Continuous monsoon-driven river runoff, coupled with changing coastal conditions, has triggered the recent bioluminescent red tide event along Kerala’s coast, the ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has pointed out.

A field survey by the CMFRI’s Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division (MBEMD) found that heavy inflows from rivers during the monsoon enriched coastal waters with nutrients, creating favourable conditions for the bloom of Noctiluca scintillans, a large bioluminescent dinoflagellate often linked to such phenomena.

The institute’s latest observations, made in mid-August aboard the research vessel Silver Pompano, documented the bloom up to 40 km off Kochi and at depths of 40 metres.

Entrepreneur Mira Rajput Kapoor who is also known for being Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor's wife, alongside being a professional is also a doting mother to both her children.

Mira recently took to her social media account in wishing her elder daughter, Misha on account of her 9th birthday. Sharing a cute picture of Misha on Instagram, Mira wrote, “Happy 9th Birthday to our sunshine sweetheart. My baby girl is a big girl!. Fly my darling.” Misha is Mira Rajput and Shahid Kapoor's first born.

The couple got married in 2015 and welcomed Misha in 2016. The name Misha is derived from a combination of her parents' names, Mira and Shahid. Embracing parenthood for the first time, Shahid, back then, had announced Misha's birth on Twitter and wrote, “She has arrived and words fall short to express our happiness. Thank you for all your wishes.”

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday predicted heavy rain in Bhavnagar, Dahod, and Chhota Udepur districts in Gujarat, and issued a warning to fishermen, advising them not to venture into the sea until August 28.

The authorities have directed those already at sea to return and secure their boats at the nearest port with mandatory return entries.

Rainfall was reported in 152 talukas of Gujarat, though the showers have yet to bring substantial relief. The IMD has further predicted that heavy rain will continue across Gujarat for the next six days. Districts, including Banaskantha, Patan, Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Morbi, Kutch, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, and Ahmedabad, are likely to receive heavy downpours.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced on Monday that he has requested a Confidence Vote in the National Assembly for September 8 over his 44-billion-euro (51 billion US dollars) budget cut plan.

Speaking at a press conference, Bayrou warned that France was on the verge of over-indebtedness, News Agency reported.

"An immediate danger weighs upon us, which we must face, not tomorrow, but today, without delay of any kind; otherwise the future will be closed to us," he said.

According to Bayrou, who heads a minority government, by seeking the Assembly's confidence, deputies would grasp "the seriousness of the situation."

Domestic demand in India is set for a strong revival, with the Nifty expected to touch 27,609 in the next 12 months, a new report said on Tuesday.

The data compiled by PL Capital in its latest India strategy report said multiple factors, including benign inflation, government tax cuts, normal monsoons, and recent rate reductions by the Reserve Bank of India, are creating conditions for broad-based consumption growth.

The report titled “Ready for next leg of growth” highlighted that consumer price inflation has eased to 1.6 per cent, helped by food deflation, while rural incomes are getting a boost from normal rains.

A Rs 1,000 billion tax cut announced for FY26 is also expected to support demand. The report further added that the RBI’s 100 basis points rate cut will lower EMIs, encouraging demand for housing, cars, and personal loans.

Another two polio cases were detected in the southern parts of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, raising the overall tally to 23 in 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Tuesday.

According to the statement of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at NIH in Islamabad, the new cases include a 16-month-old girl from Union Council Mullazai in Tank district and a 24-month-old girl from Union Council Miran Shah-3 in North Waziristan district of the province, local media reported.

It further said that with these detections, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has reached 23, including 15 cases from KP, six from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Department of Commerce and Management at Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib organized a guest lecture on “Anti-Ragging Awareness” for its postgraduate students. The session was conducted by Prof. (Dr.) Narinder Kaur Multani, Former Dean Academics, Punjabi University, Patiala, who shared her valuable insights and experiences on the significance of fostering mutual respect and maintaining a ragging-free campus. Her engaging address inspired students to uphold values of empathy, kindness, and responsibility towards their peers. 

A whopping 2.1 billion people or one in every four people globally lack access to safely managed drinking water, according to a joint report by UN agencies WHO and the UNICEF on Tuesday.

This includes 106 million people who drink directly from untreated surface sources, stated the report, released as part of the World Water Week 2025.

Despite progress over the last decade, billions of people around the world still lack access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services, putting them at risk of disease and deeper social exclusion.

The report noted that 3.4 billion people worldwide lack safely managed sanitation, including 354 million who practice open defecation. Another 1.7 billion people lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million without access to any facilities.

Two police officers have been killed and a third has been injured in a shooting in southeast Australia, local media reported on Tuesday.

The three officers were at the rural property in the town of Porepunkah, 210 km northeast of Melbourne in the Alpine region of the state of Victoria, on Tuesday morning to execute a warrant related to historical sexual abuse allegations when they were ambushed and shot by a gunman, News Agency reported.

Two police officers, who Victoria Police initially said were unaccounted for following the attack, were killed and the third was airlifted to hospital with serious lower body injuries, according to News.

As of 4:30 pm local time on Tuesday a widespread police search for the gunman was ongoing. Nine Entertainment newspapers reported that he was on the run with several family members, including children.

Afghan police set on fire 29.8 tonnes of illegal drugs seized during a series of operations in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, according to a statement issued by the office of the Deputy Minister of Interior for Counter-Narcotics.

The confiscated substances included 1,442 kg of methamphetamine (ICE), 588 kg of heroin, 15,714 kg of hashish, 460 kg of opium poppy, and other narcotics, along with materials used in drug production, said the statement issued late Monday, News Agency reported.

The contraband was uncovered during counter-narcotics operations in Jalalabad city and various districts of the province, it said.

Without furnishing details on whether the narcotics had been discovered, the statement noted that 2,586 individuals were arrested for smuggling, purchasing, and selling the illicit drugs, and their dossiers were referred to the judiciary for further investigation.