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News from October 7, 2025

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West Notes: Warriors, Al Horford, Nuggets, Tim Hardaway Jr, Mavericks
Technology

West Notes: Warriors, Al Horford, Nuggets, Tim Hardaway Jr, Mavericks

Al Horford’s two-year contract with Golden State — worth the full taxpayer mid-level exception and featuring a second-year player option — also includes a 15% trade kicker, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The veteran big man will become trade-eligible on Jan. 1, three months after he officially signed. Meanwhile, as Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron points out, Jonathan Kuminga remains a name to watch once he becomes trade-eligible on Jan. 15. Because the Warriors are up against a hard cap, any deal would have to account for Kuminga’s trade kicker. But the lack of base year compensation restrictions will make it easier to move him during the season than it would have been via sign-and-trade. For example, a direct swap involving Kuminga and the Kings’ Malik Monk (with draft assets) would now be cap-legal, something that wasn’t possible in July. Tim Hardaway Jr. had interest from three or four teams in free agency but chose Denver in part because of the new faces on the coaching staff. As he told Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, the presence of J.J. Barea and Jared Dudley — both of whom he worked with in Dallas — gave him added comfort. “It gives you more confidence,” Hardaway said. “Jared Dudley was my assistant coach in Dallas for years, so he knows what I can do on and off the floor.” After starting 77 games in Detroit last season, Hardaway is now on a minimum deal and will likely lead the Nuggets’ second unit. He’s embracing the role. “Sulking and being upset is just being an energy drainer,” he said. “I want to lift guys up, take them to dinner, get the team together. Whatever it takes.” Dallas has signed swingman Dalano Banton, waiving camp invitee Matthew Cleveland to create roster space. Banton, 25, was the 46th pick in 2021 and has logged 216 career games with Toronto, Boston and Portland. He averaged 8.3 points, 2.4 assists and 2.0 rebounds last season, shooting .391/.324/.728. His deal is expected to be non-guaranteed and may include Exhibit 9 or 10 language. Banton will compete with Brandon Williams and Dennis Smith Jr. for the 15th roster spot, though joining camp a week late could make that tough. If waived, he’d be a candidate to play for the Texas Legends and earn up to $85,300 in Exhibit 10 bonuses.

Hoops Wire,Sam Amico
Ethiopia accuses Eritrea and TPLF of colluding to “wage war,” involvement in recent attack on Woldiya city in Amhara region
Technology

Ethiopia accuses Eritrea and TPLF of colluding to “wage war,” involvement in recent attack on Woldiya city in Amhara region

Addis Abeba – Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused the Eritrean government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of colluding to “wage war” against Ethiopia, alleging that the two are working together under a new alliance named “Tsimdo.” The ministry also alleges the two were involved in a recent offensive by the Fano militia aimed at capturing Woldiya. In a letter dated 2 October 2025 addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterre , Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos said that the “collusion between the Eritrean government and the hardliner faction of the TPLF has become more evident over the past few months.” He asserted that the alliance is “actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia,” and accused both actors of “funding, mobilizing, and directing armed groups such as Fano to expand the horizon of the conflict.” According to the letter, the Eritrean government and TPLF were allegedly involved in a recent offensive by the Fano militia aimed at capturing Woldiya, a major town in the Amhara Region. The ministry claimed that TPLF commanders and fighters participated directly in the operation, with additional skirmishes reported in Raya and Welkait. These actions, it said, violate the 2022 Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities signed in Pretoria between the federal government and the TPLF. The ministry stated that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) have maintained “a defensive posture” and exercised “maximum restraint,” but warned that “the policy is not one of indefinite restraint.” The letter described Eritrea as “the main architect of these nefarious activities,” accusing it of underwriting conflicts through “financial, material, and political support.” Eritrea’s actions, Gedion wrote, aim to “destabilize and fragment Ethiopia” under the pretext of feeling threatened by Ethiopia’s “quest to gain access to the sea.” “Eritrea presents its hostile acts as preemptive defensive measures,” the minister said, calling such claims “pretexts invoked to justify Eritrea’s decades-old effort to destabilize Ethiopia.” Gedion reaffirmed that Ethiopia remains committed to pursuing access to the sea “through peaceful means,” emphasizing that the government seeks “institutionalized economic integration mechanisms beneficial for both Eritrea and Ethiopia.” He said Ethiopia’s vision is “shared prosperity through integration that preserves the territorial integrity and sovereignty of both states.” Reiterating Ethiopia’s readiness to engage in “good faith negotiations,” the minister urged the international community to pressure Eritrea to cease what he described as “direct and indirect acts of hostility” and to “respect Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Gedion also called on international partners to continue efforts to promote “constructive engagement and cooperation” between Ethiopia and Eritrea, not only on maritime issues but also in broader regional matters affecting peace and stability in the Horn of Africa. In July, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio accusing Eritrea of “cooperating and coordinating” with a faction of the TPLF and other armed groups to launch major offensives during the rainy season. He further accused Eritrea of “repeated provocations,” “territorial occupation,” and sponsoring armed groups to destabilize Ethiopia. Gedion warned that such actions “violate international law” and threaten fragile peace and security in the Horn of Africa. AS

Editor7
Focus is on building more use-cases for CBDCs; not in rush for public launch: RBI DG
Technology

Focus is on building more use-cases for CBDCs; not in rush for public launch: RBI DG

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in “no rush” for public launch of central bank digital currency (CBDC) yet, and is instead focussing on adding more layer of uses cases and programmability, Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest 2025. “We are right now focussing on creating sufficient use cases, particularly programmable ones. The area we are focussing on is that a user – who does not understand technology – should be able to attach a programme to the CBDC and then use it,” he said. Rabi Sankar said the total number of CBDC users stands at around 70 lakh, and that the e-rupee can be effectively used for cross-border payments if other countries also adopt the digital currency. AI in financial sector He said that at its core, AI can expand financial access, strengthen safeguards, and reimagine efficiency. It can lead to better credit assessment through the use of alternative data such as transaction patterns and utility payments of unbanked customers. “Ability to use massive data sources could help in real-time detection of frauds through identification of unusual transaction patterns or improve market risk modeling. Operational efficiency and cost reduction can get a paradigm shift using AI, for example, in back-office processes, KYC, loan processing etc,” he said. However, as AI systems are trained on vast amounts of data, it is only natural that they also learn the biases inherent in data. AI systems trained in biased historical data are likely to perpetuate or amplify historical discrimination, for example, in credit profiling or hiring. “Even small biases in training data can lead to systematic exclusion of population groups from accessing financial services. Algorithmic opacity would make it difficult to identify possible biases,” he said. “The key question is ‘how do we enable innovation while safeguarding systemic stability?’ This balance is a necessity for ensuring that AI strengthens rather than undermines the financial system,” he added. Published on October 7, 2025

Piyush Shukla
Tigray interim administration accuses Ministry of Agriculture misrepresenting region’s territorial boundaries
Technology

Tigray interim administration accuses Ministry of Agriculture misrepresenting region’s territorial boundaries

Mekelle – The Bureau of Communication Affairs of the Tigray Interim Administration has accused Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture of “deliberately misrepresenting” Tigray’s constitutionally recognized boundaries, describing the act as “a covert political game” aimed at altering regional demarcations. In a statement issued on Monday, the Bureau denounced a Facebook post shared by the Ministry on 3 October — later removed — that referred to “the Welkait Tegede Setit Humera Zone” as part of the Amhara Region in a report about grain harvest preparations. The Bureau said the reference “falsely designates West Tigray, which is constitutionally part of the Tigray Regional State, as belonging to the Amhara Region.” “This is not merely a reporting error,” the Bureau stated, “but a deliberate use of institutional and structural means to hand over the constitutional territory of Tigray to another entity.” It described the post as part of “a repeated conspiracy to divide Tigray,” accusing federal institutions of bias and warning that such actions reflect “the injustice taking root within the Ethiopian regime.” The Bureau further criticized the use of state media in disseminating what it termed “false narratives,” calling it “a dangerous trend aimed at legitimizing misinformation.” It demanded the Ministry of Agriculture immediately retract the post, take corrective measures, and hold those responsible accountable. “If this is not done,” the statement cautioned, “the Tigray Interim Administration will be obliged to take necessary legal action.” The Bureau also urged the federal government to uphold the FDRE Constitution and the Pretoria Agreement, warning that continued violations could endanger the fragile post-war peace process. This is not the first time the Tigray Interim Administration has raised concerns over similar issues. In July 2023, it accused the Ministries of Health and Education of including districts of Tigray under the Amhara Regional State in official reports, calling the act “a violation of the Constitution” and a threat to the ongoing peace efforts. At the time, it demanded a public apology and corrective measures from the ministries involved. Furthermore, in June, the Global Society of Tigray Scholars and Professionals (GSTS), along with 15 civic and research organizations, has accused the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of “persistent misrepresentation and artificial designations” of Western Tigray, warning that such framing “provides tacit legitimacy” to ongoing displacement and risks “undermining Tigray’s territorial integrity.” AS

Editor7
Instant payments are changing money flows across the world
Technology

Instant payments are changing money flows across the world

What is the main agenda motivating the instant payment landscape? Within the whole regulatory landscape across APAC and for MENA, these countries are trying to build their own payments systems, very much inspired by what India has done with UPI. They are essentially creating a financial ecosystem which is not dependent on foreign investment. That has fundamentally led to the fuelling of instant payments. What we are seeing is a trend across all these countries, and the regulators are really concerned about how money movements are happening, whether it is for consumer payments, peer-to-peer transmission or B2B payments. There is a lot of investment, and conversations about how you get financial sovereignty of the nation, and try and build payment flows on top of that. Now India has shown how this can be built at scale. Each country has its own nuances, but the challenge is how do you build a system, which is not dependent on a card scheme and start moving money. Can you give examples? I will use Singapore as a starting point where we are seeing peer-to-peer payments using a system called PayNow really take off. The cost of payments is extremely high in Singapore for merchants to accept cards and so what PayNow has done is democratised digital payments by allowing merchants to accept payments at really low costs. Then when you go to countries like Egypt, at the other end of the spectrum, where people are completely unbanked, we are seeing something called InstaPay that has taken off. So that is one trend we see across the world, where regulators are realising that they need their own financial infrastructure to move money, specifically domestic money and instant payments is really rising across the world. What are the other emerging trends in payments ? If you look at our old card systems, they are all based on tap and pay. India and China have taught QR codes to the world. It is a new form factor of payments, and it is emerging as a second trend. Those are two trends that we are seeing — whether it is West Asia or APAC. The third piece is that regulators are working on cross-border flows, where there are a lot of inefficiencies both in terms of settlements and also cost for the customer. We are seeing regulators now trying to take decisive action on whether they can connect instant payment platforms and move money faster and in a more efficient way. To some extent, Singapore has been the pioneer in this. They have connected PayNow to UPI and PromptPay in Thailand. But the problem with that is they are also realising bilaterals are not an easy way to solve the problem. They are looking at a larger settlement house. There is Project Nexus, where they are trying to connect all the instant payment systems together. So if you look at the trends – they are instant payments, QR Codes and simplification of cross-border flows. Would you say that instant payments would be effective in reducing frictions in cross-border payments? Instant payments really provide the right platform for us to solve some of the inefficiencies that exist in cross-border flows, especially around settlement and cost. But the real challenge in this is about ensuring authenticity. If I as a customer in Singapore is sending money to somebody in India, I should be sure of to whom I am sending money. And interoperability is not just about platform and technology, but interoperability in terms of KYC. I should know that I am sending money to somebody who is authorised. Interoperability in terms of KYC, technology and protocols, those are in my view the key things for regulators to work on.

Janaki Krishnan
Trump tariff opens opportunity for India, says World Bank’s Ohnsorge
Technology

Trump tariff opens opportunity for India, says World Bank’s Ohnsorge

Q. What is your assessment of Indian economy? A. The upgrade to 6.5 per cent for this fiscal year reflects strong data release, much stronger than we had anticipated for the last quarter. However, we do expect growth to slow down in part because of higher tariffs than we had anticipated in April. Still, India remains the fastest growing emerging markets. It is actually performing quite well compared to everyone else. Q. Because of tariff tension, what kind of growth you see in short to medium run? A. There’s actually an opportunity because the government is very keen on expanding trade opportunities. They’re negotiating now with multiple other economies for market access and bilateral trade agreements. Those go far beyond tariffs. They really can grant market access, which is what India has less than other emerging markets. So, for example, if you take Mexico and Vietnam, their trade agreement partners are 50 per cent of global GDP. That’s big market access. If you now add the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, the US, Indian trade agreement partners accounting for about 50-60 per cent of global GDP. That could be transformational. If all these trade agreements actually come to pass, if tariffs and intermediate goods are actually reduced to something more in line with others, like say half perhaps, that could truly transform the manufacturing sector in India. It could make a big difference. I see it as an opportunity more than a risk. Q. Do you have any policy advice for the government? A. Both AI and trade, they tend to be relative price shocks. They hit some sectors asymmetrically from other sectors. And the minute you have that, you need to move people and capital. Things need to move around. Factors of production have to move from shrinking to growing areas. If that process doesn’t work, it can be really painful. So what the government can do is to make it easier for that process to work, make the reallocation easier. For example, make it easier for workers to switch jobs and that is the labour market reform that they’ve passed already in the federal government, but now it needs to be implemented. Then there’s connectivity; you can live in one place and work in another. It’s skilling because skilled workers find it easier to shift jobs. It could be housing markets, make it easier for people to move to a different place to work there. These are the reform areas government is anyways working on. These would have a double dividend. Or they would interact with trade reforms to give you double the impact. We have actually done a general equilibrium modelling where we’ve got a trade reform that would be good for per capita incomes, it would raise them by an amount that could be comparable to what a similar model estimated for NAFTA’s impact on Mexico. Q. Keeping the theme of latest South Asia Development Update, jobs, AI and trade in the mind, how do you see employment scenario here? A. Employment divided by working age population has gone up since 2020, but of course, the data shows the biggest increase in agriculture. This is exactly why the World Bank now focuses on the jobs challenge. Around the world, and not just in South Asia, but also in the MENA (Middle East, North Africa) region, there’s a large number of people that are entering the job market in the next 15 years, and jobs need to be found. The good thing is, in India, there’s a lot of potential to actually employ them. Q. Does AI help the economy or takes away jobs, what is your assessment? A. Both are right. On balance, AI brings more opportunity than put people at risks. About 23 per cent of South Asia’s workforce is not even exposed to AI in any form because you have so much agricultural employment and manual labour. After 23 per cent, 15 per cent of the workforce are complementary to AI. They should benefit, they should have higher wages and higher productivity and only 7 per cent are substitutable by AI. In other emerging markets and developing economies, about 15 per cent of the workforce is substitutable. In South Asia, it’s only 7 per cent. On balance, AI brings big opportunities for South Asia especially India. AI skills in the South Asian labour market command a 30 per cent wage premium. This means the incentives to learn it are very strong. The government might not need to do anything, this is something that the market is sorting.

Shishir Sinha
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