Latest Developments

Europe
BBC Business

Discord ordered to suspend livestreams in Brazil

Image source, GettyByLaura CressTechnology reporterPublished12 August 2026Brazil's data protection authority (ANPD) has ordered Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature after a teenage girl was allegedly encouraged to take her own life in a broadcast on the platform. The messaging service allows people to create and join groups based on their interests, with users able to enter voice or video calls in real time through Discord's "Go Live" feature. The investigation by the ANPD began on 7 August after the death of a 13-year-old girl, who was reportedly pressured to end her life by others in the Discord server - or group - she was in. Discord told the BBC it was "thoughtfully reviewing" the ANPD's order and is "committed to user safety". "Groups or individuals who promote or encourage violence have no place on Discord," a spokesperson said. "We swiftly investigated and shut down the private, invite-only server involved shortly after its creation and continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation." According to Reuters, external, the ANPD said it found Discord lacks ‌real-time ⁠access to livestream content, which prevents automated violation detection. The site, which can be accessed on desktop or as a mobile app, has over 200 million monthly active users, and is popular with gamers. Discord's spokesperson said in its investigation, evidence was found that the criminal activity "was coordinated on other platforms before the Discord server was created" as well as continuing "after the individuals involved were banned from Discord". Five teenagers have reportedly been arrested in connection to the teenage girl's death. Discord now has three days to comply with the suspension and can appeal the decision within 10 business days. The ANPD said the suspension will remain in place until Discord proves it has implemented "adequate protective measures for minors", which may include age verification checks.

Discord ordered to suspend livestreams in Brazil
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

Not just blue and yellow taxis: ComfortDelGro boss reshapes fleet to drive profit turnaround

ComfortDelGro group chief executive Cheng Siak Kian said the firm is accelerating the diversification of its offerings beyond taxis. SINGAPORE – Singaporeans may soon come to associate ComfortDelGro with more than its quintessential blue and yellow taxis, as the transport provider broadens its business by expanding its pool of private-hire drivers and diversifying its services. The firm has stepped up the transformation of its point-to-point taxi business by finding new ways to meet demand from consumers and businesses here and overseas, Cheng Siak Kian, group chief executive of ComfortDelGro, told The Straits Times in an exclusive interview on Aug 14. “The product that you will see is going to be beyond taxis,” said Cheng, who became CEO on Jan 1, 2023, after previously serving as the company’s group deputy CEO and CEO of bus and train operator SBS Transit, in which Comfort has a majority stake. “What Singaporeans associate with (ComfortDelGro) in terms of taxis, that’s only one product.” Cheng said customers could see shorter waiting times on its Zig app because its supply of drivers has grown. While ComfortDelGro’s local taxi fleet fell 5 per cent from around 8,000 in the first half of 2025 to 7,600 in the first half of 2026, its network of private-hire drivers, who can take on other jobs, grew by 27.9 per cent to over 4,000 over the same period. This came on the back of a shift in preference, with drivers increasingly wanting to lease a private-hire vehicle instead of a taxi. “We are happy to rent (out private-hire cars). What we really want is to meet the demand in Singapore, particularly during peak hours,” Cheng said. “The more supply you have, the more you are able to fulfil the jobs that you can get.” The firm has also started to offer larger taxis such as the Toyota Noah Hybrid 6-seater for those looking to travel in bigger groups. In addition, it is enhancing technology on its app to offer fares that are attractive to both drivers and customers. Cheng said the firm is also pivoting its point-to-point business to focus more on enterprise-level jobs, such as long-term contracts to take passengers with mobility challenges to appointments and sending children to school.

Not just blue and yellow taxis: ComfortDelGro boss reshapes fleet to drive profit turnaround
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Jharkhand job exam row: Students suspend protest, give government 2-month ultimatum

Successful JSSC-CGL candidates, appointed in various Jharkhand government departments, stage a protest as they block the main gate of the state secretariat, Project Bhawan, in Ranchi, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. Over 2,000 candidates who cleared the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level examination fear losing their jobs after the state government on Monday night announced cancelling the JSSC-CGL exam. | Photo Credit: PTI Students protesting against alleged irregularities in Jharkhand recruitment exams on Wednesday suspended their 26-day agitation and gave a 2-month ultimatum to the state government to resolve issues. The announcement comes a day after the JMM-led government issued notifications cancelling 22 recruitment exams and ordering a probe into 23 others conducted by the state public service commission and an outsourced agency since 2014. “We are now suspending the stir and giving a two-month ultimatum to the government to resolve the issues and conduct a fair probe into recruitment exam irregularities,” said a leader of the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch. The manch, which led the students’ agitation at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium here, said three protesters - Rupesh Kumar Pal, Savita Kumari, Rahul Kranti - ended their 15-day fast on Wednesday. Manch leader Ravindra Paswan said, “The 26-day protest by students forced J’khand government to cancel 22 recruitment exams and launch a probe into 23 others.” Spokesperson Piyush Kumar Singh said if issues remain unresolved, they would be forced to relaunch a massive agitation. Meanwhile, the cancellation of examinations triggered panic among candidates who successfully cleared these examinations and joined various government departments. Among the cancelled exams is the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission - Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination, prompting successful candidates to hit the streets. The decision, announced after a cabinet meeting on Monday and followed by eight notifications issued late Tuesday night, covers recruitment examinations for several key administrative, technical and judicial posts. JLKM leader Devendra Mahto, who ended a 16-day hunger strike following the government’s announcement, has said that he would soon launch a second phase of agitation. Mahto has demanded guarantees that future JPSC and JSSC examinations will be “free from paper leaks and other irregularities”, besides seeking a monitoring committee and a comprehensive audit of the recruitment process. The cancelled examinations include recruitment for drug inspectors, assistant professors in government engineering and medical colleges, lecturers in government polytechnics, senior scientific officers, assistant conservators of forests and forest range officers. The list of cancelled tests or examinations being probed also includes various editions of the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination, and tests for recruitment to food safety officers, child development project officers, food analysts, deputy director (prosecution), project managers, inspectors of factories and boilers, agriculture officers, geologists and chemists and other administrative and technical posts.

Jharkhand job exam row: Students suspend protest, give government 2-month ultimatum
North America
CNBC Finance

Cyclospora fears lead consumers to lose their appetite for salads

Warm weather usually drives salad sales, but consumers spooked by the ongoing cyclospora outbreaks are avoiding lettuce this summer. Traffic to Chopt Creative Salad Co. locations fell 24% on July 18, right after the Food and Drug Administration announced the outbreak, according to Placer.ai data. Sweetgreen on Thursday said consumer concerns about the outbreak had about a 6 percentage point impact on same-store sales in July, and the company cut its full-year outlook. And earlier this week, upstart chain Salad and Go filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed all of its locations, saying the cyclospora outbreak had exacerbated its existing business challenges. Grocery stores aren't immune either. Dollar sales of prepackaged salads plunged 14% during the four weeks ended July 25 compared with the year-ago period, according to NielsenIQ data. The FDA has pointed to iceberg lettuce processed in Taylor Farms' central Mexico facility as the likely culprit for the outbreak that has sickened at least 10,000 people. Taylor Farms has voluntarily recalled products supplied from that facility. Yum Brands' Taco Bell is the only national restaurant chain that has been linked to the multistate outbreak. It uses iceberg lettuce frequently across its menu, from its Crunchwrap Supreme to its Cheesy Gordita Crunches, but the chain isn't known for its salads. Taco Bell's sales and traffic to its restaurants initially tumbled after the FDA announcement, but Yum executives said in late July that business was already recovering. But the FDA is also tracking at least six other active outbreaks without a clear culprit; those outbreaks have significantly smaller number of reported cases. The long incubation period for cyclosporiasis makes it difficult to identify the contaminated ingredients. Cyclospora is a water-borne parasite. It typically spreads through contaminated produce, like lettuce, green onions, raspberries and fresh herbs. Although public health authorities seem to have pinpointed the source of the current outbreak, the FDA is advising consumers to take extra steps, like discarding outer layers of fruits and vegetables, to reduce risk of exposure. But many diners have gone further and chosen to avoid salads and greens altogether during the outbreak. Even Chipotle Mexican Grill has seen its sales dip. The burrito chain offers romaine lettuce as a topping and uses fresh cilantro across much of its menu, including its guacamole and salsas. "In the second half of July, we did see a softening, call it about 200 basis points or so, right around the issue that's affecting the industry around cyclospora," Chipotle CFO Adam Rymer said on the company's earnings call in late July. Chipotle has separately been in the news for recalling jalapeno peppers that were potentially contaminated with salmonella as part of a broader outbreak that has sickened at least 300 people. Sweetgreen and other restaurant chains swept up in the panic have had to implement strategies to reassure their customers.

Cyclospora fears lead consumers to lose their appetite for salads
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Railway projects worth ₹9,450 crore approved across West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved four projects of the Railway Ministry with a total cost of approximately Rs 9,450 crore. The projects include the construction of a fourth line between Kharagpur in West Bengal and Bhadrak (Ranital) in Odisha, covering 173 km, and a fourth line between Bhadrak and Haridaspur in Odisha, covering 75 km. They also include the laying of the third and fourth lines between Gummidipundi in Andhra Pradesh and Gudur in Tamil Nadu, covering 90 km, and between Cuttack and Paradeep (Badabandha) in Odisha, covering 72 km. These new projects, which will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by about 410 Kms, will cost about Rs. 9,450 crore with completion deadline up to 2030-31. “The increased line capacity will significantly enhance mobility, resulting in improved operational efficiency and service reliability for Indian Railways. These multi-tracking proposals are poised to streamline operations and alleviate congestion,” a press note from the Railway Ministry said. “The projects are in line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of a New India which will make people of the region “Atmanirbhar” by way of comprehensive development in the area which will enhance their employment/ self-employment opportunities,” it added. It stated that these projects will focus on enhancing multi-modal connectivity & logistic efficiency through integrated planning and stakeholder consultations offering seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods, and services. The four projects covering eight districts across the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh will enhance connectivity to approximately 6,448 villages, which are having a population of about 60 lakhs. “The proposed capacity enhancement will improve rail connectivity to several prominent tourist destinations across the country, including Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhitarkanika National Park, Maa Bhadrakali temple, Maa Dhamarai temple, Panchalingeswar Temple, Talsari–Udaypur and Chandipur Beach, Pulicat Lake, Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, Lord Veeraraghava Perumal Temple, Gada Kujanga Jagannath Temple, Sarala Temple, Dhabaleswar Temple, Lalitgiri (a Buddhist site), etc,” the Ministry said. Highlighting advantages to freight business, it stated that the proposed projects are essential routes for transportation of commodities such as coal, iron ore, cement, iron and steel, container, automobile, food grains, etc and the capacity augmentation works will result in additional freight traffic of magnitude 76 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum). “The Railways being an environment friendly and energy efficient mode of transportation, will help both in achieving climate goals and minimizing logistics cost of the country, reduce oil import (13 Crore Litres) and lower CO2 emissions (65 Crore Kg) which is equivalent to plantation of 2.60 crore trees,” the Ministry added. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

Railway projects worth ₹9,450 crore approved across West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Hyundai Motor India to raise car prices by up to 1% from September

Hyundai said ⁠it has been attempting to absorb cost increases and optimize expenses but is now passing ​on part of the ‌burden to customers through a marginal price revision. | Photo Credit: REUTERS Hyundai Motor India ​said on Wednesday it will increase vehicle ‌prices by up to 1% across ​its portfolio from September this ⁠year, with the extent of the hike varying by model and variant. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Hyundai Motor India to raise car prices by up to 1% from September
Europe
BBC Business

Tokenomics: Why making AI pay is tricky

If you have used a free version of ChatGPT or any of its AI rivals, then you are obviously getting a good deal. Firms like Microsoft, Google and Anthropic have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in developing Large Language Models (LLMs) the tech behind those services. So getting ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to help with your speech or holiday plans is a bargain. But, naturally, those firms want to recoup their investment, so they offer paid-for versions of their AI, which have extra features for tasks like coding or billing. Meanwhile, third party firms are building and selling services based on AI agents, usually based on an LLM, which are trained to do specific tasks. "Trying to tie someone into a cost model for the next 12 months, two years, three years, it doesn't make any sense, honestly, because we don't know," says Simon Gooch at Saviynt, an identity management company which is incorporating agentic AI into its services. That's because of rapidly changing economics around tokens, the building blocks of LLMs and agentic AI. When a user asks an LLM, like ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude to answer a question, generate software code, or automate a process, that prompt is broken down into mathematical chunks called tokens, which can be processed by the model. The LLM's response also comes in the form of tokens, which are converted back into text, software code, or a set of commands to automate a process. Subtle variations in the prompt can produce different answers. The same prompt will not always produce the same answer. Different models will produce different answers. Meanwhile, in agentic systems, businesses use multiple AI agents together to make decisions and take actions, further increasing both token use and unpredictability. While the cost of individual tokens – or the credits used to pay for them - has plummeted in recent years, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs, the number of tokens consumed by businesses, and consumers, has skyrocketed.

Tokenomics: Why making AI pay is tricky
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

IndiGo website hit by technical issue, flight bookings disrupted

India’s largest airline IndiGo said on Wednesday it was experiencing intermittent issues with its core reservation ‌platform, as some customers faced problems booking tickets and checking-in online. The airline, which controls more ‌than 65% of India’s domestic aviation market, said in ‌a ⁠post on X that its teams were ⁠working with a partner to fix the issue as soon as possible. It did not identify the partner or say what had caused ​the disruption. Reuters journalists in at ‌least three Indian cities were unable to book tickets through the IndiGo website, which displayed a “no data available” message when they searched for flights. Service AdvisoryWe are currently experiencing intermittent issues with our core reservation platform, which may make it difficult for some customers to access our online services.Our teams are working on priority, with our partner, to fix the issue as soon as possible.… Another travel booking website ‌said “the airline systems are currently experiencing a technical problem. ​Please try again in a short while”, when Reuters tried to book a ticket. Several people ⁠complained to the airline on X that they were unable to book flights or complete online check-in. One user ‌said on X that he had been unable to complete web check-in since Wednesday morning on both the IndiGo website and its app, and that a customer care executive was also unable to assist because of apparent server issues. IndiGo advised customers requiring immediate travel assistance to ‌contact its call centre, while those travelling later were asked to ​try the website or app again after some time. The ministry of civil aviation did not ⁠respond to an email seeking comment. The airline came under sharp ⁠scrutiny in December after poor pilot roster planning forced it to cancel around 4,500 flights, stranding tens ‌of thousands of passengers and disrupting travel across India, in the worst such aviation crisis in India ​in years. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

IndiGo website hit by technical issue, flight bookings disrupted
Europe
BBC Business

Spotify to add label for AI-generated artists and remove them from recommendations

Spotify is introducing a new feature that will highlight if an artist has been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The streaming service says the AI Persona badge, that will start appearing on some profiles from mid-September, will flag to listeners if an "artist's identity may be AI-generated and does not represent a real person". The changes are being introduced to give listeners "more transparency" about what they're hearing, Spotify says. It comes after some music fans made it "clear" to the streamer they don't like seeing a profile that seems to be a human, to then realise it's AI-generated. The BBC previously heard from one frustrated listener, who, after finding his playlists increasingly sprinkled with tracks he suspected were AI-generated, built a tool to automatically label and block them. Announcing the change, external, Spotify says "true artist-fan connection can only be built on a foundation of trust and authenticity". "In music, that means listeners need to be able to trust that the artist behind the music is who they say they are," it adds. The badge will appear on the banner and about section of artist profiles, as well as a note when they come up in searches and on tracks in playlists. Artists with the badge will not appear in users' personalised recommendations unless they already follow them, Spotify says. The streamer also says the badge will relate to the "artist's public identity" and not about "how the music was made", acknowledging that AI tools are being used in some human music creation now. Musicians can currently be transparent about the AI tools they've used when making their tracks through the AI Credits feature, with Spotify saying they get tens of thousands of submissions for this daily. Spotify hopes AI profiles will self-disclose in the same way, but it will also be reviewing accounts which appear to meet the criteria.

Spotify to add label for AI-generated artists and remove them from recommendations