Hindustan Times News | 10th February 2022 | 8 AM

HT Daily News Wrap

India’s heart the top prize as election cycle kicks off today in UP, Canadian police threatened to arrest trucker-led protesters who have shut down central Ottawa, White House Chief Medical advisor Antony Fauci hinted that there may be the need for the fourth-dose boost in the United States to battle with COVID-19 & other top news in this bulletin.
Kicking off the assembly elections in India’s largest state, voters in 58 assembly constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh (UP) will exercise their right to vote to elect legislators on Thursday. The first phase of polling in UP will mark the beginning of a two-month-long election process — the outcome of which, according to both politicians and analysts, will shape the political direction of not just the Gangetic plains but also the nation in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Between now and 2024, more than a dozen states will go to the polls.“Like it or not, the UP polls will be seen as a midterm referendum on the Modi government,” said Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia programme at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.

The government’s job is to care for the poor, ensure food, toilets, houses, and supply of clean drinking water, and has “no business to be in business”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday. Modi, who was speaking to news agency ANI, also highlighted foreign investments and the robust response to pro-business government schemes as indicators of the strength of the Indian economy and the direction where it was headed. “The government’s job is to care for the poor, to ensure food, toilets, houses, clean drinking water, drinking water, roads for people. The government’s job is to care for the poor if they are sick,” Modi said. “The job of the government is to see how the produce of small farmers reaches markets. My priority is to provide all this. If somebody calls it Samajwad (socialist), it is acceptable to me,” he added, responding to questions about the economic principles of his Bharatiya Janata Party.

Delhi received 16.7mm rainfall overnight on Wednesday, with some areas reporting hail between 4am and 5am, Met department officials said, and predicted gusty winds over the next three days with maximum temperature of 22-23 degrees Celsius. With this spell, Safdarjung — Delhi’s base weather station — has recorded 18.6mm rain this month, 0.6mm more than the monthly normal of 18mm. Last year, the city received just 2.6mm rain in February, the officials said. They added that the Capital may receive more rain around February 17. According to India Meteorological Department data, Safdarjung received 16.7mm rainfall between 8.30am on Tuesday and 8.30am on Wednesday. Lodhi Road, Ridge and Narela stations recorded 14.2mm, 11.4mm and 14.5mm of rainfall respectively during the same period.

Canadian police threatened Wednesday to arrest trucker-led protesters who have shut down central Ottawa and disrupted cross-border trade in anger at Covid health rules, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lambasted the movement as “unacceptable.” With more people joining the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and the US city of Detroit in solidarity with the two-week-long truckers protest in the Canadian capital, Trudeau warned the action threatens the country’s economic recovery. “Blockades, illegal demonstrations are unacceptable, and are negatively impacting businesses and manufacturers,” Trudeau said in the House of Commons. “We must do everything to bring them to an end.”

White House Chief Medical advisor Antony Fauci hinted that there may be the need for the fourth-dose boost in the United States to battle with COVID-19 variant Omicron, adding that the booster could be based on age, as well as underlying conditions of the individual. “There may be the need for yet again another boost — in this case, a fourth-dose boost for an individual receiving the mRNA — that could be based on age, as well as underlying conditions,” Dr Fauci said that the White House briefing on Wednesday (local time). Responding to reporters over the data showing the need for a shot beyond the third dose, Dr Anthony Fauci said that that’s obviously an issue that has been followed very closely. Earlier, President Biden’s top medical adviser said that half a million people around the world have died of COVID-19 since the omicron variant of the coronavirus was first detected in November, terming it “the full-blown pandemic phase” of the coronavirus crisis.