&w=3840&q=100)
Microsoft restores services to Nayara Energy after abrupt EU-linked block
'Microsoft is committed to supporting all its customers in India and worldwide, and has restored services for Nayara Energy. We are engaged in ongoing discussions with the European Union towards service continuity for the organisation,' a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
Nayara Energy, which operates fuel retailing outlets in India, is largely owned by Russia's Rosneft, which holds nearly 49 per cent stake in the company. Earlier this week, Nayara Energy had moved the Delhi High Court, alleging that the US-based tech firm had abruptly and unilaterally suspended essential services without any prior warning.
In its plea, Nayara sought an interim injunction and immediate restoration of services to protect its rights and ensure continued access to important digital systems. According to Nayara, Microsoft did not discuss or notify the company before cutting off services.
In its plea, Nayara had also stated that Microsoft's decision to block access to the data and services for the OMC was based only on the 18 July sanctions announced by the EU against Russian companies, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On 18 July, the EU said that it had adopted a 'package of economic and individual restrictive measures hitting hard on Russia's energy, banking and military sectors, as well as trade with the EU, and ensuring accountability for Russia's continued war of aggression against Ukraine'.
For OMCs such as Nayara Energy, the EU has imposed an import ban on refined petroleum products made from Russian crude oil and originating from any third country, except for Canada, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The move, the EU had then said, was aimed at 'preventing Russia's crude oil from reaching the EU market through the back door.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
7 minutes ago
- The Hindu
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
This week, the poster boys for toxic masculinity have been all over the news. Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to starve the people of Palestine. Its brutal actions, which have flattened neighbourhoods, killed tens of thousands of people, and decimated hospitals and schools, amount to genocide, according to many experts, writes Aaratrika Bhaumik in this explainer. For some, Israel's response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, may not have been entirely unexpected. Back then, Major-General Ghasan Alyan from the Israeli Defence Ministry warned in a video, 'Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza – no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell – you will get hell.' The mastermind of the Hamas attack was also a ruthless, bloodthirsty man 'married to the Palestinian cause', Yahya Sinwar. As Stanly Johny said, on the rise and fall of Sinwar, 'violence defined his method.' Sinwar was killed in 2024 by the Israeli Defence Forces, but the scores between Israel and Hamas have still not been settled. All this bluster — which Netanyahu described best in 2014 when he said, 'A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do' — has nearly wiped out an entire region. In a 2019 academic paper titled Masculinity, war and militarism, Claire Duncanson wrote, 'Boys and men are socialised into thinking that being tough, being aggressive, being in authority, in control, are important markers of being a man.' She quotes various feminist scholars as arguing that 'men do not dominate in the world's militaries because they are naturally more violent, aggressive and tough,... but because in many cultures... proving oneself on the battlefield has been deemed an important way to prove oneself a man.' Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has organised photoshoots of himself riding horses bare-chested, or walking through the wilderness brandishing a gun, and who continues to wage a war against Ukraine, is one of the prototypes of this stereotype. With their blind (or perhaps calculated) rage and thirst for revenge, Sinwar and Netanyahu, who have together brought Gaza to its knees, are the others. Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump, whose government has been aiding Netanyahu in the war, had yet another emotional outburst this week. On July 30, he hit his 'friend' India with a 25% tariff along with an 'unspecified penalty' for buying Russian oil and weapons. Trump rode to power calling several women, from Kamala Harris to Nancy Pelosi, 'unhinged' and 'crazy'. But today, by terming India's economy 'dead', he is the one putting painstakingly built India-U.S. ties at risk. The Hindu editorial says that 'something does seem to have shifted in India-US relations'. One of the primary objectives of patriarchy is the expansion of power. And this relentless pursuit of power without principles is causing moral bankruptcy, as Ashwani Kumar lamented in this piece earlier this month. Men with the most power around us are clinging on to it by doing whatever it takes: bullying, waging war, killing innocent people. Where are the compassionate women and men and a leadership of empathy and care that the world so desperately needs? It is all too clear that decision-making, especially on world issues, cannot be left to the whims of manchildren who mask incompetence and insensitivity with bravado. Toolkit In this photo essay, Ritu Raj Konwar captures the hustle and bustle of Ima Market, which is run entirely by women in Imphal, Manipur's capital. The market hosts 5,000-6,000 women vendors, who sell vegetables, fruits, textiles, toys, fish, spices, and utensils. Male shopkeepers and vendors are not allowed to set up or run stalls in this centuries-old market, which serves to empower women socially and economically. Wordsworth Femi-genocide: This month, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, called for immediate global action to halt the unfolding 'femi-genocide' in Gaza. Alsalem said that existing concepts in legal and criminal frameworks can no longer adequately describe the scale and nature of the crimes inflicted by Israeli forces on Palestinian women and girls. 'What is happening to Palestinian women and girls is not collateral damage of war,' she said. 'It is the intentional destruction of their lives and bodies, for being Palestinian and for being women.' Ouch! Now girls are marrying at the age of 25. By then, many, not all, have been in relationships with multiple men. By the time a woman is 25, she is fully grown. It is only natural that by then, her youth has slipped away somewhere. Aniruddhacharya, also known as Pookie Baba People we met Rohin Bhatt is a lawyer in the Supreme Court. In 2022, Bhatt had asked the then Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, to modify the appearance slips for lawyers in the apex court to include an additional column for people's pronouns so that they may be correctly used in orders and judgments. When asked how much further courts have to go to become more gender-sensitive, Bhatt points out problems of both infrastructure and attitude. As a queer lawyer, he says he is typecast. 'I am often called an 'LGBT lawyer' who does 'LGBT cases' but my work is so much more — across civil, criminal, and constitutional law,' he says. Bhatt imagines that in a truly inclusive space, he and others would be seen as 'not just lawyers who do queer cases, but as good lawyers in our own right who can argue other briefs with equal expertise, in addition to queer rights cases.'
Economic Times
7 minutes ago
- Economic Times
‘I feel useless': ChatGPT-5 is so smart, it has spooked Sam Altman, the man who started the AI boom
OpenAI is on the verge of releasing GPT-5, the most powerful model it has ever built. But its CEO, Sam Altman, isn't celebrating just yet. Instead, he's sounding the a revealing podcast appearance on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Altman admitted that testing the model left him shaken. 'It feels very fast,' he said. 'There are moments in the history of science, where you have a group of scientists look at their creation and just say, you know: 'What have we done?''His words weren't about performance metrics. They were about compared the development of GPT-5 to the Manhattan Project — the World War II effort that led to the first atomic bomb. The message was clear: speed and capability are growing faster than our ability to think through what they actually continued, 'Maybe it's great, maybe it's bad—but what have we done?' This wasn't just about AI as a tool. Altman was questioning whether humanity is moving so fast that it can no longer understand — or control — what it builds. 'It feels like there are no adults in the room,' he added, suggesting that regulation is far behind the pace of specs for GPT-5 are still under wraps, but reports suggest significant leaps over GPT-4: better multi-step reasoning, longer memory, and sharper multimodal capabilities. Altman himself didn't hold back about the previous version, saying, 'GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again, by a lot.'For many users, GPT-4 was already advanced. If GPT-5 lives up to the internal hype, it could change how people work, create, and another recent conversation, Altman described a moment where GPT-5 answered a complex question he couldn't solve himself. 'I felt like useless relative to the AI,' he admitted. 'It was really hard, but the AI just did it like that.'OpenAI's long-term goal has always been Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). That's AI capable of understanding and reasoning across almost any task — human-like once downplayed its arrival, suggesting it would 'whoosh by with surprisingly little societal impact.' Now, he's sounding far less sure. If GPT-5 is a real step toward AGI, the absence of a global framework to govern it could be dangerous. AGI remains loosely defined. Some firms treat it as a technical milestone. Others see it as a $100 billion opportunity, as Microsoft's partnership contract with OpenAI implies. Either way, the next model may blur the line between AI that helps and AI that acts. OpenAI isn't just facing ethical dilemmas. It's also under financial are pushing for the firm to transition into a for-profit entity by the end of the year. Microsoft, which has invested $13.5 billion in OpenAI, reportedly wants more control. There are whispers that OpenAI could declare AGI early in order to exit its agreement with Microsoft — a move that would shift the power balance in the AI sector insiders have reportedly described their wait-and-watch approach as the 'nuclear option.' In response, OpenAI is said to be prepared to go to court, accusing Microsoft of anti-competitive behaviour. One rumoured trigger could be the release of an AI coding agent so capable it surpasses a human programmer — something GPT-5 might be edging meanwhile, has tried to lower expectations about rollout glitches. Posting on X, he said, 'We have a ton of stuff to launch over the next couple of months — new models, products, features, and more. Please bear with us through some probable hiccups and capacity crunches.'While researchers and CEOs debate long-term AI impacts, one threat is already here: fraud. Haywood Talcove, CEO of the Government Group at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, works with over 9,000 public agencies. He says the AI fraud crisis is not approaching — it's already happening. 'Every week, AI-generated fraud is siphoning millions from public benefit systems, disaster relief funds, and unemployment programmes,' he warned. 'Criminal networks are using deepfakes, synthetic identities, and large language models to outpace outdated fraud defences — and they're winning.' During the pandemic, fraudsters exploited weaknesses to steal hundreds of billions in unemployment benefits. That trend has only accelerated. Today's tools are more advanced and automated, capable of filing tens of thousands of fake claims in a day. Talcove believes the AI arms race between criminals and institutions is widening. 'We may soon recognise a similar principle for AI that I call 'Altman's Law': every 180 days, AI capabilities double.' His call to action is blunt. 'Right now, criminals are using it better than we are. Until that changes, our most vulnerable systems and the people who depend on them will remain exposed.'Not everyone is convinced by Altman's remarks. Some see them as clever marketing. But his past record and unfiltered tone suggest genuine might be OpenAI's most ambitious release yet. It could also be a signpost for the world to stop, look around, and ask itself what kind of intelligence it really wants to build — and how much control it's willing to give up.
Economic Times
7 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Canadians readying for a major battle with Trump's USA, ready for hardship over humiliation in showdown over trade war
Canadians rally behind tough trade stance as tariffs bite; public backs PM Carney's defiance despite growing economic toll A growing majority of Canadians are willing to suffer economically to stand firm against US President Donald Trump's escalating trade war, according to a new poll that underscores rising frustration north of the a survey released by the Angus Reid Institute, 69 percent of Canadians say they want their government to take a 'hard approach' in trade negotiations with the United States, even if it worsens relations or causes financial poll comes just days after Trump slapped 35 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian exports. While the UK, EU, and Japan opted to strike last-minute trade deals with Washington, each making steep economic concessions, Canada is choosing defiance.'Canadians aren't flinching,' Angus Reid said in its analysis. Just weeks ago, only 63 percent supported the hardline stance. That number has since climbed, and support for retaliatory tariffs is even more dramatic, 76 percent say they'd back Canadian tariffs even if it causes household financial hardship. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office earlier this year after an unexpected election win, has called for patience and unity, saying Canada won't be bullied. 95 percent of those polled say they would still support Carney even if Trump retaliates with even higher tariffs. Trump further inflamed tensions after warning it would be harder to negotiate with Canada following Ottawa's decision, along with the UK and France, to formally recognize a Palestinian state. That move, however, also appears to have wide public backing as 63 percent of Canadians say they support recognition of Palestine, even if it complicates US impact on everyday life is already visible. Canadian tourism to the US dropped by 33 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to Forbes, marking six consecutive months of decline. Businesses are feeling the squeeze. Air Canada's profits fell sharply, and US retailers in border towns are bracing for deeper losses.
