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Starting Monday, the daily economic burdens of millions of Indians could ease slightly, BBC reported.

Staples like milk and bread, life and medical insurance and life-saving drugs will become tax-free. Consumption tax on small cars, television sets and air conditioners will drop from 28% to 18%. And other common goods like hair oil, toilet soap and shampoo will be taxed at a marginal 5% instead of 12% or 18%.

The sweeping cuts are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's major overhaul of India's complex goods and services tax (GST) regime announced earlier this month. 

This is expected to both simplify the tax code and give flagging household consumption - which makes up over half of India's gross domestic product (GDP) - a much-needed fillip, according to BBC.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says she has warned Israel not to annex parts of the West Bank in retaliation for the UK's recognition of Palestinian statehood, BBC reported.

Cooper was speaking to the BBC before attending a conference on Monday at the UN in New York where France and other European states are due to make a similar announcement. 

In what was a significant change in policy, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the UK's recognition of a Palestinian state on Sunday, along with Canada, Australia and Portugal, according to BBC.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the moves, saying they give "a huge reward to terrorism". 

ABC's abrupt suspension of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission is the latest demonstration of the power President Donald Trump wields to bend media, entertainment and digital platforms to his will, as he uses political pressure to mute criticism and punish institutions he sees as biased against him, Reuters reported.

The move, which came after Kimmel's remarks about the accused killer of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has jolted the U.S. media and entertainment industries and intensified free-speech fears as the Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from stations that carry what he called "garbage."

Major media and tech companies are now controlled by Trump supporters or billionaire business leaders who lined up behind Trump during his inauguration, donated to his inaugural fund, or visited the White House bearing gifts. Billionaire GOP donor Larry Ellison’s Oracle is part of a consortium of investors with the inside track to take control of the U.S. operations of the video-sharing platform TikTok, according to Reuters.

World leaders gather in New York this coming week for a U.N. General Assembly dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the rostrum, war in Gaza and Ukraine, rising Western recognition of Palestinian statehood and nuclear tensions with Iran, Reuters reported.

"We are gathering in turbulent – even uncharted – waters," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a week before the 193-member world body hosts six days of speeches by nearly 150 heads of state or government along with dozens more ministers.

"Geopolitical divides widening. Conflicts raging. Impunity escalating. Our planet overheating," he told reporters on Tuesday. "And international cooperation is straining under pressures unseen in our lifetimes."