Kerala's political formations are bracing for a decisive day as counting of votes in the local body elections begins at 8 am on Saturday across 244 centres statewide.

With turnout dipping in both phases of polling, the political fronts are closely crunching numbers to gauge which way the public mood has shifted ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

Mom-to-be Sonam Kapoor is turning heads this wedding season with her stylish and elegant look.

Flaunting her baby bump in a chic ensemble, the actress radiated grace and confidence, giving a glimpse of her radiant maternity glow. On Friday, Sonam, who is pregnant with her second child, took to her Instagram handle and shared a couple of her stylish photos. In the images, the ‘Neerja’ star can be seen wearing a chic golden outfit paired with a multicoloured shrug. She completed her look with a heavy golden neckpiece and matching earrings.

Thalassemia patients on Friday hailed the introduction of the National Blood Transfusion Bill in Parliament and urged members to pass the life-saving bill at the earliest.

Earlier this month, during the Winter session of the Parliament, the National Blood Transfusion Bill, 2025, was proposed by MP Parshottambhai Rupala in Lok Sabha and by Dr Ajeet Madhavrao Gopchade in Rajya Sabha.

The makers of one of the most anticipated sequels, "Border 2", have unveiled a new poster from the drama, capturing all four protagonists of the film, Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, and Ahan Shetty in a single frame.

The makers also announced that they will be releasing the teaser of the drama on December 16, during Vijay Diwas.

The poster has all of them flaunting their distinct grit- Sunny in his iconic, battle-hardened avatar, Varun with intense and unwavering determination on duty, Diljit radiating raw resilience in the heart of conflict, and Ahan showcasing bold, youthful courage.

A major fire broke out on the top floor of a three-storey building in the Satya Vihar area of Bhubaneswar on Friday, where a bar-restaurant was operating. No casualties have been reported, said officials.

The bar and restaurant, named ‘No Limit Air’, was found to have no fire safety system and a valid fire safety certificate.

According to Deputy Fire Officer Narayan Das, the fire is suspected to have been caused by a short circuit. The blaze spread quickly due to the absence of mandatory fire safety measures.

India’s gem and jewellery exports rose 19 per cent in November to $2.52 billion from $2.09 billion a year earlier, driven by gains in cut and polished diamonds, gold, silver and platinum jewellery.

The YoY improvement in November was due to a low base from November 2024, when Diwali holidays closed many manufacturing units. Exporters also attributed the growth during November to strong Christmas demand in the US and China, multiple media reports said.

However, for the April–November period, overall growth remains muted as the exports were flat at $18.86 billion in 2025 compared to $18.85 billion in 2024.

Meta India on Friday announced the appointment of Aman Jain as its new Head of Public Policy.

He will take charge early next year and will report to Simon Milner, Meta’s Vice President of Policy for the Asia Pacific region.

Jain will also join the company’s India leadership team as part of his new role.

Gradual reduction of antidepressants together with psychological support can be an effective strategy to stop medication among adults who have recovered from depression, according to a study on Friday.

Antidepressants are typically recommended to be taken for six to nine months after a first episode of moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety disorders to prevent relapse.

But there are concerns about overprescribing, long-term use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuation, which underscore the need for evidence-based deprescribing strategies.

Delhi woke up to a dense blanket of smog on Friday, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 331 at 7 a.m., placing the city once again in the 'very poor' category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Jahangirpuri emerged as the worst-affected locality in the national capital with an AQI of 405, pushing it into the 'severe' zone.

Reaffirming that there is no link between vaccines and autism, the World Health Organization (WHO) has refuted the recent claims made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The WHO conducted a new analysis after the CDC under President Donald Trump last month changed its long-held stance and claimed that the consensus that vaccines don’t cause autism is not “an evidence-based claim”.

Even with a short screen presence, Saumya Tandon says she is genuinely touched by the love she’s getting. The actress went on to pen a heartfelt note for the entire team of the “cult film”.

Taking to Instagram, Saumya shared a string of images from the sets of the film in her look as Ulfat.

She wrote: “Ulfat for you!. It’s absolutely overwhelming to receive so much love and appreciation for my part in #Dhurandhar. It wasn’t a long screen time, but so many of you told me the character made an impact and that means the world. I genuinely didn’t expect this response.”

Nine pilgrims died, and 23 others were injured when a private travel bus fell into a gorge in Alluri Sitharamaraju district in the early hours of Friday.

The accident occurred on the Chintur-Naredumilli ghat road when the driver apparently failed to negotiate a sharp turn and hit the safety wall before it fell into the gorge.

The bus carrying 37 people, including two drivers, was heading to Bhadrachalam. The passengers were all from the Chittoor district who were on their way to the Bhadrachalam temple in Telangana from Araku.

The rupee fell to a new record low in early trade on Friday, slipping 24 paise to 90.56 against the US dollar.

The currency came under pressure as uncertainty around the India-US trade deal and continued foreign fund outflows hurt market sentiment.

According to forex traders, the rupee is weakening mainly because importers are aggressively buying dollars amid rising global prices of precious metals.

The strong demand for the US currency is adding to the pressure on the rupee.

 Biting cold with no prospect of major rain/snowfall till the end of the month continued in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday as minimum temperature remained several notches below the freezing point in the Valley.

Srinagar city had minus 3.6 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam minus 4.6 and Gulmarg zero as a minimum temperature.

Jammu city had 8.5 degrees Celsius, Katra 9.4, Batote 6.3, Banihal 4.2 and Bhaderwah 1.9 as the minimum temperature.

Japan's weather agency issued a tsunami advisory for northern Japan's Pacific coast after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture on Friday.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the temblor occurred at 11:44 a.m. local time off Aomori's Pacific coast at a depth of 20 km, measuring 4 on Japan's seismic scale of 7 in the hardest-hit areas.

Gold prices inched up on Friday morning, while silver slipped as traders booked profits after the metal hit a fresh record high on the MCX.

During early trade, MCX gold futures for February were trading 0.10 per cent higher at Rs 1,32,599 per 10 grams.

"MCX Gold has broken out to lifetime highs, trading near Rs 1,32,776 inside a tightening ascending wedge with firm support at Rs 1,31,400," analysts stated.

"The next resistance zone opens the momentum leg toward Rs 1,34,000 and above," they added.

With the enumeration phase of the three-stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal complete, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified 58 lakh excludable voters from the current voters’ list.

As per figures available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), based on the trend of digitisation of the duly filled enumeration forms collected by the booth-level officers (BLOs) from voters till Thursday night, a total of 58,08,232 voters have been found as excludable.

The makers of director Sooriyaprathap S’s sci-fi thriller 'ROOT' – Running Out Of Time, featuring actor Gautham Ram Karthik in the lead, have now announced that Bollywood actor Aparshakti Khurana, who is making his debut in Tamil cinema with this film, had completed dubb‌ing for his portions in it.

Verus Productions, the production house producing this film, took to its social media pages to make the announcement. It wrote,"@aparshakti_khurana has completed his Tamil dubbing for #Root. First time in Tamil. First time for Tamil. @aparshakti_khurana voices ROOT. And ROOT voices back. He gave it his all — and boom, the dubbing is over! Introducing @aparshakti_khurana to Tamil. And Tamil to @aparshakti_khurana!"

 With the enumeration phase in the three-stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal completed, a remarkably high number of existing voters identified through progeny-mapping has kept the Election Commission of India (ECI) sceptical.

As per the figures available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), going by the trend of the digitisation of the duly filled enumeration forms collected by the booth-level officers (BLOs) from the voters, the total number of existing voters identified through progeny-mapping stands 3,84,85,166.

Indian stock markets opened on a strong note on Friday, taking cues from a global market rally and rising optimism that an India–US trade deal may soon be finalised.

The positive sentiment strengthened further after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, with both leaders discussing ways to boost economic ties as officials continue negotiations on a trade agreement.