Latest LIVE: ED summons Gehlot's elder brother for questioning today

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said at a CLP meeting that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the current political situation in the state. Stay tuned for latest news live updates

2:40 AM

Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak gets 12-year jail term in 1MDB case

A Malaysia court sentenced former prime minister Najib Razak to 12 years imprisonment after ruling him guilty in the first of a series of trials linked to 1MDB.

 

Najib was guilty Tuesday of all seven charges in the case involving 42 million ringgit ($10 million) of funds deposited in his personal accounts from a former unit of 1MDB. His lawyer has said an appeal against the ruling is a certainty, while seeking to keep him out of jail during the appeal process.

2:39 AM

Google's new subsea cable to link US, United Kingdom and Spain

Alphabet’s Google has commissioned a new subsea cable, which it says will be one of the first new fiber lines linking the US and the UK since 2003 and further entrenches the tech giant in global internet infrastructure.

 

The cable, named Grace Hopper after the computer scientist, will also connect to Spain, becoming the first Google fiber line to land there, the company said in a statement. It joins existing Google subsea cables including Google’s Curie, which runs from the US to Chile, and Dunant, which links the US to France, and Equi­ano.The Mountain View, California-based company expects to complete the project in 2022. A steady stream of trans-ocean cables is being announced by tech giants; Facebook joined forces with telecom carriers to better connect Africa in May.

1:16 AM

South Africa's economic recovery may take two years

The South African economy will take at least two years to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, a leading business forum said on Tuesday.

 

The coronavirus has claimed 7,067 lives with 4,52,529 confirmed cases in the African nation. Around 2,75,000 people have recovered from the disease. The pandemic has also seriously hurt the business sector with thousands of job losses and enterprises shutting shop.

 

Head of Business for South Africa (B4SA), economic workgroup, Martin Kingston said, "Against our latest modelling scenarios we expect that it will take a minimum of two years for the South African economy to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels, keeping in mind that South Africa's economy was already weak at the start of 2020.

11:57 PM

Congress to move no-confidence motion against BJP-led Manipur govt

The Congress in Manipur submitted a notice for a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led coalition government in the state on Tuesday.

Congress legislators K Meghachandra and Th Lokeshwar submitted the notice to the Assembly secretary.

Manipur Congress spokesperson Ningombam Bupenda Meitei said the party was confident that the House will take up the no-confidence motion during the Monsoon Session on August 10.

The Congress has been targeting the Manipur government over what the party called its failure to hand over a 2018 drug haul case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

11:35 PM

Spotlight on 4 Big Tech CEOs testifying in competition probe

They command corporations with gold-plated brands, millions or even billions of customers, and a combined value greater than the entire German economy.

 

One of them is the world's richest individual; another is the fourth-ranked billionaire. Their industry has transformed society, linked people around the globe, mined and commercialised users' personal data, and infuriated critics on both the left and right over speech.

 

Now Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook of Apple will answer for their companies' practices before Congress for the first time as a group.

 

Summoned for a House hearing, they'll raise a hand (remotely) and swear to tell the truth, in the manner of tycoons of Wall Street or the tobacco industry in earlier high-octane televised shamings. It will be Bezos' first-ever appearance before Congress.

11:20 PM

Indian scientists have made valuable contributions to ITER project: PM Modi

11:10 PM

ED summons Raj CM's elder brother for questioning in PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's elder brother for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in exporting fertiliser, officials said Tuesday.
 

Agrasain Gehlot has been asked to depose before the investigating officer on Wednesday in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
 

On July 22, the central agency raided Agrasain Gehlot's premises in Jodhpur and a few other places in connection with the case filed under the criminal charges of PMLA.

10:42 PM

Watchdog Group: Trump campaign improperly masking payments

President Donald Trump's reelection effort allegedly hid nearly $170 million in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies tied to his former campaign manager, a government oversight group said Tuesday.

 

The use of firms linked to former campaign manager Brad Parscale masked the ultimate recipients of the money, which the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center described as a "laundering" effort that violates election law, according to a complaint the group filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

 

Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh disputed the allegations and said the "campaign complies with all campaign finance laws and FEC regulations.

 

Most of the payments by Trump's campaign committees were made to American Made Media Consultants, which has received at least $177 million since 2018, according to FEC records.

 

The other firm, Parscale Strategy, has collected at least $32 million during that period, the records show.

10:34 PM

United Spirits sees franchise income plunge 40 per cent this year

English brewer Diageo-controlled United Spirits, which has reported a massive loss in the June quarter, expects at least 40 per cent decline in its franchise income this year due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and is focusing on direct home delivery to shore up margins.
 

As a way to help the franchisees, the maker of McDowell's whisky will jointly develop business plans to help them build more profitable business, the management told analysts.

10:29 PM

2 Russian aircraft suspected of violating Finland's airspace

Two Russian military aircraft are suspected of having violated Finland's airspace close to its capital city of Helsinki, Finland's defense ministry said Tuesday.

 

The ministry said in a brief statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets allegedly violated Finland's airspace over the Gulf of Finland, near Helsinki, at around 2 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), Tuesday afternoon.

 

The Finnish Border Guard is investigating the incident.