Mild earthquake strikes Kuwait

Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday criticised the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, claiming it offered no tangible benefit to the state.

Though he said he was yet to study the budget in detail, Shivakumar asserted that Karnataka had gained little from it. “There is no benefit for our state from the central budget. I was observing it. They have now named a programme after Mahatma Gandhi, after repealing the MGNREGA Act that was named after him,” he said.

Speaking to reporters here, the Deputy Chief Minister demanded the restoration of MGNREGA, and made it clear that the newly enacted rural employment scheme — VB-G RAM G — which proposes a 60:40 fund-sharing formula between the Centre and the states, would not be implemented in Karnataka.

“I don’t see any major share for our state in this budget,” he added.

Shivakumar, who also holds charge of Bengaluru development, said there were high expectations for the city from the Union Budget. “The Prime Minister calls Bengaluru a ‘global city’, but what has the Centre done for it?” he asked.

He also drew attention to the problems faced by sugar factories, particularly those in the cooperative sector, alleging a lack of timely decisions and support from the central government.

Noting that the Centre has the authority to fix the minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce, Shivakumar said the Union government must take concrete steps to protect farmers’ interests.

New Delhi: Setting speculation to the rest, the CPI(M) has made it clear that it is open to have an electoral understanding with the Congress “to defeat” the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in West Bengal Assembly election even as it is all set to take on the grand old party in Kerala accusing it of “found wanting” in fighting the Hindutva forces.

The CPI(M) also said that it will contest the Tamil Nadu election “with DMK and its allies to defeat the BJP and its allies”, amid a section in the Congress triggering confusion about its participation in the M K Stalin-led coalition over demand over power-sharing and more seats. It is also willing to join hands with Congress and others in Assam and Puducherry to defeat the BJP.

The decisions came at a three-day meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee in Thiruvananthapuram, which ended on Sunday after reviewing the poll preparations in the poll-bound states.

The CPI(M)'s decision came even as a section led by West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar is averse to tying up with the Left Front, claiming that their party is not benefitted by the electoral understanding. Both Congress and CPI(M)-led Left Front had electoral understanding in 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress and the Left Front fought together for the first time in 2016 when Congress won 44 seats and the CPI(M) got 26. In 2021, the Left Front and the Congress drew a blank. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress managed to win one seat while the Left did not win any. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, both fought against each other with Congress winning two and the Left none.

“In Bengal, the party will work for the defeat of both the TMC and the BJP, which are trying to polarise the society. We will try to rally all the forces that are ready to work against them,” the CPI(M) said in a statement without naming Congress by name. Senior leaders said there is no change in its strategy of pooling all non-BJP, non-TMC votes.

However, the party was critical of the Congress in Kerala where both will fight against each other.

The CPI(M) said it would "expose the BJP-led Union government’s denial of rightful dues to Kerala, the fiscal constraints imposed and the overall attack on federalism" as also "expose the failure of the Congress to effectively counter this attack on federalism, as the largest opposition party in the Parliament".

"The Congress, especially in Kerala, was found wanting in the fight against communal RSS-BJP, ideologically and this will also be exposed before the people," it added.

In Assam, it said, the CPI(M) will work for the mobilisation of all the anti-BJP parties and forces and defeat the rabidly communal and divisive BJP government. The Left parties are cooperating with Congress in the north-eastern state. In Puducherry, it said it will work for the defeat of the BJP alliance government.

Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

The authenticity of the letter, in which Trump says he no longer feels obligated to “think purely of peace,” was confirmed by Støre to the Norwegian newspaper VG.

“Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace,” Trump wrote, adding he can now “think about what is good and proper for the United States.”

Støre said Trump’s letter was in response to a short message he had sent earlier, on behalf of himself and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb.

Trump has escalated rhetoric toward Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, insisting the US will take control “one way or the other.” Over the weekend, he tweeted: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”

On Saturday, Trump threatened a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland from 1 February until the US is allowed to purchase the island. EU diplomats met for emergency talks on possible retaliatory tariffs and sanctions.

In his letter, Trump argued Denmark “cannot protect” Greenland from Russia or China, questioning Danish ownership: “There are no written documents; it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago.” He added that NATO should support the US, claiming the world is “not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland.”

Trump’s stance has unsettled the EU and NATO, as he refused to rule out military action to take control of the mineral-rich island.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the government. Trump had campaigned for last year’s prize, which went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who dedicated her award to him.

Støre reiterated that the Nobel Prize decision rests solely with the committee.