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European Union members have agreed to cut gas use in case Russia halts supplies but some countries will have exemptions to avoid rationing, BBC reported.

EU members, locked in talks since the idea was suggested last week, have now agreed to voluntarily reduce 15% of gas use between August and March.

"This was not a Mission Impossible!", tweetedthe Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

However, the deal was watered down after previously not having exemptions.

The EU has said its aim from the deal is to make savings and store gas ahead of winter, warning that Russia is "continuously using energy supplies as a weapon".

The voluntary agreement would become mandatory if supplies reach crisis levels.

However, some countries not connected to the EU's gas pipe lines, such as Ireland, Malta and Cyprus, would be exempt from any mandatory gas reduction order as they would not be able to source alternative supplies.

Elsewhere the Baltic nations, which are not hooked up to the European electricity system and are heavily reliant on gas for electricity production are also exempt from compulsory targets in order to avoid the risk of an electricity supply crisis.

Countries can also ask to be exempt if they exceed gas storage filling targets, if they are heavily dependent on gas for "critical" industries, or if their gas consumption has increased by at least 8% in the past year compared to the average of the past five years.

Nathan Piper, an oil and gas analyst for Investec, said there is a "high political and economic price" as the EU looks to reduce its dependence on Russian gas - and that price was being reflected in the exemptions for members, which would likely reduce the impact of the measures, according to BBC.

But Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, said initial calculations indicated that even if all exemptions to ration were used, the EU as a whole would still reduce demand to a level "that would help us safely through an average winter".

She also outlined work to boost alternative gas supplies from countries including Azerbaijan, the United States, Canada, Norway, Egypt and Israel.

Ahead of the deal announcement, Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck said: "Of course there are a lot of compromises in this text now. This is how Europe works."

Mr Habeck said a "problem might occur" that all the exemptions cause "too much bureaucracy so that we are too slow in times of crisis", but he added the exemptions were "reasonable".

Hungary was the only member to oppose the deal, BBC reported.

A member of Viktor Orban's inner circle has resigned after the Hungarian prime minister spoke out against becoming a "mixed race". 

Zsuzsa Hegedus, who has known the nationalist Mr Orban for 20 years, described the speech as a "pure Nazi text", according to Hungarian media, BBC reported.

The International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust survivors called the speech "stupid and dangerous".

Mr Orban's spokesman said the media had misrepresented the comments. 

The speech took place on Saturday in a region of Romania which has a large Hungarian community.

In it, Mr Orban said European peoples should be free to mix with one another, but that mixing with non-Europeans created a "mixed-race world". 

"We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race," he said. 

Mr Orban's anti-migration views are well known, but for Ms Hegedus Saturday's speech crossed a line. 

"I don't know how you didn't notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels," she wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian hvg.hu news website.

Goebbels was the head of Adolf Hitler's propaganda ministry, according to BBC.

Hungary's largest Jewish group also condemned the speech and called for a meeting with Mr Orban.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's rumoured plan for a trip to Taiwan has infuriated China and left the White House with a serious geopolitical headache. How big a problem is this?

On Monday, China warned of "serious consequences" if Nancy Pelosi were to proceed with a visit to Taiwan in the coming weeks, BBC reported.

Second in line to the presidency, Mrs Pelosi would be the highest ranking US politician to travel to the self-governing island democracy since 1997.

However, China sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country again - and has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.

The potential trip has not only rankled Beijing - the Biden administration has reportedly tried to dissuade the California Democrat from going.

Last week, President Joe Biden told reporters "the military thinks it's not a good idea", but his White House has called Chinese rhetoric against any such trip "clearly unhelpful and not necessary".

The state department says Mrs Pelosi has not announced any travel and the US approach to Taiwan remains unchanged, according to BBC.

Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya hinted that the elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly will be held on November 20.

During a press conference organized by the Election Commission on Tuesday, he said that it would not be surprising if the next meeting of the Cabinet announced the date of November 20 for the elections.

He said that the expenses may increase in the elections.

Saying that the poll body had printed 20 billion ballot papers for the local level elections, Thapaliya said that 80 million ballot papers should be printed for the upcoming elections.

The Chief Election Commissioner said that the Election Commission has already started internal preparations for the elections.