Daily Briefing: Protests in Bangladesh; Supreme Court on NEET-UG row; what Trump-Vance win means for India; and more

Violent protests have roiled Bangladesh since Tuesday, with at least 19 more people losing their lives on Thursday, taking the death toll to 25, according to reports. The students are protesting against a recent high court ruling that gives reservations to descendants of freedom fighters for government jobs. Follow the latest updates.

Meanwhile, amid paper leak allegations surrounding the NEET-UG examination, the Supreme Court has asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish city-wise and centre-wise results of all 23 lakh candidates, masking their identities, on its website by 12 pm Saturday.

Only in Express

US presidential nominee Donald Trump has picked J D Vance to be his running mate for the November election, generating understandable interest in India because of his Indian-origin wife, whose extended family is from Andhra Pradesh. What could a Trump-Vance administration — a distinct possibility based on current poll numbers — look like from New Delhi? We explain.

P S – Reports suggest that Joe Biden may be reconsidering his presidential bid as former president Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi joined the growing voices of concerns around his candidacy.

From the Front Page

BJP allies JD(U) and RLD and party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi joined Opposition parties in questioning an order by the police in UP’s Muzaffarnagar, directing that shops and carts falling on the Kanwar Yatra route display the names of their owners. The BJP, however, has said it gives ‘Hindus equal rights’.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, Tamil Nadu’s youth welfare and sports development minister and the son of the Chief Minister M K Stalin, is set to be elevated as the Deputy Chief Minister before August 22, according to top sources in the government.

The families of three men, who were accused of being Hmar militants and killed by the Assam police, have raised questions on the circumstances surrounding their death, citing a 1 minute 18 seconds video which purportedly shows them being apprehended by the police a day earlier. We report.

🧑‍💻 Must Read

In his latest column, Husain Haqqani opines on why any potential move to ban Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is bad news for Pakistan: “Imran Khan’s popularity represents the dominance of the establishment’s ideology over Pakistani thinking even when the military’s current leadership wants to break from it. His rise to power in 2018 may have been orchestrated by the military but now his support base is very real.”

With Rohit Sharma announcing his retirement from T20Is, Surkyakumar Yadav will lead Team India as they travel to Sri Lanka. Yadav’s selection over Hardik Pandya and Shubhman Gill as Rohit Sharma’s deputy in ODIs instead of K L Rahul are significant calls for the future of Indian cricket.

⌛ And Finally…

Civic authorities in Bengaluru have sealed a mall over property tax dues, two days after an elderly farmer was denied entry into the shopping-cinema complex because he was wearing a dhoti. The incident prompted outrage and demands for action against the mall. Here’s what happened.

Delhi Confidential: Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was supposed to preside over a function to launch books on President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, which also happened to be his birthday. The derailment of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express in Uttar Pradesh forced him to skip the event. Read today’s column for more!

🎧 In the latest episode of our 3 Things podcast, we talk about the Puja Khedkar row, the possible reasons behind the rise in terror attacks in Jammu, and the latest on the NEET UG 2024 cases. Tune in!

Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta and Ayesha Jain

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