FirstUp: What’s expected to make news this Monday?

It’s the first Monday of November and there are big events lined up for today. The Israel-Hamas war has now raged on for a month and the question that now everyone is asking is when the fighting will end. Let’s see what will make the headlines today – will it be a manic Monday or a mellow Monday? Australia’s Albanese to meet China’s Xi First, Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese will meet with China’s Xi Jinping today during his state visit. Albanese is the first Australian leader to visit China since 2016, part of an effort to patch up relations that had deteriorated over several years due to disputes over Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, espionage and COVID-19. Arriving in Shanghai on Saturday (4 November), Albanese will raise concerns over rising tensions in the South China Sea with Xi during his visit today. Parliamentary committee to meet on criminal laws A parliamentary committee scrutinising three bills to replace the existing criminal laws will meet today to adopt draft reports, days after some Opposition members had sought an extension for the panel to go through the measures in greater detail. On 27 October, the standing committee on Home could not adopt the three draft reports as some members pressed for more time to study it. The laws in question are ones to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita , Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, respectively. Sources have said that the committee is likely to recommend a raft of amendments in the three bills but will be sticking to their Hindi names, something fiercely contested by Opposition MPs, including from the DMK. They have demanded English names for the proposed laws as well. Sale of electoral bonds Interestingly, even while the Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on the issue of electoral bonds , the Centre has approved the issuance of 29th tranche of electoral bonds from today. Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding. “Government of India has authorised State Bank of India (SBI), in the XXIX Phase of sale, to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorised Branches wef November 6-20, 2023,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The announcement came two days after the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of electoral bonds and weeks ahead of Assembly elections in five states. Last day of nominations for Rajasthan polls Want to contest the Rajasthan Assembly elections? Then today is your last day. As per the schedule declared by the Election Commission, in Rajasthan, polling for the Assembly elections will be conducted in one phase on 25 November by casting of votes through EVMs between 7 am and 6 pm. The counting of votes will be done on 3 December. On Saturday, a total of 544 candidates, including Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Dr CP Joshi and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje filed nomination papers for the Assembly elections. So far, 1079 candidates have filed 1,462 nomination forms in the state. Heavy rain in Kerala India’s weather agency, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted isolated heavy rainfall in Kerala for the next few days, starting today. On Saturday, the IMD issued orange alerts for 6 November in the Pathanamthitta, Idukki and Malappuram districts of the state. An orange alert means very heavy rainfall between 6 cm and 20 cm. [caption id=“attachment_13350762” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, will host its first-ever developer conference today. File image/AP[/caption] ChatGPT-maker OpenAI’s developer conference ChatGPT developer OpenAI will host its first-ever developer conference today, which will feature keynote address and breakout sessions led by members of OpenAI’s technical staff. The event will see hundreds of developers from around the world together with the team at OpenAI to preview new tools and exchange ideas. “We’re looking forward to showing our latest work to enable developers to build new things,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, ahead of the event. However, the news of GPT-5, the presumed name of OpenAI’s next flagship generative AI model, is unlikely to be revealed at the event. Revisiting history: Abraham Lincoln was elected US president On this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln to this date is credited for bringing an end to slavery in the country and hailed as one of the greatest American presidents. Big birthdays today Many celebrities share a birthday today. Emma Stone of La La Land fame, and Ethan Hawke, the actor famous for the Before Sunrise series, both have birthdays today.