Venezuelans searched for survivors beneath collapsed buildings and rescue teams raced to northern areas rocked by a pair of powerful earthquakes that officials say killed at least 188 people and left more than 200 trapped. More were feared dead from the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck Wednesday (June 24, 2026) evening — among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century and felt throughout the region. Some 1,500 people were injured, thousands were reported missing and buildings were evacuated as far away as Brazil’s Amazon.
The Union government restored the supply of industrial and commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to pre-crisis levels and withdrew all sector-specific allocation caps that had been imposed at the peak of the West Asia crisis, citing an improved supply situation. In addition to this, bulk LPG consumers will be allotted 50% of their pre-crisis consumption requirements. Supplies had been suspended at the onset of the crisis.
The application fee for an ordinary fresh passport containing 36 pages has been hiked from ₹1,500 to ₹2,500, as the Union government revised the passport fee structure through an amendment to the Passports Rules, 1980. The new rules will come into effect from July 1. According to a notification dated June 20, and published by the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday (June 25, 2026), the reissue of a 36-page passport will also cost ₹2,500, while a tatkal application for a fresh or reissued passport will cost ₹5,000 as opposed to the current ₹3,500 rate.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in Ayodhya based on a complaint from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust against eight individuals and unknown persons, including Ramashankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Manish Yadav, Luvkush Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Rama Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, Anukalp Mishra and Avinash Shukla on charges of embezzlement, fraud, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust over missing donations in the Ram Temple Trust. Reacting to the FIR, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav described it as a glimpse of injustice, adding powerful culprits would be protected.
Recurring examination irregularities are evidence of a massive institutional failure, senior Congress leader and president of the party’s Assam unit Gaurav Gogoi said, announcing the launch of ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’, a 40-day nationwide campaign to highlight issues affecting students. Mr. Gogoi said repeated instances of paper leaks and disruptions had created a perception among students that the problem was “systemic” rather than the fault of a few individuals.
The Union Health Ministry has notified amendments to the Drugs Rules, 1945, to expand the ambit of Schedule H2 and bring additional categories of drugs under the QR code-based track-and-trace framework. With this amendment, manufacturers of these drug formulations will be required to print or affix a bar code or Quick Response (QR) code on the primary packaging label of the product or, where there is inadequate space, on the secondary packaging label. The QR code shall store information that can be accessed through software applications to facilitate authentication and verification of the product throughout the supply chain.
Prices of essentials such as rice, petrol, and cooking gas have spiralled in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district over the last month, due to a severe economic blockade being imposed since May 13, when three Thadou pastors were killed in the Kuki-dominated district. The blockade is so severe that Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen, who represents Kangpokpi in the Manipur Assembly, is yet to travel to the State capital Imphal since the elected government was restored after President’s Rule was revoked. Four months after she took oath, she still virtually attends the meetings called by Chief Minister Y. Khemchand Singh in Imphal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Emergency was a direct assault on the Constitution as the period witnessed the suspension of civil liberties, curbs on freedom of expression, and an assault on institutions that are the bedrock of Indian democracy. In a post on X on the 51st anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency, Mr. Modi paid homage to all those who steadfastly defended democratic values during “one of the darkest chapters in India’s history”.
Amid the ongoing controversy over an objectionable video, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said a conspiracy has been hatched to malign his image on religious grounds, even as Opposition parties accused the Chief Minister of misleading the people of Punjab with diversionary statements. Mr. Mann claimed a Canada-based person, whom he identified as Jagman Samra, had used a mask resembling his face to create the fabricated video.
Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, respectively, seeking the withdrawal of the recently notified Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2026, arguing that the changes will adversely affect the functioning of civil society organisations. The new rules, notified on June 22, require non-government organisations (NGOs) to register under one of five categories — social, economic, educational, cultural, and religious — with separate activity lists prescribed for each.
India has initiated an anti-dumping probe against imports of three products from China, following separate complaints by domestic manufacturers, according to a Commerce Ministry notification. The products are thermal paper, Biaxially Oriented Polyamide (BOPA) film, and certain antioxidants. Four other countries are also involved in the probe — Korea, Singapore, the U.S., and Thailand.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned T. Veena, daughter of Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan, for the second time at its zonal office here in connection with the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) pay‑off case. The agency summoned her for questioning after it obtained copies of 134 documents collected by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which had investigated the alleged fictitious expenses submitted by the CMRL before the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board.
Indicative of a potential revival in energy cooperation, Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri met his Iranian counterpart Mohsen Paknejad on the sidelines of the BRICS Energy Ministers’ Meeting. India had halted purchases of crude from Tehran in 2019 following U.S. sanctions. According to data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea, India purchased 518 thousand barrel per day of Iranian oil in 2018 which slowed down to 268 thousand barrel per day between January and May 2019 when the U.S. granted a temporary waiver.
The death toll in the Kolkata warehouse collapse increased to 11 and 19 injured were undergoing treatment in the State-run SSKM Hospital. Three minors, 17-year-old workers were among the 11 deceased, from West Bengal and Bihar. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and ₹1 lakh to the injured. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh to the kin of those who lost their lives and ₹50,000 to the injured.
The State will not be burdened with any tariff revision, including the annual revision of 3.57% this year, said Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister R. Nirmalkumar. Mr. Nirmalkumar, while presenting a White Paper on the status of the Tamil Nadu electricity department, said the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL), Tamil Nadu Power Generation Corporation Limited (TNPGCL), Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation Limited (TNGECL), and TANTRANSCO have sustained heavy losses, with the total debt of the four corporations standing at ₹2.47 lakh crore.
Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the exclusion of passports as proof of citizenship during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, even as he maintained that the move has left many electors apprehensive of being rendered “stateless in their own country”. Citing provisions of the law, Mr Owaisi said passports were issued only to Indian citizens after mandatory police verification. “The Telangana Police received the first prize, by the DGP, for completing police verification in four days. Yet a passport is not proof. Aadhaar is not proof. Voter ID is not proof. What is the proof then?” he asked.
Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana arrived at a historic consensus to safeguard the interests of farmers dependent on the Tungabhadra river basin, as the newly-replaced 33 spillway gates of the Tungabhadra reservoir were formally inaugurated at Hosapete in Vijayanagara district. Addressing a gathering at Munirabad in neighbouring Koppal district, after the inauguration of the newly-installed spillway gates, Mr. Shivakumar said the three States had held extensive discussions on issues concerning the reservoir, and the larger interests of farmers in the command area.
Three more women died, taking the death toll in the ammonia gas leak at a seafood processing and export facility in Tiruvallur district to 13, according to a bulletin issued by the Health department. The victims were identified as Rita Juanga, Sumithra and Pinki Juanga of Odisha. Currently, 43 persons - 42 women and one man - are undergoing treatment. Of them, 14 patients are on ventilator support, 21 are receiving nasal oxygen and eight patients are stable. A total of 27 persons have been discharged so far.
The biggest casualty of the U.S.-Iran deal may not be Israel’s Iran strategy, but the political brand Benjamin Netanyahu spent decades building as the Israeli leader who could uniquely bend Washington to his will on Iran, analysts, former U.S. officials and diplomats say. Mr. Netanyahu shaped his political identity on an audacious assertion: that he alone could keep the U.S. and Israel in strategic lockstep on Iran. Cultivating Republican support, he cast himself as the only Israeli leader capable of influencing successive U.S. presidents and insisted that only sustained military pressure could contain Tehran.
Top tennis players at Wimbledon will extend their protest over prize money by limiting their media appearances at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament next week. The decision means the players will only talk to media for 15 minutes after each match during the first week of the tournament. The protest began at this year’s French Open where players complained that the total prize money only made up 14.3% of the clay-court tournament’s revenue.
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