Shreyas Iyer spotted at the airport! But let’s talk about that outfit—how many marks does he get? We say 97…

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking broad changes to elections in the US, including mandating voters to show proof that they are American citizens, counting only mail or absentee ballots received by Election Day and prohibiting non-US citizens from being able to donate in certain elections.

Citing India and some other countries as examples, Trump said the US now fails to enforce “basic and necessary election protections” employed by modern, developed and developing nations.

“India and Brazil are tying voter identification to a biometric database, while the United States largely relies on self-attestation for citizenship,” he said.

“Germany and Canada require paper ballots when tabulating votes, while the United States has a patchwork of methods that often lack basic chain-of-custody protections,” he added.

Trump’s order also stated that while countries like Denmark and Sweden “sensibly” limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person and do not count late-arriving votes regardless of the date of postmark, many American elections now feature mass voting by mail, with many officials accepting ballots without postmarks or those received well after Election Day.

President Trump, who returned to power in January after defeating Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, said that “free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic”.

“The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election,” he said.

President Trump, who has repeatedly questioned certain voting methods since he lost the 2020 US Presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, said the polls “must be honest and worthy of the public trust”.

Trump’s Order To Overhaul US Elections

US citizenship proof

Donald Trump’s order called for the federal voter registration form to be amended so that prospective voters must provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a US passport or a birth certificate.

It also said states should turn over their voter lists and records of voter list maintenance to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Government Efficiency for review. It directed federal agencies to share data with states to help them identify noncitizens on their rolls.

The order said if states refuse to collaborate with federal law enforcement to prosecute election crimes, they could potentially lose out on federal grants.

Mail ballots by Election Day

The executive order required votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day and said federal funding should be conditional on state compliance with that deadline.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 US states along with Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, DC, will count ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day, regardless of when they arrive.

Ballots can’t rely on QR codes

The order instructed the Election Assistance Commission to amend its guidelines for voting systems to “protect election integrity”. That would include guidance that voting systems should not rely on ballots that use barcodes or QR codes in the vote-counting process.

Trump instructed the commission to “take appropriate action to review and, if appropriate, re-certify voting systems” under those new standards within six months of the order.

Foreigners barred from making donations

Donald Trump’s order also barred foreign nationals from contributing or donating in US elections.

“Foreign nationals and non-governmental organizations have taken advantage of loopholes in the law’s interpretation, spending millions of dollars through conduit contributions and ballot-initiative-related expenditures. This type of foreign interference in our election process undermines the franchise and the right of American citizens to govern their Republic,” he said.

(With agency inputs)

A tech entrepreneur, who had accused his estranged wife of harassment amid a bitter divorce and custody battle of their son, has doubled down on his charges. Prasanna Sankar, the co-founder of Rippling – a start-up, has shared a point-by-point rebuttal to his wife Dhivya’s charges that he had “kidnapping” their nine-year-old son and was a “sex predator”.

Dhivya had made the accusations after Mr Sankar went public with their legal dispute, accusing her of using the police to harass him since she was happy with their divorce settlement. He had claimed that his wife filed numerous cases against him in Singapore – including those of rape and leaking her nude videos – but the police found them to be false.

Mr Sankar has now added WhatsApp screenshots and email exchanges between their lawyers in a long thread, accusing his wife of “abducting” their son to the US from Singapore, and “brainwashing” him into believing that his father had abandoned him.

In one of the screenshots, he claimed, his wife had “voluntarily instructed” when he should pick up their son from her house as per the mutually agreed terms, contrary to the claim that he took him by force or “kidnapped the child”.

He also shared an email exchange between their lawyers in the US, which appeared to show the two sides had agreed to a “mutual consent divorce in India” and shared custody of their son. The email detailed the division of assets and said Dhivya must get monthly support of $5,000. Mr Sankar was to pay for all expenses of the child and have a “50/50 parenting plan”.

Mr Sankar claimed this contradicts his wife’s claim that he “forced” her to sign the agreement against her will and that they had not spoken for months.

He also contested Dhivya’s claim that he forced her to come to India from Singapore by sharing a court ruling that appeared to show she was ordered to return the child. The filing mentions the court ruling was in the favour of Mr Prasanna, but does not share any detail about the case.

“Sex Predator”

In a press conference in Chennai, Dhivya had called her estranged husband a “sex predator”, who used to “secretly record women”, a crime that allegedly landed him in jail in Singapore.

She had made a similar allegation before Singapore police but they found no evidence and cleared him of all charges, Mr Sankar claimed. “She accused me of these again in Washington. Again, judge ruled in my favour,” he added.

On the accusation that he had transferred their matrimonial assets to his father’s name to evade taxes, Mr Sankar said those were his shares in Rippling, a company that he had co-founded and she had no involvement in it.

He further claimed his son studied in the “best school” in Singapore, but Dhivya “abducted” him to the US and put him in a public school.

Read: Old Pic Of Prasanna Sankar, Estranged Wife And Sam Altman Resurfaces

“She abducted him to the US for 5 months to support her divorce. Put him in a public school. Disallowed all contact with me. Brainwashed my child that his father abandoned him. Did not even allow me to deliver the letter I wrote to him. Was a cruel period,” alleged Mr Sankar.

The entrepreneur agrees to return the child to his mother on one condition – that she does not “abduct” the child again. He wants his son’s passport secured in a joint locker, as per their earlier agreement, and return the child as per the “50/50” custody plan.

The dispute came to light on Sunday after Mr Sankar went public with the legal dispute. He claimed on X that his wife was having an affair, which led to their divorce. Unhappy over the negotiations, she filed a case of domestic violence in Singapore, but he was cleared of the charges. She then accused him of “abducting” their child to the US, forcing him to file an international child abduction case. He said a US court ruled in his favour, after which they came to Chennai to share the child’s custody. But tensions escalated when she refused to comply with the terms of their agreement.

Mr Sankar had also accused Chennai police of arresting his friend Gokul – who helped him pick up the child from his wife’s house – and trying to extort Rs 25 lakh to release him. He had said he was “on the run” from the police, who were “illegally” tracking his cell phone location and IP address.