The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, marking a dramatic escalation in his administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela. “As you probably know, we have just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump said during a White House event on a new luxury visa programme. Trump declined to say who owned the tanker. But when asked about the ship’s oil, he said: “Well, we keep it, I guess.” Meanwhile, hours after Trump’s statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi shared a video in a post in X and said that the government executed a seizure warrant on a tanker headed from Venezuela and Iran.“Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations. This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely—and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues,” she added. A video posted by Bondi showed armed operators descending ropes from helicopters onto the deck of the vessel before entering what appeared to be the bridge.The reports came two days after Trump declined to rule out deploying troops in an interview with POLITICO. In the interview, Trump repeatedly declined to rule out sending troops to bring down Maduro, whom he accused of exporting drugs and criminals to the United States. Since then, the administration restored sanctions, bolstered the US military presence in the Caribbean and used lethal force against vessels it alleged were trafficking drugs in concert with the Venezuelan military. Officials said the measures aimed to pressure Maduro to cede power to the opposition.

How the market reacted?

According to the NBC, as soon as the reports being circulated online, the oil prices began steadily rising, climbing more than 1.3% or about 75 cents, as of 3:45 p.m. ET. US crude prices jumped 1 percent Wednesday afternoon, to just under $59 a barrel. As per the reports from Politico, the seizure could put pressure on shippers to stop taking Venezuelan crude, potentially tightening global oil supplies. U.S. crude prices jumped 1 percent Wednesday afternoon, to just under $59 a barrel. Trump, who has repeatedly pointed to declining gasoline prices amid voters’ complaints about the rising cost of living, repeated his claim Wednesday that gasoline prices had dropped to $1.99 a gallon, though data collected by the American Automobile Association put the national average slightly below $3 per gallon.

NEW DELHI: The three-member selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that met on Wednesday to appoint the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), eight information commissioners (ICs) and a vigilance commissioner is learnt to have finalised the names. However, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have registered his strong dissent to the choices and submitted the same in writing, sources said.Gandhi is said to have strongly objected to the absence of names from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBC communities. The issue raised by the Congress neta is likely to be a key talking point in the upcoming mega rally against “vote chori” being organised by Congress on Dec 14.

The details of the appointments were not known till late in the evening. The meeting that lasted for nearly one and a half hours was held at the Prime Minister’s Office. It was also attended by home minister Amit Shah. Sources said the LoP sought more details of the appointees and also questioned the criteria adopted for the selection of CIC and ICs. According to sources, Gandhi was of the view that the govt’s proposal on the names was completely “biased”. He apparently said that the absence of weaker communities from constitutional positions was unacceptable, given the need to strengthen their participation across the board, including higher positions. The LoP is learnt to have forcefully put forth his differences on the govt proposal.

CIC has been without a chief since September 13

There were three parts to the meeting: One on appointment of CIC, another on choice of eight ICs & third on vigilance commissioner. While Gandhi registered his “dissent” in writing separately on the govt’s proposal for CIC and vigilance commissioner, he gave his “observations” on the eight names for the post of ICs, sources said. The Central Information Commission has been without a chief since incumbent Heeralal Samariya demitted office on Sept 13 on attaining the age of 65 years. Besides the chief, the commission can have up to 10 commissioners. Currently, it is making do with just two – Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Tiwari. According to commission’s website, the pending caseload stands at over 30,800. The eight posts of information commissioners have been vacant since Nov 2023. With Samariya demitting office, the chief’s post fell vacant for the seventh time since 2014.There was a total of 53 names in the panels prepared by the govt and presented before the collegium for the 10 positions. On the objection raised, the govt is said to have agreed to include a few from the marginalised communities in the panels. But there was still no clarity about their inclusion in the appointments. Under Section 12 (3) of the RTI Act, the prime minister is the chairperson of the search committee, which also comprises the LoP and a Union minister nominated by the PM. According to the procedure for the appointment of CIC, the particulars of interested candidates are invited through advertisements in newspapers and through the DoPT website.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a significant $17.5 billion investment in India over four years, focusing on AI and cloud. He acknowledged India’s need for sovereign control and local resilience in technology deployment. Nadella lauded India’s unique “virtuous cycle” of policies, digital infrastructure, and market, highlighting the launch of Sovereign Public Cloud for enhanced governance and control.

NEW DELHI; As Microsoft invests $17.5 billion in India over the next four years into AI and cloud, the tech giant’s CEO Satya Nadella Wednesday said it was a “legitimate concern” of countries like India to talk about sovereign control and local resilience.Asked whether AI and tech prowess were increasingly being used as diplomacy tools and nations needed to build resilience and sovereign stack, Nadella said, “… it’s absolutely a very legitimate question and concern… and I would say a requirement. Which is for a country like India to say that ultimately things that are being deployed here, used here, at scale are effectively resilient and sovereign. In other words, you want to control your own destiny.“Reaffirming the tech giant’s commitment to India’s AI ambitions, the India-born CEO – delivering his keynote at the Microsoft Leadership Connection event – praised what he called a “virtuous cycle” created by the country’s tech policies, digital public infrastructure, and vast domestic market. “One thing India has done very uniquely is bring together a virtuous cycle from the policies, the programmes, the technology stack, and the market,” he said. “It’s tremendous to see the private sector fully participate, whether in payments, healthcare, or insurance. It’s not about any one thing. That entire stack is magic.”He added that with the Sovereign Public Cloud now available in India, organisations could tap into a prescriptive architecture for deploying workloads on Azure, supported by built-in compliance guardrails through Sovereign Landing Zones. This, he said, enabled policy enforcement and provided stronger governance controls.On the company’s India investment strategy, he said he was excited about the data centre capacity it was setting up, adding he had discussed the plans with PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday. “We’re thrilled about all the data ce-ntre capacity that is coming live. We already have stuff in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. We are very excited about our India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, that’s going to come up next year,” Nadella said.

Elon Musk was recently asked if he believes in God. In an interview with Katie Miller on her podcast this week, the Tesla CEO said he believes “this universe came from something. People have different labels.” “Who do you look up to the most?,” asked Miller. To this, Musk replied saying “The Creator”. “What’s your position on God?,” Miller further stressed. The tech billionaire responded “God is the Creator.”

Miller’s next question was “You don’t believe in God though, do you?”. This time, Elon Musk said “Well, I believe this universe came from something. People have different labels.”

Musk says Trump is ‘funniest person I know in real life’

During the same interview, Elon Musk was asked whom he considers the funniest person he knows. Musk responded saying:“President Trump is the funniest person I know in real life. He’s got a great sense of humor. He’s naturally funny. It’s effortless. When he had Mamdani in the office and he told Mamdani to call him a fascist, that was awesome”.

Elon Musk on DOGE

Elon Musk spoke to Miller on a range of topics, including the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – Trump administration’s cost-cutting department then led by Musk. He said that DOGE was “somewhat successful’ in its mission when asked about DOGE’s success. “We were a little bit successful,” he said, adding “We were somewhat successful.”During the conversation, Musk said that “Department of Government Efficiency” was “a made-up name” that was “based on internet suggestions”.Talking about SpaceX Starship and his ambitious Mars Mission, Elon Musk said “It needs to be sustainably multi-planetary, so not just visiting, but actually multi-planetary in the sense that if you have planetary redundancy, so if there were to be a catastrophe on one of the planets, the other planet would survive. Starship is capable of doing that for the first time in history, and no AI was used to create it.”

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Wednesday pulled up the Centre over the chaos faced by air travellers amid disruptions at IndiGo, questioning why the government failed to prevent airfares from soaring to Rs 35,000–Rs 39,000 and what immediate measures were taken to assist stranded passengers. “Why did such a situation even precipitate? What steps were taken to assist passengers?” it asked.

“Question also is, if there was a crisis how can other airlines be permitted to take advantage? How can it go to 35-39k? How could other airlines start charging? How can it happen?” Live Law quoted Justice Gedela saying. The additional solicitor general told the court that a show-cause notice had already been served to the airline, which responded with a “profuse apology.” He further noted that implementation of the FDTL scheme had been delayed since 2024 due to the carrier’s repeated pleas for extensions and its continued assurances before the single-judge bench. The bench asked the government to explain the arrangements made to manage stranded travellers and prevent harassment at airports. “If they failed, what action did you take? You allowed the situation to reach this point,” it said. The IndiGo crisis drew the attention of both the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court against the backdrop of mounting frustration among air travellers after airlines cancelled hundreds of flights nationwide, triggering widespread disruption. The HC agreed to hear a plea on the matter after SC acknowledged the gravity of the situation, calling it a “serious matter,” even as it declined an urgent hearing. “It is a serious matter. Lakhs of people are stranded at the airports. We know that the government of India has taken timely action and cognisance of the issue,” CJI Surya Kant had said. IndiGo has come under sharp criticism from both the central government and travellers after it scrapped hundreds of flights since December 2, attributing the large-scale disruptions to changes in pilots’ flight duty and rest regulations. The cancellations have caused massive inconvenience, leaving lakhs of passengers stranded at airports nationwide.

The Supreme Court clarified that while the Election Commission cannot definitively determine citizenship, it can inquire about it if doubts arise regarding voters. The apex court emphasized that Indian citizenship is a constitutional prerequisite for voting, not merely a matter of residence and age. This ruling supports the EC’s stance on verifying voter eligibility.

The opposition’s stand that EC cannot determine citizenship has been a common thread running through the arguments of a large number of politicians and NGOs represented by advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi, Prashant Bhushan, Shadan Farasat and Md Nizamuddin Pasha.

If it has doubts, EC can probe person’s citizenship, says SC

EC has no jurisdiction to engage in determination of citizenship of a voter as that is the task of govt or Foreigners Tribunal. All of them argued that according to Representation of the People Act, if a person has proof of residence and is over 18, and gives a self-declaration that he is a citizen of India, then EC has no power to inquire into citizenship and delete him from the voters’ list.On Tuesday, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi responded, saying, “EC does not claim that it has the power to determine citizenship of a person or declare him as a foreigner. But, if it has doubts about the citizenship of a person registered as a voter or seeking inclusion of name as a voter, it can surely inquire into it.”“The first and foremost pre-condition for inclusion as a voter is that he/she must be a citizen of India. Given the constitutional and statutory powers conferred on EC, can it not undertake an inquisitorial exercise to find out who are doubtful citizens? That is included in the constitutional task of superintendence of elections,” the bench said, in what marked an endorsement of EC’s own stance on the issue.Farasat argued when a statutory procedure was provided for determination of citizenship, EC had no jurisdiction to usurp that process. SC said, “To argue that a person required only proof of residence and age for inclusion in a voter list without proof of citizenship would be a misnomer. Proof of residence and age are statutory requirements. But citizenship is a constitutional requirement.”“Take a hypothetical example of an illegal migrant residing in India for more than a decade and more than 18 years of age. Will he be counted as a citizen to be included in the voter list? To argue that citizenship is to be presumed when residential and age criteria are met will be wrong …,” it said.Farasat said, “The danger of illegal migrants getting into voters’ lists is far less compared to mass exclusion of voters in the name of identifying non-citizens.” SC said, ” Can it be said that by asking for documentary proof, it is attempting to determine citizenship of a person?”