MUMBAI — A special court on Wednesday remanded three doctors of a state-run hospital, who were arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of Dr Payal Tadvi by tormenting her with casteist slurs, in police custody till May 31.

Additional Sessions Judge R M Sadrani accepted the police’s argument that the custody of Bhakti Mehere, Hema Ahuja and Ankita Khandelwal was required to ascertain if the victim left a suicide note and if the accused destroyed or misplaced it.

The police further told the court that while the mobile phones of the accused were seized, further time was required to recover their WhatsApp chats with the victim.

The police claimed that Payal Tadvi’s body had a few injury marks which needed to be probed further, for which the postmortem report was awaited.

The three doctors were booked after their 26-year-old junior colleague at BYL Nair Hospital allegedly hanged herself at her hostel room last Wednesday.

While Mehere was arrested on Tuesday evening, Ahuja and Khandelwal were caught in the early hours of Wednesday, a police official said.

The uncertainty in the Congress continued to prevail on Wednesday with its chief Rahul Gandhi sticking to his offer to resign, even as some party workers sat on a hunger strike outside his house to convince him against quitting.

The Congress workers were detained by the police and let off subsequently.

Delhi Congress leader Vijay Jatan and some workers, who sat on a hunger strike outside Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane residence, said their demand was that the latter should take his resignation back because the party needed his leadership.

Congress workers in Bengaluru also held protests outside the party office to urge Rahul Gandhi to stay on as Congress chief.

The crisis in the Congress showed no signs of easing with Rahul Gandhi sticking to his decision to resign as party chief after its Lok Sabha poll debacle and staying away from meeting party leaders.

Veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit met Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and said, “I have given him the message that he should not resign. We want him to continue on his post, otherwise it will cause us pain. We have conveyed that to him,” reported ANI.

On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi had only met his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, besides senior party leader KC Venugopal and the Congress’ chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot went to meet Rahul Gandhi at his Tughlaq Lane residence on Tuesday, but they only met Priyanka there.

Senior Congress leaders have been pressing upon Rahul Gandhi to take back his resignation and revamp the party at all levels in these challenging times.

(With PTI inputs)

NEW DELHI — In another blow for the Trinamool Congress, its MLA Monirul Islam on Wednesday joined the BJP, the third legislator to desert the ruling party in West Bengal after the reverses in the Lok Sabha polls. 

Two TMC legislators and over 50 councillors had joined the BJP on Tuesday.

The BJP projected the decision of TMC’s Muslim MLA to join the party as a vindication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwash” (together with all, development for all, trust of all).

Modi gave the slogan in his first address to MPs of BJP-led NDA after the Lok Sabha poll results were declared. He had asked them to win over the trust of minorities with their work.

Several other TMC workers also joined the saffron party in the presence of BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijaywargiya.

There are some things in life children are just better at than grown-ups – and one of those things is getting up early. They go from horizontal to full of beans in a heartbeat, suddenly requiring you – their hard-working, exhausted parent – to provide them with things like breakfast. 

It’s particularly galling when they later get grumpy, having sprung up before they’d had enough sleep (particularly as this tends to lead to Tantrum City).

Salvation may be on its way, though, in the unlikely but charming form of Pokémon. The gaming company has promised it will soon do for sleeping what they did for walking with Pokémon Go – gamifying it and making it newly exciting for children who would rather do almost anything else.

Introducing: Pokémon Sleep. 

When Pokémon Go came out in 2016, it was a phenomenon. Screen-obsessed kids who would previously have balked at the idea of going for a walk were all over it. The walks were inevitably spent staring into a screen, sure, but it was a step forward at least.

From the sounds of it, Pokémon Sleep seems set to work a lot like sleep tracker apps, but instead of using sleep stats to reach conclusions like “Guess that’s why I’m so tired!”, players will use them to train and upgrade their Pokémon. If kids won’t stay in bed past six in the morning for Mummy and Daddy, maybe they’ll do it for Snorlax.

While full details on how Pokémon Sleep will work haven’t been released yet – and it seems unlikely to be as simple as “more sleep equals more points” – Pokémon has said its aim is for players to “look forward to waking up every day”, and it will be as much about forming good habits to promote healthy sleep as just running the hours up.

It’s not all good news – while Pokémon Go was a free app, Pokémon Sleep will require a special piece of equipment, Nintendo’s Pokémon Go Plus Plus (yes, two pluses), a Bluetooth-enabled sleep tracker that will transmit the child’s sleep data to a smartphone. The device won’t be released until 2020, and so details are pretty thin on the ground at the moment about things such as price, availability and what will happen to data uploaded about your child.

But who knows? If it takes a bit of competitiveness and encouragement from a weird-ass blob thing to persuade a child to get a healthy night’s sleep – and let their parents get a few more minutes in bed – that’s probably not entirely a bad thing.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, according to reports. 

The swearing-in-ceremony of Modi and his Council of Ministers is scheduled to take place at 7 pm on Thursday at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

This decision comes even as the uncertainty in Congress over the resignation of Rahul Gandhi as party chief after the Lok Sabha poll debacle continues. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that she will not attend the oath-taking ceremony, after rejecting the BJP’s claim that scores of saffron party workers were killed in violence perpetrated by her TMC.

The TMC supremo’s announcement came in apparent remonstrance after the families of over 40 BJP workers allegedly slain by her party were taken by train to New Delhi to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Banerjee had on Tuesday received an invitation and told reporters she would attend the event as a matter of “constitutional courtesy” after having spoken to a couple of chief ministers of other states.

However, after it transpired that family members of over 40 BJP workers, who were killed in political violence in West Bengal in the last one year, have also been invited, a livid Banerjee said she will not attend as the “occasion to celebrate democracy should not be devalued to score political points”.

Leaders of all BIMSTEC countries have also confirmed their participation in the ceremony. Kyrgyz President Jeenbekov, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and Mauritius PM Jugnauth have also been invited for Modi’s swearing-in.

(With PTI inputs)

NEW DELHI—Before the roar, there was silence. 2011, Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, the World Cup Finals. Sachin Tendulkar, the city’s favourite son, had just departed to Lasith Malinga, a tame stroke resulting in a catch behind. Enter Virat Kohli, the Delhi boy widely expected to settle into the shoes of India’s greatest batsman.

The first ball was a bouncer, Kohli ducked. Nine more balls went by without a run. The mood was tense, India’s chances hung by a thread at that moment.

On the eleventh delivery Kohli faced, he produced a delicate glance off the bat for four. The star of the future could hold his own, he belonged to the occasion. By the time he departed for a well-crafted 35, India could breathe easier.

The score stood at 115, and the story told so many times since was about to unfold. Mahendra Singh Dhoni calmly eviscerated Sri Lanka’s challenge. The winning blow for the six a cool jab to confirm the inevitable. India were world champions.

Tendulkar was nearly 38 when he won his first and only world cup at his sixth attempt. Much of his extraordinary cricketing career had been spent carving out jaw-dropping acts of individual heroism in service of salvaging lost causes.

If the arc of Tendulkar’s career was defined by the ultimately fruitful struggle for the Cup, what heroic quest would define Kohli — who had scaled cricket’s highest peak at the beginning of his career, aged only 22?

Eight years later, as the World Cup rolls into England, the task that awaits him is clear: Kohli must not only win the cup again, but must win it with a team moulded in his own image — an aggressive, athletic, vocal unit of young men with identikit tattooed forearms and carefully sculpted beards. The sort of young men who are expected to say “New India” in every second sentence. Winning is everything.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni won more than anybody else in the country but he liked to present himself as a process man: Do the little things right, the result will take care of itself. Kohli is a process man too, but his process is winning — plain and simple.

Of late, the Indian captain and the coach Ravi Shastri have made it a point to stress why this team is different. And better. Indian cricket has not seen a more golden age, across formats, they insist.

It is a question that is likely to come up again in England this summer, especially if India is on the cusp of emulating 1983 and 2011. Comparisons are inevitable.

Dhoni and Kohli are the only players left from the triumph eight years ago. The former’s legacy is secure, no matter how the next few weeks go.

But what about Kohli and his dream to be the most winningest Indian cricketer in history? 

Model Athlete

To know cricket, one must understand more than cricket, as Neville Cardus famously wrote. The same could be said of Kohli. If you were to limit ourselves to the cricketer’s runs and his centuries, you would learn something about him. But it would be an incomplete picture. To really understand Kohli, we will have to dig in other places.

A decade ago, during the Indian Premier League in South Africa, Bunty Sajdeh was working for Yuvraj Singh in Johannesburg. The agent had started his own company Cornerstone not very long ago and was keen to add more cricketers to his roster.

As Virat Kohli walked into a restaurant where Yuvraj and Bunty were sitting, the agent was unimpressed. Sajdeh was introduced to the young batsman as he recalled to Mint. “Virat came in wearing a flashy jacket and sunglasses. I remember thinking, ‘What are you doing? You’re an athlete, not a model.’”

Sajdeh didn’t get it — Kohli was an athlete, and a model. Or to borrow the name of his line of ‘breakaway youth fashion’ brand, Kohli was right and Sajdeh was WROGN.

“When people think of me, the first thing that comes to their mind is ‘wrong’,” Kohli said a promotional event for the WROGN clothing line. “And then it eventually becomes right… this brand is me.”

Kohli’s cricketing journey is somewhat boring — he started good, became great, and has remained consistently so. Experts often complain they fail to describe him without repeating themselves. His commercial journey has more interesting diversions.

From his earliest advertisements for Fastrack to Uber recently, marketing campaigns around the cricketer portray him as a restless figure. The Fastrack series with Genelia D’Souza, captioned ‘Move on’, show Kohli as a young man who is free, footloose and always on the lookout for his next destination.

His later obsession with exercise and fitness extends Kohli’s relationship with movement, albeit in a physical sense. He wanted to be the most agile man in his team, and any obstacle was publicly rejected. This transformation led to an end of Kohli’s agreement with Pepsi in 2017 as the Indian captain found it uncomfortable to endorse sugary drinks. Since then, Kohli has projected himself as an ambassador for healthy eating and intense physical activity. He turned vegan last year.

“About four years ago, when he assumed the captaincy, Virat started to feel that he needed to set a trend for the Indian team. He wanted his teammates to be as fit as the Kiwis or Australians. Virat wanted to change the culture of the Indian team,” said his personal coach, Raj Kumar Sharma, in a recent interview with HuffPost India.

His biographer Vijay Lokapally adds, “He acquired this image as he began to travel and came into contact with people from different walks of life. All the products he endorses are directed at the youth. He can quickly recognise what will go down with his image. Virat had a mind-blowing offer from Coca-Cola but he turned it down, like P. Gopichand, because it would not suit him.”

The youth icon’s transition to a married life carried his brand forward. In an interview to the show Breakfast with Champions, Kohli acknowledged the role played by his wife Anushka Sharma.

He reckons he’s a “gentleman” now because she has taught him many things. One of them might be acting, as a recent Google Duo ad shows. Not to forget there is a whole line of ‘Virushka’ ads since the couple got married in 2017, with many of those set at a wedding. Perhaps there is a move towards Bollywood in the offing. Kohli’s next steps are being drawn even as he plants his imprint on the cricket field.

Restless, moving, forward. Kohli’s early image is intact in the Uber advertisements even now - Badhtein chalein (Keep moving ahead). The young tearaway is still in motion, except now in a chauffeured car. This is Kohli now, a youth icon for the socially mobile and affluent Indian.

Power Player

Kohli’s impatience can sometimes be seen on the cricket field, a wicket-less phase for India brings out a fidgety man ill at ease with stasis. In the cricketer’s younger days, coach Raj Kumar would struggle to keep his protégé calm. But he was the only one who could. Especially after the untimely death of Kohli’s father, the coach consciously chose to nurture his student.

Virat’s brashness and anger has worried everyone at some point but it was indulged. Experts and teammates explained it away by saying it was integral to his success. “He needs the aggression, to get the kick in his game”, opines Raj Kumar.

But in 2017, as he returned to England, Kohli found himself in a mood not dissimilar from his previous tour three years ago. The captain was under a cloud, for different reasons. In 2014, his underwhelming form was one of the sore points in a comprehensive Test defeat for India. Before the 2017 Champions Trophy, though, it was his estrangement with coach Anil Kumble that had come to dominate the news.

Kohli was in conflict with one of Indian cricket’s stalwarts. Kumble is considered a brainy figure in Indian cricket circles, someone who thinks about the game deeply. But his strict ways had rubbed Kohli and a few teammates the wrong way.

“How many former greats came out in the open to defend Kumble? Except for Gavaskar who maintained that Kumble was treated shabbily, nobody else,” Lokapally, his biographer, says. “Even the members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, and Sachin Tendulkar eventually approved his removal.”

The appointment of Ravi Shastri in Kumble’s place despite India’s excellent record during the latter’s tenure gave many a cause for concern. Ramachandra Guha, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), cited rising player power as one of the reasons behind his resignation from the body that was entrusted with overseeing the constitutional revamp at the BCCI.

Kohli, clearly, had become indispensable to Indian cricket. Gone were the days when the BCCI would perform an adversarial role in front of the captain. In today’s times of coordinated communication policies designed by the managerial staff, direct arguments are nipped in the bud.

Even as the skipper has matured, some things have not changed. “I scold him even now. Sometimes, he wastes his energy on trivial things,” reveals Raj Kumar, hinting at his mentee’s tendency to get involved in slanging matches. As a captain, Kohli returns to his younger self on the field riled up by umpires and opposition from time to time. 

Lokapally remembers Kohli as a teenager who would “make demands of his coach and confront him. He was like other teenagers from West Delhi who would fight tooth and nail for an inch.” Kohli’s connection with the city of his birth, particularly West Delhi, is a sustained refrain when people talk about him.

Raj Kumar Sharma has lived in Tagore Garden since 1984, one of the many residential parts of West Delhi. In the past 35 years, he has seen his neighbouring parts develop almost beyond recognition.

From the area, Indian cricket has received talents like Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, and of course Virat Kohli. When Raj Kumar started his West Delhi Cricket Academy on May 30, 1998, two young boys among 500 arrived to hone their cricketing abilities. The siblings, Virat and Vikas, were among the 250 selected. But why did this part of Delhi come to be associated with cricket when it had almost no historic connection with the game?

“This area is full of middle-class families, there are not many affluent families. I don’t think kids from affluent families are keen to work as hard as others,” Raj Kumar said. “When I started the academy, facilities for cricket were not here. But ever since then, cricket academies have mushroomed in these parts.”

Kohli’s popularity must help now. When I visited the St Sophia’s School in Paschim Vihar, the home of West Delhi Cricket Academy, 80 to 100 kids were engaged in some form of training to play the game of cricket. Kohli and his success feeds the burgeoning attraction. Many people visit Raj Kumar in a day, most conversations bring a mention of the Indian captain. But Kohli’s stature is not a cricketing construct anymore. His wide appeal exists for other reasons.

Rebel or Bully?

Last November, during a Q&A session for his mobile app, Kohli received a comment from a user who called him an overrated batsman and revealed a preference for English or Australian batsmen.

“I don’t think you should live in India. Then you should go and live somewhere else, no?” Kohli said, in a widely shared video. “Why are you living in our country and loving other countries? I don’t mind you not liking me but… Get your priorities right.”

Only once the public backlash spread far and wide—some Twitter users were keen to note that Kohli had named South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs as his favourite batsman over a decade ago—did Kohli hide behind the familiar excuse that it was a joke gone wrong.

But briefly, the mask had slipped: the rebel appeared as a bully.

Since Kohli assumed the leadership of the Indian team, he has been keen to project himself as a mature voice who engages with popular subjects outside  the cricket field.

Like many bullies, Kohli’s pronouncements reveal a man who is keen to identify ideologically with power — whoever that may be. He spends time around the powerful and is not shy to promote their agendas. The rebel is a conformist too.

When demonetisation was causing havoc across the country in late 2016, Kohli called it the greatest move that ever happened in Indian politics. Then last year, the Indian skipper nominated PM Narendra Modi for a ‘Fitness Challenge’ as part of the government’s outreach to showcase the workout regime of popular faces thereby gaining public legitimacy.

In 2018, he and his wife Anushka had attracted criticism for publicly shaming a man who had littered the road. The connection with PM Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ was easily drawn. Similarly, it was difficult to miss the similarity between chants of ‘anti-national’, ‘go to Pakistan’ and Kohli’s words to the cricket fan who merely did not like him or the other Indian batsmen.

It is a public image that certainly wins the Indian captain favour among supporters of the ruling establishment, even though his political views are selectively aired. Like many since 2014, he walks the tightrope between social engagement and pro-government advocacy.

Virat is himself deified through monikers like Captain Fantastic, King Kohli, and Superman. It would not be unusual for anyone watching Indian television to hear uncritical admiration of the Indian captain whose larger-than-life image continues to expand its footprint.

But he is not merely seeking validation from outside. He wants to take charge of the world he inhabits, control what people say and write about him.

Journalists often complain of tetchy press conferences when difficult questions are put to him. One such combative exchange ended in unpleasantness when India toured South Africa last year. Whether poor results at the World Cup will mark a return to old hostilities with the press will be worth noting.

Not since the Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell fracas has the personality of the Indian skipper been a matter of such intense debate. The Ganguly issue revolved around cricket but Kohli’s larger-than-cricket persona leaps into uncharted territories. It leaves many things to say about Kohli.

Kohli is a batsman in excelsis, an iffy captain prone to strategic errors, a leader making the Indian team in his own image but still looking for the triumph that will define him. Kohli is a brand obsessed with relentless movement, an icon who represents the wishlist of the affluent Indian male. Kohli is a conformist who wants to hobnob with the powerful and serve as an ambassador for their agendas.

All of these statements make the Indian captain. As he leads India at the World Cup, all the Virat Kohlis might be visible over the next few weeks. Should India win the World Cup, his quest to be the supreme cricketer will come closer to be realised, shading everything else. Winning and Kohli will be firmly entwined.

But what if he loses? 

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday came out in favor of starting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, a stronger position than either 2020 presidential hopeful has taken thus far.

“Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately,” Booker tweeted Wednesday morning.

Gillibrand released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that she also now believes it is time to start impeachment hearings:

From the beginning, I have called for a proper process in order to secure key testimony and information related to the Mueller investigation, so that Congress ― as a co-equal branch of government ― can fulfill its responsibility to deliver the truth to the American people. But the White House has repeatedly stonewalled Congress’ ability to take basic fact-finding steps and make an informed decision. Combined with the fact that Robert Mueller clearly expects Congress to exercise its constitutional authority and take steps that he could not, it’s time for Republicans and Democrats to begin impeachment hearings and follow the facts wherever they may lead. We cannot let this president defy basic accountability measures built into our Constitution.

On Wednesday, special counsel Robert Mueller gave his first public comments on the findings from his investigation into Russia’s interference, and the Trump campaign’s cooperation, in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Mueller said he didn’t have the legal authority to charge Trump with a crime ― but that doesn’t necessarily mean Trump is innocent.

“As set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said. 

Mueller also strongly hinted that it’s now Congress’ job to do something, saying the Constitution “requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.”

Mueller had made similar comments in the report, most of which was released publicly, but both Booker and Gillibrand had stopped short of calling for impeachment proceedings.

With their remarks Wednesday, Booker and Gillibrand join other 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, in calling for impeachment proceedings.

But other candidates still aren’t quite sold. Joe Biden’s campaign said Wednesday that while impeachment may become “unavoidable if this Administration continues on its path,” the former vice president isn’t quite there yet.

“Vice President Biden will continue to make the case as to why President Trump should not be re-elected. That is the surefire way to get him out of office,” his campaign said.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Mueller’s comments were “as close to an impeachment referral as it gets” ― but he didn’t say he personally supports Congress pursuing impeachment.

In an interview with HuffPost while campaigning in Iowa over Memorial Day weekend, Booker had said he was inching toward calling for impeachment after reading the full Mueller report.

“Everybody should be outraged. We can’t slip so far into tribalism that we lose our ability to say ‘this is wrong, if not illegal.’ And Mueller himself points to 10 things that speak to obstruction of justice. There are things in that Mueller report that are indications of criminal activity,” Booker said while riding in a campaign RV between two stops in southeast Iowa. “The Congress of the United States of America, by constitutional design, should continue this investigation. And that shouldn’t be complicated.”

He went on to suggest that the Trump administration’s obstruction of Congress’ investigation could be grounds for impeachment.

“Everything now is on the table, from legal challenges to impeachment proceedings,” Booker said. “We’re seeing a situation where the president isn’t allowing our work to get done. That’s very serious, that a president is trying to stop what Congress should do when you have a report in your hands like that. And when a president is going to do that, you should look at other options that you have, whether it’s elevating it to impeachment proceedings or using contingent court battles.”

This piece has been updated throughout.

US special counsel Robert Mueller has said charging President Donald Trump with a crime was “not an option” because of Department of Justice guidelines.

In his first public comments about the Trump-Russia investigation, he said “it would be unfair” to potentially accuse someone of a crime when the person could not stand trial to defend himself.

Breaking his silence for the first time since his final report was published in April, Mueller reiterated that the investigation did not exonerate the president, saying: “As set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

Mueller also announced his resignation from the Department of Justice and the closure of the Special Counsel’s office.

Trump reacted swiftly to the press conference. In a tweet, he said: “Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent.

“The case is closed! Thank you.”

Mueller’s final report found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, but left the issue of obstruction of justice to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to decide on.

Mueller said the written report “should speak for itself” and that he will not speak about the matter again, quashing rumours he would testify before Congress.

He said: “Our investigation is complete... we are formally closing the Special Counsel’s office and I am resigning.”

Attorney General William Barr, who heads the DoJ and was appointed by President Trump, decided no charges should be brought.

Last month Barr released a 448-page redacted version of the 22-month investigation into Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller was reported to have complained privately to Barr that he believed a four-page letter from the attorney general summarising his main conclusions did not adequately represent his findings.

Earlier in May, the White House invoked “executive privilege” to block the release of the full, un-redacted report.

Barr now is leading a review of the origins of the Russia investigation in what is the third known inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the matter. 

Mueller also reiterated Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election, saying were “multiple, systematic efforts” to interfere and that “deserves the attention of every American”.

Mueller detailed that meddling in an indictment last year, when he charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic email accounts. 

Britney Spears has a message to fans who think she’s not in control of her Instagram account ... or her life, for that matter. 

As the #FreeBritney movement rages on amid concerns that the singer was forced to seek mental health treatment this past April against her will, the pop superstar is making it clear that nobody is pulling the strings when it comes to her social media. 

Spears posted a short clip of herself on Tuesday shutting down the rumors in a video showing her modeling different dresses to what else, Rihanna’s “Man Down.”

“For those of you who don’t think I post my own videos, I did this video yesterday,” she said in the video. “So ... you’re wrong, but I hope you like it.”

Spears drove her point home by going on an Instagram spree, later sharing a still from the video in a separate post and then a photo of herself lounging on a peacock pool float in a bikini. 

Since her highly publicized mental health issues in 2007, Spears’ father, Jamie, has been in control of her business and personal affairs under a restrictive conservatorship, which has recently come under public scrutiny.

Fans first speculated that Spears’ management might be controlling her Instagram account when a clip from what appeared to be a March 2018 video was posted to her account earlier this month. 

Spears shared the clip the day after her manager, Larry Rudolph, said the singer may never perform again live given her recent personal struggles as of late. 

After canceling her new Las Vegas residency show “Domination” in January, the “Toxic” singer announced she was taking an “indefinite work hiatus” to take care of her ailing father, who’d recently undergone a life-threatening surgery. 

The CEO of Boeing apologised Wednesday to the families of those who died in recent 737 Max jet crashes, saying he feels “terrible” about the deaths on board the since-grounded plane model. 

Dennis Muilenburg, the CEO of the beleaguered aircraft manufacturer, made the apology in a sit-down interview with CBS News. 

“I do personally apologise to the families,” he said. “As I’ve mentioned earlier, we feel terrible about these accidents, and we apologise for what happened. We are sorry for the loss of lives in both accidents.” 

Two 737 Max jet crashes ― a Lion Air flight in October and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March ― both killed all people on board, totalling 346 fatalities.

“We are sorry for the impact to the families and the loved ones that are behind, and that will never change. That will always be with us. I can tell you it affects me directly as a leader of this company. It’s very difficult.”

Though the U.S. issued an emergency order grounding all models of the plane in March, it wasn’t until earlier this month that Boeing acknowledged there were design flaws in the flight simulator training software connected to both crashes.

Boeing is now working with the Federal Aviation Administration again to determine what kind of training is needed for 737 Max pilots and hopes to have the planes back in the air this coming fall. 

“We can’t change what has happened in these accidents but we can be absolutely resolute in what we’re going to do on safety going forward,” Muilenburg told CBS. “So I am sorry for that. We apologise to the families that have been affected. We apologise more broadly to the traveling public where confidence has been affected.” 

NEW DELHI — Ahead of taking oath as Prime Minister for a second term on Thursday, Narendra Modi said national security would be priority for his government. 

Modi tweeted this after his visit to the National War Memorial. 

The PM-designate and his council of ministers will sworn at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7PM today, a week after BJP swept back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Modi began the day with a visit to the Sadaiv Atal Samadhi to pay tribute to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was accompanied by BJP President Amit Shah and other party leaders including JP Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Giriraj Singh.

He also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at the Samadhi in Rajghat, 

A number of heads of states, heads of governments, constitutional authorities, diplomats, senior political leaders, government officials and media persons are scheduled to attend the oath-taking ceremony.

Modi’s new cabinet

On the eve of his swearing-in, Modi on Wednesday held a marathon meeting with Shah as he gave final touches to the shape of his government, which is likely to have representation from most allies and showcase the party’s newfound strength in different regions.

Outgoing finance minister Arun Jaitley’s decision to opt out on health grounds has fuelled speculation about who will get the coveted portfolio with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who filled in for Jaitley and presented the populist pre-election budget, being seen as a key contender.

There is also a buzz about Shah, who has been elected to Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar and is a key architect of his party’s landslide win, joining the government.

If Shah joins the Modi cabinet, he is likely to get one of the four major portfolios; finance, home, defence or external affairs.

The BJP has refrained from making any official comment about the likely members of the government, with its leaders insisting that it is the prime minister’s prerogative.

Senior party leaders like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani, who defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, are likely to join the second Modi government after being its members in its first avatar.

Though External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not contest the Lok Sabha elections on health grounds, there is a view within the party that she will also be a part of the new cabinet.

About 60 ministers may take oath. 

Some party leaders are of the view that a few leaders from the organisation can also be rewarded with ministerial berths.

If Shah joins the government, then JP Nadda and Bhupender Yadav are seen as top choices for heading the party.

BJP allies like Shiv Sena, JD(U), AIADMK, LJP, Akali Dal and Apna Dal are also set to be represented in the government.

Parties like Sena and JD(U) may get two berths as they are the largest constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance after the BJP, while others may get one berth each. 

A BJP leader said the government is likely to bear the stamp of the party’s impressive show in new regions like West Bengal, Odisha, North East and Telangana.

Modi, he said, may surprise with a few choices, referring to his decision to induct a number of former bureaucrats-turned-BJP leaders like R K Singh and Hardeep Puri in his ministry during his first term.

Some party leaders believe that the prime minister may also induct leaders like Manoj Sinha, who lost the Lok Sabha polls but is seen as one of the “performing” ministers of his first government. 

High security in Delhi

A multi-layered security arrangement will be in place in the city on Thursday, with deployment of around 10,000 security personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary forces.

Quick Response Teams will be deployed at several crucial spots. Snipers will also be deployed atop several important buildings, a senior police official said.

A traffic advisory issued a day ahead of the ceremony said several roads in New Delhi district will be closed for movement of public between 4 PM to 9 PM on Thursday and motorists and public were asked to avoid them.

(With PTI inputs)

After a four-month long-distance relationship, Jen Glantz’s boyfriend broke things off with her in what she calls a “semi-passive way.”

“We are both entrepreneurs. One day he called me to tell me he was moving to Thailand for a few months,” Glantz, author and host of the “You’re Not Getting Any Younger” podcast, told HuffPost. “I said, ‘OK, cool, I’ll go too.’ He said, ‘No, Jen. You weren’t invited.’ That phone call made me realize that his way of breaking up with me was moving around the world.”

Because of how poorly he handled the situation, Glantz told him she was done with the relationship. But just one week later, her ex started texting her again as if everything was totally normal between them. 

“It was tough because even though I was brokenhearted, I still got jitters when I saw his name pop up on my phone,” she said. “It took everything, every ounce of courage and self-confidence to ignore his texts.”

Ultimately, Glantz said she realized these texts were her ex’s way of keeping her in his orbit without fully committing to the relationship. 

“The texts showed me how much of a coward he was,” she said. 

Glantz’s story is a common one in today’s dating landscape. It’s easier than ever for exes to keep tabs on you and pop back into your life whenever they please. We asked therapists to explain why an ex might be texting you post-split and how to respond (or not) if it happens to you. 

Why your ex might be texting you again

We can’t tell you precisely what your ex was thinking when they picked up the phone to text you, but how and why your relationship ended likely played a role in their decision to strike up a conversation.

If your ex was the one who initiated the breakup in the first place but then decides to start texting you again out of the blue, it can be baffling. You may think to yourself, “Hm, this person made it clear they don’t have feelings for me anymore. And, yet, they care enough to randomly ask what I thought about the ‘Toy Story 4’ trailer.” So, what gives?

“The likeliest possibility is that they are reflecting about the relationship and are missing you,” psychologist Samantha Rodman said. “Most of the time this would be for romantic or sexual reasons, but sometimes they might just want to be friends again.”

If the relationship ended on bad terms or your ex feels the breakup was their fault, they may be texting you out of guilt and a desire to make things right, Rodman added. Another possibility? You two have a bunch of mutual friends so your ex just wants to smooth things over before you inevitably run into each other at the next group birthday dinner, friend’s wedding or other social gathering. 

And if you were the one to break things off, your ex could be reaching out in order to get some closure. 

“If they felt the split was abrupt, confusing or left them with unresolved feelings, an ex might reach out to gain clarity,” therapist Anna Poss said. “Resuming communication could also be a way of testing the waters. Whether they are hoping to get back together or develop a friendship, texting is a low-risk way to gauge your interest.”

And who knows: Your ex could be sitting at home bored, just fishing for attention from an old flame to pass the time. Maybe she’s drunk and horny. Maybe he’s feeling sentimental after “your” song popped up on Spotify.

If you’re not sure what your ex’s intentions are in resuming contact (and you actually care to know), Poss said not to waste time analyzing all the possibilities in your head — just ask. 

“We can’t read minds and any assumptions could create more stress and conflict,” she said. “You can say something along the lines of, ‘We haven’t spoken in a while and I was surprised to hear from you, so I wanted to check in.’” 

The mixed emotions of receiving a text from an ex 

Seeing your ex’s name pop up on your phone can produce a visceral reaction, like the one Glantz mentioned above. Your stomach drops, your heart starts beating faster, your palms get sweaty. Sometimes, it’s a rush of excitement. Other times, it’s a feeling of validation (OK, they do still miss me after all). It can feel really good to hear from this person, even when you recognize this person wasn’t right for you or the relationship had simply run its course. 

“For some, receiving a text message from an ex can be comforting on a certain level because it’s confirmation that you still occupy space in the ex’s mind and it’s further proof that the attachment [you shared] was real,” said marriage and family therapist Jon-Paul Bird.

But after the initial excitement from the ex text has worn off, the feelings that follow can be a mixed bag. On the one hand, you’re relishing the fact that you’re still on this person’s mind. On the other, you’re frustrated because you don’t want this communication to derail the important progress you’ve made in moving on. 

“A breakup involves going through a grief process,” Bird said. “That random ex text can cause some emotional backsliding and stunt some of the healing process.”

In other cases, receiving a text from an ex can immediately bring up feelings of annoyance, dread or even fear — particularly if the relationship was a toxic and unhappy one that you want distance from. 

After a breakup, Bird said, some people just need “an emotional cutoff and want to remove all evidence of their ex from their life.”

To respond or to ignore: That is the question  

Know that you have every right to ignore a text from your ex — especially if replying will put your mental health or safety in jeopardy. 

“If you feel dread or anxiety at the prospect of communicating with your ex again, or if your relationship with them was unhealthy or abusive, it may be best for your mental well-being to [not respond],” Poss said. 

But what about when the relationship was, for the most part, happy and healthy? Maybe you’ve even been toying with the idea of getting back together with this person down the road. In that case, respond to your ex’s texts in a friendly way, Rodman said. Ask them how they’ve been, keep the conversation going for a bit and then see if they’d be interested in catching up in person. 

“If you really feel that the conversation is going well, see how they respond to a casual invitation to hang out, like, ‘Maybe we should grab coffee this week,’” Rodman said. “If they don’t take you up on this immediately and give you a time and day, then you can probably conclude that they were just being friendly, rather than wanting to rekindle your relationship.” 

Other times, you may have had a fairly amicable breakup but you’re just not interested in pursuing anything romantic with this person. You don’t want to blow them off completely by ignoring their texts, but you also don’t want to give them the impression that you’re open to getting back together. 

“If you think you’d like to be friends eventually or, at the very least, avoid future awkward encounters, write back and say hello, but don’t text back too quickly and don’t make any plans,” Rodman said. “This keeps the door open for whatever type of friendship you may want to have in the future, but makes it pretty clear that you’re not yearning to reconnect with them romantically or sexually.” 

Glantz offered some parting words of wisdom that we can definitely get behind: “When people decide to leave your life, let them. But you leave theirs too. End the texts. Take the time you would use to write something brilliant back for self-care.” 

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-866-331-9474 or text “loveis” to 22522 for the National Dating Abuse Helpline.

It’s one of the most star-studded scenes in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and perhaps our own universe, as well.

Warning! “Avengers” spoilers below.

Yes, for Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) funeral in “Avengers: Endgame,” producers pulled out all the stops, bringing together some of the biggest names in the MCU: Michelle Pfeiffer, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Douglas, Marisa Tomei, and many, many more were all in attendance to bid Iron Man farewell. And no one even uttered a line.

“It did feel actually kind of insane given what a huge backbend it was for line producers and producers to get everybody there on the same day ― that we were going to get that much star power and just have them not say anything,” “Avengers: Endgame” writer Christopher Markus told HuffPost recently.

But while most of the actors in the scene are a who’s who of Hollywood, there is one who quickly turns the moment into a “Who’s that?” 

Following a look at everyone from members of the cast of “Black Panther” to the “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the camera passes over one young actor who’s standing alone. At the time, this person left a lot of theatergoers scratching their heads, but now we know it is none other than actor Ty Simpkins, aka Harley Keener, aka the young kid who befriends Iron Man in “Iron Man 3”:

“I have to laugh. A lot of people are like, ‘Who is that guy?’” Simpkins recently told HuffPost over the phone. 

He has a number of major projects under his belt, including “Jurassic World” and “Insidious,” but a lot has changed for our guy since “Iron Man 3” came out in 2013. 

Here’s the actor at the “Endgame” premiere:

Talking about the decision to bring back Harley Keener, Markus told us, “It popped up when we were all discussing who would come to Tony’s funeral and who’s been significant in the past over the course of the MCU. He’s the sort of strange outlier in that scene. I’d be interested to know what he thinks.”

Well, HuffPost asked him.

“I definitely thought that a couple people would get it,” Simpkins told us. “I wasn’t really sure people would remember me or not, but I was kind of more focused on the fact that I was in the movie.”

Below, the actor explains what it was like to be on set with Oscar winners, his thoughts on saying goodbye to Iron Man and whether we’ll see more Harley in the future.

Do people recognize you a lot? 

Before the movie there was little bits here and there of “Iron Man 3,” a lot of “Jurassic World,” stuff like that, and now I’m getting a lot more recognition of Harley from “Endgame,” but it’s still not frequent that it happens. 

How’d you find out you were going to be in “Avengers”?

I was about to do an audition and my manager at the time called me and he said they were thinking about putting me in, and I was screaming so much in the car with my mom. My mom is like, “What? What is it?” And I just didn’t tell her because it wasn’t confirmed. I didn’t want to jinx it or anything.

When was it confirmed?

I got the call when I was waiting to go to baseball practice that they were confirming it, and I just remember — because they told me what the scene was about — tearing up and just feeling so nostalgic about everything. ... “Iron Man” [was] probably one of the first movies I saw in theaters. I was 6, sat in the front row and I was just looking up, and that’s all I can remember. “Iron Man” was so inspirational and just meant so much to me. That’s how I felt.

Did you think Harley would ever come back?

I was praying that he’d come back. I love being on set with the Marvel crew because they treat you so well there. They treat you like family. I was really happy that I got that call.

What’d you do after finding out?

I texted Robert as soon as I heard. We just texted for a little bit about how much the character meant.

That’s cool you two still stayed in touch.

Yeah, we’ve been in touch. We text every once in a while, check in with each other.

In “Iron Man 3,” Tony Stark tells Harley to get him a tuna sandwich. Did you think about eating a tuna sandwich in his honor?

I definitely did think about that. There was a lot of memes over the years or animations people have made of me getting him a tuna sandwich or something. I just keep remembering that part. I still think that’s so funny.

What’s it like showing up on set with all these Oscar winners?

It was pretty intimidating. It took me a little bit to just get comfortable there. But actually, when I first got on set, I had to do school. And I guess the school room that they have was the lunch room the day before. Dave Bautista, who plays Drax, comes in and he was very confused to walk into a bunch of kids doing school. So he sat down to talk to us for about 10 minutes. 

That’s awesome. And speaking of school, what did everyone at your school think when they found out?

They think it’s really cool. I hadn’t told ... any of them actually. When it came out, people came up to me the next day and punched me on the arm like, “Dude, why didn’t you tell me anything?” 

Did you get a script on set or just direction?

I didn’t get a script, but [the directors] came up to me and were like just think about what Tony meant to you and how he impacted your character’s life and your life. So I just thought about what I said earlier, how “Iron Man” is very sentimental to me and how he felt to Harley. I imagine Tony was really Harley’s only father figure and that they would’ve stayed in touch over the years. I just kind of took that sentimental part of my real life and Harley’s life into the scene.

What was it like behind the scenes? Like, were you ever just talking with Samuel L. Jackson or anything?

Robert Downey Jr. actually had this after-party and he invited everyone from set to the party, and I was in the corner. I was kind of alone with my mom and I saw a couple of them smoking a cigar, and so I was like, “Hey, mom, can I smoke a cigar with the Avengers?” So I did it. My mom said that I earned it. 

Since you and a bunch of other young actors appear in the movie, there seem to be hints of some younger Avengers coming. What would you think about appearing in future movies?

I mean, I’d love that. I have no idea if it would happen, but I love that.

Who do you think is scarier, Thanos or Indominus Rex?

Oh, that’s tough. I feel like Indominus Rex physically is a little more intimidating, but Thanos, his power is much greater than the Indominus. So I’m gonna have to go with Thanos.

What do you think you’re going to remember most about your MCU experience?

Just being a part of that universe. I remember when I was little, I would look up the fan Wikipedia page from Marvel, and I just remember thinking that’s crazy. Like, that’s me. I am the face of a character in that franchise. I am a part of that franchise and written in there. I think that’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Unmarried and childless? Congratulations! You might just be among the happier, healthier population, according to a behavioural and happiness expert. That is, if you identify as a woman.

Paul Dolan, professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, told the Hay Festival on Saturday that women who decided against walking down the aisle  are the happiest. They are also more likely to live longer than their married and child-rearing peers.

“Married people are happier than other population subgroups, but only when their spouse is in the room when they’re asked how happy they are,” he said, according to the Guardian.

“When the spouse is not present: f***ing miserable.”

Dang, that’s some real talk.

Most of us have been raised with the idea that getting married and having children is the somewhat expected path in life, especially for women who are often fed a social narrative about the factors that lead to happiness. However, according to Dolan, it’s women who have the most to lose getting hitched.

“We do have some good longitudinal data following the same people over time, but I am going to do a massive disservice to that science and just say: if you’re a man, you should probably get married; if you’re a woman, don’t bother.”

He draws his evidence from theAmerican Time Use Survey (ATUS), which compared levels of pleasure and misery in unmarried, married, divorced, separated and widowed individuals.

Dolan’s assertions  align with those of expert Elyakim Kislev, a research fellow and assistant professor at Hebrew University in Israel and author of Happy Singlehood: The Rising Acceptance and Celebration of Solo Living.

Kislev previously told HuffPost Canada there are many benefits to being single including not finding yourself in an unhappy marriage because you felt pressured to get married. As well, single folks are among the most educated after co-habitants when compared to married people and divorced people.

“There is a huge misconception that being alone and lonely are the same,” he said. 

And expert Bella dePaulo said at the 2016 American Psychological Association’s 124th annual conference that single people may have more robust social lives and experience greater psychological growth than some married people, according to a 2016 article in the Guardian.

The researcher presented data showing that single people are more connected with family and friends, whereas married couples tended to spend the most time with each other, the Guardian reported.

She also found that highly self-sufficient single people were less likely to experience negative emotions. However stress and difficulty were actually tied to self-sufficient married people.

So in spite of all of these findings, why might single folks find themselves unhappy? Because of that age-old narrative that marriage and children were signs of success, said Dolan.

“You see a single woman of 40, who has never had children – 'Bless, that’s a shame, isn’t it? Maybe one day you’ll meet the right guy and that’ll change.' No, maybe she’ll meet the wrong guy and that’ll change. Maybe she’ll meet a guy who makes her less happy and healthy, and die sooner."

 Well, there you go. Dolan does not mess around with words.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet will be sworn-in at the oath taking ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7 pm today. Several dignitaries will be in attendance. We bring you the latest updates. 

Here are the live updates

12:23 pm: Modi, Shah Hold Final Consultations Before Swearing In

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a final round of consultations with BJP president Amit Shah and is learnt to have given shape to his council of ministers ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of his new government in the evening.

The list of union ministers is likely to be sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan soon, sources said.

12:06 pm: Delhi Police Traffic Advisory In Light Of Oath Ceremony

11:55 pm: Mizoram CM To Not Attend Swearing-in Ceremony 

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Thursday, an official at the Chief Minister’s Office said.

Zoramthanga, who is also the president of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), will not be present at the oath- taking ceremony due to “tight official engagements”, Lalhmansanga, personal secretary to the chief minister, said.

“State Information and Public Relations Minister Lalruatkima, newly elected MP C Lalrosanga and former two-time Lok Sabha member Vanlalzawma would attend the ceremony on behalf of the chief minister,” Lalhmansanga said.

11:41 am: Kangana, SRK To Rajinikath, Here Are The Stars Who Have Been Invited 

The who’s who of the country from sports legends Rahul Dravid and Saina Nehwal to movie superstars Rajinikanth and Shah Rukh Khan have been invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, sources said.

Industry bigwigs such as Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Ratan Tata have also been invited for the event, they said.

Former sprinter PT Usha, cricketers Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, badminton ace Saina Nehwal, badminton coach Pulella Gopichand and gymnast Dipa Karmakar are among the sports personalities invited to the ceremony, the sources said.

Read more here. 

 11:32 am: Modi Pays Tributes To Mahatma Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Ahead of being sworn in as the prime minister for a second consecutive term, Narendra Modi Thursday morning paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and BJP veteran late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He also placed a wreath at the National War Memorial adjoining the India Gate here. The prime minister visited Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, around 7 am. Later, he went to Sadaiv Atal, the lotus-shaped memorial of former prime minister Vajpayee.

Several senior BJP leaders, including party chief Amit Shah, were also present.

11:29 am: Bengal BJP Chief Takes Dig At Mamata

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh took a dig at Mamata Banerjee saying she couldn’t face the families of the BJP workers who had been killed in the state. 

Banerjee on Thursday said she would not attend Modi’s swearing because BJP leaders were spreading false news about killings of party workers in Bengal. 

11:10 am One Minister From Shiv Sena To Take Oath

10:45 am: Narendra Modi To Take Oath As Prime Minister At 7 pm Today

After a bigger victory that in 2014, with the BJP winning 303 seats, Narendra Modi is going to be sworn in at 7 pm on Thursday. 

Speculation is rife about who will make to to the new cabinet as his ministers will also take oath along with him. A day before the swearing-in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote a letter to Modi opting out of the new cabinet because of health concerns. 

Several dignitaries are on the guest list. All chief ministers and governors of state have been invited for his swearing in. Over 8000 guest are likely to attend ceremony. 

The opposition leaders who have been invited include Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, JD(S) leader and Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Invitations have also been sent out to all the major regional and national political parties of the country.

While most chief ministers are likely to attend the ceremony, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee did a u-turn over her attendance. She and Modi have been at loggerheads over violence in Bengal. 

President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Modi and other members of the Union Council of Ministers during a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7 pm on Thursday.

The invitation to opposition leaders is seen as Modi’s move to reach out to them following the fiercely fought election in which the BJP registered a massive victory.

India invited leaders of the BIMSTEC countries as well as Kyrgyz President Jeenbekov, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and Mauritius PM Jugnauth for the Modi’s swearing-in. 

Pakistan tried to downplay India not inviting prime minister Imran Khan for the event, saying that they would rather have constructive dialogue than attend the swearing-in. 

In 2014, India had invited them Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif as a gesture friendship. Other SAARC countries had also been invited. 

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov also confirmed their participation at the event, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, and Prime Minister of Nepal K P Sharma Oli have confirmed their participation at Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.

He said President of Myanmar U Win Myint and Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering also confirmed their attendance at the event. From Thailand, Kumar said, its Special Envoy Grisada Boonrach will represent the country at the ceremony.

“We look forward to receiving the dignitaries in New Delhi for the ceremony,” said the MEA spokesperson.

India invited leaders of the BIMSTEC countries as well as Kyrgyz President Jeenbekov, the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and Mauritius PM Jugnauth for the Modi’s swearing-in. 

Besides India, BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.

NEW DELHI — The who’s who of the country from sports legends Rahul Dravid and Saina Nehwal to movie superstars Rajinikanth and Shah Rukh Khan have been invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, sources said.

Industry bigwigs such as Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Ratan Tata have also been invited for the event, they said.

Former sprinter PT Usha, cricketers Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, badminton ace Saina Nehwal, badminton coach Pulella Gopichand and gymnast Dipa Karmakar are among the sports personalities invited to the ceremony, the sources said.

Several film stars, including Kangana Ranaut, Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Bhansali, Karan Johar and Rajnikanth, have also been invited. 

Besides Ambani, Adani and Tata, business honchos Ajay Piramal, John Chambers and Bill Gates have also been extended invitation for Modi’s swearing-in.

From Thailand, its Special Envoy Grisada Boonrach will represent the country at the ceremony. Besides India, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.

The government has also invited Kyrgyz President and current chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Mauritius PM Pravind Kumar Jugnauth for the event. Both the leaders have confirmed their participation.

All prominent opposition leaders, chief ministers and governors have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony.

The opposition leaders who have been invited include Congress president Rahul Gandhi, TMC supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. 

Twitter users are quick to celebrate savage schooling of people, but a man who complained about ads on IRCTC and became a laughing-stock, might actually have made a valid point before being drown out by jeers.

On Wednesday, a man tweeted to railways ticket booking platform IRCTC complaining about “obscene and vulgar ads” on the booking app. He said it was embarrassing and irritating, and asked the Railways Ministry, and current minister Piyush Goyal to look into the matter.

The ads in question were for an online apparel store showing lingerie; for a news app that mentions a story in Hindi about why women form relationships with men outside marriage; and for a health app called DocsApp that mentioned consultation for baldness and erectile dysfunction, again in Hindi.

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IRCTC’s customer support account ‘wrecked’ the man in response, by tweeting “IRCTC uses Google’s ad serving tool ADX for serving ads. These ads uses [sic] cookies to target the user. Based on user history and browsing behavior ads are shown. Pl clean and delete all browser cookies and history to avoid such ads.”

Ever since the tweet on Wednesday night, Twitter users have been laughing at the ‘savage burn’ and praising IRCTC for shutting down a ‘bhakt’.

And looking at the man’s Twitter account, it’s easy to see why sympathy for him is hard to come by. His bio explains that he has a fight against the ‘Khan Market Gang’, he wants to boycott Amazon because of Patanjali founder Ramdev, and he shared tweets about why Gauri Lankesh—an Indian journalist turned activist who was murdered in 2017, an act linked to Hindutva outfits—should be hated.

So you see tweets like this one, on the ‘savage takedown of a Bhakt’, and comments about how “models in lingerie for a lingerie store is haw haw for this dude. I’m sure he doesn’t go to markets/malls lest he passes by a La Senza store.”

There’s several people tweeting that the person handling the IRCTC twitter account deserves a raise. Others joined in the chorus explaining that such kind of ad targeting is called re-marketing, and it’s done not just by IRCTC but by other platforms serving ads via Google’s network too.

However, is there a case to be made for the tweet that launched a thousand memes?

A few voices pointed out that Google allows platforms to blacklist advertisers and limit the content that is shown to visitors. In that case, as a government service, should IRCTC simply be able to shoot back in the way it did rather than actually doing something?

Part of the problem is that Google makes fairly broad buckets about Indian interests, which was reflected by the risqué content that filled up YouTube and Google Play, and even Google’s keyboard app Gboard automatically suggested obscenities in autocomplete until it was flagged to the company.

But IRCTC is the biggest transactional platform in the country, with over 2 million site visitors every day. And it knows Indian users very well—it’s generated over 100 terabytes of passenger data each year. If, despite its mind-boggling scale, the site simply makes fun of a user because he’s uncomfortable with lingerie ads, then it’s not actually doing a great job. No matter how entertaining the tweets are.

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg has been immortalized in a gigantic new street art mural.

Aerosol artist Jody Thomas finished his portrait of the 16-year-old schoolgirl from Sweden on the side of the 15-meter-high Tobacco Factory building in his home city of Bristol, southwest England, on Wednesday.

“She’s very much in the limelight, very current, very contemporary and she’s obviously clearly leading a very, very important issue which affects all of us on the planet,” Thomas told HuffPost.

“She has a very fearless style, tells it exactly how it is and lets everyone have it with both barrels,” added Thomas, who attended the city’s famed Barton Hill Aerosol Art Project at the same time as Banksy in the 1980s.

The mural forms part of the Upfest Summer Editions, which is taking place across Bristol until October. The full Upfest, Europe’s largest live street art festival, usually takes place in the Bedminster and Southville neighborhoods during the final weekend of July each year but is on a break for 2019.

Thomas worked for more than two weeks and used about 60 cans of paint for his latest piece.

Only one person who approached him didn’t know who he was depicting.

“They thought it was Bjork,” he revealed, in reference to the Icelandic singer-songwriter famed for her 1995 version of “It’s Oh So Quiet.”

Steve Hayles, the founder of Upfest, hoped Thomas’ mural would “help to create more conversations on the issue of climate change and its effect on our community.”

“We hope that his work will resonate with the people who come to see it and inspire some to learn more about the issue,” he added.

Thunberg has garnered global attention in recent months for her #FridaysForFuture movement, which asks students to walk out of school on Fridays to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

She told European politicians in April that she wanted them “to panic” about global warming. “I want you to act as if the house was on fire,” she said, later explaining how “when your house is on fire and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground, then that does require some level of panic.”

Thunberg’s rise to fame has coincided with growing awareness, and increasing concern, about the environment.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) signature policy proposal, the Green New Deal, wants to make the U.S. carbon-neutral by 2030.

Earlier this month, the United Nations released a report that predicts up to 1 million species of plants and animals are at risk of imminent permanent loss because of human activity.

And the Extinction Rebellion movement held a series of climate change protests across London and the world in April.

Thomas’ mural of Thunberg replaces one of “The Simpsons” character Lisa Simpson that Manchester female duo Nomad Clan (aka street artists Cbloxx and AYLO) painted at Upfest in 2018 to mark the 100-year anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in the United Kingdom.

That, in turn, replaced Brazilian artist Kobra’s depiction of the late singer-songwriter and former Beatles star John Lennon ― which some people mistakenly believed looked a bit like Harry Potter:

Thomas in 2017 performed a live street art reveal of HuffPost’s new logo to more than 200,000 people on Facebook.

NEW DELHI — The Congress has decided not to send spokespersons for television debates for a month. 

The move comes after the party’s debacle in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress has often accused the media of being “biased” towards the Modi dispensation.

″@INCIndia has decided to not send spokespersons on television debates for a month,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.

“All media channels/editors are requested to not place Congress representatives on their shows,” he said.

The Congress is currently facing a crisis with party president Rahul Gandhi adamant on his decision to quit after the poll debacle — winning just 52 Lok Sabha seats — and its state governments facing an uncertain future.

AMARAVATI — Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who led his YSR Congress Party to a thumping victory in the assembly elections, was sworn in on Thursday as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Governor ESL Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 46-year-old leader, whose party emerged victorious in 151 seats in the 175-member strong state assembly.

The YSR Congress decimated the TDP headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, who became the first chief minister of the state after it was bifurcated to carve out Telangana five years ago.

The YSRC also won 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the recently concluded polls.

Reddy took the oath in Telugu at 12.23 pm amid thunderous cheers by scores of party leaders and workers in a brief ceremony at the IGMC Stadium in Vijayawada.

Only Reddy took oath on Thursday and his council of ministers is expected to be sworn in on 7 June.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, DMK chief M K Stalin and Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao were the special guests.

Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali, Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Reddy’s mother and YSRC honorary president Y S Vijayamma, his wife Bharati and sister Sharmila and other members of the family were specially seated on the dais