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• About 100 protesters remain barricaded inside a Hong Kong university campus surrounded by police, as the standoff enters a third day.


• Hundreds of protesters left Polytechnic University (PolyU) earlier, accompanied by mediators police had allowed in.


• Those under 18 were allowed to leave without being arrested but adults were detained on the spot.


• PolyU has in the past week been turned into a battleground as anti-government protests show no signs of slowing down.

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• Russia has returned three navy boats to Ukraine almost a year after they were seized in the Black Sea off the Crimean Peninsula, officials say.


• The two gunboats, Berdyansk and Nikopol, and the Yana Kapa tug were handed over at a location agreed by both Moscow and Kyiv.


• Ukraine's foreign ministry said the boats were heading for Odesa.


• The 24 Ukrainian sailors on board the ships were returned in a deal agreed between Moscow and Kyiv in September.

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• The United States announced it would halt sanctions waivers for Iran’s Fordow plant, likely ending a key component of a landmark nuclear deal after Tehran said it had resumed enrichment activities.


• Piling pressure as protests hit Iran, the move is intended to discourage work led by Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom at the once-secret site, which was supposed to be transformed into a civilian research center under the 2015 agreement.

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• The United States no longer believes that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday in the latest pro-Israel shift by Washington.


• The statement puts the United States at odds with virtually all countries as well as UN Security Council resolutions and was hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of US President Donald Trump who is days away from potentially losing office.

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• Escalating violence between pro-democracy protesters and police had pushed Hong Kong to “breaking point,” Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said, warning a similar situation could “easily happen” in his country if the government is complacent.


• Speaking to reporters from his offices in the city-state, the trade minister said Singapore should heed the lessons from what has occurred in Hong Kong, especially while “Singapore’s relevance to the world is never a given.”

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• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. decision to end its sanction waiver for Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility


• Following recent assertion by Tehran of its intention to resume uranium enrichment at its Fordow facility, the United States said it would withdraw its sanction waiver to Iran’s facility.

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• In a departure from parliamentary norms, the Rajya Sabha allowed many leaders from various parties, instead of just the Chairman of the House, to pay tributes to five parliamentarians, including former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

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• In the first cabinet meeting of the newly formed BJP-JJP regime, the Haryana government today decided to double the House Rent Allowance (HRA) admissible to ministers.


• The Cabinet also took an in-principle decision to bring an amendment under the relevant section of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, allowing devolution of powers to the Gram Sabha to ban the sale of liquor within the local area of the Gram Panchayat.

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• India was committed to achieve $26 billion defence industry by 2025, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Thailand capital Bangkok.


• Addressing a business seminar 'India Rising', organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce at the Defence & Security Exhibition 2019, he exhorted defence manufacturing companies to join the 'Make in India' initiative.

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• The Centre moved the Chit Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2019 for passage in the Lok Sabha to facilitate orderly growth of the chit fund sector, but this was opposed by Trinamool Congress which suggested it be "scrapped" and questioned its need as there is already an existing law.


• Moving the Bill to amend the Chit Funds Act, 1982, to put in place mechanisms to ensure transparency in chit fund schemes and protect subscribers, for consideration and passage, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur said that changes are being made in the rules for beginning chit funds which achieved negative image in recent past. "If chit fund is run as per the law, it will benefit the poor."

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• NITI Aayog is considering building up a healthcare system for the middle class which is still not covered under any public healthcare system, the government think-tank said.


• The healthcare system would exclude those covered under the newly-launched Ayushman Bharat scheme that mainly caters to the bottom 40 percent population of the country.


• India has a low level and very fragmented risk pooling, with household out-of-pocket funding at 64 percent of total expenses dominating the overall system financing, NITI Aayog said at the launch ''Health System for a New India: Building Blocks - Potential Pathways to Reform'' report.

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• Office-bearers of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) claimed that they met a senior HRD Ministry official over the hostel fee hike and submitted a memorandum of demands, including for sacking the vice-chancellor. There was no official word from the ministry on the meeting.


• Meanwhile, thousands of protestors camping outside the Safdarjung tomb were allegedly forced by the police personnel to go back to the campus.


• Earlier in the evening, the police released around 100 students who were detained during the day, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh.

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• The Delhi High Court has directed the centre to take action in accordance with law after "looking" at a July 2016 HRD ministry notification to phase out the private schools running in several IIT campuses in the country and replace them with Kendriya Vidyalayas.


• "Having heard the counsel for petitioners and looking to the aforesaid letter of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, we hereby direct the respondents (Centre) to take action in accordance with law, rules, regulations and government policy applicable to the facts of the present case after looking to the aforesaid letter dated July 28, 2019," said a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar.

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• ICICI Bank is looking to raise around Rs 20,000 crore by selling six-to-seven percent stake to institutional investors and has approached at least 10 investment banks for the same, reports Mint.


• The country's largest private-sector lender plans to complete the entire raise in a single tranche and may soon issue formal mandates to some of the investment banks it approached, sources told the paper.

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• Depositors of the crisis-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank can approach the RBI-appointed administrator for withdrawal up to Rs. 1 lakh in case of medical emergencies, the RBI told the Bombay High Court.


• In an affidavit filed in the court in response to petitions challenging the fund withdrawal restrictions, the RBI has mentioned the withdrawal ceiling at Rs. 50,000 for scenarios like marriage, education, livelihood and "other hardships".


• RBI counsel Venkatesh Dhond told a division bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and RI Chagla that the depositors facing problems can approach the RBI-appointed administrator and seek withdrawal up to Rs. 1 lakh.

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• Denmark and Switzerland secured spots at Euro 2020 at the expense of the Republic of Ireland on Monday as Roberto Mancini's Italy completed a perfect qualifying campaign by scoring nine.


• Ireland needed to beat Denmark in Dublin to clinch qualification for next year's 24-team European Championship finals, but Matt Doherty's late header was only enough to earn Mick McCarthy's men a 1-1 draw at the Aviva Stadium.


• A closely-fought contest, low on technical quality, swung the visitors' way when the unmarked Martin Braithwaite stuck out a boot to divert a Henrik Dalsgaard cross into the net on 73 minutes.

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• Darjeeling Tea Association said green and white tea of the hills have been registered as geographical indication (GI) products in the country.


• These two varieties of Darjeeling tea have been registered under Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999, with effect from October 2019, it said.


• The Tea Board had filed an application in this regard in December 2017, the DTA said.


• This will "strengthen the protection of the intellectual property rights of the Darjeeling tea", which is considered as "niche and luxury" products in the country and abroad.

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• The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2019 will be conferred on renowned naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.


• His name was selected for the prize by an international jury chaired by former president Pranab Mukherjee, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust announced.


• “Few individuals have come to be as identified with the well being of our planet, of all living creatures, and their relationship with human beings, as Sir David,” the Trust said in a statement.

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• Uber Chief Product Officer (CPO) Manik Gupta announced today he is leaving the ride-hailing giant, with December 13 as his last day.


• Gupta joined Uber from Google in 2015 as Senior Director for Product, Maps and Marketplace and was promoted to CPO in November 2018. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will manage Gupta's role until a replacement is found.

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• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would launch its earth imaging and mapping satellite Cartosat-3 along with 13 commercial nano satellites from the US, on November 25, the space agency said.


• The satellites would be launched by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C47into Sun Synchronous Orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

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• Indian "gaganauts" selected for the country's first manned space mission in 2022. They will start their training sessions at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center next year, a senior Russian space official said in Dubai today.


• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Russia will train the Indian astronauts for the ambitious Gaganyaan manned space mission.