After the US Supreme Court declared the reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump invalid, Congress on Saturday asked the government to put the interim trade agreement on hold and reconsider the terms of the agreement.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the government should also ensure that the interests of Indian farmers are completely protected during the reconsideration and the government should not allow any kind of import liberalization on the American side.
Congress leader asked sharp questions to the government
Ramesh questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the entire agreement and said he should clarify whether he agrees with Trump’s statement that nothing has changed in the trade agreement with India.
The Congress leader asked, “Does Modi agree with Trump that the trade agreement with India is still in force?” He also said that there has been no response from the government yet.
He claimed that the India-US interim agreement will adversely affect Indian farmers and put their livelihoods at risk. He said the government should put the deal on hold until it gets clarification and called for fresh negotiations on the agreement. The Congress leader said, “The decision of the US Supreme Court is very important and our government should keep this trade deal on hold for now.”
Agreement with America is a threat to the livelihood of our farmers
Ramesh said, “We demand that the Prime Minister clearly state that India’s policy will be reviewed after the US Supreme Court’s decision and we will not adopt the stance of import liberalization until the clarification comes.” He further said that this is to protect and safeguard the livelihood of lakhs of farmers of the country.
He also mentioned the special concessions given to American agricultural products and said that these are a threat to the livelihood of our farmers. He said the trade agreement mentions that tariffs on agricultural products including cotton, soybeans and fruits will be reduced or eliminated completely. The Congress leader also questioned the haste shown by the Modi government regarding the trade agreement announced by Trump on February 2.
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t20 world cup 2026
– Photo: ICC
Expansion
The excitement of the Super Eight stage in the T20 World Cup will begin on Saturday with the first match between Pakistan and New Zealand. Both teams have lost to the 2024 winner and runner-up in the league stage. Pakistan was defeated by defending champion India by 61 runs, while New Zealand was defeated by South Africa by seven wickets. The real competition between Pakistan and New Zealand will be of spin and batting skills. Pakistan has a better spin bowling attack led by Usman Tariq, while New Zealand is strengthened by the opening pair of Tim Seifert and Finn Allen, along with Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra and Mark Chapman.
The final piece of the central tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began.
After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church.
As the Catalan and Vatican flags were raised, Jordi Faulí, the chief architect for the project, said: “It’s been a joyful day, wonderful for all the people who have made it possible.”
A ceremony to mark the completion of the tower – the tallest of 18 conceived by Gaudí – is due to take place on the centenary of Gaudí’s death in 1926 on 10 June, 16 years after the church was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
Workers assemble the upper part of the tower of Jesus Christ’s cross on to the Sagrada Familia. Photograph: Enric Fontcuberta/EPA
The end to the building at the church is expected in about a decade with the construction of a striking south-facing facade.
It was nevertheless a day full of emotion for a city that has lived with Gaudí’s unfinished work for generations and, although there remains much work to do, the temple now defines the Barcelona skyline as much as the Eiffel tower in Paris or the Empire State building in New York.
For decades it was a building site open to the skies, where generations of stone masons and carpenters worked around the tourists who have ultimately funded the construction. It’s only in the past 15 years, since work began on the breathtakingly beautiful interior, that it has felt more like a church than a building site.
Here Gaudí’s geometrical designs have created an oasis of light, with delicate, tree-like columns tapering off to the roof, the white stone of the interior picked out in colours from the stained glass windows.
The basilica is loved and loathed equally by those who live in Barcelona. George Orwell described it as “one of the most hideous buildings in the world” and regretted the anarchists did not blow it up when they had the chance.
The Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain, is the city’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church. Photograph: Enric Fontcuberta/EPA
The anarchists did, however, destroy Gaudí’s drawings and the plaster model, which years later was painstakingly reconstructed. In the late 1970s, Mark Burry, a New Zealand architect, adapted rocket design software to realise Gaudí’s design.
To those who claim the basilica is nothing like what was originally envisaged, Burry’s retort was that Gaudí’s geometry is so precise that should there be any deviation from his plan, the building would collapse.
It is, however, now the work of many hands. There are elements that jar, in particular the Passion façade, popularly known as Darth Vader façade, the work of the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs, and yet overall it is unmistakably Gaudí’s work.
Aside from finishing the details of the main tower, three artists – Miquel Barceló , Cristina Iglesias and Javier Marín – have been commissioned to present designs for the Glory façade, which is expected to take a further 10 years to complete.
The Sagrada Familia is the city’s top tourist attraction, with about 5 million visitors a year and an annual income of roughly €150m (£131m), about half of which has so far been spent on construction.
Former New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson was arrested Friday on larceny charges after authorities alleged he stole $85,000 from two city funds, prosecutors said.
Karl Jacobson, who stepped down from the department in January, turned himself in on an arrest warrant and was later released on a $150,000 court-set bond. He faces two counts of larceny tied to alleged fraud involving public funds.
“An allegation of embezzlement by a police official is a serious matter and potentially undermines public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said in a statement.
Jacobson’s lawyer, Gregory Cerritelli, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital that he couldn’t respond to the specific allegations, but noted that “an arrest is not evidence of guilt and allegations are not proof.”
Former New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson was arrested on larceny charges after prosecutors alleged he stole $85,000 from city funds.(City of New Haven via AP)
“This is the beginning of a very long process,” he stated. “I urge everyone to keep an open mind and avoid a rush to judgment.”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker called the allegations “shocking” during a news conference, and he said the former police chief had at first only admitted taking $10,000 from one account.
“We didn’t know how deep this went,” Elicker said, adding that the arrest warrant outlined that Jacobson had “severe issues” with gambling.
Authorities allege former New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson misappropriated $85,000 from two city funds.(New Haven Police Department)
“It’s a very sad day for the city to see a chief, who was beloved by so many people, arrested for a theft of public money and also money that was intended for children,” Elicker said.
Last month, Elicker announced Jacobson’s retirement, saying the former chief acknowledged taking money from a city fund used to pay confidential informants who assist in narcotics investigations, according to The Associated Press.
Elicker also said the former chief had confessed to taking the funds for personal use after being confronted by three of his deputies over financial irregularities.
The State’s Attorney’s Office announced charges against the former New Haven police chief in connection with alleged fund misuse.(New Haven Police Department)
The State’s Attorney’s Office said the investigation revealed that $81,500 was unaccounted for or misappropriated from the New Haven Police Department Narcotic Enforcement Program Fund between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2026.
Bank records show that department checks were deposited into Jacobson’s personal checking account, prosecutors said.
Investigators said they also found two checks totaling $4,000 were allegedly embezzled from the New Haven Police Activity League Fund in December 2025.
The decision of an Austrian court to convict an amateur climber of manslaughter after he had left his girlfriend behind to die on an Alpine peak in winter is certain to be examined closely throughout Europe.
In his decision in Innsbruck, the judge, Norbert Hofer – a climber, and an expert in Austrian law relating to the mountains – ruled that the “galaxies-wide” disparity in experience and skills between Thomas P and his late girlfriend Kerstin G meant he had been de facto acting as her mountain guide “as a favour” despite no financial arrangement having been involved.
The case has drawn global media attention to what, if any, precedent it could set for climbers and mountaineers involved in accidents. An appeal against the ruling is expected.
While professional mountain guides in many jurisdictions belong to certified bodies and can be held legally responsible for negligence in serious cases, and similarly for adults leading activities with minors, Hofer’s ruling suggests a novel and potentially complex duty of care: between more experienced and more novice participants in mountain sports.
At the heart of the case was Thomas P’s decision to climb a high-altitude, mixed snow and rock route on the 3,798-metre (12,461ft) Großglockner in poor weather with insufficient safety equipment, as well as errors of decision making, including failing to turn back late at night below the summit when it would have been safe to do so.
The prosecution’s argument, accepted in part by the judge, was that Thomas P had made nine separate mistakes, the most serious being to take Kerstin G on the climb despite her inexperience and the fact she had never undertaken an alpine tour of this length, difficulty and altitude, and despite the challenging winter conditions.
The court heard Thomas P had left his girlfriend alone and exposed in the open and pushed on alone, apparently believing he could secure assistance from a hut on the other side of the mountain. He had declined the offer of assistance from a rescue helicopter that had been sent to see if they required help.
“You haven’t been convicted because you’re [the] better [climber],” Hofer told Thomas P, rather it was because he had met the threshold for what the court believed was “guiding out of courtesy” and the duties that involved. “You did not fulfil the leadership responsibilities you assumed in the manner required of you by law.”
Whether Hofer’s ruling has a wider impact will depend on how it is seen in different jurisdictions with varying attitudes to regulation in the mountains, including how police investigate fatal accidents.
In an interview with Austria’s Kurier newspaper, Andreas Ermacora, a former head of the Austrian Alpine Club, which is a major provider of mountaineering insurance throughout Europe, was sceptical the ruling would have a major impact. “I don’t think so, because every story is so unique. [But] it is perhaps groundbreaking that this is the first time in Austria that someone has been convicted as an unqualified guide,” said Ermacora, a lawyer who has represented professional guides involved in accidents.
“The crucial point was that it was clear the woman would never have gone up there alone. For a mixed ice and rock climb like that in winter, you really need to know what you’re getting into. And I don’t think she knew that at all. He, on the other hand, had been up there several times before. She transferred her responsibility to him.”
Where that becomes complicated, however, is that the main way in which many aspirant mountaineers gain skills is through the mentorship of more experienced partners.
“One of the things that struck me was the big disparity in experience between the two,” said John Cousins, a British mountain guide and chief executive of Mountain Training, which runs training schemes for mountain activities.
“We’re all on a continuum of experience. If someone is an absolute novice they can only be looked after. But once you get a way along that continuum, in my mind as a mountain guide, it very definitely becomes a negotiation. You want to be constantly checking in with the other person to see how it is going for them.”
Checks would include whether the less experienced person was still within their comfort zone, and whether the more experienced climber might feel out of their depth, even if they say they are not. The latter issue was prominent in reporting around Kerstin G’s death last year and in the case itself.
“I can’t think of a precedent,” said Cousins. “But I also don’t believe anyone goes into the mountains with a court in mind in the event of an accident.”
Where it may have an impact, some observers suggest, is around whether some amateur climbers could feel nervous about being seen as responsible for a less experienced companion, a point made by Severin Glaser, a professor of criminal law at the University of Innsbruck.
“This could shift the responsibility for yourself if you’re doing something dangerous,” he told the New York Times. “The costs of mountaineering, the costs of expressing your freedom might rise, and maybe some people are not willing any more to pay this higher price.”
A final issue apparent to climbers is the sometimes complicating issues of climbing partnerships where those involved are in a relationship, a situation where – regardless of gender – the dynamics of the need for approval or vulnerability can creep in.
It is an issue coincidentally discussed in the current issue of Climbing magazine by the climber Alice Hafer, on why she had decided not to climb with her “significant other” after a frustrating climb. “I looked back on … situations like this one and saw that I often deflected decisions to my partner and avoided empowering myself towards my own goals. Climbing, a place where I usually excelled, became tainted by the context of a relationship.”
The CIA on Friday said that director John Ratcliffe had ordered the retraction or “substantive revision” of 19 intelligence assessments over the past decade that were deemed to be politically biased.
In a release, the CIA included three redacted assessments from between 2015 and 2021 that related to White women’s extremist radicalization, attacks on LGBT activists in the Middle East and Africa, and the COVID-19 pandemic limiting access to birth control in developing countries.
“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
He added, “There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record. These actions underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis. Our recent successes in Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE and Operation MIDNIGHT HAMMER exemplify our dedication to analytic excellence.”
The CIA on Friday said that director John Ratcliffe had ordered the retraction or “substantive revision” of 19 intelligence assessments over the past decade that were deemed to be politically biased.(Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The CIA release said the assessments were identified by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which did an independent review on hundreds of reports from the last decade, adding that the assessments “did not meet CIA and IC analytic tradecraft standards and failed to be independent of political consideration.”
The agency said an internal review led by Deputy Director Michael Ellis “agreed that they did not meet the high standards the American people expect from CIA’s elite analytic workforce.”
The first of the three reports included in the release was titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment,” and was published in October 2021, in the first year of the Biden administration.
It focused on women in groups overseas “that incite, facilitate or conduct violence because they believe that their perception of an idealized, white European ethnic identity is under attack from people who embody and support multiculturalism and globalization.”
The second report was titled “Middle East-North Africa: LGBT Activists Under Pressure,“ and was released near the end of the Obama administration.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the reports fall “short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold.”(Jemal Countess/AFP via Getty Images)
That assessment claimed that “The tough stance taken against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community by governments in the Middle East probably is driven by conservative public opinion and domestic political competition from Islamists, and is hindering US initiatives in support of LGBT rights.”
The last declassified report included in the CIA release was titled “Worldwide: Pandemic-Related Contraceptive Shortfalls Threaten Economic Development,“ and was published in July 2020, nearly the end of President Donald Trump’s first term.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is limiting contraceptive access in the developing world and will probably undermine efforts to address population pressures there that are hindering economic development,” it stated.
Cover page of a declassified CIA assessment on radicalized White women.(CIA)
A senior administration official who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity said that most of the rest of the flagged assessments dealt with diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Times added that former officials it spoke to both questioned the decision to declassify the three documents and the claims that the assessments were flawed, believing they just showed the policy priorities of past administrations.
A highly contagious virus is believed to have caused the deaths of 72 captive tigers in northern Thailand this month, with officials racing to contain the outbreak.
Teams are urgently disinfecting enclosures and preparing to vaccinate surviving animals.
The exact cause of death was unclear. A statement by the government’s region 5 livestock office for Chiang Mai said the animals had been infected with canine distemper virus, with veterinarians also identifying mycoplasma bacteria as a secondary infection.
Earlier, however, Somchuan Ratanamungklanon, director general of the department of livestock development within the Thai agricultural ministry, told the Thai outlet Matichon that the tigers had been infected with feline panleukopenia.
“Treating sick tigers is very different from treating dogs and cats. Dogs and cats live closely with us, so when they show symptoms, we can respond and provide treatment right away. Tigers, however, aren’t living closely with humans. By the time we notice that something is wrong, the illness may already be advanced,” he said.
The outbreak has affected two districts of Chiang Mai: the mountainous regions of Mae Rim and Mae Taeng. Dozens of tigers first began to show signs of illness on 8 February, media reported.
Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai has been temporarily closed since the deaths. The zoo, which allows visitors to “hug, touch, and take photos up close with tigers”, is a popular tourist attraction.
Kritsayarm Kongsatri, director of the wildlife conservation office in Chiang Mai, told Thai media the number of deaths recorded was “very unusual”.
In other instances of tiger deaths, 47 died along with three leopards between August and October 2024 in south Vietnam after catching bird flu.
In October 2004, an outbreak of bird flu spread in Sriracha tiger zoo in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. A total of 147 of the zoo’s 441 tigers died or were euthanised to prevent possible spread to other animals. Fresh chicken carcasses fed to the animals were pointed to as the most likely source of infection.
Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai could not immediately be reached for comment.
Right now, in several American cities, you can open an app, and a car with no driver pulls up and takes you wherever you want to go. No small talk. No wrong turns. No tip. No perfume covering up the cigarette smells.
A driverless Waymo ride in San Francisco averages $8.17. A human Uber in the same city? $17.25. The robotaxi price war is here.
I live in Phoenix most of the time, and I see Waymos everywhere. At the grocery store. On the freeway. Sitting at red lights with nobody behind the wheel, just vibing. I still haven’t gotten in one. But I’m giving myself two weeks.
If I survive, I’ll share the ride. Mostly kidding.
A Waymo drives across Congress Avenue on 8th Street in front of the Capitol Building as rain arrives in the Austin area on Friday, Jan. 23, 2025 ahead of anticipated drops in temperature and freezing rain over the weekend. (Sara Diggins/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
Who’s on the road?
Waymo (owned by Google’s parent Alphabet) is the clear leader. It gave 15 million driverless rides in 2025, and today, it’s about 400,000 per week. Valued at $126 billion. Available in Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Miami. Coming in 2026: Dallas, Denver, DC, London, Tokyo and more.
Tesla launched in Austin last June but is way behind. Roughly 31 cars. One tester took 42 trips, and every single one still had a safety monitor on board. So supervised.
Zoox (owned by Amazon) is the wild card. Their pod has no steering wheel and drives in both directions. Rides are free in Vegas and San Francisco while they wait for approval to charge.
A Cruise vehicle in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2022. Cruise LLC, the self-driving car startup that is majority owned by General Motors Co., said its offering free rides to non-employees in San Francisco for the first time, a move that triggers another $1.35 billion from investor SoftBank Vision Fund. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
How do these things ‘see’?
Waymo uses cameras, lidar (laser radar that builds a 3D map around the car) and traditional radar. It works in total darkness and heavy rain. Tesla uses cameras only. Eight of them, no lidar. Cheaper, which is how they offer rides at $1.99 per kilometer.
Tesla has reported seven crash incidents to regulators since launching. Waymo says it has 80% fewer injury crashes than human drivers. But NHTSA has logged 1,429 Waymo incidents since 2021, 117 injuries, two fatalities. Three software recalls, including one last December for passing stopped school buses.
A friend of mine took a Waymo, and it dropped her off a full mile from where she was going. No way to change it. No human to flag down. Just a robot car that said, “You have arrived.”
She had not. So yeah. I’m curious. But I’m also cautious.
A Tesla Inc. robotaxi on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. The launch of Tesla Inc.’s driverless taxi service Sunday is set to begin modestly, with a handful of vehicles in limited areas of the city. (Tim Goessman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Here’s where it gets spicy
When a robotaxi gets confused, a human in a remote center sees through the car’s cameras and draws a path for it. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 4, Waymo admitted some of those helpers are in the Philippines. Senators were not amused. I wasn’t either.
Your car sits parked 95% of the time. Robotaxis run 15+ hours a day. When a driverless ride costs less than gas and insurance, owning a car feels like a gym membership you never use.
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The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three men in its second strike this week.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Twitter/X.
No US military forces were harmed, according to Southern Command, which is now led by Gen Francis Donovan.
Friday’s strike brought the total number of people killed in US strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats since September to at least 148. Earlier this week, another US military strike killed 11 people, making it one of the deadliest attacks this year.
A 16-second clip posted by the Southern Command on Friday shows a single strike being launched at the boat, which later burst into flames.
The strike is part of the Trump administration’s buildup of US forces in the region to allegedly intercept drug traffickers.
Just how legal these strikes are has been of rising concern for lawmakers and legal experts, with some arguing that the Pentagon is carrying out extrajudicial killings and exerting “abuse of power with life-or-death consequences”.
“Under both U.S. and international law, it is flagrantly illegal to use the military to kill civilians suspected only of crimes,” reads a December statement by Jeffrey Stein, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Christopher Anders, director of the Democracy and Technology Division at ACLU. “Civilians, including those suspected of smuggling drugs, are not lawful targets. Just because the Trump administration says these strikes are firmly grounded in law doesn’t make it true.”
Donovan took over the US Southern Command after Adm Alvin Holsey abruptly retired, reportedly over disagreements about the strike policy.
