5 THINGS FIRST Supreme Court to examine arrest of 5 activists in Bhima-Koregaon violence case; PM Modi to lay foundation stone of India's biggest indoor exhibition space in Delhi; Rahul Gandhito address a rally in Rajasthan; EU leaders meet in Salzburg, Austria, to discuss Brexit and immigration; Japan's Shinzo Abe to contest his party's internal leadership elections

1. Liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjectures, says SC "Our institutions must be robust enough to accommodate any dissent or opposition to the system or even to this court. We cannot sacrifice liberty at the altar of conjectures." "We must differentiate between armed struggle against the government and expression of dissent by a section of people because of generations of suppression." "The shoulders of all, be it the government or the Supreme Court, should be broad enough to take criticism and dissent." These remarks were made by Justice Chandrachud during the ongoing Supreme Court hearing on the arrests of five activists — following a probe into the Bhima Koregaon violence — by Maharashtra police. On Wednesday, Additional Solicitor General, representing the government, said procedures were followed in the arrests, and submitted documents to back the case. The SC said it will go through it with a "hawk eye”. The hearing continues on Thursday.

2. Why triple talaq ordinance is better for politics than a bill The update: Union cabinet has approved an ordinance to make 'triple talaq' a punishable offence. Supreme Court had last year ruled that the law that allowed a Muslim man to divorce his wife simply by uttering the word 'talaq' three times was unconstitutional. Why the law? The government says the practice persists despite SC's decision and so it wants to make it a non-bailable offence carrying a jail term of up to three years. There is a "compelling necessity to come up with an ordinance," the law minister said. Why the ordinance? The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights in Marriage) Bill (the triple talaq bill) was cleared by Lok Sabha in December last year but is pending the approval of Rajya Sabha. The bill wasn't introduced in the upper house, where the BJP-led government lacks a majority, due to 'lack of consensus among political parties' on the issue. Problem with ordinance: The Supreme Court had in January 2017 said that 're-promulgation of ordinances is a fraud on the constitution' and cannot become a 'parallel source of legislation'. Ordinance vs Bill: In his Independence Day speech, PM Modi had said he would "not stop till they get justice", referring to Muslim women. The ordinance fits in well for 'a promise kept' pitch. Plus, the law will have to be brought back to the parliament for legislative approval within six months. The six-month period ends in mid-March which would also be close to 2019 polls and a debate or a party's stand may have an impact on polls. Read the full story here

3. SC reopens citizenship gates for Assam's 'foreigners' Open NRC: The over 4 million people whose names did not figure in the final draft of the Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30 this year, now have a second chance after the apex court ordered the resumption of filing of claims and objections beginning September 25, for a period of 60 days. Hold over: Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had deferred till Wednesday the commencement of the process of filing claims and objections against the exclusion of names — the final draft NRC list included the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore population of the state, leaving out the names of 40,70,707 people, of which 37,59,630 names have been rejected while the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold. Date a court: In the next hearing, scheduled for October 23, the SC will hear from the NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela the central government's position on the validity or non-validity of the official documents that can help establish a person's claim for inclusion of names in the NRC. Read the full story here

4. How rising fuel prices are cleaning up Delhi's air High petrol and diesel prices may be pinching consumers but have also pushed more and more vehicle owners into switching to a cleaner CNG (compressed natural gas). The rate of conversion in Delhi-NCR has doubled from 1,500 a month to 3,000 a month in the last one year, almost tracing the upward curve of the oil prices. High diesel price and the green tax to be paid by commercial vehicles to enter Delhi has also prompted light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and trucks in the region to convert. The fleet of 1.5 lakh CNG-driven LCVs have expanded by 2,500 in the first quarter of this fiscal and there are currently 250 large trucks running on CNG. Daily sales of CNG have also risen by nearly 15% from 27 lakh kg to over 31 lakh kg. To shorten the long queues, IGL (the company licensed to sell CNG) added 30 stations last year and is setting up another 60. By the way, a curious reason for the long queues around Delhi's airport, railway and bus stations is that the Ola, Uber and other such taxis use the queues to the CNG stations to wait 15-20 minutes till they get a booking, rather than get caught parking by the road by the traffic police. Read the full story here

NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which is India's largest hospitality company? Clue 1: It began with a single hotel in May 2013 and presently boasts over 8500 hotels. Clue 2: It is present in India, Malaysia, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Clue 3: By 17, its founder & current CEO had started his first company. Scroll below for answer

6. Nawaz Sharif is out of jail but is also out of politics Jail and bail: Disgraced former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may have been granted bail in the disproportionate assets case — that also engulfed his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Safdar Awan — but he is by no means out of the woods, as the sentence has merely been suspended. Acquittal is still a long way off, as a final decision on their appeals in still pending and the Islamabad High Court, which granted them bail, did so on the grounds of an error in the indictment charges. Free to walk, not to contest: Sharif was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on corruption charges in July, when he returned to contest the parliamentary elections — the trio was barred from contesting elections for 10 years following their release. Sharif is expected to contest that ban as well, now that he's out on bail. A term to finish: Sharif has been Pakistan's Prime Minister thrice — from 1990-93, 1997-99 and 2013-17 — but has never been able to finish his full five-year term (no elected PM in the country has, in fact). The first time, he was dismissed under pressure from the Pakistan Army by then Pakistan President Ghulam Ishaq Khan; the second time, it was his protege General Pervez Musharraf, who deposed him in a bloodless coup; and the third time, he was disqualified from holding public office by an accountability court for being dishonest about his employment record and overseas properties. Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written to PM Modi seeking resumption of talks between the two countries. Details here

7. Losses are no hindrance in the race to kitchen On Wednesday, Aditya Birla's More grocery chain was sold to India-based Samara Capital and Amazon for Rs 4,200 crore. Samara's investment fund will hold 51% and Amazon's investment arm will own the remaining 49%. More owns 575 grocery stores across India — it has a strong presence in South India. But Aditya Birla Retail, More's parent company, has been a loss-making entity. It had a loss before tax Rs 1,135 crore in FY17, against a revenue of Rs 4,194 crore; and a loss before tax of Rs 1,754 crore in FY16, against a revenue of Rs 3,509 crore. But an executive told Economic Times that Samara-Amazon wants ABRL to generate profit from 2019-20. This may not be a pipe dream as losses due to discounts on sales on Amazon would be absorbed by the entity that handles the online platform — not necessarily ABRL. Amazon is not the only ecommerce company in the race to your kitchen. Economic Times had earlier reported that Alibaba-backed Paytm, alongside Google, is in talks to invest Rs 3,500-Rs 4,000 crore to acquire close to 10% stake in Future Retail, which runs the Big Bazaar chain. Future Retail recorded a modest profit before tax of Rs 11.3 crore against a total revenue of Rs 18,489.64 crore in FY18, bogged down by a loss of Rs 464 crore in the last quarter of the year. Flipkart too has an online grocery service, called Flipkart Supermart. The other players include BigBasket and Grofers. Reliance Retail too is strengthening its online platform.

8. What Kim promised South Korea On Day Two of his meeting with visiting Moon Jae-in of South Korea, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un promised these measures to boost peace in the peninsula: To "permanently dismantle" the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the heart of his country's nuclear programme if the US abides by the agreements it made during the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, including officially ending the Korean War. Closure of its Tongchang-ri missile engine test site and missile launchpad, that have been essential to the country's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. It also promised to allowing site inspection by experts. North and South Korea agreed to withdraw 11 guard post from the demilitarised zone that separates the two by the end of the year. A no-fly zone will also be observed near the border. The two nations also said Kim will visit South Korean capital of Seoul "soon" — which would be a first for a North Korean leader. What is not agreed: North Korea did not say anything on its existing nuclear warheads, and did not offer to denuclearise, prompting an analyst to opine that he "can find no real progress in denuclearisation in today's announcements".

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9. This country's morgues are so full that it stores corpses in trucks Western Mexican state of Jalisco has been storing corpses in refrigerated trucks for the last two years. Why? Its morgues are full — the state is home to one of Mexico's most violent drug gangs, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and has already recorded 16,339 murders this year. Mexico is the 20th worst country on murder rate, with a homicide rate of 16.35 deaths (for 100,000 inhabitants). FYI: El Salvador is the worst with a homicide rate of 108.64. But this September the crisis refused to die down and haunted the state's residents, as the truck with corpses went on a ride around the city of Guadalajara, forcing the residents along its path to complain of putrid smell. The National Human Rights Commission have denounced "the lack of respect for the dignity of the deceased". Jalisco state has dismissed the head of the morgue as "he failed to take responsibility for storing the bodies". The question is who will dismiss the state officials for failing to stop the murders in the first place?

10. An election to 'Indian' Parliament with no parties or campaigns The tiny southern African country formerly known as Swaziland and now called eSwatini goes to polls today. Political parties cannot be involved and there are no campaign rallies. Around 540,000 eligible voters must choose from candidates who are mostly loyal to King Mswati III, who has 14 wives and more than 25 children, and is one of the world's last absolute monarchs. The constitution enshrines "individual merit" as the basis for election, meaning that political parties, which were banned by the king's father in 1973, are deemed unnecessary. Parties are now allowed to exist under the 2005 constitution, but have suffered repeated security crackdowns. Among the charges such parties face are allegations they chanted pro-reform slogans at a rally and wore party T-shirts. Guess who is setting up the Parliament building for the country. India. The country is also Taiwan's last diplomatic ally in Africa that hasn't switched ties to China.

PLUS The last sortie First to fly past: Part of free India's first ever fly past, on August 15, 1947, over Red Fort in New Delhi, Air Marshal Randhir Singh, 'flew' his final sortie at the age of 97 as he breathed his last in Chandigarh on Tuesday night. Brothers-in-arms: The Air Marshal was part of the contingent that was led by another illustrious IAF officer, Marshal of the Air Force, Arjan Singh, who passed away last year. Omnipresent warrior: Commissioned into the Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) in December 1942, Air Marshal Randhir Singh saw active service in World War 2, and in every war thereafter that independent India fought — with his heroics in the Kashmir Operations of 1947 earning him the Vir Chakra, India's third highest wartime gallantry award.

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Answer To NEWS IN CLUES OYO Rooms. The Gurugram-headquartered hotel aggregator announced its foray into Britain on Wednesday. This is its first market beyond Asia and it intends to invest £40 million for its expansion in the country. OYO will look to launch in 10 cities in the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh by 2020.