Dahi Handi celebrations have become the latest flashpoint between two Shiv Sena factions in Maharashtra. AFP

Dahi Handi is now a sport in Maharashtra and even politicians are playing a game of one-upmanship. The festival is part of the Janmashtami celebrations which see ‘govindas’ move through towns and compete to break handis (earthen pots) filled with curds and win big prizes.

After two years of subdued festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government lifted all restrictions this year. Now, the festival has become another flashpoint between the two factions of the Shiv Sena. Even Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has upped the ante and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the latest entrant in the state’s ‘Dahi Handi’ politics.

Dahi Handi events, mainly sponsored by political parties, have increased the prize money this year. It starts at around one lakh and goes up to 55 lakh. But there is more.

Shinde promises jobs and insurance to govindas

The biggest trump card was of course played by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, who decided to give Dahi Handi an “adventure sport” status. This will allow young govindas, who form human pyramids to break their hands, to apply for government jobs under the sports quota.

That’s not all. The government will also provide insurance coverage of Rs 10 lakh to participants. Apart from this, if a govinda loses his life, insurance of Rs 10 lakh will be provided to the family. The government will award Rs 7 lakh to a seriously injured participant and Rs 5 lakh will be awarded in case of fracture.

The handis are often placed high up and there is a risk of injury when the govindas climb the pyramids formed by their teammates.

Sena vs Sena, the Dahi Handi Edition

The latest clash between the two factions of the Shiv Sena, one led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Shinde, concerns Dahi Handi.

Both sides put up billboards and banners across Mumbai, neighboring Thane and other towns with pictures of Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and party strongman and Shinde mentor Anand Dighe.

Shinde’s son and MP for Kalyan, Shrikant Shinde, said their event portrays respect for the deceased leaders, Thackeray and Dighe. On the other hand, Thackeray faction MP Rajan Vichare said their event reflected loyalty, unity, culture and voice of Hindutva, according to a report on NDTV.

In Thane, where Shinde grew up and has a lot of influence, the two factions held mega events about a mile apart. The Maharashtra CM led faction organized Dahi Handi in Tembhi Naka and that of Vichare in Jambhali Naka.

The Tembhi Naka Dahi Handi was first started by Anand Dighe, a tradition taken up by Shinde and now his son Shrikant.

Aaditya Thackeray will visit the Dahi Handis organized by his party in Mumbai and CM Shinde will also visit those who have been supported by his camp.

The BJP has organized 370 Dahi Handi programs across Mumbai as it eyes the upcoming BMC elections. AFP

Prize money keeps growing

Thousands of rupees are offered as prize money for Dahi Handi. For the winning teams of the Mumbai and Thane events, the Shinde camp has announced Rs 2.51 lakh.

Vichare said there would be two handis in Thane, one named after Bal Thackeray and the other after Anand Dighe. The top prize will be Rs 11 lakh for each of them.

Another MLA from Thane Pratap Sarnaik’s Shiv Sena upped the game, offering Rs 21 lakh to the team who break the handi in an event hosted by him.

It gets even bigger. The MNS does not look sideways. It has announced a total prize amount of Rs 55 lakh this year. Thane and Palghar Party Chairman Avinash Jadhav says the winner will get Rs 11 lakh and the team that ties or beats the world record will get a chance to visit Spain, reports News18.

BJP vs. Shiv Sena

In view of the upcoming Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the BJP has organized 370 Dahi Handi programs in Mumbai. It is the first time that he has organized these events which are associated with Maharashtra festivals – mainly the Shiv Sena but also the MNS.

The BJP held a grand celebration at the Jamboree Maidan at Worli in Mumbai, a venue where the Shiv Sena held the event till 2019. Worli is the constituency of Sena MLA and Thackeray scion Aaditya.

The party also organizes similar festivities in the Sena strongholds of Mumbai, Parli, Lalbaug, Dadar and Girgaum. The BJP has also insured 20,000 govindas for a sum of Rs 10 lakh, reports The Indian Express.

The Shiv Sena organized ‘Nishtha Dahi Handi’ in front of their headquarters, the Sena Bhavan at Dadar in Mumbai.

The Shiv Sen has been organizing the festival since the 1960s and 70s. “It has helped the Sena project itself as a party that values ​​local culture. Such programs are popular in central Mumbai, which is Sena’s ‘gadh’ (stronghold), and this has not allowed the BJP to enter these areas. Now the BJP will do its best to break the tradition. The Sena will do everything in their power to counter this,” said Mumbai-based political analyst Sanjay Patil. The Indian Express.

With contributions from agencies

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MERRITT ISLAND, Florida CW44 News at 10 | (CNN) — The Artemis I mega lunar rocket has arrived on the launch pad, and this time it’s for liftoff on a trip around the moon.

Engineers and technicians were busy with final checks and tests of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket stack made a few trips to the launch pad in March and June for the wet dress rehearsal, a test that simulated every stage of the launch without liftoff.

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On Tuesday evening, the real event began.

The Artemis team is targeting its first two-hour launch window from 8:33 a.m. ET to 10:33 a.m. ET on Monday, August 29. There are backup launch windows on September 2 and September 5.

The massive 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) pile embarked on a slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) journey aboard one of NASA’s giant exploration robots from the Apollo era, from the assembly building to the launch pad – just as the shuttle missions and the Apollo Saturn V rockets have already done.

The 6.6 million pound (3 million kilogram) robot carried the massive rocket stack and its mobile launcher at a top speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour). The stack of rockets arrived on the launch pad at 7:30 a.m. ET Wednesday morning after a nearly 10-hour journey.

The iconic robot is one of two that have operated for more than 50 years at Kennedy Space Center. The massive carriers first entered service in 1965 and can each carry 18 million pounds (8.2 million kilograms), the weight of more than 20 fully loaded 777 jets, according to NASA. The tracks are so wide that a pro baseball field could sit on each one.

Now that the rocket stack has arrived, engineers and technicians will prepare the rocket systems for launch.

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The uncrewed Artemis that I will launch for a mission that will go beyond the moon and back to Earth. Once launched, the spacecraft will reach a deep retrograde orbit around the moon, traveling 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) in 42 days. Artemis I will dive in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on October 10. Orion’s return will be faster and hotter than any spacecraft has ever experienced on its way back to Earth.

The Orion spacecraft will travel further than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown, reaching 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side of the moon, according to NASA.

There are no humans on board, but Orion will carry 120 pounds (54.4 kilograms) of memorabilia, including toys, Apollo 11 artifacts and three mannequins.

Sitting in Orion’s commander’s seat will be Commander Moonikin Campos, an adapted dummy who can collect data on what future human crews might experience while traveling on the moon. The model will wear the new Orion Crew Survival System suit designed for astronauts during launch and re-entry. The suit has two radiation sensors.

Two “ghosts” named Helga and Zohar will ride in other Orion seats. These mannequin torsos are made of materials that mimic a woman’s soft tissues, organs and bones. Both torsos have more than 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure the amount of radiation exposure during spaceflight.

This mission will launch NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025 – and eventually make way for exploration human from Mars.

Artemis I will also perform a number of science experiments, some of which will be set up once the rocket and spacecraft arrive at the launch pad.

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Georgia police are desperate for an accused rapist who claims to be a youth pastor before he sexually assaults women.

Marco Aries Johnson, 46, is suspected of rape by the Dunwoody Police Department. Police have not revealed how many victims Johnson allegedly abused, but are seeking counsel to discern more information about him.

Investigators say Johnson is targeting women near bus stops. After approaching them and striking up a conversation, the suspect allegedly told them that he was a “priest of the EFY religion and a spiritual reader”.

ARIZONA WOMAN ARRESTED CHARGED WITH ASSAULT OF TWO TEENS

In the Church of Latter-day Saints, EFY means especially for young people and is the name of a week-long seminar for Mormon youth.

MIAMI SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWYER CHARGED WITH RAPE

“Johnson then takes the women to an apartment in Dunwoody, beats them and sexually assaults them,” the police department said. It has also been seen in the Georgian towns of Chamblee and Doraville.

Officers say Johnson is 5-foot-7 and weighs about 170 pounds. He also has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen with a beard.

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Johnson also allegedly drove a black Toyota Camry with Georgian license plate CCQ3983, police say.

Police say the suspect was often seen in DeKalb County, which is north central Georgia.
(DeKalb County Police Department FB)

Dunwoody Police are actively investigating this matter. Anyone who may have information about the suspect is asked to call Detective Ehlbeck at 678-382-6925 or email him at [email protected]

The non-seasonally adjusted figure also shows a return to the surplus of 3.2 billion euros, against -15.4 billion euros previously. This is a welcome development after rising energy and commodity prices drove the current account into deficit over the previous two months.

That said, the negative terms of trade shock is not over yet. Details from Germany this month showed it was running a current account deficit with China, its first since 2012. So it’s not just the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war whose Europe should beware, but also a slowdown in China.

Michael Buble’s sister-in-law cheated death in a horrific car crash in her native Argentina.

Nutritionist Daniela Lopilato was rushed to hospital after the car she was driving overturned and ended up on its roof when another vehicle hit her from behind.

The mother-of-two had to be released by firefighters after sustaining neck and spine injuries in the accident in a Buenos Aires suburb called Martinez.

Dramatic footage from the scene of the accident showed the 43-year-old’s car being knocked over by a lamppost in front of a house on a residential street with its wheels pointing skyward.

Daniela told Argentinian reporters that she believed “God gave her a second chance”.

Michael Buble’s sister-in-law Daniela Lopilato cheated death in horrific car accident in her native Argentina

Daniela, whose younger sister of actress Luisana is days away from having her fourth child with Canadian-born Buble, was yet to speak publicly about her fear around noon local time on Wednesday.

But Argentinian journalist Pia Shaw, speaking on a TV show which aired footage from the crash scene overnight, said: “The footage you see now is terrible and the protagonist is Daniela Lopilato. “

“She was admitted to Los Arcos Hospital in Buenos Aires but is now back home.

“The car you see on her roof is Daniela’s.

“It happened in the Martinez region. Another driver rammed Daniela’s car from behind. It was a pretty violent collision.

“She injured her neck and back and couldn’t get out of the car and was really scared. Firefighters were called in to help.

Dramatic footage from the scene of the crash showed the 43-year-old’s car overturned by a lamppost outside a house on a residential street with its wheels pointing skyward

Daniela (right), whose younger sister of actress Luisana (left) is days away from having her fourth child with Canadian-born Buble, has yet to speak publicly about her fear around noon p.m. local, Wednesday.

She added: ‘The other driver pulled over and handed over all his details. I spoke with Daniela shortly after she was discharged from the hospital and she told me that she had just realized that God had given her a second chance.

She feels alive thanks to God. She’s fine, but she’s had a traumatic experience and she’s still upset about it.

Buble shares Noah, nine, son Elias, six, and daughter Vida, four, with Luisana, 35, and the couple are expecting their fourth child.

It emerged that Luisana was pregnant in February when she was featured in her music video for I’ll Never Love You, with the actress pulling her husband out of a dream sequence, complete with his growing baby bump.

Buble shares Noah, nine, son Elias, six, and daughter Vida, four, with Luisana, 35 (pictured together) and the couple are expecting their fourth child

In April, Buble admitted he felt “so unstable and vulnerable” after Noah was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a type of liver cancer, in 2016 at the age of three.

The youngster underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with Michael putting his career on hold for a while amid his boy’s treatment.

But the jazz singer told how he was ready to get back into the groove after his son – now eight – went into remission.

Michael still faced the fear and uncertainty of his son’s diagnosis even after his first remission.

He told the Mirror: “I’ve been through a lot, obviously.” When I made the last record [in 2018]my son had just been in remission and I was not ready to come back,” he explained.

“I didn’t know it at the time but, mentally, I was so unstable and vulnerable. I made a safe record with producers I liked and just tried to protect myself and maintain a career.

“But I feel really good now and I couldn’t wait to go – like that big weight had been lifted off me. My son was healthy, my children and my wife were good, life is good. Why wouldn’t I explode just wanting to make an amazing record?’