The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has officially confirmed the onset of El Niño conditions. "Currently, El Niño conditions are present over the equatorial Pacific Ocean and are expected to strengthen further during the Southwest Monsoon season," IMD stated. El Niño is a natural climate pattern associated with warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Social media apps Instagram and Facebook were down for several users worldwide on Friday. According to X users, people faced issues while logging in and loading content on Facebook and Instagram. Some people also claimed that they faced trouble while sending messages on Instagram. Meta, which owns both companies, acknowledged the outage in a statement.

Ex-New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 35-year-old finishes as New Zealand's all-time leading international run-scorer with 19,346 runs, including 48 centuries and six double-centuries. He played a total of 378 international games. "Continuing with anything less wouldn't be right...I feel fortunate to step away on my own terms," he said.

MEA summoned US Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks to lodge a protest against attacks on commercial vessels carrying Indian crew members off the coast of Oman. This comes after death of three Indian crew members in one of the attacks. It's the second time in 48 hours that the official has been summoned. The summoning reportedly lasted for 40 minutes.

Indian shooting legend and Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker's coach Jaspal Rana passed away at a Delhi hospital on Thursday night, NRAI confirmed. The 49-year-old had fallen ill on the flight back from the ISSF World Cup in Munich and underwent a stent procedure after landing. Rana, India's most successful Commonwealth Games athlete with 15 medals, received Dronacharya Award in 2020.