Light News (LN)

  A viral youth satirical protest movement, the Cockroach Janta Party, has emerged following exam cancellations last month. India has blocked the Telegram messaging app until Monday and ordered the platform to disable the editing feature on messages already posted, saying the platform has been used to “defraud candidates” and for “paper leaks” regarding upcoming national student examinations. The restriction was issued on Tuesday under a stringent provision of the IT law, which empowers the government to block access to online sites in the interest of India’s “sovereignty and integrity”. Activists said the provision is used to  curb free speech  although Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said it ‌acts in compliance with the law and in the public interest. Last month, the government cancelled a key undergraduate entrance exam for medical schools known as the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) after authorities discovered the questions had been leaked bef...

  Trump questions Netanyahu's methods, says Beirut strike was excessive, and points to Syria’s President as the most “capable” of countering Hezbollah. US President Donald Trump said Benjamin Netanyahu must be “responsible about Lebanon” and let Syria “handle Hezbollah” in comments to reporters at the G7 summit. His remarks came during a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, a mediator in US-Iran talks aimed at reaching a framework deal to end the war. Trump said Hezbollah remains a problem for the region, but suggested that Israel’s response had gone too far and could jeopardise stability in the Middle East. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck a building in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, injuring more than a dozen people and killing three. Israel said the operation targeted a command centre belonging to Hezbollah. The attack came as the US prepared to announce a framework deal to end the war with Tehran. Trump acknowledged that Hezbollah is a p...

Kyiv claimed the attack as retaliation for Russia's intensifying aerial campaign, a day after drones damaged a UNESCO-listed monastery complex in the capital. Russian authorities confirmed the strike caused damage to the facility in the Kapotnya district of southeast Moscow, though no casualties were reported. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced the incident on Russia's state-run Maks platform, saying that "one of the drones damaged a Moscow oil refinery facility" and that there were no injuries. He added that 60 drones targeting Moscow had been intercepted on Tuesday alone — what the TASS state news agency described as one of the largest barrages aimed at the Russian capital this year. Local authorities closed the area around the refinery to traffic following the strike. Zelensky confirmed Ukraine was responsible, framing the operation as a show of long-range force. "This time, the Moscow region felt the reach of Ukraine's long-range capabilities. An oil ...

  The Bureau of Meteorology says forecasts point towards a ‘very strong El Nino event’. Australia’s weather bureau has warned that an  El Nino weather pattern  has formed in the tropical Pacific and could intensify in the second half of the year, becoming one of the strongest in seven decades. The Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement on Tuesday that sea surface temperatures in the region had exceeded El Nino thresholds, and atmospheric indicators also suggested the phenomenon has begun. “Forecasts are pointing towards a strong to very strong El Nino event, based on the extent of warming in the central tropical Pacific,” it said. “Around half of the models indicate this event could peak at levels among the highest observed since 1950.” Forecasters expect the weather to bring excessive rain to the Americas and hot, dry conditions to  Asia , which is already experiencing crop-planting issues, raising concerns about food supplies. According to the bureau, El Nino is...

  Superstar Lionel Messi is back for a sixth World Cup and leads Argentina into their group match debut against Algeria. We might be six days into World Cup 2026, but many purists feel the tournament isn’t truly under way until the defending champions,  Argentina , and their iconic star Lionel Messi, take to the stage. After winning the  Qatar World Cup in 2022  in one of the most dramatic games in history, Argentina begin their quest for a fourth title when they face Algeria in their opening Group J fixture at Kansas City on Tuesday night. Can ageing Argentina win back-to-back World Cup titles? Lionel Scaloni’s side are seeking to become just the third nation ever to defend a World Cup title after Italy (wins in 1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962). This has been a golden era of Argentinian football with Copa America wins either side of their Qatar 2022 success, but nobody is quite sure what we’re going to get from La Albiceleste this time around. Are key players ...

  Analysts say Britain is responding to civil disobedience with unprecedented severity. The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal has  upheld  the government’s decision to proscribe the activist group  Palestine Action  as a “terrorist organisation”, marking the latest chapter in a growing debate about the right to protest in Britain. Palestine Action, founded in 2020, describes itself as a “direct action” movement committed to disrupting companies and institutions it says are complicit in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Its activists have targeted weapons manufacturers and military facilities in the UK mainly through acts of vandalism and property destruction. Supporters say the group belongs to a long British tradition of civil disobedience while critics accuse it of engaging in tactics that cross the line into “terrorism”. The dispute raises a broader question: How has Britain historically treated direct-action movements, and what, if anything, has changed? We loo...