Gunfire was heard near Venezuela’s Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Monday night, just days after former president Nicolás Maduro was captured and brought to the United States. CNN obtained videos showed what appeared to be lights from drones and anti-aircraft fire across the night sky.

White House has denied any involvement in Venezuela gunfire.CNN later confirmed that the gunfire was due to a “misunderstanding,” with discussions between paramilitary groups linked to the regime suggesting confusion among different security teams near the palace.On Monday morning, Maduro, handcuffed and flanked by armed federal agents, stepped off a helicopter in New York City. He had spent the night in a federal jail in Brooklyn before being transported to a Manhattan courthouse to face criminal charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro was brought to the US to “face justice”.The Trump administration described the operation as “basically a law enforcement function”, rather than a military campaign.“All personnel involved acted professionally, decisively, and in strict accordance with US law and established protocols,” Bondi said.Maduro pleaded not guilty in court on Monday. His lawyers said they would challenge the legality of the US operation.Last week, the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a top secret mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife. It was conducted in Caracas by Delta Force and US law enforcement personnel involving over 150 aircraft launched from 20 different locations. The operation aimed to bring Maduro to the US to face criminal charges related to narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking. Maduro was flown to New York, where he was arraigned at a Manhattan courthouse and pleaded not guilty.After the mission, President Trump said that the US will ‘run’ Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later clarified that the US does not intend to govern the Latin American country but will impose blockades on its oil sector.

Travis Head and Steve Smith delivered stellar centuries on Day 3 of the 5th Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, guiding Australia to a dominant position. Their resilience and aggressive approach with the bat put England under severe pressure as the hosts built a healthy lead. With Australia reaching 518/7 at the close of play, they led England by 134 runs, giving them a firm grip on the game. The day saw England struggle to break through as both Head and Smith held their ground with determination, leaving the visitors with limited options for a counterattack. Australia’s surge in the third session, powered by these two centuries, put England in a position where they needed to regroup quickly to avoid being overrun.

Travis Head’s unstoppable 163 and Steve Smith’s calm 129 provides stability as Australia dominates

Head’s blistering knock of 163 (166 balls, 24×4, 1×6) was a masterclass in attacking cricket. His innings featured 24 boundaries and showcased his ability to accelerate the scoring when needed. Head came out with intent and found his rhythm early, dominating the bowlers with flair and composure. His aggressive yet calculated approach meant he was never bogged down, even when the pressure of taking Australia’s innings forward mounted. His partnership with Smith was crucial, and together, they pushed Australia from a solid foundation to a commanding position.

While Head provided the aggression, Smith’s 129 (205 balls, 15×4, 1×6) anchored Australia’s innings, providing the perfect balance. Smith, known for his meticulous technique and unwavering concentration, faced 205 balls and struck 15 boundaries along with one six. His innings was marked by patience and a deep understanding of how to build a long, impactful knock. While others around him lost their wickets, Smith remained resolute and kept the scoreboard ticking. Smith’s calmness, coupled with his ability to rotate the strike and build partnerships, ensured that Australia continued to dictate the flow of the match.

Also READ: Ashes 2025-26: Fans go wild as Steve Smith lights up SCG with 37th century in Test cricket

England’s bowling attack struggles with pressure and inaccuracy

England’s bowlers, despite their best efforts, were largely ineffective in stopping the flow of runs. The day belonged to Australia’s batters, but England’s attack had plenty to answer for. Ben Stokes, despite his reputation as a match-winner, struggled to find a breakthrough, ending the day with figures of 2/87 from 26 overs.

Similarly, Brydon Carse, who had been effective in previous sessions, ended with figures of 3/108 from 23 overs. The standout performer for England in the series so far was Josh Tongue, who took the crucial wicket of Alex Carey but otherwise failed to trouble the batsmen significantly. With the ball frequently drifting into the hitting zone and the seam movement limited, England’s bowlers found it difficult to create consistent pressure. As a result, they were unable to capitalize on any moments of vulnerability, leaving Australia in the driver’s seat. With their bowling attack now under pressure, England will need a monumental effort to try and restrict Australia’s further progress in the match.

Here’s how fans reacted: 

The greatness of Steve Smith in red ball is not his tons or his stats, it’s his ability to adapt anyway possible to score runs his fight with himself to find a method to get runs in any conditions is a delight to watch.🏏

— Shantanu Shrivastava (@DaKingInDaNorff) January 6, 2026

Only Don Bradman has more than Steve Smith’s 13 Ashes centuries, which feels apt. Smith’s status as Australia’s best batter since Bradman is hard to dispute.

— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) January 6, 2026

Best batter of this generation.#Smudge https://t.co/pnerz3Zqyj

— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) January 6, 2026

Series-defining ton in the 1st Test, series-sealing ton in the 3rd Test & a series-championing ton in the fifth. All of them in a position where he’d not batted before at home. Best Test batter in the world or not, Travis Head is the most impactful Test batter in the world #Ashes pic.twitter.com/9ZSkqjLywJ

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) January 5, 2026

Travis Head in middle order 🗿
Travis Head as opener 🗿
Travis Head in Tests, in ODIs, in T20s 🗿

Head carried Australia in BGT last year, in The Ashes this year. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/4j4tonpNJW

— Dinda Academy (@academy_dinda) January 6, 2026

Travis Head the only bloke to successfully play BazBall this series. He’s everything we hoped Ben Duckett would be opening this series. Worst of all he seems like quite a nice bloke

— TheCricketMen (@thecricketmen) January 5, 2026

England have no full time bowling or fielding coach

This isn’t a serious management, as an opposition side you’d hope Key, Mccullum and Stokes continue as a combo #Ashes

— Chatil Panditasekara (@ChatilPandi) January 6, 2026

The top 10 run scorers & wicket takers in this Ashes have all been from England and Australia. This is called dominance 🔥

— Udit (@udit_buch) January 6, 2026

England waste a review on the nightwatchman, and have only one left, with the whole of day three stretching out before them.

— Lawrence Booth (@BoothCricket) January 5, 2026

Also READ: Ricky Ponting selects Australia’s 16-man squad for Ashes 2027; picks two uncapped players

Wipro will continue to allow for temporary remote working, but the allowable number of such days has been reduced to 12 from 15 in a calendar year.

IT services giant Wipro has tweaked its work from office policy, putting in more stringent checks for employees. The new rules require employees to stay in the office at least six hours. Wipro is currently following a hybrid work model under which employees are mandated to work from the office at least three days in a week. The Bengaluru-based company, which employs around 234,000 people, rolled out the updated policy with effect from January 1, 2026.Although the requirement to attend office three days a week has been in effect for some time, the stipulation of a six-hour minimum stay, measured between entry and exit punches, is a new element of the company’s hybrid work framework in India.

Wipro’s New Work From Office Rules Effective January 2026

Employees who do not meet the weekly attendance requirement will see their leaves being deducted accordingly. Additionally, those who spend fewer than six hours in the office on a mandated day will see a half-day leave deduction, according to an ET report.Wipro will continue to allow for temporary remote working, but the allowable number of such days has been reduced to 12 from 15 in a calendar year. These days can be used for personal health needs, illness, or caregiving responsibilities.Communicating the changes through a recent internal email, the company said hybrid work remains central to its future workplace strategy. “We trust all associates will follow the policy in both letter and spirit as it supports collaboration across teams while providing flexibility,” the email reportedly said.The communication also clarified that the six-hour requirement refers only to the minimum duration of office presence and not the total daily working time, which continues to be 9.5 hours. Employees are expected to complete the remaining working hours from home on the same day and ensure delivery of assigned tasks.The changes to work from office rules come as the $283 billion information technology industry faces sluggish topline growth, with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence beginning to erode its traditional people-led delivery model.According to industry experts, increasingly tight project schedules and the need for closer coordination have pushed technology companies to scale back remote work and emphasise in-person collaboration.“Earlier, applications used to be rolled out every two or three years. Now, the way software is designed and coded is different, with applications being rolled out in as little as eight weeks. So, with upgrades getting faster, people have to collaborate and work much quicker, which makes remote working inefficient,” said Guruprasad Srinivasan, executive director at staffing firm Quess Corp.He added that while routine, process-driven activities such as accounting, data handling and legal services can still be carried out independently, product development and project execution, often referred to as transformational work, require teams to be physically present to improve turnaround time and output quality.

Indian IT Sector’s Work From Office Rules

India’s largest IT services provider, Tata Consultancy Services, introduced a five-day-a-week office attendance policy last year. The framework allows employees to work from home for two days a month in case of health-related issues. It has also tied variable compensation to office attendance, with full payouts applicable for attendance above 85%, reduced payouts for lower levels, and no variable pay for attendance below 60%.Although TCS mandates a nine-hour workday at the office, its monitoring system sends alerts only when an employee’s office presence falls short of four hours. Infosys, the country’s second-largest IT firm with a staff strength exceeding 300,000, announced its return-to-office policy on November 20, 2023. Under the policy, employees at job level 5 and below are required to work from office for at least 10 days each month.

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What if someone knows what is about to happen and bets on it? This is just what many people are wondering after a mystery trader walked away with a payout of more than $436,000 from an online prediction market, after US announced the capture of Venezuela’s former President, Nicolas Maduro, according to CBS news.An anonymous user on cryptocurrency-based prediction platform, Polymarket, placed a wager of roughly $32,000 on Maduro’s removal from power shortly before US President Donald Trump publicly announced that US forces had ousted the former Venezuelan leader. The timing of the bet has raised serious concerns among legal and financial experts about whether the trader may have had access to inside information, and what it means for the integrity of such platforms.

Here’s what happened:

The bettor, whose account appeared to have been created in December, staked $32,537 on the outcome that Maduro would be “out by January 31, 2026.” The speculative bet was placed just before Trump posted on Truth Social at 4.21 am on Saturday announcing Maduro’s arrest. That single wager ultimately paid out more than $436,000, according to market data, prompting scrutiny over whether the trade was placed with knowledge of a classified US operation to seize Maduro and his wife. The bettor had also placed many other bets surrounding Venezuela.

The win sounds sus…

Experts told CBS news that several red flags point to the possibility of insider knowledge. “It clearly suggests that the bettor did have access to inside information,” said Dennis Kelleher, co-founder and chief executive of Better Markets, a non-partisan financial reform advocacy group. “This particular bet has all the hallmarks of a trade based on inside information. It happened very late, right before the very event they were betting on happened; it was a relatively large amount of money; and it happened in a market that is not really regulated and where there is no transparency.” The same Polymarket account also placed three additional wagers closely linked to US action against Venezuela: a $1,000 bet that the US would invade Venezuela by January 31; a $250 wager that Trump would invoke the War Powers Act against Venezuela by the same date; and a $146 bet predicting that US forces would land in Venezuela before the end of the month. “It was a new account only betting on issues around the Venezuelan president’s potential removal from office — there are a lot of telltale signs that make it seem like insider trading,” Stephen Piepgrass, a regulatory attorney at Troutman Pepper told CBS news.

Polymarket

Polymarket, a New York-based prediction market that recently secured a $2 billion investment from stock exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange, did not respond to requests for comment on the Maduro-related wagers. The platform is currently seeking regulatory approval to operate in the United States. However, company chief executive Shayne Coplan has previously acknowledged that insiders can influence prediction markets. Speaking to CBS news he said that insiders “having an edge to the market is a good thing”. “Obviously, you need to curate them and you need to be really clear and stringent on where the line is drawn and, like, sort of ethics, and we spend a lot of time on that. But it’s sort of an inevitability that this will happen, and there’s a lot of benefits from it. And, you know, people will adapt,” he told 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper. The controversy has also drawn attention to the broader regulatory gaps surrounding prediction markets. Oversight of such platforms falls under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which also regulates similar services such as Kalshi. Legal experts told CBS news that the Maduro wager could potentially violate the Commodity Exchange Act, which governs futures and options trading and prohibits betting on events related to assassination, terrorism and war. Kelleher warned that the episode exposes broader risks for everyday users of prediction markets. “Consumers and investors should know that these are totally unregulated, non-transparent markets and that the odds of losing money are incredibly high,” he said.

Mohammed Shami (ANI image)

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has asked Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami to appear in Kolkata for a hearing under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The hearing has now been rescheduled after Shami cited professional commitments.Shami was originally called to appear on Monday at a school in Jadavpur along with his brother Mohammed Kaif for voter verification. However, the pacer could not attend as he is currently in Rajkot, representing Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Following his request, the Election Commission agreed to give fresh dates and the hearing will now be held between January 9 and 11.Officials said Shami is a registered voter of Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s Ward 93, which falls under the Rashbehari constituency. According to the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer’s office, the hearing was required after discrepancies were found in the Enumeration Form submitted by Shami and his brother.“The Enumeration Form was incorrectly filled out by the cricketer and his brother, because of which they were called for the hearing,” an official said.Though originally from Uttar Pradesh, Shami has lived in Kolkata for several years due to his cricketing career. He moved to the city at a young age, trained under former Bengal Ranji captain Sambaran Bandyopadhyay and later earned a place in Bengal’s under-22 team.The development comes amid the Special Intensive Revision exercise in West Bengal, which has seen several celebrities being issued hearing notices, placing them on the same footing as ordinary voters. Apart from Shami, actor and Trinamool Congress MP Dev and actor couple Laboni Sarkar and Kaushik Bandyopadhyay, have also been called or identified during the process.Election officials said the SIR exercise is aimed at correcting voter records and ensuring accuracy. All voters, including public figures are required to comply with the verification process.