SO despite the change in government, the peace between Israel and Palestine is under threat once again with Israel striking in Gaza after an alleged provocation from Palestinians. A significant order from the Delhi high court brings into question excesses in the name of anti-terrorism. Find out how a fight over their flagship planemakers brought the US and the EU into locking horns over cheese and wine. After a brief lull, we are back to reporting concerning news today on the coronavirus.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
🦠 Variant Alert: There is a mutation in the Delta virus (aka Indian Variant), which is called Delta Plus.
💉 Vaccine mess programme: Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech says the rate of Rs 150 per dose at which it will be forced to sell to the govt is “not sustainable“. Govt is now considering reducing the gap between Covishield doses that is currently at 12 to 16 weeks. Reuters finds that the expert group the govt had appointed to look into the matter said they had recommended only eight-12 week gap and that the extension to 16 is something that the “govt came out with”.
0️⃣ Magic Number: For the first time since February 11, Mumbai’s Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum, recorded 0 Covid cases on Tuesday.
🧒👦🏼 Kids are Safe: The proportion of those under 20 who were infected during the second wave was more or less the same as the first wave, according to govt data. AIIMS in Delhi, meanwhile, is recruiting children between six and 12 years for their Covaxin trials.
INDIA NEWS
👨⚖️ Shredded: The Delhi High Court, while granting bail to JNU students Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, and Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha on Tuesday in the Feb 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case, severely criticised police for “casually” invoking the anti-terror law UAPA against them. The court said no offence under the UAPA is made out against any of them who were protesting the CAA. Delhi Police says they will challenge the order.
“We are constrained to express, that it seems, that in its anxiety to
Delhi high court
suppress dissent, in the mind of the State, the line between the
constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity seems to be getting somewhat blurred. If this mindset gains traction, it would be a sad day for democracy.”
✊ Maratha Protest: The Maharashtra government will back the silent sit-in protest by Maratha groups demanding quota in reservation and jobs from Wednesday.
💥 LJP Implosion Continues: Pashupati Kumar Paras’s faction removes Chirag Paswan as party chief. Paswan’s faction calls a meeting of his supporters and they removed the five rebel MPs. Both factions claim that the party is theirs.
🐘🚲 BSP loss, SP Gain?: With Uttar Pradesh heading to polls next year, the BSP may lose some of its MLAs with six of them approaching the SP. Of the BSP’s 18 MLAs, 11 of them are either suspended – including the six – or expelled.
🍃 Little Mother’s Vow: V Sasikala is heard saying in an audio clip saying that she would “set the party (AIADMK) straight”.
🪖 Moving Tanks: The Army conducted a drill to transport tanks on rail as part of its plans to move on dedicated freight corridors. It is part of the “whole of the nation approach“.
💬 Twitter loses Shield: Govt sources say that the social media company has lost the legal shield it had for third party content.
WORLD NEWS
🇮🇱🇵🇸 West Asia Simmers: Israeli Air Force struck “military” targets in Gaza although unclear if there were any casualties. This comes after Palestinians who are restricted in enclaves sent “incendiary balloons” following a march by right-wing Jews through occupied East Jeruslame that they. Israel says it cause fires in open fields.
🏳️🌈🇭🇺 Priorities: Hungary bans “promotion” of homosexuality to minors. The move by the conservative govt comes a year before the country goes to polls.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🪑Bad Ikea Bad: The furniture major’s store in France has been fined €1mn for snooping on its employees. Its CEO has been given a suspended 2-year jail term and fined €50,000.
🇪🇺✈️🇺🇸 Trade War Thaws: The EU and the US are set to rollback on tariffs on wine, cheese and tractors – almost $11.5bn. These tariffs were imposed over the last 17 years when the EU was found guilty of propping up Airbus, and the US helping Boeing. This thawing wil help both countries to focus on more recent challenges – Russia and China.
😮😳 An Impossible Promise To Keep?: Mackenzie Scott is finding it hard to keep her vow that she would donate all earnings from her 4% share in Amazon. That stock is growing phenomenonly fast getting her $8bn in the last 11 months. Scott, whose former husband is company CEO Jeff Bezos, has now donated $2bn.
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
🔥 Unabated Fire: A chemical plant on fire is being allowed to burn out to prevent spilling and polluting a nearby river. The smoke isn’t good for the air though.
🌐 Selling WWW on WWW: Tim Berners-Lee is planning to auction the original code for his invention, the world wide web (WWW), as a Non Fungible Token (NFT). Here is an explanation on NFTs.
Three decades ago, I created something which, with the subsequent help of a huge number of collaborators across the world, has been a powerful tool for humanity… I sincerely hope its use, knowledge and potential will remain open and available to us all to continue to innovate, create and initiate the next technological transformation, that we cannot yet imagine.
Tim Berners-Lee
🗺️ 🌡️ Are We Doomed?: The largest scientific expedition – 300 scientists from 20 countries – to the Arctic has reported their findings – ice cover in 2020 summer over the sea was only half that 10 years ago and ice only half as thick. Their leader, Markus Rex, says we may have already stepped on the bomb on irreversible climate change.
SPORT
🏅 India Olympics: Javelin coach says India’s preparations were not good enough. The diet was not right for elite athletes and training was unplanned.
NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company on this day in 1903.
Full disclosure: Natasha Narwal and the author are friends. The piece on her and her friends were written by Oindrila Mukherjee from The Indian Express to ensure objectivity.
News Of Today 
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