Morning Brief: Tourist Injured In Stone-Pelting Dies; Five-Judge Bench To Hear Congress’ CJI Removal Plea; Walmart May Announce Flipkart Deal This Week

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

Tourist Injured In Stone-Pelting Attack Dies In Kashmir

A 22-year-old tourist from Chennai, who was critically injured after his vehicle came under attack from stone-pelters in the Kashmir Valley, passed away on Monday. Identified as Thirumani, the tourist was hit in his head and was taken to Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar for treatment. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met the deceased's family late on Monday. This attack was the latest in a serious of stone-pelting incidents in which tourists were targeted by violent mobs. Seven tourists were injured in Anantnag district on 30 April after they were attacked by stone-pelters. On 2 May, a Class II student was seriously injured by stone-pelters who targeted his school bus in Shopian district.

Five-Judge Bench To Hear Congress’ CJI Removal Plea

The petition filed by two Congress leaders challenging the rejection of removal motion against the Chief Justice of India by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has been listed on Tuesday before a constitution bench comprising Justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and A K Goel. The bench has judges from number six to ten in the apex court’s seniority list. The senior judges, who had held a controversial press conference on 12 January, have been kept out of the matter. The petition was moved on Monday and a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S K Kaul had asked the Congress leaders to “come back tomorrow”. Naidu had on 24 April rejected the motion submitted to him by the Congress on 20 April.

Walmart May Announce Flipkart Deal This Week

The much-anticipated deal between Walmart and Flipkart, in which the former will buy up to 75 per cent stake in the latter along with Google parent Alphabet, is likely to be announced by the end of this week, Reuters reports. While Alphabet is likely to acquire 15 per cent stake for around $3 billion, Walmart may buy up to 60 per cent state for $10-12 billion. SoftBank Group, Flipkart’s largest investor, is expected to completely exit. It had invested close to $2.5 billion last year. Other major Flipkart investors - Tiger Global and Accel - will sell a majority of their stakes. One of the founders, Sachin Bansal, is also likely to exit after the deal is sealed.

Sonia Gandhi To Address First Election Rally In Two Years

Sonia Gandhi will address an election rally in Karnataka today, making a comeback nearly two years after she abandoned her campaign midway in Varanasi citing poor health. According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also likely to address a large rally in the same district on the same day. This development comes just days after Modi asked why the Congress’ top leaders were out on bail. It is unclear if the United Progressive Alliance Chairperson will address more rallies. She had not campaigned for the Congress in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland assembly elections.

Dust Storm Hits Delhi-NCR

A week after a high-intensity dust storm left at least 124 people dead in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, parts of Delhi- NCR, western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were hit by another storm. However, the thunderstorm was not as devastating as the one that was witnessed last week. Schools were closed for two days in Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh after the Indian Meteorological Department asked northern and eastern states to prepare for extreme weather. The Meteorological Department had warned of “thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds' in Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh during next 48 hours."

SP-BSP Alliance On For 2019 Lok Sabha Polls: Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati has said that her party’s alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) is on and an announcement will be made when the seat-sharing arrangement between the two is finalised. The combined vote-share of the two parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was 41.8 per cent. The vote-share of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Apna Dal alliance was 43.3 per cent. Vote-share of the Congress, which may also become part of the SP-BSP alliance, was 7.5 per cent. The former Chief Minister’s statement on the alliance comes ahead of the 28 May bypolls in Kairana and Noorpur, where the alliance will be put to test.

Trump-Kim Summit Likely In Singapore Next Month

US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un are likely to meet in Singapore next month. The two sides have settled on a date and location for the summit, the first between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader. However, an official announcement has not been made. Two news outlets in South Korea had reported that Singapore was the favoured location for the summit. Reports also suggest that the two sides had discussed the possibility of holding the summit Mongolia and Switzerland. North Korea has offered to close its nuclear test site and has said that it is willing to discuss the denuclearisation.

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