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Google Maps has changed the name of "Lake Ontario" to “Lake America” for US users following the executive order by the US President Donald Trump. Donald Trump last Thursday said that he was changing the name of one of the five Great Lakes amid a trade fight between the US and Canada to impose reciprocal tariffs on billions of dollars ​in goods."Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in ​official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and those outside of the ​US and Canada will see both names," said Google in a blog post issued on Saturday.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/ruchika-singh-viral-video-pm-modi-abuse-jantar-mantar-row-1788097474453">Ruchika Singh resurfaces in viral video, says PM Modi ‘made my life hell’ after Jantar Mantar row</a>Google said that these changes follow their long-standing policy where names of water bodies vary from country to country. Google maps have previously did something similar with the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, labelling it the "Gulf of America" following Trump's executive order on his first day in office renaming the body of water. Other nations aren't required to recognise the name.White House Communications Director Steven Cheung celebrated the name change on Sunday in a post on X, saying, "It's official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps."New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said after the president signed the executive order last week, "New York won't be calling it that." &nbsp;Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney immediately rejected ​the lake's name ​change on Thursday. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, on Saturday unveiled a large lakeside sign that reads, "Lake Ontario: Now and Always," in both English ⁠and ​French.

Google Maps will show Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for users in the US after Donald Trump’s executive order, while Canada will retain the original name.

Google Maps has changed the name of "Lake Ontario" to “Lake America” for US users following the executive order by the US President Donald Trump. Donald Trump last Thursday said that he was changing the name of one of the five Great Lakes amid a trade fight between the US and Canada to impose reciprocal tariffs on billions of dollars in goods. "Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names," said Google in a blog post issued on Saturday. Also Read: Ruchika Singh resurfaces in viral video, says PM Modi ‘made my life hell’ after Jantar Mantar row Google said that these changes follow their long-standing policy where names of water bodies vary from country to country. Google maps have previously did something similar with the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, labelling it the "Gulf of America" following Trump's executive order on his first day in office renaming the body of water. Other nations aren't required to recognise the name. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung celebrated the name change on Sunday in a post on X, saying, "It's official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said after the president signed the executive order last week, "New York won't be calling it that." Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney immediately rejected the lake's name change on Thursday. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, on Saturday unveiled a large lakeside sign that reads, "Lake Ontario: Now and Always," in both English ⁠and French.

Google Maps will show Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for users in the US after Donald Trump’s executive order, while Canada will retain the original name.

Google Maps renames Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ for US users after Trump order

Nepal Police have arrested a 32-year-old man in Ramechhap district for allegedly utilising artificial intelligence tools to falsify a high-value donation receipt and attempting to divert disaster relief funds into his personal bank account. The suspect, identified as Bhagwan Karki of Gokulganga Rural Municipality, was taken into custody following an investigation by the District Police Office, Ramechhap. Authorities revealed that Karki used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to generate a fraudulent eSewa transaction statement showing a fake deposit of NPR 120,000, approximately $782, credited to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/nepal-flood-crisis-788-dead-2-500-missing-as-rescue-teams-search-debris-and-tunnels-1788103226025/embed">https://www.wionews.com/videos/nepal-flood-crisis-788-dead-2-500-missing-as-rescue-teams-search-debris-and-tunnels-1788103226025/embed</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;According to police officials, the falsified digital receipt displayed "PRIME MINISTER'S DISASTER RELIEF FUND" as the recipient and carried a legitimate-looking transaction sequence. Karki subsequently posted the fake statement on social media platforms, posing as a generous benefactor supporting victims of the recent devastating Bhotekoshi flash floods. However, alongside the fake proof of payment, he attached a QR code linked directly to his personal eSewa and bank accounts, soliciting secondary contributions from the public under the guise of relief fundraising.Police Inspector Kamal Raut, Information Officer at the District Police Office in Ramechhap, confirmed the arrest and noted that formal legal proceedings under fraud and digital misrepresentation laws are currently underway.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/short-videos/nepal-floods-india-s-4th-relief-flight-delivers-11-tonnes-of-aid-to-nepal-1788074431866">Nepal floods: India’s 4th relief flight delivers 11 tonnes of aid to Nepal</a>&nbsp;

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">प्रधानमन्त्री दैवी प्रकोप उद्धार कोषको नाममा नक्कली स्टेटमेन्ट बनाएर ठगी गर्ने एक जना पक्राउ<a href="https://x.com/hashtag/NepalPolice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NepalPolice</a> <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/BelieveinBlue?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BelieveinBlue</a> <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/ToServeandProtect?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ToServeandProtect</a> <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#नेपालप्रहरी</a> <a href="https://t.co/CAOx4EExco">pic.twitter.com/CAOx4EExco</a>&mdash; Nepal Police (@NepalPoliceHQ) <a href="https://x.com/NepalPoliceHQ/status/2093921566786813957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

&nbsp;The incident comes amidst a surge of digital financial fraud targeting disaster response efforts in the country. Devastating flash floods and landslides in central and northern Nepal have resulted in hundreds of casualties and significant infrastructure damage, prompting billions of rupees in public donations.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nepal-floods-inside-desperate-tunnel-rescue-as-over-100-workers-remain-trapped-1788077866827/amp">Nepal floods: Inside desperate tunnel rescue as over 100 workers remain trapped</a>&nbsp;In response to rising instances of AI-driven scams and unauthorized QR codes, the Nepalese government and Nepal Police issued an official alert urging citizens to donate exclusively through verified channels. Authorities emphasized that contributions should only be made using the official portal and bank accounts explicitly designated under the "Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund" to prevent financial diversion during the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Nepal Police have arrested a 32-year-old man for using ChatGPT to fabricate a fake Rs 1.2 lakh donation statement to the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund and diverting contributions using his personal QR code. 

Nepal Police have arrested a 32-year-old man in Ramechhap district for allegedly utilising artificial intelligence tools to falsify a high-value donation receipt and attempting to divert disaster relief funds into his personal bank account. The suspect, identified as Bhagwan Karki of Gokulganga Rural Municipality, was taken into custody following an investigation by the District Police Office, Ramechhap. Authorities revealed that Karki used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to generate a fraudulent eSewa transaction statement showing a fake deposit of NPR 120,000, approximately $782, credited to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. https://www.wionews.com/videos/nepal-flood-crisis-788-dead-2-500-missing-as-rescue-teams-search-debris-and-tunnels-1788103226025/embed According to police officials, the falsified digital receipt displayed "PRIME MINISTER'S DISASTER RELIEF FUND" as the recipient and carried a legitimate-looking transaction sequence. Karki subsequently posted the fake statement on social media platforms, posing as a generous benefactor supporting victims of the recent devastating Bhotekoshi flash floods. However, alongside the fake proof of payment, he attached a QR code linked directly to his personal eSewa and bank accounts, soliciting secondary contributions from the public under the guise of relief fundraising. Police Inspector Kamal Raut, Information Officer at the District Police Office in Ramechhap, confirmed the arrest and noted that formal legal proceedings under fraud and digital misrepresentation laws are currently underway. Also read: Nepal floods: India’s 4th relief flight delivers 11 tonnes of aid to Nepal

Nepal Police have arrested a 32-year-old man for using ChatGPT to fabricate a fake Rs 1.2 lakh donation statement to the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund and diverting contributions using his personal QR code.&nbsp;

Man uses AI to fake Rs 1.2 lakh Nepal flood donation, diverts relief funds via own QR code

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son, Yair Netanyahu, was flown out of Miami, United States, to Israel following an alleged threat to his life, according to Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet. The threat was deemed so severe that he was ordered to leave immediately, leaving his personal belongings behind.In a statement carried on Saturday evening, the Shin Bet confirmed that “there was a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this and after an assessment, a decision was made to urgently extract him along with his security team and return him to Israel.” The agency did not specify the source or nature of the threat.&nbsp;The agency's comments came after a report by US broadcaster Newsmax earlier this week claiming that Yair Netanyahu was part of an Iranian assassination plot in December 2025, while he was living in Florida. Soon, Benjamin Netanyahu told a pro-government channel, “Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons.”Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/israeli-strikes-gaza-kill-three-year-old-ben-gvir-prison-video-1788091638487">Israeli strikes kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza, including 3-year-old child; Ben Gvir posts video berating female inmates</a>According to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, some Shin Bet agents were moved from New York to carry out the extraction operation, where they were attached to President Isaac Herzog, who was visiting at the time.&nbsp;Yair Netanyahu had spent several years living in Miami “where his reportedly luxurious lifestyle and the state-funded security provided to him repeatedly drew public attention in Israel”. This further drew criticism in Israel following the outbreak of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, with critics questioning why the prime minister’s son remained overseas while hundreds of thousands of Israelis were serving in the military reserves.Yair Netanyahu performs as a conservative podcaster and social media activist. He has on occasion attacked the political opponents of his father, associated with far-right European and American politicians and public figures. &nbsp;

Yair Netanyahu was urgently flown from Miami to Israel after Shin Bet assessed a “significant threat” to his life, according to the Israeli agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son, Yair Netanyahu, was flown out of Miami, United States, to Israel following an alleged threat to his life, according to Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet. The threat was deemed so severe that he was ordered to leave immediately, leaving his personal belongings behind. In a statement carried on Saturday evening, the Shin Bet confirmed that “there was a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this and after an assessment, a decision was made to urgently extract him along with his security team and return him to Israel.” The agency did not specify the source or nature of the threat. The agency's comments came after a report by US broadcaster Newsmax earlier this week claiming that Yair Netanyahu was part of an Iranian assassination plot in December 2025, while he was living in Florida. Soon, Benjamin Netanyahu told a pro-government channel, “Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons.” Also Read: Israeli strikes kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza, including 3-year-old child; Ben Gvir posts video berating female inmates According to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, some Shin Bet agents were moved from New York to carry out the extraction operation, where they were attached to President Isaac Herzog, who was visiting at the time. Yair Netanyahu had spent several years living in Miami “where his reportedly luxurious lifestyle and the state-funded security provided to him repeatedly drew public attention in Israel”. This further drew criticism in Israel following the outbreak of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, with critics questioning why the prime minister’s son remained overseas while hundreds of thousands of Israelis were serving in the military reserves. Yair Netanyahu performs as a conservative podcaster and social media activist. He has on occasion attacked the political opponents of his father, associated with far-right European and American politicians and public figures.

Yair Netanyahu was urgently flown from Miami to Israel after Shin Bet assessed a “significant threat” to his life, according to the Israeli agency.

Yair Netanyahu flown from Miami to Israel after ‘significant’ threat to his life

Austria recorded its highest-ever number of heat-related fatalities during June and July, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) announced on Sunday (Aug 30). The figures come as Western and Central Europe continue to grapple with severe, prolonged heatwaves and persistent drought conditions throughout the summer season.&nbsp;According to statistical data released by AGES, the country documented 646 heat-related deaths across the two months. This surpasses the previous two-month record of 570 deaths set during the same period in 2024. Health authorities calculate these mortality metrics using an advanced statistical model that measures excess mortality by comparing total observed deaths during high-temperature periods against baseline historical averages.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/short-videos/japan-heatwave-human-fridge-chills-japanese-workers-in-extreme-heat-1788057321820">Japan heatwave: 'human fridge' chills Japanese workers in extreme heat</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The surge in mortality corresponds with extreme temperature spikes recorded across the region. In early August, Austria established a new national temperature record when conditions reached 41.2°C (106.16°F) in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, located in eastern Austria. The reading surpassed the prior record of 41°C set in Vienna just one day earlier.&nbsp;Climate scientists emphasise that human-driven climate change is accelerating both the frequency and intensity of severe weather events globally. According to European environmental monitoring agencies, Europe currently holds the distinction of being the world's fastest-warming continent. The compound effects of rising daytime peaks and elevated nighttime temperatures have increased health risks, particularly for vulnerable demographics such as the elderly, young children, and individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular or respiratory conditions.&nbsp;The record figures in Austria reflect broader environmental trends across the continent, where municipal services, healthcare infrastructure, and agricultural sectors are facing sustained strain from prolonged thermal stress. Public health officials continue to urge residents to take protective measures, remain hydrated, and limit physical exposure during peak heat hours as summer temperatures remain elevated.

Austria records a historic high of 646 heat-related deaths in June and July as record-breaking summer heatwaves and extreme temperatures impact the country. 

Austria recorded its highest-ever number of heat-related fatalities during June and July, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) announced on Sunday (Aug 30). The figures come as Western and Central Europe continue to grapple with severe, prolonged heatwaves and persistent drought conditions throughout the summer season. According to statistical data released by AGES, the country documented 646 heat-related deaths across the two months. This surpasses the previous two-month record of 570 deaths set during the same period in 2024. Health authorities calculate these mortality metrics using an advanced statistical model that measures excess mortality by comparing total observed deaths during high-temperature periods against baseline historical averages. Also read: Japan heatwave: 'human fridge' chills Japanese workers in extreme heat The surge in mortality corresponds with extreme temperature spikes recorded across the region. In early August, Austria established a new national temperature record when conditions reached 41.2°C (106.16°F) in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, located in eastern Austria. The reading surpassed the prior record of 41°C set in Vienna just one day earlier. Climate scientists emphasise that human-driven climate change is accelerating both the frequency and intensity of severe weather events globally. According to European environmental monitoring agencies, Europe currently holds the distinction of being the world's fastest-warming continent. The compound effects of rising daytime peaks and elevated nighttime temperatures have increased health risks, particularly for vulnerable demographics such as the elderly, young children, and individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular or respiratory conditions. The record figures in Austria reflect broader environmental trends across the continent, where municipal services, healthcare infrastructure, and agricultural sectors are facing sustained strain from prolonged thermal stress. Public health officials continue to urge residents to take protective measures, remain hydrated, and limit physical exposure during peak heat hours as summer temperatures remain elevated.

Austria records a historic high of 646 heat-related deaths in June and July as record-breaking summer heatwaves and extreme temperatures impact the country.

Austria records historic high in heat-related mortality amid extreme summer

Colorado passed a law prohibiting algorithmic discrimination by companies deploying artificial intelligence. Enforcement of it is now suspended, and the federal government helped bring that about.&nbsp;What Was Stayed&nbsp;On August 28, a magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted a joint motion staying enforcement of the state's AI Act.&nbsp;The word joint is doing significant work there. This was not a court overriding a state against its will. Colorado's own regulators agreed to the stay.&nbsp;The order provides that xAI will file either a motion for preliminary injunction or an amended complaint within 28 days of Colorado adopting rulemaking to implement the law, or new legislation to replace or amend it. In effect, the law is paused while the state decides what it wants the law to be.&nbsp;The Challenge&nbsp;xAI sued to block enforcement, arguing the statute is unconstitutional on three separate grounds.&nbsp;The First Amendment claim treats a model's outputs as protected expression, and a law dictating what those outputs may not do as a restriction on speech. The commerce clause claim argues a single state cannot regulate a national or global product without burdening interstate commerce. The Fourteenth Amendment claim invokes due process and equal protection.&nbsp;The First Amendment argument is the one with the widest consequences, and it is genuinely unsettled. If model outputs are protected speech in the way a newspaper's contents are, a substantial portion of proposed AI regulation becomes constitutionally difficult in the United States, regardless of what any legislature wants.&nbsp;The Part That Is Not Usual&nbsp;The United States Department of Justice moved to intervene in the case on April 24, in support of the challenge to the state law.&nbsp;That was the first time the DOJ sought to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a state AI statute. It is not a small procedural detail. The federal government joined a private company's constitutional attack on a state's own legislation.&nbsp;It also was not improvised. The department established an Artificial Intelligence Litigation Task Force on January 9, with a stated mandate of challenging state laws regulating artificial intelligence.&nbsp;So there is now a standing federal unit whose job is to contest state AI regulation, and its first significant outing has coincided with a state agreeing to suspend its own law.&nbsp;Why This Is Happening&nbsp;The underlying dispute is about who regulates AI in a country where Congress has not.&nbsp;In the absence of federal legislation, states have written their own. Colorado on algorithmic discrimination, California and New York on frontier model disclosure, Illinois on third-party audits. The result is a patchwork, and companies operating nationally face several incompatible regimes at once.&nbsp;There is a legitimate argument in that. A model deployed in fifty states cannot practically comply with fifty different definitions of algorithmic discrimination, and the burden falls hardest on smaller developers who cannot fund fifty compliance programmes.&nbsp;The counter-argument is equally straightforward. The remedy for a patchwork is federal legislation setting a single standard. Striking down state laws without passing one does not produce coherent national regulation. It produces no regulation.&nbsp;Which of those is the intended outcome is the question the task force's existence tends to answer.&nbsp;What Colorado's Law Actually Did&nbsp;It is worth stating, because it has been described in fairly abstract terms.&nbsp;The statute targeted algorithmic discrimination by entities deploying AI systems — automated decisions in areas like employment, lending, housing and insurance that produce disparate outcomes on protected characteristics. It is consumer protection law applied to automated decision-making, not a restriction on what models may be built or what they may say.&nbsp;That gap between what the law regulated and how it is being contested is the substance of the case. Colorado wrote a rule about outcomes in regulated decisions. The challenge argues it is a rule about speech.&nbsp;What Happens Next&nbsp;The stay is not a ruling. Nothing has been decided on the merits, and Colorado retains the ability to rewrite the law in a form that survives challenge.&nbsp;But the practical position today is that a state law against automated discrimination is not being enforced, on the agreement of the state that passed it, in a case where the federal government has taken the company's side.&nbsp;For every other state legislature currently drafting AI rules, that is the fact to weigh.

A federal judge stayed Colorado's algorithmic discrimination law on a joint motion by xAI and the state's regulators. The DOJ had intervened against the law — its first such intervention, by a task force created to challenge state AI rules.

Colorado passed a law prohibiting algorithmic discrimination by companies deploying artificial intelligence. Enforcement of it is now suspended, and the federal government helped bring that about. What Was Stayed On August 28, a magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted a joint motion staying enforcement of the state's AI Act. The word joint is doing significant work there. This was not a court overriding a state against its will. Colorado's own regulators agreed to the stay. The order provides that xAI will file either a motion for preliminary injunction or an amended complaint within 28 days of Colorado adopting rulemaking to implement the law, or new legislation to replace or amend it. In effect, the law is paused while the state decides what it wants the law to be. The Challenge xAI sued to block enforcement, arguing the statute is unconstitutional on three separate grounds. The First Amendment claim treats a model's outputs as protected expression, and a law dictating what those outputs may not do as a restriction on speech. The commerce clause claim argues a single state cannot regulate a national or global product without burdening interstate commerce. The Fourteenth Amendment claim invokes due process and equal protection. The First Amendment argument is the one with the widest consequences, and it is genuinely unsettled. If model outputs are protected speech in the way a newspaper's contents are, a substantial portion of proposed AI regulation becomes constitutionally difficult in the United States, regardless of what any legislature wants. The Part That Is Not Usual The United States Department of Justice moved to intervene in the case on April 24, in support of the challenge to the state law. That was the first time the DOJ sought to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a state AI statute. It is not a small procedural detail. The federal government joined a private company's constitutional attack on a state's own legislation. It also was not improvised. The department established an Artificial Intelligence Litigation Task Force on January 9, with a stated mandate of challenging state laws regulating artificial intelligence. So there is now a standing federal unit whose job is to contest state AI regulation, and its first significant outing has coincided with a state agreeing to suspend its own law. Why This Is Happening The underlying dispute is about who regulates AI in a country where Congress has not. In the absence of federal legislation, states have written their own. Colorado on algorithmic discrimination, California and New York on frontier model disclosure, Illinois on third-party audits. The result is a patchwork, and companies operating nationally face several incompatible regimes at once. There is a legitimate argument in that. A model deployed in fifty states cannot practically comply with fifty different definitions of algorithmic discrimination, and the burden falls hardest on smaller developers who cannot fund fifty compliance programmes. The counter-argument is equally straightforward. The remedy for a patchwork is federal legislation setting a single standard. Striking down state laws without passing one does not produce coherent national regulation. It produces no regulation. Which of those is the intended outcome is the question the task force's existence tends to answer. What Colorado's Law Actually Did It is worth stating, because it has been described in fairly abstract terms. The statute targeted algorithmic discrimination by entities deploying AI systems — automated decisions in areas like employment, lending, housing and insurance that produce disparate outcomes on protected characteristics. It is consumer protection law applied to automated decision-making, not a restriction on what models may be built or what they may say. That gap between what the law regulated and how it is being contested is the substance of the case. Colorado wrote a rule about outcomes in regulated decisions. The challenge argues it is a rule about speech. What Happens Next The stay is not a ruling. Nothing has been decided on the merits, and Colorado retains the ability to rewrite the law in a form that survives challenge. But the practical position today is that a state law against automated discrimination is not being enforced, on the agreement of the state that passed it, in a case where the federal government has taken the company's side. For every other state legislature currently drafting AI rules, that is the fact to weigh.

A federal magistrate judge has stayed enforcement of Colorado's law against algorithmic discrimination, on a joint motion by xAI and the state's own regulators. xAI had sued claiming the law violates the First Amendment, the commerce clause and the Fourteenth Amendment. The US Justice Department intervened to oppose the state law — the first time it has done so against state AI regulation.

Colorado's AI discrimination law is suspended, and the Justice Department helped make it happen

Meta has spent twenty years giving its products away and selling the attention they generate. It is now reported to be preparing a subscription that would cost up to $199.99 a month.&nbsp;What Hatch Is&nbsp;Hatch is a consumer AI agent platform, known by that name internally and derived from work on a system called OpenClaw. Reporting indicates it could launch in late August or early September.&nbsp;It would sit inside Instagram and WhatsApp rather than as a separate app, which matters — those two services reach billions of people who have never downloaded an AI product and never would.&nbsp;The agent has been trained to operate on external websites: DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp and Outlook among them. Early prototypes reportedly include a customisable dashboard displaying tools the agents build, such as fitness trackers or a travel itinerary.&nbsp;A separate model, known internally as Watermelon, is expected in October.&nbsp;A caution on all of the above: this is reporting rather than announcement. Meta has not published pricing, a launch date or a feature list, and internal project names frequently change before anything ships.&nbsp;The Price Is The Story&nbsp;Meta's business has one shape and has had it since the beginning: the product is free, the user is the inventory, and advertisers pay.&nbsp;That model made the company one of the most profitable in history at a scale no subscription business has ever matched. Roughly three billion people use its services. Converting even a fraction of them to a paid tier would be a different company.&nbsp;$199.99 a month is not a fraction-of-users price. It is enterprise software pricing, aimed at people for whom an agent that handles bookings, orders and scheduling saves more than $200 of their time each month. That is a narrow, wealthy, mostly professional audience, and it is not the audience Meta has spent two decades assembling.&nbsp;Which suggests the tier is less about revenue than about establishing that AI capability is something people pay for — and about giving Mark Zuckerberg an answer to the question of how the company's enormous AI expenditure turns into money that does not depend on advertising.&nbsp;The Question Nobody Has Answered&nbsp;An agent that places orders on DoorDash and buys things on Etsy is acting on websites Meta does not own.&nbsp;Those companies have their own terms of service, their own economics and their own views about automated traffic. An agent completing a purchase looks different from a human doing it: it may not see the advertising, may not be influenced by the merchandising, and may treat the site as a database rather than a shop.&nbsp;Some platforms will welcome the orders. Others will see a competitor inserting itself between them and their customer, capturing the relationship and leaving them the fulfilment. That is the position hotels found themselves in with booking aggregators, and it took years and considerable litigation to settle.&nbsp;Whether Meta has agreements with the services Hatch operates on, or is simply automating a browser against them, is the single most consequential unanswered question about this product. The two are very different businesses with very different legal exposure.&nbsp;The Timing Is Not Comfortable&nbsp;Meta is currently on trial in Oakland, where twenty-nine states are asking a federal court to order it to strip design features out of Instagram and Facebook on the argument that they were built to be addictive to minors.&nbsp;Launching an agent embedded in those same apps, at a moment when a court is weighing whether their design is lawful, is a choice. It does not make the product wrong, and the trial concerns features rather than agents. But an AI system trained to act on a teenager's behalf across food delivery and shopping sites will attract exactly the scrutiny the company is already under.&nbsp;It also arrives days after an assessment that graded five frontier laboratories on their internal AI control practices, in which Meta finished last with an F, scoring zero on gated actions, zero on circuit breaking and zero on having a published plan for containing a model that escapes control.&nbsp;An agent with permission to spend money on external websites is precisely the deployment where gated actions and circuit breaking are the controls that matter.&nbsp;What To Watch&nbsp;Three things will determine whether this is significant or a footnote.&nbsp;Whether the price is real, or an anchor at the top of a range that mostly sells at $20. Whether the third-party services cooperate or resist. And whether an agent operating inside WhatsApp — an encrypted messaging service used by two billion people, many of them in India — raises questions about what the agent sees that the encryption was supposed to protect.&nbsp;That last one has not been asked much yet. It will be.

Meta is preparing Hatch, a consumer AI agent inside Instagram and WhatsApp trained to act on DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp and Outlook. Reporting points to a tier reaching $199.99 a month — the first time Meta would charge consumers directly.

Meta has spent twenty years giving its products away and selling the attention they generate. It is now reported to be preparing a subscription that would cost up to $199.99 a month. What Hatch Is Hatch is a consumer AI agent platform, known by that name internally and derived from work on a system called OpenClaw. Reporting indicates it could launch in late August or early September. It would sit inside Instagram and WhatsApp rather than as a separate app, which matters — those two services reach billions of people who have never downloaded an AI product and never would. The agent has been trained to operate on external websites: DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp and Outlook among them. Early prototypes reportedly include a customisable dashboard displaying tools the agents build, such as fitness trackers or a travel itinerary. A separate model, known internally as Watermelon, is expected in October. A caution on all of the above: this is reporting rather than announcement. Meta has not published pricing, a launch date or a feature list, and internal project names frequently change before anything ships. The Price Is The Story Meta's business has one shape and has had it since the beginning: the product is free, the user is the inventory, and advertisers pay. That model made the company one of the most profitable in history at a scale no subscription business has ever matched. Roughly three billion people use its services. Converting even a fraction of them to a paid tier would be a different company. $199.99 a month is not a fraction-of-users price. It is enterprise software pricing, aimed at people for whom an agent that handles bookings, orders and scheduling saves more than $200 of their time each month. That is a narrow, wealthy, mostly professional audience, and it is not the audience Meta has spent two decades assembling. Which suggests the tier is less about revenue than about establishing that AI capability is something people pay for — and about giving Mark Zuckerberg an answer to the question of how the company's enormous AI expenditure turns into money that does not depend on advertising. The Question Nobody Has Answered An agent that places orders on DoorDash and buys things on Etsy is acting on websites Meta does not own. Those companies have their own terms of service, their own economics and their own views about automated traffic. An agent completing a purchase looks different from a human doing it: it may not see the advertising, may not be influenced by the merchandising, and may treat the site as a database rather than a shop. Some platforms will welcome the orders. Others will see a competitor inserting itself between them and their customer, capturing the relationship and leaving them the fulfilment. That is the position hotels found themselves in with booking aggregators, and it took years and considerable litigation to settle. Whether Meta has agreements with the services Hatch operates on, or is simply automating a browser against them, is the single most consequential unanswered question about this product. The two are very different businesses with very different legal exposure. The Timing Is Not Comfortable Meta is currently on trial in Oakland, where twenty-nine states are asking a federal court to order it to strip design features out of Instagram and Facebook on the argument that they were built to be addictive to minors. Launching an agent embedded in those same apps, at a moment when a court is weighing whether their design is lawful, is a choice. It does not make the product wrong, and the trial concerns features rather than agents. But an AI system trained to act on a teenager's behalf across food delivery and shopping sites will attract exactly the scrutiny the company is already under. It also arrives days after an assessment that graded five frontier laboratories on their internal AI control practices, in which Meta finished last with an F, scoring zero on gated actions, zero on circuit breaking and zero on having a published plan for containing a model that escapes control. An agent with permission to spend money on external websites is precisely the deployment where gated actions and circuit breaking are the controls that matter. What To Watch Three things will determine whether this is significant or a footnote. Whether the price is real, or an anchor at the top of a range that mostly sells at $20. Whether the third-party services cooperate or resist. And whether an agent operating inside WhatsApp — an encrypted messaging service used by two billion people, many of them in India — raises questions about what the agent sees that the encryption was supposed to protect. That last one has not been asked much yet. It will be.

Meta is preparing to launch Hatch, a consumer AI agent platform built into Instagram and WhatsApp and trained to operate on outside services including DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp and Outlook. Reporting indicates a tiered subscription reaching $199.99 a month for higher usage limits. It would be the first time Meta has charged consumers directly for a core product.

Meta wants $199.99 a month for an AI agent that orders your DoorDash

At least ​seven people died and 23 were missing after a ferry capsized ‌off North Cyprus on Sunday. The passenger boat carrying nearly 270 people was heading from Northern Cyprus to Turkey when the unfortunate incident happened. According to the Prime Minister of Cyprus, Ünal Üstel &nbsp;237 people had been rescued from the ship, and search efforts were continuing for 23 people.&nbsp;“We have reached 237 people alive. However, we have also recovered seven ​people who lost their lives. We are deeply saddened by this,” said Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman to CNNNone of those rescued was in a critical condition.&nbsp;The privately owned ferry left the port of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus at 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) with 259 passengers and 8 crew members when it started taking on water for an unknown reason, authorities said.&nbsp;ALSO READ: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/how-one-nepali-school-principal-saved-1-643-children-from-deadly-flash-floods-1788091387981">How one Nepali school principal saved 1,643 children from deadly flash floods</a>&nbsp;Four coastguard vessels from northern Cyprus and a passenger vessel took part in rescue operations. Two coastguard helicopters were also pressed into action, said the the Interior Ministry of Turkey.&nbsp;Kurtulmuş, Taking to X extended his condolences to the families of those killed in “this exceedingly tragic incident.”&nbsp;Video from the site showed people in red life jackets sitting or standing on top of the overturned vessel as authorities scrambled coastguard and private vessels for assistance to bring them to ​shore.&nbsp;

The privately owned ferry left the port of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus at 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) with 259 passengers and 8 crew members when it started taking on water.

At least seven people died and 23 were missing after a ferry capsized ‌off North Cyprus on Sunday. The passenger boat carrying nearly 270 people was heading from Northern Cyprus to Turkey when the unfortunate incident happened. According to the Prime Minister of Cyprus, Ünal Üstel 237 people had been rescued from the ship, and search efforts were continuing for 23 people. “We have reached 237 people alive. However, we have also recovered seven people who lost their lives. We are deeply saddened by this,” said Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman to CNN None of those rescued was in a critical condition. The privately owned ferry left the port of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus at 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) with 259 passengers and 8 crew members when it started taking on water for an unknown reason, authorities said. ALSO READ: How one Nepali school principal saved 1,643 children from deadly flash floods Four coastguard vessels from northern Cyprus and a passenger vessel took part in rescue operations. Two coastguard helicopters were also pressed into action, said the the Interior Ministry of Turkey. Kurtulmuş, Taking to X extended his condolences to the families of those killed in “this exceedingly tragic incident.” Video from the site showed people in red life jackets sitting or standing on top of the overturned vessel as authorities scrambled coastguard and private vessels for assistance to bring them to shore.

The privately owned ferry left the port of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus at 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) with 259 passengers and 8 crew members when it started taking on water.

At least 7 killed, 23 missing as ferry capsizes ‌off North Cyprus, Rescue underway

An Israeli strike on Sunday killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child in Central Gaza. The boy has been identified as Tayyem ​Hamdan. According to Gaza health officials, the strike happened near a bakery in Deir Al-Balah and also killed another ​man, Hussam Nusair and wounded several others.&nbsp;The Israeli Military said that in another attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Saturday killed Yasser Abu al-Khair and Mohammed al-Adin, members of the elite Nukhba force in Hamas’s military wing, were killed, the Israeli army has claimed.Gaza's Health Ministry said Sunday that four people were killed and 14 injured as a result of Israeli strikes carried out in the past 24 hours against the besieged Palestinian territory.&nbsp;A “cease-fire” backed by the United States has been in place since October 2025; it was intended to end Israel's Genocidal war on Gaza. However, Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip has continued daily, killing at least 1,318 Palestinians and injuring 4,375 others since then. &nbsp;Hamas accuses Israel of violating the cease-fire; it has already dissolved its institutions in Gaza and agreed to a roadmap on its disarmament before announcing it was handing over management of the Gaza Strip to a technocratic government. The plan requires Israeli withdrawl from the Gaza enclave, over 60 per cent of which is occupied by Israel. Israel rejected the agreement, demanding the total and verifiable disarmament of Hamas.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-judge-blocks-deportation-pro-palestinian-speech-1788083492052">US judge blocks Trump's deportation of noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech</a><h2>Israeli minister Ben Gvir posts video mocking Palestinian female inmates</h2>Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts a video on Sunday berating Palestinian female inmates at the Damon security prison in northern Israel. He boasted about the harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian security prisoners. One of the prisoners said prison staff regularly raid the cells, that inmates have no “normal showers” or water in their cells, and do not receive medical care. Ben Gvir responded approvingly as he compared the treatment to that of hostages held for up to two years by Hamas in Gaza following October 7, 2023. Hamas has condemned far-right Israeli security minister Ben Gvir’s raid of a Palestinian women’s prison cell, calling it “moral depravity”.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">זה לא עובד עליי ״ההתבכיינויות״ של המחבלות על התנאים בבתי הכלא, לחטופים שלנו לא היו שום תנאים, אמשיך להוביל מדיניות מינימום של המינימום! <a href="https://t.co/4WTESzG5eH">pic.twitter.com/4WTESzG5eH</a>&mdash; איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) <a href="https://x.com/itamarbengvir/status/2093958408315478500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child, as minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video from a Palestinian women's prison.

An Israeli strike on Sunday killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child in Central Gaza. The boy has been identified as Tayyem Hamdan. According to Gaza health officials, the strike happened near a bakery in Deir Al-Balah and also killed another man, Hussam Nusair and wounded several others. The Israeli Military said that in another attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Saturday killed Yasser Abu al-Khair and Mohammed al-Adin, members of the elite Nukhba force in Hamas’s military wing, were killed, the Israeli army has claimed. Gaza's Health Ministry said Sunday that four people were killed and 14 injured as a result of Israeli strikes carried out in the past 24 hours against the besieged Palestinian territory. A “cease-fire” backed by the United States has been in place since October 2025; it was intended to end Israel's Genocidal war on Gaza. However, Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip has continued daily, killing at least 1,318 Palestinians and injuring 4,375 others since then. Hamas accuses Israel of violating the cease-fire; it has already dissolved its institutions in Gaza and agreed to a roadmap on its disarmament before announcing it was handing over management of the Gaza Strip to a technocratic government. The plan requires Israeli withdrawl from the Gaza enclave, over 60 per cent of which is occupied by Israel. Israel rejected the agreement, demanding the total and verifiable disarmament of Hamas. Also Read: US judge blocks Trump's deportation of noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech Israeli minister Ben Gvir posts video mocking Palestinian female inmates Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts a video on Sunday berating Palestinian female inmates at the Damon security prison in northern Israel. He boasted about the harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian security prisoners. One of the prisoners said prison staff regularly raid the cells, that inmates have no “normal showers” or water in their cells, and do not receive medical care. Ben Gvir responded approvingly as he compared the treatment to that of hostages held for up to two years by Hamas in Gaza following October 7, 2023. Hamas has condemned far-right Israeli security minister Ben Gvir’s raid of a Palestinian women’s prison cell, calling it “moral depravity”.

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child, as minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video from a Palestinian women's prison.

Israeli strikes kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza, including 3-year-old child; Ben Gvir posts video berating female inmates

NASA successfully launched its newest space telescope—the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday. The new space telescope will help scientists probe the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and other mysteries of the universe.The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is about the size of a tour bus, lifted off on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The 18,000-pound spacecraft is now on a million-mile journey that will take it to its new home in space, where it will survey vast areas of the universe to study dark energy, dark matter and exoplanets, with a field of view far larger than that of the Hubble.&nbsp;Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be finally placed in its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point known as L2, where the competing gravitational pulls of the Earth and the Sun will keep it steady while using minimal fuel. The James Webb Space Telescope also orbits at this point, which gives the spacecraft an unobstructed view of the sky.&nbsp;Roman was initially designed as a spy telescope for the National Reconnaissance Office but was donated to NASA later. It was named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer who was known as the ‘Mother of Hubble’ for championing the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Her namesake observatory will have the sharpness of Hubble, but its field of view is 100 times larger, which will enable it to cover huge swaths of the sky at once.&nbsp;<h2>Telescope to help uncover cosmic mysteries</h2>&nbsp;Roman is on a kind of ghost hunt, searching for more evidence of dark matter—mysterious, invisible stuff whose gravitational influence appears to hold galaxies together and define the overarching structure of the cosmos. It will also study how gravity subtly affects the path of light along great distances throughout a massive survey of the sky.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I’ll take ‘Launching Soon’ for 1000, Ken. Want to be ready for an entire Jeopardy category on NASA&#39;s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope? Here&#39;s everything you need to know about our latest deep space telescope in just 7 minutes. <a href="https://t.co/SFqamPTsJd">pic.twitter.com/SFqamPTsJd</a>&mdash; Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (@NASARoman) <a href="https://x.com/NASARoman/status/2092659814459465995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

&nbsp;&nbsp;Roman will also search for planets outside our solar system. More than 6,000 exoplanets have been identified since astronomers confirmed their existence in the 1990s. NASA expects to identify more than 100,000 of them with Roman’s help by identifying dips in starlight caused by a planet passing in front of its own star.&nbsp;<h2>Roman to send 1.4 terabytes of raw data each day</h2>&nbsp;The telescope will beam back 1.4 terabytes of raw science data each day, using a refrigerator-sized high-gain antenna. The data will be available immediately to scientists and the public.Because of the massive amounts of data, NASA is making it available to anyone through a cloud-based system called Roman Nexus. This will make this mission unique, as anyone can look at the raw data and find new discoveries.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Astronomers will also use Roman’s observations to uncover dark energy, the strange force that is believed to drive the expansion of the universe.Scientists' understanding of dark energy comes from observations of a kind of exploding star known as a Type Ia supernova. These supernovas appear to shine at known and predictable brightness throughout the cosmos, giving them the nickname of 'standard candles'. By cataloguing even more of these supernovas, scientists hope to develop a better understanding of how dark energy works, which could fundamentally change the way astronomers view the universe.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was initially designed as a spy telescope for the National Reconnaissance Office but was donated to NASA later. It was named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer who was known as the ‘Mother of Hubble’.

NASA successfully launched its newest space telescope—the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday. The new space telescope will help scientists probe the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and other mysteries of the universe. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is about the size of a tour bus, lifted off on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. The 18,000-pound spacecraft is now on a million-mile journey that will take it to its new home in space, where it will survey vast areas of the universe to study dark energy, dark matter and exoplanets, with a field of view far larger than that of the Hubble. Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be finally placed in its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point known as L2, where the competing gravitational pulls of the Earth and the Sun will keep it steady while using minimal fuel. The James Webb Space Telescope also orbits at this point, which gives the spacecraft an unobstructed view of the sky. Roman was initially designed as a spy telescope for the National Reconnaissance Office but was donated to NASA later. It was named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer who was known as the ‘Mother of Hubble’ for championing the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Her namesake observatory will have the sharpness of Hubble, but its field of view is 100 times larger, which will enable it to cover huge swaths of the sky at once. Telescope to help uncover cosmic mysteries Roman is on a kind of ghost hunt, searching for more evidence of dark matter—mysterious, invisible stuff whose gravitational influence appears to hold galaxies together and define the overarching structure of the cosmos. It will also study how gravity subtly affects the path of light along great distances throughout a massive survey of the sky.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was initially designed as a spy telescope for the National Reconnaissance Office but was donated to NASA later. It was named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer who was known as the ‘Mother of Hubble’.

NASA successfully launches Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, to unravel new mysteries of universe

An AI company told the United States military there were things it would not let its technology do. The military tried to blacklist it for saying so. A federal judge has now ruled that punishment illegal.&nbsp;The Ruling&nbsp;US District Judge Rita Lin, sitting in San Francisco, held that the Department of Defense violated the First Amendment when it designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk.&nbsp;That designation is a serious instrument. It is applied to companies whose products might expose military systems to infiltration or sabotage by adversaries, and it effectively excludes a firm from federal work.&nbsp;Lin found it had been applied here for a different purpose. The department acted, she wrote, out of a desire to make a public example of the company.&nbsp;Her 59-page decision contains the line that will be quoted for years: ‘The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics.’&nbsp;What Anthropic Refused To Do&nbsp;The dispute began with two specific refusals. Anthropic would not permit its Claude models to be used for surveillance of Americans, or in fully autonomous weapons.&nbsp;It is worth being precise about the scope, because it is narrower than the framing sometimes suggests. This was not a refusal to work with the military. Anthropic sells to government, and the disagreement concerned two categories of use rather than the relationship itself.&nbsp;Anthropic's suit alleged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had overstepped his authority, and characterised the administration's response as an unlawful campaign of retaliation.&nbsp;The Complication Nobody Should Skip&nbsp;There is a second case, and it went the other way.&nbsp;Anthropic filed in two places: the federal district court in San Francisco, and a federal appeals court in Washington DC. In April, the Washington panel declined to issue an order shielding Anthropic from the consequences of the designation while it continued gathering evidence.&nbsp;So the same dispute has now produced opposite outcomes in two courts four months apart. Industry figures have said publicly that the conflict muddles the landscape for anyone trying to work out what the rules actually are.&nbsp;That is a real caveat on this week's ruling and it belongs in any honest account of it. Lin's decision is the more recent and the more substantive — a merits ruling rather than a refusal of interim relief — but it is a district court decision that the government can appeal, and a separate appellate body has already declined to help Anthropic once.&nbsp;Why It Matters Beyond One Company&nbsp;The question underneath the litigation is whether an AI company can set limits on how a government uses its technology without being punished for it.&nbsp;Every frontier laboratory has published a usage policy restricting certain applications. Those policies are the primary mechanism by which the industry claims to govern itself, and they are the thing regulators, journalists and customers are repeatedly pointed to as evidence that self-regulation works.&nbsp;A usage policy that cannot be enforced against the most powerful customer in the world is not a usage policy. If refusing a government application results in exclusion from federal contracting, then the policies survive only for as long as no one important tests them.&nbsp;Lin's ruling says the government cannot make that trade explicit. It does not stop the government making it quietly, through procurement decisions that are harder to attribute.&nbsp;The Timing&nbsp;The ruling arrives while Anthropic is preparing to go public.&nbsp;The company has filed confidentially, its annualised revenue reached roughly $65 billion by the end of July, and investors have discussed a valuation that would make it the largest listing ever completed. An unresolved federal blacklisting is precisely the kind of contingency that has to be disclosed to prospective shareholders and precisely the kind that depresses a price.&nbsp;Removing it, even provisionally, is worth a great deal to Anthropic in the next two months. That does not make the ruling wrong, but it explains why this particular decision, in this particular week, is a larger commercial event than the underlying contract value would suggest.&nbsp;What To Watch&nbsp;Three things determine whether this holds.&nbsp;Whether the government appeals Lin's decision, and to which circuit. Whether the Washington case, still collecting evidence, eventually reaches a conclusion that conflicts with hers on the merits rather than on interim relief. And whether other laboratories now hold firmer lines in their own government contracts, having watched one company be punished for it and then win.&nbsp;The last of those is the one with consequences for everybody else. An industry that governs itself through usage policies has just been shown both what enforcement costs and that a court may cover the cost afterwards.

Judge Rita Lin ruled the Pentagon violated the First Amendment by branding Anthropic a supply-chain risk after it refused to allow Claude to be used for US surveillance or autonomous weapons. A Washington appeals court ruled otherwise in April.

An AI company told the United States military there were things it would not let its technology do. The military tried to blacklist it for saying so. A federal judge has now ruled that punishment illegal. The Ruling US District Judge Rita Lin, sitting in San Francisco, held that the Department of Defense violated the First Amendment when it designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk. That designation is a serious instrument. It is applied to companies whose products might expose military systems to infiltration or sabotage by adversaries, and it effectively excludes a firm from federal work. Lin found it had been applied here for a different purpose. The department acted, she wrote, out of a desire to make a public example of the company. Her 59-page decision contains the line that will be quoted for years: ‘The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics.’ What Anthropic Refused To Do The dispute began with two specific refusals. Anthropic would not permit its Claude models to be used for surveillance of Americans, or in fully autonomous weapons. It is worth being precise about the scope, because it is narrower than the framing sometimes suggests. This was not a refusal to work with the military. Anthropic sells to government, and the disagreement concerned two categories of use rather than the relationship itself. Anthropic's suit alleged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had overstepped his authority, and characterised the administration's response as an unlawful campaign of retaliation. The Complication Nobody Should Skip There is a second case, and it went the other way. Anthropic filed in two places: the federal district court in San Francisco, and a federal appeals court in Washington DC. In April, the Washington panel declined to issue an order shielding Anthropic from the consequences of the designation while it continued gathering evidence. So the same dispute has now produced opposite outcomes in two courts four months apart. Industry figures have said publicly that the conflict muddles the landscape for anyone trying to work out what the rules actually are. That is a real caveat on this week's ruling and it belongs in any honest account of it. Lin's decision is the more recent and the more substantive — a merits ruling rather than a refusal of interim relief — but it is a district court decision that the government can appeal, and a separate appellate body has already declined to help Anthropic once. Why It Matters Beyond One Company The question underneath the litigation is whether an AI company can set limits on how a government uses its technology without being punished for it. Every frontier laboratory has published a usage policy restricting certain applications. Those policies are the primary mechanism by which the industry claims to govern itself, and they are the thing regulators, journalists and customers are repeatedly pointed to as evidence that self-regulation works. A usage policy that cannot be enforced against the most powerful customer in the world is not a usage policy. If refusing a government application results in exclusion from federal contracting, then the policies survive only for as long as no one important tests them. Lin's ruling says the government cannot make that trade explicit. It does not stop the government making it quietly, through procurement decisions that are harder to attribute. The Timing The ruling arrives while Anthropic is preparing to go public. The company has filed confidentially, its annualised revenue reached roughly $65 billion by the end of July, and investors have discussed a valuation that would make it the largest listing ever completed. An unresolved federal blacklisting is precisely the kind of contingency that has to be disclosed to prospective shareholders and precisely the kind that depresses a price. Removing it, even provisionally, is worth a great deal to Anthropic in the next two months. That does not make the ruling wrong, but it explains why this particular decision, in this particular week, is a larger commercial event than the underlying contract value would suggest. What To Watch Three things determine whether this holds. Whether the government appeals Lin's decision, and to which circuit. Whether the Washington case, still collecting evidence, eventually reaches a conclusion that conflicts with hers on the merits rather than on interim relief. And whether other laboratories now hold firmer lines in their own government contracts, having watched one company be punished for it and then win. The last of those is the one with consequences for everybody else. An industry that governs itself through usage policies has just been shown both what enforcement costs and that a court may cover the cost afterwards.

A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the Pentagon acted illegally when it designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk after the company refused to let its Claude models be used for US surveillance or autonomous weapons. Judge Rita Lin found a First Amendment violation. A separate appeals court in Washington declined to block the same designation in April, leaving two courts at odds.

A judge told the Pentagon it cannot punish Anthropic for refusing to build surveillance tools

X has opened its advertising data to rival AI systems. Advertisers can now connect campaign performance to ChatGPT, Claude Code, Grok or a custom agent, and ask questions in plain language.&nbsp;What Was Built&nbsp;The mechanism is a Model Context Protocol server for X Ads.&nbsp;Model Context Protocol is a specification for connecting AI systems to external data and tools. Rather than each model maintaining a bespoke integration with each service, a service publishes one MCP server and any compliant system can use it. It was introduced by Anthropic and has since been adopted broadly, including by companies that compete with Anthropic directly.&nbsp;For advertisers the practical effect is that campaign analytics stop being something you read in a dashboard and become something you interrogate. A marketer can ask why performance dropped in a segment, or what to change in a creative, inside whichever AI tool they already work in.&nbsp;The Part Worth Noticing&nbsp;X is owned by Elon Musk, who also owns xAI, which makes Grok.&nbsp;An MCP server is deliberately model-agnostic. By building one, X has made its advertising data equally available to OpenAI's models and Anthropic's as to its own — which is a commercially generous thing to do for competitors.&nbsp;That is more interesting than it first appears, and it happened in the same week OpenAI told Cursor it would cut off model access on November 12 because SpaceX had bought Cursor's parent company. OpenAI's stated reason was that it could not be confident a Musk company would honour its terms of service.&nbsp;So one Musk-owned platform is opening its data to OpenAI's models while OpenAI is closing its models to another Musk-owned platform. Both decisions are defensible on their own terms. Together they say something about how unevenly this industry is deciding who to interoperate with.&nbsp;Why Open It At All&nbsp;The commercial logic is not complicated, and it is worth stating because generosity is rarely the explanation.&nbsp;Advertising platforms compete for budget, not for model loyalty. Anything that makes X's ad performance easier to analyse makes it easier to justify spending there, and a marketer who can interrogate X's numbers in the tool they already use is more likely to keep using X than one who has to open a separate dashboard.&nbsp;The data being exposed is also the advertiser's own campaign data rather than X's proprietary user information. That is a meaningful distinction: X is not opening its audience graph, it is making a customer's own results portable into a customer's own tools.&nbsp;Where MCP Has Got To&nbsp;The larger story is the protocol rather than the product.&nbsp;Eighteen months ago the question in AI was which model would win. The competitive ground has since moved to how models reach data and take actions, and MCP has become the connective tissue for that. Google has been pushing its own Agent Payments Protocol, the American standards body has been working on agent identity and permissions, and there is legislation before Congress addressing verifiable, task-bounded authorisation for agents.&nbsp;Standards work is usually the least interesting thing happening in a technology sector and the most consequential. Whoever's protocol becomes default determines what agents can reach, what permissions look like, and who can audit what an agent did.&nbsp;The Security Question Underneath&nbsp;There is a caution that applies to every MCP integration and is worth attaching to this one.&nbsp;Connecting an AI system to a live business account gives it read access to real data and, depending on scope, the ability to act. That is the same class of arrangement behind the finding that 65 per cent of organisations experienced a security incident caused by AI agents on their own networks in the past year.&nbsp;An advertising integration is at the milder end of that. It is analytics rather than spend authority, at least as described. But the pattern of the past year is that permissions granted for analysis get widened to action once the analysis proves useful, and the security review rarely gets repeated when they do.&nbsp;What To Watch&nbsp;Whether the integration stays read-only, or eventually lets an agent adjust budgets and pause campaigns without a human approving each change.&nbsp;That is the line between a better dashboard and an agent spending money. The first is a convenience. The second is the thing every enterprise security team spent this year discovering it was not ready for.

X has launched a Model Context Protocol server for its ads platform, letting marketers query campaign data inside ChatGPT, Claude Code or Grok — in the same week OpenAI moved to cut off a different Musk-owned company.

X has opened its advertising data to rival AI systems. Advertisers can now connect campaign performance to ChatGPT, Claude Code, Grok or a custom agent, and ask questions in plain language. What Was Built The mechanism is a Model Context Protocol server for X Ads. Model Context Protocol is a specification for connecting AI systems to external data and tools. Rather than each model maintaining a bespoke integration with each service, a service publishes one MCP server and any compliant system can use it. It was introduced by Anthropic and has since been adopted broadly, including by companies that compete with Anthropic directly. For advertisers the practical effect is that campaign analytics stop being something you read in a dashboard and become something you interrogate. A marketer can ask why performance dropped in a segment, or what to change in a creative, inside whichever AI tool they already work in. The Part Worth Noticing X is owned by Elon Musk, who also owns xAI, which makes Grok. An MCP server is deliberately model-agnostic. By building one, X has made its advertising data equally available to OpenAI's models and Anthropic's as to its own — which is a commercially generous thing to do for competitors. That is more interesting than it first appears, and it happened in the same week OpenAI told Cursor it would cut off model access on November 12 because SpaceX had bought Cursor's parent company. OpenAI's stated reason was that it could not be confident a Musk company would honour its terms of service. So one Musk-owned platform is opening its data to OpenAI's models while OpenAI is closing its models to another Musk-owned platform. Both decisions are defensible on their own terms. Together they say something about how unevenly this industry is deciding who to interoperate with. Why Open It At All The commercial logic is not complicated, and it is worth stating because generosity is rarely the explanation. Advertising platforms compete for budget, not for model loyalty. Anything that makes X's ad performance easier to analyse makes it easier to justify spending there, and a marketer who can interrogate X's numbers in the tool they already use is more likely to keep using X than one who has to open a separate dashboard. The data being exposed is also the advertiser's own campaign data rather than X's proprietary user information. That is a meaningful distinction: X is not opening its audience graph, it is making a customer's own results portable into a customer's own tools. Where MCP Has Got To The larger story is the protocol rather than the product. Eighteen months ago the question in AI was which model would win. The competitive ground has since moved to how models reach data and take actions, and MCP has become the connective tissue for that. Google has been pushing its own Agent Payments Protocol, the American standards body has been working on agent identity and permissions, and there is legislation before Congress addressing verifiable, task-bounded authorisation for agents. Standards work is usually the least interesting thing happening in a technology sector and the most consequential. Whoever's protocol becomes default determines what agents can reach, what permissions look like, and who can audit what an agent did. The Security Question Underneath There is a caution that applies to every MCP integration and is worth attaching to this one. Connecting an AI system to a live business account gives it read access to real data and, depending on scope, the ability to act. That is the same class of arrangement behind the finding that 65 per cent of organisations experienced a security incident caused by AI agents on their own networks in the past year. An advertising integration is at the milder end of that. It is analytics rather than spend authority, at least as described. But the pattern of the past year is that permissions granted for analysis get widened to action once the analysis proves useful, and the security review rarely gets repeated when they do. What To Watch Whether the integration stays read-only, or eventually lets an agent adjust budgets and pause campaigns without a human approving each change. That is the line between a better dashboard and an agent spending money. The first is a convenience. The second is the thing every enterprise security team spent this year discovering it was not ready for.

X has launched a Model Context Protocol server for its advertising platform, letting marketers connect campaign data and analytics to outside AI systems including ChatGPT, Claude Code and Grok, and query performance in natural language. The same week, OpenAI moved to cut off a Musk-owned company — making the openness on one side and the exclusion on the other worth reading together.

X is letting advertisers pipe their campaign data straight into ChatGPT and Claude

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a four-day visit to Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. During his first day of visit on Sunday PM Modi held delegation-level talks with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Sunday at the Kuksaroy Presidential Palace in Tashkent, with the two sides discussing ways to further strengthen bilateral ties.&nbsp;PM Modi hailed the strategic partnership between the two countries.&nbsp;"This year, our strategic partnership is turning 15 years. On this occasion, we decided to make our relationship a comprehensive strategic partnership," said PM Modi.&nbsp;"A stronger India-Uzbekistan will be a powerful force of peace, progress, and prosperity in Central Asia," Modi added.&nbsp;Both the sides discussed terrorism with PM Modi saying "Terrorism, Extremism, and Separatism is a big challenge for the region. Against these challenges, we have resolved to adopt a zero-tolerance policy."&nbsp;<h2>Why PM Modi's visit is important?</h2>&nbsp;Central Asia has always been considered the backyard of Russia as nearly 20-30 per cent of its population speaks Russian. In addition, the region is widely considered to be extremely rich in mineral and natural resources. In terms of resources, Kazakhstan holds one of the largest uranium reserves in the world, along with coal, lead, zinc, gold, and iron ore. The Kyrgyz Republic is rich in gold and hydro-power potential, while Turkmenistan possesses vast natural gas reserves. Tajikistan also has significant hydro-power capacity, and Uzbekistan is endowed with gold, uranium, and natural gas resources.&nbsp;Other than minerals, India's engagement with the Central Asian countries also includes security cooperation after the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, countering China’s influence, connectivity plans including the International North South Transit Corridor, energy needs (Kazakhstan has uranium reserves and Turkmenistan is part of the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline), old cultural links and future trade.

Both the sides also discussed terrorism with PM Modi saying "Terrorism, Extremism, and Separatism is a big challenge for the region. Against these challenges, we have resolved to adopt a zero-tolerance policy."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a four-day visit to Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. During his first day of visit on Sunday PM Modi held delegation-level talks with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Sunday at the Kuksaroy Presidential Palace in Tashkent, with the two sides discussing ways to further strengthen bilateral ties. PM Modi hailed the strategic partnership between the two countries. "This year, our strategic partnership is turning 15 years. On this occasion, we decided to make our relationship a comprehensive strategic partnership," said PM Modi. "A stronger India-Uzbekistan will be a powerful force of peace, progress, and prosperity in Central Asia," Modi added. Both the sides discussed terrorism with PM Modi saying "Terrorism, Extremism, and Separatism is a big challenge for the region. Against these challenges, we have resolved to adopt a zero-tolerance policy." Why PM Modi's visit is important? Central Asia has always been considered the backyard of Russia as nearly 20-30 per cent of its population speaks Russian. In addition, the region is widely considered to be extremely rich in mineral and natural resources. In terms of resources, Kazakhstan holds one of the largest uranium reserves in the world, along with coal, lead, zinc, gold, and iron ore. The Kyrgyz Republic is rich in gold and hydro-power potential, while Turkmenistan possesses vast natural gas reserves. Tajikistan also has significant hydro-power capacity, and Uzbekistan is endowed with gold, uranium, and natural gas resources. Other than minerals, India's engagement with the Central Asian countries also includes security cooperation after the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, countering China’s influence, connectivity plans including the International North South Transit Corridor, energy needs (Kazakhstan has uranium reserves and Turkmenistan is part of the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline), old cultural links and future trade.

Both the sides also discussed terrorism with PM Modi saying "Terrorism, Extremism, and Separatism is a big challenge for the region. Against these challenges, we have resolved to adopt a zero-tolerance policy."

Stronger India-Uzbekistan will be powerful force of peace: PM Modi

Nepal Tibet LIVE updates: Nepal’s death toll from this week’s devastating floods has risen to 734, the country’s disaster authority said Sunday, as rescue teams continue searching for thousands of people missing after a massive surge of water, ice and debris tore through Himalayan communities. China earlier reported 16 deaths, bringing the total death toll in the disaster to 750. Across Nepal and Tibet, more than 3,000 people remain unaccounted for.The disaster struck Wednesday along the China-Nepal border after a glacial collapse sent a powerful torrent through valleys, sweeping away settlements, bridges and roads. The US Geological Survey has attributed the flooding to a glacial collapse which sent a wall of water and debris downstream.<h2>Rescue teams race to trapped workers</h2>In Nepal, rescuers are focusing on hydropower project tunnels where more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped. At the Trishuli 3A site, the Nepali Army successfully inserted a pipe into a tunnel and began sending air through the narrow opening, Home Minister Sudan Gurung said. Heavy rain and rising river levels, however, have complicated the operation.Nepal’s disaster authority lists 933 hydropower workers among the missing, along with 517 foreigners, including trekkers and pilgrims travelling towards Mount Kailash.The Isha Foundation said 80 members were on a pilgrimage in the region. It said there were no encouraging indications of survivors at the immigration office area.<h2>International aid pours in</h2>The scale of the destruction has triggered a major international relief effort. The United States and Canada have each pledged $3.6 million, while Britain has offered $6.8 million. The UN has released $2.5 million in emergency funding.Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal warned that rebuilding could cost “billions of dollars” and called for specialised equipment, including heavy-lift drones and technology to locate people trapped underground.<h2>Fresh flood threat</h2>The disaster has also raised fears of further flooding from lakes formed by the deluge.In Tibet, rescue operations were temporarily halted around Gyirong over concerns that a newly formed lake could overflow. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV later said the lake was “discharging naturally” and had been “essentially drained”.Meanwhile, Indian officials said seven bodies believed to be flood victims had been recovered from rivers flowing from Nepal.

Figures released by Nepalese officials and Chinese authorities overseeing Tibet put the total number of missing people at 3,048, with 768 confirmed deaths. Nepal reported that 2,502 people, including 592 foreign nationals, remain out of contact in the country. The death toll there rose to 752 as of Sunday.Tibet, an autonomous region of China, remained largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, making it difficult to independently assess the full scale of the disaster. China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that 546 people were missing and 16 had died. Of those reported missing in Tibet, 261 were foreign nationals, according to CCTV.

3,048 missing across Nepal and Tibet, with 768 confirmed dead

&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Update on Indian Nationals rescued in Nepal ⬇️ &lt;a href="https://t.co/sgT6k5rzCM"&gt;pic.twitter.com/sgT6k5rzCM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) &lt;a href="https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/2094039357653176546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;August 30, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Update on Indian Nationals rescued in Nepal by MEA

&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="ne" dir="ltr"&gt;प्रधानमन्त्री दैवी प्रकोप उद्धार कोषको नाममा नक्कली स्टेटमेन्ट बनाएर ठगी गर्ने एक जना पक्राउ&lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/NepalPolice?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#NepalPolice&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/BelieveinBlue?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#BelieveinBlue&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/ToServeandProtect?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#ToServeandProtect&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#नेपालप्रहरी&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/CAOx4EExco"&gt;pic.twitter.com/CAOx4EExco&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Nepal Police (@NepalPoliceHQ) &lt;a href="https://x.com/NepalPoliceHQ/status/2093921566786813957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;August 30, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Rescue efferts at &lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/UpperTrishuli3A?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#UpperTrishuli3A&lt;/a&gt; Tunnel&lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#नेपालीसेना&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/BhoteKoshiFlood?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#BhoteKoshiFlood&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/NepaliArmy?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#NepaliArmy&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/jIh2zSBRvN"&gt;pic.twitter.com/jIh2zSBRvN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Nepali Army (@NepaliArmyHQ) &lt;a href="https://x.com/NepaliArmyHQ/status/2094013965231931695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;August 30, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Nepal Flood: Rescue efforts at UpperTrishuli 3A Tunnel continues

Nepal Death Toll Rises to 752

Nepali rescuers resumed a desperate search on Sunday for hydropower workers believed to be trapped inside tunnels buried under flood debris, as difficult weather and swollen rivers continued to hamper operations. The disaster’s death toll has climbed to 750, while more than 3,000 people remain missing in Nepal and Tibet.

Nepal floods: Inside desperate tunnel rescue as over 100 workers remain trapped

India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement that the Indian forensic team has been deployed to Nepal to help their counterparts in identifying flash flood victims. “Ambassador Naveen Srivastava met members of the Indian Forensic Team deployed to Nepal. The team will work alongside their Nepali counterparts in analysing DNA samples to assist in identifying the mortal remains of the victims of the recent flash floods,” he said.

Indian forensic team to help identify flash flood victims: MEA

A brief 20-minute halt at a Buddhist temple ended up saving their lives—a realisation that left a 31-member group of Keralites in tears and disbelief as they returned safely to the state on Sunday, having been stuck in Nepal amid the devastating flash floods. "Around 20-25 minutes we spent at a Buddha temple at the request of the women in our group helped save us from the tragedy," one of the men told news agency PTI. "But for the delay, we would have been crossing the bridge and road when they were completely washed away," he said, recalling the narrow escape.

31 Keralites return from flood-hit Nepal

The water levels in the Bhotekoshi River has rose again on Sunday, days after a devastating flash flood hit Nepal killing nearly 600 people. Authorities urged residents and rescue personnel in flood-hit districts to remain alert. In a statement, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) warned that water levels in the river had risen again.

Kathmandu warns of rising water levels in Bhote Koshi River

&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#WATCH&lt;/a&gt; | Trishuli, Nepal: Debris being cleared after a devastating flood tore through an area. &lt;a href="https://t.co/Pzj2FTEBzP"&gt;pic.twitter.com/Pzj2FTEBzP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; ANI (@ANI) &lt;a href="https://x.com/ANI/status/2093966119178817747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;August 30, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Debris being cleared after a devastating flood tore through an area.

The burial pits are being dug to a depth of 1.5 metres to ensure the bodies can be easily exhumed later. A 40-centimetre gap has been maintained between them to ensure that only the specific body identified via DNA matching can be retrieved.

Nepal Flash Floods Live Updates: 1.5-Metre Deep Burial Pits

At an army base in the Nepali town of Bidur, a key rescue hub, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall."I have come here looking for my son," said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. "He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can't find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything."

Relatives crowd rescue hub

Devastating floods near the border with China killed at least 734 people in Nepal and 2,498 remain missing, its disaster authority said Sunday, as rescue efforts entered a fifth day.Chinese state media had earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday's disaster.That takes the overall toll to 750 dead and 3,044 missing.

Nepal flood death toll rises to 734: disaster authority

Nepali rescuers seeking to reach hydropower workers believed trapped in tunnels swamped by flood debris were hampered Sunday by heavy overnight rain and rising river waters.Nepal's government says more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside multiple tunnels at hydropower projects, with key rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.

Rain, rising rivers hamper Nepal tunnel rescue

Nepal warned Sunday of rising flood waters and urged rescue teams to exercise caution, as efforts to retrieve victims from areas devastated by a deadly torrent of icy debris and water entered a fifth day."We have received information that the flood flow in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa has increased further," the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA)said in a warning issued at 7:20 am (0135 GMT)."Therefore, all personnel engaged in search, rescue, and relief operations, those in riverside areas, and everyone else in affected areas including Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, and Chitwan are requested to exercise caution."

Nepal warns rescue teams of rising flood waters

China said the death toll from a mudslide that struck Tibet rose to 16 and 546 people were still missing, state media reported Sunday, citing local officials.A devastating, tsunami-like wall of water tore through the border region between Nepal and Tibet this week, sweeping away entire villages.Figures from Nepal and from Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet put the total number of missing close to 3,000, with 691 bodies recovered.

China says 16 dead, 546 missing in Tibet mudslide: state media

The United States said Saturday it was providing $3.6 million in humanitarian aid to Nepal following catastrophic flooding that killed hundreds and left close to 3,000 missing."The United States is standing with the people of Nepal by providing more than $3.6 million worth of life-saving humanitarian assistance, including up to three months of emergency food assistance to up to 10,000 flood-affected households," the State Department said in a post on X.

US announces $3.6 mn in humanitarian aid for Nepal

Nepali army rescuers broke through to a hydropower tunnel on Saturday and began pumping air and sending a camera inside, raising hopes of reaching workers trapped since devastating floods struck the site three days earlier.Nepal's government says more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped inside tunnels at hydropower projects, with rescue efforts focused on the Trishuli 3A and 3B sites.Those trapped are among 933 hydropower workers missing since a wall of mud and debris swept down on Wednesday morning, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

Nepal rescuers send air pipe into tunnel with trapped workers

Nepal Tibet Highlights: Nepal’s flood death toll has risen to 734, with nearly 3,000 still missing. Rescuers face rain and rising rivers while searching for trapped hydropower workers and survivors across the Himalayas.

Nepal Tibet LIVE updates: Nepal’s death toll from this week’s devastating floods has risen to 734, the country’s disaster authority said Sunday, as rescue teams continue searching for thousands of people missing after a massive surge of water, ice and debris tore through Himalayan communities. China earlier reported 16 deaths, bringing the total death toll in the disaster to 750. Across Nepal and Tibet, more than 3,000 people remain unaccounted for. The disaster struck Wednesday along the China-Nepal border after a glacial collapse sent a powerful torrent through valleys, sweeping away settlements, bridges and roads. The US Geological Survey has attributed the flooding to a glacial collapse which sent a wall of water and debris downstream. Rescue teams race to trapped workers In Nepal, rescuers are focusing on hydropower project tunnels where more than 100 workers may still be alive and trapped. At the Trishuli 3A site, the Nepali Army successfully inserted a pipe into a tunnel and began sending air through the narrow opening, Home Minister Sudan Gurung said. Heavy rain and rising river levels, however, have complicated the operation. Nepal’s disaster authority lists 933 hydropower workers among the missing, along with 517 foreigners, including trekkers and pilgrims travelling towards Mount Kailash. The Isha Foundation said 80 members were on a pilgrimage in the region. It said there were no encouraging indications of survivors at the immigration office area. International aid pours in The scale of the destruction has triggered a major international relief effort. The United States and Canada have each pledged $3.6 million, while Britain has offered $6.8 million. The UN has released $2.5 million in emergency funding. Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal warned that rebuilding could cost “billions of dollars” and called for specialised equipment, including heavy-lift drones and technology to locate people trapped underground. Fresh flood threat The disaster has also raised fears of further flooding from lakes formed by the deluge. In Tibet, rescue operations were temporarily halted around Gyirong over concerns that a newly formed lake could overflow. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV later said the lake was “discharging naturally” and had been “essentially drained”. Meanwhile, Indian officials said seven bodies believed to be flood victims had been recovered from rivers flowing from Nepal.

Nepal Tibet LIVE updates: Nepal’s flood death toll has risen to 734, with nearly 3,000 still missing. Rescuers face rain and rising rivers while searching for trapped hydropower workers and survivors across the Himalayas.

Nepal-Tibet floods Highlights: Death toll rises to 750; MEA shares update on Indian nationals rescued in Nepal

“He said the village was gone: taken by the river. He told me to run.” The warning reached Rajendra Dawadi at 9:20 am on Wednesday. A friend alerted the principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Trishuli Valley as a devastating flash flood tore through the region. Dawadi, a 47-year-old English teacher, had 1,643 children in and around the school’s three-storey building that morning. Within minutes, he had to make a critical decision as torrents of water, rock, ice, mud and debris surged through mountain river systems.&nbsp;The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse, killed 734 people in Nepal and 16 in Tibet. Buildings, bridges and power stations were swept away by the floodwaters. Around 2,498 people remained missing in Nepal, while another 546 were missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, according to the latest figures.<h2>Principal orders emergency evacuation</h2>Initially, Dawadi believed the school was in a safe location. The concrete building stood about 60 metres above the river and was positioned at roughly the same level as the steel bridge connecting the village to the eastern bank, The Times reported. That sense of safety quickly disappeared when a parent arrived at the school with a warning that the river was rising rapidly. Dawadi immediately rang the school bell and instructed teachers to evacuate their classrooms. He contacted the school bus drivers and told all but one to turn back.&nbsp;He then noticed the bus he had been unable to reach crossing the bridge. The children were soon aware that they were facing a serious threat. One girl suffered a panic attack and was taken uphill on a motorbike. The remaining students escaped on foot, with Dawadi following them, according to The Times. The children eventually reached a bodhi tree, where they took shelter as the floodwaters surged through the area and destroyed the school buildings.&nbsp;Dawadi’s rapid response saved 1,643 children and all but one member of the teaching staff. Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, was swept away after returning to his rented room near the river to prepare breakfast. The school’s janitor, Sultan Lama, also died after going back to close the doors.&nbsp;Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/why-is-pm-modi-in-uzbekistan-before-the-sco-summit-key-reasons-explained-1788089431056">Why is PM Modi in Uzbekistan before the SCO Summit? Key reasons explained</a><h2>‘What else could I do?’</h2>Residents have hailed Dawadi as a hero for getting the children to safety. However, the principal himself has played down the praise. "What else could I do?" he said while looking over the muddy remains of the school. The flash flood was caused by a massive section of ice and rock that broke away from Langtang Lirung peak. The material plunged approximately 1,200 metres into the steep upper gorge of the Lhende Khola river near the Tibet border. Daniel Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary, estimated that the mass covered nearly 50 acres, an area roughly comparable to Green Park in London.<h2>Nepal's Trishuli Valley faces another disaster</h2>The region has experienced devastating disasters before. In April 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed 8,962 people across South Asia. The earthquake also triggered an avalanche that buried all 300 residents of Langtang, a settlement in the flood-hit Rasuwa district. The latest disaster has once again left communities across the Himalayan region confronting widespread destruction, missing people and the loss of homes and vital infrastructure.

Nepal floods: Principal Rajendra Dawadi saves 1,643 children as a glacier-triggered disaster destroys their school and devastates the Trishuli Valley

“He said the village was gone: taken by the river. He told me to run.” The warning reached Rajendra Dawadi at 9:20 am on Wednesday. A friend alerted the principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Trishuli Valley as a devastating flash flood tore through the region. Dawadi, a 47-year-old English teacher, had 1,643 children in and around the school’s three-storey building that morning. Within minutes, he had to make a critical decision as torrents of water, rock, ice, mud and debris surged through mountain river systems. The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse, killed 734 people in Nepal and 16 in Tibet. Buildings, bridges and power stations were swept away by the floodwaters. Around 2,498 people remained missing in Nepal, while another 546 were missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, according to the latest figures. Principal orders emergency evacuation Initially, Dawadi believed the school was in a safe location. The concrete building stood about 60 metres above the river and was positioned at roughly the same level as the steel bridge connecting the village to the eastern bank, The Times reported. That sense of safety quickly disappeared when a parent arrived at the school with a warning that the river was rising rapidly. Dawadi immediately rang the school bell and instructed teachers to evacuate their classrooms. He contacted the school bus drivers and told all but one to turn back. He then noticed the bus he had been unable to reach crossing the bridge. The children were soon aware that they were facing a serious threat. One girl suffered a panic attack and was taken uphill on a motorbike. The remaining students escaped on foot, with Dawadi following them, according to The Times. The children eventually reached a bodhi tree, where they took shelter as the floodwaters surged through the area and destroyed the school buildings. Dawadi’s rapid response saved 1,643 children and all but one member of the teaching staff. Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, was swept away after returning to his rented room near the river to prepare breakfast. The school’s janitor, Sultan Lama, also died after going back to close the doors. Also Read: Why is PM Modi in Uzbekistan before the SCO Summit? Key reasons explained ‘What else could I do?’ Residents have hailed Dawadi as a hero for getting the children to safety. However, the principal himself has played down the praise. "What else could I do?" he said while looking over the muddy remains of the school. The flash flood was caused by a massive section of ice and rock that broke away from Langtang Lirung peak. The material plunged approximately 1,200 metres into the steep upper gorge of the Lhende Khola river near the Tibet border. Daniel Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary, estimated that the mass covered nearly 50 acres, an area roughly comparable to Green Park in London. Nepal's Trishuli Valley faces another disaster The region has experienced devastating disasters before. In April 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed 8,962 people across South Asia. The earthquake also triggered an avalanche that buried all 300 residents of Langtang, a settlement in the flood-hit Rasuwa district. The latest disaster has once again left communities across the Himalayan region confronting widespread destruction, missing people and the loss of homes and vital infrastructure.

Nepal flash floods swept away a school, but principal Rajendra Dawadi saved 1,643 children after ordering a desperate evacuation to safety

How one Nepali school principal saved 1,643 children from deadly flash floods

Istanbul is hosting the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed earlier this month. Top officials from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will be discussing “international security issues” on Monday, August 31, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said.&nbsp;It is expected to be attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Chief of General Staff Gen. Selcuk Bayraktaroglu. Pakistan is expected to be represented by Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman and Chief of General Staff Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili are also due to attend.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-judge-blocks-deportation-pro-palestinian-speech-1788083492052">US judge blocks Trump's deportation of noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech</a>The discussion is expected to cover enhancing defence capabilities, greater interoperability among their ‌armed ⁠forces and deepening cooperation in the defence industry, including joint production and development. They will also discuss counter terrorism efforts. The meeting is expected to introduce a bureaucracy, an administrative secretariat and other relevant mechanisms that will guide work in areas of joint activity, as will be determined by the Strategic and Political Defence Committee. It will also establish a roadmap for steps to be taken in the coming period.The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed by Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia on August 7, is supposedly based on a shared sense of responsibility in their region and growing international instability. The pact has a NATO-like stipulation that an attack on one will be considered an attack against all parties.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will hold their first Strategic Political and Defence Committee meeting in Istanbul under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.

Istanbul is hosting the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed earlier this month. Top officials from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will be discussing “international security issues” on Monday, August 31, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said. It is expected to be attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Chief of General Staff Gen. Selcuk Bayraktaroglu. Pakistan is expected to be represented by Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman and Chief of General Staff Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili are also due to attend. Also Read: US judge blocks Trump's deportation of noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech The discussion is expected to cover enhancing defence capabilities, greater interoperability among their ‌armed ⁠forces and deepening cooperation in the defence industry, including joint production and development. They will also discuss counter terrorism efforts. The meeting is expected to introduce a bureaucracy, an administrative secretariat and other relevant mechanisms that will guide work in areas of joint activity, as will be determined by the Strategic and Political Defence Committee. It will also establish a roadmap for steps to be taken in the coming period. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed by Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia on August 7, is supposedly based on a shared sense of responsibility in their region and growing international instability. The pact has a NATO-like stipulation that an attack on one will be considered an attack against all parties.

Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will hold their first Strategic Political and Defence Committee meeting in Istanbul under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.

Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia to hold first defence committee meeting under Mecca pact

Bishkek: India and Uzbekistan have upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, agreeing to a long-term uranium supply arrangement and a new ministerial architecture to drive trade, energy and city-to-city ties.The decisions followed talks on Sunday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the Kuksaroy Presidential Palace, 15 years after the two countries first became strategic partners.“We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of our strategic partnership. I am delighted that, on this special occasion, we are elevating our ties to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Indian PM Modi said. “We will move forward by setting concrete goals within this framework.”The energy announcement was the sharpest signal of the new ambition. India has been seeking uranium for civilian nuclear power; Uzbekistan is among the world’s better-endowed producers. “We will also establish a long-term arrangement for the supply of uranium,” Indian PM said.To keep the upgrade from remaining a slogan, both sides agreed to create a Coordination Council at foreign-minister level “to provide direction to all aspects of our cooperation through close coordination.” The existing Joint Commission will be raised from secretary to ministerial rank. A joint business summit is to bring Indian and Uzbek industry into the same room.People-to-people links were given a local face. Three sister-city and sister-state pairings were formalised. “Today, we are formalising three sister-city and sister-state arrangements. We should create a roadmap to fully realise their potential,” PM Modi said. He then invited Tashkent to look at India’s flagship urban experiment. “Mega-projects like ‘New Tashkent’ are underway in your country, while in India, we have developed GIFT City in Gujarat. We would be delighted to welcome a delegation from your country to study best practices and the use of technology.”President Mirziyoyev cast India as more than a trading partner. “India is our reliable strategic partner,” he said. “Last year, our bilateral trade exceeded one billion dollars for the first time. In recent years, the number of joint ventures has increased sevenfold.” He praised India’s pace in digitalisation, artificial intelligence and space, adding that New Delhi’s “voice and influence in global affairs have grown even stronger.”Both governments have set a $5 billion trade target by 2030, a five-fold jump from the first billion-dollar year. A letter of intent was signed to restore the Buddhist sites of Fayaz Tepa and Kara Tepa. Mr Mirziyoyev also conferred Uzbekistan’s highest honour, the Order of Oliy Darajali Dustlik, on Mr Modi.The visit is the opening leg of Mr Modi’s Central Asia trip before the SCO summit in Bishkek.

India and Uzbekistan have upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, agreeing on long-term uranium supplies and a $5 billion trade target by 2030.

Bishkek: India and Uzbekistan have upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, agreeing to a long-term uranium supply arrangement and a new ministerial architecture to drive trade, energy and city-to-city ties. The decisions followed talks on Sunday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the Kuksaroy Presidential Palace, 15 years after the two countries first became strategic partners. “We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of our strategic partnership. I am delighted that, on this special occasion, we are elevating our ties to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Indian PM Modi said. “We will move forward by setting concrete goals within this framework.” The energy announcement was the sharpest signal of the new ambition. India has been seeking uranium for civilian nuclear power; Uzbekistan is among the world’s better-endowed producers. “We will also establish a long-term arrangement for the supply of uranium,” Indian PM said. To keep the upgrade from remaining a slogan, both sides agreed to create a Coordination Council at foreign-minister level “to provide direction to all aspects of our cooperation through close coordination.” The existing Joint Commission will be raised from secretary to ministerial rank. A joint business summit is to bring Indian and Uzbek industry into the same room. People-to-people links were given a local face. Three sister-city and sister-state pairings were formalised. “Today, we are formalising three sister-city and sister-state arrangements. We should create a roadmap to fully realise their potential,” PM Modi said. He then invited Tashkent to look at India’s flagship urban experiment. “Mega-projects like ‘New Tashkent’ are underway in your country, while in India, we have developed GIFT City in Gujarat. We would be delighted to welcome a delegation from your country to study best practices and the use of technology.” President Mirziyoyev cast India as more than a trading partner. “India is our reliable strategic partner,” he said. “Last year, our bilateral trade exceeded one billion dollars for the first time. In recent years, the number of joint ventures has increased sevenfold.” He praised India’s pace in digitalisation, artificial intelligence and space, adding that New Delhi’s “voice and influence in global affairs have grown even stronger.” Both governments have set a $5 billion trade target by 2030, a five-fold jump from the first billion-dollar year. A letter of intent was signed to restore the Buddhist sites of Fayaz Tepa and Kara Tepa. Mr Mirziyoyev also conferred Uzbekistan’s highest honour, the Order of Oliy Darajali Dustlik, on Mr Modi. The visit is the opening leg of Mr Modi’s Central Asia trip before the SCO summit in Bishkek.

India and Uzbekistan have upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, agreeing on long-term uranium supplies and a $5 billion trade target by 2030.

GIFT City invitation, uranium supply arrangement marks Indian PM Modi’s Tashkent visit

Pakistani authorities have suspended eight officials and launched criminal proceedings following a devastating fire that killed 14 newborn babies in a capital hospital. The blaze broke out shortly after 6:30 AM on Wednesday (Aug 26) in the maternity unit of a federal healthcare facility in Islamabad. A preliminary inquiry conducted by a four-person committee revealed that the fire consumed the ward within approximately two minutes. Of the 15 infants under the hospital's care at the time, medical staff managed to rescue only one.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/pakistan-hospital-fire-tragedy-massive-fire-at-pakistan-institute-of-medical-sciences-1787734524960/embed">https://www.wionews.com/videos/pakistan-hospital-fire-tragedy-massive-fire-at-pakistan-institute-of-medical-sciences-1787734524960/embed</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;Following the inquiry's initial findings, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered immediate suspensions. The sanctioned personnel include top administrative and medical staff, such as the hospital's executive director, the head of the neonatal department, and the director-general of Islamabad's emergency services. Federal Health Secretary Aslam Ghori, the senior-most civil servant in the health department, was dismissed earlier in the week as an immediate response to the tragedy.&nbsp;Expressing severe condemnation late Saturday (Aug 29), Prime Minister Sharif declared that those guilty of criminal negligence would receive no concessions and must face full legal accountability. Additionally, the government approved legal action against the private firm contracted for the hospital’s security operations.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/15-newborns-killed-after-fire-breaks-out-in-pakistan-hospital-1787724990542">Islamabad’s District Magistrate launches probe after hospital fire kills 15 newborns, to submit report in 24 hours</a>&nbsp;The preliminary report outlined serious operational lapses during the incident. Emergency services were notified six minutes after the fire erupted, with the first responders arriving 15 minutes later. Witnesses and parents reported a delayed response, alleging that security personnel initially blocked exits and prevented people from escaping the building. The investigation further revealed that the facility lacked detailed standard operating procedures, routine emergency drills, or formal fire safety training. At the onset of the blaze, two nurses, a female security guard, and an additional officer were inside the ward, but no supervising staff were present.&nbsp;While Health Minister Mustafa Kamal initially pointed to an air conditioner spark as the probable cause, official investigators clarified that the exact source of ignition remains under investigation. Major structural fires remain a persistent hazard across Pakistan, primarily driven by sub-standard building codes, inadequate safety infrastructure, and lax regulatory enforcement. Recent years have seen several mass-casualty fires in commercial and industrial settings, including a shopping center fire in Karachi that claimed over 65 lives in January, another retail center blaze in 2023 that killed 11, and a garment factory disaster in 2012 that resulted in more than 250 deaths.

Pakistan suspends eight hospital officials and orders criminal proceedings following a deadly fire at Islamabad's PIMS hospital nursery that killed 14 newborns. 

Pakistani authorities have suspended eight officials and launched criminal proceedings following a devastating fire that killed 14 newborn babies in a capital hospital. The blaze broke out shortly after 6:30 AM on Wednesday (Aug 26) in the maternity unit of a federal healthcare facility in Islamabad. A preliminary inquiry conducted by a four-person committee revealed that the fire consumed the ward within approximately two minutes. Of the 15 infants under the hospital's care at the time, medical staff managed to rescue only one. https://www.wionews.com/videos/pakistan-hospital-fire-tragedy-massive-fire-at-pakistan-institute-of-medical-sciences-1787734524960/embed Following the inquiry's initial findings, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered immediate suspensions. The sanctioned personnel include top administrative and medical staff, such as the hospital's executive director, the head of the neonatal department, and the director-general of Islamabad's emergency services. Federal Health Secretary Aslam Ghori, the senior-most civil servant in the health department, was dismissed earlier in the week as an immediate response to the tragedy. Expressing severe condemnation late Saturday (Aug 29), Prime Minister Sharif declared that those guilty of criminal negligence would receive no concessions and must face full legal accountability. Additionally, the government approved legal action against the private firm contracted for the hospital’s security operations. Also read: Islamabad’s District Magistrate launches probe after hospital fire kills 15 newborns, to submit report in 24 hours The preliminary report outlined serious operational lapses during the incident. Emergency services were notified six minutes after the fire erupted, with the first responders arriving 15 minutes later. Witnesses and parents reported a delayed response, alleging that security personnel initially blocked exits and prevented people from escaping the building. The investigation further revealed that the facility lacked detailed standard operating procedures, routine emergency drills, or formal fire safety training. At the onset of the blaze, two nurses, a female security guard, and an additional officer were inside the ward, but no supervising staff were present. While Health Minister Mustafa Kamal initially pointed to an air conditioner spark as the probable cause, official investigators clarified that the exact source of ignition remains under investigation. Major structural fires remain a persistent hazard across Pakistan, primarily driven by sub-standard building codes, inadequate safety infrastructure, and lax regulatory enforcement. Recent years have seen several mass-casualty fires in commercial and industrial settings, including a shopping center fire in Karachi that claimed over 65 lives in January, another retail center blaze in 2023 that killed 11, and a garment factory disaster in 2012 that resulted in more than 250 deaths.

Pakistan suspends eight hospital officials and orders criminal proceedings following a deadly fire at Islamabad's PIMS hospital nursery that killed 14 newborns.

Pakistan suspends 8 officials, orders criminal action after hospital nursery fire kills 14 newborns

A Federal judge in the US has ruled against the deportation of critics of Israel's war in Gaza and other noncitizens for expressing their views. The court observed that the law used by the administration to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.Judge Noël Wise delivered a victory to The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which claimed that the students were afraid to speak up for fear of deportation. The judge chastised the Trump administration, saying that in the US, free speech, including the freedom to express everyone's views, is evidence of the strength of the country's democracy.&nbsp;“That strength is diminished when members of our society — citizens and noncitizens alike — must self-censor and ‘behave’ or suffer the government’s retaliation,” she said.&nbsp;The decision draws upon the findings from 2025, when a District Judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted non-citizens solely for supporting Palestine and criticising Israel.&nbsp;Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/pakistan-spies-sleeper-cells-india-s400-operation-sindoor-1787852660782">Pakistan activated spies, sleeper cells to hunt for India’s S-400 in Operation Sindoor: Former Air Marshal Jitendra Mishra</a>"Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only 'free' to express complementary views about the government and its leaders," the judge wrote.Wise cited retalliation in March 2025 by US immigration authorities against people engaged in speech supporting the Palestinian against Israel's actions, which UN experts condemn as genocide. The judge also cited retalliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last September.&nbsp;She said that the Government's tactics were harming free speech on campuses. She said that non-citizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens, irrespective of the US foreign policy of any specific administration. Wise noted that at The Stanford Daily, lawfully present noncitizens at the paper have quit, withheld articles, refused assignments, requested articles be taken down, and asked for anonymity due to fear of adverse immigration consequences."This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognises our right to speak freely," she added. "Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person's speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country's powerful lack of fear."&nbsp;"The reporters in our newsroom shouldn't have to fear that writing a story will result in their deportation. Today's victory means they won't have to," said George Porteous, the editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, responding to the ruling.&nbsp;

A US federal judge has ruled against deporting noncitizens over pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel, calling the administration's actions unconstitutional.

A Federal judge in the US has ruled against the deportation of critics of Israel's war in Gaza and other noncitizens for expressing their views. The court observed that the law used by the administration to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional. Judge Noël Wise delivered a victory to The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, which claimed that the students were afraid to speak up for fear of deportation. The judge chastised the Trump administration, saying that in the US, free speech, including the freedom to express everyone's views, is evidence of the strength of the country's democracy. “That strength is diminished when members of our society — citizens and noncitizens alike — must self-censor and ‘behave’ or suffer the government’s retaliation,” she said. The decision draws upon the findings from 2025, when a District Judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted non-citizens solely for supporting Palestine and criticising Israel. Also Read: Pakistan activated spies, sleeper cells to hunt for India’s S-400 in Operation Sindoor: Former Air Marshal Jitendra Mishra "Freedom of speech is illusory if we are only 'free' to express complementary views about the government and its leaders," the judge wrote. Wise cited retalliation in March 2025 by US immigration authorities against people engaged in speech supporting the Palestinian against Israel's actions, which UN experts condemn as genocide. The judge also cited retalliation against people who were critical of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last September. She said that the Government's tactics were harming free speech on campuses. She said that non-citizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens, irrespective of the US foreign policy of any specific administration. Wise noted that at The Stanford Daily, lawfully present noncitizens at the paper have quit, withheld articles, refused assignments, requested articles be taken down, and asked for anonymity due to fear of adverse immigration consequences. "This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognises our right to speak freely," she added. "Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person's speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it. Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country's powerful lack of fear." "The reporters in our newsroom shouldn't have to fear that writing a story will result in their deportation. Today's victory means they won't have to," said George Porteous, the editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, responding to the ruling.

A US federal judge has ruled against deporting noncitizens over pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel, calling the administration's actions unconstitutional.

US judge blocks Trump's deportation of noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech

OpenAI is withdrawing its models from one of the most widely used AI coding tools in the world, and the stated reason is who bought it.&nbsp;What Happened&nbsp;SpaceX completed its acquisition of Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, on August 14. The price was $60 billion.&nbsp;On August 29, OpenAI confirmed it will terminate direct access to its models inside Cursor on November 12, citing trust and contract terms triggered by the change of ownership.&nbsp;Its position is that it cannot be confident SpaceX will use the technology within its terms of service, and it pointed to its experience of Elon Musk's companies violating contracts.&nbsp;That is an unusually direct thing for one company to say about another in a commercial notice. It is also the substance of the dispute rather than a flourish: the contract permitted termination on a change of control, and OpenAI has exercised it.&nbsp;How Much This Actually Costs Cursor&nbsp;Less than the headline suggests, according to Cursor.&nbsp;Chief executive Michael Truell said OpenAI's models handle around 5 per cent of Cursor's traffic. Anthropic has publicly offered expanded access to Claude models to absorb the gap.&nbsp;That number deserves scrutiny in both directions. Five per cent is the sort of figure a company under pressure would want to state, and it is unverifiable from outside. But it is also plausible: Cursor's default experience has been built substantially around Anthropic models for some time, and the coding-tool market has largely settled on Claude as the preferred engine.&nbsp;If it is accurate, OpenAI has cut off a customer that was already mostly buying elsewhere — which limits the commercial damage and rather changes what the decision was for.&nbsp;The Feud Underneath It&nbsp;None of this is separable from the history between the two companies' principals.&nbsp;Musk co-founded OpenAI, left, and has since litigated against it, competed with it through xAI, and criticised Sam Altman publicly and continuously. OpenAI's citation of Musk companies violating contracts is a reference to that history rather than a neutral risk assessment.&nbsp;So there are two readings, and the honest position is that both are partly true. On the first, OpenAI is enforcing an ordinary change-of-control clause against a competitor that now owns a distribution channel into developers' daily work — a defensible commercial decision any company might make. On the second, a personal and corporate rivalry has reached the point where a supplier will drop a customer for having the wrong owner.&nbsp;What is not in dispute is that a widely used developer tool has had its model supply reconfigured by a dispute it was not party to.&nbsp;Why SpaceX Bought A Coding Tool&nbsp;The acquisition itself is the stranger fact, and it has been somewhat lost in the fallout.&nbsp;SpaceX is a launch and satellite company. Paying $60 billion for a coding assistant is not an adjacent purchase, and it is a very large sum even against SpaceX's valuation. The most coherent explanation is that the target was not the product but the position: Cursor sits inside the editor where software is written, which is the single highest-leverage surface in the industry for anyone building AI models.&nbsp;Read that way, the purchase is of a distribution channel for xAI's models rather than of a business.&nbsp;Which is precisely the reading that would justify OpenAI's decision on purely commercial grounds. A rival laboratory now controls the tool through which developers reach OpenAI's models, and can see how they are used.&nbsp;The Wider Point&nbsp;This is the first significant instance of AI model access being withdrawn over ownership rather than conduct.&nbsp;Cursor did nothing. Its users did nothing. The models are being pulled because a company that OpenAI does not trust bought the company that licenses them, and the contract allowed it.&nbsp;For anyone building a product on top of a frontier model, that is the risk worth noting. The dependency is not only on the model continuing to exist, or the price holding, or the terms staying stable. It is on the supplier continuing to approve of your shareholders.&nbsp;Developers using Cursor have until November 12. Anthropic, which has spent the year winning the coding market on capability, has just been handed the rest of it by a corporate dispute.

SpaceX bought Cursor's parent Anysphere for $60 billion on August 14. OpenAI will end model access on November 12, saying it cannot trust SpaceX to honour its terms. Cursor says OpenAI is 5 per cent of its traffic.

OpenAI is withdrawing its models from one of the most widely used AI coding tools in the world, and the stated reason is who bought it. What Happened SpaceX completed its acquisition of Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, on August 14. The price was $60 billion. On August 29, OpenAI confirmed it will terminate direct access to its models inside Cursor on November 12, citing trust and contract terms triggered by the change of ownership. Its position is that it cannot be confident SpaceX will use the technology within its terms of service, and it pointed to its experience of Elon Musk's companies violating contracts. That is an unusually direct thing for one company to say about another in a commercial notice. It is also the substance of the dispute rather than a flourish: the contract permitted termination on a change of control, and OpenAI has exercised it. How Much This Actually Costs Cursor Less than the headline suggests, according to Cursor. Chief executive Michael Truell said OpenAI's models handle around 5 per cent of Cursor's traffic. Anthropic has publicly offered expanded access to Claude models to absorb the gap. That number deserves scrutiny in both directions. Five per cent is the sort of figure a company under pressure would want to state, and it is unverifiable from outside. But it is also plausible: Cursor's default experience has been built substantially around Anthropic models for some time, and the coding-tool market has largely settled on Claude as the preferred engine. If it is accurate, OpenAI has cut off a customer that was already mostly buying elsewhere — which limits the commercial damage and rather changes what the decision was for. The Feud Underneath It None of this is separable from the history between the two companies' principals. Musk co-founded OpenAI, left, and has since litigated against it, competed with it through xAI, and criticised Sam Altman publicly and continuously. OpenAI's citation of Musk companies violating contracts is a reference to that history rather than a neutral risk assessment. So there are two readings, and the honest position is that both are partly true. On the first, OpenAI is enforcing an ordinary change-of-control clause against a competitor that now owns a distribution channel into developers' daily work — a defensible commercial decision any company might make. On the second, a personal and corporate rivalry has reached the point where a supplier will drop a customer for having the wrong owner. What is not in dispute is that a widely used developer tool has had its model supply reconfigured by a dispute it was not party to. Why SpaceX Bought A Coding Tool The acquisition itself is the stranger fact, and it has been somewhat lost in the fallout. SpaceX is a launch and satellite company. Paying $60 billion for a coding assistant is not an adjacent purchase, and it is a very large sum even against SpaceX's valuation. The most coherent explanation is that the target was not the product but the position: Cursor sits inside the editor where software is written, which is the single highest-leverage surface in the industry for anyone building AI models. Read that way, the purchase is of a distribution channel for xAI's models rather than of a business. Which is precisely the reading that would justify OpenAI's decision on purely commercial grounds. A rival laboratory now controls the tool through which developers reach OpenAI's models, and can see how they are used. The Wider Point This is the first significant instance of AI model access being withdrawn over ownership rather than conduct. Cursor did nothing. Its users did nothing. The models are being pulled because a company that OpenAI does not trust bought the company that licenses them, and the contract allowed it. For anyone building a product on top of a frontier model, that is the risk worth noting. The dependency is not only on the model continuing to exist, or the price holding, or the terms staying stable. It is on the supplier continuing to approve of your shareholders. Developers using Cursor have until November 12. Anthropic, which has spent the year winning the coding market on capability, has just been handed the rest of it by a corporate dispute.

SpaceX completed a $60 billion acquisition of Anysphere, the company behind the coding tool Cursor, on August 14. OpenAI has now told Cursor it will end direct access to its models on November 12, saying it cannot be confident SpaceX will use the technology within its terms of service and citing past contract violations by Musk companies. Cursor says OpenAI models handle 5 per cent of its traffic.

OpenAI is cutting off Cursor because Elon Musk now owns it

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that Moscow was preparing large-scale strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in what it described as a tit-for-tat response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and energy facilities. "Russian forces have begun preparations for massive strikes against facilities in Ukraine's energy sector in response to the ongoing attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure and on Russia's oil and energy complex," it said on Telegram.&nbsp;The warning comes after months of escalating long-range attacks by both Russia and Ukraine, with strikes increasingly targeting warehouses, businesses, oil facilities, ports and other critical infrastructure. The attacks have also contributed to rising civilian casualties. Last winter, repeated Russian strikes on Ukrainian power plants severely damaged the country’s energy network, leaving millions of people without electricity and heating during freezing temperatures.&nbsp;On Sunday, Russia’s army said it had struck a plant in Kyiv that produces asbestos and cement. Moscow claimed warehouses at the facility were being used to store explosives. Russian forces also reported striking a Ukrainian manufacturer of drones and munitions. The latest escalation followed a deadly Russian strike on an ammunition depot near the Ukrainian capital on Saturday. The attack triggered a massive explosion and fire, with secondary detonations sending flames into surrounding areas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the death toll from the strike had risen to 38.&nbsp;Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/watch-trump-posts-bizarre-ai-clip-of-donald-ducks-patrolling-lake-america-1788080363913">WATCH | Trump posts bizarre AI clip of ‘Donald Ducks’ patrolling ‘Lake America’</a>&nbsp;The military facility, located near the town of Myla, was reportedly storing ammunition, drones and explosives. Emergency crews have extinguished most of the fires, while bomb disposal teams continue operations to clear the site, Zelensky said on Telegram.He said 38 people had been killed, 20 injured and four remained missing. Zelensky also warned that the extent of contamination in the area is significant.&nbsp;The incident marked the second attack on a munitions depot near Kyiv in less than two months. Ukrainian officials have expressed concern over the continued storage of weapons and explosives near residential areas. Ukrainian prosecutors have launched an investigation into possible criminal negligence following the blast. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia launched at least two missiles and 267 drones against Ukraine between late Friday and early Saturday.&nbsp;Ukraine has also continued its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Local authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil refinery in northwestern Russia on Saturday, causing a fire. The intensifying attacks come as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled. The conflict, which has become Europe’s deadliest since World War II, has seen little progress toward a negotiated settlement in recent months. Russia has demanded sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine, while Kyiv has rejected those demands as unacceptable and tantamount to capitulation.

Russia prepares massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after Kyiv attacks, as the death toll from a Ukrainian arms depot blast rises to 38

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that Moscow was preparing large-scale strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in what it described as a tit-for-tat response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and energy facilities. "Russian forces have begun preparations for massive strikes against facilities in Ukraine's energy sector in response to the ongoing attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure and on Russia's oil and energy complex," it said on Telegram. The warning comes after months of escalating long-range attacks by both Russia and Ukraine, with strikes increasingly targeting warehouses, businesses, oil facilities, ports and other critical infrastructure. The attacks have also contributed to rising civilian casualties. Last winter, repeated Russian strikes on Ukrainian power plants severely damaged the country’s energy network, leaving millions of people without electricity and heating during freezing temperatures. On Sunday, Russia’s army said it had struck a plant in Kyiv that produces asbestos and cement. Moscow claimed warehouses at the facility were being used to store explosives. Russian forces also reported striking a Ukrainian manufacturer of drones and munitions. The latest escalation followed a deadly Russian strike on an ammunition depot near the Ukrainian capital on Saturday. The attack triggered a massive explosion and fire, with secondary detonations sending flames into surrounding areas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the death toll from the strike had risen to 38. Also Read: WATCH | Trump posts bizarre AI clip of ‘Donald Ducks’ patrolling ‘Lake America’ The military facility, located near the town of Myla, was reportedly storing ammunition, drones and explosives. Emergency crews have extinguished most of the fires, while bomb disposal teams continue operations to clear the site, Zelensky said on Telegram. He said 38 people had been killed, 20 injured and four remained missing. Zelensky also warned that the extent of contamination in the area is significant. The incident marked the second attack on a munitions depot near Kyiv in less than two months. Ukrainian officials have expressed concern over the continued storage of weapons and explosives near residential areas. Ukrainian prosecutors have launched an investigation into possible criminal negligence following the blast. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia launched at least two missiles and 267 drones against Ukraine between late Friday and early Saturday. Ukraine has also continued its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Local authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil refinery in northwestern Russia on Saturday, causing a fire. The intensifying attacks come as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled. The conflict, which has become Europe’s deadliest since World War II, has seen little progress toward a negotiated settlement in recent months. Russia has demanded sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine, while Kyiv has rejected those demands as unacceptable and tantamount to capitulation.

Russia prepares massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector after Kyiv attacks, as the death toll from a deadly arms depot blast reaches 38

Russia warns of 'massive strikes' on Ukraine's energy sector as death toll from Kyiv's arm depot reaches 38

US President Donald Trump has taken his campaign to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America a step further, sharing an AI-generated video showing an army of armed, blond-haired “Donald Ducks” guarding the lake’s shoreline. The 34-second clip, posted by Trump on Saturday (Aug 29), shows Canada geese with human arms, assault rifles and hairstyles resembling the president’s distinctive blond hair. Set to the theme from Hawaii Five-O, the birds march along the waterfront before firing into the air as fireworks light up a skyline resembling Toronto.Trump posted another AI-generated clip depicting him replacing a “Welcome to Lake Ontario” sign with one reading “Welcome to Lake America”. The video ends with Trump dancing to the Village People’s “YMCA.”

<h2>Trump doubles down on Lake America</h2>The posts followed Trump’s executive order directing US federal agencies to use the name “Lake America” for Lake Ontario in official documents.“We’re gonna make a little change; we’re gonna call it something different than Lake Ontario,” Trump said earlier this week while announcing the proposal.Trump had already used a Sharpie in a social media video to mark the lake on a map.

<h2>Canada rejects renaming effort</h2>The move has drawn a sharp response from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who defended the lake’s historic name.“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” Carney wrote on X. “The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.”“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” he added. “Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”<h2>Tensions rise amid tariff war</h2>The unusual naming dispute comes as relations between Washington and Ottawa soured over trade and Trump’s repeated suggestion that Canada could become the 51st US state.On August 22, Washington imposed 50 per cent tariffs on around $20 billion of Canadian exports after trade talks collapsed. Canada responded with tariffs of up to 50 per cent on selected US goods.The escalating dispute has also triggered personal attacks, with Trump calling Ontario Premier Doug Ford a “flunky”. Ford hit back, branding Trump a “dictator” and “bully” and telling him to “kiss my a**.”&nbsp;

Trump shared bizarre AI-generated videos showing armed, blond-haired “Donald Ducks” guarding “Lake America” as tensions with Canada grow over his push to rename Lake Ontario and the ongoing trade war.

US President Donald Trump has taken his campaign to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America a step further, sharing an AI-generated video showing an army of armed, blond-haired “Donald Ducks” guarding the lake’s shoreline. The 34-second clip, posted by Trump on Saturday (Aug 29), shows Canada geese with human arms, assault rifles and hairstyles resembling the president’s distinctive blond hair. Set to the theme from Hawaii Five-O, the birds march along the waterfront before firing into the air as fireworks light up a skyline resembling Toronto. Trump posted another AI-generated clip depicting him replacing a “Welcome to Lake Ontario” sign with one reading “Welcome to Lake America”. The video ends with Trump dancing to the Village People’s “YMCA.”

Trump shared bizarre AI-generated videos showing armed, blond-haired “Donald Ducks” guarding “Lake America” as tensions with Canada grow over his push to rename Lake Ontario and the ongoing trade war.

WATCH | Trump posts bizarre AI clip of ‘Donald Ducks’ patrolling ‘Lake America’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Sunday (August 30) conferred Uzbekistan’s highest state honour, the Order of “Oliy Darajali Dustlik”, by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his two-day state visit to the Central Asian nation. The prestigious award was presented to PM Modi in Tashkent in recognition of his contribution to strengthening the India-Uzbekistan strategic partnership and deepening bilateral relations.&nbsp;Following the honour, PM Modi dedicated the award to the enduring friendship and close ties between India and Uzbekistan, describing it as a recognition of the strong bond shared by the two nations. The conferment took place as the two leaders held delegation-level talks focused on expanding bilateral cooperation across a range of strategic and economic areas. Their discussions covered trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence and energy, with both sides exploring new avenues to further strengthen the partnership.&nbsp;Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/pm-modi-holds-talks-with-uzbekistan-president-mirziyoyev-in-tashkent-says-elevating-our-ties-to-strategic-partnership-1788079070867">PM Modi holds talks with Uzbekistan President Mirziyoyev in Tashkent, says 'elevating our ties to strategic partnership'</a><h2>Watch the video here</h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><a href="https://x.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a> | Tashkent, Uzbekistan: President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a hug after PM Modi was conferred the Order of “Oliy Darajali Dustlik,” Uzbekistan’s supreme state award. (Source: ANI/DD) <a href="https://t.co/d97ejTVZHV">https://t.co/d97ejTVZHV</a> <a href="https://t.co/il1AzzppWs">pic.twitter.com/il1AzzppWs</a>&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://x.com/ANI/status/2093991107961217156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

PM Modi and President Mirziyoyev also discussed their shared developmental priorities and ways to advance the visions of 'Viksit Bharat' and 'Yangi Uzbekistan'. The two leaders emphasised economic growth, modernisation and development as key areas of cooperation.&nbsp;The honour marked a significant milestone during PM Modi’s visit and added further diplomatic significance to the expanding relationship between New Delhi and Tashkent. The two-day state visit is aimed at deepening India-Uzbekistan ties, strengthening existing areas of cooperation and identifying new opportunities for collaboration as India continues to expand its strategic engagement with Central Asia.&nbsp;PM Modi said, "I accept this high honour with deep humility and respectfully dedicate it to the centuries-old friendship and shared heritage between our two nations. Our ties have continuously strengthened thanks to your visionary leadership and your friendship towards India. They are successfully scaling new heights, and as a result, our relationship has now been elevated to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership. While an award certainly brings pride and honour, I am fully aware that it also carries a profound responsibility, a responsibility I deeply feel as I accept this award today. From this historic soil of Uzbekistan, I wish to assure the people of Uzbekistan that India will never shy away from its responsibilities and will remain steadfast in upholding this friendship. Together, and with unwavering dedication, our two nations will serve as a united voice for the Global South. We will spare no effort in working for the welfare of the Global South and will strive wholeheartedly to fulfil the mission of advancing the well-being of all humanity." “It is a moment of great pride for me to be honoured with Uzbekistan’s highest award. You used a word, ‘Dostlik’, with which the people of India are also very familiar. There is hardly a family in our country that does not use the word ‘Dost’ (friend) a hundred times a day, and today, you have truly embodied the essence of “Dostlik.” “Dostlik” means friendship. This very word perfectly encapsulates the core sentiment underlying the relationship between India and Uzbekistan. This honour is not for a single individual; it is an honour for all 1.4 billion Indians. On behalf of all my fellow citizens, I express my heartfelt gratitude to the people of Uzbekistan, the government, and my friend, the respected President,” he added.

PM Modi receives Uzbekistan’s highest honour, 'Oliy Darajali Dustlik', as India-Uzbekistan ties deepen through trade, defence, energy and digital cooperation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Sunday (August 30) conferred Uzbekistan’s highest state honour, the Order of “Oliy Darajali Dustlik”, by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his two-day state visit to the Central Asian nation. The prestigious award was presented to PM Modi in Tashkent in recognition of his contribution to strengthening the India-Uzbekistan strategic partnership and deepening bilateral relations. Following the honour, PM Modi dedicated the award to the enduring friendship and close ties between India and Uzbekistan, describing it as a recognition of the strong bond shared by the two nations. The conferment took place as the two leaders held delegation-level talks focused on expanding bilateral cooperation across a range of strategic and economic areas. Their discussions covered trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence and energy, with both sides exploring new avenues to further strengthen the partnership. Also Read: PM Modi holds talks with Uzbekistan President Mirziyoyev in Tashkent, says 'elevating our ties to strategic partnership' Watch the video here

PM Modi receives Uzbekistan’s highest state honour, ‘Oliy Darajali Dustlik’, as India and Uzbekistan seek to deepen strategic and economic ties

Order of 'Oliy Darajali Dustlik': PM Modi conferred with Uzbekistan's highest state of honour

Under a draft revision to the Penal Code, Vietnam is looking to end executions for drug trafficking, marking Southeast Asia’s notable and toughest anti-drug regimes. The proposal, presented to lawmakers last week, will remove trafficking from the list of capital crimes in Vietnam. Last year, Vietnam had retained this offence during a previous phase of death penalty reforms. If the amended law is enacted, capital punishment would be retained for four crimes: treason, murder, terrorism and illegal narcotics production. Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking as a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments. In 2023, Malaysia ended mandatory death sentences. Meanwhile, Singapore retains the death penalty for the most serious trafficking offences exceeding legal thresholds for quantities of various controlled drugs. This has sparked broader discussions on whether the death penalty remains relevant in modern society, whether sentencing should allow for judicial discretion, and how nations can tackle drug trafficking through alternative means. According to Hai Thanh Luong, a Vietnamese criminologist based at Griffith University in Australia, Vietnam's proposal does not represent a sudden shift away from capital punishment, but rather forms part of a gradual, long-term process of reform.<h3>Punishment for exceptionally serious crimes</h3>Luong called Hanoi’s approach “retentionist-but-reductionist” and referred to the state’s steady narrowing of offences punishable by death and keeping the punishment for exceptionally serious crimes. He stated that the proposal to remove the death penalty for drug trafficking indicated a gradual political and legal reform, suspecting whether executions could quash drug supply and deeper integration of Vietnam into global legal and diplomatic frameworks. “The strongest driver [is] Vietnam’s gradual legal and political reforms rather than a sudden ideological shift,” Luong said. The proposal would still allow the death penalty for illegal narcotics production, drawing a distinction between manufacturers, seen as more central to sustaining the drug trade, and traffickers. Luong said the changes would not have a major impact on drug availability. He noted that drug markets are quick to adjust, filling the void left by arrested individuals and altering trafficking routes. When questioned about the varying approaches Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore take toward drug traffickers, Luong explained that despite facing comparable challenges in tackling drug flows, the three nations differ in how they perceive deterrence, social order, and the state's role in administering punishment. Although Singapore continues to enforce capital punishment for the most severe trafficking cases, its approach also encompasses a wider anti-drug framework combining enforcement, education, and rehabilitation efforts.&nbsp;Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/iceland-votes-against-eu-membership-as-voters-defend-fishing-waters-and-sovereignty-1788077702009">Iceland votes against EU membership as voters defend fishing waters and sovereignty</a> According to Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, Singapore's policy is designed to prevent drug-related harm while ensuring strict penalties for those trafficking large quantities into the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs referenced a 2024 survey involving 12,000 participants across six regional cities, which found that 84.2 per cent of respondents believed the death penalty served as a deterrent against large-scale drug trafficking into Singapore, while 82.5 per cent viewed it as more effective than life imprisonment in this regard. Malaysia, on the other hand, scrapped the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking in 2023, giving courts the discretion to choose between execution and life imprisonment instead. Ngeow Chow Ying, a Malaysian lawyer and deputy convenor of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, noted that this shift resulted in a significant decline in new death sentences, citing Amnesty International data showing 38 new sentences in 2023, dropping to 24 in 2024, and further down to 15 in 2025. Ngeow explained that in drug trafficking cases, courts now evaluate both aggravating and mitigating circumstances before deciding between capital punishment and life imprisonment. She added that mitigating factors may include the offender's limited role, such as acting as a courier, the nature of the drugs involved, and whether an early guilty plea was made. “Appellate courts, for instance, have commuted death sentences to life imprisonment for young or first-time couriers caught with substantial drug quantities, in recognition of their limited role in the operation,” she said. Even so, inconsistencies in interpretation persisted between different judicial levels in some cases, with High Court death sentences imposed on couriers later set aside by superior courts for life imprisonment, Ngeow said. “This suggests that trial-level sentencing remains uneven and continues to depend heavily on appellate correction,” she added.

Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments.

Under a draft revision to the Penal Code, Vietnam is looking to end executions for drug trafficking, marking Southeast Asia’s notable and toughest anti-drug regimes. The proposal, presented to lawmakers last week, will remove trafficking from the list of capital crimes in Vietnam. Last year, Vietnam had retained this offence during a previous phase of death penalty reforms. If the amended law is enacted, capital punishment would be retained for four crimes: treason, murder, terrorism and illegal narcotics production. Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking as a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments. In 2023, Malaysia ended mandatory death sentences. Meanwhile, Singapore retains the death penalty for the most serious trafficking offences exceeding legal thresholds for quantities of various controlled drugs. This has sparked broader discussions on whether the death penalty remains relevant in modern society, whether sentencing should allow for judicial discretion, and how nations can tackle drug trafficking through alternative means. According to Hai Thanh Luong, a Vietnamese criminologist based at Griffith University in Australia, Vietnam's proposal does not represent a sudden shift away from capital punishment, but rather forms part of a gradual, long-term process of reform. Punishment for exceptionally serious crimes Luong called Hanoi’s approach “retentionist-but-reductionist” and referred to the state’s steady narrowing of offences punishable by death and keeping the punishment for exceptionally serious crimes. He stated that the proposal to remove the death penalty for drug trafficking indicated a gradual political and legal reform, suspecting whether executions could quash drug supply and deeper integration of Vietnam into global legal and diplomatic frameworks. “The strongest driver [is] Vietnam’s gradual legal and political reforms rather than a sudden ideological shift,” Luong said. The proposal would still allow the death penalty for illegal narcotics production, drawing a distinction between manufacturers, seen as more central to sustaining the drug trade, and traffickers. Luong said the changes would not have a major impact on drug availability. He noted that drug markets are quick to adjust, filling the void left by arrested individuals and altering trafficking routes. When questioned about the varying approaches Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore take toward drug traffickers, Luong explained that despite facing comparable challenges in tackling drug flows, the three nations differ in how they perceive deterrence, social order, and the state's role in administering punishment. Although Singapore continues to enforce capital punishment for the most severe trafficking cases, its approach also encompasses a wider anti-drug framework combining enforcement, education, and rehabilitation efforts. Also read: Iceland votes against EU membership as voters defend fishing waters and sovereignty According to Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, Singapore's policy is designed to prevent drug-related harm while ensuring strict penalties for those trafficking large quantities into the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs referenced a 2024 survey involving 12,000 participants across six regional cities, which found that 84.2 per cent of respondents believed the death penalty served as a deterrent against large-scale drug trafficking into Singapore, while 82.5 per cent viewed it as more effective than life imprisonment in this regard. Malaysia, on the other hand, scrapped the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking in 2023, giving courts the discretion to choose between execution and life imprisonment instead. Ngeow Chow Ying, a Malaysian lawyer and deputy convenor of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, noted that this shift resulted in a significant decline in new death sentences, citing Amnesty International data showing 38 new sentences in 2023, dropping to 24 in 2024, and further down to 15 in 2025. Ngeow explained that in drug trafficking cases, courts now evaluate both aggravating and mitigating circumstances before deciding between capital punishment and life imprisonment. She added that mitigating factors may include the offender's limited role, such as acting as a courier, the nature of the drugs involved, and whether an early guilty plea was made. “Appellate courts, for instance, have commuted death sentences to life imprisonment for young or first-time couriers caught with substantial drug quantities, in recognition of their limited role in the operation,” she said. Even so, inconsistencies in interpretation persisted between different judicial levels in some cases, with High Court death sentences imposed on couriers later set aside by superior courts for life imprisonment, Ngeow said. “This suggests that trial-level sentencing remains uneven and continues to depend heavily on appellate correction,” she added.

Several Southeast Asian governments have considered serious drug trafficking a crime for several years, warning that it warranted the death penalty. However, some countries have re-examined their laws, leading to amendments.

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