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Jul 17: US President Donald Trump has said that he wants to do everything possible to keep peace for the people of India and China, according to his spokesperson

Over the past several weeks, the Trump administration has come out in support of India against China.

“He (Trump) said I love the people of India and I love the people of China and I want to do everything possible to keep the peace for the people,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at a news conference here on Thursday.

She was responding to a question on Trump’s message to India, which recently had a standoff with China in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control.

Earlier in the day, White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow described India as a great ally, saying President Trump is a great friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that India has been a great partner of the US.

“India has been a great partner… They are an important partner of ours. I have a great relationship with my foreign minister counterpart. We talked frequently about a broad range of issues. We talked about the conflict they had along the border with China. We've talked about the risk that emanates from the Chinese telecommunication infrastructure there,” Pompeo told reporters in response to a question.

Travelling in Europe, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters that China has been very aggressive with India.

O’Brien said that India is a democracy and is a great friend of the United States. Prime Minister “Modi and President Trump have a super relationship,” he said.

“In fact, it was the last foreign trip that I took with the president before the COVID-19 crisis hit, was to India, and we had a great reception of the Indian people there. We have a lot in common with them, we speak English, we're democracies. We've got a growing, very strong relationship with India,” O’Brien said.

Welcoming the White House statement, Al Mason, co-chair of the Trump Victory Indian American Finance Committee, said that unlike his predecessor, President Trump has come out openly in support of India.

“Most of the Indian-Americans have observed that every earlier president - be it a Democrat or Republican, like Clinton or Bush Senior or Bush Jr or Obama have been very scared to side with India openly, for fear of hurting China.

“Only President Trump has had the courage to say that… I love India, America respects India… US stands with India - and that also, to over one billion Indians in India at the Namaste Trump rally held in India… and that too… near India’s neighbour China,” Mason said in a statement.

“And he is consistent in his love for India and Indian-Americans,” he added.

Washington, Jun 13: America's first-ever Hindu lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard has said that in this chaotic time, one can find certainty, strength, and peace in Bhagavad Gita.

In her message during a virtual commencement address, the 39-year-old Congresswoman from Hawaii said that it is a chaotic time and no one can say with certainty what tomorrow looks like.

"... but we find certainty, strength, and peace in the practice of Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga taught to us by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita," Tulsi Gabbard told the 'Class of 2020 for Hindu students''.

Her address came amidst protests in the US against the killing of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

The country has been swept by protests since George Floyd's custodial death on May 25 with thousands of people mounting pressure for changes to the law enforcement practices.

The first-ever virtual Hindu commencement was organised by the Hindu Students Council on June 7, which drew thousands of viewers on Facebook and YouTube Live, all coming together in solidarity during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the contagion has infected over 76,00,000 people and killed more than 4,25,000 across the world. The US is the worst affected country with over 2.04 million cases and more than 1,14,000 deaths.

The COVID-19, which originated in China''s Wuhan city in December last year, has also battered the world economy with the International Monetary Fund saying that the global economy is bound to suffer a "severe recession".

Scientists are racing against time to find a vaccine or medicine for its treatment.

Hundreds of graduates from the US, Canada, the UK, India and Australia attended to commemorate their graduation in a unique way - by celebrating their shared Hindu values.

Professor Subhash Kak served as the ceremony's Grand Marshall.

"As you think about this new chapter in your lives, ask yourself what is my purpose in life? It is a deep question that if you can recognise now that your purpose is to serve God and God''s children, practicing Karma Yoga, then you can lead a truly successful life," Tulsi Gabbard said.

"Success is not defined by temporary material things, trinkets, glittery objects or accomplishments - but a deeply successful and happy life centered around service," she added.

The Iraq war veteran ended her presidential campaign in March and offered her full support to former vice president Joe Biden, 77, who is all set to challenge Republican incumbent Donald Trump, 73, in November elections.

The commencement address focused heavily on themes from the Bhagavad Gita, a timeless historical text that many Hindus consider their moral framework.

Professor Kak, Regent Professor at Oklahoma State University and 2019 Padma Shri recipient, read out the names of the graduating students.

"I exhort you - the graduating students - to be the leaders of the new world where education is less of the mind of a vessel to be filled with information (usually forgotten after the semester is over), and more of a flame that is lit as envisioned by our Vedic sages," he said.

The student speakers were from many university campuses, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, and Stanford.

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The programme included offerings of Hindu prayers, recitation of a traditional graduation message from the Upanishads, and a symbolic conferral of degrees to high school and college graduate.

Founded in 1990, Hindu Students Council is North America''s largest pan-Hindu youth organisation. 

Karachi, May 25: The pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)'s crashed plane ignored three warnings from the air traffic controllers about the aircraft's altitude and speed before the landing, saying he was satisfied and would handle the situation, according to a report on Monday.

The national flag carrier's PK-8303 tragedy on Friday, in which 97 people were killed and two miraculously survived, is one of the most catastrophic aviation disasters in the country's history.

The Airbus A-320 from Lahore to Karachi was 15 nautical miles from the Jinnah International Airport, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground instead of 7,000 when the Air Traffic Control (ATC) issued its first warning to lower the plane's altitude, Geo News quoted an ATC report as saying.

Instead of lowering the altitude, the pilot responded by saying that he was satisfied. When only 10 nautical miles were left till the airport, the plane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet instead of 3,000 feet, it said.

The ATC issued a second warning to the pilot to lower the plane's altitude. However, the pilot responded again by stating that he was satisfied and would handle the situation, saying he was ready for landing, the report said.

The report said that the plane had enough fuel to fly for two hours and 34 minutes, while its total flying time was recorded at one hour and 33 minutes.

Pakistani investigators are trying to find out if the crash is attributable to a pilot error or a technical glitch.

According to a report prepared by the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the plane's engines had scraped the runway thrice on the pilot's first attempt to land, causing friction and sparks recorded by the experts.

When the aircraft scraped the ground on the first failed attempt at landing, the engine's oil tank and fuel pump may have been damaged and started to leak, preventing the pilot from achieving the required thrust and speed to raise the aircraft to safety, the report said.

The pilot made a decision "on his own" to undertake a "go-around" after he failed to land the first time. It was only during the go-around that the ATC was informed that landing gear was not deploying, it said.

"The pilot was directed by the air traffic controller to take the aircraft to 3,000 feet, but he managed only 1,800. When the cockpit was reminded to go for the 3,000 feet level, the first officer said 'we are trying'," the report said.

Experts said that the failure to achieve the directed height indicates that the engines were not responding. The aircraft, thereafter, tilted and crashed suddenly.

The flight crashed at the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir on Friday afternoon, minutes before its landing in Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. Eleven people on the ground were injured.

The probe team, headed by Air Commodore Muhammad Usman Ghani, President of the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board, is expected to submit a full report in about three months.

According to the PIA's engineering and maintenance department, the last check of the plane was done on March 21 this year and it had flown from Muscat to Lahore a day before the crash.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pakistan government had allowed the limited domestic flight operations from five major airports - Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta - from May 16.

After the plane tragedy, the PIA has called off its domestic operation.