NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday yet again took a different stand from his party and rest of the opposition and came in support of the Centre for its stand on the ongoing US-Israel and Iran conflict in the Middle East.Speaking to news agency PTI, Tharoor said that he understands the government’s desire to take a cautious stand on the conflict and hoped that it could make a public call to both sides to end the war quickly.However, Tharoor said that India should have condemned the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei in a US-Israel strike. “I don’t know about condemning it, but we should certainly have condoled it. After all (he was) the spiritual leader of a country with which he have friendly relations,” the Congress leader said. “It would have been appropriate, the day it happened, for us to express public condolences and share the grief of his loved ones and of his nation just as two years ago when president Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash, we immediately issued a condolence as well as announced national mourning,” he added.The Thiruvananthapuram MP said that the moment the Iranian embassy opened the condolence book, foreign secretary Vikram Misri went and signed the book, which was a “good thing”, he said.“But I guess we could have been a bit more… it is simply the courteous thing to do for any country. For example, the president of some faraway country, with which we do not even have such a close relation, were to be such a victim, it would be odd for us not to offer condolences,” Tharoor said.“But apart from that, I think I understand the government’s desire to take, for the lack of a better word, a cautious stand,” he said.Tharoor also said that a good group of countries not party to the conflict on either side could go to both sides and ask them to call off the conflict, and India should be at the forefront of this.Tharoor said that India has enormous stakes in what is going on and its energy security is dependent on the situation in the Gulf, including its LPG and LNG imports.“We have 9 million of our citizens living there, which are an important source of remittances, and their safety and well-being is naturally a priority, there are investments coming to us from countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and we have very important overall trade relations as well as political interest and security cooperation, all of that,” Tharoor said.“You don’t want to see that jeopardised. So for us, peace and stability in the Middle East-West Asia is extremely important,” he added.This comes as the opposition attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for its “silence” on the assassination of Khamenei, saying “a compromised prime minister no doubt wants to avoid antagonising his American and Israeli friend”.Condemning the assassination, the opposition said that India condemned Iran’s attacks on Gulf states but was “completely quiet” on the US-Israeli assault on Iran on Iran in the first place.Earlier this month, the Congress had staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha and protested in the Lok Sabha to express its dissatisfaction with the statement of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the West Asia situation in both Houses of Parliament.The party had termed Jaishankar’s statement “vapid” and alleged that PM Narendra Modi’s foreign policy “(mis)adventurism”, coupled with the government’s “undermining” of the Indian Foreign Service, is pushing India into “vassalage”.Making a suo motu statement in Parliament, Jaishankar had said New Delhi stood for maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states in the region. He defended allowing the Iranian ship to dock at an Indian port as the right decision taken on humanitarian grounds.

AI image generated for representational purposes.

Heavy social media use is driving a sharp decline in well-being among young people, with teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe particularly affected, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 released on Thursday.The annual study, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland remains the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year. Other Nordic nations — Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway — continue to dominate the top rankings.At the other end of the spectrum, countries affected by conflict continue to rank lowest, with Afghanistan again listed as the unhappiest, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi.

Happiest countries:

Least happy countries:

147. Afghanistan146. Sierra Leone145. Malawi144. Zimbabwe143. Botswana142. Yemen141. Lebanon140. DR Congo139. Egypt138. TanzaniaThe report highlights a significant drop in life satisfaction among people under 25 in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the past decade, with prolonged social media use identified as a key contributing factor.Notably, for the second year running, no English-speaking country features in the top 10. The United States ranks 23rd, Canada 25th and Britain 29th.Among the biggest movers, Costa Rica climbed to fourth place this year, up from 23rd in 2023. Researchers attributed its rise to strong family bonds and social connections.“We think it’s because of the quality of their social lives and the stability that they currently enjoy,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre and co-editor of the report, noting that Latin American societies tend to have stronger social ties and higher levels of social capital.The continued dominance of Nordic countries, the report said, is linked to a combination of wealth, relatively equal distribution, robust welfare systems and high life expectancy.

Where does India rank?

Among the 147 countries featured in the report, India ranks 116th, a slight improvement from its 118th position in 2025.India improved its ranking by two spots:111. Ukraine 112. Morocco 113. Guinea 114. Mali 115. Ghana 116. India 117. Somalia 118. Uganda 119. Jordan 120. MauritaniaThe rankings are based on responses from around 100,000 people across 140 countries and territories, collected in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Participants were asked to rate their lives on a scale of 0 to 10.Among under-25s in English-speaking and Western European countries, average life satisfaction scores have fallen by nearly one point over the past decade. The report found the negative impact of heavy social media use to be especially pronounced among teenage girls. For instance, 15-year-old girls who spend five or more hours a day on social media report significantly lower life satisfaction compared to those who use it less.Young people who spend less than an hour a day on social media report the highest levels of well-being — even higher than those who do not use it at all. However, adolescents now spend an average of about 2.5 hours daily on these platforms.“It is clear that we should look as much as possible to put the ‘social’ back into social media,” De Neve said.The report also notes regional differences. In parts of the Middle East and South America, social media use appears to correlate more positively with well-being, and youth satisfaction levels have remained stable despite heavy usage.Researchers suggest that platform design plays a key role. Algorithm-driven, image-heavy platforms that emphasise influencers tend to worsen well-being by encouraging social comparison, while platforms focused on communication show more positive outcomes.The findings come amid growing global debate over regulating social media use among minors, with several countries considering or implementing restrictions.