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First time in eight years, Manchester United tops the Premier League after its victory over Burnley

OpIndia Staff
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First time in eight years, Manchester United tops the Premier League after its victory over Burnley

Nearly after eighty years of the long wait, Manchester United have reached the top of the Premier League after their victory against Burnley on Tuesday.

Manchester United, for the first time since they last won the title in 2012-13 under Sir Alex Ferguson, is now leading the title race after they secured a comfortable victory against Burnley. In a hard-fought game, Paul Pogba scored a winner at 71st minute to secure the lead for the visiting team.

The Red Devils went into their Premier League clash against Burnley at Turf Moor level with the defending champions Liverpool.

After the victory, Manchester United are at the top of the league table with 36 points, three more than Liverpool after 17 matches. Manchester United will be playing its rival Liverpool in the next game of the season. The Sunday’s clash against Liverpool will be a big test for the Red Devils.

Following the victory on Tuesday, Manchester United manager said that they could not have asked for a better time to play defending champions Liverpool and added that the boys are charged up.

“It’s a brilliant position to be in. Of course, we know we’re going to the champions, they’ve had unbelievable three-and-a-half seasons so we know that’s going to be a difficult game for us but we’re ready for it,” Solskjaer said.

In 2018, Manchester United had topped the Premier League at its initial stages but could not continue its run in the later stages of the league. After a long, expensive and often turbulent journey, Manchester United has now reached the top of the table, a place it belongs to.

Elon Musk keeps his promise as Tesla registers office in India

OpIndia Staff
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Elon Musk keeps his promise as Tesla registers office in India

American electric car giant Tesla has finally come to India. As per reports, Tesla has set up its Indian subsidiary in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The American carmaker has incorporated a fully owned subsidiary ahead of setting up an R&D unit and a manufacturing plant for its electric vehicles in India.

The unit was registered as Tesla Motors and Energy Private Ltd and was incorporated on January 8. Vaibhav Taneja, Venkatrangam Sreeram, and David Jon Feinstein have been named as directors.

In December 2020, while responding to a Twitter user, Tesla chief Elon Musk had said that if Tesla India may not happen in January 2021, it was still definitely happening in 2021. Earlier in October 2020, too, Musk had confirmed that his company’s plan to launch operations in India from the next year. While responding to a tweet about when Tesla plans to enter the Indian market, Elon responded, “Next year for sure.”

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari reaffirmed Tesla’s entry in India in 2021

Earlier, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had also confirmed that the American electric vehicle company would be entering the Indian market in 2021 in a conversation during Indian Express Idea Exchange programme. Gadkari had said that Tesla is set to start its operations in India next year, adding that the company would also look at setting up a manufacturing unit based on demand.

“American auto major Tesla will have its distribution facility (sale centres) for its cars in India from next year and considering the demand it would look into setting up of manufacturing here. India has the potential to become the largest EV (electric vehicle) producer in the world in the next five years,” Gadkari said while speaking to media.

Highlighting India’s power surplus and the push by the Indian government for e-mobility solutions, Gadkari had said, “The Centre intends to have an electric vehicle sales penetration of 30 per cent for private cars, 70 per cent for commercial cars, 40 per cent for buses, and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers by 2030 by providing various incentives, which are likely to drive the growth of EV market in India.”

Cow smugglers in UP attack police, tie female constable’s neck and drag her, Ikram, Zaid and others booked for conspiracy: Details

Dibakar Dutta
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Cow smugglers in UP attack police, tie female constable’s neck and drag her, Ikram, Zaid and others booked for conspiracy: Details

The Mwana police have arrested three people, including two women, after cow smugglers dragged a female constable by the neck in Sathla village in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

As per reports, the Mwana police received a tip-off about the cow smuggling incident in Sathla village. On reaching the crime spot, they were attacked by the miscreants. A female police constable by the name of Bita was caught in the scuffle, leaving her critically injured. News 18 reported that the cow smugglers threw a rope, used to tie up cows, around her neck and dragged her for a long distance.

Policemen attacked, three accused arrested

When the policemen rescued the female constable, they came under a volley of stones. Meanwhile, several cops from different police stations reached the Sathla village. The police then conducted several raids in the village and seized 3 quintal meat, butcher knives, plastic bags, carts and three bikes. Three people, including two women, have been arrested so far.

The police have booked10 people for conspiracy, cow smuggling and attempt to murder. They include Uvesh, Ikram Qureshi, Zaid Qureshi, Maharaj, Aafarin, Wasim Qureshi, Feroz Qureshi, Amjad Qureshi, Furkan Qureshi, and Afaq Qureshi.The locals in the area have denied charges of cow smuggling and claimed that the policemen were not attacked. However, they conceded that cow meat was being packaged in the village.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath vows to save cows at any cost

Addressing a rally in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh in October last year, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that strict action would be taken against those involved in cow slaughter. “Those involved in such an act will go to jail. We will save cow at any cost”, he said.

Expressing commitment to protect cows, the Chief Minister said that the government would not allow anyone to play with the lives of cows. Adding that cow protection was everyone’s responsibility, he informed that cow shelters were being constructed in every district for the protection of bovines with the aide of the state government.

Telugu Film Producers Council asks Govt to include film industry in the category of frontline workers for COVID-19 vaccination

OpIndia Staff
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Telugu Film Producers Council asks Govt to include film industry in the category of frontline workers for COVID-19 vaccination

With India gearing up to begin the world’s biggest vaccination drive from January 16, Telugu Film Producers Council has demanded that the film industry be included in the category of frontline workers, who are going to receive the COVID vaccine in the first phase of the drive.

The Telugu Film Producers Council has in a press note dated January 12, 2021, asked PM Narendra Modi, the respective CMs of Telangana and Andhara Pradesh and the health ministers to consider adding the actors and the various technicians working in the Telugu film industry in the priority list of the inoculation drive against the COVID-19 outbreak.

The council has argued that the people of the industry, through which both the central and the state government receives good revenue, are exposed to similar hazardous as maybe any frontline or healthcare worker is. They are prone to get COVID-19 as shooting takes place at different locations with different artists and technicians. Despite taking all necessary precautions, these people get affected by the pathogen and as a result shooting is stalled and the movies are shelved causing a major revenue loss to the film producers.

Owing to the financial losses, the council has demanded that the film industry and its workers are included in the category of frontline and healthcare workers.

COVID-19 inoculation drive in India to begin on January 16, vaccine will be free for 3 crore frontline and healthcare workers

The Modi Government is all set to start the much-awaited nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive from January 16. The vaccination will start after the forthcoming festivals across the country including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc.

The PM said that priority will be given to doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers including Safai Karamcharis in providing the vaccines. It is estimated that initially around 3 crore frontline workers will receive the vaccine. After that, people above 50 years of age, and people below 50 with co-morbidities, estimated around 27 crore, will be selected for vaccination.

Two vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval by the authorities in India. They are, Covishield developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech.

Donald Trump was not suspended by Twitter for actually calling for violence: Here is the brain-dead conjecture Twitter used as an excuse

OpIndia Staff
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Donald Trump was not suspended by Twitter for actually calling for violence: Here is the brain-dead conjecture Twitter used as an excuse

The suspension of Donald Trump by social media platforms has taken the world by storm. Leaders around the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have condemned the suspension by Twitter and called it ‘problematic’.

There is a growing consensus that the actions were motivated by political bias rather than any objective criterion. Amidst such a scenario, Twitter stocks stumbled by as much as 10% on Monday. Under such circumstances, the precise justification offered by Twitter for suspending Donald Trump from the platform went largely unnoticed.

And as it turns out, the justification cited by Twitter is absolutely bizarre and even Twitter does not say that they have interpreted Trump’s tweets as incitement to violence. Twitter does not say that at all. Instead, the social media platform claims that two of Trump’s tweets are being “interpreted” to mean an endorsement of violence. That is, Donald Trump has been banned from the platform because how others, unnamed in the statement, are interpreting his tweets.

The Tweets that prompted Twitter to ban Donald Trump

There are two tweets that have been cited as violation of its policies. But, as can be seen, it nowhere encourages, incites, or endorses violence in any shape or form. The first of the January 8 tweets read, “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

The second, tweeted shortly after by Donald Trump, said, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.” It is not clear where precisely these tweets encourage violence. And it is abundantly clear from Twitter’s statement that the platform itself does not interpret it as an incitement to violence.

The justification offered by Twitter for its decision to suspend Donald Trump
The justification offered by Twitter for its decision to suspend Donald Trump

Twitter said in its statement, “Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”

“After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service,” it added.

The assessment by Twitter

The assessment makes it abundantly clear that the US President was suspended from the platform because of how a section of his supporters is interpreting his tweets. Twitter does not say which supporters were interpreting the tweets as an endorsement of violence or if the number of people interpreting it in such a manner was significant enough to warrant a suspension.

It does not even say what metric it used to reach such a conclusion. It is abundantly clear that Twitter decided to suspend Donald Trump because they wanted to and were merely looking for an excuse to permanently suspend his account.

The reasons cited by Twitter to ban Donald Trump are outrageous

The reasons cited include the “use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters is also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US Capitol” and the “mention of his supporters having a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” and that “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an “orderly transition” and instead that he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election.”

In the end, it was decided that the only reasonable course of action was the suspension of his Twitter account.

A ‘farmer leader’ who had openly extended support to Congress in 2019 is now on SC appointed committee: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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A ‘farmer leader’ who had openly extended support to Congress in 2019 is now on SC appointed committee: Read details

The farmer protests have been extremely political in nature and has been backed by several opposition parties including the Congress party and the Aam Aadmi Party. It has been evident from the very beginning that the protests are not a spontaneous uprising of farmers across the country as is being projected by vested interests. Now, tweets made by the Bharatiya Kisan Union have surfaced which prove abundantly the politically motivated nature of the protests.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union supported the Congress party in Punjab in the Lok Sabha Elections of 2019. At a meeting organized under the leadership of S. Bhupinder Singh Mann, Ex MP, National President of BKU and Chairman of All India Kisan Coordination Committee and S. Baldev S Mianpur, President BKU Punjab, at Batala, the BKU announced its support for the Congress party.

It is pertinent to mention here that Bhupinder Singh Mann is in the committee appointed by the Supreme Court to look into the farm laws and resolve the ongoing protests. Therefore, allegations by certain motivated interests, such as newly minted farmer leader Yogendra Yadav, that it was a ‘Sarkari Committee’ appointed by the Supreme Court fall flat.

There is even a video of Bhupinder Singh Mann shared by Bharatiya Kisan Union where he announces his support for the Congress party.

Under such circumstances, not only is it dubious to claim that the Supreme Court has appointed a ‘Sarkari Committee’, it further robs the protesting farmers of any justifiable decision to not participate in the committee discussions, which they have said they will not attend. Mann is one of their own and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and therefore, the protesters cannot invent the excuse that the committee is partisan.

Farmer Union leaders said at a press conference, “All names in the committee are in favour of the farm laws. Even if people opposed to the laws were there in the committee or if SC changes the names tomorrow, we will not agree then too. It is to send our agitation into deep freezer and we are here indefinitely.”

Editor of The Wire Siddharth Varadarajan, too, spread such canards.

Siddharth Varadarajan spread canards about the Supreme Court appointed committee

‘Journalist’ Rohini Singh compared the committee to government representatives.

Rohini Singh calls Supreme Court appointed Committee government representatives

Thus, it is evident that there is no justifiable reason for protesting farmers to boycott the Supreme Court appointed committee. The propaganda that has been initiated by usual suspects to undermine the committee even before discussions have occurred makes it abundantly clear that an amicable solution is not being sought by vested interests and usual suspects are attempting to use the current protests to undermine the NDA Government and achieve their personal objectives.

So-called farmers blame SC of ‘helping centre’ by forming a committee, say protest to continue: Details

OpIndia Staff
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So-called farmers blame SC of ‘helping centre’ by forming a committee, say protest to continue: Details

Even as the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the three farm laws and formed a four-member committee to hold talks, the agitating demonstrators continued to remain defiant, stating that they won’t accept anything short of a complete rollback of the three Farm Bills. In fact, they have essentially blamed the Supreme Court of trying to “help the centre”.

Speaking to the media, Krantikari Kisan Union chief, Darshan Pal contended that the formation of the committee through the apex court was done to take the burden off their Centre’s shoulders.

“We’d issued a press note last night stating that we won’t accept any committee formed by Supreme Court for mediation,” Pal said.

Balbir Singh Rajewal of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (R) also echoed similar sentiments, stating that they had already made it clear that they won’t be appearing before any committee. Rajewal said the members of the court-appointed committee were pro-government and accused them of being pro-Farm Bills.

Protesting farmers said that they won’t accept resolution by the Committee set up by the Supreme Court. They said their protests will continue and they will have tractor parade on January 26 and their protests will continue even after January 26.

Supreme Court stays implementation of Farm Laws, forms 4-member committee for talks

Earlier today, the apex court suspended the implementation of farm laws until further orders. It also set up a four-member committee to break the deadlock between farmers and the Centre. Among the members of the committee is Bhupinder Singh Mann of Bhartiya Kisan Union, Anil Ghanwat of Shetkeri Sangthana, Pramod Kumar Joshi and agriculture economist Ashok Gulati.

Shaik Rasheed and his aides arrested for hacking AIMIM leader to death in Hyderabad: Here is what happened

OpIndia Staff
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Shaik Rasheed and his aides arrested for hacking AIMIM leader to death in Hyderabad: Here is what happened

The Hyderabad police Monday nabbed the three accused who had brutally hacked Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) MM Pahadi block president, Mohd Abdul Khaleel in full public view on a busy road in Rajendernagar area on Sunday night.

The police informed that the main accused Shaik Rasheed is a chef by profession and runs a hotel at MM Pahadi. The two other accused Mohammed Azmath and Syed Imran are also chefs by profession and works with Rasheed in his hotel.

Police furthered that Shaik Rasheed had taken a loan of Rs 15 lakhs from the AIMIM leader to renovate his hotel before the lockdown was imposed last year. Rasheed had been paying interest to Khaleel on a monthly basis. The accused, who had also taken a loan from a few other people, was finding it difficult to repay the amount since his hotel suffered due to the pandemic.

According to the police, the AIMIM leader had been pressurising Rasheed to handover his hotel to him in lieu of the loan amount. This reportedly caused a tiff between them, and the accused along with his associates, hatched a plan to kill Mohammad Khalil.

Hyderabad AIMIM block President chased and hacked to death in full public view

Yesterday, disturbing and violent video footage showing the three accused brutally killing Khaleel surfaced on social media. Police had suspected that the killers had followed Khaleel and at around 11:45 pm when he was near pillar no 248 of the PVNR expressway, they pounced on him and attacked him with knives. The murderers, after stabbing the victim, smashed his head with boulders multiple times. The victim died on the spot due to multiple injuries.

Tooter CEO takes 24 hours to ‘research’, blames BJP of sabotage after opening unauthorised verified accounts of leaders, including PM Modi

OpIndia Staff
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Tooter CEO takes 24 hours to ‘research’, blames BJP of sabotage after opening unauthorised verified accounts of leaders, including PM Modi

In a bizarre twist of events, the Tooter CEO has finally spoken up, but not very coherently. After allegations surfaced that Tooter, an ‘Indian version’ of Twitter, had opened unauthorised verified accounts of several leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, PMO and Amit Shah, the CEO has now taken to Twitter to blame BJP IT Cell head of sabotaging Tooter.

On January 11th, Amit Malviya, the IT cell head of BJP had taken to Twitter to clarify that Prime Minister Modi, who mysteriously has a verified account on Tooter, was not on Tooter and that the account was unauthorised. He has also clarified that Amit Shah, BJP, its state units, JP Nadda etc, who also had ‘verified accounts’ on Tooter were actually not on Tooter.

Responding to this tweet, Tooter CEO, Mr Nanda, took to Twitter and said that he painstakingly took 24 hours to “research” the issue and was finally ready to provide answers in 3 tweets.

While everyone waited with bated breath, presuming that the CEO would apologise or at the very least, explain the bizarre decision to randomly open unauthorised accounts of various leaders, Nanda called the clarification by Amit Malviya as “careless, misleading and inaccurate”. He then asked Malviya to “delete this tweet”, oddly enough.

In his third and last tweet, Nanda said that Amit Malviya was actually hurting the cause of PM Modi by clarifying that PM Modi was not on Tooter and that his “verified account” on Tooter was actually unauthorised.

In the three tweets, Nanda offered no explanation as to why Tooter would open unauthorised accounts of government functionaries, party functionaries and even the PMO and PM Modi. This is clearly an odd move since unauthorised accounts of these kids are clearly deemed impersonation and can be extremely dangerous if someone decides to willy-nilly tweet whatever they please on their own, in the name of these powerful people.

We had earlier reported that Tooter seems to randomly making ‘verified accounts’ of whoever they think should be on Tooter and then, they are coding to ensure that their Tweets are then pulled into Tooter and reflect automatically in their Tooter account. However, according to the CEO, raising issues about this strange arrangement seems to “sabotage”.

The strangeness that is Tooter, the Indian version of Twitter

OpIndia had reported earlier about just how bizarre the functioning of Tooter really is.

Tooter, in its ‘About Us’ page says, “We believe that India should have a Swadeshi social network. Without one we are just a digital colony of the American Twitter India Company, no different than what we were under the British East India Company. Tooter is our Swadeshi Andolan 2.0. Join us in this Andolan. Join us!”. 

Interestingly, the moment someone joins Tooter, they are automatically made to follow three accounts – that of the CEO of Tooter, Mr R Vaidya and one ‘news’ handle.

A detailed report by Inc24 highlights how privacy policy page mentioned that it wouldn’t provide a user’s data to any person “unless compelled by a court order issued by a US court, except in cases of a life-threatening emergency.” Another passage under the header “Children Under the Age of 18” read, “California residents under 16 years of age may have additional rights regarding the collection and sale of their personal information. Please see Your California Privacy Rights (below) for more information.”

In fact, the ‘Terms of Service’ mentioned that in matters relating to the website, any disputes or claims shall be governed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Pennsylvania, a state in the US.

It would appear that when Tooter launched, they had mostly copied their terms and conditions from another website. However, after this was covered by Inc24, Tooter had updated their policy. 

Tooter also says that its codebase and ‘free and open source’.

The Directors of Tooter Private Limited are Naresh Vankayalapati and Rameshwar Rao Vankayalapati. Not much is specifically known about them, or the CEO Mr Nanda. 

Ichchhadhaari protester reposes faith in Modi govt after SC orders committee formation, accuses farmer lawyer of lying to Court

OpIndia Staff
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Ichchhadhaari protester reposes faith in Modi govt after SC orders committee formation, accuses farmer lawyer of lying to Court

Ichchhadhaari protester Yogendra Yadav is not too happy with the order passed by the Supreme Court in connection with the petitions filed regarding the newly passed farm laws. The newly minted farmer leader opined that the committee that will be formed as per the Court order to look into the laws is a “sarkari committee”.

Yogendra Yadav did not stop there and declared that the farmers would indeed prefer to negotiate with Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar instead of participating in the discussions involving the committee.

Yogendra Yadav is not too happy with the Supreme Court order
Yogendra Yadav is not too happy with the Supreme Court order

The newly minted farmer leader also declared that AP Singh, who appeared in Supreme Court today on behalf of BKU-Bhanu, was lying to the Court when he said that BKU-Bhanu had agreed to send the elderly back from the protest sites. Yogendra Yadav said that he has been informed by the president of the union that “there is no question of his organisation asking women and elders to go back.”

Yogendra Yadav claims lawyer for farmer union lied to the Supreme Court
Yogendra Yadav claims lawyer for farmer union lied to the Supreme Court

It remains to be seen whether the claims being made are true and whether Supreme Court will take stern action if it discovers that it has been lied to. Yadav has been extremely involved in these protests, stumbling around in the guise of a farmer leader.

He has been threatening the government as well as farmers from Haryana and Rajasthan because they are not too keen on the protests. He has been making crazy demands knowing fully well that the government is not in a position to meet those demands.

Yogendra Yadav was shown the door by the government because they maintained that they will not allow politicians to participate in the negotiations, however, he has remained undaunted in his resolve to undermine the government using the garb of the farmer protests.

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