PARIS — Diplomacy has a peculiar vocabulary. It speaks in measured phrases and elegant rooms, in summonses and démarches, in words that are often so polished they seem to belong to another century. But every now and then, that careful surface cracks, and the message behind it becomes unmistakable. That is what happened on Wednesday at the Quai d’Orsay, the stately headquarters of France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, when Iran’s ambassador to France was called in for an audience he almost certainly did not request. The occasion was not a courtesy call. It was a rebuke. The summons…

Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi stepped out of the political noise in Belagavi with a simple but firm message: if you want to accuse me, do it in a court of law, not through gossip. Speaking to reporters, the Congress leader made it clear that he had already set the legal machinery in motion against those spreading what he called false news and malicious rumours. His voice carried the impatience of a man who has spent decades in public life and who now believes that the time for patience has run out. He confirmed that defamation proceedings had been initiated…