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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The Centre has decided to scrap the windfall tax, a levy imposed on local production of crude oil and exports of petrol, diesel and jet fuel, at a time of subdued oil prices. A decision to this effect has been taken at the top level in the government, and the finance ministry may shortly issue an order, two people familiar with the development said.

Joe Biden has for the first time authorised the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision is a major U.S. policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to limit American support for Ukraine and end the war as soon as possible, as per reports. The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea's decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the people, AP reported. The people were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russia’s war on Ukraine if the alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow continues to deepen, according to people familiar with assessments made by some Group of 20 nations. The analysis is one of several on the evolving partnership between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the people, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk about private discussions. They stressed that such a move wasn’t imminent and that military support at that scale — if it occurred — would likely happen in batches with troops rotating over time rather than in a single deployment. Ukraine’s ambassador to South Korea made a similar assessment earlier this month. Dmytro Ponomarenko said in an interview with VOA that Kyiv expected up to 15,000 North Korean troops deployed to fight in Russia’s Kursk region – and possibly in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine – to rotate every few months.

Joe Biden has for the first time authorized the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, according to one U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter. The decision is a major U.S. policy shift and comes as Biden is about to leave office and incoming President-elect Donald Trump has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and has expressed skepticism over continued support by the United States. The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea's decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the people. The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President-elect Donald Trump’s push for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is finding growing acceptance among Ukraine’s European allies, who increasingly worry that time isn’t on Ukraine’s side in the war. While European leaders have started discussions to see whether they could fill any funding gap for Kyiv if the incoming Trump administration cuts off support, officials in many capitals recognize that an off-ramp to the conflict appears increasingly necessary.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the war with Russia ends next year through diplomacy, commenting at a decisive moment after Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election win and Russia’s grinding battlefield gains.However, Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing to a peace deal, and argued it was convenient for Moscow to sit down to talk while continuing to fight.“From our side, we must do everything so that this war ends next year, ends through diplomatic means,” Zelenskyy said in a Ukrainian radio interview aired on Saturday.Moscow’s ambassador to the U.N.

tea trade association has expressed optimism and enthusiasm as the tea industry witnessed significant growth, with over Rs2,800 crore worth of tea sold at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) during the current financial year (2024-2025) so far. According to official data from the GTAC, approximately 111.03 million kg of tea was sold at an average price of Rs252 per kg until October of the ongoing financial year. In comparison, during the same period in the 2023-24 financial year, 102.92 million kg of tea was sold at an average price of Rs200.08 per kg. Dinesh Bihani, Secretary of the Guwahati Tea Auction Buyers' Association (GTABA), told ANI, «Compared to the previous year, we have achieved an increase of Rs52.75 per kg this year. Last year, we sold tea worth Rs2,059 crore from April to October, whereas this year, during the same period, we sold tea worth Rs2,807 crore. Last year, we sold 102.92 million kg of tea, and this year, it increased to 111.03 million kg.»

Russia, which before the Ukraine war was the biggest single supplier of natural gas to Europe, has lost almost all of its European customers as the EU tries to reduce its dependence and after the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany was blown up in 2022. Now one of the last main Russian gas routes to Europe — the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline via Ukraine — is due to shut at the end of this year, as Kyiv does not want to extend a five-year transit agreement which brings northern Siberian gas to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria.

Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Saturday that human beings and not artificial intelligence should make decisions over the use of nuclear weapons, according to the White House. «The two leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons,» the White House said in a statement. «The two leaders also stressed the need to consider carefully the potential risks and develop AI technology in the military field in a prudent and responsible manner.» An official Chinese government summary of the meeting echoed this point. The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rahul Gandhi compared Prime Minister to US President Joe Biden on Saturday, saying both have 'memory' challenges. «My sister was telling me that she heard Modi ji's speech where he has been speaking the same thing that we have been speaking all along. I don't know, maybe he has memory loss. Like the former US President of America (Biden) used to say something here and there. He had to be reminded from behind that you should not be speaking this, you need to be speaking this,» said Gandhi. He added, " There the Ukraine President had come (to visit Biden in the US) and the US President spoke of the Russian President Putin had come, then people from behind had to tell him that it was the Ukraine President who had arrived, he (Biden) had a memory loss. Similarly our Prime Minister is suffering from memory loss. I don't know he might even come and claim that the state government is giving you Rs 7,000 per quintal on Soybean," said Rahul Gandhi while addressing a campaign rally in Amravati.

Kim Jong Un has ordered the mass production of suicide drones, also known as loitering munitions, after overseeing a test of the weapon earlier this year. State media reported that Kim emphasized the need to establish a serial production system for these drones, reflecting North Korea's growing focus on enhancing its military capabilities, as mentioned in a report by NBC.

Goa are particularly prone to a kind of reporting. Journalists or social media influencers come on a holiday. They hang out in a resort, go out to a few restaurants, shop in a few places, meet a local friend and speak to their taxi drivers. Then they string together their peeves or “new” discoveries, and a tourism trends story is born. Have to justify the time off, right? Some of the disgruntled posts that triggered the recent spat over the apparently declining state of tourism in Goa are right out of this playbook, with added moralism. “The problem with Goa is that it became rich without much effort,” declared a particularly pompous post. Tourists complaining about tourism-linked problems show a profound lack of self-reflection. Meanwhile, comparing a small state in India with countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand will yield inaccurate perspectives. Nothing is helped, though, by the reliably wrong-headed responses of the Goa government. LOOK CLOSER The data doesn’t show Goa being “down in the dumps”, as a social media post alleged. According to Noesis, a leading hotel investment and advisory firm, Goa’s tourism is gearing up for a landmark year in 2024, building on the momentum of a strong 2023 recovery. Domestic arrivals are projected to top 8.5 million, while foreign visitors may touch pre-pandemic levels, potentially exceeding 500,000.

Russia is solely responsible for preventing a fair settlement to end the war in Ukraine, the G7 said on Saturday, in a statement marking 1,000 days of the Russian invasion. «Russia remains the sole obstacle to just and lasting peace,» the Group of Seven industrialised nations, of which Italy holds the rotating presidency, said in a statement. The G7, which also comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States, confirmed «its commitment to imposing severe costs on Russia through sanctions, export controls and other effective measures».

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday he would like to end the war with Russia next year through «diplomatic means». He spoke a day afer saying he expected the conflict to end sooner than it would otherwise have done, once Donald Trump takes office in the United States next year. «For our part, we must do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year. We have to end it by diplomatic means,» Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian radio. «And this, I think, is very important.»

Austrian utility OMV says supplies from Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazprom stopped early Saturday after the company said it would stop payments for the gas following an arbitration award

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. You might have seen this machine at your gym. It’s the one that has weights pulling it down, a lever on the side, and a platform to stand on.

Zelenskiy has said Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the war with Russia ends next year through diplomacy. In a radio interview aired on Saturday, Zelenskiy conceded that the battlefield situation in eastern Ukraine was difficult and Russia was making advances. He said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing to a peace deal. Zelenskiy said U.S. legislation prevented him from meeting President-elect Donald Trump before his inauguration next January. The Ukrainian leader said he would only talk with Trump himself rather than any emissary or advisor.

Tulsi Gabbard is being deemed as a 'threat to national security', according to former national security adviser, John Bolton, who has also warned about her deep ties with Russia, according to reports. Bolton is of the view that Gabbard or Matt Gaetz ought to have a confirmation hearing until they have both had full-field FBI investigations to skim through every single detail of their lives, so that any hint of scandal or threat to national security can be detected. According to Bolton, Americans may have 'lost their minds' when it comes to collecting national intelligence. after Gabbard was chosen as the director of national intelligence. Bolton also said that Gabbard and Gaetz are the two worst Cabinet appointments in recent history, according to The Hill's report. Bolton has even stated that until Trump had announced his own pick of Cabinet members, he was considering the current set of Cabinet members to be the worst of the entire lot across Presidential history under the Biden administration.

Austria's chancellor says Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazrom will cut off supplies early Saturday to Austrian utility OMV

long-range guided rockets that are needed to counter Chinese-origin systems deployed on India's northern borders, with all validation trials completed in a process that lasted almost four years. The indigenous Guided Pinaka rockets can hit targets at a range of over 75 km and are equipped with a guidance kit that corrects their course during flight for enhanced accuracy. The final tests were conducted on November 10 and all technical requirements of the Army have been met. Sources said the next step is to extend their range to 120 km in the first phase and to over 200 km in the second, work for which is already underway. The system has been designed by DRDO in partnership with four companies, including three private sector entities, that have already set up production facilities.

Donald Trump privately held «more nuanced» positions on Ukraine, days after he spoke with the president-elect of the United States by phone. Trump's reelection in last week's US presidential vote has raised concerns he could withdraw Washington's significant support for Ukraine once back in the White House. On the campaign trail, the Republican claimed he could end the fighting within hours and that he would talk directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.