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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would be prepared to use every weapon in its arsenal — including nuclear weapons — if the country's territory were to come under direct attack, with Kaliningrad named as the focal point of the warning. Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow on October 1, Putin repeated Moscow's long-stated position that Russia has no plans to attack European countries, but said talk in Europe of preparing for war with Russia in the coming years amounted to escalation. He pointed to military drills in the Baltic Sea and the seizure of Russian vessels as examples. The Kaliningrad warning Putin's remarks followed a warning to NATO from Russian embassies in Europe this week that...

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar staged a five-hour sit-in outside the office of the state's Chief Electoral Officer on Thursday, demanding a criminal investigation into what he alleged was a large-scale scheme to delete eligible voters' names through bulk filing of Form 7 applications during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Joined by Cabinet colleagues, legislators and party leaders, Shivakumar first submitted a memorandum to Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbukumar and then began the protest on the steps of the CEO's office in Gandhinagar, saying the agitation would continue until a criminal case was registered. What the Chief Minister alleged Shivakumar alleged that pre-filled Form 7...

The Congress on Thursday announced five candidates for the October 23 Bihar Legislative Council polls, setting up a direct contest with ally RJD in three of the eight seats going to the vote. The eight seats — four graduates' constituencies and four teachers' constituencies — see their terms expire on November 16. The Congress list, approved by general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, was released by the party's central election committee. Among the names, former state president Madan Mohan Jha will contest from the Darbhanga Teachers' seat and Sanjay Yadav from the Patna Teachers' seat — both constituencies the RJD has chosen not to contest. But in the graduates' constituencies, the two allies collide: the Congress has fielded...

Canara Bank has opened online registration for 3,500 Graduate Apprentice training seats for the financial year 2026-27, giving fresh graduates a new route into the banking sector without a written examination. Registration opened on October 1, 2026, on the bank's official website, and candidates can apply until October 17, 2026. The apprenticeship is governed by the Apprentices Act, 1961, and runs for 12 months with a monthly stipend of Rs 16,650. Eligibility criteria Graduates who completed their degree between January 1, 2023 and September 1, 2026 are eligible to apply. Applicants must be between 20 and 28 years of age as of September 1, 2026. Selection will be merit-based, using marks obtained in Class 12 or diploma courses —...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday tapped Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk to co-lead a new Pentagon initiative studying the future of warfare — marking Musk's first official return to the administration's fold since he left the Department of Government Efficiency last year. Hegseth announced "Project Meridian" during a "State of the Force" address to junior officers and enlisted leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on September 30, according to reports by CNBC, Fox News and TechCrunch. Musk will co-lead the 120-day study alongside Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich, operating under the supervision of Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael. Mapping the...

Eight students from a Pune coaching institute drowned at Diveagar beach in Maharashtra's Raigad district on Thursday, after they entered the sea during a picnic outing and were swept away by the current, police said. The students, from Classes XI and XII of Winners Academy in Alandi near Pune, had gone to the popular Konkan beach as part of a 48-member group that included 25 boys, 17 girls and six teachers, according to police. The group appears to have misjudged the depth and strength of the water, and eight of the students were pulled in by the current. All eight bodies were later recovered. Rescue and response Local police and disaster-response teams rushed to the spot after the incident was reported. The drowned students were...

Iranian officials said on October 1 that Tehran has received an official US response to its latest proposal to end the seven-month war, days after US President Donald Trump publicly rejected the Iranian offer. According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the US response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said. "We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people," Pezeshkian said. "The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy." Iranian officials did not disclose what the response contained or whether it amounted to a rejection. What the proposal covers...

The Calcutta High Court on October 1 extended interim protection from coercive action for Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra till January 29, 2027, in the alleged hate-speech case being investigated by the West Bengal police. A single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya passed the order, continuing the shield that bars the police from taking coercive steps against the Krishnanagar MP while the probe remains underway. The court fixed January 13, 2027 as the next date of hearing in the matter. Background of the case The case stems from a complaint lodged by a BJP worker over a Facebook live broadcast by Moitra on June 15, which allegedly hurt the religious sentiments of a community. Moitra has moved the court seeking quashing...

British counter-terrorism police have arrested a 27-year-old dual UK-Iranian national in Westminster on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts, marking the sixth arrest in the investigation into a suspected terror plot near RAF Fairford. The man was arrested in Westminster on October 1, with Counter Terrorism Policing officers searching two properties in the London area. A 26-year-old UK national was also questioned under caution at a north London police station and has been released pending further enquiries. The Fairford investigation so far The arrests follow a major counter-terrorism operation around RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a US Air Force base, where five British nationals in their mid-20s were detained over the...

Delhi woke up to its most polluted start to October in four years on Thursday, with the city's average Air Quality Index settling at 166 and falling into the "moderate" category. The reading comes from Central Pollution Control Board data and marks the worst October 1 for the national capital since 2022, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The AQI of 166 sits in the moderate band (101 to 200) under CPCB classification. The last time Delhi recorded a higher AQI on October 1 was in 2022, when the index stood at 186, also in the moderate category. Most stations in 'moderate', five hit 'poor' Of Delhi's 44 monitoring stations, 37 recorded "moderate" air quality while five slipped into the "poor"...

The US State Department has revoked more than 250,000 visas since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the department announced, putting a number on the administration's sweeping crackdown on immigration and tougher entry screening. The milestone figure, disclosed by State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott, marks a sharp escalation of the administration's continuous vetting of foreign nationals who have already been granted permission to travel to the United States. Why visas are being cancelled According to the department, the revocations cover a wide range of cases: violations of visa conditions, criminal activity, calls for violence against the United States or Americans, defrauding Americans, abuse of...

A medical helicopter carrying five people crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island on Wednesday evening, killing two people, hospitalising two others and leaving a fifth person unaccounted for, local authorities said. The Airbus H-135 aircraft, registered to REACH Air Medical Services according to Federal Aviation Administration records, went down in the water near Pebbly Beach shortly after taking off from the island at about 7:50 pm local time on September 30. The helicopter was bound for the Southern California mainland. Of the five people on board, four were recovered from the water, the US Coast Guard said. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two were taken to hospitals on the mainland in stable...

Paris — French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's office held a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon as student protests against staff shortages and dilapidated buildings escalated into violence, with attackers dousing a headteacher in petrol and setting fires at schools. Ministers were asked to cancel planned official trips so the government could focus on the demonstrations, Reuters reported. What happened On Thursday, a headteacher at the Victor Hugo high school in Marseille was doused in petrol and suffered injuries, the prosecutor's office said, without giving further details. In a separate incident, hundreds of young people surrounded a fire truck that had arrived to fight a blaze at Marseille's Saint-Exupery high school...

New Delhi — The Supreme Court of India has released its recruitment notification for 250 tentative vacancies of Junior Court Assistant, opening one of the most sought-after government job windows of the year. The notification, issued under Advertisement No. F.6/2026-SC (RC) on September 30, 2026, classifies the post as Group-B Non-Gazetted in the Level 6 pay scale of the Pay Matrix. How and when to apply The online application process begins on October 7, 2026, and candidates can submit their forms up to 11:55 pm on October 28, 2026. The Objective Type Test is tentatively scheduled for November 20, 2026. Applications must be filed online, and the fee is Rs 1,500 for General and OBC candidates and Rs 750 for SC, ST, Ex-Servicemen and...

A Russian drone struck the grounds of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv this week, causing a fire but leaving the facility's test reactor undamaged, Ukraine's nuclear safety watchdog said on Thursday. What happened "On September 30, 2026 at 6:18 pm Kyiv time, a Russian drone struck the territory of the Institute for Nuclear Research, where the Kyiv Research Reactor is located," the regulator said in a statement. The resulting fire was quickly extinguished, there were no injuries, and the reactor was not damaged, it added. The regulator did not say where exactly on the site the drone landed or release imagery of the attack. The research reactor at the site has a capacity of around 10 megawatts — about a hundredth of a...

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has announced that the state will honour Flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar with the 'Vishisht Gujarat Garima Award' for the courage he showed during a mid-air crisis on a Dubai–Tel Aviv flight. The state government will also give the pilot a Rs 25 lakh cash reward in recognition of his actions. Patel made the announcement on Thursday in a post on X, saying Machchhar's bravery had drawn praise from across the world and describing his conduct as extremely inspiring and commendable. Noting that the pilot has Gujarati roots, the chief minister said Machchhar had made both Gujarat and the country proud, and added that people across the state were praying for his speedy recovery. Sources in the Chief...

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered a halt to executions in the state after officials failed to carry out the lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived two doses of the lethal drug on Wednesday. Pike, 50, was given two doses of pentobarbital during the scheduled execution. According to her attorneys, she remained alive — still with a heartbeat and snoring — and was transported by ambulance to a hospital. Her attorneys said the state had not informed them of her condition as of Thursday. A scheduled execution that fell apart The execution had been set for 10 a.m. Wednesday. About an hour before it was due to begin, a federal appeals court halted it, but the US Supreme Court overturned that stay hours later...

US President Donald Trump had an unusual introduction for Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a White House interaction on Tuesday, calling the Indian-origin tech executive a "monster" before turning the moment into a playful lesson in name pronunciation. The exchange took place as Trump invited Pichai to address reporters following a White House gathering of leading technology executives focused on artificial intelligence. The "monster" moment "Sundar, you want to say something?" Trump asked. As Pichai began with "First of all, thanks—", the president cut in with his own introduction. "This guy is a monster, and nobody knows him. What a great life! To be a monster and not have to go through this," Trump said. "All you have to know is —...

State-owned oil marketing companies raised the price of commercial LPG cylinders by Rs 62.50 per 19-kg cylinder and increased aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by Rs 16 a litre, effective Thursday, citing firming international benchmark prices. The revision takes ATF for domestic airlines to Rs 137 a litre from Rs 121 a litre. It is the third straight monthly increase for jet fuel, after a Rs 6.28-a-litre (5.46 per cent) rise in September and a Rs 5-a-litre increase in August. Jet fuel accounts for up to 40 per cent of an airline's operating costs, making fuel prices a key component of carriers' expenses. Commercial LPG — used by hotels, restaurants and small businesses — was raised by Rs 9.50 in September. That followed cuts of Rs 192 in...

Washington — The US Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear a dispute over the Trump administration's policy subjecting immigrants in the United States illegally to mandatory detention during their deportation proceedings, setting up a major test of the president's hardline immigration agenda. The justices took up the administration's appeal of a lower-court ruling against the policy, with the case to be heard in the court's new term that begins on Monday, Reuters reported. What the policy does The US Department of Homeland Security in July 2025 issued new guidance telling federal immigration officials that immigrants in the country illegally are subject to mandatory detention without a bond hearing for the duration of their...