Activist Gautam Navlakha finally walks out of jail Activist Gautam Navlakha’s release from Taloja Central Prison comes a day after the Supreme Court rejected an NIA petition seeking to vacate its November 10 order granting house arrest on medical grounds. Navlakha was arrested in April 2020 over alleged inflammatory speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave P9 held in Pune in 2017. BENGALURU  SUNDAY  NOVEMBER 20, 2022  `12.00  PAGES 30  LATE CITY EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Deal in sight on loss & damage fund Broad across-the-board agreement awaits ratification as COP27 goes into overtime to clinch pact E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi A deal to create a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of climate change, appeared on the horizon at the fag end of the COP27 summit in Egypt that has already gone into overtime. The agreement would need the approval of about 200 countries taking part at the Sharm-elSheikh summit. It would amount to a partial breakthrough as states remained locked over amny other contentious issues. Reports suggested that the draft was amended to include the European Union’s position that only the particularly vulnerable countries be eligible to tap the fund, not those with high oil revenues but classified as developing nations. The indication was to exclude the Gulf nations as beneficiaries. The potential loss and damage deal is a component of the overall agreement that is still in a flux. “30 years of patience. The day has arrived. It is done. YES a new Fund for responding Loss and Damage in developing countries….This is INFANTINO BURST AHEAD OF BIG KICK-OFF S I D D H A N T H A N E Y @ Doha THE FUTURE OF FOOD WITH THIS ISSUE PLUS 12 PAGES DG&IGP PRAVEEN SOOD From B’luru traffic to drugs to cybercrimes, Karnataka’s state police chief interacts with TNSE P4 IN the parking lot of Doha’s international airport I found myself sucked into a conversation between four friends. They were discussing congestion rules put in place to ease some of the traffic issues that may come up over the course of the next month as over a million football fans descend on the first nation in the MENA region to host a FIFA World Cup. An Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Qatari and an Indian, each had their own understanding of who could drive when and where. “Welcome to Qatar,” one of them told me with a smirk, before adding, “Where no one knows what’s going on, and everybody is happy .” Everybody that is, except FIFA , boss Gianni Infantino. In an extraordinary monologue that went on for almost an hour Infantino hit out at the hypocrisy of the West. “I’m European,” he said. “I think for what we Europeans have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.” It was a clear message to the mostly white-cis-male columnists who have this year developed a remarkable expertise in the conditions of work and life (and death) of the migrant workers, a vast majority of them from South and Sousteast Asia, who have built this city and the world’s grandest stage. CONTINUED ON P17 a unique moment a win for all citizens of the world,” Alpha Kaloga, lead negotiator for the Africa Group tweeted. Reports said that in an attempt to narrow the gap between countries’ climate change pledges and the targeted reductions needed to avert the adverse impacts of climate change, the draft text urges states who are yet to upgrade their 2030 emissions cut targets, do so by 2023-end. The draft, however, did not contain a reference that India and some other negotiators had earlier requested on phasing down use of “all fossil fuels”, with the text referring to only phasing down of coal, which had been agreed upon in last year’s summit. Another positive development was the resumption of formal USChina talks after it was suspended following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August. Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said he had very constructive talks with his US counterpart John Kerry. Both countries are the world’s top two polluters as well. WINTER ARRIVES IN KARNATAKA With the chill setting in in most parts of Karnataka and many districts recording the mercury below 10 degrees Celsius, officials from the IMD have cautioned that temperatures will slide further. | P5 EXPRESS READ Chanakya University launched in Bengaluru Border row: New Maha panel to meet on Nov 21 Bengaluru: Noted mathematician Prof Manjul Bhargava said that the launch of Chanakya University is a step towards India moving towards a multidisciplinary system of education. He was speaking at the official launch of Chanakya University as the chief guest in Bengaluru on Saturday evening. P2 Mumbai/Belagavi: In view of the Karnataka government’s plan to contend in the Supreme Court that the boundary dispute with Maharashtra does not come under the purview of the top court, the Maharashtra government will be holding a meeting of its reconstituted 14-member high-powered committee on November 21. P5 Voter ID theft: Wives of 2 accused grilled for 20 hrs E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru The probe into the voter data theft case picked up pace as the police on Saturday evening detained one of the directors of Chilume NGO, which is accused of tampering with the data of voters. The police also questioned wives of Chilume directors for over 20 hours for allegedly helping their spouses in destroying evidence pertaining to the case. The police said the director, Kempegowda, was detained on the outskirts of Bengaluru late Saturday evening for questioning. On Friday midnight, Shruthi, wife of Kempegowda and Aishwarya, wife of another accused Ravikumar, were picked up for questioning and quizzed till Saturday evening. Both women were let off after being issued notices to appear for questioning on Sunday The police are hunting for Ravikumar. . Chilume Trust, engaged by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) exercise has been accused of tampering with voters data. The BBMP had filed a complaint at Halasur u Gate and CONTINUED ON: P4 Kadugodi police stations.