Headlines That Matter

Monday October 11 2021

Editor’s note: We are experimenting with making our headlines round-up more ‘snackable’—keeping the items short and easier to quickly scan. Let us know what you think at talktous@splainer.in:)

Lakhimpur Kheri: A big update

The big arrest: The Uttar Pradesh police has finally arrested Ashish Misra—the son of the junior home minister, no less—after 12 hours of questioning. The reason: his alibi just didn’t hold up:

Misra said he was at a wrestling event, but turns out he was missing for two critical hours.
His mobile phone location at the time when the farmers were run over shows he was in that area—though he insists he was at a rice mill he owns instead.
The Misras claim that their driver Hari Om was driving the car, but the video evidence indicates otherwise.

He was sent to judicial custody on Saturday and will be produced in court today. The special investigation team hopes to get custody while Misra’s legal team plans to apply for bail. NDTV has more on the evidence that led to the arrest.

Autopsy reports: Families of the victims allege that they have been given carbon copies of the post-mortem reports that are deliberately illegible, and impossible to read: “It’s report, given to us on Friday, too was illegible. All we were able to glean from it, again, was that Gurvinder had died of injuries.” (The Telegraph)

Farmers’ next move: The leading union coalition Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has announced a month-long agitation that will culminate in a mahapanchayat in Lucknow on October 26 if Ajay Misra Teni is not dismissed and arrested alongside his son.

That other FIR: Soon after the violence, a BJP worker named Sumit Jaiswal has also filed an FIR—primarily echoing the party line, i.e. “bad elements” among the farmers attacked the cars. There is no mention of how the farmers happened to be crushed by the same cars. (Indian Express)

Related reads: The Quint has a good analysis of farm union leader Rakesh Tikait—and what motivates his decisions. Hint: It’s not party politics but the interests of Western UP farmers. NewsLaundry reports on the distraught families of BJP workers killed in the violence. Also from NewLaundry: This interview with a local reporter who reminds us that none of us would really know what happened if regional media wasn’t on the ground to bring us the facts. The big mainstream outlets arrived much later. Also: This spicy take on CM Yogi Adityanath:

Lebanon is in darkness

The country’s electricity grid collapsed on Saturday after its two largest power plants ran out of fuel. Also: distributors of gas cylinders have stopped operating. The reason: the country is almost entirely dependent on fuel imports—but the currency has been collapsing due to a prolonged economic crisis. Add to that a highly inefficient power industry that has annual losses of up to $1.5 billion, and has cost the state more than $40 billion over the past decades. Authorities are hoping to bring the power back up this week—maybe. (USA Today)

Speaking of a power crisis: Indian power plants are running out of coal—due to high import prices, rising demand and monsoon-related supply disruptions. The Delhi government hit the alarm bell, saying three plants that supply Delhi have coal stocks for only a day—even lower than the national average of four days. This in turn made Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi very cranky. He said there is “ample coal is available in the country”—calling any fears about disruptions in power supply “entirely misplaced.” Also worried about coal: Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala. (Indian Express)

Latest drug bust casualty: Shahrukh Khan

Thanks to his son Aryan’s arrest, edtech startup Byju’s has pulled ads featuring SRK: “It had to be pulled as the company which is in the area of education wouldn’t like to be seen in promotions with him given the controversy.” And there is talk that they will pull all IPL ads featuring him as well. FYI: The police now are busy arresting Nigerian nationals in “efforts to explore the foreign linkages of the case.” Meanwhile, please enjoy this sweet fangirl shout out of support:

A warning against India’s reopening…

This isn’t exactly breaking news, but one of the world’s best known virologists strongly cautioned against our eagerness to reopen—even though the third wave seems far away (we added 18,166 new cases yesterday). But Dr W Ian Lipkin points out less than 20% of the population is vaccinated, and 30% is under the age of 18 and not yet eligible for vaccination. Adding to that risk is not severe illness but the long haul symptoms most media stories ignore:

“These are not people who necessarily have an acute disease, they may have an only mild form of it, but they remain permanently or at least for a long period, crippled with cognitive dysfunction, shortness of breath, fatigue. This can represent as many as 30% of people who become infected.”

In other Covid-related news: Russia is witnessing record numbers of daily deaths—which numbered 936 on Friday. But the Kremlin continues to resist any plan for a nationwide lockdown. (Associated Press)

A related read: Check out Guardian’s photo essay on Bali—once the world’s most hopping tourist hotspots—and now a ghost town.

Festival sales get a festive start

The amusing battle between rival e-commerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon over start dates for their big sales appears to have worked out well for both of them. E-commerce platforms clocked $2.7 billion in sales in the first four days—with another $2.1 billion over the remaining five days. (Mint)

Not feeling as festive: US retailers. The reason: “Port delays, Covid-19 outbreaks and worker shortages have snarled the flow of products between Asia and North America, threatening the supplies of everything from holiday decorations and toys to appliances and furniture.” As a result, big companies like Walmart, Home Depot, Costco and Target are chartering their own private jets to fly in supplies. (Wall Street Journal via Mint)

Antarctica is insanely cold

Here’s a change of pace from the usual global warming stories. While the Arctic has been heating up, temperatures are plunging at the opposite end of the globe. Antarctica's last six months were the coldest on record. From April through September, the average temperature was minus-60.9°C (minus-77.6°F), a record for those months. Point to note: “[O]ver the past few decades the most northerly parts of Antarctica have warmed five times faster than the global average—that's faster than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere.” CNN explains how to understand this anomaly in the context of climate change.

What migration really looks like…

The Guatemalan police have rescued 126 migrants who were abandoned on the roadside in a giant shipping container—by smugglers who were paid to smuggle them into the US via Mexico. More than 100 were from Haiti—which is in appalling shape—while others were from Ghana and Nepal. Point to remember: “The discovery comes just a day after Mexican authorities detained 652 migrants, including some 350 children, travelling in three refrigerated double-trailer trucks near the US southern border.” (BBC News)

Silencing China’s ‘dancing grannies’

They are old, they are loud, and they love to dance! Giant groups of middle-aged and older women gather in public squares and parks, turn up the music and get their groove on. And they are a serious pain-in-the-ass for many who want some peace and quiet—but are too afraid to confront them. The latest weapon in this war: a remote stun gun-style device that claims to be able to disable a speaker from 50 metres away. Sounds silly, but as The Guardian explains, it reflects a far deeper generational battle between old and new China. Also: if you want to watch a bit of the dancing, here’s an older Wall Street Journal report: