The Mumbai police on Thursday night received a terror mail in which the sender threatened to blow up the Prime Minister and the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, where several ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup matches are scheduled, if the Indian government fails to pay ₹500 crore and release notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The email also mentioned that the terrorist group have already deployed people to carry out the attacks. A case has been already registered against Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun who had threatened to attack the World Cup matches. He had even threatened to take revenge for Shaheed Nijar’s assassination three weeks ago. Dig deeper

Bad weather hampered efforts to reach the worst-hit areas of the Sikkim flash floods on Friday, forcing army and national disaster response force (NDRF) personnel to begin trekking and even taking boats to reach the devastated hillside villages, according to people aware of the matter. The known number of casualties rose to 27 and the number of missing increased to 143, officials said, as fears strengthened that true scale of the loss, in material and life, may be worse than currently estimated. The confirmed fatalities were all of bodies found floating in the Teesta river in Bengal’s Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts – hundreds of kilometres from Mangan in North Sikkim, which bore the brunt of Wednesday’s flash flooding. Dig deeper

The Latest News

The 52nd meeting of the Goods and Services Tax or GST Council will be conducted in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan on Saturday Dig deeper

Saket Gokhale of the Trinamool Congress took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alleged that the latter’s public “interactions are staged” Dig deeper

India News

The test flight to demonstrate the abort capabilities for Gaganyaan is expected around October 25, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said Dig deeper

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha allegedly conspired to sabotage 2019 polls, siphoned off funds, says FIR Dig deeper

An 18-year-old girl, in Maharashtra’s Palghar district was hacked to death on Friday by a man after the girl’s family rejected his marriage proposal Dig deeper

Global Matters

The US expelled two Russian diplomats, weeks after Moscow ordered two Americans to leave, the latest tit-for-tat expulsions Dig deeper

Namira Salim becomes first Pakistani to travel to space aboard Virgin Galactic Dig deeper

One Good Read

Mahadev app scam, an allegedly illegal betting ring to the tune of ₹5,000 crore, isn’t the first time the little-known app has caught attention. But as the case gains notoriety by the day, the man the federal agency really wants is a 26-year-old from the sleepy town of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, one of the two promoters of the company, and the brains behind the app. He worked in a local garment store to make ends meet as a boy; was a betting fiend even when he was young; grew up to become someone many in Bhilai looked to for help, even if that meant breaking the law; and married his childhood sweetheart from a village in Chhattisgarh in a ₹200 crore wedding at Dubai that boasted a glitzy Bollywood guest list. The man who Bhilai knows as Saurabh “Mahadev” Chandrakar. Dig deeper

Sports Goings

October 7 2023 will forever remain a red-letter day in the history of Indian sports as it gave the country its sweetest century. India, on Saturday, which is the penultimate day of the 19th Asian Games – India’s participation, however, ends today itself – won its 100th medal at the Games for the first time ever. It was assured that would cross the elusive three-figure mark in the medal tally after the medals won in wrestling, archery (recurve), hockey, sepaktakraw and bridge and medals confirmed by the men’s cricket and both kabaddi teams but official stamp came on Saturday. Dig deeper

Entertainment Focus

Thank You For Coming, helmed by Karan Boolani, witnessed a ‘low’ performance at the domestic box office. As per Sacnilk.com, the film minted ₹80 lakh nett in India on its first day, as per early estimates. The film stars Bhumi Pednekar, Shehnaaz Gill, Shibani Bedi, Kusha Kapila, and Dolly Singh. The movie revolves around five friends and their tryst with the concept of female sexual pleasure. Thank You For Coming hit the theatres on Friday. It also stars Sushant Divgikar, Karan Kundrra and Anil Kapoor. Dig deeper

That’s all we have at this hour in our morning briefing. Catch you in the afternoon.