A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Centre says it does not contest the right to choose a partner during hearing on Section 377: The 19th-Century law criminalises ‘unnatural sex, against the order of nature’, which is punishable with life imprisonment.
  2. India overtakes France to become world’s sixth-biggest economy, says report: At the end of 2017, India’s Gross Domestic Product was $2.597 trillion while France’s was $2.582 trillion, according to World Bank data.  
  3. CBI files chargesheet against Uttar Pradesh BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar: The Bangermau MLA is already in jail for allegedly raping the teenager in June 2017.  
  4. ‘Either we will shut down Taj Mahal or you demolish or restore it,’ Supreme Court tells Centre: The top court said the preservation of the 16th-century mausoleum is a ‘hopeless cause’.  
  5. Toll rises to 179 in flood-related incidents in Japan, power and water supply hit: At least 70 people are still missing.  
  6. Plea filed in Delhi HC against ‘Sacred Games’, demands deletion of ‘derogatory’ scenes: The petitioner alleged that the Netflix show has scenes where derogatory language has been used against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.  
  7. Centre opposes plea in Supreme Court seeking to make women also liable for adultery: The government argued that striking down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code will threaten the sanctity of marriage.  
  8. US President Donald Trump accuses Germany of being Russia’s captive: German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed his allegations, saying Berlin made its own decisions and policies.  
  9. Telangana Police ban spiritual leader from Hyderabad for six months for ‘provocative statements’: The head of Sri Peetham of Kakinada, Swami Paripoornananda, was earlier under house arrest but has now been shifted out of the city.  
  10. UK’s data protection watchdog to fine Facebook £5,00,000 in Cambridge Analytica scandal: The Information Commissioner’s Office will also bring a criminal suit against the political consulting firm’s parent company SCL Elections.