vijayawada l sunday l april 07, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l late city EDITION ‘China could abuse ai to swing outcome in poll-bound India’ Warning by Microsoft comes as India and South Korea go to polls this month and the US in November. North Korea could add to trouble Beijing bid to sow division, says Microsoft North Korea is stealing cryptos China is increasingly experimenting in memes, videos and audio generated by artificial intelligence to further its interests, said Clint Watts, GM, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center. It has been increasingly using the AI-content in the US to influence and sow division, he said. But for the time being, China’s efforts will not have impact on poll outcome, he added ■ ■ North Korea continues to prioritise theft of crypto currency for revenue to fund its space, missile and nuclear programmes, Watts said. Its attack is focused on the US, South Korea and Japan The good news is there is not much evidence to show that China’s efforts have been successful in swaying public opinion in the US $3Bn of cryptos have been stolen by North Korea since 2017, U.N. says CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Fight gets shriller as LS campaign picks up pace Tug of war Addressing ‘Memanta Siddham’ meeting at Kavali, CM Jagan said the elections are a fight between TDP chief Naidu, ‘a habitual cheater’, and Jagan, ‘a champion of poor’. Terming Jagan power hungry at ‘Praja Galam’ meeting in Palnadu, Naidu said the YSRC president is ready to do anything to remain in power Muslim League imprint Democratic institutions in Cong manifesto: PM being destroyed: Sonia TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu shows the manifesto only before the elections. I dare him if he has the guts to show the copy of his party manifesto. Does he have the courage to accept that he did not fulfil even 10% of promises of his party manifesto ‘Thalli Congress’, Congress and ‘Pilla Congress’, the YSRC has started enacting a new drama to split the anti-incumbency vote. The Congress is striving to benefit Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the elections by splitting anti-incumbency vote Naidu has no bond with the people. All he has is a bond with ‘Fevicol and Feviquick’, which he applied to his mouth to keep it shut as he is unable to tell people what he did as the Chief Minister for 14 years YSRC leader Srinivasa Reddy misbehaved with a minority woman in Nandikotkur. He is a close aide of SAAP Chairman Byreddy Siddharth Reddy, and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is helping them RRR likely to contest from Undi Assembly constituency E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu is learnt to have named Narasapuram MP K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju (RRR), who joined the party on Friday night, as the candidate for Undi Assembly constituency in West Godavari district. During a meeting with TDP leaders at Palacole on Saturday Naidu is said to have made , an announcement to this effect. Irked by the TDP supremo’s decision to change the candidate, the followers of sitting MLA Manthena Rama Raju tried to obstruct Naidu’s convoy The TDP had already . named Rama Raju as the candidate for Undi. Rama Raju’s followers demanded that the sitting MLA should not be replaced at any cost. In fact, Raju aspired to contest Narasapuram Lok Sabha constituency as the candidate of TDP-JSP-BJP combine. However, the BJP had named Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma as its candidate for the Lok Sabha seat. After a futile wait for a few weeks with a hope that he might get a chance to contest from the same constituency Raju joined the TDP , . After getting elected as an MP on YSRC ticket in 2019, Raju tur ned a rebel and emerged as a bitter critic of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. He resigned from the ruling YSRC just before the announcement of the election schedule. A P S D M A f o r e c as t 64 mandals likely to experience severe heatwave today E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Normal life is affected with the steady rise in the mercury level in the State. On Saturday as many as 508 , places in the State recorded temperature above 40 degrees Celsius. In all, 16 places registered daytime temperature of above 44 degrees Celsius. The highest daytime temperature of 44.9 degrees Celsius was recorded at 4 pm at Punugodu in Kanigiri mandal of Prakasam district. IMD has issued a heatwave warning for isolated places across the State on Sunday . M e a n w h i l e, A n d h r a Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) in its report stated that 127 mandals experienced severe heatwave conditions and 231 mandals heatwave. APSDMA in its forecast for Sunday said severe heatwave conditions are expected in 64 mandals, including 24 in Vizianagaram, 15 in Srikakulam, 11 in Parvathipuram Manyam, 7 in Anakapalle, 4 in Kakinada, 2 in East Godavari and 1 in Visakhapantam. Heatwave conditions are likely in 222 mandals in the State. Despite severe heatwave, contestants were seen actively taking part in the election campaign in the Stae. P5 N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow R a j e s h A s n a n i @ Jaipur While underscoring the futility of INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh and calling it a flopped film of two boys (Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav) of 2017 re-released in 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a blistering attack on the Congress in Saharanpur, charging that its manifesto released a day earlier had imprint of the erstwhile Muslim League. “The Congress manifesto completely bears the imprint of the Muslim League of the days of the freedom struggle. Its every page reeks of breaking India into pieces. And whatever part of the Congress is left is completely dominated by the leftists. Such a party cannot take India forward in the 21st century,” he said, adding Worshipping Shakti is a part of the poll statement of the Congress showed it was our natural spiritual journey. completely cut off from But, people of the INDIA the hopes and aspirabloc say their fight is tions of today’s India. against Shakti “On the other hand, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister we have worked without discrimination. Saturation coverage of our welfare schemes has been our mantra. We want the welfare initiatives to reach every section, every caste and everyone without discrimination. This is true secularism,” he added. In his pushback, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP of practising the “politics of divisiveness”. He recalled that Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee had joined a coalition government in Bengal with the Muslim League in the early 1940s. Hurling a barb at the SP the PM said: “Look at , the Samajwadi Party… They are changing their candidates every hour.” The SP changed as many as 17 candidates after giving tickets to them on seven seats of western UP . In its first mega show in Rajasthan, Congress biggies Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjuna Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi launched a scathing attack against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a massive rally here to introduce the party’s manifesto to the public. Sonia said the country under Modi’s rule has been pushed towards dictatorship. She accused the Modi government of instilling fear in the country’s democratic institutions, adding the PM believes he is above the nation. The country’s freedom is not the product of the new leadership at the top but has been achieved through the struggles and sacrifices of their forefathers, she said, adding: “After so Considering many years, the great himself great, light has dimmed. The Modi ji is tearing apart the dignity injustice of darkness of the country and its has increased all democracy. Fear is being around. Our resolve installed in the system should be to fight against this and seek Sonia Gandhi, Congress the light of justice.” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused Modi of confusing the people and failing to deliver. “You have not done anything for the country ... We are giving ... an account of 55 years... You only abuse Congress and the Gandhi family he claimed. ,” Priyanka Gandhi criticised the BJP’s association with corrupt individuals and accused it of prioritising industrialists over the welfare of the people. “All the schemes are for big industrialists. They say they will give a 5 kg ration but will not provide employment, will not let your children stand on their feet,” she charged. Priyanka also pointed out that though the BJP is inducting corrupt leaders from all parties, no one is even questioning it. Undisclosed CPM bank a/c frozen E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi Even as Opposition parties accuse the Central agencies of trying to cripple their electioneering at the behest of the BJP , the Income Tax department (I-T) on Saturday froze a bank account of the CPM which has `4.8 crore. The account of the CPM Thrissur district committee in a nationalised bank caught the attention of I-T investigators when `1 crore was recently withdrawn from it. The action was initiated by an I-T special team tasked with monitoring the flow of black money in the backdrop of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to a tax official, the I-T returns of the party had not mentioned the account. Party claims it files tax returns regularly CPM said the party files tax returns without fail to the I-T department and the Election Commission. It alleged that the move was part of the Union government targeting Opposition parties and state governments run by them The name of the bank was not revealed by the department. Meanwhile, the CPM state leadership condemned the action, alleging that the I-T department froze the account without prior notice or seeking any explanation. The account has been frozen after an unexpected interrogation of CPM Thrissur district secretary M M Varghese by the I-T sleuths at the Enforcement Directorate office in Kochi on Friday, where he was being questioned in connection with the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam. “The bank account, opened in 1998, is in the name of the CPM Thrissur district committee. Upon examining the party’s I-T returns, we discovered that the details of this bank account were not disclosed. Currently there is `4.8 crore in the , account. We froze the account and initiated a probe. The transactions are under scrutiny. Efforts are underway to identify any additional accounts belonging to the party in other banks across Kerala that were not disclosed,” stated an I-T official. Significant cash transactions were identified in the bank account of the CPM district committee in Thrissur. Given the general election season, we launched a probe into these transactions Income Tax Department sources what’s trending Aerial view: Hit wave strikes IPL season with 6 What has changed when compared to last year — THE ongoing edition of the In- any of the previous years, dian Premier League (IPL) is really — is that the teams more than two weeks old. One are clearing the boundary of the patterns to have emerged cushions at an unprecefrom the 17th iteration is that, dented rate. As it stands, as it stands, the league is on they are hitting at least course to see a new record one six every 2.1 for sixes in a single year. overs, comfortably After Friday night’s Sunday the best such metmatch between SunrisSpecial ric in the history ers Hyderabad and of the league. Chennai Super Kings, In 2023, it was the 10 teams combined had one every 2.3 managed 326 maximums for an overs. In 2022, it was average of 18 per match. You one hit over the extrapolate that over the 74 fence every 16.2 games and they are on course deliveries. for 1332; comfortably eclipsing Why is this the the previous best of 1124 in 2023 case? There are (74 matches). various reasons S w a r o o p S w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai for this but the short answer is that uncapped Indian batters are comfortable in taking the aerial route (out of the top 25 leading six-hitters this year, four are uncapped Indians who have honed their skills in domestic T20 cricket). The other pronounced rationale behind this sort of six-hitting lies in the teams (and players) valuing the art of boundaries: 80% of all T20 matches are won by teams wh o h i t m o r e boundaries. Even among the boundaries, sides who hit more sixes typically tend to win more matches. Dan Weston, who worked with Punjab Kings during the mega auction in 2022, explained: “This year, Kolkata have so far hit an almost equal number of fours and sixes (45 sixes and 44 fours). We are starting to see the combination of the additional depth that the impact player provides to domestic players coming in. Teams are realising that the extra depth allows them to play more attacking cricket.” All of this comes with one caveat. With three-fourths of the season to go, there may be a regression to the mean. The next few weeks will reveal whether this is the beginning of another evoMore on p13 lution. magic figures 4.93 Abhishek Sharma hits a six every 4.93 balls sixes galore 1.08 Riyan Parag of RR scores a 6 for every (1.08) four e x p r e ss r e ad TDP will be totally crushed: Sajjala Vijayawada: YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy predicted that the TDP’s defeat in the 2024 polls will be more severe than in 2019. “The high-handed behaviour of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu can only be blamed for it. Naidu is making TDP members and sympathisers contest on the tickets of his allies,” he said | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE Web of Slavery PLUS 12 PAGES
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