Quick Reads
News Dabba for 26 June 2025: Five stories for a balanced news diet
Here are the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites.
Indie Journal brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from India refusing to sign draft statement at SCO meet, black box data downloaded in Air India crash probe, to China floods.
India refuses to sign draft statement at SCO meet over Pakistan silence on Pahalgam, Indian Express
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has refused to sign the draft statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting after the document omitted the reference to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which killed 26 people, government sources confirmed to The Indian Express. The sources added that the document, however, mentioned the Jaffar Express hijacking in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army in March, indicating the general unrest in Balochistan. As per the report, government sources said no joint statement was issued because the defence minister refused to sign the draft statement, which represented India’s position on the absence of a common standard for terrorism. Read the full report here.
Black box data downloaded in Air India crash probe breakthrough, India Today reports
In a big breakthrough, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday recovered, downloaded and began analysing the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR)—crucial for piecing together the reasons behind the June 12 crash that killed 275 people, India Today reports. This comes after the black box of Air India 171 was brought from Ahmedabad to Delhi on June 24, the government said on Thursday. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences. Additionally, the report adds that the Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on June 25, the memory module was successfully accessed, and its data subsequently downloaded. Read the full report here.
Six dead, thousands displaced as floods hit southwestern China, Al Jazeera reports
At least six people have died and more than 80,000 people were evacuated from their homes after floods inundated China’s Guizhou province, Al Jazeera reports as per the state media reported. A tropical depression has made landfall in the island province. State broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday that “exceptionally large floods” had swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county since Tuesday. Deluges in Guizhou – classified as a southwestern province by the Chinese government – have prompted authorities to activate the highest-level emergency flood response, evacuating about 80,900 people. Read the full report here.
Maharashtra announces electricity rate cuts, Hindustan Times
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced that power tariffs in Maharashtra will be slashed by 26 percent in five years, Hindustan Times reports. According to Fadnavis, the slash will start at 10 percent in the initial year, the first time in the state's history. The report says that the announcement comes amid reports of petitions submitted to MERC for a 10 percent increase in electricity tariffs. However, Mahavitaran filed a petition to reduce electricity tariffs, also a first in Maharashtra's history. Fadnavis said that the petition was accepted by the MERC. Read the full report here.
Trump says US will hold nuclear talks with Iran next week: The Straits Times
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would likely seek a commitment from Iran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks next week and credited US strikes on Iran with bringing a swift end to the war between Israel and Tehran, The Straits Times reports. Trump said his decision to unleash huge bunker-busting bombs in the June 22 attack had devastated Iran’s nuclear programme and called the outcome “a victory for everybody”. “It was very severe. It was obliteration,” he said, shrugging off an initial assessment by the US Defence Intelligence Agency that Iran’s path to building a nuclear weapon may have been set back by only months, the report adds. Read the full report here.
