Embattled director Woody Allen has announced that he will hang his boots after the release of his next film, “Wasp 22”.
The 86-year-old filmmaker told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that he is set to begin production on his swan song later this year in Paris with an all-French cast.
“My idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing,” Allen said as quoted by entertainment outlet Variety. His next project will be a novel, he added. Previously, Allen described “Wasp 22” as “a sort of poisonous romantic thriller” and compared it to his 2005 film “Match Point”.
In an interview with Alec Baldwin live-streamed on Instagram in June, the multiple Oscar winner had hinted at retirement, saying he plans to direct “one or two more” films. Allen, who has faced backlash after his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, alleged he sexually abused her as a child, had made headlines following the release of HBO’s 2021 docuseries “Allen v. Farrow”, which explored the allegations against him.
The director has repeatedly denied the claims. His most recent film was “Rifkin’s Festival”, which had a limited release in the US and grossed just USD 2.3 million.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has constituted a three-member all-women Special Investigation Team of police officials to probe the case in which a Chandigarh University student allegedly made objectionable videos of her hostel mates, police said on Monday.
Three accused including a girl student from the college have been arrested in connection with the case. The SIT team will be under the supervision of senior IPS officer Gurpreet Kaur Deo.
“SIT will go to the bottom of the conspiracy. No person is to be spared if found involved. One student and two others were arrested. Thanks to DGP Himachal Pradesh for excellent co-operation. Electronic devices were seized and sent for forensic examination,” said DGP Punjab, Gaurav Yadav.
He further appealed to everyone to maintain peace and said, “Don’t fall to unverified rumors. Let’s work together for peace in society. Appeal to everyone to maintain peace and harmony.
Earlier in the day sources said that the Chandigarh University varsity has been shut for students till September 24.
The decision comes in the wake of massive protests by students demanding action against the allegations that objectionable videos of several students at the girls’ hostel of Chandigarh University in Mohali were recorded by a fellow hosteller and shared on social media.
Two accused have been arrested and one detained in connection with the incident. Visuals today from the campus of the University showed several students carrying their luggage as they left the premises.
Protests that began on Saturday night continued till late on Sunday. Protesting students alleged that a student made videos of girl students while taking showers in the hostel.
The video was later made viral on social media. The protesting students also claimed that after the videos went viral, girl students living in the hostel attempted suicide.
However, police refuted all these claims of suicide. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) GS Bhullar spoke to the protesting students late on Sunday night and tried to pacify them by saying “implicit faith is necessary” and “law is being followed”.
“We will keep coming to you, implicit faith is necessary,” said DIG GS Bhullar. DIG Bhullar told to agencies that there was a communication gap earlier, which the police are trying to bridge.
“The issue has been of communication gap. We have been clarifying again and again. We are assuring students that law is being followed and all legal procedures are being undertaken,” DIG Bhullar said.
The Mohali Deputy Commissioner (DC) Amit Talwar also dismissed as “rumors” that students have attempted suicide. “No information about suicide has come out. It is a rumour that has been spread. We have not been brought forward any information that a suicide has taken place,” Talwar said.
On Sunday, one accused identified as Sunny Mehta was arrested. The youth belongs to a village under the Rohru Sub division of Shimla district, nearly 130 km away from the northern town. The detained person has been identified as 31-year-old Rankaj Verma. Both the accused were nabbed by a team led by Dr Monika, Superintendent of Police, Shimla and were handed over to Punjab Police from Rohur and Dhalli police stations respectively.
“Punjab Police has arrested and has left with the accused from Rohru in case FIR no 194/22 dt 18/9/22 u/s 354C IPC, 66E IT act PS Sadar Kharad Punjab. The 23-year accused, resident of Rohru has been handed over to them,” read a statement of Shimla Police.
The girl student of Chandigarh University in Mohali has also been arrested by police. She had reportedly said that she had made videos of some girls and sent them to a youth in Shimla.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday met Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda in Delhi.
Amarinder Singh will join the BJP today. Seven former MLAs and one former MP will also join the BJP along with Amarinder Singh.
“Amarinder Singh is also likely to merge his PLC party with the BJP,” Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal said on Friday.
Amarinder made the announcement of joining the BJP after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 12 in Delhi.
“Had a very productive meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah Ji. Discussed various issues pertaining to National security, the rising cases of narco-terrorism in Punjab and the future roadmap for the overall holistic development of Punjab,” Singh had tweeted.
In September last year, Amarinder Singh had unceremoniously resigned from the Congress ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections and floated his PLC and then made an alliance with the BJP that already had made SAD (Sanyukt) as its ally.
Houses of the three accused in the Rewa gang rape case were demolished by authorities.
The demolitions were carried out on Sunday. A girl was allegedly gang-raped by six men in the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh on September 16 near the famous Ashtbhuji temple.
The police have arrested three accused and the search for three other accused is still on, said the police.
The arrested accused have been identified as Shiv Yadav, Kishan Daheliya and Vidyasagar. Rewa Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anil Sonkar told to agencies that the administration was locating the assets of the three accused after which action would also be taken on their homes.
The police said that the victim had gone to the temple with her friend where the accused committed a very heinous act and also beat the victim and her friend and snatched their mobile phones.
“The police took action soon after receiving the information. The accused have been booked under sections 376, 395 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The absconding accused will be arrested soon,” added ASP Sonkar.
The police further said that many of the accused were minors
US President Joe Biden said that American forces would defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, the most explicit statement by him so far on the issue concerning cross-strait relations.
Responding to a query over defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden said the US would defend Taiwan “if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” according to The Washington Post citing CBS’s “60 Minutes” programme.
Since Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine, Biden had said that US military forces would not get involved in the fight. Scott Pelley, the interviewer in 60-minute programme pressed Biden on whether the situation would be different in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces — U.S. men and women — would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Pelley asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied. The interview is the latest of several occasions in which Biden has said that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defence militarily if China were to attack.
Each time, White House officials emphasized that his remarks did not represent any change in US policy.
Recently, a Biden administration official pointed out the remarks made by President Biden in May, when he told reporters that the practice of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan remained.
At that time, Biden did not say that he would send US troops to Taiwan in defending the country, reported The Washington Post. “He also made clear then that our Taiwan policy hasn’t changed,” the official said. “That remains true.”
A representative from the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. The “60 Minutes” segment erroneously stated that US policy since 1979 has recognized Taiwan as part of China.
Under the United States’ “one-China policy,” the American government under various administrations has for decades acknowledged Beijing’s view without taking a position on the status of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, which was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, the United States agreed to provide Taiwan with arms to defend itself, and “to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan.”
The language neither guarantees nor rules out the possibility of military intervention, though the United States has long practised “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to what it would do, The Washington Post reported.
The longest-serving monarch of the UK – Queen Elizabeth II – who died on September 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, will be laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London today.
According to a statement by the UK royal family, the state funeral of the Queen will take place on Monday at 1100 hrs BST.
Queen Elizabeth’s coffin draped in the Royal Standard is currently lying in state in London’s Westminster Hall for members of the public to pay their respects to the Queen.
The Lying-in-State will end right before the funeral and the coffin will be taken in procession from the Palace of Westminster to Westminster Abbey, where the State Funeral Service will take place.
Following the state funeral, the coffin will travel in procession from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch, after which the coffin will travel to Windsor and once there, the State Hearse will travel in procession to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle via the Long Walk.
A Committal Service will then take place in St George’s Chapel after which Queen Elizabeth II will be buried in the castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel. Numerous guests ranging from political heads of countries to distinct royal family members and dignitaries from across the globe will fly to the UK for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen’s funeral is the first state funeral in the UK since Winston Churchill’s in 1965. A state funeral means that the UK government has officially declared the day of the funeral as a bank holiday.
President Droupadi Murmu arrived in London to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral on September 17 and offered condolences on behalf of the government of India.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden Sunday also expressed his condolences to the royal family. While mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth, Biden remembered Queen’s warm candour and said, “The way she touched when she leaned over.
The way — she had that look like, “Are you okay? Anything I can do for you? What do you need?” And then also, “Make sure you do what you’re supposed to do,” Biden said adding that she reminded him of his mother.
Moreover, senior citizens and children are among those camping along the funeral routes, for over 48 hours in some cases, to bid a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.
Notably, the funeral service will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster, and readings will be given by Patricia Scotland, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, and Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The sermon will be delivered by Canterbury’s archbishop, the Most Reverend Justin Welby. Two minutes of silence will be observed across Britain towards the end of the ceremony.
The service is expected to end around 12 pm (UK time). The Queen was born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London.
She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York – who later became King George VI – and Queen Elizabeth.
A team of the Election Commission of India held a series of meetings with Gujarat director general of police, chief secretary and other senior officials during its three-day visit to review the situation in the state for the Assembly polls.
Elections in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat are due later this year.
A team of nine senior officials appointed by the ECI visited Ahmedabad between Friday and Sunday and reviewed preparations for the state elections, a government release said.
On Saturday and Sunday, the ECI team held a review meeting with Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi on poll preparedness in the presence of district election officers, commissioners and superintendents of police.
They discussed in detail various topics related to voters’ roll and special summary revision, electronic voting machine (EVM/VVPAT), minimum facilities at polling stations, manpower, transportation, law and order, security, training and capacity building, the release said.
Detailed discussions were held with nodal officers and representatives of various enforcement agencies such as the Income Tax, Excise, Reserve Bank of India, Department of Revenue Intelligence and Narcotics Control Bureau, it said.
“A meeting was also held with secretaries of various state government departments, including home, school education, electricity, telecommunication, road and transport, health and family welfare, excise and revenue,” it said.
Later, a meeting was also held with the state chief secretary and the director general of police to discuss various issues related to the upcoming elections as well as the feedback received from the CEO, state police nodal officer, other senior officials and enforcement agencies for smooth conduct of the elections, the release added.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday held a meeting with officials regarding the law and order situation in the state via video conferencing.
The CM reviewed the work of the officers who were negligent regarding the incidents related to the murders of women in Lakhimpur, Pilibhit, Lucknow, Gonda, Badaun and Amroha.
Notably, two Dalit minor sisters were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district on Wednesday leading to outrage over law and order in the state. The post-mortem reports confirmed that both girls were raped and strangulated.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested six people in connection with the case.
“Junaid, Suhail and Hafeezur Rehman were reportedly arrested during an encounter with the local Nighasan police and SWAT team in the Nighasan police station area on Thursday morning. Following their interrogation, the other accused Karimuddin, and Chhotu Gautam were also arrested,” Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Prashant Kumar said.
District Magistrates (DM), Superintendent of Police(SP), Inspector-General of Police (IG) and Additional Director General of Police (ADG) of all districts were present in the meeting.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with DGP DS Chauhan, Principal Secretary Home Sanjay Prasad, ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar, ADG Crime MK Bashal, IG Law and Order Sanjeev Gupta attended the video conferencing.
Earlier, Yogi flagged off modern prison vans for 56 districts under the Police Modernisation Scheme in Lucknow on Sunday.
Addressing the gathering at the event, the CM praised law and order in the state and said that the state government is taking all required steps to ensure law and order.
“Be it the transparent process of police recruitment, or training them to make them professionally efficient, all effective steps have been taken to ensure law and order in the state,” he added.
In another major administrative rejig, the state government led by Yogi Adityanath on Saturday reshuffled 14 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers including the District Magistrates of 10 districts.
According to the official order, new District Magistrates were appointed in Hardoi, Barabanki, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Agra, Chandauli, Mathura, Pilibhit, Bhadohi and Sant Kabir Nagar. Barabanki District Magistrate Adarsh Singh has been appointed as Commissioner in charge of the Jhansi division and Ghazipur DM Mangla Prasad Singh has been transferred as the DM of Hardoi.
Hardoi District Magistrate Avinash Singh is now the new DM of Barabanki, while Sant Kabir Nagar DM Divya Mittal has been transferred as the new District Magistrate of Mirzapur. Bhadohi DM Aryaka Akhoury has been made the new District Magistrate of Ghazipur and Navneet Singh Chahal, the District Magistrate of Mathura is now transferred as the DM of Agra district.
Varanasi Development Authority’s Vice-Chairman Isha Duhan has been made the new DM of Chandauli. Pilibhit DM Pulkit Khare has been transferred as the DM of Mathura while the Mirzapur DM Praveen Kumar has been made the new DM of Pilibhit. Aligarh Municipal Corporation commissioner Gaurang Rathi has been made the DM of Bhadohi.
Gorakhpur Development Authority Vice-Chairman Prem Ranjan Singh is now the new DM of Sant Kabir Nagar. Agra District Magistrate Prabhu Narayan Singh has been made Secretary in the Revenue Department.
Relief Commissioner and Secretary Revenue Department Ranveer Prasad has also been assigned the responsibility of Housing Commissioner, and Housing Commissioner Ajay Chauhan has been posted as Secretary, Public Works.
The Mumbai police have prohibited the transportation of cattle in the city in order to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease, an official said on Sunday.
The police issued an order to this effect on September 14 and it will remain in force till October 13, he said.
Anybody found violating the order will be penalised, the official said.
The order said that it is forbidden to bring cattle out of the places where they are being raised. There is a prohibition on transporting the bovine animals to market places or exhibition centres, it said.
Besides cattle, the transportation of any kind of fodder, grass or any equipment that came in contact with the lumpy skin disease-affected bovine animals is prohibited, it added.
The area under the Mumbai police commissioner ate is declared as “controlled area” for lumpy skin disease, the order said.
A leopard cub aged eight to nine months was found dead inside the Film City in Mumbai on Sunday morning, but the forest department officials ruled out any poaching attempt as all body parts of the animal were intact.
The necropsy report later revealed that respiratory complications and head trauma with bleeding were the primary causes of the death, a forest official said.
“On Sunday morning, the control room of the forest department received a call from the Film City located in suburban Goregaon, informing that a leopard cub was found dead near a film set. The rescue team of the forest department reached the spot and recovered the carcass,” he said.
The body parts of the animal were found intact, and hence the possibility of poaching was ruled out in the initial investigation, he added.
The Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), which is home to a number of leopards, is located nearby.
“The carcass of the cub was sent to SGNP for necropsy to determine the cause of the death,” said Pawan Sharma, founder of (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) and honorary wildlife warden with the state forest department.
“The necropsy report revealed that the primary cause of the death is respiratory complications and head trauma with bleeding,” he said.
The viscera samples of the animal were collected and sent for analysis, the forest official said, adding that a detailed investigation is being conducted by the forest department.
Leopards are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act and are among the top protected species.
Sharma said that Mumbai is home to more than 45 leopards and many of them are identified with their unique rosette patterns. “They are constantly monitored using camera traps by the forest department, scientists and volunteers. The carcass of the leopard cub will be disposed of as per the guidelines under the Wild Life (Protection) Act,” he added.
