Today’s Latest News Transcript at 10:30 AM on 16 November 2023
In top national news: India defeated New Zealand with a 70-run win in the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup. They will now face the winner of the second semi-final between Australia and South Africa in Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad. Mohammed Shami ended with seven wickets and a bunch of records. Like Virat Kohli, who became the first Indian to score 50 ODI centuries earlier in the day, the bowler who snuck into the playing 11 as an injury replacement, too, became the first Indian bowler to take 50 World Cup wickets and the half-century came in just 17 innings, quickest in the tournament’s history.
In other news: The stubble burning incidents crossed the 30,000-mark in Punjab Wednesday as the state reported 2,544 fresh farm fires, even as a senior police official said that a red alert has been sounded in all the districts and legal action will be initiated if anyone found burning stubble. Wednesday marked two months of the farm fires season beginning September 15. The fresh farm fires took total number of such cases to 30,661. The cumulative total is 32.5% less than 45,464 stubble burning cases reported in the corresponding period of 2022, and 54% less than 67,020 farm fires recorded in 2021.
Meanwhile, The opposition Wednesday targeted the government over the Cyprus Confidential revelations on Indian businessmen and NRIs acquiring citizenship of Cyprus, a destination for floating offshore companies, and keeping a safe distance from Indian law enforcement agencies. On Wednesday, The Indian Express, as part of a global investigation in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other media partners, reported that Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani, industrialist Pankaj Oswal and real estate baron Surendra Hiranandani were among 66 Indians who took the Golden Passport route to Cyprus under a scheme that was called the Cyprus Investment Programme – it was scrapped in 2020.
In news from Uttarakhand: With 40 men having spent over 80 hours trapped inside the tunnel in Uttarakhand that collapsed on Sunday morning, the Chief Medical Officer of Uttarkashi, RCS Panwar, Wednesday reported some concerns regarding their health. He said that some of those inside have complained of minor headaches and nausea, and added that delivery of essential medicines, multivitamins, glucose and dry fruits is being ensured through a six-inch pipe to aid the men. Plus, arrangements have already been made for when the men are rescued. This includes a six-bed makeshift hospital near the tunnel, and provisions to transfer serious cases to AIIMS Rishikesh.
In top international news: Israeli troops entered Gaza’s biggest hospital on Wednesday and searched its rooms and basement, witnesses said, in pursuit of Palestinian Hamas militants, an operation that has stoked global alarm over the fate of thousands of civilians trapped inside. Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City has become the main target of the ground operation by Israeli forces, who say Hamas fighters located the “beating heart” of their operations in a headquarters in tunnels beneath it, which Hamas denies. Israel said its troops had uncovered unspecified weapons and “terror infrastructure” inside the hospital compound after killing militants in a clash outside. Once inside, they said there had been no fighting and no friction with civilians, patients or staff.
Qatari mediators were on Wednesday seeking to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that includes the release of around 50 civilian hostages from Gaza in exchange for a three-day ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters. The deal, under discussion, which has been coordinated with the US, would also see Israel release some Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails and increase the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, the official said. It would mark the biggest release of hostages held by Hamas since the Palestinian militant group burst over the Gaza border, attacked parts of Israel and took hostages into the enclave.
In other news: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed on Wednesday to resume military-to-military communications and work to curb fentanyl production, two major outcomes from their first face-to-face talks in a year. Biden and Xi met for about four hours on the outskirts of San Francisco, covered issues that have strained US-Chinese relations, and agreed to commit to closer communication. The two governments said Biden and Xi agreed to resume military contacts that China severed after then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. US and China’s militaries have had a number of near-misses and acrimonious exchanges over the past year.
Lastly: The UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful, dealing a massive blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy and major election pledge before a vote expected next year. The court unanimously rejected the government’s appeal against an earlier ruling that migrants could not be sent to Rwanda because it could not be considered a safe third country. The Rwanda scheme is the central plank of Sunak’s immigration policy as he prepares to face an election next year, amid concern among some voters about the numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats on Britain’s shores.
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