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Report: Tesla will roll out Bay Area roboticaxis with safety driver
Business Insider reported Friday that Tesla was preparing to launch its robotaxi service with a safety-driver in San Francisco and Bay Area as early as this weekend. The company is trying to expand rapidly amid falling sales of electric vehicles. Tesla shares were up by nearly 5% on Friday morning. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk warned that the robotaxi service would be a challenge for a while due to the unfavorable policy towards electric vehicles. However, revenue from this service and the software will start making a difference by the end of next year. The company conducted a small robotaxi test in Austin, Texas last month. It used about a dozen Model Y SUVs with a few passengers, and placed human safety monitors on the front passenger seat. Musk did not reveal during Tesla's earnings call Wednesday when safety monitors will be removed. These are expensive for Tesla. The report cited an internal memo to say that the robotaxis planned for the Bay Area would have humans driving the vehicle. They will be able control it using the steering and brakes. It added that the robotaxi service would ferry Tesla owners who have been invited to pay a fee in a restricted region covering the Bay Area. This area included Marin, San Francisco, the East Bay and a stretch southwards up to San Jose. Musk said earlier this month that Tesla would expand into the Bay Area in "a month or two," pending regulatory approvals. California regulators who failed to respond to Friday's requests for comments Tesla said that it had not yet submitted the permits required to charge and pick up passengers in its fully autonomous vehicles. Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has shifted the company's focus to robots and self driving taxis after sales of its old EV line plummeted. This bet is a big part of Tesla's trillion dollar valuation. The Information also reported that Tesla was well behind schedule in meeting Musk's goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus robots by the end of this year. Tesla has only produced a few hundreds of them. Tesla has not responded to any requests for comment about the Business Insider and Information stories. Musk announced during the earnings call of this week that Tesla has received regulatory approval to launch robotaxis across several states including California, Nevada Arizona and Florida. California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) permits are required for companies to test and deploy self-driving vehicles in California. Tesla faces regulatory hurdles as it seeks to gain the confidence of safety officials prior to launching its fully autonomous services. (Reporting from Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru, and Abhirup Ro in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Harshita Varghese. Editing by Tasim Zahid and Arun Koyyur.
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Sources say that Russia's daily oil exports to its western ports will drop by 8% in August.
Calculations based on two sources indicate that Russia's daily oil output from its western ports is expected to drop from the 1.93 million barrels per days (bpd), which was planned for July, due to an increase in refinery operations. In August, daily oil loadings in Russia from Primorsk and Novorossiisk, as well as from Kazakhstan's KEBCO, and Siberian Light grades of oil will be down 8% from this month. According to calculations based upon data from industry sources, Russia's offline primary refining capacity will drop from 4 million to 3.74 million metric tonnes (about 27.4 millions barrels) in August. The data are provisional, and will be updated at the end of each month. The Russian oil companies will have less crude oil to export due to higher refinery runs. Last week, the European Union approved an 18th package against Russia for the conflict in Ukraine. The measures included measures to deal further blows with the Russian oil industry and energy sector, such as a moving price limit on Russian crude. Russia has managed to sell the majority of its oil, the lifeblood of the state finances, above the previous price limit as the current mechanism is unclear about who will be policing its implementation. Russian government and trade sources downplayed the impact of new sanctions on trade in Russian crude. (Reporting and Editing by Louise Heavens).
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Meta will stop political advertising in the EU by October, blaming EU rules
Meta Platforms, the U.S.-based social media company, announced on Friday that it will stop political, election, and social issue ads on its platform within the EU by early October. The social media firm blamed legal uncertainty due to the new EU rules regarding political advertising. Meta's announcement is similar to the decision made by Alphabet's Google unit in November last year, highlighting Big Tech's resistance against EU regulations aimed at reining them in and making them more accountable and transparent. Concerns about disinformation and foreign influence in elections throughout the 27-country EU, which prompted the legislation called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation and will be applicable from 10 October, were the catalyst for the European Union legislation. The law requires that Big Tech companies clearly label their political advertising, including who paid for it, how much and which elections were targeted. Otherwise, they could be fined up to 6% their annual revenue. Meta wrote in a post on her blog that "from early October 2025 we will no longer be allowing political, electoral, and social issue advertisements on our platforms within the EU." It said: "This is a hard decision - one that we have taken as a response to the EU’s upcoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation (TTPA), which introduces significant legal and operational uncertainties." Meta stated that the EU regulations would eventually hurt Europeans. It said: "We think that personalized ads are crucial for a broad range of advertisers, such as those who engage in campaigns to inform voters on important social issues which shape public discourse." "Regulations like the TTPA significantly undercut our ability to provide these services. They not only affect the effectiveness of advertising outreach, but also impact the ability of voters access comprehensive information." The European Commission is currently investigating Meta's Facebook, Instagram and their alleged failure to combat disinformation and deceptive advertisements in the lead-up to 2024 European Parliament Elections. The EU investigation is being conducted under the Digital Services Act which mandates that Big Tech do more to combat illegal and harmful content or face fines up to 6% of global annual revenue. ByteDance TikTok, the app developed by ByteDance, is also under the EU's glare for its alleged failure to combat election interference. This was particularly true in the Romanian Presidential vote in November last year. Reporting by Foo Yon Chee. Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout. Mark Potter (Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout)
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Cleo Laine died at the age of 97. She was a British jazz singer and performed with Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.
William Schomberg LONDON, JULY 25, 2025: British jazz singer Cleo laine, who sang with Frank Sinatra, and was an actor on Broadway and in London's West End, died at the age of 97. The Guardian reported this on Friday, citing her children Jacqui, and Alec. She was born in 1927 to an English mother, and a Jamaican dad, in a London suburb. At first, she worked as a librarian, hat-trimmer, and hairdresser. She was married in 1946, and gave birth to a son when she was still a teenager. She divorced at 24, but her desire to become a singer drove her on. In 1951, she got her big break when she joined John Dankworth's band, an English saxophonist/clarinettist. Dankworth's Band decided that her name was just too long. At the time, she believed she had been Clementine Campbell. However, a passport application revealed later that her mother used her surname Hitching in the birth certificate. They thought that Clem's nickname was too cowboyish for her to be on a poster. The men of the Dankworth Seven band decided to give her a new stage name by drawing "Cleo", "Laine", and "Cleo" on hats. She and Dankworth were married in 1958. Their home became a magnet to London's jazz scene: their friends included stars such as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Dizzy Gillespie. Laine, who had been singing and acting in Britain since the 1960s toured Australia and New York in 1972. A recording of another show at Carnegie Hall won her a Grammy. Ray Charles recorded "Porgy and Bess". She appeared in a series at London's Royal Albert Hall with Frank Sinatra, but was better known for her work as a member of Dankworth's band. Later, he became her musical advisor. They built an auditorium on the grounds of their house near London. Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II and the late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late queen Elizabeth II was a friend of theirs. The couple's two children became musicians. Dankworth, who Laine said was "joined by the hip" to her, died in 2010. Laine announced the news of her husband's death only hours after it happened. She performed in the auditorium. (Editing by Andrew Heavens & Olivier Holmey).
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Ukraine claims Starlink's global outage has affected its military communications
A senior commander reported that Starlink systems, used by Ukrainian military forces, were offline for 2 and a half hour overnight. This was part of an issue that affected satellite internet providers worldwide. Ukraine's military forces heavily rely on SpaceX's Starlink Terminals for battlefield communication and drone operations. They have proven resistant to signal jamming and espionage throughout the three-and-a half year war against Russia's invasion. Starlink suffered one of its largest international outages Thursday, when a software malfunction knocked down tens and thousands of users. Robert Brovdi wrote in Telegram on Thursday at 10:41 pm (1941 GMT), the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces. Starlink, a company with more than 6,000,000 users in 140 countries, acknowledged the outage and stated that "we are actively implementing a fix." Brovdi later updated his post to state that the problem had been resolved by 1:05 am on Friday. He said that the incident highlighted the danger of relying on systems and called for a diversification in communication and connectivity methods. Brovdi wrote: "Combat missions are performed without (video) feeds, and battlefield reconnaissance is done by strike (drones)." Unidentified, to discuss sensitive issues, a Ukrainian drone commander said that his unit was forced to postpone a number of combat operations due to the outage. Oleksandr Dimitriev, founder of OCHI (a Ukrainian system which centralises feeds of thousands of drone crews on the frontline), said the outage demonstrated that relying upon cloud services for commanding units and relaying battlefield drone reconnaissance is a "huge danger". He called for local communication systems not dependent on the internet. According to a report on Friday, Starlink owner Elon Musk had issued an order to cut Starlink service in certain areas in Ukraine in 2022 as Ukrainian forces waged a counteroffensive against Russia to reclaim occupied territory. According to posts on social media by the Ukrainian government, Kyiv will have received more than 50 000 Starlink terminals as of April 2025. Starlink is not available in Russia but Ukrainian officials claim that Moscow's troops use the system extensively on the frontlines of Ukraine. Starlink Vice President Michael Nicolls said on X that the outage was caused by a failure of internal software services which operate the core network. He apologized for the disruption and promised to investigate its cause. (Reporting and editing by Frances Kerry, Philippa Fletcher, and Max Hunder)
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Finance Minister: Brazil will present Lula with a credit-based response if the US tariffs increase.
Fernando Haddad, Brazilian Finance Minister, said that a contingency response plan to the higher U.S. Tariffs would be presented to Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva on Monday. The contingency will include measures such as credit lines. Haddad, in an interview with the local radio station Itatiaia said that 10,000 Brazilian companies may be affected by the increased levies of Brazilian goods from 10% to 50%. Take effect August 1, The Minister stressed that Brazil is open to dialogue, but suggested that U.S. president Donald Trump was not. You can also find out more about To engage in negotiation. He said that political forces aligned to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro We are trying to stop any talks being started. Bolsonaro, a far-right ally to Trump, is accused of planning a coup in order to reverse his narrow loss of the 2022 elections to Lula. Trump denounced this case as "a witch hunt" and asked Brazil's judiciary not to pursue the charges. He did so in a letter that announced the higher tariffs for Brazil. The son of the former President, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro is now living in the United States and has posted on social media about his meetings with Trump's allies. Haddad, without naming Bolsonaro Junior, said that he believed these ties, as well as opposition to Brazil's widely-used instant payment system Pix were factors behind the U.S. ruling. Lula had said earlier on Thursday at a public gathering that the U.S. Government was "afraid of Pix" because it threatened credit cards. In a recent U.S. report, the system was listed as an unfair trade practice. investigation Haddad stated that Pix is a valuable technology developed in Brazil and undermines those who profit from financial intermediation. (Reporting and editing by David Gregorio; Marcela Ayres)
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Alphabet lifts the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Nasdaq to record closings
S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones closed at record highs on Thursday. Alphabet's strong results fueled optimism for other artificial intelligence heavyweights. Tesla fell after disappointing results. Alphabet's stock rose 1% after the search giant announced its results, which boosted investor confidence that their heavy investment to dominate AI technology was paying off. Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon all saw their shares rise by 1% or higher. Wall Street also saw gains due to the U.S. Japan trade agreement and recent progress in negotiations with the European Union. Sam Stovall is the chief investment strategist of CFRA Research. He said that investors are optimistic about the trade negotiations, the economy, inflation trends, and the Q2 earnings report, which was better than expected. Tesla fell 8.2%, after Elon Musk warned that the U.S. Government would cut support for electric car makers. Stocks have fallen by around 25% in 2025. UnitedHealth's stock fell by 4.8% following the insurer's announcement that it would cooperate with a Department of Justice investigation into its Medicare practices. This followed reports of criminal and civil investigations. IBM's stock dropped by almost 8% as its disappointing second-quarter sales in its software division weighed on investors. Honeywell's stock fell 6.2%, despite exceeding Wall Street expectations and raising their annual outlook. The S&P500 climbed 0.07%, ending the session at 6,363.35 point. The Nasdaq rose 0.18% to 21,057.96, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.70% to 42,693.91. The volume on the U.S. exchanges is relatively high, with 19,9 billion shares trading, compared to a 17 billion share average over the last 20 sessions. Consumer discretionary led the declines, with a drop of 1.23%. Materials followed, with a loss of 0.75%. American Airlines' stock dropped nearly 10% following the carrier's forecast of a large third-quarter loss. The airline was hurt by weak domestic travel demand. The biggest uncertainty in the airline industry has been created by President Donald Trump's trade war with other countries. The markets were also watching Trump's planned Thursday visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters, after months of Trump criticizing Fed chair Jerome Powell over interest rates he views as being too high. According to CME's FedWatch, with the Fed widely anticipated to keep rates unchanged at its meeting next week, traders expect a 60% probability of a rate cut in September. The U.S. Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell last week to 217,000, well below the estimates. This indicates continued resilience on the job market. The U.S. economy gained momentum in July. However, companies raised prices for goods and services. This fueled economists' expectations of higher inflation in the months to come, driven primarily by increasing import tariffs. The S&P 500 saw a ratio of 1.3 to one between declining stocks and rising ones. The S&P 500 recorded 46 new highs, and 6 new lowers. The Nasdaq registered 81 highs, and 44 lows.
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Alphabet lifts the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Nasdaq to record closings
S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones closed at record highs on Thursday. Alphabet's strong results fueled optimism for other artificial intelligence heavyweights. Tesla fell after disappointing results. Alphabet rose after the results of the search giant boosted confidence in heavy investments made to dominate AI technology. Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon shares also rose. Wall Street also saw gains due to the U.S. Japan trade agreement and recent progress in negotiations with the European Union. Sam Stovall is the chief investment strategist of CFRA Research. He said that investors are optimistic about trade agreements, the economy, inflation trends, and the Q2 earnings report, which was better than expected. Tesla fell after Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, warned that the company would face "a few rough patches" due to a reduction in support from the U.S. Government for electric car makers. Stocks have fallen by around 25% in 2025. UnitedHealth's stock fell after it revealed that the insurer was cooperating in a Department of Justice investigation into its Medicare practices. This followed reports of criminal and civil investigations. IBM fell after its disappointing second-quarter sales results in its software division hampered its performance. Honeywell's stock fell, despite exceeding Wall Street expectations and raising their annual outlook. The preliminary data shows that the S&P 500 rose 5.53 points or 0.08% to 6,363.87, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 38.85 or 0.19% to 21,057.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 312.08 points or 0.69% to 44,698.21. American Airlines fell after it forecasted a large third-quarter loss. The carrier was hurt by the slowdown in domestic travel demand. The biggest uncertainty in the airline industry has been created by President Donald Trump's trade war with other countries. The markets were also watching Trump's planned Thursday visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters, after months of Trump criticizing Fed chair Jerome Powell over interest rates Trump believes are too high. According to CME's FedWatch, with the Fed widely anticipated to keep rates unchanged at its meeting next week, traders expect a 60% probability of a rate cut in September. The U.S. Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell last week to 217,000, well below the estimates. This indicates continued resilience on the job market. The U.S. economy gained momentum in July. However, companies raised prices for goods and services. This fueled economists' expectations of higher inflation in the months to come, driven primarily by increasing import tariffs.
INDIA RUPEE - Barclays calls rupee decline 'overdone,' BofA Global Research remains bullish
Analysts at Barclays think the recent drop in the Indian rupee is overdone, while their colleagues at BofA Global Research believe that portfolio flows as well as a weaker outlook for the US dollar could help the rupee increase over the rest of the year.
According to BofA’s proprietary flow indicator, both hedge funds and real-money investors increased their long positions in the rupee during last month. The firm predicts that the rupee will strengthen to 84 U.S. dollars per rupee by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Barclays says the rupee’s recent decline is "reaching its limits in the short-term" and advises to fade any weakness near 86.50-87.0 levels.
The firm has not changed its outlook on INR depreciation, even though it sees the rupee's fall as a short-term phenomenon.
The rupee has dropped about 2% since its peak of 84.58 in early May, which was a 6-month high. As of 12:15 PM IST, the rupee was up by 0.1% on the day.
A trader from a private bank stated that while the rupee strengthened due to a rise among Asian peers, dollar bids by at least two large banks abroad, probably on behalf of their custodial customers, limited gains.
Both Barclays Global Research and BofA Global Research analysts have also noted that both the nominal exchange rate and the real effective exchange rate of the rupee has decreased.
In a note published on Thursday, Barclays analysts stated that "given its recent FX Competitiveness Improvement there is less of a need for another near-term drop in the currency."
The Reserve Bank of India released data after market hours on Wednesday showing that the rupee's real effective exchange rate (REER), which is based on 40 currencies, has fallen to 100.36. This is the lowest it has been since May 2023.
A REER reading above 100 indicates an overvaluation, while a reading below 100 indicates undervaluation.
(source: Reuters)