Quick Reads
News Dabba for 13 February 2025: 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 opposition walkout over Waqf Bill, Modi's US visit, to Gaza truce troubles.
Opposition stages walkout of RS over Waqf Bill report, Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times reports that the first sitting of the Budget Session of Parliament will conclude on Thursday amid heightened drama following an adjournment motion by the Congress Party and the report of JPC on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. Most of the opposition leaders on Thursday staged a walkout of Rajya Sabha after the presentation of JPC's Waqf Bill report in the upper house. Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the final report of JPC's Waqf (Amendment) Bill was submitted without the dissent report of the members, the report adds. Read the full report here.
Indian Express live updates on PM Modi's US visit: PM Modi meets Tulsi Gabbard
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will shortly hold talks with US President Donald Trump, after he met with with the country’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, Indian Express reports. PM Modi is currently on a two-day visit to the United States, landing in Washington DC after wrapping up his visit to France where he co-chaired the Paris AI Action Summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Modi is set to be the third foreign leader to be hosted by the White House since President Trump took office on January 20 for the second term. Read the full report here.
Israel issues more war threats, Al Jazeera on Gaza truce deal
Israel Katz, reiterating comments by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, just a day before, said that if Hamas doesn’t release the captives by noon local time on Saturday, the war would resume, Al Jazeera reports. But the defence minister’s comments were a little bit more severe, saying that the war will be much different in its intensity and scale and that “the gates of hell would open on Gaza”. Hamas has accused Israel of violating the deal in the first place, saying that they are holding up critical and vital humanitarian aid that is supposed to come into the Strip in the form of tents, caravans and other temporary shelters to house Palestinians in the interim. Read the full report here.
AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj Turns YouTuber After Delhi Election Loss, NDTV
Former Delhi minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj is now a YouTuber. After his loss in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election, NDTV reports that the AAP leader has launched a YouTube channel, "Berozgar Neta", which means "unemployed politician". Bharadwaj, who lost the Greater Kailash seat to BJP's Shikha Roy, will use the platform to interact with people daily. In his first video, he shared how the election result "flipped his life by 180 degrees" and made him an "unemployed leader", the report adds. Read the full report here.
Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar's scam centres, BBC reports
More than 250 people from 20 nationalities who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar's Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand, BBC reports. They were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking. Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border. Read the full report here.
