NEW YORK – President Donald Trump’s tweet targeting the Diversity Visa Lottery program – which most Americans have little or no clue about despite it been in existence for almost 27 years and which allows 50,000 nationals along with their immediate family members every year from mostly underdeveloped countries to get an instant Green Card – is spot on. It’s not only unwarranted, economic drain on the country’s resources, but also a slap in the face of skilled, legal immigrants who wait for decades to get permanent residency.

Uzbekistan national Sayfullo Saipov, who perpetrated the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11, earlier this week, is a product of the Diversity Visa Lottery. ISIS has gleefully claimed him as one of their own. In hospital, recovering from his wounds after sustaining a bullet shot in the hip, Saipov is reportedly cheerful, delighted with his heinous effort at killing and maiming innocent people.

“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based,” Trump tweeted on Nov. 1.

The Washington Post noted that the Diversity Visa Lottery program was made into law in November, 1990, after the then Congressman Schumer put forth a bill that proposed making a set number of visas available each year to “diversity immigrants” from “low-admission” countries. Despite being couched as a “diversity” action, it was openly pitched as a way to aid Irish immigrants.

Bloomberg noted that since 1995, over 400,000 people from nearly every African country have received diversity visas. This year, 53 African countries are eligible.

Indian nationals are not in the list of countries eligible for the visa. But neighboring Bangladesh is, with a lot of poor applicants like domestic workers and cycle rickshaw pullers, applying. Come the time for lottery application time every Fall, and millions around the world apply, there are numerous cases of immigration fraud, scams galore.

A Bloomberg report noted “the United States benefits…as the visa lottery has made the idea of the American Dream concrete for people around the world who otherwise have no opportunity to emigrate to the United States.”

True enough. But such expansive liberal comments that espouse diversity often neglect reality, gloss over the harm it’s doing to legal immigrants from around the world who are already here in the US, who wait with silent desperation for sometimes decades to secure a Green Card.

What illegal immigration and programs like the Diversity Visa Lottery program also does is to suck up the resources at the Department of Homeland Security, create further wait time for visas to be expedited and Green Cards to be granted.

Ideally, Trump should end the Diversity Visa Lottery immediately.

As a gesture of his intent to herald in merit-based immigration system, he should allocate the lottery of granting 50,000 Green Cards to those skilled immigrants who are waiting in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories of visas for a Green Card. The current wait times in those wait are decades, according to experts. For some legal immigrants, that would mean more than winning a couple of million dollars at Lotto.

The fact of the matter is that while a day laborer or a rickshaw puller with a high school diploma from Dhaka has a chance to get a free Green Card later this year, if he had applied for a Diversity Visa Lottery, a skilled worker who went to IIT Delhi and is working on an H-1B visa for, say Google, and his company sponsors him for a Green Card, and he lands up in either EB-2 or EB-3 category, may well have to wait till perhaps 2040 to get his Green Card. Grow old waiting.

Meanwhile, that worker from Dhaka will be able to get his family over here also on a Green Card, secure US citizenship after five years, be eligible to vote, be totally integrated into the American mainstream.

On the other hand, the H-1B worker from IIT Delhi at Google will languish as a second-class citizen for over two decades, with no assurance even then of getting that elusive Green Card, if he were to lose his job and not find another in a similar category. Forget about the citizenship.

Trump’s slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’ would truly become reality when all legal residents in the country are made to feel they are being taken care of, their quality of life also a concern of the administration.

(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)

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This week’s tragic terrorist attack in New York was the kind of isolated incident by one troubled man that should not lead to generalizations. In the 16 years since 9/11, the city has proved astonishingly safe from jihadist groups and individuals. And yet, speaking about it to officials in this major global hub 10,000 miles away, the conclusions they reach are worrying. “The New York attack might be a way to remind us all that while ISIS is being defeated militarily, the ideological threat from radical Islam is spreading,” says Singaporean Home Minister K. Shanmugam. “The trend line is moving in the wrong direction.”

The military battle against Islamist extremist groups in places such as Syria and Afghanistan is a tough struggle, but it has always been one that favored the United States and its allies. After all, the combined military forces of some of the world’s most powerful governments are up against a tiny band of guerrillas. On the other hand, the ideological challenge from the Islamic State has proved far more intractable. The terrorist group and ones like it have been able to spread their ideas, recruit disaffected young men and women, and infiltrate countries across the globe. Western countries remain susceptible to the occasional lone wolf, but the new breeding grounds of radicalism are once-moderate Muslim societies in Central, South and Southeast Asia.

Consider Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, long seen as a moderate bulwark. This year, the governor of Jakarta, the country’s capital and largest city, lost his bid for reelection after he was painted by Muslim hard-liners as unfit for office because he is Christian. Worse, he was then jailed after being convicted on a dubious and unfair blasphemy charge. Amid a rising tide of Islamist politics, Indonesia’s “moderate” president and its mainstream “moderate” Islamic organizations have failed to stand up for the country’s traditions of tolerance and multiculturalism.

Or look at Bangladesh, another country with a staunchly secular past, where nearly 150 million Muslims live. Founded as a breakaway from Pakistan on explicitly nonreligious grounds, Bangladesh’s culture and politics have become increasingly extreme over the past decade. Atheists, secularists and intellectuals have been targeted and even killed, blasphemy laws have been enforced, and a spate of terrorist attacks have left hundreds dead.

Why is this happening? There are many explanations. Poverty, economic hardship and change produce anxieties. “People are disgusted by the corruption and incompetence of politicians. They are easily seduced by the idea that Islam is the answer, even though they don’t know what that means,” a Singaporean politician explained to me. And then, the local leaders make alliances with the clerics and give platforms to the extremists, all in search of easy votes. That political pandering has helped nurture a cancer of Islamist extremism.

In Southeast Asia, almost all observers whom I have spoken with believe that there is another crucial cause — exported money and ideology from the Middle East, chiefly Saudi Arabia. A Singaporean official told me, “Travel around Asia and you will see so many new mosques and madrassas built in the last 30 years that have had funding from the Gulf. They are modern, clean, air-conditioned, well-equipped — and Wahhabi [Saudi Arabia’s puritanical version of Islam].” Recently, it was reported that Saudi Arabia plans to contribute almost $1 billion to build 560 mosques in Bangladesh. The Saudi government has denied this, but sources in Bangladesh tell me there’s some truth to the report.

How to turn this trend around? Singapore’s Shanmugam says that the city-state’s population (15 percent of which is Muslim) has stayed relatively moderate because state and society work very hard at integration. “We have zero tolerance for any kind of militancy, but we also try to make sure Muslims don’t feel marginalized,” he explained. Singapore routinely gets high marks in global rankings for its transparency, low levels of corruption and the rule of law. Its economy provides opportunities for most.

Asia continues to rise, but so does Islamist radicalism there.

This trend can be reversed only by better governance and better politics — by leaders who are less corrupt, more competent and, crucially, more willing to stand up to the clerics and extremists. Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince spoke last week of turning his kingdom to “moderate Islam.” Many have mocked this as a public-relations strategy, pointing to the continued dominance of the kingdom’s ultra-orthodox religious establishment. A better approach would be to encourage the crown prince, hold him to his words and urge him to follow up with concrete actions. This is the prize. Were Saudi Arabia to begin religious reform at home, it would be a far larger victory against radical Islam than all the advances on the battlefield so far.

THE WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

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NEW YORK – A 14-year-old Indian American Sikh boy was beaten by two other students on Oct. 26 on a sidewalk, one block away from Kentridge High School for what many believe was his religion, according to a News Tribune report.

One student recorded the beating while the other followed the Indian American and punched him from behind, knocking him onto the ground where the boy was punched several times as he tried to protect his head and crawl away.

The video was then posted on Snapchat and has now gone viral.

The school district told the News Tribune that it was investigating the incident after reviewing the recording the Monday after, school officials believe that religion or race was not the cause for the attack, but instead was probably a continuation of classroom dispute that had occurred earlier.

Chris Loftis, the communications director for the Kent School District, in Washington state, was disappointed when he saw the video and said that violence is never tolerated at any school in Kent, adding that he had been receiving calls from around the country from people who were outraged after watching the video.

“We’re reaching out to community leaders and various religious organizations and groups on how we can talk about this in an effective way. I’m not able to talk about the specific individual sanctions a student receives but a suspension would fit in with punishment.” Loftis told Q13 FOX.

The Kent School District claims to be one of the most diverse in the country, with more than 27,000 students speaking a total of 150 languages, they even released a statement which said “at this point, it appears this was a continuation of an earlier classroom dispute and not racially or religiously motivated. However, much of the social media regarding this incident includes very troubling and racially charged verbiage.”

“I am feeling so, so bad because this happened with my son. They beat him from the backside and hurt him too much. This is a very big thing for me, here in America, in the U.S., because I can’t imagine, I can’t explain or myself how I am feeling,” the Indian American’s father, who refused to be identified, told KIRO-TV.

“He never interacted with this guy. He never know his name, I don’t want to see this happen again with my son or anyone else. I don’t want to see this,” he added saying that it hurts him each time he sees the video.

The mother of the Indian American teen told Q13 FOX that she was very distraught and stressed out by the incident and did not want to talk about as she added that her son was not doing well and was recovering.

The family also said that their son never fought with the attacker in school and added that the Kent area is home to many Sikhs and all they want peace for them and everyone.

The News Tribune reported that a Facebook thread about the incident generated more than 40 comments from parents and community members who said that the boy who beat up the Indian American, needs to be held accountable and that people everywhere need to stand up to injustice.

“It is time for the parents and the school districts to ensure that the kids have a safe learning environment,” one commenter wrote.

Another said, “I am so sickened by what is happening in our country. I pledge to speak out against any injustice that I witness. I am so sorry for this ‘culture/sickness’ that is brewing. Stay strong and continue to fight back with love and integrity!”

Police are looking into the incident.

The News Tribune added that the student’s beating comes six months after another Indian American Sikh in Kent was shot in his driveway after being told to “Go back to your own country,” he recovered from a gunshot wound to the arm and told police he did not know the shooter.

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In Mohit Gogia’s stationery and gift store in Noida, near India’s capital, the only decorative lights for sale ahead of last month’s festival of lights were Chinese made.

“India-made lights cost twice as much,” said Gogia, as shoppers snapped up supplies for the Diwali celebration. “Customers aren’t willing to pay that.”

Two-way trade statistics tell the tale. India’s deficit with China has ballooned nine-fold over a decade to $49 billion in 2016 as China’s manufacturing edge stacks the odds against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-year-old “Make-in-India” program. The result: India’s current account deficit is worsening again, threatening the outlook for an economy already straining under the fallout of a snap ban on high-value notes a year ago and a new sales tax.

Now — a century after freedom fighters in colonial India launched a movement against British goods — the backlash against Chinese products is ramping up. Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an economic policy group linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, drew more than 100,000 onto the streets in the capital New Delhi on Oct. 29 in a rally against the dominance of Chinese products. A picture in the local press showed protesters holding Indian flags and a poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping with a cross mark on it.

“This is the biggest-ever gathering to fight the dominance of Chinese goods,” Arun Ojha, national convener of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said in an interview in the hot, dusty protest site days ahead of the rally. “Our youth are losing jobs and we are becoming traders of Chinese products.”

Swadeshi Jagran Manch says its boycott movement is a “second war of economic independence” and claims support from farmers, trade and labor associations — the same groupings that Modi will rely on for re-election in 2019. Protest leaders met with Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman following the demonstration. Calls to her mobile and to the office of the prime minister seeking comment went unanswered.

“This flood of Chinese imports fits in very uncomfortably with the priority of the Modi government to expand India’s manufacturing base,” said Harsh Pant, professor of international relations at King’s College in London. “This trade deficit is now becoming a major headache. Though this is not unique to India-China economic ties, this is a major concern for Indian policy makers now that economic restructuring is a priority for New Delhi.”

In the last 10 years, there’s been a few episodes of rapid growth in India that led to rising external deficits and inflation and came to a halt because the government had to rein in demand in order to restore macroeconomic stability, said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong.

“The imbalanced trade relationship reflects the fact that India’s manufacturing sector remains strongly underdeveloped,” Kuijs said. “Unless it is able to develop its manufacturing sector so that it can produce a large share of the growing demand for goods in its economy, India’s economic growth will be constrained by rising current account deficits and/or inflation and their consequences.”

India and China’s frosty relationship has already been put to the test by a weeks-long military standoff in the Himalayas earlier in the year. Indeed, demands to boycott Chinese goods gathered momentum after that friction on the Doklam plateau refreshed memories of a border war between the two nations in 1962, where China emerged the victor.

Economically, India is losing out this time too: Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn Technology Group has reportedly delayed a plan to set up a 3 billion rupees plant in the western Indian state of Maharashtra because of the standoff. Foxconn did not directly address whether its Maharashtra plant had been delayed. In a statement it said: “We are committed to the development of India’s technology and manufacturing sectors. Details regarding any new investments will only be announced once decisions have been made and all necessary approvals have been received.”

China has a different perspective on the trade relationship. The two nations could benefit from collaborating more, not less, said Wang Huiyao, director of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization and an adviser to China’s cabinet.

A boycott “doesn’t make any economic sense — it’s an irrational move,” he said. “China’s products and China’s experience can really benefit India.”

Describing India and China as “important neighbors”, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that this year had seen leaders reach “a series of important consensuses on further developing” trade relations. “The two countries’ economies are strongly complementary and both sides are developing trade cooperation,” it said.

Read more: Flood of Cheap Chinese Imports May Hurt India’s Factories
To be sure, Modi’s Made in India push hasn’t been without success. Foreign direct investment rose to a record $60 billion last financial year. But the program didn’t translate into lower imports from China, nor did it give any major push to manufacturing.

“An inefficient indirect tax system, even after the goods and services tax, makes several inputs and final goods cheaper to import than buy domestically,” said Amitendu Palit, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies.

Ironically, the USB flash drives with electronic versions of brochures distributed at the Make-in India program announcement in 2014 were made in China.

“No one is capable of competing with the Chinese,” said Neelam Deo, a director of Mumbai-based think tank Gateway House and a former diplomat.

BLOOMBERG

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NEW DELHI

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s much-awaited period drama “Padmavati” will release in the US on December 1.

Starring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, “Padmavati” is being distributed internationally by Paramount Pictures.

Ajit Andhare, Chief Operating Officer, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, said in a statement: “I am very proud to announce that Paramount Pictures will lead the international release of our epic film ‘Padmavati’. We are breaking new ground with ‘Padmavati’, its marketing and release strategy. With Paramount coming on board, we will take the film to a whole new level globally.”

Megan Colligan, spokesperson of Paramount Pictures, said: “‘Padmavati’ has all the makings of a hit film and we are excited to bring Sanjay’s incredible vision to audiences across the international marketplace.”

IANS

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NEW YORK – Thomas Lankey (D) has been the Mayor of Edison Township, New Jersey, for about four years and is running for re-election on Nov. 7.

Prior to being Mayor, Lankey was on the Edison Township Council from 2010 to 2013 and is the senior Vice president at JFK Health Systems.

He was also the Vice Chairman from 1994 to 2014 on the Magyar Bank Board of Directors. He is a member of the Hospital Financial Management Association and the American College of Health Care Administrators as well as the Middlesex County Workforce Investment Board. He was also the Board Vice President of the Huntington’s Disease Society of N.J.

Lankey has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Delaware and has lived in Edison his whole life.

Excerpts of an email interview with News India Times:

Why are you running for Mayor again?

I am seeking a second, four-year term as Mayor of Edison to continue my effort to make Edison Township a safe, affordable and enjoyable place for people to live, raise a family, and work.

I am 57 and a lifelong Edison resident. My family’s roots are deeply intertwined in the fabric of this community. This fuels my commitment its residents and their safety; to Edison’s economic health and financial stability; and to sensible growth. I wish to continue helping Edison move forward and make progress.

As the current mayor, what have you done for Edison Township?

As Mayor, I have ensured that my Administration is conservative and fiscally responsible. Edison Town Hall now provides its first-rate services at lower operating costs than ever before.

We have invested in overdue infrastructure improvements – resurfacing more than 225 streets, replacing aging sewer lines, and improving our parks. We have made significant investments in Police and Fire Department manpower, training, technology and equipment.

These investments go hand-in-hand with my Administration’s economic development strategy. Since 2014, we have successfully made Edison a more attractive destination for larger corporate and commercial investors, and encouraged new small businesses and professional offices to open here.

These businesses have brought more than 3,500 new, higher-paying job opportunities to Edison and strengthened our municipal tax base, contributing $17.2 million more in annual taxes to help fund municipal services and provide relief to our residential taxpayers.

Edison’s total property value has risen to $7.1 billion – up by $110 million since 2014. While Edison is the largest town in Middlesex County, we now have the 6th lowest equalized tax rate among the 25 towns.

What are other things you plan to do for the township if re-elected?

In my second term, I hope to build upon my proud record of accomplishment. My Administration, in cooperation with the Edison Township Council, will continue to work diligently to improve Edison’s infrastructure. We will continue to improve our Police and Fire Departments and, if financially feasible, we hope to increase manpower.

We are examining how best to improve our Public Works Department, enabling it to provide better, more effective service to our community. We are also in the planning stage for an attractive, new municipal Recreation Center people of all ages and their families.

Why should the Indian American community bring you back as Mayor? What have you done for them specifically?

Edison Township’s broad ethnic, cultural and religious diversity has enriched our community and I am extremely proud to be Mayor here. No previous Administration has done more to embrace Edison’s newest residents.

My Administration ensures that Town Hall – including our Division of Public Safety – recruits and hires employees who better reflect our community’s diversity. We have created multi-cultural programs and outreach initiatives. We also vigorously encourage our newest neighbors to get involved in public affairs, to seek employment in public service, to volunteer for appointed boards and commissions, and to run for elected office.

Your opponent Keith Hahn says that you are a part-time Mayor. What do you have to say about that?

The Office of Mayor is – by municipal ordinance – a part-time position here in Edison. However, I have assembled an Administrative staff that provides full-time, qualified supervision in Town Hall. I personally dedicate countless hours each workday, nights and weekend to serve the people of Edison. Decades of corporate experience in hospital finance and administration have provided me with the managerial skills and financial expertise necessary to navigate and administer Town Hall’s large, complex budget.

Any message for our readers?

I have a deep, genuine concern for the well-being of all people who live and work in Edison Township. I also have a clear vision for the future of our community. With support and help from the Indian American community, we can move Edison forward and make tremendous progress together.

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio eating dinner on Nov. 2 at Mirch restaurant in Queens, NY, with members of his family and community. Also seen in the video is veteran community leader Harpreet Singh Toor.

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NEW DELHI

Indian-born scientist Aruni Bhatnagar is all set to install a $14.50 million “unique urban laboratory” in the US that will study the effect of green plantations on combating cardiovascular diseases. His research interests include cardiovascular effects of environmental pollutants, atherosclerosis, injury from loss of blood to the heart muscle, cardiovascular complications of diabetes and sepsis.

“We think trees might be more effective than statins in combating heart disease,” Bhatnagar told IANS on phone from Louisville, Kentucky.

Bhatnagar’s work has led to the creation of the new field of environmental cardiology.

A Lucknow University graduate with a bio-chemistry doctorate from the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), also in Lucknow, he is a professor and university scholar with Louisville’s Institute of Molecular Cardiology. He is also a fellow with the American Heart Association.

The Green Heart project involves the University of Louisville, the Nature Conservancy, the Institute for Healthy Air, Land and Soil and other partners that will transform four South Louisville neighbourhoods, home to about 22,000 residents, with 8,000 trees and other plantings.

Bhatnagar said the trees will not be samplings but mature foliage which will make a difference right away. Trees, shrubs and other plants will be placed where they can best soak up lung-damaging air pollution within the study area.

Researchers will track the health of about 700 residents to ascertain cardiovascular response to the plantation.

He said green spaces breathe in their own way, taking up the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide while creating life-sustaining oxygen.

While trees produce volatile organic compounds — a source of ozone pollution — they also absorb ozone and other pollutants and trap especially dangerous tiny particles.

But “nobody has evaluated the specific health effects of planting green spaces”.

He said the effect of plantation on human health where people’s health is monitored before, during and after a major tree plantation drive has not been studied so far.

The health of people who live near the newly planted greenery will be compared to those who live elsewhere in the study area.

“We are hopeful to see changes in a few years,” he said. “It’s like a drug trial, with nature as the drug.”

Bhatnagar said he and his team wanted to test whether giving someone a statin for cardiovascular management is better or worse than giving one green surroundings.

In addition to studying cardiovascular health, researchers also plan to see if there are any changes in crime rates, stress, economics and other social-psycho outcomes.

Some studies suggest trees can help in those areas, too.

He said the Louisville research can be a potential game-changer in fighting heart disease.

“Though heart disease rates have been coming down, the rate has slowed and flattened out in the recent past. That’s why we thought we need to try something different,” he explained.

So far research has identified poor diet and lack of exercise with heart risk. We haven’t studied the impact of the environment in preventing or managing the cardiovascular situation in the urban population. About 70 percent of heart disease is preventable but it still accounts for the largest cause of deaths, Bhatnagar added.

IANS

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SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas – A man thrown out of the U.S. Air Force for beating his wife and child shot killed 26 people in a rural Texas church where his in-laws worshiped before fatally shooting himself, officials said, in the latest in a string of U.S. mass shootings.

Gunman Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, walked into the white-steepled First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs carrying an assault rifle and wearing black tactical gear, then opened fire during a Sunday prayer service. He wounded at least 20 others, officials said.

After he left the church, two local residents, at least one of whom was armed, chased him in their vehicles and exchanged gunfire, and Kelley crashed his car and shot himself to death, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told CBS News in an interview on Monday morning.

“At this time we believe that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Tackitt said. He later told CNN, “We know that his ex in-laws or in-laws came to church here from time to time … They were not here (Sunday).”

The attack came a little more than a month after a gunman killed 58 people in Las Vegas in the deadliest shooting by a sole gunman in U.S. history.

The initial death toll matched the number of dead in the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a man shot and killed 26 children and educators. Those attacks now stand as the fourth deadliest in the United States.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott told CBS there was evidence that Kelley had mental health problems and that he had been denied a Texas gun permit.

“It’s clear this is a person who had violent tendencies, who had some challenges, and someone who was a powder keg, seeming waiting to go off,” Abbott said.

Abbott and other Republican leaders were quick to say that the attack did not influence their support of gun ownership by U.S. citizens – the right to bear arms protected under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“This isn’t a guns situation. I mean we could go into it but it’s a little bit soon to go into it,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters while on trip to Asia. “But fortunately somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction, otherwise … it would have been much worse. But this is a mental health problem at the highest level.”

Democrats renewed their call to restrict gun ownership following the attack.

“How many more people must die at churches or concerts or schools before we stop letting the @NRA control this country’s gun policies,” Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter.

The victims in Sutherland Springs, a community of fewer than 400 people, located about 40 miles (65 km) east of San Antonio, included the 14-year-old daughter of church pastor Frank Pomeroy, the family told several television stations.

One couple, Joe and Claryce Holcombe, told the Washington Post they lost eight extended family members, including a pregnant granddaughter-in-law and three of her children.

In rural areas like Sutherland Springs, gun ownership is a part of life and the state’s Republican leaders for years have balked at gun control, arguing that more firearms among responsible owners make the state safer.

At the suspect’s home located in an isolated area of New Braunfels, about 35 miles (56 km) north of Sutherland Springs, a Comal County Sheriff vehicle blocked the entrance. A “beware of dog” sign was affixed to the gate where a dented mailbox bears the address.

Kelley served in its Logistics Readiness unit at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge in 2014, according to the U.S. Air Force.

Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 on charges of assaulting his wife and child, and given a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months and a reduction in rank, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.

Kelley’s Facebook page has been deleted, but cached photos show a profile picture where he appeared with two small children. He also posted a photo of what appeared to be an assault rifle, writing a post that read: “She’s a bad bitch.”

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BEHROR, India – The beating that ended Pehlu Khan’s life was televised nationwide. Cell phone video captured a group of men punching and slinging Khan around the middle of a road in north India, stomping on him and then slamming the 55-year-old farmer down on concrete as he begged for mercy.

Khan had been stopped by the lynch mob of right-wing Hindus as he rode home from a market in April with two cows and two calves in the back of a truck. The crowd was furious at the sight of a Muslim transporting animals held sacred by Hindus, according to the accounts of his sons and two fellow villagers who were also attacked. Before the men beat Khan so badly that he later died, breaking his ribs in multiple places, they screamed that he was planning to slaughter the cattle for beef.

Outside the frame of the video, something else was happening: Pehlu Khan’s cows were seized. They were hauled off to a nearby Hindu-run shelter that takes in cattle snatched from Muslims and sells them.

Assaults meted out in broad daylight against India’s Muslim population, some 14 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people, have sparked concern about the direction the country is taking under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There has been another, less noted dimension to the violence: The theft from Muslims and redistribution to Hindus of cows that provide crucial income in the Indian countryside.

Such scenes clash with India’s image as an investor darling in Asia and the pro-business message Modi broadcasts to foreign investors. But three and a half years after his electoral victory, the cow seizures illustrate how the nation’s right-wing Hindu factions that propelled Modi to power are now shaping India and stirring religious upheaval.

Having stoked Hindu nationalist passions in his bid for the highest office, it’s unclear to what extent Modi can now control them. The bands of right-wing Hindus who seize the cows are operating essentially as private militias. They are undeterred by the prime minister’s public calls on them to end the violence. States governed by Modi’s party have seen a marked increase in cow theft from Muslims as well as funding for cow shelters that in many cases take in the stolen cattle.

Interviews with nationalist Hindu leaders and militia members across the country reveal an impatience for Muslims to demonstrate obeisance to the Hindu majority.

There are no official statistics for how many cows have been stolen from Muslims in incidents involving such groups since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to national power in 2014. Reuters’ reporting across India, though, puts actual numbers on the extent of the cow theft. It also provides the first in-depth look at how the actions of cow vigilantes are leading to further economic marginalization of the country’s Muslim minority.

VALUABLE POSSESSION

In northern India, the leadership of just two of the main organizations of “gau rakshaks” – right-wing Hindu cow vigilantes, or literally “cow protectors” – said they have taken about 190,000 cows since the year of Modi’s election, some in the presence of police and almost every single one of them from Muslims, the reporting shows.

Separately, Reuters surveyed 110 cow shelters or farms, known as “gaushalas,” across six Indian states that were led by BJP chief ministers from before or just after Modi’s 2014 election win. The survey found an increase of 50 percent in their cattle holdings – from about 84,000 head before Modi came to power in 2014 to more than 126,000 today.

The survey, conducted by phone and in person, covered a fraction of the thousands of cow sheds nationwide.

It was not possible to determine how much of the 50 percent increase was due to cow vigilantes, because record-keeping in many cases is non-existent. But of the 110 cattle facilities surveyed, all but 14 said they receive cows from the Hindu vigilante groups. About a third said they sell or give cows away, nearly all to Hindu farmers and households.

In a separate survey, Reuters found that only three of 24 cow facilities in four states not ruled by a BJP chief minister said they sold or gave away cattle – mainly to Hindus – after receiving them. While cattle stock has risen about 40 percent in these gaushalas since Modi took office, only a small part of the increase was due to vigilantes. In many of the cases, cows were donated to the shelters for religious reasons or purchased from cattle markets for fear they would be slaughtered.

It is hard to put a value on the seized cattle because the price of cows ranges from zero for animals near death to 25,000 rupees (about $385), if not more, at cattle markets for healthy milk cows. But taking the average of those two points, just the 190,000 cows captured by the two vigilante groups in northern India would be worth more than $36 million. That is a significant amount of money in India, where some 270 million people live on less than $1.90 a day. In rural areas, home to about 70 percent of the nation’s population, a family’s milk cow is often its most valuable possession.

‘AN ACT OF DEVOTION’

Cow slaughter is illegal in most of India, while committing cruelty to cattle by transporting them crammed into small spaces is outlawed across the country. Slaughtering buffalo, an animal not considered holy, is allowed, fueling a multi-billion dollar meat export industry that is dominated by Muslims. Penalties for killing a cow differ from state to state, with most ranging from six months to five years in prison.

The fatal assault on Pehlu Khan unfolded among the rolling hills of India’s northwestern Rajasthan state. Travelling with his two adult sons in a rented truck, Khan was headed home to the village of Jaisinghpur in the neighboring state of Haryana. He’d borrowed 40,000 rupees (about $620) to add to cash he’d cobbled together to buy the cows.

His four animals were among 32 other cattle seized on April 1 at makeshift roadblocks near the town of Behror. A day after the attack on Khan and his two sons, police began an investigation against them under a state law barring cow slaughter. On April 3, Khan died.

In its April 18 order following a bail hearing for the sons, a local court noted that the Khan family, found lying injured on the ground, was unable to produce a waybill showing they’d legally purchased the animals. Also, the cows were bound together at the mouth and, the judge noted, “our society does not allow animals to be treated in an inhumane way.”

Khan’s elder son, Irshad, told Reuters that the cows had not been tied together. The receipt they got at the cattle fair where they bought the animals, he said, was snatched by the mob at the start of the violence. The family handed Reuters a copy of the bill that they later retrieved.

A Reuters reporter showed the receipt to clerks and a local official from the office that issues the documents near the fair, in the city of Jaipur. They said the document was authentic and should have ensured safe passage.

The men who delivered the cattle to the local cow shed, with the help of police who rounded up the cows at the scene of the attack, were members of right-wing Hindu organizations, according to the manager of the facility. Survivors said the lynch mob let the driver of the truck, a Hindu, escape.

The shed often receives cattle “taken from Muslims” by Hindu vigilante groups who suspect they’ll use the animals for meat, according to Vijay Singh, its manager. Singh said he sells the best cows to local Hindu farmers and landowners.

Speaking of the men who took the animals from Khan, Singh said they had performed “an act of devotion.”

‘THEIR WORK SUPPORTS THE POLICE’

The cattle shelters range from tiny pastures to large complexes. They have traditionally operated as religiously-motivated charities, taking in cows abandoned by farmers because they no longer produce milk or those dropped off by local government workers who found them wandering the streets.

People involved in snatching cattle from Muslims speak with a triumphant sense that their moment in history has arrived. “Everyone in this world is born Hindu. They are turned into Muslims when they are circumcised and Christians when they are baptized,” said Dinesh Patil, a district head of the Bajrang Dal group in the southwestern state of Maharashtra.

The Bajrang Dal organization is closely linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the nation’s umbrella right-wing Hindu organization. The RSS argues the purity of India was soiled by the foreign intervention of Muslims and then Christians beginning in the 8th century. The RSS helped create Modi’s political party, and the prime minister himself first attended the group’s meetings as a child.

At the complex he manages, Patil said that almost every one of the 1,700 cows grazing outside was “rescued by the Bajrang Dal” from “these Muslim slaughterers.” Patil described how a degree of law enforcement sanction is conferred on the cattle seizures: His group takes the cows and hands them over to the police, who then deliver the cattle to his facility. “The entire investigation and catching of the culprits is done by us,” Patil said.

The police, he added, “have to listen to us because the BJP is in power.”

Told of Patil’s comments, Bipin Bihari, second-in-command of police for Maharashtra, said: “In a way their work supports the police. It eases our work. If they have some information on some illegal activities, they can share it with us, and we act on it. But they are not allowed to take the law into their hands.”

A national spokesman for the ruling BJP, Sudhanshu Trivedi, said his party expects anyone with knowledge of illegal acts, such as cow slaughter, to inform the police. In cases where cows were taken, he added, it was because their owners had broken laws: “It is not redistribution of wealth. It is just stopping of illegal activities,” he said.

Modi’s office referred Reuters’ request for comment to the Home Ministry. The ministry said it is “not correct” that cow vigilantism has risen on Modi’s watch and “preposterous” to conclude that Hindus are organizing to confiscate and redistribute cattle. Some people have taken the law into their own hands “in the name of protecting the cows,” the ministry noted in a written statement, but “the Government is committed to protect the legal rights of all citizens, including minorities in India.” State governments, it said, have been directed to take “prompt action” against such people.

CROSSED SWORDS

Reuters found no evidence of a formal plan by the BJP to use cow vigilante groups to engineer the seizure and transfer of cows from Muslims to Hindus.

But in states where the BJP has taken power, cow seizures have ramped up. In the absence of official data on the number of cows taken, Reuters reporting and a review of past incidents show that the largest vigilante groups and the cattle seizures are concentrated in BJP-led states.

One organization of cow vigilantes in the northern state of Haryana has a golden cow with crossed swords and two AK-47s beneath it as its logo. The leaders of the Gau Raksha Dal, or cow protection group, say they have captured up to 120,000 across the country since beginning their campaign in 2013. Most of that activity was carried out after Modi’s victory in 2014, which was followed by a BJP chief minister taking office in Haryana later in the year.

Dinesh Arya, state head of the Gau Raksha Dal, acknowledged his group is breaking the law. Arya produced a list of 27 criminal complaints lodged by cattle traders against his members that he said were still pending. “Seizing cattle is not legal and we know that well. We are not authorized to do this, it’s the police department’s work,” Arya said.

But he claims a higher calling: “Our religion has given us the right to stop our mother being butchered,” he said, referring to “gau mata,” or mother cow. “We have forcefully taken that right.”

Outside his office, a truck converted into a “mobile cow ambulance” used to transport seized cattle bore a bullet hole – the aftermath of a recent gun battle with Muslim “cattle smugglers,” Arya said.

Modi has at least twice publicly criticized cow vigilantism. “Do we get the right to kill a human being in the name of cow? Is this ‘gau bhakti’? Is this ‘gau raksha’?” he declared in a speech in June, using the Hindi phrases for cow devotion and cow protection. “Violence is not the solution to any problem,” he added.

The Supreme Court has also addressed the issue. In September, the court ruled that central and state governments must deploy police officers to prevent cow vigilante violence.

MODI’S CALLS UNHEEDED

On the ground, some Hindu activists aren’t heeding Modi’s calls. The leader of a group of cow vigilantes, which claims 10,000 members concentrated mostly in western and northern Indian states, said they were unmoved by the prime minister’s condemnation of what he called the vigilantes’ “anti-social activities.”

“The cow protection movement totally belonged to the BJP before 2014,” said the group’s leader, Pawan Pandit, a part-time software engineer. “Now groups like ours have the momentum.”

Pandit said networks of vigilantes operating under his Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal – or Indian cow protection group – captured as many as 60,000 cows in the three years before Modi came to office. Since 2014, Pandit said, the group has grabbed more than 100,000 cows, often working with police.

A similar scenario has unfolded in Assam, where the BJP won power last year. Located in the farthest reaches of India’s northeast, the state is in a region where cow vigilante activity was all but unheard of.

The leader of a right-wing Hindu youth organization said he waited a year for the BJP-led government in Assam to crack down on what his group views as illegal cattle trading. Then, said Balen Baishya, head of the Hindu Youth-Students Council of Assam, he decided that local party leadership was not made up of “hardcore believers.”

On July 2, Baishya said, he and his men seized three vehicles carrying cows. Video of the incident posted to the Internet shows a mob surrounding one of the drivers as a man beat him with a baton while he writhed on the ground and tried to shield himself.

This lawlessness extends beyond the 18 states Modi’s BJP now controls directly or with coalition partners. In the southern state of Telangana, one of 11 states where the BJP is not in power, a man named Purushottam Gupta was arrested shortly after Modi gave a speech in August last year condemning cow vigilantes. Gupta had refused a court order to hand back 20 cattle seized by cow vigilantes and kept them with some 5,000 other cows at a facility next to the ashram where he is the de facto deputy head. Gupta said he was released the same day he was arrested and that the cows have yet to be returned to their Muslim owners.

India’s laws against cow slaughter predate Modi’s administration, and cow vigilantes were operating in India before Modi came to power. At the federal level, the BJP’s predecessor, the relatively liberal Congress party, funded the cow sheds via a federal animal welfare association at higher levels than Modi. Spending from the association’s four main gaushala grants, the primary source of federal funding for the facilities, was about 150 million rupees for the 2010-11 fiscal year, compared with some 58 million for 2015-16, the most recent period available.

But at the state level, BJP politicians have in many cases sharply increased funding for the cattle shed facilities through government bodies. In Haryana, the state where Pehlu Khan lived, the Gau Seva Aayog, or cow protection commission, went from allotting 18.5 million rupees to cow sheds in the 2014-15 fiscal year, when a BJP chief minister took over, to more than 37 million for 2016-17. In Rajasthan, the state where Khan was killed, funding doubled from about one billion rupees in 2013-14, as the BJP captured the state, to more than 2.3 billion rupees in 2016-17, according to a state official.

A COW-INSPIRED ‘AWAKENING’

Officials in two of the states surveyed by Reuters that are not governed by a BJP chief minister, said the government provides no funding for gaushala facilities. A third state does not make payments annually and a fourth, Karnataka in the south, began increasing its grants because of droughts that caused farmers to abandon their cows, increasing the burden on gaushalas, according to the state’s animal husbandry department.

Police completed their formal court charge sheet in May for Pehlu Khan’s death, naming 15 alleged attackers as taking part in the killing. The charge sheet included a statement Khan gave from the intensive care unit at 11:50 p.m. on the night of the April 1 assault. He said of the men who assaulted him: “They were calling themselves workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal” – both founded by members of the RSS, the nationalist organization that Modi joined as a youngster.

Surendra Jain, joint general secretary for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, parent organization of the Bajrang Dal, said that “not a single person from VHP was involved” in the attack on Pehlu Khan. Asked whether he was certain, Jain said: “I can’t say. We have not looked in detail into these cases.”

“If the sentiments of the majority community are respected, there would be no such incidents,” said Jain. “Can we demand pork in any Gulf country?”

Manmohan Vaidya, national spokesman for the RSS, said his group doesn’t “support any act of violence or people taking the law into their hands.”

Another senior RSS official, speaking on condition he not be named, was more pointed: “Hindus never had the courage to stand up for their religion and now they are standing up,” he said. “The cow issue has led to an awakening.”

In Jaisinghpur, the small, poor village that Pehlu Khan called home, his name is still in a fat, red notebook listing loans given out to villagers by a local dairy operation. Entries on the front and back of a faded page for Khan reaching back to 2006 show that he borrowed money and paid back the loans in milk.

Mohammed Yunus, the 58-year-old patriarch of the Muslim family that runs the dairy, shook his head. He said he had suggested to Pehlu Khan that he make the trip that ended his life, the one to the city of Jaipur to buy cows with his two adult sons. The cattle fair there has better milk cows than the local markets, Yunus explained.

At the district police station, the head constable took out his book of criminal records for the village and searched for the names of Pehlu Khan, the Yunus family, and others interviewed in the area. None of them had been arrested for anything related to cow smuggling or slaughter, according to the records. There were two notations for one of Pehlu Khan’s sons when he was a teenager, one for being found with a dead cow and the other for travelling with animals stuffed in a vehicle.

The son, Irshad, said one case involved a buffalo that was later returned by police, and the other was rooted in a dispute with a distant relative.

In the weeks after the murder of Pehlu Khan, a leader of a small opposition party visited the family home to pay his respects. He gave the Khans something to help pay back the 40,000 rupees they still owed the Yunus family from the loan Pehlu Khan took – something to give Khan’s widow and children hope.

It was a cow.

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A huge leak of financial documents, revealed by a group of about 100 media organizations on Sunday, provided deep insights into some of the mechanisms used by top politicians or celebrities to escape paying taxes.

Offshore funds are often used to escape high taxes and their use is not necessarily illegal, though when they are being used by the same people who set those tax rates, it tends to raise eyebrows. The majority of the individuals featured in the leaks come from the U.S., followed by Britain.

What do the “Paradise Papers” reveal?

The concealing of the wealth of billionaires, politicians and at least one head of state in offshore accounts comes as a major embarrassment to the individuals included in the documents.

The material could also end up being used as evidence in investigations looking into links between members of the Trump administration and entities affiliated with the Russian government.

In Britain, the revelations could support accusations that the ruling Conservative Party indirectly benefited from some of the offshore tax haven funds it has publicly condemned, which could add to the mounting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May who has struggled to deal with multiple scandals recently.

Among the individuals or groups who are named in the 13.4 million documents is Queen Elizabeth II, whose private estate invested over $12 million offshore, according to the reports. Other documents in the leak refer to Trump administration officials, an aide of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a major donor of Britain’s Conservative party and a Russian oligarch.

Last year, the Panama Papers – revealed by the same consortium of journalists – exposed a number of companies, top officials, oligarchs and politicians that benefited from tax evasion. At the time, the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca was being portrayed by law firm industry representatives as an outlier. The companies where most of the new leak’s documents originated from are generally considered to be industry leaders, however, which exposes the extent to which questionable practices may still be the norm rather than the exception.

Where do the documents come from?

The 1,400 GB of data were first leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The consortium collaborates with hundreds of media partners around the world, who were subsequently involved in the research, including the New York Times and Britain’s Guardian.

About half of the leak’s documents are believed to have come from the Bermuda-based Appleby law firm, and corporate services provider Estera which recently became its own entity after having operated as a part of Appleby for years.

Appleby assists corporations or individuals with setting up companies offshore and is considered the world’s most important player in the field. Some of the documents date back to 1950, whereas others were modified as recently as last year.

Who are the individuals the documents refer to?

Queen Elizabeth II

Over $12 million of her private funds were invested offshore by the Duchy of Lancaster – a portfolio of assets which provides the Queen’s income. Although a private estate on the same name may be the most well known part of the portfolio, it also held funds in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands and invested in a company accused of shady lending practices.

Speaking to the BBC in response to the allegations, Chris Adcock, the chief finance officer of the estate defended the investments, saying: “The Duchy has only invested in highly regarded private equity funds following a strong recommendation from our investment consultants.”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross

The leaked documents reportedly show that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross holds business investments in companies tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, according to The Post’s Carol Morello, who put the revelations into context:

“The documents leaked as the administration faces several investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, including a probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that brought its first indictments last week. The reports said Ross has maintained a financial interest through offshore investments in a shipping company called Navigator Holdings. One of the firm’s largest clients is the Russian energy firm Sibur, a huge gas processing and petrochemicals company.

“Among the firm’s major stakeholders are Putin associate Gennady Timchenko, who individually is under U.S. sanctions, and Leonid Mikhelson, whom Forbes magazine lists as Russia’s richest man and whose company, Novatek, is under sanctions. Another shareholder in Sibur is Kirill Shamalov, who is married to Putin’s daughter. Neither Sibur nor Putin’s son-in-law are sanctioned.”

Yuri Milner, Facebook and Twitter

Separately, the leak also appeared to show that a Russian billionaire, Yuri Milner, bought shares in American tech companies Twitter and Facebook. The purchases of Twitter and Facebook shares came from Russia’s VTB Bank and the state-led Gazprom company which are both under U.S. sanctions. Milner has disputed that the two entities financed his purchases.

There is so far no evidence that shareholders have used their influence in Silicon Valley to undermine the U.S. electoral system but the revelations follow new concerns that ads and fake accounts were used to sway voters in the run-up to last November’s U.S. elections.

Top U.S. administration advisers and officials

Other individuals directly or indirectly mentioned in the leaks include President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. A start-up company co-owned by Kushner and his brother received funding from Russian billionaire Milner in 2015.

The revelation is particularly relevant because Kushner later told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had never “relied on” Russian money to finance his private business dealings, according to The Post’s Morello. Other references in the documents refer to the chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

More top officials elsewhere

Other top political advisers or former officials the documents refer to include Stephen Bronfman, a key adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau as well as Britain’s Lord Ashcroft, a top donor of Britain’s Tory Conservative party who fled to a bathroom trying to escape questions about the issue. An offshore fund allegedly operated by Lord Ashcroft and revealed by the documents may have been worth over $330 million.

Following the release of the allegations, the opposition Labour party urged British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday to reveal what she knew about the origins of the money flowing into her Conservative party’s funds.

In the U.S., Canada and Britain, the web of complex offshore dealings appeared to extend far into the top ranks of politics, although it largely remained unclear to what extent the practices had been illegal or were conducted with the knowledge of some of the individuals named by the media outlets involved in the revelations.

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BEED, India – The patrols started at dawn, and the villagers scattered, abandoning their pails of water to avoid humiliation and fines.

Every morning in this district in rural India, teams of government employees and volunteer “motivators” roam villages to publicly shame those who relieve themselves in the open. The “good-morning squads” are part of what one official called “the largest behavioral-change program anywhere in the world.”

This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Clean India initiative in mission mode. By October 2019, Modi has vowed, every Indian will have access to a toilet, and the country will be free of the scourge of open defecation. Since Modi came to power, more than 52 million toilets have been installed. But the trick, sanitation experts say, is getting people to use them.

To win favor with the ruling party’s top brass, government officials have set to work, trying to outpace one another with toilet-building races and eye-catching information campaigns. Many are resorting to controversial public shaming tactics.

“This is harassment,” said one villager, Ranjit Gonjare. “The person becomes the laughingstock of the village.”

India’s sanitation crisis is an urgent priority: 53 percent of Indian households had no toilet in 2011, the latest census figures show. Human feces litter public spaces, spreading diseases that contribute to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. People wait all day to defecate in darkness, which has health and safety implications. Children, especially menstruating girls, skip school because of a lack of toilets. One report pegged the economic cost of India’s sanitation problem at $106.5 billion in 2015, 5.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Santram Gonjare felt the sting of humiliation one recent morning, when a squad flagged him down as he was walking along a highway.

They knew what the 55-year-old was about to do because he was holding a pail of water that he would use to wash himself after defecating. They knocked the pail out of his hand and crushed it under their feet. Then they offered him a flower, a sign of goodwill, and told him to use a toilet in the future.

Gonjare hung his head as he walked home. He went out to defecate, he said, because his nine-person household has only one toilet, and he couldn’t bear to wait his turn. “How can that feel OK?” he said of his experience with the squad. “I felt worthless. It’s not the right way to treat old people.”

Such encounters are routine in Beed, where people without toilets risk having their welfare benefits taken away and can be barred from running for public office. Elsewhere, officials use methods that verge on coercion – or worse. In one recent case, a man was publicly lynched after he tried to stop authorities from photographing women who were defecating in the open. A news channel urged viewers to send in images and names of those who defecate in the open so they could be shamed on national television.

“This work has to be done,” said Dhanraj Nila, chief executive of Beed district, who regularly goes out on morning patrols. He said the squads’ shaming methods were necessary to “motivate” people to use toilets. “People keep saying Beed is a backward district. We don’t want to be left behind.”

Modi’s Clean India mission has drawn international support. After a recent visit to India, Bill Gates extolled the mission’s “impressive” speed. USAID pledged $2 million annually and introduced ranking systems to trigger “competition between cities.” The World Bank offered a $1.5 billion loan to help speed the sanitation programs. UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, is providing training and education tools, although a spokesman distanced the organization from the Indian government’s “name and shame” programs.

Some argue Modi is overly optimistic about the pace of change. “No country anywhere in the world has come anywhere close to eliminating open defecation that fast,” said economist Dean Spears, a sanitation expert, referring to the 2019 target. “There’s no reason to think this is going to be an exception. It’s very easy to say that it’s a behavioral-change program. But when 500 to 600 million people defecate in the open, you need an awful lot of people on the ground to change that.”

India is vast and difficult to govern; in outlying regions such as Beed, where central control is weak and corruption levels high, shame and honor are the mechanisms through which communities police themselves. Many villagers in Beed praised the government’s methods, showing off areas that were once open-air toilets and now are children’s playgrounds.

Many said the squads are doing a service. “This is the only way. People have stopped (defecating) outdoors because of fear,” said Meera Bandu Bhise, one of Gonjare’s neighbors.

Satish Umrikar, who oversees sanitation activities in the state of Maharashtra, where Beed is located, said the mission’s ambitious targets are crucial to its success. An estimated 91 percent of people in rural areas in Maharashtra now have access to toilets, double the percentage in 2014, with 1.9 million installed in the past fiscal year.

Despite rapid economic growth, India lags behind in sanitation, partly because people don’t want to do the undignified work of cleaning latrine pits, labor traditionally reserved for lower castes. To change attitudes, squads use several techniques including door-to-door visits and sanitation workshops.

The village of Lolad is considered free of open defecation. People described how, at first, older residents refused to use toilets. “Little children used to chase people blowing whistles,” one villager said. “If we saw anyone with a pail of water, we’d send our own children after them.”

Beed’s geography makes it a particularly difficult region in which to change habits. In the summers, particularly in years of drought, the land becomes parched, and lines to collect water from communal pumps stretch for hours. Villagers buy water from local authorities for drinking and bathing. To them, clean toilets are a luxury. Many villagers who have toilets at home said they go outdoors to save water.

“The government should concentrate on providing necessary services,” said Vandana Prasad, a public health activist. “In many villages there is no regular water supply, no sewage system. This government has an attitude of clamping down. It’s a bit more stick than carrot.”

Squad members described their work as “gandhigiri,” referring to Mohandas Gandhi’s nonviolent method of tackling problems. Maharashtra official Umrikar said the public shaming tactics are only one part of a wider government effort to change habits. “This is required in initial phases,” he said of the squads. “Once there is understanding, we will phase it out.”

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to step back into the years-long feud over patents between the world’s top smartphone makers, declining to hear Samsung’s appeal of a lower court ruling that reinstated a jury award of about $120 million in favor of Apple.

The justices left in place a 2016 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a verdict that found South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd had infringed Apple Inc’s patents on several popular features of the California-based company’s iPhone. Those included slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quick links, which automatically turn information like addresses and phone numbers into links.

The Supreme Court in December 2016 sided with Samsung in a separate case over its fight with Apple. In that one, the justices threw out a $399 million damages award against Samsung to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.

A judge in California in October ordered a new trial over damages in that case.

The current appeal stems from a May 2014 verdict by a jury in federal court in San Jose, California ordering Samsung to pay $119.6 million for using the Apple features without permission. Infringement of the quick links feature accounted for nearly $99 million of the damages.

A three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit, a Washington-based court that specializes in patent matters, had originally overturned the verdict, but it was reinstated in an October 2016 ruling by a full slate of 11 judges on that court.

Appealing to the Supreme Court, Samsung said that the patent court’s judges did not follow proper procedure in reviving the verdict because they made the decision without considering additional legal papers or hearing oral arguments. The judges also wrongly changed the law related to invalidating patents and awarding injunctions, Samsung added.

In a dig at the patent court, Samsung told the justices in legal papers that they have “long served as the bulwark when the Federal Circuit tips the balance too far in favor of patent-holders’ rights at the expense of innovation and competition.”

Apple urged the justices to leave the jury award in place, saying there was nothing “novel or important” to review in its rival’s appeal. The Trump administration backed Apple’s view.

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Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, who was presented with an award by the Indian American Kerala Cultural and Civil Center, took the limelight at the Nov. 4, annual awards gala held at the World’s Fair Marina in Flushing, N.Y.,

The IAKCCC  honored six Indian-American Malayalees for their outstanding achievements in their field of specialization or for their service to the society at its 25th Anniversary (Silver Jubilee) Awards Banquet. The Center also honored five of its pioneers with Silver Jubilee Year Life Time Achievement Awards.

India’s Consul General in New York, Sandeep Chakravorty, who was the chief guest at the event, later tweeted a photograph of himself with Jayapal at the event saying, “Great interaction with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, from Seattle, the 1st Woman Indian American to be elected to the US House. @CGISFO.”

Rep. Jayapal retweeted that message adding, “Pleasure to meet you at Kerala Center gala, Ambassador @CHAKRAVIEW1971. Look forward to working together!”

“Kerala Center has been honoring outstanding achievers since 1991 and every year we invite nominations and the committee has to make a unanimous choice for a candidate in a category to receive the award and this year is no different from previous years in terms of their achievements,” Kerala Center President Thambi Thalappillil, said in a press release.

This year’s honorees were Rep. Jayapal, who received the award for Political Leadership; Attorney Appen Menon, a partner at Wormser, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs LLP law firm in New York for contribution in Legal Services; writer Dr. Sheela N.P. for Literature; Dr. A.K.B. Pillai for Humanities; Community volunteer Sheela Sreekumar for Community Service; and Ginsmon Zacharia, for achievement in Media.

The 25th Jubilee Year Life Time Achievers who were recognized at the event included Shanti Bhavan Founder Dr. Abraham George; Industrialist, Founder and Chairman of Sami-Sabinsa Group Dr. Muhammed Majeed; Philanthropist Sreedhar Menon; Columbia University Professor P. Somasundaran and Entrepreneur Dilip Varghese.

In the last 25 years, 140 achievers have been recognized by the organization, according to Founder and Executive Director of the Kerala Center, E.M. Stephen.

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An Indian national was sentenced in Ohio, for conspiring to help terrorists, including the late leader of al Qaeda Anwar al Awlaki, and for trying to get a federal judge assassinated. He will be deported from the U.S. after serving his sentence, under the terms of his plea agreement.

Yahya Farooq Mohammad, 39, was sentenced Nov. 6, to 27 ½ years in prison for one count of conspiracy to provide and conceal material support or resources to terrorists and one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, according to a press release from Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana J. Boente.The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan supervised the prosecution of the solicitation to commit a crime of violence charge.

Mohammad is an Indian citizen who was an engineering student at Ohio State University between 2002 and 2004. He married a U.S. citizen in 2008. He and three other defendants – his brother, Ibrahim Mohammad, Asif Ahmed Salim, and Sultane Room Salim – were indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2015. The case against the remaining three defendants is pending. They have pleaded not guilty.

Mohammad admitted to conspiring with his co-defendants to travel to Yemen to provide thousands of dollars, equipment, and other assistance to Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American of Yemeni ancestry considered a top Al Qaeda recruiter by Washington, to support violent jihad against U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world. Al-Awlaki was later designated as a global terrorist in 2010 and identified as a “key leader” of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, according to court documents. Awlaki is reported to have been killed in 2011 in a drone attack.

On July 22, 2009, Mohammad traveled with two associates to Yemen to meet Awlaki and deliver the $22,000 that they had raised. Although they were unable to meet Awlaki in person, Mohammad and his associates did ensure that Awlaki received the money through a courier, according to U.S. authorities.

In addition to pleading guilty to conspiring to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, Mohammad also admitted to soliciting an undercover FBI employee posing as a “hitman,” to kidnap and murder U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary. In or about April 2016 – while the terrorism case was pending and assigned to Judge Zouhary – Mohammad told another inmate in the Lucas County Corrections Center in Toledo, Ohio that he wanted Zouhary kidnapped and murdered and that he was willing to pay $15,000 to have this carried out. The inmate provided Mohammad with the contact information for the undercover agent, and stated that the this contact would need a $1,000 down payment before the murder could occur. The inmate also provided Mohammad with an agreed upon code to use when discussing the planned murder over the jail telephone.

On or about April 26, 2016, Mohammad called the undercover FBI agent from the Lucas County Corrections Center. Using the agreed-upon code, Mohammad told the FBI agent he wanted to have Judge Zouhary killed. Mohammad agreed to provide the $1,000 down payment. When asked when he wanted the murder committed, Mohammad stated, “The sooner would be good, you know.”  Over the ensuing days, Mohammad arranged to have a family member provide the $1,000 in cash to the undercover agent. On May 5, 2016, that family member met with the the FBI agent, and provided the person with $1,000 in cash. Mohammad later informed the inmate that the rest of the money for the murder was coming, according to court documents.

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MUMBAI – Fund managers at India’s largest private sector life insurer, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, are turning their attention to the technology and pharmaceutical sectors following bumper payoffs from a contrarian bet on the country’s telecommunications sector.

ICICI Pru Life’s Chief Investment Officer, Manish Kumar, said he kept buying telecoms shares this year even as a bruising price war and plunging profits forced several other investors to cut their exposure to the sector.

Kumar’s investment was unorthodox as insurers’ exposure limits give them little elbow room to experiment with significant changes in asset allocation, which means their shifts in positioning are generally very modest.

“I don’t think we have taken as strong a contrarian bet in any of the sectors,” Kumar told Reuters.

India’s telecoms companies have been hurting all year as Reliance Jio – the mobile market’s newest entrant backed by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani – rolled out freebies and slashed costs for data plans.

Analysts say Jio’s surprise decision to raise tariffs last month signals an end to the competitive price-cutting war. As a result, shares in top mobile carrier Bharti Airtel are near their highest levels in a decade, while those of IDEA Cellular are near eight-month highs.

ICICI Pru Life, whose assets under management grew about 16 percent in that period and now total 1.3 trillion rupees ($20 billion), increased its exposure to the telecom sector by 80 basis points to 7.3 percent, even as other mutual funds cut their exposures.

The insurer has 54 percent of its assets in debt, driven by regulatory requirements and preferences of its unit-linked policyholders.

Kumar said he has cut the weighted-average maturity of his bonds portfolio over the past 12-18 months, as a bond rally in India that has lasted three years comes to an end over concerns about inflation, fiscal slippage and tighter monetary policy.

He is now turning to information technology and pharmaceutical stocks, which he thinks are attractively valued after several quarters of struggle.

India’s more than $150 billion information technology sector has grappled with cuts in client spending in United States, their biggest market, while regulatory concerns and pricing pressures have hit pharmaceutical firms.

Since it hit a record high in March 2015, the Nifty IT Index has fallen about 16 percent. The NSE Nifty has gained about a fifth in that period. The Nifty Pharma Index has declined nearly 30 percent from its record high in April 2015.

“Now, at least given the kind of correction that we’ve seen in those sectors, we believe the time has come to relook at these sectors. But we may have to be a little patient in these sectors,” Kumar said.

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“We just think it’s unfair. Death should be not a taxable event, and we should not be stopping people from being able to pass their life’s work on to their kids.”- House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Nov. 5, 2017

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We’re featuring this Ryan quote because it illustrates a bit of a mystery about the House GOP plan: Why does it allow the superwealthy to escape taxation on a huge hunk of capital gains seemingly forever?

Killing the estate tax has long been the holy grail of Republicans. (They even succeeded in one year, 2010, but then it came back.) So there is little surprise that the tax bill would include an estate-tax repeal.

But what is surprising is that the tax bill also allows the beneficiaries of estates to not pay capital gains taxes on the increase in value of assets held by the estates. That has not been a feature of most previous estate-tax bills. In fact, President Donald Trump’s campaign plan would have repealed the estate tax but taxed capital gains accumulated at death.

Now, not even death is considered taxable. Bear with us, this is wonky but important. There’s tens of billions of revenue that the government is giving up because of a difference in two words.

The Facts

Estate taxes in some form have existed for centuries, even among the Romans, and the version today in the United States was enacted in 1916 to help fund World War I. Part of the rationale for the estate tax is to help capture revenue from huge gains in stock and bond investments that otherwise are never taxed unless they are sold. Over time, the estate tax has never raised a significant portion of federal tax revenue, generally less than 1 or 2 percent of the overall pie.

As Congress has nibbled away at the estate tax over the years, by raising the amount exempt from taxation and lowering the tax rate, its impact has frittered away. In 1977, 139,000 estates had to pay the tax. In 2000, it was 52,000. Now in 2017, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, only about 5,500 estates – out of nearly 3 million estates – would have to pay any taxes. About half of estates subject to the tax would pay an average tax of about 9 percent.

Currently, the first $5.49 million of an estate, or nearly $11 million for a couple, is exempt from taxation. So anything below those levels is not subject to any tax. Once the size of the estate passes that level, any additional value is subject to a 40 percent tax.

In other words, a $15 million estate of a husband and wife would have to pay a 40 percent tax on the amount above $10.98 million, or $1.6 million. That means the effective tax rate on that estate would be 10.7 percent, which is relatively small.

Moreover, the value of the assets given to heirs would be set at the value at the time of death. Imagine a home that had been purchased for $250,000 but was now worth $1 million. The “stepped-up basis” would be $1 million. If the heirs sold the house for $1.1 million, they would only owe capital-gains tax on the $100,000 difference, not the $850,000 difference from the original purchase price. (That is known as “carryover basis” in the tax trade.)

This was the implicit bargain of the estate tax. A lot of capital gains would remain untaxed, but at least for the superwealthy, some of their gains would be taxed.

President Trump’s campaign tax plan issued in 2016 would have kept this arrangement. The first $10 million of an estate would be exempt from taxation, but then the capital gains tax would be levied on the rest. The maximum capital-gains tax rate is currently 23.8 percent, and it would have applied to the original price – the basis – of the asset.

“We always said we’d get rid of stepped-up basis. It’s better for the economy and better for tax policy,” said Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, who helped craft the Trump campaign plan. “Otherwise you will have a massive tax shelter. You are going to have people with an incentive not to sell.”

When the estate tax was eliminated in 2010 for one year – under a George W. Bush tax bill – carryover basis also would have applied. Many heirs found the estate tax actually less costly, so Congress allowed estates in that year to make a choice of which tax system they preferred.

But the House GOP tax plan, by contrast, kills the estate tax (starting in 2024) and continues to value assets passed to heirs at a stepped-up basis. (The only exception is certain interest in foreign entities, such as a passive foreign investment company.)

Given the rise in the stock market since 2009, that means many heirs could have a bonanza.

Assume a parent was shrewd enough to buy Amazon at $10 a share in 1998 and died on Nov. 6, when it closed above $1,120.

Under the House GOP plan, if an heir sold the stock for $1,125 a share, the capital gains tax would have been a little over $1 a share.

By contrast, Trump’s campaign tax plan would have required paying a capital gains tax of about $264 per share (assuming the estate had already passed the $10 million threshold).

The amount of revenue involved is difficult to estimate, but we have some clues. The Joint Committee on Taxation, in its report on “tax expenditures,” estimates that the revenue loss of not taxing capital gains at death is $179.4 billion over a five-year period, or about $36 billion a year. That estimate does not include the behavioral effects of actually eliminating the estate tax while keeping stepped-up basis, but it is a rough approximation before any possible exemption.

The net effect actually could be even higher because people would be encouraged to never sell an asset during their lifetime so their heirs would essentially receive it tax free.

“The estate tax functions as a toll that must be paid to shield capital gains from income taxation,” noted the committee in a 2012 report. “As this toll falls (i.e., the estate tax rate is reduced and/or the estate tax exemption amount increases), it is relatively more attractive to pay the estate tax to avoid the income tax on capital gains realizations. Similarly, as capital gains taxes rise (fall), paying the estate tax toll becomes more (less) attractive because the step-up in gains at death is more (less) valuable. High estate tax rates make the transmission of wealth to heirs less efficient and so encourage the realization of capital gains.”

A spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee defended the provision. “The repeal of the estate tax ensures that death is not a taxable event,” she said. “Providing for step-up in basis continues the historic policy applicable to assets transferred through an estate regardless of whether or not they are subject to tax.”

The Bottom Line

The Fact Checker of course takes no position on the House tax bill. (Full disclosure: The author did a rough calculation and determined the tax bill would make only a marginal difference in his household’s tax situation. In particular, the elimination of the state and local tax deduction is mitigated by repeal of the alternative minimum tax.)

But it’s interesting that House tax-writers would press forward with an elimination of the estate tax that goes far beyond previous efforts – or even Trump’s campaign tax plan – to allow tens of billions of untapped capital gains to remain beyond the reach of the U.S. government. The money left on the table because of a difference between two words – “stepped-up” and “carryover” – is certainly staggering.

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NEW DELHI – Pollution in the Indian capital hit a dangerous level on Tuesday, putting residents at risk, forcing the closure of schools, and bringing calls from doctors for the city’s half marathon to be cancelled.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the city had once become a “gas chamber”. Schools for younger children were ordered shut on Wednesday and all outdoor activity at high schools suspended.

A thick fog that hung over the sprawling city worsened conditions. Residents complained of smarting eyes and irritation in the throat.

The air quality index, which measures the concentration of poisonous particulate matter in the air, hit the “severe” level of 451 on a scale where the maximum reading is 500 and where anything above 100 is considered unhealthy by the Central Pollution Control Board.

At the severe level, even healthy people will be affected while those who have existing diseases will be severely impacted, it said.

In some parts of Delhi, the air quality was so poor that it was beyond the maximum level, according to the U.S. Embassy’s real-time air quality index. It stood at 999 for RK Puram area beyond which no readings are available.

That level is equal to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, Dr. Arvind Kumar, chairman for chest surgery at Sir Ganga Ram hospital, said.

“We are in a state of medical emergency, schools should be shut, we need to bring these levels down. We are all shortening our lives.”

The Indian Medical Association urged Delhi’s biggest running race, due on Nov. 19, to be called off to protect runners and volunteers from exposure to high levels of deadly particulate matter that lodge deep in the lungs.

It said the air quality is particularly poor early in the day when the race will be run.

The air quality index measures concentrations of PM 2.5, PM 10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide among other indicators.

EMERGENCY MEASURES

The air quality is likely to worsen in the next few days as a northwesterly wind is expected to bring toxic smoke from the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn crop stubble before the new planting season.

Delhi’s deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said emergency measures such as banning the entry of trucks into the capital and suspension of construction activity will kick in, if the pollution level rose further.

Last November, about a million children were forced to stay home from school, thousands of workers reported sick and queues formed outside shops selling face masks as New Delhi struggled with its worst pollution for nearly 20 years.

Vehicle emissions and dust from construction sites were the factors blamed for that spike, besides firecrackers and farm burnings.

Bharti Airtel, the country’s top telecoms operator that sponsors the Delhi race, said it had been assured by the organizers that steps were being taken to reduce the impact of air pollution on the runners.

Salt mixed with water will be sprinkled on the entire track to ensure that dust pollution is minimal, it said. No vehicles will be allowed on the route.

But going forward, the administration would have to take steps to improve air quality, the company said in a statement.

“Air pollution poses serious health risks and it is important that these concerns are addressed urgently and appropriately by the authorities for Airtel to continue associating with the event next year and beyond,” it said in a statement.

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NEW YORK – Arup Chakraborty, an Indian American Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of his distinguished contributions to medicine and health.

According to MIT’s website, Chakraborty is a physics, chemistry and biological engineering professor and is one of the 70 new members and 10 international members announced recently at the annual meeting of the academy.

Membership in the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service.

“I am honored to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine,” said Chakraborty.

In addition to being the founding director of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Chakraborty is a founding steering committee member of the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH and Harvard, as well as an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

His research is focused on bringing immunology together with both physical and engineering sciences and his concentrations include T cell signaling, T cell development and repertoire and a mechanistic understanding of HIV evolution, antibody evolution and vaccine design.

Chakraborty has been honored by the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the E.O. Lawrence Medal for Life Sciences from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Allan P. Colburn and Professional Progress awards from the AIChE, a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award and a National Young Investigator award.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and serves on the U.S. Defense Science Board; he has also received four teaching awards.

The National Academy of Medicine was established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine and is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond.

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NEW YORK – Indian American psychiatrist Dr. Murali Krishna helped launch an addiction treatment facility at Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Krishna launched the facility along with Commissioner Terri White, The Oklahoman editor Kelly Dyer Fry and Oklahoma attorney Reggie Whitten, who, according to a NewsOK.com report, all met about six years ago to discuss the potential of such facility.

According to the publication, the four of them were hoping to eventually create something to help fight the opioid epidemic that was growing throughout the state, and decided to establish Arcadia Trails, which has already broken ground on Oct. 5 and is expected to open sometime in the spring of 2019, becoming a 40-bed facility for adults battling with substance abuse.

The group ended up raising about $23 million, over the last six years, from foundations and community members in Oklahoma, for this “world-class” treatment facility which will neighbor Integris Edmond, off of Interstate 35 in Oklahoma.

“Putting an addiction treatment facility on the same campus as a hospital sends a message that it’s just another type of medical problem,” Avilla Williams, president of Integris Health Edmond, said in an article, adding that Integris will run staffing and operations.

Many people still believe addiction results from moral weakness. Some people have a genetic predisposition to addiction, and substances can more easily hijack their brains’ reward system until they can’t feel normal without the drug,” Krishna, who also serves as the president and chief operating officer of Integris Mental Health, told NewsOK. “They feel like a square peg in a round hole.”

NewsOK reported that the program at Arcadia Trails will be designed around a 90-day stay, with one year of follow-up care: each patient will undergo an assessment to help develop a treatment plan which can include individual, group and family therapies; medications, if needed; and life skills to help the person cope after going home, also taking into account the person’s mental illness or any history of trauma.

Krishna said that there will be five phases of the program starting with evaluation, detox and education about the biological basis of addiction, patients will then assess their strengths and challenges, learning coping and relationship skills, incorporating spirituality into life and planning ways to stay sober after discharge.

Roughly 25 people, including physicians, nurses, psychologists, therapists and support staff, will be hired to run the facility.

Krishna is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

He serves on many professional and civic boards and committees and currently serves as the president of the Oklahoma State Board of Heath and is also the founding president/president emeritus of the Health Alliance for the Uninsured.

He was the catalyst for getting key legislation that gives protection for all health professionals when they volunteer to help the poor and uninsured.

Krishna is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry.

According to his website, Krishna and his family established the “Dr. R. Murali Krishna Family Eliminate the Stigma” Award in 2010 as a way to annually honor individuals or organizations that have shown an outstanding contribution to the community by eliminating the stigma about mental illness and improving the lives of those affected by mental illness.

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