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The Bharatiya Janata Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will contest the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections together, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced. The two parties had been allies in 2019 and 2021, but split in 2023.

Speaking in Chennai with AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami and outgoing BJP state president K Annamalai, Shah said the alliance will fight under Palaniswami’s leadership as part of the National Democratic Alliance.

“Now this alliance is going to be permanent,” Shah said. He added the AIADMK had made no demands for reviving the alliance. Shah also confirmed Nainar Nagenthiran as the new state BJP chief. Read on.

China on Friday said it will raise tariffs on all United States goods from 84% to 125% starting April 12, after Washington hiked duties on Chinese imports to 145%. The move signals a sharp escalation in the trade standoff between the two countries.

“The US imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China... is completely unilateral bullying and coercion,” China’s finance ministry said. Beijing also described the Trump administration’s tariff policy as a “joke”, and warned that it would “resolutely counterattack and fight to the end” if the US continued to violate its interests.

The authorities also moved to cut the number of American films screened in China, and warned citizens and students about travel to the US. Nearly $700 billion in goods are exchanged annually between the countries.

Trump on Wednesday increased tariffs on China by 125%, while reducing the duties on imports from other countries to 10% for 90 days, to provide time for trade negotiations. Read on.

Large US trade deficit isn’t the problem Trump claims it is – it’s actually a sign of strength

The Maharashtra Police has confirmed that over 60 Indians who were forced to work in cyber-scam call centres in Myanmar have been rescued. Five agents, including a Chinese-Kazakhstani citizen, have been arrested and three FIRs registered in the matter.

According to officials, the traffickers lured victims with fake job offers in Thailand, flew them in on tourist visas, and then smuggled them across the Thai-Myanmar border. “They were made to cross a river in small boats into Myanmar and then confined in heavily guarded compounds controlled by armed groups,” an unidentified officer told Mid-Day.

Inside, they were forced to sign year-long contracts and run online scams. In January, Scroll had reported on similar Chinese-led cybercrime rackets in Southeast Asia. Read on.

India’s cyber-scam epidemic is part of a multibillion global industry. This series traces a full arc

The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune has dropped several speakers from an event after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad alleged that they had links with the “tukde tukde gang”. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing claimed their statements ‘might cause law and order problems and they would try to divide the society on the basis of religion’.

The institute had organised a series of talks to celebrate BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. Several academicians, including Deepali Salve, Nazima Parveen and Smita M Patil, had been invited to speak about the dynamics of caste, economics and gender.

The ABVP objected to the invitations to speakers they claimed were “staunch Maoists”. It claimed that Ambedkar had opposed the ideology of the Left throughout his life.

The institute said it had decided not to host the speakers “to avoid controversy”. Read more.

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