The Mohan Majhi Government has announced plans to develop Odisha Silicon Valley over an area of 870 acres near Naraj, in Cuttack district, which will host all major semiconductor, electronics, and IT projects.

“The area for Odisha Silicon Valley in Naraj offers a highly favourable strategic location from the standpoint of connectivity and industrial infrastructure. With seamless connectivity to the Cuttack–Bhubaneswar urban corridor, the site also provides efficient multimodal access to major ports such as Paradip and Dhamra, along with connectivity to key national highways,” said Mr. Majhi while attending SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi on Friday (September 18, 2026).

“Naraj will be a potential strategic hub for the semiconductor supply chain, logistics and allied industries,” said Odisha CM in a statement.

“Semiconductor fabrication facilities and assembly units require reliable access to substantial quantities of water and power, and the site’s proximity to the Mahanadi River provides a significant locational advantage for meeting industrial water requirements. Combined with its connectivity and infrastructure potential, Naraj offers a strong foundation for developing a world-class semiconductor and electronics ecosystem,” he pointed out.

Stating that Odisha was looking to build on its growing investment pipeline and attract the next wave of investments across the semiconductor value chain, he informed that the State government received investment proposals worth approximately ₹23,600 crore and the potential to generate 6,100 employment opportunities, marking a significant step towards building a robust semiconductor and electronics ecosystem.

According to Chief Minister’s Office, Mr. Majhi interacted with delegations from Japan, Sweden and Taiwan.

As per supportive policy, Odisha has extended 25% additional fiscal support to India Semiconductor Mission-approved projects in semiconductor equipment manufacturing, semiconductor-grade gases, raw materials and supply-chain segments. The current policy framework also provides support for engineer relocation, manpower skilling, internships, international patents and R&D.

Bihar government on Friday (September 18, 2026) came out with a One-Time Settlement (OTS) scheme for the settlement of outstanding dues of brick kilns for brick kiln season 2024-25.

Under the scheme, brick kiln owners will have to deposit outstanding principal dues, while the interest component, which had accumulated on their earlier dues, will be waived off by the State government, Mr. Kumar told reporters at his official chamber at Vikas Bhawan. 

He added that brick kiln owners owe a total of ₹316.66 crore, comprising ₹226.40 crore in outstanding royalty and ₹90.26 crore in interest.

Out of ₹316.66 crore outstanding dues, only ₹27.28 crore has been recovered by the District Mining Officers concerned through certificate proceedings/FIRs, thus leaving ₹289.38 crore as outstanding amount that includes ₹203 crore as principal amount while ₹85 crore as interest component. 

“In Bihar, those engaged in the brick-kiln business had a substantial amount of money outstanding with the government for a long period. They had also been demanding that arrangements be made for them to pay the outstanding amount in a lump sum. We considered their plea and, accordingly, the state cabinet, in its last meeting, decided to bring an OTS scheme for those engaged in the business of brick kilns in the State,” Mr. Kumar said while speaking to the press in Patna.

“I would like to thank the Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary for bringing the scheme under which a one-time payment can be made, and substantial relief has been provided to those engaged in the brick-kiln business,” he said, adding that the move will increase the government’s revenue, while also providing considerable relief to people engaged in this business. 

The scheme will be applicable for a period of three months between September 21 and December 20, 2026, during which brick kiln owners will have to deposit the entire amount, failing which they will have to pay the entire dues under the earlier system, including the full interest. There are people associated with approximately 6,000 brick kilns. 

The minister appealed to all the brick-kiln owners to deposit the one-time amount within the stipulated period so that they can restart their businesses afresh and do not face any difficulties in the future. 

Changes in rules 

While talking about the department approving “Bihar District Mineral Foundation (Amendment) Rules 2026 that brought certain changes in the earlier 2018 Rules, Mr. Kumar said that 2% amount is deposited in each district from where mineral extraction takes place, where minerals such as stone or sand are excavated. A district associated with mining receives this two per cent amount.

Following the amendments to the Rules, 70% of District Mineral Foundation (DMF) will be spent in the block from where the minerals are being extracted, while 30% will be spent in other blocks of the district, Mr. Kumar said, adding that earlier, the ratio was 60:40.

Another change is that elected members such as Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembly, and Members of Legislative Council from different districts were previously not members of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF), the Minister said, adding that they will now also be members of the DMF following the change in the Rules.

He asserted that the auction of stone-mining areas has also been completed in Nawada and Sheikhpura and the auction in other districts will be carried out as quickly as possible.

The Minister said that Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey will be visiting the state on September 22 (2026) and “we will have a meeting with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) along with him. Our objective is to move forward in the mineral sector as quickly as possible and expedite the work.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, ​Kim Yo Jong, accused the International Atomic Energy ‌Agency on Saturday (September 19, 2026) of double standards ​after it adopted a resolution ⁠criticising Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The IAEA’s “biased viewpoint and double standards” are “the fundamental factor causing the collapse of ‌the international nuclear non-proliferation system”, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement ‌in state media KCNA.

She said the ‌agency ⁠had turned a blind eye ⁠to the “blatant nuclear proliferation activities” of the United States and South Korea’s “nuclear submarine introduction plan”, while forcibly adopting a ​resolution against North ‌Korea’s “self-defensive and legitimate nuclear activities”.

In a separate KCNA statement, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed the resolution, declaring that its status ‌as a nuclear power is irreversible ​and backed by its nuclear deterrent.

KCNA also said North Korean leader ⁠Kim Jong Un carried out a three-day inspection tour of major munitions factories this week.

Ms. Kim ‌stressed North Korea’s artillery should both fight and deter war with “the most concentrated and destructive, massive and versatile offensive capability”, KCNA said.

Ms. Kim added that North Korea’s efforts to modernise all components of its defence ‌capability are bringing about “a significant change” in the composition ​and means of its armed forces.

Analysts say North Korea has been ⁠overhauling its military with Russian help since the ⁠two countries signed a mutual defence treaty in 2024. They say ‌combat experience gained by Pyongyang’s troops deployed to the war in Ukraine has ​also aided the effort.

The Bombay High Court has permitted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to cut 1,237 mangroves to build a bridge that connects Versova and Madh Island in the western suburbs of Mumbai.

The bridge is expected to reduce the distance of travel between Versova and Madh Island from 22 km to 1.5 km.

The court on September 17, 2026, set conditions including the plantation of 39,000 mangroves over 9 hectares, monitoring for 10 years, deposit of ₹1.42 crore, and an undertaking. The order came from a Bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna.

The Bench held that the project is for infrastructure and for residents, stating that is not for a particular company.

The Bench also held that the project improves connectivity between Madh Island and suburbs in Mumbai, giving relief from delays due to congestion on roads in the capital city. It added that the distance between Versova and Madh Island will reduce from 22 km to 1.5 km after completion of the project.

The BMC filed a plea as the proponent of the project., stating that it had obtained clearance for the bridge over Malad creek. The BMC had first sought permission to cut 560 mangroves and later raised the count to 1,237 following a re-assessment.

In its order, the Bench recorded that the BMC will plant 39,000 mangroves over 9 hectares of land with forest of mangroves. It said the BMC will plant these at the site and at places in the area. Further, the BMC will monitor the plantation for 10 years.

The Bench said the BMC will deposit ₹1.42 crore, accepting the undertaking. It said the corporation will face consequences in law if it breaches the said undertaking.

Permitting the construction of the bridge, the Bench said the court’s intervention on mangroves with safeguards and measures for restoration would serve the interest of residents. It added that the petition was entertained on the basis of the commitments and the undertaking from the BMC.

A U.S. federal appeals court rejected on ​Friday (September 18, 2026) a policy adopted by President Donald Trump’s administration that allows authorities to ⁠rapidly deport migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to raise safety concerns.

Ruling in a case that is likely headed to the Supreme Court, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st ‌U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld a February decision by a lower-court judge that declared the Department of Homeland Security’s policy unlawful.

The ruling came in a class-action ‌lawsuit filed by migrants subject to deportation orders that has become a key test ‌of ⁠what due process protections the government must provide before removing people to countries with which ⁠they have no connection.

“This decision confirms that due process and the protections Congress enacted against persecution and torture cannot be circumvented by putting someone on a plane to a country that was never part of their removal proceedings,” Trina ​Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at ‌the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said

Under Mr. Trump, the administration has entered into a series of agreements that have allowed it to send more than 25,000 migrants to at least 29 third countries, in many cases Mexico, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project run by Refugees ‌International and Human Rights First.

The Trump administration is expected to appeal. Earlier in the ​same case, the administration twice convinced the Supreme Court to lift a preliminary injunction protecting migrants’ due process rights, clearing the way for eight men to be deported to ⁠South Sudan.

DHS had no immediate comment.

Trump’s third country deportations pose risk of abuse and incarceration

Under the third-country deportation program, DHS adopted a policy in March 2025 that would allow migrants to be sent to such countries if immigration authorities have credible diplomatic assurances they ‌will not be persecuted or tortured there.

The policy called for only minimal notice before a migrant could be sent to a third country that had not given the State Department such assurances.

Third country deportations

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, set aside the policy and concluded that it failed to protect migrants’ due process rights and could lead to their swift deportation to unfamiliar and potentially dangerous countries, without notice.

On appeal, the Trump administration contended that ‌Judge Murphy’s order if left intact would usurp its authority to execute potentially thousands of valid orders of deportation to third countries.

But ​U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe, writing for Friday’s panel, said Judge Murphy adopted a “sensible” interpretation of the immigration law requiring migrants be given a “meaningful” chance to raise any ⁠concerns before they are deported.

“DHS’s proposed interpretation would deny access to that protection to a substantial swath ⁠of noncitizens who are sent to third countries with no notice of their destination,” Judge Aframe wrote. “We decline to adopt such an interpretation.”

The panel included two Biden appointees, including ‌Judge Aframe, and a judge appointed by a Republican president.

However, the 1st Circuit overturned one part of Judge Murphy’s ruling on procedural grounds. That part of the ruling concerned whether the government must ​first try to deport migrants to countries they have ties to before sending them to third countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump will have a meeting with ‌Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez in New York ​on Tuesday (September 22, 2026), a senior U.S. official said, in what will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Washington ousted ‌former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Mr. Trump’s meeting with Ms. Rodriguez, Mr. Maduro’s former deputy, will be ‌on the sidelines of a reception ‌that ⁠the Republican President will be hosting, U.S. ⁠ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told reporters in a briefing call on Friday (September 18, 2026).

“The president will host a UN General Assembly leaders’ reception. ​There, he’ll participate ‌in a pull-aside with the acting president Rodriguez of Venezuela,” Mr. Waltz said. He did not give any details of what they might discuss.

The ‌Venezuelan Communications Ministry, which handles all press queries ​for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, ⁠the U.S. and Venezuela signed an energy agreement that would allow the U.S. to take partial ‌control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, betting that American companies can help revive the South American nation’s battered energy industry.

Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is facing a growing dilemma over when to return home to rally support amid reticence ‌from the Trump administration about her homecoming.

Ms. Machado left the ​country late last year to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, after largely living in ⁠hiding since a contested 2024 election. She sought to ⁠cultivate Mr. Trump as an ally well before Mr. Maduro’s removal. But since the ouster, Mr. Trump ‌has repeatedly expressed support for Ms.Rodriguez.

More U.S. troops have died ​during the U.S.-Israeli war ⁠with Iran than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed, the Washington ‌Post reported on Friday (September 18, 2026).

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ‌denied the report.

The Post, ‌citing ⁠five unidentified officials, ⁠reported that there had been at least 22 military fatalities, four ​more than were listed ‌in the data available on the Pentagon’s public database.

The newspaper also reported, citing ‌another unidentified official, that not ​all of the undisclosed deaths were directly tied ⁠to the months-long conflict but involved U.S. personnel ‌who were in West Asia amid ongoing hostilities.

Mr. Hegseth, in a post on X, called the report “a complete LIE.”

The Post did not ‌immediately respond to a request ​for comment. In its story, the newspaper said ⁠the Pentagon had declined to address ⁠its questions about the discrepancy in casualty accounting.

Uttar Pradesh Congress unit chief Ajay Rai on Friday (September 18, 2026) accused the BJP-led State government of wasting public money on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday at a time when a portion of the country is facing floods and economic crisis persists across the country.

“The entire country saw how birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was celebrated with pomp and ceremony. Lamps were lit across the country and government funds were wasted. This has been done at a time when hundreds of villages in U.P. And other states have been cut off due to the devastation caused by severe floods, there is destruction across the country, people are not getting food or water, they are not getting medicines, and Modi ji is celebrating his birthday,” said Mr. Rai, addressing the media in Lucknow. 

Mr. Rai alleged that 500 bikes were given in Varanasi with a deal that the people who ride them will have to pay ₹700 per day

The Congress state chief said: “Crores of lamps were lit across the country, and at least Rs. five would be spent on lighting one lamp. Several videos are going viral in which it can be seen that children are collecting oil, the leftover oil from the lamps that were lit is being collected by children. A little girl in a viral video can be seen collecting oil and saying that she will use it to cook dinner.”

He said the Prime Minister should be ashamed that there is no oil in these children’s homes to cook food. “And you are spending crores of rupees on your birthday. Poor people do not have money, they do not have money for medicines, in fact you should light lamps in their homes,” he said.

Further, Mr. Rai accused the BJP of being responsible for collapse of the economy, stating that neither employment nor jobs are being provided in the country by the government. “The government says that GDP has increased. But, the reality is there is neither employment nor jobs in the country and Uttar Pradesh,” he added.

The United States, Denmark and Greenland have entered into an agreement ⁠for the U.S. to develop a significant military presence on Greenland, while prohibiting U.S. adversaries from building their own bases on the island, Donald Trump said on Friday on Friday (September 18, 2026). This comes after months of threatening to take island by force from the NATO ally.

In a Truth Social post, the U.S. President ‌wrote that no U.S. enemies would be able to make sensitive investments on the island without the approval of the United States and that the agreement had ‌no expiry date.

“At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to ‌guarantee ⁠that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what ⁠is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote.

The announcement suggests he was pleased with the outcome of the negotiations, and that he may not revive his territorial claims, at least ‌in the near future. He said, without elaborating, that the U.S. would soon be ​rolling out a large military presence on the island, which already hosts one Space Force base in its remote northwest.

“This is a dream come true ⁠for the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Deal to be signed next week, still needs parliamentary action: Denmark

The office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the Greenland deal with the U.S. will be signed by three governments next week during the United Nations General Assembly. However parliamentary action is still needed by the Danish and Greenland governments before it can be enforced.

Mr. Frederiksen said in a statement that “the agreement recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Greenland and Denmark and upholds both people’s right “to self-determination.” The PM’s office said that the agreement would strengthen North Atlantic and Arctic security.

Rubio says deal addresses security concerns

In a separate statement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the deal “permanently and completely” ​addressed Washington’s national security concerns with respect to the island. “Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from ⁠it and the surrounding area,” he wrote.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ⁠specific terms, said the deal prohibits non-NATO countries from building a base in Greenland, and will allow only the U.S. and its allies to make unspecified “sensitive investments.”

Much was ‌unclear as of Friday night (September 18, 2026), including whether any new U.S. bases would be constructed as a result of the agreement. Trump’s Truth Social posts about negotiations or agreements often lack context or specifics.

The U.S. already has nearly total overflight and basing rights in Greenland due to a 1951 treaty.

It was also unclear how the agreement would be received in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. The island’s residents aspire to independence and have bristled at US attempts ‌to assert hegemony.

The ‌official said the agreement grants the U.S. permanent access, basing and overflight rights, and would continue to apply even if Greenland becomes independent.