A look at the headlines right now:

  1. India reports one case each of new Omicron variant in Maharashtra and Gujarat, so far four patients detected: Mumbai authorities framed new guidelines, including visits by medical teams and five calls a day, for home quarantine.
  2. Farmers form five-member panel for talks with Centre on minimum support price, other pending demands: The farmers have said that they will continue their protests until all their demands are met.
  3. Journalist Vinod Dua dies at 67: He was shifted to the intensive care unit of a Delhi hospital on Monday when his health condition had deteriorated.
  4. Cyclone Jawad weakens into deep depression, says weather department: More than 54,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas of coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
  5. Pegasus spyware was used to hack phones of US State Department officials, says a Reuters report: The employees, who used Apple’s iPhones, were either based in Uganda or worked on matters related to the country.
  6. Curfew and internet shutdowns in Jammu and Kashmir are for people’s safety, says Amit Shah: Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood will be restored after delimitation exercise and Assembly elections, said the home minister.
  7. ‘Lungi chhaap’ goons  would roam freely before BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, claims deputy chief minister ahead of upcoming elections: Keshav Prasad Maurya alleged that people, who wore a certain attire, had threatened businessmen in the state and encroached on their lands.
  8. First chargesheet filed against former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh in extortion case: Singh and three others, including dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze, had allegedly extorted money from a businessman to spare his bars from raids.
  9. Need population control Bill to curb growing poverty, diseases, says BJP MP: Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena claimed that population explosion will harm the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign.
  10. Brazil Supreme Court orders inquiry against President Jair Bolsonaro for linking Covid-19 vaccines to AIDS: In a live broadcast on multiple social media platforms in October, Bolsonaro wrongly claimed that the vaccines may increase the chances of contracting AIDS.