A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal, Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writers: Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh SK
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Snapshot of the day
September 17, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia, Kalrav Joshi, Anirudh S.K.
A United Nations-backed fact-finding mission on Iran says it has found “reasonable grounds” to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two deadly airstrikes in Iran on February 28. One involved a Tomahawk missile attack on a primary school in Minab, where Iranian officials say around 170 people were killed, most of them schoolgirls aged between 7 and 12. The Trump administration has neither formally accepted responsibility nor released the findings of the Pentagon investigation into the strike. The mission also cited an attack in Lamerd, where a missile scattered tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area”, killing 22 civilian men and women. US Central Command has denied responsibility for the strike.
After the US Congress on Wednesday passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act that would allow President Donald Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top buyers of Russian oil – including India – and gas, the external affairs ministry today responded saying India will continue to meet its energy requirements “through diversified sourcing and on the basis of evolving market dynamics”. New Delhi has “very clearly articulated” the tariff issue's “potential implications for not just the bilateral relationship, but also the international energy market”, it said. India, it added, will “take all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests”. Indian refiners have been heavily purchasing Russian crude amid the West Asia crisis, and the closure of Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline has further reduced routing options for India.
The Indian rupee, meanwhile, has slipped past 96 to the dollar for the first time in more than a month – giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who turned 76 today, some unwanted competition in the numbers game. An Axis Bank assessment based on the Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rate (FEER) model says the currency may need to weaken further “to align with shifting trade fundamentals and relatively weaker productivity gains from AI.”
The new 0.4% MDR on UPI merchant payments above Rs 2,000 will face an additional 18% GST, increasing the upfront charge to 0.472%. GST-registered businesses can claim input tax credit, as many already do on card charges, but unregistered merchants may have to absorb the additional cost.
