Morning Digest: Four killed, at least 36 injured as BEST bus crashes into vehicles at Mumbai’s Kurla; BJP spreading ‘fake news’, says French media house Mediapart, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on December 10, 2024

Damascus stirred back to life on Monday (December 9, 2024) at the start of a hopeful but uncertain era after militants seized the capital and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule. Heavy traffic returned to the streets and people ventured out after a nighttime curfew, but most shops remained shut militants milled about in the centre.

Three persons died and at least 20 others were injured after a bus of the Mumbai’s civic transport body BEST rammed into pedestrians as well as vehicles at Kurla Bhaji Market in Mumbai on Monday night (December 9, 2024), police and municipal corporation officials said. It is suspected the accident near the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) L Ward in Kurla took place due to a brake failure, they said, adding the bus driver has been detained.

The All India Lawyers Union on Monday (December 9, 2024) wrote a letter to the President and Chief Justice of India seeking action against Allahabad High Court judge, Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, for his speech at a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) event. The lawyers’ union said the speech “amounted to hate speech against the Muslim minority”.

Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the US State Department of fomenting disaffection against the Government of India, the French news outlet Mediapart, which the BJP had cited while making the allegations, has said that the BJP was spreading ‘fake news’ using its reports.

Keen to hold wider consultations on the proposed Bills to implement simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and local bodies, the Union government may bring these Bills as early as the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, a government source said on Monday (December 9, 2024).

The commissioner appointed by the local court in Sambhal to conduct a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid is expected to file his report within 15 days. However, the Muslim side to the case has objected to the commissioner seeking a fortnight’s extension of time to file his report.

Police have sent a legal demand to Elon Musk’s Starlink seeking details of who purchased its internet device that helped in sea navigation of smugglers who were caught with $4.2 billion worth of meth in the biggest such Indian seizure. Two people with direct knowledge of the police notice sent by Andaman and Nicobar island officials said Starlink had been asked for the purchaser’s name and payment method, registration details and where the internet device was used when smugglers travelled in international waters from Myanmar to India.