NEWS & VIEWS|||SARASIJ|||20th MAY2026

 

NEWS & VIEWS|||SARASIJ|||20^th MAY2026

WEDNESDAY| VOL—V/2026/MAY

OPINIONATED, FOR FREE CIRCULATION.

*कष्टः खलु पराश्रयः।*

Dependence is indeed painful.

 

INDIA: (GOI, SWARAJYA, VISHWAMITRA, HINDU POST, INDIA TODAY).

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin likely to be in Delhi for BRICS meet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) landed in Italy, where he will be meeting his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, and discuss with them ways to boost India-Italy cooperation.

‘Offer prayers in shifts’: Yogi Adityanath warns against namaz on roads, tells Muslims to ‘control’ population numbers.

One Ladakh, two administrative logics:

Tell someone that a region covers fifty-nine thousand square kilometres — a little larger than Himachal Pradesh — and they will say it needs at least twelve districts, the way Himachal does. Tell them the same region has only three lakh people, and they will say one district would do.

 The University of Hyderabad is nominated as the Lead Knowledge Institution for Telangana under NITI Aayog’s State Support Mission. The university will assist the State government with policy research, monitoring frameworks, technical expertise and capacity-building across multiple strategic sectors.

Union Home Minister on Monday (May 18) felicitated senior Telangana police officers in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, for their role in suppressing Maoist activity and making Telangana a Naxal-free State.

Union Home Minister is chairing the Central Zonal Council meeting in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, with Chief Ministers of four states. The visit also highlights Bastar’s anti-Naxal development push, tribal welfare plans, and conversion of security camps into public service centres.

India and Vietnam reviewed maritime security and defence cooperation during bilateral meetings held in New Delhi on 6 May 2026 and in Hanoi on 19 May 2026. The discussions involved India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Vietnam’s Minister of National Defence Phan Van Giang, and covered defence partnership, military training, defence manufacturing, and regional stability in the Indo-Pacific reg.

BENGAL FILES:

Trinamool's Jahangir Khan, otherwise known as ‘DON OF FALTA’   Pulled Out Of Falta Contest 2 Days Before Repoll in spite of Legal Protection. TMC clarified that the decision is personal. "He ran away as he won't get any polling agent," the Chief Minister said shortly after the Trinamool's candidate announced his decision to not contest Falta repoll.  TMC Supremo, or Junior Banerjee, so far,  has not campaigned in FALTA, part of Diamond Harbour Parliamentary constituency.

In my opinion, Jahangir Khan was advised by TMC Supremo to withdraw. This is an ‘ELECTORAL GAMBIT OUT OF JUDICIAL EXPEDIENCY’

‘Pappu of Bengal’ got notices from Calcutta Corporation, for residences listed under his name, Joint Names and ‘Leaps & Bounds’ owned Buildings.

Firhad Haqim may resign from ‘MAYOR’s’ post, if ‘KHALA’ agrees.

ED arrested Bishwajit Poddar alias ‘SONA PAPPU’, who ultimately surrendered, after  absconding  for a few days.

Infamous Dr. Majhi is expelled from West Bengal Medical Council. He became famous for getting the Dialysis of his pet dog  carried out at  Super Speciality P.G.Hospital of Kolkata, instead of a Veterinary Hospital. It is alleged that there are many complaints, and mis-appropriation of funds involved with his name. His name was also heard to be linked with R.G.Kar case. It is to be seen how he can be judicially nailed.

IRAN WAR:

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari says US-Iran negotiations “need more time”.

United States President Donald Trump says he has postponed a planned attack on Iran at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and added that “serious negotiations are now taking place”.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said “dialogue does not mean surrender”, and that Tehran had entered the “dialogue with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation’s rights”.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari says: No country has the right under any circumstances to “hinder” access to the Strait of Hormuz.

UN Security Council weighs emergency meeting as support for Hormuz resolution grows.

Only two LNG tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz but that does not mean normal traffic has resumed.

Jordan has issued a joint statement with Indonesia, Spain, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Turkiye, Colombia, Libya and the Maldives condemning the Israeli interception and abduction of activists on board the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters.

WORLD: (REUTER, AP, AFP, BLOOMBERG, CNN, WP)

Putin’s arrival was announced just a day after United States President Donald Trump left Beijing. He landed in Beijing yesterday night. Moscow and Beijing draw closer amid war, sanctions and an increasingly fractured global order.

Analysts say Xi’s decision to host Trump and Putin within the space of a week is no coincidence, reflecting Beijing’s attempt to cast itself as a trusted actor in an increasingly fragmented and volatile world order.

From burning oil refineries to a stalling ground offensive, Russia is suffering problems in its war against Ukraine that partly stem from a growing Ukrainian military strength: the use of medium-range drone attacks.

By targeting Russian air defences and ​logistics dozens of kilometres behind front lines, Ukraine is disrupting Russia's battlefield advances and opening the way for long-range strikes on Russian oil and military facilities, said two Ukrainian commanders, two ‌drone specialists and three military analysts.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet NATO counterparts following U.S. threats to pull troops and also pay his first visit to India following a chilly patch between the countries, it was announced Tuesday (May 19, 2026).

UAE to launch 16 new Indian passport and visa centres as Alhind takes over consular services :  More than four million Indians living in the UAE are set to see a major overhaul in passport, visa and consular services, after India awarded a massive outsourcing contract to Kerala-based Alhind Group, which will launch 16 new service centres across all seven emirates from July 1, 2026.

Pakistani Officer Claims 2 Indian Airbases Were Hit on last May. They never existed.

WILD LIFE:

Satellite images have revealed the scale of two wildfires spreading in southern California is uncontrolled.

MISHAPS:

Naren Dhar, a 38-year-old Assistant Protocol Officer at the Indian Assistant High Commission in Chattogram, Bangladesh, was found dead inside the mission premises on the morning of May 19, 2026. Police found no visible injury marks and suspect cardiac arrest, though the exact cause of death is pending autopsy results.

Maldivian authorities are investigating multiple possible factors behind the deaths of five Italian divers in a deepwater cave ​last week, including whether they descended far deeper than expected, a government spokesperson told Reuters.

The group that entered the cave on Thursday was led by Monica Montefalcone, 51, a University ‌of Genoa professor and marine ecologist who was a regular diver in Maldivian waters in the Indian Ocean. Her daughter was among the four researchers who died, along with an instructor. The instructor's body was the first to have been recovered, from a depth of 60 metres (200 feet).

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

Delhi International Airport Limited is developing an Automated People Mover system, also called an air train, for Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The planned system is India’s first driverless airport air train and is designed for inter-terminal connectivity across a 7.7 km route.

India’s Venus orbiter mission, also called SHUKRAYAN, is a planned interplanetary mission to Venus with international collaboration from Sweden. The mission will carry 19 payloads and will study Venus’s atmosphere, exosphere, surface, weather systems and super-rotating clouds.

The United States will host the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 30-31 as Washington steps up preparations for a series of high-profile global summits later this year.

CLIMATE:

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued red and yellow alerts for prolonged and severe heatwave conditions across Northwest and Central India. Maximum temperatures in parts of Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh are forecast to range between 44 and 47 deg. C.

CRIME & PUNISHMENT:

Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and others in criminal contempt proceedings initiated by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. Justice Sharma started the contempt proceedings against the AAP leaders over "orchestrated social media campaign" against her in relation to the liquor policy case proceedings.

A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid, accused in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the grounds for seeking the relief are unreasonable.

DAS KAPITAL:

Indian Share Market: -

BSE SENSEX* 75,200.85 −114.19 (0.15%)🔻

*NIFTY* 23,618.00 −31.95 (0.14%)🔻

BULLIONS:

*GOLD* : ₹ 15,600/ 01gm (24 krt)

*SILVER* : ₹ 2,90,000/KG

Currency Exchange Rates:

*Euro* : ₹112/-*USD*  ₹ 95/-  *China¥* : ₹ 14/-

CONCERN:

 Twenty-six more suspected Ebola deaths were recorded in 24 hours in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said on ​Tuesday, and the head of the World Health Organization expressed deep concern about the outbreak's spread.

THE END.