1.More than 30K people vacate their homes as a wildfi re rips through an upscale coastal area of Los Angeles overnight.

2. Indian journalist turned director Pritish Nandy passed away due to cardiac arrest on Wednesday at his residence in Mumbai at the age of 73.. He was an  amazing poet, writer, filmmaker and a brave and unique editor/journalist.

3.At least six devotees died and dozens were injured in a stampede here Wednesday night as hundreds of them jostled for tickets for Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam at Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple on Tirumala Hills, said an official.

4.Berhampur’s BJP MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy was acquitted in three more cases of cheating by a special court in Ganjam district Wednesday due to lack of evidence.

5.IIT-Bhubaneswar signed an agreement with the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) Wednesday for collaborative research in the field of road engineering.

6.Berhampur's BJP MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy was acquitted in three more cases of cheating by a special court in Odisha's Ganjam district Wednesday due to lack of evidence.

7.Brijendra Pratap Singh Wednesday took charge as the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) at its corporate office.

8.President Droupadi Murmu will be on a two-day visit to Meghalaya and Odisha from Thursday to attend different events.

9.For the first time in the Supreme Court's history, 25 judges including Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, will meet in Visakhapatnam, along with their families and also discuss issues related to the top court and hold a 'full court' meeting.

10.IndiaAI, an Independent Business Division (IBD) under the Digital India Corporation, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft to drive the adoption and development of artificial intelligence (AI) in India.

11.Microsoft, in partnership with IndiaAI, will skill 500,000 individuals, including students, educators, developers, government officials, and women entrepreneurs, by 2026.

12.The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu will visit Meghalaya and Odisha from January 9 to 10, 2025.

13.The state government will run high-end premium buses from various places in Odisha to Uttar Pradesh during the upcoming Maha Kumbh-2025.

14.V Narayanan has been appointed as the next chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Secretary of the Department of Space, according to an offi cial announcement made Tuesday.

15.Residents of Kalahandi district have urged Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to take steps towards allocating permanent bauxite mines to the Lanjigarh-based Vedanta Company.