News Dabba for 23 January 2023: Five stories for a balanced news diet

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 Thackeray, Ambedkar announcing alliance ahead of Mumbai civic polls, Pakistan cities suffering power cuts, to Poland asking Germany for go-ahead to send tanks to Ukraine.

Major Pakistan cities without electricity after grid breakdown

Pakistan suffered a huge power cut early on Monday following a breakdown in its national electricity grid, the energy ministry said. BBC reports that power was out in all the country's major cities, including the biggest city Karachi, the capital Islamabad as well as Lahore and Peshawar. Pakistan Power minister Khurrum Dastagir said the grid failure followed a "frequency variation" in southern Pakistan, the report adds. He insisted this was "not a major crisis" and power would be back soon. Read the full report here.

NDTV: Thackeray, Ambedkar tie-up ahead of Mumbai civic polls

NDTV reported that former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today announced an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) as he preps for the upcoming Mumbai civic polls. It would be the first major election since his Shiv Sena split last year, bringing down his government. Uddhav Thackeray has been in talks for over two months with Prakash Ambedkar. The alliance will take on the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Sena and BJP combine in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election. Read the full report here.

Poland to ask Germany for go-ahead to send tanks to Ukraine, The Hindu

Poland will ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, The Hindu reported. Morawiecki didn't specify when the request will be made. He said that Poland is building a coalition of nations ready to send Leopards. The report adds that he said without elaborating that even if there is no permission from Germany, Warsaw will take its own decisions. Read the full report here.

The Wire report talks about the List of 50 Tweets the Modi Govt Has Censored

Twitter’s recent filings with a third-party database reveal that the Union ministry of information and broadcasting directed the social media platform to censor 50 tweets carrying a link to the new BBC documentary about the 2002 Gujarat communal violence citing legal grounds. The Wire reported that the ministry cited Rule 16(3) of the IT Rules [PDF] and Section 69(A) of IT Act, 2000 to ask for the removal of the posts. Apart from Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien’s tweet, similar posts carrying a link to the documentary by activist Kavita Krishnan, journalists Ghazala Wahab and Mitali Saran, American actor John Cusack, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan were also taken down by Twitter in India on the Modi government’s request. However, the report added that the tweets are still available to Twitter users abroad or to anyone in India who logs in to the internet via a VPN. Read the full report here.

Right-Wing mob barges into woman’s birthday celebration, thrash Muslim men, the Quint

A mob of over 100 men on Saturday, 21 January allegedly crashed a birthday party in Madhya Pradesh's Indore – and thrashed at least five Muslim men. The Quint reports that the incident allegedly occurred on grounds of 'love jihad'. A 24-year-old Hindu woman was celebrating her birthday with her friends. The mob – reportedly led by members of the right-wing organisation, Bajrang Dal – allegedly barged into her flat and thrashed her male Muslim friends, accusing them of 'love jihad'. They then took them to Indore's MIG Colony police station where the police sent them to jail. The videos of the incident went viral on Sunday, 22 January. Read the full report here.