India will never get an opener like Rohit Sharma: Sunil Gavaskar

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August 23, 2020

TikTok on Saturday said it will challenge the Donald Trump administration in court over app’s crackdown in the United States. The wildly popular short-form video app has been accused of breaching US users’ private data, causing a security threat to the nation.

As the trade war between the two worl superpowers – China and US, continues, president Donald Trump on 6 August signed an executive order stating giving Bytedance, the Chinese firm who owns TikTok, 45 days to sell its operations to an American company.

“Even though we strongly disagree with the administrtion’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good fought to rovide a constructive solution,” TikTok said in a statement.

“What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses. To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the executive order through the judicial system,” it said.

Trump has claimed that TikTok has been used as a spy by China to track the locations of federal employees in the US, and observe corporate business. Beijing has denied the accusations time and again.

TikTok has been in talks with a number of US tech giants including Microsoft and Oracle to sell its US operations.

The Trump administration has also given ByteDance 90 days to dispossess the app before it gets banned in the US.

Meanwhile, TikTok has said it will file its suit next week amid the soaring tension with US administation.

Coronavirus update: India’s covid-19 tally crosses 3 million mark

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August 23, 2020

With fresh additions, India’s total coronavirus toll crossed thirty lakh mark on Sunday. As per the latest figures, the country reported 70,812 fresh infections in past 24 hours, taking its total number of infections to 30,41,463. With 914 new deaths on Saturday, the total number of patients who lost their lives to Covid-19 in India reached 56,837.

India became the third country in the world, after the US and Brazil, to record more than 3 million covid-19 cases. The number of cases in the country continue to rise as pathogen find hotspot across the country, halting the efforts by the government to curb the virus.

However, with increased number of cases, India’s recovery rate has ascended to 74.69 per cent and the fatality rate has also dropped further to 1.87 per cent, the Union Health Ministry stated.

Over the past few weeks, India has also ramped up its testing process. On Friday, a total number o 10,23,836 samples were tested, the highest done in a day so far. Now, the cumulative total of tested sample stands at 3,44,91,073.

Meanwhile, in other news, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that India’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus will most likely be available by the end of this year.

“One of our COVID-19 vaccine candidates is in the third phase of the clinical trial. We are very confident that a vaccine will be developed by end of this year,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

“I am happy to say that in the eighth month of the battle, India has the best recovery rate of 75 per cent. A total of 2.2 million patients have recovered and gone home and another seven lakh are going to be cured very soon. We started with only one testing laboratory in Pune but we scaled up our diagnostic capabilities and strengthened our testing capacity. Today, India has 1,500 testing labs for COVID-19 and on Friday we tested over one million samples” the minister added.

Globally, 22,949,234 people have been infected with the virus so far, including over 7.9 lakh who have succumbed to it. The United States followed by India and Brazil remains the worst hit country.

Israel Approves New Groundbreaking COVID-19 Testing Method

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August 23, 2020

The Israeli Health Ministry has authorized a new COVID-19 testing technique that allows labs to simultaneously evaluate nose and throat swabs taken from eight people, helping them save reagents necessary for the process, which are in short supply all over the world.

The Israeli government plans to roll out the new method in 12 labs across the country by October, anticipating that another wave of coronavirus infections could coincide with influenza season with potentially calamitous results.

“We’re doing everything we can in order to be ready,” said Ronen Walfisch, an engineer at the defence ministry who oversaw a pilot project to test the method’s efficacy. The method passed with flying colours, he said.

The standard RT-PCR test takes several hours to be processed. This, combined with the time taken to collect and transport samples, means the result may sometimes take over a day to come. But pool testing has come to be a preferred method in low-prevalence areas for its efficacy.

If a pool tests negative, then the need for conducting separate tests again is eliminated. However, if the pool tests positive, it means that one of the samples is Covid-19 positive. Further tests are then conducted to determine which patient is positive.

In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, Shental and his colleagues, Tomer Hertz and Angel Porgador of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, report that their method — called P-Best, for Pooling-Based Efficient SARS-CoV-2 Testing — successfully detected positives in pools of as many as 48 samples. The method accurately screened 1,115 health care workers with just 144 tests, the study found.

Vocal for Local: PM Modi discusses ways to boost toy manufacturing in India with senior ministers and officials

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August 23, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a substantial meeting with senior ministers and officials on ways to strengthen toy manufacturing in India and encouraged the start-ups and youngsters to focus on innovations in the sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a meeting with senior ministers and officials to discuss ways to boost manufacturing and global imprint of Indian toys: Prime Minister's Office pic.twitter.com/InvQ3eXHUC
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2020

PM Modi said India is home to numerous toy clusters and thousands of artisans who manufacture indigenous toys which not only have cultural connect but also helps in building life-skills and psychomotor skills among children at an early age. He said such clusters should be promoted through innovative and creative methods.

Had an extensive meeting on ways to boost toy manufacturing in India. Our focus would be to support the sector and create toys that ensure physical fitness and holistic personality development. https://t.co/5yvLU8Zx22
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 22, 2020

It was informed that Indian toy market has huge potential and can bring a transformative modification in the industry by boosting ‘Vocal for Local’ under AatmaNirbhar Bharat campaign.

Prime Minister remarked that toys can be an excellent medium to further the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ and exhorted that toys should reflect India’s value system and culturally established environment-friendly approach. He further suggested using tourism as a tool to promote India’s culture primarily in the region well-known for renowned handmade toys.

Toys can be excellent ways to further the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.’ We must look at ways India’s civilisational greatness can be showcased through the toys that are made in our country. A vibrant toys sector will further our dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 22, 2020

He also emphasized the need to organize hackathons for youth and students for innovations in toy technology and design, including online games, to reflect Indian ethos and values.

I urge start-ups and youngsters to focus on innovations in the toys sector. Educational institutions can organise Hackathons on this as well. Another area that we want to focus on is creating toys that are environment friendly.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 22, 2020

Putting emphasis on fast-growing digital gaming arena, Modi explained India should tap the huge potential in this area and lead the international digital gaming sector by developing games that are inspired by Indian culture and folk tales.

IPL 2020: MS Dhoni was roaring sixes, Suresh Raina was found whistling and cheering in the CSK camp

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August 22, 2020

Ever since MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina announced their international retirement together on India’s 74th Independence Day, both the cricketers and their IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings have been in the news. It is not that this team was in any way short before their retirement, but the return of cricket coming from the IPL 2020 in UAE is now slowly coming to its color where all the teams have reached UAE.

Before leaving for the UAE on Friday, CSK organised a five-day strength and conditioning camp for all its Indian cricketers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Chennai. To share a glimpse of his training session, CSK posted a video on Twitter in which Dhoni was practicing.

The super camp sorely missed the super fans, thanks to COVID. But we managed to end it with a loud whistle! #WhistlePodu #Yellove 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/z8NoMk7h6p
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) August 21, 2020

Dhoni was seen batting in full flow, hitting both spinners and pacers sixes. Apart from training, it was also seen in this video that there is a special connection between Raina and Dhoni. While Dhoni was hitting sixes on sixes, Raina standing outside the nets was clapping fiercely on Dhoni’s sixes. Meanwhile, he was also seen whistling several times.

SK CEO KS Viswanathan told Sportstar that Dhoni is hitting the ball very well. And hitting sixes in all directions. Dhoni is looking very confident. The boys had not taken training for a long time and it was good for them. After a break, he did not want to put himself in training suddenly because if you want to avoid injury, then you have to do stretching. In such a situation, now the cricketers have gradually found their rhythm.

CSK players left Harbhajan Singh and left for UAE on Friday. Due to his mother’s illness, the senior off-spinner will now join the rest of the team in the United Arab Emirates after a time of two weeks.

IPL 2020: AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, and Chris Morris joins the RCB squad in Dubai

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August 22, 2020

Three South African players AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Chris Morris have joined their IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Dubai on Saturday. The 13th season of this T20 League will be played in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, UAE from 19 September to 10 November due to the Kovid-19 epidemic.

RCB has shared the video of these players reaching Dubai on their official Twitter handle. For the safety of the players, RCB has reserved an entire wing of a hotel, which has about 150 rooms.

De Villiers said, “I am very excited, very happy to be here. The journey was a little different than usual, but we completed it with our South African friends. We are very happy to be back in the RCB family. I am waiting for my COVID-19 probe.”

All the Indian players from Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians reached UAE on Friday for the world’s biggest T20 league.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CELbi9WnXuq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Steyn said, ‘It’s going to be interesting to play in the summer. We reached here at three o’clock in the morning, but at that time the situation outside here was like steam. Look ahead to the situation in a few weeks.

RCB captain Virat Kohli himself arrived here separately according to the BCCI’s standard operating procedure.

Upon arriving here, Morris said, “We haven’t played the game we love for a long time.” It is challenging, but we are a little nervous if we are excited and honest. ‘

Why Dhoni went to Balaji before announcing his retirement?

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August 22, 2020

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowling coach Laxmipathy Balaji believes that despite being questioned many times about his career, former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s uniqueness lies in his ability to ‘stand out’. Shortly after Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket on Instagram on August 15, he went to this former Indian fast bowler and discussed few things.

Balaji said, “After the practice is over, I normally talk to Dhoni a lot about wickets, practice, and playing conditions. That day I finished practice and I went inside. I did not realised that he had already announced his retirement at 7:29 pm.”

The Dhoni-led CSK had set up a small camp in Chennai before leaving for the upcoming IPL for the UAE. Balaji said, ‘It was a big moment in his life. But the way he progresses, Dhoni is there for you.

Balaji said in ‘Star Sports 1’ Tamil cricket program, “Dhoni came to me as usual after posting his message. They told me that they have asked the field workers to give extra water on the pitch. I said ok I didn’t feel anything at that time.”

He said, ‘I later realised that he had announced his retirement. It took me some time to believe that moment is true. The specialty of Dhoni is that he remains quite different from others. Regardless of the situation, he will never stop, he moves in his own style. ‘

Balaji said that the former Indian captain has changed the perception of leadership among captains around the world. He said, “According to me there is no one like Dhoni since the year 2000, who has been successful in making a huge impact not only on Indian cricket but also on world cricket.”

Balaji said, “Even now my team needs more than 20 runs to win in the last over then I would have no question in my mind rather going ahead with the MS Dhoni. He has such a wide impact on the game. “Balaji said,” His leadership and his batting style are completely different. His leadership

China deploys bomber, Vietnam briefs India about situation

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Neha Kumari

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August 22, 2020

Vietnam’s Ambassador to India Pham San Chou briefed IFS Harsh Shringala on the deteriorating situation in the South China Sea. They claims the entire South China Sea, has deployed fighter jets and bombers over the disputed islands.

As per sources, the visit by the Vietnamese ambassador was part of a courtesy call. He explained the role of Vietnam as tensions rise in the South China Sea. In a meeting with Harsh Shringala, Pham San Chou expressed his determination for a comprehensive and comprehensive strategic partnership with India. This was reported by the Times of India.

Meanwhile China deployed H-6J bombers on Woody Island earlier this month. The US Navy’s moves to counter China’s dominance in the South China Sea have also increased significantly. Experts believe that China has deployed fighter jets in response to the US. The South China Sea is rich in resource wealth. That is why China is claiming the entire sea.

The meeting between Pham San Chou and Harsh Shringla discussed defense ties with developments in the South China Sea. Even Vietnam is developing defense ties with India. In the South China Sea, India expects India to play a key role in oil exploration along with a gas block in the maritime area bordering Vietnam.

Prashant Bhushan Case: ‘History Will Judge The Court For Having Let us Down,’ Says Kapil Sibal

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Neha Kumari

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August 22, 2020

Prashant Bhushan Case: Kapil Sibal, Congress leader said “contempt power being used as a sledgehammer”, involving lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan.

The court held Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for two tweets. The first, on June 27, where he was critical of the court.

And second, on June 29, where he criticised the current CJI.

Prashant Bhushan

Contempt power being used as a sledgehammer

Why are Courts helpless when institutions that need to protect the constitution and the laws show “ open contempt " for both ?

Larger issues are at stake

History will judge the Court for having let us down
— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) August 22, 2020

Why are Courts helpless when institutions that need to protect the constitution and the laws show “ open contempt “ for both ? Larger issues are at stake History will judge the Court for having let us down,” Sibal, who is also a senior lawyer, tweeted.

Congress’ spokesperson and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said “They cannot be dismissed off hand and deserve a lot of careful thinking because they include former judges of that very court, they include precedence and they include the basic spirit of the Supreme Court that its chest is larger than any chest in India and its shoulders being wider than any shoulder in India.”

The Ganguly’s plan- England tour to India in February 2021, 14th season of IPL will be held in April

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August 22, 2020

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chairman Sourav Ganguly has stated that they have a plan for next year’s matches. He has told that the Indian team will play a home series against England in February after returning from the 2021 tour of Australia, while the 14th season of the IPL will start in April.

Ganguly wrote a letter to the presidents and secretaries of state associations on Thursday, stating that India will start hosting tournaments from next year. India will host the T20 World Cup in 2021 and One Day World of 2023.

The IPL-13 is being organized in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Ganguly wrote in the letter, ‘IPL-2020 will be held in the UAE between 19 September and 10 November. We have taken all the necessary steps for the IPL.

He wrote, ‘As far as domestic cricket is concerned, it is an off-season for us. BCCI will start domestic cricket as the situation improves. We hope that the situation of COVID-19 will improve in the next few months. We will be able to start domestic cricket in a safe environment.

The former captain wrote, ‘We will continue to fulfill the FTP commitments of Indian cricket. India’s senior men’s team will start the series with Australia in December this year and then return home for the England series, which will start from February next year. After this, there will be IPL in April -2021. Tour of senior women’s team is also being discussed and more information will be given soon.

After Hagia Sophia, Turkey’s historic Chora Church also switched to mosque

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August 22, 2020

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, into a mosque on Friday, a month after opening the famed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship.

Erdogan`s edict on Friday did not say when the first Muslim prayers would be held at Chora, or what arrangements would be made for the Christian artworks there.

“Today’s decision of the Turkish authorities to turn Chora church into a mosque is another challenge that harms religious people around the world and the international community, which respects the monuments of human civilization,” the ministry was quoted as saying in a statement.

The pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper reported that Turkey’s religious authorities plan to cover the renowned Byzantine-era frescoes and mosaics during prayers. A similar approach was taken with the Hagia Sophia, the UNESCO World Heritage site converted to a mosque last month.

Greece has slammed Turkey’s move to convert the Chora museum, the 1,000-year-old former Byzantine Greek Orthodox church, into a mosque, saying it was “totally condemnable”.

Dating back to the sixth-century Byzantine Empire, the beautiful structure of the building remains intact.

The interior of the building is covered with some of the oldest and finest surviving Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. They were uncovered and restored after the building was turned into a museum.

Ottoman Empire historian Zeynep Turkyilmaz called the conversion “destruction” because the building’s walls are lined with Christian art that would have to be either covered up or plastered over — as it was by the Ottomans.

“It is impossible to hide the frescoes and mosaics because they decorate the entire building,” the historian told AFP.

Yet some locals fully supported the change.

“There are dozens, hundreds of churches, synagogues in Istanbul and only a few of them have been opened to prayer as mosques,” said Yucel Sahin as he strolled by the building after the morning rain.

Akshay Kumar to go ‘into the wild’ with Bear Grylls; watch teaser

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August 22, 2020

After PM Modi and Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar is all set to be the next Indian guest of Bear Grylls’ Into the Wild. The special episode will feature on September 11 on Discovery+, the actor has announced.

“You thinking I mad… but mad only going into the wild,” Akshay wrote on Twitter along with a teaser of the episode. The teaser showed the actor and host in a dense forest swinging towards each other with a rople.

Watch the video here:

View this post on Instagram

You thinking I mad… but mad only going into the wild. #IntoTheWildWithBearGrylls @beargrylls @discoveryplusindia @discoverychannelin

A post shared by Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) on Aug 20, 2020 at 10:32pm PDT

Akshay, who has previously hosted Khatron Ke Khiladi, is known for performing his own stunts. Even at the age of 52, the actor’s fitness is commendable.

As per media reports, Akshay shot for the episode this year at Mysuru’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

“Akshay Kumar makes for an ideal guest on Man Vs Wild. He’s agile, energetic and quite fit as we all know. He can easily roam around in the difficult terrain of the forest and make for great company with Bear Grylls. Akshay hopes to learn the survival techniques from Bear. The British adventurer too hopes to imbibe some of his admirable qualities. We assure it’ll be an episode to watch out for!” a source told Bollywood Hungama.

Meanwhile, on the film front, Akshay was last seen in Varun Batra’s Good Newwz last year. The actor had a number of projects releasing this year which postponed due to coronavirus outbreak and one of his films, Laxxmi Bomb, is headed for a direct OTT release on Disney+Hotstar.

The actor recently travelled to UK to shoot for his much-anticipated film Bell Bottom which also stars Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta.

Delhi government releases new guidelines as it opens hotels, weekly markets on trial basis

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August 22, 2020

On Friday The Delhi Government notified its decisions to allow hotels and Weekly markets to operate and issued SOPs for both, that include mandatory precautions, wearing masks, strict social distancing and availability of hand sanitizers.

It also stated that gaming arcades and play areas for children shall be closed and the hotels must adopt contactless processes like QR code, online forms, digital payments like e-wallets for check-in and check outs.

The government also prescribed air conditioning to be maintained in the range of 24-30 degrees Celsius and relative humidity at 40-70 per cent. Valet staff will use face covers and disinfect key, steering and door of vehicles of the guest, it said.

Weekly markets will be allowed to operate on a trail experimental basis starting Monday for a week, between 4 pm and 10 pm. The markets will be allowed to continue after an assessment on August 31, a senior government official said. Both hotels and weekly markets cannot operate from containment zones.
The government on Friday issued another notification, winding up all Covid-19 health centres set up at banquet halls to augment bed capacity when the number of cases rose sharply in June.

The Delhi government’s SOPs are much in line with the guidelines issued by the central government for hotels and markets across the city.

Earlier, during the meeting with representatives of hotel associations, Kejriwal thanked the hotel industry, saying when coronavirus was at its peak, the hotels supported the government in enhancing the capacity of beds for treatment of patients.

Kejriwal said even though the central government was against the opening of the hotel industry in Delhi out of a fear that the cases might rise again, it was a very important step in reviving the economy of Delhi

“The Central government was against the idea of opening the hotel industry in Delhi, and I would not blame them because the Centre must have thought that the cases might rise again.

“But I explained to them that the hotels are functioning in areas where the cases of corona are rising in the country. Either the Centre should shut the hotels down across the entire country, or open it in the region where the corona is under control,” he said.

The chief minister said there were two challenges — how to end the spread of the virus and reviving the economy of Delhi because businesses have been shut and jobs have been lost due to the pandemic.

“I am happy that since June 1, when the central government had opened the lockdown, and after we went ahead to lift the lockdown in Delhi on their directions, we did not have the need to re-impose the lockdown in the capital,” he said.

In a joint statement J&K parties, Congress & CPM says, Will tirelessly fight to restore Article 370

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