ENGLISH MORNING NEWS 0815 -

THE HEADLINES :

President Droupadi Murmu to visit Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya today.
Campaigning for third phase of Lok Sabha elections intensifies with top leaders holding back to back rallies to woo the voters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates invasion on Rafah despite truce talks with Hamas.
Met Department issues red alert for severe heat wave conditions in Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand till tomorrow.
India to host Badminton World Federation Junior Championships in Guwahati next year.
In IPL Cricket, Lucknow Super Giants defeat Mumbai Indians by four wickets in Lucknow last night.

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President Droupadi Murmu will visit Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya today. This will be her first visit to the place after the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple. The President will also visit Hanumangarhi and attend Saryu Aarti in the evening.

Due to the President’s program, there will be traffic diversion on the Lucknow-Ayodhya-Gorakhpur National Highway and the route connecting Ayodhya Airport to Ram Path. Although ordinary devotees will continue to visit the temple in the same manner.

The security arrangements have been tightened in view of the President’s visit.

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As the third phase for the Lok Sabha elections comes close, various political parties will be staging election rallies across the country today. Prime Minister and BJP leader Narendra Modi will hold election rallies in Banaskantha and Sabarkantha districts of Gujarat. Gujarat will go for polls in a single phase on the 7th of May. Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah will address a public meeting in Korba in Chhattisgarh. Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav will campaign for party candidate Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. Rajasthan Chief Minister and BJP leader Bhajan Lal will hold a public meeting in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, in support of Lok Sabha candidate Manish Jaiswal and will also participate in the nomination programme.

In Uttar Pradesh, many high profile candidates will file their nominations today. Political rallies and road shows of Senior leaders of different political parties are also scheduled today.

Senior BJP leader Anurag Singh Thakur will accompany BJP candidates Harish Dwivedi from Basti and Jagdambika Pal from Dumariaganj in Uttar Pradesh during their nominations. Another BJP candidate and famous Bhojpuri film star Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua will also file his nomination from Azamgarh Lok Sabha Constituency.

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In Assam, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi will address a rally today for her party candidate in Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency in Assam. Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, Asom Gana Parishad President Atul Bora will also campaign today at multiple locations for the NDA candidates.

Political fate of several heavyweight candidates will be sealed in the third phase in Assam. Altogether 47 candidates including six women are contesting in this phase. The all important Guwahati seat is likely to see straight contest between the BJP and the Congress. The BJP has fielded former deputy mayor of Guwahati Bijuli Kalita Medhi against Mira Borthakur Goswami of Congress. AIUDF Chief and sitting Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal is up against Congress heavyweight Rockybul Hussein. The NDA has given ticket to Asom Gana Parishad’s Javed Islam in Dhubri seat. Both the Barpeta and Kokrajhar seats are likely to have triangular contest. Manas Pratim Sarma, Akashvani News, Guwahati.

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The Election Commission of India, ECI has revised the polling schedule of Lok Sabha elections in the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency of Jammu and Kashmir from the third to the sixth phase. The voting in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat will now be held on 25th of May instead of 7th May, as scheduled earlier. The ECI said, the decision has been taken after representations from different political parties of the Union Territory regarding various logistic, communication and natural barriers turning out as hindrance during campaigning leading to a lack of fair opportunities for the contesting candidates.

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The Congress has released a list of four candidates for Lok Sabha elections. The party has fielded actor turned politician Raj Babbar from the Gurgaon seat in Haryana and former union minister Anand Sharma from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Satpal Raizada has been declared the candidate from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh and Bhushan Patil will contest from the Mumbai North in Maharashtra. The names were finalised by the Congress Central Election Committee.

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The Election Commission of India- ECI has published a total voter turnout data for phase one and two of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The commission said 66.14 per cent voter turnout was recorded in phase one and 66.71 per cent in phase two. The ECI highlighted that the first phase data comprises 66.22 per cent male voters, 66.07 per cent female and 31.32 per cent third gender voters, while in second phase, 66.99 per cent male voters, 66.42 per cent female voters and 23.86 per cent third gender voters used their franchise.

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In our series, covering profiles of key constituencies across States and Union Territories during the Lok Sabha elections, today we bring a report on Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

Uttara Kannada is a biodiversity hotspot bestowed with numerous species of flora and fauna, rainforests, rivers, streams, waterfalls and sea shore. Among the eight Assembly constituencies comprising the Uttara Kannada constituency Karwar, Haliyal, Sirsi, Bhatkal and Kittur were won by Congress MLAs and three Assembly segments of Kumta, Yellapur and Khanapur were won by BJP MLAs in the election held last year.

Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency bordering Maharashtra and Goa has its own unique culture and traditions. Karwar is the district headquarters where the Naval base is being developed under Project Seabird. In this election, BJP has given the ticket to six time MLA from Sirsi Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri. He is taking on Anjali Nimbalkar of the Congress party. The BJP Lok Sabha candidate Kageri had lost from Sirsi and Congress candidate Nimbalkar had lost from Khanapur during the Assembly election held last year. There are over 16 lakh 38 thousand 450 electors in this constituency, out of which eight lakh 22 thousand 429 are Men and over eight lakh sixteen thousand are female voters. There are 13 candidates in fray. The number of polling booths for the May 7th election are 1977. Sudhindra, Akashvani News, Bengaluru.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will launch an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah regardless of truce talks with Hamas. He insisted that the war would continue until Israel had achieved all of its objectives in Rafah. Netanyahu’s statement came amid the ongoing attempts to try to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and hostage release.

At a meeting of the hostages’ relatives, Mr Netanyahu said he would invade with or without a deal. His comments follow the renewed warnings by the US against a Rafah invasion unless civilians were properly protected.

Meanwhile the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that an invasion of Rafah would be the biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history. US President Joe Biden has described an invasion of Rafah as a red line. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said an assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation. He also appealed all the influence to do everything to prevent it.

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Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, Abhay Thakur met the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Myanmar, Than Swe in Naypyidaw yesterday. The Indian Embassy in Myanmar said in a social media post that both the leaders held a wide-ranging discussion on various aspects of the multifaceted relations between the two nations. Mr. Thakur also presented a copy of his credentials to Myanmar’s Deputy PM.

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External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar attended the No. 3 Warfare and Aerospace Strategy Programme in New Delhi yesterday. In a social media post, The Indian Air Force said that the programme of the Indian Air Force is aimed at exposing the key elements of comprehensive national power, developing critical thinking and cultivating an understanding of a whole of government approach.

The IAF further said that the course consisted of 14 officers from the IAF, two from the Indian Navy and one each from the Indian Army and Academia.

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The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) has launched two brand-new MA Programmes from the upcoming academic year. The Institute announced, MA in Media Business Studies and in Strategic Communication to be introduced as two-year programmes from the academic session 2024-25. These will be the first ever PG Degree Programmes at the institute since being declared a Deemed to be University earlier this year. The courses will be taught at the New Delhi Campus of IIMC with 40 seats available in each course.

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for severe heat wave conditions in Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha Bihar and Jharkhand today and tomorrow.

In South India, heat wave along with hot and humid weather will prevail over parts of Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the next 4 days. The weather agency has predicted maximum temperatures to fall by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius over Northwest India till tomorrow. However, it is expected to rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius over Central India during the next 4 days. No significant change in maximum temperature is expected over the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, the IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall and snowfall over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during next 4 days.

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In Telangana, several places witnessed scorching temperatures, with six locations recording highest maximum temperatures of above 46 degrees Celsius.

According to the Telangana State Development Planning Society the highest maximum temperature recorded in the State was 46.2 degree Celsius in at Jaina in Jagtial district and Madugulapally in Nalgonda district.

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India will host the 2025 edition of the Badminton World Federation, BWF World Junior Championships at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati. According to the BWF president Poul-Erik Høyer, India’s production line of elite badminton talent is booming.

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In IPL Cricket, Lucknow Super Giants defeated Mumbai Indians by four wickets at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow last night.

With this victory, Lucknow moved up from fifth to third place in the points table, while Mumbai stands ninth.

Today, Chennai Super Kings will take on Punjab Kings at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

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TODAY’S NEWSPAPERS HEADLINE:

Being pragmatic at the Inter-governmental Negotiating Committee at Ottawa, “India advocates consensus-backed moves to end plastic pollution, not a voting based approach” writes Hindustan Times.
Raising concerns and sparking criticism, The Pioneer on its front page writes “Covishield cure comes with serious side-effects” associated with blood clotting.
“Rahul, Priyanka may opt out in Amethi, Rae Bareli” as the Hamletian dilemma hits the Congress, is a headline in The Asian Age.
“Delhi breathes cleanest air in six years, barring 2020” with under -201 AQI in April, states The Indian Express.
A headline in The Times of India says “Second hottest April ever in South, east India mean temperature at 51-year high.”
And Finally, The Economic Times writes about flights and hotels in cooler locales drawing huge crowd and airfares, taking a hike as summer holidays dawn early amid heatwave under the headline “High temperature takes travel to a fever pitch.”

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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN:

President Droupadi Murmu to visit Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya today.
Campaigning for third phase of Lok Sabha elections intensifies with top leaders holding back to back rallies to woo the voters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates invasion on Rafah despite truce talks with Hamas.
Met Department issues red alert for severe heat wave conditions in Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand till tomorrow.
India to host Badminton World Federation Junior Championships in Guwahati next year.
In IPL Cricket, Lucknow Super Giants defeat Mumbai Indians by four wickets in Lucknow last night.

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