Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Sunday left for New Delhi where he is scheduled to attend a couple of meetings, including one with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Notably, the Supreme Court on October 17 granted Mr Narwekar a final opportunity to give it a realistic time-frame for deciding the cross-petitions filed by rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party.

The top court said the disqualification petitions have to be adjudicated expeditiously and posted the matter for hearing on October 30.

Speaking to reporters at the Mumbai airport on Sunday while leaving for the national capital, Mr Narwekar said, “There are a couple of meetings scheduled in Delhi, including one with the Solicitor General (SG). It is a scheduled visit to Delhi.” 

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday pleas filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP, seeking a direction to Mr Narwekar to expeditiously decide disqualification petitions against some MLAs.

Asked about it, Mr Narwekar said, “I will take legal advice and then decide over it.” To a query on notices to NCP MLAs over the disqualification petitions, the speaker said, “It was part of the procedure. I issued the notices after scrutiny of the submitted disqualification petitions was over.” 

On October 17, an top court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said, “We are not satisfied with the time schedule. SG has apprised that during Dussehra breaks he would personally engage with the speaker so as to indicate a firm set of modalities.” 

The top court had earlier come down hard on the speaker over the delay in deciding the pleas filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs loyal to him, saying the speaker cannot defeat the orders of the top court.

Similar disqualification petitions have also been filed by the Shinde bloc against lawmakers owing allegiance to Thackeray.

On September 18, the top court directed the speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.

The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde faction.

The Thackeray faction moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.

The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged Speaker Narwekar was deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex court.

Later, a separate plea was filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a direction to the assembly speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and party MLAs loyal to him.

Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram are in the grip of ‘Very Poor’ to ‘Poor’ air quality, with Air Quality Index (AQI) ranging from 221 to 341, sounding the alarm for residents in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Despite a 15-point winter action plan to curb the rising pollution, the battle against deteriorating air quality continues.

While initiatives like ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ are in motion as vehicular and biomass burning emissions contribute to rising PM2.5 levels, the haze is likely to linger, with ‘Very Poor’ air quality forecast for the region from October 29 to 31, 2023.

The overall air quality in the national capital on Sunday was recorded in the ‘Very Poor’ category, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)-India.

The AQI in Delhi was recorded at 309 on Sunday morning.

As per the latest data from SAFAR-India, the air quality around Delhi University was recorded at 341 (Very Poor) in the morning hours while in IIT area it was recorded at 300. Similarly, in Lodhi Road area it was recorded at 262 in the ‘Poor’ category.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its bulletin on Delhi’s Air Quality forecasted predominant surface wind likely from variable directions in Delhi with wind speed 04-08 kmph, resulting in mainly clear sky and mist in the morning on October 29.

Also, coming under the ‘Poor’ category, the IIT Delhi region recorded an AQI of 300 and in the Mathura Road area, it was recorded at 228. The quality of air at the Airport (T3) was in the ‘Very Poor’ category, with an AQI of 323.

Meanwhile, Noida recorded an AQI of 317 (Very Poor) and Gurugram 221 (Poor).

Earlier on Friday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that a 15-point winter action plan is being implemented one by one to curb the pollution.

“Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced a 15-point winter action plan to curb the pollution caused by vehicles, biomass burning, dust, etc. Now this winter action plan is being implemented on the ground one by one to reduce the pollution in the national capital,” Rai told ANI.

The Delhi Minister said that since one of the major causes of the pollution is vehicles, they have started the ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ campaign on Thursday.

“Now the data says that in AQI the level of Particulate matter (PM) 10 is decreasing and that of PM2.5 is increasing. This means that pollution caused by vehicles and biomass burning is increasing. For this, the ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ campaign has been started,” the Delhi Minister said.

As per the Air Quality and Weather Bulletin for Delhi, the air quality is likely to be in the ‘Very Poor’ category from October 29 to 31, 2023.

Donald Trump used a speech to a Republican Jewish convention Saturday to promise the reimposition of a controversial travel ban that targeted a slew of mostly Muslim countries if he gets re-elected.

“We will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump told the audience attending the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“You remember the travel ban? On day one I will restore our travel ban.”

At the start of his presidency in 2017, Trump imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and, initially, Iraq and Sudan. The order was quickly challenged in court as discriminatory against a religious group, but the bans, along with Trump’s hard-line anti-immigration agenda, were popular with his base.

President Joe Biden reversed the ban in his first week in office in 2021.

Biden “was proud to overturn the vile, un-American Muslim ban enacted by his predecessor,” a White House spokesman said.

The former US leader was among several Republican hopefuls lining up at the gathering of influential Jewish donors to pledge unwavering support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Trump told the event, held in Las Vegas, in the southwestern state of Nevada, that he would “defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever.”

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is “a fight between civilization and savagery, between decency and depravity, and between good and evil,” said Trump, who received the warmest response from attendees, as he took aim at the Biden administration and avoided criticizing his rivals.

The former reality show host, the overwhelming favorite to win the party nomination to run against Biden next year despite facing multiple criminal prosecutions, spoke after sparking fury in recent weeks by describing Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah as “very smart” and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Also on hand in Las Vegas was Trump’s nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel “the most deadly attack against Jews since the Holocaust itself.”

Hamas militants killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardments, mainly civilians and many of them children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

DeSantis and others pointed to what they said was rising anti-Semitism on US college campuses, and proposed yanking funding for universities and canceling visas for pro-Palestinian foreign students.

“We need cultural chemotherapy to fight this cancer,” Senator Tim Scott said.

“Any student with a visa who calls for genocide should be deported.”

The only woman in the race, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, has evoked fears of anti-Semitic attacks on US soil.

“As president, I will change the official federal definition of anti-Semitism to include denying Israel’s right to exist,” said Haley, adding she would strip tax breaks from schools that do not combat anti-Semitism.

“College campuses are allowed to have free speech, but they are not free to spread hate that supports terrorism,” she said. “Federal law requires schools to combat anti-Semitism. We will give this law teeth and we will enforce it.”

The organizers said the newly installed Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise would address the gathering on Saturday night.

Former vice president Mike Pence surprised the gathering Saturday when he announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, becoming the first major candidate to suspend his campaign.

“It’s become clear to me: this is not my time,” he said. “After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president.”

Support for Israel is a huge issue for both political parties in the United States, and a rare instance of foreign policy that matters at the ballot box, thanks in part to the large number of Jewish voters.

It is also a significant issue for evangelical Christians for whom the existence of a Jewish state is a key precondition for the hoped-for “second coming” of Jesus Christ.