A look at the top headlines right now:

  1. BJP minister Dara Singh Chauhan quits UP Cabinet ahead of Assembly elections: Chauhan is the second minister to quit the Adityanath-led Cabinet. On Tuesday, Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya had resigned from his post. Meanwhile, Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal, while two of the party’s MLAs Naresh Saini and Hari Om Yadav, and former Samajwadi Party legislator Dharmpal Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
  2. Delhi logs second-highest daily Covid-19 cases ever, Bengaluru sees 44% jump in new infections: Delhi reported 40 deaths on Wednesday, the highest in a day since June 10. Meanwhile, Bengaluru recorded 15,617 new cases.
  3. SC issues notice to Uttarakhand government in Haridwar hate speech case, seeks reply in ten days: At a “dharam sansad”, or religious parliament, held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19, Hindutva supremacists had called upon Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.
  4. SC appoints Justice Indu Malhotra to head committee to investigate Modi’s “security lapse”: Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that questions about the alleged security breach cannot be “left to a one-sided inquiry” and that a judicially trained mind was needed to oversee the investigation.
  5. Arrest warrant issued against Swami Prasad Maurya in 2014 case a day after he quit UP Cabinet: A court in Sultanpur district has asked Maurya to appear before it on January 24 in an alleged hate speech case. Meanwhile, Maurya said that he will announce on January 14 whether he would join the Samajwadi Party. His comment came a day after he resigned from the state Cabinet, and minutes later Akhilesh Yadav posted a tweet welcoming him to the Samajwadi Party.
  6. Actor Siddharth apologises for tweet about Saina Nehwal: The actor had made a seemingly sexual slur in response to Nehwal’s tweet expressing concern about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy being stuck for several minutes on a flyover in Punjab. On Wednesday, Siddharth said that while he may disagree with the badminton player on many things, his tone and use of words were not justified.
  7. Any demand for “property or valuable security” comes under ambit of dowry, says Supreme Court: A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli observed while adjudicating in a case that asking for money to construct a house should be regarded as a “dowry demand”.
  8. Appropriate action will be taken against troops involved in Nagaland killings, says Army chief: General MM Naravane expressed regret on the incident and said it was being thoroughly investigated.
  9. I&B Ministry’s Twitter account briefly hacked: The hackers renamed the account as “Elon Musk” and tweeted “great job”. They also posted some malicious links. However, the account was restored shortly after.
  10. Concerned by China’s attempt to intimidate neighbours, says US: The statement was made a day ahead of 14th round of military talks between India and China to disengage from East Ladakh.