Afghanistan: A quick update

One: The absconding President Ashraf Ghani has found refuge in the UAE. Ghani’s exit and whereabouts have been the source of much speculation:

“For days, rumors swirled about where he might have sought refuge. Some reports suggested that he had gone to neighboring Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, or perhaps Oman. There was talk that Saudi Arabia had agreed to give him asylum, and rumors that he had been accompanied by as many as 200 aides, ministers and members of Parliament. There were also reports that he had fled with piles of cash, and questions about whether the United States had played any role in his departure.”

While condemned by many as a coward, Ghani defended his escape in a new video: “I would have been hanged in front of the eyes of the people of Afghanistan and this would have been a dreadful disaster in our history.”  

Two: While Ghani is hanging in the Middle East, former president Hamid Karzai met with senior Taliban leaders to talk about the peaceful transfer of power—amid reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they tried to reach the airport. And at least three protesters have been shot dead in various cities. Also: We now have some sense of how the Taliban plan to rule. The day-to-day governance will be led by a council of leaders while the group’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada takes on a president-like role. A good related read: Cnet on how the Taliban are using Twitter to speak to a global audience to establish their legitimacy—even as Facebook bans them. (The Guardian)

Three: President Biden is running out of time to deliver on his pledge to rescue at-risk Afghans who worked alongside Americans. The Pentagon aims to evacuate up to 22,000 applicants, their families and other at-risk people under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). But that is a very ambitious plan given the hurdles they will face:

“Evacuating that many Afghans would require them to first be able to get to Kabul and then to the airport through a series of Taliban checkpoints, officials said. The U.S. military would need to maintain some semblance of calm at the airport to allow flights to take off and land, and also need the weather to cooperate.”

Resettlement NGOs worry that many will never be able to leave. There are already reports that the Taliban has started blocking Afghans from reaching the airport. And scenes right outside the airport are chaotic:

“The Taliban once again repulsed these crowds with violence, beating and whipping families trying to get through the checkpoints and unleashing volleys of gunfire in the air, according to witnesses. Beyond the Taliban checkpoints, U.S. Marines at the gates of the airport focused mostly on keeping anyone from coming close. As a result, many of the evacuation flights continued leaving with empty seats.”

All this because Biden didn’t start evacuating these allies months earlier—despite being repeatedly urged to do so. 

Four: There are competing stories about the stowaways who fell to their death from a US plane. Social media accounts claim that two of them were teenage brothers who sold watermelon at Kabul’s central market. Scroll has a very different account—based on interviews with those who witnessed the bodies fall from the sky and onto their roofs.

Five: We are happy to note that Indian diplomats and commandos did not leave their best friends behind—i.e. their three sniffer dogs, Maya the Labrador, Roobie the Belgian Malinois and Bobby the Doberman. They were in charge of guarding the Indian embassy in Kabul. Related reads on the evacuation: Indian Express on how India and the US worked together; The Telegraph on the sharp criticism of the government’s lack of preparedness which led to a last-minute scramble. Also read: Mint on Taliban’s decision to stop all trade with India. And see our super-cute evacuees below:

Coming soon: Women Supreme Court justices!

The Collegium—which is a committee of the Chief Justice and four senior most judges—has recommended nine names for appointment to the highest court. These include three women: Justice B V Nagarathna of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Hima Kohli of the Telangana High Court and Justice Bela Trivedi of the Gujarat High Court. Now, if her name is approved, Nagarathna will be in line to become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027. Indian Express has more details on the other nominees. They include judges who have issued key rulings during the pandemic in favour of migrant workers and availability of beds etc. The Telegraph looks at one of the most senior judges who did not make the cut—Justice Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi who remanded Amit Shah in CBI custody in an encounter case over a decade ago.

In other women-related news: The Supreme Court in an interim order ruled that women should be allowed to sit for the entrance exam for the National Defence Academy (NDA)—whose graduates go on to become officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force. This means women can now get permanent commissions—and not just short service commissions which is what they can receive right now. (NDTV)

Legal relief for Shashi Tharoor

A Delhi court has cleared the Congress MP of all charges in connection with the death of his wife, Sunanda Pushkar. She was found dead in the suite of a five-star hotel in Delhi on 17 January 2014. While her death was initially viewed as a suicide, the Delhi Police later claimed that she had been murdered. Then they charged Tharoor with abetment of suicide and cruelty to his spouse. Yesterday, he thanked the court, saying, “It had been seven and half years and it was a torture. I'm so grateful.” Pushkar’s cause of death still remains unknown, and it is unclear whether the police plan to appeal the verdict. Times of India has the most details on the case—and the lack of any evidence.

Danish Sait’s ‘delivery partner’ problem

The Bangalore-based comedian did an ad campaign for Zomato—where he plays a delivery person for a day:

It isn’t the kind of thing that would usually spark controversy. But in recent months, there has been an increasingly heated conversation on social media around the exploitation of gig workers by companies like Swiggy and Zomato. Leading the way: social media handles like ‘DeliveryBhoy’—which angrily took Sait to task for doing the ad:

“I’m not going to assume malice, but rather ignorance on your part. As far as your recent tone-deaf video goes, it’s more or less a marketing gimmick created by what I can only describe as one of the country’s most predatory companies currently being called out for exploitative practices. One that continues to shamelessly steal and extort money from their bottom-most tier of workers. Your video is nothing more than a clean up act, maybe you know or maybe you don’t.”

The open letter goes on to detail exactly what’s wrong with the commercial.  Sait has since apologised and removed the ad from his social media handles. 

A tiny human brain with ‘eyes’

German scientists have achieved an amazing thing. They grew ‘mini brains’ in a lab—and coaxed them to develop primitive eye structures. These ‘optic cups’ contained different retinal cell types—which also responded to light, and even contained lens and corneal tissue. And they displayed retinal connectivity to regions of the brain tissue. Science Alert and New Atlas have all the nerdy details. See what it looks like below:

Speaking of brains: A new study shows that having a personal network with people who actually listen to you is good for your neural health. It can actually improve your cognitive functions such as learning, thinking, problem-solving etc. The study looked at people in their 40s and 50s—and found that people who didn’t have anyone to listen to them, were four years older in cognitive age than those who did. FYI: This is a good one to share with the spouse/life partner/bae etc. (CNN)

In other medical news: Scientists are excited about a trial study that will test whether the humble aspirin can be used to treat aggressive breast cancer. Why this matters:

“Our earlier research has suggested that aspirin can make certain types of immunotherapy more effective by preventing the cancer from making substances that weaken the immune response. Anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin could hold the key to increasing the effectiveness of immunotherapy when used at the same time. Trialling the use of a drug like aspirin is exciting because it is so widely available and inexpensive to produce.” 

Dog cat rescues a human

We’re including this item solely for our cat-loving subscribers—who are tired of all the touchy-feely stories about canines being all brave and good. Meet Piran, the kitty who saved an 83-year-old woman who fell into a 70-foot ravine. He meowed relentlessly at the point where his owner had fallen, leading the search crews right to her. It’s not all about the damn dogs, y’know? See heroic Piran below. (NPR)

Animals in need of rescue: A three-metre long diamond python which wandered into a grocery store—only to be found by a surprised shopper in Australia. It slithered right out of the shelf: 

“I just turned my head and he was about 20cm from my face, just looking straight at me...He was looking straight at me the whole time, almost like he was saying: 'Can you take me outside please?'" 

TBH, that message would be entirely lost on us if a python jumped out at us at Big Bazaar (look at the size of that thing!). But happily for the snake, the shopper was a wildlife rescuer who did as asked. 

Something to look at…

Dominic West as Prince Charles and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Di. Hmm, we think good old Charles got an upgrade. Variety has more if you need it. See the two below: