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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States is having productive discussions with Iran and will not launch an attack on the country before the US midterm congressional elections in November — a marked shift from reports earlier this week that the Pentagon had been told to finalise strike plans. "We are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He added that the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect and that oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. "We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd," he said. Reversal in posture The statement comes just a day after...

Air India has suspended all flights to and from Riyadh until October 10, 2026, after Houthi attacks shook Saudi Arabia's airports, making it the first Indian carrier to halt operations on the busy Gulf route. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh has issued an advisory asking all Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia to remain alert. AI2243 turns back mid-air A Delhi–Riyadh service, flight AI2243, was forced to turn back on Thursday after taking off from Delhi and flying over Gujarat and the Arabian Sea, returning to the national capital amid safety concerns in Saudi airspace, according to Economic Times. Air India Express has also suspended its Riyadh services for the same period. The Lufthansa Group went further, suspending its Riyadh flights...

Canadian poet, essayist and classicist Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday in Stockholm. The Academy honoured the 76-year-old "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." The prize carries a cash award of 12 million Swedish kronor, roughly $1.2 million, and will be presented in Stockholm on December 10. A career blending ancient and modern Carson's work defies easy categorisation, moving freely between poetry, prose, essay, translation and drama. Trained as a classical scholar at the University of Toronto and the University of St Andrews, and a teacher at McGill, the...

The average size of monitored wildlife populations around the world has fallen by 73 per cent since 1970, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Report 2026, published on Thursday. The report draws on the Living Planet Index, compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which tracked 35,803 populations of 5,790 vertebrate species — mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — over a 52-year period. The index estimates that populations shrank by an average of about 2.5 per cent per year. Freshwater species hit hardest Freshwater populations fared the worst, declining by an average of 85 per cent, compared with 69 per cent for terrestrial species and 59 per cent for marine species, the index showed. The...

Breaking: At least three first information reports have been filed against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for allegedly assaulting police personnel and obstructing them during the INDIA bloc's protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also been named in the FIRs. The two Congress leaders have been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita covering assault on police personnel, obstruction of government work, pushing and manhandling, and misbehaviour with police personnel, ANI reported. Second set of FIRs linked to the protest The cases follow a tense standoff on Wednesday between police and Opposition MPs, who...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that Direct Benefit Transfers had stopped nearly Rs 5 lakh crore of public money from leaking into "wrong hands", crediting digital governance for plugging one of the largest sources of graft in the country's welfare system. He was speaking at the inauguration of the 10th India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi. The Prime Minister said nearly Rs 50 lakh crore had been transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries through DBT, and that this shift had produced savings of about Rs 5 lakh crore. "Five lakh crore rupees were prevented from falling into the wrong hands. This is no small figure," he said. A defiant tone Mr Modi struck a combative note, saying...

US President Donald Trump has made a fresh public case for the Nobel Peace Prize just before this year's winner is announced, saying it would be 'a great discredit' to the Norwegian Nobel Committee if his record were overlooked. The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize is due to be announced in Oslo on Friday, October 9. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump pointed to his administration's diplomatic interventions and repeated his claim that he has helped settle eight conflicts since returning to the White House. 'I settled eight wars' 'It is about that time,' Trump said of the Nobel announcement. 'I've done stuff that nobody else has ever done. I'm not bragging, I'm just telling you the facts. No president has probably ever...

The Andhra Pradesh government has declared drought across 388 of its 688 mandals in 21 of the state's 26 districts for the South-West Monsoon 2026 Kharif season, following a severe rainfall deficit and prevailing El Nino conditions. A government order was issued by the Revenue (Disaster Management) Department on October 1, well ahead of the usual October 31 deadline for the season's drought declaration. Early declaration, months ahead of deadline Of the 388 drought-affected mandals, 283 have been classified as severely affected and 105 as moderately affected. The high-level Committee on Drought, in a meeting on September 30, recommended the early declaration instead of waiting for the October 31 cutoff under the Centre's Manual for...

Award-winning Kashmiri filmmaker Arfat Sheikh has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Washington Dulles International Airport, according to an advocacy campaign seeking his release — a case that has drawn attention in India and among the Kashmiri-American community. Sheikh, 42, lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and was travelling with author and filmmaker Tara Dorabji to Washington to take part in an "Art as Resistance" panel when ICE agents took him into custody on September 24, shortly after his flight from California landed. What his supporters say The "Free Arfat Sheikh" campaign, launched online by friends, colleagues and family, says Sheikh was detained without a warrant even as he presented his...

Washington's bipartisan leadership in the Senate is pressing the Trump administration to move quickly on a sweeping sanctions law aimed at Russia, warning that slow implementation is giving Moscow room to keep funding its war against Ukraine. In a letter sent late Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the administration must deploy the law's tools without waiting for the formal deadline. "Every day that passes without maximum economic pressure allows Moscow to sustain this military...

The Indian Air Force marked its 94th anniversary on Thursday with a ceremonial parade at the Hindan air base in Ghaziabad, where Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh asserted that the force remains "alert, committed and ready" to meet any contingency amid an uncertain global security environment. Addressing the celebrations, the Air Chief said the IAF had grown into an "exceptional, capable, network-centric and multi-domain force ranked among the finest in the world" over its 94 years. He stressed that operational preparedness — not just sophisticated aircraft — was the true measure of an air force's strength. Operation Sindoor recalled The Air Chief recalled the IAF's operations during last year's Operation Sindoor, saying the world had...

The death toll in the explosion at a firecracker manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar district has risen to 23, officials confirmed, making it one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the region in recent years. District Collector N.O. Sukhaputra told news agency ANI that 19 of the 23 bodies had been identified so far — 16 women and three men. Six injured workers remain in intensive care. The blast ripped through the Vanaja firecracker factory at Kattanarpatti on Sunday, when about 30 workers were engaged in routine manufacturing processes, according to police. Second blast during rescue In a grim twist, a second explosion occurred while rescue teams were working through the debris, injuring around 13 personnel. "While...

In a significant breakthrough in the murder of Punjabi social media influencer and makeup artist Mad Sandhu, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch has arrested a man for his alleged involvement in the killing, according to PTI. The accused, identified in reports as Parminder Singh Kaka, is said to be a close aide of gangster Goldy Dhillon and is believed to be the main shooter in the case. Sources cited by PTC News said the arrest was made in Ahmedabad on Thursday. With this arrest, the number of people in custody in the case stands at three, as police had already rounded up two other accused earlier. The killing Mad Sandhu, whose real name was Madhusudan Sandhu, was shot dead on Loharka Road in Amritsar on Saturday, October 3. Police said two...

The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of a new national apex body for transport planning, the Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA), to bring scattered ministries and agencies under one planning framework. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced on Tuesday by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. ITLA will be set up as a Special Purpose Vehicle, functioning as the apex institution for integrated transport and logistics planning, research, project appraisal, monitoring, policy support and data analytics. What ITLA will do The authority's central job will be preparing a National Transport Master Plan with a planning horizon of ten years or more, covering roads...

The United States has lost or sustained damage to at least 81 military aircraft and drones since the beginning of the war in Iran earlier this year, at a cost of nearly $3.3 billion, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The report, titled "US Aircraft Combat Damage in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress" and dated October 5, nearly doubles the 42 aircraft the same service counted in May. It offers one of the most detailed public assessments yet of the toll on American air power. What was lost The tally includes 12 F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, one F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter, two A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft, seven KC-135 aerial refuelling tankers and 45 MQ-9...

India and Italy have reiterated their condemnation of the "heinous terrorist attack" in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, and agreed to strengthen cooperation against terrorism, organised crime and the financing of terror networks during two days of talks in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The 6th meeting of the India-Italy Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime was held on October 6, followed by the 2nd meeting of the India-Italy Permanent Task Force on Countering Financing of Terrorism on October 7. The meetings were co-chaired by Suhel Ajaz Khan, Additional Secretary (Counter Terrorism) at the Ministry of External Affairs, and Paolo Mari, Joint Secretary for G7-G20, Transnational...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the 10th edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi, formally opening the four-day flagship event of the country's telecom and digital technology sector. Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia felicitated the Prime Minister on his arrival. Addressing the gathering, Scindia underlined the Prime Minister's long-stated vision of taking technology to every village and every citizen. He said the journey of the past decade had reshaped the economics of connectivity: one GB of mobile data, which cost Rs 268 in 2014, now costs about Rs 8 — the cheapest data rates in the world. Average monthly data usage per customer, he said, had grown roughly 140...

The directive The Pentagon has instructed US Central Command to finalise preparations for a potential resumption of major combat operations against Iran, according to an Axios report cited by Business Today on October 8. The report stresses that no specific launch date has been set and that President Donald Trump has not made a final decision on whether to order strikes. Trump rules out a deal At a campaign rally in San Antonio on October 6, Trump said he is no longer interested in striking a deal with Tehran — while acknowledging that his administration's diplomatic efforts had been making progress. He said special envoy Steve Witkoff had been leading those efforts and was "doing very well". Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister...

The loss Rupi Soren, the mother of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and wife of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha founder Shibu Soren, died at a private hospital in Ranchi on Wednesday evening. She was 80. Dr Nitesh Priya, director of the Hill View Hospital and Research Centre, told news agency PTI that she died around 8.30 pm after being put on ventilator support earlier in the day. She had been admitted to the hospital on September 18 with breathing difficulty and was battling multiple complications under constant monitoring by a team of doctors. A pillar of the Soren family Rupi Soren stood beside Shibu Soren through decades of his political and social struggle during the Jharkhand movement, marrying him on January 1, 1962 and shouldering...

The Trump administration has begun direct talks with Myanmar's military-installed government, a sharp reversal of Washington's policy of isolating the junta since the 2021 coup, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing US officials and others familiar with the outreach. Highest-level contact since the coup US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Michael Vance led the outreach, a role in Myanmar policy that had not previously been reported. Vance joined talks with coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyitaw on September 15–16 — the highest-level US contact since the coup. The meeting aimed at securing the release of American businessman Adam Castillo, detained at Yangon airport on June 11...