Four Indians killed in multi-vehicle crash in US; they had connected through carpooling app
Texas: Four Indians, who were carpooling and heading to Bentonville, tragically lost their lives when their SUV burst into flames after a multi-vehicle collision in United States’ Texas. The accident occurred on August 30, 2024, when a speeding truck rammed into their SUV. The bodies of the victims were charred.
The victims have been identified as Aryan Raghunath Orampati and Farooq Shaik from Hyderabad, Lokesh Palacharla of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, and Darshini Vasudevan from Tamil Nadu.
Mastan Vali, Farooq Shaik’s father, said that his son had been living in the US for three years and had recently completed his M.S. course, as reported by NDTV. He added that his daughter lives there and is handling the situation.
Aryan’s family had recently attended his convocation at the University of Texas in Dallas. Despite their wishes for him to return home soon, Aryan intended to work in the US for a while longer. He and Farooq were on their way to Bentonville after visiting a cousin in Dallas. Lokesh was heading to Bentonville to see his wife, and Darshini was travelling to visit her uncle while pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Texas.
The families are awaiting confirmation from US authorities, who are conducting DNA fingerprinting and examining dental and bone remains to identify the victims. “DNA fingerprinting will be done to identify the bodies, and the samples will be matched with the parents,” a local authority stated.
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Judge issues temporary injunction against Trump administration cancellation of humanities grants
Washington (AP): A district court judge in New York issued a preliminary injunction Friday night stopping the mass cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants to members of the Authors Guild on the grounds that their First Amendment rights were violated.
Judge Colleen McMahon of the US District Court in the Southern District of New York stayed the mass cancellations of grants previously awarded to guild members and ordered that any funds associated with the grants not be reobligated until a trial on the merits of the case is held.
In reaching her decision, the judge said the “defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients' perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas. This is most evident by the citation in the Termination Notices to executive orders purporting to combat Radical Indoctrination' and Radical … DEI Programs,' and to further Biological Truth.'”
One of the grants was to a professor writing a book on the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and 1980s. On a spreadsheet entitled “Copy of NEH Active Grants,” the government flagged the work as being connected to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, McMahon wrote.
The judge said several other history projects on the spreadsheet were also canceled in part because of their connection to DEI-related subjects.
“Far be it from this Court to deny the right of the Administration to focus NEH priorities on American history and exceptionalism as the year of our semiquincentennial approaches,” McMahon said. “Such refocusing is ordinarily a matter of agency discretion. But agency discretion does not include discretion to violate the First Amendment. Nor does not give the Government the right to edit history.“
McMahon said some of the grantees lost grants simply because they had received them during the Biden administration.
The Guild filed a class action lawsuit in May against the NEH and the Department of Government Efficiency for terminating grants that had already been appropriated by Congress.
The humanities groups' lawsuit said DOGE brought the core work of the humanities councils “to a screeching halt” this spring when it terminated its grant program.
The lawsuit was among several filed by humanities groups and historical, research and library associations to try to stop funding cuts and the dissolution of federal agencies and organizations.
McMahon noted her injunction is narrowly tailored “to maintain the status quo until we can decide whether Plaintiffs are entitled to ultimate relief. It does nothing more.”
The judge denied a temporary injunction request from the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as several of their claims in the lawsuit. Their case included the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association.
