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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will hold a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi at 9:30 am today (August 5). This comes just days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sealed the Young Indian Limited office located in the National Herald building on Wednesday.

Rahul had earlier said the investigation into the National Herald case is an intimidation tactic by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the ED summoned Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday and questioned him for over seven hours in connection with the case. He was asked about the employees, salaries and Young Indian's business activities.

The government on Wednesday (August 3, 2022) sprung a surprise as it spiked the much-debated and contentious Data Protection Bill from Parliament, which had alarmed big technology companies such as Facebook and Google. The government said it will come out with a "set of fresh legislations" that will fit into the comprehensive legal framework. "The government will bring a set of new legislation for a comprehensive legal framework for the digital economy," IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. 

"We have started the drafting of the new bill, which is in good advanced stages," minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, saying the draft release was "very close".

Several US warships were cruising in waters near Taiwan on Tuesday, US military officials said, amid Chinese anger over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to the island Beijing claims as its territory. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China that have sent tensions between the world’s two superpowers soaring. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, is the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years and Beijing has made clear that it regards her presence as a major provocation, setting the region on edge.

A three-member panel that was asked to probe whether Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to allegedly infiltrate the phones of several politicians, journalists, and activists in India, has submitted its report to the Supreme Court nearly a week ago, media has learnt.

The contents of the report remain confidential. The Supreme Court is yet to set a next date of hearing for the case during whose proceedings the panel was formed under the supervision of retired Supreme Court judge justice RV Raveendran. The case may be listed on August 12 before a bench comprising chief justice of India NV Ramana and justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. HT reached out to Raveendran for comments on Monday but did not immediately get a response.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai ‘chawl’, officials said. Raut, 60, was arrested after over six hours of questioning at the ED’s zonal office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Estate.

He was taken into custody at 12:05 am on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was not cooperating in the probe, the officials claimed. The Rajya Sabha MP of the Sena, led by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, will be produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai later in the day, where the Enforcement Directorate will seek his custody.