Morning Digest: Rains lash Mumbai after long break; vehicles and trains crawl, flights diverted; Israel tells its troops to prepare for a possible ground operation in Lebanon, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on September 26, 2024

After a long gap, heavy rains battered Mumbai inundating low-lying areas, halting local trains in their tracks and forcing the diversion of at least 14 incoming flights. Some roads virtually turned into rivers of fast-moving water as several areas received more than 100 mm of rain in five hours of evening. As local trains stopped between Kurla and Thane stations on the Central line, thousands of commuters were stranded as CSMT and other stations, while there were traffic jams in various places. The India Meteorological Department upgraded its orange alert for Mumbai city and its neighbouring districts to a red alert, valid till 8.30 a.m. on Thursday.

Manipur security advisor Kuldiep Singh and Director-General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Singh said in a joint statemen that the input regarding the infiltration of 900 trained Kuki militants from Myanmar to carry out attacks on Meitei people on September 28 “could not be substantiated on ground.”

The Union Agriculture Ministry has estimated a record production of foodgrains for the financial year 2023–24. The production of pulses, oil seeds, and sugarcane is likely to be lower than in the last fiscal, according to the fourth and final estimates of production of major agricultural crops for 2023-24 released in Delh

The Supreme Court ordered the release of YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar after being informed by the Tamil Nadu government that the State’s Advisory Board had revoked his detention under the Goondas Act. “Acting on the opinion of the Advisory Board, the State has revoked the order of detention today, i.e., September 25, 2024. In view of the aforesaid, the detenue Shankar @ Savukku Shankar shall be released forthwith, if not required in any other case. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of,” a Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.

The Bombay High Court grilled the Maharashtra Police over the custodial death of Akshay Shinde, accused in the Badlapur sexual assault case. Shinde was allegedly shot dead in an encounter by Thane Police on Monday (September 23, 2024).

Four years after ordering the demolition of high-rise buildings at Maradu in Kerala, the Supreme Court voiced empathy for the families who lost their homes, saying they were “ultimately middle-class who have suffered”.

The journal ‘Drug Safety’ has “retracted” a paper published on May 13 by researchers of the Banaras Hindu University, on the safety of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin. The paper, “Long-term safety analysis of the BBV152 coronavirus vaccine in adolescents and adults: Findings from a 1-year prospective study in North India”, was based on a follow up of 635 adolescents and 291 adults one year after vaccination, to find the safety of Covaxin.