China says, will pay no attention to US 'tariff game'

If the United States continues to play the “tariff numbers game”, China will pay no attention to it, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The comment came in response to the White House stating that China faces tariffs of up to 245% due to its retaliatory action.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to former prime minister Chandra Shekhar on his birth anniversary, and said he always kept the country’s interests supreme in his politics. Modi said on X that his efforts for social harmony and nation-building will always be remembered. A socialist stalwart, Chandra Shekhar was born in eastern Uttar Pradesh in 1927 and served as prime minister for a brief period between November 1990 and June 1991.

IDFC First Bank approved a plan to raise funds of up to 75 billion rupees ($877 million) by issuing preferential shares to affiliate firms of Warburg Pincus and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Chinese tech giants Tencent and Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, have in the past two days launched programs to help Chinese exporters sell their goods domestically, amid an escalating U.S.-China trade war.

Tencent said on Thursday its program aimed to create 100 billion yuan ($13.7 billion) in sales for China’s beleaguered export-dependent firms by helping them set up domestic-facing operations, as well as tap Southeast Asian markets.

Tencent and Douyin, which operate large e-commerce platforms, are the latest Chinese conglomerates to announce measures to help the country’s exporters, which have been frozen out of the U.S. market as a result of high tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on all Chinese imported goods.

Australian miner Rio Tinto on Thursday said it has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India-based AMG Metals & Materials to assess the viability of a low-carbon aluminium project powered by renewable energy in India.

US officials target undocumented immigrants using Medicare data

U.S. immigration officials and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are seeking to use a sensitive Medicare database as part of their crackdown on undocumented immigrants, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The database, managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, includes health and personal information and contains addresses sought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Post reported, citing a source and documents.