The Supreme Court denied bail to activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who are accused of being part of an alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots. The bench, however, allowed the bail applications of Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Muhammad Saleem Khan.

The bench said that Khalid and Imam can file bail applications after all protected witnesses are examined or after one year. It said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct of the two men was prima facie a terrorist act as defined under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The activists were arrested between January 2020 and September 2020 in connection with the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

The police have claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was planned by those who organised the protests against the amended Act. Read more.

United States Senator Lindsey Graham quoted the Indian ambassador as having told him in a private conversation that India was buying less Russian oil. The ambassador had also urged him to request US President Donald Trump to relax tariffs linked to such imports, Graham added.

The punitive tariffs were introduced as part of Trump’s pressure campaign against countries purchasing discounted oil from Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

In the presence of Trump, Graham told reporters that to end the conflict in Ukraine, the countries buying Russian oil needed to be pressured. “I was at the Indian ambassador’s house about a month ago and all he wanted to talk about is how they’re buying less Russian oil,” Graham said. “‘Would you tell the president to relieve the tariff?’ This stuff works.”

The Congress said that India deserved an independent foreign policy and “not silent submission”. Read on.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington would not play a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela, apart from enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country. The remarks were a turnaround from President Trump’s statement on Saturday that the US would run Venezuela after President Nicolás Maduro was “captured”.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were abducted by the US military in an overnight operation on Saturday. The US has accused Maduro of narco terrorism and drug trafficking, among other crimes – allegations that the Venezuelan government rejects.

Caracas has described the US government’s actions as “military aggression” and has demanded that Maduro and Flores be immediately released.

However, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro ally who has been appointed acting president, on Sunday offered “to collaborate” with Washington, and added that she hoped to build “respectful relations” with Trump. Read more.

Bangladesh’s interim government banned the broadcast of the 2026 season of the Indian Premier League in the country two days after the Kolkata Knight Riders dropped Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman from its squad. The IPL franchise released Rahman from the squad following instructions from the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The decision had come amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka after the killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh in December. In this backdrop, Rahman’s inclusion in the IPL franchise had triggered a controversy, with political parties and spiritual leaders criticising the team’s co-owner and actor Shah Rukh Khan for hiring the player.

Dhaka said that no reason had been communicated for the decision behind Mustafizur’s exclusion, adding that it caused distress among the citizens of Bangladesh. Read more.

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