Supreme Court stays Delhi’s makeover

The Supreme Court offered unexpected relief for everyone anxious about the government’s plan to ‘remake’ Lutyens Delhi in its own image. A three-judge bench pointed out that it was still looking at pleas challenging the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista project—which will build a new Parliament House, Central Secretariat and residence for the Prime Minister. As a result, the government will not be allowed to move forward with any construction work—including demolition or chopping of trees. But, but, but, the PM can lay the foundation stone for the new Parliament on December 10 as planned. For a Parliament that may never be built? Colour us confused. (The Telegraph)

A related Supreme Court read: Article 14 profiles the two law students who filed separate criminal contempt-of-court petitions against Kunal Kamra and Rachita Taneja. Short answer: They were inspired by the Supreme Court’s decision to go after Prashant Bhushan.

Farmer protests: A quick update

The nationwide Bharat Bandh will last from 11 am to 3 pm. The farmer unions have stressed that participation is entirely voluntary—and essential services will not be affected. They have also distanced themselves from the Opposition netas supporting the bandh: 

“Even Kejriwal saab came this morning, but we did not give him our stage. We have been here from November 27. You cannot give even one example of the farmers taking funds from political parties, or allowing them to speak from our stage. We are very firm on it.”

The Telegraph, Times of India and The Hindu have detailed reports on what to expect today.

The government’s response: has been to mainly squash any overt shows of support. Seven high-achieving athletes were stopped from marching to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to return their awards. In Uttar Pradesh, the police detained Samajwadi Party leader soon after he started a dharna—to ensure he did not lead a kisan rally in his home constituency. Related good reads: Times of India on why the bandh is a test for the Opposition as well. Mint analyses whether the rising rural anger will hurt the BJP in upcoming state elections.

In other protest-related news:

• The protests are gathering support from the most unlikely corners: A group of 74 associations, comprising Resident Welfare Associations, NGOs and activists.
• Are there internet jammers at the protest site? These doctors appear to think so.
• Protesters may be freezing their asses off, but at least they now have a library—the impromptu kind set up under a flyover by a bunch of kids. The selection: books on Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Kartar Singh Sarabha plus Hindi translations of Che Guevara and Maxim Gorky. Oh no, what’s this jholawala nonsense? Where is Veer Sarvarkar’s biography already?
• A bunch of NRIs protested in support of the farmers in London. It won’t make any difference (unless someone digs up a Khalistan flag) but here is the story and the photos.
• Let’s say you allow private buyers to purchase crops during a bumper harvest at low prices. Then you let them store and hoard the produce at will. What will happen to both the farmer and consumer? This farmer sums up the worst case scenario.

Wanna trade gold or water?

Yes, plain old water now has the same status as more scarce commodities like gold and oil. Wall Street will now allow agribusinesses in California to lock in the price of water: “[T]his new futures product would let a farmer buy a year’s worth of water, at a price already locked in.” Also this: “And for investors, these futures are a new way to bet on a fast-changing climate”—that alternates between drought and floods. Nice. Bloomberg News has more.

Iran’s very strange assasination theory

The country’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was shot dead outside Tehran on November 27. The government immediately claimed that the Israelis did it—which is hardly surprising and even likely. What’s astonishing is its latest theory of how this feat was achieved—without using an actual human assassin: 

“Gen Fadavi, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday that a machine-gun mounted on the Nissan pick-up was ‘equipped with an intelligent satellite system which zoomed in on martyr Fakhrizadeh’ and ‘was using artificial intelligence’.

 

The machine-gun ‘focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh's face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25cm [10 inches] away, was not shot’, he said.”

Wow! The Israelis must be flattered. (BBC News)

Breakdancing is an Olympic sport

The International Olympic Committee announced that street dance-offs will be included in the lineup for the Paris Games in 2024. This is part of an ongoing effort to lure a younger audience. The 2021 Tokyo Games will include surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing. (Associated Press)

In related news: The World Economic Forum has announced the venue for its next annual meeting. Nope, it won’t be held in glittering Davos but in Singapore instead. And the dates have been pushed to May 13-16. The reason: The virus, of course. Switzerland is still battling rising infections, while Singapore appears to be out of the woods. (Mint)

The great pandemic: A quick update

• Everyone knows that the US numbers are soaring. But the real cause for alarm: escalating number of hospitalisations—which hit 100,000! And data shows that hospitals are increasingly turning away Covid patients due to a shortage of beds. The Atlantic has the story.
• Also doing poorly: Pakistan where patients are dying in hospitals because oxygen supplies are running out.
• Pfizer has released a detailed statement laying out how it plans to handle the challenges of distributing its vaccine—which needs to be stored at minus 70°C—in India. Point to note: It is still waiting for government approval.
• Related read: Times of India reports on how 103 cold storages used to preserve grapes in Nashik will be used to store vaccines.
• Also applying for government approval: the ‘made in India’ Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech. What’s odd: The vaccine is still going through stage 3 trials, and is not as far ahead as either Pfizer or Oxford.
• Bollywood celebs with Covid now include Varun Dhawan, Neetu Kapoor and director Raj Mehta who tested positive while shooting for a film in Chandigarh. Not infected: co-star Anil Kapoor.
• A very good read: Montek S. Ahluwalia lays out exactly how the government can vaccinate 70 million people in 12 months.

A ‘reverse Titanic’ in the making

The last time around, we humans crashed right into a giant iceberg. This time, it’s the world’s biggest iceberg that’s on the move. A68a measures 4,200-sq-km and weighs one trillion tons. More importantly, it broke loose back in 2017, and is bearing down on South Georgia—a remote island off the coast of South America that is a British Overseas Territory. Translation: a remnant of the long-dead Empire (exactly like the Falkland Islands). While the human stakes may be low, this close encounter may not be good news for the island’s other residents:

“Seabirds such as petrels, albatrosses, and prions find refuge on South Georgia’s rocky beaches, as well as chinstrap, gentoo, and king penguins. Tens of thousands of elephant, leopard, and Wedell seals squeeze along the shoreline and are now in the middle of their mating season. Both the seals and penguins rely on the beachfront as mating and breeding grounds, and need open access to the water to catch fish—a route that a stray iceberg could obstruct.”

Point to note: The iceberg is about the same size and shape as South Georgia. And whether it hits the island, blocks it or floats right by will become clear within weeks. BBC News has the most recent photos taken by the Royal Air Force. Wired has more on the iceberg. See NASA’s satellite image below.

Pandemic is turning us into... 

One: Binge-eaters. A global survey of 8000 people across 50 countries now confirms what our waistlines already know:

“The coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to dramatic changes in health behaviors, prompting people around the world to cut back on physical activity and eat more junk foods. It drove anxiety levels higher and disrupted sleep.”

The stats: About 27% of people said they had gained weight. At greatest risk: People who are classified as ‘obese’: 33% said that they had gained weight and also more likely to be anxious. The really messed up people: The 17% who lost weight 🙄—and who “increased their physical activity levels and improved their diets.” (New York Times)

Two: Binge-drinkers. According to a new study, spending time at home is turning drinkers into full sharaabis. Those of us who like our booze are drinking more than double than “people who did not drink excessively.” More importantly, this gets worse with each passing week of social isolation:

“The researchers also noted that heavy alcohol consumption among binge drinkers—men who have five or more drinks in two hours or women who have four or more—went up by 19% each week of lockdown.”

Forbes has more.

In related news: The pandemic is also pushing companies to rethink their policies. A BPO company Startek is planning to map personality traits of its employees to decide whether they should work in their pjs. 

“There is an increase in an awareness of where our team members stand in terms of who is an introvert and who is an extrovert. Based on that we are making assessments on whether these types of employees will continue to work from home or come back to a brick-and-mortar office as we build the hybrid setup. I think introverts are thriving, they are self learners and like to be at home and we are seeing the performance of that group that we have not seen in the past in a brick-and-mortar environment.”

The problem: slapping psychological labels on your employees is unlikely to make for good HR policy. (The Telegraph)

The great carnage of koalas

According to a World Wildlife Fund report, the horrific wildfires—which swept across Australia from September 2019 and into early this year—have killed, injured or displaced over 60,000 koalas. That’s “a devastating number for a species that was already sliding towards extinction.”  The total number of koalas as per a 2016 report: 329,000. The bigger picture: 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 181 million birds, and 51 million frogs were affected by the calamity.

WWF has now launched a new program aimed at doubling the koala population by 2050.

In happier related news: Conservationists are overjoyed because they have found a single tiny pygmy possum on Kangaroo Island—which was devastated by the wildfires. It is one of the smallest possums in the world—and likely the cutest (see below). The tragedy decimated 88% of the species, and many feared it had disappeared entirely. The aim now is to save every animal that miraculously escaped—and ensure their long-term survival.

Monolith saga continues, ad nauseam

These damn three-sided metal structures have thus far appeared in Utah, Romania, California, Isle of Wight in the UK—and now Colombia and the Netherlands. The new wrinkle: The Colombian avatar is golden unlike its silver predecessors. Daily Mail has photos of the entire lot. We’re far amused by the memes inspired by this global insanity. For example: this very appropriately situated monolith:

Football genius or ass****?

Striker Silas Wamangituka scored twice to give Stuttgart a 2-1 away win over Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. But it’s this “disrespectful” goal that really upset everyone. FYI, it also earned him a yellow card.