Iran-US tensions LIVE: Trump vs Tehran war of words intensifies with US warships on standby

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 25, 2026 | general

Updated on: Jan 25, 2026 9:26:45 AM IST

Iran-US tensions LIVE: Iran warns US, Israel, says ‘finger on the trigger’ after Trump moves warships closer to Tehran

In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Gen Mohammad Pakpour warned the United States and Israel. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief,” Pakpour was quoted as saying by Nournews, a local news outlet.

‘Thank you’ note to India

Amid the standoff with Washington, Iran’s ambassador to India issued a rare public expression of gratitude to New Delhi over its vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Ambassador Mohammad Fathali said he was “sincerely grateful to the Government of India” for opposing what he described as an “unjust and politically motivated resolution” that sought increased scrutiny of Iran’s human rights record.

He called India’s vote a “principled and firm” stand, noting it came at a time of heightened Iran-US tensions and global focus on Iran’s handling of recent protests.

Follow all the updates here:

Jan 25, 2026 9:26:40 AM IST

Iran-US tensions LIVE: What Iran said after fresh US warning

Iran-US tensions LIVE: Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which played a key role in suppressing recent nationwide protests, said Saturday that it is “more ready than ever, finger on the trigger” as US warships head toward the Middle East.

Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported that commander Gen. Mohammad Pakpour warned the United States and Israel “to avoid any miscalculation.”

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief,” Nournews quoted Pakpour as saying.

Tensions remain high between Iran and the US following a bloody crackdown on protests that began on December 28, triggered by the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, and swept the country for about two weeks.

Jan 25, 2026 9:22:03 AM IST

Iran-US tensions LIVE: Trump issues fresh warning to Tehran, cites red lines

Iran-US tensions LIVE: US President Donald Trump has again issued a sharp warning to Iran, setting two clear red lines for the use of military force: the killing of peaceful demonstrators and the mass execution of people detained in recent protests.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran halted the execution of 800 detainees, though he has not provided a source for the figure. Iran’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, strongly denied the claim on Friday, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.

On Thursday, speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said the US was moving warships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.

“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” he added.

Jan 25, 2026 9:07:34 AM IST

Iran-US tensions LIVE: Trump warns US warships on standby | what we know so far

Iran-US tensions LIVE: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday said that American warships were being moved toward Iran “just in case” he decides to take action.

“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.

A US Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military movements, said the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, along with other accompanying warships, was operating in the Indian Ocean as of Thursday.

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Bangladesh out, Scotland in: As ICC draws a hard line, how walkovers in cricket changed a team’s fortunes

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 24, 2026 | general

Bangladesh being removed from the T20 World Cup 2026 is the ICC choosing certainty over negotiation – a reminder that global tournaments don’t run on sentiment, they run on compliance.

Bangladesh are not the first team that is not playing a tournament after being named for it. (AFP)

Cricket has been here before in different shapes: teams refusing to travel, boards pulling out, and administrators awarding points of reshaping groups to keep the event alive. The details change, but the ICC instinct doesn’t.

When World Cup turned into walkovers

The cleanest refusal to tour precedent sits in the 1996 ODI World Cup. Australia and West Indies did not travel to Sri Lanka on security grounds. The tournament didn’t bend the route map to rescue a fixture. Instead, Sri Lanka were awarded walkovers.

That decision mattered beyond a couple of empty matchdays. A walkover isn’t neutral. It changes arithmetic without cricket being played, warps the urgency of later matches, and quietly hands on side momentum – the kind that becomes priceless in a short league phase.

Then came 2003, when the World Cup again absorbed refusals without rewriting the entire field. England did not play in Zimbabwe. New Zealand did not travel to Kenya. The pattern held: no venue swap, no rescheduling drama – points were awarded and the tournament moved on.

The takeaway is blunt: cricket’s administrators will tolerate disruption at the match level if they can keep the tournament structure intact. One forfeited game is ugly, but it’s containable.

Withdrawal is different

There is a separate category that matters here: outright withdrawal before the event is properly underway, where the governing body’s job becomes plug the hole fast.

Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from the 2009 World T20, driven by the practical reality of visas, is a useful example of how quickly an ICC event can become administrative rather than sporting. In those moments, the conversation stops being about form, conditions, or even fairness – it becomes about feasibility. If a team can’t participate, the tournament doesn’t pause for therapy. It adapts.

Youth cricket has offered similar reminders. Australia pulling out of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh due to security concerns showed the same organising principle: even if the name is big, the event will go on. The governing body protects the tournament first, and the reputation management second.

Why this hits harder than a forfeit

A walkover punishes the fixture. A withdrawal creates a vacancy. But removal with replacement is the most aggressive outcome because it changes the competitive identity of the group.

A replacement side doesn’t just inherit a slot: it changes match-ups, alters the net run-rate ecosystem, shifts the pressure points of the group, and rewrites what qualification difficulty even means. A team built to counter Bangladesh’s strengths suddenly faces a different opponent profile. That is not just administration that is the tournament design being redrawn.

That is why this moment feels heavier than 1996 or 2003. Those World Cups accepted disruption while keeping the cast the same. This one, by definition, changes the cast.

The ICC’s real priority

World Cups are an ecosystem of contracts – broadcasters, sponsors, host cities, security plans, ticketing, travel windows, and the calendar itself. Once a tournament starts bending its spine to accommodate a refusal, it teaches every future dispute the same trick.

So ICC logic is often cold by necessity: keep the schedule stable, keep the group mechanics going, and crown a champion without the story being swallowed by absence. Cricket likes to run on tradition and continuity.

Other have done this dance, too

Cricket isn’t unique. Football has had high-profile and politically loaded no-shows, including qualifiers decided by walkovers when a team wouldn’t travel and wouldn’t play under the existing conditions. The governing bodies almost always take the same route ICC have taken: protect the competition’s spine, then argue about the moral framing later.

The Olympics are the extreme version – entire blocks have boycotted editions of the Games for geopolitical reasons. Those decisions didn’t just alter medal tables; they permanently stamped those events with asterisk in public memory. That is exactly what cricket’s administrators are trying to avoid when they act quickly and harshly: a World Cup remembered not for who won, not for who won, but for who didn’t turn up.

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Silver prices hit 0/ounce for the first time, gold nears 00 milestone

Silver prices hit $100/ounce for the first time, gold nears $5000 milestone

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 23, 2026 | general

Silver prices rose above $100 an ounce for the first time ever on Friday, while gold hit another record en route to $5,000/ounce as investors pile into safe-haven assets amid geopolitical turmoil and expectations for US interest rate cuts.

Spot silver jumped 4.5% to $100.49 an ounce by 1649 GMT. (Unsplash)

“Silver should continue to benefit from many of the same forces supporting gold demand,” said Philip Newman, a director at Metals Focus. “Additional support will come from ongoing tariff concerns and still low physical liquidity in the London market.”

“Traders pushed steadily for and achieved the milestone $100 print,” Tai Wong, an independent metals trader, told Reuters. “Investors will wait to see if it can sustain through close or will there be profit-taking from recent speculators.”

The metal has surged more than 200% in the past one year, driven by ongoing challenges in scaling up refining and persistent supply shortage.

Gold prices near $5,000/ounce

Spot gold was 0.8% higher at $4,976.49 an ounce, after touching a record of $4,988.17 earlier. The US gold futures for February delivery added 1.3% to $4,978.60.

“Gold’s role as a haven and a diversifier in highly uncertain economic and political times is making it a necessity for strategic portfolios,” Wong said. “It’s more than a perfect storm, which doesn’t last, it’s a sign of fundamentally changing times.”

Since the start of 2026, friction between the US and the NATO over Greenland, concerns about the Federal Reserve’s independence, and continued uncertainty over tariffs have driven a surge in demand for safe‑haven assets. Central bank buying and a broader move away from the dollar have also underpinned the bullion surge in the past one year.

On the US policy front, the Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady at its 27-28 January meeting, but markets still expect two further rate cuts in the second half of 2026.

As a non‑yielding asset, gold is often favoured during periods of low interest rates. Gold hit significant milestones like $3,000/ounce and $4,000/ounce for the first time last year in March and October respectively.

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Nearly 3,700 lives lost in road accidents in J&K since June 2022

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 23, 2026 | general

Nearly 3,700 people have died and over 29,000 others were injured in more than 20,000 road accidents across Jammu and Kashmir since June 2022, a senior government official said here on Thursday.

These details were shared during a meeting chaired by chief secretary Atal Dulloo to assess the implementation of road safety measures recommended by the Supreme Court. (ANI file photo)

The majority of these fatalities and accidents occurred on major highways in Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur and Rajouri districts, the official said.

These details were shared during a meeting chaired by chief secretary Atal Dulloo to assess the implementation of road safety measures recommended by the Supreme Court.

The chief secretary sought a detailed account of the status of compliance with Supreme Court directions and underscored the need for extensive use of GIS-based data to identify vulnerable and accident-prone areas.

Transport department secretary Avny Lavasa said since the operationalisation of the i-RAD portal in June 2022, a total of 20,135 road accidents involving 32,819 persons had been reported in J&K. These accidents resulted in 3,688 fatalities and 29,131 grievous or minor injuries too.

Data analysis revealed that most accidents took place between 3 pm and 9 pm, with rash driving and speeding accounting for nearly 50% of road mishaps reported during 2025.

The transport department also shared enforcement statistics, stating that 40,197 challans were issued in 2024 and 52,543 challans in 2025, amounting to fines of ₹10.15 crore and ₹15.88 crores, respectively.

Major violations included helmetless driving, driving without seat belts, use of mobile phone while driving, speeding and jumping of red lights. In 2025 alone, 1,528 vehicles were seized, 1,641 driving licences suspended, 10,439 vehicles blacklisted, 1,192 registration certificates cancelled, and 300 route permits revoked.

In this meeting, IGP (Traffic) M Suleman shared the functioning of surveillance cameras installed under the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) and traffic signal cameras under the Intelligent Light Traffic System (ILTS) at major junctions in Jammu and Srinagar.

He said the traffic police enforced 12,36,380 e-challans in 2023, 15,03,901 in 2024 and 14,92,591 in 2025, imposing fines of ₹85.16 crore, ₹120.09 crore and ₹145.12 crore, respectively. He added that 15,947 vehicles were seized during 2025 for various violations of the Motor Vehicles Act.

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iPhone users in India may soon tap to pay with Apple Pay

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 22, 2026 | general

Apple is reportedly preparing to bring its digital payments service, Apple Pay, to India before the end of 2026. The service, which already operates in 89 markets worldwide, allows iPhone and Apple Watch users to make tap-to-pay transactions at supported points of sale. Reports indicate that Apple is currently awaiting regulatory approval before initiating its rollout in the country.

Apple Pay is expected to launch in India by the end of 2026, enabling tap payments. (Pexels)

According to sources cited by Business Standard, Apple is working with banks, regulators and card networks to ensure compliance ahead of the launch. The initial focus will be on card-based contactless payments, while integration with India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is expected to come later due to regulatory complexities. Apple is also negotiating fee arrangements with card issuers and may not seek third-party UPI provider approval in the first phase.

Also read: iPhone 18 Pro series could keep centre stage despite design rumours

How Apple Pay Will Work in India

Once available, Apple Pay will allow Indian users to make NFC-based payments through their iPhone or Apple Watch at locations that accept contactless payments, such as retail stores, restaurants, fuel stations, and other service points. The service will also support payments within apps and online, wherever Apple Pay is accepted.

Also read: Do you really need three cameras on your phone? Many users don’t think so

Impact on the Digital Payments Market

The launch is likely to increase competition in India’s digital payments sector, where Samsung already provides a similar service through Samsung Wallet. Industry analysts suggest that Apple Pay’s entry could encourage wider adoption of contactless transactions across the country.

Globally, Apple Pay has partnered with more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions, along with over 20 local payment networks, to facilitate secure digital payments. The company emphasises convenience and security, with transactions verified using biometric authentication or passcodes on Apple devices.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra colour options leaked online, and it’s not ‘Orange’

As India continues to expand its digital payments ecosystem, Apple Pay’s launch is expected to complement existing mobile wallets and UPI services, offering users additional options for fast and secure transactions.

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After 3-year delay, heli-taxi services take off from Shimla’s Sanjauli

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 21, 2026 | general

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday inaugurated helicopter services from the Sanjauli heliport in Shimla, ending a three-year operational delay and marking a major expansion of the state’s aerial network.

Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu flagging off the helicopter services from the Sanjauli heliport in Shimla on Wednesday. (HT Photo)

The launch links the state capital with daily flights to Bhuntar in Kullu and the ITBP helipad at Reckong Peo in Kinnaur, while a tri-weekly service will connect Shimla to Chandigarh on Monday, Friday, and Saturday.

The operationalisation of the Sanjauli heliport is a significant development for Himachal Pradesh’s connectivity, which remains heavily dependent on narrow hill roads prone to seasonal landslides and snow blockages. Though the foundation stone for the ₹15.86-crore project was laid in 2017 and the structure was inaugurated in early 2022, the facility remained a white elephant for years due to the absence of mandatory clearances from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The present administration secured the final nod on August 7, 2025, after addressing security concerns raised by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

Under the Centre’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, fares have been capped to make air travel accessible. The Sanjauli-Chandigarh flight is priced at ₹3,169, while the routes to Kullu and Reckong Peo will cost ₹3,500 and ₹4,000, respectively.

The service is a joint venture where the Union civil aviation ministry bears 80% of the operational costs, with the state providing the remaining 20%. Heritage Aviation has been roped in for the internal state routes, while Pawan Hans Limited will manage the Chandigarh connection.

Sukhu said that the heliport’s location near the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC) makes it an asset for emergency medical evacuations. He announced that the network would soon expand to include Manali and Rampur after the DGCA approval.

The move is part of a larger policy shift aimed at making Himachal Pradesh a high-value tourism destination. At present, the state is investing ₹15 crore each into new heliports in Hamirpur, Kangra, and Chamba, all expected to be ready by April 2026.

In a swipe at his predecessors, the CM alleged that the previous BJP government had prioritised building construction over utility, claiming ₹1,000 crore was spent on structures that remain vacant. In contrast, he said, the new heli-taxi network is designed to generate direct employment for locals by drawing high-spending tourists to the hinterland.

Reacting to the CM, leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Jai Ram Thakur said: “The Sukhu government is only in a hurry to cut ribbons and is trying to deceive the public by re-inaugurating projects like the Sanjauli heliport, which were inaugurated in 2022 during the BJP’s tenure.”

State to formulate first Nutrition Policy: CM

The state government is set to formulate the first-ever nutrition policy for the state to ensure holistic benefits to the people, said CM Sukhu during a meeting of the health department on Wednesday.

He said that the state government was implementing several nutrition and food security programmes, including the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Mid-Day Meal Scheme and the Public Distribution System (PDS). In view of these initiatives, nutritional profiling was of paramount importance, which would help in creating awareness among people about nutrients, caloric value and food fortification parameters.

Taking wing

Route Frequency Fare (per passenger) Operator

Sanjauli – Chandigarh Monday, Friday, Saturday ₹3,169 Pawan Hans

Sanjauli – Bhuntar (Kullu) Daily ₹3,500 Heritage Aviation

Sanjauli – Reckong Peo Daily ₹4,000 Heritage Aviation

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