New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with PTI, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the entire world is shaken by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and there are queues everywhere, whether for oxygen cyllinders, for life-saving medicines, for hospital beds and even outside crematoriums.

He accused the government of misreading and mishandling the situation and alleged that all early warning signs were ignored, including from scientists.

Here is the transcript of the interview:

By Zafri Mudasser Nofil

Former American ambassador to India Richard Celeste has come out with his memoir in which he shares many interesting facts including the sensational defection of Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana from India on a US visa.

Celeste, who served as ambassador from 1997 to 2001 when Bill Clinton was president, first came to India in the 1960s as an assistant to the then envoy here Chester Bowles.

by Thembisa Fakude

News emerged last night that Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) is to launch a new online channel called Rightly. This was confirmed by the network today. "Al Jazeera Media Network today announced the launch of Rightly, a new US-based digital platform that will generate content for audiences currently under-represented in today's media environment. Rightly will soft launch with its first show, 'Right Now with Stephen Kent', on 25 February."

By Joshua Goodman

Miami, Feb 22 (AP) It seemed like a match made in finance heaven. In 2010, China, its economy roaring and state companies looking to expand globally, set its eyes on Latin America, a region starved of capital but rich in natural resources the Asian giant lacked. The result: a record 35 billion in state-to-state loans that year.

Fast forward a decade and the once-torrid relationship is starting to mature in ways that suggest China may be growing wary of its once do-no-wrong partner.

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

Despite the long-awaited political change in Washington, with Democratic President Joe Biden now safely in the White House, Europe is unlikely to resume its previously unhindered reliance on its transatlantic partner.

The four years of Donald Trump's term in office were full of tension and difficulties between the US and Europe; indeed, between the US and its traditional allies, including Mexico and Canada. However, the strain in the US-EU relationship long preceded Trump's presidency.

by Ashraf Al-Ajrami

The Israeli government is preparing for a new phase in its relationship with America under the new US administration headed by Joe Biden. It will not be without disagreements and contradictions, unlike the past four years of Donald Trump's term in office, as he did everything he could to satisfy Israel's extreme right wing led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

In an interview with British newspaper The Times in 2015, former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vehemently denied that exporting democracy was the main motive for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic," he claimed.

By JERRY SCHWARTZ

In more than 220 years, the U.S. Capitol had seen nothing like it: a roiling mob, forcing its way past its majestic marble columns, disrupting the passage of power, desecrating the seat of the world’s greatest democracy.

But this was far from the first time the Capitol has been scarred by violence.

by IRNA

Efforts aimed at the revival of the container-carrying Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) train, which began during the recent decades by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey show the general outlook of China’s new Silk Road strategic ring-way.

The 10th meeting of high ranking Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul Railway Project workgroup, better known as the ECO Train was recently convened aimed at the urgent revival of this major regional economic plan.

by Xiong Maoling, Gao Pan

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- After plunging into the worst recession in decades amid COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, the U.S. economy has been recovering in recent months.

With alarming case spikes and a long-delayed fiscal relief package, however, the recovery momentum is slipping away. Overshadowed even more by a behind-schedule vaccine rollout, the country will only find an uncertain and challenging economic recovery ahead.

By JONATHAN LEMIRE, ZEKE MILLER and DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most improbable of presidents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominating the national discourse like no one before.

Trump, governing by whim and tweet, deepened the nation’s racial and cultural divides and undermined faith in its institutions. His legacy: a tumultuous four years that were marked by his impeachment, failures during the worst pandemic in a century and his refusal to accept defeat.

By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the coronavirus pandemic began bearing down on the United States in March, President Donald Trump set out his expectations.

If the U.S. could keep the death toll between 100,000 to 200,000 people, Trump said, it would indicate that his administration had “done a very good job.”