A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Amid rise in Omicron variant cases, Centre advises citizens to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings: Meanwhile, the WHO granted emergency use approval to Serum Institute’s Covovax vaccine.
  2. Amarinder Singh announces alliance with BJP for Punjab Assembly elections: He said that the decision on seat sharing would be taken on the basis of a candidate’s chances of winning.  
  3. Bhima Koregaon accused Rona Wilson’s phone was infected with Pegasus, shows new analysis: Amnesty International’s Security Lab confirmed that the activist’s phone had been first compromised using the spyware in July 2017.  
  4. Amazon fined Rs 200 crore by India’s antitrust regulator, its deal with Future Coupons suspended: The Competition Commission of India said that Amazon had made ‘false and incorrect statements’ while applying for approval of the deal.  
  5. SC asks High Court to decide on plea seeking FIRs against Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra in Delhi riots case: Delhi HC was asked to decide within three months on whether to register cases against four BJP leaders for allegedly delivering hate speeches.  
  6. Election commission chief, two commissioners attended ‘informal interaction’ with PMO, says report: The poll panel is a constitutional body that functions independently and the three commissioners are required to maintain a distance from the government.  
  7. Delhi schools to reopen tomorrow for Classes 6 and above: The Delhi air quality panel has said that physical classes for students up to Class 5 can start from December 27.  
  8. Karnataka Congress MLA’s ‘enjoy rape’ remark triggers controversy: He later apologised saying he did not intend to ‘trivialise or make light of the heinous crime’ and described it as ‘an off the cuff’ comment.  
  9. SC stays proceedings of panel formed by West Bengal to look into Pegasus surveillance allegations: A bench led by the chief justice observed that the court itself has formed an independent committee to look into the matter.  
  10. India among most dangerous countries for journalists, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders: The organisation said that 46 journalists were killed in 2021, of which four died in India.