
More than half a million people have already signed up to receive their 10 ballots for the Alberta referendum in the mail, ahead of the Oct. 19 vote.
Global News
Original source

More than half a million people have already signed up to receive their 10 ballots for the Alberta referendum in the mail, ahead of the Oct. 19 vote.
Global News
Original source
NPCI (UPI Backend)
Outage reportNPCI (UPI Backend) is seeing elevated user reports in India. 33 reports in 24 hours (2 in the last 30 minutes). Live status on DownRightNow.
Punjab Cabinet Minister Lalchand Singh Kataruchak on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing the Central government of using institutions like the Election Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intimidate political opponents and target states governed by Opposition parties.Kataruchak said the BJP came to power in 2014 with major promises like Rs 25 Lakh in every account and two crore jobs every year, but instead of fulfilling those commitments, the Modi government had increasingly relied on what he described as unconstitutional methods and the misuse of Central institutions.He said, "Wherever the BJP feels politically threatened, instead of facing its opponents politically, it sends agencies such as the ED and the Election Commission to create fear and pressure Opposition leaders and workers".Referring to the Delhi elections, Kataruchak said officials and political leaders were intimidated and a climate of fear was deliberately created before the polls.He claimed false cases were registered against AAP leaders, who were kept in jail for months and years, only for courts to subsequently reject or quash the cases.He also referred to the latest controversy surrounding the Election Commission, saying the public had witnessed serious questions being raised about the functioning of the institution.He said two Election Commissioners had repeatedly written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar raising objections to the process being followed.He said these developments, along with the ED's actions, had brought back concerns that senior judges had raised years ago about the country's democratic institutions.Turning to Punjab, Kataruchak alleged that the ED was continuously targeting AAP leaders and workers.Referring to the search at the house of a relative of an AAP minister in Ludhiana, he said the officials conducted the search in the absence of the family member while his elderly parents were present, but reportedly left without recovering anything.He also recalled an ED search conducted around two months ago at the residence of a person close to him, saying that after a 16-hour search, the agency had left without finding anything and had provided this in writing.Kataruchak said Punjab would not be intimidated by such actions. "We are sons of Punjab and we will stand against such actions and face them firmly," he said, asserting that the people of Punjab would give a strong democratic response to the BJP's politics of intimidation.

Delays arise from the evaluation of 3,800 answer booklets, staff strikes, and the need for transparency in the selection process.

Is the price of stability necessarily the loss of freedom? Two possible future worlds are linked in the new novel from the author of Station Eleven In her second novel, 2009’s The Singer’s Gun, Emily St John Mandel tells the story of Anton Waker, a young man desperate to make a break from his criminal family. His plans are thwarted by his cousin Ari, whose hard-nosed talent for operating outside the law has become a way of life. A decade later in The Glass Hotel , a painting called Swan Dive that hangs in the lobby of the luxury retreat stands as a symbol of escape from a trap that is closing. You will not need to have read either of these earlier novels to enjoy Mandel’s seventh, Exit Party, though their loose intertwining of narrative threads will provide extra pleasure and a sense of homecoming for those who have. It is also interesting to observe Mandel’s evolution from a writer of quirky tales of offbeat protagonists to a novelist whose world-spanning, politically resonant narratives now attract a wide and devoted following. Exit Party begins five years into our future, in 2031. Ari Waker has just come out of prison after serving an 18-year sentence for the attempted murder by contract killing of her cousin Anton. Much has changed while she has been inside: a second civil war has devastated lives and blighted the economy, and the United States as such has ceased to exist. Continue reading...
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