📌 India’s Arms Plans, China Cuts Boeing Jets

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes to sell missiles, helicopters and battleships to foreign governments.

India has produced billions of dollars of low-cost iPhones and pharmaceuticals and is setting its sights on expanding the state-owned Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to offer long-term, low-cost loans to clients for Indian weaponry, including those whose profiles limit their access to conventional financing, officials say.

New Delhi will also sharply increase defense attachés in its foreign missions as part of a program that will see the government directly negotiate arms deals, four Indian officials said. India is particularly targeting governments that have long relied on Russia for arms, two of the people said.

Indian bureaucrats have long focused more on buying fighter aircraft from Russia's Sukhoi and howitzers from the US to ward off China and Pakistan, Delhi's two nuclear-armed neighbors. India has long made small arms, but it has only recently made higher-end munitions and equipment.

Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has said it was in talks with India about jointly producing and promoting equipment to third-party states "friendly to Russia.” India produced $14.8 billion of arms in 2023-2024 fiscal year, up 62% since 2020, government data show.

Delhi has started brokering meetings between visiting delegations and domestic arms contractors, as well as demonstrating more sophisticated equipment like combat helicopters during military exercises, four officials said.

The UK government will "look at a Chinese firm in a different way" when considering investment in the steel industry.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said steel is a “sensitive sector” after key raw materials needed to keep British Steel's blast furnaces running were transported to its Scunthorpe plant following the government seizing control.

If the furnaces were starved of fuel and went out, the UK would no longer have the capability to produce so-called virgin steel, due to the process of restarting them being extremely difficult and costly.

The government passed an emergency law to take control of British Steel amid accusations that Chinese owner Jingye was planning to switch the furnaces off. Beijing has accused the UK government of "politicizing trade cooperation" and said the event raised doubts about Chinese investment in the UK.

The government has so far stopped short of taking British Steel back into full public ownership but has not ruled out nationalisation, while also looking for potential private investors to fund operations.

"[Steel] is a sensitive sector around the world and a lot of the issues in the global economy with steel come from over-production and dumping of steel products, and that does come from China,” Reynolds said.

Boeing is facing another crisis. China has reportedly forbidden its airlines from purchasing any of the company's jets.

China's 125% tariffs on the US — implemented in retaliation to President Donald Trump's 145% tariffs on Chinese goods — were already set to more than double the cost of Boeing planes and parts.

Trump said on Truth Social that China "just reneged on the big Boeing deal," though it wasn't clear what accord he was referring to. Chinese airlines had plans to buy 29 Boeing aircraft in 2025, Bank of America analysts said. The country is expected to acquire 20% of all large civil jets over the next two decades.

"Boeing should have no difficulty reallocating the aircraft to other airlines that need additional capacity," Bank of America analyst Ronald J. Epstein said today in a research note. "We see India as a potential recipient.”

Plus, China may not be able to maintain the stoppage for long. The country has limited ability to make its own jets — and Boeing competitor Airbus likely can't boost production enough to fill the void, Epstein says.

“We do see this as unsustainable" and, if it lasts, it "could point to a structural advantage for Airbus in China," Epstein says.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed a star consuming a planet, challenging theories of stellar expansion.

The star drew the Jupiter-size planet closer until it was consumed, rather than expanding as previously thought. The event observed in 2020, named ZTF SLRN-2020, involved a star and a planet located about 12,000 light-years from Earth.

Researchers observed a bright flash of optical light, indicating the planet's engulfment and the creation of a dust cloud. Initial theories suggested the star was a sunlike star entering its red giant phase, but JWST data contradicted this.

JWST observations showed the star was not emitting the expected infrared light. The planet likely orbited close to the star and experienced orbital decay due to tidal interactions, a phenomenon in which strong gravitational forces between two celestial bodies change the dynamics between the bodies.

The entire process of the planet being drawn in and engulfed by the star likely took just a few months. The star ejected the planetary material, causing the brightening event first detected in 2020 and leading to the initial misinterpretation.

President Donald Trump signed an executive action intended to lower prescription drug prices for Americans.

A White House official said the move includes "delivering lower prices to seniors" and improves the Medicare drug price negotiation program, created by the Inflation Reduction Act.

As the drugs subject to negotiation increase each year, greater savings over time were baked into the law. Medicare negotiated the prices of 10 drugs in 2024, and it will negotiate 15 more this year, including Ozempic, the blockbuster diabetes medicine with a list price of around $1,000 a month.

But consumers will have to wait to see the results. The lower Medicare prices negotiated in the Biden administration won't take effect until 2026. And prices from the round of negotiations by the Trump administration won't be available until 2027.

If the administration applies tariffs to imported pharmaceuticals and ingredients to make medicines domestically, consumers could pay more for many medications. The secretary of commerce is investigating the national security effects of the importation of drugs and drug ingredients.

The action directs the FDA to facilitate approval of state importation programs and to streamline approval for lower-cost generics and biosimilars. Only one state, Florida, received FDA approval to import lower-cost drugs. A report in November said it had not yet begun doing so.

A land dispute escalated into over five years’ jail for a hairdresser charged with spreading fake news about the Russian military.

St Petersburg hairdresser Anna Alexandrova denied posting eight anti-war messages on social media, insisting the case was motivated by a squabble over land with a neighbor. Her neighbor said she had complained to prosecutors after Alexandrova had sent her daughter pictures of the war in Ukraine.

Discrediting the armed forces and intentionally spreading fake news about the military became a crime in Russia within weeks of the invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022. The Kremlin has intensified a crackdown on dissent, jailing hundreds of opponents and critics and silencing independent media.

Meanwhile, lawyers for a Moscow councilor sentenced in July 2022 under the "fake news" law have filed a complaint with Russia's constitutional court.

Alexei Gorinov was initially given seven years in jail for criticizing Russia's invasion at a council meeting. He had objected to a children's drawing contest being held when children were dying in Ukraine. The sentence was extended by three years last year for criticizing the war in a prison hospital.

Lawyers Katerina Tertukhina and Olga Podoplelova said the 2022 law did not serve constitutionally legitimate aims. “It is used to punish anti-war views, criticism of authorities, and the dissemination of information, including truthful information if it contradicts the official narrative.”

Two rogue street traders on Westminster Bridge were convicted after police officers disguised as Batman and Robin arrested them.

The London officers got creative after criminals who regularly operated on the bridge began recognizing them. Unlicensed street trading has been a long-standing issue on Westminster Bridge.

Despite being just minutes from the Houses of Parliament and visible from New Scotland Yard, it has been described as one of the most lawless places in London, with illegal gambling often blocking crossings and tourists being swindled.

Footage of the arrests shows the two “undercover” officers donning tight-fitting superhero costumes with masks and capes as they tackled one street trader. Both suspects were convicted.

Earlier this year, an illegal hot dog seller was fined £11,388 for targeting tourists on the bridge. Ice cream vans regularly park illegally to take advantage of the busy footfall, with one van owner fined over £1000 ($1326) last year for obstructing the road.