Military history buffs could soon be in for a treat as the Union govt has allowed for declassification of documents. The G7 is going at it against China and the remaining seat on Jeff Bezos’s New Shepard shuttle to space has just been sold.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
💰GST: 5% tax on vaccines to remain; tax cut on certain medicines (including for black fungus), oximeters, ventilators, testing kits.
Graphic: Hindustan Times
💉Private jabs: Centre asks states to collate demand for vaccines at private centres and either share it themselves or let Centre do it.
🕋 Hajj Limit: Saudi Arabia has restricted pilgrims to only those from the kingdom, and only those between 18 to 65 and vaccinated. No foreigners.
Pic: Ali Mansuri/Wikimedia Commons
💉💉AstraZeneca: Italy to vaccinate only people over 60 with AstraZeneca jab after European body detects another rare blood clot side effect.
📵 Virus in Pak: The country’s Punjab government has decided to block SIM cards of those refusing vaccination.
👎 Lakshadweep: After sedition against filmmaker Aisha Sultana, local BJP leaders have quit in protest.
😣 US Concerned: A top US official has said that India’s recent “increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and the detention of human rights activists and journalists” were inconsistent with democratic values.
🤝 Punjab tie-up: After breaking off with the BJP, the Akalis are tying up with BSP for state elections next year.
🪖Defence Stories: New policy to allow for declassifying war histories and records of military ops older than 25 years. Govt will have discretion over some records, including the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat report on the 1962 war.
Indian soldiers in Batalik during the Kargil War. (PMO/Wikimedia commons)
G7 Meet
🇺🇸🇨🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🇯🇵🆚🇨🇳 : G7 plans to compete with China on Silk Road and Belt initiative, human rights, support to Taiwan and Covid origin story. But the group has asked the US not to push China so hard that it refuse to cooperate over other issues such as climate change.
🗺️ Climate Change: No sign of cash commitment, only old promises promised again.
The natural world today is greatly diminished… Our climate is warming fast… Our societies and nations are unequal … But the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet. If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade … are the most important in human history.
🇮🇳@G7: Modi pitches for a united approach to Covid and gives it “One Earth, One Health” slogan.
WORLD NEWS
🇭🇺 No means No: Hungarian public’s protest against a Chinese University in Budapest has forced the govt to backtrack.
⚔️ Attacks: 18 die as hospital bombed in rebel-held city; 7 killed in Kabul blast; Gunmen storm Nigerian village and kill 53.
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
🚀💺 Full: Spare seat on Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s New Shepard flight to space sold for $28mn after auction that started off at $4.8mn.
NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The US Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ernesto Miranda on this day in 1966, giving rise to the famous “You have the right to remain silent…” Miranda Warnings against self-incrimination.
Covaxin has run into fresh trouble and although there is nothing yet to doubt the efficacy of the vaccine, it could certainly have done without it. Lakshadweep has decided to raise the sedition charge against criticism and the RBI’s foreign reserves are doing very well. A popular entertainment company has been forced to let go of 200 employees.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
No Emergency USE: Bharat Biotech failed to get a nod from FDA for Covaxin due to insufficient information. It has been asked to pursue full approval instead, which would be a much longer process. In addition, Covid task force head Dr V K Paul has said that the vaccine’s phase-3 results would be published in 7-8 days. Earlier, the company had said the results would be published in July.
Pic: Wikimedia Commons
Commitment: G7 leaders commit to contribute 1bn vaccines to poor countries. The US and G7 are looking to reallocate $100bn meant for the IMF to Covid fight. France backs India’s demand to lift restrictions on vaccine materials.
Scrap it: FDA tells Johnson and Johnson that 60 million doses of its single-dose vaccine could not be used as the factory they were made failed standards.
Scrap that: UK parliamentarians feel that a “Covid Passport”, which will be used to screen Euro 2020 fans, will be discriminatory.
Probe it: There is an allegation that Co-WIN data had been put up for sale on the Dark Web. The government has now ordered a probe. Although there is no confirmation on this, sources told IE that the “issue had been handled”.
INDIA NEWS
Jumper: Mukul Roy and son Subhranshu return to the TMC from the BJP.
Let Italy Decide: Supreme Court says Italian courts will decide the fate of the two marines who killed Indian fishermen.
Lakshadweep: Sedition charge against filmmaker Aisha Sultana for showing dissent against the administrator.
Aiysha Sultana, budding filmmaker, booked under sedition charges. Crime: Dared to describe admin policy a bio-weapon . Reason: Laccadives did not have a single case of Covid for a year until admin removed mandatory quarantine for travellers. Now Covid rages. Some sedition indeed! pic.twitter.com/oZU9m7hBGX
Flagship: UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was termed a “life saver” by the Gujarat govt over helping accommodate migrants.
Speculation: NCP’s Sharad Pawar meets ace strategist Prashant Kishor for three hours. Although Pawar played down the meeting and Kishor had earlier said he had quit, there is talk of an opposition alliance in 2024.
Just Do Your Job: Allahabad high court ordered police to protect a couple from their parents. It says that the girl’s conversion to Islam was of no relevance. UP has an anti-conversion law, also called “love jihad” law.
Here to Serve: Twitter said it served notices to cartoonists, retired IAS officers and fact checkers after it was served requests from unnamed law enforcement agencies. Govt, however, said it had served no such notice.
One of the cartoonists who was notified by Twitter
WORLD NEWS
Moby Dick-esque: A man in the US was swallowed by a humpback whale and then spit out. He survived. Here’s his story.
Spymaster: Donald Trump secretly got phone data on two Democrat lawmakers by issuing a subpoena to Apple, which complied with them. The company later said it was a “mistake”. Dept of Justice will now investigate.
Interview or ‘Threat’view?: Israel’s outgoing spy chief Yossi Cohen, in an interview, details Mossad’s actions against Iran, including the killing of its top nuclear scientist. The interview comes even as the Knessets votes on the government on Sunday.
Yosi Gohen. Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO/ Wikimedia Commons
Country in Protest: Spain is witnessing nationwide protests against domestic violence after a girl’s body was found. Her father allegedly killed her and dumped her in the sea.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Probing: Competition commission of India will look into selling practices followed by Amazon and Flipkart. Complaints alleged that the businesses preferred their own subsidiaries.
Forex Growth: RBI says its move to buy dollars when inflows were high has swelled its foreign reserves (forex) to over $600bn, enough to meet 16 months of import. India is now fifth largest in terms of forex.
COVID19 has taught me many lessons & I learnt another one today. As we let go of 200 of the most incredibility talented & performance driven individuals, each & everyone has messaged, thanking me for the opportunity, the love for @bookmyshow and asking me if they could help (1/4)
Stop That!: Scientists have asked Norway to not go ahead with a plan to capture minke whales and subject them to sounds in an effort to learn more about underwater noise pollution.
“I’m more than disappointed, I’m worried about the consequences. We need to make sure we reverse the trends, not maintain the trends. It’s now clear we are coming to a point of no return.”
Tata Digital, as we have been highlighting before, is on a buying spree. Its latest acquisition puts it on the online pharma map. Does Yogi Adityanath have butterflies in his stomach as he goes to meet the Top-2 in Delhi? And Covid continues to extract a heavy toll as child labour numbers have crossed all boundaries.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
💉 Be Careful: Mass and indiscriminate vaccinations can lead to new mutant strains, experts tell PM in report.
🩺 New Guideline: Centre says kids with Covid should not be given remdesivir, steroids or anticoagulants.
Graphic: Hindustan Times
⚠️ WHO Warns: As Europe prepares to open for tourist season, agency says Delta Variant is poised to take hold in many regions.
👩💉👨🦱 Skewed: Fewer women have got vaccinated as compared to men overall, and Kerala and Chhattisgarh are the only exceptions.
💉🏢 Corporate Jabs: Many top companies carried out a significant chunk of vaccinations in their own cities – from just 3% of total vaccinations in Chennai to up to 17% in Mumbai.
🚷 Lockdown: Karnataka extends lockdown in many districts till June 21, but B’lore to gradually open from June 14.
INDIA NEWS
⛈️ Monsoon Race: Rains have crossed nearly half of India six days ahead of schedule. Rain in May was the second highest since 1901.
👥 Eyes UP: All eyes are on Yogi Adiyanath’s meeting with Modi, Amit Shah in Delhi today. There are several BJP leaders who are unhappy over the handling of the Covid crisis. UP heads to polls next year.
🗳️ Family Ties: Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister Y S Sharmila will open a new party – YSR Telangana Party.
Sharmila Reddy. (Pic: Palagiri/Wikimedia Commons)
🤦♂️ Just Control: Assam CM Himanta Biswas tells Muslims to adopt “decent family planning” to bring down poverty and control social problems.
👩💼👨💼 Gender Gap Shrinks: Now, there are an equal number of men and women taking up BCom. Earlier, BSc and MBBS undergraduate degrees too showed a closing of the gap. BTech has just 42 women for 100 men, LLB at 53.
🇵🇰 Relief: Kulbhushan Jadav on death row in Pakistan can now appeal against his conviction as an Indian spy after the country’s Parliament passes a law that allows for high court to hear appeal against military court ruling.
🙏 Dead: Boxing legend Dingko Singh (42), Bengali film director Buddhadeb Dasgupta (77).
Dingko Singh won gold in the 13th Asian Games
Buddhadeb Das Gupta
Pics: Wikimedia Commons
WORLD NEWS
🇨🇳 Living in China: Amnesty International says China has created “a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale” for the people of Xinjiang that has a significant Muslim population.
🇺🇸 Domestic Terror: FBI chief says January 6 Capitol Riots were akin to “domestic terrorism” and that “serious charges” were yet to come.
🧒 Child labour: Rises for the first time in 20 years at the beginning of 2020 by 8.4 million over the previous four years. Sub-Saharan Africa worst hit.
“We are losing ground in the fight to end child labour. The Covid-19 crisis is making a bad situation even worse.”
Henrietta Fore, Unicef chief
🇲🇲 What goes around…: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi accused by the military junta of accepting bribes, violating secrets law and inciting public unrest.
🗿…Comes Around: 150 Oxford University lecturers refuse to teach at Oriel College that kept the statue of Cecil Rhodes, the 19th century influential politicians and Oriel College alumnus who believed that the White Man was the superior race and paved the way for apartheid.
🇪🇹 F-word: UN Aid chief says Ethiopia is under “famine” as fighting continues in the country’s northern regions where 1.7 mn people have been displaced. An official report, however, stops short of calling it that. BBC explains why “famine” is a powerful word.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Source: RBI
👾 Fresh Meat: Brazil-based world’s largest meat producer JBS paid $11mn in bitcoins to hackers to release their systems. Their systems were hacked last week and forced the company to suspend operations for a day and it threatened to raise inflation.
🤝 Another 1: Tata Digita’s acquisition spree continues as it set to get majority stake in online pharmacy 1MG. So now the company has – BigBasket for groceries, 1MG for pharmacy and Dunzo to deliver.
🧅 First Time: Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon Onion Market generally does not open for Amavasya – the new moon day- and so has ben the practice for the last 74 years. But on Thursday, this market – Asia’s largest for onions – broke with tradition to recover losses due to Covid-19.
Science and Technology
🥵🥶 Climate Extreme: Australia has been hit by one of the coldest seasons on record with snow falling in many parts of the country’s eastern side. In the US, the country’s largest water reservoir, Lake Mead, is at its lowest point ever.
🔎 Google’s Shift: The company will change its algorithm to prevent certain websites on which people have been wrongfully slandered from appearing high on its search results.
“I doubt it will be a perfect solution, certainly not right off the bat. But I think it really should have a significant and positive impact. We can’t police the web, but we can be responsible citizens.”
David Graff, vice president for global policy and standards and trust and safety at Google
🦟🦠 Enemy of my Enemy: Dengue is caused by a virus that develops inside the body of the mosquito. Wolbachia is a bacteria that develops in the same space. Scientists found that infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia saw the bacteria and virus fight for resources in which the virus generally lost, resulting in 77% fewer cases and 86% fewer hospitalisations.
🎥💃🏻 Bollywood’s Skin: AI investigates dialogues in 100 films over the last 70 years – finds preference for upper caste names, boy child and fair skin.
🛰️ Venus, Here we Come! After NASA’s two missions – Davinci+ and Veritas – to Venus, the European Space Agency announced its own called Envision. The three missions will be “complimentary” aiming to answer – Why is Venus, which is close to Earth and similar in many other respects, hellish? Was there water once? How many active volcanoes? Learn more
NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Steven Spielberg’s 👽 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was released on this day in 1982.
If you are north enough (and we mean as north as possible), you will be witness to the annular solar eclipse – also called the Ring of Fire Eclipse.
Guardian from around the world
What is the annular solar eclipse?
You know the solar eclipse right – where the moon blots out the sun? Well, this is just that, except that the moon this time is far enough that it does not blot out the entire sun, just its centre. This way, you can see the outer bit of the sun – and it looks like a ring, hence the name Ring of Fire. It’s not really uncommon with the last one in 2019. This one will last just 4 minutes.
An archive picture of a Ring of Fire. (Pic: Masaru Kamikura/Wikimedia Commons)
Types of Eclipse
Apart from annular, there are two more: Partial and Total.
Left: Partial (Pic: O’Dea/Wikimedia Commons); Right: Total (Pic: ESA/CESAR/Wouter van Reeven)
📻 Listener Gerard Plunkett from Artane took this photo of the eclipse this morning. He used a lumix camera with a homemade filter made from special filter film.
— Today with Claire Byrne (@TodaywithClaire) June 10, 2021
Unbelievable good fortune for a break in the cloud during Greatest Eclipse! Then at 11:14 the cloud rolled back over. Wow! 🤩 #SolarEclipsepic.twitter.com/j9s27skw34
Morning! The SII has doubled the price of polio vaccine, the delay over Covaxin data is annoying strange and the health ministry’s “keep vaccine stocks secret” advisory to states is even more annoying strange. Bitcoin has been legalised in a country. Guess which?
Today we see the release of more new rules in the Centre’s revamped national vaccination plan, Tata Digital’s acquisition spree has eyes on another prize and the most beautiful picture taken in the last 24 hours.
Australia has reported its largest dinosaur and a new species, the Australotitan cooperensis. The plant-eating animal is believed to have lived during the Cretaceous period, approximately 92 million years ago. The Eromanga Natural History Museum in Queensland shared these photos:
There is a new drug for Alzheimer’s but there is also a controversy around it. CO2 levels are at its highest yet and India’s Covid numbers are the best it has been since two months.
After much criticism, the Centre may be thinking of reversing its vaccine policy, which could streamline supply and give India access to more vaccines. A study on which is the safer vaccine has thrown up some relief. India, meanwhile, has slipped in the SDG ranking. And guess where wearing jeans is grounds for treason?
Dive in to learn about the new test to detect whether you have vaccinated or not. The world’s richest countries have approved a historic deal to tax MNCs, and a Delhi govt hospital is now facing off with nurses from Kerala over speaking Malayalam. Also, chess fans – There is a chance to win $1mn.
News Of Today 