India

Heads of state around the world, from countries both friendly and adversarial to the United States, sent their congratulations to President Donald Trump on the occasion of his return to the White House on Monday, wishing him well during his second term in office.

Monday marked the beginning of the Maha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival often described as the world’s largest religious gathering.

An Indian American doctor who reportedly kept two illegal aliens as servants in her home on low pay — somewhere between $3,000 and $7,200 per year — has permanently lost her medical license.

Trump touted a pro-H-1B article — complete with claims from immigration lawyers —  on his TruthSocial account, despite the widening alarm from that many pro-American voters that he will need in the 2026 mid-terms.

A devastating earthquake rocked a remote region of Tibet near Mt Everest on Tuesday, killing at least 95 people and collapsing “many buildings.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday, ending a tumultuous second term.

Multiple international reports in the past week have indicated that hospitals in China are experiencing a surge in the number of patients facing pneumonia or other respiratory conditions, prompting the Chinese government to issue a public notice that traveling to the country is “safe” and the situation is typical for the dead of winter.

The head of a prominent Islamic organization in India propagated a fatwa, or religious edict, this weekend prohibiting Muslims from celebrating the new year.

The Canadian government pledged to crack down on student visa abuse after Indian officials complained about a “well-planned conspiracy” that used Canadian student visas to smuggle Indian nationals into the United States.

President-elect Donald Trump says he has “always been in favor” of the H-1B visa program that imports hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, primarily from India, to take white-collar American jobs.

Foreign H-1B visa workers received starting salaries about 10 percent less than their American counterparts at Deloitte, a multinational accounting firm whose wage data was hacked and published.

The choice of a policy adviser for AI in the next Trump administration has sparked widespread debate online over the H-1B visa program.

A lobby group for Indian H-1B contract workers is trying to use the GOP’s planned 2025 reconciliation bill to get fast-track green cards for roughly 1.2 million Indian citizens living in the United States.

The Indian embassy to the South Caucasus country of Georgia said on Tuesday that 11 of the 12 people found dead at a ski resort in the mountain town of Gudauri were Indian nationals. The twelfth victim was a Georgian citizen. All appear to have been killed by fumes from a faulty power generator.

President-elect Donald Trump threatened BRICS countries with a 100 percent tariff if they tried to “create a new BRICS Currency” or to support another currency to “replace” the U.S. dollar.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit India in the near future, making his first trip to India since launching the brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that India successfully test-fired a long-range hypersonic missile from an island off its east coast.

Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said Thursday that his country has been offered “the status of partner membership” by BRICS, the China-dominated economic bloc whose founding members also include Russia, India, and Brazil.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Sunday that India is not “nervous” about Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became one of the first sitting heads of government to congratulate President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday following his electoral victory. Modi confirmed later in the day that Trump called him to re-establish contact and emphasize prioritizing the U.S.-Indian relationship.

A group of individuals belonging to the Khalistan Sikh separatist movement attacked a Hindu temple in Brampton, Canada, on Sunday, leading to a clash between groups of Indian nationals at the temple.

Former American President Donald Trump marked Diwali on Thursday, one of the largest Hindu celebrations of the year, vowing to protect the religious freedom of Hindu Americans and making a final pitch to Indian American voters generally.

Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison on Tuesday accused Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of masterminding plots to kill Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky told the Times of India in an interview published on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could be a powerful actor in ending the Russian invasion of his country, suggesting India should support “blocking” critical aspects of the Russian economy.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared in Tehran on Thursday that the BRICS summit he had just returned from would herald the end of American dominance on the world stage, telling reporters the decisions made there would “gradually thwart the conspiracy of the U.S. and its allies.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday held wide-ranging discussions.

Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a radical Islamist and NATO ally, addressed the ongoing summit of BRICS member states on Thursday, demanding an arms embargo on Israel and stating he was committed to bringing Turkey deeper into the fold of the anti-American coalition.

The China-led BRICS coalition published a declaration from its annual summit on Wednesday focused heavily on the alleged threat of “climate change,” condemnation of human rights sanctions on its rogue members states, and controlling “misinformation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin scored a public relations victory on the second day of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, by embracing Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — a photo opportunity that sent the message that Western efforts to diplomatically and economically isolate Russia for invading Ukraine have failed.

The annual summit for members of the BRICS anti-American bloc began on Tuesday, focused on its core members engaging in bilateral meetings prior to the largest summit including all nine members a dozens of invited guests from countries interested in joining.

The anti-American BRICS coalition, led this year by rotating president Russia, will convene its heads of state on Tuesday for a summit expected to focus heavily on building a dollar-free parallel economic system, the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and what to do with the dozens of countries that want to be members.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted on Wednesday that his government has no “hard evidence” to prove Indian agents were behind the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June 2023.

Standard & Poor’s CRISIL analytics firm published a report on Wednesday that predicted India will become a major exporter of solar energy equipment by 2029.

India signed a $3.5 billion deal to buy MQ-9B drones — the SkyGuardian variant of the famed Reaper — from the United States.

The Biden administration on Tuesday urged India to take Canadian allegations of an assassination plot against Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar seriously and cooperate with Canadian investigators.

Relations between Canada and India turned even more sour on Monday as each country expelled six of the other’s diplomats in a “tit-for-tat” exchange.