Morning news bulletin: Top 5 stories on February 19

Good morning! Here are the top stories in your morning news bulletin on February 19.
In a new twist in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party resigned as Chandigarh mayor on Sunday night, a day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a plea alleging irregularities in the recently held mayoral polls. This followed the resignations of three Aam Aadmi Party councillors – Punam Devi, Neha Musawat, and Gurcharan Kala – in Chandigarh who had gone incommunicado three days ago and joined the BJP on Sunday night, citing “unhappiness” with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. Read full story here
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will lay the foundation stone of the Shri Kalki Dham Temple in Sambhal district. The Shri Kalki Dham Temple is being constructed by the Shri Kalki Dham Nirman Trust whose chairperson is Acharya Pramod Krishnam. He was recently expelled by the Congress for six years for “anti-party remarks” days after he had met Modi and invited him to lay the foundation stone. The inauguration programme, which will begin at around 10:30am will be attended by many saints, religious leaders and other dignitaries, a statement issued by the prime minister’s office said. Modi, who will be on a daylong visit to Uttar Pradesh, will also address the gathering on the occasion. Read full story here
The fourth round of talks between the protesting farmers’ leaders and the Union government concluded on late Sunday night. During the meeting, the Centre proposed some ideas, including a five-year plan, following which the farmers have put a hold on the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, general secretary of Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee Sarwan Singh Pandher said. “We will discuss proposals given by Centre with fellow farmers, take opinions of experts…We will discuss on this (government’s proposal) over the next two days and the government will also deliberate. We hope for a positive result, else we will continue with our Delhi Chalo march,” Pandher told the media. Agriculture and farmer welfare minister Arjun Munda, minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai reached the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh Sector 26 for the meeting. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the talks, which began at 8.15pm on Sunday and ended at around 1am on Monday. Read full story here
India skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday said winning a Test with a huge margin over England was “quite satisfying” after youngsters stood up to deliver in the absence of frontline players. The hosts hammered England by 434 runs in Rajkot on day four for their biggest-ever Test victory to lead the five-match series 2-1. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit an unbeaten 214 and put on a marathon 172-run stand with debutant Sarfaraz Khan, 68 not out, to set up the dominant win. India are without star batsman Virat Kohli, who opted out of the series due to “personal reasons” and KL Rahul missed two matches after the opener with injury. “Big victory, obviously it’s a very good feeling to win a game like that and especially with such a young team as well,” Rohit told reporters. Read full story here
Director Christopher Nolan’s biopic film ‘Oppenheimer’ dominated the BAFTA Film Awards 2024 with seven wins including Best Director, Best Film and Best Leading Actor awards. The ceremony was held at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Poor Things had a rich showing with five BAFTAs including Leading Actress for Emma Stone as well as Costume, Make Up and Hair, Production Design and Special Visual Effects, as per Deadline, a US-based media outlet. Entirely shut out were Killers of the Flower Moon which had nine nominations coming into this evening, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro which had seven, and the biggest box office movie of 2023, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, reported Deadline. The Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling starrer had five nominations. Read full story here