• Indian refiners to curtail imports of Russian after US sanctions.
• Top Indian buyer of Russian oil says it will abide by sanctions.
• India’s Russian oil imports fell by 8.4% from April to September.
  

HYDERABAD: Indian refiners have not placed new orders for Russian oil purchases since sanctions were imposed, as they await clarity from the government and suppliers, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

Some refiners are tapping the spot markets to meet their crude oil needs, said the sources, who did not want to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

State-run Indian Oil has issued a tender for the purchase of oil, while conglomerate Reliance Industries has boosted purchases from spot markets, according to sources.

The European Union, the UK, and the US have imposed a raft of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, including fresh US sanctions on Thursday that target Russia’s two top oil producers, Lukoil and Rosneft.

Indian refiners are poised to sharply curtail imports of Russian oil to comply with the new US sanctions, Reuters reported on Thursday, potentially removing a major hurdle to a trade deal with the US.

Last week, Reliance, the top Indian buyer of Russian oil, said it will abide by the sanctions while maintaining its relationship with current oil suppliers. Reuters also reported that the firm plans to stop importing oil from Rosneft.

“We have not placed orders yet for fresh cargoes and have cancelled some that were booked from traders with links to the sanctioned entities,” said one of the sources.

“We need to ensure that our purchases are not linked to sanctioned entities as banks will not facilitate payments,” a third source said.

A separate source said his firm is waiting to see if it can get cargoes from non-sanctioned traders or entities.

India bought 1.9 million barrels per day in the first nine months of 2025, or 40% of Russia’s total exports, according to the International Energy Agency.

India’s Russian oil imports between April and September fell 8.4% on year due to narrower discounts and tighter supplies, with refiners seeking more oil from the Middle East and the US, according to trade sources and shipping data.

• Leaders meet in Tokyo, set to visit US naval base.
• Shipbuilding, soybeans, gas are on the agenda, sources say.
• Trump eyes trade deal with China after Japan visit.

TOKYO: US President Donald Trump lavished praise on Japan’s first female leader Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Tuesday, welcoming her pledge to accelerate a military buildup and signing deals on trade and critical minerals.

Takaichi, a close ally of Trump’s friend and golfing partner late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

She is also expected to offer a package of US investments under a $550-billion deal agreed this year, including shipbuilding, and increased purchases of US soybeans, natural gas and pickup trucks, sources familiar with the talks said.

Those gestures may temper any Trump demands for Tokyo to spend more on defending islands from an increasingly assertive China, which Takaichi sought to head off by pledging last week to fast-track plans to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP.

“It’s a very strong handshake,” Trump said, as the pair posed for photos at the Akasaka Palace in downtown Tokyo.

“Everything I know from Shinzo and others, you will be one of the great prime ministers. I’d also like to congratulate you on being the first woman prime minister. It’s a big deal,” Trump told Takaichi as the pair sat down for discussions with their delegations.

Takaichi gifted Trump Abe’s putter, a golf bag signed by Japanese major winner Hideki Matsuyama and a gold leaf golf ball, according to photos posted on X by Trump’s assistant Margo Martin.

Deal on critical minerals signed

Trump also praised Japan’s efforts to purchase more US defence equipment, while Takaichi said Trump’s role in securing ceasefires between Cambodia and Thailand, and Israel and Palestinian militants, were “unprecedented” achievements.

Takaichi followed other world leaders to recommended Trump for the Peace Prize he has long said he is worthy of.

The leaders then signed an agreement to support the supply of critical minerals and rare earths, as the countries seek to wean reliance off China’s chokehold on the materials crucial for a wide range of products from smartphones to fighter jets.

The deal aims to jointly identify projects of interest in areas such as magnets and batteries over the next six months and work together to develop stockpiles of key minerals among other measures.

Trump was last at the palace, an ornate residence built in a European style, in 2019 for talks with Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

The US leader received a royal welcome shortly after his arrival on Monday, meeting with Japanese Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace.

Visit US naval base

Takaichi’s gifts to Trump and repeated references to Abe are aimed at evoking memories of a close bond forged over hours the pair spent golfing together during Trump’s first term. Abe was assassinated in 2022, with the trial of his assailant coincidentally beginning in the western city of Nara on Tuesday.

A similar close relationship with the leader of Japan’s key security and trade partner could help Takaichi bolster her weak political position at home.

Though she has seen a surge in public support since becoming prime minister, her coalition government is two votes shy of a majority in parliament’s lower house.

Trump and Takaichi will later visit the US naval base in Yokosuka near Tokyo, which is home to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, part of the US military’s powerful presence in the region.

Trump will then meet business leaders in Tokyo, before travelling on Wednesday to South Korea. In talks there with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said he hopes to seal a trade war truce between the world’s two biggest economies.

• Jamaicans, Cubans, brace for direct impact.
• Across Caribbean, hundreds of thousands evacuate.
• Four deaths reported in Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Hurricane Melissa was packing sustained winds of up to 175 mph (282 kph) on Monday afternoon, as the slow-moving Category 5 storm was on course to barrel into Jamaica, in what could be the largest on record for the Caribbean island.

As of 2pm (1800 GMT), Melissa was a “catastrophic” storm, the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the US National Hurricane Centre. The NHC expects Melissa to move over Jamaica late Monday or in the early hours of Tuesday, cross eastern Cuba the following night and move over the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos by Wednesday.

The storm’s slow movement over unusually tepid Caribbean water had contributed to its ballooning size and strength, NHC forecasters said, threatening Jamaica with days of never-before-seen catastrophic winds and as much as 3 feet of rain.

Melissa’s wind span is currently larger than the length of Jamaica, an island roughly the size of Connecticut and whose main airports sit very close to sea level.

Hours after ordering mandatory evacuations for parts of southern Jamaica, including the historic town of Port Royal, Prime Minister Andrew Holness called on foreign support and warned of damage to farmlands, homes and infrastructure such as bridges, roads, ports and airports.

Despite warnings, some residents told Reuters they were reluctant to leave their homes for fear of looting, and authorities said buses were waiting to be filled up and transport some 28,000 affected by mandatory evacuation orders.

“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” he said.

Holness said his government was as prepared as can be, with an emergency response budget of $33 million and insurance and credit provisions for damage a little larger than those sustained from last year’s devastating Hurricane Beryl.

Beryl was the earliest and fastest Atlantic hurricane on record to reach Category 5, but scientists warn that storms are becoming stronger and faster as a result of climate change, warming ocean waters, and piling up fuel for seasonal storms.

“Tens of thousands of families are facing hours of extreme wind gusts above 100 mph and days of relentless, torrential rainfall,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter, adding that infrastructure damage could hamper the arrival of aid.

“Slow-moving major hurricanes often go down in history as some of the deadliest and most destructive storms on record,” he added. “This is a dire situation unfolding in slow motion.”

Jamaica has seen many large hurricanes in the past, including Category 4 Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, but a direct hit from a Category 5 would be unprecedented, said Evan Thompson, of Jamaica’s Meteorological Service.

Melissa is moving much slower than Gilbert, Jamaica’s last major direct hit, Porter added, warning people should prepare to hunker down for days, and some communities could be cut off for weeks.

‘We can’t move’

Damian Anderson, a teacher from Hagley Gap, a town nestled in Jamaica’s soaring Blue Mountains, said impassable roads had already cut off his community.

“We can’t move,” Anderson, 47, said. “We’re scared. We’ve never seen a multi-day event like this before.”

Nearby Haiti and the Dominican Republic have already faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities in those island nations said.

In Haiti, impoverished by years of gang violence, more than 3,650 residents in the southern parts of the country moved into temporary shelters, authorities said, as they suspended flights to and from the southern peninsula and banned sailing.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis also ordered evacuations for people in the southern and eastern parts of the archipelago, while much of eastern Cuba battened down ahead of Melissa’s expected landfall.

Cuban authorities said they had evacuated upwards of 500,000 people living in coastal and mountainous areas vulnerable to heavy winds and flooding, and cancelled schools and transport across eastern Cuba.

More than 250,000 people were brought to shelters around Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest city, which lies squarely in the crosshairs of the hurricane’s predicted path.