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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 270,000 people to 192 countries, including India, over a recent 12-month period, the highest annual tally in a decade, according to a report released Thursday that illustrates some of the financial and operational challenges that President-elect Donald Trump will face to carry out his pledge of mass deportations. ICE, the main government agency responsible for removing people in the country illegally, had 271,484 deportations in its fiscal year ended Sept 30, nearly double from 142,580 in the same period a year earlier. It was ICE's highest deportation count since 2014, when it removed 315,943 people. The highest it reached during Trump's first term in the White House was 267,258 in 2019. Increased deportation flights, including on weekends, and streamlined travel procedures for people sent to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador fuelled the increase, ICE said. The agency had its first large flight to China in six years and also had planes stop in Albania, Angola, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Mauritania, Romania, Senegal, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On remittances from abroad, India remains the world’s top beneficiary. For 2024, such inflows stood at $129 billion, according to a blog by World Bank economists, almost double that of second-ranked Mexico, which got $68 billion, and more than two-and-a-half times China’s $48 billion.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In a Peak Bengaluru moment this month, a walking tour group organized a 15-day ‘BLR Walkfest,’ getting people to find out if the city is ‘walkable.’ True to the city’s brand-it-and-we’ll-do-it culture, about a hundred people signed up for every walk, which included talks on historic landmarks and lots of filter-coffee drinking, to see if they could do what millions of Indians do daily—use pavements to get around the city on foot. Many Indians ride in cushy carriages all their lives without ever stepping on a footpath, but a vast majority, most of them poor, either walk to work or work on paved sidewalks.

Local startups raised $10.9 billion this calendar until December 13, slightly more than $9.6 billion raised during the same period of 2023, data from Venture Intelligence show. The number of deals closed so far this year fell to 809 from 829 a year back.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The consumer affairs ministry is developing a Repairability Index for consumer durables on the lines of star-rating system used for evaluating the energy efficiency of electrical appliances, Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Pralhad Joshi said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Fino Payments Bank plans to use its network of merchants as the first set of customers to lend to, while also using them as loan collection points, if the regulator approves its proposal to convert into a small finance bank. It applied for a small finance bank licence in December 2023 and has about 1.8 million merchants who provide financial services as agents of the bank.

Canada’s new finance minister said the government needs to preserve its fiscal ability to support households and businesses if Donald Trump’s tariff threats materialize into an economic shock.

Despite moving to Canada from India in 2018 as an international student and receiving a work permit upon graduating two years later, Dinesh* lives in Ontario today as a visitor even though that was obviously not the original plan.

The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam says U.S. arms manufacturers could help the southeast Asian country build up its armed forces

Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the government is aware of reports issued from time to time by various foreign entities, including in the US, about the situation of human rights in India. Such reports are often found to be subjective, misinformed and biased in nature, he said. The minister said that the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an organisation with a political agenda and the government attaches no credibility to its reports, which misrepresent facts and peddle a motivated narrative about India. He said India is a vibrant democracy with its Constitution guaranteeing fundamental rights of citizens, and a robust judiciary and free media ensuring the exercise of these rights.

largest metro network in the world, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal has said, underlining that 997 kilometres of metro rail is currently under construction in the country, an official statement stated on Thursday. In his address to consultative committee members of Parliament attached to the HUA ministry on Wednesday, the minister said that the government is working relentlessly to strengthen the urban transport network across the country, the statement stated. Manohar said that urban mobility is an important aspect to tackle the rising urban population, adding that India will soon have the second largest metro network in the world. «About 993 kilometres of metro rail is operational in 23 cities across the country and about 997 kilometres is under construction in 28 cities in the country...India is well on its way to have the 2nd largest metro network of the world,» the statement quoted the minister as saying.

Rahul Gandhi of «pushing and shoving» its MPs on the Parliament premises, the BJP on Thursday said he does not deserve to be the Leader of Opposition after such «indecent and shameful» conduct. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters hours after unprecedented scenes of unruliness unfolded during protests by the ruling and opposition parties, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan squarely put the blame on Gandhi for the fracas which left two MPs injured. «Rahul Gandhi does not deserve to hold the post of the Leader of Opposition,» Chouhan said as he slammed the Congress leader's behaviour and alleged it is against India's cultural ethos. Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, has rejected the BJP's charge that he pushed its lawmakers and alleged that the ruling party MPs «stopped, threatened and intimidated» him.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Thousands of Amazon.com workers went on strike Thursday during the crucial run-up to Christmas over contract negotiations and the company’s refusal to recognize the Teamsters labor union. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents the Amazon employees, called the action the largest ever strike against Amazon by U.S.

Siddiq, whose ministerial brief includes stamping out corruption in the UK's financial sector, is alleged to have brokered a deal with Russia in 2013 that inflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh at a time when Siddiq's aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was prime minister of the country, according to court document seen by the Daily Mail. The probe is part of a wider investigation into Siddiq's family by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), after her aunt was ousted as prime minister and forced to flee the country in August this year.  Tulip Siddiq: FCA 'has gone too...

mass deportations of undocumented immigrants immediately after Trump is sworn in as president. In a CNN interview, Homan said Wednesday night that plans are underway to deport undocumented immigrants at large scale and that he’ll need funding from Congress to do so. Tom Homan said he will need a minimum of 100,000 beds to detain undocumented immigrants – more than doubling the 40,000 detention beds ICE is currently funded for – and needs more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out the president-elect’s mass deportation plans. ALSO READ: US Government shutdown: Know what closes and what stays open

Dozens of massive data centers are consuming more electricity than all of the urban homes in Ireland and starting to wear out the warm welcome that brought them here

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared in no hurry to seek an end to the war in Ukraine during his annual set-piece television event Thursday, seeking instead to project Russia’s strength despite President-elect Donald Trump’s stated goal of achieving a quick peace. The carefully choreographed question-and-answer session saw Putin field queries from chosen media sources and ordinary Russian citizens, during which he repeatedly portrayed Russia as resistant to the effects of the conflict, which is now nearing the three-year mark.

To tackle Trump's threat of a «reciprocal tax» on Indian goods for high tariffs, some officials of the Indian commerce ministry are ready to consider cuts on certain products such as pork, a senior government source said. Currently India slaps about a 45% import tariff on pork, which is mostly supplied by the U.S. Tariffs could also be reduced on high-end medical devices such as pace makers and luxury motor-cycles, including Harley Davidson, said a second official with direct knowledge of trade issues, citing the 25% to 60% tariffs on these products.

Amit Shah for his comments on B R Ambedkar in Parliament, senior Congress leader and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday claimed that Shah would have been a «ragpicker» if there wasn't Ambedkar's Constitution. The chief minister further said that if Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar was really functioning under the Constitution, he should have immediately suspended Shah from the House. Reading out a detailed statement in the assembly amid din by both BJP and the Congress MLAs over the issue, Siddaramaiah said the entire country has heard the «derogatory» words spoken by the Home Minister about Babasaheb Ambedkar. During a debate on the Constitution in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Shah said, «Abhi ek fashion ho gaya hai — Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. Itna naam agar bhagwan ka lete to saat janmon tak swarg mil jata (It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar'. If they had taken God's name so many times, they would have got a place in heaven).»

Avian influenza, commonly called "bird flu", is a viral infection that spreads in birds, cows and other animals. Avian influenza, commonly called «bird flu», is a viral infection that spreads in birds, cows and other animals. Although there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission, the virus's ability to spread through wild species and jump to domestic ones highlights the risk of human infection potentially occurring due to new mutations and recombinations among variants. ALSO READ:Viral Video: Jeff Bezos, his fiancée seen going to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump, 'interesting', say netizens

Liz Bentley Associates President and founder Liz Bentley discusses the benefits of remote work as some businesses push for their employees to return to the office full-time.