US congressional leaders reached an agreement on Sunday on a USD 900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months to an economy and individuals battered by the surging coronavirus pandemic, with votes likely on Monday.

The package would be the second-largest economic stimulus in US history, following a USD 2.3 trillion aid bill passed in March. It comes as the pandemic accelerates, infecting more than 214,000 people in the country each day. More than 317,000 Americans have already died.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional outfit Janata Dal (Secular) (JD (S)) on Sunday, December 20, denied merging amid speculation of such a possibility before the next Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023.

JD (S) merging with BJP is a rumour and far from truth. It's speculative. JD-S is extending us issue-based support like removing legislative Council chairman Prathapchandra Shetty and the land reforms bill, said state Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in a statement in Kannada in capital Bengaluru.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has called an emergency meeting of the party on Saturday. The attendees are likely to include the 23 disgruntled leaders of the party who wrote a letter to her seeking reforms in the party.

It is being said that the name of the new Congress president can be discussed in the emergency meeting. As per Congress sources, senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan, Shashi Tharoor, Bhupendra Singh Hooda and many other leaders will meet Sonia Gandhi. All these leaders are among the 23 dissenters of the party who wrote letters to Sonia Gandhi.

The Indian cricket team on Saturday suffered the ignominy of being restricted to its lowest ever total in Test cricket, collapsing to 36/9 in the terminated second innings against Australia on the third morning of the first Day/Night Test here.

India's earlier lowest score was 42 at the Lord's in 1974 against England, known in Indian cricket parlance as Summer of 42.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises (AHEL) is planning to raise around Rs 1,500 crore in the next two months to support its inorganic growth and strengthen balance sheet and its digital platform.

It’s an indicative figure, not definite, Suneeta Reddy, managing director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said. The money, Reddy said, will be deployed in Apollo 24/7, the company’s six-month-old digital health platform, and in supporting growth in the hospital business and deleveraging the balance sheet.

Bharti Global and UK government on Friday said their joint venture OneWeb — a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications operator — launched 36 satellites from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia.

This takes the total in-orbit constellation to 110 satellites, part of OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity, a company release said.

Popular messaging app WhatsApp has started rolling out its new voice and video call feature for the desktop to some users. The new features would allow WhatsApp users to make calls through their desktop app. It was limited earlier to just the WhatsApp available on mobile phones.

It is reported that the new update available to a select few desktop users is in its beta stage and that is why it is not available to many at this point of time.

The temperature stayed below normal in Delhi as the cold wave conditions persisted in the national capital.

The minimum temperature of 2.7 degrees Celsius was reported at Jafarpur on Friday (December 18), followed by 3.5 degrees at Aya Nagar, and 3.8 degrees at Lodhi Road, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

In an important development, the income tax department came out to say that it had issued income tax refunds of over Rs 1.48 lakh crore to more than 1.02 crore taxpayers. These refunds have been made till December 14, 2020.

The total amount issued of Rs 1.48 lakh crore includes personal income tax refunds of about Rs 45,264 crore and corporate tax refunds of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, the department said.

Before his departure, US President Donald Trump has given another blow to China. The US Ministry of Commerce has announced a ban on 59 Chinese scientific and industrial manufacturing units, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). The US has called these companies a threat to national security and contrary to foreign policy. Earlier as well, the Donald Trump administration has taken many big steps against China.

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