International News

Over 10,000 flights cancelled as massive storm batters large parts of US

More than 10,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend were cancelled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc Saturday across much of the country and threatened to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways with dangerous ice. Roughly 140 million people, or more than 40 per cent of the US population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina. All Saturday flights were cancelled at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, and all Sunday morning flights also were called off, as officials aimed to restart service Sunday afternoon at Oklahoma's biggest airport. The airport was nearly deserted Saturday morning, with only a few TSA agents and a couple of travellers remaining inside the departures side. The Texas Department of Transportation on Saturday posted images of snow-covered ...

Cuba keen to deepen economic ties with India across key sectors: Envoy

Cuba is keen to deepen economic engagement with India in sectors such as agro-industry, biotechnology, healthcare, information technology, renewable energy, sports and tourism, Cuban Ambassador to India Juan Carlos Marsan Aguilera said on Saturday. Addressing a special session on India-Cuba bilateral trade and economic cooperation organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) here, Aguilera said Cuba is a pioneer in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, with its biopharma products exported to 45 countries. He said Cuba is also in the process of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy, opening avenues for cooperation in clean energy solutions. The envoy said his country allows companies the use of land for business purposes, and offers an electronic visa facility to facilitate ease of travel and investment. Highlighting Cuba's tourism potential, Aguilera said the country has 10 international airports, three cruise terminals and 10 international marinas,

Campaigning begins in Bangladesh for first polls after Hasina's ouster

There are also concerns about the country's law and order situation, but the government says it will keep the voting peaceful

Silicon Valley pours out lobbying, cash & flattery to win over Trump

Altogether, the biggest tech and AI companies spent $109 million on lobbying last year, topping $100 million for the first time, according to Bloomberg News

PM Modi speaks to Lula, says India-Brazil ties vital for Global South

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spoke to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and asserted that close cooperation was vital for advancing shared interests of the Global South. The prime minister also said he was looking forward to welcoming the Brazilian president to India soon. "Glad to speak with President Lula. We reviewed the strong momentum in the India-Brazil Strategic Partnership, which is poised to scale new heights in the year ahead," Modi said in a post on X. "Our close cooperation is vital for advancing the shared interests of the Global South. I look forward to welcoming him to India soon," he added.

US scraps multimillion-dollar solar projects in Puerto Rico amid grid woes

The administration of US President Donald Trump has cancelled solar projects in Puerto Rico worth millions of dollars, as the island struggles with chronic power outages and a crumbling electric grid. The projects were aimed at helping 30,000 low-income families in rural areas across the US territory as part of a now-fading transition toward renewable energy. In an email obtained by The Associated Press, the US Energy Department said that a push under Puerto Rico's former governor for a 100 per cent renewable future threated the reliability of its energy system. "The Puerto Rico grid cannot afford to run on more distributed solar power," the message states. "The rapid, widespread deployment of rooftop solar has created fluctuations in Puerto Rico's grid, leading to unacceptable instability and fragility." Javier Rua Jovet, public policy director for Puerto Rico's Solar and Energy Storage Association, disputed that statement in a phone interview Thursday. He said that some 200,000

Vampire thriller 'Sinners' sets Oscars record with 16 nominations

Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes will be chosen by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Trump claims 'total access' to Greenland; NATO urges allies to step up

Trump's U-turn had triggered a rebound in European markets but also raised questions about how much damage had already been done to transatlantic ties and business confidence

Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir bags two Oscar nominations

Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir on Thursday earned two Oscar nominations -- for her short "The Devil Is Busy" in the best documentary short category and "The Perfect Neighbor" in the best documentary feature segment. The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton have co-directed "The Devil Is Busy", which will compete against "All the Empty Rooms", "Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud", "Children No More: Were and Are Gone" and "Perfectly a Strangeness" in the best documentary short segment. The 31-minute film follows Tracii, the head of security at a women's healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, over the course of a day as she works to ensure the safety of patients and staff amid tighter abortion restrictions and persistent protests. In the documentary feature film category, Gandbhir's "The Perfect Neighbor" is among the nominees, ...

US applications for jobless benefits inch up last week to still-low 200,000

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits inched up last week but US layoffs remain historically low despite signs of a softening labour market. US filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan 17 rose by 1,000 to 200,000, up from 199,000 the previous week, the Labour Department reported Thursday. That's fewer than the 207,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting. Applications for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The four-week average of jobless claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,750 to 201,500. The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan 10 declined by 26,000 to 1.85 million, the government said.

Paper tossing, winding riffs as Trump recaps first year back in office

For more than 10 minutes, he showed off mugshots of people he said had been arrested, remarking on their alleged crimes

India set to become 3rd largest economy by 2028, says Gita Gopinath

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday asserted that India will definitely become the world's third-largest economy over the next few years, with economist Gita Gopinath saying it can happen by 2028 or even earlier. Speaking in a World Economic Forum Annual Meeting session here, Vaishnaw said the only matter of concern is what will happen with the mountains of debt in the rich world and what could be the impact on India. Gopinath said the challenge for India is not becoming the third-largest economy; the challenge is raising per capita income to higher levels. Vaishnaw said what is working really well is that in the last decade, there has been a transformational change in our country, and it's a very well thought-through, well-defined and a very focused execution. He said it's built on four pillars -- the pillar of public investment in physical, digital and social infrastructure, the pillar of making sure that the entire society grows with the growth of the country, that is .

India 'stopped' buying oil from Russia, claims US Treasury Secretary

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed that India has "stopped" buying oil from Russia after US President Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on countries purchasing oil from Moscow. Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent for its purchases of Russian oil. Speaking with Fox Business, Bessent said, "India started buying Russian oil after the (Ukraine) conflict began, but President Trump put a 25 per cent tariff on them, and India has geared down and has stopped buying Russian oil." India had described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" while maintaining that its energy policy is guided by its own national interest. A bill introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham has proposed a 500 per cent tariff on secondary purchase and reselling of Russian oil. The proposal has near-unanimous backing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While speaking on the bill, Bessent said that it is a proposal that Senator Graham has in fro

Staff cuts, red tape may derail India FTA gains, warns UK Parliament panel

Billions of pounds of tariff savings from Britain's free trade agreement with India could be jeopardised by deep cuts to UK export support staff helping firms use the deal in practice, an influential Parliament panel cautioned in a report on Wednesday. The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee, with a remit to scrutinise the country's trade deals, released its analysis as the government tables the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in Parliament for ratification. It finds that initial duty savings for UK exporters to India could total400 million pounds a year, potentially rising up to3.2 billion pounds after 10 years as export volumes increase. "This is the biggest free trade deal since Brexit with the potential to deliver billions in tariff savings for UK exporters, boosting growth and creating new jobs," said committee chair Liam Byrne. "But Parliament is being asked to ratify a deal promising billions in tariff savings while the government is ...

Japan bond yields hit new highs as investors fret over fiscal policy risks

Investors are on guard for moves in Japan spilling over into global markets amid the prospect of continued volatility in Tokyo trading ahead of the snap poll Takaichi is scheduled for February 8

Netflix makes all-cash $82.7 billion bid for Warner Bros, blocks Paramount

The new all-cash bid - at $27.75 a share - has unanimous support from the HBO owner's board, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing

Valentino Garavani, leading Italian fashion designer, dies at 93

Valentino one of Italys leading fashion designers died on Monday at his Roman residence his foundation announced. He was 93 years old

Blast at eatery in Afghanistan kills 7; several including women injured

An explosion at a restaurant in downtown Kabul on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded about a dozen more, according to police and an Italian charity running a surgical unit in the city. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. The explosion occurred in a Chinese restaurant in the Shahr-e-Naw district of the Afghan capital, according to Kabul police command spokesman Khalid Zadran. He said the restaurant was jointly owned by an Afghan man, a Chinese national and his wife. The restaurant was popular with Chinese Muslims, Zadran said, adding that one Chinese national and six Afghans were killed and several others were wounded. The blast occurred near the restaurant's kitchen, the police spokesman said, and the cause was under investigation. The Italian charity EMERGENCY said its surgical centre in Kabul, which is located near the site of the explosion, had received 20 people from the blast, including seven who were already dead. It noted the number of casualties

Export surge helps China hit 2025 growth goal despite weak consumption

Nominal economic growth, which is unadjusted for price changes, was 4 per cent in 2025, the slowest since 1976 excluding the pandemic year of 2020

At Davos, global elite drop lofty rhetoric as deference to Trump prevails

But this year, with the world seized by geopolitical turmoil, and the United States ruled by a president who is hostile to multilateral cooperation