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US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American Pentagon official Kashyap "Kash" Patel as FBI director. Mr Patel, a Trump loyalist, has been a vocal advocate of dismantling what he refers to as the "deep state" within the US government.  "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People," Mr Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.  President-elect Trump praised Mr Patel's contributions during his first term, claiming that he played a crucial role in exposing the "Russia Hoax." Mr Patel's nomination also signals Mr Trump's dissatisfaction with the current FBI leadership under Christopher Wray, whom he had appointed in 2017.  Mr Trump has openly criticised Mr Wray's handling of the FBI, particularly its investigations involving Mr Trump himself. Under Mr Wray...

US charity World Central Kitchen said Saturday it was "pausing operations in Gaza at this time" after an Israeli air strike hit a vehicle carrying its workers. The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike, accusing the worker of being a "terrorist" who "infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre" last year. WCK in a statement said it "had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack", and did not confirm any deaths. Earlier Saturday, Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed, including "three employees of World Central Kitchen", in the strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis. "All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis," Bassal said, adding that the vehicle had been "marked with its logo clearly visible...

The Gaza Strip has spiralled into chaos, with widespread hunger, looting, and violence, including rising cases of rape in shelters, as public order collapses, according to the United Nations.  Palestinians are suffering on an unprecedented scale, with the situation in Gaza City being described as "horrendous" by Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories. Sunghay said the Palestinians are distressed "on a scale that has to be seen to be truly grasped". The breakdown of public order and safety has exacerbated the situation, with rampant looting and fighting over scarce resources. The UN has warned about the impending anarchy in Gaza, which is now a harsh reality.  "The anarchy in Gaza we warned about months ago is here", Sunghay said. Young women, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have highlighted the lack of safe spaces or privacy in their makeshift tents. Cases of gender-based violence, rape, abuse...

Negotiators at the COP29 climate conference in Baku have struck a landmark agreement on rules governing the global trade of carbon credits, bringing to a close almost a decade of debate over the controversial scheme. The deal paves the way for a system in which countries or companies buy credits for removing or reducing greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere in the world, then count the reductions as part of their own climate efforts. Some have argued the agreement provides crucial certainty to countries and companies trying to reach net-zero through carbon trading, and will harness billions of dollars for environmental projects. However, the rules contain several serious flaws that years of debate have failed to fix. It means the system may essentially give countries and companies permissions to keep polluting. What is carbon offsetting? Carbon trading is a system where countries, companies or other entities buy or sell “credits”, or permits, that allow the buyer to offset the green...

China has freed three Americans considered wrongfully detained in a swap with the United States, US officials said Wednesday, meeting a key goal of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration. The three Americans -- Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung -- were the last prisoners in China classified by the State Department as wrongfully detained, although activists and families have raised the cases of other US citizens. "Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years," a State Department spokesperson said on the eve of Thanksgiving, the American holiday associated with family reunions. "Thanks to this administration's efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home," the spokesperson said, referring to the People's Republic of China. A source close to the matter said that the three were being freed in a swap with Beijing for three Chinese nationals in US cust...

Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday evening asked his supporters who camped in Islamabad to "fight till the last ball and do not retreat". "I salute the people of Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers who are standing up for their rights, participating in peaceful protests, and boldly confronting the mafia imposed on our country to demand true freedom and justice," Khan said in a message from Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail where he has been incarcerated since August 2023 in multiple cases. "To my team, my message is clear: Fight till the last ball. We will not back down until our demands are fully met," he said, urging those who haven't yet joined the protest march to reach D-Chowk in Islamabad for a peaceful protest and not leave till their demands are met. The 72-year-old former premier issued a "final call" on November 13 for nationwide protests on November 24, denouncing what he termed as the stolen mandate...

Chris Chan, an internet personality and cartoonist, is making headlines after announcing that she's expecting a child during a recent live gaming stream. Chan, who is a transwoman, revealed the news in response to a fan's question. During the session, a fan asked Chan, "When will you announce the child you're having?" In response, Chan said, "When the child, when the child is actually coming into play for summer/ somewhere around that point or I just might keep y'all in the dark and let y'all know until and wait till after the child is born." Fans quickly speculated that Chan's pregnancy announcement might be related to her close friend, Flutter. According to Chris Chan lore, Flutter is a 30-year-old woman who befriended Chan while she was incarcerated at the Central Virginia Regional Jail from 2021 to 2023. Although Chan has denied a romantic relationship, the pair have been spotted displaying affection in public, fueling rumours about thei...

Most people in Karachi city of Pakistan's Sindh province feel unsafe as the metropolitan city reported about 45,000 incidents of street crimes and mugging in the first eight months of 2024, the police said on Monday. Last year, 118 people were killed in street crimes and mugging incidents while this year the figure is close to 100, the Police Citizens Liaison Committee said. Most people in Karachi feel unsafe as the rate of violent crime has soared in the metropolitan city of nearly 20 million population, said Bashir Babu, a factory worker who has been a mugging victim twice. "Criminals are operating brazenly during daytime or night and one doesn't feel safe going out as the fear of mugging hangs over you," claimed Babu. The spread of social media has only added to the environment of anxiety and fear in the city as every day new videos are uploaded showing criminals snatching valuables in broad daylight on busy streets, at restaurants, at traffic lights, outside A...

Seventeen people died Sunday when a bus on a remote mountain road in Brazil's northeastern Alagoas state dived into a ravine, regional authorities said. Police were working to identify those killed and to free bodies from the wreckage of the bus, which fell into a ravine more than 20 meters (65 feet) deep, the state government said in a statement. It said "several" people were injured.  Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on the social media platform X that his government "will give all necessary support to state authorities in the assistance, care and support of the victims." He expressed condolences to the families of those involved in the accident. Alagoas state governor Paulo Dantas declared on X three days of mourning over the "tragedy." The bus was reported to have been carrying some 40 people up a mountain road to a historical site near the town of Uniao dos Palmares when the driver lost control, apparently after a mechanica...

A petition calling for fresh general election in the UK has reached over 1.7 million signatures as the Labour government faces widespread disapproval regarding its policies and post-poll work. Even Tesla boss Elon Musk chimed in on the issue by reposting a message about the success of the petition. According to the guidelines, any petition that asks for a change to the law or to policies gets a response from the government after 10,000 signatures. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in the parliament. "I would like there to be another General Election. I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election," the petition description reads. As of the last update, the petition had raked up 1,771,423 signatures and counting. The petition was started by Michael Westwood who runs Britain's 'cheapest pub'. He said he did not imagine in his wildest dreams that Mr Musk would quo...

At least six people were killed and 10 others wounded early Sunday morning in an armed attack at a bar in the city of Villahermosa, in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, local authorities said. "Armed persons" entered the bar "looking for a specific person" and the shots hit those nearby, state deputy prosecutor Gilberto Melquiades said at a press conference, adding that an investigation was ongoing. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/sr1FBfp

During the nearly two-century-long rule over India between 1757 and 1947, the British Empire exploited the country's resources, wealth, and people. The impact of colonial rule is felt to this day. According to renowned economist Utsa Patnaik, professor emeritus at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, the British drained approximately $45 trillion from India between 1765 and 1938, a sum 17 times the current GDP of the UK. This figure is substantial, but how did such an enormous amount of wealth end up in British hands? The story begins with the British East India Company, which, after gaining control of India, established a monopoly on its trade. The Company initially bought goods from India using silver, but over time, they developed a cunning system to exploit Indian resources without paying for them. The process was simple yet devious. The East India Company began collecting taxes from Indian farmers and weavers, and instead of using the collected funds for local develo...

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor is recalling about 145,235 electrified vehicles in the United States due to a loss of drive power, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday. The recall includes certain IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 EVs along with some luxury Genesis GV60, Genesis GV70 and Genesis G80 electrified variants from model years 2022-2025. The US auto safety regulator said that integrated charging control units are likely to get damaged and stop charging the 12-volt battery, which can result in a loss of drive power. Hyundai dealers will inspect, replace and update the software on impacted parts and its fuse for free, the NHTSA added.   (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/twVOJzR

Australia's government plans to fine global social media firms $32 million for systemic breaches against a bill that it introduced on Thursday that seeks to ban social media for children under 16 years of age. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram fall under the umbrella of the law. The "world-leading", as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls it, bill forces social media firms to ensure age verifications are in place and does not place that onus on parents or children. "Social media has a social responsibility ... that's why we are making big changes to hold platforms to account for user safety," Rowland said. "This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia," she added. Although the children can access online gaming, messaging, online classrooms, YouTube or just health and educati...

In the golden years, this city witnessed a significant economic boom. It remains one of the most liveable cities in the world, a financial power hub and also an emerging city for sex tourism, with men wandering on the streets, looking for women. The city is not where you are thinking. Apart from Bangkok in Thailand, Tokyo is emerging as a hotbed for sex tourism, with multiple factors driving the interest among foreign tourists, one of them being the weakening of the Japanese Yen against other currencies and robust inbound tourism. The Star reported quoting, Yoshihide Tanaka, secretary general of the Liaison Council Protecting Youths (Seiboren), that "Japan has become a poor country." Adding, that a park next to his organisation has become synonymous with the city's sex trade. He said they had noticed an increasing number of foreigners frequenting the park as soon as pandemic-era travel restrictions were dropped. "Now we are seeing a lot more foreign men," he...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, has been a vital instrument for exploring the universe for over three decades. Commonly referred to as HST or Hubble, the telescope is celebrated among space enthusiasts for its remarkable contributions to astronomy. However, many may not be aware that the telescope is named after Edwin Powell Hubble, a pioneering American astronomer. Edwin Hubble's groundbreaking work in the early 20th century laid the foundation for modern cosmology, including the discovery of the universe's expansion. His legacy lives on through this iconic instrument, which continues to provide a unique window to the universe. According to NASA, like the Hubble Space Telescope, Edwin Hubble's discoveries transformed the frontier of scientific knowledge. His work took us beyond the Milky Way and placed us in an ever-expanding universe with a myriad of galaxies beyond our own. Who was Edwin Powell Hubble? As per NASA , born on ...

Iraq will begin its first full national census in more than three decades on Wednesday, a pivotal moment as it looks to gather demographic data for future planning and development. The census, the first full one since Saddam Hussein was President in 1987, aims to provide a comprehensive count of Iraq's population, estimated to exceed 43 million people by the end of 2024, said Iraq's planning ministry spokesperson Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi. Attempts at conducting a national census were delayed by years of conflict, instability and disagreement among political factions, but with the country now in a period of stability, authorities hope the process will be completed successfully. A census carried out in 1997 excluded the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which had been governed by Kurdish authorities since the 1991 Gulf War. It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics. The census was repeatedly p...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel will continue to operate militarily against the Iran-backed Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah even if a ceasefire deal is reached in Lebanon. "The most important thing is not (the deal that) will be laid on paper... We will be forced to ensure our security in the north (of Israel) and to systematically carry out operations against Hezbollah's attacks... even after a ceasefire", to keep the group from rebuilding its forces, Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/1NtLp8S

India's competition watchdog directed WhatsApp to refrain from sharing user data for advertising purposes with other applications owned by Meta for a period of five years and fined the U.S. tech giant $25.4 million on Monday over antitrust violations related to the messaging application's 2021 privacy policy. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched a probe in March 2021 into WhatsApp's privacy policy, which allowed data sharing with Facebook and its units, sparking global backlash. "Sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta companies... for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp service shall not be made a condition for users to access WhatsApp Service in India," the CCI said. Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Tech giants, including Apple, Google and Meta face new regulatory challenges with India's proposed EU-like antitrust law. The Indian government is currently examining a February rep...

At COP29 in Baku, India expressed frustration with developed countries for not seriously discussing how to support climate action in developing nations, saying it is impossible to tackle climate change without financial and technological help. Delivering a statement in the closing plenary of the subsidiary bodies' meeting on the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) on Saturday, India said developed countries, which have historically contributed the most to greenhouse gas emissions and have more resources and the ability to act on climate change, have repeatedly delayed climate action and continuously shifted goalposts. "We have seen no progress in matters critical for developing countries (during the last week). Our part of the world is facing some of the worst impacts of climate change with far lower capacity to recover from those impacts or to adapt to the changes to the climatic system for which we are not responsible," said India's deputy lead negotiator Neelesh Sah....

US President-elect Donald Trump nominated fracking magnate and climate change sceptic Chris Wright as energy secretary on Saturday, tasking him with "cutting red tape" which the new administration hopes will drive investment in fossil fuels. "As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new 'Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,'" Trump said in a statement. Wright is a founder of Liberty Energy, which serves the energy companies that have massively increased US fossil fuel production in recent years by extracting oil and gas from shale fields in a process known as "fracking." "My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure," Wright said on X after Trump's announcement. Here are the live updates:    from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/eZF57ic

Super Typhoon Man-yi battered the Philippines on Saturday, with the national weather forecaster warning of a "potentially catastrophic and life-threatening" impact as huge waves pounded the archipelago's coastline. More than 650,000 people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi, which is the sixth major storm to hit the disaster-weary country in the past month. Man-yi brought maximum wind speeds of 195 kilometres (121 miles) per hour as it made landfall on the sparsely populated island province of Catanduanes as a super typhoon, the weather service said, adding gusts were reaching 325 kilometres an hour. "Potentially catastrophic and life-threatening situation looms for northeastern Bicol region as Super Typhoon 'Pepito' further intensifies," the forecaster said hours before it made landfall, using the local name for the storm and referring to the southern part of the main island of Luzon. Waves up to 14 metres (46 feet) high pummelled the shore of Catandu...

New Zealand's youngest MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, on Thursday tore up a copy of the contentious Treaty Principles Bill and performed a traditional Maori haka during a House session. This bold move comes almost a year after she went viral for performing a haka during her maiden speech in parliament. The 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupted the session, ripping apart the bill before breaking into the powerful dance. She was soon joined by others in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend the House. The Maori Haka The Maori haka is a traditional performance that holds deep cultural significance for New Zealanders. It is known for its powerful energy, fierce facial expressions (pukana), and physical movements like stamping, hand gestures, and chanting. The haka varies by region, with many telling stories of significant events in a tribe's history.  Origins and significance The haka's origins lie in Maori mythology, created by Tane-m...

Suzanne Karkaba and her father Ali were both civil defence rescuers whose job was to save the injured and recover the dead in Lebanon's war. When an Israeli strike killed him on Thursday and it was his turn to be rescued, there wasn't much left. She had to identify him by his fingers. Karkaba then rushed back to the bombed civil defence centre to search for her fellow first responders under the rubble. Israel struck the centre, the main civil defence facility in the eastern Baalbek area, while nearly 20 rescuers were still inside, said Samir Chakia, a local official with the agency. At least 14 civil defence workers were killed, he said. "My dad was sleeping here with them. He helped people and recovered bodies to return them to their families... But now it's my turn to pick up the pieces of my dad," Karkaba told AFP with tears in her eyes. Unlike many first-responder facilities previously targeted during the war, this facility in Douris, on the edge of Baal...

A 1,700-piece private collection of Chinese ceramics with an estimated value of £1 billion ($1.27 billion) has been donated to the British Museum -- a record for any UK institution. The central London museum announced late on Wednesday that the Trustees of The Sir Percival David Foundation had gifted the collection permanently to go on public display. David, who died in 1964, was a British businessman and Sinophile who collected ceramics from Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and China. His collection had been on loan to the museum since 2009. Museum chair George Osborne said he was "thrilled by this blockbuster decision" to make the loan permanent, calling it "the largest bequest to the British Museum in our long history". Colin Sheaf, chair of The Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, said the donation coincided with the centenary of the businessman's first trip to China, which inspired his love of its art and culture. He said he hoped it would continue t...

The Iranian state is planning to open a treatment clinic for women who flout the mandatory hijab laws that require them to cover their heads in public. Announcing the opening of a "hijab removal treatment clinic", Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said the establishment will offer "scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal". "The establishment of this center will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity and visiting this center is optional," a report by Iran International quoted Talebi as saying. Notably, the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice falls under the direct authority of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The body i...

South Korean police have arrested 215 people on suspicion of stealing 320 billion won ($228.4 million) in the biggest cryptocurrency investment scam in the country. Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said on Wednesday the arrests included the alleged mastermind of the organised crime group accused of selling 28 types of virtual tokens to about 15,000 people by promising high returns. Police said the group had issued six of the 28 tokens on overseas crypto exchanges and were managing a team of market makers to push up prices. Police described the tokens as "worthless". The group had set up investment consulting companies and sales teams to sell the virtual assets to people who had subscribed to a YouTube channel, the police statement said. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/LuARgqo

The planet Uranus and its five largest moons may not be the cold, lifeless worlds scientists once believed. Instead, they could have hidden oceans and even the potential to support life, according to new research. Most of our knowledge of Uranus comes from NASA's Voyager 2 mission, which visited nearly 40 years ago. However, a recent analysis reveals that Voyager's encounter occurred during an intense solar storm, potentially skewing our perception of the Uranian system, the BBC reported. Uranus, an icy, ringed planet at the solar system's edge, is one of the coldest and most unusual planets due to its extreme tilt, making it appear as if it had been tipped over. The latest findings reveal that Voyager 2's visit coincided with severe solar activity, which may have temporarily disrupted the planet's magnetic field and swept away atmospheric material. For decades, this led scientists to a possibly inaccurate view of Uranus and its moons, explained Dr William Dunn ...

The UK will aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 81 percent on 1990 levels by 2035, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday, as his government ramps up its ambitions on climate change. The previous government in London committed in 2021 to curb such emissions by 78 percent over the same period compared to 1990. Starmer unveiled the new target as he attended the beginning of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he is one of the only G20 leaders to show up. The summit's start has been overshadowed by the re-election in the US of longtime climate change sceptic Donald Trump, as well as new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records. UK Labour party leader Starmer, who took power in July, told a press conference that Britain was "building on our reputation as a climate leader". "I've had a series of meetings here at COP this week because this government recognises that the world stands at a critical juncture in the ...

The year 2024 is on course to become the hottest year ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching unprecedented levels, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned. According to a report released on the opening day of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) here, the January-September global mean surface temperature was 1.54 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This alarming surge, driven by an intense El Nino event and rising greenhouse gas concentrations, marks a critical threshold for climate change impacts worldwide. The report titled "State of the Climate 2024" highlights the accelerating risks posed by global warming, particularly for vulnerable communities. "Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Guterres emphasised the urgent need for climate action to protect those most affected by these change...

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Trump held the call from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, just days after his stunning election victory over Democratic rival Kamala Harris, the report said. The president-elect's representatives did not immediately respond when asked by AFP for comment. The Post, citing several people familiar with the call who spoke on the basis of anonymity, reported that Trump had reminded Putin of America's sizable military presence in Europe. They said he also expressed an interest in further conversations to discuss "the resolution of Ukraine's war soon." Trump's election is seen as carrying the potential to upend the almost three-year Ukraine conflict, as he insists on a quick end to the fighting and casts doubt on Washington's multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv. Ukrainian Preside...

Two powerful earthquakes rocked southern Cuba in quick succession on Sunday, US geologists said, as authorities said no tsunami alert was issued and no deaths immediately reported. The US Geological Survey put the second, more powerful tremor at a magnitude of 6.8 and 14.6 miles (23.5 kilometers) deep, some 25 miles off the coast of Bartolome Maso, in southern Granma province. It came just an hour after a first tremor, which the USGS put at a magnitude of 5.9, with the epicenter some nine miles beneath the ocean roughly 22 miles off Bartolome Maso.  The state-run newspaper Granma said no deaths had been immediately reported, but that the quake had been felt throughout the Caribbean island nation. "Here people quickly took to the streets because the ground moved very strongly," Andres Perez, a 65-year-old retiree who lives in downtown Santiago de Cuba, told AFP via telephone of the first quake.  "It felt very strong really, my wife is a bundle of nerves," he add...