Renowned economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs has sharply criticised the ongoing conflict, accusing US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of igniting the crisis despite warnings from experts.

It has been over a month since the first missiles and bombs struck Iran. Now, a month later, the conflict has left physical scars not only in the vicinity of Iran, but as far as Europe, on the island of Cyprus. The world has its eyes fixed on the choked Strait of Hormuz. Although far from the scene of action, countries across the world are facing the consequences of this conflict as the free flow of oil through the arteries of economies is affected.The Times of India (online) spoke to renowned economist and public policy analyst Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University over the ongoing conflict. The professor accuses US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of starting the conflict against the advice of experts.“Inside the executive branch, we hear all sorts of stories that the joint chiefs of staff tried to tell the president. This wasn’t a good idea. Probably the CIA tried to tell the president that this wasn’t a good idea, although we’re not sure about that because nobody really talks,” Sachs said.The leading economist added that President Trump is acting without the traditional checks and balances, saying, “Congress doesn’t exist. If you closed it down, you wouldn’t even notice that Congress is there”.Sachs suggests that the current situation has increased the likelihood of miscalculation and a prolonged conflict. “We’re drifting towards an expanded war. I think it is escalating. I do not think that it is getting under control.”From a broader perspective, according to Professor Sachs, the war is framed as part of a larger struggle for influence. Sachs suggests that the US seeks to maintain global dominance in West Asia with the help of Israel.Sachs says, “The US motivation is that it wants control all over the world. It wants to control the Middle East, partly through Israel doing its dirty business.”The risk of attacks on energy infrastructure threatens global oil supplies, which is driving fuel prices sharply and triggering economic instability throughout the world.“We’re just on the verge of blowing up the world’s energy supplies; oil prices could be $130, $140, $150 a barrel”Professor Sachs warns that under such mounting pressure, Iran may reconsider its restraint on nuclear weapons development. Sachs says, “There would be a lot of support for going nuclear. They can do it, they had decided for 25 years not to do it.”Sachs emphasises the urgent need for coordinated global intervention to bring this conflict to an end. The professor proposes the potential role of global leaders such as Indian PM Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in facilitating a truce.“I do believe that if Prime Minister Modi, President Putin and President Xi… seriously said to Mr Trump, you’ve got to stop this, it would make a difference”, Sachs said. He went on to add that “Prime Minister Modi doesn’t have to do it by himself. He can do it with President Xi and President Putin, the BRICS can do it, and the BRICS should do it”.Without such efforts from global leaders, the conflict could continue, which would lead to a broader regional war and significant global repercussions, according to Professor Sachs.

Google has launched Gemma 4, the latest and most capable version of its open-source AI model family. The company says that the latest models mark a significant step forward in making frontier-level artificial intelligence (AI) accessible to developers everywhere: from powerful data centre workstations to a smartphone in your pocket. Google claims that since it released the first generation of Gemma, developers have downloaded it more than 400 million times, spawning a community ecosystem of over 100,000 model variants built on top of Google’s foundation.Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the models pack “incredible amount of intelligence per parameter”, while Google DeepMind chief executive called Gemma 4 as the “best open models in the world for their respective sizes.”“Gemma 4 is here, and it’s packing an incredible amount of intelligence per parameter,” said Pichai, while sharing a post by Hassabis, who said: “Excited to launch Gemma 4: the best open models in the world for their respective sizes. Available in 4 sizes that can be fine-tuned for your specific task: 31B dense for great raw performance, 26B MoE for low latency, and effective 2B & 4B for edge device use – happy building!”Gemma 4 is available now under an Apache 2.0 licence, meaning developers can use, modify and build on it freely.

Four Gemma 4 models, one goal

Google is releasing Gemma 4 in four sizes, designed to cover everything from mobile devices to high-end developer machines:

That last number is particularly striking. The 31B model said to have outperformed competitors 20 times its size.

What Gemma 4 can do

Google says Gemma 4 moves well beyond basic question-and-answer chat. Key capabilities include:Advanced reasoning: The model can handle multi-step planning and complex logic, with improvements in mathematics and instruction-following tasks.Agentic workflows: Gemma 4 natively supports function-calling, structured data output and system instructions, allowing developers to build AI agents that can interact with external tools, APIs and services autonomously.Code generation: Developers can run Gemma 4 entirely offline on a local machine, turning a standard workstation into a private AI coding assistant.Vision and audio: All four models can process images and video natively. The two smaller edge models also support audio input for speech recognition.Long context windows: The edge models can process up to 128,000 tokens in a single prompt, while the larger models stretch to 256,000 tokens.140+ languages: Finally, Gemma 4 has been trained natively across more than 140 languages, making it one of the most globally inclusive open models available.

Gemma models for smartphones

Perhaps the best aspect of Gemma 4 is just how small Google has managed to make it while keeping it powerful. According to The E2B and E4B models were built from the ground up in close collaboration with Google’s Pixel team, Qualcomm Technologies and MediaTek — the companies behind the chips that power billions of Android devices worldwide. The result is a model that runs completely offline, with near-zero latency, on everyday devices including phones, Raspberry Pi boards and Nvidia Jetson hardware.Google describes Gemma 4 as being built from the same world-class research and technology that powers Gemini 3, its flagship proprietary model.

Mumbai: Three Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel have been dismissed from service following a departmental inquiry for assaulting and extorting money from a jeweller in the presence of his minor daughter at Mumbai Central Terminus last year.Their dismissal order, issued on March 30, stated that assistant sub-inspector Lalit Jagtap, constable Rahul Bhosle, and constable Anil Rathod, all attached to the Mumbai Central GRP chowky, harassed the jeweller despite him providing an explanation for the valuables that he was carrying.The trio had been placed under suspension following the incident on August 10, 2025. They were currently posted at GRP’s Ghatkopar headquarters.The incident took place when the jeweller and his eight-year-old daughter, who were visiting Mumbai for Raksha Bandhan, were to board the Duronto Express to return home to Rajasthan. The jeweller’s brother-in-law accompanied them to Mumbai Central Terminus.Around 10.30pm, the group reached platform no. 5 when a uniformed man seated at a table stopped them for baggage check. The GRP cop, who wasn’t wearing a name tag, found a 14gm gold biscuit wrapped in paper and Rs 31,000 cash in the luggage. The jeweller explained that he had attended a jewellery exhibition in Mumbai, besides visiting his sister for Raksha Bandhan. But the cop was not satisfied and summoned another uniformed colleague, also not wearing his name tag. They took the jeweller, his daughter, and brother-in-law outside the terminus through an alley to a room where a third cop was seated. They claimed he was a “senior”.They hurled abuses and slapped the jeweller, and threatened to lock him up overnight. “I was slapped twice in front of my daughter who began crying,” the jeweller had told TOI last year. The cops threatened to produce the gold biscuit before a magistrate and asked him to arrange for a copy of his Aadhaar card over the phone. They also forced the jeweller to sign a few blank sheets of paper.Just five minutes before his train was to depart, at 10.55pm, the cops returned his gold, but kept the cash. When the jeweller pleaded, they returned Rs 1,900 and advised him to run if he wanted to board his train on time. The traumatised jeweller registered a police complaint in Rajasthan on August 16. It was subsequently transferred to Mumbai Central GRP and then to the Railway Crime Branch. “In seven months, GRP has completed a departmental probe and dismissed the cops, sending a strong message that corruption and extortion will not be tolerated,” said activist Sameer Zaveri.

NEW DELHI: Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman’s sudden ouster from Kolkata Knight Riders has been termed “unfortunate” by IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal. Mustafizur, who was bought for Rs 9.5 crore ahead of the 2026 season, was released following instructions from the BCCI, sparking backlash and wider controversy.