This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.\
It’s the 28th of December and here are the headlines.

India saw a single day rise of 702 cases of COVID-19, with the number of active cases of the infection rising to 4,097. Six new fatalities — two from Maharashtra and one each from Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, and Delhi — were reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am. The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits by December 5, but the cases have again gone up after emergence of a new variant and cold weather conditions.

The death toll in the bus accident in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district Wednesday evening has gone up to 12. The police said that the bus was headed from Guna to Aaron when it collided with a dumper truck, at around 8.30 pm. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, has directed the district administration to provide financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of those killed, and Rs 50,000 each to those injured.

The Enforcement Directorate, in a recently filed money laundering case charge-sheet claimed that the purchase of three plots of land in Haryana in 2005-06 by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra from a real estate agent is being probed along with a land deal made by his wife Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The federal agency filed the charge-sheet in November before a court against NRI businessman C C Thampi, who is allegedly linked to Robert Vadra, and Sumit Chadha, a relative of alleged middleman Sanjay Bhandari.

Tamil super star and DMDK founder Vijayakanth, fondly called as ‘Captain’, passed away at a private hospital in Chennai today after a prolonged illness. He was 71.Vijayakanth’s death marks the end of an influential chapter in Tamil Nadu’s political history and leaves a void in the state’s diverse political tapestry. MIOT Hospital in Chennai released a statement confirming that he was admitted for pneumonia, was placed on ventilator support due to the severity of his condition, before succumbing to illness.

The Aam Aadmi Party has slammed the BJP-led Central government for allegedly rejecting its entry for the Republic Day tableau segment and termed the move politically motivated. AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said Delhi wanted to showcase its transformation of education and health facilities in the tableau, but was denied the opportunity. Furthermore, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that he received a letter of R-Day tableaux finalists from the Centre which did not have names of Delhi and Punjab.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express