US President-Elect Donald Trump has issued a fresh warning to India saying that if it taxes American products, the US will do the same. Trump’s words came during his interaction with journalists at his Mar-a-Lago resort Since his first term, Trump has been hawkish about taxing foreign products but has not fully implemented what he has said. However, Trump’s warnings are taken seriously as markets move according to what a US president says.

“If they tax us, we tax them the same amount,” Trump told reporters.

Other than about India, Trump has been vocal about taxes imposed on American products by Brazil, Mexico and China.

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us – India, we don’t have to talk about our own – if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle, and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot,” said Trump.

“India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing,” he added.

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has sounded upbeat about India-US ties. On Tuesday, Biden administration said that it was leaving India-US relations “in a very strong place”

“We continue to be very ambitious about the US-India relationship. We’ve had very high-level engagement over the course of the last several months with the QUAD summit in Delaware, and we are anticipating a high-level engagement in the last few weeks of the Biden administration,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Tuesday.

Suchir Balaji, a former researcher at OpenAI, allegedly took his own life in his apartment in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In an interview with The New York Times in October, the 26-year-old Indian American man expressed worries about OpenAI violating copyright law.

Found Dead In His Apartment

A representative from the San Francisco Police Department verified that the young researcher was discovered deceased in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26. After officers and medics were summoned to his home in the city’s Lower Haight district for a wellness check after concerns were raised by his friends and colleagues. Officers discovered Suchir Balaji deceased. Police have reported that no signs of foul play have been discovered and ruled possibility of suicide.

A TechCrunch report states that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has recognized the deceased as Suchir Balaji, 26, from San Francisco. The cause of death has been established as suicide. The OCME has informed his relatives.

Who was Suchir Balaji?

Suchir Balaji was a 26 year old AI researcher who studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, before working at OpenAI. He interned at OpenAI and Scale AI while in college.

During his early days at OpenAI, Balaji worked on WebGPT, and later went on to work on the pretraining team for GPT-4, reasoning team with o1, and post-training for ChatGPT, his LinkedIn states.

Balaji quit OpenAI after working at the company for four years. He told The New York Times that he realised the technology would bring more harm than good to society, his main concern being how OpenAI allegedly used copyright data.

Balaji expressed his concerns in an X post in October, saying, “ initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on.”

The day prior to the discovery of the OpenAI whistleblower’s death, a court document allegedly identified him in a copyright case filed against the company. OpenAI, in a gesture of good faith, stated that it would review Balaji’s custodial file concerning the copyright issues he raised.

At least 52 people were killed and over 50 injured in a suicide blast near a mosque in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday as they gathered to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, authorities said.

The explosion occurred near Madina Mosque on Al Falah Road in the Mastung district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mastung’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nawaz Gashkori, who was on duty for the rally, was among the deceased.

The explosion took place when people were gathering to mark Eid Miladun Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad.

City Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Javed Lehri said the explosion was a “suicide blast” and that the bomber exploded himself next to DSP’s car.

Lehri said that the wounded are being shifted to a medical facility while an emergency has been imposed in the hospitals.

At least 52 people were killed and over 50 injured in the blast, District Health Officer Mastung Rashid Muhammad Saeed said.

Some of the injured were in critical condition.

Balochistan interim Information Minister Jan Achakzai said rescue teams have been dispatched to Mastung. He added the critically injured persons are being transferred to Quetta and that an emergency has been imposed in all the hospitals.

“The enemy wants to destroy religious tolerance and peace in Balochistan…,” Achakzai said.”The explosion is unbearable.” Caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Domki has directed authorities to arrest those responsible for the blast.

“The perpetrators of the destruction do not deserve any leniency,” he said. “Those who target peaceful processions will be dealt with firmly.” Chief Minister Domki urged the people to unite against terrorism, adding that Islam was a religion of peace and “those who commit such heinous acts cannot be called Muslims”.

The caretaker CM also announced three days of mourning throughout the province over the tragic incident.

Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti also strongly condemned the blast.

Stating that “terrorists have no faith or religion”, Bugti asserted that all resources were being put to use during the rescue operation. He added that no effort would be spared in treating the injured and that terrorist elements did not deserve any concession.

Soon after the explosion, the Punjab police also said that its “diligent officials” were performing security duties for Friday prayers at mosques across the province.

Meanwhile, the Karachi police said that Additional Inspector General Khadim Husain Rind has directed the police to remain “completely on high alert” in view of the Mastung blast.

He directed the policemen to tighten security arrangements regarding Eid-i-Miladun Nabi processions and Friday prayers across the city, as well as to monitor any unusual activities.

Second major blast in Mastung over last 15 days

This is the second major blast that has terrorised Mastung over the last 15 days, Geo News reported.

Earlier this month, at least 11 people were injured in a blast in the same district.

Mastung has remained a target of terror attacks for the past several years with a major attack in July 2018 being one of the deadliest in the district’s history during which at least 128 people were killed, The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which set up as an umbrella group of several terrorist outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its terrorists to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

Past attacks

The group, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

In January, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque packed with worshippers during afternoon prayers in Pakistan’s restive northwestern Peshawar city, killing over 100 people.

Last year, a similar attack inside a Shia mosque in the Kocha Risaldar area in the city killed 63 people.