Author: workdigital2701@gmail.com

One of the most versatile cricketers in the game, KL Rahul, couldn’t inspire his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Delhi Capitals, to the competition’s playoffs. DC eventually finished 5th, just one spot outside the knockouts, leaving players and fans debating about the ‘what-if’ moments. However, instead of sulking on the failed pursuit of the top 4, Rahul has reportedly decided to join international duty by making himself available for the India A tour of England. Rahul has reportedly told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he wants to play for India A against England Lions in the second unofficial Test.The series gets underway with the first match starting on May 30 in Canterbury. While Rahul can’t make the squad in time for that match, he is said to be keen on a place in the team for the second match. The intention has also been informed to the BCCI and the selection committee chief, Ajit Agarkar.

“He will be flying on Monday and will be playing a second unofficial test with the India A side. As he is part of the senior men’s team, which will be playing five Test matches in the series, these matches will give him game time and match practice,” the Indian Express quoted a source as saying.

The second unofficial Test between England Lions and India A begins on June 06. The senior Indian team will then be involved in an intra-squad match in Beckenham on June 13. The first Test of the 5-match series starts in Leeds on June 20.

In a recent interview to Sky Sports, Rahul had also spoken of his love for the longest format of the game.”I love red ball cricket. I mean you can’t take that away from me or anyone who’s part of that Indian team. Everyone that I’ve spoken to on that Indian team, we’re all on the same page as to Test cricket is number one for us. We love playing Test cricket and that hasn’t changed for me,” Rahul had said.

“I grew up watching Test cricket. I grew up watching you guys play for England. I used to wake up at five in the morning and watch Test cricket in Australia with my father. He loved watching cricket as well,” he added.”He will be flying on Monday and will be playing a second unofficial test with the India A side. As he is part of the senior men’s team, which will be playing five Test matches in the series, these matches will give him game time and match practice,” the Indian Express quoted a source as saying.

The second unofficial Test between England Lions and India A begins on June 06. The senior Indian team will then be involved in an intra-squad match in Beckenham on June 13. The first Test of the 5-match series starts in Leeds on June 20.

In a recent interview to Sky Sports, Rahul had also spoken of his love for the longest format of the game.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has responded to a social media post that claimed fraudulent activities in the GST registration process.

Her statement came after a LinkedIn post by Vinod Gupta, founder and director of VG Learning Destination, went viral. Mr Gupta alleged that he would be forced to “commit a crime” by paying a bribe to get a registration number for his firm.

Referring to the post, Ms Sitharaman said, “It is our responsibility to serve taxpayers. But while doing that, we must be honest and transparent, because that’s how we earn their trust. I believe the GST Board and officers will continue to be careful and quick in responding to people’s issues.”Mr Gupta, in his now-viral LinkedIn post, claimed that he hasn’t received the GST number even though he applied for it 20 days ago. He wrote, “Tomorrow I will commit a crime. Giving and taking bribery: both are crimes. I applied for a GST registration number for a firm in which my wife and daughter are partners 20 days ago.”He mentioned, “Objections started coming in. Till today, the number has not been allotted. So, I’ve decided to get the GST number tomorrow. I know I will get it after committing the crime.”

The post quickly garnered social media users’ attention, including Tax Compliance and Litigation Expert Abhishek Raja Ram. He tagged the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and alleged corruption happening in the GST registration process. He even called out the officials handling the department and urged the top management to interfere.

His post read, “CBIC has no idea of the ground reality of corruption in GST Registrations. Their Executive Officers are so corrupt that even VG Sir has to vent out his frustration. Better top-level Officers take control of Registrations to save the country from corruption.”The CBIC was quick to respond to his post. The board clarified that Mr Gupta filed an application process on May 26 and was assigned to the Delhi State GST jurisdiction and not the Central GST authorities.

It further stated that the application was processed immediately; however, a query was raised because a designation was missing on the rent agreement. This was informed to the applicant; however, there has been no response from his side yet.

They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump – guys in their 70s with homes in New Jersey and big constituencies among white American men middle-aged and older. And both, in very different respects, are the boss.

That’s about where it ends.

The veteran rock star, long a political opponent of the president, stood up as one of Trump’s most prominent cultural critics last week with a verbal takedown from a British stage.

As is his nature, Trump is fighting back – hard. He calls Springsteen a “dried out prune of a rocker” and is even bringing Beyonce into the fray.

On Monday, the president suggested Springsteen and Beyonce should be investigated to see if appearances they made on behalf of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, last fall represented an illegal campaign donation.Opening a tour in Manchester, England, Springsteen told his audience last Thursday that “the America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”

He added, “Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

And The Back And Forth Began

Springsteen later made reference to an “unfit president and a rogue government” who have “no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.”

The next morning, Trump called Springsteen highly overrated. “Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy – just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” he wrote on social media.”This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country,” he said.

The next night, also in Manchester, Springsteen repeated his criticisms.

“It’s no surprise what Springsteen’s political leanings are and have been for many decades,” said veteran music writer Alan Light, author of the upcoming “Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.” “He’s somebody who has been outspoken in his music and his actions.”

The Boss’ statements this week showed he wasn’t afraid to speak out “at a time when so many people and institutions are just kind of rolling over,” Light said.

On Tuesday, Canadian-American rocker Neil Young weighed in on his website on behalf of Springsteen under the headline “TRUMP!!!”

“What are you worryin about man?” he said. “Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us.”

He added: “Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce. You know how I feel. You are worried more about yourself than AMERICA.”

US President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense concept revives a controversial, decades-old initiative whose ambitious construction could upend norms in outer space and reshape relations between the world’s top space powers.

The announcement of Golden Dome, a vast network of satellites and weapons in Earth’s orbit set to cost $175 billion, could sharply escalate the militarization of space, a trend that has intensified over the last decade, space analysts say.

While the world’s biggest space powers – the US, Russia and China – have put military and intelligence assets in orbit since the 1960s, they have done so mostly in secrecy.

Under former President Joe Biden, US Space Force officials had grown vocal about a need for greater offensive space capabilities due to space-based threats from Russia and China.When Trump announced his Golden Dome plan in January, it was a clear shift in strategy, one that emphasizes a bold move into space with expensive, untested technology that could be a financial boon to US defense contractors.

The concept includes space-based missiles that would launch from satellites in orbit to intercept conventional and nuclear missiles launched from Earth.

“I think it’s opening a Pandora’s box,” said Victoria Samson, director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation think tank in Washington, referring to deploying missiles in space. “We haven’t truly thought about the long-term consequences for doing so,” she added.

Samson and other experts said Golden Dome could provoke other states to place similar systems in space or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield, escalating an arms race in space.The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia and China reacted differently to the latest news from Trump. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said it was “seriously concerned” about the project and urged Washington to abandon its development, adding that it carried “strong offensive implications” and heightened the risks of the militarization of outer space and an arms race.

A Kremlin spokesperson said Golden Dome could force talks between Moscow and Washington about nuclear arms control in the foreseeable future.

Primarily seeking to defend against a growing arsenal of conventional and nuclear missiles from US adversaries Russia, China and smaller states such as North Korea and Iran, the Golden Dome plan is a revival of a Cold War-era effort by former US President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as the “Star Wars” program.SDI envisioned stationing a constellation of missiles and powerful laser weapons in low-Earth orbit that could intercept a ballistic nuclear missile launched anywhere on Earth below, either in its boost phase moments after launch or in its blazing-fast cruise phase in space.

But the idea never came to fruition mainly because of technological hurdles, as well as the high cost and concerns it would violate an anti-ballistic missile treaty that has since been abandoned.

US-Iran Nuclear Talks: Amid uncertainty over the outcome of the ongoing negotiations, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian downplayed Donald Trump’s threats, saying, “It’s not like we (Iran) will die of hunger if they refuse to negotiate with us or impose sanctions on us.”

As the fifth round of nuclear talks with the United States concluded over the weekend, Iran has declared that it is capable to survive even if the negotiations fails – an option that is non-existent from Donald Trump’s perspective.

President Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran that should talks fail, and a deal acceptable to Washington not be reached, the consequences will be dire for Iran. The US President has threatened a combination of crippling economic sanctions and bombings across Iran’s strategic facilities in order to wipe out its nuclear ambitions forever.Khamenei, who has increasingly doubted that a new nuclear deal with the US will see the light of day, had called the US’ demands of Tehran ending all uranium enrichment as “excessive and outrageous”. The utterly frustrated supreme leader also described the US demands as “nonsense”.Surprisingly, Donald Trump, who often makes claims about talks and negotiations that are later denied by his counterparts or the nations they represent, said that the talks between Washington and Tehran this weekend were “very good” – quite the opposite of what the remarks by his Iranian counterpart suggests.

Donald Trump’s administration wants Iran to curb – rather scale down – its uranium enrichment programme significantly, to levels that restrict Tehran to only the civilian use of nuclear energy. Ambitions for the Gulf nation to possess nuclear weapons someday is simply not an option, Washington has said.

Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East has said that for civilian purposes, 3.67 per cent uranium enrichment is enough. Tehran has already gone far beyond that. Enrichment levels of uranium in Iran are already up to 60 per cent – a short, technical step away from reaching weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

“This cannot be allowed,” Mr Witkoff had said in April, while Donald Trump had fully backed him at the time, saying, “Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. These are radicalised people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”On its part, Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is exclusively for civilian purposes. However, has rejected demands to curb its uranium enrichment programme, casting a shadow on its intentions.

Immediately after the latest round of talks, reports emerged indicating a three-year pause to Tehran’s ongoing enrichment programme. Reacting to this, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei denied any such move and said that “Iran will never accept” a proposal of this nature.

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