DHAKA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Bangladesh is set to hold a national election in February, its first since a student-led uprising toppled long-time leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. Her Awami League, the South Asian nation’s largest party, has been barred from contesting.
Here are the main political parties and issues shaping the vote in the mainly Muslim nation of about 173 million:
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP): Led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the BNP is widely seen as the frontrunner. A December poll by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute suggested it could win the most seats.
Founded in 1978 by Zia’s late husband, former President Ziaur Rahman, the party says it stands for Bangladeshi nationalism, economic liberalism and anti-corruption reforms.
Its campaign faces hurdles from Khaleda’s poor health and the absence of her son Tarique Rahman, the acting chief, who is in exile in London. Rahman has vowed to return before the vote.
Jamaat-e-Islami: The Islamist party, banned under Hasina, has re-emerged after the uprising and is expected to finish second.
Led by Shafiqur Rahman, Jamaat advocates Islamic governance under sharia law but seeks to broaden its appeal beyond its conservative base.
It promises a “mafia-free society” and anti-corruption measures. Jamaat previously governed in coalition with the BNP between 2001 and 2006.
National Citizen Party (NCP): Formed by student leaders after the uprising, the NCP has struggled to convert street power into electoral strength due to weak organisation and limited funds. Polls show it trailing far behind BNP and Jamaat.
Its 24-point manifesto calls for a new constitution, judicial reform, free media, universal healthcare and education, and climate resilience. It is led by 27-year-old Nahid Islam, a prominent face in the anti-government protests.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
India is a hedge against the global AI bubble, some experts say [NurPhoto via Getty Images)]
This week, tech giants Amazon and Microsoft pledged an eye-popping $50bn-plus combined investment in India, putting artificial intelligence (AI) in the spotlight.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella announced his company’s largest investment ever in Asia – $17.5bn (£13.14bn) – “to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI-first future”.
Amazon followed suit, and said it was putting in more than $35bn in the country by 2030, with an unspecified chunk of that investment going into boosting AI capabilities.
The announcements come at a particularly interesting juncture.
As fears of an AI bubble swept global markets and tech stock valuations soared, several leading brokerages took a contrarian view on India’s AI landscape.
Christopher Wood of Jefferies said the country’s stocks were a “reverse AI trade”. That basically means India should outperform other markets in the world “if the AI trade suddenly unwinds” – or simply put, the global bubble bursts.
HSBC also held a similar view, saying Indian equities offered a “hedge and diversification” for those uneasy with the ongoing AI rally.
This comes as Mumbai stocks have lagged behind their Asian peers over the past year, with foreign investors moving billions into Korean and Taiwanese AI-driven tech companies in the absence of comparable opportunities in India.
In this backdrop, the Amazon and Microsoft investments provide a much-needed fillip – yet it remains worth asking where India truly stands in the global AI race.
India ranks among the top globally in terms of AI talent and developer activity [AFP via Getty Images]
There are no easy answers.
The adoption of AI in India has been rapid. Investments into some parts of the value chain – such as data centres, the physical backbone of AI, or chip-making facilities – have begun trickling in. Just this week, American chipmaker Intel announced a collaboration with Mumbai-based Tata Electronics to manufacture chips locally.
But when it comes to a sovereign AI model, it appears India is continuing to play catch-up.
About a year-and-a-half ago, the Indian government launched an AI mission through which it began supplying start-ups, universities and researchers with high-end computing chips to develop a large homegrown AI model like OpenAI or China’s DeepSeek.
According to the federal electronics ministry, the launch of the sovereign model – which supports more than 22 languages – is imminent. In the interim though, the likes of DeepSeek and OpenAI have made further advances, launching newer variants.
While the government has recognised the need to reduce over-dependence on foreign platforms because of the risk of surveillance and sanctions, India’s $1.25bn sovereign mission is a shadow of France’s $117bn or Saudi Arabia’s $100bn programmes.
The country’s ambitions also face numerous other hurdles – from semiconductor availability to skilled talent and fragmented data ecosystems, according to global consultancy EY.
India currently lacks enough computational infrastructure or the billions of dollars of research and development (R&D) investment made over decades that gave China and the US a distinct leg up.
Despite its global strength in AI talent, India struggles to keep its developers at home.
“The current tightening of overseas work visas provides India a window of opportunity to retain domestic talent and attract Indian-origin talent at home. However, given that top-tier AI talent is mobile globally, attractive policy incentives need to be put in place to incentivise relocation to India,” the EY report says.
China, for example, offers a range of incentives such as “financial support and subsidies, tax incentives and funding for research and development, special talent visas and fast-track immigration”, the report says.
India has a much higher concentration of AI-skilled professionals than the global average – specifically, 2.5 times more. Policies that retain this talent are not yet in place.
India has been attracting billions of dollars of investments into data centres [Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Yet, despite the challenges, India – along with countries like Brazil and the Philippines – punches above its weight in AI, especially in the context of its stage of economic development, an UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) study said.
According to the widely tracked Stanford AI Index 2025, the country ranks among the top five in the world on new companies receiving AI investments.
Last year, 74 new Indian AI startups received funding – a fraction of the more than 1,000 funded in the US.
Indian AI startups raised just $1.16bn privately, compared with over $100bn in the US and nearly $10bn in China.
But there’s enough intellectual engagement with AI in India, with the country accounting for 9.2% of AI article publications – slightly more than the US, but behind Europe and China according to the Stanford AI Index.
Experts say India’s AI edge may lie less in building costly language models and more in using them downstream to spur entrepreneurship.
“I think in the short term, there’s this big concentration of AI in the US. But over the next five-10 years, AI will have a massively democratising effect on the creation of new companies. Small founders and entrepreneurs will be numerous and the downstream effect will be amazing for places like India and the Asia-Pacific,” Shailendra Singh, managing director of Peak XV Partners which invests in AI start-ups, told the BBC.
Mr Singh says India is seeing a surge in AI-powered consumer apps, with AI startup investments doubling from last year.
Moreover, many Indian startups are now using AI to tackle real-world challenges for millions still on the wrong side of the digital divide.
For example, MahaVISTAAR, an AI app run by the Maharashtra government, delivers vital agricultural information in the local Marathi language, reaching over 15 million farmers.
“The hardest places to make artificial intelligence work are also the places where it matters most. If AI can serve India’s classrooms, clinics and farms, it can serve the world,” Nandan Nilekani, the architect of India’s biometric programme, wrote in The Economist magazine last month.
Some of that has already begun to happen, as apps like MahaVISTAAR and others have shown.
AI brings new opportunities, but could disrupt India’s IT services sector, which has driven its economy and created millions of jobs over the past 30 years.
As AI upends some of their business functions, India’s billion-dollar IT firms will become a key area of “vulnerability”, according to Jefferies.
That vulnerability is already showing.
Growth in India’s IT back offices is slowing, stocks are underperforming, hiring has shrunk and wages have stagnated as the spectre of a new disruptor looms large.
LONDON (Reuters) -When the BBC launched an expansion into the U.S. in June, its head of news promised “trust at a time of dramatic global uncertainty”.
Five months on, President Donald Trump is threatening a $5 billion lawsuit, governments long hostile to independent news are vowing to make life difficult for the British broadcaster and its news chief Deborah Turness has gone.
The crisis has been sparked by the admission that in a piece that aired before last year’s U.S. presidential election, the BBC’s flagship documentary programme “Panorama” spliced together parts of Trump’s speech on the day his supporters overran the Capitol in January 2021, making it look as though he had advocated violence.
While it has apologised and Director General Tim Davie and Turness have quit, the failure hands ammunition to Trump and his supporters who accuse mainstream outlets like the BBC of bias, sucking it into a broader battle over journalistic standards and freedom to report.
At risk is the credibility of an organisation that has long sought to be a standard-bearer for impartial journalism. The BBC broadcasts in 43 languages across 64 countries, reaching 418 million people every week, making it the biggest English-language digital news service in the world.
The World Service has been relied on in times of conflict, broadcasting to Nazi-occupied parts of Europe during World War Two, behind the Iron Curtain in the Cold War. To this day it is viewed as a vital resource in places such as African countries where democracy and freedom of speech are under threat.
CRITICS OF BBC VOW TO BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE
The organisation is facing a barrage of criticism.
The White House has called the BBC “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine”, terms that countries like Russia usually level at the 103-year-old broadcaster.
In India, where the BBC has clashed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, an official told Reuters they would cite the Panorama edit the next time they had a problem.
“If they say that ethics and morals guide them to report impartially, we would say that they first need to wash away this episode from their history books before brandishing their standards to us,” the official said, declining to be named.
One diplomat from a G20 country that is normally hostile to the West told Reuters that it would now take a much tougher line with the BBC, saying that if an ally of Britain, like Trump, could sue, then so could they.
Russia, which is ranked 171st out of 180 countries by Reporters Without Borders for press freedom, said the BBC was nothing but a propaganda and disinformation tool.
Former BBC staff, media analysts and a historian of the corporation say the broadcaster can survive this crisis, but it cannot be seen to buckle in the face of pressure from Trump.
“If you look at the difficulties the BBC faces, its correspondents in Moscow, in China; if the BBC is seen to give in, then other bullies will emulate Donald Trump,” Roger Bolton, a former BBC editor and presenter who now produces a podcast on it, told Reuters.
BBC Chair Samir Shah has said it will fight any lawsuit, after U.S. peers ABC News and the parent company of CBS settled lawsuits with Trump by donating to his presidential library. Before settling, the networks called the accusations meritless.
A BBC spokesperson said BBC World Service played “an active role in countering disinformation and serving those in extreme need with critical information through our lifeline services”.
WIDELY RESPECTED BUT UNDER FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL PRESSURE
Widely respected around the world, the BBC still tops polls in Britain as the most trusted news brand and according to pollster YouGov, it came second in a 2025 poll of the most trusted news brands in the U.S., behind the Weather Channel.
But the corporation, which is largely funded by a licence fee paid by all television-watching households in Britain, comes under intense scrutiny from critics in the UK, who object to its funding model and perceived liberal stance. Current criticism has also alleged anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the war in Gaza.
The BBC says its income is down by 1 billion pounds a year in real terms compared to 2010. Britain’s National Audit Office said this month that this had forced BBC World Service to cut staff, TV and radio stations, contributing to a 14% drop in audience numbers since 2022/23.
In response the BBC has tried to expand commercially, including in the U.S., where it says nearly 60 million people use BBC.com and where it launched a paywall earlier this year.
Emily Bell, previously at the Guardian and now at Columbia Journalism School in New York, said there was huge demand in the U.S. for impartial or non-aligned news.
But she said the BBC could struggle if Trump pursues his case. His administration could apply pressure by limiting the BBC’s access to press briefings and subjecting it to closer regulatory scrutiny.
“The bigger question will be, how much pressure does Donald Trump want to apply?” she said.
OFFICIALS CAN APPLY PRESSURE IN DIFFERENT WAYS
Last week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wrote to the BBC about its “deceptive conduct”, and to U.S. news outlets NPR and PBS to ask if they had aired the footage.
In India, the BBC has faced tax searches and a fine for alleged foreign exchange violations after it broadcast a documentary in 2023 about Prime Minister Modi’s role during deadly 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots.
Supporters say the government needs to defend the BBC, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged it to get its house in order. They cite surveys that show people overseas consuming BBC output feel more positively towards Britain.
“One mistake is not what the whole of the BBC’s reputation is founded on,” said Mary Hockaday, a former controller of BBC World Service English and master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
(Reporting by Kate HoltonAdditional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in London and Shivam Patel in New DelhiEditing by Frances Kerry)
BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -This year’s U.N. climate change summit ended with a tenuous compromise for a deal that skipped over most countries’ key demands but for one: committing wealthy countries to triple their spending to help others adapt to global warming.
Here are some of the takeaways from the COP30 climate summit held in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem:
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels.
But it was a road to nowhere at this summit, as oil-rich Arab nations and others dependent on fossil fuels blocked any mention of the issue. Instead, the COP30 presidency created a voluntary plan that countries could sign on to – or not.
The result was similar to Egypt’s COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.
Nearly three-fourths of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 have come from coal, oil and gas. Demand for these fuels is likely to rise through 2050, the International Energy Agency said in a report midway through the COP30 summit that reversed expectations of a rapid shift to clean energy.
GLOBAL CLIMATE UNITY ON THE BRINK
The need to show global unity in climate talks was the main thing countries agreed, along with the idea that long-polluting wealthy countries should do most to tackle the problem.
But to get to a final deal, they ditched nearly all ambitions they’d brought – including mandatory tightening targets for reducing climate-warming emissions.
Brazil’s COP30 presidency lamented the United States’ snubbing of the talks. The absence of the world’s biggest economy – and biggest historical polluter – emboldened countries with fossil fuel interests.
Rumbling concerns about a process that allows only a few to effectively veto collective deals grew louder, stoking calls for reform.
After Brazil had promised a ‘COP of Truth’ that would set countries on course for action, the omission of any agreed implementation plans was glaring.
China played a leading role at the summit – but from behind the scenes.
President Xi Jinping skipped the talks as he typically does. But his delegation carried a strong message that China was prepared to deliver the clean energy technology the world needs to cut emissions.
Executives from Chinese solar, battery and electric vehicle companies were featured at the country’s exhibit pavilion – one of the first things delegates saw on entering the sprawling venue.
China was not the only fast-developing nation in focus this year. The Indian delegation flexed more muscle in the negotiations, while South Africa rolled out a climate-linked agenda for its own November 22-23 G20 summit.
FRAUGHT FUTURE FOR FORESTS AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Holding the summit in an Amazon forest city, Brazil touted the importance of the world’s remaining canopy for fighting climate change – along with the roughly half-billion Indigenous people seen as stewards of natural lands.
Many who attended from across the Amazon and the world felt frustrated they weren’t being heard. They staged several protests, and even stormed the COP30 compound gates – clashing with security before being pushed back out.
Countries announced about $9.5 billion in forest funding – including almost $7 billion for Brazil’s flagship tropical forest fund and another $2.5 billion for an initiative for Congo.
But the summit ended on a sour note for many, as negotiators dropped efforts for a roadmap to meet the 2030 zero-deforestation pledge and gave no recognition for the protection of their lands.
ATTACKS ON CLIMATE SCIENCE
While Lula and other world leaders had railed against misinformation and denial, COP30 talks didn’t help much in countering this year’s U.S. government assault on climate science.
The summit also chipped away at global consensus around climate science by no longer recognizing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the “best available science” to guide policy on climate change and its impacts.
Instead, the final deal notes the importance of IPCC outputs along with “those produced in developing countries and relevant reports from regional groups and institutions.”
And by sidelining fossil fuels and emissions targets, COP30 ignored the alarm bells being rung by scientists.
In October, 2024, after negotiations with the U.S., Modi’s government agreed to break ties with Yadav, who is currently at large and wanted by the F.B.I. India, which has never acknowledged culpability for the killing, has portrayed Yadav as an independent actor, but a source close to Indian intelligence told me that one RAW officer privately characterized these denials as “total bullshit.” Another called the plot “a botched operation.” Court filings for Gupta’s trial indicate U.S. prosecutors will argue that India was directly involved in the attempt to assassinate Pannun, and that he was just one of several targets in a scheme to murder political activists in Canada, California, and New York. These individuals, fearing for their lives in India, had immigrated to North America decades ago and continued advocating for an independent Sikh state.
A few minutes after Nijjar was shot, his son Balraj received a distress call from a family friend and raced to the gurdwara, sprinting through a crowd that had already grown to some two hundred people. “They were pulling at my clothes, my arms, as I ran,” he told me. In the center of the throng, already cordoned off with police tape, was Nijjar’s bloodstained pickup. “The second I saw it, I knew he had passed,” Balraj told me. “His last breath was for Khalistan, regardless of how many thousands of miles he was from home.”
The idea of a Sikh homeland arose nearly a century ago, as colonial Britain lost its grip on its South Asian territories. The region began to split along religious lines, and Sikh leaders, recognizing that their community was much smaller than those of Muslims and Hindus, advocated for their own sovereign state. The idea never came to fruition. In 1947, British India was partitioned into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. As a vast migration flowed from place to place, depraved and indiscriminate faith-based violence ensued, affecting Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs alike. The province of Punjab, where most of the Sikhs in British India lived, was split in two.
Sikhs currently constitute less than two per cent of India’s population. Since Partition, however, advocacy for an independent state has grown, funded in part by wealthy members of the diaspora and fuelled by a pattern of discrimination by the Indian government. The most striking instance came in 1984, after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own bodyguards, who were Sikh; the ruling Indian National Congress helped to organize a retaliatory spasm of mob violence that killed thousands of Sikhs. In the aftermath, the state began to disappear members of the community. Such brutality has only encouraged resistance. Although Sikhism is built around tenets of oneness and divine love, a small group of militants have carried out a long campaign of violence. Before September 11, 2001, Sikh separatists held a bleak record for the deadliest act of aviation terrorism in history: in 1985, all three hundred and twenty-nine people on board Air India Flight 182, a passenger flight from Toronto to Delhi, were killed when a bomb in the cargo hold brought the plane down off the coast of Ireland.
The cycle of violence and discrimination has only heightened since Modi came to power, in 2014. As the leader of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party, he has spearheaded a ruthless Hindu-nationalist campaign that villainizes and assaults religious minorities. For a party that believes Hindus have a preëminent right to rule India, the Sikh separatist cause is a profound affront—especially when the calls for independence are made from Canada and the U.S. According to the source close to Indian intelligence, senior RAW officials hold a “skewed world view” that “everything is a conspiracy, that the West is out to get India,” and this paranoia played a large part in the recent assassination plots.
The Indian government regards Pannun’s law offices as a hotbed of terror, a base from which he directs “Punjab based gangsters and youth” to undermine the “sovereignty, integrity, and security” of India. The offices are situated in a large corporate center, decorated with garish contemporary sculptures and softly flowing water features, in East Elmhurst, Queens. The interior suggests the detritus of a small business in stasis: Post-it notes stuck to walls, piles of paper stacked haphazardly, a mini-fridge filled with forgotten lunches.
On a recent visit, I was led in through a series of back hallways and patted down by two hulking guards. The main entrance stays locked, the lights in the waiting room off. Pannun, who met with me in a small conference room, was dressed soberly. “Since 2023, I’ve only worn black,” he said. “I’m only going to change that once we liberate Punjab.” He grew up in a village outside the city of Amritsar, the home of Sikhism’s holiest site, the Golden Temple. In 1984, Indian military forces invaded the gurdwara to capture Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh militant who was hiding inside. In the raid, known as Operation Blue Star, the army opened fire on Bhindranwale’s followers and civilians alike. Government documents put the death toll at a few hundred individuals, but independent reports suggest the figure exceeds four thousand. (It was this unilateral attack, sanctioned by Gandhi, that led to her assassination.) Pannun was seventeen at the time. “We could see the helicopters bombing, the shooting,” he said. “There was blood everywhere.” Fearing that the slaughter would touch off an insurrection, the government organized a campaign called Operation Woodrose, in which thousands of young Sikhs living in rural areas were detained and interrogated. “They were people I grew up with,” Pannun said. “I haven’t seen them since.” One young man he knew was tortured so viciously that his back was broken.
India’s Light Vehicle (LV) wholesale figures for September increased by 15% month-on-month (MoM) to 437k units, with Passenger Vehicles (PVs) up by 16% to 373k units and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) with a gross vehicle weight of up to 6T climbing by 10% to 64k units. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, LV sales increased by 6%, supported by gains in both PVs and LCVs, which rose by 6% and 8%, respectively.
The MoM surge in PV wholesale volumes was driven by the early festive season (Navratri) and the implementation of new GST rates, which lowered car prices. Retail inflation eased to an eight-year low, contributing to positive consumer sentiment.
Source: GlobalData
Similarly, retail sales of PVs and LCVs in September declined by 7% MoM to 343k units, compared to 369k units in August, according to data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). PV retail sales fell by 7% MoM, while LCV sales dropped by 4% MoM. FADA also noted that the decline in PV retail sales on a MoM basis was due to the anticipation of GST 2.0 reforms, where the first three weeks were largely muted. However, the dynamics changed dramatically in the final week as Navratri festivities coincided with the implementation of lower GST rates, reviving customer sentiment and accelerating deliveries for both PVs and LCVs. As a result, the month ended with an overall growth of 6% YoY for the LV market.
At the end of September, PV inventory levels in India increased to 60 days, up from 55 days in August, reflecting festive preparedness ahead of October’s peak season, according to data from FADA.
Through the first nine months of the year overall, LV sales remained flat at 3.7 million units, comprising 3.2 million PVs (+1% YoY) and 522k LCVs (+1% YoY).
Looking ahead, demand is expected to rise in October and subsequent months following the GST rate cut on automobiles and household items, which should lower costs and increase disposable income. The ongoing festival season, combined with price reductions from lower GST rates and aggressive marketing, is also likely to further stimulate demand.
We have refined our outlook for India’s LV market to reflect a stronger near-term trajectory. The market is expected to maintain a solid growth momentum through 2025 and 2026, supported by healthy domestic demand, improving supply stability, and new product launches. The long-term outlook through 2032 also remains robust, with LV sales reaching 6.8 million units.
“GST cuts and festive buying boost India’s vehicle market – GlobalData” was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
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HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, the blockbuster movie director behind global hits like “RRR” and “Baahubali” that redefined Indian cinema’s scale and caught Hollywood’s attention, has unveiled his most ambitious film yet.
Known for blending mythic storytelling with grand action and imaginative choreography, Rajamouli announced his latest film — and its title — at an event Saturday in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where thousands of his cheering fans thronged to catch a first glimpse.
Fans of Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu arrive to watch unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Fans of Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu arrive to watch unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
While details about the plot of the film “Varanasi” — previously code-named “Globe Trotter” — remain under wraps, the nearly four-minute video showed a visually rich time-travel adventure that draws parts of its storyline from Hindu mythology. The film borrows its title from the Indian city considered Hinduism’s spiritual heart.
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Rajamouli said the film will be projected in cinemas in IMAX format and is expected to release in 2027.
“Here you go… VARANASI to the WORLD…” Rajamouli wrote on X.
At the event, he alluded that one of the film’s sequences draws from “an important episode” from the Ramayana, a Hindu religious epic based on Lord Rama’s life.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Mahesh Babu, filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli and Prithviraj Sukumaran pose for photograph after unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Mahesh Babu, filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli and Prithviraj Sukumaran pose for photograph after unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Priyanka Chopra Jonas addresses fans. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Priyanka Chopra Jonas addresses fans. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Priyanka Chopra Jonas before the unveiling of the first look. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Priyanka Chopra Jonas before the unveiling of the first look. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
For “Varanasi,” Rajamouli has assembled a star-studded cast, headlined by Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Having attained fame as a Bollywood superstar, Chopra Jonas returns to Indian cinema with this film after several Hollywood projects. A film poster shows her as the character Mandakini, in a mustard sari with a pistol in hand as she balances on the edge of a cliff.
“Varanasi” is Babu’s first collaboration with Rajamouli. The first look shows him as a fierce warrior covered in blood and riding a white bull with a trident in hand. Babu indeed made his entry onstage Saturday atop a mechanical white bull.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime project,” Babu said after unveiling the teaser in Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City, the throbbing heart of Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood. “I will make everyone proud. The whole of India will be proud of us.”
Thousands of frenzied fans watched the film’s first glimpse on a mammoth 110-by-130-foot (33.5-by-39.5-meter) screen flanked by replicas of Varanasi city. A display of colorful lights and dazzling fireworks lit up the venue as crowds danced to the foot-tapping tunes of Telugu music — a mix of new songs and classics — turning the event into a vibrant festival.
Fans of Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu arrive to watch unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Fans of Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu arrive to watch unveiling of first look of film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu addresses his fans after unveiling the first look of the film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu addresses his fans after unveiling the first look of the film “Varanasi” in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli announces his latest film “Varanasi” at an event in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli announces his latest film “Varanasi” at an event in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
The Telugu-language film industry has carved out its own identity separate from Hindi-language Bollywood with its high-octane and sometimes logic-defying action, mythic storylines and grand visual style. And much of Tollywood’s recent success — critical and box office — has been credited to Rajamouli, whose larger-than-life heroes and ambitious filmmaking with imaginative visual effects have catapulted the film industry onto the global stage.
Rajamouli became an international name after “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” his 2022 three-hour, Telugu-language epic set in British India. The sprawling anti-colonial tale became one of India’s biggest hits, turned into a global streaming phenomenon, and won an Oscar for best original song. His two-part “Baahubali” series, released in 2015 and 2017, broke box-office records in India and introduced Western audiences to the visual grandeur of Telugu cinema. A reedited version combining the two parts, “Baahubali: The Epic,” released in cinemas worldwide just last month.
Many Tollywood film fans traveled from faraway towns and villages to watch Babu, who commands a near-godlike following among them.
“It’s not actually Tollywood now, it’s global now,” said Manideep Rayudu, a fan. “Our superstar Mahesh Babu is not a regional star anymore. He is a global star.”
The early rise of the internet is usually told as an extension of globalization. New networking technology made instantaneous communication possible, complementing and accelerating international commerce and cultural exchange. As in the rest of the world economy, the U.S. was unusually influential online, exporting not just technology but culture and political norms with it.
The alternative story of the rise of the internet was exemplified by China, which limited the reach of western tech companies, maintained strict control over its domestic networks, and started building a parallel internet-centric economy of its own. And contra western reporting suggesting that this was purely an exercise in isolationism and control, in 2025, the international influence of the Chinese internet and tech companies — even here, as evidenced by the growth and semi-seizure of TikTok — is enormous.
In that context — and the context of America’s renewed trade war — it shouldn’t be surprising that more countries are taking a second look at digital sovereignty and that the global internet as we knew it is pulling apart. Russia, which has a long history of internet censorship and state-aligned tech companies, has taken the extraordinary recent step of interfering with access not just to WhatsApp but also Telegram, the messaging app founded by Pavel Durov, a creator of VK, Russia’s Facebook alternative, who left the country more than a decade ago. The throttling coincided with the launch of MAX, a new government-controlled everything app — basically a messaging app with other features layered on top, modeled on China’s Weixin — and an all-out marketing campaign to get people to switch. “Billboards are trumpeting it. Schools are recommending it. Celebrities are being paid to push it. Cellphones are sold with it preloaded,” the Times reports.
Russia’s obviously in an … unusual diplomatic position these days, but you can hear a version of its stated position — We should have our own big internet platforms as well as greater control over and access to what people do on them — coming from all over the world. (Indeed, the American government’s rationale for the TikTok deal can be understood as a defensive version of the same argument.) In India, the government is talking more openly about favoring homegrown apps for economic and security reasons and highlighting its own domestic “super-app.” From the Financial Times:
A chorus of top Indian officials in recent weeks have publicly backed a domestically developed messaging platform, as the country tries to project its ability to create a homegrown rival to US-developed apps. “Nothing beats the feeling of using a Swadeshi [locally made] product,” [Minister of Commerce] Piyush Goyal wrote on X, adding: “So proud to be on Arattai, a Made in India messaging platform.”
In the aughts, fights over digital globalization were about search engines and popular websites; in the 2010s, they were largely about social networks. Now, they’re about messaging apps, which are different in a number of ways. A lot of messaging traffic is private communication on services like Meta-owned WhatsApp — one of the most popular apps in India, which is WhatsApp’s largest market. Messages on the platform are encrypted by default, meaning that even governments with extensive surveillance capabilities can’t easily see what people are using them for.
China’s Weixin, which operates internationally as WeChat, demonstrates two tantalizing possibilities for other governments: It’s aligned with the state and surveillable; also, as it grew popular and expanded its ambitions, it became the default interface for shopping, banking, media consumption, and interacting with other businesses. This sort of everything app — which American tech executives have openly lusted after, most recently and explicitly Elon Musk — is appealing to tech companies and governments alike for its total centralization. MAX’s goals are clear, with messaging, calls, ID functionality, and plans to allow users to “connect with government services, make doctors’ appointments, find homework assignments, and talk to local authorities.”
The looming segmentation of what we colloquially call the “internet” into various national, nationalist, and perhaps compromised messaging apps leaves governments without such ambitions in an awkward position. The European Union, citing some of the same concerns as the Russian and Indian governments — although mostly focusing on child protection — is considering, against widespread opposition from its citizenry and foreign tech companies alike, “chat control” legislation, which would require tech firms to allow messages to be scanned by authorities for offending content. The EU has some leverage here, of course — nobody wants to lose access to such a large and wealthy market — but tech companies based elsewhere insist that such a requirement is impossible to implement without fundamentally breaking their services or violating user privacy. Under the narrower auspices of stopping online sexual abuse, in other words, the EU is asking — or wishing — for a limited version of the same power China wanted when it made onerous demands of American tech companies in the 2010s, preventing them from entering its market: to regulate and control influential applications that have, up until this point, mostly come from somewhere else.
Taken together, this looks an awful lot like a global shift in how most governments — and their citizens — approach the internet: not as an intrinsically and necessarily global project but as a source of domestic power to be cultivated, protected, and protected against.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling coalition is set to comfortably retain power in the poor and populous state of Bihar, a vote count showed on Friday, giving him a boost after a disappointing national vote last year.
Winning Bihar is crucial because it is India’s third-most-populous state with nearly 130 million people and it sends the fifth-highest number of lawmakers to Parliament. Control of the eastern state strengthens any party’s power in the Hindi heartland and often helps to shape national political narratives.
Modi’s National Democratic Alliance coalition could easily cross the majority mark of 122 seats, with data from the Election Commission of India showing it was leading in more than 170 seats. TV channel NDTV said it was ahead in 191 seats, a potential gain of 69 seats from the last election.
“Bihar’s mandate is clear!” Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party said on X. “The people have made it clear – now development is the identity. Not jungle raj, good governance is needed!”
The Bihar outcome would mark a sharp reversal for Modi, who lost his parliamentary majority in last year’s national elections and had to lean on allies to remain in power. Since then, his party has steadily regained ground, winning several key state contests.
Political analysts have said one of the key factors in the Bihar election was Modi’s September transfer of 75 billion rupees ($853 million) to millions of women in the state under an employment programme.
Women voters across India have turned out in greater numbers over the past decade and political parties have competed to attract them. Previously, men easily outnumbered women at India’s polling stations.
Political analyst Amitabh Tiwari, who travelled across Bihar during the election – which was held in two phases on November 6 and 11 – said it was “just the women” who were set to give Modi a better result than what he received the last time.
According to a survey this week by Tiwari’s VoteVibe agency, Modi’s alliance secured 48.5% of the female vote, more than 10 percentage points higher than the main opposition bloc.
States including Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are due to go to the polls next year. Of those states, the BJP is in power only in Assam.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh will hold a national referendum on implementing its ‘July Charter’ for state reform, drafted after last year’s deadly student-led uprising, Muhammad Yunus, the head of the country’s interim government, said on Thursday.
He also reiterated that parliamentary elections will be held in the first half of February and that they would be free and fair.
The interim government approved the July National Charter (Constitution Reform) Implementation Order 2025 on Thursday and it will be implemented depending on the outcome of the referendum.
“We have decided that the referendum will be held on the same day as the national parliamentary election — meaning, in the first half of February,” Nobel laureate Yunus said in a televised address to the nation.
“This will not hinder the reform process. Rather, it will make the election more festive and cost-efficient,” he said.
The July Charter seeks to reshape the country’s politics and institutions and give constitutional recognition to the 2024 uprising that forced Sheikh Hasina, a long-time prime minister, to flee to India.
It includes increased representation of women, limiting the prime minister’s term, strengthening presidential powers, expanding fundamental rights and ensuring judicial independence.
A majority of political parties had signed the charter in October but the National Citizens Party, formed by the leaders of last year’s movement and four left-leaning parties, had boycotted it.
The NCP said it stayed away due to the lack of a legal framework or binding guarantee for implementing the commitments made in the charter.
Supporters see the charter as a foundation for institutional reform. Critics say its impact could be largely symbolic without a legal framework or parliamentary consensus.
“I hope political parties will accept our decision in the greater interest of the nation,” Yunus said. “The country will move toward a festive national election and step into a ‘New Bangladesh’.”
(Reporting by Ruma Paul and Krishna Das; Editing by YP Rajesh)
Pakistan blamed India-backed militants for a suicide bombing that killed 12 people in Islamabad on Tuesday, raising the prospect of renewed tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, as India’s prime minister vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of a car explosion in New Delhi the day before.
A blast on Monday near a metro station by New Delhi’s historic Red Fort set several nearby cars on fire,
killed eight and injured at least 20 others, Indian police said. The car had three or four passengers, all of whom died in the explosion, said police, who haven’t determined the cause of the blast.
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) — India is repatriating on Thursday the first batch of hundreds of its nationals who last month fled to Thailand from Myanmar, where most had been working at a notorious center for online scams.
An Indian air force transport plane left Thailand en route to India and another plane was to leave later in the day, with about 270 out of 465 Indians who are to be repatriated. The remainder will leave Thailand next Monday, according to Maj. Gen. Maitree Chupreecha, commander of the Thai army’s northern region Naresuan Task Force.
In March, India repatriated 549 nationals after an earlier crackdown on cybercrime operations at the Myanmar-Thai border.
Those currently being repatriated are among more than 1,500 people from 28 nations who fled the raid in Myawaddy. Across the border in the Thai town of Mae Sot, Thai authorities had set up temporary facilities for housing and processing not just Indians, but also Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Ethiopians and Kenyans, among other nationalities.
In April, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that hundreds of industrial-scale scam centers generate just under $40 billion in annual profits.
Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.
Southeast Asia is the world epicenter for online scams, and hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been lured to work in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, where many were forced to perpetrate global scams involving false romances, fraudulent investments, and illegal gambling.
Human trafficking is another major criminal aspect of such operations as many of the workers were recruited under false pretenses offering legitimate jobs, only to find themselves trapped in virtual slavery.
State media in military-run Myanmar said the raid on KK Park was part of operations starting in early September to suppress cross-border online scams and illegal gambling. Since the raid, witnesses and the Thai army have said that that parts of KK Park were demolished by explosions.
However, independent Myanmar media, including The Irrawaddy, an online news service, have reported that organized criminal scams in Myanmar continue to operate in the Myawaddy area.
The cybercrime problem received major attention last month when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a U.S. federal court in New York.
In South Korea, the case of a young man, killed after apparently being lured to work at a cyberscam operation in Cambodia, caused an uproar.
The defense deal is going forward at a time when many other democracies have cut back on their defense relations with Israel due to the war in Gaza.
The Israel-India Joint Working Group (JWG) convened on Tuesday for its annual meeting, led by Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram and Indian Defense Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh.
During the meeting, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance defense, industrial, and technological cooperation.
While the announcement gave few details, previously it has been reported that India would acquire rockets for its ground forces and Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile air defense missiles developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for around $3.75 billion, and that IAI would convert six commercial planes into Indian Air Force refueling aircraft for $900 million.
The defense deal is going forward at a time when many other democracies have cut back on their defense relations with Israel due to the war in Gaza.
Signing a deal with India, the world’s largest democracy, could assist Israel in rebuilding its reputation globally.
Defense Minister Israel Katz with IDF soldiers in the West Bank; illustrative. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X/ISRAEL KATZ)
As part of the visit, the Indian delegation met with Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Indian delegation meets major Israeli defense authorities
Additionally, a special panel was held with the CEOs of major defense industries, during which, according to the ministry, “innovative and groundbreaking Israeli technologies were presented, along with ideas and projects aimed at deepening industrial-defense partnerships between Israel’s defense industries and India.”
Some of the other senior Israeli officials involved included the directors of the Political-Military Bureau, the Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D), the Directorate of Security of the Defense Establishment, and the International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT), alongside representatives from the IDF Planning Directorate and other defense officials.
The Indian delegation also included senior representatives from the Defense Ministry and Armed Forces.
Regarding the meeting, Baram said, “This strategic dialogue with India takes place at a critical juncture for both countries. Our strategic partnership is based on deep mutual trust and shared security interests. We view India as a first-rate strategic partner and are determined to continue deepening cooperation in the fields of defense, technology, and industry.”
A crowd surge at a popular Hindu temple in southern India left at least 12 people dead and dozens injured, local authorities said Saturday. The death toll rose from nine to 12 people on Saturday, CBS News confirmed.
The incident occurred at the Swamy Venkateswara Temple in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state where hundreds of devotees had gathered to mark one of Hinduism’s sacred days, “Ekadashi,” senior police officer K. V. Maheswra Reddy told the Associated Press.
On this day, the devotees fast and offer prayers to Lord Vishnu, a key Hindu deity known as the preserver and protector of the universe, according to BBC News.
An initial investigation suggests that an iron grille meant to maintain the queue of worshippers at the temple broke, leading to the uncontrolled crowd surge, Reddy said.
Senior local government official Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar said more casualties were feared. “Initially, we had reports of seven deaths, but two more people have succumbed to their injuries, while the condition of two others is critical,” he said.
Of the deceased, eight are women and one is a child, Pundkar said, adding that at least 16 devotees injured in the crowd surge are being treated at a local hospital, while 20 others are in a state of shock and put under observation at a different hospital.
Video footage on local media showed people rushing to help those who fainted in the crowd surge and were gasping for breath. Some were seen rubbing the hands of those who fell on the ground.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh’s highest-elected official, N. Chandrababu Naidu, expressed grief and offered their condolences to the families of the bereaved.
State authorities in Andhra Pradesh said the location was a private temple on 12 acres of land and wasn’t under the control of the government administration. Despite its maximum capacity of 3,000, the crowd swelled to around 25,000 on Saturday, officials said.
“Arrangements were not made accordingly, nor was information provided to the government by the concerned individual. This is the reason for the accident,” the state’s fact-check unit said in a statement on social media.
Naidu vowed strict action against those responsible for the deadly stampede and ordered an inquiry into the incident, according to local media.
Crowd surges at religious gatherings are not uncommon in India, where massive groups often congregate at temples or pilgrimage sites, sometimes overwhelming local infrastructure and security measures.
In July, a crowd surge at a popular Hindu temple in northern India left at least six people dead and dozens injured. At least 30 people died in January during the Kumbh Mela festival in the northern city of Prayagraj. A month later, at least 18 people were killed at a railway station in New Delhi while on the way to the festival.
Google’s AI ambitions are global in scale, so much so that it has just agreed to give Gemini away for free in India to people using the country’s biggest mobile provider. Thanks to a deal with Reliance Intelligence, an AI-focused subsidiary of Reliance Industries, people signed up to Jio’s Unlimited 5G plan will be offered Google AI Pro at no extra cost for 18 months.
That means that qualifying users will have access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most AI model. They will also benefit from higher limits for the Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 AI image and video generators, plus expanded access to NotebookLM. The plan also includes 2TB of cloud storage across Google’s apps, for a total combined worth of around 35,100 rupees ($396) per user.
The offer will initially be exclusive to Jio customers between the age of 18 and 25, but will eventually extend to all people on an eligible plan via the MyJio app. Jio is India’s largest mobile network operator, and a company in which Google a 7.7 percent stake worth $4.5 million in 2020.
India is fast becoming a key battleground for AI expansion. Back in July, Perplexity AI with Bharti Airtel, Jio’s rival carrier, to offer a year-long Perplexity Pro subscription worth $200 to all of Airtel’s 360 million customers. OpenAI is also adopting an aggressive strategy in the country, recently its cheapest ChatGPT subscription to date, at 390 rupee ($4.60), in India first. ChatGPT Go offers users 10 times more message limits, image generation and file uploads than the free version.
Indian customs officers have arrested a plane passenger after discovering two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked bag, the latest animals seized from smugglers at Mumbai’s airport.
One of the tiny animals from Indonesia was dead, while the other, in a video shared by Indian Customs, was seen cradled in the arms of an officer, softly hooting before covering its face with its arm.
Customs said the passenger, who had travelled from Malaysia via Thailand, was given the rare animals by a wildlife trafficking “syndicate” for delivery in India. Officers acting on “specific intelligence” arrested the passenger in Mumbai on Thursday.
“A subsequent search of their checked baggage, a trolley bag, led to the discovery and seizure of two Silvery Gibbon (Hylobates moloch), one live and one found dead, which were concealed in a basket,” the customs department said.
Indian customs officers have arrested a plane passenger after discovering two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked bag, the latest animals seized from smugglers at Mumbai’s airport.
Mumbai Customs
The department also said that almost 8 kilograms of hydroponic weed was found hidden in the passenger’s baggage.
Wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC, which battles the smuggling of wild animals and plants, warned in June of a “very troubling” trend in trafficking driven by the exotic pet trade.
More than 7,000 animals, dead and alive, have been seized along the Thailand-India air route in the last 3.5 years, it said.
Home in the wild for the small Silvery Gibbon is the rainforests of Java in Indonesia.
They are threatened by the loss of forests, hunting and the pet trade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Estimates for the primates left range from about 2,500 to 4,000.
During the duty of 29-30.10.2025, the officers at Airport Commissionerate, Mumbai Customs Zone-III, made a seizure of suspected NDPS (Hydroponic Weed) weighing 7.97 Kgs having an illicit market value of approx. Rs. 7.97 crores in 01 case and recovered Silvery Gibbon(Hylobates… pic.twitter.com/K1uWfCDJuz
The seizure follows several recent smuggling busts at the same airport.
Just a week earlier, customs officials said they had arrested another smuggler carrying snakes, tortoises and a raccoon.
In June, Mumbai customs intercepted two passengers arriving from Thailand with dozens of venomous vipers and more than 100 other creatures, including lizards, sunbirds and tree-climbing possums, also arriving from Thailand.
In February, customs officials at Mumbai airport stopped a smuggler with five Siamang Gibbons, an ape native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Exotic primates have also been smuggled at the U.S.-Mexico border recently. Jim Stinebaugh, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told CBS News that nearly 90 baby spider monkeys have been confiscated at the Texas-Mexico border in the last 18 months — and that’s believed to be just a fraction of the spider monkeys illegally brought into the United States.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -The United States has signed a 10-year defence framework agreement with India, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.
The framework is considered a cornerstone for regional stability and deterrence, enhancing coordination, information sharing and technological cooperation between the two nations, Hegseth posted on X after a meeting with his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Writing by David Stanway; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Australia has been knocked out of the Women’s Cricket World Cup by India, who pulled off the greatest run chase in tournament history to win their semifinal.
India chased down 339 with nine balls to spare to win by five wickets, beating the record set by Australia against India in this World Cup only a few weeks ago.
India’s hero was Jemimah Rodrigues, whose unbeaten 127 steered her side to what seemed an improbable win.
Rodrigues was supported by her captain Harmanpreet Kaur (89), while late cameos from Deepti Sharma (24) and Richa Ghosh (26) helped get India over the line.
Harmanpreety Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues combined for a massive partnership in Navi Mumbai. (Getty Images: Pankaj Nangia)
Australia will forever rue two dropped catches late in the innings which offered Rodrigues crucial reprieves.
Alyssa Healy unfathomably put down the first when Rodrigues, on 82 at the time, top-edged a sweep shot gently to the centre of the wicket. Healy got two gloves to the ball, but somehow failed to hang on.
Rodrigues was then dropped again on 106 when a miscued drive burst through the hands of Tahlia McGrath at mid-off.
Her brilliant batting deserved some luck though, and Australia’s vaunted bowling attack was no match for her array of cuts and drives.
It was a tough day for bowlers on both sides, with Phoebe Litchfield setting the tone for Australia earlier in the match with a stellar innings of her own.
Litchfield combined with veteran Ellyse Perry for a mammoth 155-run partnership as Australia reached 338, bowled out with a ball remaining.
The 22-year-old Litchfield took just 77 balls to bring up her maiden World Cup ton, doing so by lofting Radha Yadav over mid-off for a boundary.
Litchfield smashed her first World Cup century against India. (Getty Images: Pankaj Nangia)
She was eventually dismissed for 119, bowled by Armanjot Kaur while attempting to ramp the medium pacer over the head of wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh.
From there, Australia’s innings faltered a touch, with Beth Mooney (24), Annabel Sutherland (3) and Perry (63) all falling in quick succession.
Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath came to the middle and injected some urgency into the Australian innings, striking 10 runs from her first four deliveries, but her innings came to an end when she was run out for 12 after being called through for an ill-advised single by Ash Gardner.
Gardner — who scored two centuries during the pool phase — dominated the back end of the Australian innings, dispatching four massive sixes before she too was run out for a bludgeoning 63 from 45 deliveries as Australia went on to lose its last three wickets for just two runs.
India will now play South Africa in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Look back at how the action unfolded in our live blog.
Key Events
Australia vs India World Cup semifinal live
Goodnight!
Well, not the result that Australia wanted.
But that was an excellent game of cricket won by a remarkable innings.
Jemimah Rodrigues goes down as the architect of the greatest chase in the history of women’s ODI’s.
From me and Dean, thank you for joining us and goodnight.
A major blow for Australia
For Australia, this is a crushing defeat.
Even though they faltered towards the middle of their innings, 338 seemed like a more than defendable total.
But, in the end, it wasn’t.
And as excellent as both Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues were, Australia was sloppy in the field and with the ball.
Not something you can say about this Australian side too often.
India wins by five wickets
(Getty Images)
What a moment.
Amanjot backs away and slashes Sophie Molineux through the off-side and in doing so completes the highest successful chase in the history of women’s ODIs.
The greatest moment in the history of the Indian women’s team, it’s a deserved, outstanding victory.
Amanjot Kaur struck the winning runs, but this chase was made possible by the most composed, remarkable innings you are ever likely to see.
Jemimah Rodrigues finishes on 127* from 134 deliveries.
She knew when to attack, when to hold her nerve, when to probe and when to poke. She rode her luck at times, but that was a defining knock if ever there was one.
A tearful Rodrigues is speaking at the post-match presentation.
“It was really hard the last few months, but this just feels like a dream, and it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Rodrigues says.
And it sounds like she knows just how momentous this result could be for women’s cricket in India.
“Today was not about my 50 or my 100, today was about making India win,” Rodrigues says.
“We’ve always lost in crunch situations and I just wanted to be there in the end to take us through.”
49th over: India needs eight runs to win
It is two shots away for India.
And now it’s just one!
Molineux serves up a full toss and Amanjot smashes it through the off-side for a boundary.
48th over: Sutherland to bowl out
23 runs from 18 deliveries.
That’s the equation for India.
It’s there for the taking for the tournament co-hosts.
Sutherland begins with a full one that Amanjot works to the on-side for a couple.
Wide! Not what Australia needs – but it’s a wonderful take by Healy down the leg side. That saved four.
Four! Jemimah Rodrigues picks the slower ball and has an age to ramp it over Healy for four!
It’s down to a run a ball!
And now it’s less than a run a ball! Sutherland sends another wide down the leg side.
Four! Rodrigues cuts to the off-side and it pierces the gap between point and cover.
And she works a single from the over’s penultimate ball.
Amanjot returns the favour.
47th over: Molineux into the attack
Shot! A poor, poor ball from Molineux. It’s short and wide with the field up on the offside. Jemimah Rodrigues cuts it through the circle and that’s four.
She proceeds to work a single to the on-side.
Armanjot takes guard.
Good ball from Molineux. Armanjot pushes it to mid off and that’s a dot.
The next one is straighter and Armanjot works it behind square for a single.
Another dot.
And another.
That’s over.
SUTHERLAND STRIKES!
Silence in Nava Mumbai.
Pace off and short from Sutherland.
Richa Ghosh is backing away and doing all she can to lift one over the point fielder on the circle.
But she can’t quite.
It’s a good catch from Kim Garth.
Game on…
46th over: Sutherland has another
This is India’s game to lose now.
Jemimah Rodrigues works a single and Richa Ghosh does the same.
It’s almost a run a ball required here now for India. Australia needs something.
Two more singles.
And another, deep into the off-side.
45th over: Gardner from around the wicket once more
The first ball of the over is a priceless, priceless dot for Australia.
The second is stopped on the long on boundary and it’s a single.
The third is a massive, massive six! That one was right in the arc and Ghosh dispatches Gardner over midwicket for a maximum.
Gardner overcorrects and is called for a wide.
Another boundary! Another sweep in front of square! India passes 300.
This over has really broken things open for India.
They now need just 34 from the last five overs.
44th over: Sutherland to bowl it
55 runs.
42 balls.
That’s the equation for India.
Annabel Sutherland charges in.
And her first ball is poor. Wide and full – it would’ve been called had Rodrigues not gotten something on it. No run.
Drop! Wow! Jemimah Rodrigues tries to go over mid-off but doesn’t get enough on it. Tahlia McGrath is backing up and settling underneath it but the ball flies through her fingers!
Four! Nothing is going right for the Aussies! This one is a thick outside edge, flying past Healy and to the boundary.
A single to end a painful over for the Australians.
43rd over: Gardner goes again
Four! Jemimah Rodrigues pulls out the reverse sweep and it’s a lovely shot – over the infield and to the rope.
The batters cross for a single.
Gardner has opted to go over the wicket to the right-handed Ghosh.
She fires a couple out wide, flirting with a wide call. But she gets away with two dots.
The third is too wide. Another run to the total for India.
Gardner straightens up for the final two balls of the over, from which the Indian batters prise a couple singles.
42nd over continued: Schutt has a couple more
Wide! Down the leg side.
Schutt will have to bowl another.
Six! And Australia pays for that extra delivery. Richa Ghosh strides down the pitch and hammers a massive six down the ground.
Jemimah Rodrigues tons up!
Rodrigues works the ball down the ground for a single and that is a wonderful century from the woman from Mumbai.
But the job’s not done yet and she knows it.
Hardly a celebration from Jemimah.
42nd over: Schutt goes again
And she’s bowling to Jemimah Rodrigues, who’s on 96.
The first ball of the over is shovelled deep into the legside for a couple.
She opens the face of the bat and runs the ball down backward of point for a single.
She moves to 99.
Richa Ghosh works a single to get off the mark.
DEEPTI SHARMA IS RUN OUT!
That is a massive moment in this game.
Deepti Sharma, who had been blazing the Australian attack to all parts, is run out.
Jemima Rodrigues works one to backward square leg, she sets off, but Sharma is on her heels.
The throw into Healy is good and the bails are off before Sharma is even in the frame.
A very poor run and an unnecessary wicket for India.
41st over: Gardner back into the attack
Woah, what a massive over this is.
If Gardner can keep things relatively quiet, Australia will feel a whole lot better about things moving forward.
India needs 82 runs from the final ten.
Deepti is sweeping hard for a single and Jemimah Rodrigues is working a run of her own.
Four! Sharma is low and sweeping and that’s four!
That’s even better from Deepti! But just a single through the covers.
40th over – Megan Schutt back into the attack
So Schutt will likely bowl out here. Her radar must be locked in from ball one.
Singles from the first two balls, the second involving a possible run out and a possible overthrow. None of the above, in the end.
Schutt is mixing up her pace smartly already, and is being backed up in the field. McGrath dives to save a boundary.
A couple of wides down the leg side don’t help though.
Beamer! That’s not going to help! The no ball is pulled away for a run, AND now India gets a free hit. Not good from Megan Schutt.
Deepti is caught on the long-off boundary from the free hit and takes a single. Could have been worse for Australia.
Chaotic over. Six from it. Ten to go.
39th over – King to bowl again
FOUR RUNS! Deepti charges at King and whacks her back over her head for four.
Molineux saves four at fine leg with an incredible diving stop. It’s one, but it could have been a boundary.
Eight from that over, a boundary and four singles.
India needs 90 from 66 balls.
38th over – Sutherland to bowl her seventh
FOUR RUNS! Deepti goes over midwicket with power, and that might break the shackles. Looks like she’s decided her eye is in.
Deepti tickles the next one around the corner for one.
A couple more singles make it seven from the over. Everyone is just taking a bit of a deep breath before we hit the climax of this semifinal.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
How many nuclear weapons tests have there been, why were they stopped – and why would anyone start them again?
The United States opened the nuclear era in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender in World War Two.
The Soviet Union shocked the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.
In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.
Britain carried out 45 tests, France 210 and China 45.
Since the CTBT, 10 nuclear tests have taken place. India conducted two in 1998, Pakistan also two in 1998, and North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 (twice) and 2017, according to the United Nations.
The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.
Russia held nuclear drills last week and has tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-powered torpedo but has not tested a nuclear warhead.
WHY WAS NUCLEAR TESTING ENDED?
Concern mounted about the impact of the tests – above ground, underground and underwater – on human health and the environment.
The impact of the West’s testing in the Pacific and of Soviet testing in Kazakhstan and the Arctic was significant on both the environment and the people. Activists say millions of people in both the Pacific and Kazakhstan had their lands contaminated by nuclear testing – and have faced health issues for decades.
By limiting the Cold War bonanza of nuclear testing, advocates said, tensions between Moscow and Washington could be reduced.
The CTBT bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere. It was signed by Russia in 1996 and ratified in 2000. The United States signed the treaty in 1996 but has not ratified it.
In 2023, President Vladimir Putin formally revoked Russia’s ratification of the CTBT, bringing his country in line with the United States.
WHY WOULD YOU TEST AGAIN?
To gather information – or to send a signal.
Tests provide evidence of what any new nuclear weapon will do – and whether older weapons still work.
In 2020, the Washington Post reported that the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump had discussed whether or not to conduct a nuclear test.
Apart from providing technical data, such a test would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of U.S. strategic power.
Putin has repeatedly warned that if the United States resumed nuclear testing, Russia would too. Putin says a global nuclear arms race is already underway.
WHAT ARE BIG POWERS DOING WITH THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
The exact number of warheads each country has are secret but Russia has a total of about 5,459 warheads while the United States has about 5,177, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Those number include deployed, stockpiled and retired warheads.
The Washington D.C.-based Arms Control Association says the United States has a stockpile of 5,225 nuclear warheads and Russia has 5,580.
Global nuclear warhead stockpiles peaked in 1986 at over 70,000 warheads, most in the Soviet Union and the United States, but have since been reduced to about 12,000, most still in Russia and the United States.
China is the third largest nuclear power with 600 warheads, France has 290, the United Kingdom 225, India 180, Pakistan 170, Israel 90 and North Korea 50, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Russia, the United States and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear arsenals.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The court affirmed that the users’ XRP remains their property, reinforcing that cryptocurrency is legally recognized as a protected asset.
An Indian court has blocked crypto exchange WazirX from reallocating a user’s XRP to cover platform losses. The Madras High Court granted “interim protection,” affirming that the user’s digital assets remain their distinct property under Indian law. The ruling marks a key moment in the country’s evolving crypto jurisprudence.
The case stems from WazirX’s plan to apply a “socialization of losses” model after a $235 million exploit in July 2024. The exchange proposed spreading losses across all users, including those who held cryptocurrencies unrelated to the stolen ERC-20 tokens.
Court Upholds Crypto Ownership Rights
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh ruled that the loss-sharing approach should not affect the XRP holder. The user’s 3,532 tokens, valued at around $9,400, were acquired long before the hack. The judge held that XRP and ERC-20 assets are separate in nature and cannot be grouped together for recovery purposes.
The court further clarified that the user’s XRP remains their property and cannot be diluted to offset the exchange’s operational failures. In doing so, it reaffirmed that cryptocurrency qualifies as a form of property capable of being owned and protected under existing law.
To enforce this ruling, the judgment also invoked the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, ensuring the user receives legal safeguards until arbitration proceedings are concluded. WazirX must either deposit 956,000 rupees (about $11,500) in escrow or provide a bank guarantee for the same amount as interim protection.
WazirX Resumes Amid Key Legal Shifts
The Madras High Court decision comes as WazirX seeks to rebuild its operations following the prolonged suspension stemming from the 2024 breach. The platform resumed operations last week after the Singapore High Court approved its restructuring plan, with backing from nearly 95.7% of participating creditors.
WazirX previously attributed the exploit to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, which exploited a weakness in its multi-signature wallet setup. The hack forced the exchange offline for 16 months, prompting widespread debate about accountability and asset security in India’s crypto market.
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Against this backdrop, legal observers see the latest ruling as a signal that Indian courts are beginning to recognize digital assets as protected property. The case follows a Bombay High Court decision rejecting similar loss-sharing measures by Bitcipher Labs. Notably, these developments could shape future disputes as India moves toward clearer crypto regulations.
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