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Highlights: In Mohan Bhagwat's Address To Indian Expats, A "Janmabhumi-Karmabhumi" Lesson
RSS chief is set to speak to around 5,000 people at the Manhattan venue, at an event billed as a "landmark Raksha Bandhan gathering".
Dark secret comes out on Trump’s big Venezuela oil deal: report
Buried within President Donald Trump’s unprecedented oil deal with Venezuela is a provision designed to exert a level of control over the South American company for 100 years, the Wall Street Journal exclusively reported Saturday night.Announced on Friday, the deal will see the United States be granted rights to Venezuela’s untapped oil fields for a century. Furthermore, the U.S. government would take a direct stake in Venezuela's oil reserves, the single-largest proven oil reserves on earth.According to “people involved in negotiating the agreement” who spoke with the Journal on the condition of anonymity, the U.S. government “plans to take a 35% passive stake” in North American Blue Energy Partners, a private oil-and-gas company led by controversial Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. The company’s structure was also set up in such a way as to tie the hands of future Venezuelan governments.“The private company structure was deliberately intended to bind future Venezuelan governments to the agreement and make it difficult to unwind, one of the people involved said,” the Journal’s report reads. “They consider it unlikely that a new government would expropriate a private company, the people said.”Trump has faced bi-partisan scrutiny over the deal since announcing it on Friday, including from one of the chief supporters of his operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), who slammed the deal in a social media post before quickly deleting it.Venezuelans have been critical of the deal as well.“It’s an operation that’s absolutely unconstitutional because it’s an illegitimate government,” said Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan cabinet minister, speaking with the Journal. “They are seizing [the oil] — there’s no other word for it.”
"Overwhelmed By The Warmth": PM Modi Receives Grand Welcome In Uzbekistan
PM Modi witnessed vibrant Kathak and Andijan Polka dance performances from the Indian diaspora and also saw young children from Uzbekistan perform a lively dance.
GOP lawmaker slams Trump deal in online post — then quietly swaps it with post praising it
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) published a scathing rebuke Saturday of President Donald Trump’s Venezuela oil deal only to quietly delete it and swap it for a post championing the deal as “great,” the New York Post reported.“Any oil ‘deal’ with Venezuela’s interim regime has an expiration date: the day President Trump leaves the White House,” Salazar wrote in a now-deleted social media post on X, according to journalist Orlando Avendaño. “A lasting deal can only be made with a democratically elected government that respects the rule of law, protects private property, and is backed by strong democratic institutions.”The post, as noted by countless onlookers, had soon been deleted, and Salazar later published a new post with commentary about the deal that included “a very different message,” the Post’s report reads.“The oil agreement between the United States and Venezuela is a great deal for the United States and for the Venezuelan people,” Salazar wrote.Trump recently touted what he called “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY,” revealing on Friday that the United States would be given a stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves — the single-largest proven oil reserves on earth.Per the Associated Press, the new deal would grant the U.S. government “rights to untapped oil fields for 100 years.” The provision bears a striking resemblance to a prediction Salazar issued last year when she told Fox News that “American oil companies will be operating in Venezuela for the next 100 years.”Salazar was also among the most vocal supporters of the Trump administration operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and insisted that Venezuelans were "waiting for the Americans to come and help them be free again."
British Far-Right Commentator Deported After Immigration Agents Arrest Him
The deportation on Friday came a day after Yiannopoulos, 41, was arrested at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Australia could make social media algorithms optional and follow UK ban on pornography depicting strangulation
Social services minister says social media was playing a role in the increase of sexual violence among teenagersFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Australian government is considering allowing users to opt in or opt out of social media algorithms, and is looking at a recent UK ban on depictions of strangulation and suffocation in pornography.The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, said social media was “playing a huge role” in the increase in sexual violence among teenagers and choking, and confirmed the options were being considered as the government develops its second action plan to end family and domestic violence against women and children. Continue reading...
CIA chief’s secret Moscow trip exposed as insiders leak details: report
CIA Director John Ratcliffe raised eyebrows this week after secretly jetting off to Moscow, Russia, and while the Kremlin denied that any meetings between Russian officials and Ratcliffe took place, two insiders on Saturday revealed at least one apparent reason for the mysterious trip.Two sources briefed on the matter told Axios Saturday that while in Moscow, Ratcliffe proposed a “trilateral meeting” between President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in just the latest effort to end the Russo-Ukraine war. Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has struggled to bring about an end to the conflict despite his repeated efforts.“Ratcliffe's visit was partly aimed at determining whether Russia's heads of intelligence services could help convince Putin to move toward resuming U.S.-mediated negotiations with Ukraine, the sources said,” Axios’ Barak Ravid wrote in the outlet’s report.“On Friday, U.S. officials briefed Zelensky on Ratcliffe's talks in Moscow and the proposal for a trilateral summit.”Ratcliffe’s trip was so secretive that even top White House aides were “in the dark” about the expedition. The trip reportedly sent European officials “scrambling for information,” according to the Wall Street Journal.According to reports, Ratcliffe took a secretive route to Moscow aboard an unmarked U.S. C-17 military cargo plane flying out of Latvia. Trump, when asked about the trip by reporters, downplayed the mission as being “semi-routine.”“This was the first time Ratcliffe got personally involved in the diplomatic push to broker a breakthrough between Russia and Ukraine,” Axios’ report reads.“Ratcliffe met with his Russian counterparts: SVR foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov. Trump told Axios that Ratcliffe's visit was ‘standard business’ and not intended to warn Russia against attacking NATO territory.”
Fire in California’s Big Sur region doubles in size overnight, forcing evacuations
Plaskett fire has swept through more than 5,900 acres in Monterey county and remains un-contained, says Cal FireA fire in California’s Big Sur region doubled in size overnight, forcing the evacuation of nearby residents, in a coastal region where firefighters have battled another blaze for weeks.The Plaskett fire, which sparked on Tuesday, had swept through more than 5,900 acres (2,400 hectares) in Monterey county as of Friday, and remained un-contained, according to Cal Fire. Its cause is under investigation. Continue reading...
Norway's New King Haakon VIII Pays Tribute To Father In First Speech
Visibly moved, he also noted that his father and mother, Queen Sonja, would have celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary on Saturday.
Nepal Says Post-Flood Reconstruction May Cost 'Billions Of Dollars'
Rescue teams have retrieved 675 bodies, and more than 2,426 people are still missing in Nepal.
Unsettling question raised over Trump admin's role in devastating Nepal floods
The devastating flash floods in Nepal this week that killed at least 670 people and left around 3,000 missing — including 90 Americans — might have claimed fewer lives if not for the actions of the Trump administration, former USAID disaster-response chief Jeremy Konyndyk suggested on Saturday.A series of catastrophic flash floods hit Nepal near its border with China on Wednesday causing unprecedented destruction. The event is believed to have been caused by a glacier collapse in the Himalayas.Konyndyk, who led USAID’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the Biden administration, raised an unsettling question as to whether the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, may have crippled locals’ ability to adequately prepare for such a disaster.“DOGE famously used keyword searches for terms like ‘climate’ to terminate federal grants,” Konyndyk wrote, referring to the DOGE-led blitz to gut funding for USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development.“Among the victims: a collab between USAID and NASA for flood prediction, early warning, disaster readiness, glacier inventories, and mapping dangerous glacial lakes… in Nepal.”Spearheaded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, DOGE oversaw around $60 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid under the Trump administration, leaving “few surviving” USAID projects in its wake. Among the USAID programs Konyndyk said was affected was SERVIR, a program that produced detailed and advanced flood forecasting with “days lead time” that “allows people to plan and prepare for [floods].” The program also specifically monitored the “potentially dangerous glacial lakes of Nepal.”A notice from NASA supports Konyndyk’s assertion that SERVIR was impacted by DOGE cuts.“Earlier this month USAID notified SERVIR partners that they have terminated all agreements and contracts with NASA and the SERVIR network,” the notice, published in late March of 2025, reads. “Without the partnership with USAID, NASA cannot continue the SERVIR program.”DOGE famously used keyword searches for terms like "climate" to terminate federal grants.Among the victims: a collab between USAID and NASA for flood prediction, early warning, disaster readiness, glacier inventories, and mapping dangerous glacial lakes......in Nepal. pic.twitter.com/AYkA8kZqnf— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) August 28, 2026
Nepal-Tibet floods: Nepal calls for technical support for rescue efforts as number of missing rises to nearly 3,000 – as it happened
This blog is now closed.‘The flood took everything I have’: survivors grieve for relatives and homes swept away in NepalChinese rescuers find ‘nothing but ruins’ at border crossing as Nepal seeks help to ID and store the deadOutside the army camp in the Nuwakot district of Nepal, people run their fingers down the sheets of paper pinned to the wall, scanning the growing list of those reported missing for news of loved ones. Nepali authorities said nearly 3,000 people are missing, while China reported more than 550 people unaccounted for.Nepal’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, has appealed for international support to help rebuild the country after the floods, saying reconstruction efforts could run into “billions of dollars” AFP reports. Continue reading...
