The BJP government in Goa has made it mandatory for heads of all its departments (HoDs) to tune into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ monthly radio broadcast.
In a circular issued on Thursday, Shreyas D’Silva, under secretary (general administration), asked all HODs to tune into ‘Maan Ki Baat’ and draw inspiration from suggestions and best practices mentioned in the programme.
Posting the circular on his social media handle, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said “Mann Ki Baat, the monthly interactive program by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, highlights the thoughts and ideas of citizens on Governance, as well as individual and collective efforts driving societal change.” He said success stories and best practices shared during the programme can be adopted to improve governance.All Heads of Government Departments in Goa are directed to actively tune in to #MaanKiBaat. It is encouraged to draw inspiration from success stories and best practices shared during the programme, which have brought positive change across the nation. These insights shall be appropriately considered for adoption to improve governance and enhance service delivery in Goa,” Mr Sawant noted.
The CM further said “Goa has been a pioneer in implementing progressive Governance practices that have been emulated at both state and national levels.” He also talked about his government’s vision of ‘Swayampurna’ (self-sufficient) and developed GoaIt is essential to continually seek inspiration and adopt innovative practices from across India, be it from individuals, organizations, or state initiatives. This will further our efforts to promote Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business, propelling us toward achieving the vision of a Swayampurna, Viksit (developed) Goa,” Mr Sawant said.
‘Swayampurna Goa’ is a government-led community level action plan to make each and every village and city in the state self-reliant.
SpaceX launched its ninth Starship test flight on May 27 that featured the first-ever significant reuse of Starship hardware. As planned on Flight 9, Starship’s two stages separated successfully, and the upper stage even reached space. However, both were ultimately lost before completing their objectives. Despite these setbacks, the mission yielded valuable data which inspires SpaceX’s iterative approach to innovation as it aims to create a fully reusable launch system for space missions. This test flight exhibited successful reuse of a Super Heavy booster and aimed to demonstrate improved hardware performance.
Previous test flights
According to official site of SpaceX, Starship’s two stages are one giant booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply “Ship.” Both are powered by SpaceX’s new Raptor engine — 33 of them for Super Heavy and six for Ship.
On Flight 7 and Flight 8 the Super Heavy performed flawlessly, acing its engine burn and then returning to Starbase for a catch by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. But Ship had problems: It exploded less than 10 minutes after launch on both missions, raining debris down on the Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas, respectively.In flight 9, SpaceX reused a Super Heavy booster for the first time, swapping out just four of its 33 Raptor engines after its initial flight in January. The booster also conducted a new atmospheric entry experiment, entering at a higher angle to collect data on aerodynamic control. Meanwhile, Ship (the upper stage) was tasked with deploying eight dummy Starlink satellites.
Despite the promising advances, Flight 9 encountered several failures. Super Heavy broke apart roughly six minutes after launch during its return burn, and Ship lost control due to a fuel tank leak. The upper stage began tumbling, which prevented a planned in-space engine relight and led to a destructive reentry over the Indian Ocean. Still, SpaceX gained critical data, particularly on tile performance and active cooling systems.The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,” General Chauhan said.
The comments are the most direct yet from an Indian government or military official on the fate of the country’s fighter jets during the conflict with Pakistan that erupted on May 7.Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country shot down six Indian fighter jets, an assertion that hasn’t been independently verified. India’s government had earlier refrained from commenting on whether it lost aircraft in the fighting.
In a sweeping reorientation of the federal workforce, the Trump administration has unveiled a comprehensive hiring plan that reshapes not only how federal employees are selected but also the values and commitments they are expected to bring to government service.
At the heart of the administration’s plan is a focus on patriotism, loyalty to the president’s policy agenda, and a return to what it calls a “merit-based” system — one that abandons previous frameworks centred around equity and traditional credentialing.The White House, in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), has laid out a detailed directive for federal agencies, instructing them to prioritise candidates who demonstrate alignment with President Trump’s executive orders, his vision for government efficiency, and a clear dedication to constitutional principles.
For the first time, applicants for jobs at the GS-5 pay grade and above will be required to submit essays explaining how they plan to uphold the Constitution, increase government efficiency, support Trump’s policy initiatives, and demonstrate personal work ethic.
The memo behind the plan — authored by Vince Haley, assistant to the president for domestic policy, and Charles Ezell, acting OPM director — criticises the current federal hiring system as overly complex and ideologically driven. According to the document, previous administrations emphasised “equity” and “diversity” quotas that resulted in hiring unqualified bureaucrats who lacked the skill and dedication to properly serve the public. The Trump team claims that this new approach will ensure that only the most “talented, capable, and patriotic” Americans will be granted the privilege of working in the federal government.
In line with this thinking, the administration is also seeking to redefine the talent pipeline. Rather than drawing from what it sees as an overemphasis on “elite universities and credentials,” the plan proposes reaching deeper into institutions and communities traditionally outside the federal hiring spotlight.
These include state and land-grant universities, community colleges, religious and faith-based institutions, homeschooling groups, the military and veteran communities, law enforcement, and youth organisations like 4-H and the American Legion. One of the most controversial elements of the plan is the elimination of race, gender, and ethnicity as factors in federal hiring, recruitment, and promotion. The memo explicitly bans agencies from using demographic statistics or concepts like “underrepresentation” in making employment decisions.
While Trump’s allies see this as a long-overdue corrective measure to depoliticise and streamline federal hiring, critics argue it effectively imposes a political loyalty test on public servants. Requiring applicants to affirm support for a specific president’s policy agenda is viewed by many as a distortion of what it means to serve in a nonpartisan civil service. “I think it’s foolish,” said Paul Light, professor emeritus of public service at New York University, who expressed concern that this level of politicisation could further discourage talented professionals from entering government service — a sector already facing recruitment challenges, per a report by the Politico.
The United States offered a $10-million reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder wanted on drug and murder charges.
Ryan Wedding, 43, who is believed to be in Mexico or another Latin American country, was also placed on the FBI’s list of the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.”
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of US cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man,” Davis said.
Wedding, whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant” and “Public Enemy,” may possibly be living under the protection of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Davis said at a press conference.
Acting US Attorney Joseph McNally said Wedding had allegedly shipped hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States and canada,
Alan Hamilton, chief of detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department, said Wedding used the southern California city as the hub for the drug smuggling operation.
“An estimated 60 metric tons of cocaine per year and five metric tons of fentanyl per month moved through Los Angeles on its way to US and Canadian cities,” Hamilton said.
Wedding, who competed for Canada in snowboarding at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, finishing 24th in the parallel giant slalom, is one of 16 defendants facing US charges for their roles in the drug operation.
“The organization is violent, responsible for deaths as part of its criminal operations,” McNally said.
These include the November 2023 murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment and a May 2024 murder in Niagara Falls, Ontario, over a drug debt.The State Department is offering a $10-million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Wedding.
Wedding’s second-in-command, fellow Canadian Andrew Clark, 34, known as “El Dictador,” was among 29 alleged or convicted narcotics traffickers extradited to the United States from Mexico last week.
The US alleges Khalil’s presence or activities in the country would have serious foreign policy consequences.
A judge has ordered Khalil not to be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court.
Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to become a permanent resident in 2024.
In a court brief dated Sunday, the US government outlined its arguments for keeping Khalil in custody while his removal proceedings continue, arguing first that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction.
The brief also says Khalil “withheld membership in certain organizations” which should be grounds for his deportation.
It references a March 17 document in his deportation case that informed Khalil he could be removed because he failed to disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.US Alleges Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil ‘Covered Up’ Working For
Attorneys for Mahmoud Khalil did not respond immediately to a request for comment. (File)
Washington:
The US government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he worked for a United Nations Palestinian relief agency in his visa application, saying that should be grounds for deportation.
The UN agency known as UNRWA provides food and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has become a flashpoint in the Israeli war in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading the US to halt funding of the group.
The administration of US President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian campus protests that rocked the New York City campus last year, and sent him to Louisiana in an attempt to remove him from the country.
The case has drawn attention as a test of free speech rights, with supporters of Khalil saying he was targeted for publicly disagreeing with US policy on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner.
The US alleges Khalil’s presence or activities in the country would have serious foreign policy consequences.
A judge has ordered Khalil not to be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court.
Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to become a permanent resident in 2024.
In a court brief dated Sunday, the US government outlined its arguments for keeping Khalil in custody while his removal proceedings continue, arguing first that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction.
The brief also says Khalil “withheld membership in certain organizations” which should be grounds for his deportation.
It references a March 17 document in his deportation case that informed Khalil he could be removed because he failed to disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.
The UN said in August an investigation found nine of the agency’s 32,000 staff members may have been involved in the October 7 attacks.
The US court notice also accuses Khalil of leaving off his visa application that he worked for the Syria office in the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Attorneys for Khalil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One attorney, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the legal clinic CLEAR, was quoted in the New York Times as saying the new deportation grounds were “patently weak and pretextual.”
“That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives,” Kassem said, according to the Times.
