Morning Digest: World welcomes 2025 with light shows, embraces and ice plunges; Quad vows to work vigorously towards free, stable Indo-Pacific, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on January 1, 2024

From Sydney to Vladivostok to Mumbai, communities around the world have begun welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges. Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.

India and other Quad member-nations reaffirmed the grouping’s steadfast commitment to work towards a free, open and peaceful Indo-Pacific amid China’s increasing military muscle-flexing in the region. Foreign Ministers of the member nations of the grouping pledged in a joint statement commemorating the 20th anniversary of “Quad cooperation”.

India is handling the “sensitive” case of death sentence awarded to Nimisha Priya from Kerala in Yemen with great caution as New Delhi does not maintain any official contact with the Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, sources here indicated on Tuesday (December 31, 2024). Ms. Nimisha received the death sentence after being convicted of killing her Yemeni business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi.

The Punjab government informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday (December 31, 2024) that protesting farmers had written to the Centre, saying their leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for 35 days, would seek medical help only if the Centre invited them for talks. Mr. Dallewal has been on a hunger strike at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana boundary since November 26 to press the Centre to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price for crops.

Continuing its action against “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants in the Capital, the Delhi Police sent multiple teams to districts in Assam and West Bengal to verify documents of individuals whose nationalities they are doubtful of. The move comes after the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) ordered an intensive drive against “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants living in the Capital on December 11, and directed the Chief Secretary and the police chief to launch a two-month special drive to identify and take strict action against such persons. 

Walmik Karad, a close aide of Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, surrendered before the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Pune on Tuesday (December 31, 2024) in connection with an alleged ₹2 crore extortion case linked to the murder of a village sarpanch.

Several government websites went down on Tuesday (December 31, 2024) following a power outage at the National Informatics Centre’s (NIC) data centre in Shastri Park in Northeast Delhi, sources said. While the outage was resolved, the websites continued to be down until 7.30 p.m.