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US and Iran exchange strikes and accuse each other of violating ceasefire

US and Iran exchange strikes and accuse each other of violating ceasefire

The US has conducted new strikes on Iran, following a drone attack on a Panama-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it hit multiple targets across Iran in direct response to “continued aggression” against commercial shipping.

In retaliation, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it has launched missiles and drones at US infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain, in a statement shared to state media.

Following the exchange of fire, the US and Iran accused each other of violating the ceasefire agreement.

Centcom said in a statement, “Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit MT Kiku,” a Panama-flagged tanker.

In response, it said, US fighter jets conducted strikes on 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz. These included military equipment, communication systems, air defense sites and drone storage facilities.

In the IRGC’s statement, it said the US had attacked five coastal posts in Iran under what it called “the pretext of the IRGC Navy confronting the offending ship”.

In retaliation, the IRGC said it had launched ballistic missiles and drones at “eight key pieces of infrastructure” at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and the Fifth Naval Fleet in Port Salman, Bahrain, “destroying them”.

A US official has told Reuters that there were no reported US casualties or major impacts or damage to US facilities in the Middle East.

The IRGC said that under the Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this month, Iran has arrangements for controlling passage and navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, and from now on, violating ships will be dealt with more forcefully than in the past.

“Any potential enemy aggression, under any pretext, even if the aggressions are against minor targets, as happened last night and tonight, will have a crushing response,” read the statement.

It also accused the US of violating the ceasefire agreed to in the memorandum of understanding between the two nations, warning that it “will lead to a complete halt to the process”.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has also condemned what it described as the “brutal attacks” a violation of the ceasefire, adding it showed that the US “does not place the slightest value and credibility on its commitments, and breaking promises is part of its nature.”

Shortly after the latest US strikes on Iran were announced, Trump said on Truth Social that it was “very possible” that Tehran would “never learn”.

“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” he wrote on Saturday evening.

The post went on: “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”

In the hours following the US strikes, Kuwait and Bahrain both reported that their air defence systems had been activated.

“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks,” the Kuwaiti Armed Forces said in a statement shared to X, asking the public to adhere to security instructions.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior has urged citizens to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place”.

Centcom said that commercial vessels are continuing to operate in the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest strikes come less than a day after the US launched retaliatory strikes on Iran that it said were in response to a drone attack on Singapore-flagged cargo ship, MV Ever Lovely, on 25 June.

Centcom described the American strikes as “a powerful response” to the attack on the cargo ship, adding that the “unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire”.

Tehran said the cargo ship was attacked because it was using an unauthorised route to transit through the Gulf waterway, and said that the retaliatory strikes qualified as a ceasefire violation by the US.

In a statement released on Saturday morning, Iran’s foreign ministry said it had carried out more strikes against targets linked to American forces in response, and blamed the “treaty-breaking US regime” for the situation.

The US and Iran agreed on 17 June to end hostilities under a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which had also called for Iran to use its “best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days”.

The Strait of Hormuz is a key waterway for oil and gas shipments, and was effectively closed by Tehran after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the end of February.

The shutdown of the critical channel caused a spike in global oil prices and prevented shipments of other crucial commodities such as fertiliser.

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Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth | TechCrunch<div> <p id="speakable-summary" class="wp-block-paragraph">India’s digital payment share has increased over the years, with the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) growing to over 750 million daily transactions. With an aim to reach over a billion daily transactions, Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India, which oversees UPI, thinks AI would be heavily involved in the next phase for user growth, fraud prevention, and credit distribution.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">During an interview with TechCrunch at Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) 2026 last month, Asbe said AI could drive the next half a billion users with NPCI, India’s central bank, and the government working together.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“AI will be used very effectively when we look at the next wave of UPI, and that includes all aspects, including reaching new users. We must use AI effectively to protect our current citizens, to find fraud, and to find mules. AI must also be used to provide credit to all the users and merchants who have digital footprints,” he said. “We must use AI to look at the voice and multilingual solutions to make onboarding simpler.”</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many companies have talked about voice as an interface being important in India for chatting with companies or systems. Asbe believes that it is early days for that, as voice models will need to be more accurate. NPCI launched <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.news18.com/business/npci-launches-hello-upi-the-voice-assistant-for-seamless-transactions-8567306.html">a voice assistant-based interactive system in 2023</a>. Asbe noted that adoption for that yet to take off, and with the right use case, voice can become a critical component in the payment ecosystem. </p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-in-finance-and-regulations">AI in finance and regulations</h2> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the U.S., startups and public companies are racing to add AI to finance. Coinbase and Robinhood now allow agents to trade on users’ behalf, and OpenAI lets you load personal account data into ChatGPT to get financial advice. NPCI has shown some demos around <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/09/india-pilots-ai-chatbot-led-e-commerce-with-chatgpt-gemini-claude-in-the-mix/">agentic commerce and payments with Razorpay last year</a>. However, there hasn’t been a wider rollout of some of these capabilities. </p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">NPCI’s CEO thinks that with robust regulations and a framework, India can also adopt AI-powered finance. He said that there should be enough protection for users and mitigation for risk — and in case something goes wrong, the system should be able to look at the instructions and consent given by the user to an agent.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Besides the usage of models, Asbe thinks that the Indian finance ecosystem has an opportunity to build small language models.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We believe that the models will differentiate from each other based on the data sets that are made available to them,” he said. “We have a very rich data set in our ecosystem. I think there is a big opportunity for Indian companies — the banks, FinTechs, and the ecosystem — to create small language models which are sharp, specific, and as deterministic as possible.”</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last year, NPCI launched a model called <a rel="nofollow" href="https://bfsi.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articles/npci-unveils-fimi-indias-first-ai-language-model-tailored-for-payments/128455754">FIMI to solve user disputes</a>. Asbe noted that it is serving over a million users to cancel mandates and resolve issues, and is scaling fast.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-upi-competition">UPI competition</h2> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">NPCI has long <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/29/amazon-meta-join-fight-to-end-google-pay-phonepe-dominance-in-india/">sought healthy competition between UPI apps</a>, but data suggests that Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay have over 80% of the market share. The regulator’s plan to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/02/india-wont-enforce-market-share-cap-on-upi-until-2025-in-a-win-for-google-and-walmart/">cap an app’s market share at 30%</a> is set to take effect on December 31, 2026, unless it defers the deadline date again.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">During the conversation, Asbe said that UPI apps have very low switching costs and most core features are shared. He noted that PhonePe and Google have poured millions into their apps to attain their market position. He said that if new apps find viable business models within the fintech ecosystem, their share will rise. </p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I believe that there are multiple issues why we see this concentration risk exist, and one of the important reasons is the availability of a viable commercial model. The moment we see the commercial model being available to the ecosystem, I believe newer players will start investing very heavily,” Asbe said.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In 2024, the payment body spun off its <a rel="nofollow" href="https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/npci-incorporates-npci-bhim-services-as-a-wholly-owned-subsidiary/articleshow/112488623.cms">BHIM UPI app to make it more competitive and grow its usage</a>. While its transaction volume has grown, its overall market share is around 1%. Asbe said that with BHIM, there is no particular target market share NPCI is eyeing. But it wants to make it a sovereign and secure alternative to other apps, Asbe said. </p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">India is one of the biggest digital economies, and investors around the world will be looking at the regulatory landscape to put money into newer fintech solutions and make the market more competitive.</p> </div><p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards/">we may earn a small commission</a>. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.</em></p>#Indian #payments #chief #thinks #heavily #involved #era #digital #payment #growth #TechCrunchIndia,Fintech,UPI

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