Jimmy Carter, a champion of peace, global health, and human rights, has left an indelible mark on the world. As the 39th President of the United States, he played a pivotal role in brokering peace in the Middle East during his tenure from 1977 to 1981.

Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend, Ind., mayor, Pete Buttigieg, left, and his husband Chasten Buttigieg, second from the right, meet with former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter at the Buffalo Cafe in Plains, Ga., March 1, 2020.

The 2024-25 edition of the Hockey India League (HIL) is set to begin tomorrow with Rourkela, Odisha, serving as one of the host cities. The opening match will feature Delhi SG Pipers facing off against Gonasika at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela. Seven teams have already arrived in the city in preparation for the tournament. The men’s league will be played in two phases. Phase One will run from the 28th of December to the 18th of January, with each team competing once. Phase Two will begin on January 19, where teams will be split into two pools and play against the others in their respective pools. The top four teams from this phase will progress to the semifinals, set for the 31st of January, 2025. While four matches will be held in Ranchi, all other games will occur in Rourkela. The final match of the league is scheduled for the 1st of February, 2025. Hockey fans in Odisha and across India eagerly anticipate a thrilling tournament filled with top-level action.

The pair of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anantjeet Singh Naruka, who finished fourth in the Paris Olympics, rounded off a successful year by clinching the Skeet Mixed Team national title for their home state of Rajasthan. In the final held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) on Wednesday, as part of the ongoing 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) for Shotgun events, the duo secured a tight 44-43 victory over Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Areeba Khan of Uttar Pradesh (U.P). Punjab's Ganemat Sekhon and Abhay Singh Sekhon took bronze.

Earlier in the day, three 25-shot round totals of 72 and 71 by Maheshwari and Anantjeet, respectively, ensured their spot in the gold medal match as the toppers of the seven-team qualification round.

The bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor. It officially became the country’s national bird. President Joe Biden signed into law legislation sent to him by Congress that amends the United States Code to correct what had long gone unnoticed and designate the bald eagle – familiar to many because of its white head, yellow beak and brown body – as the national bird.

The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States, which is used in official documents, since 1782, when the design was finalized. The seal is made up of the eagle, an olive branch, arrows, a flag-like shield, the motto “E Pluribus Unum” and a constellation of stars.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal launched the Dr Ambedkar Samman Scholarship scheme for Dalit students ahead of the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

His announcement comes after a row erupted in parliament over union home minister Amit Shah's allegedly “disrespectful” remarks on the father of the constitution.

Addressing a rally, Kejriwal stated that if AAP wins the assembly polls in February next year, the Delhi government will fund the education of foreign-bound Dalit students through the Dr Ambedkar Samman Scholarship.

Aisake Valu Eke was elected as Prime Minister of Tonga on Tuesday, Radio Nukualofa reported.

He will replace Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, who resigned on December 9.

Valu Eke, who will be officially sworn in as Prime Minister in February, was first elected to parliament in 2010 and served as minister of finance between 2014 and 2017. He will be in office for less than a year before the South Pacific island nation of 105,000 people holds its next election in November 2025.

China has approved the construction of the world's largest dam, stated to be the planet's biggest infra project costing $137 billion, on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet close to the Indian border, raising concerns in riparian states — India and Bangladesh.

The Chinese government has approved the construction of a hydropower project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra, according to an official statement quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday (December 25, 2024).

The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra river makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.

The total investment in the dam could exceed one trillion yuan ($137 billion), which would dwarf any other single infrastructure project on the planet including China’s own Three Gorges Dam, regarded as the largest in the world, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh died on Thursday. He was 92.

Singh was admitted to the emergency ward of Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at around 8 p.m. In April, the veteran Congress leader retired from the Rajya Sabha after a 33-year stint in the Upper House.

The Indian economy is expected to grow nearly 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25), closer to the lower end of the 6.5-7 per cent projection, against 8.2 per cent a year before, due to global uncertainties and triggers posing a dampening threat. The Finance Ministry expects a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.5 per cent in FY25 after the economy slowed to 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter.

“We expect the economy to grow at around 6.5 per cent in real terms in the financial year 2024-25,” said the Finance Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs in its monthly economic report for November. The estimate aligns with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s revised 6.6 per cent growth forecast for FY25. The July Economic Survey projected GDP growth at 6.5- 7 per cent.

In the 67th National Shooting Championship, Ganemat Sekhon of Punjab clinched her second consecutive national title in the women’s skeet competition in Delhi. In the individual women’s final, she hit 50 out of 60 targets, comfortably defeating her state-mate Asees Chhina, who managed 46 hits to take silver.

Olympian Raiza Dhillon secured bronze. This was Sekhon’s second gold of the competition. She had earlier won the women’s team event with teammates Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Jasmeen Kaur.

In men’s skeet, Bhavtegh Singh Gill, fresh from his triumph at the World University Championships, claimed his first senior national title with an impressive 54 hits in the final. Fatehbir Singh Shergill of Air India secured silver with 51 hits, while Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan of Uttar Pradesh took bronze with 43 hits out of the first 50 targets.