
Rush Hour: Centre denies that India lost Rafale ‘jets', Trump warns BRICS of tariff hikes and more
It is incorrect to say that multiple Rafale jets of the Indian Air Force were shot down by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, Defence Secretary RK Singh has said. During an interview to CNBC-TV18, Singhrefused to answer a question regarding the losses the Air Force suffered during the initial phase of the four-day conflict.
'You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct,' Singh told CNBC-TV18. 'Pakistan suffered losses many times over India in both human and material terms and more than 100 terrorists,' said the defence secretary. He reiterated that the government had given the Indian military operational freedom during the conflict.
This came following a remark by Captain Shiv Kumar, India's defence attaché to Indonesia, on June 10 that the Indian Air Force had lost fighter jets to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor on May 7 because of the 'constraint given by the political leadership'. Read on.
The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued provisional scholarship letters to 40 out of 106 selected candidates for the 2025-'26 National Overseas Scholarship, saying that the remaining 66 will receive theirs 'subject to availability of funds'.
In previous years, all selected candidates were issued letters at the same time.
Although the Union government has funds, they cannot be released without clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said an unidentified official from the ministry. Read on.
United States President Donald Trump on Sunday said that Washington will impose an additional 10% tariffs on countries aligning with the 'anti-American policies' of the BRICS grouping. He did not elaborate on which policies he believed were against the interests of his country.
BRICS comprises India, Brazil, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Leaders of the BRICS nations met in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
In January, Trump had warned members of the BRICS against attempts to replace the US dollar as a reserve currency by repeating a 100%-tariff threat that he had made after winning the presidential election in November. Read on.
The Preamble to the Constitution cannot be altered just like a person cannot change their parents, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has said. He also claimed that no country had changed its Preamble, apart from India during the Emergency.
The remarks came nearly 10 days after the vice president said that the addition of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' to the Preamble was a 'sacrilege to the spirit of sanatana'.
In June, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh called for a review of the inclusion of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' in the Preamble. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Read on.
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The Hindu
22 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Odisha police releases 25 suspected foreign nationals
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The Hindu
22 minutes ago
- The Hindu
How U.S. buyers of critical minerals bypass China's export ban
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Three industry experts corroborated that assessment, including two executives at two U.S. companies who told Reuters they had obtained restricted minerals from China in recent months. The U.S. imported 3,834 metric tons of antimony oxides from Thailand and Mexico between December and April, U.S. customs data show. That was more than almost the previous three years combined. Thailand and Mexico, meanwhile, shot into the top three export markets for Chinese antimony this year, according to Chinese customs data through May. Neither made the top 10 in 2023, the last full year before Beijing restricted exports. Thailand and Mexico each have a single antimony smelter, according to consultancy RFC Ambrian, and the latter's only reopened in April. Neither country mines meaningful quantities of the metal. U.S. imports of antimony, gallium and germanium this year are on track to equal or exceed levels before the ban, albeit at higher prices. Ram Ben Tzion, co-founder and CEO of digital shipment-vetting platform Publican, said that while there was clear evidence of transshipment, trade data didn't enable the identification of companies involved. "It's a pattern that we're seeing and that pattern is consistent," he told Reuters. Chinese companies, he added, were "super creative in bypassing regulations." China's Commerce Ministry said in May that unspecified overseas entities had "colluded with domestic lawbreakers" to evade its export restrictions, and that stopping such activity was essential to national security. It didn't respond to Reuters questions about the shift in trade flows since December. The U.S. Commerce Department, Thailand's Commerce Ministry and Mexico's Economy Ministry didn't respond to similar questions. U.S. law doesn't bar American buyers from purchasing Chinese-origin antimony, gallium or germanium. Chinese firms can ship the minerals to countries other than the U.S. if they have a license. Levi Parker, CEO and founder of U.S.-based Gallant Metals, told Reuters how he obtains about 200 kg of gallium a month from China, without identifying the parties involved due to the potential repercussions. First, buying agents in China obtain material from producers. Then, a shipping company routes the packages, re-labelled variously as iron, zinc or art supplies, via another Asian country, he said. The workarounds aren't perfect, nor cheap, Mr. Parker said. He said he would like to import 500 kg regularly but big shipments risked drawing scrutiny, and Chinese logistics firms were "very careful" because of the risks. Brisk trade Thai Unipet Industries, a Thailand-based subsidiary of Chinese antimony producer Youngsun Chemicals, has been doing brisk trade with the U.S. in recent months, previously unreported shipping records reviewed by Reuters show. Unipet shipped at least 3,366 tons of antimony products from Thailand to the U.S. between December and May, according to 36 bills of lading recorded by trade platforms ImportYeti and Export Genius. That was around 27 times the volume Unipet shipped in the same period a year earlier. The records list the cargo, parties involved, and ports of origin and receipt, but not necessarily the origin of the raw material. They don't indicate specific evidence of transshipment. Thai Unipet couldn't be reached for comment. When Reuters called a number listed for the company on one of the shipping records, a person who answered said the number didn't belong to Unipet. Reuters mailed questions to Unipet's registered address but received no response. Unipet's parent, Youngsun Chemicals, didn't respond to questions about the U.S. shipments. The buyer of Unipet's U.S. shipments was Texas-based Youngsun & Essen, which before Beijing's ban imported most of its antimony trioxide from Youngsun Chemicals. 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The three minerals were already subject to export licensing controls when China banned exports to the U.S. China's exports of antimony and germanium are still below levels hit before the restrictions, according to Chinese customs data. Beijing now faces a challenge to ensure its export-control regime has teeth, said Ben Tzion. "While having all these policies in place, their enforcement is a completely different scenario," he said.


Mint
23 minutes ago
- Mint
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance to meet today: From IBC to RBI, here is what's on the agenda…
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