PM, Union ministers, Priyanka Gandhi, others meet Speaker Birla after Lok Sabha adjourned sine die
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, NCP-SP's Supriya Sule and other leaders met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in his chamber after the Winter Session of Parliament was adjourned sine die on Friday.
The leaders thanked Birla for the conduct of the session.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Ministers K Ram Mohan Naidu, Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan', Chirag Paswan, and Pralhad Joshi joined the Speaker over tea.
"After the conclusion of the sixth session of the 18th Lok Sabha, a pleasant conversation took place with the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and esteemed leaders of all parties," Birla said in a post on X.
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The Winter Session of Parliament began on December 1 and concluded on Friday, with the Lok Sabha sittings for a cumulative duration of 92 hours and 25 minutes, marking 111 per cent productivity.
Ten government bills were introduced, and eight bills were passed, including those for reforms in the civil nuclear, insurance, and healthcare sectors, among others.
Parliament also passed a bill to replace the MGNREGA rural jobs scheme with the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill.
The Lok Sabha also passed the Supplementary Demands for Grants – First Batch, 2025–26 and the Appropriation (No. 4) Bill. The Prime Minister initiated a discussion to commemorate the completion of 150 years of the national song "Vande Mataram". The House discussed the subject for 11 hours and 32 minutes, during which 65 Members participated.
Similarly, the issue of Electoral Reforms was discussed on December 9 and 10 for approximately 13 hours, with the participation of 63 members.
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Trump suspends green card lottery programme that let Brown University, MIT shootings suspect into US
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery programme on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump's direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the programme.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit.
It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa programme makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the US, many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem's announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump's administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on US soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
