Morning Digest: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla bans protests at Parliament gates; House rejects Trump-backed plan on U.S. govt. shutdown, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on December 20, 2024

After political protests turned ugly, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday (December 19, 2024) banned demonstrations by MPs and political parties at any of the gates of Parliament, sources said.

Throughout 2023, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) adopted more coercive actions in the Indo-Pacific region while accelerating its development of capabilities and concepts to strengthen China’s ability to “fight and win wars” against a “strong enemy,” the annual report to the US Congress said, while stating that along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) China has not scaled back its military presence and the standoff with India in 2020 also saw significant and sustained escalation in military infrastructure.

Senior U.S. administration officials have pushed back against the notion that the indictment of Indian citizens including a former Indian government employee in an alleged plot to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York and the charges against Indian businessman Gautam Adani for alleged securities and wire fraud have detracted from the strength of the U.S.-India relationship. Mr. Adani is perceived as being close to Mr. Modi.

The Delhi government informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it had imposed an “all-pervasive, permanent” ban on firecrackers with immediate effect.

Sixteen Indian workers say they are being held in “prison-like conditions” at the Libyan Cement Company’s Benghazi plant for the past four months, ever since they protested long work hours, erratic pay and the flouting of contractual agreement by their employer.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao defended the transfer of ₹55 crore to the organisers of the Formula-E race last year and said the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has no locus standi to book a case since there was no corruption in it at all.

The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan on Thursday (December 19, 2024) to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.