WORLD

The United States is concerned about India`s plans to participate in joint military exercises with Russia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday, adding that "every participating country will make its own decisions". Moscow last month announced plans to hold "Vostok" exercises in which China, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Mongolia are also participants.

According to Russian News Agency, TASS, the Vostok-2022 strategic command and staff exercise will be held under the command of the chief of Russia`s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, at 13 training grounds in the Eastern Military District. The exercises are expected to take place till September 5.

Amid the ongoing border standoff between India and China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday that the ties between the two countries must be based on mutual sensitivity, mutual respect and mutual interest, to return to a “positive trajectory”.

Speaking at the launch of the Asia Society Policy Institute, the external affairs minister said, the state of the border will determine the state of the relationship between India and China.

In December 1941, Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India, visited Jamshedpur to praise the employees of Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), the largest steel-producing unit of the British Empire. A million tonnes of steel products were sent to meet the exigencies of the ongoing Second World War. The Empire is long gone, and there’s no world war, but to ensure that Tata Steel continues its presence in the UK, the conglomerate is hoping that the UK government will go beyond platitudes.

Tata Steel UK has asked for £1.5 billion for the transition to green energy, in the absence of which it might make an exit. It plans to replace the carbon-intensive blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces over the next few years.

Russia is burning off huge amounts of natural gas that would otherwise have gone to Germany before the Ukraine war upended European energy markets.

A plant near St Petersburg is torching off an estimated $10 million of gas each day, according to analysis from Rystad Energy.

The gas would previously have been exported to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

But Moscow has slashed gas flows to Europe, cutting the Nord Stream 1's capacity to 20% in July. It now plans to shut the pipeline down entirely for three days of unplanned maintenance starting Wednesday.

Experts say Russian forces have been pushed back across 45,000 km2 of land since 21 March, when they had made their deepest advance into Ukraine. 

The report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) claims that Russia has made "negligible gains" in its military campaign. 

On Wednesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said its operation in Ukraine had been deliberately slowed down to avoid civilian casualties. 

But researchers at the Washington-based ISW say this may be an attempt to "explain and excuse" the military's "negligible gains".