Pope Leo XIV greets people on the day he holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Catechists in St.Peter’s Square at the Vatican, September 27, 2025. REUTERS/Francesco Fotia /File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Pope Leo initially impressed conservative Catholics after his election in May as he embraced traditions shunned by his predecessor Pope Francis and steered clear of hot button social issues that divided the 1.4 billion-member Church.
But his honeymoon with conservatives appears over after he unexpectedly took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, questioning whether they were in line with the Church’s pro-life teachings.
“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Leo, the first U.S. pope, told reporters on Tuesday.
Some critics, who had praised the pope for his early reserve, expressed shock that Leo criticized the current champion of global conservatives.
Former Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland, a fierce Francis critic who was relieved from duty by the late pope but has praised Leo, criticized the new pope on social media for causing “much confusion … regarding the sanctity of human life and the moral clarity of the Church’s teaching.”
“So tired of papal interviews. He should return to his previous silence,” opined the Rorate Caeli blog, which had previously criticised Francis and praised Leo.
The Trump administration, which was sharply critical of Francis but has rarely commented about Leo, also pushed back.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she rejected the characterisation of inhumane treatment of immigrants.
POPE LIKELY UNDETERRED BY CRITICISM
Vatican officials and papal associates said Leo cares especially deeply about the treatment of immigrants and is unlikely to be deterred by criticism.
But it could detract from his mission, expressed during his inaugural papal mass, to work for unity across a global Church that has become more divided and polarized in recent decades.
While the naturally cautious Leo will look to avoid repeated clashes with conservatives that could harden opposition to his agenda, he will not renounce his own set of values.
“Is he going to ruffle the feathers of American conservatives at some points? Yes,” said Elise Allen, author of a biography of Leo for Penguin Peru and the only journalist to interview the pope since his election.
“They shouldn’t be surprised that he does that,” she told Reuters.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior adviser to both Francis and Leo, said the new pope was following an instruction given by St. Paul, a 1st century leader of Christianity: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season.”
“(Leo) encourages and challenges each local Church and each Christian, faced with complex and urgent issues, to live the Gospel,” the cardinal told Reuters.
Leo was a relative unknown on the global stage before his election in May. He spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru, where Allen said he developed a desire to care for immigrants and speak up for social causes.
“He understands the priority of the abortion issue, but he’s not going to be somebody that says that’s far more important than immigration,” she said.
Francis drew conservative Catholic ire throughout his 12-year papacy. He spurned much of the pomp of papacy, repeatedly clamped down on the traditional Latin Mass, and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.
LEO DISTINCT FROM FRANCIS
Leo earned conservative praise immediately in the hours after his election by wearing a traditional red papal garment called a mozzetta, which Francis never wore, in his first public appearance.
Leo has since held separate private meetings with U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, two prominent Francis critics who lost Vatican jobs under the late pope. Burke once famously compared the Church under Francis to “a ship without a rudder”.
Leo also let Burke celebrate a Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica later this month, something Francis had refused.
Frank Heemskerk, a top executive at the Dutch semiconductor giant ASML, made the remarks at a business event in Brussels when he was asked if his company had easy access to European leaders.
PM Modi interacted with the Dutch chip company CEO for over two hours. (pics: PTI/X)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s candid and business-friendly approach drew praise from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML, after its CEO Christophe Fouquet met him for two hours. According to ASML executive Frank Heemskerk, PM Modi not only listened but urged the company to offer feedback, saying: “You’re too friendly, tell me what we can do better.”
Heemskerk made the remarks at a business summit in Brussels when he was asked if his company had easy access to top leaders of the European Union.
“It’s not always easy. It’s easier to get a meeting in the White House with a senior official than to get a meeting with a commissioner,” he quipped.
He added that European policymakers should take a cue from PM Modi’s approach, noting that “political leaders should sit down with the companies that are making the investments.”
Commenting on ASML’s recent 1.3 billion euro deal with French AI firm Mistral, he said, “Of course, it’s easier since it’s a European company, we understand each other better.”
He, however, emphasised that the real reason for the partnership is Mistral’s strong focus on industrial AI, not geopolitics.
The Dutch tech giant’s praise for PM Modi comes as India is on the brink of a semiconductor revolution, making bold strides in developing semiconductor chips.
In August, the Prime Minister was presented with the first made-in-India chip called Vikram, which was developed by ISRO’s Semiconductor Laboratory.
Israel ordered all Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City, warning holdouts would face its offensive. The order comes as Hamas weighs US President Trump’s peace plan, which has drawn skepticism from Egypt and Qatar.
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza carry their belongings along the coastal road toward southern Gaza (Photo: AP)
Israel’s defense minister issued a stark ultimatum on Wednesday: All remaining Palestinians must leave Gaza City immediately or face the “full force” of Israel’s expanding offensive.
In a statement posted on X, Defence Minister Israel Katz called the evacuation the residents’ “last opportunity” to move south before the military escalates operations. “Those who remain in Gaza will be considered terrorists and terror supporters,” Katz declared, framing the order as a final step to isolate Hamas fighters.
The announcement followed Israel’s claim that its forces had captured the Netzarim axis, a strategic corridor stretching to the Mediterranean that effectively splits the enclave in two and tightens the encirclement of Gaza City. The Israel Defense Forces said Palestinians fleeing south must pass through checkpoints as the fighting intensifies.
Katz insisted the campaign would continue until “all hostages are returned and Hamas is disarmed, on the path to ending the war.”
The evacuation order came as Hamas leaders weighed a new peace proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump. The 20-point plan, announced with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, calls for Hamas to release all hostages, give up power in Gaza, and disarm in exchange for Palestinian prisoner releases, the end of fighting, and large-scale reconstruction under international governance.
The plan has received broad international support but drew reservations from key mediators. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty said on Wednesday that more negotiations were needed, echoing Qatar’s concerns a day earlier.
A senior Hamas official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said some provisions were “unacceptable” and would need amendments. He stressed that a formal response would come only after consultations with other Palestinian factions.
Nearly two years after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the war, 48 hostages remain in Gaza. Israel believes about 20 are still alive. Most of the others were released during earlier ceasefire agreements.
HUMAN TOLL
At least 21 more were killed Wednesday, local hospitals said. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped in Gaza City despite mass evacuations, many too weak or too poor to flee.
The US government shutdown would snap funding to the US department of labour, key to the processing of H-1B visas and green cards.
Among the hardest hit will be the processing of H-1B visas and green cards, crucial for thousands of Indian professionals.(REUTERS)
The ongoing US government shutdown is set to disrupt several services with some agencies stopping work, some people put on unpaid leaves and some asked to work without a pay until government opens up. Among the hardest hit will be the processing of H-1B visas and green cards, crucial for thousands of Indian professionals.
According to what some immigration lawyers told HT, the shutdown would snap funding to the US department of labour, key to the processing of H-1B visas and green cards.
Before a company can sponsor an H-1B visa, a Labour Condition Application (LCA) has to be filed with the US Department of Labour. Approval of this application is a important for moving the case forward to immigration authorities.
The Labour Department is also responsible for issuing the PERM certification, which allows individuals to seek an employment-based green card.
Now that funding to the labour department is paused as part of the shutdown, those who didn’t get their LCAs approved before October 1 will be affected. “That means, nobody can get a new H-1B, transfer employers, or change status to H-1B unless they already got the LCA signed before today. H-1Bs will be unavailable until the DOL resumes operations,” says Henry Lindpere, an immigration lawyer from Manifest Law.
Big impact on Indians?
According to a lawmaker, possible stalling of the H-1B visas and green cards stand to hit Indian professionals. Over 71% Indians currently benefit from the H-1B visa allocation system, making them the biggest beneficiaries.
Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley-based immigration lawyer, said that the “biggest immediate impact” for the Indian diaspora would be from the labour department. She believes that applications already under process may continue unaffected, but new applicants will be hit hardest.
“The shutdown creates a mixed bag of consequences, hitting new applications the hardest while largely sparing those already in process. For the Indian diaspora, who represent a huge portion of H-1B and employment-based green card applicants, the biggest immediate impact comes from the department of labour,” Alcorn said.
There is hope for H-1B and green card applicants who have their certifications approved as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also handles such applications and can continue their processing given visa fees funds them during the government shutdown.
The latest roadblock to H-1B visa processing comes amid tensions over the Trump administration’s big plans to change the existing system, a move that would largely impact Indians.
Earlier, the US government announced a steep $100,000 fee hike in H-1B visas for new applicants, and later announced an overhaul of the existing lottery system to prioritise higher wage workers.
When will the US government shutdown end?
The US government entered a shutdown starting 12:01 am on October 1 (local time) and there is no end date announced for it yet. The last shutdown in the country was also during US President Donald Trump’s presidency and lasted 35 days.
It began on December 22, 2018 and ended on January 25, 2019, becoming the longest government shutdown in over four decades.
The Gaza peace deal presented to Hamas is significantly different from the one on which the US and Muslim countries agreed on earlier. Israeli President Netanyahu managed to secure “significant 11th-hour changes”. Hamas is seeking changes in clauses, while Qatar wants discussions on the details of the deal amid outrage across the Ummah.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Gaza Peace Plan at the White House, and Qatar negotiated with Hamas in Doha. (Image: File)
The world was enthused by US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan and that Israel agreed to it. A group of eight Muslim and Arab countries, including Pakistan and Qatar, endorsed it. However, it now seems that an entirely different peace deal has been presented to Palestinian terrorist group Hamas than what was agreed upon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently got the White House to make “11th hour changes” to the agreed-upon deal, and Qatar, which is the key negotiator with Hamas, is demanding discussions on the details of the agreement.
“The deal now before Hamas is significantly different than the one the US and a group of Arab and Muslim countries had previously agreed on, due to Netanyahu’s intervention,” reported the US-based media outlet Axios. The Associated Press too reported that changes had been made in the original proposal that Arab and Muslim countries had worked out with Trump. The text was altered to favour Israel, it said.
The allegations of a change in the text of the Gaza peace plan amid a looming deadline for Hamas with Trump giving the Palestinian outfit “three to four days to respond” to the deal or risk destruction.
Eight Muslim and Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan—on September 30 issued a joint statement, endorsing Trump’s Gaza peace plan. However, it came to light a day later that the fine print of the plan that was presented to Hamas had been changed in the meantime.
Hamas now wants changes in clauses in the peace plan, including on disarmament, the AFP reported, quoting a Palestinian source close to the terrorist group’s leadership.
Qatar, which has played a key role in the negotiations, too wants discussions on the details of Trump’s Gaza peace deal. Qatar’s stance appeared to reflect Arab countries’ discontent over the text of the 20-point plan put out by the White House after Trump-Netanyahu talks, according to the Associated Press.
To finalise the deal, discussions were happening on September 29 in two places—Washington DC and Doha—simultaneously. While Trump and Netanyahu discussed the details at the White House, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was presenting it to Hamas leaders in Doha, Axios quoted a source as saying.
Hours earlier, Trump made Netanyahu call up Thani and apologise to him for the recent strike in Qatar. The strike was aimed at Hamas officials who have been hosted by Qatar for years. The public apology made Qatar resume its efforts as an interlocutor with Hamas.
WHAT ARE THE CHANGES MADE TO THE GAZA PEACE PLAN?
Netanyahu managed to secure “significant 11th-hour changes” to Trump’s proposal regarding the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrawal from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, according to The Times of Israel.
There were two sticking points, one on the IDF’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the other of Hamas’ disarmament.
Point 3 of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, according to The Times of Israel, stated that “Israeli forces will withdraw to the battle lines as of when the [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff proposal was presented to prepare for hostage release.”
However, the updated version presented by the White House stated that “Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed-upon line”.
It refers to a new map and presents a scope for the IDF to remain in most of Gaza even after the first pullback, enabling a release of hostages by Hamas.
Even after the International Stabilization Force (ISF) of Arab and Muslim countries is deployed and Hamas is disarmed, the IDF would still be in Gaza, and, finally, ringfence the Palestinian territory with troops.
On disarmament of Hamas too, The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu got a change in the text, benefiting Israel.
Whereas the version presented to the Muslim nations granted amnesty to “Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence”, the new agreement adds that those members also have to “decommission their weapons”.
MUSLIM COUNTRIES FURIOUS OVER CHANGES IN GAZA PEACE PLAN
Officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey were reportedly furious over the changes, according to sources with knowledge.
The Axios report even suggests that Qataris even tried to convince the Trump administration not to release the detailed plan due to those objections.
But the White House released it anyway, pushing the Arab and Muslim countries to support the plan.
Leaders of Arab and Islamic nations are now facing fierce backlash for Trump’s Gaza peace plan and for recognising Israel. Critics, including activists on X, labelled leaders “traitors to the Ummah,” accusing them of trading Palestinian sovereignty for geopolitical favour amid Gaza’s crisis.
“They hoped so much—for the hundredth time—that ‘Trump would turn against Netanyahu’. And they were disappointed again—for the hundredth time—to discover that Trump and Netanyahu are aligned on everything. Predictions: They won’t learn anything, and will continue to hope and be disappointed even for the hundred-and-first time,” wrote entrepreneur and investor Eli David on X.
QATAR, EGYPT, AND TURKEY URGING HAMAS TO ACCEPT TRUMP’S GAZA PEACE PLAN
Meanwhile, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, key mediators with ties to Hamas, have been urging the group to accept Trump’s proposal, according to Axios.
On September 29, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad met Hamas leaders in Doha to present the plan, emphasising its potential to end the war. A follow-up meeting on September 30 included Turkish intelligence director Ebrahim Kalin.
Al-Thani stressed that the plan, despite needing clarification, achieves the goal of halting the conflict. However, Hamas has expressed reservations and is seeking consensus with other Palestinian factions.
Journalist Jeremy Scahill of DropSiteNews, which covers Gaza, West Asia, and US foreign policy, noted, “Important fact that no one mentions: On August 18, Hamas formally agreed to 98% of the Gaza ‘ceasefire’ terms that the US and Israel demanded. Israel then attempted to assassinate the Palestinian negotiators in Doha. And now the Trump admin claims it has a new ‘ceasefire’ plan.”
Qatar has called for further negotiations to refine the plan’s details, while Trump insists there is little room for renegotiation.
The friction is over the changes favouring Israel on disarmament timelines and withdrawal conditions.
At the 34th meeting of the UNHRC’s 60th session in Geneva on Wednesday, Indian diplomat Mohammed Hussain called out Islamabad’s hypocrisy in unusually sharp terms.
UN human rights experts directed Pakistan to take concrete measures to prevent extrajudicial killings. (Photo: X)
India has delivered a stern message to Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council, questioning how a country with its own record of minority persecution can dare to lecture others on human rights.
At the 34th meeting of the UNHRC’s 60th session in Geneva on Wednesday, Indian diplomat Mohammed Hussain called out Islamabad’s hypocrisy in sharp terms. “India finds it deeply ironic that a country like Pakistan seeks to lecture others on human rights,” he said. “Instead of spreading propaganda, Pakistan should confront the persecution of minorities on their own soil.”
Hussain’s intervention was part of India’s broader pushback against Pakistan’s repeated attempts to use international forums to malign New Delhi while ignoring its own domestic failures.
Other attendees also pointed towards Pakistan’s human rights violations in their remarks. Geopolitical researcher Josh Bowes flagged the alleged human rights violations in Balochistan, repeating India’s criticism that Islamabad routinely suppresses its most vulnerable communities while projecting a moralistic stance abroad.
“The USCIRF Religious freedom report for 2025 states that over 700 individuals were in prison for blasphemy charges, with 300 per cent increase from the last year,” he said.
He added that the Baloch National Movement’s human rights wing, Paank, recorded 785 enforced disappearances and 121 killings in just the first six months of 2025. The Pashtun national jirga, he added, reported that around 4,000 Pashtuns remain missing this year.
UKPNP RAISES ALARM OVER HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN POJK
While Nasir Aziz Khan, spokesperson of the United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP), urged the UN and the international community to intervene against Pakistan’s growing repression in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Speaking in Geneva, Khan warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the region.
“Pakistan has deployed Rangers and shut down phone and internet services to suppress a legitimate, non-violent movement demanding ownership of resources, fundamental rights, and justice,” he said.
Trump’s latest bid for the Peace Prize comes a day after he unveiled the Gaza peace plan, which could become the eighth conflict he claims to have mediated.
US President Donald Trump has made fresh claims on the Nobel Peace Prize.(REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said it would be an “insult” to his country if he does not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his self-proclaimed role in ending at least seven international conflicts.
The latest claim to the Nobel Peace Prize comes a day after Trump announced the Gaza peace plan, which, if accepted by Hamas, could be the eighth war the US President has claimed to have mediated.
“Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing,” Trump said while addressing top US military officers.
“It’d be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don’t want it, I want the country to get it,” he said, adding, “It should get it, because there’s never been anything like it.”
The President’s latest push for the top award comes ahead of October 10, when this year’s Nobel Prize announcements will be made.
Trump has long been irked by the fact that former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won the prize in 2009.
Trump’s claim of mediating wars
In his latest speech, Trump repeated his claim to have solved seven wars since he assumed office in January this year.
He further said that if Gaza peace plan, which he unveiled during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US on Monday, works out, “we’ll have eight, eight in eight months. That’s pretty good.”
Last week, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the US President repeated his claim of ending “seven wars in seven months”.
“They said they were unendable, some were going for 31 years, one was 36 years. I ended 7 wars and in all cases they were raging with countless thousands of people being killed,” he said. He said he deserved the peace prize “for each one of them”.
Trump has claimed to have mediated the wars between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Rwanda and Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo. However, India has repeatedly denied Trump’s involvement in the ceasefire during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
Does Trump have a chance?
Trump’s bid for the Nobel Peace Prize is not just about his mere claims. Several international leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Pakistani leader Shehbaz Sharif among others, have nominated the US President for the prize. Other nations—including Rwanda, Gabon, Azerbaijan, and Cambodia—have also backed Trump for the award.
However, experts say that the chances of Trump winning the prize this year is considered to be close to zero. Oeivind Stenersen, a historian who has co-written a book on the Nobel Peace Prize, told AFP that Trump’s chances are “completely unthinkable”.
Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa’s body was discovered outside a Paris hotel. His death is being treated as a possible suicide, the local presecutor’s office says.
Before being appointed ambassador, Mthethwa held several high-ranking positions in the South African government [FILE: March 2021]Image: Gavin Barker/Sports Inc/empics/picture allianceSouth Africa’s ambassador to France, Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, who was found dead outside a Paris hotel, had left a suicide message for his wife, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Mthetwa’s lifeless body was found on Tuesday in the interior courtyard of the upscale Hyatt hotel.
On Monday evening, his wife had reported her husband missing to the police after receiving a message “in which he apologized to her and expressed his intention to end his life,” prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
“Initial investigations suggest that this could have been a deliberate act, without the intervention of a third party,” she said.
She emphasized the investigation would seek to collect all the details.
The ambassador, better known as Nathi Mthethwa, had booked a room on the hotel’s 22nd floor.
The safety mechanism of a window in his room had been forced open with scissors, the office had earlier said, but investigators found no signs of a struggle or traces of medication or narcotics.
58-year-old Mthethwa had been serving as ambassador to France since his appointment in December 2023.
‘A moment of deep grief’ — President Ramaphosa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Mthethwa’s “untimely passing” was “a moment of deep grief in which government and citizens stand beside the Mthethwa family.”
Ramaphosa said Mthwethwa had served South Africa in a number of capacities “during a lifetime that has ended prematurely and traumatically.”
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) confirmed Mthethwa’s death in a statement and said he “was a distinguished servant of the nation, whose career was marked by dedicated service in critical ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Police and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture.”
DIRCO said the circumstances of Mthethwa’s “untimely death” were being investigated by French authorities.
The national Black Lives Matter movement claims $33.4 million of its cash is being withheld by one of its progressive partner organizations, The Post has learned.
In a scathing lawsuit, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation accuse the Tides foundation — backed by George Soros — of alleged “deceptive business practices” as well as “egregious mismanagement” of its money, while demanding its return.
The lawsuit was filed last year, but the stakes were raised on Monday when the BLMGNF — which oversees its other regional operations — asked the California Attorney General to step in and investigate Tides.
The national chapter of Black Lives Matter says that Tides Foundation has used millions of its contributions to fund their legal defense in the suit brought against them by the civil rights group. Getty Images
Even during the course of the lawsuit, BLMGNF accuses Tides of spending $6 million of their donations, despite promising to freeze any cash belonging to the group during the litigation, according to one of their lawyers.
“My client now has to pay money just to get their own money back, after my client raised 100% of it,” said Lawrence Segal, representing BLMGNF.
Segal claimed the BLM money may even have been used by Tides to fund their defense against them.
“More than $1 million has been spent by Tides out of my client’s money just on attorney’s fees —possibly to pay their own lawyers,” said Segal. “It appears that they are paying themselves from charitable donations in order to pay the legal fees that resulted from this case.”
BLMGNF began its relationship with Tides soon after it set up its movement in 2013.
Because the fledgling group was not a tax exempt charity at the time, it needed a fiscal sponsor to distribute the money it received from anonymous donors to other organizations, and selected Tides to do so.
Things got complicated after huge amounts of money poured in following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, with BLM taking in some $90 million in donations between 2020 and 2022.
However, that was a drop in the ocean to Tides, which oversees more than $1.4 billion in cash from myriad nonprofits, but commingles all funds, the lawsuit claims. That makes it difficult for groups like BLMGNF to monitor where their cash is going, legal papers say.
“TIDES does not segregate monies,” Segal told The Post. “All of my client’s money is apparently commingled in one giant account. Tides’ fiscal sponsorships are very loosely regulated, at best.”
Tides did not return a request for comment from The Post. The group has previously called the lawsuit “completely false” and defended their actions, saying: “BLMGNF’s lawsuit seeks to circumvent the intent of the Fund’s donors and deprive grassroots Black Lives Matter chapters critical resources, for its own benefit.”
BLMGNF have also been criticized for how they have handled donations. Out of the $90 million windfall in donations following Floyds’ death, it only gave out about $30 million for charitable purposes in the next two years.
Another $22 million went on expenses including salaries and investments.
Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of the group, went on a real estate spending spree, The Post revealed in April, 2021.
Cullors, who maintained she did not use BLMGNF donations to make the real estate purchases, resigned a month after that story.
One of her brothers, Paul Cullors, is still associated with BLMGNF, taking in more than $200,000 a year as “head of security,” federal filings show.
In addition to the lawsuit, Tides has been under fire by the Congressional Ways and Means Committee for acting as a conduit for contributions for nonprofits that organized anti-Israel protests on Ivy League campuses following the Oct. 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
Last year, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chair of the committee, demanded that the IRS revoke Tides’ nonprofit status. The group acted as a conduit for donations from groups such as the People’s Forum, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project, he said.
Several countries have recognized Palestine as a state. While Germany is not among them, political pressure on the federal government is growing.
Several European states are set to recognize Palestine as a state on Monday at the UN General Assembly. Germany, however, is not among themImage: Chris Melzer/dpa/picture alliance
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Andorra declared that they were recognizing the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday. The day before, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognized Palestine. These historic decisions bring to 156 the number of countries that currently recognize the Palestinian state.
The United States, on the other hand, strictly rejects recognition, as does Israel. Its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described such a step as “a reward for terror” for the radical Islamist group Hamas— which is categorized as a terrorist organization by the Israel, US, EU and others — that led the terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 which sparked the war in Gaza.
For the Palestinian Authority, with its longtime President Mahmoud Abbas, recognition by such important states would be a prestige win and a diplomatic defeat for Israel, especially now with the conflict in Gaza escalating.
Germany looking for ‘two-state solution’
The German government won’t be taking this step “in the short term,” as it officially put it. “We won’t be joining this initiative,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz from the governing conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in August when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited.
However, Merz’s reasoning was rather formal in nature. “We do not consider the conditions for state recognition to be fulfilled in any way at present. Recognition must be the final step in a peace process that results in a two-state solution,” he said.
The difficulty is that a two-state solution is nowhere in sight. The chance of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel seems to have been practically reduced to zero since the beginning of the war in Gaza, which has so far killed around 65,000 people, according to the Hamas-led Gazan Health Ministry. Critics therefore argue that the German government is only putting forward this unrealistic prerequisite for recognition to avoid making a decision.
Fight against antisemitism key for Merz
The German government is faced with a particular dilemma when it comes to Israel and a Palestinian state. As a consequence of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Nazi era, Berlin feels a special responsibility for Israel’s security and has even declared this to be a matter of “reason of state.”
For the German chancellor, this is clearly not just empty rhetoric. Earlier in September, during a speech at the reopening of a synagogue in Munich that had been destroyed by the Nazis, Merz fought back tears as he said “since October 7, we have been experiencing a new wave of antisemitism, in old and new guises, blatant and poorly concealed, in words and deeds, on social media, at universities, in public spaces. I would like to tell you how ashamed this makes me, as chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, but also as a German, as a child of the postwar generation, a child who grew up with the motto ‘Never again’ as a mission, a duty, a promise.”
Nevertheless, Merz has tried to separate the fight against antisemitism from his assessment of Israel’s policies and, above all, from Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
He has sharply criticized Israel’s military actions and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe, and in the summer stopped all arms exports to Israel that could be used in the Gaza war. At a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Merz said “criticism of the Israeli government’s policies must be possible; it may even be necessary. Dissent on this issue is not disloyalty to our friendship.”
EU, civil society call on Germany to take action on Israel
However, pressure is mounting on the German government to take a stronger stance. EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has called on Germany to participate in sanctions against Israel, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested that the EU suspend trade advantages with Israel.
Jens Spahn, chairman of the center-right CDU and CSU Union parties in the German parliament, said this reminds him of the darkest chapter in German history. “What will be the consequence? ‘Don’t buy from Jews’? We’ve been through all that before,” he said on the German public broadcaster ZDF, alluding to the Nazis’ calls for a boycott of Jewish businesses in the 1930s. When it comes to Israel and Gaza, Spahn warned, “the balance is very quickly lost in Germany and it tips over into antisemitism.”
Pressure is also mounting on the domestic front. The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in the coalition government are certainly open to the idea of sanctions, and the opposition Green party has gone even further. Its co-leader, Franziska Brantner, told the German Press Agency dpa that Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, also of the CDU, must decide: “Will they side with those who are working for peace for all people in Israel and Palestine? Or will they stand idly by and watch as an Israeli government, parts of which are extreme right wing, continues to rage in Gaza, making the prospect of peace and the release of the hostages increasingly remote?”
An alliance of dozens of civil society organizations has also launched a petition calling on the German government to follow up its criticism of Israel with action.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also sharply criticised the Pakistani air force for carrying out strikes on its own people.
Pakistani Army soldiers secure the area, following a militant attack on the Frontier Constabulary (FC) headquarters in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
India responded to Pakistani provocations at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday by reminding its neighbour that it bombs it own citizens and exports terror to cause instability globally.
“A delegation that epitomises the antithesis of this approach continues to abuse this forum with baseless and provocative statements against India,” Indian representative at the UNHRC, diplomat Kshitij Tyagi, said, in a video that is now going viral.
“Instead of coveting our territory, they would do well to vacate the Indian territory under their illegal occupation and focus on rescuing an economy on life support, a polity muzzled by military dominance, and a human rights record stained by persecution (and) perhaps once they find time away from exporting terrorism, harbouring UN-proscribed terrorists, and bombing their own people,” Tyagi said, referring to the reports of a Pakistani Air Force strike in Matre Dara village, Tirah Valley, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that led to a large number of civilian casualties.
Tyagi’s remarks came when he was speaking during Agenda Item 4 of the UNHRC session. He was referring to the airstrike that was conducted in the wee hours of Monday morning where Pakistani fighter jets JF-17 dropped eight LS-6 bombs on the Matre Dara village.
A report by DD News said that 30 people, including women and children, were killed in that attack. It also said that disturbing images of civilian bodies strewn about were seen in the aftermath of the strikes.
The roots of insurgency in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) go back to the early 2000s, when Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters fleeing the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 sought refuge across the Durand Line.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, groups like the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), formed in 2007 under Baitullah Mehsud, turned the tribal belt into a hub of militancy, targeting Pakistani security forces and civilians alike. The Pakistani Army launched large-scale operations such as Operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 and Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad in 2017, claiming major successes.
The former Union minister explained that Trump’s supporters see Indian professionals as undercutting American workers, who work for a lesser salary than the average American.
Shashi Tharoor linked the move to the broader political climate in the US. (File)
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the $100,000 hike for the H1-B Visa petition filed after September 21 is a decision taken to appease Trump’s “so-called MAGA” supporters.
Speaking to ANI on Monday, Mr Tharoor mentioned that the sudden hike in H-1B visa fees is about America’s domestic politics and the President is trying to gain support of the anti-immigration base. It is worth noting that the US legislative elections are set for November this year.
“Again, the motives are principally driven by domestic politics. Trump believes, and the people around him have told him, that the easy H-1B has meant that a lot of Americans who deserve a higher salary from the same companies are being bypassed by Indians who will accept a lower salary,” Mr Tharoor said in an interview with ANI.
Mr Tharoor linked the move to the broader political climate in the US. “Today, the dominant political forces of the so-called MAGA movement are very openly anti-immigrants, and particularly visible immigrants, people of a different colour who can be spotted as not of the white ethnic mainstream,” he said.
The former Union minister explained that Trump’s supporters see Indian professionals as undercutting American workers, who work for a lesser salary than the average American.
“An Indian techie who comes and works for sixty thousand dollars a year is taking away, according to Trump’s supporters, jobs from an American who would not work for less than eighty-five or ninety thousand dollars a year,” he said.
According to Mr Tharoor, the decision to raise visa fees to as high as $100,000 was meant to make low- and mid-level jobs “unviable.” “So only the high-end, really desirable, irreplaceable top people who are worth it for a company to spend a hundred thousand dollars, only they will come,” he added.
The Congress MP also added that the measure may eventually backfire on the US economy. “The obvious solution will be to outsource the job. What used to be done in America can now be done either in multinational company units in Europe or in their global capability centres in India,” he added.
He pointed out that after these increased fees, there is a chance that Indian tech workers may still end up doing the same work for American firms, only from India instead of the US.
Follow the latest news on President Donald Trump and his administration | September 22, 2025
President Donald Trump on Monday used the platform of the presidency to promote unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.
President Donald Trump on Monday promoted unproven ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism without offering new medical evidence.
“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the unwieldy White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen. He also repeated long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing medical evidence.
The rambling announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, comes as the Make America Healthy Again movement has been pushing for answers on the causes of autism.
Here’s what to know:
Offshore wind deal: A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project halted by the administration can resume, dealing Trump a setback in his ongoing effort to restrict the industry. Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut has been paused since Aug. 22, when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order for what it said were national security concerns.
TikTok deal: Tech giant Oracle will receive a copy of TikTok’s algorithm to operate for U.S. users, according to a senior official in Trump’s administration on Monday. The Trump administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns over a Chinese company potentially manipulating what is being shown to platform users.
The Pentagon’s media restrictions: The Pentagon says it will require credentialed journalists at the military headquarters to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting information that has not been authorized for release — including unclassified information. Journalists who don’t abide by the policy risk losing access to the office building.
Tim Roemer also said allowing H-1B visas to Indians is very much in the interest of the US as well, since the students who get their PhDs and jobs and the visa, become a job multiplier, creating “hundreds, if not thousands of US jobs”.
US President Donald Trump’s plan to impose a massive fee on Indians seeking fresh H-1B visas could be an issue that comes back on the negotiating table once the trade deal between the two nations is concluded, former US Ambassador to New Delhi Tim Roemer told NDTV this evening.
President Trump’s overhaul of the H-1B visa programme comes amid a fresh crackdown on immigration and is set to affect Indian technology companies and skilled professionals. Topping the 50 per cent tariff imposed by the US, the new $100,000 visa fee is expected to be a dampener not just on the American dream of Indian students but also the India-US ties, though for now, India has said it is studying the implications of the promised measure.
Mr Roemer acknowledged that the measure “causes a hiccup in the relationship” but said “hopefully once we get through these trade negotiations, which are going to be maybe promising… then this H-1B visa issue can be revisited”.
Asked if this visa fee could be a negotiating point, Mr Roemer said he thought President Trump’s imposition of the 25 per cent additional tariff — on account of India’s purchase of Russian oil — “was a negotiating point to get people back to the table, to get the negotiations back on track, to try to make progress on a trade deal”.
India, after all, has concluded successful deals with the UK, Israel and Australia. “Certainly the United States, with all we have in trade and interests and technology, chip manufacturing, clean energy, this is something we can get to. Then the president will probably look again at this H1B visa,” he said.
If not, two things could happen, he explained.
“The courts could weigh in. The courts may say that the President has overextended on this H-1B visa. And the second thing is that Congress could weigh in and say, this is our purview. We are the ones that set the number of H-1B visas… We want to take back our power, and we are going to have something to say about US-India relations,” he added.
Mr Roemer said allowing H-1B visas to Indians is very much in the interest of the US as well, since the students who get their PhDs and jobs and the visa, become a job multiplier, creating “hundreds, if not thousands of US jobs”.
As to how this happens, he quoted a 15-year-old study by Duke and the University of California that said almost 25 per cent of new jobs in technology are created by these students, who become CEOs.
“They develop Unicorns. They create business that then creates hundreds, if not thousands, of US jobs. So that’s something I hope President Trump will understand, that this is a good thing not just for US-India relations. It is a great thing for US job creation,” he said.
“Manufacturing jobs are created in America by those H-1B visa people getting their Master’s and PhDs and staying in America, and it creates stronger links in the diaspora between our two great countries,” he added.
New Delhi has already pointed at this aspect, saying both India and the US have a stake in “innovation and creativity” on the H-1B visa holders and the two sides can be expected to “consult on the best path forward”.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – a remote and mountainous region with several terrorist hideouts – has become a key battleground for successive Pak governments trying to establish control over it.
Pak’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has seen increased violence over the past few months (File).
Thirty people, including women and children, were reportedly killed in air strikes in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Monday. China-made J-17 fighter jets dropped eight Chinese-made LS-6 bombs – laser-guided precision munitions – on a village in the Tirah Valley around 2 am.
The deaths sparked outrage among local communities already on edge over an increase in terror attacks in recent years. Last week there was a protest in Mingora, a city in the province’s Swat Valley; thousands came together to demand the government and its security apparatus restore peace swiftly.
Pakistan’s main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has hit out at the government and the party’s Khyber office said on X “no words can encompass this sorrow and grief… drone (attacks) and bombings have sown so many seeds of hatred… nothing will be left”.
The deaths also raised questions about the quality of intelligence and counter-terrorism operations in the province, which shares an international border with Afghanistan. Pak military said the strikes were based on intel that said terrorists were frequenting civilian areas and using them to mask their activities.
Critics, however, have repeatedly questioned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif administration’s inability to protect the lives and properties of civilians; in June Amnesty International’s South Asia office slammed the “alarming disregard for civilian life”. That was after the death of a child in a drone strike.
In March 10 civilians were killed in an anti-terror op in the Katlang area of the Khyber province. The provincial government’s spokesperson, Muhammad Saif, told the Associated Press the operation was ordered after intel said the area was being used as a “hideout and transit point for terrorist” elements.
Locals said 10 bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from the area.
The bottomline is that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – a remote and mountainous region riddled with terrorist hideaways – is a key battleground for successive Pak governments trying to establish control over it.
Why Pak Air Force Bombed Khyber
Media reports indicate the target was a bomb-manufacturing facility operated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban, a terror group Pak says is based in Afghanistan and has links to that nation’s government. The Pak government has repeatedly called on its Kabul counterpart to stop cross-border terrorist attacks.
Kabul has just as repeatedly denied that claim. An April 14 statement by the Taliban-affiliated Bakhtar News Agency quoted deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat as dismssing the allegation and counter-accusing the Pakistan government of deflecting blame rising from its failure to control violence.
“Pakistan’s security problems are its internal matter,” Hamdullah Fitrat told the agency, “Blaming Afghanistan is a way for Islamabad to avoid accountability for its own shortcomings.”
Police in Khyber told the Associated Press two TTP commanders, Aman Gul and Masood Khan, had set up bomb-making operations in the village, and employed civilians to act as ‘human shields’.
The completed crude bombs were then stored in mosques in nearby areas.
Monday’s attack followed a TTP ambush in South Waziristan, in which 12 Pak soldiers were reportedly killed and another four injured. The TTP claimed responsibility on social media.
The Pak Air Force strike was part of Islamabad’s ongoing efforts to push back the TTP’s control of the province, which has strengthened after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Locating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Referred simply as Khyber province – one of four in Pakistan – it is in the northwest of the country and is bordered by Punjab province to the east and southeast. Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan – part of Indian territory illegally occupied by Pak – are to the south and north.
Provincial capital Peshawar is located near the historic Khyber Pass.
KP, as the province is also called, also shares a western border with Afghanistan.
The terrain is mountainous, rugged, and difficult to access, which makes it a perfect spot for terror groups to thrive, a point Pak officials make after civilian deaths in anti-terror operations.
The Khyber Story
The former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan from 1979 prompted the United States to fund and arm resistance groups in the region supported by Pak’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
When the war ended, many of these fighters, and large stores of weapons and ammunition, remained in the Khyber area, which, coupled with the remote and inaccessible terrain, led to the birth of terrorist groups, many of which hunkered down in KP after the Taliban fell in 2001.
These grew, split, and consolidated over the years till the Tehreek-e-Taliban was formed in the late 2000s. Pak today claims the TTP is based in Afghanistan, and crosses the border – courtesy tunnels and secret passes used by fighters during the Soviet-era war – to carry out terror attacks.
Terror In Khyber
The increased terrorist activity in the province also follows banned terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen moving into the area; Jaish and HM are establishing new bases and training camps deep inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after India’s Operation Sindoor.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has topped a nationwide opinion poll. Meanwhile, Kenyan athletes won both the men’s and women’s races at the Berlin Marathon. DW has the latest from Germany.
A recent poll shows a rise in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party (file photo)Image: Michaela Stache/AFP/Getty Images
Germany slashes aid and development budget
Germany has cut its budget for international development by 8% and emergency aid has been halved. Aid agencies warn of drastic consequences.
Mayoral race in Frankfurt on the Oder headed for runoff
The race for mayor in Frankfurt on the Oder, in the eastern state of Brandenburg, is headed for a runoff between independent candidate Axel Strasser and Wilko Möller of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Official figures say Strasser, 48, took 32.4% of the vote in Sunday’s first round.
Möller, 58, who is a member of the state parliament, won 30.2%.
The second round between Strasser and Möller is set for October 12.
A win for Möller would make him the right-wing extremists’ first ever city mayor.
Desiree Schrade, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the senior coalition partner in the federal government, followed in third place with 28.8% of the vote.
The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the CDU’s junior coalition partner, trailed in fourth with 8.6%.
Germany sends two Eurofighters to track Russian aircraft
Germany’s air force on Sunday sent two Eurofighters to follow a Russian IL-20m military aircraft that had entered neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea, before handing the escort over to NATO partners in Sweden.
“Once again, our quick reaction alert force, consisting of two Eurofighters, was tasked by NATO with investigating an unidentified aircraft without a flight plan or radio contact in international airspace,” Germany’s air force said in a statement.
“It was a Russian IL-20M reconnaissance aircraft. After visual identification, we handed over escort duties for the aircraft to our Swedish NATO partners and returned to Rostock-Laage.”
NATO’s North Atlantic Council will meet on Tuesday to talk over Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace, two officials familiar with the matter told the news agency Reuters on Sunday.
Russian drones or aircraft have allegedly violated the airspace of at least three NATO members recently, further raising tensions in Europe which have been heightened over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Harry Styles runs Berlin Marathon incognito in under 3 hours
British pop star Harry Styles ran the Berlin marathon on Sunday.
Competing under the false name of Sted Sarandos, the 31-year-old completed the 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles) through the German capital in 2:59:13.
Styles, who rose to fame as a member of former boyband One Direction, wasn’t the only global star to be seen pounding the streets of Berlin on Sunday.
German World Cup winner Andre Schürrle also finished the 51st iteration of the event, crossing the finish line near the Brandenburg Gate in a time of 3:21:25.
The men’s race was won by 29-year-old Sabastian Sawe with a time of 2:02:15 — five months after his victory in the London marathon — while the women’s race was won by Rosemary Wanjiru with a time of 2:21:05.
Man drives into group of people at fair, injuring five
A 41-year-old man drove a car into a group of people at a fair in the village of Niederdorla, in the central state of Thuringia, injuring five people, a police spokesman said.
The incident occurred on Saturday night, with the man, a German national, arrested.
The exact circumstances, such as the man’s motive, are not yet known, although police said they were no indications that the act had any political background.
Police said the man had been observed behaving suspiciously before the incident, and had been reported to police for reckless driving.
An investigation into attempted murder is currently underway.
Germany has seen multiple car rammings since the summer of 2024.
Dortmund: 400 football fans brawl in organized fight
Around 400 football hooligans appear to have been involved in what local police suspect may have been a pre-arranged fight near Dortmund on Saturday evening.
At about 10 p.m., a train carrying supporters of second-division side Schalke 04 back from their team’s 2-0 win away at Magdeburg was twice brought to a halt just east of Dortmund after an emergency break was pulled.
The second time, a large group of Schalke “risk fans” reportedly exited the train and headed into a wooded area where police believe they encountered a group of “violently inclined” rival fans of Borussia Dortmund and FC Cologne.
Police later stopped around 300 Schalke fans, 90 Dortmund fans and five Cologne fans, many of whom had red marks on their hands and faces, according to a police spokesman.
Officers also reportedly found mixed martial arts (MMA) gloves, boxing handwraps, gum-guards and balaclavas in the area, and have charged some of those allegedly involved with breach of the peace, grievous bodily harm and interference with rail traffic.
The rivalry between neighbors Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 is one of the most intense in Germany but, with the latter currently in Bundesliga 2, the two haven’t met for a men’s first-team “Revierderby” since a 2-2 draw in March 2023.
Despite the rivalry, derby matches generally pass off peacefully, but small elements of both clubs’ fanbases are inclined towards more violent confrontations.
It’s not uncommon for hooligans to pre-arrange fights with similarly-minded rivals in secluded areas such as woodlands, a practice which is nevertheless illegal.
After drawing 4-4 away at Juventus in the Champions League in midweek, Borussia Dortmund host VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday evening.
Kenya celebrates double triumph at Berlin Marathon
The first athletes have crossed the finish line in the Berlin Marathon, with both the men’s and women’s races being won by athletes from Kenya.
The men’s race was won by 29-year-old Sabastian Sawe with a time of 2:02:15 — five months after his victory in the London marathon — while first place in the women’s race went to compatriot Rosemary Wanjiru with a time of 2:21:05.
Despite Berlin’s reputation as the fastest marathon route on the world circuit, both times were significantly off world-record time (Sawe 1:40 slower, Wanjiru 11:49 slower).
This can likely be attributed to the unusually humid late-summer conditions in the German capital.
In July, Starmer said that Britain would formally recognize the Palestinian state if Israel did not take ‘substantive steps’ towards a ceasefire with Hamas by the time the UN General Assembly convenedImage: 10 Downing Street/PA Media/dpa/picture alliance
Syrian leader to attend UN General Assembly for first time since 1967
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has arrived in New York along with a senior delegation to attend meetings of the UN General Assembly.
It marks the first attendance of a Syrian head of state in nearly 60 years.
Sharaa, a former al-Qaida leader, is expected to deliver his first address at the General Assembly on Tuesday. He is accompanied by several ministers.
The visit underscores the sweeping changes in Syria’s political landscape in less than a year. In December 2024, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was ousted by rebel forces led by al-Sharaa, which brought an end to nearly 14 years of civil war.
Since then, al-Sharaa has sought to restore Syria’s international ties.
Along with his appearance at the General Assembly, al-Sharaa is likely to use his visit to push for further sanctions relief for Syria.
Syria seeks sanctions relief
The Middle Eastern nation is attempting to rebuild its economy and infrastructure after 14 years of civil war.
After meeting al-Sharaa, US President Donald Trump in Jne temporarily waived some sanctions imposed on Syria under the Assads’ rule.
While many US sanctions were subsequently waived, Congress must vote to permanently remove them.
Shortly afterwards, the US also revoked the designation of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a foreign terrorist organization. The Syrian transitional government has largely emerged from this group.
Two-state solution ‘only path to just, lasting peace’ — Portugal FM
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Sunday the two-state solution remains the only viable way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
His remarks come after Portugal became the latest Western nation to formally recognize the state of Palestine, after similar announcements by the UK, Canada and Australia earlier on Sunday.
“Portugal advocates the two-state solution as the only path to a just and lasting peace… a ceasefire is urgent,” adding Hamas “cannot have any form of control in Gaza or outside it.”
Rangle also said that recognizing the state of Palestine “does not erase the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
He condemned the “expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank” while saying “the recognition of the state of Palestine is the realization of a fundamental, constant, and fundamental line of Portuguese foreign policy.”
He also called on Hamas to release all hostages.
Rangel made the comments at the headquarters of Portugal’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.
Israel becoming ‘pariah state’, expert tells DW
DW spoke to Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges after the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia announced their recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“Some of the closest allies of the United States and Israel are saying to Israel, ‘enough is enough.’ So that pressure is really multiplying on Israel,” said Gerges, adding that Israel is becoming “more of a pariah state.”
On Israel’s far-right ministers calling for a quick annexation of the occupied West Bank following the recognition, London-based Gerges said the move would “lead to Israel being isolated further.”
“What Israel has been trying to do since 1993, the Oslo Accords — the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians – Israel has been really building more and more settlements,” Gerges told DW.
Portugal recognizes Palestinian state
Portugal has followed the UK, Canada and Australia in recognizing the state of Palestine.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel also said his country advocates a two-state solution as the only way to ensure lasting peace.
TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh accused YCP leaders of rampant corruption during their tenure, alleging that the donation money was misappropriated for real estate investments. TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh shared purported CCTV footage on X, claiming it shows the large-scale loot of Lord Venkateswara’s sacred offerings. He further accused former TTD Chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy of facilitating the scam and claimed that “shares of the loot” reached Tadepalli Palace, the residence of then CM Jagan.
Several clips of the CCTV footage from the Tirumala temple was shared by the leader on his social media platform. (Image: @naralokesh/X)
A massive political storm has erupted in Andhra Pradesh after the TDP alleged that over Rs 100 crore was looted from the parakamani (donation box) of the sacred Tirumala temple during the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party regime. TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh shared purported CCTV footage on X, claiming it shows the large-scale loot of Lord Venkateswara’s sacred offerings.
“YCP thieves have looted the sacred property of Lord Venkateswara. YCP leaders are behind the ‘hundred crore Parakamani theft’. During Jagan’s five-year rule, corruption reigned supreme. Anarchy ran rampant. Jagan turned Andhra Pradesh into a haven for thieves, looters, and mafia dons. The Jagan gang plundered mines, lands, forests, and all resources, along with exploiting the people… and in the end, they did not even spare the sacred property of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala,” Nara Lokesh alleged in his post.
He further accused former TTD Chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy of facilitating the scam and claimed that “shares of the loot” reached Tadepalli Palace, the residence of then CM Jagan. Lokesh alleged that the stolen temple funds were diverted into real estate investments, and attempts were made to bury the case in a Lok Adalat.
“The accused themselves are saying that shares of this loot reached from Bhumana in Tirupati to Tadepalli Palace. The offerings and donations placed in the hundi by devotees worldwide with great faith, worth hundreds of crores, were stolen by Ravikumar, while Bhumana Karunakar Reddy was the TTD Chairman. His associates even tried to settle this case in a Lok Adalat,” he claimed.
The leader demanded a full probe into the allegations, calling it a betrayal of devotees worldwide, and cited the previous controversy surrounding the alleged adulteration of laddus at the Tirupati temple.
“With the backing of power, Jagan’s gang committed every possible offence against Lord Venkateswara. They adulterated the sacred laddus, considered mahaprasadam by devotees. They corrupted the anna prasadam. They sold Tirumala darshan tickets, making it nearly impossible for common devotees to have darshan of the Lord,” Nara Lokesh alleged.
Hamas said that the image released was a farewell picture and each hostage has been labelled as “Ron Arad”, an Israeli Air Force navigator who was captured in 1986. Along with it, the hostages were also given a number.
Hamas, shared a compilation picture of the remaining 47 Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Saturday
Hamas, shared a compilation picture of the remaining 47 Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Saturday. Hamas said that the image released was a farewell picture and each hostage has been labelled as “Ron Arad”, an Israeli Air Force navigator who was captured in 1986. Along with it, the hostages were also given a number.
The text on the image accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of rejecting a ceasefire-hostage deal and blamed the IDF Chief of Staff for going ahead with the invasion of Gaza despite his reported opposition to it.
It reads, “Because of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s refusal, and [IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal] Zamir’s capitulation, a parting image as the military operation in Gaza City begins.”
According to a report by Ynet, an Israeli publication, officials say out of the 47 hostages, only 20 are believed to be alive. 2 of the remaining hostages are in a grave condition and the rest are dead.
A statement from al-Qassam Brigades said, “Your prisoners are distributed within the neighborhoods of Gaza City, and we will not be concerned for their lives as long as Netanyahu has decided to kill them,” as reported by CNN.
“The commencement of this criminal operation and its expansion means that you will not receive any prisoner, neither alive nor dead, and their fate will be the same as that of (Ron Arad).”
During the ceasefire between January and March 2024, Hamas released 30 hostages – 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals. They also released the bodies of eight killed Israeli captives. In May, they released an American-Israeli hostage as a “gesture” to the United States.
Israel, in exchange, released 2,000 prisoners and detainees.
Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people overnight in Gaza City, said health officials, as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to leave.
The strikes come as Western countries are getting fed up with the intensifying war in Gaza with some moving to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly next week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India’s biggest adversary was its dependence on other nations, while urging for self-reliance in sectors from semiconductors to shipbuilding. His remarks came after the US imposed steep tariffs on Indian imports and raised H-1B visa fees drastically.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, on Saturday. (Photo: ANI)
In an indirect reference to the US decision to impose tariffs and a steep USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India’s biggest adversary was its dependence on other countries.
Addressing a gathering in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Modi said India has no major enemy in the world today except for one: “If we have any enemy, it is our dependence on other nations. This is our biggest enemy, and together we must defeat it.” He emphasised that self-reliance, or ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, is the only way for India to protect its interests and assert its self-respect on the global stage.
The PM’s comments came amid a fresh US executive order that imposes a USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications starting September 21st, citing the replacement of American workers with cheaper foreign labour and national security concerns. The order claims large-scale misuse of the program has suppressed wages and disadvantaged American STEM professionals.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Indian imports, citing India’s continued purchase of Russian oil as indirectly funding Russia’s war in Ukraine. He said such economic support was unacceptable and used the tariffs to pressure India to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, escalating trade tensions between the two countries.
Modi criticised policies of the past, particularly during the Congress-led governments, saying that India’s potential was suppressed after independence. “For decades, India was caught in the license-quota raj, isolated from global markets. When globalisation came, the country relied heavily on imports,” he said.
He added that dependence on foreign nations compromises national development: “We cannot leave the future of 1.4 billion citizens to others. Greater foreign dependence leads to greater failure. There is only one remedy for all of India’s challenges – a self-reliant India,” the PM said.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in announcing the major fee increase on Friday, said it would be paid annually, and would apply to people seeking a new visa as well as renewals.
US President Donald Trump.
The White House issued a major clarification Saturday to its new H-1B visa policy that had rattled the tech industry, saying a $100,000 fee will be a “one-time” payment imposed only on new applicants.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in announcing the major fee increase on Friday, said it would be paid annually, and would apply to people seeking a new visa as well as renewals.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a clarification on Saturday, hours before the new policy was to go into effect.
“This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies… only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders,” she said in a social media post.
The executive order, which is likely to face legal challenges, comes into force Sunday at 12:01 am US Eastern time (0401 GMT), or 9:01 pm Saturday on the Pacific Coast.
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Suspends the Entry of Certain Alien Nonimmigrant Workershttps://t.co/k46jPq4pg5
Prior to the White House’s clarification, US companies were scrambling to figure out the implications for their foreign workers, with several reportedly warning their employees not to leave the country.
Some people who were already on planes preparing to leave the country on Friday de-boarded over fears they may not be allowed to re-enter the United States, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,” Leavitt said.
“H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would,” she added.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialized skills — such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers — to work in the United States, initially for three years but extendable to six.
Such visas are widely used by the tech industry. Indian nationals account for nearly three-quarters of the permits allotted via lottery system each year.
The United States approved approximately 400,000 H-1B visas in 2024, two-thirds of which were renewals.
India, US business concerns
US President Donald Trump announced the change in Washington on Friday, arguing it would support American workers.
The H-1B program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor,” the executive order said.
Trump also introduced a $1 million “gold card” residency program he had previewed months earlier.
“The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.
Lutnick, who joined Trump in the Oval Office, said multiple times that the fee would be applied annually.
“The company needs to decide… is the person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and they should go hire an American,” he told reporters.
Though he claimed that “all the big companies are on board,” many businesses were left confused about the details of the H-1B order.
President Trump announced Friday that the US military carried out a third strike against alleged drug traffickers affiliated with a terror organization — killing “3 male narcoterrorists.”
“On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The president did not say which terror group was targeted or which nation the vessel originated from.
The US has been conducting an aggressive campaign to counter Venezuela’s state-backed cartel. Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,” Trump continued.
Three men aboard the boat were killed, and no US forces were harmed in the attack, according to Trump, who said the vessel was traveling in international waters.
Footage of the airstrike included in Trump’s post shows a small boat racing across the ocean before the massive explosion leaves it engulfed in flames.
“STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!” he warned.
Trump ordered the first military strike targeting alleged drug-smuggling terrorists on Sept. 2.
The blast killed 11 suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the Trump administration has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization operating under the control of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime, as their boat traveled in open waters.
The second US strike against Venezuela-based drug traffickers took place on Sept. 15, killing 3 “male terrorists,” who were once again using a boat to smuggle narcotics, according to Trump.
The CBI has moved the Lokpal for sanction to prosecute TMC MP Mahua Moitra over alleged cash-for-query allegations. According to the Lokpal order accessed by Times Now, there is “credible material and evidence to prosecute Mahua Moitra”.
CBI seeks Lokpal sanction to prosecute TMC MP Mahua Moitra in alleged cash-for-query scam, citing credible evidence. Photo : PTI
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has formally moved the Lokpal seeking sanction to prosecute Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra in connection with the alleged ‘cash-for-query’ scam, according to documents accessed by Times Now.
The Lokpal order, which includes the recommendations and conclusions of the CBI report submitted on June 30, 2025, states there is “credible material & evidence to prosecute Mahua Moitra”.
Probe into ‘Cash-for-query’, Times Now accesses Lokpal order
The Lokpal order carries:
Recommendations & conclusions of the CBI report submitted to Lokpal on June 30, 2025
The probe stems from allegations initially raised by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, who accused Mahua of soliciting cash and gifts from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani in return for raising parliamentary questions targeting industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mahua has vehemently denied these claims, calling them baseless.
In March 2024, acting on Lokpal directives, the CBI filed an FIR against Mahua Moitra. The Lokpal had instructed the agency to investigate all facets of the complaints comprehensively within six months, following its preliminary review of the allegations.
After careful consideration, the Lokpal deemed the allegations grave and supported by substantial evidence, emphasising the need for thorough investigation due to Mahua’s former position and status. The Lokpal bench, comprising Justice Abhilasha Kumari, Archana Ramasundaram, and Mahender Singh, highlighted “the importance of probity in public office and the detrimental effects of corruption on democratic functioning.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location, November 20, 2024 in this still image from video. REUTERS TV/Al Manar TV via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday urged Saudi Arabia to turn “a new page” with the Iran-backed group and set aside past disputes to create a unified front against Israel, following years of hostility that strained Riyadh’s ties with Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states designated Shi’ite Hezbollah a terrorist organisation in 2016. In recent months, Riyadh has joined Washington and Hezbollah’s rivals within Lebanon in pressuring the Lebanese government to disarm the group, which was badly weakened by last year’s war with Israel.
In a televised address on Friday, Qassem said that regional powers should see Israel, not Hezbollah, as the main threat to the Middle East and proposed “mending relations” with Riyadh.
“We assure you that the arms of the resistance (Hezbollah) are pointed at the Israeli enemy, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or any other place or entity in the world,” Qassem said.
He said dialogue would “freeze the disagreements of the past, at least in this exceptional phase, so that we can confront Israel and curb it”, and said that pressuring Hezbollah “is a net gain for Israel.”
Saudi Arabia once spent billions in Lebanon, depositing funds in the central bank and helping rebuild the south after a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel – only to see the group grow more powerful in Lebanon and the region with Iran’s help.
Relations soured sharply in 2021 when Sunni Saudi Arabia expelled the Lebanese ambassador, recalled its own envoy and banned Lebanese imports. A statement in Saudi state media at the time said Hezbollah controlled the Lebanese state’s decision-making processes.
Hezbollah’s then-secretary general Hassan Nasrallah called Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman a “terrorist” and repeatedly criticised Saudi’s role in Yemen.
But recent months have seen seismic political shifts in the region, with Israel pummelling Hezbollah last year and killing Nasrallah, and rebels toppling the group’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad in December.
Lavrov’s comments come amid months of repeated warnings from US President Donald Trump, who has criticised India’s oil trade with Russia and threatened tariffs. In recent weeks, Trump has taken a noticeably softer approach towards India despite his rhetoric.
Trump once again stressed his friendship with PM Modi.(Photo: Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said American threats of tariffs against India and China are proving ineffective, adding that Washington is beginning to realise the futility of using pressure tactics with two ancient civilisations.
Speaking on Russia’s main Channel 1 TV programme The Great Game, Lavrov said that both New Delhi and Beijing have stood firm in response to tariff warnings from Washington.
“Both China and India are ancient civilisations. And talking to them like ‘either you stop doing what I don’t like or I’ll impose tariffs on you’ won’t work. And the ongoing contacts between Beijing and Washington, between New Delhi and Washington, show that the American side understands it, too,” he said.
LAVROV POINTS TO SHIFT IN US APPROACH
Lavrov’s comments come amid months of repeated warnings from US President Donald Trump, who has criticised India’s oil trade with Russia and threatened tariffs. In recent weeks, Trump has taken a noticeably softer approach towards India despite his rhetoric.
Just two days after posting a birthday message praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump once again stressed his friendship with the Indian leader while speaking to reporters in the UK alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“I am very close to India, I am very close to the PM of India. I spoke to him the other day. I wished him a happy Birthday. We have a very good relationship,” Trump said.
Lavrov said that both India and China have resisted Washington’s demands and continue to pursue policies based on their own national interests rather than pressure from the US.
According to Lavrov, Washington’s pressure campaign has had consequences for countries targeted by tariff threats, but it has not forced them to change course.
“Besides the fact that this undermines the economic well-being of those countries, it at least creates very serious difficulties for them, forcing them to seek new markets, new sources of energy supplies, (and) forcing them to pay higher prices. But beyond this, and perhaps even more importantly than this, there is a moral and political opposition to this approach,” he said.
SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA ‘NO PROBLEM’, SAYS LAVROV
The Russian minister also addressed the wave of sanctions placed on Moscow by the US and its allies, insisting that Russia has adjusted to the restrictions.
“Frankly speaking, I don’t see any problem with the new sanctions imposed on Russia. An enormous amount of sanctions, unprecedented for that period, were imposed during President Donald Trump’s first term,” Lavrov commented.
“Hum bhi yahi ke vaasi hain, aap humein hi nochne aayenge toh hum kaise kaam karenge aap ke liye? Shant ho jaiye pehle toh, aur yeh janiye mujh par kya beeti hogi. Mera bhi restaurant yahan hai, jisme kal sirf ₹50 ka business hua hai,” she said.
Kangana Ranaut While Meeting Flood Victims | X/@Mithileshdhar
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, Kangana Ranaut, on Thursday met people affected by floods and landslides in the state. During the meeting, she expressed her distress over the financial losses faced by her restaurant in Manali.
“Hum bhi yahi ke vaasi hain, aap humein hi nochne aayenge toh hum kaise kaam karenge aap ke liye? Shant ho jaiye pehle toh, aur yeh janiye mujh par kya beeti hogi. Mera bhi restaurant yahan hai, jisme kal sirf ₹50 ka business hua hai,” she said.
Which roughly translates to, “We are also residents of this place. If you start attacking us, how are we supposed to work for you? First, calm down and try to understand what I’m going through. I also have a restaurant here, it made just ₹50 in sales yesterday.”
“₹15 lakh ke salary hai, ₹50 ka business hua hai, meri dard bhi aap samjhiye. Mujhe aap aise attack mat kariye jaise Kangana Queen of England hai aur kuch kar nahi rahi hai,” she added.
Which roughly translates to, “I have to pay ₹15 lakh in salaries, and there was just ₹50 in sales. Please try to understand my pain as well. Don’t attack me as if Kangana is the Queen of England who’s doing nothing for you.”
“मेरे रेस्टोरेंट में कल 50 रुपए की सेल हुई है…”
बाढ़ पीड़ित महिला अपनी शिकायत लेकर सांसद कंगना रनौत के पास पहुंची। उम्मीद थी कि उसकी परेशानी सुनी जाएगी, मदद मिलेगी। लेकिन हुआ उल्टा, सांसद कंगना ने महिला की तकलीफ़ सुनने के बजाय, उसे ही अपना दुखड़ा सुना डाला। pic.twitter.com/69M4Y9kham
This comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave a clean chit to the Adani Group regarding their “baseless” allegations of violating disclosure norms or constituting fraudulent practices.
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani | File Photo
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Thursday demanded a “national apology” from those who spread the “false narratives” of Hindenburg Research.
This comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave a clean chit to the Adani Group regarding their “baseless” allegations of violating disclosure norms or constituting fraudulent practices.
In a post on X, Gautam Adani emphasised the group’s commitment to transparency and integrity, expressing empathy for investors who lost money due to the report.
“After an exhaustive investigation, SEBI has reaffirmed what we have always maintained, that the Hindenburg claims were baseless. Transparency and integrity have always defined the Adani Group. We deeply feel the pain of the investors who lost money because of this fraudulent and motivated report. Those who spread false narratives owe the nation an apology,” he posted on X.
After an exhaustive investigation, SEBI has reaffirmed what we have always maintained, that the Hindenburg claims were baseless. Transparency and integrity have always defined the Adani Group.
We deeply feel the pain of the investors who lost money because of this fraudulent… pic.twitter.com/8YKeEYmmp5
The US-based short-seller had alleged fund routing to conceal related-party transactions, sparking significant market volatility and impacting Adani Group’s market value. The clean chit brings significant relief to the Adani Group, ending months of scrutiny.
“Our commitment to India’s institutions, to India’s people and to nation building remains unwavering. Satyamev Jayate! JAI HIND!” Adani Group Chairman added on X.
The market regulator on Thursday refuted the allegations made by US Short seller Hindenburg against the Adani Group. SEBI concluded that there is no violation of the listing agreement or SEBI Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR), and the impugned transactions do not qualify as “related party transactions”.
According to SEBI, “Reading of Listing Agreement and SEBI (LODR) Regulations reveals that transactions between a listed company with unrelated party is not covered within the definition of “related party transactions” as it existed during the time when impugned transactions took place, though included specifically after the 2021 amendment.
SEBI said that the Supreme Court had rejected the plea of the petitioner and held that procedure followed in arriving at the current shape of regulations is not tainted with any illegality. The Supreme Court also held that no valid grounds have been raised to direct SEBI to revoke its amendments to the SEBI(LODR) Regulations.
SEBI said that there is no violation of Section 12A of the SEBI Act and SEBI-Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market) (PFUTP) Regulations as alleged. It concluded that no fraud, misrepresentation, or siphoning of funds was proven and all funds were returned with interest. Thus, all allegations in Show cause Notice not established.
SEBI concluded that no liability or penalties were imposed on Adani Group entities or individuals and the proceedings were disposed of without directions.
The widely expected cut of a quarter percentage point comes amid economic pressures ranging inflation and tariffs to sluggish job growth. Two more cuts are expected before the end of the year.
President Trump has put pressure on the Fed Chair Powell to cut rates [FILE: July 24, 2025]Image: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo/picture allianceThe US Federal Reserve , commonly known as the Fed, lowered its benchmark rate Wednesday by a quarter percentage point, the first such cut since last year.
It cut the benchmark lending rate to a range between 4.0% and 4.25%.
The Fed paused its easing cycle in January due to uncertainty over how President Donald Trump’s import tariffs might affect inflation and the overall economy.
It said Wednesday’s cut was warranted as, “downside risks to employment have risen” even as inflation has “moved up and remains somewhat elevated.”
Although inflation remains slightly above the Fed’s target rate of 2%, data shows hiring has slowed to a halt in recent months, while the unemployment rate has risen.
Lowering interest rates, and reducing borrowing costs, is tool used by central banks to boost hiring and increase consumer spending.
Tension between the White House and the Fed
The new Fed Governor, Stephen Miran, formerly an economic adviser to Trump, voted against the decision, favoring a deeper cut of 50 basis points.
Miran was sworn in earlier this week, amid criticism from Democrats that he would not separate economic decision making from political pressure.
The other 11 voting members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted for the quarter-point cut.
Trump has been pushing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who acts independently of the White House, to cut interest rates for months.
He has tried to pressure Powell to resign and has openly considered firing him.
Powell said Wednesday the Fed was “right to wait and see how tariffs and inflation and the labor market evolved” before lowering rates.
He added the the central bank was “strongly committed” to maintaining its independence from politics.
On Tuesday, Democrats introduced a Senate bill aimed at reinforcing the separation between the White House and the Federal Reserve, just hours after Miran was sworn in as a Fed governor.
The strategic defence pact between Pakistan and Saudi comes just days after an Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in neighbouring Qatari capital Doha.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif embrace each other on the day they sign a defence agreement, in Riyadh(REUTERS)
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed a new defence agreement, under which the two sides said an attack on either of them would be considered “an aggression against both”.
The deal – “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” – was signed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif traveled to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the crown prince, a statement said.
The strategic defence pact comes just days after an Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in neighbouring Qatari capital Doha. The air strike in Doha was described by the US, on which Gulf states have long depended on for their security, as a unilateral attack that does not advance American and Israeli interests.
“This agreement… aims to develop aspects of defence cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” AFP news agency quoted a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.
“The agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” it added.
The signing of the agreement also comes just months after the four-day military conflict between Pakistan and India which followed Operation Sindoor carried out by Indian armed forces in retaliation to the April 22 terror attack of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in which terrorists found to have links with Pakistan killed 26 people.
The military conflict ended with Pakistani DGMO reaching out to the Indian counterpart seeking a pause on the fighting.
Israel last week carried out an attempt to kill political leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian outfit that is fighting the Israel forces in Gaza. The Israel strike in Doha killed six people.
Qatar, which said one of its security forces was killed in the attack, said Israel was treacherous and engaged in “state terrorism.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said shortly after the air strike it was a “wholly independent Israeli operation” against top “Terreorist chieftains of Hamas”.
Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility, the PMO said.
In another parallel development, Qatar and the United States are also on the verge of finalising an enhanced defence cooperation agreement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was not informed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in advance about Israel’s attack in Qatar last week.
India’s response
India said it “will study the implications” of the strategic mutual defence pact signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, under which an attack on either nation will be treated as “aggression against both.”
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, addressing a weekly media briefing in Delhi, noted that the government had been aware this agreement was being considered.
As part of the celebrations, light shows were organised on various iconic buildings around the world in tribute to PM Modi.
Piccadilly Circus, London |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75 on Wednesday, 17 September 2025. From world leaders to followers and well-wishers, people across the globe extended their birthday wishes to the Prime Minister.
As part of the celebrations, light shows were organised on various iconic buildings around the world in tribute to PM Modi. In Mumbai, several landmarks, including the five-star hotel Trident, held light displays featuring images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Internationally, Piccadilly Circus in London also displayed an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The digital screen featured the message:
“Warm birthday wishes, celebrating 75 years”, alongside a picture of the Prime Minister.
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space located in London’s West End, within the City of Westminster. It was constructed in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, the word “circus”, derived from the Latin word meaning “circle”—refers to a round open space at a street junction.
The iconic Times Square in New York also featured a picture of Prime Minister Modi, extending birthday wishes on his 75th birthday.
Besides, a spectacular 3D drone show was organised on Wednesday at the SP College Ground in Pune on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday.
The show, named “Jyotine Tejachi Aarti”, lasted for 45 minutes. Around 1,000 drones showcased the achievements of the Modi government, along with Pune’s social, cultural, and historical landmarks.
Robert Redford, the director, actor, and activist has died at his home in Utah. Redford rose to fame in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men.”
Redford was the godfather for independent cinema as Sundance founder [FILE: February 22, 2019]Image: Nasser Berzane/ABACA/picture allianceRobert Redford, the Oscar-winning director, and actor, has died at the age of 89.
Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” his publicist Cindi Berger said.
He passed away in his sleep at his home in the mountains of Utah, according to his publicist Cindi Berger.
Redford rose to fame in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,” using his star power to spotlight American culture and politics.
He later became a champion of independent cinema and was a vocal advocate for environmental causes.
Sundance Kid becomes indie champion
Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, Redford has always been independently minded. His fame and success never drove him from one Hollywood party to the next.
Redford focused on doing his own thing, by consciously choosing roles that had meaning for him, as well as the directors he worked with.
Initially written off as “just another California blond,” Redford defied expectations with his rugged charisma and enduring appeal, becoming one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men and a beloved global icon for over 50 years.
Redford was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s with such films as “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were.”
Redford capped off the decade with the best director Oscar for 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which also won best picture that same year.
His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, a mountain man in “Jeremiah Johnson,” and a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He used the money from his acting to co-found the Sundance Institute for aspiring independent filmmakers, from which the renowned annual film festival gets its name.
“The industry was pretty well controlled by the mainstream, which I was a part of. But I saw other stories out there that weren’t having a chance to be told and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can commit my energies to giving those people a chance.’ As I look back on it, I feel very good about that,” Redford told the Associated Press in 2018.
Tributes to Redford pour in
Actor Marlee Matlin was one of the first to pay tribute to Redford, stating that her Oscar-winning film “Coda” would never have received the attention it did without the Sundance festival.
“Our film, CODA, came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she wrote on X.
Meryl Streep, who starred with Redford in “Out of Africa,” said in a statement, “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
Superman Director James Gunn said he grew up with Redford’s movies.
“He was THE movie star, and will be greatly missed,” he wrote on Instagram.
A committed environmental activist, Redford also fought to preserve the natural landscape and resources of Utah, where he lived.
Former US President Barack Obama awarded Redford the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, saying he was admired not just for his acting, “but for having figured out what to do next.”
“He has supported our National Parks and our natural resources as one of the foremost conservationists of our generation,” Obama said at the time.
Pakistan’s dramatic boycott threat has ended in a U-turn. Despite the ICC rejecting their demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft, sources told India Today that Pakistan will face the UAE on Wednesday in Dubai. The decision followed consultations between PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan are set to face the UAE in their Asia Cup match on September 17 (AP Photo)
Pakistan have made a U-turn on their Asia Cup boycott threat over the handshake snub row. The former champions will face the UAE in their final Group A match on Wednesday, September 17. Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected their request to remove match referee Andy Pycroft from the eight-team tournament, sources said the senior official will not officiate in Pakistan’s game in Dubai on Wednesday.
According to sources, the decision to go ahead with the match was taken after Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi discussed the matter with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Richie Richardson, the other match referee appointed by the ICC for the Asia Cup, will officiate in Wednesday’s game.
Pakistan had earlier threatened to boycott the remainder of the Asia Cup if Pycroft was not removed, following the handshake row during their game against India on Sunday. The PCB wrote to the ICC, demanding his removal after accusing him of failing to act when Indian players, including captain Suryakumar Yadav, refused to shake hands with Pakistani players after the Group A clash in Dubai.
On Tuesday, Pakistan cancelled their pre-match press conference, adding to the uncertainty over their participation in the contest against the UAE. However, the team, led by Salman Ali Agha, trained at the ICC Academy in Dubai on the eve of the match.
Had Pakistan pulled out of their game against the UAE, their campaign would have come to an end. Pakistan, who lost to India in a one-sided contest on Sunday, need nothing less than a win against the associate side to advance to the next stage – the Super 4.
PAKISTAN STUNG BY HANDSHAKE SNUB
Pakistan were stung by India’s decision not to shake hands with them. Captain Salman Ali Agha boycotted the post-match presentation ceremony, while coach Mike Hesson said the players were disappointed by India’s gesture.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav refused the customary handshake with Pakistan players and defended his action. When asked by a journalist after the game whether the snub went against sporting spirit, the skipper said, “a few things in life are beyond sportsman spirit.”
Suryakumar avoided shaking hands with his Pakistani counterpart during the toss and repeated the gesture after the game. When Pakistan players were waiting along the boundary rope to greet him after he hit the winning runs in their chase of 128, Suryakumar and his batting partner Shivam Dube walked straight into the dressing room. An Indian team official was also seen slamming the door shut immediately after they entered.
Suryakumar also dedicated India’s victory to the armed forces and the victims of the April terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
Sunday’s match in Dubai marked the first meeting between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam attack and the subsequent cross-border hostilities in May. India retaliated to the attack by targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Several prominent voices in India, including former cricketers and politicians, had urged the team not to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup. However, the Men in Blue went ahead after receiving clearance from the government. Earlier this year, the Sports Ministry reiterated that India would continue to meet Pakistan in multilateral tournaments but confirmed that the ban on bilateral sporting ties remained in place.
Notably, Suryakumar faced criticism on social media for greeting Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha and PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi – also Pakistan’s Interior Minister – during a captains’ press meet on the eve of the tournament opener.
Suryakumar later hinted that the decision not to shake hands with Pakistan players during Sunday’s match was pre-planned, adding that the Indian government and the BCCI were aligned on the matter.
Sources told India Today that Suryakumar would continue to snub handshakes with Pakistan players if the two teams meet again in the Asia Cup. India and Pakistan are scheduled to clash in the Super 4 on Sunday, September 21, provided Pakistan beat the UAE on Wednesday.
Narendra Modi Birthday Updates: PM Modi turns 75 today. Donald Trump and Denis Alipov praised his leadership in global cooperation, sustainable development, and peace.
PM Narendra Modi 75th Birthday Updates: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75 today, wishes poured in from across the country and around the world, with political leaders, party workers, and citizens expressing their admiration, gratitude, and well wishes for him.
World leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov sent their congratulations, commending PM Modi’s leadership on global cooperation, sustainable development, and peace.
Today, the PM will also visit Madhya Pradesh to launch the ‘Swasth Nari Sashakt Parivar’ and ‘8th Rashtriya Poshan Maah’ campaigns, it is the largest ever health outreach for women and children in the country. Over 1 Lakh health camps will be organised across government facilities across the country from September 17 to October 2. He will launch Adi Seva Parv for MP: a series of service-oriented activities in tribal regions.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi Wishes PM Modi On Birthday
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi extended birthday greetings to PM Modi. In a post on X, the Congress MP wrote “Wishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji a happy birthday and good health.”
Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand Recalls Heartfelt Moment With PM Modi, Praises His Vision and Warmth
Chess legend Viswanathan Anand shared a touching personal memory of PM Modi on his 75th birthday, recounting a cherished moment when the PM personally took him to enjoy a Gujarati Thali.
In a post on X, Anand highlighted the PM Modi’s unique ability to blend professionalism with genuine warmth, calling him a rare leader who inspires both through grand vision and humble gestures.
Amit Shah Greets PM Modi On Birthday, Calls Him ‘Symbol Of Sacrifice And Dedication’
Union Home Minister Amit Shah extended heartfelt birthday wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 75th birthday, calling him a symbol of sacrifice and dedication. In his message, Shah praised Modi’s tireless service to the nation for over five decades, highlighting his unwavering commitment to public welfare and his embodiment of the ‘Nation First’ spirit. He described PM Modi as a source of inspiration for crores of Indians.
Narendra Modi 75th Birthday Updates: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan Wishes PM Modi On Birthday
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan extended greetings to PM Modi on his 75th birthday. “Warm birthday wishes to Hon’ble PM
@narendramodi. Wishing you good health and happiness,” Vijayan tweeted.
PM Modi Birthday Updates: Vice President CP Radhakrishnan Greets PM Modi On Birthday
Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan extended birthday greetings to PM Modi, wishing him a long, healthy, and fulfilling life dedicated to the service of the nation. The VP wrote on X, “Heartiest birthday greetings to Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri @narendramodi Ji. Under your visionary leadership, India is making a mark on the global stage and moving steadily towards the goal of a developed nation. Wishing you a long, healthy, and fulfilling life dedicated to the service of the motherland.”
File photo of fighter jets performing a flypast over Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday, June 2, 2022. (Photo: AP/Paul Ellis)
UK fighter jets will join a NATO operation over Poland to help defend the alliance’s eastern flank after Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week, the defence ministry said Monday (Sep 15).
“British fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland to counter aerial threats from Russia, including drones,” the ministry said in a statement, adding the missions by RAF Typhoons would start “in the coming days”.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said Friday the alliance would reinforce the defence of its eastern flank following a Russian drone raid into Polish airspace.
Poland and its NATO allies last week scrambled jets to shoot down Russian drones over allied airspace for the first time since the war in Ukraine started three-and-a-half years ago.
And on Saturday, Romania became the latest NATO member state to report a drone incursion, as Poland also scrambled aircraft in response to fresh Russian drone strikes just over the border in Ukraine.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a direct threat to European security and a violation of international law,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.
He said the “aircraft are not just a show of strength, they are vital in deterring aggression” as well as securing NATO airspace and protecting the UK’s national security.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a Sep 17 deadline to reach a deal could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised.
Teenagers pose for a photo while holding smartphones in front of a TikTok logo in this illustration taken on Sep 11, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
United States and Chinese officials said on Monday (Sep 15) they have reached a framework agreement to switch short-video app TikTok to US-controlled ownership that will be confirmed in a Friday call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The potential deal on the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US users, was a rare breakthrough in months-long talks between the world’s number one and number two economies that have sought to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.
After a meeting with Chinese negotiators in Madrid, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a Sep 17 deadline that could have disrupted the popular social media app in the US encouraged Chinese negotiators to reach a potential deal.
He said that the deadline could be extended by 90 days to allow the deal to be finalised, but declined to discuss specifics of the deal.
Bessent said that when commercial terms of the deal are revealed, it will preserve cultural aspects of TikTok that Chinese negotiators care about.
“They’re interested in Chinese characteristics of the app, which they think are soft power. We don’t care about Chinese characteristics. We care about national security,” Bessent told reporters at the conclusion of two days of talks.
Trump, when asked if China would hold a stake in the company, told reporters, “We haven’t decided that but it looks to me, and I’m speaking to President Xi on Friday, for confirmation of that.”
It is the second time this year that the two sides have said they were nearing a TikTok deal. The earlier announcement in March ultimately did not pan out.
Any agreement could require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 requiring divestiture due to fears that TikTok’s US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.
But the Trump administration has repeatedly declined to force a shutdown, which could anger the app’s millions of users and disrupt political communications. Trump has credited the app with helping him win re-election last year, and his personal account has 15 million followers. The White House launched an official TikTok account last month.
“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Bessent did not say whether parent company ByteDance would transfer control of the app’s underlying technology to the unnamed US buyer. Wang Jingtao, an official at the Chinese cyberspace regulator, said the deal could license intellectual property rights, including algorithms.
Aside from TikTok, the US has cited national security concerns to block shipments of semiconductors and other advanced technology to China, and ban Chinese products that Washington has concluded could be used to spy on Americans or gather intelligence.
China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, told reporters that those concerns amounted to “unilateral bullying.”
“The United States cannot on the one hand ask China to take care of its concerns, and on the other hand continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said.
Li said the two sides had reached a “basic framework consensus” on resolving TikTok-related issues – a slight variation from the language used by the US side.
The US-China meeting at the Spanish foreign ministry’s baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz was the fourth round of talks in four months to address strained trade ties as well as TikTok’s divestiture deadline.
Delegations led by Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have met in European cities since May to try to resolve a trade war that has seen tit-for-tat tariff hikes and a halt in the flow of rare earths to the United States.
The Court said it would pass on September 23 an order in the matter pertaining to environmental destruction in Himachal Pradesh.
The Supreme Court on Monday remarked that the entire Himalayan region is at the risk of natural disasters and calamities have been particularly “violent” this year. [M/S Pristine Hotels and Resorts Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr.].
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta made the observation during the hearing of a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) pertaining to environmental protection and climate vulnerability in Himachal Pradesh.
“It isn’t going to be limited to Himachal only, but entire Himalayan range that is facing the issue. This time it has been very very violent,” the Court said.
Senior Advocate K Parameshwar, who is as an amicus curiae in the matter, earlier submitted that the State government’s report suffered from several deficiencies, as it merely suggested the constitution of a Committee to examine different aspects without providing any concrete measures. He further argued that the canvass of the report was too broad, making it impossible to address the entire issue in a single stroke
The Court observed that the issues extend beyond Himachal Pradesh and it said that it intends to expand the scope of the PIL to cover the entire Himalayan region, which has recently experienced severe ecological disturbances.
It then ordered that the matter be listed on September 23 for pronouncement of orders.
“List on 23rd September for orders. Senior Advocate K Parameshwar has submitted a small report, which is taken on record.”
In August 2025, a Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had initiated the suo motu case after taking note of reports highlighting severe ecological degradation in the north Indian State.
The Court had directed both the State government and the Union of India to submit detailed action plans to tackle the ongoing environmental crisis, stressing the urgent need for sustainable management of natural resources.
A series of earthquakes struck Assam on Sunday evening, with tremors felt in Udalguri and Sonitpur districts, the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said.
The strongest quake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, was recorded at 4:41 PM. It was followed by four smaller aftershocks — a 3.1 magnitude quake in Udalguri at 4:58 PM, and a 2.9 magnitude quake in neighbouring Sonitpur at 5:21 PM, a 2.7 magnitude earthquake in Udalguri at 6:11 PM and 3.1 magnitude quake at 11:49 PM.
Officials said there was no immediate report of loss of life or damage to property, though the situation is still being assessed.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a post on X, said, “The epicentre (of the earthquake) was near Udalguri. So far, there has been no report of any major damage or loss of life. We are actively monitoring the situation.”
Residents of Udalguri, Sonitpur, Tamulpur, Nalbari and several other districts in Assam felt the tremors. Panic-gripped people were seen rushing out of their residences in Guwahati.
People of the western parts of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh also felt the jolt. Residents in Arunachal Pradesh’s capital Itanagar ran out of their houses and shops in panic.
5.8 Earthquake Jolts Assam’s Udalguri
An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Assam on Sunday, with tremors felt across adjoining states. The earthquake took place at 4.41 pm on Sunday, and the epicentre was in Udalguri district, the officials said.
That Gen Z protesters toppled the Oli government in Nepal shouldn’t be surprising. From Bhagat Singh to Che Guevara, the face of rebellions has almost always been the young. But why do the young rebel, and what is it that drives them to the streets?
Youths and students protesting in Kathmandu in this September 8 photo. Nepal’s Gen Z protesters forced the PM to resign. (Image: PTI)
“When the Emergency was imposed, I was 23. JP’s (Jayaprakash Narayan) call for sampoorna kranti (total revolution) had reached Banaras Hindu University (BHU) by late 1974. I was then a student leader in BHU, which was far more politically active than it is today. My name was on the police list of key student leaders. If caught, I would have faced indefinite detention,” recalls Anirudh Narayan Singh, now 72.
One night in 1975, after a student rally, word spread that police were raiding hostels. “To escape, I scaled BHU’s boundary wall, sprinted a kilometre to the Lanka bus stop, and boarded a packed bus to Bihar,” Singh told India Today Digital. “For months, I hid in Bhabhua at my maternal uncle’s home. I would sleep in the grain-storage attic. I also grew a beard to avoid recognition,” said the chairman of a Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth-affiliated college in Varanasi.
Singh was, however, arrested nearly one-and-a-half years later when he came to Varanasi for a student union meeting.
Asked if he would have taken the risks had he been a bit older, say in his 30s or 40s, Singh laughed and said, “Probably not”.
Once associated with the Samajwadi Party, Singh said the firebrand spirit of his youth had now calmed down. Politics still interests him, but only as an observer.
Age plays a crucial role, believes another “former revolutionary”, Kallan Yadav, who lives in Patna’s Rukunpura area. Like BHU’s Singh, Yadav was also a part of the JP Movement.
Once a firebrand leader at Muzaffarpur’s BR Ambedkar Bihar University who carried a katta (country-made handgun) for self-defence, Singh, said he was now “merely an observer”.
When asked if he would have protested outside his 20s, Yadav, a retired chemistry teacher, said, “Though I believe once a revolutionary is always a revolutionary, I think age and my marital status might have grounded me even back then.”
Generally, it is youth that fuels such audacious acts such as street protests against the authorities. And today, a demographic, or rather a generation, is in the spotlight.
The Gen Z, often deemed laid-back and frivolous, have seemingly claimed their spot as revolutionaries. Less than a week ago, Nepal’s Gen Z toppled the regime in the country. The trigger was a social media ban, but corruption and nepotism were big issues and terms like nepo kids and nepo babies had been trending in the run-up to the protests on September 8.
They forced the government of KP Sharma Oli to overturn the ban, and then got him to resign from the PM’s post. Gen Z’s captured Instagram Reels and TikToks amid the chaos of a burning Parliament in the backdrop, smoke billowing from it, even as gunfire and arson rocked the streets of Kathmandu.
It may be an odd comparison, but there is a link between the likes of Anirudh Narayan Singh, Kallan Yadav, and the Gen Zers of Nepal. The demographic.
The causes were different. So were their means of dissent. But it’s their age that links them.
Youths are more idealistic and hardwired to challenge the norm. Sociologist Chandra Shekhar said that people in their teens and 20s are exploring their identities and beliefs, and this makes them more willing to challenge authority.
Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Zirak Marker explains that, because of the way the brain is still developing, adolescents are prone to risk-taking and emotional impulsivity.
IT’S THE AGE TO PROTEST AND GEN Z IS JUST A NEW TAG
Youths, often, have an urge to question and push back the norms. Many a time, the fight isn’t about a cause, but about resisting control and finding their own identity. Protests across the world have pointed towards this pattern, the latest instance being the one led by the Gen Zers in Nepal.
The Gen Zers, born between 1997 and 2012, are today between 13 and 28 years old. After their “debut” revolution in Nepal, much of the conversation around them has been about how “unserious” they are. Social media has been mocking them for making Instagram Reels even amid real chaos.
Because they were born into technology, scrolling and swiping almost as soon as they learned to walk, older generations often reduce their personalities to their social media accounts.
Millennials (born between 1981-1996), Gen X (1965-1980) and Baby Boomers (1946-1964), often find themselves scandalised by Gen Zers’ immersion in apps and phones. The idea of political engagement by this generation is almost jarring to them.
But a closer look at Gen Z’s obsession with social media and fads reveals that it is hardly a new phenomenon.
Millennials were shaped by personal computers. Gen X by cable TV. Boomers, perhaps by the transistor. Each generation was shaped by the tools of its time. For Gen Z, it’s all of it together.
But what has remained constant is a behavioural pattern. It is almost always the youth, typically those between 17 and 25, who are the first to take to the streets, whether for their rights or a humanitarian cause.
Gen Z is only a tag and the latest generation to claim the protest space.
In Nepal, they chose an interim Prime Minister on Discord, streamed their protests online, and made Instagram Reels and promoted hashtags as they protested.
Their symbol of dissent—the Jolly Roger of Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece, the world’s most popular manga series—may be unusual for the older folks, but the fight is real.
Fundamentally, Gen Z has only done what the previous generations did, but recorded it on TikTok to rile up ‘WhatsApp Uncles’.
BHAGAT SINGH TO CHE GUEVARA, REVOLUTIONARIES WHO WOULD BE GEN Z IF BORN LATER
Leaving aside a few, most revolutionaries, leaders, and protesters have been young.
Vladimir Lenin was active in the revolutionary circles by the age of 22.
Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara was just 23 when his motorcycle journey across Latin America changed his views and set him on the path of revolution. If he were older, his 500 cc Norton might have been swapped for a caravan on a transcontinental tour, likely ending at a Cuban sandwich outlet, with perhaps a call from home to pick up groceries.
Even Nelson Mandela, Nobel laureate and face of apartheid activism, joined the African National Congress at 24.
In India, Bhagat Singh and his comrade Sukhdev were just 23 when they were martyred, and Rajguru was 22. They all turned revolutionaries in their late teens, around the age of 17-18, when they aligned with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in the late 1920s.
By today’s standards, a Gen Zer would consider all of them in their “tweens” (early twenties).
From Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 to Dhaka in 2024, it’s been students or young adults who have been at the forefront in shaping history.
WHY ARE THE YOUNG SO QUICK TO PROTEST?
The youths are quick to take to the streets and raise the banner of revolution for a slew of reasons. There is a lot of idealism in them at a young age. There is intense energy, mixed with raw recklessness, along with a will to challenge authority.
Today, in the age of information, they are driven by a combination of social influences too. But biological factors also play a role.
“The youth are naturally more idealistic and less controlled by the compromises that often come with age,” said Chandra Shekhar, former professor of sociology at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). “They are at a stage in life where they are exploring their identities and beliefs, and this makes them more willing to challenge authority,” he told India Today Digital.
Shekhar added, “Today, the youths’ sense of fairness and justice is more immediate because of social media.”
Social connectivity is another factor. “Today’s youth, particularly Gen Z, are the most connected generation ever. They are also the most aware generation, maybe not politically, but in general. The connectivity accelerates both awareness and mobilisation. This wasn’t possible in our times,” said Shekhar.
But why is it that people become more risk-averse as they move to their 30s and 40s?
“Young people often occupy transitional social positions. It means they are either students or early-career workers. Hence, they have more to gain and less to lose,” said the sociologist.
“At that age, you’re not tied down by mortgages or dependents. The goal of bringing a change in society also feels very much attainable,” he explained.
Throwing light on developing nations, he said, “In nations like Nepal or Bangladesh, where resources are scarce, protests also become a legitimate outlet to attain them.”
HOW THE BRAIN FUNCTIONS IN THE GEN Z
The way a person thinks, reacts to situations, and perceives the world shifts dramatically between youth and older age.
This generational divide, often framed as “maturity”, was evident in the experiences of Anirudh Narayan Singh and Kallan Yadav. Both, once fiery protesters during the JP Movement, somewhat agreed that they might not have joined the protests had they been older, despite their deep belief in the cause.
When asked about today’s generation, both Singh and Yadav echoed the view that the youth today appeared more radical, yet also lost.
Dr Zirak Marker, a child, adolescent and family psychiatrist, explained this, saying, “Today’s youth, particularly Gen Z, exhibit extreme impulsivity, low frustration and tolerance, and a high need for instant gratification—traits biologically rooted in the underdeveloped frontal cortex, which doesn’t fully mature until around age 25.”
He explained that earlier, maturity was believed to arrive by 18, but modern research shows it’s more complex. “This synaptic pruning and myelination process (brain development process) makes adolescents prone to risk-taking, poor decision-making, and emotional impulsivity, explaining why we see such impulses in a particular age group.”
Drawing parallels with history, Marker noted, “These brain developments have always influenced youth activism. Twenty-five years ago, we didn’t have the detailed fMRI insights, but the biology was the same.”
On the mental health impact of protesting, Marker explained, “Protests don’t necessarily stem from low self-esteem or frustration. Confident, well-adjusted youth also dissent when beliefs are strong. But in groups, with no control and hormonal surges like peak testosterone in young males, they feel infallible—leading to aggression and violence. It’s empowering, but the horde mentality can turn passion into chaos.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry praised India for standing firm against constant pressure from the US and Nato to stop purchasing oil from Russia, and for continuing its commitments despite threats, warning that any attempt to disturb the ties is “destined to fail.”
Russia praises India for withstanding US pressure (Photo:Reuters)
Amid Donald Trump’s pressure on other countries to impose US-like tariffs on Indian goods for continuing to buy Russian oil, Moscow on Sunday said its relationship with Delhi is time-tested and progressing “steadily,” warning that any attempt to disturb the ties is “destined to fail.”
Ties between Moscow and Delhi are “steadily and confidently advancing,” and “any attempt to obstruct this process is destined to fail,” the Russian Foreign Ministry told state media outlet RT.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also praised India for standing firm in the face of constant pressure from the US and Nato countries to stop purchasing Russian oil, and for continuing its commitments despite threats.
The ministry’s statement, issued in response to questions from RT, highlighted India’s commitment to its partnership with Russia even in the face of external threats and criticism. “Frankly, anything else would be hard to imagine,” officials added, reported RT.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, India’s approach is rooted in “the spirit and traditions of long-standing Russia-India friendship” and represents “strategic autonomy in international affairs.”
Moscow underscored that the partnership prioritises “the highest value of sovereignty and the primacy of national interests.” This perspective, officials argued, supports relations that are “reliable, predictable and truly strategic in nature.”
The two countries engage in joint projects spanning civilian and military production, manned space missions, nuclear power, and Indian investments in Russian oil exploration.
The ministry also emphasised joint efforts in developing new payment systems, increasing the use of national currencies, and enhancing alternative transport and logistics routes.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered this week’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, he took a major gamble in his campaign to pound the group into submission.
With signs growing that the mission failed, that gamble appears to have backfired.
Netanyahu had hoped to kill Hamas’ senior exiled leaders to get closer toward his vision of “total victory” against the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and pressure it into surrendering after nearly two years of war in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Hamas claims its leaders survived, and Netanyahu’s global standing, already badly damaged by the scenes of destruction and humanitarian disaster in Gaza, took another hit.
The airstrike Tuesday has enraged Qatar, an influential U.S. ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, and drawn heavy criticism across the Arab world. It also has strained relations with the White House and thrown hopes of reaching a ceasefire into disarray, potentially endangering the 20 hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza.
But while the strike marks a setback for Netanyahu, the Israeli leader shows no sign of backing down or halting the war. And with his hard-line coalition still firmly behind him, Netanyahu faces no immediate threat to his rule.
Netanyahu’s hope for an ‘image of victory’ for his government
Five low-level Hamas members and a Qatari security guard were killed in the strike. But Hamas has said the intended target, senior exiled leaders meeting to discuss a new U.S. ceasefire proposal, all survived. The group, however, has not released any photos of the leaders, and Qatar has not commented on their conditions.
If the airstrike had killed the top leadership, the attack could have provided Netanyahu an opportunity declare Hamas’ destruction, said Harel Chorev, an expert on Arab affairs at Tel Aviv University.
“It’s all very symbolic and it’s definitely part of the thing which allows Netanyahu at a certain point to say ‘We won, we killed them all,’” he said.
Israel’s fierce 23-month offensive in Gaza has wiped out all of Hamas’ top leadership inside the territory. But Netanyahu has set out to eradicate the group as part of his goal of “total victory.”
That is now looking increasingly unlikely, making it even harder for Netanyahu to push a ceasefire through his hard-line coalition.
Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have cornered Netanyahu, threatening to topple his government unless Israel pushes ahead with an expanded operation in Gaza City, despite serious misgivings by many in the military leadership and widespread opposition among Israel’s public.
A successful operation in Qatar could have allowed Netanyahu to placate the hard-liners, even though it would have eliminated the very officials responsible for negotiating a possible ceasefire.
Burning the channel with Qatar
Israel has had the ability to target Hamas leaders in Doha from the start of the war but did not want to antagonize the Qataris while negotiations took place, Chorev said.
Qatar has helped negotiate two previous ceasefires that have released 148 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s military has rescued just eight hostages alive, and retrieved the bodies of 51 hostages.
While Israel has complained that Qatar was not putting pressure on Hamas, it had continued to leave that channel open — until Tuesday.
“Israel, by the attack, notified the whole world that it gave up on the negotiations,” Chorev said. “They’ve decided to burn the channel with Qatar.”
Asked if ceasefire talks would continue, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that after the strike, “I don’t think there’s anything valid” in the current talks. But he did not elaborate and stopped short of saying Qatar would end its mediation efforts.
How Netanyahu hopes to win the release of the remaining hostages remains unclear.
On Thursday, Sheikh Mohammed accused Israel of abandoning the hostages.
“Extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages — otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?” Sheikh Mohammed told the U.N. Security Council.
Nonetheless, he said his country was ready to resume its mediation without giving any indication of next steps. On Friday, Sheikh Mohammed met in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was scheduled to visit Israel this weekend in a sign of how the Trump administration is trying to balance relations between key Middle East allies.
Straining ties with the US
Netanyahu, who has received ironclad support from the U.S. since President Donald Trump returned to office, appears to have strained ties with his most important ally.
Trump said he was “very unhappy” about the airstrike and assured the Qataris such an attack would not happen again.
Trump, however, has not said whether he would take any punitive action against Israel or indicated that he will pressure Netanyahu to halt the war.
Netanyahu, in the meantime, remains undeterred and threatened additional action if Qatar continues to host the Hamas leadership.
The message to Hamas is clear, he said Thursday: “There is no place where we cannot reach you.”
Little impact on the war in Gaza
Israel is pressing ahead with its expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City. The military has urged a full evacuation of the area holding around 1 million people ahead of an expected invasion.
“Netanyahu’s government is adamant to go on with the military operation in Gaza,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Israel has brushed off calls to halt the war from the United Nations, the European Union and a growing number of major Western countries who plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. Security Council later this month, she said.
The only one who might be able to change this trajectory is Trump, she added, by telling Israel “enough is enough.”
India Today visited casinos near the India-Nepal border in cities like Dhangadhi and Kanchanpur, where the aftermath of recent violent protests is clearly visible. Several of these facilities were targeted during the unrest, and were vandalised and looted.
Nepal is slowly emerging from five days of violent protests that have left at least 50 people dead and caused widespread damage across several cities. While the protests initially targeted government offices and infrastructure, the unrest soon spread to private businesses, including one of Nepal’s most prominent and lucrative sectors: the casino industry.
Casinos in Nepal, particularly those located near the India-Nepal border in cities like Dhangadhi and Kanchanpur, catering primarily to Indian tourists and foreign nationals as local Nepali citizens are not permitted to gamble, have been vandalised and looted.
In Kanchanpur, one of the city’s biggest casinos was stormed by a large crowd during the peak of the unrest. The mob reportedly forced entry into the building, damaged slot machines and gaming tables, looted cash and valuables, and caused extensive destruction across multiple areas of the facility, including the dance floor and restaurant sections.
The remnants of broken furniture, shattered mirrors and disconnected electrical systems are visible throughout the property, which now remains sealed off.
The recent turmoil has also put a heavy economic toll. In Dhangadhi, where India Today visited the site of a major casino, the building stands locked and deserted. There is no activity inside and security guards are not letting anyone near the premises.
These establishments, often housed within or attached to large hotels, play a significant role in the tourism economy of the region. However, following the wave of unrest, many of these casinos have either been vandalised or ransacked and all have now been shut down indefinitely.
According to local sources, the casinos has been closed since the protests turned violent. Business owners and hotel operators in the area have expressed concern over safety, especially after reports emerged that a mob had attacked and set fire to the Hilton Hotel nearby, a property closely linked to one of the largest casinos in the region.
Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu, which alone reported damages exceeding Rs 8 billion, My Republica news portal reported, quoting a HAN statement.
Additionally, Nepal’s hotel industry, a key pillar of its tourism-driven economy, has incurred losses exceeding Rs 25 billion following widespread vandalism, looting and arson during the recent student-led anti-government protests, according to a media report released Friday.
Nearly two dozen hotels across major cities including Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhairahawa, Jhapa, Biratnagar, Dhangadhi, Mahottari and Dang-Tulsipur were damaged during the unrest. Both domestic and international hotel brands were affected.
According to the Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), many of the damaged properties will remain closed until significant repairs and reconstruction are completed, putting the jobs of more than 2,000 hotel workers at risk.
Meanwhile, the appointment of Sushila Karki as Nepal’s first woman interim Prime Minister has brought some hope of political calm. However, the road to recovery for the tourism and casino sectors is expected to be long.
Normalcy is gradually returning to Kathmandu and other areas of Nepal. During a visit to the capital this morning, India Today observed vehicles, including public transport, moving freely, indicating that daily activities are slowly resuming.
Narendra Modi said, “Our country has many such people (animal lovers), and the unique thing is most of them do not consider the cow as an animal.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (X/MyGovIndia)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at animal rights activists on Friday, during an event at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan to highlight what he called their selective concern for animals.
“Recently, I met some animal lovers,” Modi said, pausing as the audience broke into laughter. He then added: “Why are you laughing? Our country has many such people (animal lovers), and the unique thing is most of them do not consider the cow as an animal.” The remark drew laughter from the gathering, including union culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The Prime Minister’s comment came against the backdrop of intense debate over a Supreme Court directive to civic bodies in Delhi-NCR ordering blanket removal of stray dogs from the streets and confining them to shelters.
The Prime Minister himself has often been seen engaging with cows, with images of him feeding and caressing them during festivals going viral in recent years. Notably, cows are considered sacred in Hinduism and worshipped as ‘Gau Mata’.
Modi’s record on cow protection
Since 2014, the Modi government has launched several initiatives for cow protection, including the establishment of the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog (RKA) in 2019.
The RKA, which functions under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, was established with the mandate of “conservation, protection and development of cows and their progeny.”
Supreme Court on stray dogs
The Supreme Court’s two-judge bench in a August 11 order directed civic authorities to capture all strays from Delhi NCR and relocate them permanently, citing rising dog-bite and rabies cases. The order sparked massive outrage from activists and celebrities, who raised concerns about the welfare of the animals in shelters.
In response, chief justice DY Chandrachud reassigned the matter to a three-judge bench, which modified the order. The court ruled that stray dogs should be sterilised, vaccinated, dewormed, and then released back into the same areas, except in cases of rabies or aggression.
Nepal’s anti-corruption protests led by Gen Z activists toppled the KP Sharma Oli government. Now, Gen Z is using the US-based social media app Discord to decide on the country’s next leader.
Nepal Gen Z protests: Protestors were mobilised using Discord
Nepal is in a period of turmoil. After Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s government banned 26 social media apps including Instagram and Facebook, Gen Z protestors took to the streets. The protests soon turned violent, with at least 51 dead.
Nepal’s youth protesters say they want to put an end to years of alleged corruption in the country’s governance. With Oli out and no faith in other political leaders, Gen Z is at a crossroads to decide their next leader. This is where the protestors are flocking to the online platform Discord.
Discord was launched in May 2015 as a social platform by co-founders Jason Citron, and Stanislav Vishnevskiy. Both Citron and Vishnevskiy had created social platforms for gamers before and hoped to create a chat service that would not hamper performance while playing games.
During Discord’s early days, the platform focused on allowing users to communicate with their friends without exiting a game. By the end of 2016, Discord had more than 25 million users.
The platform exploded in popularity during the pandemic, particularly amongst Gen Z. Users did not just stick to using the app while gaming. Rather, more and more Discord servers were created based on various topics of interest.
The app now calls itself a communication platform where users can engage in discussions on servers, through various channels. There are also options for screen sharing, streaming as well as moderation tools.
A Discord server is a large community space where users can gather and set up multiple channels to communicate. The channels could be in text, audio, or even video. The user limit on a Discord server can be as high as 5,00,000 by default.
However, only 2,50,000 users can be active on a server at any given time.
How did Gen Z protestors use Discord?
Gen Z protestors have used Discord to manage their demonstrations. Following Oli’s resignation, the members used the Youth Against Corruption Discord server to decide their next leader.
As shown by India Today’s OSINT team, the Youth Against Corruption server has over 1,30,000 members. There is no real way to verify the location of these members.
The server held multiple polls to decide on Nepal’s next leader, with users voting as per their choice. However, there was no way to verify that all users in the voting process were actually from Nepal.
India Today’s OSINT team report demonstrated that any person outside of Nepal can vote as well.
By Wednesday, September 10, the server had seemingly reached a consensus on Nepal’s next leader. Sushila Karki, Nepal’s former chief justice, was chosen by the Discord server.
According to South China Morning Post, 7,713 votes were cast before Karki hit 50%. She met Nepal’s president, Ram Chandra Poudel, and Army chief, Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel, the following day.
Shaswot Lamichhane, a channel moderator, told the New York Times that the voting was meant to only suggest an interim leader who could oversee elections.
Why did Gen Z protestors use Discord?
On the surface, not many are familiar with Discord, particularly millennials. However, for Gen Z, it is a convenient and comfortable platform. There are no endless feeds of content, unlike Instagram or X (formerly Twitter). There are many more features available than in a messaging platform like WhatsApp.
Discord servers can allow for incredibly large groups of users to deliberate and discuss, something that becomes crucial during mass movements.
FIDE Grand Swiss 2025: Gukesh Dommaraju was held to a draw by Divya Deshmukh after a six-hour marathon in Samarkand. The enthralling contest lasted 103 moves, as the world champion and the Women’s World Cup winner fought hard, captivating chess fans on Friday.
D Gukesh and Divya Deshmukh at Grand Swiss (Courtesy: FIDE Photo)
World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju was held to a draw by Divya Deshmukh after a six-hour, 103-move marathon in round eight of the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand. It was an enthralling battle between the reigning world champion and the Women’s World Cup winner that gripped chess fans across the globe on Friday, 12 September.
The result was remarkable given the gulf of 289 rating points between the two Indians, with Gukesh rated 2767 and Divya 2478. The game culminated in a rook-and-knight versus rook endgame — a rare and highly technical scenario in which the player with the extra knight enjoys the material advantage, yet the defending side can hold the draw with flawless play.
On this occasion, Gukesh pressed with the superior rook-and-knight, but Divya defended with precision, navigating one of the most studied theoretical endgames in chess. Such positions are notoriously tricky: one inaccurate move by the defender can quickly tip the balance. That Divya held her ground for over 100 moves under relentless pressure showcased her defensive technique and mental resilience.
Gukesh and Divya could have agreed to a draw earlier, but the world champion kept pressing, hoping for an error that never came. In the end, it was Gukesh who offered the draw, and Divya accepted without hesitation.
DIVYA OVERTAKES GUKESH
For Divya, who came into the match on the back of victories against two male Grandmasters, it was another step in the right direction as she climbed the Grand Swiss ladder after choosing to compete in the Open section. With momentum from her World Cup triumph behind her, Divya opted for the Open category in pursuit of a strong run that could eventually lead to a place in the Candidates and, potentially, a shot at the World Championship match next year.
Gukesh, meanwhile, has endured a difficult time at the Grand Swiss. The reigning world champion has suffered defeats to prodigies Abhimanyu Mishra, Ediz Gurel and Nikolas Theodorou, alongside draws with Arjun Erigaisi and 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
India is set to enhance its production of rare earth magnets to lessen dependence on Chinese supplies, as announced by Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
With China controlling more than 80 of global rare earth magnet supply, India faces a strategic challenge in securing steady supplies for its fast-growing EV and auto industries. (Representative image)
India is preparing a major push to strengthen its rare earth magnet production and reduce reliance on Chinese rare earth supplies, Union Heavy Industries and Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy announced on Friday. The government is designing a fiscal incentive scheme that will support local manufacturers in producing magnets critical for electric vehicle (EV) motors, power steering units, and advanced auto components.
Why Rare Earth Magnets Matter for India’s EV Industry
Rare earth magnets, particularly neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, are vital for the electric vehicle ecosystem. They are used in:
EV traction motors
Hybrid and combustion vehicle power steering systems
Advanced auto components and semiconductor devices
With China controlling more than 80% of global rare earth magnet supply, India faces a strategic challenge in securing steady supplies for its fast-growing EV and auto industries.
Incentives to Boost Local Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing
The new scheme will provide:
Financial support for capital investment and operating costs
Relief from high tariffs on imported processing equipment
A roadmap for Rs 1,345 crore program to back at least two domestic manufacturers in setting up facilities to convert rare earth oxides into usable magnets
Kumaraswamy emphasized, “Rare earth magnets are central to the EV revolution. To safeguard India’s supply chain and reduce dependence on China, we are preparing incentives to encourage domestic production.”
India’s Strategy to Secure Critical Mineral Supply Chains
The government aims to bridge cost gaps and attract investors to India’s rare earth sector.
Plans align with India’s EV policy 2030 and the country’s vision to emerge as a global EV manufacturing hub.
Rare earth localization will also help India mitigate risks from global trade restrictions and boost its role in global value chains.
Larry Ellison reacts, at the White House, in Washington, U.S. February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab shares retreated on Thursday after a record AI-driven surge in the previous session that put the company closer to the trillion-dollar mark and co-founder Larry Ellison within striking distance of the world’s richest person title.
The enterprise software maker’s remarkable rise, fueled by a wave of multi-billion-dollar cloud deals, puts the spotlight on the scramble for computing power from companies that are pouring billions to become leaders in the AI race.
Oracle’s shares fell about 4% after climbing as much as 35.9% on Wednesday. The company’s market valuation rose to a record $933 billion, as of last close, but is set to fall to around $894 billion if losses hold.
Ellison’s net worth stood at around $371.7 billion, largely driven by his 41% stake in Oracle, compared with Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab CEO Elon Musk’s $441.2 billion fortune that tops Forbes’ global wealth rankings.
“A bit of buyer exhaustion here. I think the “buy the dip” crowd is likely to re-emerge,” said Dennis Dick, chief strategist at Stock Trader Network.
“The guidance was so incredible, hard to think that this story is over.”
Oracle said on Tuesday its order backlog is on track to hit half a trillion dollars in the coming months.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Wednesday that OpenAI has signed a $300 billion deal with Oracle for computing power, among the biggest in history.
Oracle’s stock has nearly doubled in value this year, making it among the top performers in the S&P 500 index (.SPX), opens new tab, trouncing gains made by the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks.
The median price target of $342 represents an upside of around 9% to the company’s stock price of $314.45, according to LSEG data.
The shares were trading at a premium compared to its cloud services peers. Their 12-month forward price-to-earnings multiple was 45.3, compared with Amazon’s 31.3 and Microsoft’s 31.
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s killer remains at large after his shooting on a Utah college campus. The FBI officials on Friday released a video footage showing the suspect running and jumping from a rooftop.
Charlie Kirk shooting: Suspect seen fleeing rooftop after fatal attack
The US investigators on Friday (Thursday in US time) released new photos and video footage of a person of interest in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying they had recovered the rifle believed to have been used in the politically charged shooting.
At a press briefing, officials said security-camera footage showed a man climbing stairwells to reach a campus rooftop, firing the fatal shot, then running and jumping down before fleeing the area.
Video also captured the suspect crossing a street and heading into a wooded area where police later found a “high-powered, bolt-action” rifle. Investigators said the man left a palm print and other DNA evidence on the building.
The FBI offered a USD 100,000 reward for information leading to the shooter’s arrest and circulated grainy security-camera images showing the suspect dressed in a black long-sleeved top with a bald eagle and US flag print, black sunglasses, a dark baseball cap, and carrying a backpack. Utah authorities later released slightly clearer images showing more details of the man’s clothing, backpack, and Converse shoes.
Officials have not yet identified the suspect or confirmed a motive. US President Donald Trump, who called Kirk’s death a “heinous assassination,” told reporters that he had some indication of the killer’s motive but did not elaborate, saying, “We’ll let you know about that later.” He added that law enforcement was making “big progress” in the case.
“Multiple leads are currently being investigated, but no suspect is in custody,” say Utah law enforcement officials.
A man places a candle during a vigil at Orem City Center Park, after US right-wing activist and commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of US President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, Sep 11, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Jim Urquhart)
US President Donald Trump urged supporters on Thursday (Sep 11) to respond peacefully to the killing of right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk, as the murderer continued to evade a manhunt more than 24 hours after the shooting put an already divided US on edge.
Trump, who soon after the killing angrily pledged a wide-ranging response against the “radical left”, told reporters that Kirk had been “an advocate of nonviolence”.
“That’s the way I’d like to see people respond,” he said.
Kirk, a 31-year-old superstar on the Republican right who sparked surging youth support for Trump, was shot while addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
A day later, authorities said the gunman remained at large.
“Multiple leads are currently being investigated, but no suspect is in custody,” Utah law enforcement officials posted, after cancelling a previously scheduled media briefing.
“We’re doing everything we can to find him, and we’re not sure how far he has gone yet,” FBI Special Agent Robert Bohls said earlier.
The FBI, which described the attack on Kirk as “targeted”, published grainy photos of a young person it called “the potential shooter”.
The pictures showed a man wearing a black baseball cap, dark sunglasses, and what appeared to be jeans, with a long-sleeved top emblazoned with a design that included an American flag.
A reward of up to US$100,000 was posted for information leading to his capture.
Police say they believe the shooter fired a single bullet from a rooftop up to 180m, hitting Kirk in the neck.
A high-powered bolt-action rifle was recovered in a wooded area.
“DARK MOMENT”
Reflecting the highly political nature of the killing, Kirk’s coffin was transported to his home city of Phoenix on JD Vance’s official plane.
Footage showed the vice president with his hands on the casket as it was carried to Air Force 2.
Kirk’s widow, Erika, held hands with Vance’s wife as they got off the plane in Arizona, the headquarters of the powerful Turning Point USA.
The right-wing mediasphere remained in a state of heightened emotion Thursday, with Fox News contributors recounting the impact Kirk had on their lives.
Conspiracy theories ricocheted around the internet, while calls for a return to civility vied with those demanding vengeance.
“THIS IS WAR” wrote the popular right-wing X account of @LibsofTikTOK
Fox News host Jesse Watters on Wednesday said the killing signified that his side of the political spectrum was under attack.
“Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?” he asked his audience.
“MARTYR” FOR THE RIGHT
Students at Utah Valley University on Thursday described the shock and their broader fears as political divisions deepen across the country.
Dave Sanchez told AFP that witnessing the killing made him “sick to my stomach”.
“We watch him all the time, and so it really does feel like one of your own family members, your own brother’s been killed,” said Sanchez, 26.
Kirk, who supporters have hailed as a “martyr” for conservative ideals, had an outsized influence in US politics.
He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, with his natural showmanship making him a go-to spokesman on television networks.
Kirk used his enormous audiences on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, outspoken Christianity and gun ownership, and to spread carefully edited clips of his interactions during debates at his many college events.
Three months ago, a Minnesota man shot dead a Democratic lawmaker and her husband in their home, and Trump survived an assassination attempt during his election campaign in July 2024.
POLITICAL activist Charlie Kirk’s last words before being fatally shot during a debate event in Utah have emerged.
The Conservative activist, 31, was doing a Q&A at Utah Valley University in Orem when a single shot was fired at him on Wednesday afternoon.
Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a debate in Utah Credit: AP:Associated Press
Kirk, a father of two, was hosting an event for Turning Point USA, a nonprofit he founded at 18 which works with conservative youth on college campuses, when he was struck.
The event was previously described as a “high-energy evening featuring a candid conversation about conservative values.”
A video circulating on social media shows the activist speaking from a tent with “The American Comeback” written on it as gunfire rang out.
Moments before he was shot, Kirk was discussing gun violence throughout the country.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” one audience member asked Kirk.
“Counting or not counting gang violence,” he replied before being cut off by the gunshot.
FBI director Kash Patel said in a statement on X that the person responsible for the shooting had been arrested.
However, when asked about the statement, Utah officials said that a person of interest was being interviewed.
Chilling footage showed Kirk recoil back to his left and fall into his chair.
Blood could be seen pouring down from his neck as the crowd began to panic.
Attendees screamed and chaotically fled the stage area after Kirk collapsed.
Witness Justin Higgens told NBC News that he saw the speaker get hit by the bullet.
“We heard a big loud shot, I saw a bunch of blood come out of Charlie, I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground,” Hickens said.
As people began to dash for the exit, Hickens said he felt safe as no more gunshots rang out after Kirk was hit.
“I kind of turned around and all of a sudden I saw officers walking with this very elderly gentleman with white hair,” Hickens said.
“They had him arrested, they had him on his knees and he was screaming about his rights and all that stuff.
“They cuffed him and put him away.”
Witness Tyler McGettigan also told NBC News that there was no security going into the event.
“I was expecting when I got here that I’d have to pass through some kind of security, but that just wasn’t a thing,” McGettigan said.
“No one checked the barcode or the QR code. There was no checkpoint to get in. It was literally, anyone could walk in if they wanted.”
DECLARED DEAD
Donald Trump confirmed the death of his longtime friend on social media.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” he posted.
“He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika and their two young children, a one-year-old son and a daughter who turned three just weeks ago.
Initial statements reported that Kirk was in critical condition as he was being treated at a local hospital.
“[Kirk] is in the hospital, and we are praying for him at this time,” Turning Point USA initially confirmed to NBC News.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox posted on X immediately after the shooting, declaring that he will hold those responsible “fully accountable.”
“I am being briefed by law enforcement following the violence directed at Charlie Kirk during his visit to Utah Valley University today. We will continue to share updates,” the governor posted.
“Those responsible will be held fully accountable. Violence has no place in our public life.
“Americans of every political persuasion must unite in condemning this act. Our prayers are with Charlie, his family, and all those affected.”
‘DISGUSTING’ ATTACK
Politicians and fellow political activists were quick to condemn the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom posted on X.
“In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”
Trump also begged for prayers as Kirk fought for his life.
Kirk rose to fame after being an early supporter of Trump’s bid for president in 2012, when he was just 18 years old.
The two came together for presidential rallies and events hosted by Kirk’s organization.
In January, the day before he was sworn into office, Trump spoke about Kirk, who was in attendance at an event.
Recent protests in Nepal, driven by Gen-Z, erupted in response to the government’s ban on 26 social media apps and widespread corruption. Initially peaceful, the movement escalated into violence, resulting in tragic deaths and destruction of public property, including government buildings.
Protesters celebrate at the parliament building after it was set on fire during a protest against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo : AP
Nepal in the past few days witnessed events unfolding at turbulent speeds that have shocked the world and its own people. In what is being termed a Gen-Z protest, the world saw a surge of thousands and lakhs of young people angry over the government’s decision to ban as many as 26 social media apps, including global platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and X.
The youth’s agitation was not just against the government’s ban on social media apps, but also against corruption, as citizens had been witnessing how politicians and their families were living luxurious lives while common people struggled. Many reports say the government banned social media because a youth-driven movement was in the making to expose the lavish lifestyles of politicians and their children.
Social media posts—before the ban—were exposing the ultra-luxurious lives of netas and their families like studying in foreign universities, vacationing in global destinations, rich, powerful, and full of privileges, at the expense of taxpayers who were struggling for basic needs.
The agitation turned violent when several protesters were allegedly killed by the security forces in an attempt to thwart and control them. What followed after this was an unprecedented mess as agitators, in a fit of rage, set fire to their own Parliament, the President’s House, the Prime Minister’s residence, and other ministers’ homes—forgetting that all of this was funded by taxpayers and that they were burning down their own infrastructure.
Disturbing scenes emerged on Tuesday evening when the violent mob lost full control and went full throttle against politicians. Their houses were targeted, and families were seen running for lives.
The angry mob chased them, thrashed them, brutally beat them, and even attempted attacks with the intent to kill. One particularly horrifying event unfolded on August 9, when the wife of a former Prime Minister was reportedly burned alive. While some reports suggested that she succumbed to injuries, many claimed she’s alive, undergoing treatment and recovering.
While this was one case that was seen and recorded on camera, it’s enough to hint to the world what was happening on the ground.
While the youth may have started their agitation with pure intentions—to punish a corrupt government—the scenes also show that even the protesters crossed many red lines. Yet, they are still being praised instead of being held accountable for the destruction they caused, which affected many businesses with no connection to politics.
How It All Began
The sentiment didn’t take long to spread like a wildfire, and soon it turned into a full-scale revolutionary movement that the government in power failed to anticipate.
What began as a peaceful protest quickly became a nightmare for the ruling dispensation under the leadership of now-resigned Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
The protest began with demands to restore social media sites, which had been banned following a Supreme Court order that the government enforced. The youth also demanded action against corrupt politicians and a complete overhaul of the government.
As seen in protests worldwide, the empowered youth locked horns with the administration, which resorted to traditional means of force—water cannons, baton charges, and tear gas—to disperse and control the crowd.
But the agitators, young and determined, refused to tolerate the mess any longer. When they advanced their protest toward VVIP areas like the Parliament, President’s House, Prime Minister’s residence, and other ministers’ homes, the situation turned violent.
At least 19 people were killed in crossfire, while many accuse the administration of instigating. This became the tipping point, after which the youth lost control and turned into a violent mob.
Nepal’s Gen-Z protest was fully justified in its basic demands: Like action against corrupt leadership and the restoration of social media as a tool for freedom of expression.
During the week-long movement, the agitators succeeded in forcing the government to wave the white flag first and accept all their demands—including restoring social media and the resignation of key ministers, including Finance, Home, and even the Prime Minister. The resignation of the Prime Minister meant the collapse of the government—the ultimate goal of the agitators.
So, they should have stopped right there. But what followed was shocking and disturbing.
Crossing the Red Line
Once the youth realised they had the edge, they turned more violent—and that’s when they crossed the red lines.
Protesters misused their advantage by setting fire to public property, including the PM and President’s residences and even the Parliament. They ransacked public buildings, private offices, media houses, and looted valuables.
Some posts on social media also showed how demonstrators were so agitated and rampant in creating chaos, damaging public and private property that was hurting their own citizens. One video on X showed a woman along with a child pleading protesters not to vandalise the place but the ‘wild GenZ agitators’ didn’t spare them.
This is the BIGGEST FAFO video from the Nepal GenZ Protests!
A young female protester tries to protect a building. She is crying and weeping.
These acts do not justify the praise Gen-Z has been receiving from many voices across the world who say, “Hey look, look at Gen-Z, they won’t tolerate this… they will bring change, they want accountability, they want instant results, they are impatient and they take no nonsense.”
Well, sorry—when you misuse your advantage and commit mistakes against the very acts you were protesting against, you’re no saint but an equal offender of the law.
Attacking and chasing politicians with murderous intent, setting their houses on fire, and burning family members of a former head of state, setting on fire your own infrastructure like a 5-star hotel, puts the protesters under the same scrutiny they were demanding—and this cannot be swept under the carpet of praise.
This sends absolutely wrong signals to other nations and youth. In fact, some in India have already started laying the early foundations, just as they did when similar scenes were witnessed in Bangladesh, when a student-led movement toppled the government last year.
In less than 48 hours, Gen-Z protesters in Nepal:
Burned down multiple politicians’ houses
Continued protests despite curfews and firing across multiple cities
Forced the Prime Minister to resign
Entered Parliament and set it ablaze
The Ripple Effect
Many in India are now portraying and instigating youth to take cues from Nepal’s “Gen-Z revolution,” indirectly tempting them to raise similar anarchic ideologies to destabilise the nation. These are not the right signals.
The misdeeds committed by Gen-Z in Nepal during the ongoing protests must be called out as vocally as their praise for leading a nation toward change.
Their acts are well documented. Many young people don’t view with a long term planning and are easily manipulated into movements that could put them—and their nation—in danger.
We’ve seen this in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. These movements, if not executed, paused, and ended at the right moment, often come back to haunt the very people who planned them.
A Bigger Game?
Another point to note is that these movements are rarely spontaneous. According to geopolitical experts and political analysts, such events are often planned well in advance and are part of regime change operations. These events typically occur when economically weak nations refuse to bow down before superpowers.
There is hardly any doubt that the recent events in Nepal are a product of foreign funding.
Let’s not forget that India too has been targeted by regime change operations—movements that could have affected its economic progress. Deep-state actors like George Soros have been called out for sponsoring protests and public movements to create anarchic agitations. The goal? To turn people into rebels, erode trust in government, and ultimately collapse the nation to a point where it can no longer resist foreign influence.
The jet engines will be developed in India under Indian IPR with Safran transferring 100% of the technology to DRDO, including crystal blade technology.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also indicated that India will soon embark on the critical task of developing engines for fighter jets.(Sourced )
India may soon approve a joint project by French firm Safran S.A and India’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a lab under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop and produce 120 Kilo Newton engine which will power India’s twin engine Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) fighter, a move that comes shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for indigenous development of jet engines from the ramparts of Red Fort during his Independence Day speech, people familiar with the matter said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also indicated that India will soon embark on the critical task of developing engines for fighter jets. HT learns that Safran-GTRE will develop nine prototypes of fighter engines within a time frame of 12 years. The engines will initially developed with 120 KN power but go up in capacity to 140 KN by the end of the 12 year time period.
The jet engines will be developed in India under Indian IPR with Safran transferring 100% of the technology to DRDO, including crystal blade technology, the people cited above added. These are blades in the engine that are usually constructed from a single crystal using super-alloys, and which are efficient, long-lasting, and also cope better with higher heat and stress. DRDO has the technology, but shaping it for high-powered jet fighter engines presents a different level of challenge.
The idea of both Safran and DRDO combining to develop a jet engine has been hanging fire for the past two years but now the Modi government has pushed DRDO to come up with a proposal which will soon be given green light at the apex level.
This 120-140 KN engine will power the twin engine advanced multi-role aircraft (AMCA), which will be developed and produced by Indian private sector with the Tata group, L &T and Adani Defence all ready to pitch in for the national effort.
PM Modi pushed for an indigenous aircraft engine because this is an apex defence technology with significant civilian spin-offs.
While US, Russia, UK and France have the capacity to design, develop and produce own aircraft engines, even China still does not have its own aircraft engines and uses Russian or reverse engineered engines to power its front-line fighters. India’s GTRE tried to develop indigenous engine Kaveri but the project never took off.
While US defence major GE is supplying India with 212 F-404 engines (a deal for the second tranche of 113 engines is to be signed this month), it is also transferring technology of the heavier GE-414 engine but the technology transfer is only around 70 %.
India is looking at its trusted partner France to co-develop the engine as the US offer is often conditional and prone to strategic disruptions as in the past, the people said. They pointed out that France that did not sanction India for the Pokhran Shakti series of tests in 1998 and continued to provide state of the art INGPS systems for Indian missiles as well as spare parts for Mirage 2000 fighters.
With 73 KN M-88 Snecma engine powering the 36 Indian Rafale fighters, it is only logical that India also looks at Dassault for making 114 additional fighters in India for the multi-role combat program. The design, development and co-production of 110 KN engine will change the complexion of strategic game for India as the Indian Air Force will not be dependent on any third country to provide engine and fighters for power projection, the people said.
The incident took place at their home in Dallu area in the state capital Kathmandu.
Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, wife of Nepal’s ex-prime minister Jhalanath Khanal
Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, the wife of Nepal’s ex-prime minister Jhalanath Khanal, died on Tuesday, say media reports, after protesters, led by Gen Z, trapped her in their home and set the house on fire.
The incident took place at their home in Dallu area in the state capital Kathmandu.
Ms Chitrakar was rushed to Kirtipur Burn Hospital but died during the treatment, say family sources.
Nepal’s prime minister KP Sharma Oli, whose own house was set on fire, resigned Tuesday as protests against a short-lived ban on social media grew increasingly violent and expanded into broader criticism of his government and accusations of corruption among the Himalayan country’s political elite.
Mr Oli’s finance minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, 65, was chased through the streets of the capital, showed a disturbing video. The minister, showed the video, was kicked and thrashed brutally.
Demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the country’s capital a day earlier, and police opened fired on the crowds, killing 19 people.
The ban was lifted Monday night, but the protests continued, with demonstrators setting fire to the homes of some of Nepal’s top leaders and the parliament building. The airport in the capital of Katmandu was shut, and army helicopters ferried some ministers to safe places.
As the protests intensified, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli said he was stepping down immediately.
The demonstrations – called the protest of Gen Z – began after the government blocked platforms, including Facebook, X and YouTube, saying the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.
But even after the sites came back online, the rallies continued, fueled by anger over the deaths of protesters at the hands of police and against alleged corruption by the government.
In particular, many young people are angry that the children of political leaders – so-called Nepo Kids – seem to enjoy luxurious lifestyles and numerous advantages while most youth struggle to find work.
While 754 votes were cast, 15 were found to be invalid. Of the valid votes, CP Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes, Justice Sudershan Reddy got 300, said Returning Officer for the election PV Modi.
Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan, the NDA candidate for the post of the Vice President, will succeed Jagdeep Dhankhar in the post. The 68-year-old sailed through the election today, scooping up 452 first preference votes, leaving Opposition candidate and retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy trailing with 300 first preference votes.
While 754 votes were cast, 15 were found to be invalid. Of the valid votes, Mr Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes, Justice Reddy got 300, said Returning Officer for the election PV Mody.
The 150-vote margin, however, is one of the lowest in the Vice-Presidential polls. In 2022, Jagdeep Dhankhar had beaten Opposition candidate Margaret Alva with the highest margin in the six last Vice Presidential elections. He secured 528 votes to her tally of 182.
Cross Voting
The voting figures also made it clear that there has been considerable cross-voting – presumably from Opposition MPs. At least 15 MPs are expected to have voted for the NDA candidate.
Though the Congress has claimed that the 315 Opposition MPs had held together, jubilant NDA is claiming this as another example of the deep fissures in the Opposition ranks ahead of a series of state elections.
The NDA had 427 votes, and YSR Congress, which was supporting it, had 11 MPs. So the NDA votes should have been capped at 438 but Mr Radhakrishnan got 452 votes — 14 more votes.
The cancellation of 15 votes also raises questions about the Opposition votes. While the Congress claimed that had 315 votes but the Opposition candidate Mr Reddy got only 300 votes.
The BJP’s Nishikant Dubey was among the first to respond, asking in a post in X “which 15 people ran away and voted for us”.
“Even the leaders along with the public have run away from you… By the way, @RahulGandhi ji the Vice President’s election was indeed held using ballot paper, not E (electronic),” he added.
Who Is CP Radhakrishnan
While the cross-voting could be a matter of internal investigation, this was a possibility the BJP appeared to have counted on when they decided to field the Tamil Nadu leader.
A veteran BJP leader, Mr Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore twice and previously served as the BJP’s state chief. He has served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024 and held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
The 68-year-old also has links with the BJP’s ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, and the BJP’s predecessor Jan Sangh from a young age.
One of the party’s tallest leaders in Tamil Nadu, Mr Radhakrishnan was chosen with an eye on the BJP’s expansion plans in the South – an area where, barring Karnataka, the party has been unable to find a foothold. His selection was expected to create a rift in the Opposition ranks ahead of the state elections in Tamil Nadu.
A genial and affable person. he is seen to believe more in cooperation and has friends across party lines. After the exit of Jagdeep Dhankhar, known for his face-offs with the Opposition, Mr Radhakrishnan was picked as a signal that Rajya Sabha needs balance, not aggression.
“I am pleased to announce that India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the US and India will resume negotiations to address “trade barriers” between the two countries.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!”
The announcement comes weeks after the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including an additional 25 per cent penalty on purchases of Russian oil.
Earlier this week, President Trump, while making an announcement in the White House, called the India-US ties a “very special relationship” and affirmed that he and PM Modi would always be friends, asserting that there is “nothing to worry about”.
However, he expressed displeasure over what “he (PM Modi) is doing” in contemporary times.
When asked by ANI, “Are you ready to reset relations with India at this point?”, US President Trump said, “I always will. I’ll always be friends with (PM) Modi. He’s a great Prime Minister. I’ll always be friends, but I just don’t like what he is doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a very special relationship. There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion.”
The US President also responded to his post on Truth Social, where he called out losing ‘India and Russia to China’, saying that he does not think that has happened.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday also responded warmly to Trump’s affirmation of the India-US ties, saying he “deeply appreciates and fully reciprocates” the US President’s sentiments and positive assessment of the bilateral relations.
As per sources, Lekhak submitted his resignation to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli during the emergency cabinet meeting held at the official residence this evening.
Ramesh Lekhak |
Nepal Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak on Monday evening stepped down from the post following deadly violence in two decades, which has so far claimed 19 lives.
As per sources, Lekhak submitted his resignation to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli during the emergency cabinet meeting held at the official residence this evening.
“The Home Minister had made it clear in the Nepali Congress meeting that he will be stepping down from the post on moral grounds. He tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister during the cabinet meeting this evening,” a source confirmed ANI.
The resignation of the Home Minister comes after the bloodiest day in two decades, which claimed the lives of at least 19 people across Nepal in protests against corruption and the social media ban.
#WATCH | Nepal: People in Kathmandu stage a massive protest against the government over alleged corruption and the recent ban on social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others.
The nation-wide protest resulted in 17 deaths in Kathmandu alone, with two deaths in Itahari City of Sunsari district. Curfew has been imposed in various locations of Kathmandu along with other districts where the protests were violent.
The Rupandehi District Administration Office, about 270 kilometres from Kathmandu, has imposed curfew in Butwal and Bhairahawa from 4 pm to 10 pm on Monday following similar protests in Kathmandu.
Chief District Officer Tokraj Pandey said the curfew has been enforced within designated zones, prohibiting any gatherings, rallies, protests, meetings, or sit-ins.
In Butwal, the curfew covers the area from Dhago Karkhana Bridge in the east to Belbas Chowk in the west, from Chidiyakhola in the north to Mangalpur in the south.
In Bhairahawa, it extends from Rohinikhola Bridge in the east to Bethari Bridge in the west, from Buddha Chowk in the north to Meudihawa in the south.
A resurfaced 2003 birthday letter allegedly signed by President Donald Trump for Jeffrey Epstein has sparked controversy. The provocative note, released by the House Oversight Committee, includes Trump’s signature, which critics claim matches verified samples. Trump denies authenticity, calling it fake, while the Wall Street Journal stands by its reporting.
Trump Photo : AP
A resurfaced birthday letter allegedly signed by President Donald Trump for disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday has reignited controversy following its public release by the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The letter features provocative imagery and a dialogue-style message between “Donald” and “Jeffrey,” with Trump’s name appearing where pubic hair would be in an outline of a naked woman.
The letter, reportedly part of a birthday book gifted to Epstein in 2003, was recently handed over by Epstein’s estate in response to a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee. The document includes messages from other high-profile individuals like former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz.
🚨🚨HERE IT IS: We got Trump’s birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn’t exist.
Trump talks about a “wonderful secret” the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files! pic.twitter.com/k2Mq8Hu3LY
Trump has long denied the letter’s authenticity, calling it “fake” and “nonexistent” in a defamation lawsuit filed against the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, and others at News Corp. The lawsuit followed the WSJ’s reporting last summer. A spokesperson for Dow Jones, the Journal’s parent company, stated at the time: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
Trump Camp Denounces Letter
The letter, now published by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, contains stylized dialogue between “Donald” and “Jeffrey,” ending with the line, “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be a wonderful secret.”
Despite this, Trump’s team has doubled down on denials. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the release part of a “Democrat hoax,” claiming that the image actually disproves the WSJ story. “It’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter), without offering evidence.
Is Trump’s Signature Real?
Social media users have drawn attention to the striking similarities between the “Donald” signature on Epstein’s birthday letter and Trump’s verified signatures from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Viral side-by-side comparisons show a consistent handwriting style, with many users citing Trump’s 1995 letter to Lillian Jane Volk and a 1999 letter to Larry King as compelling evidence that the signature on Epstein’s card is authentic.
Norway’s Minority Labour Party government won a second term in power on Monday while the populist right achieved its best-ever election result, official results showed, in a ballot dominated by concerns over rising living costs and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Incumbent Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere’s Labour and four smaller, left-leaning parties won 87 seats, above the 85 needed for a majority, with 99% of ballots counted.
Stoere, 65, will remain heavily reliant on his smaller allies, however, to pass major legislation such as fiscal budgets. To get their backing, he will likely face tough discussions over issues such as tax hikes for the wealthy, future oil exploration, and divestments by Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund from Israeli companies.
“Stoere will continue as prime minister, but with a much more difficult parliamentary situation, in which he is dependent on five parties to govern,” Jonas Stein, an associate professor in political science at the University of Tromsoe, told Reuters.
Despite the left’s victory, Monday’s ballot showed a shift further to the right among conservative voters, with the populist, anti-immigration Progress Party of Sylvi Listhaug, 47, making its best-ever showing in an election.
Progress secured 48 seats in the 169-seat parliament, more than double its allocation from four years ago, as the party’s promise of large tax cuts appeared to have resonated with many voters.
Listhaug, a onetime firebrand who cites Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as her role models, campaigned on what she said was wasteful public spending on areas such as international aid and subsidies to green energy.
“Young people today are much more right-wing than earlier. I think the Progress Party has won a huge part of the youth vote, especially among young men,” said Eirik Loekke, a fellow at Civitas, an Oslo-based liberal think-tank.
None of the right-wing parties that won seats, including former Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s Conservatives, have sought the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump, unlike some of their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere talks to supporters at a Labour Party election event shortly before exit polls were published in Oslo, Norway, September 8, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Little Purchase Licensing Rights
SAFE HANDS
Stoere welcomed the results, playing down any shift to the right. “This is a signal to outside Norway that social democracy can also win despite a right-wing wave,” he told a jubilant crowd of Labour supporters chanting “four more years”.
Voter concerns over the conflict in Ukraine and an aggressive Russia, which shares a border with Norway in the Arctic, have given a boost to the left in recent months after former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, 66, joined Stoere’s cabinet.
Many Norwegians saw the decision as a safeguard in case of a new armed conflict, given Stoltenberg’s decade-long tenure – until October of last year – as head of the western military alliance.
Some 59% of Norwegians believe a new war in Europe is likely within the next decade, up from 55% last year, according to a survey by the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Also looming large in the final weeks of the election was the war in Gaza, with Stoere’s smaller allies calling for Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign fund, the world’s largest and a major source of the country’s wealth, to divest further from Israeli companies.
Since June 30, the fund has divested from more than two dozen Israeli companies, following media reports that it had built a stake in a jet engine company that provides maintenance for Israeli fighter jets.
By beating Jannik Sinner in four sets, Carlos Alcaraz once again becomes the world’s number one tennis player. The US Open final was delayed due to tightened security measures owing to the presence of Donald Trump.
Carlos Alcaraz now has six majors to his name Image: Mike Segar/REUTERS
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz sealed his second US Open title after a four-set win over Italy’s Jannik Sinner in New York.
Alcaraz broke the Sinner serve in the first game of the match, as he raced away with the first set 6-2 in a little over half an hour.
But Sinner wasn’t going to take defeat lying down, and fought back to take the second set 6-3.
Much like the first set, the third part of the match saw Alcaraz dominate, with his serve, almost impreganable over the last two weeks, again firing.
The fourth set proved to be much more cagey, and Sinner had his chances, but erred when the opportunities were presented to him, as Alcaraz broke in the fifth game of what turned out to be the final set.
By beating last year’s US Open champion, Alcaraz usurps the Italian as the world number one tennis player atop the ATP rankings.
How did the crowd react to the presence of Donald Trump?
Sunday’s final had a delayed start, after tightened security due to the attendance of US President Donald Trump meant streams of people were held up entering the Arthur Ashe stadium.
Trump was met with boos by some sections of the crowd.
Sealed with an ace
But the players received a much warmer welcome, particularly during some epic points that defied belief.
And it was ultimately Alcaraz that took the spoils, winning the title with an ace on his third championship point.
Alcaraz’s victory ends Sinner’s 27-match winning run at hard-court Grand Slams.
“I tried my best today. I couldn’t do more,” said Sinner.
The contest between Alcaraz and Sinner marked the first time the same two players had met in three major finals in a row in a calendar year. Alcaraz won an epic final against Sinner in the French Open, saving three championship points en route to a five-set victory. Sinner exacted revenge a few weeks later, in winning the Wimbledon final against the Spaniard in four sets.
“I’m seeing you more than my family,” Alcaraz joked, eliciting a grin from Sinner. “It’s great to share the court, to share the locker rooms, everything.”
In an interview, Zelensky was asked whether he thinks the US sanctions on Russia have backfired, given the recent Modi-Putin bonhomie seen at the SCO Summit.
Zelensky said he thinks idea of putting tariffs on countries that do trade with Russia is ‘right’ (X/narendramodi and AFP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has backed US tariffs on countries like India, even as New Delhi has stepped up its diplomatic efforts to help broker an end to the Ukraine war. “I think the idea to put tariffs on the country…continuing to make deals with Russia is the right idea,” said Zelensky in an interview with ABC News.
Zelensky was asked about his views on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), where he was pictured alongside the leaders of China and Russia. His statement came as the Trump administration prepares to expand sanctions against Russia. Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month failed to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough.
On Sunday, Trump said that he is ready to expand sanctions against Russia. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett also hinted at new sanctions that will be levelled against Moscow, citing India as a particular example. “At the National Economic Council, we are responsible for making sure that sanctions get enforced and that people who are helping Russia with their war against Ukraine…for example, what India has been doing by buying Russian oil…that we’re ready to respond to them economically,” said Hassett after the latest Russian military strikes on Ukraine. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of talk today and tomorrow about the level of sanctions and the timing of sanctions.”
In recent weeks, India has stepped up its advocacy to end the Ukraine war. Modi spoke to Zelensky twice last month over it. Modi said he was glad to speak with Zelenskyy and hear his perspectives on recent developments. “I conveyed India’s consistent position on the need for an early and peaceful resolution of the conflict. India remains committed to making every possible contribution in this regard, as well as to further strengthening bilateral ties with Ukraine,” Modi said on X.
These roles are part of Meta’s larger plan to expand its AI presence in fast-growing markets such as India, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Meta | Image Credit: Wikipedia (Representative)
Meta is reportedly hiring contractors in the United States at rates of up to $55 (around Rs 4,850) per hour to develop Hindi-language AI chatbots designed for Indian users.
These roles are part of Meta’s larger plan to expand its AI presence in fast-growing markets such as India, Indonesia, and Mexico, according to a Business Insider report.
Job listings reviewed by the publication suggest that contractors are being recruited through staffing firms like Crystal Equation and Aquent Talent.
The work mainly focuses on creating characters for chatbots that will operate across Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Applicants are required to be fluent in Hindi, Indonesian, Spanish, or Portuguese, and must have at least six years of experience in storytelling, character development, and familiarity with AI content workflows.
However, there is no official confirmation from Meta on the hiring move. Although, the report found that Crystal Equation has advertised Hindi and Indonesian language positions on behalf of Meta, while Aquent Talent listed Spanish-language roles for what it described as a “top social media company.”
The decision to hire contractors for building localised chatbot characters highlights Meta’s effort to create digital companions that feel culturally relevant for Indian users.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has earlier said that chatbots could “complement real-world friendships” and help people connect more easily with digital companions.
At the same time, Meta’s growing focus on AI chatbots has drawn criticism. Earlier reports suggest that some of Meta’s bots engaged in inappropriate romantic or sexual conversations with minors, gave misleading medical advice, and even produced racist responses.
Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, who has for days targeted New Delhi over its energy purchases from Moscow, alleged that India was buying Russian oil “purely to profit” and to feed the Russian “war machine” in Ukraine.
Elon Musk had earlier called Trump adviser Peter Navarro a “moron” over tariff comments.
US President Donald Trump’s aide Peter Navarro has lashed out at Elon Musk after X flagged his post accusing India of profiteering from Russian oil imports. The White House trade adviser, who has for days targeted New Delhi over its energy purchases from Moscow, alleged that India was buying Russian oil “purely to profit” and to feed the Russian “war machine” in Ukraine.
In a post on X, Navarro declared: “FACTS: India highest tariffs costs US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more. India can’t handle truth/spins.”
Hours later, Musk’s platform intervened with a community note titled “Readers added context they thought people might want to know,” pointing out that India’s Russian oil purchases were for “energy security” and did not violate sanctions.
It also underlined that the United States itself continued to import uranium and minerals from Russia, which it described as hypocritical. “India’s Russian oil purchases are for energy security, not just profit, and don’t violate sanctions. While India has some tariffs, the US has a trade surplus with it in services. The US also continues to import certain commodities from Russia which is hypocritical,” the note read.
Furious at being fact-checked, Navarro then turned his fire on Musk. “Wow. Elon Musk is letting propaganda into people’s posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer. It didn’t buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine. Indian government spin machine moving high tilt. Stop killing Ukrainians. Stop taking American jobs,” he wrote.
“Exchanged views on international and regional issues, including efforts for bringing an early end to the conflict in Ukraine,” Modi posted on X after speaking to Macron.
File photo of PM Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday received a call from French President Emmanuel Macron, who briefed him about the pledge of the 26 nations in Europe to send troops to Ukraine to guarantee the security of the Eastern European nation after the end of its conflict with Russia.
“I just spoke with Prime Minister @NarendraModi. I presented him the outcome of the work we carried out with President Zelensky and our partners of the Coalition of the Willing last Thursday in Paris,” Macron posted on X after speaking to Modi, who had also received a call from the European Union leaders, Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, on September 4.
“Exchanged views on international and regional issues, including efforts for bringing an early end to the conflict in Ukraine,” Modi posted on X after speaking to Macron.
Costa, von der Leyen, and Macron called Modi soon after he had a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tianjin in northern China on September 1. The prime minister, according to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, had emphasised the need to expedite a cessation of the conflict and find a durable peace settlement. “Ways must be found to bring the conflict to a swift end and to secure peace. This is the call of all humanity,” Modi had told Putin.
At least one person was killed and several others injured in an explosion while a cricket match was being played in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, police said.
Representational image Shutterstock
The blast occurred at Kausar Cricket Ground in Khar tehsil of Bajaur district. Bajaur District Police Officer Waqas Rafique confirmed that the blast was carried out through an improvised explosive device, the Dawn newspaper reported.
A man was killed while several others, including children, sustained injuries, police said. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital.
Google has been fined €2.95bn (£2.5bn) by the EU for allegedly abusing its power in the ad tech sector – the technology which determines which adverts should be placed online and where.
The European Commission said on Friday the tech giant had breached competition laws by favouring its own products for displaying online ads, to the detriment of rivals.
It comes amid increased scrutiny by regulators worldwide over the tech giant’s empire in online search and advertising.
Google told the BBC the Commission’s decision was “wrong” and it would appeal.
“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, global head of regulatory affairs at Google.
“There’s nothing anti-competitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”
US President Donald Trump also attacked the decision, saying in a post on social media it was “very unfair” and threatening to launch an investigation over European tech practices that could lead to tariffs.
“As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” he wrote.
“The European Union must stop this practice against American Companies, IMMEDIATELY!”
Trump has repeatedly criticised the bloc’s fines and enforcement actions against US tech firms in recent months, though the US government has brought its own lawsuits over Google’s monopoly of the online ad market.
Earlier this week, the Commission denied reports it had delayed the announcement of Google’s fine amid tensions over trade relations between the EU and the US.
In the Commission’s decision on Friday, the Commission accused Google of “self-preferencing” its own technology above others.
As part of its findings, it said Google had intentionally boosted its own advertising exchange, AdX, over competing exchanges where ads are bought and sold in real-time.
Competitors and publishers faced higher costs and reduced revenues as a result, it said, claiming these may have been passed to consumers in the form of more expensive services.
The regulator has ordered the company to bring such practices to an end, as well as pay the nearly €3bn penalty.
Third time rules broken
The Commission’s fine is one of the largest fines it has handed down to tech companies accused of breaching its competition rules to date.
In 2018 it fined Google €4.34bn (£3.9bn) – accusing the company of using its Android operating system to cement itself as the dominant player in that market.
Teresa Ribera, executive vice president of the Commission, said in a statement on Friday the regulator had factored in previous findings of Google’s anti-competitive conduct when deciding to levy a higher fine.
Former US President Joe Biden recently underwent skin cancer surgery, his spokeswoman said.
Biden had Mohs surgery, she told the BBC’s US partner CBS News, but did not immediately provide further details.
The procedure is used to cut away skin until no evidence of cancer remains.
The 82-year-old had been spotted with a wound on the right side of his head in recent days.
In 2023, Biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed from his chest during a routine health screening.
In May, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
“Cancer touches us all,” Biden wrote on social media at the time. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places.”
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War.” This move revives a name that was abandoned over seven decades ago.
The US Department of Defense was called the War Department until 1947Image: Alex Brandon/AP Photo/picture alliance
United States President Donald Trump signed on Friday an executive order renaming the Department of Defense as the “Department of War,” the White House said.
The order authorized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Defense Department to use “secondary titles” such as “Secretary of War” and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence and public communications.
The US president cannot change the name without legislation. Renaming of departments needs congressional assent.
According to a document published earlier by the White House, the US president’s order instructs Hegseth to recommend legislative and executive actions to “permanently rename” the department.
On Friday, the Pentagon posted the text “WE ARE THE WAR DEPARTMENT” on the social media platform X.
Why does Trump want to rename the Department of Defense?
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the change in the name of the Department of Defense — which is the US government’s largest organization — would project a more powerful image, deeming its current title too “defensive.”
The renaming “conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve,” the White House document said.
The Republican president has sought to put his stamp on a range of places and institutions by changing their names.
The US Department of Defense was called the War Department until 1947, when Congress consolidated the Army, Navy and Air Force after World War Two.
Nepal’s government said it would block access to several social media platforms which had so far failed to register with authorities as part of a crackdown on misuse. The law has been met with some protests and dissent.
An estimated 90% of Nepal’s 30 million population is online, this February 2025 protest against the Social Media Bill was organized by students Image: Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto/picture alliance
Nepal said on Thursday that it would ask its telecommunications agency to block access to several social media platforms including Facebook, Youtube, X and LinkedIn, after a deadline for them to register with authorities had passed the previous day.
Companies had been given until Wednesday to register with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and to name a local contact, grievance handler and person responsible for self-regulation.
It’s part of a social media crackdown on what the government describes as users with fake IDs spreading hate and rumors, committing cyber crime, and disturbing social harmony.
A government notice issued on Thursday instructed the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) regulator to obstruct access to unregistered social media platforms but gave no details of which companies would be affected.
Prominent Nepalese social media accounts like Everest Today issued warnings of disruptions to service, while some users noticed that, at least for the moment, they could still access sites set to face deactivation.
Which major sites face deactivation, and which do not?
Communications ministry officials told both the French AFP and Reuters news agencies that only five sites had registered in time; TikTok, Viber, WeTalk, Nimbuzz and Poppo Live. Two others were in the process of meeting the requirements.
Facebook, boasting by far the most members in Nepal of any such site, was among those facing suspension, along with YouTube, X and LinkedIn. In total, 26 platforms were affected.
An estimated 90% of Nepal’s population of almost 30 million use the internet.
“We gave them enough time to register and repeatedly requested them to comply with our request,” Communications and IT Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said of the platforms facing at least temporary shutdown. “But they ignored [the request] and we had to shut [down] their operations in Nepal.”
The ministry’s information officer Rabindra Prasad Poudel said that the companies had been given several notices to comply with a directive that dates back to 2023 originally and survived a Supreme Court Challenge in September 2024. It has faced challenges and protests, including from students in the capital Kathmandu.
DONALD Trump will rename the US Department of Defense to the Department of War in a push for a “warrior ethos” in America.
The President is poised to sign an executive order that would bring back the agency’s former name.
The move would require changes to public-facing websites and signs at the Pentagon Credit: Getty
Both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have previously indicated that they want to see the original name restored.
The commander-in-chief will formally reinstate the Department of War as the agency’s name on Friday, a source told Fox News Digital.
This order would roll it out as a secondary title for the Department of Defense.
It would also see former Fox host Pete Hegseth referred to as the Secretary of War – who will be instructed to propose actions to make the change permanent.
The shift would require changes to public-facing websites and signs at the Pentagon.
Its public affairs briefing room will also be renamed to the “Pentagon War Annex”, a White House official said.
Trump had already hinted a change of branding at the Pentagon might be on the horizon.
“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” he said on August 25.
“Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”
For much of US history, the country’s main defense wing was known as the Department of War.
Under sweeping reforms following World War Two, it became known as the Department of Defense in 1949.
Trump has hinted he plans to force through the change with or without the approval of lawmakers.
“We’re just going to do it,” he said last month.
“I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t think we even need that.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also voiced his approval, suggesting it could mark a cultural shift in the Pentagon.
“We won WWI and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War,” he told Fox & Friends.
“As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.
“We’re reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos.
“We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy.
“We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter.
Known as “Re Giorgio” or King Giorgio, Armani, 91, was known for his modern Italian style and elegance. His funeral chamber will be set up on September 6 and 7 in Milan.
Due to his ill-health, Giorgio Armani, 91, was earlier forced to drop out of his group’s shows at Milan’s Men’s Fashion Week in June. (Photo: Reuters/File)
Giorgio Armani, a stalwart of Milan ready-to-wear who revolutionised fashion with unstructured looks, has died at 91 due to an age-related illness, the company said on Thursday. Armani had been unwell for some time.
“With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani,” the fashion house said in a statement.
Known as “Re Giorgio” or King Giorgio, Armani was known for his modern Italian style and elegance. He combined the flair of the designer with the acumen of a businessman, running a company that turned over some 2.3 billion euros a year.
Armani’s funeral chamber will be set up on September 6 and 7 in Milan, the group said, followed by a private funeral at an unspecified date.
Israel Defense Forces personnel gather near military vehicles and heavy machinery, along the border with Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
The Israeli military moved deeper into Gaza City on Wednesday, with soldiers and tanks pushing into Sheikh Radwan, one of the urban centre’s largest and most crowded neighbourhoods.
In recent weeks, Israeli forces have advanced through Gaza City’s outer suburbs and are now just a few kilometres from the city centre despite international calls to halt the offensive.
Gaza City residents said the military had destroyed homes and tent encampments that had housed Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war. At least 24 Palestinians, some of them children, were killed by the military across Gaza on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City, according to local health officials.
“Sheikh Radwan is being burnt upside-down. The occupation destroyed houses, burnt tents, and drones played audio messages ordering people to leave the area,” said Zakeya Sami, 60, a mother of five, referring to the Israeli military.
“If the takeover of Gaza City isn’t stopped, we might die, and we are not going to forgive anyone who stands and watches without doing anything to prevent our death,” she told Reuters.
The military dropped grenades on three schools in the Sheikh Radwan area that had been used to shelter displaced Palestinians, setting tents ablaze, according to residents, who said the Palestinians fled before the bombing.
The military also detonated armoured vehicles laden with explosives to destroy homes in Sheikh Radwan’s east and bombed a medical clinic, destroying two ambulances, according to witnesses.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday it would continue to operate against “terrorists organizations” in Gaza and to “remove any threat” posed to the State of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to take the city, which he describes as the last stronghold of Hamas, whose October 2023 attack on Israel ignited the war.
Netanyahu insists that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but now only controls parts of the territory, must be defeated if it will not lay down its arms and surrender.
Israel’s military has urged the country’s political leadership to instead reach a ceasefire agreement, warning that the assault would endanger hostages held in Gaza and soldiers carrying out the offensive, Israeli officials previously said.
In Israel, public sentiment is largely in favour of ending the war in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages. In Jerusalem on Wednesday, protesters climbed the roof of Israel’s national library, displaying a banner that read ‘You have abandoned and also killed’.
MASS DISPLACEMENT
“We need our soldiers back home. We need our hostages back home now. It’s been too long for them to stay there. Stop the war now,” said Ravid Vexelbaum, 50, from Tel Aviv.
Tens of thousands of reservists reported for duty on Tuesday to support the offensive, forces that a military official told reporters last month were mostly expected to take on non-combat roles, such as in intelligence, or take over from combat soldiers in places like the West Bank who could then be deployed to Gaza.
The attack on Gaza City threatens to displace one million Palestinians, almost half the population of Gaza. The Israeli military in recent weeks has ordered the civilian population to leave their homes, although there are reports that many families who have already been displaced are refusing.
Over 63,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the war started in October 2023, according to local health officials. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis across the territory, with health officials in Gaza reporting that 367 people, including 131 children, have so far died of malnutrition and starvation caused by acute food shortages.
Israeli officials acknowledge there is hunger in parts of Gaza but reject assertions of famine or starvation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Belgian counterpart a “weak leader” on Wednesday (Sep 3), slamming his decision to recognise Palestine as a state.
“Belgian Prime Minister (Bart) de Wever is a weak leader who seeks to appease Islamic terrorism by sacrificing Israel. He wants to feed the terrorist crocodile before it devours Belgium,” Netanyahu’s office said in a post on its official X account.
Belgium on Tuesday became the latest Western country to say it will recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly this month, following similar announcements by Australia, Canada and France.
In a post on X, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said that the decision came “in view of the humanitarian tragedy” unfolding in Gaza, adding that “firm sanctions are being imposed against the Israeli government”.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Wednesday for the annexation of swathes of the occupied West Bank following the international moves to recognise a Palestinian state.
Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its nearly two-year campaign in Gaza, Israel has recently been stepping up operations as it lays the groundwork for seizing Gaza City, where the UN has declared a famine.
The Council cleared a two-tier tax structure with rates of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, along with a new 40 per cent slab for sin and luxury goods. The decision will come into effect from September 22, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced.
The 56th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, approved the rationalisation of GST rates, abolishing the 12 per cent and 28 per cent slabs. The new slab structure will come into effect from September 22, the first day of Navaratri.
The Council cleared a two-tier tax structure with rates of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, along with a new 40 per cent slab for sin and luxury goods. However, tobacco products and cigarettes will continue to attract 28 pc GST, plus compensation cess, till loans are repaid.
“These reforms have been carried out with a focus on the common man. Every tax on the common man’s daily use items has gone through a rigorous review and in most cases the rates have come down drastically. Labour-intensive industries have been given good support. Farmers and the agriculture sector, as well as the health sector, will benefit. Key drivers of the economy will be given prominence,” Sitharaman said after the GST Council meeting.
As part of the restructuring, 175 broad items of mass consumption, including milk, paneer, snacks and bread, will become cheaper. Goods such as hair oil, toilet soaps, shampoos, toothbrushes, tableware, and kitchenware will now fall under the 5 per cent bracket.
Items like UHT milk, paneer, chenna and all kinds of Indian breads, will move from 5 per cent to nil. Spectacles will now be taxed at 5 per cent.
Around 99 per cent of items currently taxed at 12 per cent will now fall under 5 per cent, including natural menthol, fertilisers, handicrafts, and several labour-intensive sectors such as marble and granite blocks. Additionally, 33 life-saving drugs and medicines will move from 12 per cent to nil.
Nearly 90 per cent of goods currently taxed at 28 per cent will shift to 18 per cent. This includes air-conditioning machines, televisions above 32 inches – with all TVs now under 18 per cent – dishwashing machines, cement, and small cars and motorcycles below 300 cc.
Automobiles such as small cars up to 350 cc, buses, trucks, ambulances and auto parts will also move to the 18 per cent slab. Dishwashing machines and bikes will remain in the 18 per cent category.
The inverted duty structure has also been corrected, with man-made fibre moving from 18 per cent to 5 per cent and man-made yarn from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.
The Council also approved a new 40 per cent GST rate for sin and super luxury goods. The higher slab will apply to items such as paan masala, tobacco, cigarettes, bidis, aerated water, carbonated and caffeinated beverages, as well as luxury items like motorcycles exceeding 350 cc, yachts and helicopters.
Importantly, GST will now be levied on the retail sale price (RSP) of paan masala and tobacco instead of the wholesale value.
“All TVs will now be taxed at 18 per cent, and life-saving cancer drugs will be taxed at nil,” Sitharaman added, noting that the reforms were designed to give relief to the middle class and provide a fillip to growth sectors of the economy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the move, recalling his Independence Day assurance of next-generation reforms in GST.
River Yamuna has risen to a critical level of 208.36 metres, coming within 0.30 metres of its record flood mark of 208.66 metres, last recorded in 13 July, 2023. Continuous rainfall has also led to a sharp drop in temperatures across the region.
The swollen Yamuna river after it crossed the danger mark, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (PTI Photo)
River Yamuna swelled to a critical level of 206.36 metres, just 2.30 metres shy of its all-time high of 208.66 metres recorded on July 13, 2023. The rapid rise in water level has been driven by heavy inflows from upstream barrages, with 1.76 lakh cusecs released from Hathnikund, 93,260 cusecs from Wazirabad and 1.15 lakh cusecs from Okhla.
Officials have closed the Old Railway Bridge (ORB) and enforced emergency measures in low-lying areas. Authorities have also imposed restrictions on public movement, including a ban on idol immersions, as evacuation efforts continue amid fears of further flooding.
Meanwhile, Delhi and its neighbouring states are grappling with relentless rainfall that has brought daily life to a near standstill. Contineous heavy rain triggered widespread waterlogging and severe traffic congestion in several key places in Delhi-NCR. As a direct consequence of the persistent rain, weather observations reveal a sharp drop in temperatures, with daytime highs falling by an average of 5 degrees Celsius and some areas experiencing declines of up to 6-7 degrees in both maximum and minimum temperatures.
The Noida-Greater Noida Expressway was choked with traffic for hours, as severe waterlogging brought vehicles to a standstill. Despite efforts by traffic police to ease the chaos, long snarls persisted, exposing the region’s inadequate drainage infrastructure.
A section of a road in Delhi’s Janakpuri area collapsed on Tuesday evening due to heavy rainfall and resulting waterlogging, causing significant traffic disruption. Initially a small hole, the damage rapidly expanded to about 10 feet wide.
Gurugram’s woes deepen as waterlogging chokes roads and neighborhoods. The collapse of the Aravali dam near Kadarpur village unleashed torrents that flooded villages and threatened structural damage to homes. Despite efforts by the Municipal Corporation and district authorities deploying pumps and teams to clear waterlogged areas, the challenge remains immense.
On Monday, traffic in Gurugram was left crippled with multiple videos on social media showcasing extensive traffic jams across several areas. Many individuals reported being stuck in traffic until midnight.
Ghaziabad is witnessing its share of troubles, with the Delhi-Meerut Highway under water, slowing traffic and disrupting travel. Noida’s Sector 128 is also flooded, displacing farmers as Yamuna’s floodwaters engulf rose farms and huts.
In Sonipat, relentless rain have submerged National Highway 44, with key intersections under several feet of water. The Shani Mandir railway underpass has transformed into a pool, while both urban and rural pockets, including high-value agricultural land, face devastating floods.
RAIN BATTERS NORTH INDIA
Other Northern states also continue to suffer under relentless rain that have triggered a series of cloudbursts and floods over the past weeks. Swollen rivers have flooded vast plains, disrupted rail and road networks and forced schools to close in several regions. With no end to the rain in sight, authorities have suspended pilgrimages to several Himalayan shrines as a precaution against further disasters.
DEADLY FLOODS IN PUNJAB
Beyond the capital, the situation is equally dire. Punjab is battling one of its worst flood crises since 1988, with 30 confirmed deaths and over 3.5 lakh people affected across 23 districts, according to the state government. More than 1,400 villages have been inundated as the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, and several seasonal rivers continue to flow above danger levels following heavy rainfall in the upstream regions.
In Jalandhar, waterlogging has left areas like Jalandhar Heights submerged under 5 to 6 feet of water, severely impacting markets and residential zones as drainage systems fail to cope. In Kapurthala, rising water levels in the Kali Bein River have prompted authorities to open 12 floodgates at the Kanjli Wetland, with surrounding villages placed on high alert.
RED ALERT ISSUED FOR HIMACHAL
Himachal Pradesh remains on high alert as relentless torrential rain trigger landslides, flash floods and widespread road closures across the hill state. The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall in select areas and an orange alert for the next 48 hours. Key districts like Chamba, Kangra, Kullu and Mandi face intense rainfall, while others including Shimla and Lahaul & Spiti are under close watch.
Over 1,300 roads, including six national highways, are blocked, severely disrupting daily life. Mandi is among the worst affected, with more than 280 roads closed. The Chandigarh-Manali Highway and Shimla-Kalka Highway remain shut due to landslides, while Shimla has recorded its highest rainfall in 70 years, accompanied by early snowfall in higher altitudes. Flooding has also isolated villages along the Manali-Leh route, compounding the state’s challenges.
UTTARAKHAND ON HIGH ALERT
Uttarakhand is facing heavy rain with seven districts under orange alert and others on yellow. Key rivers like Alaknanda, Yamuna, Bhagirathi, and Ganga are nearing danger levels, prompting evacuations and road closures, including the Kedarnath highway. Snowfall in high-altitude Yamunotri has lowered temperatures.
Flooding has submerged roads and towns in Udham Singh Nagar, while Nainital’s lake is close to overflowing. The Chief Minister visited affected areas in Haridwar to oversee relief efforts. Rainfall is expected to ease slightly after September 3, but the situation remains critical.
MORE RAIN IN STORE FOR RAJASTHAN
Rajasthan is preparing for heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next five days due to a low-pressure system moving from the Bay of Bengal. Key areas like Bharatpur, Jaipur, Kota, and Shekhawati are already experiencing rain, with intensified showers expected in eastern and southeastern regions from September 3 to 5.
Recent heavy rain have caused severe flooding, especially in Dausa, Alwar, Jaipur outskirts, and Dholpur, submerging villages, damaging farmlands, and disrupting daily life.
HEAVY RAIN IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR
A spell of heavy to very heavy rainfall is forecast over the next 14-16 hours across Jammu, Kathua, Reasi, Doda, Udhampur, Rajouri and Ramban. Moderate to heavy rain with brief intense showers is also expected in many parts of the Pir Panjal range and South Kashmir, including heavy rainfall in Kishtwar, Poonch, Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam.
The explosion hit as crowds left a rally marking Baloch leader Ataullah Mengal’s death anniversary. His son, politician Akhtar Mengal, escaped the attack safely.
Upon investigation, Pakistani Police declared it as a suicide bombing attack. (File Photo)
A suicide bomber struck a political rally in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring several others.
According to AFP, at least 18 people were wounded in the explosion, which took place in the parking lot of a stadium in the provincial capital, Quetta where hundreds of members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) had gathered, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Government official Hamza Shafaat said the rally was held to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Sardar Ataullah Mengal, a nationalist leader and former provincial chief minister.
Shafaat’s son Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who was in attendance, is safe, Shafaat said, adding that another 30 people were injured.
“The reports we have say that the bomb went off in a parking area as the people were leaving the rally,” he said.
Police were investigating the blast, which appeared to be a suicide bombing, police official Athar Rasheed said.
SIMILAR ATTACK BY A SUICIDE BOMBER IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN
A similar instance of attack by a suicide bomber killed twelve people, including six security personnel and six terrorists in a coordinated attack on a paramilitary base in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities confirmed.
The US President also claimed that unfair tariff structures were pushing companies to set up production outside America. However, he argued that his administration’s trade policies, including the imposition of steep reciprocal tariffs, were beginning to reverse the trend.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharpened his attack on India’s trade policies, accusing New Delhi of imposing some of the steepest tariffs in the world and calling the long-standing economic relationship between the two countries “one-sided.”
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said, “We get along with India very well, but for many years, it was a one-sided relationship. Only now, since I came along and because of the power that we have with us, India was charging us tremendous tariffs, about the highest in the world, and we therefore weren’t doing much business with India, but they were doing business with us because we weren’t charging them foolishly. We weren’t charging them.”
The US president claimed that India’s trade practices had cost American manufacturers heavily.
“So they would send in massive, you know, everything they made, they’d send it in, it poured into our country. Therefore, it wouldn’t be made here, you know, which is a negative. But we would not send in anything because they were charging us 100 percent tariffs,” Trump said.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON HIT BY INDIA’S DUTIES
Citing an example, Trump pointed to the struggles of Harley-Davidson, one of America’s most recognised motorcycle brands, in selling its products in India.
“Harley-Davidson couldn’t sell into India. There was a 200 percent tariff on a motorcycle. So what happens? Harley-Davidson went to India and built a motorcycle plant. And now they don’t have to pay tariffs. Same thing as us,” Trump remarked.
The president also claimed that unfair tariff structures were pushing companies to set up production outside the US. However, he argued that his administration’s trade policies, including the imposition of steep reciprocal tariffs, were beginning to reverse the trend.
COMPANIES TURNING TO THE US
“So what we’re doing is literally thousands of companies are coming into the US, car companies, AI, but, you know, more traditionally, car companies. We have so many car company factories under construction or being designed right now. And they’re coming from China, they’re coming from Mexico, I must tell you, and they’re coming from Canada. But they’re coming into our country because they want to build here,” Trump said.
According to him, businesses see advantages in relocating operations to the US. “They want to build here for two reasons. Number one, they’d like to be here. And number two, the tariffs are protecting them. And number three, they want to avoid paying tariffs. When they build their cars here, they don’t have any tariffs to pay. You know, when you build here, you don’t have any tariffs,” he added.
INDIA OFFERED TO CUT TARIFFS TO ZERO
Earlier on Monday, Trump also claimed that New Delhi had shown a willingness to ease trade barriers “to nothing.”
“India has now offered to cut its tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late,” he said.
On social media, the president repeated his frustration over India’s choices in trade and defence procurement. He argued that New Delhi continues to rely heavily on Moscow for oil and military hardware. “India sells to us, its biggest client, massive amounts of goods, but we sell them very little — until now a totally one-sided relationship, and it has been for many decades,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s sharp remarks came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin.
In response to pressure from Washington, Prime Minister Modi reiterated that India would prioritise domestic concerns. He said he could not compromise on the interests of farmers, small industries, and cattle-rearers.
A 6.0 quake, the strongest, struck the Jalalabad area at around midnight local time – with tremors felt as far as Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, nearly 200 miles away.
Afghan volunteers and Taliban security personnel carry an injured man to a military helicopter for evacuation Credit: AFP
Towns in the province of Kunar, near Jalalabad and the Pakistani border, were close to the epicentre.
Entire villages are reported to have been destroyed.
Filippo Grandi of the UN told Sky News that the quake has added to the “perfect storm” of problems plaguing Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesperson said that at least 800 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured.
Some 610 of the deaths were reported in the Kunar region, and 12 from the Nangarhar province.
Urgent rescue efforts are underway across several districts – amid fears many locals are trapped beneath rubble.
Officials have said they expect the death toll to rise as they get to more affected areas.
Rescuers are contending with difficult, rocky terrain to reach the injured, many of whom are in isolated areas.
A spokesperson for the Taliban government said the quake has caused “loss of life and property damage in some of our eastern provinces”.
They added: “Local officials and residents are currently engaged in rescue efforts for the affected people.
“Support teams from the centre and nearby provinces are also on their way.”
Many of the buildings in the area are made of mud bricks and wood, making them vulnerable to natural disasters.
Jeremy Smith, British Red Cross Country Manager for Afghanistan said: “The location of this earthquake is very remote and mountainous, which makes rescue efforts particularly challenging.
“There have been repeated aftershocks and more are feared in the coming days.
“Floods and landslides over the weekend have also affected rescue efforts.
“Sadly, people will be displaced for a long period into the winter as homes have been destroyed.”
“The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is delivering vital aid and will continue to do so for as long as people need us.”
The 6.0 magnitude quake struck at 11:47pm, 17 miles northeast of Jalalabad, according to the US Geological Survey,
Its epicentre was 5 miles below ground.
There was a second earthquake in the same province about 20 minutes later, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 6.2 miles.
This was later followed by a 5.2 earthquake at the same depth.
India and the US have commenced the ‘Yudh Abhyas 2025’ military exercise in Alaska, despite ongoing trade tensions, including significant tariffs imposed by President Trump. This 14-day exercise involves tactical training in various domains such as heliborne operations.
The Indian Army contingent is in the US to participate in the 21st edition of the joint military exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas’.
Amid bilateral tensions over 50 per cent tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, India and the US on Monday kicked off one of their largest-ever Army ‘Yudh Abhyas’ exercise in Alaska. Military contingents from the India and the US will engage in a spectrum of tactical drills, including the integrated use of artillery, aviation and electronic warfare systems, as part of a bilateral exercise.
The 14-day ‘India-US Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2025’ will also involve heliborne operations, will be held from September 1-14.
The Indian contingent will train alongside soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment ‘Bobcats’ of the Arctic Wolves Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division of the US, the Indian defence ministry said in a statement.
“Over two weeks, the troops will rehearse a spectrum of tactical drills including heliborne operations, employment of surveillance resources and unmanned aerial systems, rock craft, mountain warfare, casualty evacuation, combat medical aid and the integrated use of artillery, aviation and electronic warfare systems,” it said.
The Indian Army contingent is in the US to participate in the 21st edition of the joint military exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas’.
Subject matter experts from both the armies will conduct working groups on critical domains such as UAS (unmanned aerial system) and counter-UAS operations, information warfare, communications and logistics, it said.
The exercise will culminate in jointly planned and executed tactical manoeuvres, ranging from “live-fire exercises to high-altitude warfare scenarios, with a focus on improving capabilities for United Nations peacekeeping operations and strengthening preparedness for multi-domain challenges,” the ministry said.
India-US ties hit a low after President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on New Delhi over its trade with Russia. But defence officials say the bilateral strategic partnership built over last two decades is in no danger of unravelling as yet.
‘India Offered to Cut its Tariffs to Zero’
In a fresh claim, Trump said that India has offered to cut its import taxes on American goods to “nothing”, adding that th move “was too late”.
Reiterating his claim that India maintains high tariffs, Trump said that the import duties have prevented American businesses from gaining market access in India.
“What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest “client,” but we sell them very little – Until now a totally one sided relationship, and it has been for many decades. The reason is that India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India. It has been a totally one-sided disaster!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
He pointed towards New Delhi’s trade with Moscow, again, in his latest tirade after his administration imposed a massive 50% tariff rate on India.
Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funeral of Idan Shtivi, one of two hostages whose remains were recovered in a military operation last week.
Israel launched strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 31 people as it presses ahead with a major offensive in the territory’s largest city, according to health officials. Leading genocide scholars, meanwhile, accused Israel of genocide, allegations the government vehemently rejects.
Airstrikes and artillery shelling have echoed through Gaza City since Israel declared it a combat zone last week. On the city’s outskirts and in the Jabaliya refugee camp, residents have observed explosive-laden robots demolishing buildings.
“Another merciless night in Gaza City,” said Saeed Abu Elaish, a Jabaliya-born medic sheltering in the northwestern side of the city.
Hospitals in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed by Israeli fire Monday, more than half of them women and children. At least 13 people were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has carried out several previous large-scale raids since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel to ignite the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group — now largely reduced to a guerrilla organization — operates in densely-populated areas.
Double threat of war and starvation
Gaza City residents, many displaced by war multiple times, now face the twin threats of combat and hunger. The world’s leading authority on food crises said last month that it was in the throes of famine — a crisis driven by ongoing fighting and Israel’s blockade, magnified by repeated mass displacement and the collapse of food production.
A total of 63,557 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half the dead.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but hasn’t provided its own toll.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Scholars accuse Israel of genocide
The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel, which was established in the wake of the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews and others were killed, vehemently rejects the allegation. It says it takes every measure to avoid harming civilians and is fighting a war of self-defense after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which Israel says was itself a genocidal act.
A resolution from the International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — said that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The resolution was supported by 86% of those who voted. The organization didn’t release the specifics of the voting.
“People who are experts in the study of genocide can see this situation for what it is,” Melanie O’Brien, the organization’s president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Associated Press.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard.” It said the determination was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies.”
In July, two prominent Israeli rights groups — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel — said that their country is committing genocide in Gaza. The organizations don’t reflect mainstream thinking in Israel, but it marked the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations.
International human rights groups have also leveled the allegation.
Mourners vent anger at hostage
funeral
Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funeral of Idan Shtivi, one of two hostages whose remains were recovered in a military operation last week. A private funeral was held for Ilan Weiss, the other captive.
Some mourners expressed anger at the government for not reaching a deal with Hamas to end the fighting and return the remaining captives.
“It is very, very infuriating that no one, no one from this government stands up and says enough,” said Ami Dagan, a mourner from Rishon Letzion.
“It’s a horror, it’s profound sadness and grief beyond words to describe the anger, the insult to the hostages, the insult to the fallen, the insult to the soldiers sent once again to Gaza,” said Ruti Taro, another mourner. “No one knows why, except for the power-hungry ruler.”
Many Israelis accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes, and mass protests calling for a ceasefire and hostage release have swelled in recent weeks.
Abu Obeida (pictured in 2019) often delivered long diatribes against Israel, always masked by a scarf
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, has been killed in an aerial attack in Gaza City, Israel has said.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz congratulated the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, for the “flawless execution” in a post on X.
Hamas has not confirmed his death. The Palestinian armed group earlier said dozens of civilians were killed and injured in the Israeli air strikes on a residential building in the district.
Local journalists reported that at least seven people had been killed and 20 injured in the strikes on the densely populated al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, with children among the casualties.
Saturday’s attack comes amid ongoing aerial strikes on Gaza City ahead of a planned Israeli offensive.
Katz warned on Sunday that many more of Obeida’s “criminal partners” would be targeted with “the intensification of the campaign in Gaza” – a reference to a recently approved Israeli plan to seize control of Gaza City.
Separately, the IDF and Shin Bet offered more details about Saturday’s strikes that targeted the Hamas spokesman.
They said in a joint statement that the operation had been “made possible due to prior intelligence gathered by [Shin Bet] and the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate” that had identified his hiding place.
Obeida was among the few remaining senior members of Hamas’s military wing from before its deadly 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Five missiles struck the second and third floor of the six-storey apartment in the al-Rimal neighbourhood building simultaneously from two different directions.
The flat that was targeted had been used as a dentist’s surgery. Witnesses reported seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars flying in the air after the strikes, with large sums stolen by locals but later recovered by Hamas.
The joint statement said Obeida “served as the public face of the Hamas terrorist organization” and “disseminated Hamas’ propaganda”.
Over the past few years, Obeida – believed to be about 40 years old – delivered a number of long diatribes against Israel on behalf of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
Always masked in a Palestinian scarf, he became an idol to Hamas supporters throughout the Middle East.
In what may have been his final speech on Friday, Obeida said the fate of remaining Israeli hostages would be the same as that of Hamas fighters, warning Israel against its planned invasion of Gaza City.
Mohammed Emad, who runs a barbershop just 100m (328ft) from the hit building in al-Rimal, told the BBC that “the blasts were terrifying – I couldn’t move for more than an hour”.
He added: “I can’t believe I’m still alive. I saw injured children with blood covering their faces, and people were running in every direction as if the world had ended.”
Footage verified by the BBC of the aftermath of the strikes shows terrified residents fleeing into the streets.
Blood can be seen flowing from a body covered by fabric, while an injured child is carried away by a man.
The IDF said that prior to the attack “many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information”.
BBC News has been unable to independently verify the claims of either the IDF or Hamas.
In early August, Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City in a fresh offensive, with the stated aim of bringing the 22-month-long war to an end.
The UN has repeatedly warned that a complete military takeover would risk “catastrophic consequences” for Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said it would be “a huge mistake”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas and defied international criticism of his plans to expand the war.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza began in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Since then, more than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
While the operation to capture Gaza City has yet to begin in earnest, Israeli attacks on the city – where nearly a million people live – have been ongoing.
Repeating his previous remarks, Peter Navarro once again described New Delhi as “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin”.
Peter Navarro mentioned the ongoing negotiation talks with India and said that China is also an offender.(Reuters)
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro has once again, in a bid to justify US President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, described New Delhi as “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin”, adding that “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”
Navarro made the remarks in reference to India’s purchase of Russian oil and asked why the country was in business with Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping when it itself is the “biggest democracy in the world”.
In recent times, Navarro has been constantly making remarks targeted at India and its purchase of Russian oil as he tries to justify the additional 25 per cent tariff Trump imposed on New Delhi to double its levy over the country’s trade with Russia.
In an interview with Fox News, Navarro was asked about the ongoing negotiations with India and that New Delhi was not the only offender; China is as well. He was asked whether additional tariffs on India were “enough to choke Vladimir Putin”.
Navarro clarified that while India currently has a 50 per cent tariff, there is also a little over 50 per cent levy on China. He said there is also a question of how much higher the US wants to go without actually hurting itself.
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“I want Indians to understand what is going on. Brahmins are profiteering by buying Russian oil at the expense of the Indian people,” says Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro pic.twitter.com/9FVfRR5lks
But Trump’s advisor was quick to circle back on India, saying that before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India did not buy Russian oil, just in very small amounts.
“What happened? Well, the Russian refiners went in and got into bed with big oil India. Putin gives (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi a discount on the crude. They refine it and they ship it to Europe, Africa and Asia at a big premium and they make a ton of money,” Navarro said.
‘Laundromat, Tariffs’ Maharaja, Brahmins profiteering…’
He asked, “Now, what’s wrong with that picture?” and added, “Well, it fuels the Russian war machine. India is nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin. It kills Ukrainians. And what we have to do as taxpayers is we have to send them more money so Ukraine can defend itself.”
The White House trade advisor went on to describe India as the “Maharaja of tariffs”, saying that New Delhi has the highest tariffs in the world.
“They export us a bunch of stuff. They won’t let US sell to them. So, who gets hurt? Workers in America, taxpayers in America, Ukrainians in cities get killed by Russian drones,” he added.
While calling PM Modi a “great leader”, Navarro said he doesn’t understand why “he’s getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping when he’s the biggest democracy in the world”.
So, Navarro said, “I would just say the Indian people, please, understand what’s going on here. The Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop.”
This is not the first time that Navarro has made such remarks against India. Earlier as well, he called India an “oil money laundromat”. He hit out at New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil and referred to the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”, intensifying what started as a trade spat between India and US.
During the SCO Members Session in Tianjin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the global threat of terrorism, urging unity among member nations to combat it.
PM Modi highlighted India’s longstanding struggle with terrorism, referencing the attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday used his address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Members Session in Tianjin, China, to deliver a strong message on terrorism, with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seated in the hall.
Calling terrorism “a challenge to all of humanity,” PM Modi said no country can consider itself safe from the menace. “We have to say clearly and unanimously that no double standards are acceptable on terrorism,” he declared, stressing that SCO nations must act with unity against separatism, extremism and terror financing.
In reference to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Modi said, “India has been bearing the brunt of terrorism for the last four decades. Recently, we saw the worst side of terrorism in Pahalgam. I express my gratitude to the friendly country that stood with us in this hour of grief.”
In a veiled dig at Pakistan, the Prime Minister asked SCO members whether “the open support of terrorism by some countries” could ever be acceptable. “This attack was an open challenge to every country and person who believes in humanity,” he underlined.
PM Modi also outlined India’s vision for the grouping, built on what he described as the three pillars of “S – Security, C – Connectivity, and O – Opportunity.”
‘Terrorism requires a collective resolve’: PM Modi
Reiterating India’s proactive role within the SCO, Modi said New Delhi had taken the initiative in joint information operations against Al Qaeda-linked groups and had consistently raised its voice against terror financing. “Security, peace and stability are the basis of development of any country,” he said, adding that terrorism is a common challenge requiring collective resolve.”
Former US presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she will not run for governor of California.
Following her unsuccessful 2024 presidential bid, reports suggested Harris was weighing entering next year’s election to lead her home state of California, where she had served as a US senator and worked as a prosecutor.
“After deep reflection,” the former vice-president, a Democrat, said in a statement on social media, “I’ve decided that I will not run for Governor in this election.”
“For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office,” she added, saying she would share “more details in the months ahead about my own plans.”
Her decision leaves the door open for her to mount another try for the White House in 2028, while also removing a possible frontrunner from the race to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat understood to have his own presidential ambitions.
In her statement, Harris appeared to address worries within her own party about its direction and future after she lost November’s election to President Donald Trump.
“As we look ahead, we must be willing to pursue change through new methods and fresh thinking—committed to our same values and principles, but not bound by the same playbook,” she posted.
Primaries for California’s next governor are set to take place in June 2026, before the general election in November. Newsom is completing his second and final term and the new governor will take office in 2027.
Democrats dominate the state’s political leadership, and whoever wins the party’s nomination will be expected to then take the governorship. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last Republican to serve as governor, left office in 2011.
This is the last handout of food to the many thousands sheltering from Boko Haram in Gwoza
Drastic cuts to humanitarian aid in north-eastern Nigeria could prove a boon to one of the world’s most deadly militant groups, Boko Haram, aid agencies have warned.
A reduction of funding in recent months has forced the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to ration its support, and now it has completely run out.
“It will be much easier for militants to lure youths to join them and spiral insecurity across the whole region,” Trust Mlambo, head of operations in the area for WFP, told the BBC.
Notorious around the world for kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok more than a decade ago, Boko Haram has taken thousands of people captive during its raids and forced more than a million from their village homes.
Boko Haram was initially a religious Muslim group founded in the early 2000s that was opposed to Western education. It went on to launch military operations in 2009 with the political aim of creating an Islamic state, causing mayhem across the region – including in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
It has been classified as one of the world’s deadliest jihadist groups, and a splinter group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2015.
Aisha Abubakar has lost more than half her family because of attacks on her village in Borno state and illness.
“My husband and six children were killed in the bush,” the 40-year-old told the BBC.
Four of her children survived, including one recently rescued from captivity after being kidnapped by the insurgents.
She fled to Gwoza, a garrison town to the west of the city Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
Gwoza is set at the foot of a stretch of breathtaking rocky hills. But beyond the hills, camped out in dense forested areas lies the danger the town’s tens of thousands of camp residents fear – Boko Haram.
“I could never go back to the village,” said Ms Abubakar. “Life in the village was unbearable, we were always on the run.”
She has been trying to rebuild her life after it was shattered. She has found a new husband at Gwoza’s camp for internally displaced persons and together they have a seven-month-old baby.
Ms Abubakar is among close to 1.4 million displaced people in north-east Nigeria who are fully dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.
She spoke to the BBC after bringing her youngest child to the aid distribution centre at Gwoza. She rocked the baby while waiting for her turn at the registration centre, holding her blue debit card.
The support for the month is credited onto the card and the amount depends on the holder’s family size. Ms Abubukar received $20 (£15) – and with it, she bought a sack of maize and several other food items.
She said she was grateful for the money, but the amount could not sustain her family for a month.
“We don’t have any more to give after this [month’s] cycle,” said Mr Mlambo of the WFP.
“Our warehouses are empty, and we just are desperate for any generous donations.”
The US State Department acknowledged its recent reorganisation of humanitarian assistance programmes had resulted in some cuts, in line with President Donald Trump’s America First policy.
“The United States continues to be the most generous nation in the world, and we urge other nations to increase their humanitarian efforts,” a senior State Department official told the BBC.
It has said previously that the US government’s global support to the WFP – about 80% – has not been affected.
On the ground in Nigeria, the lower support from all donors to the WFP this year has already resulted in a spike in malnutrition rates.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the number of children with the most severe and deadly form of malnutrition more than doubled in the first half of the year.
“Six-hundred-and-fifty-two children have already died in our facilities since the beginning of 2025 due to lack of timely access to care,” the medical charity said.
The true scale of the crisis exceeds all expectations, MSF’s country representative for Nigeria Ahmed Aldikhari said in a statement.
He added that 2024 had “marked a turning point in northern Nigeria’s nutritional crisis”, as major donors including the US, UK and the European Union had scaled down or halted their support altogether.
Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest economies and its most populous nation but has long been beset by rampant corruption.
It has also undergone massive inflation and currency devaluation in recent years and failed to bring under control the insurgency in the north-east of the country.
However, its leadership has lately publicly recognised the malnutrition challenge the government faces.
Two weeks ago, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said malnutrition had deprived “40% of Nigerian children under five their full physical and cognitive potential”, and promised to tackle it.
The statement followed the inauguration, last month, of a nutrition board, which he described as a “war room to battle against malnutrition in every corner of the country”.
But beyond the rallying call, the question is how fast and how far it can act to halt and reverse the staggering levels of undernutrition amid the sweeping and sudden cuts to funding much of the region relied on for years.
More than 150 donor-funded clinics that have been treating malnutrition in the north-east of the country are also facing imminent closure.
Back in Gwoza, a mother of two feels defeated after learning her first child, Amina, is now malnourished despite her best efforts to provide healthy food.
“I feel bad, because every mother wants her baby to be healthy,” 25-year-old Hauwa Badamasi told the BBC.
She said she had been unable to access her family’s farm near her home village for years because of insecurity.
“The aid has stopped and people are killed on the farm. What are we going to do with our lives?” she asked as three-year-old Amina ate the nutritional supplement she had just been given at the Hausari B clinic.
It serves some 90,000 people, many of them farmers – like Ms Badamasi – displaced by the insurgency.
“We will be in a dire situation with no food and no medicine,” said Ms Badamasi. “Our survival depends on these essentials.”
She was given a bag of the supplement – peanut paste – to continue treatment at home. It may well be the last, unless the funding situation changes.
India said that while opening up its markets to foreign players, it remains sensitive to safeguarding the interests of domestic players, citing the recently concluded Free Trade Agreement signed with the UK.
Hours after US President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods, New Delhi said it would take firm steps to secure the interests of farmers, entrepreneurs, and MSMEs, while continuing to engage in trade negotiations with Washington D.C.
“India and the US have been engaged in negotiations on concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement over the last few months. We remain committed to that objective,” India said in a statement.
India said that while opening up its markets to foreign players, it remains sensitive to safeguarding the interests of domestic players, citing the recently concluded Free Trade Agreement signed with the UK.
“The Government attaches the utmost importance to protecting and promoting the welfare of our farmers, entrepreneurs, and MSMEs. The Government will take all steps necessary to secure our national interest, as has been the case with other trade agreements including the latest Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the UK,” the statement further read.
India’s tariff structure has drawn repeated criticism from Trump, dating back to his first term and even before he took oath for the second, with him calling New Delhi a “very big abuser” when it comes to levying duties on US products.
Even after several rounds of discussion, agriculture remained the biggest bone of contention between the two sides, with India unwilling to open up its farm and dairy sectors to the US— a political self-goal that no ruling party at the Centre is willing to commit to.
The newly announced duties target several of India’s top-performing export sectors. Automobiles, auto components, steel, aluminum, smartphones, solar modules, marine products, gems, jewellery, and select processed food and agricultural items are all on the 25% list. Pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and critical minerals, however, have been excluded.
Meanwhile, economists see a new opportunity on the horizon for India to forge deeper economic ties with other countries, explore new markets, and simultaneously look inward—driving reforms as global supply chains are recalibrated amid changing geopolitics driven by Trump’s aggressive trade policies.
However, economists estimate that India’s GDP could shrink by anywhere between 0.2% and 0.5% if Trump’s tariffs remain in place for the rest of FY26.
Earlier, Trump announced that India would slap a 25% tariff along with additional penalties on Indian imports, effective August 1. He cited India’s continued oil imports from Russia and longstanding trade barriers as key reasons behind the move.
FILE PHOTO: Battery cells with the logo of LG Energy Solution are displayed at the company headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, April 23, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/ File Photo
South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) has signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply Tesla with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage systems, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The batteries will be supplied from LGES’s U.S. factory, the person said on condition of anonymity because the details were not public.
LGES said earlier on Wednesday that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP batteries over three years globally, without identifying the customer.
The announcement by the company, whose major customers include Tesla and General Motors, did not say whether the LFP batteries would be used in vehicles or energy storage systems.
“In accordance with our agreement, we are unable to disclose the customer’s identity due to confidentiality obligations,” LGES told Reuters. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal comes amid a scramble by countries and companies globally to strike tariff agreements with Washington and after South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Tesla this week announced a $16.5 billion chip supply deal.
The LFP battery contract lasts from August 2027 to July 2030.
LGES said it included an option to extend the deal period by up to seven years and to increase supply volumes depending on discussions with its customer.
TERRIFYING videos have emerged showing roads being turned into rivers after horror floods “not seen in a hundred years” battered China.
At least 38 people have been killed and more than 80,000 residents were forced to evacuate after the torrential downpours hit parts of the country, including the capital Beijing.
A drone view shows partially submerged village houses and other buildings after heavy rainfall flooded the areaCredit: Reuters
Swaths of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours that sparked landslides and flooding, state media said on Tuesday.
Footage shows a powerful gush of water flooding the streets.
Murky water submerged homes, cars and roads – even highways.
Uprooted trees lay in piles in the town of Taishitun, about 60 miles northeast of central Beijing.
Weather authorities have issued their second-highest rainstorm warning for the capital and neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin – as well as 10 other provinces, state news agency Xinhua reports.
The rains are expected to last till Wednesday, it added.
The heavy rainstorms have so far killed at least 38 people in Beijing.
And more than 80,000 people have been evacuated in the Chinese capital alone, local state-run outlet Beijing Daily said on social media.
The death toll was highest in Miyun, a suburban district northeast of the city centre, it said.
Locals have said that the “rain was unusually heavy, it’s not normally like this.”
One resident of Beijing described the floods as something seen “once in a hundred years”.
Nearby, spillways gushed with torrents of water leading out of the Miyun Reservoir, which authorities said has reached its highest levels since its construction in 1959.
Huairou district in the north of the city and Fangshan in the southwest were also badly affected, state media said.
Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said.
“Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,” the outlet said.
More than 10,000 people also evacuated their homes in the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, which saw major flash floods, according to Global Times.
And in Hebei – just around the capital – a landslide in a village near the city of Chengde killed eight people, with four still missing, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday.
On social media, users shared anxious accounts of being unable to reach family members who lived in Chengde’s mountainous Xinglong county.
Local authorities have issued flash flood warnings through Tuesday evening.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged authorities late Monday to plan for worst-case scenarios and rush the relocation of residents of flood-threatened areas.
Beijing Daily said local officials had “made all-out efforts to search and rescue missing persons… and made every effort to reduce casualties”.
The government has allocated 350 million yuan ($49million) for disaster relief in nine regions hit by heavy rains.
A separate 200 million yuan has been set aside for the capital, the broadcaster said.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.
PM Modi told the Lok Sabha that on May 9 night, a day before the ceasefire, “US Vice President (JD Vance) tried to reach out to me 3-4 times, but I was busy with meetings with the armed forces”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was categorical in his answer: no leader of any country asked India to stop Operation Sindoor, India’s counterstrike to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s picturesque Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives.
This was PM Modi’s response to repeated allegations against his government that Donald Trump helped broker peace between the two archrivals. Trump has gone on to repeat the claim at least 29 times since the ceasefire agreement on May 10.
PM Modi told the Lok Sabha that on May 9 night, a day before the ceasefire, “US Vice President (JD Vance) tried to reach out to me 3-4 times, but I was busy with meetings with the armed forces”.
“When I returned the call, the US Vice President warned me of a big attack from Pakistan. I told him that if Pakistan attacks India, our attack would be much bigger as we will respond to bullets with cannons. This was my answer,” said PM Modi.
Speaking earlier, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had challenged the Prime Minister to rebut Donald Trump’s India-Pakistan ceasefire claims.
“If he (Trump) is lying, the PM should say here that Trump is lying…
“If Modi ji has even 50 per cent of the courage that Indira Gandhi had, then clearly he must say in Parliament – Donald Trump is lying!” said Mr Gandhi.
The Prime Minister pointed out that no country in the world asked India to stop its military offensive against Pakistan.
“No country in the world has stopped India from any action in its defence against terrorism. Only three countries spoke in favour of Pakistan at the UN,” said PM Modi.
PM Modi mocked the Opposition’s repeated claims of foreign intervention and reiterated that the operation was stopped after it achieved its objective and also after the Pakistani Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) pleaded with his Indian counterpart.
Spotlighting the Armed forces’ precise and tactical strikes on Pakistani terror bases and military installations, PM Modi said that it was at the insistence of the neighbouring nation that India decided to halt Operation Sindoor.
“Pakistan Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) called up the Indian DGMO and requested to stop. He said that ‘bahut mara ab jyada maar jhelne ki takat nahi hai, please hamla rok do’ (You have hit us really hard, can’t take it anymore, please stop this attack),” PM Modi said, while reiterating that the Indian strikes were precise and non-escalatory.
The man, who later fatally shot himself, was believed to have acted alone.
New York Police Department officers work near the scene of a reported shooter situation in the Manhattan borough of New York City, US on Jul 28, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
A gunman armed with an assault-style rifle killed four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper that houses the headquarters of the NFL and offices of several major financial firms and then shot himself dead, New York City officials said on Monday (Jul 28).
One of the four victims slain in the gun violence was a 36-year-old New York Police Department officer who immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh. Mayor Eric Adams described the officer, who had been on the force for about three and a half years, as a “true blue” hero.
Authorities offered few details about the three other victims killed by the suspect – two men and a woman. A third male was gravely wounded by the gunfire and was “fighting for his life” in a nearby hospital, the mayor said.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the gunman, identified as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident with a history of mental illness, had driven cross-country to New York in recent days.
The gunman was believed to have acted alone, and investigators had yet to determine a possible motive for the shooting, Tisch told reporters at a late-night news briefing.
“Pure evil came to the heart of our city and struck innocent people and one of our police officers who were protecting those people,” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said at the press conference.
The slain policeman, Didarul Islam, a father of two whose wife is pregnant with a third child, was working at the time as part of an NYPD program that allows its uniformed patrol officers to be assigned as security detail in commercial establishments.
The shooting spree in the evening rush hour began in the lobby of the Park Avenue tower in Midtown Manhattan, then shifted to the upper-story offices of a management company as the suspect took the elevator to the 33rd floor. The bloodshed came to an end when the gunman fatally shot himself in the chest, Tisch told reporters.
A photo of the suspect that CNN said was shared by police showing a gunman walking into the building carrying a rifle was published by a number of major news media outlets. Preliminary checks of the suspect’s background did not show a significant criminal history, the report added, citing officials.
The skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue houses offices of a number of financial institutions, including Blackstone and KPMG, along with the NFL headquarters.
A large police presence converged on the area around the tower, according to Reuters journalists near the scene.
“I just saw a lot of commotion and cops and people screaming,” said Russ McGee, a 31-year-old sports bettor who was working out in a gym adjacent to the skyscraper, told Reuters in an interview near the scene.
Kyle Marshall, 38, was working at a Morgan Stanley office in a nearby Park building when his mother texted him, alerting him to an active-shooter incident, and asked if he was OK. “Then she texted me the address, and I was, like, ‘Oh my God. That’s right next door to my building’,” he said.
Harvard University could pay as much as $500M in a deal with the Trump administration following months of tense back-and-forths over billions in stripped federal funding and research grants, two sources familiar with the negotiations told The Post.
Last week, Trump said the Ivy League school “wants to settle” after seeing Columbia’s funding restored in exchange for paying a $200 million fine to settle civil rights violations.
Harvard faculty and staff hold signs from inside Harvard Yard during a press conference by faculty supporters of the Harvard Out of Palestine coalition outside Harvard Yard. Boston Globe via Getty Images
The administration had clawed back $2.6 billion in federal funding earlier this year, saying the university had discriminated against Jewish faculty, students and staff by not protecting them from antisemitism on campus.
The specific terms in the ongoing negotiations were not immediately made clear by either side, nor was a precise timeline given. However, Trump said in June that the government could forge a deal with Harvard “over the next week or so.”
Harvard is still pursuing its lawsuit against the administration over the loss of federal research funds, which it claims could lead to damaged careers and the shuttering of labs on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus.
However, Education Secretary Linda McMahon expressed confidence in a future settlement.
“We’re hoping that Harvard will come to the table,” McMahon told NewsNation’s “Morning in America” on Thursday. “We’re already seeing other universities that are taking these measures before investigation or before our coming in to talk to them.”
Harvard’s $53 billion endowment is more than three times the size of Columbia’s $14.8 billion war chest.
Trump has confided in some that he believes Harvard should have to pay more to settle than Columbia, the New York Times reported on Monday.
Under the terms of Colulmbia’s settlement with the Trump administration, the university regained access to $400 million in grants and other federal funding in exchange for paying the $200 million fine; appointing an independent monitor; placing disciplinary issues under the purview of the provost’s office; submitting semi-annual reports on its compliance with Title VI, VII and IX anti-discrimination rules to the federal government; and implementing merit-based hiring and admissions requirements.
Columbia also agreed to pay out more than $20 million to Jewish employees who were discriminated against.
Harvard University officials were reportedly put off by Columbia’s agreement to appoint an independent monitor, viewing it as potential threat to academic freedom and a possible redline in any settlement agreement, according to the New York Times.
In its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Harvard has argued that the revoking of its federal grants violates the university’s First Amendment rights – a line of argument that Boston US District Judge Allison Burroughs seemed inclined to agree with during a hearing earlier this month.
Meghalaya minister Kyrmen Shylla has bizarrely claimed that nearly 4,000 tonnes of missing coal may have been washed away by rain into Bangladesh and Assam.
Meghalaya minister Kyrmen Shylla has made a bizarre claim that nearly 4,000 tonnes of missing coal may have been washed away by rain into Bangladesh and Assam.
A Meghalaya minister has stirred fresh controversy by giving a bizarre explanation that the state’s missing 4,000 metric tonnes of coal might actually have been washed away by monsoon rain into neighbouring Bangladesh and Assam. The remark was made by Meghalaya Cabinet Minister Kyrmen Shylla amidst intense scrutiny from the Meghalaya High Court over the mysterious disappearance of the illegally mined coal.
“I am not trying to justify but we need to remind ourselves that if you remember Meghalaya has one of the highest rainfall rate in the country,” Shylla said. “So due to this high and heavy rainfall anything can happen. Remember, there is an allegation that because of the rains in Meghalaya, floods happened in Assam, and from East Jaintia Hills, rain water goes to Bangladesh. You never know, it could be because of the rains the coal got carried away,” he told reporters in Shillong on Monday.
The coal, which was stored at depots in Rajaju and Diengngan villages under the Ranikor Block of South West Khasi Hills district, had been officially surveyed and recorded. However, the latest interim report by the Justice (Retd) BP Katakey Committee — tasked with monitoring coal mining and transportation in Meghalaya — flagged that the coal had “disappeared”.
While not explicitly confirming illegal activity, Shylla cautiously distanced himself from outright denial. “I cannot blame the rain alone, I don’t have any details with me to say that there was illegal transportation. However, since we have the authority, we need to ensure that there is no illegal transportation or illegal mining, it should be as per law,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi announces Centre will erect statues of Chola emperors Rajaraja Chola and his son, Rajendra Chola I in Tamil Nadu
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers prayers at Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple, in Ariyalur on Sunday. | Photo Credit: PIB
Paying glowing tributes to the military might and administrative acumen of Rajendra Chola I and his father Rajaraja Chola in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (July 27, 2025) said the heights reached by the emperors were a source of inspiration, providing an ancient road map for the country to become a developed nation.
“The economic and strategic advancements achieved during the Chola era remain a source of inspiration for modern India. To become a developed nation, we too must prioritise unity; strengthen our Navy and Defence forces and look for new opportunities, even while safeguarding our core values,” Mr. Modi said at the valediction of the Aadi Thiruvathirai festival marking the birth anniversary of Rajendra Chola I at Gangaikonda Cholapuram.
Mr. Modi released a commemorative coin in honour of Rajendra Chola I on the occasion. The king had built Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the ancient capital of the Imperial Cholas, along with the Brihadisvara Temple and the Cholagangam, a massive lake, after his victorious expedition to the Gangetic plains about 1,000 years ago.
The Prime Minister announced the Centre would install grand statues of the two emperors in Tamil Nadu, to serve as the pillars of country’s historical consciousness. “The legacy of Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola is synonymous with India’s identity and pride. The history and heritage of the Chola Empire proclaim the true potential of India,” he said.
Rajaraja Chola built a powerful navy; his son Rajendra Chola I strengthened it. The Cholas strengthened local administration, established extensive trade and cultural links to bring out about development in various spheres to his country. The Chola rulers had extended their diplomatic and trade relations to Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Southeast Asia, he pointed out.
India too placed the highest priority on its national security, Mr. Modi said and added that through Operation Sindoor, the world has witnessed the firm and decisive response of the country to any threat to its sovereignty.
Pointing out the Chola reign was considered to be one of the golden ages of the country by historians, Mr. Modi said the dynasty was not only known for their military strength but also for being the mother of democracy by introducing the kudavolai system of electing local representatives centuries ago.
The global discourse now revolves around water management and ecology preservation, but our ancestors understood the importance of these issues long ago, Mr. Modi said citing the Cholas excellent water management systems.
“The Chola rulers had woven a thread of cultural unity. Our government is carrying forward their ideals,” he said referring to the conduct of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam and the Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam to reinforce centuries-old bonds of unity. Over the past decade, the nation had worked on mission mode to preserve its cultural legacy. About 600 ancient statues and artefacts, which had been stolen and sold abroad, have been brought back to India since 2014. Of these, 36 belonged to Tamil Nadu.
The Prime Minister paid tributes to the country’s Shaivite tradition too, saying it played a vital role in shaping the nation’s cultural identity. If only the world adopted the teaching of Tirumular, ‘Anbe Shivam’ (Love is God), problems such as instability, violence and environmental crises could be solved, he observed.
Israel on Sunday announced a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into the enclave, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world.
Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which the government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight.
U.S. President Donald Trump, on a visit to Scotland, said Israel would have to make a decision on its next steps in Gaza, and said he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with Hamas.
Military activity will stop daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (0700-1700 GMT) until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah and in Gaza City, to the north.
The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. starting from Sunday.
The United Nations food aid agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of Israel’s planned humanitarian pauses in fighting, a senior World Food Programme official said on Sunday.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel in Gaza on Sunday after Israel decided to “support a one-week scale-up of aid.”
Initial reports indicate that more than 100 truckloads of aid were collected from crossings to be transported into Gaza, Fletcher said in a statement.
“This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,” he said.
In their first airdrop in months, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza on Sunday, a Jordanian official said, but added that it was not a substitute for delivery by land.
Palestinian health officials in Gaza City said at least 10 people were injured by falling aid boxes.
Work on a UAE project to run a new pipeline that will supply water from a desalination facility in neighbouring Egypt to around 600,000 Gazans along the coast would also begin in a few days, the Israeli military said.
Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
The ministry reported six new deaths over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition, bringing the total deaths from malnutrition and hunger since the war began in 2023 to 133, including 87 children.
On Saturday, a 5-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital, health workers said.
“Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,” said her mother, Israa Abu Haleeb, as the baby’s father held their daughter’s body wrapped in a white shroud.
A Palestinian carries a bag with aid supplies that entered Gaza through Israel, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, July 27, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Purchase Licensing Rights
The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food to southern Gaza on Sunday. Some had been looted in the area of Khan Younis after entering Gaza, residents said.
Aid groups said last week there was mass hunger among Gaza’s 2.2 million people, and international alarm over the humanitarian situation has increased.
A group of 25 states including Britain, France and Canada last week said Israel’s denial of aid was unacceptable.
The military’s spokesperson said Israel was committed to international law and monitors the humanitarian situation daily. Brigadier General Effie Defrin said there was no starvation in Gaza, but appeared to acknowledge conditions were critical.
“When we start approaching a problematic line (threshold) then the IDF works to let in humanitarian aid,” he said. “That’s what happened over the weekend.”
Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May.
Israel says it has been allowing in aid but must prevent it from being diverted by militants and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza’s people.
HOPE, UNCERTAINTY
Many Gazans expressed some relief at Sunday’s announcement, but said fighting must end.
“People are happy that large amounts of food aid will come into Gaza,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a business owner. “We hope today marks a first step in ending this war that burned everything up.”
Health officials at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza said Israeli firing killed at least 17 people waiting for aid trucks. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at suspects endangering troops and was unaware of any casualties.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies whether it is fighting or negotiating a ceasefire and vowed to press on with the campaign until “complete victory”.
The US Department of State has unveiled massive changes to its nonimmigrant visa interview waiver program, which will take effect in September
The USCIS has made changes to its visa interview waiver program(Unsplash)
The US Department of State has unveiled massive changes to its nonimmigrant visa interview waiver program, set to take effect on September 2, 2025, as announced in the latest US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) press release. This update reverses the February 18, 2025, policy, tightening eligibility and generally requiring in-person interviews for most applicants, including those under 14 and over 79, with exceptions for specific visa categories and renewals.
The shift aims to enhance security but has sparked concerns among travelers about increased processing times and accessibility, the Department of State states.
New visa interview waiver guidelines
Under the new guidelines, most nonimmigrant visa applicants will face mandatory consular interviews, except for those under visa categories such as A-1, A-2, C-3 (excluding attendants of officials), G-1 through G-4, NATO-1 through NATO-6, and TECRO E-1, as well as holders of diplomatic or official visas.
Exception
A key exception applies to individuals renewing a full-validity B-1, B-2, B1/B2 visa, or Mexican Border Crossing Card/Foil, provided the renewal occurs within 12 months of the previous visa’s expiration, the applicant was at least 18 at issuance, and they apply from their country of nationality or residence.
However, these applicants must have no prior visa refusals (unless overturned or waived) and no apparent ineligibility, giving consular officers broad discretion to mandate interviews case-by-case basis.
The policy shift follows heightened scrutiny of immigration processes amid global security concerns, with the State Department emphasizing flexibility for officers to address individual risks.
“Consular officers may still require in-person interviews on a case-by-case basis or because of local conditions. We encourage applicants to check embassy and consulate websites for more detailed information about visa application requirements and procedures, and to learn more about the embassy or consulate’s operating status and services,” the USCIS said in its release published earlier this week.
Lawyer’s verdict
Soon after USCIS made the visa interview waiver announcement, Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown alerted applicants about ‘longer waits’.
Shocking visuals have surfaced on social media after a pile up of around 16 vehicles reportedly occurred after a chain of collision as a container crashed after its braked failed on the highway.
Around 16 Vehicles Pile-Up As Container Truck Crash On Mumbai-Pune Expressway | Instagram | @padalevishal
In a shocking incident, a major accident occurred at the entrance of a tunnel on Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Saturday. The accident reportedly occurred near the Shree Datta Snacks, which is located after the Lonavala-Khandala Ghat on the highway. Shocking visuals have surfaced on social media after a pile up of around 16 vehicles reportedly occurred after a chain of collision as a container crashed after its braked failed on the highway. There are reports that one person has reportedly died in the accident.
There are reports that around 16 people have suffered injuries in the accident. According to early reports from Pune Pulse, around 18 to 20 vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction crash after a container truck’s brakes failed. The truck, reportedly speeding, hit a vehicle near the food mall, leading to a massive pile-up.
1. The accident occurred on one of India’s busiest expressways.
2. The container truck lost control and hit a vehicle, triggering a chain crash.
3. The impact badly damaged several vehicles, at least three were completely crushed.
4. Many people were injured, some seriously.
Traffic Nightmare
The expressway was jammed for several hours. Vehicles were stranded in queues stretching up to 5 kilometers. Police and emergency teams quickly reached the spot to help the injured and clear the wreckage. Traffic had to be diverted to other routes to ease the congestion.
A Cambodian military convoy drives towards the border city of Samrong in Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia on Jul 26, 2025. (Photo: AP/Anton L. Delgado)
Thailand and Cambodia said that they were open to ceasefire talks, following a late-night intervention by US President Donald Trump.
Hun Manet said on Sunday (Jul 27) that his foreign minister would talk to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to coordinate with the Thais, but warned Bangkok against reneging on any agreement.
Meanwhile, Thailand said late Saturday it agrees in principle to entering a ceasefire with Cambodia and beginning a “bilateral dialogue” aimed at ending the nations’ deadliest fighting in more than a decade.
The Southeast Asian neighbours exchanged artillery fire for a fourth straight day on Sunday, AFP journalists and the Cambodian defence ministry said, despite talk of a possible ceasefire.
AFP journalists in the Cambodian town of Samraong, around 20km from the border conflict zone, heard the regular thump of artillery from dawn, tallying with a ministry spokeswoman’s statement that clashes began near two disputed temples around 4.50am.
This border conflict has killed at least 33 people and displaced more than 150,000 from their homes spread across the frontier.
“Thailand agrees in principle to have a ceasefire in place,” the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement on X.
That followed a post by Trump on Truth Social, who said he had spoken with Cambodian leader Hun Manet and Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and that the two sides have agreed to meet and “quickly work out” a ceasefire.
Thailand’s foreign ministry confirmed a phone call between Trump and Phumtham, and stressed that regarding a possible ceasefire and that “Thailand would like to see sincere intention from the Cambodian side”.
It said Phumtham requested Trump to “convey to the Cambodian side that Thailand wants to convene a bilateral dialogue as soon as possible to bring forth measures and procedures for the ceasefire and the eventual peaceful resolution of the conflict”.
Malaysia, as the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on Saturday reiterated its call to both sides to exercise maximum restraint and undertake an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.
“We further urge both sides to return to the negotiating table to restore peace and stability based on the spirit of ASEAN family, unity and good neighbourliness,” said the country’s foreign affairs minister Mohamad Hasan.
At least one person was injured when a plane departing Denver International Airport was forced to abort takeoff due to a landing gear failure — causing passengers to flee the flaming and smoking aircraft on an inflatable emergency slide in a chaotic scene captured on harrowing video Saturday.
American Airlines Flight 3023 had a landing gear incident as it was taking off for Miami around 2:45 p.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Flight 2023, you got a lot of smoke,” an air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot in cockpit audio from Live ATC, 9News reported.
The plane aborted takeoff due to a mechanical failure BNO News
“There was some flames. Looks like the smoke is dying down a bit,” they said.
“You are actually on fire,” the controller quickly added moments later.
Video showed passengers frantically sliding down an inflatable safety slide as thick black smoke billowed from flames engulfing the rear left side of the aircraft.
The Denver Fire Department announced it had extinguished the blaze in a social media post at 5:10 p.m. local time.
The airline said there was an issue specifically involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8’s tire, Denver 7 reported.
All 173 passengers and six crew members evacuated the plane “safely,” American Airlines said in its statement.
Six people were evaluated for minor injuries, with one transported to a local hospital after deplaning, according to Denver 7.
USAID logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
An internal US government analysis released Friday (July 25) found no evidence that the Palestinian militant group Hamas systematically stole US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza, challenging claims from both Israel and the United States that have been used to justify a controversial new private armed aid effort.
The assessment, completed in late June by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), reviewed 156 reports of stolen or lost aid filed by partner organisations operating in Gaza from October 2023 through May. According to a slide presentation seen by Reuters, the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) found “no reports alleging Hamas” benefited from US-funded aid.
The finding comes amid deepening food insecurity in the Gaza Strip and growing criticism of a new militarised aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the Trump administration.
DISPUTES FROM STATE DEPARTMENT, ISRAEL
A State Department spokesperson disputed the USAID findings, saying there was video evidence of Hamas looting aid, though no such footage was provided. The spokesperson also accused traditional aid groups of concealing corruption.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly questioned the legitimacy of the analysis, claiming no State Department official had seen it and suggesting it “was likely produced by a deep state operative” aiming to undermine President Donald Trump’s humanitarian policies.
Two sources told Reuters the findings were shared with USAID’s inspector general and State Department officials involved in Middle East policy.
Israel continues to assert that Hamas steals aid and uses it to control Gaza’s population and enrich itself, often by reselling supplies at inflated prices. The Israeli military told Reuters its claims were based on intelligence reports showing Hamas militants embedded in aid trucks, seizing up to 25 per cent of shipments for fighters or resale.
Hamas has denied the allegations. A Hamas security official said Israel has killed more than 800 Hamas-affiliated guards responsible for protecting aid convoys in coordination with the United Nations. Reuters could not independently verify the claims from either side.
MIXED FINDINGS ON AID THEFT
According to the BHA slides, at least 44 of the 156 incidents of lost or stolen aid were “either directly or indirectly” caused by Israeli military action, including airstrikes or directives for civilians to evacuate areas. Other cases involved Israeli demands that aid groups use unsafe routes, increasing the risk of looting.
Of the remaining incidents, 63 were attributed to unknown actors, 35 to armed groups, 25 to unarmed civilians, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, and five to aid workers themselves. Six incidents involved theft under unknown circumstances. A slide noted, “A review of all 156 incidents found no affiliations with US-designated foreign terrorist organisations,” which includes Hamas.
One slide added that “the majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor,” as thefts often occurred in transit with no identified perpetrators.
The USAID analysis acknowledged a limitation: it could not rule out the possibility that some aid reached administrative officials affiliated with Hamas. However, no cases were found where Hamas was confirmed to have stolen or diverted the aid.
CRITICISM OF GHF AND TRUMP POLICY SHIFT
The report casts new scrutiny on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private aid group launched with US backing that distributes supplies using armed US military veterans and a for-profit logistics firm run by a former CIA officer. The group has come under fire for bypassing traditional humanitarian structures and facing allegations of using militarised distribution methods.
The United Nations and several major aid organisations have rejected calls to cooperate with GHF, saying its operations violate humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality. The UN also estimates that more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces near GHF’s distribution points.
Although aid groups receiving US funds must vet their staff and subcontractors for ties to designated terrorist groups, the Trump administration waived those requirements in approving US$30 million in funding for GHF last month.
The USAID study was completed shortly before the Trump administration froze all foreign aid and began dismantling the agency, folding its operations into the State Department.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the BHA team lost access to classified systems during this process. That source also said they were not aware of any classified US intelligence reports confirming Hamas aid thefts and that US officials were instead relying on Israeli claims.
The outbreak, linked to an imported case, has prompted authorities to urge mosquito control and early medical attention.
Southern China is experiencing an outbreak of chikungunya, with thousands of cases reported since authorities started tracking cases in early July. (File photo: Reuters/Josue Decavele)
China is experiencing an outbreak of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne infection, with thousands of cases reported in the south.
Chikungunya fever cases jumped to 4,014 on Friday (Jul 25), representing a rapid rise in numbers since authorities started tracking cases two weeks ago, according to public records released by health departments in districts in Foshan. The city in China’s southern province Guangdong has been heavily impacted by the surge in infections.
The chikungunya outbreak remains “quite severe”, Sun Yang, deputy director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Foshan.
Chikungunya is spread to people by the bites of infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain, but deaths are rare, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has issued various advisories on how to prevent chikungunya fever and dengue fever, a similar disease also spread by mosquitoes. Physical protection barriers, such as screen doors, mosquito nets for beds and mosquito repellent on exposed skin, were recommended.
The agency said that the epidemic was “imported” without specifying from where. It also called for people who have symptoms like fever, rash and joint pain to see a doctor.
Shunde district in Foshan, where 90 per cent of the cases are located, is famous for its Cantonese food, and sees many visitors each year.
Patients who tested positive for chikungunya fever stayed in hospital beds covered by mosquito nets, according to photos shown on state-run broadcaster CCTV.
Local media reports said on Thursday that local authorities had almost doubled the number of mosquito-proof isolation beds to 7,220 to meet the growing demand.
Authorities in Guangdong are urging residents to ensure there’s no standing water in their homes, such as in flowerpots, coffee machines or spare bottles. The Health Commission in Foshan stated on Thursday that a fine of up to 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) could be applied if violations are found.
The Beijing CDC said on Tuesday that the city occasionally experiences imported cases of chikungunya fever.
This pattern suggests that the compact oscillating corona seems to be the origin of these fast QPO signals.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)(Representative Image)(File photo | ISRO)
A team of scientists and researchers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday listed out their unique findings while studying the Black Hole as part of their study.They noted that the X-ray brightness from the fascinating and mysterious black hole, GRS 1915+105, fluctuates dramatically over time. It exhibits a unique pattern of alternating low-brightness (‘dips’) and high-brightness (‘non-dips’) phases, each lasting a few hundred seconds.
During the high-brightness phase, the team discovered that the rapid flickers in X-rays were repeating about 70 times per second, known as Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs). Interestingly, such ‘fast’ flickers vanish during the low-brightness phase, noted the researchers Anju Nandi from ISRO, Santabrata Das from IIT- Guwahati, Sreehari H from Hafiza University and Seshadri Majumder from IIT Guwahati.
India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, AstroSat, has been continuously monitoring the black hole GRS 1915+105 since its launch in September 2015 and is working to provide insights into the source’s behaviour. The research team stated that they found that these rapid QPOs are intimately connected to a super-heated cloud of energetic plasma surrounding the black hole, known as the corona. During the bright, high-energy phases when QPOs are strongest, the corona becomes more compact and significantly hotter with higher luminosity. Conversely, in the dimmer dip phases, the corona expands and cools, causing the flickers to vanish. This pattern suggests that the compact oscillating corona seems to be the origin of these fast QPO signals.
This research work titled- Evidence of oscillating ‘compact’ Comptonised corona in GRS 1915+105: insights into HFQPOs with AstroSat- was also published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, on July 4, 2025. ISRO shared the details on July 25.
USERS of Elon Musk’s Starlink have been left without connection today following a major network outage.
Reported issues began to emerge around 3.30pm EDT, according to DownDetector.
A Starlink spokesperson said on X: “Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution.
“We appreciate your patience, we’ll share an update once this issue is resolved.”
The outage is reported to have caused disruption for thousands of users.
Some social media users have vented their frustration at the lack of connection.
One posted on Reddit: “Down in Tennessee. WFH too, right in the middle of the workday. Such a pain.”
Another said: “We have multiple Starlinks at different locations and they’re all down right now. We’re located in Florida.”
Users across the United States logged their loss of connection with DownDetector.
“Down in Maryland – Washington, DC area,” one shared.
Another posted: “Down in Northern California.”
“Down in rural central Texas,” reported a third.
Musk posted on X: “Service will be restored shortly.
“Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Elon Musk and his companies have continued to make headlines over the past few months.
AI chatbot Grok went rogue earlier this month and started sharing pro-Hitler and antisemitic comments on X.
A spokesperson for xAI, the company behind Grok, said: “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.
“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”
Customers have also made their way to a Tesla high-tech diner where hungry guests can charge their cars as they’re served by robots.
Musk opened up the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Monday.
He praised the venue on X last week, saying: “I just had dinner at the retro-futuristic @Tesla diner and Supercharger.
