Morning Digest: Trump to decide on U.S. action in Israel-Iran conflict within two weeks; Dayanidhi Maran sends legal notice to brother Kalanithi Maran over Sun TV shares, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on June 20, 2025

The White House said on Thursday (June 19, 2025) that President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks. Citing a message from Mr. Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

In his first such visit since Operation Sindoor, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meet in Qingdao from June 25 to 27. Pakistan Defence Minister Khwaja Asif too will attend the meeting. 

Russia on Thursday (June 19, 2025) warned the United States not to take military action against Iran, amid speculation over whether Washington would enter the war alongside Israel. Israel launched an unprecedented wave of strikes at Iran last week, to which Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks.

A Kuki woman was killed in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Thursday (June 19, 2025), hours after a gunshot injured a Meitei farmer. In a statement issued late evening, the Manipur police said Ningthoujam Biren Singh, a cultivator from the Bishnupur district’s Phubala Awang Maning Leikai, was shot in the left arm by an unknown armed miscreant around 3 p.m. while working in his paddy field.

DMK MP and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran has sent a legal notice to his elder brother Kalanithi Maran, Chairman of Sun TV Network, his wife Kavery Kalanithi and six others, raising dispute in share transactions which took place in 2003, reflecting a family dispute between the brothers.

The government body investigating the Air India Boeing 787-8 crash in Ahmedabad last week will take a decision on where the black box data will be decoded “after due assessment of all technical, safety, and security considerations,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Thursday (June 19, 2025).

A day after the Calcutta High Court directed the resumption of MGNREGS in West Bengal, political parties in the State tried to take credit for the return of the 100-day work scheme after a three-year hiatus. A Division Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee on Wednesday (June 18) directed the Union government to resume the Centrally funded scheme from August 1.