NATIONAL 
EXPRESS

Campaigning is in full swing for remaining two phases of parliamentary polls. Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi will address four public meetings in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh today. In Bihar, Mr Modi is scheduled to first visit Motihari, where he will hold an election rally at Gandhi Maidan in Purvi Champaran Lok Sabha constituency in support of BJP candidate. The second rally of the Prime Minister will be held in Goriyakothi under Maharajganj parliamentary constituency today afternoon. Mr. Modi reached Patna last evening on a two-day visit to Bihar. He held a meeting of party functionaries at state BJP headquarters in Patna in the presence of state BJP Chief Samrat Choudhary and other senior leaders. He discussed strategy for remaining phases of Lok Sabha elections. The Prime Minister also paid rich tributes to former senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi, who passed away recently. He visited the residence of the late senior BJP leader at Rajendra Nagar in Patna and consoled bereaved family members. Senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary will address public meetings today in Bettiah, Sugauli and Raxaul. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav will hold public meetings in Ziradei, Motihari and Sheohar in support of Grand Alliance candidates. In Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi will interact with more than 25 thousand women today in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi. Many other prominent leaders will also campaign for their party candidates today in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi will address a political rally in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh this afternoon. He will reach Varanasi in the evening and will attend the ‘Matri Shakti Sammlelan’ at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. Mr Modi will interact with the women homemakers, doctors, teachers, business owners, advocates, and athletes during the program. Women will play every role in this one hour long Sammelan including comparing and other activities. Prime Minister will stay in Varanasi tonight and tomorrow he will address two more rallies in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath will address rallies in Balrampur, Siddharth Nagar, sant Kabir Nagar Basti Varanasi and Azamgarh today. On the other hand, Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav will address political railies in Azamgarh and Bhadohi districts. His wife Dimple Yadav will also campaign in Azamgarh. Bahujan Samaj party Chief  Mayawati will address a rally in Jaunpur district.

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh): Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav engaged in a free-wheeling conversation on stage at Prayagraj's Phulpur as their public meeting got cancelled owing to a stampede-like situation at the public rally. The Samajwadi Party chief has often claimed that the INDIA bloc will be winning 79 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh and will be facing a cut-throat contest at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi which he referred to as 'Kyoto'. "The Prime MP (PM Modi) had promised the people of Kashi that 'Kyoto' will be the world's best city. Whether it became a reality or not will be determined by the people of Kashi in the elections." Akhilesh's reference to Kyoto is a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had promised that his government would be developing Varanasi in the style of Japan's Kyoto city. Taking a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, "This time Mann ki Baat won't work. They have to listen to us, 140 crore people and that of the Constitution." Speaking about unemployment, Rahul Gandhi said, "PM Modi has made Uttar Pradesh the centre of unemployment." Pointing at the jeering crowd, Akhilesh Yadav said, "These are those youths who did not get jobs owing to Agniveer or paper leak. The false promises given by the BJP of Investment Meets, Defence Expo or those dreams sold at the G20 Summit are visible." Speaking about his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief said, "He was very attached to the ground. I have learnt several things from Netaji starting from his hard work, his determination to stay focussed on his goal and his fight for equality started by Ram Manohar Lohia." Pointing out the strength of their alliance, Rahul Gandhi said, "The INDIA alliance that has been formed this time has never been seen. All the parties are together in the fight." On the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, Mr Yadav said, "This is a natural alliance and people can see that. The youth can connect with us because we are highlighting issues like employment." In an attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Yadav said, "The BJP acts on its own will." To this Rahul Gandhi added, "They think that there is no need for discussion because they know everything." Highlighting the importance of holding discussions, Mr Yadav said, "The more there are discussions, the more we listen to others and trust others, the stronger will be our democracy. The BJP has not only endangered our lives but is also posing a threat to our democracy and our Constitution." Speaking about the alleged threat from neighbouring China, Mr Yadav said, "Our borders with China at Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh are very insecure. On top of that China also posed a threat to our markets. So we need to give a boost to our manufacturing sector." On ensuing reservations to all castes in every sector of the society, Mr Yadav said, "Social justice, caste census is important for the country. America and European countries undertake several welfare measures for those who are left behind. This will play a major role in our country to uplift those people who are left behind based on caste." Uttar Pradesh which contributes the maximum number of seats to the Lok Sabha elections is voting in all seven phases. According to the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties, the Samajwadi Party is contesting 63 seats while the Congress is contesting 17.

Lai Ching-te of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in as the self-governing island’s new President today. According to Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry, more than 500 foreign guests from 51 delegations attended the inauguration ceremony and related activities, including the national leaders of eight countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. A trained physician Lai succeeds Tsai Ing-wen to lead the democracy amid increasing threats from China, which claims the self-governing island as its territory. Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949. Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, was also officially sworn in. She was Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US from 2020 to 2023 and formerly served as a DPP lawmaker for several terms.

Twenty-year old Deepthi Jeevanji smashed the world record in the women’s 400m T20 and grabbed her first gold at the World Para Athletics Championships at Kobe in Japan today. Deepthi clocked 55.07 seconds, breaking American Breanna Clark’s earlier world record of 55.12 seconds, which she had set during last year’s edition of the championships in Paris. The T20 classification is for athletes who have intellectual impairment. Aysel Onder of Turkey finished second with 55.19 seconds followed by Lizanshela Angulo of Ecuador on third with 56.68 seconds. Later, Yogesh Kathuniya won the silver in the Men’s Discus Throw F56 Final with a season’s best mark of 41.80 meter. On Day three, Preethi Pal won a bronze medal in the Women’s 200m T35 final while Nishad Kumar bagged silver in Men’s High Jump T47 with an impressive season-best mark of 1.99 meters. India has won four medals so far- one gold, two silver and a bronze.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the voters who are voting today to cast their votes and create a new record of voting. In a social media post, Mr. Modi specifically urged women and young voters to exercise their constitutional rights in the festival of democracy. In the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha Election 2024 today, polling is underway in 49 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over six states and two union territories.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two rallies in Haryana today in favour of BJ P candidates. He will address a rally at Ambala around 2.45 PM and at Gohana in Sonipat around 4.45 PM. In view of his visits to Ambala and Sonipat, section 144 has been imposed and security has been tightened. Mrs. Banto Kataria wife of former Union Minister late Rattan Kal Kataria is a BJP candidate from Ambala while Mohan Lal Badoli is contesting from Sonipat. The polling in Haryana will be held on May 25. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will campaign on the Barabanki Loksabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today slammed AAP Chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his silence on the issue of alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal. Briefing media in New Delhi, Ms. Sitharaman demanded Mr. Kejriwal to apologise on the issue. She said, even a woman MP in not safe in the CM residence. Ms Sitharaman citing charges of attack on women against several AAP leaders, including its New Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Somnath Bharti, Ms. Sitharaman claimed that AAP is an anti-women party.

Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri has announced his retirement after a distinguished career with the national team. In a social media post, Chhetri revealed that the upcoming match against Kuwait on June 6, this year at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata will be his final appearance in the national colours. Chhetri, the current captain of the Indian national team, made his debut on 12th June, 2005 against Pakistan. He leaves behind an extra ordinary legacy as India’s all time top scorer, with 94 goals in 150 international matches. He is also the third-highest active international goal-scorer, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Lionel Messi of Argentina. Chhetri’s retirement marks the end of an era for Indian football, celebrating a career filled with passion, leadership and remarkable achievements.

Sonoma State University, a public school in northern California, has said that it will not enter partnerships with Israeli universities, heeding a call from pro-Palestine student groups pushing to boycott Israeli companies and institutions amid the war in Gaza. The decision, announced on Tuesday, comes after a recent wave of campus protests spread across the United States, with encampments and demonstrations cropping up at schools like Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As part of their demands, student activists aimed to sever school ties with academic bodies and companies perceived as complicit in Israel’s war and decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territory.  In an email to students on Tuesday, Sonoma State’s president, Mike Lee, said the school had reached an agreement with the protesters, who set up an on-campus encampment three weeks ago. Sonoma State would do more to disclose its contracts and seek “divestment strategies”, Lee wrote. It would also not pursue partnerships that are “sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions”. In exchange for the concessions, student activists agreed to dismantle the cluster of tents on campus by Wednesday evening. Many universities have responded to the demands of antiwar activists with police crackdowns on encampments. But those efforts have done little to dim calls for divestment, and campus activists have likened their efforts to historic student protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid South Africa. Several pro-Palestine university encampments have disbanded after negotiations over divestment demands with administrators. In late April, for instance, protesters took down their tents at Brown University in Rhode Island, after the Ivy League school’s board of governors agreed to consider divestment in a vote this October. However, calls for divestment can be controversial in the US, where Israel enjoys strong political backing. Israel receives $3.8bn in military aid from the US every year, and US lawmakers have, with the encouragement of pro-Israel groups, moved to penalise and even criminalise calls to boycott Israel. In Texas, for instance, Republican Governor Greg Abbott responded to students’ divestment demands directly, saying earlier this month, “This will NEVER happen.” Under his leadership, the state passed a law that prohibits government entities from contracting with firms that boycott Israel. Backlash to Sonoma State decision Jewish groups and a handful of state politicians have likewise condemned Sonoma State’s decision, saying that it represents an attack on Israel and the Jewish community. Some tied the university’s decision to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which seeks to pressure Israel into protecting Palestinian rights through nonviolent means. It also aims to draw attention to companies seen as complicit in rights abuses in the Palestinian territory. BDS’s critics, however, consider the movement anti-Semitic for its targeting of Israeli companies and groups. “Yesterday the President of Sonoma State University aligned the campus with BDS, a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel, home to 7M Jews,” California state Senator Scott Wiener said in a social media post on Wednesday. In another post, the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area said the decision by Sonoma State was in “clear violation” of California’s 2016 anti-BDS law. It called on the chancellor of the California State University system — of which Sonoma State is a member — to “rectify” the situation. However, free speech advocacy groups say that anti-BDS laws suppress criticism of Israel and conflate scrutiny over Israel’s alleged human rights abuses with anti-Semitism. Protecting students and free speech The campus protests like the one at Sonoma State have fuelled debate over the distinction between criticism of Israel and anti-Jewish hate. It also has raised concerns about how to protect free speech rights on campus, while addressing the discomfort some students have expressed towards the protests. Student protesters have sought to shine a light on the plight facing Palestinian civilians, particularly since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza on October 7. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in the intervening months, with approximately 1.5 million people internally displaced.The war has also pushed parts of the Palestinian territory into a state of “full-blown famine“. United Nations experts have warned of a “risk of genocide” in the enclave. But even before the start of the current war, rights groups like Amnesty International have concluded that Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territory constitute the crime of apartheid. Still, while the vast majority of pro-Palestine campus protests have been peaceful, fears of anti-Semitism at universities have been running high. Shortly after the war began in October, for instance, a report emerged that a 24-year-old Jewish student had been assaulted with a stick at the Columbia University campus in New York. Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, was called before a congressional committee last month to answer questions about the alleged instances of anti-Semitism on her campus, though several US representatives questioned the narrow focus of the hearing. “Anti-Semitism is not the only form of hatred rising in our schools,” Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat, told the committee. “Islamophobia and hate crimes against LGBTQ students have also recently spiked. They’ve led to deaths by suicide, harassment. But this committee has not held a single hearing on these issues.” Indeed, advocates say pro-Palestine protesters have also been subject to a spike in harassment since the war began. At UCLA, for instance, counter-protesters attacked an antiwar encampment, and observers later reported that campus police waited to intervene. The episode led critics to question which students were being protected — and why.

In men’s javelin throw, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in Federation Cup 2024 in Bhubaneswar yesterday. The 26-year-old superstar struggled in the initial rounds of competition as he was second after three rounds. He took the lead in the fourth round with an effort of 82.27m. Neeraj Chopra last took part in a domestic competition at the same event in 2021, when he won a gold with a throw of 87.80m. Since then, he has won a historic gold in the Tokyo Olympics, became Diamond League champion in 2022, world champion in 2023 and defended Asian Games gold in China.

In Mumbai, the death toll in the Ghatkopar billboard collapse tragedy rose to 16 yesterday as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials recovered two more bodies from a car stuck at the accident site. A 120 x 120-foot hoarding had fallen on a petrol pump at Chheda Nagar in Ghatkopar on Monday evening due to gusty winds and unseasonal rains. Around 75 people got injured in the incident.