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  • Hong Kong officials protest U.S. move

    President Trump ended city’s special status for customs and travel purposes

    Reuters

    Hong Kong officials lashed out on Saturday at moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to strip the city of its special status in a bid to punish China for imposing national security laws on the global financial hub.

    Speaking hours after Mr. Trump said the city no longer warranted economic privileges and that some officials could face sanctions, Security Minister John Lee told reporters that Hong Kong could not be threatened and would push ahead with the new laws.

    ‘We are right’

    “I don’t think they will succeed in using any means to threaten the (Hong Kong) government, because we believe what we are doing is right,” Mr. Lee said. Justice Minister Teresa Cheng said the basis for Mr. Trump’s actions was “completely false and wrong”, saying national security laws were legal and necessary for the former British colony.

    In some of his toughest rhetoric yet, Mr. Trump said Beijing had broken its word over Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy from Beijing, by proposing the national security legislation and that the territory no longer warranted U.S. economic privileges. “We will take action to revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory from the rest of China,” Mr. Trump said, adding that Washington would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for ”smothering — absolutely smothering — Hong Kong’s freedom”. Mr. Trump said that China’s move was a tragedy for the world, but he gave no timetable.

    China’s Parliament earlier this month approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to curb sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference. Mainland security and intelligence agents may be stationed in the city for the first time.

  • Israeli police shoot dead ‘unarmed’ Palestinian man

    They suspected he was carrying a gun

    Reuters

    Israeli police officers shot a Palestinian they suspected was carrying a weapon in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday, a spokesman said, but the man was later found to have been unarmed, Israeli media reported.

    “Police units on patrol there spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol. They called upon him to stop and began to chase after him on foot, during the chase officers also opened fire at the suspect,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Mr. Rosenfeld said the suspect, a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem, was dead. Palestinian officials said he had mental health issues.

    Police did not confirm to reporters whether the man had been carrying a weapon. Israel’s Channel 13 News said earlier that he was unarmed. The secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat condemned the incident on Twitter.

  • History in the making: SpaceX propels two NASA astronauts into orbit

    With the liftoff, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people into orbit.

    Reuters

    SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans into orbit from Florida on Saturday in a landmark mission marking the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years.

    A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station.

    Just before liftoff, Hurley said, “SpaceX, were go for launch. Lets light this candle,” paraphrasing the famous comment uttered on the launch pad in 1961 by Alan Shepard, the first American flown into space.

    Minutes after launch, the first-stage booster rocket of the Falcon 9 separated from the upper second-stage rocket and flew itself back to Earth to descend safely onto a landing platform floating in the Atlantic.

    High above the Earth, the Crew Dragon jettisoned moments later from the second-stage rocket, sending the capsule on its way to the space station.

    The exhilarating spectacle of the rocket soaring flawlessly into the heavens came as a welcome triumph for a nation gripped by racially-charged civil unrest as well as ongoing fear and economic upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic.

    ‘Beautiful sight’

    The Falcon 9 took off from the same launch pad used by NASA’s final space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. Since then, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

    “It’s incredible, the power, the technology,” said U.S. President Donald Trump, who was at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida for the launch. “That was a beautiful sight to see.”

    The mission’s first launch try on Wednesday was called off with less than 17 minutes remaining on the countdown clock. Weather again threatened Saturday’s launch, but cleared in time to begin the mission.

    Spaceflight milestones

    NASA chief Jim Bridenstine has said resuming launches of American astronauts on American-made rockets from U.S. soil is the space agency’s top priority.

    “I’m breathing a sigh of relief, but I will also tell you I’m not gonna celebrate until Bob and Doug are home safely,” Mr. Bridenstine said.

    For Mr. Musk, the launch represents another milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered to make spaceflight less costly and more frequent. And it marks the first time commercially developed space vehicles —  owned and operated by a private entity rather than NASA — have carried Americans into orbit.

    The last time NASA launched astronauts into space aboard a brand new vehicle was 40 years ago at the start of the space shuttle program.

    Behind the scenes

    Mr. Musk, the South African-born high-tech entrepreneur who made his fortune in Silicon Valley, is also CEO of electric carmaker and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc. He founded Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, in 2002.

    Mr. Hurley, 53, and Mr. Behnken, 49, NASA employees under contract to fly with SpaceX, are expected to remain at the space station for several weeks, assisting a short-handed crew aboard the orbital laboratory.

    Boeing Co, producing its own launch system in competition with SpaceX, is expected to fly its CST-100 Starliner vehicle with astronauts aboard for the first time next year. NASA has awarded nearly $8 billion to SpaceX and Boeing combined for development of their rival rockets.

    Mr. Trump called the launch the beginning, saying that eventually there would be flights to Mars. He was joined at the viewing by Vice President Mike Pence, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and Senator Rick Scott.

    Earlier on Saturday, the crew bid goodbye to their families. Prior to getting into a specially-designed Tesla for the ride to the launch site, Mr. Behnken told his young son, “Be good for mom. Make her life easy.”

    During the drive, Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley passed former astronaut Garrett Reisman holding a side saying “Take me with you.”

  • LAC standoff | India-China border row will be resolved through diplomacy, says Rajnath Singh

    First comments by a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security on the almost month-long standoff.

    The standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China would be resolved through diplomatic dialogue and India’s effort was also to ensure that tensions did not rise further, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday, in the first comments by a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security on the almost month-long standoff.

    “As of now, dialogue is on with China both at the military and diplomatic level,” Mr. Singh said in a television interview. India’s policy had been very clear that “we should have good relations with all neighbours.” Both India and China have resolved incidents that arose from time to time through dialogue and existing mechanisms, he said.

    Giving the example of the 73-day standoff at Doklam in 2017, he said India had held firm but the issue was eventually resolved through dialogue.

    Trump’s offer

    Asked about the U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and China to resolve what he termed a “now raging border dispute”, Mr. Singh said that in a telephonic conversation with his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper on Friday he conveyed that the issue would be resolved bilaterally. “I told him [Mr. Esper] that India and China already had a mechanism that if there is any problem between the two countries, it is resolved by military and diplomatic dialogue. That mechanism is in place and the dialogue is on.” Both India and China had declined the U.S. offer of mediation.

    Except for a few statements from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and one message from Army chief Gen. Manoj Naravane, the government had maintained silence on the ground situation. The MEA had said that the issues would be resolved according to five agreements on border management signed by India and China between 1993 and 2013.

    Mr. Singh did not respond to a direct question on whether Chinese troops crossed over into Indian territory. Instead he said there were differing perceptions on the alignment of the LAC due to which both sides patrolled across the LAC till their lines of perception. The country “should be assured that we will not allow India’s dignity to be hurt under any circumstances”, he said.

    The government has so far not said why the tense situation came about and why were the bilateral mechanisms activated other than the two acknowledged May 5 and 9 incidents which, the Army said, were locally resolved.

     

    Chinese troops movement

    However, sources said that beginning early May, Chinese troops moved inside Indian territory with vehicles and equipment at several points along the LAC, including Pangong Tso, several points in Galwan Nalah area and Demchok in eastern ladakh and Naku La in Sikkim, where PLA soldiers also blocked Indian patrols and pitched tents. In response, India, too, moved troops forward and also redeployed additional troops to the Ladakh region.

    Satellite images put out by Open Source Intelligence handles on Twitter show construction and build-up by Chinese troops at several points both inside Indian held territory and also on their side close to the LAC. Images by open source intelligence expert detresfa, an analyst with ShadowBreak Intl, show Chinese units moving upwards from the base area at finger 4-5 of Pangong Tso. India holds up to Finger 4 area of the 135-km-long Pangong Tso but claims up to Finger 8 while China claims up to Finger 2. Similarly, images show large-scale activity by Chinese troops at Gogra and Hot Springs sectors too.

    Images dated May 22, put out by an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an independent think tank based in Canberra, show about 80 tents set up by Chinese soldiers along the Galwan river. They also show vehicles and other structures.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • China-made Covid-19 vaccine could be out by year-end

    More than 100 vaccines for the virus are being developed globally, and in China, a total of five vaccines are being developed and tested on humans.

    More than 2000 people have received the vaccine in the first two phases of the trial. (Bloomberg)

    A Covid-19 vaccine under development in China could be in the market by the end of the year, a government body affiliated to the country’s cabinet, the State Council, has announced.

    The vaccine is being jointly developed by the Wuhan Biological Products Research Institute and Beijing Biological Products Research Institute and have completed two phases of clinical or human trials, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced in a social media post on its WeChat account.

    Both entities are affiliated with government-owned pharmaceutical group Sinopharm.

    More than 2000 people have received the vaccine in the first two phases of the trial

    “It is reported that the clinical trial is divided into three phases, the completion of phase I-III clinical till come into the market, it is expected to be the end of this year or early next year at the earliest,” the announcement said.

    The announcement added that data from the two first two phases of clinical trials show that the candidate vaccine’s safety and efficacy were better than other vaccines under development.

    More than 100 vaccines for the virus are being developed globally, and in China, a total of five vaccines are being developed and tested on humans.

    Meanwhile, Wuhan is set to complete the ambitious task of conducting nucleic acid tests (NAT) on all its residents to check for asymptomatic patients.

    Between May 15 and 25, Wuhan medics tested more than 6.5 million residents, a state media report said, adding at least 218 among them were found to be asymptomatic.

    The mass testing is part of China’s efforts to fortify against a potential “second wave” after a cluster of cases emerged in a residential community earlier this month

    To carry out the tests in time, health workers collected and mixed 10 to 20 samples and carried out a single test on them; If the collected sample was positive, each individual was tested again to identify which person was positive.

    With inputs from Hindustan Times

  • Zaira Wasim back on social media day after quitting it over locust attack post backlash

    Srinagar: Former actor Zaira Wasim’s post about floods and locust attacks was met with a huge backlash, forcing her to deactivate Twitter and Instagram accounts, but the “Dangal” star has now made a comeback on social media. Zaira had caused a social media storm after she tweeted a verse from the Quran that many people said justifies the locust attacks in various states across the country.

    “So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood: Signs openly self-explained: but they were steeped in arrogance- a people given to sin -Qur’an 7:133 (sic),” Zaira had said in a now-deleted post. The same post is, however, still visible on her Instagram page, where she had also shared a video. Zaira was criticised by social media users for her insensitivity towards those affected by the locust attacks, which led her to deactivate both her Twitter and Instagram accounts. But on Saturday, she resumed her accounts and in a post, explained why she had exited the social media platforms.

    “Because I am just a human, like everyone else, who’s allowed to take a break from everything whenever the noise inside my head or around me reaches it peak,” Zaira, 19, said in response to a query by one of the users. However, she has since deleted the new post. Last year, the National Award-winning actor was in a centre of a debate after she announced her “disassociation” from acting, saying she was not happy with the line of work as it interfered with her faith and religion. She had said that it felt like she had struggled to become someone else for a very long time.

    The actor, who was in her early teens when she appeared in Dangal opposite Aamir Khan, also worked in his 2017 production venture Secret Superstar . Her last film was “The Sky Is Pink”, opposite Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar. (PTI)“`

  • Will COVID pandemic end? Kashmir’s leading medico says ‘may be never’

    Studies on past viruses show pandemics only subside not vanish fully, we will have to learn to live with Coronavirus for years to come even if a vaccine is found: Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan

    Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir’s leading medico and an influenza expert Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan Saturday said that even if any country would succeed in making anti-Covid vaccine, the pandemic may only subside and not vanish completely or die down.

    He, was quick to add that the people of J&K will have to learn to live with the pandemic for many years to come. In an exclusive interview with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the flu expert and the Associate Professor Medicines at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, said that COVID has to stay and it is going to be part of people’s life.

    “We need to learn to live with it safely,” Dr Nisar said. “We have to embrace the virus as it is not going to go away. Even if a vaccine will come or a drug will be introduced, which seems far away, and even if both will come, the virus is still going to stay.

    This is the 5th Coronavirus as earlier, there were already four pandemics J&K has witnessed in the past wherein we have seen that even when the pandemic went off or faded away, it existed in the society though with less impact.”

    Dr Nisar said that swine flu of 2009 is a case in point. “Its epicentre was in Mexico. World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with a vaccine almost nine months after the pandemic. People got vaccine shots. But the virus continues to stay as H1N1 cases do report to hospitals in Kashmir in winter months,” he said.

    “Cases of Swine Flu keep on coming to the hospitals despite the fact vaccine against it is available and people have got the shots. It’s called a seasonal flu now a days.”

    Talking about the worst ever pandemic of 1918 also known as Spanish flu, which consumed over a 100 million people. “People believe 2009 (swine flu) was the dissident of the Spanish flu. Despite vaccines and medicines to cure it, the virus stayed

    We saw re-emergence of Spanish flu into H2N2 also known as Hong Kong flu and even H3N2. These viruses are circulating among people of Kashmir in the form of common cold,” Dr Nisar said told KNO. “One of the epidemic called as small pox died down after a vaccine was found, but that’s an exception.”

    The doctor said that Covid-19 has behaved different in different countries and regions. “In Kashmir, it has behaved very mildly so far as none died on roads and there is no mass deaths like we saw in Italy, US and China.

    He said there are two ways when end of pandemic is announced—one is medically, scientifically and when cases start declining fast. “Past viruses took a few years to see decline. Similarly, in the present case, it will also take some to decline. Remember I am talking about decline not that the virus would die down,” Dr Nisar said

    He, however, stressed that now that it is clear the virus will stay, people should not be kept indoors anymore. “There is an economic disaster due to the pandemic and there is a livelihood issue too,” he said.

    “In 1918 pandemic, more people were killed with the primitive setup. There was lockdown that time too. But when cases declined, people came out of homes and mixed up with each and then there was a resurgence again and more people died than the phase one.”

    Dr Nisar said J&K government is on a right track by doing aggressive testing, isolating people and asking people to maintain social distancing. “But at the same time people have to resume life. There will be a double edged sword for the people,” he said. “You can’t keep people indoors every time.”

    He, however, made it clear that when the people would come out, they will catch the disease for sure. “They will get anti-bodies and get immune too,” he said. “The trend is that if 50 per cent of the people would get infected, they will recover too.

    By easing out the restrictions, the virus will change a bit and can be more lethal as happened in 1918. There can be more fatalities that’s why I say people will see double edged sword hanging around their neck.”

    The flu expert said in Kashmir, people are going to fields, shops are reopening and people are moving back to work in offices etc and civil secretariat is also functioning. “So cases may rise and that’s quite expected,” he told KNO

    “Amid easing restrictions, we have to keep isolating the people. The behaviour of virus in Kashmir is very mild. That may be because of biology of Kashmiris. People of Kashmir have been living with large spells of common cold etc.” He stressed while moving ahead with the virus, mass testing, isolating people and maintain social distancing holds the key—(KNO)

  • Delhi-Moscow AI flight returns after pilot found COVID-19 positive

    The crew has been quarantined, another plane would be sent to Moscow to bring back the stranded Indians

    PTI

    An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow on Saturday had to return midway after the airline’s ground team found out that one of the pilots had tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said.

    “When the A320 plane, which did not have any passengers as it was heading to Moscow to bring back stranded Indians under Vande Bharat Mission, had reached Uzbekistan’s airspace, our team on ground realised that one of the pilots had tested COVID-positive,” senior Air India officials said.

    “The flight was immediately asked to return. It came back to Delhi at around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday,” the officials said.

    The crew has been quarantined. Another plane would be sent to Moscow to bring back the stranded Indians, according to the officials.

  • Pakistan violates ceasefire in J&K’s Poonch

    PTI

    The Pakistan Army resorted to intense firing on forward areas along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Saturday, a defence spokesperson said.

    The intense firing from small arms across the border started around 10 a.m. in Kirni sector, drawing befitting retaliation by Indian Army, the spokesperson said.

    The unprovoked ceasefire violation was initiated by Pakistan and the cross-border firing between the two sides was going on when last reports were received, according to the spokesperson.

    There was no immediate report of any casualty on the Indian side, he added.

  • Jammu, Srinagar to have CAT Benches; Personnel Ministry modifies its order

    The move comes nearly a month after the Ministry in its April 29 order had extended the CAT’s Chandigarh Bench’s jurisdiction to the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and Union Territories of Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

    PTI

    The Benches of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), that adjudicates Central government employees’ service matters, will function from Jammu and Srinagar, the Personnel Ministry has said, modifying its earlier order that had created confusion and resentment among many over the jurisdiction of tribunals.

    The move comes nearly a month after the Ministry in its April 29 order had extended the CAT’s Chandigarh Bench’s jurisdiction to the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and Union Territories of Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

    This order had created resentment and confusion among many employees of the newly created Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Following which, the Central government had on May 1 clarified that neither the petitioner nor the lawyer need to go to Chandigarh for filling petition or appearing before the tribunal related to service matters of employees.

    “The term Chandigarh circuit is being misinterpreted to mean that the petitioner/lawyer would have to go to Chandigarh, which is not so. All service matters of Central government and UT employees of J&K and Ladakh will be heard and disposed off in CAT Bench in J&K itself,” it had said.

    However, on May 28, the Personnel Ministry came out with a notification that said, “The Central government hereby specifies Jammu and Srinagar as the places at which the Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal shall ordinarily sit for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.”

    It removed the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh out of the ambit of Chandigarh Bench. It has now amended its last month’s order by inserting Jammu Bench and to specifically say that the Bench will have jurisdiction over the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

    With the creation of new Bench, over 31,000 matters of the employees of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, which were heard by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, will now be transferred to the CAT, officials said.

    The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir has been reorganised into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh — with effect from October 31, 2019.

    The Personnel Ministry’s earlier order had evoked shared reactions from all concerned in the State. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal has shot off a letter to Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, a move resulting in sharp reaction from CAT chairman L. Narasimha Reddy.

    The establishment of Benches at various places and to ensure disposal of the cases is the responsibility of the tribunal and the high court need not be so apprehensive. Wherever necessary, the guidance and help of the high court would certainly be taken, the CAT chairman had said.