Inauguration Day: A quick update
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the rioters were "provoked by the president and other powerful people.” Why this matters: Trump has been impeached for inciting violence. And it suggests McConnell—the most powerful Republican in the Senate—may vote to convict him. Axios has more (See our explainer here).
- 12 members of the National Guard—tasked with protecting the inauguration ceremony—have been removed from duty. The reason: They all have links to rightwing militias.
- Democratic members of Congress claim that they saw one of their own— Republican House Rep. Lauren Boebert—offer a guided tour to a group of people three days before the attack. Why this matters: Investigators suspect that a number of the rioters knew exactly where to go once they got inside the Capitol building.
- The Inauguration festivities will be virtual this year—and will include Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Hanks. Also on the list: Nathan Apodaca who skateboarded to TikTok fame thanks to this clip.
- Indian Express profiles Vinay Reddy who will likely be the chief writer of Biden’s I-Day speech.
The Supreme Court committee rolls on
The farmers have refused to engage with the committee appointed by the Court. And the one member who belongs to a farmer union has quit. But that hasn’t stopped its remaining members from getting on with their (likely thankless) job.
- Starting January 21, they will kick off a two-month consultation process—which includes meeting with State governments, farmer unions and other relevant groups. There will be Zoom meetings and a website that invites comments.
- In other words, the public consultation that should have happened before the laws were crafted will take place now—after the government has clearly refused to repeal the laws.
- Committee members claim they have an open mind—despite their public record of supporting the laws. They will not “impose their ideology” and instead “listen to the farmers.” And yet in the same breath, they insist their goal is to “try to convince” the farmers. To which we say: hain?
- Meanwhile, Chief Justice Bobde helpfully pointed out: “Committee members are not judges. They can always change their views.”
- A good read: Quartz on Reliance’s plans to build a grocery empire that will disrupt Indian agriculture.
In related news: The National Investigation Agency has postponed its investigation of the Punjab NGO Khalsa Aid. The reason: it has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, that’s certainly inconvenient.
The great pandemic: a quick update
- The government has made changes to the Co-Win app used to register vaccine recipients. Now, no-shows can be replaced with others on the target list to ensure that vaccines do not have to be thrown away (see our explainer for more).
- Turnout at vaccination centres remains sluggish. In Punjab, only 27.9% showed up. The numbers were not stellar in Puducherry (34.6%) or Tamil Nadu (34.9%) either. The highest performing: Lakshadweep (89.3%) followed by Sikkim (85.7%) and Odisha (82.6%).
- Now, the Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors (KARD) has demanded that healthcare workers be offered the choice of whether they should get Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin or the version of Oxford vaccine (Covishield) distributed by Serum Institute.
- Government is saying: there is no difference at all between the two vaccines, trial data be damned.
- Meanwhile, India is getting ready to send doses to its neighbouring countries—including Bhutan and Maldives. The Hindu has more on New Delhi’s vaccine diplomacy.
- Dubai has a complacency problem: tourism season is in full swing but its numbers are going up.
- Not partying in Dubai: The 20 million organised sector employees who dipped into their retirement kitty and withdrew more than Rs 73,000 crore between April and December.
‘Mirzapur’ is belatedly offensive
Poised on its third season, the Amazon Prime series has suddenly been found offensive by a local journalist in Uttar Pradesh:
“In his police complaint, Mr. Chaturvedi says the plot and dialogues of the web series have hurt his ‘religious, social and regional sentiments’ and that it has provided a wrong portayal of Mirzapur city.”
To these things, we now resort to that old Hindi film song: ‘Yeh kya hua, kaise hua, kyun hua…” The Hindu has more details.
In related news: Following a second meeting with the ministry of information and broadcasting, the makers of Tandav have decided to “implement changes to the web series to address the concerns raised.” No comment.
A great loss to Indian medicine
Dr V Shanta—chairperson of The Cancer Institute at Adyar in Chennai, and doyen of oncology—dedicated her life to affordable cancer care. The medical pioneer was born in 1927 into a family of achievers, which included two Nobel laureates: her maternal uncle S Chandrasekhar and maternal grandfather C V Raman. One of the first women graduates of medicine in India, she joined the Adyar institute in 1955, a year after it was founded by Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy. Indian Express has a collection of the best tributes that poured in from all over the country, from PM Modi to her students and fellow oncologists.
Feeling the media pain
Media companies have not been good to their employees during the pandemic. Some like Times of India were quick to lay off their employees. Others like Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age did the opposite: Force their employees to work every day but delay paying their salaries:
“So many staff members with families haven’t been able to pay their house rent, children’s school fees and have had to move into their parents’ houses or relocate...
Despite all this, we did not stop working for even one day. We have carried on working, first by wiping out all our life’s savings, and now, by living on borrowed money for months.”
The Wire has more.
French vegan restaurant is a star
In a historic first for France, a vegan restaurant has received the coveted Michelin star. ONA—which stands for Origine Non Animale—near Bordeaux is run by chef Claire Vallée. She launched ONA in 2016 thanks to crowdfunding from supporters and a loan from a green bank—after the traditional banks turned her down, saying “the outlook for veganism and plant-based food was too uncertain.” (The Guardian)
Two cool tech innovations
One: Elon Musk has competition. Virgin just successfully launched a satellite into space using a “customised” Boeing 747. Here’s why it is amazing:
“Instead of lifting off from a launch pad on the ground, the rocket is carried under the wing of a customized Boeing 747, named ‘Cosmic Girl,’ and released at a predetermined location. Once it’s released, the rocket ignites and powers itself to orbit. That’s exactly what happened on Sunday.”
Also, it looks kinda like this:
Two: China has unveiled a ‘floating train’ that floats over rails and travels at 620 kilometers per hour—a speed which would take you from Paris to London in 47 minutes! Here’s what it looks like in the video report below. If you prefer to read, here’s the Independent story.
