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Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is investing 85 million pounds in a Rolls Royce project to build  mini nuclear power hubs. A single such hub will be only a tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear power station and will power around one million homes.Read More

Amazon reportedly disabled its ratings and comments following instructions from China. This was to ensure no negative comments or criticism of President Xi Jinping’s book The Governance of China, which apparently received less than 5-star ratings. Amazon said it complies with all applicable laws and regulations wherever it operates.Read More

Omicron has killed at least 12 persons in the UK so far and deputy prime minister Dominic Rabb has hinted at social restrictions in the run up to Christmas. One hundred and four people are admitted in hospital with Omicron being detected in them.Read More

Facebook has paid Russia $229,643 in fines for failing to delete content Moscow deemed illegal. But a court case next week could see Facebook’s parent, Meta, along with Alphabet’s Google, being fined a percentage of their annual revenues in Russia for violating rules on content.Read More

The UK has reported nearly 25,000 cases of Omicron and London’s mayor had declared it a “major incident” to help hospitals cope with the surge of infections. Medical experts warned that hundreds of thousands are being infected every day. Seven have been reported dead so far.Read More

India’s tally of Omicron cases has gone up to 145 with the detection of the Covid variant in an NRI who landed in Ahmedabad airport from the UK. A teenage boy also from the UK was similarly infected. Both are in the civil hospital and reported to be recovering. Maharashtra leads with 45 Omicron cases, […]Read More

Typhoon Rai moving at over 150 km an hour slammed into the southeastern Philippines, killing 12, damaging communications and leaving roads clogged with uprooted trees and other debris. Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from their homes to safer areas due to rising water levels and heavy rain.Read More

North Korea has banned its people from laughing, shopping and drinking for 11 days to mourn the 10th anniversary of the death of former dictator Kim Jong Il. The bizarre orders include no mourning for any family member who dies during this period.Read More

India’s Health Ministry has warned that Omicron, the fast spreading variant of the Coronavirus, is spreading rapidly with over 101 cases reported so far, 32 in Maharashtra alone. Ten other states are at risk with 19 districts identified as high risk. It said India could see a devastating 14 lakh cases daily if people are […]Read More

India’s Competition Commission has suspended Amazon’s 2019 deal with the Future Group on the grounds that it had made false and incorrect statements and suppressed information about the actual scope of the deal. This is unprecedented and could impact Amazon’s legal battle with its estranged partner Future. Amazon has used its 2019 deal to block […]Read More

France has announced that due to the Covid-19 surge in the UK, only designated categories of people would be allowed to travel between the two countries, and anyone arriving from Britain would have to self-isolate. Those allowed to travel from France to Britain are British nationals returning home, people attending the funeral of a close […]Read More

U.S. military commanders in the Pacific have built a software tool to predict how China will react to U.S. actions in the region like military sales, U.S.-backed military activity and even congressional visits to hotspots like Taiwan. The tool looks at data since early 2020 and evaluates significant activities that impacted U.S.-Sino relations. The computer-based […]Read More

China’s envoy to Japan, Kong Xuanyou, has said the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics had been “used as a political tool” and asked for Japan’s support, while also warning Tokyo not to interfere on Taiwan. It comes at a time Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s party has called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games […]Read More

The Biden administration has said it is imposing new sanctions on several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies and government entities over human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. The Commerce Department is targeting China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes that focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military. […]Read More

Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada showed up in Kandahar on Tuesday and met local officials, including the province’s governor. He ordered that qualified people be posted to government offices, officials maintain good coordination and treat people well, Tolo News reported, quoting Hafez Noor Ahmad Saeed, head of the Culture and Information department. Akhundzada has not […]Read More

China must not provoke its neighbours or seek territorial expansion, Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe said in a message to a security forum. He warned that any Chinese military adventure would be “suicidal”. Abe also backed Taiwan’s entry into the CPTPP free trade agreement and the WHO.Read More

The U.S. will tread respectfully with India on issues like human rights, said Eric Garcetti during his confirmation hearings following President Biden nominating him as ambassador to New Delhi. He skirted a question on sanctioning India for buying the S-400 missile system but said he would work to persuade India to diversify its weapon purchases. He said India was […]Read More

The government has announced a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem. The new policy, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, will provide financial incentives for the industry by facilitating capital support and technological collaborations. It will help semiconductor and display fabs, silicon photonics, sensor fabs etc.Read More

The Tata Group is reportedly in talks with tech giant Microsoft to come in as a strategic investor in its forthcoming digital platform.  The group with interests ranging from cars to coffee is planning to combine digital assets across its businesses under a new entity. The group is taking a leaf from the success of […]Read More

The foreign ministers of the ‘West Asian Quad’ comprising India, Israel, the UAE and the U.S. are expected to meet in March next year to discuss an agenda focused on infrastructure and economic cooperation. The meeting in Dubai will be on the margins of the Dubai Expo. The foreign ministers had held a virtual meeting […]Read More