Day: April 14, 2024

Russo-Ukrainian war, day 780: Ukraine bolsters air defenses with new Patriot system from Germany  Euromaidan Press

Russia-Ukraine war live: US House speaker negotiates with White House over wartime funding for Ukraine  The Guardian

Pope lends support to Peru farmers claiming harassment by Catholic group  Crux Now

Pope Francis to embark on tour of Southeast Asia, Oceania in longest papal trip  Fox28 Savannah

G7 leaders to discuss Iranian strikes: Italy  The Economic Times

G7 leaders to meet over Iran attack on Israel  POLITICO Europe

G7 Leaders To Discuss Iranian Attack On Israel – Report – I24NEWS  i24NEWS

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday vowed to boost social spending, develop infrastructure and make India into a global manufacturing hub as companies shift away from China, as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election strategy.

Modi hopes to return to power for a third five-year term. He and other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party unveiled their promises in the world’s largest democracy days before the start of a multi-phase general election.

Modi promised to expand social programs introduced during his party’s 10-year rule, including millions of free homes for the poor, along with health care, cooking gas and free grain. His government has been paying 6,000 rupees ($73) a year to poor farmers.

He said his government’s policies have pulled 250 million people out of poverty since he came to power in 2014. India is the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people. The BJP’s president, J.P. Nadda, said less than 1% of Indian people now live in extreme poverty.

India holds its elections on different days in different parts of the country, stretching over weeks. Voting for the country’s parliament will begin on April 19 and run until June 1, and results will be announced on June 4.

Most polls have predicted a victory for Modi and the BJP. But the opposition Congress Party argues that Modi has undermined India’s democracy and favored the interests of the rich.

Modi has been campaigning extensively across the country, promising to expand India’s economy to $5 trillion by 2027 from around $3.7 trillion. He also promises to put India on track to become a developed country by 2047, when the country celebrates 100 years of independence from British colonialists.

On Sunday, he said his party would develop India as a hub for the pharmaceutical, energy, semiconductor and tourism industries. He also said India will modernize its infrastructure, including its railways, airways, and waterways. And he said he will seek to increase jobs for young people and access to cheap loans for young entrepreneurs.

Modi is broadly popular in India, where he’s considered a champion of the country’s Hindu majority and has overseen rapid economic growth.

But critics say another term for the BJP could undermine India’s status as a secular, democratic nation, saying its 10 years in power have brought attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.

Sir Keir’s team will inherit a poisoned chalice from the Tories, but progress needn’t depend on the state opening its wallet

Talking about the prospect of a Labour government, some people sound like they are preparing the obituary before they have witnessed the birth. Sir Keir Starmer has yet to set foot in Downing Street and the air is thick with doomsters on the right and gloomsters from the left who have already decided that a Labour government will be an awful let down. The baleful chorus wails that, even were Sir Keir to win by the stonking margin suggested by recent opinion polls, he will struggle to get much done. Before Team Starmer have got their hands on a single red box, the most miserabilist voices declare that failure is inevitable.

Depressive thoughts about what a Labour government will be able to achieve is partly of the leadership’s own making. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, never passes up an opportunity to look on the cloudy side of the street by emphasising the direness of the inheritance that will be bequeathed by the Conservatives. Sir Keir spends less time trying to enthuse voters with the possibilities of change than he does warning them of how terribly difficult everything is going to be. Rather than promise the sunny uplands, he cautions that there is a “hard road ahead”, making a government led by him sound like an invitation to participate in a gruelling hill marathon.

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Buckling under the waters of disastrous floods and dam breaks, parts of Russia near the border of Kazakhstan are facing the worst natural disaster in decades.