News Dabba 1 August: 5 stories across the web for a balanced news diet

Anushka Vani brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from the first grain ship leaving the Ukrainian port, Bengal getting five new ministers while the state also gets seven new districts, Dollar shops helping US families cope with high prices, a UK court passing a worldwide freezing order against Indian merchant, to California witnessing the largest wildfire.

CNN live update: First grain ship to leave the Ukrainian port of Odesa

CNN’s live updates from the Russia-Ukraine war talk about the first grain ship that left the Ukrainian port of Odesa under a United Nations (UN)-brokered deal to help ease the global hunger crisis. The first shipment to leave Ukraine since the Russia-Ukraine war began departed on Monday morning as stated by the Ukrainian officials. Additionally, the report stated that the southern region of Mykolaiv came under intense shelling overnight as the Russian forces were hitting civilian buildings. This also included a hospital's trauma centre. Read the full report on CNN.

Mamata Banerjee to introduce 5 new ministers to organise the cabinet, India Today

India Today reported that the West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee has decided to reshuffle and organise her cabinet as she is all set to introduce five new ministers. This move is said to come amid the Partha Chatterjee cash-for-jobs scam, with Chatterjee suspended from his position. Banerjee has claimed that she will be only reshuffling her ministry and not change it completely as claimed in some media reports. The report also stated that four of the current ministers will also be removed. The state has carved out seven new districts and the total number of districts in the state has now gone up to 30. Read the full report on India Today.

The Wall Street Journal’s report suggests that the Dollar shops have helped families cope with high prices

The Wall Street Journal report says that with energy costs up by 41.6 percent and groceries price by 12.2 percent, American families have started skipping vacations and restaurant meals. They are now trying to find effective ways to cut costs on essential commodities. One of the ways is by relying more on the dollar and discount stores for groceries. According to the report, the average spending on grocery products at these discount chains has increased by 71 percent as compared from October 2021 to June 2022. At the same time, the spending on the same items in grocery stores has decreased by 5 percent. Read the full report on WSJ.

The Print's story on why the UK court passed worldwide freezing order against Indian merchant  

The Winsome Diamonds case is about the merchant Jatin Mehta who allegedly defrauded a conglomerate of banks to the tune of rupees 7,000 crore. This was first brought into the limelight in 2014. However, this time the story has shifted to the United Kingdom where the London court had issued a worldwide freezing order in May against the fugitive and his family. The report by Print mentions that the investigation against the Mehtas and their companies that defaulted on loan payments, started in India in 2014 with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering cases against the companies, their directors and public servants. Read the full report on ThePrint.

California wildfire: McKinney Fire spreads rapidly in the north of state, BBC

BBC has reported that hundreds of firefighters in California are battling the largest wildfire to spread in the state so far this year. The fire started in the northern Siskiyou on Friday and has already burnt about 21,000 hectares, that is about 52 acres of land. According to the report, the McKinney fire has also affected about 2,000 residents as well as the trekkers on the Pacific Crest hiking trail. Read the full report on BBC.