Former United States president Donald Trump was projected to win the crucial South Carolina primary, beating his Indian-American rival and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, major American media outlets said minutes after the closing of the polls Saturday.

Although India-US relations have strengthened significantly in recent years, partly because of the security situation in the region, the Indian policy establishment would have to be prepared to protect India's interests in a world that could get more unpredictable.

By winning the New Hampshire primary after the Iowa Caucus, Trump has made the strongest ever case to be the Republican party's nominee for the November presidential elections.

Trump's attack against Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who served as his UN ambassador, comes days before a hotly contested New Hampshire primary that could determine the trajectory of the party's presidential nomination contest.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signalled that he would largely bypass the New Hampshire primary next week and instead would focus on South Carolina where the Republican presidential primary is scheduled for February 24.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the race to win the Republican nomination for this November's US presidential election after polling a pathetic 8% in the Iowa caucus, has already begun schmoozing the famously amenable to flattery Donald J Trump.

Trump's victory in his first election since his unusual exit in 2020 has also laid to rest any lingering questions about his hold over the GOP and the potency of his right-wing message.

The race to win the Republican nomination for the US Presidential election this November began in icy Iowa on Monday January 15, 2024, when voters picked their nominee.

Ramaswamy was a distant fourth with 7.7 per cent of the votes polled in the Iowa Caucus

He is currently on a two-day swing to the crucial State of Iowa. On January 15, Iowa would kick off the 2024 Republican presidential primary season.

Lakshya Sen went down fighting against reigning All England champion Li Shi Feng of China in the men's singles semi-finals.

Newly-crowned Canada Open champion Lakshya Sen will hope to continue his winning momentum while beginning his campaign at the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament.

At the December in-person court appearance, State Supreme Court Justice Juan M Merchan will decide on the expected motions to dismiss the case.

What would an Indian American president of the US look like, sound like and act like, especially on issues and policies pertaining to his or her 'mother-land'?, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.

Dr Rajesh M Parikh remembers Dr Dinshaw Doongaji, the legendary psychiatrist who passed into the ages last week, a day short of his 91st birthday.

According to Haley, the Biden administration resumed military aid to Pakistan, though it's home to at least a dozen terrorist organisations and its government is deeply in hock to China.

India's Tara Prasad takes part in the Women's Free Skate during the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships at Broadmoor World Arena, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

At least seven people were killed and one person critically injured after shootings were reported from two locations in the Half Moon Bay area in north California of the United States, CNN reported citing local officials who said that a 67-year-old suspect is now in custody.

Those close to Khanna, 46, say he is keeping his options open ahead of a potential presidential run in 2028 or beyond. But others in his orbit are talking about an even more compressed timeline: running in 2024 if President Joe Biden, 80, decided not to, according to Politico, a political newspaper company based in Arlington County in the US.

This doctor couple put their faith in India. And in return India has put faith in them.

It is for the first time he's publicly invoked the word genocide since Putin began his deadly assault on Ukraine on February 24.

The police were seeking a man with a gas mask and an orange construction vest, the official said, reported The New York Times.

On Sunday morning Eastern US time, four astronauts will zoom into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Commanding the spaceflight is Raja Chari, a United States Air Force colonel.

'And we said to him, "What will you do for us if we jump in early?"' 'His answer was very simple: "I'm going to have the most diverse cabinet and administration in the history of the US".' '"You can expect that you will have a seat at the table, okay? Number one. So influence if I win".' '"Number two, you should fully expect that we will focus on the issues that you care about: Immigration".'

Chari, 43, will serve as the commander while NASA's Tom Marshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the ISS, which is expected to launched next year.

Prominent deep-pocketed investors are lined up to finance Major League Cricket, the world's top players are supposedly ready to sign on and, according to the ICC and USA Cricket research, there is a baked-in fan base of between 15 and 20 million waiting to be served.

Adiga was a senior adviser to Jill and senior policy adviser for Biden's 2020 campaign. She previously worked for the Biden Foundation as director for higher education and military families.

Third time lucky is an apt phrase to describe the remarkable rise of Joe Biden, a veteran in US politics for around five decades, from being one of the youngest senators in history to the oldest American president-to-be.

The November 3 election saw a record voter turnout of 66.9 per cent, which is the highest turnout rate since 1900. The 1900 election had recorded 73.7 per cent voter turnout

Television news networks, including ABC CBS and NBC all cut away from United States President Donald Trump as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the election was being stolen from him.

Over 20 states have set weekly case records, and more than 40 states are seeing a pattern of growing known infections. On Tuesday, hospitalisations in the United States topped 50,000 for the first time since August 7.

Americans will give their final verdict, either giving incumbent Donald Trump another four years or bestowing reins to Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden.

The 2020 race marks Biden's third attempt at running for US president. He first tried in 1988 but dropped out after allegations of plagiarism. He ended his second attempt in 2008 after garnering less than one per cent in the crucial Iowa caucuses.

Kamala Harris has been wearing sneakers at almost all her campaign stops. Goes to show that Kamala is a woman of action!

In addition to declaring a national emergency, US President Trump has approved major disaster declarations for New York, California, Washington, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas and Florida.

The Union Health ministry put the number of positive cases at 82, eight more since Thursday night, which includes the woman and a 76-year-old man from Karnataka who became the country's first coronavirus fatality besides 17 foreign nationals, Health Ministry officials said.

The US seems to be engaging in a game of brinkmanship where President Trump's visit has been used as 'leverage' to pressure India into agreeing to a trade deal, notes Kashish Parpiani.

'For Trump, this maddening extravaganza will play out well in his election campaign, showing himself off as a hugely popular world leader,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

'Another rejection of mediation between India and Pakistan will leave Mr Trump disappointed.' 'In that case, he is likely to point out the war-like situation on the border and press for direct talks which have been stalled on account of continuing terrorism from Pakistan,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

Here are the best images from across the world from the previous week.