Tirupati: The famed holy sweet in an unsavoury row in India – BBC.com

  1. Tirupati: The famed holy sweet in an unsavoury row in India  BBC.com
  2. Faith takes centrestage in laddu war, Naidu hits back at Jagan: ‘Nobody is bothered if he reads the Bible at home’  The Indian Express
  3. Jagan Reddy Cancels Tirupati Temple Visit Amid Row Over Animal Fat In Laddoos  NDTV
  4. Jagan Reddy cancels Tirumala temple visit amid Laddus row: ‘Naidu using Hinduism for political gains’  Hindustan Times
  5. From laddu to tallow: BJP's double standards on cattle politics  The News Minute
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Donald Trump says he will meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday – as it happened

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Here is more from the federal indictment against Eric Adams:

In 2014, Eric Adams, the defendant, became Brooklyn borough president. Thereafter, for nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish govermnent official seeking to gain influence over him.

By 2018, Adams – who had by then made known his plans to run for mayor of New York City – not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals.

Eric Adams, the defendant, sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions in the form of ‘nominee’ or ‘straw’ contributions, meaning that the true contributors conveyed their money through nominal donors, who falsely certified they were contributing their own money.

By smuggling their contributions to Adams through US-based straw donors, Adams’ overseas contributors defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign influence on US elections.

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Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again – Reuters

  1. Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again  Reuters
  2. Netanyahu says strikes will continue in Lebanon ‘with full force’  Al Jazeera English
  3. Live Updates: Netanyahu, Set to Give U.N. Speech, Vows to Keep Up Strikes on Hezbollah  The New York Times
  4. PM’s rejection of Lebanon ceasefire plan ‘shatters’ ties with Biden – TV report  The Times of Israel
  5. US offers Middle East ceasefire plan during General Assembly  BBC.com
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Netanyahu says Israel ‘will not stop’ attacks on Hezbollah despite ceasefire calls

Israeli airstrikes killed 92 people in Lebanon on Thursday; John Kirby says White House had believed Israel was ‘on board’ with ceasefire proposal

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire aimed at containing the spread of a conflict that is beginning to engulf Lebanon.

The calls for an immediate ceasefire were backed on Thursday night by Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabib, who told the UN general assembly his country was enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

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Keir Starmer meets with Donald Trump in push for good relationship

The PM and foreign secretary David Lammy met with the Republican candidate, but were not able to schedule a meeting with Kamala Harris

Keir Starmer has met Donald Trump for a two-hour dinner in New York, as he sought to establish a good relationship with the Republican presidential candidate.

The prime minister was accompanied by his foreign secretary David Lammy, who described Trump as a neo-Nazi sympathiser in 2018 but has since said he would work with him in office.

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Harris decries Trump’s ‘proposals of surrender’ as Zelenskyy visits White House

Democratic nominee calls Republican plan to end war between Ukraine and Russia ‘dangerous and unacceptable’

Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, has indirectly denounced the Trump campaign’s policy on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine as “proposals of surrender” as the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington to present his own “victory plan”.

Addressing Zelenskyy at the White House, Harris said that “some in my country” would pressure Ukraine to accept a peace deal in which it surrendered its sovereign territory and neutrality in order to make peace with Vladimir Putin.

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‘Stop killing children’: protests as Netanyahu arrives for UN address

Protesters gather outside UN headquarters in New York to oppose Israeli PM’s visit and to call for end to Gaza war

As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in New York on Thursday ahead of his address to the United Nations general assembly, scheduled for Friday morning, protesters opposed to the war in Gaza gathered near UN headquarters.

One group of people who waved Israeli flags and campaign banners described themselves as an informal coalition of Jewish and Israeli-led organizations taking an anti-occupation and anti-war stance in relation to the Palestinian territories. They assembled close to the UN building in Manhattan to protest against Netanyahu’s arrival after he flew in from Israel overnight.

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As war widens and costs mount, Israel’s economy is in ‘serious danger’ – The Washington Post

  1. As war widens and costs mount, Israel’s economy is in ‘serious danger’  The Washington Post
  2. Next generation of Israelis will not be able to support first world economy, expert says  The Jerusalem Post
  3. Hezbollah 'War' Begins Ruining Israel Economy: Budget Hike Exposes Netanyahu's Zero Hope Of Victory?  Hindustan Times
  4. Can Israel’s economy survive an all-out war with Hizbullah?  The Economist
  5. Why Israeli Shares Are Climbing as Attack on Lebanon Escalates  Haaretz
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‘Pretty farcical’: Keir Starmer downplays use of Waheed Alli’s £18m penthouse

PM says the public can make their own judgments about gifts and maintains no rules have been broken

Keir Starmer has said the row over him borrowing Labour donor Waheed Alli’s luxury flat for filming was “farcical” and that the public would come to their own judgments about his reasons for taking support from the peer.

The prime minister sought to downplay the row over the flat when he was asked about his gifts from the Labour peer while on a trip to New York, after weeks of questions about receiving clothing, spectacles and temporary use of a £18m penthouse from Alli.

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