Live: Congress expels Haryana MLA for cross-voting in Rajya Sabha poll

Live news updates: The latest on India news, the coronavirus, the war in Ukraine and other headlines.

Live news updates: The Congress party on Saturday expelled party MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi for cross-voting in Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana yesterday.
 
Congress nominee Ajay Maken failed to secure Rajya Sabha berth after Bishnoi didn’t vote for him and another’s MLA vote was declared invalid.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to leaders of Opposition parties, requesting them to attend a meeting on June 15 in New Delhi to prepare a common strategy for India’s presidential election.

The election will be held on July 18 and the counting of votes, if required, will be conducted on July 21, said the Election Commission last week. The last date of nomination has been set for June 29. 

6:50 PM

BJP suspends Rajasthan MLA

BJP suspends its Rajasthan MLA Shobharani Kushwah for cross-voting in favour of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari in Rajya Sabha elections.

 

4:33 PM

Mamata Banerjee seeks meeting with Opposition parties for presidential election

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee writes to leaders of Opposition parties, calls for meeting on June 15 on presidential election next month.

3:38 PM

Bengal BJP president arrested before Howrah visit

Sukanta Majumdar, president of BJP's West Bengal unit, was arrested in Bengal on Saturday as he tried to visit Howrah, where violent protests have occurred over remarks about the Prophet by his party’s leaders.

3:31 PM

UP removes age bar of 60 for prisoners to be considered for early release

 

The Uttar Pradesh government has done away with the age bar of 60 years for inmates lodged in the state's prisons to avail a premature release, a senior official said on Saturday. "A decision to this effect was taken 7-10 days ago. Earlier, the age restriction was of 60 years, and no prisoner could avail premature release before attaining the age of 60," Uttar Pradesh Director General (DG), Jails, Anand Kumar told PTI.

3:30 PM

Stopping Russian invasion crucial for whole world: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking remotely at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said the outcome of the war in his country affected not just Ukraine, but the future of international order. His country is seeking to push the Russians out of areas it has controlled since early in the war, and is defending against ferocious Russian attacks in the country's east, particularly around the city of Sievierodonetsk.

3:01 PM

Zelenskiy tells Asian meeting: Stopping Russian invasion crucial for whole world

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking remotely at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said the outcome of the war in his country affected not just Ukraine, but the future of international order.

 

His country is seeking to push the Russians out of areas it has controlled since early in the war, and is defending against ferocious Russian attacks in the country's east, particularly around the city of Sievierodonetsk.

 

Noting the support so far from the West and its Asian allies, Zelenskiy - addressing the event via video link from an undisclosed location in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv - said it was crucial that the nations sending aid do not let up.

2:54 PM

Moderna data shows shot works in kids 6 months and up, says FDA

Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine is effective in children and adolescents, with mostly mild to moderate side effects, the US Food and Drug Administration staff said.

 

“Available data support the effectiveness of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in pediatric age groups from 6 months through 17 years of age,” the FDA staff said Friday in the report posted to the agency’s website. Side effects were “mostly mild to moderate in severity, generally of short duration.”

2:54 PM

Zelenskiy says Ukraine is 'definitely going to prevail in this war'

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that his country would "definitely prevail in this war that Russia has started".

 

Speaking from an undisclosed location in Kyiv, Zelenskiy told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that his country was unable to export enough food because of a Russian blockade, and that the world would face "an acute and severe food crisis and famine."

2:37 PM

Presidential polls: Mamata Banerjee to visit Delhi this month

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be on a three-day visit to New Delhi this month and in all probability, her scheduled visit will be from June 14-16.

 

According to sources in the state cabinet, the visit will be basically a preparatory mission so that the chief minister can take a lead role in ensuring that a unanimous opposition candidate can be fielded against BJP's candidate.

 

The presidential poll is scheduled on July 18 and the counting will take place on July 21. A senior member of the state cabinet, on condition of anonymity, said that the purpose of the mission is basically to consider some names which can be proposed as a unanimous opposition candidate. "There might be discussion on whether there is a possibility for the opposition parties to announce the name of their candidate before BJP announces their nominee," he said.

 

2:32 PM

India has shown exemplary resilience in recovery from COVID-19 crisis: CEA

The country has shown exemplary resilience in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Anantha Nageswaran said on Saturday.

 

Nageswaran was addressing an event on "Indian Economy: Prospects, Challenges and Action Points" at Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) here.

 

"India has shown an exemplary resilience in recovering from a crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

2:15 PM

Sri Lanka's fuel supplies in crisis with last shipments under Indian credit line to arrive this month

The last of the fuel shipments due under the Indian Line of Credit are arriving in Sri Lanka this month with no indications on the sustenance of future supplies which are dependent on India's assistance.

 

Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948.

 

The economic crisis has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper and even matches, with Sri Lankans for months being forced to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas.

 

2:13 PM

Japan vows bigger security role in region to tackle threats

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans on Friday to boost his country's diplomatic and security role in the Asia Pacific to tackle what he described as growing threats in the region amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

Kishida said Japan will consider acquiring a preemptive strike capability in response to an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and now Russia — a controversial plan that critics say would violate Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.

 

2:01 PM

Economic power will make India audible, persuasive: Rao Inderjit Singh

Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh on Saturday stressed on the significance of a strong economy and said the economic power is going to make India not only audible, but also persuasive in its dealings with the world.

 

He was speaking at the National Conference on Competition Law as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations under Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

1:47 PM

Biden warns U.S. inflation could last 'for a while'

President Joe Biden cautioned that U.S. inflation could last "for a while" after data on Friday showed that politically sensitive price pressures unexpectedly accelerated in recent weeks.

 

"We're gonna live with this inflation for a while," Biden said at a Democratic fundraising event in Beverly Hills. "It's gonna come down gradually, but we're going to live with it for a while."

 

1:41 PM

UP: 227 people arrested in Friday protests

A total of 227 people were arrested from various districts of Uttar Pradesh in connection with Friday violence, a senior police official has said.

 

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, "227 persons have been arrested in the state for Friday violence. This includes 68 in Prayagraj, 50 in Hathras, 48 in Saharanpur, 28 in Ambedkarnagar, 25 in Moradabad, and eight in Firozabad." People pelted stones at police personnel in Prayagraj and Saharanpur as people took to rowdiness during their protests after Friday prayers.