Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has claimed the Lok Sabha ethics committee that is looking into the cash-for-query controversy does not have powers to examine allegations of alleged criminality. She released her response today that she had prepped to give to the committee tomorrow when she appears before them. This, Ms Moitra said, was because the “ethics committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media…”

“… I think it is important that I too release my letter to the committee before the ‘hearing’ tomorrow,” Ms Moitra said in a post on X.

In a letter to the committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Ms Moitra claimed the absence of this power was deliberately kept that way by “our nation’s founders” to prevent misuse of committees by government that enjoy brute majority in parliament.

She also repeated her demand to cross-examine businessman Darshan Hiranandani. The businessman has alleged Ms Moitra took questions from him to ask in parliament, and also admitted he used Ms Moitra’s parliamentary login ID and password to post questions from Dubai – a situation, if proved, will mean a breach of privilege and lead to her suspension from parliament.

In the post on X today, Ms Moitra said the parliamentary ethics committee may not be the “appropriate forum to examine allegations of alleged criminality”.

“I wish to respectfully remind you that parliamentary committees do not have criminal jurisdiction and have no mandate to investigate alleged criminality. This can only be done by law enforcement agencies. This check was specifically created by our nation’s founders to prevent the slightest misuse of committees by governments enjoying a brute majority in parliament,” Ms Moitra said in a letter to the ethics committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar.

Since Ethics Committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media I think it is important I too release my letter to the Committee before my “hearing” tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/A8MwFRsImk

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 1, 2023

Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, on whose complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the entire case rests, was cross-examined by the ethics committee on October 26, while BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who led the call to investigate the allegation that Ms Moitra gave her parliament login ID to the businessman, was allowed to explain his allegations.

Referring to the CBI complaint, Mr Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and levelled cash-for-query allegations against Ms Moitra. The Trinamool MP has called the Supreme Court lawyer her “jilted ex”.

Ms Moitra, one of the fiercest critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, will appear before the ethics committee tomorrow. She asked the committee to ensure there is “no room for political partisanship” in their functioning.

She alleged the committee has not made any code of conduct for MPs to follow.

“It is important to note that till date the committee on ethics has not formulated any code of conduct for members and in fact the committee has not even had any sittings in the past two years. I wish to most respectfully point out that in view of the lack of a structured code of conduct, it is all the more important that each case be dealt with in an objective and fair manner…” the Trinamool Congress MP said in the letter to the ethics committee chairperson.

The ethics committee will give a report to the Lok Sabha Speaker “as early as possible”, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV last week, referring to the Pawan Bansal committee that gave its report in just two weeks in December 2005 in the infamous cash-for-questions scam when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power in the centre.

Singer and songwriter Robbie Williams has said he is going through the “manopause”. The former ‘Take That’ singer, who will turn 50 in February next year, told The Sun that the condition has left him fighting baldness, a plummeting libido, insomnia and crippling tiredness. The star blamed this on years of partying that left him “knackered” and deprived of essential hormones. The English singer found tremendous success around the world over the past two decades. He launched a solo career in 1996.

Speaking to The Sun, Mr Williams said, “The hair is thinning, the testosterone has left the building, the serotonin is not really here and the dopamine said goodbye a long time ago. I’ve used up all of the natural good stuff. I’ve got the manopause.”

“My daughter says to me, ‘Daddy’s lazy’. I don’t like the term ‘lazy’ as that’s how I was described when I was younger. The reality is that I’m just f****** knackered from what I did to myself in the Nineties and bits of the 2000s,” he added.

Mr Williams is married to actor Ayda Field. He has been open about beating his addictions to food and drugs – especially to sleeping pill Zopiclone – after he left ‘Take That’.

“I have a different sleep pattern to other people. I’m magnetically drawn to 4am and falling asleep at six and there’s nothing I can do about it,” said Mr Williams.

“I go to bed at 11pm and I’m just lying there completely awake and completely alert until 5am. It’s one of the banes of Ayda’s existence that she doesn’t get me until 1pm,” the singer further said.

According to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), “Male menopause” is the more common term for andropause. The other physical and emotional symptoms can develop when they reach their late 40s to early 50s.

Typical symptoms include mood swings, loss of sex drive and muscle mass, difficulty sleeping and poor short-term memory.

It can be caused by lifestyle factors or psychological problems, such as stress, depression, anxiety, smoking and heart problems.

Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to turn X, formerly Twitter, into an “everything app” has for long sparked speculations about what the would encompass the “everything”. In a recent internal meet, the billionaire dropped a hint at an unlikely new feature for the micro-blogging site — dating.

Musk has in the past said that X needs to compete with sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, FaceTime as well as banking apps to become a one-stop solution for a user’s every need. Now, the Tesla CEO is also aiming to add a dating app-like feature for people to find love on the platform, a report by Verge said.

In an internal meet, which marked one year since Musk officially bought Twitter for $44 billion, the X owner along with CEO Linda Yaccarino told employees that the company is “rapidly transforming from Twitter 1.0, to the everything app.”

Referring to the recent X update, which allows verified organisations to post job listings, Musk said a person’s X posts can be “the biggest indicator” on whether they someone you’d want to hire.

“I think the same is true also on the romantic front. Finding someone on the platform. Obviously, I found someone and friends of mine have found people on the platform. And you can tell if you’re a good match based on what they write,” he said.

“So, X Dating around the corner then?,” asked Ms Yaccarino.

“Yeah. There’s already some stuff happening to some degree. But I think we might be able to improve the dating situation. Part of it is how do you discover interesting people? Discovery is tough,” Musk replied.

The tech billionaire’s Musk’s tumultuous takeover of Twitter last year has been marked by drastic changes in the platform including renaming it to X. Since he bought it, X has lost a majority of advertisers as well as many users and has seen a string of job cuts affecting even the most senior employees including the CEO.