Amit Shah's clear message to security forces in Kashmir amid killings

HT Daily News Wrap

'Eliminate terrorists': Amit Shah's clear message to security forces in Kashmir amid killings, The 75th Cannes Film Festival kicked off yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has commented on the leaked video of a Twitter employee openly admitting that Twitter has no freedom of speech and other top news in this bulletin.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday directed security forces to conduct coordinated counter-terrorism operations pro-actively in Jammu and Kashmir. He also said that to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a prosperous and peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, the security forces should ensure zero cross-border infiltration to wipe out terrorism in the union territory, a home ministry statement said. The home minister conveyed this at a high-level meeting held here to review the security situation in the union territory, ahead of the Amarnath Yatra, which is scheduled to begin on June 30. The 75th Cannes Film Festival kicked off Tuesday with an eye turned to Russia’s war in Ukraine and a live satellite video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called on a new generation of filmmakers to confront dictators as Charlie Chaplin satirized Adolf Hitler. After tributes and musical numbers, Zelenskyy was streamed live for the formally attired audience who had gathered for the premiere of Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy “Final Cut.” Zelenskyy, dressed in his signature olive green shirt, drew a thunderous standing ovation and spoke at length about the connection between cinema and reality. He referenced films like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” as not unlike Ukraine’s present circumstances. Zelenskyy quoted Chaplin’s final speech in “The Great Dictator,” which was released in 1940, in the early days of World War II: “The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.” “We need a new Chaplin who will demonstrate that the cinema of our time is not silent,” implored Zelenskyy. Amid the big push for more young faces in the Congress’s organisational hierarchy, the veterans stalled a key plan to impose an age cap for elections that could have further squeezed their political space, according to people aware of the developments. Many of the internal reforms, including the youth quota and new panels, are likely to be implemented only after organisational elections in August-September, party leaders indicated on Tuesday. They added that some of the new proposals, including a new advisory group and youth quota in the working committee, are also likely to happen only after the organisational polls are over. Congress general secretary Ajay Maken announced that the Congress president’s post will be exempt from all new steps, including fixing an office bearer ’s tenure to five years. But the party expressed confidence in implementing the reforms. “It’s nav sankalp (new resolve) as well as dhrir sankalp (firm resolve) for us,” Maken said. The people cited in the first instance said that the committee on organisation, led by Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik, suggested an age cap of 70 years for fighting polls and in organisational posts. The Indian Youth Congress, too, pushed for it. The proposal came along with other suggestions, such as reserving half of all party posts for leaders under 50 years or age and, starting from 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 50% Lok Sabha and assembly seats for this age cohort. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has commented on the leaked video of a Twitter employee openly admitting that Twitter has no freedom of speech and his colleagues are ‘commies as f***’ as the video has now gone viral on social media. ‘Is this legit?’ Elon Musk wrote on the video posted by journalist Benny Johnson. The video of one Siru Murugesan, who identified himself as a senior engineer at Twitter, created a stir after it was leaked by a far-right activist group calling itself Project Veritas. Another video where Twitter lead client partner Alex Martinez talks about how Twitter controls opinion has been released. Musk has reacted to that video as well with a smiley. “Twitter does not believe in free speech. Elon believes in free speech. He’s a capitalist and we weren’t really operating like capitalists, more like very socialist. Like we’re all like commie as f***. Ideologically, it does not make sense like because we are actually censoring the right and not the left. So, everyone on the right wing will be like, ‘bro, it’s okay to say it. Just gotta tolerate it.’ The left will be like, ‘No I’m not gonna tolerate it. I need it censored or else I’m not gonna be on the platform,” Siru Murugesan said. A video of Pakistani actor and TikToker Humaira Asghar has drawn flak on social media as she was shot walking in a silver ball gown in front of a forest fire raging behind her. Terming the social media trend of posing in front of wildfire disturbing and disastrous, the chairperson of the Islamabad Wildlife Management board said the actor should have been holding a bucket of water to extinguish the fire instead of glamourising it. “This is a disturbing & disastrous trend on Tik Tok! Young people desperate 4 followers are setting fire to our forests during this hot & dry season! In Australia it is lifetime imprisonment for those who start wildfires. We need to introduce similar legislation @WildlifeBoard,” Rina S Khan tweeted. This, in Pakistan, has in fact become a trend as earlier this month a man was arrested in Abbottabad for intentionally starting a forest fire for the background of a video. However, Asghar clarified that she did not start the fire and there was no harm in making videos.