Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stated on Tuesday that the Supreme Court does not have the authority to determine who is a "true Indian" and asserted that Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has always shown respect for the Indian Armed Forces.

This comes a day after the apex court reprimanded Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on the Indian Army and his claim that over 2,000 sq km of the Indian territory had been occupied by China.

Referring to the Supreme Court's remarks, Priyanka Gandhi said, "With all due respect to the judiciary, it is not for them to determine who is a true Indian and who is not. The Justice will not decide that. Another thing is that Rahul Gandhi has always respected the Army and our soldiers. His respect towards the Army is clearly reflected in every statement and speech."

Even as districts in North Bengal are reeling under a prolonged spell of heavy showers, the Met office on Tuesday forecast heavy rains for several South Bengal districts as well for the next few days.

According to the Regional Meteorological Centre in Kolkata's Alipore, heavy rain will occur in South Bengal districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Bankura, and Murshidabad on Wednesday and Thursday.

"For the next six days, heavy to very heavy rain will continue in all districts of North Bengal. At the same time, heavy rain will occur in several South Bengal districts as well," said a Met department official.

Romania recorded 1,703 new cases of COVID-19 in July 2025, marking a 232 per cent increase compared to the previous month, according to data released by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP).

Of the total cases, 442 were reinfections, occurring more than 90 days after the initial diagnosis.

The INSP also reported seven COVID-19-related deaths in July, involving five men and two women. Four of the individuals were aged 70 to 79, and three were over 80. All had underlying health conditions.

Testing activity increased last month, with 860 RT-PCR tests and 14,750 rapid antigen tests performed, up 25.5 per cent from June. The overall positivity rate rose to 10.9 per cent, an increase of 6.8 percentage points.

Ongoing improvements in demand for the Indian services continued to support the growth of total new orders, international sales and output in the month of July, a report said on Tuesday.

At 60.5 in July, the seasonally adjusted Services PMI Business Activity Index was little-changed from 60.4 in June and, therefore, signalled another sharp increase in output, according to the HSBC India Services PMI for the month.

The rate of expansion was the best seen since August 2024, the report said.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that 29 people have lost their lives due to rain in Madhya Pradesh in the last week of July.

The Union Communications Minister said that during a survey conducted by the Madhya Pradesh government, it was found that Shivpuri had witnessed disasters due to floods, where 22 people died, while seven people lost their lives in Guna district.

He further stated that more than 3,000 people were rescued in Guna, Shivpuri, and Ashoknagar districts after 72 hours of rainfall caused floods in several areas.

"Armed forces, NDRF and SDRF teams have airlifted around 400 people and shifted them to relief camps, set up at multiple locations in Guna, Shivpuri and Ashoknagar districts," the Union Minister told media persons.

The daily unified payments interface (UPI)-based transactions have crossed 700 million for the first time, touching 707 million, according to the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data.

The feat was achieved on August 2. Over the past two years, the number of daily transactions has doubled, even though growth has slowed down in comparison to previous years.

In August 2023, UPI was registering around 350 million transactions a day, which increased to 500 million daily transactions in August 2024.

The government has set a goal of achieving 100 crore transactions per day for UPI, and the platform is projected to reach this target next year at the current growth rate.

The business model of UPI should reintroduce merchant discount rates (MDR) to attain a billion transactions by the next year, according to fintech companies and payment associations. They asked the government to establish a marginal MDR for major merchants and high-value transactions.

Following a healthy diet to lose weight? Make sure it's minimally processed, suggests a study, which showed that reducing processing could help to sustain a healthy weight.

In a first, researchers from the University College London (UCL) nutritionally matched minimally processed (MPF) and ultra-processed (UPF) diets.

The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed that participants lost twice as much weight eating minimally processed foods compared to ultra-processed foods.

“The primary outcome of the trial was to assess percentage changes in weight, and on both diets, we saw a significant reduction, but the effect was nearly double on the minimally processed diet,” said Dr Samuel Dicken, first author of the study from the UCL Centre for Obesity Research.

Klyuchevskoy volcano in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula ejected an ash plume reaching 7 kilometres above sea level on Tuesday, with the cloud drifting southeast toward the Pacific Ocean, local authorities reported.

"There are no settlements in the path of the ash cloud, and no ash fallout has been recorded in populated areas. No registered tourist groups are currently in the vicinity of the volcano," the Kamchatka branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said on its Telegram channel.

The volcano has been assigned an orange aviation colour code, indicating a high likelihood of ash emissions and potential hazards to aviation.

The eruption activity intensified on Monday, when the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences recorded four separate ash plumes from Klyuchevskoy, with the highest reaching 9 kilometres above sea level, reports news agency.

Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth talked about the surreal experience he had on performing alongside Grammy-winner Ed Sheeran in front of 70,000 fans after learning how to play the drums for his new series titled “Limitless: Live Better Now.”

The actor joined the singer on stage at a concert in Bucharest, Romania and recalled how he felt as if he was "floating" during the gig.

Speaking at a Q+A for the show, Hemsworth said: "(It was) very much a kind of out of body experience and there's something about being in unison and in time with, not just a band, but a mass group of people.