A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Rebel Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari joins BJP during Amit Shah’s visit to Bengal: The home minister said the tsunami of defections, which he was witnessing in West Bengal, would leave Banerjee alone by the time elections are held in 2021.
  2. ED attaches Farooq Abdullah’s properties worth nearly Rs 12 crore in J&K Cricket Association scam: In a statement, the agency said that it has attached three houses, commercial buildings and lands at four different places in Jammu and Kashmir.
  3. India wants to resolve standoff with China, but won’t tolerate harm to self-respect, says Rajnath Singh: The defence minister said India was capable of responding to aggression in a befitting manner.
  4. India’s coronavirus case count crosses 1-crore mark, toll over 1.45 lakh: Meanwhile, US cleared Moderna vaccine for emergency use, to get nearly 2 crore doses by end of year. Jair Bolsonaro claimed vaccines can turn people into crocodiles, women may grow beard.
  5. Allahabad HC stays arrest of man under UP anti-conversion law, cites right to privacy: Another court in Uttar Pradesh directed authorities to release a Muslim man, his brother after police found no evidence.
  6. Wistron accepts delay in payment to workers, sacks India head after violence at Karnataka facility: Apple placed Wistron on probation and said that the iPhone manufacturer will not get contracts till it completes corrective action.
  7. Mumbai court orders police to probe Javed Akhtar’s defamation complaint against Kangana Ranaut: In a TV interview in July, Ranaut had accused Akhtar of being a part of a Bollywood ‘suicide gang’.
  8. MJ Akbar played fraud on court by hiding other sexual harassment allegations, says Priya Ramani’s lawyer: Rebecca John told a court in Delhi that 15 women had accused Akbar of sexual harassment by the time he filed a defamation case against Ramani in 2018.
  9. RSS ideologue MG Vaidya dies at 97: He was a veteran journalist and the first official spokesperson of the organisation.
  10. Pakistan claims India is planning surgical strike against it, seeking approval from other countries: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad was, however, prepared to respond.