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A new wave of US sanctions against the Russian oil sector is unlikely to impact the Kremlin's oil trade with India, Russia's First Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said, terming the sanctions as "illegal". Last month, the US slapped new sanctions against Russia's energy trade. The sanctions targeted Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas as well as 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil. The sanctions were meant to slow down Russian energy exports and limit Moscow's resources to fund its war in Ukraine. India, which became the second-biggest buyer of Russian crude oil since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, has taken a cautious approach, lest it run foul to US sanctions. "Our relationship with India is based on economic pragmatism. That will continue to be the basis of our cooperation in future. We believe energy trade shouldn't be hindered by any politics. We don't believe sanctions are an instrument which is le...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would resume "intense fighting" in Gaza if Hamas did not return hostages by Saturday noon, without specifying whether he was referring to all captives. "If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated," Netanyahu said in a statement issued after a meeting with his security cabinet. (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/fL5z4SB

Palestinian group Hamas announced on Monday it would indefinitely postpone the next hostage-prisoner exchange under a fragile truce agreement with Israel, accusing it of failing to comply with its terms. "The release of the prisoners (Israeli hostages), which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice, pending the occupation's compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks' obligations," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. "We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them," he added. Under the terms of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, the first phase of which came into effect on January 19, 33 Israeli hostages were to be released in exchange for around 1,900 prisoners, most of them Palestinian, being held in Israeli jails. On Saturday they completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with t...

Weeks after US President Donald Trump took office, billionaire Elon Musk who leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken a deep dive into the federal administrative apparatus. DOGE , which hired a team of some young engineers, has access to the country's sensitive information at agencies like the Treasury Department - which has temporarily blocked access to the team, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Among the team members, an Indian-origin engineer, Nikhil Rajpal, reportedly has key government access by representing DOGE's task force at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Who is Nikhil Rajpal? According to a report by WIRED, Mr Rajpal has working email addresses with both DOGE and the NOAA. He also appears in the NOAA's public-facing employee directory, it said. He was reportedly given editor access to all NOAA Google sites on instructions of the acting c...

In yet another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul, US President Donald Trump announced that on Monday the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, which would come on top of additional metal duties-- expected to be disclosed later in the week. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday while he was on his way to the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs as early as Tuesday, which would take effect almost immediately. The Republican, however, did not clarify who would be targeted with the reciprocal tariffs, but he stressed the US would match tariff rates levied by other countries and that this would apply to all countries. "And very simply, it's, if they charge us, we charge them," he said on his reciprocal tariff plan. During his first White House term from 2016-2020, Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium but l later granted se...

A devastating discovery has been made in Libya, where the bodies of 28 sub-Saharan migrants have been unearthed in a mass grave in the southeastern district of Kufra. This finding was made possible after a raid on a human trafficking site, where 76 sub-Saharan migrants were rescued from their captors. The migrants had been subjected to inhumane treatment, including torture and detention, at the hands of a ruthless gang. According to the attorney general's office, the raid was executed late Saturday, targeting a gang that had been depriving migrants of their freedom and subjecting them to cruel treatment. The bodies of the deceased migrants were found buried near the detention site, and three individuals, including one Libyan and two foreigners, have been arrested in connection with the atrocities. The disturbing images of emaciated migrants with scars on their faces, limbs, and backs have been shared on social media, highlighting the dire situation faced by migrants in Libya. T...

Billionaire Elon Musk said that he was not interested in purchasing TikTok, the popular short-video app that the United States has been trying to ban over national security concerns with its Chinese owner ByteDance. Musk's comments, made in late January, were released online Saturday by The WELT Group, a part of the German media company Axel Springer SE, which hosted a summit, where the Tesla chief joined the conference via video. "I have not put in a bid for TikTok," Musk said a week after US President Donald Trump said he was open to Musk buying the ByteDance-owned app if he wanted to do so. "I don't have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok," Musk said, adding that he does not use the short video app personally, and was not familiar with the app's format. "I'm not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it's quite rare," Musk said, adding that his billion-dollar acquisition of social ...