Steve Bannon, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s loudest supporters, is scheduled for trial in February in a case in which Trump once pardoned him — but this time a White House pardon isn’t on the table.

A judge Tuesday set Feb. 25 as the start of Bannon’s trial on charges related to alleged money laundering, conspiracy and a scheme to defraud. The case stems from Bannon’s alleged role in an organization that raised millions on the promise — during Trump’s first term in office — that they would privately build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Bannon and the now-defunct group, called We Build the Wall, are accused of pocketing donations. He has entered a not guilty plea in the case and called the charges “nonsense,” accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pursuing allegations out of political animus.

Trial in the case was originally scheduled for November 2023, but has been delayed repeatedly. 

Bannon was indicted on federal charges in a similar case in August 2020, but Trump pardoned him as one of his last acts before leaving office in 2021 after his defeat to President Biden.

Presidents cannot issue pardons for state charges. As Trump enters the second month of his new presidency, his former senior counsel and White House chief strategist will be in court.

Bannon completed a four-month federal prison sentence just three weeks ago. He was incarcerated for defying a subpoena from a congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

New Delhi — Authorities in India’s sprawling capital city imposed even stricter emergency measures Monday in a bid to prevent illness as thick smog blanketed New Delhi. The air pollution was even worse, and considerably so, than last week, when the annual smog first descended. 

Delhi’s air quality Index (AQI) — a measure of the severity of air pollution based on the levels of five toxins — shot up to 499 in some places Monday morning. That meant a categorization of “severe plus” on India’s System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) scale, and “hazardous” under the U.S. AQI measurement system.

The thick smog never lifted Monday, even as night descended. It disrupted dozens of flights and trains as visibility remained low all around the capital.

India’s Commission for Air Quality Management announced on Monday it had implemented stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) — bringing the strictest emergency measures offered to mitigate the impacts and try to reduce pollution.

The stage 4 measures, which are likely to remain in place until conditions improve, include:

• All trucks except those carrying essential items are barred from entering Delhi.
• All commercial vehicles registered outside Delhi are barred from entering the city, though there is an exception for EVs and those running on cleaner fuels.
• All construction activities, including work on roads, flyovers, power lines, pipelines and other public projects, are halted.
• Schools switch to online teaching for all students, except for grades 10 and 12, with all other in-person classes being suspended.
• All employers, both state and private, in Delhi have been advised to have only 50% of their workforces come into their offices, with the rest working from home.
• Authorities may also order work federal government employees to work from home.

India’s Supreme Court steps in

India’s Supreme Court on Monday chastized the Delhi government over the worsening air quality in the capital and asked why it had waited for the AQI to cross the 300 mark before imposing the strictest emergency measures. Any AQI reading over 300 falls within the worst, hazardous level on the U.S. scale. 

“How could the government take such a risk?” the Supreme Court asked.

The court has also asked the federal government to share real-time satellite data to show the impact of farm waste burning with state governments, in the hope of encouraging action at the state level to tackle the polluting, highly common practice in Delhi’s neighboring states.

Delhi sees a major spike in air pollution every very winter due to several factors, including the burning of farm waste or “stubble” in the adjoining states of Haryana and Punjab. Fireworks and climatological factors also contribute to the smog.