Udupi: Banking services hit as employees go on strike
Mangaluru/Udupi, Oct 22: Banking services in Dakshina Kannada district were hit as a majority of employees went on strike on Tuesday as part of the nationwide stir called by various employees unions to protest mergers of banks.
Most of the employees in banks abstained from work causing difficulty to customers who were caught unaware by the one-day strike by employees.
A protest was held by All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) in neighbouring Udupi district against the Union governments move at Corporation Bank zonal office in Udupi.
Addressing protesters, Syndicate Bank employees union state joint secretary Premanath Poojary claimed around 50,000 employees have lost jobs since the merger of SBI with its satellite banks and 6,950 SBI banks were closed.
The Centre should rethink on their decision and take steps to recover corporate loans to tide over economic crisis, he said.
The protests against bank mergers began on September 26 in Udupi and later in Mangaluru on October 18, where employees, central trade unions and members of the public had taken part.
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Epstein files vanish from US Justice Department website hours after release
Washington: Several documents linked to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein disappeared from the US Justice Department’s public website within a day of being uploaded, triggering political reactions and renewed demands for transparency.
At least 16 files that appeared online on Friday were no longer accessible by Saturday. Among the missing material was an image that included a photograph showing US President Donald Trump with Epstein, Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell. The image was part of a larger photograph depicting framed pictures placed on furniture and inside drawers, alongside images of artwork featuring nude women.
The Justice Department has not clarified whether the files were removed intentionally or due to an error. No official explanation has been issued and a department spokesperson did not respond to media queries.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee drew attention to the missing Trump image in a post on X. They asked what else might have been removed and called for public accountability.
According to an India Today report, the document release, which ran into thousands of pages, included references to several prominent individuals, including former US President Bill Clinton. Notably, Trump’s name appeared rarely in the written records, despite earlier disclosures that had linked him to Epstein socially. Trump has denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes and has not been accused of wrongdoing.
His absence from much of the newly released material stood out, particularly because his name appeared in Epstein’s private jet flight logs made public by the Justice Department earlier this year.
Several documents which were expected by survivors and lawmakers did not feature in the release. These included FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department records explaining why Epstein was not federally prosecuted in the mid-2000s, when he instead secured a plea deal on lesser state charges.
Other figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, were also mentioned sparingly, leading to further questions about the scope of scrutiny applied.
The released files did include some new elements, such as a 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children and documents outlining how federal prosecutors retreated from pursuing sex trafficking charges. However, much of the material consisted of photographs of Epstein’s properties in New York and the US Virgin Islands, along with scattered images involving celebrities and political figures.
Many of the documents were heavily redacted or provided little context. One file labelled “Grand Jury-NY,” running 119 pages, was entirely blacked out. Prosecutors have acknowledged that millions of pages of records exist from investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, far more than what has been made public so far.
