Category: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

Renowned mountaineer Nirmal Purja is feared missing after a massive avalanche struck Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram range, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

The Nepal-born climber, who earned international recognition in 2019 for scaling all 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000 metres in just over six months, was part of a climbing team caught in the avalanche around noon on Thursday.

In a statement, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said it had received “deeply concerning reports” of the incident and confirmed that the team had lost communication following the avalanche.

Broad Peak, which rises to 8,047 metres, is one of the world’s 14 eight-thousanders and is located in the Karakoram mountain range in northern Pakistan.

According to initial reports, the expedition comprised 10 climbers from Pakistan, Oman, China and the United States, in addition to Purja.

The Alpine Club said it was coordinating with the country’s highest authorities and relevant agencies to facilitate an immediate search and rescue operation.

Rescue efforts are being organised, with authorities working to deploy helicopters and other available resources, subject to weather and operational conditions.

No further details on the condition or whereabouts of the climbers were immediately available.

-ANI

Source: Government of India (4)

India’s Seema Kaliramna secured a bronze medal in the women’s discus throw at the Commonwealth Games 2026 with a best effort of 58.65m, while compatriots Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Parul Chaudhary failed to finish on the podium in their respective events.

Seema delivered only two valid throws in six attempts on a challenging night, with several of her efforts ending in fouls after the discus caught the side netting. After opening with a foul, she registered throws of 57.32m and 58.65m before concluding with three successive fouls. Her 58.65m effort was enough to secure the bronze medal.

India’s Nidhi Rani narrowly missed out on a podium finish, placing fourth with a throw of 57.10m. Jamaica’s Samantha Hall created history by winning her country’s first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in the women’s discus throw, while Canada’s Julia Tunks claimed silver with a best effort of 60.67m.

India endured disappointment in the men’s shot put as two-time Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor finished fifth with a best throw of 20.27m.

The 31-year-old, who won Asian Games gold medals in Jakarta in 2018 and Hangzhou in 2022, opened with a throw of 20.06m before recording 19.98m in the second round. His best effort of 20.27m came in the third round, but he could not improve thereafter, registering throws of 19.93m, 20.26m and 19.79m in his remaining attempts. Toor’s personal best stands at 21.77m.

Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi won the men’s shot put gold with a throw of 21.07m. New Zealand’s Tom Walsh took the silver medal, while England’s Scott Lincoln secured bronze.

In the women’s 5,000m, Asian Games champion Parul Chaudhary finished 13th with a time of 15:08.56.

Australia dominated the event, with Rose Davies claiming gold in 14:44.53 and compatriot Jessica Hull taking silver in 14:45.01. Scotland’s Megan Keith won bronze after clocking 14:49.10. All three medallists recorded season-best performances.

Elsewhere, Canada’s 19-year-old Sheriauna Haas stormed to victory in the women’s 100m T47 event, finishing ahead of compatriot Chloe Dunbar. Pre-race favourite Anna Grimaldi of New Zealand settled for the bronze medal.

(With inputs from IANS)

Source: Government of India (4)

India’s Lovepreet Singh signed off India’s weightlifting campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2026 with a silver medal in the men’s +110kg event on Thursday, taking the country’s overall haul in the sport to eight medals in Glasgow.

The 28-year-old lifted a combined 388kg (176kg in snatch and 212kg in clean and jerk) but missed out on the gold by just one kilogram. New Zealand’s David Liti clinched the title with a Games record total of 389kg (166kg+223kg), while England’s Andrew Griffiths claimed bronze with 356kg.

Lovepreet, who won bronze in the 109kg category at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, looked set for gold after dominating the snatch. He opened with 168kg before improving to 173kg and then 176kg, setting a new Games record in the snatch and carrying a 10kg lead into the clean and jerk.

Liti, however, mounted a strong comeback with successful lifts of 207kg and 223kg to overhaul the Indian. Lovepreet cleared 205kg and 212kg but failed in his final attempt at 217kg, leaving him one kilogram short of the top of the podium.

Earlier, Martina Devi Maibam finished fifth in the women’s +86kg event with a total lift of 245kg (105kg snatch and 140kg clean and jerk). After surviving the snatch competition by clearing 105kg on her third and final attempt, Martina managed 140kg in the clean and jerk but failed to lift 144kg and 146kg. A successful final lift would have earned her the bronze medal.

England’s Emily Campbell won gold with a Commonwealth Games record total of 278kg (115kg+163kg), while Malaysia’s Siti Aqilah Farhana Draman (253kg) and Canada’s Etta Mae Love (250kg) took silver and bronze, respectively.

Only Nirupama Devi, Sanjana and Martina Devi Maibam finished outside the medals among the Indian weightlifting contingent in Glasgow.

India’s medallists from CWG 2026

No.	Athlete	Event	Sport	Medal
1	Jhandu Kumar	Men’s heavyweight	Para powerlifting	Bronze
2	Rishikanta Singh	Men’s 60kg	Weightlifting	Silver
3	Mirabai Chanu	Women’s 48kg	Weightlifting	Gold
4	Muthupandi Raja	Men’s 65kg	Weightlifting	Silver
5	Gyaneshwari Yadav	Women’s 53kg	Weightlifting	Silver
6	Bindyarani Devi	Women’s 58kg	Weightlifting	Bronze
7	Sharmila Dhankar	Women’s shot put F57	Para athletics	Gold
8	Sarvesh Kushare	Men’s high jump	Athetics	Silver
9	Shilpa K Shyla	Women’s shot put F57	Para athletics	Bronze
10	Valluri Ajaya Babu	Men’s 79kg	Weightlifting	Silver
11	Harjinder Kaur	Women’s 69kg	Weightlifting	Silver
12	Gulveer Singh	Men’s 10000m	Athletics	Silver
13	Murali Sreeshankar	Men’s long jump	Athletics	Silver
14	Dilip Gavit	Men’s 100m T47	Para athletics	Gold
15	Mohammed Basil	Men’s 100m T47	Para athletics	Silver
16	Lovepreet Singh	Men’s +110kg	Weightlifting	Silver
17	Seema Kaliramna	Women’s discus throw	Athletics	Bronze

Source: Government of India (4)

At least 18 coal miners were killed after an explosion buried parts of a mining complex in Pakistan‘s Balochistan province on Thursday, the Balochistan government said.

A rescue operation is still underway to find and recover the remaining 14 trapped miners, the government said in a statement.

Shoaib Nosherwani, Balochistan’s minister for mines and mineral development, earlier told Reuters that 36 people were in the collapsed part of the complex at the time of the explosion.

Of them, 25 were missing late on Thursday night, he said.

Rescue efforts were under way at a depth of 4,000 feet (1,219 meters), said Muhammad Atif, the chief inspector of mines in the province. “We are hopeful to find some miners alive, but chances are low,” he said.

Abdul Ghani Baloch, a senior government mining official in the region, said: “Two mines close to each other were damaged in a powerful methane gas explosion.”

The explosion occurred in Sorange, a remote area near the provincial capital Quetta.

 

-Reuters

Source: Government of India (4)

A drone strike that sparked fires on two gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta has raised a new threat to shipping through the Suez Canal, one of the last major export routes available to Saudi oil amid the expanding U.S.-Iran war.

No one has claimed responsibility for what Egypt’s cabinet said on Thursday was an unidentified drone that caused a fire on two vessels at Damietta a day earlier. The port lies near the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

The drone hit the U.S.-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to a second vessel, people familiar with the incident said.

Iran has denied any involvement in the Damietta strike.

“Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on social media. “We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace.”

The five-month-old war has already brought shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a slender chokepoint in the global energy trade, to a virtual standstill.

Before the conflict, the waterway between Oman and Iran carried about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. The strait has become the main hurdle in peace talks and a flashpoint for repeated escalations in the conflict.

SAUDI PROPOSES MULTINATIONAL MARITIME DEFENCE COALITION

Iran-aligned Houthis on July 20 declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, opening a new front against the U.S. and its allies in the Iran war.

Recent Houthi attacks on shipping prompted London’s marine insurance market on Thursday to widen its “high risk” zone in the Red Sea to include more coastline adjacent to Saudi ports.

Saudi Arabia unveiled plans on Thursday for a multinational maritime defence coalition aimed at protecting international shipping and energy supply routes in the Red Sea region.

The drone strike on the two gas tankers in Egyptian waters has renewed energy security concerns about the nearby Suez Canal and a related pipeline, a vital export route for Saudi Arabian oil since the beginning of the Iran war, say energy analysts.

A growing volume of Saudi oil, along with other shipping, has been diverted north up the Red Sea toward the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler. For Asian customers, however, that means a longer voyage around Africa instead of south via the Gulf of Aden.

Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

While Iran has publicly rejected the Omani proposal, its semi-official ILNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying talks with Oman over the strait were continuing.

IRAQ SAYS IT HAD NO KNOWLEDGE OF STRIKES ON SAUDI TARGETS

In a first in the five-month war, Saudi Arabia publicly joined strikes alongside U.S. forces, targeting Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for what it said were drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from Iraq.

According to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners the Houthis carried out the attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi groups.

Iraqi government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said on Thursday that Baghdad neither approved nor had prior knowledge of U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iraqi territory, the state news agency reported.

The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict.

(Reuters)

Source: Government of India (4)

Russia used a North Korean missile for a strike on a village that killed five members of the same family, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday, in what would be the first time such a weapon has been fired in the war in nearly a year.

Russia has launched North Korean missiles at Ukrainian targets before, but their first deployment since August points to a fresh stock of weapons that Moscow can draw on as it steps up missile attacks, a military source told Reuters.

Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an overnight attack that killed at least nine people, officials said, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of high-end air defences.

The use of North Korean missiles would fit a pattern in which Russia has been shifting to using more ballistic missiles like its Iskander 9M723, which can only be intercepted by U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems, the military source said.

Zelenskiy said one missile flattened a home in the village of Radushne near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing two parents and three of their children.

The fate of their remaining four children was unclear, as was that of their 1-1/2-year-old grandson, he said.

In his evening address, Zelenskiy said preliminary data showed the missile used to hit Radushne was North Korean. Reuters had reported earlier that the missile used for the strike was likely North Korean, according to two sources.

The Russian Defence Ministry and Ukrainian Air Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The North Korean embassy in London did not answer a phone call to request comment outside office hours.

POWERFUL MISSILE

A military source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Ukrainian radars had picked up two missile tracks characteristic of North Korean KN-23 or KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles flying towards Kryvyi Rih during the attack.

Two radar tracks typically indicate four missiles were fired, the source said, adding that other impact sites were not known to him.

For a conclusive assessment, investigators needed to study missile fragments found at the site, a process still under way, the source said, adding that he was nonetheless confident it was a North Korean missile.

Russia began firing North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 missiles at Ukraine towards the end of 2023.

The North Korean missiles have a larger warhead and longer range than Russia‘s Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, although they are less accurate, the military source said.

In 2024, North Korea sent 14,000 troops to help Moscow’s forces repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia‘s Kursk region. It has also supplied millions of artillery shells for the Russian war effort.

Last week, Zelenskiy warned the Kremlin wanted North Korea to send another 30,000 troops and said Russian preparations were under way to receive them in Voronezh region.

-Reuters

Source: Government of India (4)

Apple forecast sales for the current quarter ending in September would grow more slowly than Wall Street targeted as the iPhone maker struggled to get the parts it needed to deliver products.

Apple and the technology industry generally have been scrambling to meet demand for new products, especially those with high-end processors and memory, and executives described the weaker forecast in terms of supply, not demand.

“We’re seeing some very significant (supply) constraints currently with limited flexibility in the supply chain to remedy it,” Chief Executive Tim Cook said during the call, adding that Apple was “evaluating all options” for alternative suppliers of memory chips.

Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh told analysts on a call that Apple expects revenue growth of 9% to 11% in the quarter compared with a year earlier. That was less than the 12% rise predicted by Wall Street, according to LSEG data. He forecast iPhone revenue would grow at a mid-teens rate, compared with Wall Street’s target of 17.6%, and that gross profit margins would be between 47% and 48%.

In an interview with Reuters, Cook said the main supply constraint in the just-ended fiscal third quarter was an industry shortage of advanced chipmaking technology used to produce the Apple silicon chips at the heart of its devices. That was particularly true for the Mac lineup, whose sales grew 29% on the strength of the entry-level MacBook Neo and the high-end MacBook Pro despite price increases.

“If you look at the root causes behind those, it’s that we’re having an incredibly strong product cycle beyond our expectations, and the (advanced chipmaking) supply chain just fundamentally has less flexibility in it to meet the high levels of demand,” Cook told Reuters.

THIRD QUARTER BEAT

Expectations are high for Apple, which recently regained the title of world’s most valuable company, retaking the top spot from AI chip leader Nvidia Its shares have risen more than 22% this year.

Earlier Thursday, it posted results that broadly beat market expectations, but relatively soft sales of services spooked some investors, who also were uncertain whether bumper demand would continue if Apple hiked iPhone prices.

Apple said sales for its fiscal third quarter ended June 27 rose 16.4% to $109.42 billion, compared with analyst estimates of a 15.5% rise, according to LSEG data. Customers snapped up iPhones and MacBooks while prices increased across the consumer electronics sector.

Third-quarter profits were $2.02 per share, with 11 cents attributable to tariff refunds from the U.S. government. Excluding the refunds, profits still beat Wall Street estimates of $1.89 per share.

Driving results was a 21.7% increase in iPhone sales to $54.25 billion, above estimates of $53.86 billion. Those were Apple’s best-ever iPhone sales for a third quarter, when phone sales typically begin to slow as customers anticipate fall models.

This year, customers raced to buy iPhones after a global memory-chip crunch prompted Apple to raise prices of Macs and iPads. Apple has so far spared its signature product, with Wall Street analysts increasingly expecting an iPhone price hike around the September launch event.

Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, said investors may worry the quarter reflected a buying flurry that may not carry through. “I do think it’s possible people are going to continue to buy the existing phones, because of the price increases,” he said. “The big question is, what’s going to happen on Macs in this quarter, when the new prices are fully there?”

Gross margins, which Apple had warned would come under pressure from memory costs, were 50.1%. Tariff refunds contributed two points; excluding them, margins were 48.1%, near the midpoint of guidance and above estimates of 47.92%.

Mac sales were up 28.7% to $10.35 billion, beating estimates of $8.74 billion. iPad sales fell 5.9% to $6.19 billion, below expectations of $6.92 billion, which Cook attributed to a “tough compare” against last year’s launch of the budget A16 iPad.

Greater China revenue rose 22.4% to $18.82 billion but missed the $19.67 billion target of six analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

SERVICES UNDER PRESSURE

Apple’s second-biggest revenue area, its services business, rose 12.1% to $30.74 billion, missing estimates of $31.22 billion.

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said services growth was slowing. “Investors are concerned that if services are decelerating while iPhone is growing more than 20%, it may slow down even more as iPhone sales come back down to earth,” he said.

Parekh said App Store revenue from mobile games was under pressure. The European Union has required Apple to open iPhones to alternative app stores, and a U.S. battle with “Fortnite” maker Epic Games now lets users pay outside Apple’s in-app system.

“We did see some headwinds in mobile gaming, and then keep in mind we also made some changes to the App Store business model in certain countries,” Parekh said, adding the Epic Games U.S. link-out ruling continues to weigh.

With help from Alphabet’s Google, Apple earlier this year unveiled a revamped Siri with new AI features. Cook said heavy users could pay extra: “We will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud Plus, where people can buy up the stack,” he said.

(Reuters)

Source: Government of India (4)

Anthropic said on Thursday its AI model Claude hacked into the systems of three companies during testing after a configuration error gave it internet access, days after rival OpenAI disclosed a rogue-agent episode involving AI firm Hugging Face.

Anthropic said a misconfiguration allowed Claude models to reach the internet from testing environments that were supposed to be isolated, leading to unauthorized access to three organizations’ systems.

The company said it identified the incidents after reviewing 141,006 test sessions, a process it launched following OpenAI’s disclosure last week that an autonomous agent powered by its AI models went rogue during a security test and triggered a hack that compromised the infrastructure of Hugging Face.

The breaches signal that AI’s expanding capabilities are already fueling the security threat experts long feared and even top developers can be caught off-guard by flaws their models can exploit.

“Claude compromised the impacted organizations’ infrastructure using basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints,” it said.

Anthropic said the incidents involved three separate models: Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5 and an internal research model. The earliest cases dated back to April and occurred in evaluation environments that lacked what the company described as standard safeguards.

The breaches occurred during the so-called “capture-the-flag” exercises, in which models are tasked with finding hidden information in simulated networks. The company said its prompts told the models they had no internet access, but a misunderstanding with its evaluation partner Irregular left the systems connected to the public internet.

Anthropic said it began reviewing evaluation transcripts on July 23 and suspended all cyber evaluations the same day after finding evidence that Claude may have accessed the internet. It identified all three incidents by July 24 and notified the affected organizations on July 27.

Two of the organizations were unaware of the activity before being contacted, Anthropic said, adding that it was still trying to reach the third.

The findings underscore the need for stronger controls in both internal and third-party testing environments as AI models become increasingly capable of carrying out real-world cyber activities, Anthropic said.

-ANI

Source: Government of India (4)

Indian equity benchmark indices opened on a positive note on Friday, supported by gains in financials, pharma and auto stocks amid positive global cues and continued FII buying in the domestic market.

Sensex opened at 77,998.66, up 70.51 points or 0.09 per cent, while Nifty rose 44.30 points or 0.18 per cent to 24,361.45.

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Financial Services Ex-Bank emerged as top gainer and increased almost 1 per cent, followed by Nifty Pharma, Nifty Auto, Nifty Healthcare, Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank which gained up to about 0.8 per cent.

On the other hand, IT stocks came under heavy selling pressure, with Nifty IT plunging 3 per cent. Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom also declined 1.41 per cent, while FMCG slipped 0.17 per cent.

According to analysts, heightened volatility has become a defining feature of global equity markets, particularly in the US and South Korea, where technology stocks have been witnessing sharp swings in response to quarterly earnings, expectations and speculative trading.

“In South Korea, particularly, volatility is excessive. Two stocks in Kospi — Samsung and SK Hynix — which account for 52 per cent of Kospi’s market capitalisation have been moving up and down sharply. In early trade this morning, Kospi is up by 16 per cent, driven by a 25 per cent spike in Samsung and a 21 per cent surge in SK Hynix,” they said.

They further noted that such double-digit moves at the index level are rare and could make institutional investors cautious.

“India is a stable market and the downside risks are limited now, particularly in largecaps where valuations are fair and growth prospects are good,” the analysts added.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have turned net buyers in recent sessions, purchasing equities worth a cumulative Rs 7,360 crore over the last three trading days.

The international oil benchmark, Brent crude, declined nearly 2 per cent to $85.27 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell more than 2 per cent to $81.60 per barrel.

In Asia, markets traded mostly higher, with Japan’s Nikkei surging nearly 4 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi jumping over 14 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, however, was marginally lower.

Moreover, Wall Street ended higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.66 per cent and the Nasdaq advancing 2.79 per cent.

(IANS Inputs)

Source: Government of India (4)

The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are set to take up several key legislative matters on Friday as part of the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament. The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, are listed for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha, while the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026 is scheduled to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.

In the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will move the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026 for consideration and passage. The Bill seeks to further amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.

The House will also consider the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, which will be moved by Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Before the legislative business begins, ministers are scheduled to lay various papers on the Table of the House. Reports of the Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj will also be presented.

The Lok Sabha is further scheduled to take up a motion seeking an extension of time for the Joint Committee to submit its report on the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

In the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will move the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026 for consideration and passage. The Bill seeks to further amend the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.

The Upper House will also take up statements by ministers on the implementation of recommendations made by various Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees.

Both Houses of Parliament are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, was cleared by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday after Opposition members staged a walkout during voting.

The Lok Sabha also passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by voice vote. The Bill seeks to make any obstruction or insult to the National Song, ‘Vande Mataram’, a criminal offence. It was passed after a brief discussion amid protests by Opposition members and had been cleared by the Rajya Sabha a day earlier.

-ANI