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In 1974, Lt. Colonel Randall Lanning manned the launch controls that could deploy nuclear weapons in the event of a Soviet attack. He looks back at one night that's still etched in his memory.

Police in Chhattisgarh Raipur arrested two men after one of them was seen torching their motorcycle at a petrol pump with a lighter he was using to light up a cigarette and was asked not to. The two men reportedly reached the Sangita Fuels petrol pump near Karma Chowk in the Urla area at around 7:40 pm on February 18 to refuel their two-wheeler. Police Commissionerate Raipur shared a CCTV footage of the incident along with the update of their arrest and wrote on X, “कानून के साथ खेल, तो जाओगे सीधा जेल [Whoever plays with law and order, will land in jail]”.

In a big takeaway from the AI Summit 2026, at least 75 countries are signing the 'Delhi Declaration' - reportedly a non-binding pledge or declaration on goals for AI development. A senior IT ministry official said Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is expected to hold a press conference over the same on Friday evening. Track latest update from AI Summit here Meanwhile, the government on Thursday announced New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments, with Vaishnaw describing them as a significant outcome of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 and a shared voluntary framework adopted by leading global and Indian AI companies.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reacted strongly to the shirtless protest by the workers of the Indian Youth Congress at the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Friday. A group of Youth Congress workers on day 5 of the AI Summit entered the venue at Bharat Mandapam and were seen carrying or wearing T-shirts with slogans against the PM, India-US trade deal and Epstein files. Follow AI summit updates The BJP termed the incident as ‘national shame’ and said that the Congress party's ‘topless’ protest under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi is an act designed to embarrass India on the world stage.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, explained his jiu-jitsu martial arts analogy used in Parliament while criticising the India-US trade deal. The Congress leader, in a video on his social media handles on Friday, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "trapped" in political "grips" and a "choke" that are not visible to the public. "A lot of people have asked me why I used a Jiu-Jitsu analogy in my Parliament speech.

City of Catania calls ruse to avoid CCTV cameras installed to stop fly-tipping ‘as cunning as it is doubly wrong’ A man in Catania, Sicily, trained his dog to dump bags of rubbish by the roadside in an attempt to evade cameras installed by local authorities to combat fly-tipping, municipal police have said. The episode was detailed in a Facebook post on the city of Catania’s official page. Accompanying a video of the dog was a remark from the police that “inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility”.

Water samples are taken from the Potomac River in Maryland in January. A massive pipe that moves millions of gallons of sewage ruptured and sent wastewater flowing into the Potomac River northwest of Washington, D.C. Nathan Ellgren/AP hide caption In January, part of a decades-old sewer line in Maryland collapsed by the Potomac River. Over the following days, the broken pipe dumped more than 200 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac near Washington, D.C.

A week after the Supreme Court nudged music composer AR Rahman to consider formally recognising the Dagarwani lineage behind the song Veera Raja Veera, Rahman on Friday agreed to acknowledge the rendition of the Junior Dagar Brothers in the credits of the track from the film Ponniyin Selvan II. Recording the concession, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi directed that the modified credit line be reflected across all social media and OTT platforms within five weeks. The additional credit will read: “Composition inspired by the Dagarwani tradition Dhrupad, first recorded as ‘Shiv Stuti’ by late Ustad Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar and Ustad Nasir Zahiruddin Dagar, popularly known as Junior Dagar Brothers.” The statement was made by senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi, on behalf of Rahman, without prejudice to the copyright infringement suit pending before the Delhi high court, filed by Dhrupad vocalist Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, who is a successor of the Junior Dagar Brothers.

Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin €™s plans to invade, and why most of Europe €“ including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy €“ dismissed them. As the fourth anniversary of the invasion approaches and the world enters a new period of geopolitical uncertainty, Europe €™s politicians and spy services continue to draw lessons from the failures of 2022 William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine.

If anyone thought that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would be leaving a police cell and going to court, they were seriously wrong. That's because he is now under investigation for misconduct in public office. The offence, essentially an allegation of corruption, is one of the most difficult crimes to investigate, charge, prosecute and convict.

US renews threat of military action as Iran, Russia announce naval drills The United States administration is intensifying its build-up of a vast array of military assets in the Middle East, as President Donald Trump says Iran has “10 to 15 days at most” to agree a deal over its nuclear programme and stock of ballistic missiles. As well as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, which is reportedly joining the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Arabian Sea, key force multipliers such as E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft have been deployed. In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, Iran said that while the country does not seek “tension or war and will not initiate a war”, any US aggression will be responded to “decisively and proportionately”.

A large banner featuring the face of US President Donald Trump was hung outside the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC, on Thursday in a display of power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him. The banner was hung between two columns on one corner of the building and read, “Make America Safe Again,” a slogan long used by the Trump administration to tout its efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration and violent crime. It was also seen as a symbol of a shift from the department's tradition of independence from White House control, Associated Press reported.

Israel is severely restricting Palestinians’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, with many hundreds queueing at the Qalandiya checkpoint near Ramallah hoping and waiting to get in. But Israeli authorities say they will allow no more than 10,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank into one of Islam’s holiest sites for the day, and only with permits, a fraction of the worshipers who have visited to mark the occasion in previous years. Only children under the age of 12, men over 55, and women 50 years or older are eligible.

January increase of 1.8% beats forecasts and was also driven by shoppers snapping up jewellery online Retail sales in Great Britain rose 1.8% in January, the largest monthly increase in almost two years, according to official data, as heavy discounting and post-Christmas sales drew consumers back to bigger ticket purchases. The rise easily beat forecasts of a 0.2% rise and was partly driven by sales of artwork and antiques sales in January, alongside continued strong sales from online jewellers, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It was the biggest monthly rise since May 2024.

Several members of opposition Congress's youth wing on Friday staged a shirtless protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India AI Impact Summit venue Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. A video of the protest by the Indian Youth Congress (IYCP) has gone viral on social media, showing several protestors walking into the venue while holding their t-shirts in their hands. The agitators also shouted anti-Modi slogans, echoing the party’s protests against the India-US trade deal in the parliament recently.

US ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Friday said that PM Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump would meet each other, but he did not commit to a timeline just yet. Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Gor was asked when the two leaders would meet. “Stay tuned, I'm sure it'll happen at the right moment,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

A judge has issued an order to temporarily block the deportation of four Chagossians who travelled to the Chagos Islands to protest against a deal to hand over the territory to Mauritius. The Chagossians arrived on a remote part of the archipelago on Monday after sailing from Sri Lanka, with the aim of establishing a permanent settlement on their "homeland". British authorities served the four men with eviction papers, which warned them they could face fines or jail if they did not leave.

Trump’s Board of Peace faces its first test on Gaza Members of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace have expressed optimism about peace and rebuilding in Gaza at its inaugural session. Despite multibillion dollar pledges, there are doubts about how it will manage the enclave’s unresolved issues.

Families of political prisoners await prison releases as Venezuela signs amnesty law Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriquez signed an amnesty law that could free hundreds of people jailed over protests and political unrest dating back decades. The law marks a shift for the country, which has long denied holding any political prisoners.

As the trial related to the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar is expected to begin later this year, the Canadian government has sought to block some details from being revealed as that could prove “injurious to international relations and national security”. An application in this regard has been made by the Attorney General of Canada, according to a report in the outlet Global News. The plea to keep some information confidential is that it is “sensitive”, the report said citing court documents.