India stated that the characterisation of the trade discussions between New Delhi and Washington by United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a podcast was “not accurate”. Lutnick had claimed that the proposed trade deal between India and the US did not materialise because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump.

He claimed that India was “uncomfortable” with Modi calling Trump to finalise the deal, and so the US moved on and concluded trade deals with other countries. Lutnick said that the conditions under which India and the US had earlier appeared close to finalising a deal were no longer available.

Responding to this, India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated that New Delhi and Washington have held multiple rounds of negotiation “to arrive at a balanced and mutually-beneficial” trade deal. “Incidentally, prime minister [Modi] and President Trump have also spoken on phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” said ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. Read on.

Responding to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani writing a note to jailed activist Umar Khalid in December, the Indian government said that public representatives are expected to respect the independence of the judiciary in other democracies. “Expressing personal prejudices do not behove those in office,” said Jaiswal.

Mamdani had written a note to Khalid, saying that he often thought about the activist’s words on bitterness and the “importance of not letting it consume one’s self”. “We are all thinking of you,” the note added. Read on.

Ramachandra Guha: In praise of Dr Umar Khalid, from one historian to another

The Delhi Police detained several MPs of the Trinamool Congress while they were protesting outside the office of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The MPs were protesting against what the party alleges were illegal searches by the Enforcement Directorate at several locations in West Bengal, including the office of political consultancy I-PAC.

They were released later. I-PAC has managed the Trinamool Congress’ election campaigns, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.

The party said that the action against its MPs was “undemocratic, unconstitutional, shameful”. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had claimed that the ED officials, during the searches, were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly polls. Read on.

Social media platform X appeared to have limited the image-generation feature of the company’s artificial intelligence application Grok to subscribers. This came after the tool drew condemnation for creating non-consensual sexually explicit photos.

Grok had allowed requests by users to digitally manipulate photos of real persons – mostly women – by undressing them and sexualising their images without their consent. The change limiting the use of the feature to subscribers came after the United Kingdom government on Friday asked regulator Ofcom to use its powers, including an effective ban, against the social media platform.

However, the standalone Grok app was still allowing users to generate such images without subscribing. The Indian government had on January 2 directed X to remove sexually explicit content generated by Grok. Read on.

A Delhi court on Friday framed charges against Bihar’s former Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land-for-jobs scam. Charges were also framed against his son and party leader Tejashwi Yadav.

A total of 103 persons had been named as accused in the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation, of which five have died. Of the remaining 98, the court discharged 52. Read on.

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