UPI charges row: Chidambaram among 5 Congress MPs who had backed revenue framework

Why AI Coding Agents Must Render SVGs, Not Just Validate Their Code

AI coding agents have become capable of writing syntactically valid SVG code, but valid markup does not guarantee that an icon looks correct when rendered on screen. Visual issues such as optical misalignment, inconsistent stroke weight, and loss of detail at small sizes can only be detected by actually rendering the SVG as pixels. A reliable icon workflow requires agents to loop through rendering and visual inspection — not just structural checks against rules like grid size or stroke settings. Icons must also be evaluated in context alongside existing sets, since perceived weight and spacing are visual judgments that XML analysis cannot make. Experts recommend a multi-step pipeline where rendering feeds back into the reasoning process, allowing agents to ask not just whether the SVG is valid, but whether it is visually correct.

Gujarat lights 88 lakh diyas to mark PM Modi's birthday celebrations

Gujarat is celebrating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday by lighting 88 lakh diyas across the state. The main event is being held at the Kankaria Lakefront in Ahmedabad. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel are among the senior leaders attending the primary celebration. The large-scale illumination event reflects the ruling party's organized effort to mark the occasion with a significant public display.

India cuts windfall tax on petrol, diesel, ATF exports

Fed Raises Interest Rates by 25 Basis Points for First Time Since July 2023

The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, marking its first rate hike since July 2023. The move, which was broadly anticipated by markets, brings the federal funds rate target range to 3.75%–4.0%. The decision reflects the Fed's continued efforts to manage monetary policy in response to prevailing economic conditions. This latest adjustment signals a shift after a period during which rates had been held steady.

Sussex dominate Notts with three half-centuries to build commanding lead

Sussex strengthened their position against Nottinghamshire at the halfway stage of their County Championship match at Hove. Three Sussex batters — Clark, Price, and Tear — each scored half-centuries to help their side build an imposing lead. The performance put Nottinghamshire's title ambitions under significant pressure. Sussex's collective batting effort gave them a clear advantage as the match reached its midpoint.

Houthis claim to have shot down Saudi F-15 jet with 'locally-made' missile - video

Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer Appointed World Bank Chief Economist

Michael Kremer, 61, has been named the next Chief Economist of the World Bank. Kremer is a Nobel Prize laureate who won the Economics Sciences award in 2019. He shared the prize with economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. The trio was recognized for their experimental research methods aimed at reducing global poverty.

Kent Close In on Promotion After Lancashire Struggle in Low-Scoring Canterbury Clash

Kent have kept their promotion hopes alive after dominating Lancashire in a low-scoring County Championship match at Canterbury. The hosts need just 56 more runs on the third day to secure victory in the contest. Lancashire, meanwhile, are facing the prospect of another defeat, which would further dent their own campaign. The match has been characterized by modest totals from both sides, making Kent's position particularly commanding. A Kent win would significantly boost their standing in the division standings.

US Officials Met Houthi Leaders in Oman, Secured Assurances on Red Sea Attacks

American officials held a meeting with Houthi representatives in Oman on Sunday, following the group's seizure of a large stretch of the Red Sea coastline. During the talks, Houthi leaders assured the US that they would not target American vessels in the region. The group also pledged to observe a ceasefire through 2025 and committed to halting attacks on Israeli and commercial ships, with the exception of Saudi vessels. The meeting is the result of months of diplomatic negotiations conducted against a backdrop of repeated Houthi strikes on Red Sea shipping.

Congress MPs on Parliament Panel That Backed UPI Transaction Charges, Raised No Objection

A parliamentary panel chaired by BJP's Bhartruhari Mahtab recommended introducing a tiered Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI payments without delay. The suggestion was included in the panel's 44th report, published in August. Notably, five Congress MPs who were members of the panel did not register any dissent against the recommendation. The development has drawn attention given Congress's public opposition to charges on UPI transactions. The absence of any objection from Congress members on the panel contrasts with the party's stated political stance on the issue.

AI Agent Builds 7 Products in 2 Days but Earns Nothing, Logs Key Failures

An autonomous AI agent, given a laptop and a single instruction to earn money, launched seven products within two days but generated zero revenue. The agent documented critical failures including an inability to run shell commands, unverified payment infrastructure, and products published on platforms with no real human traffic. Automated marketplace scans rejected one submission due to a flagged security string in documentation, even though it was a cautionary example rather than malicious code. The agent also mistook its own tool runs and bot-driven repo clones for genuine user interest, prompting new rules around attributing signals only to verified third-party activity. The experiment concludes that building products is far easier than solving distribution, payment logistics, and real-world execution gaps for autonomous agents.

WordPress Developer Rates in 2026 Range from $15 to $250 Per Hour, Data Shows

Published 2026 data from multiple US sources places WordPress developer hourly rates between $15 and $250, with most of the market falling between $20 and $120. The Upwork marketplace median sits at $20 per hour, while Indeed's average for employed US developers is $30.06, and independent freelancers on Contractrates.fyi average $69 per hour. Vetted specialists on platforms like Codeable command $80 to $120 per hour, reflecting stricter vetting and narrower expertise. The wide spread is explained by four key factors: experience level, geographic location, area of specialization, and channel overhead such as agency fees or marketplace commissions. Buyers are advised to match the pricing tier to the nature of the work, paying premium rates only when the project genuinely demands senior or specialized skills.

4 years of Project Cheetah: 32 born in India

Meet Joey, rescue dog who found 3 people alive under earthquake rubble

Codename One Adds Permission-Free Contact Picker for iOS and Android

Codename One, an open-source framework for building cross-platform apps in Java or Kotlin, has introduced a new ContactPicker feature via pull request #5680. The picker allows apps to retrieve a single contact's details — such as name, phone, or email — without requesting broad address-book permissions. On Android 17 it uses the privacy-focused ACTION_PICK_CONTACTS system surface, while older Android versions fall back to ACTION_PICK, and iOS uses Apple's CNContactPickerViewController. Because the user selects data through a system-owned interface, neither platform requires the app to declare sensitive contacts-access permissions. Developers are advised to maintain a manual-entry fallback, as multi-selection and full field availability are not guaranteed across all supported platforms.

Imran Tahir leads Guyana Amazon Warriors in pursuit of second CPL title

Veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir is captaining the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League as they aim to claim their second title. The South Africa-born spinner acknowledges that people frequently remind him he is among the oldest active cricketers in the world. Despite his age, Tahir remains a prominent figure in franchise cricket across various global tournaments. He is leading the Amazon Warriors with the ambition of adding another CPL championship to the franchise's trophy cabinet.

Drawing black boxes over PDF text does not redact it — the data remains readable

Covering sensitive text in a PDF with a black rectangle is a common but dangerously ineffective redaction method, as the underlying text remains intact in the file's content stream. The visual box is simply layered on top as a drawing instruction, meaning anyone can copy-paste or search the area to retrieve the hidden content. High-profile failures include a 2005 US Army report on the Iraq shooting of Nicola Calipari, a 2009 TSA security manual, and a 2019 Manafort court filing — all of which leaked sensitive information this way. True redaction requires a dedicated tool that deletes the relevant text instructions from the content stream and rewrites the file, rather than painting over it. Users can perform a basic check in seconds by copy-pasting from a blacked-out area into a text editor, though this test does not catch hidden metadata, annotations, or off-page content.

Celsius Estate Sues BitMEX for $495M Over 2020 Bitcoin Liquidations

The bankruptcy estate of defunct crypto lender Celsius has filed a lawsuit against crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX seeking $495 million in damages. The claim centers on the loss of approximately 6,360 BTC during the market crash triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Celsius alleges that BitMEX improperly liquidated a leveraged long Bitcoin position it held on the platform during that period. The lawsuit raises questions about Celsius's internal risk practices, as the leveraged long position appears inconsistent with the delta-neutral investment strategy the company had marketed to its customers.

How a 10x Insulin Dosage Error Exposed AI Transcription's Confidence Problem

A documented patient safety incident reported via ISMP's medication error tracking revealed that a speech-recognition system transcribed '8 units' of insulin as '80 units' with complete confidence, contributing to a serious dosing error. Research supports the broader risk: emergency department notes generated with speech recognition averaged 1.3 errors per note, with 15% deemed clinically significant, and physician notes produced with the technology carried four times the error rate of those without it. Unlike human medical transcriptionists, who historically flagged contextually implausible entries before they reached patient charts, automated systems removed that verification layer without replacing it. Developer Aryan Singh built MedScribe, an offline clinical documentation pipeline using FasterWhisper and LLM-based term extraction, after observing his own system confidently misidentify medical terms. The core challenge the project addresses is not transcription accuracy alone, but determining when a model should withhold auto-correction rather than silently applying a high-confidence but potentially wrong output.