PM Modi spent Diwali today with security forces in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. These forests were for decades the main base of the Naxals, armed Maoist groups fighting the Indian state.
He said this is the first Diwali when every district of the country is free from Naxalism. The government declared India free of armed Naxalism on 31 March 2026.
He also said that for the first time in 47 years, no CRPF jawan lost their life on duty in the past year. The CRPF is India's largest central armed police force and led much of this fight.
He warned that what he called "dimagi Naxals", people with the same ideas but no guns, have got into political parties and other groups.
Source: thefederal.com/category/stat…
Russia has taken control of Japan Tobacco International's business in Russia. Putin signed a decree on Thursday handing it to a state-linked holding company.
JTI is Russia's biggest cigarette maker. It has about 40% of the market, about 4,000 workers and 4 factories, and sells brands like Winston, Camel and Sobranie there.
Russia calls this "external management". JTI still owns it on paper, but a manager picked by the state now runs it. Moscow says it is a reply to Western sanctions after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It has done the same to Nestle, Auchan, Leroy Merlin and Metro.
It comes after Russia arrested Yuki Imai, a reporter for Japan's Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, on spying charges last month. Japan rejects the charges.
euronews.com/2026/11/05/puti…
Israel: the Arab party Ra'am will back a government led by Gadi Eisenkot even without a signed coalition deal, a senior party member told Haaretz.
Eisenkot, a former army chief, was picked by Israel's president to try to form the next government instead of Netanyahu. His bloc has 48 of the 120 seats in parliament, short of the 61 needed for a majority.
So he is looking at a minority government. Under one plan reported by Ynet, 49 lawmakers would vote for it, Netanyahu's 46 would vote against, and 25 from the Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties would not vote, which lets it take office.
The Joint List, another Arab party, says it will not vote for such a government but will not try to bring it down.
Nothing is agreed yet. The ultra-Orthodox party has not said what it will do.
timesofisrael.com/liveblog-n…
People on Batam, an Indonesian island, say their taps have been dry for months while new AI data centers go up next to their homes.
Data centers are big buildings full of computers that run AI and websites. They need a lot of water to keep the machines cool.
On Monday, residents blocked the road into Nongsa Digital Park, where many of these centers are being built. They say they can not cook or bathe properly.
The city and the water company say the real cause is a long drought with little rain, not the data centers. The authority that runs the park says the centers take their cooling water from a separate supply.
Authorities have now started building a plant that turns sea water into drinking water, and data center builders must bring their own water so homes are not left short.
Should data centers be allowed where water is already short?
Source: japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/1…
Update on the Krakow shooting in Poland: police later found 3 more people dead at the gunman's home. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said they were 2 women and a man, believed to be his relatives.
That takes the dead to 9. 6 people were shot in Krakow's main market square on Saturday afternoon, and 3 were found at his home. At least 15 people were wounded, including 2 police officers.
The attacker is a 25-year-old Polish man. Police shot and wounded him, and he is in custody in hospital. Poland's interior minister said he held far-right, "ultra-nationalistic" views. Police say he acted alone.
Krakow is in official mourning until Wednesday.
Source: CBS News cbsnews.com/news/shooting-ma…
India's defence research agency DRDO test-fired the Pralay missile off the Odisha coast on Thursday, 5 November.
Pralay is a short-range missile made in India. It flies low and can change course in flight, which makes it harder to shoot down. Its range is about 150 to 500 km.
The defence ministry says the test met all its goals and was part of the final trials by the user forces. It says the missile will join service soon.
Source: newsonair.gov.in/drdo-succes…
The Union Cabinet approved a change to the Agnipath scheme on 4 November.
Under Agnipath, young people join the armed forces for 4 years as Agniveers, and only 25% are kept as regular soldiers. The other 75% can now opt for 2 more years of service.
Pay in the extra years is Rs 43,500 a month in the 5th year and Rs 47,500 in the 6th, plus allowances. Defence minister Rajnath Singh called it a "Second Tour of Duty". The extension is not automatic. The Defence Secretary says it depends on how each Agniveer performed in the first 4 years. After it, they get another chance to join regular service, based on merit.
The Agnipath scheme itself stays.
Source: business-standard.com/amp/ex…
India's V. Pranav is the new World Junior Blitz chess champion.
The 20-year-old grandmaster from Chennai scored 10.5 points from 13 games in Al Ain, UAE, one point clear of 3 players tied for second.
Blitz means very fast chess, a few minutes on the clock for each player.
Days earlier he took silver in the rapid event. He was already the world junior champion in classical chess from 2025.
thebridge.in/chess/pranav-ve…
OpenAI has released ChatGPT Images 2.6, its new image model, announced on 4 November.
What changed, the company says:
- Images come out about 50% faster than before.
- It can turn a photo or a prompt into a short animated GIF.
- You can save reference pictures of yourself, your pet or a character and reuse them without uploading them again.
It is rolling out on every ChatGPT plan, on web, desktop and mobile, and inside Codex, OpenAI's coding tool.
For developers there are 2 new API models: GPT-Image-2.6 Flare, built for speed, and GPT-Image-2.6 Sunburst, built for detail and steady edits.
OpenAI says people now make more than 4 billion images a week with its tools.
openai.com/index/introducing…
Russia attacked Kyiv and nearby areas overnight into Saturday with drones and 36 ballistic missiles, President Zelensky said. At least 2 people were killed in strikes across Ukraine that night.
Missiles hit the Northern Bridge, one of the main bridges over the Dnipro river in Kyiv. It is closed in both directions while engineers check it. A kindergarten building and homes were damaged, and power stations around the city were hit again. In Kyiv, at least 5 people were hurt, including a 14-year-old.
The attack came days before Russia, Ukraine and the US meet in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November for talks on ending the war.
Source: rferl.org/a/russia-strikes-k…
China has confirmed it is talking about a meeting between Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The three leaders have never met together before.
China's foreign ministry said only that it "is in communication with relevant parties". Nothing is fixed yet. Reports say the meeting could happen on the side of the APEC summit of Pacific countries in Shenzhen, China, around 18 and 19 November. The Kremlin had said earlier that a three-way meeting was being discussed.
Trump is expected in Shenzhen to meet Xi for the third time this year. The US-China trade truce they agreed runs out in January. Trump has also said he wants to talk to Xi and Putin about limiting nuclear weapons.
Source: nbcnews.com/world/china/chin…
Indian stock markets are closed today for Diwali, except for a short special session.
NSE and BSE hold Muhurat trading this afternoon. Normal buying and selling of shares runs from 2:20pm to 3:30pm India time, after a short pre-open from 2:05pm.
Muhurat means an auspicious time. The session marks the start of Samvat 2083, the new Hindu calendar year that many traders treat as their new financial year. Many people buy a few shares as a token for good luck.
Source: paytmmoney.com/blog/muhurat-…
Not investment advice.
Delhi's air was close to the worst level on the eve of Diwali.
The city's average air quality index (AQI) was 369 on Saturday, in the "very poor" band, a little better than 382 on Friday. AQI runs from 0 to 500, and anything above 400 is "severe", which can harm even healthy people. 16 monitoring stations were already above 400 on Saturday, with IIT Delhi at 452.
The forecast says the air will turn "severe" on Sunday, as Diwali crackers add to vehicle smoke and the peak season of stubble burning in nearby states.
Source: tribuneindia.com/news/delhi/…
Diwali is today, Sunday 8 November.
The main prayer, Lakshmi Puja, is done in the evening. Drik Panchang gives 5:54pm to 7:50pm for New Delhi. Timings change from city to city, so check your local calendar.
Diwali is a 5-day festival this year. It started with Dhanteras on Friday, 6 November, and ends with Bhai Dooj on Tuesday, 10 November.
Happy Diwali.
Source: indianeagle.com/traveldiary/…
Bengaluru police say a cab driver has told them he killed 7 members of his family, including his wife and a 7-year-old boy, over about 2 to 3 weeks.
The case came to light after a relative filed a missing person complaint on 3 November. City police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said that, going by the accused's own statement, he killed 7 relatives including his wife.
The others were his mother-in-law, his wife's two brothers, their wives, and the young son of one of them. Police say the bodies were left at different places outside the city, including near Nandi Hills. As of Saturday's reports, only 1 body had been found and the search for the other 6 was still going on.
Police have not yet said why it happened. The case is with the Rajajinagar police.
Source: onmanorama.com/news/india/20…
Israel's president Isaac Herzog has picked Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, to try to form the next government, instead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The 27 October election gave no side a clear majority. When Herzog asked each party who should lead, the members of parliament backing Eisenkot added up to 67, against 46 for Netanyahu. Parliament has 120 seats, so 61 is a majority.
Eisenkot now has 28 days to put a coalition together, and Herzog can give him 14 more. Some parties that named him have not promised to join his government. If he fails, Herzog can hand the job to someone else, and Netanyahu is seen as the likely next pick. The formal handover is due on Sunday.
aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/7…
An IndiGo flight from Bengaluru to Lucknow turned back on Saturday evening after a handwritten note threatening a hijack was found in the plane's toilet.
The flight, 6E-451, had 178 passengers. The pilot asked for priority landing and the plane was back in Bengaluru about 51 minutes after take-off. The airport declared a full emergency, everyone got off safely, and the plane was moved to an isolated bay, where the CISF and Bengaluru police checked the plane and the bags.
Nothing was found and the threat was declared a hoax. The flight later went on to Lucknow. No one has been named or arrested for writing the note so far.
deccanherald.com/india/karna…
On Saturday, Trump reshared posts on Truth Social that question the result of the Texas Senate race, where Democrat James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton.
One of them was a chart of the Texas vote totals. Trump added his own line to it: "Does anyone believe this at all?"
On election night he told the New York Times he was "absolutely willing to accept those results." In the posts seen so far, he has not said the results were fraudulent.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's midterms.
newsweek.com/donald-trump-mi…
France had another day of protests on Saturday, and police arrested 232 people by 6pm.
The protests are about rising living costs, fuel prices and spending cuts in next year's budget. They came 2 days after a nationwide strike.
Police banned the Yellow Vests rally in central Paris. The Yellow Vests are a protest movement that began in 2018 over fuel prices. The rally went ahead anyway, and two of its leaders were arrested outside the National Assembly, France's parliament.
The government had 70,000 police on duty across the country. In the evening, police fired tear gas and stun grenades in eastern Paris after protesters threw objects at them.
Student unions say about 250,000 people marched across France. The Interior Ministry says about 146,000.
france24.com/en/france/20261…
US forces have disabled a cargo ship that tried to break the US blockade of Iran, the US military says.
US Central Command says the ship, the M/V Huda, sailing under the flag of St Kitts and Nevis, had stopped at an Iranian port and was trying to leave the region through the sea off Oman. The crew ignored repeated warnings. On Saturday a US military aircraft fired precision weapons at the back of the ship, after the crew was told to move away from that part.
The US has not said whether anyone was hurt or how badly the ship was damaged.
Central Command says 147 ships have turned back when told to, and 5 that refused have now been disabled. On the same day, it set up a new task force to stop goods reaching Iran over land.
aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-for…
