Daily Bulletin: 9 women speak up against MJ Akbar, Centre weighs its options; Cyclone Titli makes landfall in Odisha; day's top stories

Govt in ‘unease’ over sexual harassment allegations against Union Minister MJ Akbar; Congress asks him to step down: After nine women came out with stomach-churning accounts of sexual harassment at the hands of former journalist and presently junior minister in the ministry of external affairs MJ Akbar, the Centre is believed to be weighing its options on his continuance as a Union Minister. According to reports, a final call will be taken on his return from his overseas visit later this week. Meanwhile, Congress demanded the resignation of the junior minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs. What could add to the turmoil for the minister, Akbar faces accusations from more than one woman as his once illustrious career as a journalist now nearly stand on the verge of demolition. Congress leader and former Union minister Jaipal Reddy, at a press conference, said, “MJ Akbar has his own stature of being a veteran journalist in addition to being junior minister with the External Affairs Ministry. Sushma Swaraj could not comment on her own subordinate. Akbar should either come out with a satisfactory explanation or he must resign from his post in the government. We demand an enquiry into these allegations. If Justice Brett Kavanaugh can be asked for an explanation then why not MJ Akbar who allegedly did whatever he did much later in his life than Kavanaugh.” [caption id=“attachment_2811024” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of MJ Akbar. Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] Cyclone Titli makes landfall in Odisha; heavy rains expected in West Bengal: Cyclone Titli made a landfall on the Odisha coast between 6 am to 9 am on Thursday morning with heavy rains and strong winds lashing the area. Three lakh people were evacuated from the five coastal districts in the states. School, colleges and Anganwadi centres have been asked to close for two days and the storm is predicted to soon cross the coast between Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh. The Met department on Wednesday had warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall in the Gangetic West Bengal until Friday. Pappu Yadav to visit Gujarat today; Alpesh Thakor to hold harmony fast: Amid the reported mass exodus of north-Indian migrants in Gujarat due to violence post rape of an infant, Bihar minister Pappu Yadav will visit the state on Thursday. He will reach Ahmedabad at 3 pm and plans to do a march. Meanwhile, community leader Alpesh Thakor has decided to hold a harmony fast today. Sabarimala protests continue to intensify; Hindu organisations to flag-off long marches: Protests were staged across Kerala in 200 locations paralysed the state on Wednesday. The protests, organized by the Hindu Aikya Vedi in 200 strategic locations, blocked roads leading to traffic jams in all cities — indicating that the outrage over the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala may turn into a law and order issue. Meanwhile, the BJP sponsored Save Sabarimala Long March’ flagged off from Pandalam with thousands of devotees joining the campaign. The march will reach Thiruvananthapuram on 15 October. Other Hindu organizations are launching another march from Pandalam on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Travancore Devaswom Board has decided to not deploy women officials in Sabarimala when the temple opens on 17 October for the monthly pooja. The board has also directed the police to not deploy women police officials at Sannidhanam. US Senate forces a US investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi: Twenty-two US senators on Wednesday forced a US investigation of whether human rights sanctions should be imposed over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist last seen on 2 October, entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey. In a letter, the senators said they had triggered a provision of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act requiring the president to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for a gross human rights violation. Harassment of women not limited to cinema, says lyricist Gulzar: Veteran lyricist Gulzar has said harassment of women happens across the society and is not only limited to cinema. “Directors are coming out with much more bolder subjects which are touching the reality. Cinema is a reflection of your society, what is happening (around). If we say harassment of a woman or a girl is only in cinema (then I don’t think so). It has spread all over the society,” he said. Rupee recovers against USD: The battered rupee rose 23 paise to 74.16 against the US dollar on Wednesday after the American currency weakened overseas amid increased selling by exporters. Besides, RBI’s decision to inject Rs 12,000 crore liquidity into the system through purchase of government bonds on 11 October to meet the festival season demand for funds also supported the recovery in rupee, dealers said. A higher opening of domestic equity markets too aided the recovery in the domestic unit. Nokia product mystery event: HMD Global, the makers of Nokia smartphones, has announced a mysterious product event for today. The only thing Nokia has revealed about the event is that we’ll see a device with a “Mega Display”. At a guess, we’d say that HMD is referring to the update to the gorgeous Nokia 7 Plus which was launched earlier this year. Rumour has it that the upcoming phone will have a 6.18-inch display and that it will be powered by Qualcomm’s relatively new Snapdragon 710 SoC. Storage options are expected to top out at 128 GB. We’re also hoping to see updates to previous Nokia phones, including the Nokia 3. More information will be revealed later in the day.