Morning Digest: Very severe cyclone ‘Arnab’ to make landfall along Andhra coast; Govt’s data privacy law faces legal challenge from 21 news publishers, and more

Very severe cyclone ‘Arnab’ to make landfall near Yanam-KakinadaAs the cyclonic storm ‘Arnab’, which formed over the Bay of Bengal on Monday morning, gets closer to the land and is expected to intensify into a ‘severe cyclonic storm’, the India Meteorological Department, has issued red alerts for seven of the 28 districts in Andhra Pradesh for Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Odisha government on Monday said over 1,700 shelters had been kept ready to accommodate vulnerable people likely to be evacuated as cyclonic storm ‘Arnab’ advanced towards Andhra Pradesh, with southern Odisha districts expected to be affected. The IMD said that due to the storm’s impact of there is a possibility of very heavy rainfall at isolated places in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam, Odisha and Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. Southern Odisha districts such as Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Rayagada would be impacted by cyclone.Digital Personal Data Protection Act faces legal challenge from 21 news publishersA group of 21 news publishers has challenged the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 in court, arguing it would trample investigative work and let the government identify journalists’ sources, documents show. The Narendra Modi government announced the implementation of the law in 2025 to protect the digital personal data of ⁠users, raising compliance requirements for platforms like Meta and Google. The publishers have said that since media outlets were not exempt, the law was an invasion of press freedom.CEC can be removed only like a Supreme Court judge, ECI tells top courtThe Election Commission of India, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the two Election Commissioners have filed a joint affidavit highlighting that any attempt to restrain the functioning of the CEC will be contrary to law. The nearly 250-page document filed in the top court late on Monday (October 26, 2026) said a CEC cannot be removed from office except in the manner and the grounds identical to ousting a Supreme Court judge.Karnataka’s final electoral roll out on October 27After more than three months of a clean-up drive under the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, Karnataka’s final electoral roll will be published on Tuesday. The list will be uploaded on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka. The exercise, which began with the stated aim of ensuring that no eligible voter was excluded and no ineligible voter remained on the rolls, led to the deletion of 1.07 crore names across the State. Karnataka had 5.54 crore voters when the exercise began. The draft roll contained 4.54 crore voters, with around 1 crore names struck off the rolls. Details on the number of ineligible voters identified, or the count of foreign citizens — another stated aim of the SIR — remain unknown so farBombay High Court to hear actor Imran Khan’s plea against ‘Leave India’ order on TuesdayThe Bombay High Court would hear on Tuesday a petition filed by actor Imran Khan, a U.S. citizen, challenging a police notice directing him to leave India by October 28, 2026 for attending a political protest. The plea came up for hearing on Monday before a division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna. Khan’s counsel Venkatesh Dhond and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, sought for the plea to be kept for hearing on Tuesday. The court then said it would hear the plea on Tuesday.Omar Abdullah to expand Cabinet on Tuesday; all berths likely to be filledThe two-year-old Cabinet of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is set for a reshuffle on Tuesday, with the possibility that all berths will be filled by introducing new faces, officials said. Ahead of the reshuffle, all the Ministers submitted their resignations to help party president Farooq Abdullah and the Chief Minister to prepare a fresh team to run the government in the Union Territory. While the J&K government has kept the new list secret, officials said that the fresh Cabinet will be complete with all nine Ministers, including the Chief Minister.Elaborate security arrangements for counting votes for 8 MLC seats in BiharElaborate security arrangements have been made for counting of votes in the biennial elections to eight seats of the Bihar Legislative Council on Tuesday, officials said. Counting will begin at 8 a.m., with round-the-clock CCTV surveillance and other security measures in place, they said. Polling for the eight seats was held on October 23, 2026, recording a turnout of 82.85% in four Teachers’ constituencies and 53.42% in four Graduates’ constituencies.Israel goes to polls on TuesdayAs Israel goes to the polls on Tuesday, the first since the tumultuous events of October 7, 2023, it is being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership. Issues such as security, judicial overhaul, the secular-religious divide over national burden sharing, ethnicity, and the economy are at the forefront but talks of a two-state solution to the vexed Israel-Palestinian conflict have been pushed out of public discussions. Opinion polls indicate that Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Opposition led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot are competing in a close race, with neither side assured of the parliamentary majority needed to form a government.Harry Kane crowned Ballon d'Or winner, Putellas wins women's awardHarry Kane completed his long quest for football’s highest individual honour on Monday (October 26, 2026), with the Bayern Munich and England striker winning the Ballon d’Or ​after a record-breaking season that cemented his status as one of the game’s greatest goalscorers.In-form Sindhu eyes Hylo Open crownFresh from finishing runner-up at the French Open, two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu will look to continue her strong run when she leads the Indian challenge at the ₹500,000 Hylo Open Super 500 badminton tournament starting in Saarbrucken, Germany on Tuesday. Sindhu, a former world champion, won the Japan Open title in July before reaching the final in Paris, where she lost to world No. 1 An Se-young of South Korea in three games. The Indian will be keen to build on those performances as she takes on Turkey’s Neslihan Arin in the women’s singles opening round. India’s seventh seed Lakshya Sen, the 2019 Hylo Open champion, will face Finland’s Joakim Oldorff, while eighth seed Ayush Shetty takes on Taiwan’s Su Li Yang.