Breaking News highlights: Pleas filed in SC against Waqf Act for 'violating' Constitution

US tells World Food Programme, other partners it's ending some USAID contracts providing lifesaving aid, officials tell AP

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Monday he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the early conclusion of a bilateral trade deal, adding that they had agreed on its importance.

Jaishankar spoke in a post on X.

Canada has launched a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the steep tariff imposed on car imports by US President Donald Trump, the global trade body said Monday.

Kolkata: Police detain teachers heading to state secretariat with their job demands in Nabanna

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke out strongly against the Supreme Court verdict cancelling jobs of nearly 26,000 teachers in the state, saying that she hasn't accepted the ruling.

"Please don't consider that we have accepted it... we are not stone-hearted, and I can even be jailed for saying this, but I don't care," she said while addressing the sacked teachers in Kolkata. Read more

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday met Union Minister Kiren Rijiju at Asia's largest Tulip Garden here, a meeting which drew flak from opposition parties which dubbed it as "Waqf law bonhomie".

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was also present during the meeting.

The opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) and Peoples' Conference targeted the ruling National Conference over the meeting, and accused it of surrendering to the BJP without even a pretence over the passage of the Waqf act.

India may still meet its 6.3%-6.8% growth projection for the 2025/26 fiscal year that started on April 1 despite global disruptions from new U.S. tariffs, if oil prices stay below $70 per barrel, government officials said, even as many private economists lowered their forecasts.

Economists, including at Goldman Sachs, have lowered India's growth estimates by 20-40 basis points to 6.1% for the current 2025/26 financial year, citing the impact of the global tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A 26% tariff on Indian imports, with even higher levies on other countries like China, has escalated global trade tensions, with major stock indices plunging in Asia on Monday.

Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50 per cent of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land.

The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability, according to Israeli soldiers and rights groups. This military buffer zone has doubled in size in recent weeks.

Israel has depicted its tightening grip as a temporary necessity to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, attack that started the war.

Securitisation volumes in FY25 increased 24 per cent to hit the highest level of Rs 2.35 lakh crore, a report said on Monday.

The volumes of securitisation, which involves passing on future receivables on a loan to address upfront liquidity needs, were lower in the fourth quarter at Rs 58,000 crore as against Rs 63,000 crore and Rs 70,000 crore recorded in the preceding two quarters, as per the report by rating agency Crisil.

The jump in FY25 volumes was driven by large deals originated by private sector banks and also non-bank finance companies, it said.

The operator of online encyclopedia Wikipedia has challenged a New Delhi court's order to remove statements deemed defamatory from its page on a domestic news website, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

Last week's Delhi High Court ruling came after Indian news agency ANI sued the U.S. platform last year, citing a Wikipedia description that it faced criticism for being a government "propaganda tool" and sought removal of such statements.

Wikipedia's operator, Wikimedia, has sought an appeal before a larger panel of judges of the same court, said the two sources, who sought anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has approached the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash an FIR lodged against him by the city police for allegedly passing a "traitor" jibe at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

His counsel Navroz Seervai mentioned the petition before a bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and S M Modak on Monday, seeking urgent hearing.

Seervai informed the bench that Kamra has got interim relief from the Madras High Court till Monday, but despite that the Mumbai police keep issuing him summons to appear before them. The bench said it would hear the plea on Tuesday.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday joined the ongoing 'Palayan Roko, Naukri Do' padyatra of the Congress in Bihar's Begusarai district.

Clad in a white T-shirt, Gandhi participated in the padyatra in Begusarai town and was accompanied by several party leaders, including Kanhaiya Kumar and state party president Rajesh Kumar.

A large number of leaders and workers of the Congress and its student and youth wings, carrying party flags and placards demanding the immediate filling-up of vacancies in defence forces, also took part in the padyatra.

• Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking the quashing of an FIR lodged against him in Mumbai over alleged derogatory remarks directed at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
• Earlier, the Madras High Court had granted Kamra interim anticipatory bail, observing that he was unable to approach courts in Maharashtra due to threats of physical harm from political party supporters. However, the interim protection from arrest granted by the court is set to expire today.

Ruckus in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly as NC (National Conference) MLAs protest against the Speaker for not allowing their adjournment motion on the Waqf Amendment Act

Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said, "...I have seen the rules and as per Rule 58, no matter which is sub-judice can be brought up for adjournment. Since this issue is in the Supreme Court and I have got a copy of it, the rule clearly says that we cannot discuss through an adjournment motion.

On rucks in Assembly over Waqf Amendment Bill, JKNC MLA Tanvir Sadiq says, "...This is a very emotional and sensitive issue for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a Muslim-majority state. We are not challenging the authority of the Parliament, but we want to express our sentiments. If we do not put our point in the assembly, then where will we put it? ...As per the law, we were asking for an adjournment motion and we will stick to it until the Speaker accepts our motions and allows discussion on it..."

Rahul Gandhi joins NSUI's 'Palayan Roko Naukri Do' Yatra in Begusarai

Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi joins NSUI's 'Palayan Roko Naukri Do' Yatra in Begusarai.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to meet the teachers who lost their job as Supreme Court upholds Calcutta HC order to cancel the appointment of over 25,000 staff in Bengal schools by SSC

Outside the venue of the meeting, a teacher Yasmin Parveen says, "We have hopes from the CM. We fulfilled all the procedures to get the job. After being employed for 7 years, we are now unemployed. We need nothing but our jobs back..."

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches on Samajwadi Party leader and former MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari in a Rs 700 crore bank fraud case. The agency is carrying out searches at 10 locations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai. Vinay Shankar Tiwari is Promtor of Gangotri Enterprises, a firm involved in taking government contracts: ED

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, will join the party's ongoing 'Palayan Roko, Naukri Do' padyatra in Bihar's Begusarai district on Monday.

Later in the day, he will return to Patna from Begusarai to address the 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan' (Save the Constitution Symposium). After that he will visit Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Congress office in Patna, to address party workers.

This will be Gandhi's third Bihar tour since January, when he had urged party workers to "inflict an ideological defeat" on the BJP in the assembly polls due later this year.

Over 73,000 properties claimed by Waqf boards are currently under dispute across India, as per data by Waqf Assets Management System Of India (WAMSI) under the ministry of minority affairs.

According to the database, Waqf boards have nearly 8.7 lakh immovable properties across 30 states and Union Territories. Read more

Stocks in Asia slumped, with a key benchmark sliding by the most in over 16 years, as Chinese shares led a broad and deep selloff on worry over the trade war’s impact on the global economy.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell as much as 7.9%, the most since October 2008, with TSMC, Tencent and Sony among the biggest drags. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged as much as 10.7%, the worst since the global financial crisis. Every market was solidly in the red. Read more

President Droupadi Murmu arrived in Lisbon on Sunday for the first leg of her four-day State Visit to Portugal and the Slovak Republic, marking the first such visit in nearly three decades.

The President was received at the military airbase of Figo Maduro by the Ambassador of India in Portugal Puneet R Kundal and the Ambassador of Portugal in India Joao Ribeiro de Almedia.

Her visit comes at a time of significant global economic change, with trade tariffs recently imposed by the United States reshaping international commerce and India’s growing engagement with Europe.

Dominican president Luis Abinader announced on Sunday a series of border security reinforcements and migration controls towards neighboring Haiti.

The 15 new measures will include accelerating the construction of the border wall that separate the two countries and adding 1500 additional soldiers for border surveillance, president Abinader said in a press conference.

The Dominican government will also pursue legal reforms to toughen penalties for those who facilitate the entry and stay of migrants.

A Palestinian teenager with U.S. citizenship was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it shot a "terrorist" who endangered civilians by hurling rocks.

The incident is the latest in a surge of violence and near-daily confrontations in the volatile West Bank, where settler violence and clashes between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians have kept it on edge.

The mayor of Turmus Ayya, Adeeb Lafi, told Reuters earlier in the day that Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler at the entrance to Turmus Ayya and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him.