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Reuters

  • Five US soldiers shot at Georgia base, shooter in custody

    Five US soldiers shot at Georgia base, shooter in custody

    ATLANTA: Five U.S. soldiers were shot at the Fort Stewart base in the state of Georgia on Wednesday, and the suspected shooter is in custody, Army officials said.

    The soldiers were treated on site and then transported to Winn Army Community Hospital for further treatment, Fort Stewart said in a Facebook post. Authorities did not immediately provide further details on the condition of the wounded soldiers.

    Law enforcement responded to reports of a possible shooting in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area at 10:56 a.m. ET (1456 GMT), and the base was locked down shortly after 11:04 a.m. The suspect was arrested at 11:35 a.m., Fort Stewart said.

    The Army did not offer details about the suspect, including whether he or she is a soldier.

    Governor Brian Kemp wrote on X that he and his family were “saddened by today’s tragedy” at the base.

    “We are keeping the victims, their families, and all those who answer the call to serve in our hearts and prayers, and we ask that Georgians everywhere do the same,” he added.

    President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and is monitoring the situation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.

    Fort Stewart is located in Hinesville, about 225 miles (362 km) southeast of Atlanta and 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Savannah. Nearly 9,000 people live at the base, according to the 2020 Census.

    The base supports approximately 15,000 active-duty Army military personnel, as well as thousands of military retirees, family members, and others, according to its website.

  • Missed signals, lost deal: How India-US trade talks collapsed

    Missed signals, lost deal: How India-US trade talks collapsed

    NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: After five rounds of trade negotiations, Indian officials were so confident of securing a favourable deal with the United States that they even signalled to the media that tariffs could be capped at 15%.

    Indian officials expected U.S. President Donald Trump to announce the deal himself weeks before the August 1 deadline. The announcement never came.

    New Delhi is now left with the surprise imposition of a 25% tariff on Indian goods from Friday, along with unspecified penalties over oil imports from Russia, while Trump has closed larger deals with Japan and the EU, and even offered better terms to arch-rival Pakistan.

    Interviews with four Indian government officials and two U.S. government officials revealed previously undisclosed details of the proposed deal and an exclusive account of how negotiations collapsed despite technical agreements on most issues.

    The officials on both sides said a mix of political misjudgment, missed signals and bitterness broke down the deal between the world’s biggest and fifth-largest economies, whose bilateral trade is worth over $190 billion.

    The White House, the U.S. Trade Representative office, and India’s Prime Minister’s Office, along with the External Affairs and Commerce ministries, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

    Read More: Trump slaps India with additional 25% tariff, increasing total levy to 50%

    India believed that after visits by Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal to Washington and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance to Delhi, it had made a series of deal-clinching concessions.

    New Delhi was offering zero tariffs on industrial goods that formed about 40% of U.S. exports to India, two Indian government officials told Reuters.

    Despite domestic pressure, India would also gradually lower tariffs on U.S. cars and alcohol with quotas and accede to Washington’s main demand of higher energy and defence imports from the U.S., the officials said.

    “Most differences were resolved after the fifth round in Washington, raising hopes of a breakthrough,” one of the officials said, adding negotiators believed the U.S. would accommodate India’s reluctance on duty-free farm imports and dairy products from the U.S.

    It was a miscalculation. Trump saw the issue differently and wanted more concessions.

    “A lot of progress was made on many fronts in India talks, but there was never a deal that we felt good about,” said one White House official.
    “We never got to what amounted to a full deal – a deal that we were looking for.”

    OVER-CONFIDENCE AND MISCALCULATION

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited Washington in February, agreed to target a deal by fall 2025, and more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

    To bridge the $47 billion goods trade gap, India pledged to buy up to $25 billion in U.S. energy and boost defence imports.

    But officials now admit India grew overconfident after Trump talked up a “big” imminent deal, taking it as a signal that a favourable agreement was in hand. New Delhi then hardened its stance, especially on agriculture and dairy, two highly sensitive areas for the Indian government.

    “We are one of the fastest growing economies, and the U.S. can’t ignore a market of 1.4 billion,” one Indian official involved in the negotiations said in mid-July.

    Negotiators even pushed for relief from the 10% average U.S. tariff announced in April, plus a rollback of steel, aluminium and auto duties.

    Later, India scaled back expectations after the U.S. signed trade deals with key partners including Japan, and the European Union, hoping it could secure a similar 15% tariff rate with fewer concessions.

    That was unacceptable to the White House. “Trump wanted a headline-grabbing announcement with broader market access, investments and large purchases,” said a Washington-based source familiar with the talks.

    An Indian official acknowledged New Delhi wasn’t ready to match what others offered.

    South Korea, for example, struck a deal just before Trump’s August 1 deadline, securing a 15% rate instead of 25% by offering $350 billion in investments, higher energy imports, and concessions on rice and beef.

    Trump’s remarks about India-Pakistan conflict strained negotiations

    “At one point, both sides were very close to signing the deal,” said Mark Linscott, a former U.S. Trade Representative who now works for a lobby group that is close to the discussions between the two nations.

    “The missing component was a direct line of communication between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi.”

    A White House official strongly disputed this, noting other deals had been resolved without such intervention.

    An Indian government official involved in the talks said Modi could not have called, fearing a one-sided conversation with Trump that could put him on the spot.

    However, the other three Indian officials said Trump’s repeated remarks about mediating the India-Pakistan conflict further strained negotiations and contributed to Modi not making a final call.

    “Trump’s remarks on Pakistan didn’t go down well,” one of them said. “Ideally, India should have acknowledged the U.S. role while making it clear the final call was ours.”

    A senior Indian government official blamed the collapse on poor judgment, saying top Indian advisers mishandled the process.

    “We lacked the diplomatic support needed after the U.S. struck better deals with Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and the EU,” the official said. “We’re now in a crisis that could have been avoided.”

    Trump said on Tuesday he would increase the tariff on imports from India from the current rate of 25% “very substantially” over the next 24 hours and alleged that New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil were “fuelling the war” in Ukraine.

    WAY FORWARD

    Talks are ongoing, with a U.S. delegation expected in Delhi later this month and Indian government officials still believe the deal can be salvaged from here.
    “It’s still possible,” one White House official said.

    The Indian government is re-examining areas within the farm and dairy sectors where concessions can be made, the fourth official said. On Russian oil, India could reduce some purchases in favour of U.S. supplies if pricing is matched.

    “It likely will require direct communication between the prime minister and the president,” said Linscott. “Pick up the phone. Right now, we are in a lose-lose. But there is real potential for a win-win trade deal.”

  • McDonald’s global sales top estimates

    McDonald’s global sales top estimates

    August 6, 2025: McDonald’s second-quarter global comparable sales beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as affordable meal bundles and promotions drew in budget-conscious diners looking to stretch their dollars amid economic uncertainty.

    Its shares rose 2.3% in early trading as strong demand in the U.S. and international markets powered a 3.8% rise in global same-store sales, above expectations of a 2.4% rise, according to data compiled by LSEG.

    McDonald’s, other fast-food chains see decline in orders

    Fast-food chains have seen competition heat up as companies such as McDonald’s, Domino’s Pizza and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands double down on value meals to counter a slowdown in demand, mainly among the lower-income households.

    To improve sales, McDonald’s launched a limited-time Happy Meal offer for kids and adults tied to the “Minecraft” Movie promotion in April. In May, it introduced McCrispy Chicken Strips as a permanent menu item.

    These promotions are in addition to the $5 meal deal and the buy-one, add-one for $1 offers launched last year.

    McDonald’s, other fast-food chains see decline in orders

    CEO Chris Kempczinski said re-engaging the low-income consumer is “critical”, as they typically visit its restaurants more frequently than middle- and high-income groups.

    “This bifurcated consumer base is why we remain cautious about the overall near-term health of the U.S. consumer,” he said.

    Menu innovation and promotions had also helped Domino’s report upbeat U.S. same-store sales, while weakening demand hurt sales at Yum Brands and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

    For the second quarter, customer visits to McDonald’s outperformed the wider quick-service restaurant category, data from foot traffic tracking firm Placer.ai showed.

    “While rivals like Yum Brands and Chipotle struggled with consumer pullback, McDonald’s played to its strengths by leaning into value, nostalgia and limited-time promotions,” eMarketer analyst Zak Stambor said.

    Comparable sales in U.S., McDonald’s biggest market, grew 2.5%, compared with a 0.7% decline a year ago.

    Sales in its business segment where restaurants are operated by local partners, jumped 5.6%, led by Japan, while it rose 4% in international markets, on demand recovery in the UK, Canada and France.

    Adjusted net income of $3.19 per share exceeded estimates of $3.15.

  • Modi to visit China for first time in 7 years as tensions with US rise

    Modi to visit China for first time in 7 years as tensions with US rise

    NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years, a government source said on Wednesday, in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.

    Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that begins on Aug. 31, the government source, with direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters. India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    His trip will come at a time when India’s relationship with the U.S. faces its most serious crisis in years after President Donald Trump imposed the highest tariffs among Asian peers on goods imported from India, and has threatened an unspecified further penalty for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.

    Modi’s visit to the Chinese city of Tianjin for the summit of the SCO, a Eurasian political and security grouping that includes Russia, will be his first since June 2018. Subsequently, Sino-Indian ties deteriorated sharply after a military clash along their disputed Himalayan border in 2020.

    Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Russia in October that led to a thaw. The giant Asian neighbours are now slowly defusing tensions that have hampered business relations and travel between the two countries.

    Trump has threatened to charge an additional 10% tariff on imports from members – which include India – of the BRICS group of major emerging economies for “aligning themselves with Anti-American policies.”

    Trump said on Wednesday his administration would decide on the penalty for buying Russian oil after the outcome of U.S. efforts to seek a last-minute breakthrough that would bring about a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

    Trump’s top diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow, two days before the expiry of a deadline the president set for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

    Meanwhile, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is in Russia on a scheduled visit and is expected to discuss India’s purchases of Russian oil in the wake of Trump’s pressure on India to stop buying Russian crude, according to another government source, who also did not want to be named.

    Doval is likely to address India’s defence cooperation with Russia, including obtaining faster access to pending exports to India of Moscow’s S400 air defence system, and a possible visit by President Vladimir Putin to India.

    Doval’s trip will be followed by Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in the weeks to come.

    EXPORT IMPACT

    U.S. and Indian officials told Reuters, a mix of political misjudgement, missed signals and bitterness scuttled trade deal negotiations between the world’s biggest and fifth-largest economies, whose bilateral trade is worth over $190 billion.

    India expects Trump’s crackdown could cost it a competitive advantage in about $64 billion worth of goods sent to the U.S. that account for 80% of its total exports, four separate sources told Reuters, citing an internal government assessment.

    However, the relatively low share of exports in India’s $4 trillion economy is expected to limit the direct impact on economic growth.

    On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India left its GDP growth forecast for the current April-March financial year unchanged at 6.5% and held rates steady despite the tariff uncertainties.

    India’s government assessment report has assumed a 10% penalty for buying Russian oil, which would take the total U.S. tariff to 35%, the sources said.

    India’s trade ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The internal assessment report is the government’s initial estimate and will change as the quantum of tariffs imposed by Trump becomes clear, all four sources said.

    India exported goods estimated at around $81 billion in 2024 to the U.S.

  • Israeli military chief opposes Gaza war expansion, raising pressure on Netanyahu

    Israeli military chief opposes Gaza war expansion, raising pressure on Netanyahu

    JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced pushback from the head of the military over his proposal to seize remaining areas of Gaza it doesn’t already control during a tense three-hour meeting, three Israeli officials said.

    Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, warned the prime minister that taking the rest of Gaza could trap the military in the territory, which it withdrew from two decades ago, and could lead to harm to the hostages being held there, the sources briefed on the Tuesday meeting said.

    The Israeli military says it already controls 75% of Gaza after nearly two years of war, which began when Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities in October 2023.

    Much of the crowded, coastal enclave has been devastated in the war, which has destroyed homes, schools, mosques and hospitals. Most of the population has been displaced multiple times and aid groups say residents are on the verge of famine.

    The U.N. has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if true.
    The military has at times avoided areas where intelligence suggested hostages were held and former captives have said their captors threatened to kill them if Israeli forces approached.

    Netanyahu, who favours an expansion of military operations, told Zamir that so far the military had failed to bring about the release of the hostages, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Diplomatic negotiations have secured the release of most hostages freed so far.

    A fourth source said that the prime minister intended to expand military operations in Gaza to put pressure on Hamas.
    Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X Wednesday that the military chief has both the right and the duty to voice his opinion, but said that the military would carry out the government’s decisions until all war objectives are achieved.

    The prime minister’s office confirmed the meeting with Zamir on Tuesday but declined to comment further and the military did not respond to a request for comment.

    The prime minister is scheduled to discuss military plans for Gaza with other ministers on Thursday.

    Netanyahu, who in May said that Israel would control all of Gaza, leads the most right-wing coalition government in Israel’s history and some of his key partners have in the past threatened to quit if the government ended the war.

    INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

    There are 50 hostages still being held in Gaza, of whom at least 20 are believed to be alive. Videos released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza, last week of two extremely emaciated hostages.

    Close to 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, about half of them children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. More than 20 died on Wednesday when a truck believed to be carrying food overturned as it was swarmed by a desperate crowd, according to local health authorities.

    There is intense international pressure for a ceasefire to ease hunger and appalling conditions in Gaza and for Hamas to release the hostages. The latest ceasefire talks in Qatar broke down last month. Hamas insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war.

    An expansion of the military offensive in heavily populated areas would likely be devastating. Many of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians are living in tent encampments in the territory’s south, displaced by 22 months of bombardment.

    “Where will we go?” said Tamer Al-Burai, a displaced Palestinian living at the edge of Deir Al Balah in central Gaza.
    “Should people jump into the sea if the tanks rolled in, or wait to die under the rubble of their houses? We want an end to this war, it is enough, enough,” he told Reuters by phone.

    OVEREXTENDED

    The war in Gaza has also overextended Israel’s military, which has a small standing army and has had to repeatedly mobilise reservists. It is not clear if more reservists would be needed to expand operations and take more territory.

    The military continued to carry out air strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 135 people in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said, with the death toll since the beginning of the conflict now at more than 61,000, mostly civilians, it says.

    Hamas killed about 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023 when the group attacked Israel.

    In Israel, public polls show support for a diplomatic deal that would end the war and secure the release of the hostages.

  • Trump slaps India with additional 25% tariff, increasing total levy to 50%

    Trump slaps India with additional 25% tariff, increasing total levy to 50%

    WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods from India, increasing the total levy to 50 per cent, after he warned the New Delhi of action over its oil purchases from Russia.

    Donald Trump imposed the additional tariff over India’s continued purchase of Russian oil, a key revenue source for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

    The tariff is set to take effect in three weeks and would be added on top of a separate 25 percent tariff entering into force on Thursday. It maintains exemptions for items targeted by separate sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminum, and categories that could be hit like pharmaceuticals.

    Read More: Trump says US to impose 25% tariff on India from Aug 1

    The move threatens to further complicate U.S.-Indian relations and comes shortly after a Indian government source said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit China for the first time in over seven years later this month.

    U.S.-India ties are facing their most serious crisis in years after talks with India failed to produce a trade agreement.

    The White House move, first signaled by Trump on Monday, follows meetings by Trump’s top diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow aimed at pushing Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine.

    Trump has threatened higher tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on its allies, if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not move to end the war in Ukraine.

    Read More: India will buy Russian oil despite Trump’s threats

    Earlier, Indian officials said they would keep purchasing oil from Russia despite the threat of penalties that U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

    The White House, India’s Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Trump blasts India, Russia as ‘dead economies’

    Two senior Indian officials said there had been no change in policy, according to the NYT report, which added that one official said the government had “not given any direction to oil companies” to cut back imports from Russia.

    Reuters had earlier reported that Indian state refiners stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed in July.

    On July 14, Trump threatened 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. Russia is the top supplier to India, responsible for about 35% of India’s overall supplies.

  • Musk verus Modi

    Musk verus Modi

    BENGALURU/NEW DELHI, August 6 – In January, an old post on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, became a concern for police in the Indian city of Satara. Written in 2023, the short message from an account with a few hundred followers described a senior ruling-party politician as “useless”.

    “This post and content are likely to create serious communal tension,” inspector Jitendra Shahane wrote in a content-removal notice marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and addressed to X.

    The post, which remains online, is among hundreds cited by X in a lawsuit it filed in March against India’s government, challenging a sweeping crackdown on social media content by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

    Since 2023, India has ramped up efforts to police the internet by allowing many more officials to file takedown orders and to submit them directly to tech firms through a government website launched in October.

    X argues India’s actions are illegal and unconstitutional, and that they trample free speech by empowering scores of government agencies and thousands of police to suppress legitimate criticism of public officials.

    India contends in court documents that its approach tackles a proliferation of unlawful content and ensures accountability online. It says many tech companies, including Meta and Google, support its actions. Both companies declined to comment for this story.

    Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has clashed with authorities in the United States, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere over compliance and takedown demands. But as regulators globally weigh free-speech protections against concerns about harmful content,

    Musk’s case against Modi’s government in the Karnataka High Court targets the entire basis for tightened internet censorship in India, one of X’s biggest user bases. Musk said in 2023 that the South Asian nation had “more promise than any large country in the world” and that Modi had pushed him to invest there.

    This account of the behind-the-scenes battle between the world’s richest person and authorities in the world’s most populous country is based on a Reuters review of 2,500 pages of non-public legal filings and interviews with seven police officers involved in content-removal requests. It reveals the workings of a takedown system shrouded in secrecy, some Indian officials’ ire over “illegal” material on X, and the broad spectrum of content that police and other agencies have sought to censor.

    While the takedown orders include many that sought to counter misinformation, they also encompass directives by Modi’s administration to remove news about a deadly stampede, and demands from state police to scrub cartoons that depicted the prime minister in an unfavourable light or mocked local politicians, the filings show.

    X didn’t respond to Reuters questions about the case, while India’s IT ministry declined to comment because the matter was before the court. Modi’s office and his home ministry didn’t respond to questions.

    There have been no immediate signs of souring personal relations between Musk and Modi, who have enjoyed a warm public rapport. But the showdown comes as the South African-born entrepreneur, whose business empire includes EV maker Tesla (TSLA.O) and satellite internet provider Starlink, gears up to expand both ventures in India.

    Even supporters of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have faced scrutiny of their online musings from police officials newly empowered by the IT ministry to target social media activity.

    Koustav Bagchi, a lawyer and BJP member, posted an image on X in March that depicted a rival, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in an astronaut suit. State police issued a takedown notice, citing “risks to public safety and national security”.

    Bagchi told Reuters the post, which is still online, was “light-hearted” and that he wasn’t aware of the takedown order. The chief minister’s office and state police didn’t respond to Reuters queries.

    Of the earlier 2023 post, Shahane, the Satara police officer, told Reuters he couldn’t recall the takedown order, but said police sometimes proactively ask platforms to block offensive viral content.

    ‘CENSORSHIP PORTAL’

    For years, only India’s IT and Information & Broadcasting ministries could order content removal, and only for threats to sovereignty, defense, security, foreign relations, public order, or incitement. Some 99 officials across India could recommend takedowns, but the ministries had the final say.

    While that mechanism remains in place, Modi’s IT ministry in 2023 empowered all federal and state agencies and police to issue takedown notices for “any information which is prohibited under any law”. They could do so under existing legal provisions, the ministry said in a directive, citing the need for “effective” content removal.

    Companies that fail to comply can lose immunity for user content, making them liable for the same penalties a user might face – which could vary greatly depending on the specific material posted.

    Modi’s government went a step further in October 2024. It launched a website called Sahyog – Hindi for collaboration – to “facilitate” the issuance of takedown notices, and asked Indian officials and social media firms to get on board, memos contained in court papers show.

    X didn’t join Sahyog, which it has called a “censorship portal”, and sued the government earlier this year, challenging the legal basis for both the new website and the IT ministry’s 2023 directive.

    In a June 24 filing, X said some of the blocking orders issued by officials “target content involving satire or criticism of the ruling government, and show a pattern of abuse of authority to suppress free speech.”

    Some free-speech advocates have criticised the government’s stricter takedown regime, saying it is designed to stifle dissent.

    “Can a claim that some content is unlawful be termed as indeed unlawful merely because the government claims so?” said Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

    “The executive branch cannot be both the arbiter of legality of media content, and the issuer of takedown notices.”

    RED DINOSAUR

    Court filings reviewed by Reuters show federal and state agencies ordered X to remove around 1,400 posts or accounts between March 2024 and June 2025.

    More than 70% of these removal notices were issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which developed the Sahyog website. The agency is within the home ministry, which is headed by Modi aide Amit Shah, a powerful figure in the ruling BJP.

    To counter X in court, India’s government filed a 92-page report drafted by the cybercrime unit to show X is “hosting illegal content”. The unit analysed nearly 300 posts it deemed unlawful, including misinformation, hoaxes, and child sexual-abuse material.

    X serves as a vehicle for “spreading hate and division” that threatens social harmony, while “fake news” on the platform has sparked unspecified law-and-order issues, the agency said in the report.

    The government’s response to X’s lawsuit highlighted examples of misinformation.
    In January, the cybercrime unit asked X to remove three posts containing what officials said were fabricated images that portrayed Shah’s son, International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah, “in a derogatory manner” alongside a bikini-clad woman. The posts “dishonour prominent office bearers and VIPs”, the notices said.

    Two of those posts remain online. Jay Shah didn’t respond to Reuters queries.
    Other directives went beyond targeting fake news.

    X told the court India’s railways ministry has been issuing orders to censor press reports about matters of public interest. These included February directives seeking the removal of posts by some media outlets, including two by Adani Group’s NDTV (NDTV.NS), that contained news coverage of stampede at New Delhi’s biggest railway station that left 18 dead.

    The NDTV posts are still online. NDTV didn’t respond to Reuters queries and the railways ministry declined to comment.

    In April, police in Chennai asked X to remove many “deeply offensive” and “provocative” posts, including a now-inaccessible cartoon featuring a red dinosaur labelled “inflation”, which portrayed Modi and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state as struggling to control prices.

    The same month, police demanded the removal of another cartoon that mocked the state government’s lack of preparedness for floods by showing a boat with holes. X told the judge the cartoon was posted in November, and it could not “incite political tensions” several months later, as the Chennai police asserted. The post remains online.

    The state government didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    When Reuters visited the Chennai cybercrime police station that issued these directives, Deputy Commissioner B. Geetha criticised X for seldom acting on takedown requests.

    X does not “fully grasp the cultural sensitivities”, she said. “What may be acceptable in some countries can be considered taboo in India.”

  • Google commits $1 billion for AI training at US universities

    Google commits $1 billion for AI training at US universities

    SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday announced a three-year, $1 billion commitment to provide artificial intelligence training and tools to U.S. higher education institutions and nonprofits.

    More than 100 universities have signed on to the initiative so far, including some of the nation’s largest public university systems such as Texas A&M and the University of North Carolina.

    Participating schools may receive cash funding and resources, such as cloud computing credits towards AI training for students as well as research on AI-related topics.

    The billion-dollar figure also includes the value of paid AI tools, such as an advanced version of the Gemini chatbot, which Google will give to college students for free.

    Google hopes to expand the program to every accredited nonprofit college in the U.S. and is discussing similar plans in other countries, Senior Vice President James Manyika said in an interview.

    He declined to specify how much Google is earmarking in direct funds to external institutions relative to footing its own cloud and subscription bills.

    The announcement comes as rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon have made similar pushes around AI in education as the technology pervades society. Microsoft in July pledged $4 billion to bolster AI in education globally.

    By evangelizing their products to students, tech firms further stand to win business deals once those users enter the workforce.

    A growing body of research has mapped concerns around AI’s role in education, from enabling cheating to eroding critical thinking, prompting some schools to consider bans.

    Manyika said Google had not faced resistance from administrators since it began to plot its education initiative earlier this year, but “many more questions” about AI-related concerns remain.

    “We’re hoping to learn together with these institutions about how best to use these tools,” he said, adding that the insights could help shape future product decisions.

  • Hiroshima warns against nuclear weapons as it marks 80 years since A-bomb

    Hiroshima warns against nuclear weapons as it marks 80 years since A-bomb

    Exactly 80 years since an atomic bomb was used in war for the first time, thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Hiroshima on Wednesday, as the city’s mayor warned world leaders about the nuclear warheads that still exist today.

    The western Japanese city of Hiroshima was levelled on Aug. 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy”, killing about 78,000 people instantly.

    Hiroshima was the headquarters of some military units and a major supply base during World War Two. US war planners calculated that the surrounding mountains would concentrate the force of the bomb and enhance its destructiveness.

    “Little Boy” unleashed a surge of heat reaching 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 Fahrenheit) and radiation that killed tens of thousands more by the end of the year. It was followed by a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki three days later, and Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15.

    Representatives from a record 120 countries and territories including nuclear superpower the United States, and Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weaponry, attended the annual ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the milestone year.

    After a moment of silence observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time of the blast, mayor Kazumi Matsui called on leaders to heed the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and warned of the consequences of the global trend towards a military buildup.

    “Among the world’s political leaders, there is a growing belief that possessing nuclear weapons is unavoidable in order to protect their own countries,” he said, noting that the US and Russia possessed 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads.

    Read more: Hiroshima remembers A-bomb victims as ‘global tragedies’ unfold

    “This situation not only nullifies the lessons the international community has learned from the tragic history of the past, but also seriously undermines the frameworks that have been built for peace-building.

    “To all the leaders around the world: Please visit Hiroshima and witness for yourselves the reality of the atomic bombing.”

    Yoshikazu Horie, a 71-year-old tourist, expressed a similar sentiment.

    “It feels more and more like history is repeating itself. Terrible things are happening in Europe … Even in Japan, in Asia, it’s going the same way, it’s very scary,” he said.
    “I’ve got grandchildren and I want peace so they can live their lives happily.”

    In the decades following the attacks, those who survived, called “hibakusha”, often faced discrimination as rumours spread that they carried diseases and their offspring could be tainted. Their numbers fell below 100,000 for the first time this year.

    Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, has stated its commitment to nuclear disarmament but is not a signatory or observer of the U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

  • White House to target banks as Trump claims discrimination

    White House to target banks as Trump claims discrimination

    President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believes that banks, including JPMorgan, and Bank of America, discriminate against him and his supporters, as he prepares to act against banks for allegedly dropping customers for political reasons.

    Donald Trump also said the country’s top two lenders had previously rejected his deposits, ramping up his attack on the industry.

    “They totally discriminate against, I think, me maybe even more, but they discriminate against many conservatives,” he told CNBC in an interview.

    Trump made the comments when asked about a report by the Wall Street Journal that said he planned to punish banks that discriminated against conservatives, but did not address the order specifically.

    The executive order instructs regulators to review banks for “politicized or unlawful debanking” practices, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters. It is likely to be announced on Wednesday, an industry source said.

    “They did discriminate,” Trump said of actions taken by JPMorgan after his first term in office. “I had hundreds of millions, I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash … and they told me, ‘I’m sorry sir, we can’t have you. You have 20 days to get out.’”

    Donald Trump’s latest criticism adds pressure on America’s largest lenders. The order would likely require banks to conduct sweeping reviews of their businesses to comply with regulations.

    Trump said, without providing evidence, that the banks’ refusal to take his deposits indicated that the administration of former President Joe Biden had encouraged regulators to “destroy Donald Trump.”

    Trump said he subsequently tried to deposit funds with BofA and was also refused, and eventually split the cash.

    “I ended up going to small banks all over the place,” he said. “I was putting $10 million here, $10 million there, did $5 million, $10 million, $12 million,” he said, without naming the lenders.

    “I have them all over the place, the craziest thing, and it’s lucky I even had them. They were doing me a favour, and that’s because the banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks.”

    In a statement, JPMorgan did not address the president’s specific claims about his account.

    Read more: Trump says he will ‘substantially’ raise tariffs on India over Russian oil purchases

    “We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” JPMorgan said. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
    BofA also did not address Trump’s specific claims.

    ‘REPUTATIONAL RISK’ ISSUE

    During Biden’s administration, regulators were able to scrutinize banks’ decisions on the basis of reputational risks, a second source familiar with the matter said.

    Lenders were under intense scrutiny and pressure to weigh reputational risks when dealing with Trump because of his legal woes, a third source said.

    JPMorgan continues to have a banking relationship with members of the Trump family that dates back years, and it also banks a number of campaign accounts linked to Trump, the third source said.

    After Trump took power, the Federal Reserve announced in June it was directing its supervisors to no longer consider reputational risk when examining banks, a metric that had been a focus of industry complaints.

    The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that the expected executive order would instruct regulators to investigate whether any financial institutions breach the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, antitrust laws or consumer financial protection laws by dropping customers for political reasons.

    The order could authorize monetary penalties, consent decrees or other disciplinary measures against violators, according to the draft.

    The White House had no immediate comment on the reported order.

    “What the White House is doing is telling the banks not to hide behind regulations to deny loans or banking relationships,” said Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo. “Banks can use their normal underwriting standards and deny services, but not blame regulators or use reputational risk as a justification.”

    BofA said it welcomed the administration’s efforts to clarify the policies.

    “We’ve provided detailed proposals and will continue to work with the administration and Congress to improve the regulatory framework,” the bank said.

    Trump in January admonished the CEOs of JPMorgan and BofA for denying services to conservatives. At the time, the two banks denied making banking decisions based on politics.