David Sam

[Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו @netanyahu]

נפגש כעת בבית הלבן עם ידידי, נשיא ארה״ב דונלד טראמפ 🇮🇱🇺🇸

[Mahesh Jethmalani @JethmalaniM]

It’s all about the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) bill. Too many foreign countries and their nefarious designs in India will come to a screeching halt.

[Ambassador Mike Huckabee @GovMikeHuckabee]

Would be easy to say NY Mayor is just an ignorant bigot, but he is not dumb. He's an evil anti-Semite who deliberately lies about serious things like "genocide" to stoke Jew hate. If anyone should be arrested, it's the Mayor of NY for incitement. NYC should be ashamed.

[Mohandas Pai @TVMohandasPai]

PM @narendramodi Sir This is a major source of grievance by students. A GC with 90%+ does not get a seat but some others in categories with very low marks get in! This is very wrong a 10% lower marks is ok but not so low. This is creating huge anger amongst students who work very hard for years to qualify. Needs a solution.

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

Benjamin Netanyahu: “Sometimes war is necessary to stop those who would destroy us. Freedom is precious and it must be protected.”

He's 100% correct.

[Mossad Commentary @MOSSADil]

❤️🇮🇱 ISRAELI NEWS ANCHOR RECITES KADDISH FOR LINDSEY GRAHAM

Channel 14’s Patriots anchor Yinon Magal recited the Mourner’s Kaddish live on-air in memory of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, honoring the longtime U.S. senator during the broadcast. 🕯️

@c14english
@YinonMagal

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

I am deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, a steadfast friend of the Iranian people and a proud defender of freedom.

At moments when moral clarity was required, Senator Graham stood on the right side. When friends were seldom found, he stood alongside the people of Iran in their struggle against tyranny.

He used his voice to ensure that the voices of those fighting for justice were heard in the halls of power. His support for Iran’s Lion and Sun Revolution earned him the title “Uncle Lindsey” among Iranians. He will be remembered with profound gratitude and deep respect.

We extend our deepest condolences to Senator Graham’s family, loved ones, colleagues, and the people of South Carolina and the United States.

May he rest in peace and may others carry on the fight for freedom.

[Ted Cruz @tedcruz]

Lindsey Graham devoted every waking moment of his life to fighting for this country. He made a profound difference, and he will be deeply missed. | @SeanHannity

[Amjad Taha أمجد طه @amjadt25]

BREAKING: The U.S. has just carried out beautiful, fabulous strikes, triggering multiple explosions at the Islamic regime’s military base in Konarak, Iran, a site used to launch drones against civilians. Konarak is located in southeastern Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province, on the Gulf of Oman, west of Chabahar.

[Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent]

As a South Carolina native, I can think of no more fitting tribute to Lindsey Graham's legacy of service to our state and our nation than seeing his beloved sister carry it forward.

Darline has always been at her brother’s side and I know she will be an outstanding interim Senator. The U.S. Treasury will do everything possible to support her and her staff as they work on the President’s agenda and continue to provide strong constituent services for the great people of South Carolina.

[K S Chithra @KSChithra]

I am back from mysore after attending the last rites of my Amma. Tough to believe that she is not with me anymore. I will miss her frequent calls too. Let her soul rest in peace 🙏🙏💐
#KSChithra #SJanaki

[Amjad Taha أمجد طه @amjadt25]

The UAE reserves its full right to respond decisively. Two cruise missiles from the Islamic regime in Iran targeted the UAE tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah, killing one Indian crew member and injuring eight others, including six Indians and two Ukrainians, four of whom were seriously wounded. A blatant attack. A red line crossed. The UAE is at the highest level of readiness.

BTW, last night the Islamic regime lost dozens of IRGC members and several bases to mysterious drones and unidentified strikes.

No idea who did it. Terrible mystery. Anyway, God bless the unknown.

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

As we mourn Senator Graham, I can think of few more fitting tributes to him than winning in Iran.

Lindsey's life's work was keeping America strong and defeating the bad guys. Let's make him proud.

[Malay Krishna @Malay4Product]

S. Janaki Ji refused the Padma Bhushan in 2013 and said she deserved the Bharat Ratna instead. A lot of people found that arrogant at the time.

Most of North India does not know her name. Almost all of India has heard her voice. If you have ever heard an old South Indian film song playing in a shop, a bus, a wedding, it was probably her.

So let me tell you who she was.

Her full name was Sistla Sreeramamurthy Janaki. Born 23 April 1938 in Pallapatla, a village in Guntur district.

Her father was an Ayurvedic doctor and a teacher. She spent most of her childhood in Sircilla. She sang on a stage for the first time at the age of nine.

In her twenties, an uncle told her to go to Chennai and try working with a composer named R. Sudarsanam at AVM Studios. She went.

She got her first film song in 1957. A Tamil film called Vidhiyin Vilayattu. She was 19.

In that very first year, she recorded songs in six different languages.

Six. In year one.

Across her career she recorded around 48,000 songs. In roughly 20 languages. Kannada the most, then Malayalam, then Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Odia, Tulu, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Konkani, Sanskrit.

She also sang in English, Japanese, German and Sinhala.

Yes, 48,000.

Her career ran about 60 years. That works out to more than two songs a day, every day, for six decades.

Including the days she was sick, travelling, grieving, tired.

While her mother tongue was Telugu, but she could speak and write Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Malayalis claim her as theirs. Kannadigas claim her as theirs. Tamils claim her as theirs.

All of them are correct. :)

They called her the queen of expression and modulation. Meaning she could change how a song felt with tiny things.

A slight break in a word. A softer breath. She could sound like a village girl in one song and a heartbroken woman in the next and a child in the one after that.

That is why composers fought to book her.

Infact, Ilaiyaraaja Ji had heard her voice while assisting the composer G. K. Venkatesh. When he got his own first film, Annakkili in 1976, he asked her to sing three songs. All three became huge.

That started something. For the next two decades, Ilaiyaraaja and Janaki produced hit after hit. He knew exactly what her voice could do and kept stretching it.

She became the first choice for anything with a village setting, anything that needed rawness.

Ilaiyaraaja sang around 200 duets with her himself.

Three of her four National Awards came from his compositions.

And eventually she became the only singer to have won state awards under all three of the giants. M. S. Viswanathan. Ilaiyaraaja. A. R. Rahman.

Imagine, three generations of music.

Three completely different styles.

She worked across all of them and was excellent in all of them. A 40 year span of staying relevant while the entire sound of Indian cinema changed twice.

Her first National Award came in 1981 for a Malayalam song, Ettumanoorambalathil, from a film called Oppol.

She won four National Awards in all, and 33 State Film Awards. Thirty three.

She also had a Hindi chapter that almost nobody remembers. Bappi Lahiri heard her singing a Hindi song for a Tamil film at Prasad Studio and was floored.

He brought her to Bombay. She ended up singing duets with Kishore Kumar.

Now, her personal life was much harder than the discography.

She married V. Ramprasad in 1959. He backed her career fully and used to travel with her to recordings. He died in 1997 of a cardiac arrest.

Her son Murali Krishna died this January, just six months ago.

She is survived by her granddaughter, Apsara Vydyula, who announced her death on Instagram.

She wrote that to the world Janaki was an iconic voice, and to them she was a grandmother whose warmth and humility they will carry forever.

She ended her singing career in 2017 with a concert in Mysuru. The last song she chose was a Malayalam lullaby, Amma Poovinum.

She picked a lullaby to close out 48,000 songs. :)

Now back to the Padma Bhushan.

In 2013 the government offered it to her. It is India's third highest civilian honour. She said no.

She said it had come far too late. And she said if the country actually wanted to recognise her work, it should have been the Bharat Ratna.

At the time, plenty of people called that ego.

But look at what she was sitting on when she said it. 48,000 songs. Twenty languages. Four Nationals. Thirty three state awards. Six decades. Work with every major composer across three generations. A voice that raised entire regions.

Lata Ji got the Bharat Ratna in 2001. Bhimsen Joshi got it in 2008. M. S. Subbulakshmi got it in 1998.

Janaki was 75 when they offered her the third best one.

She had every right to feel that the country had taken her for granted. And she said so out loud, without an agent or a PR team softening it.

But honestly, what bothers me is that she is being introduced to half the country today, in a condolence tweet, at 88, after she is gone.

She was not obscure. She was not niche. Her voice was in millions of homes for sixty years. She was just South Indian in a country where national fame is still mostly decided in Hindi.

If you have never heard her, do not scroll past this.

Go put on Thumbi Vaa Thumbakudathil. Or Vasantha Panchami Naalil. Or Singara Velane Deva. You do not need to understand the words. You will understand the voice in about ten seconds.

That is the whole point of her. She never needed you to know the language.

[Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms]

Iran blew up the ceasefire.

All of Vance’s fans warned that it would be Israel.

But it was Iran.

Total failure to understand the region.

[Mosab Hassan Yousef @MosabHasanYOSEF]

Palestinians who deliberately put their own children in harm’s way for political sympathy have no right to demand either a state or compassion.

[Karoline Leavitt @PressSec]

America has lost a Statesman.

President Trump and the White House have lost a friend.

Rest in Peace, Senator Graham.

[Michael C @Michaeach3]

Geert Wilders dropped truth bombs:

"Israel is a beacon of light in a sea of Islamic darkness."

"If Islam conquers Israel, we will be next."

There is no clash of civilizations.

There is a clash between our civilization and Islamist barbarism.

Islamists have shown through their actions - from October 7 to daily terror worldwide - that they reject coexistence and seek domination.

The West needs to stop lying to itself and start treating the threat seriously.

[Mossad Commentary @MOSSADil]

SHARE IF YOU AGREE
With the passing of Lindsey Graham, Israel should honor one of its greatest friends properly.

A street, park, or public institution should bear his name—a permanent tribute to a man who stood with Israel and the Jewish people when it mattered most.

His friendship must not be forgotten.
@IsraeliPM @netanyahu @IsraelPresident @Isaac_Herzog @IsraelMFA @gidonsaar @MosheLion

[Amjad Taha أمجد طه @amjadt25]

The Islamic regime in Iran has launched terrorist attacks against civilians and civilian sites in Bahrain and Oman. NATO and the EU must stop hiding behind statements and confront this evil before it spreads further. As for the UK, there is little hope from a government that appears closer to Tehran than to its own people.