Calling them "evil" and "crazy", Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates said he was surprised by the millions of online posts and conspiracy theories about him and America's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories...I hope it goes away," Gates added.

US President Donald Trump announced that 26% "discounted" tariff will be imposed on imports from India. Trump called India "very, very tough", saying, "PM [Narendra Modi] just left. He's great friend of mine, but I said, 'You're a friend of mine but you've not been treating us right'." India charges 52% tariff on goods it imports from US, Trump noted.

The Lok Sabha passed the Waqf Amendment Bill with 288 votes in its favour and 232 votes against it, after a discussion that lasted over ten hours. The changed bill said that at least two non-Muslims should be part of Waqf Boards. During the debate, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said even the Parliament building was being claimed as Waqf property.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft crashed in Gujarat’s Jamnagar district on Wednesday. Videos have surfaced on social media showing thick plumes of smoke engulfing the area following the crash. Police and emergency services have rushed to the spot. Last month, a Jaguar jet had crashed in Haryana's Ambala district after a training sortie.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service is down for several users across India, according to data available with Downdetector.in. Services on UPI apps like Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe and on banking apps like that of SBI are facing issues due to the disruptions in UPI service. Downdetector.in's data showed 59% of the users reported issues with fund transfer.

Poonam Gupta, DG of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), has been appointed RBI's Deputy Governor. She joined NCAER in 2021 after working in senior positions for nearly two decades at IMF and World Bank. She holds a Master's degree and PhD in Economics from University of Maryland and a Master's degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics.

Government-owned BSNL did not bill Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited for the additional technology in sharing of passive infrastructure, resulting in loss of revenue of ₹1,757.76 crore, a CAG report said. The loss was accumulated between May 2014 to March 2024. The report also highlighted wasteful expenditure due to idling of higher size PIJF underground cables worth ₹80.64 crore by BSNL.

An AI-powered brain implant has enabled a 47-year-old American woman, who lost her voice 18 years ago due to a stroke, to speak almost in real-time. The implant, developed by researchers in California, translates brain signals into speech in real-time. The woman previously used a brain-computer interface with an eight-second delay. The latest model reduces that time to 80 milliseconds.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was tabled by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, for consideration and passage, in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Bill was first introduced in Parliament last year and was sent to a Joint Committee of Parliament, headed by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, for scrutiny. The Bill proposes changes in regulating and managing Waqf properties.

Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and resorted to unprovoked firing on Tuesday. The Nangi Tekri Battalion, operating under the Krishna Ghati Brigade, retaliated decisively to the unprovoked attack, an Indian Army spokesperson said. "Situation is under control and being closely monitored," the spokesperson said.

Records of 20 crore users of Elon Musk-led social media platform X (formerly Twitter) have allegedly been leaked online through a forum post available on the clear surface web, cybersecurity team at SafetyDetectives claimed. Leaked records include users' IDs, names, locations and other information. It's allegedly part of 400GB of data on crores of X users leaked in January 2025.