Karnataka government on Wednesday announced it would temporarily suspend COVID-19 vaccination for people aged 18 to 44 from May 14. "Today the state government has decided that the vaccine procured directly by the state for vaccination of persons between 18-44 years will be utilised for vaccination of beneficiaries [above 45 years] who are due for second dose," an order read.

The Jharkhand government on Wednesday extended the lockdown-like restrictions in the state till 6 am on May 27. The state government has also introduced stricter provisions. People coming to Jharkhand will have to undergo seven-day mandatory quarantine. However, it won't apply to people who'll leave the state within 72 hours. Inter-state and intra-state bus movement will remain suspended.

The Gujarat government has announced that those working at crematoriums will be considered COVID-19 frontline workers and will get all related benefits. The benefits include ₹25 lakh for the family if a worker dies due to the virus infection. They will be eligible for benefits retrospectively, from April 1, 2020, when the outbreak began.

Tom Cruise addressed his viral audio, in which he was heard yelling about COVID-19 safety protocols while speaking to 'Mission: Impossible 7' crew. "There was a lot at stake...But it wasn't my entire crew...it was just select people," he said. "We're creating thousands of jobs, you m***********s...If I see it again, you're f***ing gone," he had said in the audio.

Ellen DeGeneres is to end her long-running US talk show in 2022 after 19 years on the air. "As great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge any more," she told The Hollywood Reporter. The announcement comes just months after the show faced accusations that it was a toxic place to work.

A Canadian woman's LinkedIn post about a work-related call she had with an employee from Delhi amid the COVID-19 situation in India has gone viral. The woman said the man broke down over the call and said he has lost someone every day for 10 days. "We stayed on for almost an hour, just being humans...Please be kind," she added.

The Indian Railways on Wednesday informed that 100 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far to provide medical oxygen to states amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Railways Ministry, Oxygen Express has delivered 6,260 metric tonnes (MT) of liquid medical oxygen in over 396 tankers to various states. On Tuesday, the trains delivered around 800 MT of oxygen.

The UK strain of COVID-19 has been found in the samples sent from Rajasthan for genome sequencing, the state government said on Wednesday. According to Rajasthan's Health Minister Raghu Sharma, the reports were received a couple of days back. On CM Ashok Gehlot's directions, officials have started the process of setting up genome sequencing facility in Jaipur, Sharma added.

Taking to Instagram Stories, actress Rhea Chakraborty shared her thoughts on how people are helping each other amid the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote, "It fills my heart to see how we're standing together in this crisis." Rhea added, "What...will go down in history is that human race was divided, but in the face of adversity they united."

Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli on Wednesday raised the target amount for COVID-19 relief fund to ₹11 crore. The couple had initially started the campaign, called #InThisTogether, with the aim to raise ₹7 crore. "Thank you MPL Sports Foundation for your...contribution of ₹5 crore in our fight against COVID-19. With your help we've...increased our target to ₹11 crore," Virat tweeted.

The Bombay High Court has said that many lives could have been saved if authorities had conducted door-to-door vaccination for senior citizens and specially-abled persons. The court asked the Centre to explain why it wouldn't start door-to-door vaccination campaigns when the lives of the citizens were at stake. The Centre last month informed the court that the exercise wasn't feasible.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that there is a need for a quick consensus at the WTO on the proposal for patent waiver on COVID-19 vaccines. "To overcome this crisis much faster...we need expeditious....transfer of technology and availability of the raw material," Goyal said. He added that the United States has given "limited" support for vaccines.

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) will give medical kits to all symptomatic persons taking RT-PCR tests at government or private labs. The kit will consist of zinc tablets, multivitamins, Kabasura Kudineer - a herbal drink, and masks. This is to stop the spread within two days before the RT-PCR test result comes.

The Kerala government has extended the validity of the RT-PCR negative certificate for travellers coming from other states. As per the new guidelines, interstate travellers can carry RT-PCR certificates taken within 72 hours, changing the previous rule that said that certificates should be taken within 48 hours. However, there is no clarity over quarantine option.

Wipro Founder Chairman Azim Premji said the country must act with great speed on all fronts to tackle COVID-19 and these actions must be based on good science. "Look at villages and those in poverty, it's not only...pandemic but also economic effects that are devastating people's lives," he said. "Together we are stronger, divided we continue to struggle," he added.

The Supreme Court judge, Justice DY Chandrachud has tested positive for coronavirus, court administration said on Wednesday. Reportedly, a staff member of the judge had tested positive earlier. Chandrachud is heading the bench for scanning the Centre's policy and preparedness in the management of the second COVID-19 wave. The suo motu matter was to be heard on Thursday.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday reported a loss of £16.1 million (around ₹168 crore) in the past year after its finances took a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ECB's turnover fell by £21 million to £207 million as a result of the postponement of The Hundred, as well as the cost of staging bio-secure tournaments.

The worldwide semiconductor shortage will persist through 2021 and is expected to recover to normal levels by the second quarter of 2022, Gartner said. It said the shortage started with devices which have a limited supply such as power management, display devices and microcontrollers among others. There are shortages for parts of the supply chain beyond chip fabs, it added.

Ether jumped 7% on Wednesday to briefly breach the market capitalisation of $500 billion, as per data from CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency, which has surged almost 500% this year, also surpassed the $4,300 level to hit a record high of $4,372. Ether, also referred to as Ethereum, has outperformed world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which has almost doubled in price this year.

India can have four crore 5G users in the first year when the service is made available to them, a report released by Ericsson said. According to the report, consumers have shown willingness to pay 50% more for 5G plans bundled with digital services. However, the consumers want to pay only 10% more for 5G connectivity, the report added.

Hours after West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar announced that he will be meeting post-poll violence affected people in Cooch Behar and Assam, CM Mamata Banerjee said it is a violation of norms. "I find that to be violative of the long-standing norms...I, therefore, would expect you will kindly follow the well-established norms of protocol," Banerjee said.

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday said that it has issued over ₹17,061 crore of refunds to more than 13 lakh taxpayers so far in this fiscal year. Out of the total amount, personal income tax refunds worth ₹5,575 crore were issued in over 12.71 lakh cases. Corporate tax refunds of ₹11,486 crore were also issued to 29,592 taxpayers.

A Russian court has jailed an ex-Mayor for nine days for urging people to protest for the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Yevgeny Roizman was charged with organising an illegal rally after urging his Twitter followers to take to the streets. "Organising [a protest] means one tweet and...retweet...This...constitutes a call [to take to the streets]," Roizman had tweeted.

Speaking at a virtual event at the UN on Xinjiang, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US will keep "speaking out until China stops its crimes against humanity and genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang". Meanwhile, Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward described the situation as "one of the worst human rights crises of our time".

Infosys Co-founder SD Shibulal on Wednesday purchased company's shares worth ₹100 crore through an open market transaction. He bought over 7.58 lakh shares at an average price of ₹1,317.95 apiece, according to the block deal data on BSE. According to regulatory filing, Shibulal's wife sold the same number of shares at the same price on Wednesday.