FirstUp: Kenyan president's US visit, 10 years of Modi's BJP government... Big headlines today

It’s going to be a little busy Thursday, as US president Joe Biden will host Kenyan president William Ruto for wide-ranging talks that is expected to include debt relief for Kenya.

This day in history also marks 10 years of incumbent BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Repolling will take place at two booths in Odisha where voting was disrupted on 20 May.

Here’s how the day will unfold.

Kenya president US visit

United States president Joe Biden will be hosting Kenyan president William Ruto this week for wide-ranging talks expected to include debt relief for Kenya as well as the way forward for Haiti, Ukraine, Sudan and other areas.

Biden and Ruto are expected to hold a joint news conference after their talks on Thursday and then attend a state dinner.

Notably, the visit comes at a time when Kenya has been grappling with acute liquidity challenges.

A senior administration official told Reuters on Monday that the US is urging big creditor countries like China, Kenya’s biggest creditor, to offer debtor countries relief.

10 years of Modi governm****ent

The year was 2014 when a lotus bloomed on the front pages of Indian newspapers and channels.

Narendra Modi’s BJP registered a ‘landslide’ victory, with about 282 seats in 2014.

According to The Hindu, the incumbent saffron party got about 65 million more votes that its closest competitor, the then-incumbent Indian National Congress.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party bettered it with 303 seats alone.

Now, the saffron party has set a target of 400 seats.

Yogi’s public meetings in Odisha and Bihar

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath will be on an election tour of Odisha and Bihar today.

He will address a total of four public meetings, covering two seats – Puri Lok Sabha seat and Kendrapara seat – according to The Statesman which cited its sources.

Elections in the four seats will be held on 25 May.

Repolling in Odisha

Repolling has been ordered at two booths in Odisha where voting was disrupted on 20 May.

Repolling will be held at booth numbers 26 and 28 in Kantamal assembly segment of Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat from 7 am to 4 pm today.

Polling was held in these two booths in Kantamal assembly seat along with 34 other assembly segments and five Lok Sabha seats on Monday.

The polling process was disrupted in the two booths due to some incidents, sources said.

Buddha Purnima

The Buddha Purnima this year will be celebrated today, 23 May.

Also known as Buddha Jayanti, Vesak, and Vaishaka, the day celebrates the life and teachings of Gautam Buddha, marking his birthday and the day of attaining enlightenment (nirvana).

Gautam Buddha, whose birth name was Siddharta Gautam, was a spiritual teacher on whose teaching Buddhism was founded.

He was born in Nepal’s Lumbini around 563 BC and attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya.

Buddha died at the age of 80 in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar.

RSS chief’s visit to Tripura

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is scheduled to arrive in Tripura on 23 May on a six-day visit to the northeastern state.

During the visit, Bhagwat will join a 20-day training programme at Seva Dam, RSS headquarters in West Tripura’s Khayerpur.

He will also have a separate session with the pracharaks.

Three-day synchronised elephant census of South Indian states from today

An elephant census in the border areas of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will be held from Thursday to Saturday, 25 May.

While the elephant census is usually held for an entire forest patch once every five years, this time it will be held only in the border areas of the southern states.

The New Indian Express quoted a senior Karnataka Forest Department official as saying, “The exercise aims to understand the area, the conflict and chalk out better policies for better coordination and future planning.”

Armed Forces personnel on Lumbini-Colombo bike expedition

Armed Forces personnel from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal will embark on a bike expedition from Lumbini to Colombo, along the Buddha circuit, to strengthen ties and foster goodwill among south Asian nations.

The Heartfulness Bike Expedition will be flagged off from Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, by Nepal’s prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday and conclude in Colombo n 16 June.

Initiated by the Sri Lankan government in collaboration with the governments of Nepal and India, the expeditions will have 15 bikers from the Armed Forces of the three countries ride through diverse landscapes and historical landmarks linked to Gautam Buddha.

UN General Assembly votes on resolution to create an international day of commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide

The UN General Assembly has scheduled a debate on the resolution to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs on Thursday morning to be followed by a vote in the 193-member world body.

The resolution, sponsored by Germany and Rwanda, has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against its adoption by Serbia’s president and the Bosnian Serb leadership.

The final draft of the resolution would designate 11 July as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenca,” to be observed annually starting in two months.

The massacres started on 11 July 1995.

The draft asks the United Nations to prepare an outreach programme and invites countries, organisations, civil society and others to observe the day with special observances and activities in memory and honour of the victims as well as “appropriate education and public awareness-raising activities.”

A day to remember

• Birth anniversary of former CAG chief Vinod Rai

• Birth anniversary of director and author Padmarajan

• Birth anniversary of US biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate Joshua Lederberg

• Beatles released Paperback Writer in 1966

• Walt Disney incorporated his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films in 1922