The US love affair with guns is a strange thing for the rest of the world (so too is their preference for “soccer” over football and “Farenheit” over “Celsius”). Remington, a gun maker facing bankruptcy and the country’s oldest, is offering $3mn to each of the nine families who lost a member in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. Wouldn’t it be easier on everyone to bring in more restrictions on use of guns? Apparently, not.
TOP NEWS
➡️ US says Taliban will make Afghanistan a pariah state; Taliban calls China a friend
➡️ Assam and Mizoram agree to pull back their police from border area
➡️ China is building nuclear missile silos
➡️ Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity found right again
IN PARLIAMENT
Ruckus: In the Lok Sabha, MPs from the Congress and the Left tore papers and threw them towards the Speaker.
Bills Passed without Discussion: Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill amid ruckus. It also passed the Supplementary Demands for Grants. Rajya Sabha passesd the Juvenile Justice amendment bill that envisages to fast track child adoption; With this, the bill has cleared both houses and will go to President for approval.
Present, but not: BJP MPs showed up for a meeting of the IT standing committee led by Shashi Tharoor but did not mark their attendance thereby scuttling any attempt at discussing the Pegasus issue.
“You’ll be happy if we close the House right? Let me make you happy. House is adjourned till tomorrow.”
Rama Devi who was in the Chair of the Lok Sabha
INDIA NEWS
🇺🇸🇮🇳 Blinken Visit: US will support India in its fight against Covid-19 with an additional $25mn, said US secretary of state Antony Blinken. The two countries discussed Afghanistan, Quad (the US is not calling it a military grouping) and Covid. Biden said that democracies needed a vibrant civil society who must have a say in govt.
🗳️ Eye on 2024: Mamata Banerjee met key Opposition leaders and called for unity against the BJP-led NDA govt.
🤔 A Question of Culture: The Meena community has accused Hindu outfits of appropriating tribal culture at the Amagarh Fort that was made by rulers from its community and had many dieties unique to the tribals. Someone planted a Hindu saffron flag there, they said. Police presence has been increased after the flag was found torn down.
🦠 Coronavirus News: Only 44% of Kerala population showed antibodies, far below the national average of nearly 66%. The state continues to report the highest number of infections in the country.
⚔️ Cooling Down: On the Centre’s prompting, Assam and Mizoram have moved their police personnle back from a 4-km stretch that serves as an unofficial boundary.
“No member of an elected legislature can claim either a privilege or an immunity to stand above the sanctions of the criminal law, which applies equally to all citizens,”
Supreme Court ordering Kerala legislators stand trial for the 2015 ruckus they made in the Assembly
WORLD NEWS
🇨🇳⚛️ Nuke Zone: China has reportedly built a nuclear missile silo field in its western Xinjiang province. Another one was earlier reported in the north central province of Gansu. Together they are believed to be capable of hosting 230 missile silos.
🇨🇳🇦🇫 China-Taliban Talks: China met with a Taliban delegation in Tianjin, 100 km from Beijing. China too sees Taliban as an important military and political force in the country. China’s main concern seems to be the East Turmenistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an international terror organisation. Taliban called China a “trustworthy” friend.
🦠🗺️ Coronavirus News: The WHO has said that deaths jumped 21% over the last week globally and that if this continued, the toll would cross 200mn in the next two weeks
🇹🇳 Tast of Power: Tunisia President Kais Saed, who had earlier dismissed his prime minister folloing protests over Covid, has purged many senior officials and judges from their posts, and taken on judicial powers.
🇳🇿1️⃣ : New Zealand has been found the place best to live in in case society collapsed. A study ranked countries by their ability to grow food, protect their borders and maintain their power grid and some manufacturing capability, in case of financial crisis, climate change and another pandemic. Islands generally performed well with the other countries being Tasmania, the UK and Ireland.
“I had to do something – I followed my conscience. If you’re in a country where war criminals are glorified, this cannot be a good future.”
UN-appointed High Representative Valentin Inzko who banned genocide denial in Bosnia.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🏦 Major Decision: In case of failure a bank depositors will get their deposit amount back with a max limit of Rs 5 lakh in 90 days, according to a Cabinet decision. It also approved a decision to improve the LLP Act, which is what startups prefer, by widening its definition and decriminalising certain sections.
🤑 Moneybook: Despite many concerns over Facebook’s place in the world, the company raked it $10bn in profits, almost double of what it earned last year.
🚭 Drug of Choice: After Phillip Morris, UK major British American Tobacco says it wants to move away from tobacco and places its eye on cannabis.
ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE
🦧 A New Measure: The IUCN, which is the authority on global conservation efforts and measures, is going to introduce a “green status of species“. The new measure will help conservators chart a species’s road to recovery. It indicates how much a species is closer or futher away from their historical population levels, the impact of past conservation efforts, how much the species will gain from conservation efforts, their dependence on support and their potential to recover.
🌟 Einstein Right Again: Astronomers reported detecting light from behind a black hole for the first time, again confirming Albert Einstein’s theory that light bends around such a massive object.
👸 Oh, Queen: The Buckingham Palace used an obscure law, called the Queen’s Consent, to get Scottish Parliament to exempt the Queen from carbon emission norms.
News Of Today 