Trump questions credibility of India's COVID numbers to defend his handling of pandemic
Washington: US President Donald Trump has raised questions over the credibility of India's COVID-19 tally, claiming that it was among the countries that do not accurately disclose the number of deaths due to the pandemic.
The remarks by Trump came during his first presidential debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who attacked the US president over the handling of the coronavirus crisis and said the president lied to Americans on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 people and infected over seven million others in the country.
Defending his handling of the crisis, Trump said that "millions" could have died in America without his actions.
"When you talk about due the numbers, you don't know how many people died in China. You don't know how many people died in Russia. You don't know how many people died in India. They don't exactly give you a right number. Just so you understand," Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly blamed China, where the coronavirus first emerged in December last year and spread around the world, killing over one million and infecting more than 30 million people.
Attacking Trump over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden said the president has "no plan" to fight the deadly disease and he lied to Americans.
"He still hasn't even acknowledged that he knew this was happening, knew how dangerous it was going to be back in February, and he didn't even tell you. He is on record as saying it. He panicked or he just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what, a lot of people die and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker," he said.
Trump hit back, saying, "don't ever use the word smart with me."
During the first of the three presidential debates in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday night which was marked by angry interruptions and bitter accusations, the two candidates fiercely clashed over a number of issues, including racism, economy and climate.
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Air India flight from Mumbai makes 'priority' landing in Bhopal after snag; return leg cancelled
Bhopal (PTI): A Bhopal-bound Air India flight from Mumbai carrying 175 persons on board made a “priority” landing here on Sunday due to a snag, an airport official said.
The aircraft landed safely at Bhopal airport at 3.20 pm, he said.
Consequently, the return leg of the flight from Bhopal to Mumbai, with 178 passengers booked, was cancelled, the official said.
AAI-run Bhopal airport said in a statement that Air India flight AI 633 “reported a technical issue to Air Traffic Control (ATC) during the flight from Mumbai to Bhopal”.
Immediately, all prescribed safety protocols were activated, and seamless coordination was ensured between ATC, airline ground operations, CISF and airpiort fire and rescue team of Bhopal airport, it said in a statement.
The flight, carrying 175 persons, including 166 passengers and nine crew members, landed safely at Bhopal airport at 3.20 pm, the airport operator said.
All necessary assistance and support were extended by the airport and airline teams as per the requirements of the flight crew, it said.
“Due to the technical issue, the aircraft was declared unserviceable, and as a precautionary measure, the return flight AI-634 (Bhopal to Mumbai) was cancelled by the airline to facilitate detailed inspection and rectification,” the statement said.
