A look at the headlines right now:

  1. ‘There is no UPA now,’ says Mamata Banerjee after meeting Sharad Pawar: The West Bengal chief minister said that a ‘strong alternative’ was needed to oust the BJP from power.
  2. International flights will not resume from December 15, says India’s aviation regulator: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the decision was taken in view of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.
  3. No data on farmer deaths during protests, so no question of compensation, says Centre: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha that there were no records on the number of cases registered against farmers either. Meanwhile, President Ram Nath Kovind signed the Bill to cancel the three farm laws.
  4. Activist Sudha Bharadwaj gets default bail in Bhima Koregaon case: Eight other accused persons have been denied bail by the Bombay High Court.
  5. Align your travel guidelines with Centre’s, health secretary tells Maharashtra amid Omicron scare: The state made Covid tests and quarantine mandatory for all passengers arriving at the Mumbai airport, irrespective of whether they come from ‘at-risk’ nations.
  6. Comedian Kunal Kamra’s Bengaluru shows cancelled amid threats to venue: This comes three days after Munawar Faruqui’s event in Bengaluru was called off after the police warned organisers against hosting a ‘controversial figure’.
  7. Delhi government wants work on Central Vista project to be halted amid rising air pollution: The Centre said the project and the construction of a new Parliament building was of national importance.
  8. Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa joins BJP ahead of Punjab Assembly elections: Sirsa was also the chief of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee but he resigned from the post earlier in the day, citing personal reasons.
  9. Maharashtra inquiry panel asks Sachin Vaze and Anil Deshmukh to appear before it next week: Deshmukh’s secretary had allegedly asked Vaze to extort money from owners of bars and restaurants.
  10. In Australian Parliament, one in three staff faced sexual harassment, finds report: The Australian government had commissioned the inquiry after a former parliament employee said that she had been raped by a colleague in a minister’s office.