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LUCKNOW: Opposition leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav have separately launched attacks against Yogi Adityanath led BJP government for deterioration in law and order situation in the Uttar Pradesh. Terming the law and order in the state as jungle raj, both the Congress general secretary and the Samajwadi Party national president blamed the Yogi administration for increasing criminal activities in Uttar Pradesh during the present pandemic.

It can happen only in Bihar. At least 15 districts in Bihar, including Patna the prestigious capital of the state, are the worst corona affected hotspots. Only on July 17, The Lancet had listed eight Bihar districts among the 20 most vulnerable ones across the country for the novel coronavirus. The spike in daily cases of coronavirus in Bihar over the past 10 days has reinforced that the perception of people and the analysis of The Lancet report are not misplaced.

The sensational case of Kerala gold smuggling through diplomatic channel takes one half a century back in the history of trade ties between India and Dubai.

The news about Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trials moving to the third phase of a clinical trial is making everyone ecstatic. The stock market in particular is rewarding the shareholders of all the major pharmaceutical companies conducting the clinical trials. Price data from the US stock market show in a matter of four months, starting mid- March, stock prices of these companies went up between 27 per cent and 400 per cent. Moderna Inc. up by 400 per cent, BioNTech by 228 per cent, Emergent Biosolutions Inc. by 100 per cent, Astra Zeneca by 46 per cent, Johnson & Johnson by 37 per cent, and Pfizer by 27 per cent. However, vaccines are not going to be available for the general public any time before next year.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal’s tweet on July 12: “Worried for our party. Will we wake up only after the horses have bolted from our stables?” depicts the mood in the Congress. Indeed this is the question many senior Congress leaders are asking themselves, as they helplessly watch the unfolding drama in Rajasthan. It looks as if Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot might manage to survive the present crisis, but the question of survival remains for the Congress. With such fragile majority, Gehlot will not find it easy to keep the flock together even if he manages to win the trust vote.

By sending federal militarized units in fascist-like fashion into major cities to attack peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators, President Donald Trump is assaulting democracy and setting a dangerous precedent less than 100 days before the November elections.

This is for the first time during the 6 years of Narendra Modi rule, the BJP has been put on defensive. While triggering split in the Rajasthan Congress the top leadership of BJP was sure that like its earlier coups this time too it would succeed with a worthless Congress raising its hand in despair.

Departing from usual diplomatic norms, the Chinese envoy in Nepal, Hou Yanqi, is openly intervening in the domestic politics of Nepal. She has been tasked by her bosses in Beijing to bring about somehow, anyhow, a rapprochement between the two squabbling factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party(NCP), one led by Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli and the other by Pushpa Kumar Dahal “Prachanda”, a former prime minister and now a co-chairperson of the NCP along with Oli. The two are now at daggers drawn, each trying to oust the other. China is desperately trying to keep the NCP united and avert a split in the party. Oli has publicly threatened to split the party.

Another round of disquiet on the Himalayan borders might just as well break out, going by indications at present. As perceived, the immediate threat is that China is not sticking to the understanding reached on disengagement and moving troops back from respective positions to status quo ante the May 5 clashes. The troops were to be moved back create a sort of buffer zone.

New Delhi: World champion PV Sindhu says that beating 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui was the turning point of her career.