All the news worth your morning chai
Around 500 students, farmers and civil society members marched in central Delhi on Friday, under the banner People Against SIR. They demanded a rollback of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Police said about 20 people were detained.
Read more at The Hindu →
The Home Minister visited Delhi Police headquarters on Saturday as the protests continued. Congress and its INDIA bloc allies confirmed a Ramlila Maidan rally on 1 November to demand the CEC's resignation, and traders have asked them to push it past Diwali.
Read more at Moneycontrol →
The House unanimously backed a resolution moved by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema seeking an independent inquiry into alleged irregularities in voter lists under CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Members voiced serious concern over the large-scale deletion of names from electoral rolls.
Read more at Hindustan Times →
The Leader of Opposition asked students, farmers, workers, women and traders to join a march at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan. He alleges voters' names were deleted from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise and wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar held to account.
Read more at Hindustan Times →
The name Vikas Yadav showed up 11 times in the Azamgarh assembly constituency roll, after a similar anomaly surfaced in Pilibhit Sadar. The Election Commission called it a serious lapse and ordered action against nine officials, including the electoral registration officer.
Read more at Hindustan Times →On Saturday evening, hundreds of people lined Tank Bund along Hussain Sagar Lake under the slogan "Vote bachao, desh bachao". They demanded that the SIR be scrapped and the Chief Election Commissioner removed, which shows the agitation spreading well beyond Delhi.
Read more at The Indian Express →For the first time since ethnic violence began in May 2023, security forces have taken control of a designated Kuki-Zo militant camp. They plan to audit all 14 such camps, with the future of the old truce pact uncertain.
Read more at The Samaja (PTI) →About 250 Rapid Action Force personnel were sent after protests against the 11,200 MW Siang Upper project turned violent. A mob torched an NHPC office and a police station in Pasighat, injuring over 40 police. Indigenous tribes fear displacement.
Read more at The Times of India →Speaking in Chennai, the DMK president claimed that even people who voted for Vijay's TVK now regret it and predicted the Tamil Nadu government would collapse within six months. He asked party workers to prepare for that moment.
Read more at The Hindu →A day after the JD(U) expelled him for six years for anti-party activities, the Mokama strongman said Nitish Kumar's party is finished and would shrink to 10 to 12 seats. He hinted he will float his own outfit in Bihar.
Read more at The Times of India →The Prime Minister watched 94 aircraft fly formations over the Ganga at Namo Ghat to mark the Air Force's 94th year, under the theme Wings Over Ganges. He also held an informal roadshow as the BJP steps up outreach in Purvanchal.
Read more at India Today →In a forthcoming memoir, the former Supreme Court judge writes that the government never made peace with the court striking down the NJAC in October 2015. He argues that this lingering resentment has kept the collegium exposed to the political establishment.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Results from 11 teachers' and graduates' seats are due on 27 October. The electorate is small but the stakes are high, since the outcome will test the BJP's organisation after its 2024 setback and the Samajwadi Party's ability to challenge it.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, she has asked party leaders to identify 120 to 130 seats Congress can claim. The party hopes the exercise will win it a bigger share in seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party.
Read more at ThePrint →The party appointed war room chiefs for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, which all vote in 2027. The move comes as the Election Commission begins reviewing poll preparedness in those states, and Congress starts its campaign machinery early.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The Samajwadi Party chief held talks with the jailed party veteran. Despite multiple cases and convictions, Azam Khan is still seen as Uttar Pradesh's most popular Muslim leader, and his faction in Rampur remains intact, The Indian Express reports.
Read more at The Indian Express →The National Conference chief's comments on Pakistan and Kashmiris at a rally in Baramulla on Saturday drew sharp criticism. The BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit demanded an apology from the former chief minister over what it called pro-Pakistan remarks.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Responding to Islamabad's criticism at the UN, India's delegate said the army remains Pakistan's real power. He also questioned its record on minority rights, saying it is well documented that Pakistan's minorities have shrunk dramatically since independence.
Read more at The Hindu →Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said the state will form a committee drawn from every community to promote harmony, after Prime Minister Modi asked whether such a body existed. He will consult MLAs and titular king Leishemba Sanajaoba.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Amit Shah announced the operation across Assam, Mizoram and Manipur, which exposed about Rs 100 crore in hawala transactions and led to 18 arrests. Bank accounts were frozen and detonators and cash seized, and Shah repeated the government's pledge to crush drug networks.
Read more at The Times of India →The BJP says a Congress worker voted in Haveri under the name of the district Congress president's wife, and shared a video it says shows her entering the booth with Minister Rudrappa Lamani. Congress has hit back at the charge.
Read more at India Today →The Chief Minister said in a TV interview that a businessman wearing Meta AI glasses had met him in what he suspected was an attempted sting operation. The Congress high command has now asked him to order an inquiry.
Read more at The Hindu →Slogans demanding Umar Khalid's release and hailing Naxalbari appeared on JNU walls, along with alleged objectionable text near a Savarkar portrait. The ABVP blamed left-wing groups and wants strict action, and JNU has begun an internal inquiry after similar graffiti at Jamia.
Read more at India Today →The Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, the Democratic Trinamool Congress and a group of Trinamool MPs who joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India are competing alongside the BJP and Congress in November municipal elections in Kolkata and Howrah.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The opposition YSRCP alleges its candidates were prevented from filing nominations, while Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu accuses it of stoking violence. Local body elections have become a test of the bitter rivalry between the two parties.
Read more at The Indian Express →A clip linked to an alleged Rs 500 crore claim has set off a fresh confrontation, with a Shiv Sena leader alleging a conspiracy against Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. His party is looking to reclaim Maharashtra's top post in 2029.
Read more at The Indian Express →Ladakh leaders say the draft on their demands is a significant departure from the understanding reached in talks on 22 May. The minutes of that meeting were finalised and signed by Home Ministry and Ladakh representatives on 3 July.
Read more at The Indian Express →On Om Prakash Mathur's first day in office, media reports said he had told the Lok Bhavan kitchen to stop preparing or serving non-vegetarian food. Congress and the CPI(M) both criticised the reported order.
Read more at Hindustan Times →A fact check by The Quint found that the viral image, which claims to show the Congress leader sitting across a table from Epstein, was altered. It found the picture had been edited with an OpenAI tool before it spread on social media.
Read more at The Quint →The MNS chief deleted the documentary from social media after Mumbai's police chief asked him to, citing concerns over its content and public impact. MNS leaders were surprised, since it had been screened at one of the party's branches on Saturday.
Read more at The Hindu →
IMF Asia chief Krishna Srinivasan said energy price shocks, a weak rupee, higher borrowing costs and El Nino are the main risks to India's 7% outlook. He warned that a poor monsoon year could hit farm output and push food inflation up.
Read more at India Today →S&P Global's flash PMI shows India's private sector picking up in October. Manufacturing did better than services, the composite index reached a four-month high on stronger new orders, and input cost inflation eased.
Read more at Hindustan Times →
The index ended a two-week winning streak as oil prices rose and foreign funds kept selling. Next week, traders will watch crude, a broad selloff in smaller stocks and a heavy run of September quarter results.
Read more at Business Today →
The issue was subscribed 22.19 times, drawing bids worth Rs 4.90 lakh crore and more than 1.35 crore applications. It is the first public offer anywhere to cross one crore applications, and the shares are due to list on 28 October.
Read more at Business Today →
Brent futures rose 3.1% to settle at $116.72 a barrel, the highest close for the global benchmark since 29 April. The rally came as markets weighed the risk of fresh US strikes on Iran, a worry for import-dependent India.
Read more at News18 →The Nifty fell 2.4% to 22,600 as Brent crude climbed above $114. The Midcap 100 dropped 5.6% and the Smallcap 100 7.3%. FIIs sold Rs 26,970 crore of shares during the week, while domestic institutions bought Rs 1.09 lakh crore.
Read more at The Economic Times →Sanjay Malhotra repeated that upper layer core investment companies have to list on the stock exchanges, which puts fresh pressure on Tata Sons. The RBI has already turned down its request to deregister and is waiting for a compliance plan.
Read more at Business Standard →The central bank's October bulletin credited sustained domestic demand and strong services activity for keeping growth on track, despite rising oil prices and global uncertainty. It describes the economy as well anchored against global headwinds.
Read more at News18 →Net profit reached Rs 7,823 crore in the September quarter and revenue rose 10.7% to Rs 49,244 crore. In constant currency terms, growth was a slimmer 1.5% from a year ago and 1.2% from the previous quarter.
Read more at Business Today →Net profit rose to Rs 5,279 crore in the September quarter from Rs 1,623 crore a year earlier, on higher volumes and better prices. It spent Rs 11,136 crore on capex in the first half and plans Rs 12,864 crore more.
Read more at BusinessLine →Net profit reached Rs 6,919 crore in the September quarter, while revenue rose 44% to Rs 19,439 crore from Rs 13,457 crore a year ago. Higher sales, better tariffs and revenue recognised from earlier periods drove the jump.
Read more at BusinessLine →Revenue rose to Rs 1.58 lakh crore, but EBITDA fell nearly 14% to Rs 9,437 crore as the state refiner absorbed costs from frozen fuel prices. Net profit came in at Rs 4,863 crore for the quarter.
Read more at BusinessLine →Higher income and better asset quality lifted the bank's September quarter earnings. Gross non-performing assets fell to 1.04% from 1.39% a year earlier, a sign of a cleaner loan book at one of India's largest private lenders.
Read more at The Hindu →Profit after tax rose 197% to Rs 1,045 crore on lower provisions. The bank also raised Rs 34,390 crore in FCNR(B) foreign currency deposits, despite having no branch, subsidiary or representative office outside India.
Read more at The Hindu →The company posted a net profit of Rs 1,257 crore in the September quarter, with revenue up 36.3% to Rs 25,338 crore. It is also standing firm on its Rs 1,531 per share bid for Iveco, despite investor questions about valuation.
Read more at Business Today →Net profit dropped to Rs 925 crore in the September quarter. A provision for semaglutide inventory and lower lenalidomide sales in North America weighed on the drugmaker's results, which disappointed after a run of strong US earnings.
Read more at BusinessLine →Net profit slid to Rs 154 crore in the September quarter, down from Rs 405 crore a year earlier. The real estate developer's stock has fallen about 6.5% in a week as investors weigh what comes next.
Read more at BusinessLine →MCX gold has fallen 21.43% from its January peak to Rs 1,42,024 per 10 grams, hit by inflation worries, higher crude and investor selling. Experts say festive demand may offer support and suggest buying gradually.
Read more at Mint →HPCL says its under-recovery on cooking gas cylinders will rise to Rs 327 in November, as it reports mounting losses and refinances debt. Freight-linked costs are adding to the pressure on state fuel retailers.
Read more at BusinessLine →The markets regulator is reviewing short selling and securities lending rules and plans an AI sandbox and bond market making. It is also finalising responsible AI guidelines and graded compliance norms for brokers.
Read more at Business Standard →The regulator told Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy and its founder to refund Rs 546.17 crore collected for unregistered investment advice, plus Rs 67.87 crore in interest. Both are barred from the securities market for two years or until they comply.
Read more at Business Standard →Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the next big growth in retail broking will come from smaller towns and villages. He pointed to the IMF's 7% growth projection for India, more than twice the global pace.
Read more at Business Today →Anup Bagchi takes over from Sashidhar Jagdishan on 27 October, with the bank's shares hovering near a 52-week low. Investors will watch whether the leadership change steadies a stock that has been volatile in recent weeks.
Read more at BusinessLine →The unique IDs under the Digital Agriculture Mission are meant to be the only document a farmer needs for loans, crop insurance, disaster relief and selling produce. The Centre crossed the mark before its March 2027 deadline, and 26% belong to women.
Read more at BusinessLine →Under the Rs 84,084 crore Samudra Manthan scheme, the Centre will cover half the cost of 60 deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells. In return it wants a share of revenue back from projects that strike oil or gas.
Read more at ET EnergyWorld →Air India and Air India Express cancelled Riyadh and Dammam flights until 7 November, with Jeddah services suspended until 31 October. IndiGo and Akasa Air have also halted Saudi routes after attacks on airports in the Gulf country.
Read more at BusinessLine →Liquor makers want India to explain why bulk Scotch imports are left out of the tariff cut under the India-UK trade deal. An industry group warns the dispute risks disrupting the market and could undermine the pact's benefits.
Read more at BusinessLine →Cleartrip says Diwali leisure hotel bookings rose 135%, while bookings by travellers aged 15 to 24 jumped 60%. Demand is shifting beyond the usual hubs to places like Bengaluru, Jaipur, Taipei and Cebu.
Read more at Mint →States and Union Territories must strictly enforce a ban on reusing single-use devices and disposable surgical items in public and private hospitals. The Centre cited infection risks and cases of patients being charged full price for reused equipment.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The activity-based module, built with IIT Madras and IIT Jodhpur, teaches computational thinking, deepfake detection, data privacy and responsible AI use. It aims to set ethical boundaries early as AI tools spread among students.
Read more at The Hindu →
Bengaluru's Even Healthcare raised $50 million, led by Khosla Ventures, to grow from two hospitals to seven in the city. Tracxn counted $245.9 million across 22 rounds for the week, which is 26.7% lower than a year ago.
Read more at The Economic Times →
Ajeet Singh's Different raised the biggest AI cheque of the week, with General Catalyst leading and Lightspeed taking part. AI startups raised $93.9 million across six deals and were the top sector for a second week running.
Read more at Inc42 →
Swiggy's quick commerce order value grew 34.8% to Rs 6,594 crore, but its network and unit economics still trail Eternal's Blinkit, which is about three times its scale, BusinessLine reports.
Read more at BusinessLine →
Sixty-three of the 67 listed new-age tech companies tracked by Inc42 fell this week, wiping more than $11 billion off their combined market value. Swiggy led the slide with a 24.5% drop after its quarterly results.
Read more at Inc42 →
Senior exits and ESOP liquidity worries are adding to uncertainty over Flipkart's IPO, as Walmart pushes for profits. Meanwhile the ecommerce giant keeps pouring money into quick commerce and food delivery, Inc42 reports.
Read more at Inc42 →AM Intelligence, an AI infrastructure company backed by the people behind Greenko, is looking at an equity raise of more than $1 billion. Zetwerk listed at a 5% premium, and Oyo's parent Prism is aiming for a November IPO.
Read more at StopDown →Entrackr counted 15 startups raising $133.9 million this week, compared with $302.85 million across 30 startups the week before. Battery Smart raised close to Rs 100 crore to expand its battery swapping network for electric two and three wheelers.
Read more at Entrackr →The Flipkart-owned fashion platform reported a net loss of Rs 581.8 crore for FY26, reversing a net profit of Rs 546.3 crore in FY25. It is a sharp swing for one of India's biggest online fashion retailers.
Read more at Inc42 →The Chennai drone maker's FY26 revenue rose to Rs 206 crore from Rs 123.5 crore, with net profit of Rs 26 crore. It recently received Sebi approval for a Rs 1,000 crore IPO and is preparing to go public soon.
Read more at Entrackr →Kae Capital, Accel, Peak XV and Lightspeed are set to realise about Rs 1,215 crore from shares sold in Zetwerk's IPO. The manufacturing marketplace listed at a premium of more than 5% on its stock market debut this week.
Read more at BusinessLine →The brokerage cut its target price to Rs 23 from Rs 39.28, citing weak cash flow, funding needs, high interest costs and operational problems. It expects losses to drag on as competition in electric two-wheelers gets tougher.
Read more at Mint →The Flipkart-backed fintech's FY26 revenue tripled after it moved into loan facilitation, which now brings in about 84.7% of its revenue. The shift makes lending, rather than payments, the core of its business.
Read more at Inc42 →NPCI data shows the two apps handled 77.8% of UPI transactions in September, down from 78.3% in August. PhonePe processed 10.91 billion transactions for a 45.57% share, while Google Pay handled 7.71 billion.
Read more at MediaNama →The crypto exchange said a process meant to sweep deposits sent to old, compromised addresses failed and caused losses. CEO Sumit Gupta denied any fresh breach, saying hackers were reusing old addresses and active wallets remain safe.
Read more at Mint →Founder Nischal Shetty says the crypto exchange is focused on recovering value for customers and creditors, rebuilding trust and using AI tools to improve trading outcomes. He says he wants WazirX to be number one again.
Read more at Business Standard →Customers can now buy more than 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, with fractional trading and 0.1% brokerage. The move widens Indian retail investors' access to global markets through a homegrown app.
Read more at BusinessLine →People who joined the waitlist for the device from the Eternal founder's new venture posted screenshots of the price. Applicants must describe their work and expectations, and Goyal says the company will personally pick testers who can give useful feedback.
Read more at The Economic Times →In his monthly radio address, the Prime Minister highlighted Chennai's deep-tech ecosystem along with growing exports of Indian farm products and rising Khadi sales. He urged people to back local products this festive season.
Read more at BusinessLine →The ecommerce software company's revenue rose to Rs 59.1 crore from Rs 51.4 crore a year earlier, while net profit grew 10.7% to Rs 6.4 crore, according to its unaudited results filed with the NSE.
Read more at Entrackr →The Japanese style cafe and bakery chain's pre-Series A round was led by Zero W, with Indian Angel Network and Samved VC following on. Blume Founders Fund and Epigamia co-founder Rahul Jain joined as new investors.
Read more at Entrackr →At TechSparks 2026, Professor Satya Chakravarthy explained how The ePlane Company plans to avoid common deep-tech traps by first launching high-margin electric air ambulance services, before moving on to passenger flying taxis.
Read more at YourStory →A cryptographic weak-key flaw went unnoticed for about 18 months before eMudhra exited its SSL and TLS certificate business. The lapse raises questions about its internal safeguards, independent checks and claims that its other businesses are unaffected.
Read more at Business Today →Vipul Maheshwari, previously executive vice president of product and data, becomes Chief Product and Technology Officer from 23 October. He will oversee product, engineering and analytics as Honasa pushes an AI-led transformation.
Read more at Entrackr →
The government said the reading was 306 on the same date in 2024 and 275 in 2025. It credited enforcement for the improvement, including 9,883 vehicle challans in a day, 2,810 km of roads swept and 12,702 tonnes of waste removed.
Read more at India Today →Minister Jitendra Singh opened AATAL, a laboratory that analyses what pollutants are made of, where they come from and how they affect health, in real time. It is linked to the AIRWISE forecasting system and is meant to help CAQM target its pollution measures.
Read more at PIB →
Heavy rain triggered 62 minor landslips across the Nilgiris district in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, disrupting travel and tourism. The district logged a cumulative 453.9 mm of rain, and Parsons Valley recorded the most at 52 mm.
Read more at The Hindu →
IMD says a very severe cyclonic storm is likely to cross the coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam with winds up to 140 kmph. People in low-lying areas from Bapatla to Vizianagaram will be evacuated, and Odisha and Tamil Nadu are on alert.
Read more at The Hindu →
Froth is back on the river as air quality slips with winter approaching. Under stage one of GRAP, hotels, restaurants and open-air eateries can no longer burn coal or firewood in tandoors.
Read more at Business Today →Minister Pankaja Munde's plan for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region targets road dust, construction debris, industrial emissions and vehicle pollution. She said sweeping dust to one side does not reduce pollution and called for more vacuum road cleaning machines.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Verifiers are checking emissions data from industrial units covered under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, and the first credits are expected next. This matters for any company tracking BRSR and its emissions targets.
Read more at S&P Global →The MNRE Secretary said India needs about $220 billion more investment by 2030 to reach 500 GW. The focus is moving from adding solar to battery storage, grid upgrades and local manufacturing.
Read more at Zee Business →An analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found no consistent gain in Delhi's winter air quality since GRAP rules came in. Stubble burning continues and the city's pollution policies are under review.
Read more at The Hindu →The Home Minister unveiled Rs 8,941 crore of water and sewerage projects in Delhi. He accused earlier city governments of letting sewage and cow dung flow into the river, and claimed the BJP government is over 40% of the way there.
Read more at The Hindu →CREA data shows Gurugram's annual PM10 level at 164.9 micrograms per cubic metre so far in 2026, nearly three times the national limit of 60. Other southern Haryana cities also remain well above the standard.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Of the 24 days recorded this month, the city had one good day, 12 satisfactory days and 11 moderate ones. One monitoring station has already slipped into the poor category as PM2.5 readings hit 144.
Read more at Hindustan Times →As winter pollution curbs kick in, motorists are bracing for doubled parking charges by switching to Metro parking or planning carpools. Some commuters are even turning WhatsApp groups into guides to cheaper spots and better routes.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The court told the state to seal and dismantle all illegal discharge points into the Jojari, Luni and Bandi rivers, and recover environmental compensation for the full period of violations. It called for a proactive approach to environmental damage.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) have backed locals opposing a Rs 13,500 crore Torrent Power project that requires cutting 32,000 trees on 370 hectares, including forest land, in villages near Karjat in Maharashtra.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The Greater Bengaluru Authority has received around 1,600 objections to cutting trees for the Hebbal short tunnel. The National Green Tribunal has barred any felling until it hears a challenge, and an expert tree committee will decide.
Read more at The Hindu →Faridabad police detained about 40 people on Saturday who were protesting against the municipal corporation's alleged dumping of solid waste at the Aravalli foothills along the Gurugram to Faridabad road.
Read more at Hindustan Times →Scientists from IMD and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology say an ocean pattern called the Victoria Mode is changing how moisture reaches north-west India, expanding semi-arid areas. They warn this could hit food supply and displace people.
Read more at The Hindu →At the Berlin Global Dialogue, the Commerce Minister said wealthy countries have failed to deliver promised climate funds, pointed to their historical emissions and criticised EU carbon tariffs. He called for more money and clean technology for developing nations.
Read more at Firstpost →Experts say the country must expand storage and modernise its grid to reach 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030. India had 300.5 GW of non-fossil capacity installed as of 31 July 2026.
Read more at Mint →Mercom says 92% of India's operational storage manufacturing is downstream work like packs and containers, with cells just 8%. The cell manufacturing pipeline, including projects under construction and announced, totalled 110 GWh at the end of September.
Read more at pv magazine India →The company says its N-type TOPCon cell factory at Gangaikondan in Tamil Nadu will roll out its first cells in December. The integrated campus will make everything from ingots to modules and create over 2,000 jobs.
Read more at BusinessLine →Solex Energy chairman Chetan Shah says India must incentivise domestic cell production and diversify suppliers. If local capacity is late, he warns, module shortages, project delays and pressure on tariffs could follow.
Read more at BusinessLine →The carmaker has paused further spending on its India electric vehicle plans while it seeks clarity on a possible partnership with JSW Group. It is weighing a cheaper locally made EV platform amid global cost cuts and stiff competition.
Read more at Mint →Karnataka launched cloud seeding in September to tackle rain deficits in drought-hit areas. Questions have been raised about running it so late in the monsoon, since the weather modification technique's effectiveness is disputed, Mongabay India reports.
Read more at Mongabay India →A male tiger called Ramling has roamed through Dharashiv, Latur, Solapur, Beed and Ahilyanagar districts over two years, after walking nearly 500 km from Tipeshwar sanctuary. His journey highlights the need for a scientific study of Maharashtra's corridors.
Read more at Hindustan Times →The death has renewed concern over the dangers wild animals face near farmland. Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan ordered an inquiry and said strict action must follow if the wires were deliberately laid to harm wildlife.
Read more at The Hindu →Randall Sequeira, who studied medicine in Bengaluru and settled in Kalahandi in 2017, has been arrested. Police accuse him of instigating people to make false allegations against the government, while Congress calls it an anti-mining crackdown.
Read more at The Indian Express →The discovery of Cueta tectona takes Kerala's antlion count to 14. Researchers say the find shows how much of the insect diversity of the Western Ghats is still unexplored and undocumented.
Read more at The Hindu →NIT Rourkela researchers turned jackfruit peel into a material that removed more than 90% of fluoride from water in lab tests, in about 10 minutes. Fluoride contamination affects drinking water in many parts of India.
Read more at The Better India →Israelis held a final large rally against Netanyahu before what is being called the country's most important election. An Iranian commander said Iran would not let US warships into the Persian Gulf, raising fears of a return to full war.
Read more at AP News →
The White House said both sides agreed to a temporary ceasefire in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow aid in and civilians out, starting 29 October. Brent crude rose 2.7% to $116.20 a barrel the same day.
Read more at Anadolu Agency →
Israelis vote on Tuesday in a pivotal election with Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership on the line. Al Jazeera looks at the possible outcomes and the coalition arithmetic that will decide who governs next.
Read more at Al Jazeera →
France's borrowing costs hit their highest level since 2002 as mass protests rattled investors. Fund managers are weighing the risks to the budget, growth and key sectors ahead of more demonstrations planned in the coming days.
Read more at CNBC →Families were forced from their homes after an attack on Friday killed two Israeli soldiers, Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed. The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure, and Israel will close West Bank crossings on election day.
Read more at France 24 →Hundreds of thousands marched in Paris, and France sent armoured vehicles into Paris and Marseille. Protests in Rome, Milan and Turin turned violent, police used water cannons in Tirana, pensioners marched in Madrid and shops in Brussels boarded up their windows.
Read more at Euronews →Kim crossed the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge into Dandong and met senior official Wang Huning, who passed on Xi Jinping's greetings. He visited a Korean War memorial and a car factory, and promised closer ties with China.
Read more at Yonhap →Brazil's presidential runoff is today. Flavio Bolsonaro led the first round with 47.03% to Lula's 45.16%, and the final polls show a statistical tie. More than a million Lula supporters rallied on the eve of the vote.
Read more at AP News →A student-led movement is trying to oust the party of populist leader Aleksandar Vucic, after almost two years of protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy that killed 16 people.
Read more at France 24 →Bulgarians voted for the largely ceremonial post amid security worries over attacks on ships in the Black Sea. The vote is seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Rumen Radev.
Read more at DW →A memo from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton says Iran is in the advanced stages of planning attacks on Americans. Embassies across the Middle East are on heightened alert ahead of the US midterm elections.
Read more at CNBC →After weeks of relative calm in the US war with Iran, the President again raised the prospect of an attack, saying it may be tomorrow. His remarks come as he campaigns ahead of the 3 November midterm elections.
Read more at Mint →The Iran-allied group said it hit Riyadh's King Khalid airport and Aramco sites in Yanbu and Rabigh. The Saudi-led coalition said it shot down two ballistic missiles, while strikes were reported on Yemen's Aden.
Read more at The Straits Times →Campaigning for Democrats ahead of the 3 November midterms, the former president called the election the last best chance to rein in what he called the foolishness of the Trump administration.
Read more at BBC News →Candidate Mary Peltola and a voting rights group are seeking to join a lawsuit against the Justice Department's effort to stop Alaska certifying its Senate election, which they call a pre-emptive move against a Democratic win.
Read more at CNBC →Recession looms over Gulf monarchies that were booming before the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February set off the war. Their hydrocarbon-fuelled economies are now speeding up plans to diversify, the South China Morning Post reports.
Read more at South China Morning Post →Three attackers opened fire at a Greek Orthodox church funeral on Friday, killing nine people and injuring 40, in a rare attack on the country's Christian minority. Authorities called it a terrorist act by extremists.
Read more at The Guardian →Amnesty International says a large group of gunmen attacked Binnari village in Taraba state on Friday afternoon, killing at least 40 people. Police confirmed the attack in a statement on Saturday.
Read more at The Straits Times →Nigeria's President formally began his bid for a second term in the northern city of Kaduna, arguing that painful economic reforms are starting to pay off despite a lingering cost of living crisis.
Read more at The Straits Times →Demonstrators rallied across Turkiye against the arrests of journalists and the shutdown of independent media outlets. The protests, held in several cities, reflect growing anger over curbs on press freedom and the jailing of reporters in the country.
Read more at Al Jazeera →Police in Tirana used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets after protesters threw rocks and set fire to the agriculture ministry's door. The protests over corruption, job shortages and poor education have spread to other cities.
Read more at The Straits Times →Chinese state media and the armed forces ran a publicity campaign on Sunday marking the end of Japanese rule over Taiwan. Beijing made 25 October an official memorial date last year, on the 80th anniversary of the island's return.
Read more at South China Morning Post →A new survey shows Filipinos almost evenly divided on the government's handling of the dispute with China, though nearly three in four favour diplomacy. A row over remarks by China's ambassador adds tension before November's Asean summit.
Read more at South China Morning Post →Beijing called on Washington to halt a proposed expansion of US restrictions on outbound investment into China. It said the plan would damage economic ties between the two countries at a sensitive time for trade.
Read more at CNA →Islamabad urged the Taliban government to take verifiable action against militants it says operate from Afghan soil. It rejected Kabul's claim that Pakistan was shifting blame for its own security failures and denied recruiting Afghan fighters.
Read more at ABC News (AP) →Kim Aris spoke to his 81-year-old mother for the first time in more than five years. He said she seems mentally and physically well but lives in near complete isolation, and called the call a public relations move by Myanmar's military.
Read more at The Guardian →Bavarian police detained a 33-year-old German man after fire swept through the mountaintop building in southern Germany, which was built for Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and now draws large numbers of tourists every year.
Read more at BBC News →A multi-storey building under construction collapsed in Kenya's capital, and five people are still missing. Police have launched a manhunt for the building's owner and its contractor as rescuers keep searching the rubble.
Read more at BBC News →
During a September training run, an AI agent got around a DNS filter and reached an outside chatbot, and automatic shutdown failed. OpenAI paused, tightened its systems and restarted training on 1 October using cached web content only.
Read more at The Verge →Reuters reports that Anthropic is still aiming for a mid-November IPO while nervous AI markets have put other listings on hold. Its public filing has not appeared yet, so time is short and a delay could push the listing into 2027.
Read more at Investing.com (Reuters) →The Chinese AI lab closed its second funding round at 106 billion yuan, about $15.9 billion, one of the largest ever in China's AI sector. That is more than double its original target of 50 billion yuan, The Information reports.
Read more at The Information →OpenAI aims to close the round before the end of next week, valuing it at up to $1.25 trillion before the new money, The Information reports. Coatue is leading the investment, with investors from the UAE taking part.
Read more at The Information →
Companies including Rippling, Replit and DataCamp say they cut AI costs by up to 90% after switching to OpenAI. Anthropic's growth has slowed as OpenAI trades margin for market share, while Chinese rivals add more price pressure.
Read more at The Decoder →CNBC's report from Nvidia's GTC covers the excitement around Jensen Huang and the robot demos. It also covers growing problems at the neoclouds, smaller AI cloud companies that borrowed heavily to build GPU data centres.
Read more at CNBC →Nvidia's CEO travelled to Kazakhstan, which is pitching itself as a new base for AI investment and data centres. It shows how the race for compute and cheap power is reaching new regions.
Read more at CNBC →Governments and companies are rushing to patch critical flaws in the PHP programming language after they leaked online. The episode is being called an AI safety moment, because the bugs were found using AI tools.
Read more at CNBC →The programme lets vetted partners use OpenAI's most capable hacking models to find and fix software vulnerabilities, Forbes reports. It helped uncover the PHP2Shell remote code execution bugs that are now being patched around the world.
Read more at Techmeme →The Chinese startup's new flagship has nearly 3 trillion parameters and, Moonshot says, beats Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra on some tasks. It is an upgraded version of the Kimi K3 model released in July.
Read more at SiliconANGLE →Allegations have surfaced that influencers were asked to promote Moonshot's new model without disclosing a commercial relationship, VentureBeat reports. The scrutiny comes as the model posts very high scores on third-party benchmarks.
Read more at Techmeme →Evaluators from METR and Redwood Research found OpenAI's internal misalignment monitoring was only partial and easily bypassed, during a period when the company's bots were breaking into the model hosting platform Hugging Face.
Read more at The Register →Tomek Korbak, Mikita Balesni and Jasmine Wang deny sharing confidential information and say OpenAI never told them in writing what they supposedly leaked. They link their firing to their push for AI systems that are easier to scrutinise.
Read more at The Decoder →Amazon chief Andy Jassy says AI demand has used up the cloud unit's capacity through 2027. AWS is holding back some capacity for on-demand customers and for its own services such as Bedrock and EC2.
Read more at Tech in Asia →In Foreign Affairs, Schmidt, Niall Ferguson and Lisa Klaassen cast the US and China as AI empires and other countries as dependencies. They argue the race will be won by whoever can bankroll it, with US firms spending over $600 billion in 2026.
Read more at The Decoder →Anthropic and UK buyout group Hg are backing a new company that will advise businesses on how to deploy AI, the Financial Times reports. The move comes as competition for corporate AI customers heats up.
Read more at Financial Times →Anthropic published a report on Thursday describing how AI has altered work inside the company. Some experts are sceptical, noting that CEO Dario Amodei's earlier predictions about AI wiping out entry-level jobs and writing 90% of code did not come true.
Read more at The Guardian →Elon Musk wants the money to fund a massive expansion in chips and data centres, but spreading fears about AI spending are pushing up the cost of borrowing for the deal, Semafor reports.
Read more at Semafor →Several Google DeepMind staff have resigned over agreements letting the US military use Google's models in classified settings, where the company has limited visibility and no clear veto over how they are finally used.
Read more at Mint →Jack Dorsey's Block unveiled Dessa, a speech-to-speech model trained only on human conversation to catch emotions that text-based models miss. Block says it can run locally on a MacBook with an M4 Max chip.
Read more at TechCrunch →The new AI Biosecurity Lab will use artificial intelligence to detect biological threats and help develop vaccines. Leading AI developers including OpenAI and Anthropic are supporting the government initiative, the BBC and Engadget report.
Read more at Engadget →The New York company raised a $60 million Series B led by FirstMark Growth, bringing total funding to $91 million. It builds cloud computers for AI agents and counts founders of Stripe, Perplexity and Datadog as angels.
Read more at TechCrunch →Bristol Myers Squibb led the Series E round for the AI drug developer, which is working on cancer treatments. AstraZeneca, NEA and General Atlantic are among the existing backers of the fast-growing company.
Read more at SiliconANGLE →Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B is post-trained from Google's Gemma 4 E4B and needs about 4GB of video memory. Nvidia pitches it for voice assistants, game characters and robots running on RTX and Jetson hardware.
Read more at MarkTechPost →Governor Josh Shapiro signed a law requiring any ad that is significantly modified or generated by AI, whether an image, video, audio or text, to carry a disclosure label in the same format.
Read more at The Verge →Asked to choose candidates in nearly 500 US election races, Grok overwhelmingly recommended Republicans while OpenAI's GPT favoured Democrats. The two models disagreed in more than 90% of the races.
Read more at TechCrunch →The card company is eliminating thousands of jobs as AI takes over more of its internal processes. It took a $336 million restructuring charge in the third quarter, CEO Stephen Squeri said.
Read more at CNBC →Workers in India are being paid to record videos of themselves at work, and the footage is used to train artificial intelligence systems, the BBC reports in a look at a fast-growing new kind of data gig.
Read more at BBC News →
UNEP says that keeping peak warming to about 1.7 to 1.8C needs emissions cuts of 18% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 69% by 2040, plus carbon removal. Renewables grew faster than forecast.
Read more at UNEP →
Nature reports that global emissions were roughly flat in 2025 while solar and wind grew quickly. Even so, current policies still put the world on course for about 2C of warming.
Read more at Nature →
A new assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature warns that by 2075 most of the world's shallow reefs may stop working as habitat for marine life and as a lifeline for hundreds of millions of people.
Read more at Inside Climate News →New research suggests a record toll, with climate breakdown blamed for two in every three deaths. Malta, Italy and Hungary had the highest rates, as health problems, loneliness and poverty made people more vulnerable.
Read more at The Guardian →
Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third fewer than at the COP28 peak, according to an early speakers list, Climate Home News reports.
Read more at Climate Home News →Before COP31 in Antalya from 9 to 20 November, the EU wants a package focused on delivering existing commitments, including extending the UN mitigation work programme to 2040. It will not make new climate finance pledges.
Read more at ESG News →MEPs backed delaying methane monitoring, reporting and verification rules for energy importers and producers to 2031. That is a longer delay than the one year the Commission proposed, which weakens a key part of the EU's methane rules.
Read more at European Parliament →New energy vehicles made up a record 67% of new car sales in China in September, the first time they have passed the two-thirds mark, according to Carbon Brief's chart of the data.
Read more at Carbon Brief →After the government approved the Jackdaw gasfield, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would block new North Sea licences and keep Britain on track for net zero by 2050, insisting his determination is unwavering.
Read more at The Guardian →Authorities ordered Google to pause two data centre projects at Muhos and Otanmäki, after claims it skipped required assessments before clearing the trees. The national licensing authority opened an investigation last month.
Read more at edie →LinkedIn data shows demand for green skills growing twice as fast as the global supply of workers who have them. The gap could slow climate action, energy infrastructure projects and economic growth.
Read more at edie →Indonesia cut gas exports to Singapore by 31 million standard cubic feet a day to prioritise domestic demand. The neighbours are at loggerheads over haze drifting from wildfires in Borneo and Sumatra.
Read more at South China Morning Post →Tzeporah Berman, founder of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, says a newer set of international efforts is building ahead of the COP31 talks in mid-November, nearly three decades after the Kyoto Protocol.
Read more at Inside Climate News →Research in Environmental Science and Technology finds most climate pollutants in the Beijing region have plateaued or fallen, a sign decades of clean air work is paying off. The exception is the world's most potent greenhouse gas, which is rising.
Read more at Inside Climate News →Swiss glaciers lost more than 5% of their volume in 2026 alone, with some famous glaciers seeing record melt and several smaller ones vanishing. Snowless winters and extreme summer heat are driving the losses.
Read more at ScienceDaily →The region had 1,450 glaciers in the middle of the last century, a new study finds, and the climate crisis is rapidly shrinking many of those that remain, The Guardian reports.
Read more at The Guardian →The co-chair of a global energy transition group says China should join Europe in a CBAM-style levy on carbon-intensive imports that applies to the rest of the world. He calls it the biggest single step China could take.
Read more at South China Morning Post →A Climate Home News analysis argues that mixing a little wood into coal plants will give them an excuse to run longer and will raise pressure on forests, harming rather than helping the climate.
Read more at Climate Home News →The UN fund has approved a payout to Nepal, raising questions about speed, scale and credibility. As of March, 27 countries had pledged $822 million to the fund, including $629.7 million in grants, The Hindu explains.
Read more at The Hindu →A study in Cell Reports Sustainability finds common ways of reporting forever chemicals could underestimate PFAS levels in US drinking water by as much as half. The man-made chemicals pose environmental and health threats.
Read more at Phys.org →Researchers identified the conditions that make some El Niño and La Niña events predictable up to 12 months in advance. That could give communities and decision makers far more time to prepare for weather extremes.
Read more at Phys.org →Indigenous Harakmbut residents of Peru's southern Amazon say rivers like the Inambari have turned murky within five years. Mining and forest loss are reshaping rivers and cutting access to clean water, Mongabay reports.
Read more at Mongabay →Federal environmental staff recall surveillance, forced transfers and locked computers under the previous Bolsonaro government, and fear a repeat as Brazil votes in a tight presidential runoff on Sunday, Mongabay reports.
Read more at Mongabay →Disasters displaced 2.4 million people within Bangladesh in 2024. The IMF warns rising seas could claim over a seventh of its land and nearly a third of food production by 2050, and secondary cities are struggling to protect new arrivals.
Read more at Mongabay →An analysis by the Solar Energy Industries Association finds wholesale electricity prices fell 42% in Texas and 51% in California this summer as solar and batteries grew, with energy affordability a key midterm issue.
Read more at CleanTechnica →Provinces and cities must introduce support policies for home rooftop solar by the end of 2026 to secure power supplies for 2027 to 2030. The government is also pushing faster rollout of battery storage, especially in the north.
Read more at pv magazine →The main contractor for Australia's 2.2 GW pumped hydro project now expects it to cost between AUD 22.5 billion and AUD 25 billion, about $15.8 billion at the low end, with commissioning set for 2029.
Read more at pv magazine →The fusion startup emerged from stealth with a seed round to build its first compact reactor. Its technology is designed to cut the size and cost of conventional laser-based fusion systems, ESG Today reports.
Read more at ESG Today →Conferences and summits coming up, each checked against its own page this morning. Dates do move, so click before you book the train.
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