A look at the headlines right now:

  1. EC stops NaMo TV from airing political content without certification: The poll body also issued show cause notices to Adityanath and Mayawati for violating model code of conduct.
  2. Voters don’t need to know where political parties get their funds from, says Centre during hearing on electoral bonds: The Supreme Court said it will deliver a judgement in the case against the use of electoral bonds for political funding on Friday.
  3. Congress demands inquiry into alleged laser threat to Rahul Gandhi: The party cited the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in its letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  4. London police arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after Ecuador ends his asylum: Assange took refuge in Ecuador seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.
  5. Stop parties from using armed forces for political gain, urge eight former service chiefs: They were among 156 veterans who told President Ramnath Kovind that this will hurt morale and fighting efficiency.
  6. First phase of voting in Lok Sabha elections concludes, some clashes and EVM glitches reported: Voting also took place in four states for Assembly elections. In Noida, police denied political links after photographs showed ‘NaMo’ food packets at poll booths. In Andhra Pradesh, a TDP worker was killed in clashes.
  7. PMO says it doesn’t keep a record of money spent on prime minister’s domestic trips, shows RTI: The prime minister’s official website has details of his foreign visits and expenses incurred on them.
  8. ‘BJP will remove all infiltrators from the country, except Hindus and Buddhists,’ says Amit Shah: The BJP president claimed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress party were mourning the Army’s action against terrorist hotbeds.
  9. France denies report that it trained Pakistani officers to fly Rafale aircraft for Qatar: Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler said the claim made by the February 2018 report is ‘fake news’.
  10. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir forced to quit, military takes over administration: The development occurred on Thursday and followed months of protests against him in the capital of Khartoum.