India's Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare chaired the first BRICS Health Working Group meeting of 2026 in New Delhi, convening senior health officials and delegates from all nine member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. The session operates under India's 2026 BRICS Chairship theme, "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," anchored in commitments articulated at the 2025 Rio Summit. Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava proposed two new priority areas for India's Chairship term: a BRICS Mission for Healthy Lifestyles targeting tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, and harmful alcohol consumption; and a dedicated workstream on Mental Health and Wellness focused on service strengthening and stigma reduction. These join seven existing priorities, including a BRICS TB Research Network, regulatory authority collaboration, an integrated early warning system for infectious diseases, and digital health architecture for remote care delivery. Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia each formally endorsed the new mental health and healthy lifestyles priorities, while all member countries aligned on advancing tuberculosis research, regulatory harmonisation, and local vaccine and medicine production. The meeting closed with consensus on a roadmap covering technical meetings and ministerial-level engagements across the full BRICS Health Track 2026, signalling structured follow-through rather than declaratory alignment alone.
India's Expenditure Finance Committee has cleared a Rs 1.25 lakh crore outlay for India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, up 64 percent from ISM 1.0's Rs 76,000 crore. The proposal now goes to the Cabinet, as two chip plants begin commercial output and a third, CG Semi, is set to open July 4, 2026.
The Supreme Court blocked Trump from firing Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, preserving the Fed's independence from presidential removal power. A separate ruling the same day gave Trump broader authority to dismiss leaders of other independent federal agencies.
The US Supreme Court has blocked President Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who faced unproven mortgage fraud allegations. The ruling preserves Fed independence for now and keeps a politically charged removal case alive in the courts.
The US Supreme Court, splitting along ideological lines, has allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
