The decision followed a report by the Lords standards watchdog, which found that Lord Ranger had bullied and harassed journalist Poonam Joshi on social media.
Lord Ranger has donated approximately £1.5 million to the Conservative Party since 2009. (Photo: LinkedIn/Lord Rami Ranger)
By EasternEyeDec 06, 2024
CONSERVATIVE peer and donor Lord Rami Ranger has been stripped of his Commander of the British Empire (CBE) honour following a decision by the Forfeiture Committee.
The committee determined that he had brought the honours system into disrepute.
The decision followed a report by the Lords standards watchdog, which found that Lord Ranger had bullied and harassed journalist Poonam Joshi on social media. The committee also considered posts he made about the Sikh community and comments in the media about Pakistanis, the BBC reported.
A notice in the London Gazette stated that the King had directed Lord Ranger’s honour be “cancelled and annulled.” He was awarded the CBE in 2016 for services to business and community cohesion and was made a peer in 2019 under Theresa May’s resignation honours.
Lord Ranger called the decision "unjust" and vowed to explore "various legal avenues" to challenge it. A spokesperson for the peer said he had not committed any crime and argued that the honours system should protect free speech and thought.
The spokesperson added that Lord Ranger had apologised and undertaken rehabilitative work regarding the complaints made against him. They claimed the decision would "encourage spurious complaints" and described the process as "shameful."
Lord Ranger was suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party last year following the Lords standards report but was reinstated in November. He has donated approximately £1.5 million to the Conservative Party since 2009.
The Forfeiture Committee advises on honour removals for reasons such as criminal offences, regulatory censure, or behaviour deemed to discredit the honours system.
You step into your local PVR today. The smell of popcorn hits you, but instead of previews for the latest Bollywood hit, the lobby is a sea of ARMY Bombs and CARAT Bong light sticks. Fans in TXT tees are swapping photocards. Someone’s already belting out a LE SSERAFIM chorus into a mic at the pop-up Noraebang station. Inside Screen 3? It isn’t a film, but a full-blown K-pop concert. Thousands of voices scream every word of BTS’s Dynamite, and tears well up during Jungkook’s solo. But this isn’t Seoul. It’s Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru, all this weekend. And HYBE? They’re taking notes, big ones!
What is Hybe Cine fest?
HYBE Cine Fest 2025 is a three-day cinema event (from 10 to 12 July) that brings some of the biggest K-pop concert experiences to the big screen across India. Organised by South Korean entertainment giant HYBE in partnership with PVR INOX and Trafalgar Releasing, the fest features full-length concert films from BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT, ENHYPEN, ILLIT, and Katseye. Expect stadium-level production with cinematic visuals, surround sound, and collective fan chants, everything fans love about a K-pop concert, recreated inside a cinema.
HYBE didn’t pick India at random. It’s a calculated move. The company has confirmed it will open an Indian office in Mumbai or Delhi by September or October 2025. This festival is a soft launch, a proof-of-concept to test the waters. By partnering with PVR INOX and global distributor Trafalgar Releasing (which brought in over 260,000 fans during the Latin American edition), HYBE is laying the groundwork for bigger things. With India’s entertainment market projected to grow from £22.9 billion to £32.2 billion (₹2.45 trillion to ₹3.45 trillion) by 2028, the timing is no accident.
HYBE isn’t just here to screen films. This is step one in a long-term strategy:
Live concerts: The biggest fan demand. Data from this weekend supports the case for bringing TXT, ENHYPEN, or SEVENTEEN to Indian stages post-2025.
Local talent & collaborations: HYBE’s upcoming Indian office could scout homegrown talent or spark Indo-Korean music projects, similar to what HYBE America did with Katseye.
Lifestyle takeover: Pop-up merch counters are only the beginning. HYBE wants to control K-pop fashion, fan experiences, and digital platforms (like Weverse) in India.
Expect ticket prices between £7.50–£14 (₹800–₹1,500), depending on location and seat type. Morning and midday weekday shows are filling up fastest, so book early if you want the full fan-crowd vibe.
While Indian ARMYs, CARATs, MOAs, and ENGENEs lose their voices this weekend inside packed theatres, HYBE’s executives are wide awake, analysing ticket data, fan turnout, and social media buzz. Every chant, every Noraebang sing-along, every sold-out show is a datapoint fuelling their next big move.
HYBE Cine Fest 2025 is more than a weekend spectacle. It’s a strategic push to embed K-pop deep into India’s entertainment ecosystem. The concert films are just the beginning, the real goal is long-term cultural presence, local talent scouting, and eventually, massive live tours. The light sticks are lit. The playbook is open. And HYBE’s Indian takeover has officially begun.
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Starlink will next need to acquire spectrum from the government, build ground infrastructure, and carry out testing and trials to meet the agreed security requirements. (Photo: Reuters)
INDIA’s space regulator on Wednesday granted Starlink a licence to begin commercial operations in the country, removing the final regulatory barrier for the satellite internet provider.
The company, led by Elon Musk, has been waiting since 2022 for licences to start operations in India. It received an initial approval last month from India’s telecom ministry and was waiting for clearance from the space regulator.
The licence, issued by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), is valid for five years.
Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing sources, that Starlink had secured the licence from IN-SPACe.
Starlink is now the third company to receive approval to enter the Indian satellite communications market. India has previously cleared applications from Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio.
The company will next need to acquire spectrum from the government, build ground infrastructure, and carry out testing and trials to meet the agreed security requirements.
Musk and Reliance Jio’s Mukesh Ambani had disagreed for several months over how spectrum should be allocated for satellite services. The Indian government later supported Musk’s position that spectrum should be assigned, not auctioned.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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The launch of Grok 4 comes amid criticism of the previous version
Elon Musk unveils Grok 4, calling it “the smartest AI in the world”
Grok 4 reportedly trained 100 times more than Grok 2
Musk says it performs at PhD-level across nearly all subjects
The launch follows controversy around Grok 3’s offensive responses
Musk launches Grok 4 AI model with bold claims of intelligence
Elon Musk has launched Grok 4, the latest artificial intelligence model developed by his xAI company, claiming it surpasses PhD-level intelligence across all academic fields.
Speaking at the launch, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said Grok 4 had been trained using 100 times more data than Grok 2, which was replaced by Grok 3 in February this year. Musk described the new model as “the smartest AI in the world” and said it could achieve near-perfect results in graduate-level exams in almost every subject.
“Grok 4 is smarter than nearly all graduate students in all subjects simultaneously,” Musk said. He referred to the current pace of AI development as an “intelligence big bang” and suggested the model may soon contribute to significant technological breakthroughs.
Potential and concerns over AI ethics
While praising Grok 4’s capabilities, Musk acknowledged that the model “may lack common sense” despite its advanced reasoning skills. He stressed that the most important quality for any AI system is to be “truth-seeking” and stated that it is possible to embed values such as honesty and honour into AI, much like instilling values in a child.
Musk also predicted that the first “watchable half-hour” of television produced entirely by AI could be released by the end of 2025.
The launch of Grok 4 comes amid criticism of the previous version, Grok 3, after it generated antisemitic content, including messages that praised Adolf Hitler. In response, the official Grok account on X (formerly Twitter) said: “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”
Musk distances Grok from 'woke' competitors
Musk has positioned Grok as an alternative to other chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which he has previously criticised for being “woke”. In June, he invited users on X to help train Grok using “divisive facts” — a term he used for politically incorrect but factually accurate statements.
The update also follows news that X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down, nearly two years after being appointed by Musk to lead the platform he acquired for $44 billion (£32.4 billion) in 2022.
PAKISTAN’S army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir on Monday (7) rejected Delhi’s allegation that his military received active support from longtime ally China in its conflict with India in May.
The Indian Army’s deputy chief, Lieutenant General Rahul Singh, said last week that China gave Islamabad “live inputs” on key Indian positions.
Singh did not elaborate on how India knew about the live inputs from China.
Regarding the possibility of China providing satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence, India’s chief of defence staff had said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China or elsewhere.
The “insinuations regarding external support” are “irresponsible and factually incorrect”, Munir said in an address to graduating officers of the national security and war course in Islamabad, according to an army statement.
Pakistani officials have previously dismissed allegations of receiving active support from China in the conflict.
Beijing and Islamabad have longstanding close relations, with billions of dollars of Chinese investment in the country’s energy and infrastructure.
India’s relationship with China meanwhile was strained after a 2020 border clash that sparked a four-year military standoff, but tensions began to ease after the countries reached a pact to step back in October.
India and Pakistan used missiles, drones and artillery fire during the four days of fighting in May – their worst in decades – triggered by an attack in April on tourists in Indian Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, before agreeing to a ceasefire.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack in April.
Singh also added that Turkey provided key support to Pakistan during the fighting, equipping it with Bayraktar and “numerous other” drones, as well as “trained individuals”.
Ankara has strong ties with Islamabad, and had expressed solidarity with it during the clash, prompting Indians to boycott everything from Turkish coffee to holidays in the country.
Turkey’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the allegations.
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Christine Kangaloo awards Narendra Modi with the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago last Friday (4)
INDIA’S prime minister, Narendra Modi met Argentine president Javier Milei in Buenos Aires last Saturday (5), urging the expansion of New Delhi’s preferential trade deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc.
The bilateral talks with Milei were the latest in Modi’s whistle-stop diplomatic tour culminating in the summit of Brics emerging economies which began last Sunday (6) in Brazil.
Diplomats from both countries at the meeting, which included a lunch, decided to “deepen bilateral relations and commercial ties,” according to a statement from the Argentine presidency.
John Dramani Mahama welcomes Modi on his arrival in Accra last Wednesday (2)
India’s foreign ministry diplomat, Periasamy Kumaran, told reporters Modi “requested Argentina’s support in expanding the India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement.” The Mercosur regional trade bloc, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, is seeking closer ties with Asian economies in the face of Trump’s global trade war.
“The two leaders discussed the necessity of diversifying and expanding bilateral trade” in sectors including defence, technology and health, said Kumaran.
They also touched upon cooperation in the energy sector, including gas and petrol, as well as lithium, a key mineral for the clean energy transition. Argentina is the world’s fifth largest producer of lithium, according to the US Geological Survey.
“Excellent meeting with president Javier Milei of Argentina,” Modi wrote on X of the leaders’ second bilateral talks.
“We have covered significant ground in our bilateral relations, but we agree that the journey ahead is even more promising!”
Modi last week visited Trinidad and Tobago which last Friday (4) bestowed its highest honour as the Indian prime minister seeks to strengthen New Delhi’s ties with the Caribbean and Latin America.
More than a third of the population in the country is of Indian descent.
President Christine Carla Kangaloo gave him the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago at a ceremony at president’s House in St Ann’s, just outside the capital Port of Spain – the first time a foreign leader was so honoured.
“This honour is a symbol of the deep and eternal friendship between our two countries,” Modi said, according to an official translation. Relations between India and Trinidad and Tobago date back to 1845, when indentured Indian labourers first arrived to work on sugar and cocoa plantations under British colonial rule, following the end of slavery.
Between 1845 and 1917, more than 140,000 labourers settled in the Caribbean nation. The Indian community is now the country’s largest ethnic group, at 35.4 per cent of the population of 1.4 million.
Modi described Kangaloo and prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar “the biggest brand ambassadors of this community.” “India and Trinidad & Tobago rose from the shadows of colonial rule to write our destiny of progress. Our nations stand tall as proud democracies and pillars of strength in the modern world,” Modi wrote on X.
“It’s high time we all work together to give the Global South its rightful seat at the high table.”
Modi last Thursday (3) visited Ghana, in a first by an Indian leader in three decades.
He outlined plans for deeper ties between India and Africa, as New Delhi increasingly vies for a stronger economic presence on the continent along with China and Russia.
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Modi and China’s premier Li Qiang at the Brics summit last Sunday (6)
In a speech to Ghana’s parliament, Modi highlighted a major rail project that opened in the west African nation last year, financed by the India Export-Import Bank.
He also underlined his country’s expanding diplomatic development and business footprint in Africa.
“Over 200 projects across the continent enhance connectivity, infrastructure and Industrial capacity,” Modi said. On the political front he welcomed “the establishment of Ghana-India Parliamentary Friendship Society in your parliament”.
In a meeting last Wednesday (2), Modi and Ghanaian president John Mahama agreed to deepen security and mining ties.
The Indian prime minister also last Thursday called for a greater global diplomatic role for both his country and Africa, warning that “the world order created after the Second World War is changing fast”.