"Unjustified": Russia On India Facing "Enormous Pressure" Due To Energy Ties

India is a great power that determines its national interests and chooses its partners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, describing as "completely unjustified" the "enormous pressure" on New Delhi due to its energy cooperation with Moscow.

During a press conference here on Wednesday, Lavrov also termed as "insulting" Ukraine's remarks on the recent meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Moscow. "I think India is a great power that sets its own national interests, determines its own national interests, and chooses its own partners. And we know that India is being subject to enormous pressure, completely unjustified pressure in the international arena," Lavrov said.

Lavrov was responding to a question about Prime Minister Modi's recent visit to Moscow and the opposition faced by India for its energy cooperation with Russia. With Russia presiding over the UN Security Council for the month of July, Lavrov is in New York to chair meetings of the Council being held under Moscow's presidency.

Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Russia on July 8-9 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 22nd India - Russia Annual Summit. This was Modi's first trip to Russia since the start of the Ukraine conflict.

India has not yet condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has consistently pitched for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also criticised Modi's visit to Moscow, saying in a post on X that "A Russian missile struck the largest children's hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were buried under the rubble.

"It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world's largest democracy hug the world's most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day," Zelenskyy had said of the Modi-Putin meeting.

India had conveyed to Kyiv its displeasure over the remarks. It was learnt that India's disappointment over the comments by Zelenskyy was communicated to Ukraine's mission in Delhi.

Referring to Zelenskyy's comments about Modi's trip to Russia being "a stabbing in the back of all peace efforts", Lavrov said, "So that was very insulting and the Ukrainian ambassador was called in" and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs "talked to him about how he should be behaving." "The ambassadors were really behaving as if they were hooligans," he said, referring to remarks made by some other Ukrainian envoys.

"So I think India is doing everything right," he said.

Lavrov noted that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, after touring Western nations, answered questions including about why India was buying more oil from Russia.

Lavrov said Jaishankar cited statistics that showed that the West has also increased its purchases of gas and oil from Russia, despite some of the restrictions that have been imposed.

Lavrov said Jaishankar "went on to say that India will decide for itself how to trade with whom and how to defend its national interests." "But the fact that the West is exhibiting its displeasure to powers - powers like China, like India - well, it shows their lack of erudition, their inability to partake in diplomacy, and also speak to the failure of political analysts. Because speaking this way, to these great Asian powers... you might dream of that but it's really beneath them. It's really beneath them behaving this way vis-a-vis any and all countries but in particular when they're speaking in this way to these two giants, these two great powers." On India's oil purchases from Russia, Jaishankar earlier said that it is his duty to put the interest of the Indian people first to ensure that they do not pay the cost of some other countries' actions or some other region's actions for fertilizer, food, etc.

"It's not just that we buy oil from one country. We buy oil from multiple sources, but it is a sensible policy to go where we get the best deal in the interests of the Indian people and that is exactly what we are trying to do," Jaishankar has said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Kerala Temple Denies Entry To Foreigner, Congress' Karti Chidambaram Reacts

Congress leader Karti Chidambaram recently reacted to a video wherein a foreigner woman claims that she wasn't allowed to enter a temple in Kerala due to her nationality and religion. In the clip, the woman wearing a saree is heard saying that she was denied entry into the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala as she was told that "only Indians were allowed in the temple". When her fiance, who is an Indian, informed the authorities that they were engaged and she will soon become an Indian, they were sent to the temple office where they were informed that only Hindus were permitted to enter the temple premises. 

The clip originally shared on X by user Harpreet quickly gained traction among social media users. It also caught the attention of Congress leader Karti Chidambaram. Resharing the video, Mr Chidambaram wrote, "Why should anyone be barred from a place worship they want to visit?" 

Take a look at the video below: 

Why should anyone be barred from a place worship they want to visit? https://t.co/Y6LrCCJUwV

— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) July 16, 2024

In the video, the woman revealed that she was in fact a Hindu. However, the temple authorities asked her to present a certificate. "Who is carrying a certificate at all times?" the woman is heard asking in the video. 

"This is just not fair," she said, adding that she is going to marry an Indian and has read the Gita, despite which the guards were treating her "like a criminal". She called the temple authorities "racist". She also said that she bought and wore a saree only to enter this temple and extended their trip for a day. "Who is this person sitting in front of God and telling me that we can't enter?" she asked, adding that this is not hate but this is how they feel.

The video, which NDTV could not independently verify, has accumulated millions of views on the microblogging website. In the comments section, while some users supported the foreigner's argument of letting her enter the temple, others asserted that traditions must be respected. 

"Anyone irrespective of their religion and nationality, should be allowed inside hindu temples. Only condition should be they should respect the culture of the temple like dress code , eating vegetarian foods, removing slippers," wrote one user. 

Also Read | Temple Trust Suggests Shankaracharya To Prove Gold Theft Claim In Court

"While I agree with lots of comments thats its a holy place, not a religious one, I also believe that one should ally anyone seeking faith. If they respect the rules and traditions, there shouldn't be any issue at all," expressed another. "Sad and disheartening to hear this couple's experience on being barred from visiting a temple to worship," commented a third. 

However, one user wrote, "Because it is not a tourist place u want to visit ....it is a place u go to worship." To this, Mr Chidambaram responded, "And you are sure of the piety of "everyone" who visit without being challenged since they don't visibly look 'racially different'"

"Do you allow anyone and everyone to enter your house ?? nahin na .. you think temples are parks anyone and everyone should be allowed??" questioned another. "Temples are not tourist places. It's as simple as that. If they give a declaration in writing that they believe in Hinduism , the temple would have allowed them," wrote another user. 

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Sikh Republican Faces Backlash After Leading Prayers At Party Convention

Sikh Republican Harmeet Dhillon delivered a prayer at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Monday. Ms Dhillon, a religious-liberty lawyer and former Donald Trump campaign adviser, told the Milwaukee audience that she comes from a family of Sikh immigrants. She shared a prayer from her faith tradition, which translates to, "This body and soul are yours. You are our mother and father, and we are your children. In your grace and through your benevolence, we experience peace and happiness!" 

She then thanked God for protecting Donald Trump, who was shot at on Sunday at a Pennsylvania rally. She said, “We thank you, dear God, for protecting his life.”

However, some conservative Christians on X criticised Ms Dhillon's prayer, saying it was "unacceptable" and that she was praying to a "foreign god." 

ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!! I have nothing but respect for Harmeet Dhillon but fire whoever invited her to pray to a foreign god, there is only one true God we pray to and his name is not whatever she said. His name is YAHWEH and his only begotten Son is Jesus Christ pic.twitter.com/Vxiq4NSZdi

— George (@BehizyTweets) July 16, 2024

Ms Dhillon responded by tweeting that she was "blocking quite a few people", and that the majority of the response to her prayer had been positive. 

Blocking quite a few people…

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) July 16, 2024

Ms Dhillon told The Post, “Overall, while the voices of haters can be amplified artificially online, I would say the vast majority of the response to my prayer by mainstream Republicans has been positive, and I'm grateful for that.”

She considers herself an ally to people of all religions in the US. She believes that Sikhs, Jews, and Christians all pray to the same God. She stated, “We believe that there is one God.”

As a lawyer, Ms Dhillon has advocated for the religious rights of all Americans. She has defended Sikhs against discrimination and supported doctors and pharmacists who refuse to perform abortions due to their religious beliefs. Ms Dhillon credits her Sikh faith for inspiring her advocacy work. She says, "My faith teaches me to give back to my community and to be humble."

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Trump Backs Jerome Powell To Complete Fed Term If Re-Elected: Report

US presidential nominee Donald Trump would let Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell complete his four-year term to 2026 if he returns to the White House, he said in an interview published Tuesday.

"I would let him serve it out, especially if I thought he was doing the right thing," Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek, according to CNBC's website.

In April, it was reported that allies of Trump's campaign were drafting various proposals to weaken the independence of the US central bank, the most radical of which involved firing its chairman.

Trump regularly criticizes Powell, who he selected to head the Fed when he was in the White House.

In February, the Republican decried Powell's decision to lower interest rates in 2024, saying it would help the Democratic Party win the presidential election.

He also said he would not reappoint him if elected president.

Powell was first brought onto the Fed's board of governors by Democratic president Barack Obama in 2012.

Trump appointed him to lead the financial institution in 2018 and President Joe Biden selected him to serve a second term in 2022.

Powell's 14-year term on the Fed's board of governors will end in 2028.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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The Stunning Reason Why Our Days Are Becoming Longer

It's well known that as far as the climate crisis goes, time is of the essence.

Now a study out Monday shows that the melting of the polar ice caps is causing our planet to spin more slowly, increasing the length of days at an "unprecedented" rate.

The paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that water flowing from Greenland and Antarctica is resulting in more mass around the equator, co-author Surendra Adhikari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told AFP.

"It's like when a figure skater does a pirouette, first holding her arms close to her body and then stretching them out," added co-author Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich.

"The initially fast rotation becomes slower because the masses move away from the axis of rotation, increasing physical inertia."

Earth is commonly thought of as a sphere, but it's more accurate to call it an "oblate spheroid" that bulges somewhat around the equator, a bit like a satsuma.

What's more, its shape is constantly changing, from the impacts of the daily tides that affect the oceans and crusts to longer-term effects from the drift of tectonic plates, and abrupt, violent shifts caused by earthquakes and volcanoes.

The paper relied on observational techniques like Very Long Baseline Interferometry, where scientists can measure the difference in how long it takes for radio signals from space to reach different points on Earth, and use that to infer variations in the planet's orientation and length of day.

It also used the Global Positioning System, which measures Earth's rotation very precisely, to about one-hundredth of a millisecond, and even looked at ancient eclipse records going back millennia.

Implications for space travel 

If the Earth turns more slowly, then the length of the day increases by a few milliseconds from the standard measure of 86,400 seconds.

A currently more significant cause of slowdown is the gravitational pull of the Moon, which pulls on the oceans in a process called "tidal friction" that has caused a gradual deceleration of 2.40 milliseconds per century over millions of years.

But the new study comes to a surprising conclusion that, if humans continue to emit greenhouse gases at a high rate, the effect of a warming climate will be greater than that of the Moon's pull by the end of the 21st century, said Adhikari.

Between the year 1900 and today, climate has caused days to become around 0.8 milliseconds longer -- and under the worst-case scenario of high emissions, climate alone would be responsible for making days 2.2 milliseconds longer by the year 2100, compared to the same baseline.

That might not sound like a great deal, and certainly not something that humans are able to perceive.

But "there are definitely a lot of implications for space and Earth navigation," said Adhikari.

Knowing the exact orientation of Earth at any given moment is crucial when attempting to communicate with a spaceship, such as the Voyager probes that are now well beyond our solar system, where even a slight deviation of a centimetre can end up being kilometres off by the time it reaches its destination.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Resolve Differences At Ballot Box, Not With Bullets": US President Biden

Following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, US President Joe Biden addressed the nation on Sunday, stating that violence cannot be normalised at any cost and emphasising that differences in America are "resolved at ballot boxes, not with bullets."

In his Oval Office address Sunday evening, President Joe Biden stated that while some Americans disagree on the country's future, "politics must never be a battlefield."

"Disagreement is inevitable and American democracy is part of human nature...but politics must never be a literal battlefield or, God forbid, a killing field," the US President said, according to CNN.

Biden further said that with the election approaching, there is an "added burden on each of us to ensure that no matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence."

He went on to say that with the Republican National Convention coming up this week, "I have no doubt they'll criticise my record and offer their own vision for this country. I'll be travelling this week, making the case for our record and vision."

"We debate and disagree, we compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box, that's how we do it, at the ballot box, not with bullets," Biden further said.

"The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin," he said.

The US President further emphasised the need "to lower the temperature" in politics, CNN reported.

"I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, when we disagree, we are not enemies; we are neighbours, we are friends, co-workers, citizens and, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together," Biden said in his address.

"Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here," he added.

An Oval Office address is a rare occurrence. This is only the third time US President Biden has done this.

The last time he spoke from the Oval Office was on October 19, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel. According to CNN, an address from the Oval Office is usually reserved for the country's most solemn and heavy moments.

Biden reiterated that there is no place for such violence in America, referring to the attack on Trump during his Saturday rally in Pennsylvania.

"There is no place in America for this kind of violence. Any violence. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to be normalised," he said.

In his address, Biden also listed a number of previous attacks that have taken place in US history on various public figures. Among the attacks he cited, the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the beating of Nancy Pelosi's husband were some that he mentioned, according to CNN.

Trump was on stage at a campaign rally on Saturday when gunshots rang out and Secret Service agents stormed the stage.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, with the case continuing to be under investigation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Purses Barred, 2-Hour Long Checks: Woman At Trump Rally Describes Security

Those who attended Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania last night -- and were witnesses to a shocking assassination attempt -- were not allowed to carry purses and security checks took nearly two hours, a woman who was at the gathering has told The Washington Post.

Fifty-one-year-old Melissa Shaffert is an English teacher and went to the rally at Butler with her boyfriend. She usually carried a concealed firearm and knife, but left them at home yesterday because she knew they wouldn't be allowed. Purses were not allowed and it took them 1-2 hours to get through the scanners, she has told the Post. "They took everything out and they took their time," she said.

About 50 feet from the stage, she said, were two tractors and giant combines. "I thought: 'I'm sure glad no one can get a weapon in here because someone could stand on the [equipment] and we'd be sitting ducks,'" she said hours after the former President was shot at. While Trump suffered a bullet injury in his right ear, one of those attending the rally died and two others were critically injured in the shooting.

Shaffert recounted that the Republican leader had started talking about illegal immigration when she heard loud, abrupt sounds and thought they were fireworks. She then heard "whistles" and "whizzes."

"I thought: That's bullets. I said: 'Get your head down!'"

She said that chaos broke out as the crowd realised that they were caught in a shooting and that she did not immediately realise that Trump was injured. "People were laying on the ground Then everyone was staying calm and helping each other get up. People were like: 'Are you OK? Are you OK?'" Shaffert said.

Shaffert and her boyfriend somehow managed to make their way to the car and left the spot. It's only when they reached home that they realised the extent of what had happened.

"It's devastating. That a presidential nominee has been shot is unbelievable," she told the Post. "It's very scary. I don't feel like proper precautions are being taken," she added.

The FBI, which is investigating the assassination attempt, has identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the shooter. He was gunned down soon after the shooting.

Asked how the gunman was able to fire several shots before he was neutralised, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said it was "surprising". Asked about security, he said Secret Service "needs to answer that question."

"They do the initial security assessments and determine where the different security locations should be. And they're the ones who are in charge of securing the scene," he said.

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