Tuesday, April 8, 2025

US-China Trade War: Trump's Tariff Tsunami Sparks Meme Blizzard

The US-China trade war continues to escalate, with both countries imposing tariffs on each other's goods. In response to US President Donald Trump's tariffs, China announced a 34% levy on Washington, prompting Trump to threaten an additional 50% tariff, which would bring the total to 104% if imposed. Beijing has refused to back down, and the situation is heading towards an all-out trade war. The trade war has negatively affected both countries, with higher costs for manufacturers, increased prices for consumers, and financial difficulties for farmers. 

On social media, the US-China trade war has taken a humorous turn, with Chinese memes poking fun at Trump's tariffs while highlighting their own industrial prowess and economic growth. The trade war has sparked patriotic sentiment in China, with calls to "buy China" before expected price increases on American goods due to retaliatory tariffs. 

Meanwhile, angry investors have also taken to social media to mock Donald Trump's trade policies, which have wiped trillions off global stock markets. 

Here are some of them:

Notably, the trade war began in 2018, with Trump imposing tariffs on China to address intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices. China retaliated with its tariffs, and the situation has escalated ever since. The US has imposed around $350 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, while China has imposed approximately $100 billion on US exports.



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Two Nepali Mountaineers Swept Away By Avalanche On Mount Annapurna

Nepali mountaineers on Tuesday searched for two people swept away by a powerful avalanche on the world's 10th highest mountain Annapurna, officials said. 

The 8,091-metre (26,545-feet) Annapurna is a dangerous and difficult climb, and the avalanche-prone Himalayan peak has a higher death rate than Everest.

Three men were climbing the mountain as part of the first ascent of this spring season when a "huge avalanche swept down" around midday Monday, said expedition company Seven Summit Treks. 

The trio were ferrying oxygen cylinders used for the summit push for later climbers, when they were hit by huge blocks of snow. It swept away two climbers -- Ngima Tashi and Rima Rinje -- who work with Seven Summit Treks. 

"Our focus is on search and rescue... helicopters have also been deployed," Thaneswar Guragai from the company said Tuesday.

One of them managed to keep hold, the company said in a post. 

"We'll do our best to locate and rescue our men," the company said. 

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds typically calm.

Avalanches and landslides are common in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, especially during the winter season.

Scientists have said that climate change spurred by humans burning fossil fuels is making weather events more severe, super-charged by warmer oceans.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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Monday, April 7, 2025

Opinion: Upstarts Or Startups? Why India Needs To Separate Men From Boys

It is not a well-known yet an interesting fact that Vinod Khosla, often described as the hottest venture capitalist on the planet and a technology pioneer who was the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, had relocated to Delhi, the city he grew up in, around the mid-1990s to be closer to his parents, not far from IIT Delhi where he studied. But the Internet opportunity that followed saw him move back to Silicon Valley, where he remains a cutting-edge figure in areas like artificial intelligence (AI), medical technology and cryptocurrency.

My days tracking and meeting the man who now runs Khosla Ventures after leaving Kleiner Perkins, the VC firm that funded companies like Amazon and Google, came to mind last week as I heard the timely but controversial statement by India's commerce and industry minister at the 'Startup Mahakumbh' jamboree. "Are we going to be happy being delivery boys and girls... Is that the destiny of India? This is not a startup; this is entrepreneurship... What the other side is doing—robotics, machine learning, 3D manufacturing and next generation factories," Goyal said, showing a slide titled ‘India vs China. The Startup Reality Check'.

What To Learn From Khosla

The word ‘startup' is often used loosely, but ideally should refer to technology-driven companies that can grow big through innovations. My view is that cutting-edge entrepreneurship is more about adventurous ambition than just growth. People like Khosla have a mental streak that shows passion for novelty, not mere get-rich-quick ideas. We need more like him.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be the entrepreneurial plumbers and builders of new technologies as such, but there is more to the future than that. When technology companies like Infosys were built in the 1980s and 1990s, the word ‘startup' was not even in vogue. But then, it became the first Indian company to list on the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange in 1999.

A subsequent rush of VCs in India became less about technology and more about demographics. India's surging, increasingly affluent population and an Internet boom made VCs fuel a greed to build the so-called ‘unicorn' startups that commanded a valuation of a billion dollars or more - usually with an eye on IPOs.

A 'This Of That' Culture

What we had as a result was what tech investor Kashyap Deorah calls a "this of that" culture: Paytm became the PayPal of India, Flipkart was dubbed the Amazon of India, Swiggy and Zomato cloned Delivery Hero and Yelp with some tweaks. They mostly addressed a local market and built local brands, but not real intellectual property (IP) based on novelty on a global scale. That requires guts and an outlook of a different kind. Somewhere along the way, we started mistaking upstarts for startups. VCs and naive journalists fed into the hype.

The irony is that India has had real startups that are less celebrated. InMobi, a mobile ad platform that rivals Facebook-owner Meta, was hailed as India's first unicorn and is expected to have an IPO this year, nearly two decades into its existence. InMobi is the world's largest independent mobile ad network, engaging more than 750 million consumers across 165 countries. It is said to have turned down an acquisition offer from Google a decade ago.

I-flex solutions, built in the 1990s, was acquired by Oracle for close to a billion dollars. It was a cutting-edge banking software company with a global footprint. Chennai-centred productivity software company Zoho competes with Microsoft.

However, we are yet to produce a breathtaking product like Google. China is not quite there yet, either. But it is trying hard and big, as we have seen with the arrival of DeepSeek, a disruptive AI model.
India has had a long, credible history of nurturing research through the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and other state-run bodies that set the base for cutting-edge innovation. Even ISRO and the Defence Research and Development Organisation have made quiet innovations. What we lack is new-age thinking by entrepreneurs that goes from ambition to adventure and closer innovation links with these establishments.

When Steel Was Like AI

Let's now raise a toast to the memory of Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata, who dared to think of making steel in the middle of a rural jungle in a colonially oppressed country in 1907. For the India of those times, steel was like AI. Verghese Kurien built Amul in rural Anand when the word ‘startup' did not exist in the Indian lexicon. The kind of adventurous streak shown in those ventures is something current entrepreneurs could learn from. Patience, patents, and perseverance separate the men from the boys and women from the girls in a true startup universe. Not scale, speed and salesmanship.

But it must be admitted that risk appetite requires context. You have to feel comfortable enough not to confuse a gamble with entrepreneurial chutzpah. We also need to cut down on a dubious culture of startup wannabes wanting corporate freebies from the government - from land to capital to subsidies.
It is worthwhile to point to less-known Indian companies like Hyderabad-based MOSChip Technologies, which has been in the field of semiconductors without being part of the VC-fuelled unicorn hype. Electric car maker Reva, founded in Bangalore, is now part of the Mahindra group, and deserves praise for its early start and passion.

A few listed small-cap companies fall in that league. Intellect Design Arena and Nucleus Software have built products and intellectual property, but perhaps have not taken the big bets needed to capture glamorous headlines. They were never called startups but certainly were in the league when they started. 

Let Adventure Reign

What I would like to see is some of India's 200-plus US dollar billionaires throwing a hundred million dollars each at a patent-seeking team of cutting-edge innovators based on deep research. They all may not succeed or grow very big, but some will. Even more important in the current context is a sense of adventure that people like Vinod Khosla, rival Elon Musk, are famous for.

From AI to quantum computing to genomics, opportunities for discovery and invention are separate from those based on scale and speed. New discoveries are ushering in new opportunities. The minister's timing is just right. China's DeepSeek is best seen not as an inspiration but as a wake-up call. As a nation in which Jawaharlal Nehru nurtured research and development in a colonially battered, impoverished country, we have no excuses.

(Madhavan Narayanan is a senior editor, writer and columnist with more than 30 years of experience, having worked for Reuters, The Economic Times, Business Standard, and Hindustan Times after starting out in the Times of India Group.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author



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Why Saudi Arabia Temporarily Banned Visas For India, 13 Other Countries

With the Hajj pilgrimage around the corner, Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended the issuance of certain visas to citizens of 14 countries, including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The ban on Umrah, business and family visit visas will be effective till around mid-June, coinciding with the conclusion of the pilgrimage to Makkah.

The ban impacts 14 nations, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, Jordan, Algeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Yemen, and Morocco.

The step was reportedly taken to prevent individuals from trying to perform Hajj without proper registration. However, individuals holding Umrah visas can still enter Saudi Arabia until April 13, Pakistan's ARY reported, quoting Saudi authorities. 

The reports said the ban was necessitated as many foreign nationals have entered the country on Umrah or visit visas in the past and then overstayed illegally to participate in the Hajj without official authorization, leading to overcrowding and intense heat. In one such incident during the Hajj in 2024, at least 1,200 pilgrims were killed. 

The kingdom has a quota system, which allocates specific Hajj slots to each country to regulate the number of pilgrims. People participating illegally in the Hajj bypass this system. 

Another reason behind the move was illegal employment. Authorities said that foreigners, using business or family visas, engaged in unauthorized work in Saudi Arabia, violating visa rules and causing labor market disruptions.

The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has assured that the move has nothing to do with diplomatic concerns and was only taken as a logistical response to ensure a safer and better-organized pilgrimage. 

Reports said that authorities have asked the affected travelers to comply with the new rules, as individuals found violating the order may face a five-year restriction on future entries.

Meanwhile, diplomatic visas, residency permits, and visas particular to the Hajj remain unaffected by the move. The Hajj 2025 season is set for June 4-9.



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Vitamin D Not Only Builds Your Bones, Teeths, But Also Keeps Gut Sealed

You've likely heard about vitamin D's important role in maintaining strong bones and teeth. But it also plays several other important roles to keep your body healthy - including the function of your gut.

As part of our research on how a dietary fiber supplement affects bone mass in children and adolescents, the MetA-Bone Trial, we are also studying gut health.

For this study, we recruited 213 children and adolescents from South Florida, primarily Hispanics, though some were Black. Before having them start taking the fiber supplement, we measured their vitamin D levels to ensure they had adequate amounts. Surprisingly, we found that 68% of these children had suboptimal vitamin D levels.

Considering South Florida is an area with plenty of sunshine year-round, this was both startling and concerning. While vitamin D can be obtained from foods, most people in the US get this vitamin primarily from skin exposure to sunlight. For youth approaching or experiencing puberty - a period of profound physiological changes, including rapid changes in bone mass - vitamin D deficiency could lead to several health issues.

Connection between vitamin D and health

Vitamin D is involved in so many bodily functions because there are vitamin D receptors in different organs. These receptors act like docking stations for vitamin D to bind to and trigger different effects in the skin, intestine, bone, parathyroid gland, immune system and pancreas, among others.

Vitamin D regulates calcium levels in the body, which is key for not only building and maintaining bone mass but also the basic functioning of the nervous system.

Vitamin D also stimulates cell differentiation, a process in which cells become specialized to carry out specific functions. It is also essential to insulin secretion to control blood sugar levels, blood pressure regulation, muscle repair and regeneration, immune function and nutrient absorption, among many other functions.

Vitamin D and gut health

The vitamin D receptors in your gut improve calcium absorption and strengthen your intestinal barrier.

The intestinal barrier is a layered wall that allows your gut to absorb nutrients and keep out harmful bacteria. This wall is composed of intestinal cells and proteins called tight junctions that act like bricks sealing these cells together. Tight junctions play an important role in maintaining the structure of your intestinal barrier.

Vitamin D receptors help your gut produce tight junctions to maintain your intestinal barrier. Research suggests that vitamin D deficiency reduces production of the receptors the nutrient binds to, subsequently reducing the seal of the intestinal wall. This weakening of the gut barrier may allow substances from the intestine to pass into the blood, causing inflammation. Disruption of the intestinal barrier is linked to many diseases, including liver disease, Type 1 diabetes, obesity and gastrointestinal conditions such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer.

After discovering that so many of the participants in our MetA-Bone Trial had suboptimal vitamin D levels, we became interested in understanding how this nutrient might be affecting their gut health. For this, we also measured the strength of their intestinal barrier and associated this to their vitamin D levels in blood.

We found that children with suboptimal vitamin D levels had a higher risk of damaging their intestinal barrier compared with children with optimal vitamin D levels. This finding suggests that even in healthy children, suboptimal levels of vitamin D may compromise the gut and potentially increase the risk of developing chronic diseases at an early age.

Getting enough vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in the US and around the world. Roughly 15.4% of children and adolescents in the US were vitamin D deficient in 2017. While vitamin D deficiency has slightly decreased over time in the general US population, it remains high among teens, especially children with darker skin.

How can you ensure you are getting enough of this important nutrient?

Only a few foods naturally contain vitamin D. For example, vitamin D is naturally found in fatty fish - such as trout, salmon, cod and tuna - egg yolks and mushrooms. Vitamin D can also be found in many fortified foods, such as dairy products like milk and cheese, plant-based milks, breakfast cereals, some orange juice brands and infant formulas. Dietary supplements are also good sources of vitamin D.

For most people in the US, Sun exposure is their main source of vitamin D. However, how much Sun exposure you need depends on several factors, such as the melanin content of your skin. Melanin is a pigment that protects your skin from ultraviolet radiation. People with more melanin - and therefore darker skin - produce less vitamin D from Sun exposure than those with less melanin and may thus require longer Sun exposure to meet minimum requirements.

Since excessive ultraviolet radiation is associated with skin cancer, clinicians typically recommend you meet your vitamin D requirements through foods and beverages. For healthy children and adults, the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D is 600 IU, with an age-based upper limit of no more than 1,000 to 4,000 IU. You can usually meet this through a healthy diet that includes a variety of whole and unprocessed foods.

Researchers continue to uncover the extensive benefits of vitamin D in the body, supporting its indispensable role in nutrition and health. For growing children and adolescents, enough vitamin D is important for healthy development.The Conversation

(Author: Jacqueline Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition, Florida International University and Cristina Palacios, Professor and Chair of Dietetics and Nutrition, Florida International University)

(Disclaimer Statement: Jacqueline Hernandez receives funding from National Institute of Health and National Dairy Council

Cristina Palacios receives funding from the National Institute of Health, the World Health Organization, and the National Dairy Council)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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Sunday, April 6, 2025

Man, His Brother Kill Wife Over Affair, Remains Found In Garbage A Year Later

Police arrested a man and his brother on Saturday for allegedly killing his wife and burying her remains near a pile of garbage over a year ago, officials said.

Police have recovered the skeletal remains of Asifa (28), they said.

Circle Officer (CO) Bharat Sonkar said Asifa was married to Kamil and was reported missing by her brother.

Asifa's family complained that Kamil had not allowed them to speak to her for two years. Following this, a missing complaint was lodged by Asifa's mother at the Chandpur police station on March 26, the CO said.

Acting on suspicion police detained Kamil and his brother Adil for questioning.

During interrogation, Kamil revealed that he suspected Asifa of having an affair. "On November 23, 2023, he, with the help of his brother Adil and their aunt Chandni, strangled Asifa to death and subsequently buried her body," said the CO.

"On their identification on Saturday, Asifa's remains were recovered buried in the ground near a garbage heap near their house," the CO added.

"The duo have been put under arrest," he said.

The police have sent the remains for postmortem examination and are currently searching for the aunt, Chandni - who is on the run.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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Man Knocks On Woman's Door For Water, Then Raises TV Volume, Kills Her

A history sheeter was arrested for allegedly murdering a woman in Kalyan in Thane district in order to start a street food business, a police official said on Saturday.

On March 20, Ranjana Patekar (60) was found murdered in her Ambivali home, following which a probe began, he said.

"Our probe zeroed in on Akbar Muhammad Sheikh alias Chand (30). He had knocked on Patekar's door seeking water, then followed her inside when he realised she was alone and strangled the elderly woman after turning up the television volume. Chand fled with gold earrings worth Rs 1 lakh," the official said.

"He was released eight months ago from Adharwadi jail in connection with a case registered with Khadakpada police station. He was unemployed since then and wanted to start a street stall selling momos," Deputy Commissioner of Police Atul Zende said.

Chand was arrested on Friday from Atali area and the stolen jewellery was recovered from him, Khadakpada police station senior inspector Amarnath Waghmode said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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US-China Trade War: Trump's Tariff Tsunami Sparks Meme Blizzard

The US-China trade war continues to escalate, with both countries imposing tariffs on each other's goods. In response to US President Do...