After more than three months of war, United States President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Thursday signed an agreement to halt hostilities and revive talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme. The deal comes into force immediately and sets a 60-day timeline for negotiations on a broader, long-term settlement. As part of the agreement, Iran will reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium, while the US will ease sanctions, enabling Tehran to resume unrestricted oil exports. The accord also paves the way for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a global shipping route disrupted since the conflict began on February 28 this year. Shipping traffic through the waterway is expected to return to normal levels within the next month. Follow live updates here.With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition:Modi-Trump bilateral meetingMessi’s hat-trickAfter 100-day vigil in Tamil Nadu Big StoryIn their first meeting following a strain in bilateral ties last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump walked the tightrope on Wednesday, projecting a positive path ahead with a trade deal soon. During the meeting, which occurred on the sidelines of the G7 summit at Evian-les-Bains in eastern France, Modi flagged India’s concerns over the Strait of Hormuz and the safety of its seafarers. Meanwhile, Trump appeared conciliatory and measured on hot-button issues ranging from the long-pending trade deal to the mobility of Indian professionals headed to the US. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the two leaders reviewed the progress achieved under the “India-US COMPACT, including in defence, trade, energy and people-to-people ties”.Addressing the G7 leaders during a session on Wednesday, Modi also underlined that disruptions in fuel, fertilizer and food supply chains caused by the war in West Asia will impact the Global South for “a considerable period.” He said that the “most vulnerable countries” should not be left to bear the burden of these crises alone, and global financial organisations should develop support systems for affected nations. The war in West Asia had adversely impacted the Indian economy as the supply of LPG, LNG, diesel, petrol and fertilisers were disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This led to a rise in fuel prices with cascading effects on the economy.⚡ Only in ExpressA swarm of Argentines joined a group of Colombians on Wednesday, cutting through their differences and unified by one five-foot-seven silhouette, to watch the Argentina-Algeria game on a smartphone. The impromptu party on the boulevard near 42nd Street in Times Square was a riot of emotions – their mood dictated by Messi’s. Just five minutes in, they erupted. Messi had found the net. They screamed his name, which merged with numerous other screams. About 70,000 watched the game live at Kansas City Stadium. And almost as many were in Times Square or its teeming streets nearby. Almost every restaurant nearby has a watch party and World Cup Special offers advertised prominently. Flags of all nations hang from the ceilings. It was the night Messi stood timeless at Times Square, blurring languages and cultures.Story continues below this adFor only three seconds, Kylian Mbappe suspended his own memory of the game – of his sufferings of the day, of his seeming detachment to the game, of the feeling of being a stranger trapped in his shirt. The instincts kicked in, the muscle memory took over. My colleague Sandip G, describing the moment of Mbappe’s salvation, writes: “When the superlative Michael Olise stitched a pass into his side, he swayed and opened his body, carving space for his right foot to come around the ball, and struck it diagonally into the nets, past the lunging Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.” From the Front PageHighest ever: For the second consecutive year, IIT-Delhi ranked highest among Indian institutions in the QS World University Rankings 2027, climbing five places to 118th globally. This rank is the highest ever for an Indian institution, first achieved by IIT-Bombay in the 2025 rankings. IIT-Bombay, which topped the country’s list in the past, dropped from 129 to 134. Last year, too, it dropped 11 ranks. Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) topped the list for the 15th year, followed by Stanford University, Imperial College, University of Oxford and Harvard University.Whip: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) seemed to be staring at a split on Wednesday as six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs moved to break away from it in an apparent bid to switch to the rival Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. In a pre-emptive measure, the Uddhav Sena issued a whip, directing all its MPs to attend its Parliamentary Party meeting in Delhi on Thursday. According to sources, the rebel group was waiting to secure the support of seven MPs, one more than the two-thirds of the party’s Lok Sabha MPs, before formally approaching Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Must ReadRecalling ties: European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU will sign the Free Trade Agreement with India by the end of the year. Following her meeting with PM Modi on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France, von der Leyen said, “We will also step up security & defence cooperation.” She added that the EU and India will join forces for better connectivity by advancing IMEC, the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor. In a parallel development, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited Modi to visit Germany for the 8th India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) later this year.Story continues below this adIn our Opinion section today, Shashi Tharoor highlights the reasons behind the failure of dialogue and diplomacy between Washington and Tehran as the two sides engage in what he refers to as “a total systemic collision of negotiating philosophies.” Placing Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal (1987) and Abbas Araghchi’s The Power of Negotiation (2014) side-by-side, Tharoor writes that “they expose an incompatibility of diplomatic DNA that explains why years of high-stakes engagement so often ended in mutual incomprehension.”RSS registration: The row over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) legal status has once again emerged after Congress leader Priyank Kharge questioned why India’s largest socio-cultural organisation continues to function without registration. He also raised the issue of the organisation’s funding, its tax compliance and need for audits. In response, the RSS said that its registration was not legally required and the organisation’s existence and legitimacy were repeatedly recognised by courts and governments. According to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Indian law does not make registration compulsory for associations of individuals and that the RSS enjoys legal recognition as a “body of individuals.” Is registration mandatory? We explain.⏳ And Finally…100-day vigil: For more than a 100 days, the body of Akash Delison lay inside the mortuary of a government hospital in southern Tamil Nadu. It was being preserved as evidence of a death his family claimed the police had caused — and as the centrepiece of their demand for accountability. Delison’s family had refused to accept the 26-year-old Dalit man’s body from the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, alleging that he had been tortured to death in police custody. On Wednesday, government officials, amid heavy security, removed Delison’s body from the hospital and transported it to the Thathaneri crematorium. The action came a day after the Madras High Court ruled that the body could not remain indefinitely in the mortuary. Lastly, don’t forget to tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss the US District Court’s ruling against Donald Trump’s proposed $100,000 H-1B visa fee; Mumbai’s growing premium bus network; as well as the latest developments in the US-Iran conflict.That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!Until next time,AribaStory continues below this ad Business As Usual by E P unny