One bill to topple them all

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

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One bill to topple them all

The government introduced three bills that sparked great furore in the Lok Sabha yesterday. These have, as usual, long wordy names that tell you very little about their purpose: The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

What the bills say: Taken together, they lay out the conditions necessary to remove any elected leader—be they a Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Union Minister, or Ministers of States. The person must be arrested on charges of committing a criminal offence—punishable with imprisonment for five years or more. Upon arrest, if they spend 30 days in prison without bail—they will be removed from office on the 31st day. In the case of top leaders—like the PM or CM—they will be removed by the President and Governor, respectively.

Why the Opposition is furious: Party leaders claim that the BJP is laying the ground to oust rival party leaders from office:

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi… said the bills would take the country back to “medieval times when the King could remove anybody at will”. He explained how the proposed legislation could be used. “He tells ED [Enforcement Directorate] to put a case and a democratically elected person is wiped out within 30 days,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin also accused the PM of creating a weapon that will keep his regional NDA allies in line.

What the government says: Home Minister Amit Shah said the new laws were necessary to restore integrity to Indian politics and restore “declining” moral standards.

Where we are now: The bill has been referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament—which will have 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The Committee has been directed to submit its report by the Winter Session— which usually starts by the third week of November.

The big picture: For all the shor sharaba, the bill that targets the PM and CM needs a two-thirds majority in both Houses to pass—which the BJP does not possess. But the bills that target Union Territories and Jammu & Kashmir just need a simple majority—and will likely become law. In other words, the government is grabbing the lowest hanging fruit for now—and will wait to get the rest.

Reading list: Hindustan Times has the most details on the bill. The Telegraph reports on the allegations hurled by the Opposition.

Seeds of anti-war movement in Israel

The context: Ever since the Vietnam War, the US has never seen serious antiwar protests—at least not the kind that can actually stop a war. The reason: Uncle Sam got rid of the draft. Israel, however, still relies on its civilian population to fight the good fight. Military service is compulsory for Israeli Jews and the Druze minority. Men have to serve on active-duty for at least 32 months—the minimum for women is 24 months. But all remain on reserve duty until the age of 40.

What happened now: The Israeli government announced plans to call up 60,000 reservists—to execute an expanded military operation to occupy Gaza. It will also extend the tour of the 20,000 reservists who are already on active duty. What’s notable, however, is the timing. Just days ago, Israel witnessed the largest protests to date—calling for a hostage deal and an end to the “war” (though it is a bit too one-sided to call it that). Hundreds of thousands of Israelis came out to speak for the 20 remaining hostages—though not the millions of dying Gazans. This Guardian vid below captures the sheer size of the protests:

The greater challenge: to Bibi is the growing exhaustion of reservists—who are tired of battling malnourished Palestinians. They just wanna go home:

Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who has organized veterans campaigning to end the war, said many reservists are spent after repeated tours lasting hundreds of days and resentful of those who haven’t been called up at all. Most now just want to return to their lives. “Even those that are not ideologically against the current war or the government’s new plans don’t want to go because of fatigue or their families or their businesses,” he said.

Even soldiers are losing their appetite for this lopsided ‘war’:

Among the protesters in Jerusalem was a former soldier who told the BBC he is now refusing to serve. Max Kresch said he was a combat soldier at the beginning of the war and "has since refused."

"We're over 350 soldiers who served during the war and we're refusing to continue to serve in Netanyahu's political war that endangers the hostages (and) starving innocent Palestinians in Gaza," he said.

The bigger picture: Compulsory military duty has always been excellent fuel for anti-war movements. But the opposite also holds true in Israel:

Criticizing soldiers’ conduct is also a sensitive matter in a country where most Jewish 18-year-olds are conscripted and many Israelis are loath to accuse an army made up of their own relatives or friends of war crimes.

Whether they admit it or not, Israelis are also beginning to realise that their ‘just war’ is viewed as genocide by most of the world. A recent poll shows that a majority are worried they won’t be able to travel abroad due to “global anger.” Sad.

Reading list: Associated Press reports on the reservists. BBC News has more on the antiwar protests. New York Times offers a detailed—and fairly accurate picture of the growing unease among Israelis. Haaretz has a piece on the anxiety surrounding travel abroad.

A bold experiment: US Open’s new-look mixed doubles

The US Open has shaken things up this year with a completely revamped version of mixed doubles. Instead of the traditional format, the event has been moved to “Fan Week,” just before the main draw, with a much shorter, faster format—and a huge prize purse.

How it works: The tournament features 16 pairs, played across just two days. Matches are best-of-three sets, but each set only goes up to four games. At deuce, there’s no advantage—just a winner-takes-the-point showdown. If the match is tied at one set each, it’s decided by a 10-point tiebreak. The final sticks with six-game sets, but still keeps the quickfire rules.

Why the change? The organizers say the goal is to pull in more fans, especially by putting top singles stars on court together. The prize money was also supercharged: the winners this year take home $1 million, five times more than last year:

When the US Open announced it was "reimagining" mixed doubles, the rationale was to "elevate" the event and create "greater focus" on the sport. Interest certainly grew when the first set of star names were announced... "For the excitement levels and for getting the fans to pack the stadium, it is a cool idea to have that star power come out," American doubles legend Mike Bryan told BBC Sport. "Fans want to see Djokovic, Alcaraz and Sinner even if they are brushing their teeth."

But the way the field was picked has left traditional doubles specialists particularly frustrated. Eight of the teams were chosen purely on their combined singles rankings, while the other eight were wild card selections by the organizers. That meant almost no space for established doubles teams—except last year’s champions, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who were handed a wild card. To many doubles players, this felt like the event was never meant for them—shutting out those who built their careers around doubles:

"It's frustrating. That money is going to players who are making an absolute boatload anyway," Murray, who has won three US Open mixed titles, told BBC Sport... "I'm sure it will be an entertaining exhibition - but that's what it will be. I don’t see it as winning a Grand Slam," Britain's Joe Salisbury, who reached the Wimbledon mixed doubles final with Brazil's Luisa Stefani last month.

The star pairings: On paper, the biggest draws were Carlos Alcaraz with Emma Raducanu and Iga Świątek with Casper Ruud. But Emma and Carlos have already lost. You can see them enjoying a shot from Carlos below.

And before the tournament began withdrawals, scheduling conflicts, and injuries took their toll. As of now, only Świątek’s and Jessica Pegula’s pairings remain in the tournament in the final four, with the other heavyweights having crashed out. The other two semifinal spots are held by Danielle Collins’ team and last year’s champions, Errani and Vavassori.

What’s next: Will other Grand Slams follow this model? That’s unclear. The US Open has the money and broadcast deals to support such an experiment, but Wimbledon, the French Open, and the Australian Open are less likely to make the same move—at least for now. Still, if this new format turns out to be a massive hit with fans, it could set the stage for a broader rethink of mixed doubles in the years ahead. (BBC News)

MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowship is now open!!

Editor’s note: As you know, the wonderful MAP Academy is our content partner for Advisory. It is one of the few Indian institutions deeply invested in cultural research and education. They also offer rare funded opportunities for researchers, designers, archivists, journalists, writers and educators. The Nalli Fellowship is one of them.

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Applications will remain open until October 15, 2025.

Find out more, and apply through this link. For any queries, contact us at: fellowships@map-india.org.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Apple will reportedly make all iPhone 17 models in India for the first time, shifting production from China to sidestep Trump-era tariffs.
The online gaming industry has warned that the government’s proposed ban on all real money games could wipe out over two lakh jobs.
Meta has put a freeze on hiring in its AI division after months of aggressive recruitment, barring even internal team transfers as part of a wider restructuring.

sports & entertainment

FIFPRO has urged a quick resolution to the crisis in Indian football, with the 2025-26 Indian Super League, due to begin in September, suspended indefinitely over a dispute between the federation and its commercial partner, leaving players’ jobs and futures in limbo.

health & environment

Haryana has issued a new definition of forests—excluding plantations and orchards—which experts fear could open up the Aravalis to unchecked urbanisation.
The Guardian has a sad read on how extreme heat is pushing animals toward extinction, from monkeys falling out of trees to barnacles baking alive.
New observations suggest that giant rogue planets, floating freely without stars, can form their own miniature planetary systems with disks of material similar to those around young stars.
Ancient teeth analysis shows that people have been chewing betel nuts for a buzz since the Bronze Age, over 4,000 years ago.
Gizmodo has the deets on how pooping on planes, while unpleasant, could help scientists track diseases and potentially save lives.

meanwhile, in the world

At least 50 people have been killed and around 60 abducted after gunmen stormed a mosque and nearby homes during dawn prayers in Nigeria’s Katsina state.
The International Criminal Court has condemned new US sanctions targeting two of its judges and two prosecutors for pursuing cases against American and Israeli citizens.
Syria’s foreign minister held rare US-brokered talks with an Israeli delegation in Paris to ease tensions and work toward reviving a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Myanmar’s military says it has seized control of a key eastern town from rebels as it gears up for a disputed December election.
The US has signed deportation deals with Honduras and Uganda, under which Honduras will take in hundreds of people from Spanish-speaking countries while Uganda will accept migrants from Africa and Asia who had sought asylum at the US-Mexico border.
A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to unseal grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case, marking the third such refusal in recent weeks.
Some 7.7 million people along the US East Coast were under coastal flood warnings Wednesday night as Hurricane Erin brought life-threatening surge flooding to parts of North Carolina.

meanwhile, in India

Nagpur police have filed an FIR against Lokniti-CSDS chief Sanjay Kumar under multiple sections of the BNS, accusing him of sharing false election data after his posts on the Maharashtra polls triggered a political storm.
A parliamentary panel has noted that while government data shows OBC, SC and ST students make up 40%, 14.9% and 5% of private higher education enrolments, figures provided by the universities themselves reveal far lower numbers
Hyderabad, long seen as welcoming to migrant communities, is facing tensions as some groups launch a “Marwari go back” campaign after a recent altercation, despite Marwari, Gujarati and Jain families having built many of the city’s historic markets and businesses.
India has scrapped customs duty and agriculture cess on cotton imports until September 30, a move seen as easing trade tensions with the US and opening the door for fresh engagement.
India has signed the terms to kick off free trade talks with the Eurasian Economic Union, moving to expand partnerships as ties with the US remain strained.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has laid out plans for sweeping GST reforms, with most goods taxed at 5% and 18%, and a steep 40% rate proposed for a handful of sin goods.

Seven things to see

One: A 15-year-old student in Ahmedabad was stabbed—with a knife—by a fellow student following a quarrel on Tuesday. The kid died due to his injuries yesterday—prompting a protest by angry parents who stormed into the school and vandalised the campus. The accused has been detained. You can see the chaos below. (The Telegraph)

Two: Parts of Mumbai are drowning due to heavy rains that flooded the city most of this week. Most fitting image of the ‘swimming pool’ state of affairs: This mural in Vasai West. (India Today)

Three: Breaking news! A first-of-its-kind study has found that water birds poop into the ocean while flying—at an interval of 4-10 minutes! The researchers had attached small video cameras to the bellies of streaked shearwaters to study their legs but captured their bathroom habits instead. The good news: seabird droppings are unusually rich in nitrogen and phosphorus which may act as a fertilizer for the coastal species. Yes, we included the gif of the shearwater—just for you! (New York Times, paywalled, Gizmodo)

Four: Watch this large meteor light up the sky in Kagoshima, Japan. It’s a fireball—“produced when meteoroids — space rocks — enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds and under incredible friction”—creating that bright glow. See the video of the space rock as bright as the moon below. (Washington Post, paywalled, The Guardian)

Five: Astrophysicists have discovered an entirely new kind of space object called the “Punctum”— the Latin word for point or dot—in the galaxy NGC 4945. The intriguing bit: Astronomers don't know what to make of this compact, bright splotch of light in space—which is 10 to 100X brighter than most supernovas—and has a strange magnetic field. (Gizmodo)

Six: The trailer for Aryan Khan’s ‘Ba**ds Of Bollywood’ just dropped. We now have more details on the plot which is inspired by SRK’s journey into films and Aryan Khan’s jail time. The show revolves around Aasmaan Singh—played by Lakshya Lalwani—a Bollywood outsider and his struggles in an industry which favours its own people and their kids. The star-studded cast includes Bobby Deol, Sahher Bambba, Manoj Pahwa, Mona Singh, with Salman Khan and Karan Johar in cameos. The show is slated to drop on Netflix on September 18. See the trailer below. (Indian Express)

Seven: Forget MCU, say hello to MHCU—Maddock Horror-Comedy Universe! From the makers of ‘Stree’, ‘Bhediya’ and ‘Munjya’, comes a horror-comedy called ‘Thama’—starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a vampire battled by good guy Ayushmann Khurrana. Also starring: Rashmika Mandanna & Paresh Rawal. The movie is slated to release on Diwali, October 20. See the trailer below. (The Hindu)