A look at the top headlines of the day:

  1. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury apologises to President Droupadi Murmu for calling her ‘rashtrapatni’: The Congress MP told the president in a letter that his reference was a ‘slip of the tongue’. The women’s panel summoned him for his comment and a FIR was filed against Chowdhury in Madhya Pradesh.
  2. India made most requests to remove tweets by journalists, news portals between July-December: India made a total of 3,992 demands to remove content, including those posted by the press, Twitter said in its 20th Transparency Report.
  3. Karnataka will ‘go five steps ahead of UP’ in carrying out encounters, says state minister: CN Ashwath Narayan made the remark in the context of the killing of Praveen Nettaru, a Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing leader.
  4. Delhi HC refuses to direct ‘Newslaundry’ to take down ‘defamatory’ videos about Aaj Tak, India Today: TV Today Network has sued the media watchdog for uploading ‘infringing, defamatory, commercially disparaging material’ containing clips of the news channels.
  5. Remove ‘defamatory’ posts about Smriti Irani, her daughter, Delhi HC directs three Congress leaders: Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’Souza have been asked to file replies on a defamation suit.
  6. ‘I am deeply remorseful,’ says Will Smith as he again apologises to Chris Rock for Oscars slap: The actor said he has reached out to the comedian who was not yet ready to talk.
  7. Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew meets Eknath Shinde, expresses support to ruling alliance: The development came amid a battle between factions led by Shinde and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to be recognised as the real Shiv Sena.
  8. SC asks Madras HC to decide on Panneerselvam’s plea against AIADMK general council meeting: The former Tamil Nadu chief minister was expelled from the party’s primary membership and his rival Palaniswami was made the interim general secretary.
  9. Core sector output rose by 12.7% in June: All sectors, except crude oil, registered an uptick in production.
  10. Add photos of president, PM in Chess Olympiad advertisements, Madras HC tells Tamil Nadu government: The order was passed on a plea stating that only photographs of state Chief Minister MK Stalin were used.