Rubio pitches oil from U.S., Venezuela in Mumbai visit

Calling India a "refining superpower", U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said he discussed possible Indian oil purchases from the U.S. during talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, adding that India and the U.S. are "very, very close" to wrapping up negotiations on a much-delayed free trade agreement.

Terror ecosystem must be dismantled, Rajnath tells SCO

There can be no justification for terrorism and no double standard in tackling the menace, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday as he called upon the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorism.

China imposes restrictions on export of tunnel-boring, high-altitude machinery

China has said that it would introduce export controls, starting Novem-ber 18, on tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) and other heavy machinery used in high-altitude terrain "to better safeguard national security and interests".

Unknown gaps

India must do better at detecting and preventing data breaches

The cybersecurity advisory by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has outlined two threat vectors vis-à-vis In-dian commercial and government IT infrastructure: Al companies testing autonomous agents ex-ceeding their designated operational constraints and bad actors weaponising open-source agentic Al tools for automated reconnaissance and exploitation.

Moves by the North of England to unlock India trade

The India-United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has opened the door to a new phase in the relationship between the two countries, with the focus now shifting from agreement to action. The momentum is already being seen, as the leaders from across the North of England have been travelling together to India, for the first time under The Great North banner to strengthen ties on trade, investment, innovation, culture and the visitor economy.

How conversion affects reservation

• The Supreme Court upheld the Madras HC judgment invalidating Tamil Nadu's order enabling persons converting to Islam from Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes to obtain Backward Class Muslim certificates

• The State argued that a person who had enjoyed reservation should not lose every benefit by converting. The concern is understandable, but the order grouped persons from SC, BC, MBC and DNC classifications, without demonstrating a common social characteristic

Centre's plan for Ladakh gives L-G final authority over laws

The draft proposed by the Centre for a unique constitu-tional arrangement in Ladakh says that the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) would be the final authority on any regulation made by the Union Territory-level elected body.

Hill councils to be created in all eight districts of Ladakh

Ladakh is all set to hold elections to eight hill coun-cils for eight districts as President Droupadi Mur-mu promulgated the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC) (Amendment) Regulation, 2026, Lieute-nant Governor Vinai Ku-mar Saxena said on Tuesday. "It was implemented in a record time of just six days and now paves the way for creation of LAHDC in all eight districts of La-dakh, including the newly-created Sankoo district. The Union Cabinet had ap-proved the amendments on October 14, followed by its promulgation by the Ho-nourable President on 16th October."

Aditya-L1 mission offers new insights into the direction of solar eruptions

Scientists have generated Doppler velocity images of activities taking place in the solar corona using data obtained with the Visible Emission Line Corona-graph (VELC) payload on-board India's maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1. The Aditya-L1 satellite generates Doppler velocity images of the solar corona, and these images are ex-pected to provide informa-tion on the propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) along the Sun-Earth direction, which has been unavailable to date.

India-New Zealand free trade agreement takes effect

The India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA), signed on April 27, came into effect on Tuesday, providing duty-free access to a range of Indian goods, including products from labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and leather. It is the seventh trade pact to come into force in the last five years. The others are agreements with the UAE, Mauritius, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) bloc, the U.K., Oman and Australia. Signed on April 27, the agreement follows negotiations launched in 2010, stalled in 2015 and revived in March 2025.

Scientists unearth new instance of 'contagious cancer' in animals

Ordinarily, cancers are not regarded as contagious whereas AIDS, COVID-19, -tuberculosis, and malaria are. Contagious diseases spread from one person to another through direct contact, airborne droplets or through insect vectors (like mosquitoes). On the other hand, cancers originate from one of the patient's own cells. However, so far, scientists have documented three instances in which naturally occurring cancers in animals became contagious. That is, the cancer cells originated in one individual, then moved into another, formed tumours in its new host, and then moved on in search of still other hosts.

Heat storms: giant heat waves

Heat waves have evolved from sporadic, isolated episodes to massive, cascading weather events that can blanket vast swaths of the planet for months or even years at a time. To continue calling such sprawling phenomena 'heat waves' would be like calling a monsoon a 'rain shower'. To understand the new reality of these immense expanses of heat, a consultation with two dozen climate researchers and an analysis of temperatures worldwide for for every hour since 1960 has yielded a new concept: heat storm.