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• Downing Street has dismissed reports of disagreements within Boris Johnson's government over how to move forward with the Brexit process.


• No 10 has indicated the PM will seek a snap poll if the EU proposes delaying the Brexit deadline until January.


• However, some ministers are understood to want to focus on getting the PM's Withdrawal Agreement Bill through Parliament instead.

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• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the demolition of all hotels and other buildings constructed by South Korea at a famous tourist site.


• Mr. Kim described the complex at Mount Kumgang in the North as being built "like makeshift tents in a disaster-stricken area", state media report.


• The resort was once hailed as a symbol of inter-Korean co-operation.

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• More than 100 prisoners of the Islamic State extremist movement have escaped in Syria in the chaos since Turkey’s incursion, a senior US official said.


• “We would say the number is now over 100. We do not know where they are,” James Jeffrey, the State Department point man on Syria, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee when asked about the detainees.

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• Hong Kong might be heading for recession after months of violent protests but that hasn't stopped one businessman from forking out almost $1 million for a parking spot.


• The mind-boggling sum paid by Johnny Cheung Shun-yee highlights the gaping inequality that has helped fuel nearly five months of demonstrations in the financial hub, where one in five people live below the poverty line.


• The HK$7.6 million ($970,000) price tag is more than 30 times the average annual wage in Hong Kong and about the same as a one-bed apartment in London's plush Chelsea area.

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• Syrian and Russian forces will deploy in northeast Syria to remove Kurdish YPG fighters and their weapons from the border with Turkey under a deal agreed which both Moscow and Ankara hailed as a triumph.


• Hours after the deal was announced, the Turkish defence ministry said that the United States had told Turkey the withdrawal of Kurdish terrorists was complete from the "safe zone" Ankara demands in northern Syria.

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• Hundreds of journalists called for European officials to take action against Google over its refusal to pay media companies for displaying their content in defiance of a strict new EU copyright law.


• France was the first country to ratify the law, which was passed this year and comes into force to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.


• But Google said last month that articles, pictures, and videos would be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use it for free.

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• The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Kerala government on Wednesday reduced fines for traffic offences under the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019.


• While some of the fines were reduced to almost half, the penalty for drink driving and driving by minors has been left untouched.


• Fines for helmet-less traveling and driving without a seat belt have been reduced to Rs 500 as against the existing Rs 1,000. Similarly, the fine of Rs 10,000 for using mobile phones while driving has been slashed to Rs 2,000.

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• A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court is set to examine the point of law whether any restrictions other than those permitted in Article 19 (2) of the Constitution, dealing with free speech, can be imposed on lawmakers on the ground that it violates another persons’ right to lead a dignified life.


• Freedom of speech and expression in India is not absolute, with Article 19(2) limiting it “in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offense”.

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• Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala has lost the Kaithal constituency in the Haryana Assembly elections.


• Surjewala, who had won the seat in 2009 and 2014, lost to BJP's Leela Ram by a margin of 567 votes. In January this year, Surjewala had lost the Jind by-elections, coming third after garnering 22,740 votes.

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• In a first, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will get two helicopters on lease to effectively work in remote areas. It has been a long pending demand of the ITBP to have helicopters to reach remote and hilly areas.


• Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said on Thursday that the process is in the last stage.

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• The Income Tax (I-T) Department has unearthed tax evasion of over Rs 1,000 crore also involving hawala transactions and money laundering allegedly by Delhi-based Alankit Group, an e-Governance service provider to various private companies and government institutions, including the Unique Identification Authority of India and the tax department, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity.


• “The Income Tax Department conducted search operation on a group based in Delhi in connection with tax evasion and money laundering. The group is engaged in various e-governance projects and financial services.

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• In Maharashtra, BJP-Shiv Sena is set to return to power, the alliance is currently leading on 178 seats, while Haryana is currently witnessing a close fight. The BJP’s lead has shrunk from 46 to 42, while the Congress’s tally, leading in 33 seats currently, has significantly increased in comparison to 2014.


• Voting in Maharashtra’s 288 constituencies and Haryana’s 90 constituencies was held on October 21. In Maharashtra, 61.3% voters turned up to cast their vote while the voter turnout in Haryana was 68.31%.

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• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has partnered with NTT DATA Services, a global technology services firm, to support and encourage entrepreneurship among recent graduates who are working on path-breaking technologies with socioeconomic impact in the fields of agriculture, healthcare, energy, water & sanitation, and education.


• NTT DATA Services has committed financial support to IIT Kanpur's Startup Incubation and Innovation Center (SIIC), according to an official statement released.

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• NIT Delhi Recruitment 2019: The National Institute of Technology Delhi has released an official notification inviting all the interested, eligible candidates for Superintendent, Technical Assistant and other posts.


• The online application process of NIT Delhi Recruitment 2019 has stated and candidates can apply through the prescribed format on or before December 20, 2019.

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• Pondicherry University is ranked 51-55 category among Indian Universities in the QS India University Rankings 2020 released.


• According to an official release, the inclusion of the Puducherry-based Central University in the QS World University Ranking is a significant achievement, "because the Pondicherry University secured a good position from among the participating universities".


• IITs dominated the QS India University Rankings 2020 with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and IIT Delhi securing the top three positions in the second edition of the rankings while Madras and Kharagpur IITs are placed in fourth and fifth places respectively.

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• Public sector lender Indian BankNSE 0.00 %'s September quarter profit grew 139 per cent to Rs 359 crore while the total income rose 18 per cent.


• The Board of Directors of the Indian Bank approved the balance sheet and profit and loss for the second quarter of 2019-20 (Q2 FY2020) and for the six months period ended September 30, 2019, at a meeting held in Chennai.

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• With the counting of votes underway in Maharashtra and Haryana, equity markets had a choppy day as it fluctuated between an intra-day low of 38,840.76 and a high of 39,327.15. In the end, the Sensex closed 38.44 points, or 0.10 per cent, lower at 39,020.39. The broader NSE Nifty too slipped 21.50 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 11,582.60.


• The markets had opened on a positive note with BJP expected to retain power in Maharashtra. At 9:25 am, Sensex was up 244.78 points while Nifty was up 62.25 points. HCL Tech was one of the top gainers on Sensex while Bharti Airtel was down by almost 2 per cent.

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• HDFC Life Insurance has registered a 7.56 per cent in net profit to ₹308.69 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal, against ₹286.98 crore a year ago.


• Total income of the insurance firm rose to Rs 8,661.56 crore from Rs 7,902.10 in the same quarter a year ago, HDFC Life said in a regulatory filing.

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• India vs South Africa Test Series was held in India in which India won the 3 match series by 3-0. It was the first time that India whitewashed South Africa in the history of Test cricket.


• The South Africa cricket team toured India from September 15, 2019 to play 3 test matches and 3 Twenty 20 International series (match drawn).

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• India jumped 14 places to the 63rd position on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking released, riding high on the government's flagship ''Make in India'' scheme and other reforms attracting foreign investment.


• The country also figured among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row.


• The rankings come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and various rating agencies have slashed the country's growth forecasts amid a slowdown in the global economy.

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• Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone and Indian badminton player PV Sindhu were named the ambassadors for Bharat Ki Laxmi.


• It is an initiative by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The aim of this initiative is to celebrate the contribution & accomplishments of women of the nation for the public good. The hashtag for the initiative is #BharatKiLaxmi.

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• Saudi Arabia appointed a prince with diplomatic experience in Western capitals as foreign minister on Wednesday in a partial cabinet reshuffle as the kingdom tries to mend its international image and prepares to take over the Group of 20 presidency.


• Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud had served for the last several months as ambassador to Germany and earlier as a political adviser at the Washington embassy.


• His previous business career in the defence industry included chairmanship of a joint venture with planemaker Boeing.

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• Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala resigned on Thursday after election trends showed both the ruling party and the Congress being locked in a tough contest with no one looking set to attain majority on its own in the 90-member assembly.


• As per the latest trends, Barala is trailing by 25,090 votes over Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate Devinder Singh Babli from the Tohana seat.


• As the counting was in progress, Barala had left the counting center in between sense he is losing

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• Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway's Co-founder Smruti Parida has exited the startup after he announced his departure as the platform's Chief Technology Officer (CTO).</li.
  
• This comes months after NestAway Co-founder Deepak Dhar decided to leave the platform and start his own fintech venture. Smruti had started NestAway along with Dhar, Jitendra Jagadev and Amarendra Sahu.

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• Indian space agency has released fresh set of pictures of impact craters on moon surface taken by its Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter.


• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) releasing a picture on its Twitter handle said the images were taken by the Dual Frequency-Synthetic Aperture Radar (DF-SAR) on its Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter.

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• Belgian Paralympian Marieke Vervoort has ended her own life through euthanasia at the age of 40.


• Vervoort, who won gold and silver at the London 2012 Paralympics, and two further medals at Rio 2016, had an incurable degenerative muscle disease.


• Euthanasia is legal in Belgium and in 2008 Vervoort signed papers that would one day allow a doctor to end her life.