Tag: india

Air Force scrambled Rafales after ‘UFO’ sighting near Imphal airport

The Indian Air Force scrambled two Rafale fighter jets after getting information about the sighting of an ‘unidentified flying object’ (UFO) near Imphal airport in Manipur on Sunday.

The Rafales, launched from Hasimara air base, could not spot anything, top sources told India Today.

The first aircraft returned to the base and the second was deployed towards the area to check again, but it could not ascertain anything.

The Eastern Command of the Indian Air Force said that it had activated its Air Defence response mechanism.

“IAF activated its Air Defence response mechanism based on visual inputs from Imphal airport. The small object was not seen thereafter,” it tweeted on Sunday.

“The UFO was visible with bare eyes moving westwards of the airfield till 4 pm,” a CISF official said.

Flight operations at Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Manipur’s Imphal were halted for several hours after an unidentified flying object was sighted above the airport.

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The World’s Largest Biometric Digital ID System, India’s Aadhaar, Just Suffered Its Biggest Ever Data Breach

In one fell swoop, roughly 10% of the global population appears to have had some of their most valuable personal identifiable information (PII) compromised. Yet Aadhaar continues to receive plaudits from Silicon Valley. 

An anonymous hacker claims to have breached the digital ID numbers, as well as other sensitive personal data, of around 815 million Indian citizens.

To put that number in perspective, it is more than 60% of the 1.3 billion Indian people enrolled in the government’s Aadhaar biometric digital identity program, and roughly 10% of the entire global population. Thanks to the breach — the largest single one in the country’s history, according to the Hindustan Times — the personal data of hundreds of millions of Indians are now up for grabs on the dark web, for as little as $80,000.

To register for an Aadhaar card, Indian residents have to provide basic demographic information, including name, date of birth, age, address and gender, as well as biometric information, including ten fingerprints, two eyeball scans and a facial photograph. Much of that data has apparently been compromised.

Media reports suggest that the source of the leak was the Covid-19 test data of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is linked to each individual’s Aadhaar number.

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Another Putin critic ‘falls out a window’ to his death: Sausage tycoon plummets from luxury hotel – two days after his male friend died of a ‘heart attack’ on their trip to India

Russia‘s ‘highest-earning elected politician’ who had criticised Vladimir Putin‘s war in Ukraine has been found dead after a mysterious fall from a hotel in India.

Sausage multi-millionaire Pavel Antov, from the main pro-Putin party United Russia, had been on a trip to celebrate his upcoming 66th birthday.

A male friend in his party had died ‘from a heart attack’ on Thursday last week, and the wealthy politician perished two days later.

The married tycoon, an MP in the legislative assembly of the Vladimir region, was listed as Russia’s highest-earning elected official in 2019.

The Russian Consul General in Kolkata Alexei Idamkin told TASS he ‘fell’ out of a hotel window in Rayagada, Odisha state.

‘We are closely following the investigation and receiving all the information from the Odisha police,’ the diplomat said.

In June, Antov criticised the war and air strikes on Kyiv as Russian ‘terror’ wounding Ukrainian civilians.

He highlighted a Russian missile strike and said: ‘A girl has been pulled out from under the rubble, the girl’s father appears to have died.

‘The mother is trying to be pulled out with a crane – she is trapped under a slab. To tell the truth, it is extremely difficult to call this anything other than terror.’

He evidently then swiftly came under intense pressure after which he withdrew the comment and made a grovelling apology.

He made an about-turn and claimed his post on social media had been ‘an unfortunate misunderstanding’ and a ‘technical error’.

He insisted he had ‘always supported the president’ and ‘sincerely’ backed the goals of Putin’s military operation – but local journalists strongly disputed this.

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Indian Government Blames Public for Getting Vaccines Despite Being Aware of its Side Effects – Claims it Cannot be Held Liable for Any Injuries

The Indian government has argued before the Supreme Court of India that it is not liable for any injuries that may occur as a result of the Covid vaccine, according to its affidavit dated November 23.

This affidavit was submitted in response to a petition filed by the parents of two young women in India who tragically lost their lives after receiving the experimental Covid vaccine last year, according to Hindustan Times.

“The petition demanded an independent investigation into the deaths and an expert medical board to prepare a protocol for early detection and timely treatment of adverse effects following immunization (AEFI),” the outlet reported.

The petitioners were Rachana Gangu, mother of Rithaika Omtri, 18, and Venugopalan Govindan, father of Karunya Venugopalan, 20, who both died within 3 weeks of receiving the Covid vaccine.

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Indian surgeon plans to transplant womb into a TRANS woman in world-first op that could pave way for biological men to get pregnant

A surgeon in India will attempt to transplant a womb into a trans woman who was born a man — with the view to making them pregnant.

The risky procedure will involve taking the reproductive organs from a dead donor or a patient who has transitioned the other way and had theirs removed.

There has only been one documented case of a womb being inserted into a trans woman in the past — but she died from complications just months later. 

Impregnating a trans woman would be an even bigger feat, and would require the use of IVF and a C-section, because they do not have a fully functioning vagina.

Dr Narendra Kaushik, who runs a gender reassignment clinic in New Delhi, has said he is ‘very, very optimistic’ he can make a success of the procedure. 

‘Every transgender woman wants to be as female as possible — and that includes being a mother,’ he is quoted as saying in The Mirror.

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US Suddenly Pretends To Care About Rights Abuses In India

The United States is suddenly very concerned about human rights violations in India, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken telling the press on Monday that “we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials.”

While it is true that India’s right-wing government is guilty of human rights abuses and has been for years, it is also true that the US State Department does not actually care about human rights abuses.

A leaked State Department memo from the early days of the Trump administration showed neoconservative empire manager Brian Hook teaching a previously uninitiated Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that for the US government, “human rights” are only a weapon to be used for keeping other nations in line. In a remarkable insight into the cynical nature of imperial narrative management, Hook told Tillerson that it is US policy to overlook human rights abuses committed by nations aligned with US interests while exploiting and weaponizing them against nations who aren’t.

“In the case of US allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, the Administration is fully justified in emphasizing good relations for a variety of important reasons, including counter-terrorism, and in honestly facing up to the difficult tradeoffs with regard to human rights,” Hook explained in the memo.

“One useful guideline for a realistic and successful foreign policy is that allies should be treated differently — and better — than adversaries,” Hook wrote. “We do not look to bolster America’s adversaries overseas; we look to pressure, compete with, and outmaneuver them. For this reason, we should consider human rights as an important issue in regard to US relations with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. And this is not only because of moral concern for practices inside those countries. It is also because pressing those regimes on human rights is one way to impose costs, apply counter-pressure, and regain the initiative from them strategically.”

No, the US State Department does not care about human rights abuses. Blinken’s remarks are just the latest in a series of shots across the bow that the US empire has been firing at New Delhi to warn it against moving into alignment with Moscow.

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Biden Megadonor Scores $500 Million Federal Loan for Solar Company

A solar energy company owned by a Biden megadonor received a $500 million government loan to build a manufacturing facility in India, the Biden administration announced this week, raising questions about whether the company’s political clout played any role in the financing decision.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation granted the loan to First Solar, which is owned by billionaire Walmart heir Lukas Walton, to build a solar module plant in India. Walton contributed over $300,000 to President Joe Biden’s campaign last year, and over $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records.

The loan to First Solar is the “largest single debt financing transaction” issued by the DFC, the agency announced this week. The DFC said the investment in the India project will “promote DFC’s commitment to diversifying supply chains,” following demands from lawmakers that the agency avoid funding any solar projects connected to forced labor in China.

Ethics watchdogs said the loan raises questions about whether First Solar’s political connections played a role in the DFC’s decision. The federal financing agency, which was formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, has faced criticism in the past for funding projects linked to political donors. The loan also comes nine years after the Obama administration came under fire for approving $3 billion in loan guarantees to the same company—funding that Republican lawmakers alleged the company wasn’t qualified to receive.

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China and India set to receive £1.5billion climate aid windfall – despite scuppering COP26 coal pledges

China and India are set to receive a £1.5 billion climate aid windfall despite scuppering a COP26 deal on reducing reliance on coal power.

Richer countries agreed to double funding for developing nations to prepare for global warming at the Glasgow conference earlier this month.

Despite having two of the fastest growing economies in the world, the UN designates China and India as ‘developing states’.

Analysis shows that the two countries received a total of about £700 million from developed countries in 2019, the latest figures available, as well as millions more from investment foundations and private donors.

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America last: Biden is selling 1/3 of oil reserves he’s releasing to China and India

The Biden administration is releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices.

Because, they say, we cannot be vulnerable to volatile energy supplies.

There’s more to the story.

First, not all of those barrels are going to U.S. consumers. A total of 18 million are expected to be sold to China and India, according to Fox Business.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm indicated Tuesday that the congressionally-approved sale of those 18 million barrels will help drive down U.S. oil prices, presumably by offsetting international oil shortages.

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