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* ICE at the center of Trump's hardline immigration agenda * Rights advocates concerned that ICE's actions can flout due process * Tech firms have sought warmer ties with Trump during his second term (Changes dateline, adds share price, adds additional context in paragraphs 4-5, 11-12) By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Apple said on Thursday that it had removed ICEBlock, the most popular ICE-tracking app, and other similar apps from its App Store after it was contacted by President Donald Trump's administration, in a rare instance of an app being taken down due to a U.S. federal government demand. The app alerts users to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their area, which the U.S. Justice Department says could increase the risk of assault on U.S. agents. ICE has been a central part of Trump's hardline immigration agenda and its agents have regularly raided and arrested migrants, and rights advocates say free speech and due process are often being infringed in the government's deportation drive. "Based on information we've received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store," Apple said in an emailed statement. Civilian surveillance of federal immigration agents has become more assertive since Trump returned to office, as activists say they are trying to protect their communities from aggressive enforcement by ICE agents. Legal experts have told Reuters that surveillance of ICE is largely protected under the U.S. Constitution, as long as they do not try to obstruct law enforcement. Apple removed more than 1,700 apps from its App Store in 2024 in response to government demands, but the vast majority – more than 1,300 – came from China, followed by Russia with 171 and South Korea with 79. Over the last three years, the United States does not appear as one of the countries where apps were removed due to government demands, according to company application transparency reports. The company's actions may also lead to further scrutiny over the ties that tech firms have built with the Trump administration during his second term. Since Trump took office, ICE has raided multiple facilities with immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. The agency has also arrested visa holders and permanent U.S. residents targeted by the Trump administration over pro-Palestinian advocacy. Fox Business first reported the app's removal on Thursday, citing a statement by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said the Justice Department contacted Apple to pull the app on Thursday, and that the company complied. "ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed," Bondi said in her statement to Fox Business. Bondi has previously argued that Joshua Aaron, the Texas-based creator of ICEBlock, is "not protected" under the Constitution and that they are looking at prosecuting him, warning him to "watch out." Aaron, in an interview with the BBC, said he was "incredibly disappointed" with Apple's decision, saying it would not affect the security of law enforcement. Aaron did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Apple removes thousands of apps from its app store every year, including more than 82,500 in 2024, for other reasons, including design-related issues, fraud or intellectual property infringement. Shares were down fractionally on Friday. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Anil D'Silva)

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Oct 3 (Reuters) – Indian wireless carrier Vodafone Idea said on Friday it has appointed Tejas Mehta as its chief financial officer, effective October 6. Mehta, who was previously the finance chief at Mondelez India, replaces Murthy Gvas who ends his tenure on October 5. In August, insider Abhijit Kishore replaced CEO Akshaya Moondra as his term ended. (Reporting by Urvi Dugar; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

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LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – South Africa are perceived to have an advantage in their decisive Rugby Championship clash against Argentina in London on Saturday, but captain Siya Kolisi said that was only the case if the performance matched their title ambitions. The game is a home fixture for Argentina, who have decided to play at Twickenham, which is expected to be a sea of green with Springboks supporters hoping their side claim back-to-back trophy wins in the Southern Hemisphere championship. South Africa thumped Argentina 67-30 in Durban last weekend, a result that took them top of the Rugby Championship table. They have 15 points, one more than New Zealand and four ahead of Australia, who meet earlier on Saturday in Perth. South Africa's +55 points difference is considerably better than both New Zealand (-6) and Australia (+1), meaning even a win without a bonus point will be enough, barring the most unlikely of results in Australia. Now, rather than a daunting trip to Buenos Aires, Cordoba or Mendoza, the Springboks will complete their campaign in West London, which has been a happy hunting ground in recent years. "It is only an advantage if we make use of it,” Kolisi told reporters on Friday. “I don’t know if it will be because it doesn’t matter how many Argentines (are in the crowd), you will hear them the whole game.” Argentina have beaten New Zealand (home) and Australia (away) in this campaign, and Kolisi is expecting a backlash from what he said was an ever-improving side. “It’s the fight they have compared to the years before, it is how consistent they have been in the way they play,” Kolisi said. “They have not taken away the Argentine flair and when it (the play) is broken, they take their opportunities. “Against New Zealand and Australia, they were on their own goal-line, but went upfield to score, so you have to be alert at all times.” South Africa can claim a sixth Rugby Championship title and retain the trophy for the first time, but Kolisi said they were not thinking of that yet. “There are a couple of guys playing who have not won the Rugby Championship, so that is in the back of our minds,” he said. “To think about all these records now is not the time, we just want to focus on the performance. “The important thing is to make sure we do the job tomorrow and then later we can reflect on these records.” (Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Ken Ferris)

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* Trump administration supports challengers to the law * Gun rights group and other plaintiffs sued the state By John Kruzel WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a challenge to a Hawaii law restricting the carrying of handguns on private property that is open to the public such as most businesses, giving the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices took up an appeal by three Hawaii residents with concealed carry licenses and a Honolulu-based gun rights advocacy group of a lower court's determination that Hawaii's measure likely complies with the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Hawaii law requires concealed carry licensees to get an owner's consent before bringing a handgun onto private property open to the public. The Supreme Court is due to hear arguments in the case during its new nine-month term that starts on Monday. The plaintiffs sued to challenge Hawaii's restrictions weeks after Democratic Governor Josh Green signed the measure into law in June 2023. The challengers argued among other things that the measure violates their Second Amendment rights. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely ruled against the plaintiffs, prompting their appeal to the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump's administration filed a Supreme Court brief backing the challengers in the case. In a nation bitterly divided over how to address persistent firearms violence including frequent mass shootings, the Supreme Court often has taken an expansive view of Second Amendment protections. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, widened gun rights in three major rulings in 2008, 2010 and most recently in 2022. The plaintiffs have cited that 2022 ruling's holding that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. That landmark 6-3 decision, called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, was powered by the court's six conservatives, over dissents from three liberal justices. The Bruen decision invalidated New York state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home. In doing so, it created a new test for assessing firearms laws, saying that restrictions must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation," not simply advance an important government interest. The court in 2024 ruled 8-1 that a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns satisfied the court's stringent history-and-tradition test. (Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

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U.S. SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR BID BY DELAWARE-REGISTERED COMPANY TO REVIVE $440 MILLION IN JUDGMENTS AGAINST CARNIVAL AND OTHER CRUISE LINES OVER THEIR USE OF CUBAN PORT

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Oct 3 (Reuters) – CleanSpark Inc: * CLEANSPARK RELEASES SEPTEMBER 2025 BITCOIN MINING UPDATE * CLEANSPARK INC: 629 BITCOIN PRODUCED IN SEPTEMBER Source text: Further company coverage:

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CHICAGO, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The following are U.S. expectations for the resumption of grain and soy complex trading at the Chicago Board of Trade at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 GMT) on Friday. WHEAT – Up 1 to 3 cents per bushel * CBOT wheat firmed as the U.S. dollar headed for its worst week since late July, but the U.S. government shutdown cast a bearish tone on the overall market. * A weaker dollar tends to make U.S. exports cheaper and therefore more competitive on the global market. * The Taiwan Flour Millers' Association purchased an estimated 80,550 metric tons of milling wheat to be sourced from the United States in a tender on Thursday, European traders said on Friday. * CBOT December soft red winter wheat was last up 2-1/2 cents at $5.17-1/4 per bushel. K.C. December hard red winter wheat was 2 cents higher at $5.01 per bushel, while Minneapolis December wheat rose 1-1/4 cents to $5.61-3/4 per bushel. CORN – Steady to down 1 cent * Corn futures traded near unchanged on a weaker dollar and beneficial harvest weather. * Warm and dry weather over the U.S. Corn Belt promoted harvest progress over the weekend, and forecasts called for more of the same this week. * Commodity brokerage StoneX on Wednesday lowered its estimate of the average U.S. 2025 corn yield to 185.9 bushels per acre (bpa), down from 186.9 in its previous monthly report released on September 4. * CBOT December corn fell 3/4 cent at $4.21 per bushel. SOYBEANS – Steady to down 1 cent * CBOT soy Chicago soybean futures traded flat to lower after a two-day rally fuelled by hopes that upcoming U.S.-China talks could revive stalled soybean trade. * U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday predicted a "pretty big breakthrough" from the Trump-Xi talks while also flagging U.S. government aid for soybean farmers. * Ignoring the U.S., China has recently ramped up soybean purchases from South America, including a large volume of Argentine soybeans last week during a brief export tax waiver. * CBOT November soybeans were last down 1/4 cent at $10.23-1/2 per bushel. (Reporting by Renee Hickman; Editing by Leroy Leo)

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Oct 3 (Reuters) – Indian states will likely borrow 2.82 trillion rupees ($31.76 billion) via debt in the October-December quarter, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The states have borrowed 5 trillion rupees through debt sales in the first six months of the financial year ending March 2026. ($1 = 88.7860 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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(Repeats with wider coding) SIDOARJO, Indonesia, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The number of students confirmed dead after the collapse of an Islamic school building in Indonesia rose to 13 late on Friday, the country's disaster mitigation agency said, as the search for survivors continued. The Al Khoziny school in the town of Sidoarjo in East Java province caved in on Monday, cratering upon hundreds of teenage students during afternoon prayer, its foundations unable to support ongoing construction work on its upper floors. Thirty ambulances were prepared as rescuers continued looking for 50 students – mostly teenage boys from the ages of 13 to 19 – still trapped under the rubble, the disaster mitigation agency said. Earlier on Friday, the agency reported nine had died, adding that rescuers had received the parents' permission to make use of heavy equipment after failing to find signs of life during previous efforts. "Every family of the victims has given their blessing if the heavy equipment gets in there and disturbs the bodies beneath the rubble," said agency chief Suharyanto, adding that there was a possibility that more dead bodies would be found. Alongside the ambulances were cranes deployed to excavate some of the debris. Rescuers dug through tunnels in the remains of the building, calling out the boys' names and using sensors to detect any movement, but found no signs of life, photos shared by the search and rescue agency showed. Fourteen rescued victims were receiving medical treatment, the disaster agency said. Al Khoziny is an Islamic boarding school known locally as a pesantren. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has a total of about 42,000 pesantren serving 7 million students, according to religious affairs ministry data. (Reporting by Johan Purnomo in Sidoarjo and Stanley Widianto, Ananda Teresia in Jakarta; Editing by David Stanway and Mark Heinrich)

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(Updates death toll to 13 from nine in paragraphs 1, 4) SIDOARJO, Indonesia, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The number of students confirmed dead after the collapse of an Islamic school building in Indonesia rose to 13 late on Friday, the country's disaster mitigation agency said, as the search for survivors continued. The Al Khoziny school in the town of Sidoarjo in East Java province caved in on Monday, cratering upon hundreds of teenage students during afternoon prayer, its foundations unable to support ongoing construction work on its upper floors. Thirty ambulances were prepared as rescuers continued looking for 50 students – mostly teenage boys from the ages of 13 to 19 – still trapped under the rubble, the disaster mitigation agency said. Earlier on Friday, the agency reported nine had died, adding that rescuers had received the parents' permission to make use of heavy equipment after failing to find signs of life during previous efforts. "Every family of the victims has given their blessing if the heavy equipment gets in there and disturbs the bodies beneath the rubble," said agency chief Suharyanto, adding that there was a possibility that more dead bodies would be found. Alongside the ambulances were cranes deployed to excavate some of the debris. Rescuers dug through tunnels in the remains of the building, calling out the boys' names and using sensors to detect any movement, but found no signs of life, photos shared by the search and rescue agency showed. Fourteen rescued victims were receiving medical treatment, the disaster agency said. Al Khoziny is an Islamic boarding school known locally as a pesantren. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has a total of about 42,000 pesantren serving 7 million students, according to religious affairs ministry data. (Reporting by Johan Purnomo in Sidoarjo and Stanley Widianto, Ananda Teresia in Jakarta; Editing by David Stanway and Mark Heinrich)

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