Top stories across today's newspaper front pages for Thursday, 26th March, 2026. Fuel crisis bites: shortages, price spikes and a political scramble A widening fuel squeeze is driving fears of supply-chain disruption and “empty shelves”, with motorists changing travel plans and small businesses—from independent servos to restaurants and community services—reporting immediate impacts. The debate is hardening into a policy fight over energy security, including calls for domestic oil development and a fresh national cabinet response. Covered by: The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Australian Financial Review, The Mercury. $2b smelter bailout in doubt as Labor divides over GST and industry support A proposed $2 billion rescue package for the Tomago aluminium smelter is at risk amid a federal–NSW dispute over GST revenue and growing scrutiny of whether taxpayer-funded manufacturing bailouts stack up. The A

Scroll through any social media feed today and one thing stands out — influence is no longer driven by scale alone, but by credibility. For PR and communications teams, this marks a clear shift. Influencers are no longer just channels used to amplify campaigns. They have become embedded in the storytelling process, shaping how audiences perceive brands in real time. This evolution is being driven by a simple reality: audiences have become far more discerning. Content that feels scripted or transactional is quickly ignored, while narratives that feel authentic and culturally relevant are more likely to resonate. As a result, influencer marketing is moving away from visibility-driven campaigns toward trust-led collaborations.  Authenticity Over Algorithms   Joshika Kapoor, Founder of One PR, has seen this shift play out in how brands evaluate success. “In today’s landscape, it’s less about follower count and more about community trust, releva

Image of the Day India accounted for three of the five most-polluted cities globally and 29 of the top 50. Picture by -Sunil Ghosh - Hindustan Times    AI Flags, Police Act: Telangana’s rapid response saves over 100 lives Minutes after a Warangal student posted a video of a suicide attempt, police reached his home and saved him. In Mahabubnagar, a similar alert from a social media video helped police track and hospitalise a young man in time. These are not isolated rescues. They are part of a rapidly evolving system where distress signals posted online are converted into real-world interventions. Since November, the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has received 89 such alerts and rescued 76 individuals, according to the Telangana Socio Economic Outlook 2026. With subsequent interventions, officials say 106 people have been saved in just five months. At the centre of this system is a continuous, AI-driven monitoring mechanism developed in collaboration with Meta. Th

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has upheld the acquittal of the chief editor of Him Himwanti newspaper in a defamation case. The court said that publishing information in truth and good faith, without intent to harm, does not amount to defamation under the law. Justice Sandeep Sharma was hearing a plea challenging a trial court order that had cleared the editor of charges related to alleged false corruption reports. The court observed that opinions expressed in good faith about a public servant’s conduct are not defamation. It also noted that the complainant failed to prove any intent to harm, and upheld the trial court’s decision, The Indian Express reported.

News is no longer produced only inside newsrooms backed by cameras, editors, and broadcast schedules. Today, it often begins with a single post. Across cities, towns, and neighbourhoods, ordinary people are documenting events as they happen and sharing them instantly on Twitter. From road accidents to local protests, eyewitness updates frequently appear online before news crews arrive, allowing information to spread rapidly and reach large audiences within minutes. Twitter’s format plays a key role in this shift. Its speed and accessibility allow users to post updates in real time, turning individual observations into wider public conversations. What starts as a single tweet can quickly gain traction, prompting responses, discussions, and, in some cases, action. Professional journalists have also adapted. Many now monitor Twitter to identify emerging stories, track conversations, and access on-ground visuals. Citizen posts often act as early signals, helping newsrooms pick u

Image edited by Dinesh Raj M   There's an old saying in newsrooms: the press never sleeps. But right now, across India, some of them might have to. The US-Israel-Iran war playing out in the skies and on the ground thousands of kilometres from Delhi has reached all the way into the pressrooms of Indian newspapers and magazines through a rather unglamorous pipeline: LPG. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant chunk of India's gas imports travel, has been choked by the conflict, triggering cascading shortages that the Indian government is now scrambling to triage. Hospitals get gas. Homes get gas. Schools get gas. Newspaper presses? They're in the queue, somewhere behind tile factories and rum distilleries, under the catch-all label of "general industrial use." The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) are not being dramatic when they say this is a crisis. Heat-set web offset presses, the kind used to prod

“It's perfect to be neurodivergent in journalism because we think differently,” says podcast producer and former BBC Journalist Ania Lichtarowicz. She believes neurodivergent journos see “things in patterns” that others don’t. “That's when you spot that it doesn't smell right,” she added. Experienced IT journalist Joshua Gliddon shares Lichtarowicz’s sentiment that journalism is perfect for the neurodiverse. He said it was great for him as he “gets to really focus on the topics he’s interested in. “But if I'm not interested in a certain topic, I can't make myself interested in it.” Neurodivergence’s Day-to-Day Influence on Journos  Central to Gliddon’s day-to-day work are doses of Ritalin, remarking he wouldn’t get anything done without it. “It gives me real clarity and focus. If I'm interested in something, I can really get into a flow state and work on it for a long time.” Gliddon was diagnosed six years ago with ADHD and schizophrenia. H