Russia and Ukraine Trade Overnight Strikes, Killing 7 and Wounding Dozens

Russia and Ukraine carried out a series of overnight strikes against each other in the latest escalation of their ongoing conflict. Ukrainian drone attacks targeted Russia's Belgorod border region, killing five people and injuring approximately 24 others. Among the wounded was a 4-year-old boy, highlighting the civilian toll of the strikes. The total death count from the exchange of attacks on both sides reached seven. Belgorod, located near the Ukrainian border, has been repeatedly targeted throughout the conflict.

Ohio's Former Uranium Plant Becomes Nature Preserve After $4.4bn Cleanup

The Fernald uranium plant in Ohio operated for nearly four decades before shutting down in 1989. A massive $4.4 billion remediation effort was then undertaken to address radioactive waste, contaminated soil, and polluted groundwater. The 1,050-acre site has since been transformed into the Fernald Preserve, featuring restored wetlands, prairie, and forest. A Visitors Center has been established on-site to document both the facility's industrial history and the extensive cleanup process.

NLU Students Protest Invitation to CJI Surya Kant Over Protest Case Delay

A top law college has invited Chief Justice Surya Kant to its convocation ceremony, drawing sharp reactions from its student body. Students have objected to the invitation citing the Supreme Court's reported refusal to urgently list a plea related to police action against protesters. The protest in question was the 'Chalo Sansad' demonstration held at Jantar Mantar on July 20. Students argue that the court's inaction on the matter makes the Chief Justice's presence at their convocation inappropriate.

KC Venugopal Cautions Congress Leaders After Tharoor's Protest Remark

Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal issued a public caution to party members following a remark made by Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor had reportedly stated that a recent protest 'did not resonate,' drawing attention within the party. Venugopal urged all Congress leaders to be mindful of their public statements, whether made knowingly or unknowingly. He clarified that he did not believe Tharoor intended any harm with the comment. The episode highlights the need for internal discipline in messaging among Congress leaders.

WB govt, Tata group discuss fresh investment

West Bengal to Give Rs 10,000 Monthly Pension to Emergency-Era Political Prisoners

The West Bengal government has announced a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 for individuals who were imprisoned during the Emergency period in India. The announcement was made by senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, a prominent political figure in the state. Adhikari stated that the new government was founded on the ideals and sacrifices of those who stood against authoritarian rule. The pension scheme is intended to honor and provide financial support to those who endured imprisonment for resisting the Emergency imposed in the mid-1970s.

Open-Source Proxy Routes Claude Code Requests to GPT When Rate Limits Hit

A developer has released an open-source tool called claude-gpt that acts as a local proxy to redirect Claude Code requests to OpenAI's GPT models when Anthropic's usage limits are reached. The lightweight solution uses the ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL setting to intercept and translate Anthropic API calls into OpenAI-compatible formats, supporting tools, system prompts, and streaming. Users can switch between models on the fly using a /model command without restarting their workspace. The tool requires Node.js v18 or higher and is available on GitHub. Notably, its default mode taps into OpenAI's internal Codex backend, which the developer warns may risk account violations, though an official API-compliant option is also available.

MP hospital sends woman’s corpse home in garbage-collection vehicle: ‘No budget for hearse’

India beat Sri Lanka XI by 6 wickets in Colombo warm-up ahead of Galle Test

India wrapped up their pre-series warm-up match in Colombo with a six-wicket victory against a Sri Lanka XI. Captain Shubman Gill made a successful return to the crease, easing concerns about his fitness ahead of the Galle Test. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal batted fluently, while pacer Gurnoor Brar turned in a notably strong performance with the ball. The session also drew an unexpected visit from Sri Lanka head coach Gary Kirsten, adding intrigue to the build-up. The warm-up results have given the Indian camp several encouraging signs before the Test series begins.

Ancient Roman Shipwreck Found Off Sicily in Major Underwater Discovery

An ancient Roman shipwreck has been discovered off the coast of Sicily, Italy. The find has been hailed by Italy's culture minister as one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries in recent years. The shipwreck is located in the waters surrounding the island of Sicily. Authorities have not yet released full details about the vessel's age, cargo, or the circumstances of its sinking.

BCCI CoE flags IPL injury pressure on players

India's 'small' auto story may again hit the accelerator

Delhi Man Arrested After 8 Years for Eloping With Minor in 2018

A 32-year-old Delhi man has been arrested in connection with a rape case involving a minor. According to police, the accused allegedly eloped with the victim in 2018 when she was 16 years old. He reportedly claimed during interrogation that the two later got married. The arrest comes approximately eight years after the alleged incident took place.

Turbulence-hit AI flight pilot's dope test 'not negative, sent for confirmatory test'

Rahane saved Jaiswal from four-match ban during 2022 Duleep Trophy final

Ajinkya Rahane revealed how he intervened during the 2022 Duleep Trophy final to prevent Yashasvi Jaiswal from receiving a four-match ban by the match referee. Sensing the situation was getting out of hand, Rahane stepped in and took responsibility as the team captain. His timely action shielded Jaiswal's budding cricket career from a potentially damaging suspension. Jaiswal went on to deliver a match-winning performance in that very game. He subsequently made his debut for the Indian cricket team.

Gold and Silver Set for Gains as Inflation Data, Gulf Tensions Weigh In

Gold and silver prices are expected to hold firm in the coming week, driven by key economic and geopolitical factors. Investors will closely monitor inflation data from major economies alongside developments in West Asia. Chinese economic data is also anticipated to influence industrial metals trading. Analysts forecast a positive bias for both precious metals amid the uncertain environment. Elevated volatility is likely to persist due to the combination of macroeconomic releases and ongoing geopolitical tensions.

India, Russia to be linked by rail? Moscow floats proposal, calls it 'viable'

Netanyahu Rejects Trump's 15-Point Gaza Plan, Demands Full Hamas Disarmament

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a 15-point plan proposed by the Trump administration regarding the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is fully and genuinely disarmed. The rejection signals a disagreement between the longstanding allies over the terms for ending the Gaza war. Israel's position underscores its insistence on complete dismantlement of Hamas's military capabilities as a precondition for any pullout.

Why AI Agents Need Cryptographic Audit Trails, Not Just Logs

As AI agents move into production environments, standard logging tools prove insufficient for genuine auditability because traditional logs are mutable and can be silently altered by anyone with database access. True auditing requires capturing a full decision trail — including inputs, reasoning steps, tool calls, and outputs — tied to a specific execution session. A tamper-evident audit trail is built by cryptographically chaining each event using SHA-256 hashes linked to prior entries, so any alteration breaks the chain and is immediately detectable. Regulations such as the EU AI Act are elevating this from an engineering best practice to a legal traceability requirement with enforceable deadlines. Beyond compliance, a properly structured audit trail also enables teams to replay any failed agent run locally without incurring additional LLM inference costs.

Why Your RAG System's Default 512-Token Chunking Is Quietly Killing Retrieval Quality

Most retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems are configured on day one with a default fixed-size chunking setting — typically 512 tokens with 50-token overlap — and rarely revisited thereafter. This default approach creates predictable failure modes, including mid-sentence boundary cuts, section headers separated from their content, and tables split across fragments that lose critical context. According to a technical analysis published on DEV Community, chunking determines embedding fidelity, retrieval granularity, and generation context simultaneously, and poor chunking sets a hard ceiling on overall system quality that prompt tuning cannot overcome. The article outlines four production-grade strategies — structure-aware chunking, contextual enrichment, multi-granularity indexing, and document-type routing — as higher-impact alternatives to the fixed-size default. Improving chunking is argued to deliver greater retrieval quality gains than additional prompt engineering, often at lower operational cost.