NewsBytes

NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan won the vice presidential election on Tuesday by bagging 452 votes, while opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy polled 300 votes, Returning Officer P C Mody said. The vote tally suggested some cross-voting in favour of Radhakrishnan. BJP leaders claimed that at least 15 opposition members voted for the NDA nominee. Earlier, the Congress had claimed that the opposition stood united with all of its 315 MPs turning up to vote in the vice presidential polls. A total of 767 MPs cast their ballot in a turnout of 98.2 per cent, of which 752 were valid and 15 votes were deemed invalid, Mody said. One postal ballot was cancelled as the MP declined to cast the vote. Mody said Radhakrishnan secured 452 first preference votes as against 300 for Reddy. Radhakrishnan would be India's 15th vice president when he is sworn in to the post. The poll was necessitated by the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21. The electoral college for the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members - 245 from the Rajya Sabha and 543 from the Lok Sabha. The 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are also eligible to vote in the election. The present strength of the electoral college is 781 as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha.

In an annual survey that ranks the action taken by towns and cities to improve air quality, Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh was declared the second best in the country among places with less than 3 lakh population, officials said on Tuesday. Dewas in Madhya Pradesh was ranked first in the category in the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan-2025 held under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), a statement by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said. A spokesperson of Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board (HPPCB) said the award was conferred by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan award ceremony held on Tuesday in New Delhi, according to a statement here. He said that the award reflects the dedicated efforts of the HPPCB, local administration and the citizens of Parwanoo who worked tirelessly to ensure cleaner air and a healthier environment. Himachal Pradesh was awarded a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh for innovation in advancing the mission of clean air, which it said will be utilised to further strengthen initiatives for clean and healthy air.

The Israeli military urged a full evacuation of Gaza City on Tuesday morning ahead of its planned expanded offensive in the northern city, where hundreds of thousands of people struggle under conditions of famine. The announcement was the first warning for a full evacuation of the city in the current round of fighting. Previously, the military has warned specific sections of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of concentrated operations or strikes. Associated Press reporters saw more cars and trucks than in previous days passing from northern to southern Gaza on Tuesday, laden with supplies and people, but no widespread evacuation. Defence Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said Israel had demolished 30 high-rise buildings in Gaza, which it accused Hamas of using for military infrastructure.

Geoengineering, or the use of technological interventions to delay or mask effects of global warming, is flawed, not viable and "environmentally dangerous", researchers say. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions is largely considered the primary solution to limiting global warming to well within 2 degrees Celsius, outlined in the Paris Agreement. However, geoengineering has been proposed by certain research groups to hasten efforts in mitigating warming, especially in polar regions -- effects of which could be felt around the world. The proposed interventions include 'sea curtains', or flexible floating structures that stop warm water from reaching ice shelves, and 'sea ice management', in which glass beads are scattered on sea ice to boost its reflecting capacity. The international team of researchers from the US, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand looked at five geoengineering interventions and found that "the proposed concepts would be environmentally dangerous".