Morning Digest: U.S. Judge blocks Trump limits on visa duration for foreign students, journalists; BJP bags four of 10 municipal corporations in Rajasthan civic polls, and more

File photo for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto U.S. Judge blocks Trump limits on duration of visas for foreign students, journalistsA U.S. federal judge on ​Monday (September 14, 2026) blocked the ⁠Donald Trump’s administration from implementing a new rule that ‌would limit how long foreign students and ‌journalists can remain ‌in ⁠the U.S. without ⁠applying for extensions.BJP secures 4 of 10 municipal corporations in Rajasthan urban local body pollsThe ruling BJP emerged ahead of the Congress in Rajasthan’s urban local body elections on Monday (September 14, 2026), winning 4,179 wards against the opposition party’s 3,613 and securing clear majorities in four of the state’s 10 municipal corporations. Congress Rajasthan chief Govind Singh Dotasra claimed that the BJP’s winning margins had thinned against the pattern, even as he blamed an “unfair” delimitation to his party’s narrow lossesGovt. bars bank charges on payments up to ₹2,000 via UPI, RuPay-powered debit cardsIndia on ​Monday (September 14, 2026) notified changes ‌in the Payment And ​Settlement ⁠Act, 2007, specifying that banks cannot impose charges ‌on payments via ‌Unified Payments ‌Interface (UPI) transactions ⁠of up ⁠to ₹2,000. A government gazette ​notification ‌specified RuPay-powered debit cards and UPI transactions of ‌up to ​₹2,000 as electronic ⁠modes of payment.CJI says judiciary cannot earn public trust by shielding itself from scrutinyChief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday (September 14, 2026) invoked the Supreme Court’s intervention in the NCERT Class 8 textbook row, where the court had objected to references to ‘judicial corruption’, to emphasise that “institutions do not stay clean by being shielded from scrutiny.”Manoj Jarange-Patil vows to take Maratha quota fight to MumbaiDenied permission for his hunger strike in Mumbai, Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil on Monday (September 14, 2026) announced he would head to the Maharashtra capital alone on September 15 to stage a protest at Azad Maidan. He appealed to the Maratha community not to converge immediately, stating only 10 people and two ambulances would accompany him along the planned route 17 of 20 NCPI MPs to likely to join BJP, says MP Jagadish BasuniaTrinamool Congress MP from Cooch Behar Jagdish Chandra Barma Basunia, who along with 19 other MPs of the party defected to National Citizens Party of India (NCPI), has said that 17 MPs of NCPI are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before Durga Puja in October this year.India approves expedited export of electricity to flood-hit NepalIndia’s Ministry of Power have given their go-ahead for exporting power to Nepal to help recover from devastating floods which, among other things, destroyed their hydropower infrastructure and took lives of more than 1,300 people. The approval paves the way for exporting power for 18 hours a day starting Sept 13 until Dec 31 this year.Rajasthan scammer nabbed for circulating Al deep fake video impersonating T.N. CM VijayThe Crime Branch CID of the Tamil Nadu police have arrested a suspect in Rajasthan, who allegedly created and circulated deep fake videos with Hindi audio impersonating the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, across social media platforms “with an intention to cheat innocent people”. Time to take forward ties ‘without backsliding’, says China’s Foreign MinisterChina’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that the leaders of India and China reached “an important consensus” that the two countries should be partners, and Beijing hoped Saturday’s (September 12, 2026) meeting in New Delhi would see both countries take forward ties “without stagnation or backsliding”.Hockey India, franchises mull change in HIL governance structureThe tussle within Hockey India shows no sign of resolving any time soon. President Dilip Tirkey met with Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and other senior government officials along with Hockey India League franchises in New Delhi on Monday (September 14, 2026), for a meeting that also saw concerns raised around the survival of the league and its existing governance structure. Published - September 15, 2026 07:07 am IST