A look at the headlines right now:

  1. EC to announce 2019 election dates at 5 pm on Sunday: Meanwhile, the Election Commission told political parties to stop using photos of armed forces in campaigns.
  2. Body of fourth soldier recovered 17 days after going missing in avalanche in Himachal Pradesh: The jawan was identified as 27-year-old Nitish Rana.
  3. India conducted 3 cross-border strikes in 5 years, but I won’t talk about the third, says Rajnath Singh: PM Narendra Modi claimed earlier in the day that Pakistan has admitted to the Balakot air strikes but many in India are still raising questions. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, blamed the BJP for releasing Masood Azhar from jail in 1999.
  4. Fourteen people killed as plane crashes near Colombia’s Villavicencio, say authorities: Twelve people and two pilots were killed when the plane crashed after losing contact with the air traffic control.  
  5. Assam newspapers to boycott state government news and ads for three days to protest ‘apathy’: According to the North East Newspaper Society, the government has failed to revise the rates of advertisements since 2014.  
  6. Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify to grand jury in Wikileaks case: Manning said she had ‘ethical’ objections to the grand jury system and had answered all questions about her involvement with WikiLeaks years ago.
  7. Women’s minister in Brazil claims teaching boys and girls gender equality leads to domestic violence: Damares Alves, who is also an evangelical preacher, said certain ‘ideologies’ encourage violence by teaching boys that girls are equal and can handle being hit.
  8. Jagdish Mukhi sworn-in as Mizoram governor: Mukhi, who is also the governor of Assam, succeeds Kummanam Rajasekharan, who resigned from the post on Thursday.  
  9. Kerala’s CPI(M) announces list of Lok Sabha candidates, fields six sitting MPs: While the CPI(M), the largest partner in the Left Democratic Front, will contest from 16 seats, the CPI will fight from the remaining four.  
  10. ‘Why did Prashant Kishor not speak up when JD(U) decided to ally with BJP,’ asks party leader: JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar was reacting to Kishor’s comments that Nitish Kumar should have sought a fresh mandate after leaving the grand alliance in 2017.