Headlines That Matter

Researched by: Nirmal Bhansali, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh

Israel-Palestine War: The truce ends

For more context on the Israel-Palestine war, check out our Big Stories on: The motive for the Hamas attack; the effect of civilian casualties on Gaza’s post-war fate; and the deal for a four-day truce.

The hostages: 134 hostages held by Hamas have been released to date in return for around 400 Palestinian prisoners. Reminder: 136 are still in Hamas custody.

The bombing begins, again: Israeli airstrikes resumed within minutes of the end of the seven-day truce. The renewed offensive has killed at least 193 people—mainly in south Gaza:

The IDF reported hitting 400 targets in the 24 hours after the collapse of the pause, suggesting that this second phase of the war will be no less intense than the first. At least 50 strikes were carried out in and around the southern town of Khan Younis, the IDF said, signaling the expansion of the campaign to the south.

Nowhere to run: Palestinians were told to move south—to escape airstrikes in the north. So this is what the second phase of the war looks like:

Some 2 million people — almost its entire population — are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start and has since vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 85-square-mile area (220 square kilometres).

New York Times has maps that chart the scale of this mass displacement.

Meanwhile, in Washington: The US continues to urge Israel to limit civilian casualties and avoid the mass bombings that characterised the offensive in north Gaza. There is every indication that the advice has been ignored. Though the National Security Council spokesman insists otherwise:

“We believe that they have been receptive to our messages here in terms of trying to minimize civilian casualties,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” He noted that Israel had published a map directing civilians to what it said were safe zones. “There’s not a whole lot of modern militaries that would do that, I mean, that is, to telegraph their punches in that way,” he said. “So they are making an effort.”

New York Times confirms that the IDF is issuing confusing evacuation orders that make it impossible to figure out safe zones.

A related must-read: A shocking exposé—based on Israeli military sources—on how the IDF uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza. Why it’s shocking: The machine’s calculus of acceptable civilian losses—and its tendency to make serious errors:

One former intelligence officer explained that the Habsora system enables the army to run a “mass assassination factory,” in which the “emphasis is on quantity and not on quality.” A human eye “will go over the targets before each attack, but it need not spend a lot of time on them.”

The Guardian offers an overview. The original testimonies were published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.

Something to hear: Actor Juliana Margulies raged against Black and queer people for not supporting Israel. She has since apologised. But her rant is really quite astonishing—and worth hearing:

Organ trafficking at Apollo hospital

The context: Indian law has a strict criteria for organ donors—who have to be family members. There are exceptions for strangers who donate organs out of “affection and attachment”—but not for money. Traffickers exploit this loophole to harvest and sell organs. Some of the top hospitals in the country have been implicated in trafficking rings in recent years.

What happened now: An undercover investigation by Telegraph UK shows that Apollo's Indraprastha hospital is part of a trafficking racket. Desperate young people are flown in from Myanmar to sell their kidneys to wealthy patients. How it works:

[A] patient would be able to “choose” their donor and then arrange a payment to the individual. “In most cases it’s 70 or 80 [lakh],” he added...

Once a price is agreed, with an upfront cash payment subsequently made, the pair are then flown to India for their interview with the transplant authorisation committee, which is made up of several Apollo hospital officials and government-appointed members… “The Apollo hospital knew about it,” claimed Daw Soe Soe, the kidney recipient who first alerted the Telegraph to the racket. “They just pretend not to know.”

One of the surgeons named by Telegraph’s sources is Dr Sandeep Guleria—who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019. He has strongly denied all allegations—as has the hospital. Reminder: the same hospital was implicated in a trafficking scandal in 2016. (Telegraph UK, paywall)

COP28: A pledge against coal

At the global climate summit in Dubai (See: This Big Story), 57 countries promised to wean themselves off coal power. The list mostly includes countries like the US—which have already limited its use. Example: Just under 20% of the US electricity is powered by coal. But in the case of India, that number is 73.1%—and no, we did not sign the pledge. New Delhi also didn’t sign the promise to triple installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. The reason: India should not be told what energy sources it can or cannot use. Also this: 22 countries promised to triple their nuclear energy. (The Hindu)

US assassination plot: The latest update

The context: An explosive indictment filed by the Justice Department accused an unnamed Indian official of orchestrating a plot to kill a prominent Khalistani supporter—Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. This official allegedly recruited a criminal Nikhil Gupta—who hired a hitman to do the job. Sadly for Gupta, the hitman turned out to be an undercover agent. Our Big Story has all the details.

What happened now: According to The Print, the blowback from the case has severely damaged overseas operations of India’s intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Canada, US and UK have all asked the agency to remove its declared officers—“to signal anger” at “violations of the unwritten conventions which govern the operations of RAW in those countries.” How serious is this?

The shuttering of RAW’s stations in San Francisco and Washington DC, coming on the back of the publicly-declared expulsion of its station chief in Ottawa, Pavan Rai, has left the organisation unrepresented in North America for the first time since it was founded during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1968.

The Print has lots more on this exclusive. Also worth a read: New York Times’ blow-by-blow account of how the US law enforcement agencies took Nikhil Gupta down.

Terrible news about hysterectomies

According to a new white paper, 66.8% of all hysterectomies are performed by private institutions—of these 95% may be unnecessary. And most women who undergo the procedure are poor and rural. Usually, a woman’s uterus is removed only when there are indications of a serious disease—such as abnormal uterine bleeding or premalignant and malignant tumours. But in India, the surgery is performed even when the problem is relatively benign—for example, heavy menstrual bleeding. Hysterectomies are mostly performed on premenopausal women in their 40s in the West. But in India, many patients “are being performed at younger ages and during peak reproductive years.” (The Print)

World Bank takes down data on toilet use

The global financial institution withdrew three papers that reveal unflattering data—after being challenged by the Indian government. One paper spotlighted a “most concerning” decline—of 12 percentage points—in the use of toilets in rural India between 2018 and 2021. To be clear: By 2019, toilet use jumped by 41% thanks to the flagship Swachh Bharat Mission launched in 2015. But it declined soon after—“a full quarter of the country’s rural population was not regularly using toilets by 2021.”

The second paper suggests that we lost ground because the political and administrative leadership moved on—after the “sense of urgency eased.” The third paper showed that groundwater contamination by fluoride, nitrate and other chemicals is “more extensive and severe than generally perceived.” All three papers were withdrawn—and taken down from the World Bank website—after the numbers were challenged by the government. The Print has lots more on the data—and the pressure from New Delhi.

Bad news about that Cadbury’s bar

According to a new report, only 17 out of 82 brands use chocolate sourced from ethical suppliers—that pay farmers a sustainable income. Among the “brands to avoid”: Mars, Nestlé, Ferrero and Mondelēz—which owns Cadbury. Some facts to remember when buying your next bar of chocolate:

About 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from west Africa, and about six in 10 cocoa-growing households in Ghana are estimated to use child labour, with four in 10 in Ivory Coast… Jasmine Owens at Ethical Consumer said: “The chocolate industry is incredibly unequal, with many cocoa farmers living in poverty while international chocolate companies are raking in billions of pounds. Most of the world’s chocolate is grown in west Africa, and the conditions for farmers are in general really appalling.

Ethical Consumer has lots more on the brands to avoid. (The Guardian)

No climate change shield for the rich

Poor nations and poor people within even rich nations pay the highest price for global warming. This is hardly surprising. But a new but small study conducted in Los Angeles shows that the wealthy aren’t quite immune to its effects. It suggests that temperatures are rising so quickly that the ‘luxury effect’ of privilege can’t keep pace. Researchers looked specifically at greenery across neighbourhoods—since increased vegetation results in cooler temperatures:

“There’s been an increase in equity in the city,” [said] the paper’s lead author Dion Kucera.. “But it’s not because poorer areas are improving in greenness or cooling. It’s that richer regions are getting worse.” If these trends continue, he added, “it is likely that, by 2030, there will be no income advantage for white residents over minority residents when it comes to cooling from plants.”

Data point to note: the luxury effect’s ability to reduce heat in wealthy, white neighbourhoods fell by 58% from 1990 to 2020. Fast Company has more on this study.

Two things to see

One: This is the Vangunu giant rat—never ever captured on film until now. The only confirmation of the creature’s existence was in accounts of indigenous people in Solomon Islands. You may not be impressed by large rats, but this is one of the world’s rarest rodents and Vangunu is the only place it is known to inhabit. FYI: the rat—also called Vika by locals—is about 18 inches—half of which is tail. (New York Times)

Two: The first four episodes of ‘The Crown’ Season 6 were sort of terrible—unless you’re a total Diana stan. The final six episodes that marks the end of the series will be released on December 14. The trailer dropped yesterday. No more Diana but lots of existential angst. Sigh, where's the gossipy, goofy Crown we fell in love with?

Attention Mumbai fam: Don’t miss ‘O Gaanewali’

Editor’s note: Avanti Patel reached out to us asking for help to promote this theatre concert performance that celebrates the great musical tradition of the tawaifs. It sounds fabulous! If you’re in Mumbai next week, we strongly recommend catching the show. See snippets and more info below. (FYI: This is not branded content or an ad. We’ll be sure to let you know when it is.)

O Gaanewali is a theatre concert piece written by Avanti Patel that celebrates women artists and Tawaifs who popularised the forms Thumri, Dadra and its allied forms, and Ghazal. The gaanewali and naachnewalis were celebrities in the late 1800s! Names like Gauhar Jaan, Janakibai, Raasoolan Bai, Begum Akhtar, were well known in almost every household.

Through beautiful renditions of thumri, dadra, hori, jhoola, chaiti, ghazal and so on, we will be tracing the evolution of this beautiful genre that gained popularity through the performance of Tawaifs and many other women performers after them. The show works through an interactive format where the audience is invited to participate and be a part of the mehfil.