The ship’s seizure was a direct response to an Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus, highlighting the complex geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East

Rahul Gandhi To Contest From Raebareli, Congress Fields Kishori Lal Sharma Against Smriti IraniCongress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, a seat represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi for four terms until she was elected to Rajya Sabha this year. The party’s decision came on the last day for nomination filing by candidates for the prestigious seat.In its eleventh-hour decision, the Congress fielded Kishori Lal Sharma against Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, where the Gandhi scion suffered defeat in 2019 elections.The move comes after days of intense speculation and heated debate over whether the Congres would field members of the Gandhi family from these two seats. Friday is the last date of filing of nominations for both seats that will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.

In another arrest in the Amit Shah doctored video case, the Delhi Police on Friday took Arun Reddy, the administrator of the ‘Spirit of Congress’ account on X, into custody. 

A police official said Mr Reddy holds the post of the National Coordinator in the Social Media Wing of the Congress in Telangana and had played a role in circulating the edited video, in which the Union Home Minister purportedly says that the BJP would remove reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

Officials said Mr Reddy, who was arrested from Delhi, deleted evidence from his phone and the device is now being sent for a forensic investigation. 

Five Congress workers were arrested in the case by the Telangana Police on Thursday based on a complaint by the state unit of the BJP. The arrested workers included the Congress’ Telangana Social Media Convenor. 

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has also been summoned by the Delhi Police but had sought four weeks to respond. The Congress leader has attacked the BJP for being vengeful towards him and his lawyer has told the police that he had no hand in creating or posting the doctored video. The lawyer also called the summons misdirected. 

“Your attribution that ‘video tweeted/retweeted by you on your X/ Twitter handle’ is pre-conceived and incorrect. It is categorically stated that my client has nothing to do with the creating, uploading or tweeting/retweeting of the alleged video,” the lawyer told the Delhi police.