi Kandula with authorities in the US, following the release of a bodycam video in which a cop is heard joking and laughing about the Indian student’s death by a police patrol car this year.

In the brief clip, Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer is seen driving and can be heard saying, “she had limited value”, in a call with the guild’s president, Mike Solan, The Seattle Times reported this week.

The Consulate General of India in San Francisco on Wednesday termed the incident as “deeply troubling”.

“We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington D.C. for a thorough investigation & action against those involved in this tragic case,” the consulate said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“The Consulate & Embassy will continue to closely follow up on this matter with all concerned authorities,” it added.

Kandula, a 23-year-old student of Northeastern University campus in South Lake Union, was walking near Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street when she was hit by a Seattle Police vehicle driven by Kevin Dave on January 23.

Auderer, who was assigned to check whether Dave was under any influence, inadvertently left his body camera on, in which he was heard laughing and saying that Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should “just write a check”.

“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said, adding Dave was “going 50 (miles an hour)”, stating how “that’s not out of control” for a trained driver.

A police investigation released in June found that Dave was actually travelling at 74 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone while responding to a different call when Kandula was hit and thrown more than 100 feet.

The SPD said in a statement released on Monday that the video of Auderer’s call “was identified in the routine course of business by a department employee”, and was escalated to Chief Adrian Diaz.

Following the chain of command, the employee then escalated it to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) for a review, the statement added. Stating that it released the video “in the interest of transparency”, the SPD said it will not comment further on the video until the OPA completes its investigation.

“No City employee should comment, either in their official or personal capacity, in a way that suggests that any factual, policy, or legal conclusions have been reached about the incident,” the SPD statement read.

“SPD has been in touch with the family of the victim pedestrian and continues to honor their expressed request for privacy. As others in the accountability system proceed with their work, we again extend our deepest sympathy for this tragic collision,” the statement added.

World

Russia shoots 11 Ukrainian drones down over Crimea: MoD

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“At about 5:30 a.m. Moscow time on September 14, the Kyiv regime’s attempted terrorist attack on facilities in Russia’s territory with the use of plane-type unmanned aerial vehicles was thwarted. Eleven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by air defense systems over the Republic of Crimea,” it said, TASS reported.

In the early hours of September 13, Ukraine launched ten cruise missiles at a ship repair yard in Sevastopol, seven of which were intercepted by air defense systems.

Also, the Ukrainian military attacked a detachment of the Black Sea Fleet ships with three uncrewed boats that were destroyed by the patrol ship The Vasily Bykov. The Ukrainian cruise missiles hit two ships under repair. The defense ministry later said that the ships would be fully restored and rejoin their fleets.

Later, the ministry said that three more Ukrainian unmanned motor boats were destroyed by the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s maritime aviation.

MP/PR

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York University in Canada establishes partnerships with Indian institutes

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Toronto: Canada’s top York University is entering into a partnership with O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana, as part of its broader outreach in India.

Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor of York University, is visiting India this week to explore opportunities for two-way student exchange programmes and research partnerships, and firm up institutional collaborations.

“York University is proud to invest in several critical initiatives that will strengthen our ties to India and create mutually beneficial opportunities for our talented students and researchers, including an India Immersion Programme with Jindal Global University as it is important for Canadian students to understand India, its growth story and the impact of India on the world,” she says.

The Canadian delegation will also visit the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bengaluru, IIT Madras and BITS Pilani, Hyderabad.

In Hyderabad, where her university has a presence with its Schulich School of Business MBA in India programme in collaboration with GMR Institute of Technology, she will speak at an education conclave on York’s role in fostering excellence, inclusion and global partnerships in the higher education sector.

She will also address conclaves in Bangaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.

“Plans are in the works for a pan-India entrepreneurship boot camp that will expose talented students to the world’s largest business and consumer market; and the launch of a new global research seed fund that will invest in global research collaborations with leading universities, industries, government agencies and NGOs in priority countries such as India,” says the Canadian university vice-chancellor.

Ranked among the top 40 universities in the world, York University’s Schulich School of Business has an impressive list of alumni from India who hold top positions in the corporate world.

 

World

Accused student fit for trial in Indian-American roommate’s killing

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Ji Min Sha, a 22-year-old cybersecurity major from South Korea, attacked Varun Manish Chheda, a 20-year-old Data Science student, inside their room on the first floor of McCutcheon Hall at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus.

Updated On – 11:18 AM, Thu – 14 September 23


Accused student fit for trial in Indian-American roommate’s killing



New York: A Purdue University student, who was charged with murder after he stabbed his Indian-origin roommate to death in October last year, has been found fit to stand trial, media reports said.

Ji Min Sha, a 22-year-old cybersecurity major from South Korea, stabbed Varun Manish Chheda, 20, a Data Science student, inside their first-floor McCutcheon Hall room on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus.

The Logansport State Hospital determined that Sha “has attained the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defence”, Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Sean M. Persin said in an order filed on Tuesday, the WRTV news channel reported.

Judge Persin ordered the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office to transport Sha and his belongings back to the Tippecanoe County Jail “at the earliest convenience”.

Sha, who is scheduled to appear in Persin’s court for a status conference on September 29, was previously found incompetent to stand trial by Persin in April.

Physicians told the court in April that they found Sha fit the criteria for a schizophrenia diagnosis and recommended a 90-days treatment for him in the Logansport facility.

According to court records, Sha had told police after his arrest that “he is extensively involved in international espionage and is a former CIA operative”.

Prosecutors alleged that Sha stabbed Chheda several times in the head and neck with a folding knife that officers found on the floor near the chair where the victim’s body was discovered.

Sha could face between 45 and 65 years in prison if found guilty of murder.

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Vladimir Putin accepts Kim’s invitation to visit North Korea

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s invitation to visit his reclusive country which was extended after their summit

Published Date – 10:50 AM, Thu – 14 September 23


Vladimir Putin accepts Kim’s invitation to visit North Korea



Seoul: Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s invitation to visit his reclusive country which was extended after their summit at the remote Vostochny spaceport in the Far Eastern Amur Region, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Thursday.

Kim extended the invitation at an official dinner with Putin on Wednesday night after their summit, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

This was Kim’s first meeting with Putin since his visit to Vladivostok in April 2019, reports Yonhap News Agency. “At the end of the reception, Kim Jong-un courteously invited Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time,” the KCNA reported.

“Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship.” DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

The summit came as Pyongyang has recently been seeking to bolster military ties with Moscow and doubling down on its weapons development amid growing security cooperation among South Korea, the US and Japan.

During the meeting, Kim said his latest trip to Russia marks a “significant” occasion to raise cooperative bilateral ties to a higher level, according to the KCNA.

“It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to attach utmost importance to the DPRK-Russia relations and invariably develop the tradition of deep-rooted friendship,” Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

The KCNA said the two sides discussed strengthening cooperation “on the common front to frustrate the imperialists’ military threat and provocation”, although it did not specify the discussion’s details.

“They discussed with open mind the important issues and the immediate cooperation matters arising in defending the sovereignty and development and interests of the two countries,” it said.

During the dinner reception, Putin noted that bilateral relations are invariably oriented to comradely and good neighbourly relations as ever, the KCNA reported.

In response, Kim expressed his will to work for a “far-reaching” plan for bilateral ties with Putin, and “to dynamically promote the powerful nation-building cause in the two countries and realize genuine international justice”, it said.

The KCNA added that Kim left for his next destination, without providing details.

Putin earlier announced that Kim will travel to Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East after the summit.

South Korean and US officials have expressed concerns over the meeting and a possible arms deal between the two countries that could assist Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine.

World

India-US partnership at its most dynamic, says Antony Blinken

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Following India’s successful hosting of the G-20 Summit and bilateral talks between President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Blinken emphasized that the collaborations between India and the US will be mutually advantageous.

Updated On – 10:20 AM, Thu – 14 September 23


India-US partnership at its most dynamic, says Antony Blinken



Washington: The strategic relationship between India and the US has never been so dynamic as they team up on everything from advanced semiconductors to defence cooperation, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Speaking days after India successfully hosted the G-20 Summit and President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks in New Delhi, Blinken said that both India and the US will benefit from several collaborations they have entered into.

“The US-India strategic partnership has never been more dynamic, as we team up on everything from advanced semiconductors to defence cooperation,” Blinken said on Wednesday in his remarks on “Power and Purpose of American Diplomacy in a New Era” at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) here.

Blinken said the Biden administration has elevated the Quad partnership with India, Japan, and Australia to deliver for the countries and the world on everything from manufacturing vaccines to strengthening maritime security to addressing climate challenges.

In November 2017, the four nations gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the “Quad” to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

“And just this past week at the G20, President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Modi announced another ambitious transportation, energy, and technology corridor that will connect the ports of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy, and the EU will team up with the US and India to turbocharge clean energy production, and digital connectivity, and strengthen critical supply chains across the region,” Blinken said.

The new economic corridor, which many see as an alternative to China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), was jointly announced last week by the leaders of the US, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi.

BRI, an ambitious project launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has also drawn criticism about its debt sustainability, especially from smaller countries.

Xi unveiled the BRI in 2013 with an aim to link China, the global manufacturing giant, with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.