(1) Delhi Red Fort blast kills 13
A car at the signal near the Red Fort in Delhi exploded, killing 13 people on November 10 (Monday), 2025. Behind the explosion was a terror module with links to foreign handlers in Pakistan, as investigations showed later. At the wheel was a Dr. Umar Nabi, a doctor associated with Al Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana. He was part of a ‘white-collar terror module’ that had planned the suicide attack and amassed around ₹26 lakh for the purpose.
Investigations later found that Dr. Nabi was on the run from police after raids in Jammu Kashmir and Haryana earlier that led to arrests of his associates. The bomb that eventually went off in the Red Fort was assembled in haste to evade police, and could have caused more damage if Dr. Nabi was not on the run.
This is not the first time such a blast has happened in Delhi. Here is a timeline of previous incidents.
(2) NDA sweeps Bihar Assembly polls
Beating the anti-incumbency factor in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a huge win in the State Assembly election on Friday (November 14, 2025), with the ruling coalition’s seat tally crossing 200 in the 243-strong legislature. The NDA’s total vote share stood at 46.7%, while the Opposition INDIA bloc had a vote share of 37.5%.
In terms of seats, the gap is much wider. The NDA won 202 seats. The Opposition Mahagatbandhan (Grand Alliance) is facing total collapse, having won just 35 seats.
In fact, the Opposition’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has the highest vote share among all parties, winning nearly 23% of votes polled, but that has translated to a tally of just 25 seats.
The BJP had the next best vote share of 20.6% and is set to have the most legislators in the Assembly, having won 89 seats. Its NDA ally, the Janata Dal (United), which garnered a 20.3% vote share, won 85 seats. Both the BJP and the JD(U) had contested 101 seats each.
(3) U.S. government shutdown ends
After 43 days of shutdown, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a package that will resume government spending on food aid, and restart paid work for federal employees. The main sticking point was extension of healthcare tax credits, which put Republicans and Democrats on different pages. This changed when eight moderate Democrats switched their votes and a bill was advanced that ensured modified government funding until January 30 for some policies.
One such policy is the SNAP programme – a food aid plan that provides food to one in eight Americans.
This shutdown was the longest in the country’s history at 43 days, higher than the 35 days of shutdown in 2018 in President Trump’s term. Massive flight cancellations were triggered by the shortage of air traffic controllers working without pay, and thousands of federal employees went without pay. With the end of the shutdown, air travel can recover for the Thanksgiving rush and food aid might help families make room for Christmas spending, according to Reuters.
(4) Bihar turnout
Bihar recorded nearly 67% turnout after the two phases of polling, 9.6% more than the previous Assembly election, the Election Commission of India said.
The second and final phase of polling was held in 122 Assembly seats spread over 20 districts and in which 1,302 candidates contested.
According to the details shared by the Election Commission, this was the highest voter turnout recorded in the State since 1951. The turnout among male voters was 62.8%, and amongst women voters it was 71.6%.
Bihar has 3.51 crore women voters and 3.93 crore men voters. The total electorate stands at around 7.45 crore.
(5) Congress wins Jubilee Hills bypolls
The Congress won the bypolls for the Jubilee Hills constituency in Telangana on November 14, with the party’s candidate Mr. Naveen Yadav getting over 98,000 votes with a significant margin compared to the BRS candidate.
The polls was necessitated due to the death of the previous MLA from the BRS. It was a significant election for all the three major parties concerned – the Congress, the BRS and the BJP.
For the BRS, this election represented he first challenge for the party’s working president K.T. Rama Rao, after his father K. Chandrashekar Rao’s reduced activity in day-to-day politics. For the Congress, the constituency is an urban constituency in Hyderabad, and the party’s performance in urban areas has been lower than that of the BRS. For the BJP, the election tested the chops of the party’s new state president N. Ramchander Rao. (with inputs from Ravikanth Reddy)
Published – November 18, 2025 02:46 pm IST