India Gate is engulfed in a layer of smog on Monday, October 20, 2025, in New Delhi. Photo credit: PTI
Delhi’s air quality plummets on Deepavali
Air quality in Delhi plummeted on Monday (Oct 20, 2025), Deepavali afternoon, as pollution levels at 31 out of 38 monitoring stations were reported as “very poor” and “severe” at three stations. According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) SAMEER application, Delhi recorded an overall AQI of 334 at noon, compared to 339 at 9 a.m. 31 monitoring stations reported air quality in the ‘very poor’ category with AQI levels above 300, while three stations – Anand Vihar (402), Wazirpur (42) – Ashirpur pollution (42) be in the “severe” category. Air quality is expected to further deteriorate to “severe” on Tuesday (October 21, 2025) and Wednesday (October 22, 2025).
Trump says India will pay “massive tariffs” if it continues to buy Russian oil
US President Donald Trump said India would pay “massive tariffs” if it continued to buy oil from Russia and reiterated that he had received assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that New Delhi would stop oil purchases from Moscow. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday (October 19, 2025), Mr Trump said India “will continue to pay massive tariffs” if they don’t stop buying oil from Russia, adding that “they (India) don’t want to do that.”
Bihar assembly polls: RJD releases list of 143 candidates, 24 of whom are women
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday (October 20, 2025) released the names of all 143 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, five of whom would eventually contest against candidates from the other INDIA bloc electorates. Out of 143 parties, it fielded 24 female candidates and 16 Muslim candidates. The list was published a few hours before the submission of nomination papers for the second and final phase was due to end. It paid off to rumors that the RJD was set to contest the Kutumba seat currently held by state Congress president Rajesh Kumar Ram, leading to a full-fledged clash between the two allies.
23 Indians rescued from burning LPG tanker off Yemen coast
Twenty-three Indian crew members aboard the MV Falcon, which caught fire and was adrift after an explosion off the coast of Yemen, have been rescued and safely handed over to the Djibouti Coast Guard. The Cameroon-bound vessel MV Falcon, which was sailing southeast of the Yemeni port of Aden bound for Djibouti, caught fire after an explosion on board on Saturday (October 18, 2025). The container was fully filled with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Many websites and applications go down as Amazon AWS reports a global outage
Amazon’s cloud services unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) was hit by an outage on Monday (October 20, 2025), causing connectivity issues for many companies around the world and disrupting services for several popular websites and apps, including Fortnite and Snapchat.
Congress releases another list of 6 candidates for Bihar polls; 60 names declared so far
The Congress on Monday (October 20, 2025) released another list of six candidates for the Bihar assembly polls, taking the total number of candidates announced by the party to 60. The Congress list was announced after midnight, even as the formal seat-sharing agreement mentioned a Mahagathbandhan with the RJD and the Congress understanding both major constitutions.
JMM says it won’t contest, blames Congress-RJD “political conspiracy” for decision
Jharkhand’s JMM decision on Monday (Oct 20, 2025) announced that it will not contest the assembly elections in neighboring Bihar, saying the decision was taken as a result of a “political conspiracy” by its allies RJD and Congress to deprive it of seats in the Mahagathbandhan.
Louvre casts nation in ‘deplorable’ light, says French government
The theft of jewels from Paris’s Louvre museum has cast France in a “sad” light, Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said on Monday (20 October 2025), as opposition politicians criticized the government for what they called a national humiliation. Thieves broke into the Louvre, one of the world’s most famous museums, on Sunday (October 19th), using a crane to smash an upstairs window before stealing valuables from the area where France’s crown jewels are located before fleeing on motorbikes.
Zelenskyy says ready to join Putin and Trump at Budapest summit if invited
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be ready to join Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump at their summit in Hungary if invited. Trump and Putin have said they will meet in the Hungarian capital, possibly within weeks, as the US leader continues to try to broker a peace deal to end the three-and-a-half-year war sparked by a 2022 Russian invasion.
Published – 20 Oct 2025 18:04 IST
