Good morning. It is the start of a new week, and a tense one in more ways than one, from stand-offs on the streets to fresh escalations far from home. Boardrooms have their own busy week ahead too, in that quiet, procedural way earnings season always brings. Here is what is worth your time today.
In today's newsletter: a court showdown over Sonam Wangchuk's hunger strike as Parliament's Monsoon Session opens, Russia's biggest strike yet on Kyiv, and Google and Apple's clash with Brussels over the future of AI assistants.
Earnings season swells. More than 250 companies report June-quarter results this week, including Infosys, IndiGo, Paytm, Bajaj Auto and Adani Power, giving the clearest picture yet of how corporate India's first quarter actually went. |
Android opens up. Rival app stores go live inside Google's Play Store in the US from July 22, after Google and Epic Games abandoned a proposed settlement and let a 2024 antitrust injunction take effect. |
India tours Zimbabwe. India's white-ball season continues with a three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe beginning July 23 in Harare. |
Court Denies Wangchuk's Release From Hospital as Monsoon Session Opens Under Heavy Guard
A Delhi court on Sunday rejected a petition from Sonam Wangchuk's wife to release him from a New Delhi hospital, where police forcibly admitted him a day earlier after 20 days on hunger strike. The 59-year-old education and Ladakh rights activist had been fasting at Jantar Mantar to demand Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over alleged irregularities in India's exam system, including the NEET paper leak.
The protest, organised by a youth movement calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, has become a flashpoint just as Parliament's Monsoon Session opens today. Delhi Police have denied permission for a planned "Chalo Sansad" march to Parliament and imposed prohibitory orders across the New Delhi district, with barricades and additional security deployed ahead of a session that already promises to be combative.
The name Cockroach Janta Party is a pointed dig at a Supreme Court judge's remark linking unemployed graduates to cockroaches, and it captures a wider mood: a generation of students and job-seekers who feel every institution meant to test them fairly, from entrance exams to hiring, has let them down. Wangchuk's involvement signals how far that anger now reaches beyond any single issue.
This is Wangchuk's first major hunger strike that has nothing to do with Ladakh, the cause that has defined nearly every fast he has undertaken since 2019. That he chose exam reform as the fight worth being hospitalised over says something about how central the jobs and testing crisis has become to India's youth politics, well beyond the Union Territory he has spent years championing.
Russia Unleashes One of Its Biggest Strikes Yet on Kyiv, Killing at Least 21
Russia fired dozens of ballistic missiles and more than a hundred drones at Kyiv overnight, in what officials called one of the biggest attacks of the war, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens more. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said most of the missiles were aimed at the capital, and the barrage sparked fires across five city districts, damaging homes, a dormitory and industrial sites.
Ukrainian air defences intercepted most of the assault, but 25 ballistic missiles were among the more than 160 munitions launched, renewing questions about how much longer Kyiv's dwindling supply of Patriot interceptors can hold out. Moscow's defence ministry said the strikes targeted factories linked to Ukraine's drone and missile production, a claim Kyiv disputes given the residential damage.
Google and Apple Draw Battle Lines With Brussels Over AI Assistants
The European Commission has formally ordered Google to give rival AI assistants the same access to Android features that its own Gemini enjoys, giving the company until 2027 to comply under the bloc's Digital Markets Act. Apple, facing a similar interoperability push, has said it will not launch its new Siri AI assistant in the European Union at all rather than open the iPhone to competing assistants on Brussels' terms.
Both companies say the rules risk user privacy and security, but critics say the fight is really about who controls the next interface between people and their phones, now that AI assistants rather than app icons are becoming the front door to everything else. For a market the size of the EU, that is a precedent every other regulator, India's included, will be watching.
Breaking.exe
AI sales tool funded. Bengaluru's Reo.Dev raised $11.3 million in a Series A led by Elevation Capital for its AI tool that helps software companies find and pitch engineering teams, taking its total funding to $15.3 million in under a year. |
Wealth manager cashes up. Neo Group raised Rs 350 crore from Peak XV Partners, its second big raise this year, as the wealth and asset manager builds out technology for a business that already oversees roughly Rs 1.3 lakh crore in client assets. |
Laundry goes automated. Laundry-tech startup Quick Clean raised $14 million in a Series B led by Stakeboat Capital to expand its AI-driven laundry operations and push into international markets. |
Pangaea Revisited
Iran war widens further. A US strike hit Iran's unfinished Darkhovin nuclear plant as Tehran's retaliatory strikes on Jordan killed two American service members and left a third missing, the first US military fatalities from Iranian fire since March. |
Peru quake kills six. A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck Peru's Andes region, killing at least six people, injuring more than 30 and collapsing a colonial-era church dating to 1565. |
US midterm gap narrows. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll shows Democrats holding only a slim lead over Republicans in the race for control of the US House, with Republicans significantly outspending Democrats on immigration-focused advertising ahead of November's midterms. |
Also, Also, Also
Spain's second star. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win the 2026 World Cup, with substitute Ferran Torres scoring the winner and denying Lionel Messi a second title. |
England win Lord's decider. England beat India by 27 runs in a run-fest decider at Lord's to clinch the three-match contest 2-1, with twin masterclasses from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli falling agonisingly short of a record chase. |
Mumbai on red alert. The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for Mumbai and the Konkan coast, warning of extremely heavy rainfall, flooding and landslide risk through the week. |