A bipartisan group of US lawmakers will travel to India to take part in the Red Fort address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the country's Independence Day on August 15.

The bipartisan Congressional delegation is led by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna and Congressman Michael Waltz. The two are co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

Khanna and Waltz will be joined by lawmakers Deborah Ross, Kat Cammack, Shri Thanedar, and Jasmine Crockett along with Rich McCormick and Ed Case.

BJP MP from Etawah Ram Shankar Katheria was saved from disqualification from Lok Saha as the Agra session court stayed his conviction in a 12 -year-old case of assault on an official of Torrent Power Limited in 2011.

Katheria hailed the sessions court’s order saying that justice had been done to him. The former Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development was facing disqualification from the Lok Sabha after Special Magistrate MP/MLA Court had held Katheria guilty of the assault and rioting charges and sentenced him to two years in jail.

Kateria had moved Sessions court seeking a stay on his conviction and jail term. His plea was accepted by the sessions court and it posted the matter for the next hearing on September 11. 

Ahead of the assembly polls, the Bhupesh Baghel cabinet took a decision on  Aug 7 to implement 58 per cent reservation for the scheduled tribes, scheduled caste and other backward classes in the admission process for educational institutions of the state.

In a first, the Lt Governor administration has asked the employees to attend their offices on Independence Day for a flag hoisting ceremony and warned of action against the employees who remain absent on the day.

August 15 is a public holiday and all government offices, banks and educational institutions remain closed across the country. The J&K government has barred its employees from skipping the office on August 15 except under exceptional circumstances.

Parliament on Aug 7  approved the contentious Delhi services bill that sought control over appointments and transfers of bureaucrats, with its passage in the Rajya Sabha by 131-102 after a heated debate.

Voting happened through paper slips as the digital board in the Upper House developed a snag. As expected, BJD and YSRCP members voted with the NDA in favour of the  Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, which replaced the Delhi ordinance, tilting the scales away from the Opposition.

Significantly, the Opposition got fewer votes than its anticipated 108 while the NDA got more than its expected 128-129. The Opposition’s proposal to send the bill to a parliamentary select committee for vetting was rejected by voice vote. The proposed legislation was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha on August 3 by voice vote.

Earlier, AAP members had alleged that bill would set a precedent of stripping Opposition-ruled states of their legitimate powers. 

 It was a historic day for Rajasthan as seventeen new districts became functional on  Aug 7 . With a significant increase from 33 to 50 districts, the map of the state has undergone a major transformation in this election year. The move is set to impact over two crore people in the state, as their addresses have now been changed. To commemorate this milestone, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his ministers participated in a series of poojas and havan ceremonies. However, the opposition BJP claims that this is a gimmick aimed at improving the chances of Congress candidates in the upcoming elections.

Nearly two weeks have passed since the coup in Niger, and the two men making competing claims to power have gone quiet in recent days.

One is the ousted president, who said last week he's being held hostage and has been publicly silent since then. The other is the military junta leader who asserts he acted out of concern for the country's security and has encouraged Nigeriens to defend it from any foreign intervention.

Here's a look at President Mohamed Bazoum and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as Niger's junta defies a threat by the West African regional bloc to step in and use force if necessary.

President Mohamed Bazoum

As neighbours in West Africa experienced multiple coups and kicked out the military forces of former colonizer France in recent months, Niger's president came to be seen as a crucial partner of the West in the fight against groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization in what has become the global epicentre of extremism, the vast Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.

The 63-year-old Bazoum took office in early 2021 in Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since the country's independence in 1960. The preferred successor of outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou, Bazoum had been a teacher by training and a longtime Cabinet minister who comes from Niger's small ethnic Arab minority.

Welcomed for his security cooperation with the United States, France and others as alliances with neighbouring countries deteriorated, Bazoum was one of three "close partners" among African leaders to meet with

General Abdourahmane Tchiani

The former head of the Niger's presidential guard, Tchiani has accused Bazoum of not doing enough to keep the country safe from Islamic extremists and declared himself the leader of the mutinous soldiers calling themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country.

The junta also is aligning with neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, which also are led by juntas and are sending a delegation to Niger after saying any foreign intervention there would be seen as a "declaration of war" against them, too.

Tchiani, who is in his early 60s, is an army veteran and ally of former president Issoufou. He reportedly helped block a coup attempt in March 2021 shortly before Bazoum was sworn in as president.

The general is from the Tillaberi region northwest of the capital and bordering Mali. It is part of the area inside Niger that has suffered greatly from Islamic extremist attacks. After the coup, he asserted that he had stepped in to avoid watching Niger's "inevitable demise."

Like a number of high-ranking military officials in African nations, he received some U.S. training. In the past, he served as a military attache at the Niger embassy in Germany. He also took part in a past mission with the regional bloc, ECOWAS, which now threatens military intervention if Bazoum isn't reinstated.

Ethiopia’s federal government says it lost control of some districts and towns to militia fighters in the country’s Amhara region during the latest conflict emerging in Africa’s second most populous nation. Residents reported heavy gunfire and military aircraft overhead in some areas.

Ethiopia’s Cabinet declared a six-month state of emergency last week in the region as clashes and mass protests intensified over a plan to absorb regional forces into the military. The federal government has tried to centralize security powers after the end of a devastating two-year conflict in the country’s Tigray region, where Amhara regional forces and militia were key allies of the federal military.