The US military says it carried out ‘self-defence’ strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island after Iran earlier launched missiles and drones at US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Despite the exchange, the US says the US-Iran ceasefire remains in effect.

The portal, which opened a day later than scheduled, allows students to seek verification of issues identified in scanned copies of answer books supplied by the Board and ply for re-evaluation of answers. The plication window will remain open until midnight on June 6.

ALSO READ | CBSE chairman, secretary transferred in government action amid OSM row

The abrupt reassignments come amid intense government scrutiny over the procurement process for the Board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. It is the digital platform deployed for the full-scale assessment of Class 12 answer scripts.

The Union education ministry has since ordered an intensive inquiry into the contract awarded to Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck and demanded a detailed report from the Board.

The ministry will take strong action against officials if any wrongdoing is established, an official said, as reported by HT earlier. They added that accountability will be fixed at multiple levels if procedural lses or negligence are established in the tendering process.

ALSO READ | Govt seeks detailed report from CBSE on OSM tender amid row over Class 12 evaluation

The contract was awarded to Coempt EduTeck on December 5 last year (74 days before the board examinations began on February 17) reportedly after the company undercut tech giant TCS by 60%.

CBSE officials have maintained that the tender process adhered strictly to General Financial Rules (GFR) and government procurement guidelines.

The teen alleged that the Board systematically “rewrote rules” across three tender rounds to favour Coempt EduTeck, which formerly operated under the name Globarena.

The first discrepancy is that there were three clauses of ‘poor performance’ which were completely wiped out from the new RFP. In the earlier RFP, there was a clause called ‘blacklisted earlier’ whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to ‘blacklisted currently’. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?

A separate Hindustan Times investigation also found technical changes made between successive tender rounds.

ALSO READ | CBSE ‘tender investigator’ Sarthak Sidhant’s big day in Delhi: Two meetings, and a govt move spurred by his blog

The Parliamentary Standing Committee subsequently reviewed concerns surrounding the OSM system and heard submissions from CBSE and Education Ministry officials. While the panel cannot directly penalise officials, it can seek records, summon individuals and recommend action.

Following the meeting, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, who chairs the committee, said the panel would now await CBSE’s response to the issues raised.

[Sidhant] has revealed the hollowness of (education minister) Dharmendra Pradhan ji’s denials. The PM remains silent, as usual. The question is simple: who are they protecting, and why? An independent judicial inquiry is now essential to uncover the full extent of this scam, Gandhi wrote on X.

Many said they encountered repeated authentication failures despite entering correct credentials, receiving messages saying, Verification failed, please check details. Others reported that the website froze after subject selection or redirected them to blank screens, forcing them to restart the process.

Students using mobile devices also complained of interface issues, including overlping text and buttons that could not be clicked.

According to CBSE, “Most recent being a denial of service attack attempt causing 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of 2 minutes and more than 1 lakh attempts of unauthorised file access.”

The Board said that no offline plications would be accepted and that requests submitted after the deadline would not be entertained.

They can also request re-evaluation of specific questions by providing the question and page numbers. CBSE is charging ₹100 per answer book for verification and ₹25 per question for re-evaluation. Once students click “Freeze” and proceed to payment, their plication details cannot be changed.

Southampton back Tonda Eckert despite missing out on a playoff final for a Premier League place due to spying scandal.

Southampton manager Tonda Eckert has ologised for orchestrating the spygate scandal that led to the club’s expulsion from the Championship playoffs, as owner Dragan Solak insisted that he would not sack the German.

For everything that’s hpened, I do want to ologise, and I hold my hand up because as a head coach I am responsible for everything that has hpened in this football club, Eckert said in a video statement on Tuesday.

The Saints were kicked out of last month’s playoff final after admitting they had observed a training session held by semifinal opponents Middlesbrough, as well as two other similar incidents during the season.

They also received a four-point deduction that will be plied to the 2026-27 Championship table, while the Football Association has opened its own investigation and could yet charge Eckert.

An independent disciplinary commission of the English Football League (EFL) ruled that there had been a contrived and determined plan from the top down to gain a competitive advantage through spying missions.

It said Eckert had authorised the tactics, highlighting the particularly deplorable use of junior members of staff to conduct clandestine operations.

Southampton beat Middlesbrough 2-1 over two legs in the playoff semifinals, but Boro were reinstated, going on to lose in the final to Hull City, who were promoted to the Premier League.

The prize for the winners of the final is regarded as the most lucrative in world football, with the winners joining the richest domestic league in the world. Hull will receive an estimated 200 million pounds ($268m) in extra income.

Eckert, who was pointed head coach in December, put out an eight-minute video statement about the scandal on Southampton’s social media channels.

The 33-year-old said: I am devastated that after six months of building that relationship [with fans] back up, the season has come to an end, come to an end that couldn’t have left us in a worse place than we are in right now.

He claimed that observing other teams was routine in other countries, though he admitted that this was not an excuse for his actions in the English second tier.

When I worked in Italy for over four years, every starting lineup that we’ve chosen for the games was always out in the media before games, he said.

And the reason is that our training sessions, especially the ones before games, have always been observed from the media and have always been observed from opponent teams that we came up against.

[Pep] Guardiola has spoken about this in his time at Bayern Munich, that it has been common practice in Germany to observe training sessions, knowing that other teams would do the same.

Many had anticipated Eckert would lose his job after Southampton’s expulsion from the playoffs, but chairman Solak gave robust backing to Eckert in his own post on the club’s channels on Tuesday.

Tonda’s period as our head coach has been a success so far. Our form during 2026 has been remarkable, and we believe he is the man to take us forward, Solak said.

As a board, we are fully behind him, and together we only have one objective – we want promotion back to Premier League.

Solak told the BBC separately that Tonda had been subject to a witch-hunt in the media, saying he believed the club had been over-sentenced.

The Serbian, whose media company acquired a majority stake in the south-coast club in 2022, said: I believe Tonda that he didn’t know that it was the rule that he was breaking.

My personal opinion, and the opinion of the board, is that he is a manager who deserves to be backed by us and to be supported by us.

The monsoon advances northwards from Kerala, usually in surges, covering the entire country around July 15. It marks the transition from scorching temperatures. According to the agriculture ministry, 51% of India’s farmed area, accounting for 40% of production, is rain-fed, making the monsoon critical. With 47% of the country’s population dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, a bountiful monsoon is related to a healthy rural economy.

Conditions are favourable for further advance of south-west monsoon into some more parts of south-west and south-east Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep Islands, some parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, some more parts of south-west, west-central, east-central, and north-east Bay of Bengal, and remaining parts of south-east Bay of Bengal around June 4, the IMD said on Tuesday.

The IMD said isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall (7-20 cm) is very likely in Kerala over the next six to seven days. Isolated heavy rainfall was expected in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka during the same period. Moderate to severe thunderstorm activity with squally wind speeds of up to 40-50 kmph is likely in parts of north-west, central, east India, and south Peninsular India during the week.

The IMD’s extended range forecast shows largely dry conditions over Kerala between May 28 and June 4. A very marginal improvement was expected from June 4 to June 11.

A typhoon developing over the West Pacific, seen pulling significant moisture away from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, and a cyclonic circulation over the Lakshadweep region, were the likely factors delaying or causing a weak monsoon onset in Kerala.

Last week, the IMD revised its seasonal rainfall forecast downward— from 92% of the long-period average (LPA) issued in ril to 90% — and attached a 60% probability to a deficient season, meaning there is a better-than-even chance that total rainfall falling below the threshold that even qualifies as below-normal.

The LPA for the June-to-September season, calculated over the 1971-2020 period, is 87cm. If the prediction bears out, this would mark the lowest monsoon season rainfall in 11 years.

Fuelled by unusually warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, El Niño conditions are developing and are set to influence global temperature and rainfall patterns, increasing the risk of extreme weather over the coming months, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

A new WMO El Niño/La Niña Update indicates an 80% likelihood of an El Niño event during June–August 2026. There is a 90% probability that it will continue until November. Most forecast models suggest it will be at least moderate and possibly strong. In India, an El Niño is associated with a harsher summer and a weaker monsoon.