The Evening Wrap: Nitish ends alliance with BJP, joins hands with RJD again

Political history repeated itself in Bihar after five years when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did a turnaround on Tuesday and joined hands again with the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) whom he had dumped in 2017 on the issue of corruption. This time, Kumar parted ways with the BJP and was elected leader of the RJD-led mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). He staked claim before Governor Phagu Chouhan to form the next government with the support of 164 MLAs of seven parties. “Will never compromise on the issue of corruption and do service to people of Bihar along with others”, Kumar told media persons after returning from the Raj Bhawan. Asked when he would be taking oath, he said, “it is up to the Governor to give time for the swearing-in ceremony”. However, later, it was informed that Kumar will be taking oath as Chief Minister at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. After several flip-flops, Kumar this time would be taking oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the eighth time since he first came to power in November 2005. Earlier, after submitting his resignation, Kumar told journalists outside the Raj Bhawan, “in today’s [Tuesday’s] meeting of all my party MPs, MLAs, Council members and leaders they expressed their desire to snap ties with the BJP and immediately I accepted their desire and came to the Raj Bhawan to resign from my post of NDA’s Chief Minister”. Earlier, in 2013, unhappy with the BJP when it announced Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate, Kumar had allied with the RJD and the Congress to contest the Assembly elections in 2015 and formed the mahagathbandhan government in the State. But two years later, in 2017, citing corruption charges against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav who was his deputy in the Cabinet at the time, Kumar joined hands with the BJP once again. “He is palturam [Mr. turnaround] who does palti [turns] for lust of power and chief minister’s chair”, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had said at that time. Interestingly, it was Mr. Prasad, who is currently recuperating from his ill-health in Delhi, approved the proposal of alliance of his party again on Tuesday with Kumar. “I thank our party chief Lalu Prasad ji for approving a proposal for this alliance in the interest of Bihar and the country”, Mr. Tejashwi Yadav said. Earlier in the day, all JD(U) MLAs, MPs, leaders had a meeting with Kumar at the Chief Minister’s official residence no 1, Anne Marg in which a decision was taken to snap ties with the BJP. Later Kumar went to the Raj Bhawan to submit his resignation. At the same time, a meeting of RJD MLAs and leaders was held at party leader Rabri Devi’s official residence 10, Circular Road. Later, the other mahagathbandhan allies such as the Congress and the Left parties too joined them when from the Raj Bhawan Kumar headed there to meet them. Later Kumar was elected leader of the mahagathbandhan and together with the letter of support of 164 MLAs, leaders of the alliance parties met the Governor to stake claim to form the government. A large number of mahagathbandhan supporters had gathered outside the Raj Bhawan to witness the political development unfolding every hour. BJP leader and Union Minister Ashwini Choubey accused Kumar of being “opportunistic” and said those “betraying” Bihar want to create obstacles in its development. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan slammed Kumar for insulting the people’s mandate for the second time and demanded the imposition of President’s Rule in the state followed by fresh elections. He also came out in support of the BJP amid the political turmoil in Bihar and said the saffron party had accepted everything that Kumar wanted as chief minister and even compromised on its own policies. U.P. politician and ‘BJP leader’ Shrikant Tyagi, accused of abusing woman neighbour, arrested from Meerut Four days after he allegedly assaulted and abused a fellow female resident of a Noida society, local politician Shrikant Tyagi was nabbed by the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police on August 9. “Tyagi was arrested from Meerut where he was hiding at a close friend’s house. Tyagi and three others have been arrested from Meerut. They are being brought to Noida by our team,” Alok Singh Commissioner of Noida Police confirmed. The arrest has come after Noida police detained Tyagi’s wife for the second time in 48 hours. A GST team also reached the shops run by Tyagi in the Bhangel market of Noida. Tyagi absconded after the Friday incident where he could be seen heckling a female resident of Omaxe Grande society for questioning him over allegedly encroaching the common area by planting palm trees. In a video he could be heard saying, “If you touch my plants, I will touch you.” On August 8, a bulldozer of the Noida Authority brought down the illegal structure amid cheers. Tyagi described himself as a member of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on social media but the ruling party distanced itself from him. On Tuesday, a photo of Tyagi with former BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya surfaced on social media. Maurya had switched to the Samajwadi Party before the Assembly polls. BJP MLA Atul Garg commented that Maurya brought Tyagi to the BJP as part of his “dowry” when he shifted from Bahujan Samaj Party to the BJP. Maurya claimed he had never met Tyagi alone and that it was a courtesy meet. Eknath Shinde expands Cabinet The much-awaited expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet of the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde took place on Tuesday in Mumbai with 18 legislators taking oath as ministers. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to 18 legislators as ministers. The allocation of portfolios is yet to be announced. The new Cabinet, which is being formed 40 days after Shinde and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, has nine ministers each from the BJP and the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena. From the BJP, ​Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Vijaykumar Gavit, Mangal Prabhat Lodh, Atul Save, Ravindra Chavan, and Suresh Khade were sworn in as ministers at the ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan. Shiv Sena’s Shinde faction inducted Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Tanaji Sawant, Uday Samant, Abdul Sattar, Shambhuraj Desai, Sanjay Rathod, and Sandipan Bhumre into the Cabinet. The State administration, earlier on Monday, issued a notice announcing that the long-delayed monsoon session of the State legislature would also begin on Wednesday and continue till August 18. BJP State vice president Chitra Wagh protested the induction of Sena leader Sanjay Rathod into the Cabinet. “​It is very unfortunate that former minister Sanjay Rathod, who caused the death of Pooja Chavan, has been given the post of minister again. I will continue my fight against Rathod even though he has become a minister again,” said Wagh. Rathod had been forced to resign as State Forest Minister in the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in 2021 after he came under mounting pressure from the BJP for his alleged connection with the death of Pooja Chavan, a 23-year-old woman from the nomadic banjara community in Pune. Responding to criticism, CM Shinde said Rathod had been given a clean chit by the police during the previous government. “Sanjay Rathod had been given a clean chit by the police in the erstwhile MVA government. Hence, he was inducted in the present cabinet. If someone else has anything to say over and above this, we will definitely hear them out,” the Chief Minister said. Ever since Shinde and Fadnavis took power on June 30 after the former led a rebellion to topple the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government of former CM Uddhav Thackeray, the expansion of the State Cabinet had been pending, drawing criticism from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and other Opposition parties, including the NCP. The Opposition has been censuring Shinde and Fadnavis for running a ‘two-man jumbo Cabinet’ of their own. Of the 18 Ministers sworn in at the Raj Bhavan ceremony, only one has become a Minister for the first time. There is no woman in the list. Excise policy row | Former Delhi LG says charges against him ‘blatant lies, falsehoods’, slams Sisodia Former Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal rejected as “baseless and motivated” charges levelled against him by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of Excise Policy 2021-22. In a hard-hitting statement, Baijal said Sisodia’s charges against him were an attempt by a “desperate man to save his own skin”. Sisodia, who also holds the Excise portfolio in the Kejriwal government, had on last Saturday accused Baijal, who was then LG, of changing his stand on the excise policy and blocking liquor vends in non-conforming areas of Delhi by putting a condition. He had also said Baijal’s decision “benefitted” some licensees while causing “loss” of thousands of crores of rupees to the Delhi government. “Mr. Sisodia is trying to find some alibi for his and his colleague’s acts of commission and omissions. The charges are nothing but blatant lies and falsehoods being perpetrated by a desperate man to save his own skin.” The former LG said in his statement he had flagged on several occasions “unlawful decisions” taken by the AAP government that had to be amended on files. “In the matter of not allowing liquor vends in non-conforming areas, I had discharged by constitutional responsibility of upholding the law of the land,” he said. No law in Delhi even today allows for opening of liquor vends in non-conforming areas, he said. The records will speak for themselves, Baijal said, dismissing claims of by the Delhi government and its excise minister. He said the truth will come out after investigation. Current LG VK Saxena has already recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Excise Policy 2021-22 and approved suspension of several Excise officials. The Delhi government has already rolled back the policy. Chennai Chess Olympiad: India ‘B’ team wins bronze in Open section; India ‘A’ women also finish third The India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section while the India ‘A’ women’s side also finished third in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Tuesday. India ‘B’ defeated Germany 3-1 in their final round match to end at third position. Uzbekistan sprung a surprise by bagging the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands ahead of a strong Armenian team, which beat Spain 2.5-1.5 in the final round, in the Open section. The top-seeded India ‘A’ women’s team crashed to a 1-3 defeat in the 11th and final round to USA to see it’s gold medal hopes evaporate. The Koneru Humpy-led team finished third. War-torn Ukraine won an emotional gold in the women’s event, pipping Georgia to the top prize. Uzbekistan beat the Netherlands in the final round thanks to Jakhongir Vakhidov’s win on board 4. They edged out Armenia on the basis of a better tie-break score. The Uzbeks remained unbeaten through the 11 rounds and finished with 19 match points. India ‘B’ ended up with 18 points for third place. It was the second bronze medal for India in the Olympiad, replicating its feat in the 2014 edition. The experienced B Adhiban, who was part of the team in 2014 added to his medal collection while it was the first for young stars D Gukesh, who was in spectacular form during the tournament, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani. In the women’s section, top player Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali drew their games against Gulrukhba Tokhirjonova and Irina Krush respectively. The defeats for Tania Sachdev at the hands of Carissa Yip and Bhakthi Kulkarni to Tatev Abrahamyan hurt the India ‘A’ team’s chances of a gold medal. A glittering ceremony, attended by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, marked the conclusion of the world event. WhatsApp announces new privacy features, including leaving groups silently WhatsApp on Tuesday announced new privacy features, following which users of the instant messaging service will now be able to leave groups silently as well as choose who can see when they are online. WhatsApp will also block taking screenshots for ‘view once’ messages. “New privacy features coming to WhatsApp: exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when you’re online, and prevent screenshots on view once messages. We’ll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Meta said. With the ‘Leave Groups Silently’ features, WhatsApp users will be able to exit a group privately without having to notify everyone. Now, instead of notifying the full group when leaving, only the admins will be notified. This feature will start rolling out to all users this month. “Seeing when friends or family are online helps users feel connected to one another, but everyone has had times when they wanted to check their WhatsApp privately. For the times you want to keep your online presence private, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online,” WhatsApp said in a statement, adding that this feature will start rolling out to all users this month. Additionally, the instant messaging application will now block taking screenshots for ‘View Once Messages’. It noted that ‘View Once’ is already an incredibly popular way to share photos or media that don’t need to have a permanent digital record. “Now WhatsApp is enabling screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. This feature is being tested and will be rolled out to users soon,” it said. The company added that the introduction of these new features are backed by a new WhatsApp privacy study which found that 72% of people value being able to speak in an honest, unfiltered way, but more than 47% are only comfortable doing this in a safe, private space. “For the times when you need more privacy, 51% prefer to stay hidden online to choose who they want to talk to. 91% of people who are aware of blocking features believe they are important. That is why WhatsApp is introducing new layers of protection that enable users to speak freely and have private conversations,” it said. Trump says FBI agents raided his Florida home Former President Donald Trump said his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was raided by FBI agents on Monday, August 8, 2022, which came amid a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Trump’s removal of official presidential records to the Palm Beach estate. The Justice Department declined to comment on the raid, which Trump in a statement said involved a “large group of FBI agents.” The FBI’s field office in Miami did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump said the estate “is currently under siege, raided, and occupied.” He did not say why the raid took place. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump added. CNN reported that Trump was not at the estate at the time of the raid, and that the FBI had executed a search warrant to enter the premises. Trump, who has made his club in Palm Beach his home since leaving the White House in January 2021, has generally spent summers at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, because Mar-a-Lago typically closes in May for the summer. The Justice Department launched an early-stage investigation into Trump’s removal of records to the Florida estate, a source familiar with the matter said in April. The investigation comes after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in February notified Congress that it had recovered about 15 boxes of White House documents from Trump’s Florida home, some of which contained classified materials. The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee at that time announced it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the Archives to turn over additional information. Trump previously confirmed that he had agreed to return certain records to the Archives, calling it “an ordinary and routine process”. In Brief Serena Williams has said that she is “evolving away from tennis” as she hinted at retiring from the sport she dominated for much of her career with 23 singles Grand Slam titles. The 40-year-old won her last Grand Slam crown in 2017 and has been chasing an elusive 24th crown that will draw her level with Margaret Court who holds the record for most majors. “I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote in a Vogue article. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.” Williams later talked in an Instagram post about the time to move in a “different direction”. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 09 AUGUST 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Nitish ends alliance with BJP, joins hands with RJD again Political history repeated itself in Bihar after five years when [Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did a turnaround on Tuesday and joined hands again with the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD]( whom he had dumped in 2017 on the issue of corruption. This time, Kumar parted ways with the BJP and was elected leader of the RJD-led mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). He staked claim before Governor Phagu Chouhan to form the next government with the support of 164 MLAs of seven parties. [JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav leave after meeting Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan in Patna on August 9, 2022. ] “Will never compromise on the issue of corruption and do service to people of Bihar along with others”, Kumar told media persons after returning from the Raj Bhawan. Asked when he would be taking oath, he said, “it is up to the Governor to give time for the swearing-in ceremony”. However, later, it was informed that Kumar will be taking oath as Chief Minister at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. After several flip-flops, Kumar this time would be taking oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the eighth time since he first came to power in November 2005. Earlier, after submitting his resignation, Kumar told journalists outside the Raj Bhawan, “in today’s [Tuesday’s] meeting of all my party MPs, MLAs, Council members and leaders they expressed their desire to snap ties with the BJP and immediately I accepted their desire and came to the Raj Bhawan to resign from my post of NDA’s Chief Minister”. Earlier, in 2013, unhappy with the BJP when it announced Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate, Kumar had allied with the RJD and the Congress to contest the Assembly elections in 2015 and formed the mahagathbandhan government in the State. But two years later, in 2017, citing corruption charges against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav who was his deputy in the Cabinet at the time, Kumar joined hands with the BJP once again. “He is palturam [Mr. turnaround] who does palti [turns] for lust of power and chief minister’s chair”, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had said at that time. Interestingly, it was Mr. Prasad, who is currently recuperating from his ill-health in Delhi, approved the proposal of alliance of his party again on Tuesday with Kumar. “I thank our party chief Lalu Prasad ji for approving a proposal for this alliance in the interest of Bihar and the country”, Mr. Tejashwi Yadav said. Earlier in the day, all JD(U) MLAs, MPs, leaders had a meeting with Kumar at the Chief Minister’s official residence no 1, Anne Marg in which a decision was taken to snap ties with the BJP. Later Kumar went to the Raj Bhawan to submit his resignation. At the same time, a meeting of RJD MLAs and leaders was held at party leader Rabri Devi’s official residence 10, Circular Road. Later, the other mahagathbandhan allies such as the Congress and the Left parties too joined them when from the Raj Bhawan Kumar headed there to meet them. Later Kumar was elected leader of the mahagathbandhan and together with the letter of support of 164 MLAs, leaders of the alliance parties met the Governor to stake claim to form the government. A large number of mahagathbandhan supporters had gathered outside the Raj Bhawan to witness the political development unfolding every hour. BJP leader and Union Minister Ashwini Choubey accused Kumar of being “opportunistic” and said those “betraying” Bihar want to create obstacles in its development. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan slammed Kumar for insulting the people’s mandate for the second time and demanded the imposition of President’s Rule in the state followed by fresh elections. He also came out in support of the BJP amid the political turmoil in Bihar and said the saffron party had accepted everything that Kumar wanted as chief minister and even compromised on its own policies. U.P. politician and ‘BJP leader’ Shrikant Tyagi, accused of abusing woman neighbour, arrested from Meerut Four days after he allegedly assaulted and abused a fellow female resident of a Noida society, local politician [Shrikant Tyagi was nabbed by the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police]( on August 9. “Tyagi was arrested from Meerut where he was hiding at a close friend’s house. Tyagi and three others have been arrested from Meerut. They are being brought to Noida by our team,” Alok Singh Commissioner of Noida Police confirmed. The arrest has come after Noida police detained Tyagi’s wife for the second time in 48 hours. A GST team also reached the shops run by Tyagi in the Bhangel market of Noida. Tyagi absconded after the Friday incident where he could be seen heckling a female resident of Omaxe Grande society for questioning him over allegedly encroaching the common area by planting palm trees. In a video he could be heard saying, “If you touch my plants, I will touch you.” On August 8, a bulldozer of the Noida Authority brought down the illegal structure amid cheers. Tyagi described himself as a member of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on social media but the ruling party distanced itself from him. On Tuesday, a photo of Tyagi with former BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya surfaced on social media. Maurya had switched to the Samajwadi Party before the Assembly polls. BJP MLA Atul Garg commented that Maurya brought Tyagi to the BJP as part of his “dowry” when he shifted from Bahujan Samaj Party to the BJP. Maurya claimed he had never met Tyagi alone and that it was a courtesy meet. Eknath Shinde expands Cabinet The much-awaited [expansion of the Maharashtra Cabinet of the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde took place]( on Tuesday in Mumbai with 18 legislators taking oath as ministers. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to 18 legislators as ministers. The allocation of portfolios is yet to be announced. The new Cabinet, which is being formed 40 days after Shinde and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, has nine ministers each from the BJP and the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena. From the BJP, ​Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Vijaykumar Gavit, Mangal Prabhat Lodh, Atul Save, Ravindra Chavan, and Suresh Khade were sworn in as ministers at the ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan. Shiv Sena’s Shinde faction inducted Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Tanaji Sawant, Uday Samant, Abdul Sattar, Shambhuraj Desai, Sanjay Rathod, and Sandipan Bhumre into the Cabinet. The State administration, earlier on Monday, issued a notice announcing that the long-delayed monsoon session of the State legislature would also begin on Wednesday and continue till August 18. BJP State vice president Chitra Wagh protested the induction of Sena leader Sanjay Rathod into the Cabinet. “​It is very unfortunate that former minister Sanjay Rathod, who caused the death of Pooja Chavan, has been given the post of minister again. I will continue my fight against Rathod even though he has become a minister again,” said Wagh. Rathod had been forced to resign as State Forest Minister in the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in 2021 after he came under mounting pressure from the BJP for his alleged connection with the death of Pooja Chavan, a 23-year-old woman from the nomadic banjara community in Pune. Responding to criticism, CM Shinde said Rathod had been given a clean chit by the police during the previous government. “Sanjay Rathod had been given a clean chit by the police in the erstwhile MVA government. Hence, he was inducted in the present cabinet. If someone else has anything to say over and above this, we will definitely hear them out,” the Chief Minister said. Ever since Shinde and Fadnavis took power on June 30 after the former led a rebellion to topple the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government of former CM Uddhav Thackeray, the expansion of the State Cabinet had been pending, drawing criticism from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and other Opposition parties, including the NCP. The Opposition has been censuring Shinde and Fadnavis for running a ‘two-man jumbo Cabinet’ of their own. Of the 18 Ministers sworn in at the Raj Bhavan ceremony, only one has become a Minister for the first time. There is no woman in the list. Excise policy row | Former Delhi LG says charges against him ‘blatant lies, falsehoods’, slams Sisodia Former Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal [rejected as “baseless and motivated” charges levelled against him by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia]( in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of Excise Policy 2021-22. In a hard-hitting statement, Baijal said Sisodia’s charges against him were an attempt by a “desperate man to save his own skin”. Sisodia, who also holds the Excise portfolio in the Kejriwal government, had on last Saturday accused Baijal, who was then LG, of changing his stand on the excise policy and blocking liquor vends in non-conforming areas of Delhi by putting a condition. He had also said Baijal’s decision “benefitted” some licensees while causing “loss” of thousands of crores of rupees to the Delhi government. “Mr. Sisodia is trying to find some alibi for his and his colleague’s acts of commission and omissions. The charges are nothing but blatant lies and falsehoods being perpetrated by a desperate man to save his own skin.” The former LG said in his statement he had flagged on several occasions “unlawful decisions” taken by the AAP government that had to be amended on files. “In the matter of not allowing liquor vends in non-conforming areas, I had discharged by constitutional responsibility of upholding the law of the land,” he said. No law in Delhi even today allows for opening of liquor vends in non-conforming areas, he said. The records will speak for themselves, Baijal said, dismissing claims of by the Delhi government and its excise minister. He said the truth will come out after investigation. Current LG VK Saxena has already recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Excise Policy 2021-22 and approved suspension of several Excise officials. The Delhi government has already rolled back the policy. Chennai Chess Olympiad: India ‘B’ team wins bronze in Open section; India ‘A’ women also finish third The [India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal]( in the Open section while the India ‘A’ women’s side also finished third in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Tuesday. India ‘B’ defeated Germany 3-1 in their final round match to end at third position. Uzbekistan sprung a surprise by bagging the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands ahead of a strong Armenian team, which beat Spain 2.5-1.5 in the final round, in the Open section. The top-seeded India ‘A’ women’s team crashed to a 1-3 defeat in the 11th and final round to USA to see it’s gold medal hopes evaporate. The Koneru Humpy-led team finished third. War-torn Ukraine won an emotional gold in the women’s event, pipping Georgia to the top prize. Uzbekistan beat the Netherlands in the final round thanks to Jakhongir Vakhidov’s win on board 4. They edged out Armenia on the basis of a better tie-break score. The Uzbeks remained unbeaten through the 11 rounds and finished with 19 match points. India ‘B’ ended up with 18 points for third place. It was the second bronze medal for India in the Olympiad, replicating its feat in the 2014 edition. The experienced B Adhiban, who was part of the team in 2014 added to his medal collection while it was the first for young stars D Gukesh, who was in spectacular form during the tournament, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani. In the women’s section, top player Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali drew their games against Gulrukhba Tokhirjonova and Irina Krush respectively. The defeats for Tania Sachdev at the hands of Carissa Yip and Bhakthi Kulkarni to Tatev Abrahamyan hurt the India ‘A’ team’s chances of a gold medal. [The closing ceremony of the 44th Chess Olympiad was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium in Chennai on August 9, 2022. Photo: Twitter/@chennaichess22] [A glittering ceremony]( attended by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, marked the conclusion of the world event. WhatsApp announces new privacy features, including leaving groups silently WhatsApp on Tuesday announced new privacy features, following which users of the instant messaging service will [now be able to leave groups silently]( as well as choose who can see when they are online. WhatsApp will also block taking screenshots for ‘view once’ messages. “New privacy features coming to WhatsApp: exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when you’re online, and prevent screenshots on view once messages. We’ll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Meta said. With the ‘Leave Groups Silently’ features, WhatsApp users will be able to exit a group privately without having to notify everyone. Now, instead of notifying the full group when leaving, only the admins will be notified. This feature will start rolling out to all users this month. “Seeing when friends or family are online helps users feel connected to one another, but everyone has had times when they wanted to check their WhatsApp privately. For the times you want to keep your online presence private, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online,” WhatsApp said in a statement, adding that this feature will start rolling out to all users this month. Additionally, the instant messaging application will now block taking screenshots for ‘View Once Messages’. It noted that ‘View Once’ is already an incredibly popular way to share photos or media that don’t need to have a permanent digital record. “Now WhatsApp is enabling screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. This feature is being tested and will be rolled out to users soon,” it said. The company added that the introduction of these new features are backed by a new WhatsApp privacy study which found that 72% of people value being able to speak in an honest, unfiltered way, but more than 47% are only comfortable doing this in a safe, private space. “For the times when you need more privacy, 51% prefer to stay hidden online to choose who they want to talk to. 91% of people who are aware of blocking features believe they are important. That is why WhatsApp is introducing new layers of protection that enable users to speak freely and have private conversations,” it said. Trump says FBI agents raided his Florida home Former President [Donald Trump said his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was raided by FBI agents]( on Monday, August 8, 2022, which came amid a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Trump’s removal of official presidential records to the Palm Beach estate. The Justice Department declined to comment on the raid, which Trump in a statement said involved a “large group of FBI agents.” The FBI’s field office in Miami did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump said the estate “is currently under siege, raided, and occupied.” He did not say why the raid took place. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump added. CNN reported that Trump was not at the estate at the time of the raid, and that the FBI had executed a search warrant to enter the premises. Trump, who has made his club in Palm Beach his home since leaving the White House in January 2021, has generally spent summers at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, because Mar-a-Lago typically closes in May for the summer. The Justice Department launched an early-stage investigation into Trump’s removal of records to the Florida estate, a source familiar with the matter said in April. The investigation comes after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in February notified Congress that it had recovered about 15 boxes of White House documents from Trump’s Florida home, some of which contained classified materials. The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee at that time announced it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the Archives to turn over additional information. Trump previously confirmed that he had agreed to return certain records to the Archives, calling it “an ordinary and routine process”. In Brief Serena Williams has said that she is “evolving away from tennis” as [she hinted at retiring from the sport]( dominated for much of her career with 23 singles Grand Slam titles. The 40-year-old won her last Grand Slam crown in 2017 and has been chasing an elusive 24th crown that will draw her level with Margaret Court who holds the record for most majors. “I have never liked the word retirement,” Williams wrote in a Vogue article. “A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.” Williams later talked in an Instagram post about the time to move in a “different direction”. 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