The great pandemic: A quick update
- The number of confirmed Omicron cases in India has jumped to 23—including two in Mumbai. The Hindu has more details.
- An IIT scientist says his mathematical model of the pandemic projects a third wave in February—but “it will be milder than the second wave” because Omicron does not seem to cause severe disease. (The Hindu)
- Researchers are worried about two cases of Omicron—which infected two fully vaccinated travelers across the hallway of a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. The CCTV footage shows that they never left the room. It may indicate a high level of infectiousness. (Bloomberg News via NDTV)
- Government scientists have started to isolate and grow the variant. The aim is to test the effectiveness of Covaxin and Covishield—and whether it causes reinfections. (Times of India)
Nagaland killings: The latest update
An Army operation—which resulted in the death of six civilians (explained here)—has been registered as a case of murder and attempt to murder. The FIR says “it is obvious that the intention of security forces is to murder and injure civilians.” Total number of civilian deaths so far: 15. Meanwhile, the Army has kicked off its own internal investigation into the tragedy.
The pressure to lift the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA)—which gives the military unlimited powers—is also growing. One of the loudest voices is Nagaland chief minister and BJP ally Neiphiu Rio who also said: “They (the victims) have not sacrificed their lives for India but for the Nagas”—which will certainly not be music to the government’s ears. (The Telegraph)
Aung San Suu Kyi is convicted
The Myanmar leader ousted in a military coup in February (explained here) has been sentenced to four years in prison—which was later reduced to two by the junta. This is just the first of a series of cases filed against her. She faces 11 charges in total, and they could put her behind bars for life. (BBC News)
US “boycotts” Beijing Olympics
The United States will not be sending any official representatives to the Winter Games in 2022—but athletes are still free to compete. The move mostly creates an “optics problem”—but is unlikely to have a significant impact, as Beijing was quick to point out: “In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to be successfully held.” (Reuters)
Syria is the new narcostate
A New York Times investigation has revealed that the country has emerged from a ten-year war as the home of a multibillion-dollar illegal drug industry—run by associates and relatives of President Bashar al-Assad. Its most lucrative export: an addictive amphetamine called Captagon—which is popular in the Arab world. Most of its production and distribution is supervised by the Fourth Armored Division of the Syrian Army—an elite unit commanded by the president’s younger brother.
Data point to note: More than 250 million captagon pills have been seized across the world so far this year—which is likely a fraction of what is consumed. Quote to note: A former US envoy says: “It is literally the Syrian government that is exporting the drugs. It is not like they are looking the other way while drug cartels do their thing. They are the drug cartel.”
Trigger warning: The item below contains a graphic description of crime.
Two Indian horror stories
One: An 18-year old beheaded his 19-year old pregnant sister—a plan hatched in collusion with his mother. The reason: She eloped with a fellow student and married him against her family’s wishes:
“[Her] brother attacked her from behind with a sickle while their mother held her legs. ‘He then beheaded her and brought her head outside the house. We suspect that the mother-son duo took a selfie with her head…The duo then left on the bike’.”
Two: The News Minute has a detailed, must-read report on a powerful religious seer in Karnataka, Raghaveshwara Bharathi—who has been accused of rape by two women. And yet he has never been tried for his alleged crimes, and here’s why:
“Since November 2014, 10 Karnataka High Court judges have recused themselves from various cases against the seer, and some have expressed that the case be transferred from their bench—and this has happened on 17 instances.”
New details on that crypto bill
While the bill has still not been made public, officials are leaking bits of information to media outlets. The latest scoop: Cryptocurrency exchanges will be required to share their investors’ Know Your Customer data with regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the tax department. One likely problem: so-called KYC data maintained by several cryptocurrency exchanges is quite “patchy”—since the entire industry is based around maintaining strict investor privacy. But this is in line with other reports that the government intends to heavily tax crypto gains. Don’t know what this is about? Read our explainer on the new bill. (Economic Times)
In other biz news: The first big media IPO has fallen flat in the US. The shares of BuzzFeed plunged by as much as 17% on the first day of trading. This will have an impact on other media companies such as Vox that are planning to go public. (Reuters)
The real cause for Taj Mahal’s woes
Pollution has long been blamed for our national treasure’s yellowing facade. But new research indicates that the real culprit is the hydrogen sulphide gas released by the nearby Yamuna. Why this matters: It means we have to redirect our efforts to preserve the Taj—which will require cleaning a seriously polluted river:
“The whole city’s sewage and industrial waste, including solid waste, flow into the Yamuna mostly untreated. There are 90 nullahs in Agra, of which the water of only 25 get treated by 4 plants but these plants do not function at night. The sewage of 65 other drains flows into Yamuna untreated. The materials include leather and synthetic leather waste from about 3,000 shoe factories and these leather wastes help form many gases.”
The Dialogue has more details.
Government’s big plan for WFH
The government is getting ready to put together a comprehensive legal framework to offer better protection for employees who work from home—either all or some of the time: “Some of the options being considered include fixing work hours for employees and payment of additional expenses incurred by them towards electricity and internet usage.” (Economic Times)
Speaking of unsafe workplaces: Not all Indian origin CEOs make the right kind of news. Better.com’s Vishal Garg fired 900 employees in one fell swoop over Zoom—and just in time for Christmas. He accused the employees of “stealing” from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive. This is also the guy who once sent a staff email that read: “You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS.” Dolphins? Really? Also, you can see a clip of the call below. (CNN)
China can change the weather
On July 1 the Chinese Communist party marked its centenary with major celebrations including tens of thousands of people at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square. A new research paper has now confirmed that the perfectly blue skies—minus clouds and pollution—were engineered thanks to an extensive cloud-seeding operation. The big picture: Beijing has invested billions of dollars in such projects—and announced plans to “expand its experimental weather modification program to an area 1.5 times the size of India—5.5 million square kilometres—covered by artificial rain or snow.” Meanwhile, Delhi folks heave a big sigh. (The Guardian)
Munawar loses out again
This time, organisers of the Gurgaon Comedy Festival have dropped him from their line-up—after they received “repeated calls” and online messages opposing Faruqui’s participation. The co-founder of the event said:
“We did not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments or put the public in danger… so we removed him from the panel… For us, safety of artists and public is a priority… audience is everything...I will not comment on who all were calling and complaining. At the end of the day… this business is about making people laugh.”
Five things to see
One: China’s Yutu 2 rover has reportedly spotted a mysterious cube-shaped object on the far side of the moon. Scientists don’t know what it is yet—but are calling it “mystery hut” (shenmi xiaowu) for now. The rover is headed over to check it out over the next 2-3 lunar days. (Space)
Two: An ancient statue of a goat-headed yogini—dating back to the 8-9th century—was stolen from a village in Uttar Pradesh. The theft was discovered when a widow in the UK asked an art recovery company to assess her collection. It will now be turned over to the Indian High Commission and make its way home—back to the larger collection of yogini statues that still stand on a hilltop. CNN has more on this fascinating story of art theft.
Three: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Pervez Khattak offered this shocking defence of the lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager—who was set on fire by an Islamist mob who accused him of blasphemy. (Newsweek)
Four: A man was suffering breathing problems through one nostril—and for the most bizarre reason: There was a tooth growing inside. Gizmodo has this very odd story.
Five: Bangalore entomologists have identified a new species of butterfly found in North Sikkim. It’s name: ‘Chocolate-bordered Flitter’ or Zographetus dzonguensis. (The Hindu)
