The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will virtually meet on Saturday to discuss the second wave of COVID-19, party sources confirmed on Tuesday.The party’s internal polls to elect a president by June may also come up for discussion. However, the prospect of holding a Congress session or mass gathering in the current scenario looks difficult.The party’s highest decision making body will meet exactly a week after Congress president Sonia Gandhi had met the Chief Ministers of the party-ruled States and senior Ministers of Maharashtra and Jharkhand governments where the Congress is part of the ruling alliance.Apart from Maharashtra, Congress-ruled Punjab and…
Author: Mike Harrison
Today’s announcement that federal officials have recommended pausing use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine might hurt efforts to encourage people to get vaccinated. But — critically — that doesn’t mean the federal officials shouldn’t have made the recommendation, says Melanie Kornides, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing who studies why some people are hesitant to take vaccines. “Some people are missing the message — they’re so worried about hesitancy, that they’re not seeing how important it is to address the safety, in order to make people feel less hesitant,” she says. The Food…
Rohit’s side suffers a collapse — from 86 for one to 152 — but suffocates Kolkata’s chase in back-10, thanks to Chahar, Krunal, Bumrah and Boult Kolkata Knight Riders left no stone unturned in preparing for its nemesis, Mumbai Indians. Eoin Morgan started with spin to keep Rohit Sharma & Co. quiet in the PowerPlay. He saved the express pace of Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna for Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya in the middle overs. The plans worked, with his side dismissing the five-time champion for 152. But in the end, pressure got the better of KKR, as it lost by…
India-A’s tour of England this summer has been postponed and the senior team will now have an integrated jumbo squad for the five-match Test series in England later this year, the ECB and the BCCI agreed on Tuesday.The senior team, which is to play five Tests against England in August-September, will now have only two intra-squad practice games instead of the First Class fixture between the India seniors and India-A teams planned earlier.It is believed that the decision has been taken to ensure the safest possible environment for a high quality international series in times of COVID-19.Mutual agreement“The ECB and…
Olympic hopeful Sajan Prakash clinched the gold in the men’s 200m butterfly with a timing of 1:57.85s, but it was well short of the A-mark Olympic Qualifying Time (1:56.48s), at the Uzbekistan Open swimming championships on Tuesday.The result, however, was a significant improvement from the timing of 1:59.31s he had clocked at the Latvian Open last month. Sajan had achieved the B-mark Olympic Time (1:59.97s) at the 2019 FINA World Championships, finishing in 1:58.45s.Also on Tuesday, Kenisha Gupta secured the gold medal in women’s 100m freestyle, coming home in 57.42s, while Shivani Kataria took the bronze (59.60s). A.S. Anand was…
In spite of the alarmingly rising cases of COVID-19, the Badminton Association of India (BAI), on Tuesday, announced plans to hold the India Open badminton championship in-camera at the K.D. Jadhav Indoor hall at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here, as rescheduled from May 11 to 16.Although medical experts on the pandemic fear that the peak of the second wave could emerge in May, the BAI will go ahead with the Olympic qualification event with 228 players from 33 countries, including China.Seven-day quarantine The event, out of bounds for spectators and media, mandates the players and the officials to report here…
The World Health Organization called on Tuesday for a halt to the sale of live wild mammals in food markets to prevent the emergence of new diseases such as COVID-19.The WHO said because traditional markets play a central role in providing food and livelihoods for large populations, banning the sale of live wild mammals could protect the health of market workers and customers alike.“COVID-19 has brought new attention to this threat, given the magnitude of its consequences,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters.The call came in fresh guidance drawn up by the WHO in conjunction with the World Organisation for…
Changes will make it illegal to encourage others to boycott polls or cast blank votes Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced amendments to voting laws on Tuesday that critics say favour pro-Beijing candidates by redrawing constituency boundaries, creating more electoral districts, and criminalising calls for voters to leave ballots blank.Having become Hong Kong’s least popular Chief Executive in the near quarter century since the handover from British colonial rule, it remains unclear whether Ms. Lam will seek re-election. She faced anti-government protests in 2019 after proposing a Bill to allow extraditions to China.Legislative Council, known as LegCo, elections are set…
Washington plans to pull all remaining troops out of the country before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 The U.S. will begin its drawdown of troops in Afghanistan before May 1 and complete the process before September 11, according to a senior U.S. administration official. There are between 2,500 and 3,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan at present.“We will begin an orderly draw-down of the remaining forces before May 1st and plan to have all U.S. troops out of the country before the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” the official told reporters on a briefing call on Tuesday. The process could be completed…
In the pandemic we’ve had to shift our lives to be socially distant — we work remotely, we shop online, and we workout at home. Last year, I signed up for a virtual reality workout app called Supernatural, which runs on the Oculus Quest. Now my wife and I use our Quest 2 almost every day to work out in VR. It feels like we’re leaving the house, the music is great, and the workouts are no joke. My guest on Decoder this week is Chris Milk, founder and CEO of Within — which makes Supernatural. Milk has been making…