Submit your Article

India has logged 18,257 new coronavirus infections in a day taking the tally of cases to 4,36,22,651. The active cases increased to 1,28,690, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am stated. With 42 new fatalities, the toll climbed to 5,25,428, The Economic Times reported.

The active cases comprise 0.30 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.50 per cent, the ministry said. 

An increase of 3,662 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.22 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.08 per cent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,29,68,533, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent. 

According to the ministry, 198.76 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, according to the Economic Times.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. 

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.

Elon Musk is seeking to end his $44bn (£36bn) bid to buy Twitter, alleging multiple breaches of the agreement, BBC reported.

The announcement is the latest twist in a long-running saga after the world’s richest person decided to buy Twitter in April.

Mr Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts.

Twitter says it plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk,” Twitter chairman Bret Taylor wrote in a tweet, setting up a potentially long and protracted legal battle between the two sides, according to BBC.

The original merger agreement includes a $1bn (£830m) break-up fee.

Row over fake accounts

In May, Mr Musk said the deal was “temporarily on hold” as he was awaiting data on the number of fake and spam accounts on Twitter.

The billionaire businessman had asked for evidence to back the company’s assertion that spam and bot accounts make up less than 5% of its total users.

In a letter filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Musk’s lawyer said Twitter had failed or refused to provide this information.

“Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the letter reads, BBC reported.

Spam accounts are designed to spread information to large numbers of people and manipulate the way they interact with the platform. On Thursday, Twitter said it removed around 1 million such accounts each day.

Mr Musk believes that spam or bot accounts could account for 20% or more of Twitter users.

Shares in Twitter fell by 7% in extended trading after the announcement.

Muslims across the country are celebrating Bakra-Eid with zest and zeal on Sunday.

The festival, also known as Eid al-Adha, falls on the 70th day after Ramadan, the nine month of the Hijri (Islamic lunar calendar).

The festival is observed commemorating the moment when Ibrahim, the first of the Old Testament who became ready to sacrifice his son at the command of Allah, the Muslim God, some 1435 years back as per the Hijri calendar, said Mohammad Khursid of Ghantaghar-Jame Mosque.

On this day, Muslims visit mosques, madrasas and Eidgah and offer their prayers to Allah, observe Namaj and exchange greetings to each other. They also observe a stringent dawn-to-dusk fast today.

Reading Namaj, observing Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca Medina), Roja (fasting), offering donations and sacrifices are the five main good deeds supposed to be followed by the Muslim people.

The government has declared a public holiday to celebrate the festival.

Photos: Saroj Baiju

Thousands gathered in the US capital on Saturday, marching through pouring rain and risking arrest to protest the reversal of abortion rights last month, BBC reported.

The demonstration came two weeks after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade - the ruling that had guaranteed abortion access nationwide for nearly 50 years.

Chanting "we won't go back", protesters converged on the White House, with some tying themselves to the gates outside. 

An estimated 10,000 people gathered from across the US, organisers said. 

Lauren Pierce, 33, an attorney from Dallas, was among them, travelling some 1,300 miles (2,100km) to attend the demonstration.

"There's nothing, to me, more worth fighting for than this cause - our fundamental right to have bodily autonomy," she said. "If that means taking up space and getting arrested then I think it's worth it."

Ms Pierce's home state of Texas is among the 10 US states where abortion has already been prohibited. At least a dozen other states are expected to follow.

Anti-abortion campaigners, many of whom see abortion as "murder", have celebrated the court's decision and the opportunity to outlaw the procedure in large swathes of the country.

Ms Pierce said she had begun to hear of Texans who have found themselves suddenly without reproductive care. The average one-way driving distance for a person in Texas seeking an abortion in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy is now 250 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, according to BBC. 

"We're blocked in," she said. 

Ms Pierce, like many others gathered at the White House, expressed frustration with President Joe Biden and his administration for not doing more to protect abortion access. Indeed, during Saturday's event organised by the Women's March, mention of Mr Biden's Democratic party drew nearly as many jeers as did mention of the Republicans. 

On Friday, facing pressure from progressives, Mr Biden signed an executive order directing his health department to protect abortion care, including access to medication abortion and emergency contraception, and safeguards for patient privacy.

But the president's power is limited. He cannot force through legislation in Congress and he cannot undo the decision of the Supreme Court, now a 6-3 conservative supermajority. 

"We know there are limits to his authority, but we want him to push that authority to its limit," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women's March. 

Still, Ms Carmona said the order was an important first step. 

"We're calling on President Biden to continue to take steps to protect abortion nationally," she said. "And if he can't do anything more from behind his desk he should get out into the streets." 

But to many pro-choice advocates, Mr Biden's administration has failed to meet the moment after a historic reversal in women's rights. 

"This is the first time ever a constitutional right has been taken away," said Helen Miller, 56, from Virginia. "We're here for our daughters, our children, our lives."

Some 40 million women of reproductive age are expected to lose access to abortion in the coming weeks, BBC reported.

Joanne Morris, 75, took in Saturday's protest from her hot pink wheelchair, holding a cardboard sign. "This boomer believes in choice and freedom," it said.

Standing with her daughter, Lisa, Ms Morris said she had travelled from Pennsylvania for her 16-year-old granddaughter. 

"I want to see her have the same choices that I had," she said. 

Ms Morris, a retired nurse, was 26 when the Supreme Court recognised a federal right to an abortion. She said didn't believe she would live to see Roe fall. "It feels like the country is headed in the wrong direction," she said, according to BBC.