Live News Today: Ukraine conflict must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy: Quad

The United States, Australia, India, and Japan, a group known as Quad, on Saturday pledged to uphold peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and "oppose unilateral actions seeking change in status quo by force", they said in a statement.

They also expressed a "serious concern at the militarisation of disputed features, efforts to disrupt other countries' offshore resource exploitation activities", the statement added.

-- Two Pakistani drones were shot down last night by the BSF troop of the Amritsar sector.

-- 2.6 kg of heroin was recovered from a drone shot down under the border outpost of Ratankhurd.

-- Another drone was shot in Dhariwal, DIG Sanjay Garg informed

-- The toll in the blast at an illegal firecracker factory in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district rose to 12 after two more persons succumbed to their injuries.

-- Rabindranath Maity and Pinki Maity, who had third-degree burn injuries, died at the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata where they were undergoing treatment.

-- Prime accused and owner of the illegal firecracker manufacturing unit, Kalipada alias Bhanu Bagh, who was arrested by the West Bengal CID on Thursday, had succumbed to his injuries at a private nursing home in Odisha's Cuttack, where he had fled soon after the blast on May 16.

Condemning terrorism in all its forms, the quad leaders said in a joint statement: “We are committed to working together to promote accountability for the perpetrators of such terrorist attacks. We reiterate our condemnation of terrorist attacks, including the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and in Pathankot, and our commitment to pursuing designations, as appropriate, by the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee.”

“We unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism. We are committed to international cooperation and will work with our regional partners in a comprehensive and sustained manner to strengthen our capability to prevent, detect and respond to threats posed by terrorism and violent extremism, consistent with international law.”

231 stolen antiques brought back to India in the last 9 years: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Reacting to the plans of the ministry to cutting subsidy provided to EV two-wheelers under the FAME-II Scheme among other possible changes, Sohinder Gill, Director General, SMEV (Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles) and CEO of Hero Electric, said: “The Ministry of Heavy Industries had already announced a few months back that they are about to achieve their target of one million sales in four years and subsidy may not continue thereafter. However, the industry felt that it is too premature to withdraw subsidy as the E2W had hardly reached 4.9 percent adoption rate. So, subsidies must be continued for at least three years before they are tapered off.”

“In the absence of any additional budget, the ministry was left with no choice, but to either suddenly stop the subsidy or to somehow manage the rest of the year with greatly reducing the budget and drawing some unspent money from the E3W budget. On top of it, there is no clear indication of FAME III support. Hence, the industry also had no choice but to accept this else the subsidies would have finished instantly.”

The BJP on Saturday defended the ordinance on the transfer and posting of government officers in Delhi as a step in consonance with the Constitution and in line with the Supreme Court's observations in the matter, asserting that this is also in the interest of the common man.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia launched a sharp attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following his denouncement of the Centre for bringing the ordinance, which seeks to negate the apex court order giving the authority over officers to the elected government, saying his ideology is against the Constitution and is anarchic.

Citing the verdict of the Constitution bench, Bhatia said it had said that if "Parliament enacts a law granting executive power on any subject", then the power of the Lieutenant Governor can be modified accordingly.

-I think people will look at this Quad 20-30 years from now and say that change is dynamic not only in the region but the world. In my view, we have made enormous progress in the last two years: US President Joe Biden during the #QUAD meeting in Hiroshima

"We will be happy to host the Quad summit in India in 2024," says Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Quad meeting in Hiroshima, Japan.

We will listen to the voices of regional countries of ASEAN, South Asia & Pacific island states to engage in practical cooperation which delivers true benefits to the region as a force for good, says Japanese PM Fumio Kishida during QUAD meeting, in Hiroshima

“We will listen to the voices of regional countries of ASEAN, South Asia and Pacific island states to engage in practical cooperation which delivers true benefits to the region as a force for good.”