Biden’s hail mary on Ukraine

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Biden’s hail mary on Ukraine

More than two years into the war, the lame duck Biden administration has made a landmark policy change. It has lifted the ban on Ukraine using US missiles—namely the long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS)—to strike deep into Russian territory. Ukrainian President Zelensky says the first attacks inside Russian territory will come soon—and without warning.

About those missiles: Here’s how ATACMS can be used: “The missiles can strike between 100 and 190 miles away, depending on the model, and will allow Kyiv to hit around 200 targets including airports, arms depots, training centres and supply lines.” They will likely be used to counter 10,000 North Korean troops—currently deployed on the frontline in Kursk.

The bigger plan: Everyone knows Donald Trump hearts Vladimir Putin. He will most likely force Kyiv back to the negotiating table—by cutting off military aid. So this is the fallback plan for Zelensky and Biden: Use the missiles to seize Russian territory—which can be used as a bargaining chip during negotiations. In the short term, the long-range attacks will put the Russian military on the defensive—at a time when its troops are advancing as much as a mile a day—the “fastest pace since early in the war.”

A high-risk escalation: Moscow immediately warned that the move “escalates tensions to a qualitatively new level”—and brings the war closer to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. This is also the reason why the US has been reluctant to help Ukraine do much more than play defence—keep the bear out rather than directly attack the bear’s home.

A jittery EU: Unsurprisingly, Europeans are anxious about any such direct conflict—since they are on the frontline—unlike faraway Washington. That’s why German chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to give Kyiv long-range weapons—and why he again urged Putin to come back to the negotiating table. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has offered his own peace plan—which will create a demilitarised zone in the areas currently occupied by Russia—rather than restore them to Ukraine. So not exactly the terms Kyiv wants. In other words, everything’s coming up Putin right now. Ukraine can at best hope to hold on to what it has.

The reading list: The Guardian and Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) have everything you need on the missiles. New York Times (login required) is sceptical about the military impact. Bloomberg News (login required) has more on Erdoğan’s plan.

Mr Modi goes to Guyana

When the Prime Minister lands in Guyana today—it will mark the first visit by an Indian PM since 1968. Indira Gandhi came to Guyana a mere two years after the Caribbean nation gained independence from British colonial rule. Apart from that, why does this trip matter? The answer: oil.

According to the World Bank, Guyana has been experiencing “extraordinary economic growth” of more than 40% in the last three years owing to its oil boom.

In fact, India is looking at an entire swathe of the Caribbean—to bolster its oil supplies:

Suriname next door to Guyana is on the verge of having its own revolution in natural oil and gas … so, for India, looking at the southern energy complex which is Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and possibly Grenada, is geopolitically important.

Point to note: The Caribbean jaunt comes on the heels of Modi’s trip to Nigeria—where he became the second foreign leader to receive the ‘the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger’. It too was historic—the first by an Indian prime minister in 17 years. And yes, Nigeria is swimming in crude oil. Indian Express has that story. (The Guardian)

Massive leakages in India’s subsidised food grains distribution

The country´s public distribution system (PDS) distributes food grains to the poorest Indians. But a new report shows that a staggering 28% never reaches the beneficiaries. The overall loss to the country: Rs 69,000 crore (690 billion). The number of Indians who would have been fed by these missing grains: 814 million. So where is it going? No one exactly knows. Experts speculate the grains may be exported—or sold on the market. The dismal bit: this is a great improvement from 2011-12—when 46% of the food grains went missing.

Point to note: Some states are doing far better than others:

States such as Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Gujarat report the highest rates of leakage, with the northeastern states facing challenges due to a lack of digitalization. Conversely, states like Bihar and West Bengal have shown marked improvements. Bihar reduced its leakage from 68.7% in 2011-12 to 19.2% in 2022-23, while West Bengal’s figures dropped from 69.4% to just 9% in the same period.

Economic Times has more on the report.

‘Mazar jihad’ comes to Doon School

The context: Since April 2023, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has unleashed a demolition derby—aimed at ‘unauthorised’ mazars (Muslim mausoleums). Dhami claims these structures do not actually commemorate a saint—but are part of a “mazar jihad” to grab forest land.

What happened now: The clip of a mazar being demolished within the premises of Dehradun’s prestigious Doon School has gone viral. The incident actually occurred earlier this month. The clip is from a livestream of the incident. It shows members of a right-wing group called Sanatan Sanskriti scaling the school wall—breaking down the mazar with axes and picks. Its president claims to have been given permission by the CM. But the District Magistrate says there is no sign of a demolition order—and the state’s Waqf Board claims that they used to own the land.

Point to note: The school seems to be on the side of the mazar warriors. The headmaster reportedly sent out a letter to reassure parents, which claims that a Public Works Department (PWD) worker erected the structure without the school’s permission. FYI: the school has not even filed a formal complaint about the demolition. NewsClick has more on the PWD angle. The Print has more on CM Dhami’s “mazar jihad”. (The Telegraph)

Foxconn has a ‘married women’ problem

The context: Back in June, a Reuters investigation flagged deeply sexist recruitment practices for jobs at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai.

A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts… [T]he company’s executives verbally convey the recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them.

The reasons offered by Reuters’ sources: family duties, pregnancy and higher absenteeism—even “jewellery worn by married Hindu women [that] could interfere with production.”

What happened now: Foxconn has ordered its hiring agencies to remove any mention of age, gender, or marital status. These ads previously specified that only unmarried women between the ages of 18 and 32 were eligible for smartphone assembly roles. Soon after the Reuters story was published, hiring agencies were warned “not to use Foxconn’s name in any ads going forward, and told us our contracts would be terminated if we did.” Of course, no one knows if the company is actually hiring married women. We highly recommend reading the original Reuters investigation—and the follow-up.

Say hello to ‘Ozempic plus’

The context: The type 2 diabetes drug—which causes significant and speedy weight loss—has taken the world by storm (see this Big Story). It has also raised big questions about how ‘magical’ weight loss will do to hard-earned progress in body acceptance. There have also been a number of concerns about its safety.

What happened now: Novo Nordisk is working on a stronger version of the drug called CagriSema. It mimics three kinds of gut hormones responsible for regulating blood sugar and satiating appetite—like Ozempic but with greater intensity. In early trials, patients lost an average of 15.6% of their weight over 32 weeks. For comparison, Wegovy—which uses the same active ingredient as Ozempic—results in 15% weight loss after 68 weeks. The company says that people taking CagriSema will lose 25% in just over a year. It will hit the US and European markets in late 2025 or early 2026. (Financial Times, paywalled, Quartz)

Bad news about poetic machines

A new study shows that humans can’t tell the difference between poems written by humans and those written by AI. In fact, some even preferred the latter:

As well as overall quality, the researchers asked participants to rate poems on a range of qualitative dimensions. How was the imagery, rhythm, sound or beauty? How “inspiring”, “lyrical”, “meaningful”, “moving”, “original”, “profound”, “witty” (and so on) was it? AI won out over Shakespeare and company in nearly every category.

To be clear, people preferred this AI poem written in the style of Sylvia Plath—in response to a prompt:

The air is thick with tension,

My mind is a tangled mess,

The weight of my emotions

Is heavy on my chest.

… to an actual Sylvia Plath poem! Andrew Dean in The Conversation offers an interesting argument as to why people prefer the easy charms of machine-generated poetry. (Indian Express)

Tired brains are sleepy… and mean

A new study shows that prolonged mental fatigue reduces self-control and cranks up aggression. That sounds a bit ‘duh!’ but here’s the interesting bit. Researchers argue that being tired results in ‘ego depletion’: “the idea that self-control is a limited cognitive resource for everyone, and therefore, the more it is exercised, the more it is exhausted.” This ‘ego depletion’ in turn results in ‘local sleep’—which is when parts of your brain display sleep patterns—when you are wide awake!! Specifically, “fatigued individuals showed the emergence of areas with typical sleep waves in some areas of the frontal cortex, which was completely absent in the others.” SciTech Daily has lots of nerdy details.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Coming in 2025: the RBI’s subsidised cloud data storage service for financial firms in India, competing with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM.
A new feature on Perplexity will help Pro subscribers buy stuff without leaving its AI search engine.
CCI has slapped a Rs 213 crore (2.13 billion) penalty on Meta over WhatsApp’s privacy policy, and directed that the sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta products for non-WhatsApp services shall not be a condition for users to access.
Another day, another copyright violation lawsuit against OpenAI—this time it’s ANI, becoming the first Indian company to do so.

sports & entertainment

Actress Uma Dasgupta, best known for playing Durga in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’, has passed away of cancer at the age of 70.
The winner of the ATP Tour Finals is…Jannik Sinner, who defeated Taylor Fritz in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 to cap off an outstanding calendar year.
ESPNCricinfo has a must-read on the saga involving the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, with India refusing to travel to host nation Pakistan.

as for the rest

The smog situation gets worse in Delhi, as residents are breathing air 60X more toxic than the WHO’s recommended daily limit.
Another day, another internal rift within AAP—Delhi’s former transport minister Kailash Gahlot quit to join the BJP, amid accusations from AAP leaders, of pressure from the ED and the CBI.
The Trump administration hasn’t even taken office yet and there’s already a potential power struggle between Elon Musk and fellow inner circle advisor Boris Epshteyn.
Trump plans to declare a national emergency and use the US military to help deport undocumented immigrants.
Indian Express explains why last week’s maiden maritime meeting between Pakistan and Bangladesh could mark a turning point in diplomatic relations, breaking the shackles of Pakistan’s war crimes on Bangladesh in 1971 and in light of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster as PM.
Also in Indian Express: a list of measures announced as part of GRAP stage IV—the highest level of pollution-relation restrictions—in Delhi.
Pop Sugar has a must-read on the ‘living room family’ dynamic, in which families make it a point to spend time together in shared spaces rather than keeping to their own bedrooms or leaving kids to their own devices.
A new study reveals that employees’ morale and job performance decline sharply when their bosses engage in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’—lurching between abusive and ethical—behaviour.
Here’s a searing indictment of Harvard’s admission practices—of all schools that have sent students to Harvard, one in 11 students has come from just 21 high schools across the US.
The US is sanctioning over 64,000 extra H-2B visas for 2025, boosting seasonal industries like hospitality and seafood.
SpaceX aur India ki jodi had liftoff as India’s GSAT-N2 satellite soared into space, launched via SpaceX’s Falcon-9.
The Telegraph has a must-read on how Maharashtra’s job crisis—and high unemployment rate—is a key issue as the state goes to the polls. Check out our Big Story for more.

Six things to see

One: Not on our 2024 bingo card: Ben Affleck’s astute take on how AI will change Hollywood. This clip is from CNBC’s investor summit—that has gone viral. (Newsweek)

Two: Beyoncé will perform songs from her ‘Cowboy Carter’ album during the halftime show for NFL Gameday on Christmas—which will air on Netflix for the first time this year. (Variety)

Three: Phone scammers, beware! It may no longer be as easy to scam that sweet naani out of her money. The UK-based telecom operator O2 revealed an AI bot—called “dAIsy”—that sounds like a granny. Its main job is to “automate ‘scambaiting’”—i.e waste a phone scammer’s time to keep them away from real victims. Gizmodo has more details.

Four: Coca-Cola dropped three new AI-generated ads for the holiday season—and it hasn’t gone well. Media outlets are calling them a “dystopian nightmare”. Particularly loathed: This reboot of a 1985 classic commercial. (Gizmodo)

Five: A Japanese kindergarten was struck by a series of shoe robberies this past month. The most unusual bit: The dastardly thief ran away with only one shoe. Well, the ‘weasel’ has finally been found. (The Guardian)

Six: The trailer for Allu Arjun’s cult classic ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’ just dropped—also starring Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil. The movie is slated to hit the screens on December 5. The Hindu has more on the plot details.