Another Indian-American on strong track to be elected to US Congress

New York, June 20 2024-

“Samosa Caucus” — the group of Indian-Americans in US Congress — has a strong chance of getting another member next year with the victory of Suhas Subramanyam in the Virginia Democratic primaries.

He won the intra-party election on Tuesday to pick the Democratic candidate to contest the November general election for the House of Representatives from a constituency held by it.

The constituency includes some suburbs of Washington.

Meanwhile, in primaries in New Jersey last week, Indian-American Rajesh Mohan won the Republican ticket for a House seat but faces an uphill battle because it is in a strongly Democratic constituency.

There are now five Indian-Americans in the House of Representatives, all Democrats who call themselves the “Samosa Caucus”: Ami Bera and Ro Khanna from California; Pramila Jayapal from Washington State; Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, and Shri Thanedar from Michigan.

A State Senator, Subramanyam bested 11 other candidates in an ugly contest where his main adversary faced allegations of sexual harassment.

He was backed by the retiring House member Jennifer Wexton, who flipped the seat to the Democratic side in 2018 and was re-elected twice, winning 53 per cent of the votes in 2022 making it a safe seat for the party.

Subramanyam’s family is from Bengaluru.

A 37-year-old lawyer, he was President Barack Obama’s technology advisor working on cybersecurity and modernising government agencies.

In 2019, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly, and the State Senate last year.

He is also a volunteer medic and firefighter.

Mohan, who defeated his three Republican rivals, will be contesting from a constituency held by a Democrat.

Andrew Kim, who is giving up the seat to run for the US Senate, flipped it from the Republican Party in 2018 and won his second re-election in 2022 by 55 per cent.

Three ratings of the race surveyed by Ballotopedia declared it a solid or safe Democratic seat.

A cardiologist, Mohan received his medical degree from the Delhi University College of Medical Sciences.

In New Jersey, Ravinder Singh Bhalla, the Mayor of Hoboken, lost the Democratic Party primary for the House seat to Rob Menendez who currently holds the seat.

The sitting representative’s father, Senator Bob Menendez, is on trial on corruption charges but undeterred, he waged an ugly campaign against Bhalla, a turban-wearing Sikh, alleging that he made quid-pro-quo deals with the Mayor of a neighbouring city and used images marring his appearance in TV ads.

Susheela Jayapal, the sister of influential Representative Pramila Jayapal, lost the primary for a Democratic seat in Oregon.

Pramila Jayapal heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of leftist Democratic Party legislators.

She represents a constituency in Washington State, a neighbour of Oregon where her sister Susheela Jayapal was a county commissioner and was among several leftist candidates who faced an ideological backlash in the Democratic primaries. (Agency)

AI platform OrbitShift raises $7 million to expand product footprint

New Delhi, June 20, 2024
AI-native sales operating system OrbitShift on Thursday said it has raised $7 million in seed funding led by Peak XV’s Surge and Stellaris Venture Partners.

OrbitShift said it plans to leverage the funding to expand its customer base and continue building for its customers.

Prior to this round, OrbitShift had raised a pre-seed round of $1.5 million, bringing the total funds raised to $8.5 million.

“Our AI-first, domain-centric approach has already empowered over 10 global companies, significantly enhancing their sales and marketing engine. This investment will fuel our mission by expanding our product footprint and geographical reach,” said Saurabh Mishra, Co-founder, and CEO, OrbitShift.

Its platform empowers the entire sales ecosystem including sales, pre-sales, sales operations, and marketing teams with account insights/actions, RFP/RFI response generation, key account planning, and targeted pitch content generation, comprehensively driving a coordinated go-to-market (GTM) motion.

OrbitShift said it has reduced research and sales planning time by 40-50 per cent.

According to Alok Goyal, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, enterprise sales involve selling holistic solutions – a mix of products and services – with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders.

“This complexity presents an opportunity to build a generational AI-native software business, and we believe OrbitShift is poised to do just that,” he added.(Agency)

UP Police, Meta help prevent 457 suicides in 1.5 yrs

Lucknow, June 20 2024-

A collaboration between Meta, the company which owns social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, and the Uttar Pradesh Police has prevented a total of 457 people from committing suicide during nearly 1.5 years, an official statement said.

According to an official statement, the Uttar Pradesh Police highlighted their swift response to suicide-related posts on social media platforms, aided by information from Meta Company.

From January 1, 2023, to June 15, 2024, they informed victims and their families promptly, effectively preventing suicides through direct communication.

Under this system, whenever a suicide-related post appears on Facebook or Instagram, Meta Company headquarters immediately alerts the police social media centre via phone and email.

The headquarters’ Social Media Centre, operating 24×7, acts swiftly upon receiving these alerts.

Integrated with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force server, it identifies the post’s author’s location and forwards the case to ‘UP-112’ and the relevant district for immediate action.

‘UP-112’ or local police then reach out to the victim and their family using the location provided by Meta.

During the period from January 1, 2023, to June 15, 2024, the Social Media Centre received nearly 740 alerts from Meta Company, resulting in the saving of 457 lives.

In other instances, challenges such as unclear or densely populated locations, cases originating from other states, or phones being switched off, prevented local police from reaching the victim. (Agency)

‘Kota Factory 3’, ‘Bad Cop’, ‘Federer’ documentary top draws on OTT this week

New Delhi, June 20, 2024
The last week of June is set to bring exciting titles to OTT platforms, including the Jitendra Kumar-starrer ‘Kota Factory’ Season 3 and Gulshan Devaiah and Anurag Kashyap’s police-villain chase drama ‘Bad Cop’.

Here is a list of five titles that have caught the attention of IANS this week:

‘Kota Factory 3’:

The new season of the black-and-white series stars Jitendra Kumar, Tillotama Shome, Mayur More, Ranjan Raj, Alam Khan, Revathi Pillai, Ahsaas Channa, and Rajesh Kumar.

It will trace the students’ chaotic entry into adulthood alongside their trusted teacher and mentor, Jeetu Bhaiya.

Directed by Pratish Mehta and produced by TVF Productions, ‘Kota Factory 3’ is helmed by Raghav Subbu.

The show is streaming on Netflix from June 20.

‘Federer: Twelve Final Days’:

This British documentary film, directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia, follows Roger Federer in the last 12 days of his professional career, which ended at the 2022 Laver Cup.

Produced by George Chignell and Asif Kapadia, it stars Roger Federer, Mirka Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal.

It is streaming from June 20 on Prime Video.

‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’:

It follows the 2023-24 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders squad from start to finish — kicking off at auditions and training camp and continuing all the way through the NFL season.

Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Greg Whiteley, the seven-episode series gives viewers unfiltered access to this iconic team and franchise.

It is streaming from June 20 on Netflix.

‘Bad Cop’:

This upcoming police-villain chase drama stars Gulshan Devaiah and Anurag Kashyap in the lead roles, with Harleen Sethi and Saurabh Sachdeva in pivotal roles.

Directed by Aditya Datt and written by Rensil D’Silva, ‘Bad Cop’ is set to release on June 21 on Disney+ Hotstar.

‘Trigger Warning’:

This upcoming American action thriller film is directed by Mouly Surya and written by John Brancato, Josh Olson, and Halley Gross.

Produced by Thunder Road Films and Lady Spitfire, the film stars Jessica Alba and Anthony Michael Hall.

A skilled Special Forces commando (Jessica Alba) takes ownership of her father’s bar after his sudden death and soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.

It will be released on June 21 on Netflix.(Agency)

Canada declares Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ‘terrorist entity’

Ottawa, June 20 2024-

Canada has declared Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, as a “terrorist entity”.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced on Wednesday afternoon, saying that Canada will use all of the tools at its disposal “to combat the terrorist activity” of the IRGC.

Thousands of senior Iranian government officials, including top IRGC members, are now banned from entering Canada, and those already inside the country may be investigated and removed, LeBlanc said.

As an immediate consequence of the listing, Canadian financial institutions, such as banks and brokerages, are required to immediately freeze the property of a listed entity, and it is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada and Canadians abroad to knowingly deal with property owned or controlled by a terrorist group, according to a press statement issued by Public Safety Canada as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

According to local media, charitable organisations can lose their status if they maintain their connections to terrorist groups, and people found to be associated with those groups can be denied entry into Canada.

The US designated the IRGC a “terrorist group” in 2019. (Agency)

S. Korea seizes cargo ship on suspicion of violating UN sanctions on N. Korea

Busan, June 20, 2024
South Korea seized a 5,000-ton cargo ship on Thursday on suspicion of violating UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, sources said.

The freighter, whose origin is unknown, is now anchored at the Port of Busan on the country’s southeastern coast. It was not immediately known what its violations were, Yonhap news agency reported.

In late March, another 3,000-ton cargo ship, DEYI, which was heading to Vladivostok, Russia, was seized in waters off Yeosu, along the southern coast, under similar suspicions.

The ship is also currently anchored at the anchorage at Busan Port, with the captain and other crew onboard.(Agency)

BSF recovers two China-made Pak drones in Punjab

Chandigarh, June 20, 2024
The Border Security Force (BSF) said on Thursday that in extensive search operations based on specific inputs, two China-made Pakistani drones were recovered in Punjab.

In the first incident, BSF troops recovered a drone from Rattankhurd village in Amritsar district. In the second incident, troops and Punjab Police recovered a drone from Dal village in Taran Taran district.

Both drones are Chinese-made DJI Mavic 3 Classic models.

The reliable information and swift action of BSF troops thwarted yet another attempt at drone intrusion in Punjab from across the border, said the BSF.

The BSF, responsible for safeguarding the 553-km long varied, tough and challenging India-Pakistan border in Punjab, said that in 2023 it detected and shot down 107 drones and seized 442.395 kg of heroin.

Last year, the BSF troopers of the Punjab Frontier handed over 12 Pakistani nationals, who had inadvertently crossed the International Border, to Pakistan Rangers.

Braving innumerable challenges, including inclement weather conditions and the spate of smuggling, BSF men are guarding borders around the clock with unflinching dedication.(Agency)

10 Palestinian security personnel of merchant trucks killed by Israeli army in Rafah: Sources

Gaza, June 20 2024-

At least 10 Palestinian security personnel of merchant trucks were killed by the Israeli army in Rafah City in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical sources said.

Local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua on Wednesday that Israeli aircraft targeted a group of security personnel securing commercial goods in the east of Rafah.

Meanwhile, medical sources said that the bodies of the dead, as well as several others injured, were all transported to European Gaza Hospital, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the incident.

Recently, Israeli authorities have allowed commercial goods from the West Bank to enter the southern war-torn besieged enclave, following prior coordination, according to Palestinian security sources.

This incident was the second in two days, as on Monday night, at least nine people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting security personnel for commercial goods.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Gaza-based health authorities said the death toll of Palestinians from the ongoing conflict has risen to 37,396 since last October.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage. (Agency)

US: Two dead in plane crash in Alaska

San Francisco, June 20, 2024
Two men were presumed dead after a small plane crashed into Crescent Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, US state of Alaska, state troopers said.

Two hikers witnessed the crash and reported it to troopers on Tuesday afternoon. The rescue team took a helicopter and a float plane to the area and located debris in the lake, with no signs of survivors in the water or on the shore, reported Xinhua news agency, citing troopers.

Efforts to recover their bodies were underway on Wednesday.

A Piper PA-18 Super Cub plane with two men aboard had been reported overdue in the area. The plane had departed from Moose Pass and was expected to return to the same area, according to troopers’ spokesman Austin McDaniel.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.(Agency)

Rajpal Yadav says responsibility of film’s interpretation lies with directors, writers

Mumbai, June 19 2024-

Actor Rajpal Yadav, who is receiving a lot of positive responses for his recently released streaming movie, ‘Luv Ki Arrange Marriage’, has said that the responsibility of the interpretation of a film lies with the writer and director and not an actor.

He said that an actor’s job is to simply portray a character which is given to them.

“The interpretation of a film lies with the writer and director; it’s not the responsibility of the actor, who simply portrays their character. The director ensures that justice is done to the writing and the characters,” he added.

He further mentioned, “When it comes to the balance of family activities, dynamics, and the message to be conveyed–these aspects are entirely within the director’s purview. I have full confidence in Raaj Shaandilyaa, whether it’s his past films or this one, he has always done justice to the story.”

Produced by Bhanushali Studios, ‘Luv Ki Arrange Marriage’ is streaming on ZEE5. (Agency)