In top news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia on the 8th and 9th of July to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said. Putin and Modi will discuss prospects for further developing bilateral ties as well as international and regional issues, the Kremlin said in a statement. The foreign ministry said that PM Modi and Putin will exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest, and review the entire range of multifaceted relations between the two countries. This will be Modi’s first visit to Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022 and is significant given India’s tactful diplomacy on ties with Moscow and the West in the backdrop of their hostility.
Moving on: The Congress wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP MP Anurag Thakur had made inaccurate and misleading statements in the House. Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who wrote to the Speaker, requested that provisions of Direction 115(1) be invoked and “requisite proceedings be initiated and appropriate action be taken in this regard”. Alleging the prime minister said in his speech in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the quote “Congress made a false promise of Rs 8,500 per month to women” unquote, the Virudhunagar MP wrote, quote “It was a promise [to be fulfilled] on victory and government formation” unquote.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have deployed a new force of 960 trained policemen in the border areas of the Union Territory to exclusively work on combating infiltration and terrorism. The move, which many see as following the pattern of the US Marines, comes amid a spike in infiltration by heavily armed foreign terrorists from Pakistan. Nearly 560 of these police personnel have been deployed in the border areas of Jammu division and the remaining in Kashmir Valley. Significantly, this is the first-ever force in the Jammu and Kashmir Police whose personnel cannot be deployed for any other duty.
The minor accused in the Pune Porsche crash case has submitted to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) the essay on road accidents and their solutions, as part of the compliance of conditions set by the JJB while granting him bail after the May 19 accident, sources told The Indian Express. While ordering his release from the juvenile observation home in Pune on June 25, the Bombay High Court had said he will continue to be governed by the bail conditions set by the JJB that included writing a 300-word essay on the subject. It is also learnt that the process has been initiated to comply with other conditions such as psychological counselling at Sassoon Hospital.
In top international news: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel is nearing the conclusion of its operation aimed at dismantling Hamas' military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. ""We are advancing to the end of the phase of eliminating the terrorist army of Hamas, and there will be a continuation to strike its remnants,"" Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. In a related move, the Israeli military has mandated a mass evacuation for Palestinians in the eastern half of Khan Younis. This order suggests that Israeli forces may be preparing to return to the city, Gaza's second-largest, which had previously been the site of an Israeli offensive earlier this year.
In news from the US: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it would revoke the regulation that authorized the use of brominated vegetable oil in food items, effective Aug. 2, as it was no longer safe. BVO is a chemical ingredient containing bromine, which is found in fire retardants. Small quantities of BVO are used legally in some citrus-flavoured drinks in the United States to keep the flavour evenly distributed. The FDA said it had concluded that BVO was not safe for use after the results of studies, it conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, found the potential for adverse effects in humans.
French opposition parties made hurried deals Tuesday to try to block a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in Sunday's second round of legislative elections, as she said her party would lead the government only if it wins an absolute majority or close to it. The National Rally, under party president Jordan Bardella, secured the most votes in the first round of the early legislative elections on June 30 but not enough to claim an overall victory that would allow the formation of France’s first far-right government since World War II. “We cannot accept going into government if we cannot act,"" Le Pen said in an interview with public broadcaster France Inter.
Lastly: In a major achievement for India’s digital advancement, the Unified Payments Interface aka UPI was launched in the world-renowned flagship store Galeries Lafayette in Haussman, Paris. It was in January 2024 that UPI based payment method was launched at the Eiffel Tower. The step is being seen as an extension of PM Narendra Modi led government’s vision to globalise the UPI revolution. It means whether you are in India, visiting the iconic wonder Eiffel Tower or shopping at Galeries Lafayette, one can use the UPI directly to make the payments. The Indian Embassy in France tweeted the pictures of the launch of UPI in Paris on social media on Thursday.