India signs FTA with Oman, receives zero duty access on 99% of its exportsIndia and Oman signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on Thursday (December 18, 2025), under which Oman will provide India duty-free access to 98.08% of its tariff lines, which covers 99.38% of what India exports to Oman. India, on the other hand, has offered liberalised tariffs on 77.79% of its total tariff lines, covering 94.81% of what India imports from Oman. Apart from the tariff removal on merchandise exports, the deal also includes several concessions that are expected to benefit India’s service sector, including in terms of mobility of workers. Also, PM Modi was conferred with the Order of Oman, the Sultanate’s uniquely distinct civilian honour, by Sultan Haitham bin Tarik for his contributions to strengthening bilateral ties.Lok Sabha adjourned for the day after passage of VB-G RAM G Bill amid Opposition uproarThe Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Thursday (December 18, 2025) after the passage of the VB-G RAM G Bill amid Opposition uproar over its provisions. The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, seeking to guarantee rural jobs for 125 days every year, replacing the 20-year-old MGNREGA, was passed on Thursday (December 18) after Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan replied to a debate on it. The Opposition raised slogans against the government and tore copies of the Bill as Mr. Chouhan delivered his concluding remarks.Extend date of submission of SIR enumeration forms, Supreme Court tells ECIThe Supreme Court on Thursday (December 18, 2025) asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to a “sympathetic view” of pleas to extend the date of submission of enumeration forms under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 of the electoral rolls, taking into consideration the “ground realities” in various States, including Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. The schedule for Kerala had been revised earlier, with the enumeration deadline pushed to (Thursday) December 18 and the draft voter list to be published on December 23. The revised deadline for U.P. was modified to December 26.India resumes visa centre operation in Dhaka, functioning suspended at two othersIndian on Thursday (December 18, 2025) resumed operations at its visa application centre in Dhaka, a day after closing it over escalated security concerns, but closed two other identical facilities in other parts of Bangladesh, officials and reports said. The Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) at southwestern Khulna and northwestern Rajshahi were closed on the same grounds of security concerns. “Indian Visa Application Centre in Dhaka is now operational and functioning normally,” an IVAC official told PTI.Stray dogs case: We will play video, ask you what is humanity, Supeme Court tells petitionerResponding to a petitioner in the stray dogs case who objected to some rules framed by the Delhi municipal corporation saying “inhuman” treatment was being meted out to them, the Supreme Court on Thursday (December 18, 2025) said a video will be played in the next hearing, “asking you what is humanity”. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is appearing in the stray dogs case, told a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that a three-judge special Bench which was scheduled to assemble on Thursday to hear the matter was cancelled. When the Bench said it would consider the matter on January 7, Mr. Sibal said the authorities will implement the rules in December itself. Justice Mehta told Mr. Sibal, “On the next date, we will play a video for your benefit and we will ask you what is humanity”.Parliamentary panel examining Bills to remove PM, CMs gets extension to submit reportThe Parliamentary committee examining Bills to remove the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers was granted extension on Thursday (December 18, 2025) to submit its report by the last week of the Budget Session next year. Joint Parliamentary Committee Chair Aparajita Sarangi moved a resolution in Lok Sabha seeking time to submit its report “up to the first day of the last week of the Budget Session, 2026”. The resolution was passed by a voice vote.‘BRS Govt did some good work, but thin line between welfare and development’: KavithaFormer Lok Sabha MP K. Kavitha is all set to contest the next Assembly polls in Telangana due in 2028, declaring that “the rest is a technicality” when asked about the nature of her proposed new political outfit. Currently on a yatra across all 33 districts of Telangana, under the aegis of a non-political organisation, Telangana Jagruti, founded by her during the movement for a separate State, she told The Hindu, “I do want to contest the next Assembly polls, the rest (party name, nature) of it is all technicality.”As for the political programme for her new outfit, she said that while her father’s Government was good at welfare measures like the Raithu Bharose and others, people’s basic needs were not met, which would be her focus: “drinking water, roads, employment.” She added, “Don’t get me wrong. The BRS Government has done some good things. But there is a very thin line between welfare and development. Step out of Hyderabad and the disparity is great.”Death toll in Yamuna Expressway pile-up at Mathura rises to 19The toll in the multi-vehicle pile-up on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura has risen to 19, officials said on Thursday (December 18, 2025). District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh told PTI Videos that four of the deceased have been identified, while DNA samples of the remaining victims have been collected and are being matched. “Nineteen people have lost their lives in the accident. Identification of four victims has been completed and DNA samples of the remaining bodies have been taken,” he said. Mr. Singh said around 90 people were injured in the accident, most of whom have returned home after receiving medical attention.Air India Express Flight from Jeddah makes ‘precautionary’ landing in Kochi after tyre burstA major aviation mishap was averted when an Air India Express flight headed to Kozhikode from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, had to be diverted to the Kochi airport in Kerala where it made a landing under emergency conditions on Thursday (December 18, 2025) morning. The flight, IX 398, with 160 passengers aboard made an emergency landing at 9:07 a.m. Initially, a technical snag involving the right main landing gear and tyre failure was identified for the diversion and subsequent emergency landing. Later, a post-landing inspection confirmed that both right-side tyres had burst.Australia’s Bondi beach shooting: Alleged shooters holed up in hotel during Philippines visit“The father-and-son duo alleged to have gunned down 15 people on Australia’s Bondi Beach holed themselves up in a Philippines hotel for weeks and left a tip on their way out,” the staff told AFP on Thursday (December 18, 2025). Australian authorities are investigating whether Sajid Akram and his son Naveed trained with extremists last month during a trip to the southern Mindanao region where there is a long history of Islamist insurgencies. The Philippines says there is no evidence to suggest that the country was being used to coach terrorists. Also, a 34-year-old Indian-origin man who helped restrain one of the alleged shooters of the Bondi Beach attack in Australia said he wanted to help bring one of the assailants down and assist anyone who needed help.U.S., Russia to hold talks on Ukraine in Miami: White HouseU.S. and Russian officials will meet in Miami this weekend for new talks on President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Ukraine war, a White House official told AFP. The talks come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed progress during two days of meetings in Berlin between Kyiv and Mr. Trump’s envoys, while warning that Moscow was preparing for a “new year of war.” Mr. Trump’s roving envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to take part on the U.S. side, while Mr. Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev is set to be in the Russian delegation, Politico reported.Rare smog spike hits Beijing after years of pollution clean-upBeijing was shrouded in heavy smog on Thursday (December 18, 2025) with Air Quality Index (AQI) climbing to “very unhealthy” levels of 215, a rare spike in pollution in the Chinese capital after years of expensive cleaning up. China’s national observatory issued a yellow alert for heavy fog in some parts of the country, saying that thick fog is expected to shroud parts of Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, the Sichuan Basin and Chongqing on Thursday (December 18, 2025). The smog with polluted air quality is rare these days in Beijing, which used to witness very heavy pollution before the government initiated a series of steps, including closure and relocation of heavy polluting industries in 2016, spending billions of dollars.Israel launches intense airstrikes in Lebanon as deadline looms to disarm HezbollahIsrael carried out a series of airstrikes on southern and northeastern Lebanon on Thursday (December 18, 2025) as a deadline looms to disarm the militant Hezbollah group along the tense frontier. The strikes came a day before a meeting of the committee monitoring the enforcement of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago. The Israeli military said the strikes hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites and launching sites in a military compound used by the group to conduct training and courses for its fighters. The Israeli military added that it struck several Hezbollah military structures in which weapons were stored, and from which Hezbollah members operated recently.Dubious hat-trick: India worst doping offender for third straight year, says WADAIndia tops the rankings of global sports drug cheats for a third straight year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said, marking a dubious hat-trick for the country. India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) collected 7,113 urine and blood samples, out of which 260 tested positive in 2024, the international watchdog said in its annual report published late on Tuesday (December 16, 2025). The findings are a major blow to India, which is preparing to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games — an event seen as a stepping stone for the country’s ambition of hosting the 2036 Olympics. Athletics (76) had the highest number of doping cases last year, followed by weightlifting (43) and wrestling (29).