The parliamentary ethics committee will present its report on the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in the Lok Sabha today.

The committee will suggest parliament to expel Ms Moitra from parliament.

The Opposition is expected to ask for a division of votes on the report. The BJP has, however, prepared for this and issued a whip to its MPs to remain in the house.

Six members of the ethics committee had voted in favour of the report. Four members belonging to the Opposition gave dissent notes. The Opposition has called the report a “fixed match”. 

Ms Moitra and Opposition MPs had walked out of the ethics committee meeting on November 2 after questioning the way the meeting was conducted. The committee, however, had shot back saying she did not cooperate and left in order to avoid answering more questions.

The Trinamool Congress MP has called Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who filed the complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), her “jilted ex”. Following the complaint, Mr Dubey had led the call to investigate the allegation that Ms Moitra gave her parliament login ID to businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though Ms Moitra has refuted the cash-for-query allegations, she admitted to giving her parliamentary login ID to businessman Darshan Hiranandani.

In an affidavit, Mr Hiranandani alleged the Trinamool MP shared her MP email so that he could send her information and she could raise questions in parliament. He alleged she later gave him her parliament login and password for him to post the questions directly.

The ethics committee had reached out to the Information Technology Ministry and the Home Ministry to check alleged misuse of the parliament login ID and password by Ms Moitra.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened devastation in Beirut and southern Lebanon if Hezbollah opens a second front in Israel’s war with Hamas.

“If Hezbollah decides to open an all-out war, then with its own hands it will turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, which are not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunis,” Netanyahu said.

President Joe Biden, who has made a priority of containing the Israel-Hamas conflict, spoke to both Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan regarding “the latest developments in Gaza,” the White House said on Thursday.

Netanyahu delivered the warning during a visit to the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces’ northern command, which oversees units that have traded fire with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon in the weeks since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7. He praised military reservists’ “great spirit in their readiness for battle.”

His threat referred to the widespread destruction that Israel’s military has unleashed in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation to the attack by Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist group by the US and the European Union. Israel has now turned its focus to the south of Gaza, with troops reportedly entering Khan Yunis.

Hezbollah has expressed solidarity with Hamas, and as the fighting in the Gaza Strip has escalated, cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah has become a daily occurrence. At the same time, Hezbollah has held off from launching a full-blown military campaign, helping to ease fears that the Hamas conflict would erupt into a wider regional war.

In his conversation with Netanyahu, Biden expressed concerns for the hostages in Gaza, about attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and how crucial it was for a steady supply of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, the White House said in an account of the call, which didn’t mention Netanyahu’s warning to Hezbollah.

Biden and the king “affirmed their commitment” to work with other nations in the region to help bring about a peace agreement that would include the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, according to the White House.

Former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was admitted to a hospital around 2 am today in Hyderabad after a fall at his home.

Doctors suspect the 69-year-old may have suffered a hip fracture after the fall and may require a surgery. He was rushed to the Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad at around 2 am on Friday. The former Chief Minister had been meeting people at his home for the last three days since he lost the state assembly polls.

KCR served as the Chief Minister of Telangana from 2014 till 2023 after the Congress defeated his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the recently concluded Assembly Elections.

KCR fought from two seats in Telangana and won the Gajwel seat but lost to Kamareddy. He lost the Kamareddy seat to BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy, who defeated KCR and Revanth Reddy both from the seat.

Congress’s Revanth Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Telangana yesterday along with 11 ministers.

The Congress won 64 seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly, while the BRS got only 39. This was BRS’ first defeat since the birth of Telangana in 2014.

In an extensive poll campaign, the party tried to highlight all its welfare schemes for the poor. However, the implementation of some schemes had given an inordinate amount of power to MLAs to decide on the distribution of funds, leading to allegations of discrimination as well as corruption.

KCR did warn these MLAs to buck up and improve their performance but ended up giving poll tickets to all of them. The result: most of these seats went to the Congress.