Jan 22 news LIVE | Trump announces 'Board of Peace' on Gaza

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said any decision on joining the Board of Peace led by the US to oversee the Gaza ceasefire plan will be taken after consultations with Moscow’s strategic partners.

“Regarding our participation in the ‘Peace Board’, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been instructed to study the documents received by us, consult with our strategic partners on this matter, and only then will we be able to respond to the invitation extended to us,” Putin said in his televised opening remarks at the national Security Council meeting late Wednesday (January 21) night.

“We have always supported and continue to support any efforts aimed at strengthening international stability. We also acknowledge the current US administration’s contribution to the search for a solution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said, thanking US President Trump for the invitation.

“In this regard, I would like to emphasise the most important point. The key is that the entire process should have a positive impact on a long-term settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based on the relevant decisions of the United Nations.

“And it is essential that the fundamental needs and wishes of the Palestinians be taken into account. This concerns the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and its basic social infrastructure, healthcare systems, water supply, and the establishment of a reliable food supply,” Putin said and announced to donate USD 1 billion to the Peace Board.

“Even before we decide on the issue of participation in the composition and work of the Peace Board, taking into account Russia’s special relationship with the Palestinian people, we could, I think, give USD 1 billion from Russian assets frozen under the previous US administration,” Putin announced.

“I plan to discuss all these issues with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with whom we would hold talks tomorrow (Thursday),” Putin said. The Palestinian leader is in Moscow on a two-day visit.

The central drugs laboratories found 74 drug samples manufactured by various firms to be “Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)” in its monthly drug alert for December, a health ministry statement said on Wednesday (January 21).

Additionally, the state drug testing laboratories have identified 93 drug samples as NSQ, they said.

According to routine regulatory surveillance activity, the list of Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and Spurious drugs is put up on the CDSCO portal on a monthly basis.

Further, in December 2025, four drug samples from North Zone (Ghaziabad) and one each from FDA Ahmedabad, Bihar and Maharashtra were identified as spurious drugs, which were manufactured by unauthorised manufacturers using brand names owned by other companies.

Iranian state TV on Wednesday (January 21) issued the first official death toll from recent protests, saying 3,117 people were killed, while the foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

State television carried statements by the Interior Ministry and the Martyrs Foundation, an official body providing services to families of those killed in wars, stating the toll and saying 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces. It did not elaborate on the rest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the death toll was at least 4,560. The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities.

The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations has said it cannot conduct fresh counselling for MBBS admissions and allocation of supernumerary seats to those who were earlier given seats at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence be made at the government level.

The clarification by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) came in a letter to the Union territory’s health and medical education department, which sought its intervention in the relocation of 50 MBBS students of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME).

Earlier this month, the National Medical Commission's Medical Assessment and Rating Board withdrew the letter of permission granted to SMVDIME for non-compliance with minimum standards. It had said that those admitted to the college during the counselling shall be accommodated in other institutions in Jammu and Kashmir as supernumerary seats.

Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asserted that the education of these 50 students will not be allowed to suffer, and his government will accommodate them in other institutions through supernumerary seats. “It is our legal responsibility to accommodate them. We will adjust them by creating supernumerary seats in colleges close to their homes so that their education does not suffer,” he had said.

British Hindus and Bangladeshi diaspora groups gathered at Parliament Square in London on Wednesday (January 21) to protest against the persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, calling on the British government to ensure the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government acts to protect innocent lives.

Families, including young children, gathered on a rainy evening to wave placards that read “#SaveBangladeshiHindus” and “Save Hindus in Bangladesh”, as chants of “stop killing Hindus” rang out opposite the Palace of Westminster Parliament complex.

Hindu Council UK said in a statement that Bangladesh Hindus are being “killed almost daily on false charges of blasphemy” since the Yunus regime took charge in the country.

Last week, the UK government condemned “all acts of violence” in Bangladesh and called for peaceful and credible elections as the issue was raised in the House of Commons.