Morning Digest: Nikhil Gupta pleads guilty in Pannun murder plot in U.S. court; Trump sends second aircraft carrier to West Asia amid Iran tensions, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on February 14, 2026.

Indian national Nikhil Gupta, accused of being involved in a murder-for-hire plot against a Sikh separatist in New York City, ​pleaded guilty on Friday (February 13, 2026) to ⁠three criminal charges, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said. Gupta, ‌54, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and ‌conspiracy to commit money laundering, which ‌carry ⁠a maximum combined sentence ⁠of 40 years in prison, the spokesperson said. He entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge ​Sarah Netburn in ‌Manhattan federal court.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that a change in power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen” as the U.S. administration weighs whether to take military action against Tehran. Mr. Trump made the comments shortly after visiting with troops in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and after he confirmed earlier in the day that he’s deploying a second aircraft carrier group to the Mideast for potential military action against Iran. “It seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Mr. Trump said in an exchange with reporters when asked about pressing for the ouster of the Islamic clerical rule in Iran.

Stopping “border killings”, starting negotiations for renewal of the Ganga waters agreement, and increasing the number of medical visas are some of the priority areas for Bangladesh’s incoming government, sources in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party told The Hindu on Friday (February 13, 2026). Giving an insight into the list of deliverables, BNP’s sources said India should urgently deal with the issue of Sheikh Hasina’s presence on Indian soil, as Ms. Hasina has been making comments about the developments in her country.

Aviation safety watchdog DGCA has imposed a fine of ₹1 crore on Tata Group-owned Air India for operating an Airbus A320 Neo plane without the requisite airworthiness certification on at least eight routes last year, according to sources. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on December 2 last year, said it was probing the incident of Air India operating an A320 Neo plane without having a requisite airworthiness certification on at least eight routes. The sources said on Friday (February 13, 2026) that the regulator has imposed a ₹1 crore fine on Air India for the violations.

About six lakh more names are likely to be removed from the West Bengal voter list, as hearings for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State are set to end on February 14. In the first phase of the SIR, 58 lakh names were already removed from the State’s voter list, and the total number of electors dropped to 7.08 crore. Sources at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal pointed out that, so far, approximately 6.25 lakh electors were absent from their SIR hearings. Notices for ‘logical discrepancies’ in enumeration forms were issued to about 1.36 crore voters, and the details of 1.23 crore of them have been verified. While details are yet to be uploaded for a few lakh voters, about 6.25 lakh voters did not appear for their hearings despite notices being issued to them by the ECI.

The Supreme Court asked music composer A.R. Rahman and the producers of the Tamil film Ponniyin Selvan II on Friday to consider giving “some sort of an acknowledgement” to Dhrupad singer and Padma Shri awardee Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar for the musical composition “Shiva Stuti” used in the song “Veera Raja Veera” featured in the Tamil film. The song composition is based on “Shiva Stuti”, originally sung by the Dagar brothers, Late Ustad N. Faiyazuddin Dagar and Late Ustad Zahiruddin Dagar, the father and uncle, respectively, of Mr. Wasifuddin Dagar. Mr. Dagar has argued that the film credits and acknowledges that the song was based on “Dagarvani Tradition Dhrupad” - a broad stylistic approach to Hindustani Classical music - but it did not give any credit to him.