Month: April 2023

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-17

About-the world this week, 23 April to 29 April 2023: gunfires and standing your ground; news broadcasters crossing a line; flight out of a fighting Sudan; India’s Naxalites blast again; and snakes in Indian politics.

Everywhere

In America the gunfire refuses to subside. Early this week nine people were injured after gunfire erupted at a teenagers’ party in Jasper County, Texas. The shooting took place at a private residence where some 250 Jasper High School students had gathered after their annual prom dance.

The reason known at this point of time is that some kids ganged up after prom to have a night they could remember the rest of their lives, and somehow it got twisted, a bunch of children got shot. The victims ranged in age between 15 and 19. A motive for the shooting had not yet been identified.

Just last weekend, four people were killed and 28 others were injured in a shooting at a ‘Sweet 16’ birthday party in Alabama.

Firearm incidents are now the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers, according to the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, there is a burst of another kind of fire: shootings sparked by everyday mistakes.

There was this teenage boy in Missouri who rang the wrong doorbell. He had gone to pick up his two younger brother from a friend’s house. However, he went to the wrong home. An eighty years old homeowner answered the door and promptly shot the teen in the head and arm. The boy who was hospitalised in critical condition, is now recovering at home.

Then this 20 years old woman in rural upstate New York whose boyfriend accidentally turned into the wrong driveway -while looking for a friend’s house- resulting in her being shot and killed by a man shooting from his front porch in a Wild West mode.

Firing on, about two cheerleaders in Texas whose group approached the wrong car to find a man sitting in the back seat. The girls backtracked and went back to their car, but the man in the wrong car approached them and when they rolled down the windows to maybe apologise, he shot them.

And the family in North Carolina, who were shot at after a basketball rolled into the suspect’s yard. And after children jumped-in and went to retrieve the ball.

Though believed to be the ‘rarest of the rare, wrong place, wrong time’ shootings seem more common than ever before. The trend may be due to a number of factors, such as increased distrust or a sometimes-racist fear of crime, marketing by the gun lobby, and self-defense laws in states that protect shooters. Those laws generally fall into two categories, though the way they’re used state-to-state is different. One is the ‘Castle Doctrine’ which says while someone is on their property, they can use deadly force in defense without retreating. The other includes ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, which extend that to public places, or anywhere someone with a gun has the legal right to be.

In other America news, two of the biggest names in broadcast news were showed the door by their respective Bosses.

In February, Don Lemon of ‘CNN This Morning’ came under fire after he said former UN ambassador Nikki Haley “isn’t in her prime” to run for president. He later apologised for his misogynistic on-air remarks, but the damage had been done.

Close behind was Fox News, which announced that its prime-time host is leaving the network after 14 years. ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was one of the most successful shows on the network, with an average nightly audience of 3.2 million viewers. Over the years, the show increasingly became a platform for former President Trump and conservative commentators. Carlson has come under fire for pushing theories that the 2020 election was stolen and for misleading viewers about the 6th January Capitol Riots.

Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon are both out of the roles they’ve held for years. The shifts in the industry — from firings to layoffs — show that media outlets appear to be facing a reckoning.

Fierce fighting continues in Sudan and countries are busy evacuating their people from the crazy war-zone.

American forces evacuated US embassy personnel from the country’s capital. India worked round the clock to herd their flock together in ‘Operation Kaveri’. And India has become something of an ‘evacuation expert’- what with many Countries approaching India for help. Say Sri Lanka.

The Naxalite issue is a stranglehold that refuses to leave India in peace. This week at least 10 personnel of the District Reserve Guards and their civilian driver were killed when Maoists detonated a powerful (Improvised Explosive Device) IED on a un-metalled road and fired on the wounded jawans near Aranpur, Dantewada District, Bastar, about 400 kilometres south of Raipur, on Wednesday.

Around 200 jawans were returning in a convoy when the blast was triggered. Police believe about 50 kilograms of explosives were used.

The IED was so powerful that it blasted a crater 12 feet deep and around 25 feet across, spanning the entire width of the village road. The vehicle was blown to smithereens and some of the rifles were bent out of shape by the shockwaves.

India’s Railway infrastructure is on an awesome track roll, the Prime Minster (PM) of India is busy snaking around the country to inaugurate the New Vande Bharat Trains. These ‘non-poisonous’ Made In India trains feature a GPS-based passenger information system, bio-vacuum toilets, and rotational seats that can be aligned in the direction of travel in the executive class, and employs a regenerative braking system. The Vande Bharat can reach a maximum speed of 180 km.

During an Election campaign in the State of Karnataka the Congress President called the PM a poisonous snake, and you could die by licking it. A longtime ago, another Congress President called the PM ‘The Merchant of Death’ during another Election campaign – the results were there for all to see. Lots of poison being thrown around this week.

More stories snaking-up in the weeks ahead. Stay away from poison stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-16

About-the world this week, 16 April to 22 April 2023: Revenge arrests; a stampede for food; lots of gunfire; a rapid unscheduled disassembly; and a ‘kota’ beauty.

Everywhere

Tit-for-Tat

This week a Russian Judge ruled that American Journalist Evan Gershkovich, 32, must remain in jail-at least till 29th May-on espionage charges, in a case that is part of Russia’s crackdown on dissent and press freedom. This is happening in the background of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war. If convicted, it would be 20 years in a cold Russian jail.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Evan Gershkovich, who is based in the capital Moscow, had been trying to steal State secrets. This is the first time, since the Cold War, that a United States (US) news correspondent has been detained in Russia.

Evan works for the Wall Street Journal, which is published by US company, Dow Jones. He was born in a jewish family, to parents who fled the then Soviet Union during a period of mass emigration amidst rumours that Jews would be exiled in Serbia. His parents ended up in the US in 1979. And Russian is a language spoken at home.

The arrest of Evan Gershkovich comes on the heels of the US announcing charges, about a week ago, against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov accusing him of being a Russian spy.

Tit-for-tat?

Dying for Food

This week, a stampede in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, left over 80 people dead and dozens seriously injured. Hundreds of people crowded at a School in Sanaa to receive alms, which amounted to 5,000 Yemeni Riyals or about USD 9 per person of people, waiting to receive donations during the last days of the Muslim Festival Eid al-Fitr, Ramadan. Houthi fighters- who’ve been running the city since 2015- had shot into the air to disperse and control the crowd, striking an electrical wire that sparked an explosion. The series of events spooked the crowd, leading to a deadly stampede. Two organisers of the event have been arrested, and it seems there wasn’t any coordination with local authorities. Now, there’s an investigation underway. The stampede happened right before the Muslim Festival holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Yemen has been stuck in the deep pit of an eight-year conflict that pits a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-aligned Houthi group. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, months after the group ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, wrecked the economy and pushed millions into hunger. The United Nation’s World Food Programme feeds 13 million in Yemen, but funding shortfalls have curtailed its activities.

The stampede shows the plight of the people in a war-torn country, fighting (and dying) for food, in Yemen.

The Guns of Africa

Late last week clashes broke out across Sudan, mainly in the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region, between rival factions of the country’s military government. Into this week, almost 330 people have been killed and about 3,200 injured. The clashes erupted amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of Sudan’s military regime.

The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, while the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militia, follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.

When an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats warning, in early 2022, that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In recent weeks, tensions have risen further.

Sudan is in a volatile region bordering the Red Sea, the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa. Its strategic location and agricultural wealth have attracted regional power plays, complicating the chances of a successful transition to a civilian-led government.

Several of Sudan’s neighbours – including Ethiopia, Chad, and South Sudan – have been affected by political upheavals and conflict, and Sudan’s relationship with Ethiopia, in particular, has been strained over issues including disputed farmland along their border.

The history of conflicts in Sudan has consisted of ethnic tensions, religious disputes, and competition over resources. In its modern history, two civil wars between the central government and the southern regions killed 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has displaced 2 million people and killed more than 200,000 people. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has had more than fifteen military coups and has been ruled by the military for the majority of the republic’s existence, with only brief periods of democratic civilian parliamentary rule. That’s a tinderbox situation in Africa.

The Guns of India

One of India’s rowdiest states fires into the news, this week too, with gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother being shot dead while being escorted by the police for a medical check-up. In a brazen act, the killers, seemingly unmindful of the police being everywhere, ‘gate-crashed the party’, simply pulled out a gun and shot dead the gangsters. And then promptly surrendered to the Police.

Just last week, the gangster’s son had been killed by the Police in an encounter, while trying to escape and making deadly plans to rescue his father from jail. Now they are together in another place.

He who lives by the Gun dies by the Gun?

The Name is Gandhi

One of India’s Member of Parliament (MP), Rahul Gandhi, who was found guilty, convicted by India’s Courts, and disqualified as an MP lost an appeal to stay the conviction on criminal defamation – on the ‘Modi surname issue’. The Court said he failed to show the ‘exceptional circumstances’ to grant a stay on the conviction. Jail beckons, and the wait outside Parliament’s Gates stays.

This is only the second time since 1860 that someone has been punished with two years for jail for criminal defamation. That’s ‘rarest of rare circumstance’ – perhaps good enough reason to hand out a jail term!

A Successful Failure

The United States’ Space Agency NASA has long been in the game of Space and appears to have wisely outsourced all risk-taking to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, who grabs them by the tail-for the lessons to learn. I admire the man for such daring.

This week, SpaceX’s Starship Spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built- blasted off from a SpaceX Starbase on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas. However, after a successful launch, Starship blew up within minutes into the test flight that SpaceX, hoped will be the first step on a human journey to Mars.

After a cancelled launch earlier this week because of a pressurisation issue, the 120 metre Starship finally kicked off its base. It gathered speed, but then started to spin at altitude before exploding about four minutes after leaving the ground. It appeared that the two sections of the rocket system-the booster and cruise vessel -were unable to separate properly after takeoff, possibly causing the spacecraft to fail. It was not immediately clear whether the rocket exploded spontaneously or if the Flight Termination System was activated – a failsafe that destroys the spacecraft to prevent it from veering too far off course.

Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable fuel. Starship leverages tanker vehicles (essentially the Starship spacecraft minus the windows) to refill the Starship spacecraft in low-Earth orbit prior to departing for Mars. Refilling on-orbit enables the transport of up to 100 tons all the way to Mars. And if the tanker ship has high reuse capability, the primary cost is just that of the oxygen and methane, which is extremely low. The Starship is designed to carry 100 people on long duration interplanetary flights.

SpaceX had cautioned that the chances of success were low and that the aim of the test flight was to gather data, regardless of whether the full mission was achieved. Employees at SpaceX cheered even after the rocket disintegrated. “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX said in a statement, referring to the explosion. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly-that’s Space equivocating at its best spin!

Indian Beauty

Miss India, or Femina Miss India, is a national beauty pageant in India that annually selects women beauties to represent India to compete in the Miss World Contest, one of the Big Four major international beauty pageants. It is organised by Femina, a women’s magazine published by The Times Group. Since 2013 to 2022, Femina also organised Miss Diva as a separate competition, with participants competing at Miss Universe.

This week India chose its Miss India-to represent India in the upcoming 71st Miss World Contest 2023, to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year. Rajasthan’s 19 years old Nandhini Gupta was crowned Miss India in the pageant held on 15th April, followed by Delhi’s Shreya Poonja as the first runner-up and Manipur’s Thounaojam Strela Luwang as second runner-up.

Manipur hosted the grand finale of Femina Miss India 2023, a first in the pageant’s history where it was held outside Mumbai. One contestant from 29 states (including Delhi) and a collective representative for all Union Territories adding up to 30 participants competed for the title.

Sini Shetty was Femina Miss India World 2022 from whom the crown passes to Nandhini Gupta.

Miss India’s official Instagram page said of Nandini Gupta, ‘magnetism, charm, endurance, and beauty’.

Nandini Gupta is 19 years old and hails from Kota, one of the biggest coaching hubs in the country for engineering and medical aspirants. Could perhaps become a coaching hub for beauty and brains too? The new Miss World India holds a Business Management degree. The Tata Group’s Ratan Tata is the most influential person in Nandini’s life. International Actor and Miss World 2000, Priyanka Chopra is one beauty queen who inspires Nandini the most.

Kota Doriya is a fabric famous for its quality manufactured in the region. And the new Miss India wants to help the artisans by promoting it on a national and international level. Time to get our quota of Kota?

Melange

In other news, India became the most populous country in the World with a head count of 1.428 billion, about 17.8% of the World’s Population. Quickly behind is China with 1.425 billion.

Meanwhile, a debate is underway in the India’s Supreme Court on same-sex marriages.

In India’s Jammu & Kashmir, five Indian soldiers were martyred when a vehicle in which they were travelling was fired upon by terrorists in the Poonch area, on Thursday. The unidentified attackers took advantage of heavy rains and low visibility, and the army truck probably caught fire due to a grenade attack. I’m sure, India will give a befitting reply in time to come.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, trigger-happy Russia accidentally bombed one of its own cities-the city of Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border. A Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter-jet was involved in the ‘special operation’. Maybe Russia itself is an accident over the past year(s)?

More cat-walking stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Make-up and stay beautiful with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-15

About-the world this week, 9 April to 15 April 2023; licking tongues; the taste of India; a Farm explosion and fire in the United States; Cyclone Ilsa; Casino Japan; Covid-19 in India; an encounter killing; an underwater metro tunnel; and the DMK Files.

Everywhere

The Gods must be crazy. This week, Buddhism’s 87 years old spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama was caught in the act of asking a young boy to suck his tongue. During an event in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in permanent exile, a boy asks His Holiness whether he can hug him. He then invites the boy on stage and asks him to first kiss him on the cheek. The boy goes on to hug and a kiss the Dalai Lama at which point it gets adventurous. The Dalai Lama then points to his lips and asks the boy to kiss him there too, and pulls the boy’s chin and kisses him on the mouth. And in, what could be called, a climax, he pokes his tongue out asking the boy to suck it.

The Dalai Lama has since apologised and the timid explanation offered was that he often teases people he meets, in innocent and playful ways, even in public, and before dangerous, hungry, ‘licking’ cameras.

In India’s ever-evolving dance of democracy, the State of Karnataka is swinging into Election mode and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its first list of 189 candidates with 52 brand-new faces. By the end of the week, the ‘old faces’ started dropping off the Party -a typical act in these parts-and licking up mouthful offers from other parties.

Meanwhile, parochial forces were singing their best tunes trying to milk votes, arguing that local products – Nandhini Milk -should prevail over national, or from another state – Amul, the taste of India. I love Amul and have been ‘utterly, butterly, deliciously, devouring it – along with their delicious, cheeky advertisements-ever since I first set my tongue on to it. And the lick of Amul is available all over India.

This week an explosion and fire at the South Fork Dairy near Dimmitt, Texas, United States (US), killed 18,000 cows. Situated about 113 kilometres (km) southwest of Amarillo, in Castro County, the Farm is in a vast grassland country, dotted with dairy farms and cattle ranches. About 19,000 cattle were at the farm when the explosion happened. This is the deadliest barn blaze for cattle in Texas history and in the US. And the investigation into the reasons is underway.

Numerous cows-a mix of Holstein and Jersey-were crammed together in the holding pens, waiting to be milked, and hence stuck in dangerous conditions as the fire quickly spread across them.

Overheated equipment is likely to have caused the fire. The fire might have started with a machine called a ‘honey badger’, which consists of a vacuum system that sucks the manure and water out. It could have got overheated and probably the methane and other flammable things nearby ignited, spread out with the explosion and the fire.

Nature is always at work down under, and this week Australia braced for and faced its most powerful Category 5 cyclone- Cyclone Ilsa– in 8 years, which set a new preliminary Australian 10-minute sustained windspeed record of 218 km per hour at Bedout Island, about 40 km offshore.

Ilsa brought with it, wind gusts up to nearly 315 km per hour. The last Category 5 storm to cross the Australian Coast was Cyclone Marcia in 2015. Another one, Cyclone Veronica, passed by in 2019 but with nothing more than a backward glance and did not cross Australia’s Pilbara coast.

Ilsa was downgraded to Category 3, after it crossed the coast. However, warning was issued that the system could still pack gusts of up to about 200 km per hour. The storm made landfall early Friday morning with the highest intensity rating on a 1-to-5 scale and then moved inland. Port Hedland, the world’s biggest iron ore export point, was closed on Thursday, and port authorities began clearing berths as the cyclone gathered pace over the Indian Ocean.

Casino Japan: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Government in Japan approved controversial plans to build the country’s first gambling resort. The complex will open in the western city of Osaka in 2029.

Casinos have long been illegal in Japan. But a law was passed in 2018 providing exceptions to games, such as poker or baccarat, to create jobs and boost tourism.

Public opinion has been split, with some concerned about a rise in crime and gambling addiction.

Besides the casino the abundant complex includes a hotel, conference centre, shopping mall, and a museum. And hopes to sell Japan’s charms to the world.

In the United States a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested this Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in connection with the leaking of classified national defense information. The suspect, 21 year old Jack Teixeira, is believed to be the leader of an online chat group where the classified documents were posted.

Teixeira’s official job is a Cyber Transport Systems journeyman in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Air National Guard, tasked with making sure the service’s vast, global communications network is operating correctly. The documents included detailed intelligence assessments of allies and adversaries alike, including on the state of the war in Ukraine.

The job of the Air National Guard is very sensitive and vital. They fly the drones that conduct Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance missions in support of the Air Force and warfighters on the ground in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and in support of special operations teams who may be sent anywhere on classified missions. That means that units need access to a broad amount of intelligence collection and analysis because they may be operating in multiple theatres against multiple threats. Their other mission is cyber intelligence collection and that is even broader in terms of scope.

It’s back in the news in India, and forgotten counting and score-keeping skills are doing the rounds again. Covid-19 cases in the current week measured 34,901 cases compared to 1,377 cases 15 weeks ago. Health Experts says the pandemic is moving to the endemic stage and there is no cause for worry. The State of Kerala is a topper, followed by Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana and Tamil Nadu. A lineage of the Omicron virus called XBB.1.1.6 is being the current rapid spike in infections.

In India’s once dacoit-infested, lawless State of Uttar Pradesh dreaded gangster-turned- Politician Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed, wanted in a murder case was gunned down by the Police, in an encounter in Jhansi on Thursday. A co-accused was also taken down.

The Police believe Asad Ahmed had planned to free his father by attacking a police convoy carrying the jailed father, Atiq Ahmed, en route from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj, for a Court hearing. This could have led to him being chanced upon in Jhansi and subsequently gunned down in an encounter. The police, acting on intelligence inputs, had sanitised the route from Ahmedabad to Prayagraj.

Opposition parties were quick to cry foul on the booming ‘encounter culture’ where criminals are shot down during the ‘sketchy process’ of ‘re-catching’ them while attempting to make a break-out from police custody.

It was a historic moment for India when its first underwater tunnel metro route completed its maiden run.

In the State of West Bengal, the Kolkata metro’s newest line, set to open to the public in November 2023, passes underneath the Hooghly River in the city’s northeast, with the tunnel 32 meters below the water. The line will connect the soon-to-open metro station of Howrah Maidan and the existing station of Esplanade on the opposite side of the river, traveling 520 meters in just 45 seconds. Once open, Howrah Maidan will be the deepest metro station in India. This is a revolutionary step in providing a modern transport system to the people of Kolkata and suburbs – said a Metro Official.

Flowers, breaking of coconuts and a round of cheers were part of the celebrations following the inaugural test run . To bless the new tunnel and train, officials conducted ‘traditional puja – as per Hindu traditions – to bring good luck, after the train successfully pulled into the station at Howrah Maidan.

Towards the end of the week, on Tamil New Year’s Day, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Annamalai released what he called the DMK files accusing many top leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party of owning questionable and sizeable assets. He also levelled corruption charges against the present Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu, alleging that he had accepted a bribe of INR 200 crore from an American firm in 2011, to secure a contract for the first phase of the Chennai Metro Project. The CM in question was the deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu between May 2009 and May 2011, when his late father was Chief Minister.

The DMK rules the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, coming to power in the year 2021-after 10 years in the wilderness-winning the Assembly elections with a majority of its own.

Annamalai claimed that the assets listed in Part One of the ‘DMK files’, worth nearly Rs 1.34 lakh crore, are owned by 12 DMK individuals including the CM’s son, his son-in-law, sister, state ministers and Members of Parliament. Twenty seven DMK Leaders alone have assets of over 2 lakh crore, which amounts to 10% of the GDP of Tamil Nadu.

The DMK, on its part, was quick to retort, calling the release a joke. Wonder who will have the last laugh!

More blazing and corruption-free stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay the course with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-14

About-the world this week, 2 April to 8 April 2023. Dance moves of the world: Finland gets a new Prime Minister; NASA announces its team to the Moon; the dance of hush money; the rocket dance in Israel; and a classical dance in India’s Tamil Nadu.

Everywhere

The Dancing is Over: A New PM for Finland

The world’s youngest woman leader, Prime Minister (PM) of Finland, Sanna Marin, 37, lost her job in the just concluded Elections. She had bursted on to the political stage in 2019 heading a coalition of five parties, all led by women.

Finnish conservative ‘National Coalition Party’ Leader, Petteri Orpo won a nail-biting three-way election race, defeating Sanna Marin’s Centre-Left ‘Social Democratic Party’. Orpo secured 20.8% of the vote, ahead of the right-wing populist ‘Finns Party’s’ record of 20.1%, and Sanna Marin’s 19.9%. It was a bitter defeat for Marin, who however increased the count of her party’s seats.

Sanna Marin enjoyed high poll ratings and has been widely praised for steering Finland towards imminent entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and navigating her country through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite such successes, including a mature response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the election was largely fought on Finland’s economy and public debt, as all the mainstream parties backed the NATO membership.

Many Finns saw Marin as a polarising figure. She came under heavy scrutiny last year when a video emerged of her singing, dancing, and drinking at a party. Supporters said the controversy was steeped in sexism and women across Finland and the world shared videos of themselves dancing in solidarity.

Petteri Orpo, by contrast, has none of Sanna Marin’s ‘rock-star’ dancing qualities but hopes to make moves that get noticed in Finland… and the world.

Finland officially became NATO’s 31st member this Tuesday. And was warmly welcomed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when Finland’s flag was raised alongside those of the 30 other nations in the alliance, during a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Finland’s has been the fastest accession process in the Treaty’s history.

Finland has historically maintained a position of neutrality in the face of its often complicated relations with Russia. NATO would now rise to Finland’s defence should it come under attack from Russia or any other Country.

The Moon Dance: NASA

The United States (US) space agency NASA has named the four astronauts who will take humans back to the Moon, after a gap of 50 years. This would be the Artemis-2 mission, which follows the successful ‘test Mission’ of Artemis-I. And, will in turn be followed by the Artemis-3 mission: the first landing of the new era, which is not expected to occur until at least 12 months after Artemis-2.

Christina Koch will become the first woman astronaut ever assigned to a lunar mission, while Victor Glover will be the first African-American astronaut. They will join Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen to fly a capsule around the Moon late next year or in early 2025. The astronauts will not be landing on the Moon, but their mission will pave the way for a touchdown by a subsequent crew.

Reid Wiseman, 47, is a US Navy pilot who served for a time as the head of NASA’s astronaut office. He’s flown one previous space mission, to the International Space Station in 2015.

Victor Glover, 46, is a US Navy test pilot. He joined Nasa in 2013 and made his first spaceflight in 2020. He was the first African-American to stay on the Space Station for an extended period of six months.

Christina Koch, 44, is an electrical engineer. She holds the record for the longest continuous time in space by a woman-328 days. With NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, she participated in the first all-female spacewalk in October 2019.

Jeremy Hansen, 47, was a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force before joining the Canadian Space Agency. He has yet to fly in space.

Wiseman will be the commander; Glover will be his pilot; Koch and Hansen will act as the supporting ‘mission specialists’.

The four of them are essentially repeating the 1968 Apollo-8 mission, which was the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon.

The last human spaceflight mission to the Moon was Apollo-17 in December 1972. The first Moon landing was Apollo-11, in 1969.

NASA has outsourced development of the system capable of taking astronauts down to the lunar surface to Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. Called Starship, the vehicle is due to start flight testing in the next few weeks.

The Moon never got closer!

Hush Money Dance: Arrest of an Ex-President

This week, former US President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities in Manhattan after a grand jury indicted him for his role in a USD 130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

He arrived with his legal team and an 11-vehicle motorcade surrounded by Secret Service. Officials fingerprinted the former president, but did not handcuff him.

One poll found that nearly all Democrats approve of the indictment, whereas 79% of Republicans disapprove. But it also found that a majority of Americans believe the indictment was motivated by politics. That’s about the same everywhere?

On The Same Dance Stage: Israel

This week, Israeli Police raided the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem when several hundred Palestinians remained in the mosque after Ramadan prayers on Tuesday night. Israeli police tried to clear them peacefully, but a small group refused to leave. Police moved in after ‘several law-breaking youth and masked agitators’ brought fireworks, sticks, and stones and barricaded themselves inside the mosque. Many were injured and dozens arrested.

Following the raid, tensions flared-up in the highly sensitive and brittle region of the Middle East.

In the biggest attack since 2006 when Israel fought a war with the Hezbollah movement, rockets were launched from Southern Lebanon into Israel. Out of about 34 rockets, 25 were intercepted by Israeli Air defence systems. Israel was quick to pin responsibility on the terrorist organisation, Hamas, and responded in equal measure conducting air raids on Hamas positions in Lebanon and the Gaza. And the never-ending story continues to dance.

Indian Classical Dance: Kalakshetra

This week, and simmering over the past many weeks is sexual harassment allegations in India’s Kalakshetra Foundation – recognised and declared an ‘Institute of National Importance’, by the Government of India in 1994.

Kalakshetra Foundation, formerly ‘Kalakshetra’ is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in Bharatanatyam dance-the classical dance form of Tamil Nadu- and Gandharvaveda music.

Kalakshetra was founded in January 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale and her husband George Arundale in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It now operates out of a campus in Chennai’s Besant Nagar area, close to the sea shore.

The Institute aims to train and encourage young artists and to revive Bharatanatyam and other ancient arts and crafts. The Institutes under Kalakshetra are, the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts, the Rukmini Devi Museum, Koothambalam (Kalakshetra theatre) and the Craft Education and Research Centre (including the weaving department, the Kalamkari natural dye printing and the painting unit).

The institution achieved national and international recognition for its unique style and perfectionism. Having studied the Pandanallur style for three years, in 1936 Rukmini Devi Arundale started working on developing her own, Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam, noted for its angular, straight, ballet-like kinesthetics. She introduced group performances and staged various Bharatanatyam-based ballets.

Rukimini Devi Arundale was a theosophist, dancer and choreographer of Bharatanatyam, besides being an animal welfare activist, in a side hustle.

Beginning in December 2022, allegations of sexual abuse on the campus began to surface after a former director wrote a social media post accusing a teacher of harassing and molesting students, but hadn’t specified names. In the following months, over a hundred students of Kalakshetra’s Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts accused senior faculty members of sexual harassment. The accusations spanned a number of years.

The accused was exonerated following an internal investigation, and Kalakshetra issued a gag order preventing students and staff from discussing the allegations. Then the National Commission for Women began investigating, but closed the investigation shortly, after a victim denied any sexual harassment during an enquiry. In end March 2023 the students began protests against the inaction of the Kalakshetra authorities, by walking out of a routine morning prayer when one of the accused walked in. The Government of Tamil Nadu has stepped-in and an investigation is dancing the rounds, hoping to come up with solutions.

The culture of Classical Institutes of this kind makes it extremely difficult to find wrong-doers and punish them due to the ingrained ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’ (Teacher-Disciple tradition) in Indian Classical Dances, Arts, and Craft.

The system of Guru-Shishya Parampara traces its roots back to 5000 BC and has been an inseparable part of the ancient Indian civilisation relating to the relationship between a teacher and his disciple. A key feature of this system was that the students were required to stay at the Gurukul (the teacher’s residence) until their shiksha (education) was completed. The Guru’s words and actions are unchallenged in a tacit understanding. This assumes that the Guru is honourable and lives up to high standards of his position and leads by example. Now, somewhere fault lines have appeared, and in the arts, life moves in circles resulting in Gurus and Shishyas bumping into one another all the time. Institutes ought to wake-up to providing a safe environment for students to learn and grow fearlessly.

This week, The Padma Awards one of the highest civilian honours of India- announced annually on the eve of Republic Day-was presented to the Awardees by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. Over the past years the awards have become more inclusive bringing to the surface and recognising real heroes at the grassroots level. It has focussed on work done by people rather than on identities. And I’ll bring the inspiring stories.

More classic stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Dance with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-13

About-the world this week, 26 March to 1 April 2023: Israel erupts, America continues shooting, an ex-American President is indicted, Scotland gets a new First Minister, a local Party in India gets somewhat whole; and plants talking to each other.

Everywhere

Israel saw unprecedented protests and civil unrest ignited by the Government’s plan to bring in judicial reforms, which aims to rein in the powers of an ‘interventionist judiciary’.

The most significant reform would allow a simple majority in the Israeli Parliament, Knesset, to overturn Supreme Court rulings; to change the way judges are selected, and remove government ministries’ independent legal advisers, whose opinions are binding.

This week, Israel’s Defence Minister was promptly sacked when he said that the Government should stop going-ahead with the new legislation and talk to the opposition and protestors: he was fired for not backing the new law. The President of Israel also called upon Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government to halt the judicial overhaul.

Early this week, embattled PM Netanyahu finally buckled and announced that he would delay the judicial reforms plan, after protests seemed to be only swelling and getting out of hand.

Netanyahu said he would put-off voting on the remaining legislation until after the Knesset’s Passover recess in April 2023 ‘to give time for a real chance for a real debate’. In a televised address, Netanyahu said that he was aware of the tensions and is listening to the people. But he indicated that the pause was only temporary, and insisted that the overhaul was necessary, reiterating criticism of refusal to train or serve in the military in protest at the planned changes. “Refusing is the end of our country,” Netanyahu said. Israel rests in peace for the moment.

Israeli historian, philosopher, and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari, of ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ fame, feels that Netanyahu may go down in history as the man who destroyed Israel. He added that the PM has divided the country to preserve his political longevity, which has caused rifts that will be difficult to heal. Hope Netanyahu is listening to this one of the Homo Sapiens.

Six people, including three children, were killed in a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which just cannot keep its paws off ‘em guns. It’s 129 mass shootings in the past three months and a distinctive American phenomenon. A frightening count says that America also has more guns than it has people!

The Covenant School in Nashville, where the incident took place, is a private Christian school for students in pre-school through the sixth grade, when students are roughly 11 or 12 years old. Nashville police engaged and killed the shooter, a 28 year old woman, Audrey Hale, who was carrying two ‘assault-type’ rifles and a handgun. She is a Nashville resident and was once a student at the school. The motive is unclear and is being investigated. Initial pointers indicate that Audrey had some resentment to having to go to the Covenant School; had a history of mental struggles; and the shooting was planned as a kind of suicidal mission.

This week former United States (US) President Donald Trump was indicted – charged with felony crimes – by a Manhattan Grand Jury in his role of payment of hush money to a porn star. His arrest is imminent. And when it happens, the unprecedented arrest of a former President of the US is likely to be routine with standard procedures for felony offences followed, such as being fingerprinted, photographed, and maybe, even handcuffed.

Donald Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in the indictment from the Grand Jury – the first time in American history that a current or former President has faced criminal charges. The decision has sent shockwaves across the country, pushing the American political system-which has never seen one of its ex-leaders confronted with criminal charges, let alone while running again for President – into uncharted waters.

The incident pertains to Trump’s role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter – it was consensual sex – with Trump in 2006, the year after he married his third wife Melania. And more than a decade before the businessman-turned-politician-at the time known for a popular reality TV show – became President. Trump has denied the relationship and has said the payment was made to stop false and extortionist accusations.

Stormy Daniels, 44, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has been a well-known personality for more than two decades in the adult film business, appearing in and directing numerous videos.

In October 2016, in the waning days before the presidential election that Trump won, Daniels signed a non-disclosure agreement in which she pledged not to publicly discuss her relationship with him in exchange for a USD 130,000 payment. The pact was signed by Keith Davidson, her lawyer at the time, and Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer. The document included a spot for Trump’s signature, but he never signed it.

On expected lines, Trump released a statement in response to the indictment claiming it was ‘Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.’ We heard similar sounds from someone, of India’s Grand Old Party, didn’t we?

Russian President Vladimir Putin took another step in complicating the attack on Ukraine announcing last weekend that Russia would be deploying tactical nuclear weapons in the territory of a ‘very friendly’ neighbour, Belarus, ruled by his long-time buddy Alexander Lukashenko, also the longest-sitting European President.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it was seeking an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the move.

In February this year, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, 52 who was also the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) quit both positions in a ‘Jacinda Ardern’ moment. This after over eight years of ‘ruling’ Scotland and trying to get its ‘independence’ from the United Kingdom.

This week, Humza Yousaf was confirmed as Scotland’s new First Minister after a vote in the Scottish Parliament. Yousaf was backed by all 64 SNP Members of the Parliament and the 7 of the Scottish Greens, guaranteeing him a majority. The two parties having a power-sharing agreement in the 129 seat Parliament.

Humza Yousaf, a son of Pakistani-Kenyan immigrants, is the country’s sixth first minister, the youngest at 37, and the first Muslim to lead a major UK party.

Following the vote, Yousaf announced Shona Robison – who has been serving as the social justice secretary and was a close ally of Sturgeon – would be appointed as his Deputy First Minister. He also confirmed he would have a ‘Minister for Independence’ in his government, a role he pledged to create during the leadership campaign.

UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was looking forward to meeting and working together with Yousaf, but the UK Government has already made clear it will continue to refuse to grant formal consent for another independence referendum.

India saw the week filled with protests by Opposition parties over the disqualification of the Congress Party’s, Member of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi following his conviction in a defamation case by the Courts. Quick on the heels was a notice from Parliament to vacate his spacious bungalow. Last heard, he was hunting for a House while his Party continued setting a bad precedent by ‘challenging the judiciary’.

In India’s Tamil Nadu state, the more than the year-long tussle between ‘Two Joint Leaders’ of a once powerful Party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founded by yesteryear film superstar M G Ramachandran (MGR) and later skilfully steered by his protege Jayalalithaa, was finally resolved. At least, for the time being.

Following the untimely death of Jayalalithaa – fondly called Amma – due to illness, while in office both as the General Secretary (the Supremo) of the AIADMK the top position fell vacant. A minister in the cabinet, Edappadi K Palanisamy (EPS) became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, in some smart moves and did a reasonably good job, for the remaining term – over two years. He bypassed the favourite, O Panneerselvam (OPS) who was himself CM twice when he filled-in for the time Jayalalithaa was convicted by Courts and had to quit office under the Rules. Basically, OPS kept the Boss’ seat warm.

High drama followed the passing of Amma when her close friend and confidante Sasikala almost became CM, but a court conviction of corruption sent her packing to jail.

Then for over the past 4 years, EPS & OPS jointly steered the AIADMK dedicating the position of General Secretary to Amma, as ‘eternal’, until the ‘friends with benefits’ turned sour and EPS became tired of the dual-headed control. All the more after the AIADMK lost at the hustings and bitter rival, the DMK, came to power.

The Two Leaves, symbol of the party, began wilting – under stress. After a series of Court cases, clashes between the widening factions, and Court appeals and re-appeal, EPS was finally announced as elected unopposed and the undisputed General Secretary of the AIADMK. Hope to see the two leaves listen to the party cadres and bloom especially with the Lotus (symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party) having gained lots of water and land in Tamil Nadu.

EPS announced that said the party would continue its alliance with the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections in the year 2024, after rumblings from the BJP about ‘going it alone’. Then there is OPS – a leaf cut off from the stem. Tomorrow is another Day!

Please Yourself

An Israeli research team, Tel Aviv U, has in groundbreaking research, recorded plants ‘talking’ for the first time.

It has been known for some time that plants communicate with one another, but Israeli scientists now say they have identified ‘words’ and have found that different species speak in different ‘languages’, according to a new study published this week in the prestigious Scientific Journal, Cell.

Scientists know that plants communicate in a variety of ways when they are stressed. They might change physically -by wilting or changing leaf colour, become bitter to the taste -to deter herbivores- or emit smells -volatile organic compounds-to tell other members of the family that they are under attack, for example by insects.

It turns out that plants talk in clicks, which sounds something like popcorn popping. The sounds are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of humans.

The findings suggest that the world is full of plant sounds and that these sounds contain information — for example about water scarcity or injury. It is assumed that in nature the sounds emitted by plants are detected by creatures nearby, such as bats, rodents, various insects, and possibly also other plants that can hear the high frequencies and derive relevant information.

Perhaps humans can also utilize this information, given the right tools — such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering.

The research team recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants that had been deprived of water, suffered a cut to the stem, or have been left alone. Time for new vocabulary building

More plant stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Listen to the clicks and stay with World Inthavaaram.