News18.com Daybreak | Mumbai Plane Crash, 'Exodus' of Muslim Families in Meerut & Stories You May Have Missed

In case you missed it

Bukhari murder expose: Jammu and Kashmir police claimed in a press conference that the murder of veteran journalist Shujaat Bukhari was plotted in Pakistan by terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba. J&K police also revealed names of the four LeT operatives.

Freak crash: Five people were killed after a chartered aircraft crashed near an under-construction building in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar on Thursday afternoon. Those killed include two pilots and two aircraft maintenance engineers on board and a pedestrian in the Ghatkopar area where the plane crashed. The aircraft reportedly belonged to the Uttar Pradesh government before being sold to UY Aviation. The accident could have been even more severe but fortunately, the 30 workers inside the building that the plane crashed into had stepped out for lunch.

Shifting base: Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah introduced former Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy as a key warrior against Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting in Purulia and said that that the latter had joined the BJP to end TMC rule in Bengal. Roy, who was widely known as the next big name in the Trinamool Congress ranks with many analysts calling him Banerjee’s right-hand man, resigned from TMC in October last year. He claimed that party had lost its ideology.

Pre-emptive exodus: Close to a hundred Muslims families in Lisadi village in Meerut district have announced an exodus due to alleged harassment and one-sided action by police after communal tension gripped the area over a clash between two groups. The families have put up ‘for sale’ posters outside their houses, asking the police and other residents to purchase them so that they can relocate.

No Sterlite: After Sadhguru Jaggi and Baba Ramdev came out in support of the controversy-ridden Sterlite copper plant, the Tamil Nadu government lashed out at both the spiritual gurus and rejected their claims. The AIADMK government has further turned down their pleas to reopen of the Sterlite plant in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu.

Major flop: Money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose over 50 per cent to CHF 1.01 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) in 2017, reversing a three-year downward trend amid India's clampdown on suspected black money stashed there. 

Bowing to pressure: India's oil ministry has asked refiners to prepare for a 'drastic reduction or zero' imports of Iranian oil from November, two industry sources said, the first sign that New Delhi is responding to a push by the United States to cut trade ties with Iran. The move followed US Ambassador to UN Nicki Haley’s 3-day bilateral visit to India. Haley, who went on a touristy trip round the capital on Thursday, met PM Modi on Wednesday and said that Iran was a threat that cannot be ignored.

Safety debate: The most recent Thomson Reuters survey, which has been making the rounds, ranked India the world’s most dangerous country for women. The foundation posted statistics that showed how reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, with four cases of rape reported every hour. Are these really just subjective opinions as portrayed by the Women and Child Ministry or irrevocable facts? Read News18’s special report on the truth of women’s safety in India.

Language matters: Fresh data from Census 2011 states that Urdu language has suffered a great deal since 2001. The Urdu language slid from the sixth position to the seventh as the number of Gujarati speakers dominated those speaking Urdu.

Spawning homophobia: Bollywood is riddled with problems like rampant sexism, plotless scripts, hyperbolic masculinity, and latent sanskaar lessons, to name a few. But there is one aspect in which Bollywood has the distinction of being completely apathetic and tone deaf – its treatment of the LGBTQI+ community over the years. Read to find out how the Bollywood has normalised homophobia and hate against the community in India by enforcing stereotypes for laughs.

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Hannah Gadsby has been a prominent name in the field of stand-up comedy for over a decade now. The Australian female comic, famous for bringing 'lesbian comedy' on the forefront, hails from a small town Smithton in Tasmania. Now coming out of the closet in the late 90s in a town which believed homosexuality was a sin, took a toll on Hannah's personality formation and to deal with the trauma, the comedian channelized it into a story packed with jokes and started presenting it to her audience. But Sameeksha explains why after a decade of disguising her pain and anguish with comedy, Nanette now she feels making a joke about her trauma is not her way to go in life anymore.