Quick Reads
News Dabba for 11 July 2024: Five stories for a balanced news diet
Here are the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites.
Indie Journal brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from Israel getting ready to attack Gaza city, China's warning to NATO, to IAS officer Puja Khedkar's controversy.
NDTV on IAS Officer Puja Khedkar's controversy
Puja Khedkar, the on-probation civil services officer under scrutiny after allegedly lying, exchanged multiple WhatsApp messages with the Pune Collector's office before her posting and demanded confirmation of her "seating arrangement and vehicle", NDTV reports. Khedkar allegedly lied bout visual and mental disabilities and her OBC background to secure a range of perks not allowed for junior staffers. A preliminary report from the Collector's Office included three screenshots of messages between Khedkar and an unidentified individual, including impatient and pushy responses, NDTV adds. One of the first messages appears to be Khedkhar introducing herself the officer. Read the full report here.
India Today special report: Arrest of 108 Indian immigration agents and donkey route to US
In the last six months, IGI Airport Police has arrested 108 fraudulent immigration agents, according to Delhi Police data, India Today reports. The number of arrests in six months is double the 51 made in the same period in 2023. The crackdown has also revealed how the visa-on-arrival facility extended by several countries to Indians is exploited by these agents to send dunkis on the donkey route, the report adds. Read the full report here.
Israel tells 'everyone in Gaza City' to leave, BBC reports
BBC reports that the Israeli military has told all residents of Gaza City to evacuate south to the central Gaza Strip, amid intensified operations in the north. Leaflets dropped by aircraft instruct "everyone in Gaza City" to leave what is described as a "dangerous combat zone" via designated safe routes - marked as two roads that lead to shelters in Deir al-Balah and al-Zawaida. The UN has said it is deeply concerned about evacuation orders being given. The report mentions that it is the second time since the war began that Gaza City as a whole has been asked to evacuate. Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have re-entered several districts where the military believes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters have regrouped since the start of the year. Read the full report here.
Delhi HC orders DDA to remove all encroachments on Yamuna river bank, Hindustan Times
The Delhi high court has ordered the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to remove all encroachments and illegal construction on the Yamuna river bank, riverbed and drains flowing into the river. Hidustan Times reports that a bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela, directed in its July 8 order, uploaded on Wednesday, the vice chairman (VC) of the DDA to remove all encroachments and illegal construction while dealing with a plea seeking directions to the DDA to demolish the unauthorised construction on the Yamuna river bank and to further prevent the same in future. Read the full report here.
China warns Nato with army drills on alliance’s doorstep, The Straits Times
China is staging army drills with Belarus this week at Nato’s eastern border, The Straits Times reports, in a sign of escalating tensions between Beijing and the US-led defence alliance. The joint “anti-terrorist” exercises on Russian ally Belarus’s soil near the Polish border come as Nato leaders gather for a summit in Washington, with the war in nearby Ukraine high on their agenda. With relations between Nato on the one hand and China and Russia on the other at a low ebb, the report says, analysts believe that Beijing wanted to send the alliance a warning message with the timing of the drills. Read the full report here.
