Category: World News

News stories from around the World, with focus on my home country India, presented with wit and pun.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-14

About: the world this week, 31 March 2024 to 6 April 2024: Israel fights; Turkey spins; Taiwan Shakes; Finland shoots; Scotland speaks; India dances; and the Oldest Man in the World leaves.

Everywhere

Israel Fights

No country in the World would like to be in the situation Israel is in today. 130 of its people are being held hostage for over 180 days by the terrorist Hamas following the savage barbarism of 7 October 2023, with no end in sight, of their release. The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, to outgun Hamas, and to find and bring home the hostages is only getting deadlier – on the scale of destruction and death of people. At home, Israelis are demonstrating that the Government is not doing enough to rescue their loved ones; abroad people are demonstrating for a cease-fire, so that the people of Gaza can get food, supplies, and medical aid. What about the hostages? Releasing them is the sanest solution to this madness.

This week, Israeli forces left the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after a two-week intensive operation by its special forces. They left behind a wasteland of destroyed buildings, wrecked infrastructure of the facility, with rubble and dead bodies strewn all over. Hundreds of suspected Palestinian militants were detained and terrorists flushed out – as claimed by Israel. Documents recovered by Israeli forces showed the hospital was used as a base to control the northern section of the Gaza Strip, which has largely been destroyed since the start of the ground invasion in October. The Hospital had been turned into a major operating centre by the Palestinian armed groups – Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

In summary, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. In the 7th October attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 253 people hostage. Israel has lost 257 soldiers in the combat, with the Israeli military publishing the names of those killed in action in the Gaza War.

Then during the week the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) accidentally killed seven foreign aid workers, including a dual US/Canadian citizen, three Britons as well as team members from Poland and Australia, and their Palestinian driver. They were travelling with a convoy that had just unloaded more than 100 tonnes of food aid brought from overseas, working for the aid charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK). Israel’s military voiced ‘sincere sorrow’ over the incident, which ratcheted up international pressure for steps to ease the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In another attack elsewhere, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed a ‘building next to Iran’s Consulate’ in Syria killing the Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy at an Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria – reviving fears of a wider regional conflagration, and setting a dangerous precedent in targeting diplomatic premises.

By the end of the week the United States of America literally threw Israel under the bus, asking it to work on a ceasefire-fire and make a ‘measurable’ plan for ensuring that aid workers and civilians are not harmed in any way.

One thing is sure, by the end of the Israel-Hamas war, Israel would be the masters of ‘Urban Warfare’ given their precise fighting methods; using high-end technology, and keeping loss of civilian life to the barest minimum – a fact not given the respect it truly deserves.

Turkey Spins

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has been having a fairly untrammelled run of his presidency, over almost two decades. That looks to be in jeopardy when this week Turks dealt President Erdogan and his party their biggest electoral blow in a nationwide local vote. It reasserted the opposition – Republican Peoples Party (CHP)-as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the President’s chief rival, being re-elected as Mayor by a landslide 51% votes. In capital Ankara, CHP candidate Mansur Yavas, were re-elected by yet another landslide of 60%.

It marked the worst defeat for Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) in all their years in power, and could signal a change in the country’s divided political landscape. Erdogan called it a ‘turning point’. He and the AKP fared worse than opinion polls predicted due to soaring inflation, dissatisfied Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal beyond the CHP’s secular base, analysts said.

Taiwan Shakes

This week, Taiwan was struck by a 7.4 magnitude Earthquake, rocking the whole island and causing several buildings to collapse. The city of Hualien, nearest the epicentre of the earthquake, on the east coast of Taiwan sustained significant damages. Nine people died, more than 900 were injured and about 50 went missing.

The quake hit at a depth of 15.5 km just as people were headed for work and school, setting off a tsunami warning for Southern Japan and the Philippines, that was later lifted.

A magnitude about 7 is considered a major earthquake. And this is Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in at least 25 years.

Finland Shoots

After the long Easter weekend, children had just returned to classes at Viertola School in Vantaa, outside Helsinki, Finland. The school has 800 students from 1 to 9 grade in ages ranging from 7 to 16. Then, in a 6th grade classroom, a 12-year-old boy, of the school, suddenly opened fire with a handgun, killing one and wounding two others. He fled the scene, by walk, but was later caught by the police. The suspect had a gun licensed to a close relative. Police were quick to arrive at the scene and took charge of the situation. Investigations by the Police revealed that the boy said he was a target of bullying, which was the motive for the attack.

In Finland, children over 15 can obtain licenses to use other people’s firearms. In 2008, an 18-year-old student shot dead six students, the school nurse, and his head teacher in the small town of Jokela; and the following year, another student shot dead nine students and a teacher with a semi-automatic rifle at a polytechnic in the western town of Kauhajoki.

Finland is widely known a country of hunters and gun enthusiasts and has 430,000 license gun owners in a population of about 5.6 million. There is no limit to the number of guns one can own.

Scotland Speaks – No Hate

This week a new law against hate speech came into force in Scotland, United Kingdom. The legislation was passed by Scottish Parliament three years ago but was delayed by wrangling over its implementation.

The law makes it an offence to stir up hatred with threatening or abusive behaviour, on the basis of characteristics including, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity. The maximum sentence is seven years in prison.

Critics ague that the new Law will have a chilling effect on free speech making people afraid to express their views. ‘Harry Potter’ Author J K Rowling slammed the new Law calling it ‘ludicrous’. The rights of trans women should not come at the expense of those who are born biologically female. “Biological sex is not included as a protected characteristic in the Law despite women bing one of the most abused cohorts in our society”, she wrote in a newspaper article.

India Dances – Democracy

The great India summer, with its blistering heat, in ruling this time of the year, in the backdrop of the Festival of Democracy being celebrated across the country. In the run-up to General Elections -the world’s largest electoral exercise -beginning on 19 April and ending on 1 June 2024, the campaigning is on a high-pitch. Opinion polls have improved their scores to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) giving it almost 400 Members of Parliament (MPs – along with partners) out of a possible 543, in a third consecutive win. The BJP’s slogan for the coming election is ‘Abki baar, 400 paar’ (this time, above 400). Recall the BJP’s own tally is 303 in the outgoing Parliament – the 17th Lok Sabha – and with Allies it is 350.

In contrast, the opposition is fragmented, harried by central investigating agencies – suddenly catching-up on their crimes. And seems unable to stitch together a coherent narrative on key issues like unemployment, electoral bonds and farmers’ discontent, which could put the Government on the mat.

Late in the week the Congress, which has a hopeless chance of returning to power, released its Election Manifesto, which was described as only capable of doing two things: one, break India on caste lines; and two, bankrupt India on freebies.

The Southern States of India, which send 130 MPs are the laggards in joining the BJP’s dance party, but new winds seem to be blowing strongly, especially in the State of Tamil Nadu. The BJP’s State President, K Annamalai, 39, an Engineer, a former Indian Police Service Officer, and an Indian Institute of Management graduate is creating waves with his blunt straight talk and aggressive posturing. People find him relatable and are coalescing around him, for a change from the parochial control of the regional Dravidian Parties.

In New Delhi, the Chief Minister of the Union Territory, Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested after failing to appear for 9 summons by the Enforcement Directorate, and thrown into jail for being complicit in a liquor scam. He joins two other Leaders of his own Party – one is a Deputy Chief Minister- already languishing in jail for almost a year on money laundering charges. He is doing his best to rule from Jail while his wife, wearing a sombre look on national television, is trying to make him appear like a freedom fighter, while the Law looks on. In India, heat is generated from multiple sources and in Indian Politics the wife has a right-of-way once the hubby heads to jail. Then a remote-control begins working from behind bars. Call it the ring and dance of Indian democracy?

World’s Oldest Man Quits

This week, on 4 April, the world’s oldest man, Juan Vicente Perez Mora, of Venezuela, died aged 114 – two months before what would have been his 115th birthday.

Guinness World Records (GWR) confirmed stating: “After living through both World Wars, seeing the invention of Television, and witnessing the landing of a man on the moon, Juan Vicente also survived Covid-19 in 2020.” GWR had awarded Perez Mora the title of the Oldest Man, on 4 February 2022, when he was 112 years and 253 days. This after the previous oldest man, Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia died weeks earlier.

Perez Mora was born on 27 May 1909 in Venezuela, to Euquitio Perez and Edelmira Mora and was living in the Sate of Tachira – bordering Colombia – when he died. He had 11 children-six sons and five daughters– with his wife Ediofina del Rosario Garcia. They were married for 60 years until her death in 1997. He has 42 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren.

The next oldest man living is expected to be 112-year-old Gisaburo Sonobe of Japan, pending confirmation of his birth-date before the title can be awarded, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Mora credited his longevity to, ‘working hard, resting on holidays, going to bed early, drinking a glass of aguardiente (a distilled alcoholic beverage that contains 29-60% alcohol and made from sugarcane -common in South America) every day, loving God, and always carrying him in his heart’.

GWR’s Editor-in-Chief had this to say: “It’s been an honour to recognise and celebrate the incredible long life of Venezuela’s first ever fully authenticated supercentenarian man. Not only was Sr Perez Mora his country’s oldest citizen and the first South American recognised by GWR as the oldest living man, he is now history’s fourth-oldest male whose age has been officially ratified.” He added, “How remarkable to think that we’ve just said goodbye to a man born before Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel!”

More solid stories coming in the weeks ahead. Live long with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-13

About: the world this week, 24 March 2024 to 30 March 2024: Terror in Russia; the UN finds the ceasefire button; a bridge collapses in Baltimore; the golden boy of crypto heads to jail; and Miss Universe Saudi Arabia.

Everywhere

Last week on Friday night, about 6,200 people had gathered inside the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s Krasnogorsk suburb to listen to a rock concert by veteran Soviet-era band Picnic. Then, all of a sudden, four men strode across the concourse and opened fire on the public, before re-arming and entering the hall. Crowds of people began screaming and running in panic as the gunmen burst in, began firing indiscriminately inside the auditorium, and set it alight. Many took cover behind their seats. At least 133 people were killed and more than 140 injured. Later, the dead toll rose to 139, with 182 people wounded. This is the deadliest attack inside Russia, in two decades. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the gruesome act.

President Vladimir Putin pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack. And the next day, Russia arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out the shooting. The four men of Tajik origin were remanded in custody on terrorism charges at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court. Three others, also of Tajik origin, were remanded in custody on suspicion of complicity. “We know that the crime was carried out by the hand of radical Islamists with an ideology that the Muslim world has fought for centuries,” Putin said. He did not directly mention the Islamic State, and repeated his previous assertion that the assailants had been trying to flee to Ukraine, saying there were ‘many questions’ to be examined. He tried his best, though unsuccessfully, to link the terror act to Ukraine.

Later in the week, adopting a belligerent tone, Putin said that Russia has no designs on any NATO country. And will not attack Poland, the Baltic states, or the Czech Republic, but if the West supplies F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine, then they will be shot down by Russian forces.

This week, for the first time, after many failed attempts, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages. Votes in favour were 14, none against, and the United States (US)abstained. Israel stood-up to its stand that the 7 October barbarism of Hamas has not been condemned by the Security Council. On its part, the US seemed to find a fence to sit on – probably the effect of the upcoming Presidential Elections. Israel then offered a deal for a ceasefire linked to release of hostages and swapping of Palestinian prisoners, which was rejected by Hamas. And the stalemate continues, with an attack on Rafah, in Southern Gaza, imminent. How does the UN Resolution get implemented?

This week, a 289 metre long Singapore-flagged Container Vessel, Dali, heading out of Baltimore Harbour in the US, ploughed into a support pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, over the mouth of the Patapsco River, causing the Bridge to collapse. The Vessel was fully-loaded and bound for Sri Lanka, A trestled section of the 2.6 km span almost immediately crumpled into the icy water, sending vehicles and people into the river. The ship reported a power failure before impact, and had radioed for tugboat help, which enabled officials to stop traffic on the bridge before the collapse. On experiencing a momentary loss of propulsion, Dali had immediately dropped anchors as part of emergency procedures.

Six workers were missing and presumed dead, forcing the closure of one of the busiest ports on the US Eastern Seaboard. All 22 crew members aboard the vessel were accounted for. With dive teams facing increasingly treacherous conditions in the darkened, wreckage-strewn waters, active search-and-rescue operations were suspended about 18 hours after the accident. However, later on Wednesday, divers recovered the remains of two of the six workers missing since the crumbling bridge tossed them into the water.

The Baltimore bridge serves as the main thoroughfare for motorists driving between New York and Washington seeking to avoid downtown Baltimore. It is one of three ways to cross the harbour, with a traffic volume of 31,000 vehicles per day. Experts say that the Scott Key Bridge built in 1976, as a traffic artery over the Harbour, lacked structural engineering redundancies common to newer spans, making it more vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse.

Besides impacts on auto shipments, the closure of Baltimore Port could force shippers to divert Baltimore-bound cargo from containers to bulk material. It could create bottlenecks and increase delays and costs on the Eastern seaboard. The economic fallout could be staggering. The Port handles more automobile and farm equipment freight than any other in the country, as well as container freight and bulk goods ranging from sugar to coal. The US Transportation Department said the 8,000 jobs are ‘directly associated’ with port operations, which generate USD 2 million a day in wages. Still, economists and logistics experts doubted the port closure would trigger a major US supply chain crisis or significant spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the East Coast. The collapse has created a traffic quagmire as well for Baltimore and the surrounding region.

The Baltimore Bridge disaster could be the worst US bridge collapse since 2007, when the I-35W bridge (Bridge 9340) in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. The I-35W Bridge was not hit by a container ship, but experienced a catastrophic failure during the evening rush hour due to a design flaw in the bridge.

The Baltimore Vessel, Dali, has some history, being involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal. Old habits die hard?

Estimates on rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge could be anywhere from 18 months to several years, while the cost could be at least USD 400 million, or twice as much.

This week, a US Court Judge sentenced crypto’s former golden boy, Sam Bankman-Fried, (SBF) to 25 years in prison for defrauding investors. A jury found SBF guilty last year of stealing over USD 8 billion from FTX – Futures Exchange cryptocurrency, founded by SBF – customers to pay for his other crypto company, Alameda Research. Sam Bankman’s sentencing is far shorter than the 40 to 50 years prosecutors asked for. Still, this marks an end to one of the largest fraud cases in US history…for now. SBF plans to appeal, but said, “at the end of the day, my useful life is probably over now”.

This marked the culmination of the former billionaire wonder-kid’s dramatic downfall from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor, to the biggest trophy, to date, in a crackdown by US Authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, Sam Bankman-Fried rode a boom in the values of Bitcoin and other digital assets to a net worth of USD 26 billion, according to Forbes magazine, before he turned 30.

SBF became known for his mop of unkempt curly hair and commitment to a movement called ‘effective altruism’, which encourages talented young people to focus on earning money and giving it away to worthy causes. He was one of the biggest contributors to Democratic candidates and causes, before the 2022 US Midterm elections. SBF also donated to Republicans through ‘straw’ donors to hide his involvement.

The judge called SBF’s efforts to present himself as a ‘good guy’ an act, adding, ‘the goal was power and influence’. SBF has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since August 2023, when the Judge revoked his bail after finding he likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. The Judge said he would recommend Sam Bankman-Fried be sent to a prison close to San Francisco.

In a historic first, Saudi Arabia is sending a 27-years-old model and social media influencer Rumy al-Qahtani to participate in the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant to be held in Mexico this September. This is a pathbreaking step and the conservative, ‘fully covered’, Kingdom moves towards opening-up on more reforms of women’s rights. It was indeed a revelation to see photos of the model in a strapless sequinned gown. I would say Saudi Arabia is exporting raw ‘desert heat’.

Rumy al-Qahtani is only the second woman from the Gulf region to participate in the pageant, following in the footsteps of Miss Universe Bahrain, Lujane Yacoub, who took part in the event in 2023.

Qahtani is a beauty pageant veteran who actively shares her journey with her over one million followers. She was crowned Miss Saudi Arabia in 2021 and also won the Miss Middle East and Miss Arab World Peace titles. She has a degree in dentistry and speaks fluent Arabic, French, and English. And she surely has those hot looks!

Over the past five years, woman’s rights have blossomed in Saudi Arabia: allowing them, to drive, to become ambassadors, bank directors, university administrators and even astronauts. Saudi Scientist Rayyanah Barnawi took part in a mission to the International Space Station in May last year.

In April 2018, women were allowed to attend a concert – the first gender mixed event; in June 2018, Saudi lifted the long-standing ban on women driving; in the same year Saudi relaxed the dress code for women, removing the mandate to wear the abaya – a long loose garment that usually has a black headscarf or niqab – in public. It also removed the discriminatory practice of firing women from their workplace for pregnancy. In 2019, a law was passed, that longer required women to get male permission to travel or obtain a passport. That’s a lot of beautiful things done to women!

Overall, Saudi Arabia is beginning to climb out of its abysmal record of protecting and promoting women’s rights. But, looking at stories across the world, sometimes you wonder whether many other countries are becoming more Saudi Arabia, while Saudi Arabia itself is becoming less Saudi Arabia!

More stories will be un-covered in the weeks ahead. Stay beautiful and drive fearlessly with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-12

About: the world this week, 17 March 2024 to 23 March 2024: Israel still in Gaza; Russian Elections; Ireland’s PM resigns; Indonesia’s new President; India Elections announced; Princess of Wales; happy in Finland; Intermittent Fasting; and Pygmy Hippos.

Everywhere

Israeli Forces raided Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital early on Monday killing more than 80 terrorists, and ran into a stockpile of weapons. Israeli military’s soldiers and special forces conducted a ‘precise operation’ based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by senior Hamas leaders. And hospitals continue to be used by Hamas as hideouts and godowns for storage of military hardware. During the raid, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad and a Major Commander in al-Qassam of Hxmas were captured.

United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his globe-trotting efforts, especially to the Middle East, to bring the warring parties to hold fire. He told Qatar that they must give Hamas an ultimatum to either deliver on a hostage and ceasefire deal or expel their senior leaders stationed in Qatar. What took him so long?

Late this week, Russia and China vetoed a US resolution in the United Nations (UN), Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza tied to a hostage release deal.

This week, the world – Ukraine in particular – got more of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 71: another six years to keep doing whatever he is doing.

The Russian Election Results were out on Sunday and Putin won a landslide re-election in, what is said to be, a predetermined vote, with over 87% in his favour. He basked in a victory that was never in doubt, easily securing a fifth term after facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices. The outcome means Putin is set to embark on yet another term that will see him overtake Russian Dictator Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader, in more than 200 years – if he completes the term. Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky, fourth.

Putin then made a victory speech saying the results showed Russia had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine in, what he has all along been calling, a ‘special military operation’. And that the operation would strengthen Russia’s military. “We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated – no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us – nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future,” thundered Putin. He warned the West that a direct conflict between Russia and the United States led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War III, but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario.

The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other nations said the vote was neither free nor fair, due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship. Hard to bottle Russia?

Meanwhile, Poland and Germany announced that they are creating an ‘international armoured vehicle coalition’ for Ukraine. The United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden have said that they will join it too. Looks like Ukraine will get a new batch of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armoured personnel carriers, to keep-up the fighting.

This Wednesday, Indonesia’s Election Commission formally announced Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto as President-elect, having won 59% of the votes in last month’s Presidential Elections. He is a three-time Presidential candidate who finally made it. Outgoing President Joko Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka was the running mate and is set to become Vice-President.

In a shocking, unexpected turn of events, Ireland Prime Minister (PM) Leo Varadkar, 45, announced his resignation on ‘personal and political reasons, but mainly political reasons’. That’s another ‘New Zealand Jacintha Arden’ signature tune.

In a candid statement he said, “After 7 years in office I don’t feel I’m the best person for the job anymore”. He first resigned as President and leader of his Party, Fine Gael, with immediate effect. Leo Varadkar is of Indian origin and became Ireland’s youngest and first openly gay PM in 2017.

He will be remembered for his efforts to liberalise Ireland, easing the country’s strict anti-abortion laws. Varadkar had been grappling with several controversies. Early this month his government lost two referenda to change what it called ‘sexist’ language in the Constitution. He also faced severe backlash over Ireland’s housing crisis and soaring immigration numbers. In foreign affairs, Leo Varadkar was one of the harshest critics of Israel of any European Country. And Irish support for the Palestinians runs high.

Late last week on 16th Saturday, India’s Election Commission announced the schedule for the General Elections 2024 for electing 543 Members of Parliament to the Lower House of Parliament – Lok Sabha. It is a mammoth schedule, starting on 19th April and ending on 1st June, running in seven phases across the States of India. Counting of votes will be on 4 June 2024. Many States would be voting in a single phase whereas others would be having up to seven phases. Approximately 960 million, out of a population of 1.4 billion, are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.

India’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar rambled for about an hour before announcing the schedule, which immediately kicked-off the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) – a set of guidelines issued to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. Among other things, the Code bars the government, at the State and Centre, from announcing new policy decisions, new projects or schemes that can influence voters. The MCC also states that political parties must also avoid advertising at the expense of the public exchequer or using official mass media for publicity on achievements to improve their chances of victory in the elections.

Opinion Polls give the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government lead by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third term, with over 350 seats. While the BJP has confidently set itself a target of 400 plus, to make path-breaking changes.

In the United Kingdom, it’s a royal mess over the ‘Missing Princess of Wales’ with ‘Kate-spiracies’ and the wildest possible rumours exploding on the Internet and conspiracy theories flourishing. Kate Middleton has long been a magnet for unproven rumours, and it’s only getting better!

Finally toward the end of the week the Princess announced that she is suffering from cancer and in the early stages of a course of preventive chemotherapy. The diagnosis was a huge shock. The Royal Family has rallied around her.

Kate was last seen on Christmas. ‘Di another day?’

Finland remains the happiest Country in the world for the 7th straight year. And is quickly followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway. India was ranked 126. This, according to a United Nations sponsored World Happiness Report. Afghanistan rightfully stays at the bottom. It was an awful surprise to see countries such as Pakistan, Ukraine, ‘State of Palestine’, Myanmar, above India making one wonder about ‘what and who’ is speaking here!

The findings showed that younger generations are happier than older peers. Happiness ranking is based on individuals’ self assessed evaluation as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. A close connection to nature and a healthy work-life balance were key contributors to happiness.

Intermittent fasting has grown in popularity over the years, thanks in part to celebrities. But there’s bad news.

New research by the American Heart Association says people who restrict their eating to an eight-hour window could be 91% more likely to die from a cardiovascular disease. Still, the researchers said more work needs to be done to understand why restricted eating can lead to cardiovascular disease. Intermittent fasting, a diet pattern that involves alternating between periods of fasting and eating, can lower blood pressure and help some people lose weight, past research has indicated.

But an analysis presented this Monday at the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions in Chicago challenges the notion that intermittent fasting is good for heart health. Instead, researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China found that people who restricted food consumption to less than eight hours per day had a 91% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease over a median period of eight years, relative to people who ate across 12 to 16 hours. It’s some of the first research investigating the association between time-restricted eating (a type of intermittent fasting) and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. The analysis — which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal — is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between 2003 and 2018. The researchers analysed responses from around 20,000 adults who recorded what they ate for at least two days, then looked at who had died from cardiovascular disease after a median follow-up period of eight years.

A rare and endangered Pygmy Hippopotamus has been born in Athens’ Attica Zoological Park for the first time in 10 years, delighting conservationists. This was on 19 February. A lack of male pygmy hippos in captivity had complicated breeding efforts, so zoo staff were ‘absolutely thrilled’ the baby was a boy. “This is the first birth in the zoo in 2024, and what a birth. Every captive birth of pygmy hippos is extremely important. We’re very happy to see this baby grow into a healthy adult hippo, and hopefully one day reproduce,” said a Zoo Official.

Pygmy hippos are native to swamps and rainforests in western Africa, mainly confined to Liberia, with small numbers in the neighbouring countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast. They are listed as an endangered species and it is estimated only about 2,000 to 2,500 are still live in the wild. Weighing 7 kilograms the male calf – whose name will go to a vote – joins his parents Lizzie and Jamal as the only pygmy hippos at the zoo. The hippo, solitary and nocturnal by nature, will remain with its mother for a couple of months until it ventures into the outdoors enclosure.

At first glance, the pygmy hippopotamus looks like a mini version of its larger relative, the hippopotamus-also known as the river or common hippopotamus. But it differs in behaviour and physical characteristics. A common hippo typically weighs about 10 times as much as a pygmy hippo. The pygmy hippo has adaptations for spending time in water, but is much less aquatic than the hippo. Its nose and ears close underwater just like a hippo’s do, but its head is rounder and narrower, its neck is proportionally longer, and its eyes are not on the top of its head. The pygmy hippo’s feet are less webbed and its toes more free than those of the hippo, and its legs are longer. Its teeth are also different: it only has one pair of incisors, while the hippo has two or three. The top layer of a pygmy hippo’s greenish-black skin is smooth and thin to help it stay cool in the humid rainforest. However, the thin skin could cause the hippo to dehydrate quickly in the sun, so its skin oozes out a pink fluid that looks like beads of sweat and gives the hippo a shiny, or wet, appearance. This fluid, called blood sweat, helps to protect a pygmy hippo’s sensitive skin from sunburn. Wish we humans had built-in sunscreen. And pink is cool!

The pygmy hippo eluded Western science until 1840. Even today, little is known of its habits in the native habitat. Although they are able to make noises—from a low grunt to a high-pitched squeak—pygmy hippos are usually silent. Body language is important in hippo culture. Signs of submission include lying prone and urinating while slowly wagging the tail. If alarmed, the hippo releases its breath with a loud huff. A pygmy hippo calf can nurse from its mother on land or underwater. And Whales are the closest living relatives to hippos. That’s company!

More hippo-ish stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Live on land and underwater with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-11

About: the world this week, 10 March 2024 to 16 March 2024: Israel in the Gaza; Germany’s strikes; Nigeria’s ransom; India’s heat & dust; SpaceX, and Kairos; Japan on same-sex marriage; Miss World 2024; and Oscars 2024.

Everywhere

Israeli has said that it would press forward with its military campaign into Rafah, southern Gaza, amid rising international pressure. An ever-growing chorus of voices is calling for Israel not to enter Rafah, one of the last standing safe areas, where 1.5 million people have bundled themselves to shelter from the ongoing war. “We will finish the job in Rafah, while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm’s way,” roared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With over 130 hostages still held captive by Hamas, there are hardly any other options left for Israel. And the solution -from the Hamas side- is, simply release the hostages.

The highly industrialised country of Germany is facing one of its most challenging times, with strikes on several fronts: train drivers and airport workers walked off the job, causing chaos for millions of travellers and adding to the country’s economic woes at a time of a looming recession.

This week, the German Trade Union, Verdi, called a near-nationwide public transport strike for the second time this month, raising pressure on employers in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Train drivers began a fifth round of strikes in a long-running dispute, after a walkout in the cargo division started this Wednesday.

The strikes are the latest in a wave of industrial actions to hit Germany, where high inflation and staff bottlenecks have soured wage negotiations in key parts of the transport sector, including national rail, air travel, and public transport. Industry has warned about the costs of such strikes, after Europe’s largest economy contracted by 0.3% in 2023 and the government warned of a weaker-than-expected recovery. Just sample this, ‘a one-day nationwide rail strike costs around 100 million Euros in economic output’.

Gunmen who kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in northern Nigeria last week have demanded a total of USD 620,432 for their release. The school children, some older students, and members of the school staff were abducted on 7th March in the town of Kuriga, northwestern Kaduna State. They gave an ultimatum to pay the ransom within 20 days, effective from the date of the kidnap, and that they will kill all the students and the staff if the ransom demand is not met.

In India the week generated a lot of heat & dust over the Government notifying the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, which primarily speed-tracks citizenship of persecuted minorities in neighbouring countries. The Act excludes Muslims who are a majority in these nations. Muslims can anyway become citizens in the normal process.

Another heat & dust moment was the release of the names and amounts of the Electoral Bonds Scheme – declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court-released by the State Bank of India. Political parties were at each other’s throats on the funds received. In summary, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party with 303 Members of Parliament (MP) received INR 6,000 crore and the Opposition with 242 MPs received INR 14,000 crore!

This week, a SpaceX Starship rocket, launched on its third test flight from SpaceX’s spaceport, named Starbase, on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, United States, achieved multiple milestones – according to the Company – before likely breaking apart. The 120 metre rocket weighs about 5,000 tonnes when fully fuelled.

The deep-space rocket went through nearly an hour-long integrated flight test, for the first time flying around the globe, but contact was lost during the final stages of the test, just as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft was expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean, putting the gargantuan vehicle in a position to move on to more complex test flights and, eventually, carry NASA astronauts to the moon’s surface. But after re-entry, the team lost two key pieces of communication at the same time. The team then made the call that the ship has been lost, hence no splashdown.

SpaceX also never intended to recover Starship after this flight test. And the Starship spacecraft made it much farther into flight than during two previous tests in 2023. The company routinely frames failures during these early test flights as normal: the goal being to gather crucial data, so that engineers can go back and tinker with the Starship, improving it for future missions. SpaceX considers the Starship system crucial to its founding mission: to carry humans to Mars for the first time. And critically, NASA has chosen Starship as the landing vehicle that will ferry its astronauts to the lunar surface on the Artemis III Mission, slated to take off in September 2026.

In smaller space news, on 13th March, Kairosa rocket, made by a Japanese Company, Space One, exploded just seconds after its inaugural launch. It had blasted off from the Company’s Launch Pad, Spaceport Kii, in the Kii Peninsula on the island of Honshu, Wakayama region of western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. Space One was hoping to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit.

Kairos is a small, 18 metre long, solid-fuel three-stage and liquid propellent upper stage rocket. The name KAIROS means Kii-based Advanced & Instant Rocket System. The name also borrows from an Ancient Greek mythological concept of time, where Kairos means ‘chance’ or ‘opportune time’. Looks like this time, opportune time wasn’t on their side.

Japan is a relatively small player in the Space launches. And the setback for Space One and the rocket industry in Japan comes as the Government and investors ramp up support for the sector amid a national security buildup and skyrocketing demand for commercial satellites.

Tokyo-based Space One was established in July 2018 by a consortium of Japanese companies, the major ones being: Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, Shimizu Corporation, and the Development Bank of Japan.

“The rocket terminated the flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult” said Space One. It did not specify what triggered the self-destruction after the first-stage engine ignited – or when the company would launch the next Kairos – only pledging an investigation into the explosion.The company said that the launch is highly automated, requiring only about a dozen ground staff, and that the rocket self-destructs when it detects errors in its flight path, speed, or control system that could cause a crash that endangers people on the ground.

Continuing with Japan, a high court on Thursday said the country’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, ruling on a matter that has divided lower levels of the judiciary and put the conservative government at odds with shifting public opinion. Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven industrialised nations that doesn’t offer legal protection for same-sex unions. Rights groups say the omission is discriminatory and hurts its appeal as a global business centre. There is a growing risk that Japan will be left behind by international trends and excluded from being an option as a place to work; and whether Japan will become a society that accepts diversity.

Late last week, the World got a new Miss World. Besting 112 of her fellow titleholders from across the globe, Krystyna Pyszkova of the Czech Republic, a 23 years old law student and model, was crowned Miss World 2024. This year, the International pageant, the 71st, was held on Saturday in Mumbai, India.

Pyszkova replaces the outgoing Miss World, Karolina Bielawska, of Poland, whose reign dates to March 2022. The Miss World 2023 was not held due to scheduling issues. The three runners-up are: Yasmina Zeytoun of Lebanon, Ache Abrahams of Trinidad and Tobago, and Lesego Chombo of Botswana. India’s Sini Shetty, the winner of the Femina Miss India Title and India’s participant, bowed out after a top-eight finish.

Across a series of events during the preliminary competition, including fitness, beauty, talent, and public speaking, several contestants won ‘fast track’ places in the top 40, a cohort announced at the start of the show. Thereafter, the field was quickly slashed to top 12 and then top 8, at which point the contestants participated in the classic Question & Answer round, addressing topics discussed at the most recent G20 Summit. Asked to shed light on an issue impacting women’s health care specifically, Pyszkova spoke about removing the stigma and shame surrounding menstruation, saying that ‘being a woman is a gift’ and that periods should not be a taboo subject.

In the final, four contestants were left to ‘pitch their purpose’ – or philanthropic platform- to a trio of business moguls from ‘Shark Tank India’. Pyszkova pitched for making it a lifelong mission to providing quality education to unprivileged children, given that there are over 240 million children out of school, worldwide. A proper education would enable a child to realise his/her dream.

Shark Tank is as American Business Reality TV series which shows entrepreneurs making business presentations to a panel of five venture capitalists, called ‘sharks’, on the program, who decide whether to invest in their companies.

The 96th Academy Awards 2024, the Oscars, were announced this Sunday at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation, Hollywood, honouring movies released in the year 2023.

Host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the show by welcoming ‘these beautiful human actors’ in attendance after a hard year of strikes. He called out Academy members for not nominating Greta Gerwig for best director (Barbie), made a joke about Robert Downey Jr’s troubled (battle with drugs) history, calling the night ‘one of his highest points’, the length of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (a meaty run-time of 206 minutes) and Actor Bradley Cooper’s habit of taking his mother to Awards shows.

Later in the night, Kimmel read a Truth Social post from Donald Trump attacking his role as host and asking ABC to replace him. “Isn’t it past your jail time,” he joked.

Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer triumphed at the Oscars taking home seven awards including best picture, best actor, and best director.

The drama, telling the story of the ‘father of the atom bomb’, lost the box office battle to Barbie during last summer’s Barbenheimer showdown, but has now won the awards war with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie winning just one Oscar for best original song!

The ceremony brought back an old practice where a group of previous winners present acting Oscars, which allowed for actors such as Lupita Nyong’o, Sam Rockwell, Ben Kingsley, and Jennifer Lawrence to pay tribute to friends and co-workers.

Cillian Murphy was named best actor for his Oppenheimer performance beating out the likes of Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright. This is his first Oscar from his first nomination, is also the first ever Irish-born winner in his category. “I’m a little overwhelmed,” he said before dedicating his award “to the peacemakers everywhere”.

Robert Downey Jr was named best supporting actor, up against Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling. He won his first Oscar after being nominated twice before for ‘Chaplin’ and ‘Tropic Thunder’. “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order,” he said, before later adding: “I needed this job more than it needed me.”

Nolan picked up his first best director Oscar, after being nominated previously for Dunkirk, beating out Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Glazer. When speaking about cinema in his speech he said: “We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here but to know that you think I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.” The film also won for editing, cinematography, and score.

Actress Emma Stone pulled a surprise, beating out favourite Lily Gladstone to be named best actress for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ off-beat period comedy, ‘Poor Things’. It’s the actor’s second, best actress Oscar after previously winning for ‘La La Land’. “It’s not about me, it’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts,” she said during an emotional speech. But ‘poor thing’ she suffered a wardrobe malfunction when the back of her strapless Louis Vuitton Gown split open. And did not reveal any rich thing. Looking hard, behind this season, might well have become a nude Oscar ceremony!

Jonathan Glazer’s German and Polish-language Holocaust drama ‘The Zone of Interest’ was named best international feature, the first-ever British film to win in this category. The film also won for sound. It’s about a Nazi commandant and his wife who live with family in a home in the ‘Zone of Interest’ next to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in 70s-set comedy-drama ‘The Holdovers’ after winning every major precursor award on her way to the stage. “For so long, I’ve always wanted to be different and now I realise I just need to be myself,” a tearful Randolph said in her speech.

Barbie won just one award from its eight nominations, taking home the best original song Oscar for Billie Eilish’s, What Was I Made For? Eilish, winning with brother and collaborator Finneas, received a standing ovation earlier in the evening after performing the song on stage. The pair previously won for, ‘No Time to Die’.

Oscars 2024 ceremony took a wild turn when American Professional Wrestler and Actor, John Cena, walked on stage nude to present the Best Costume Award. Jimmy Kimmel introduced Cena as the presenter of the category, by hinting that he will appear nude on stage. However, Cena appeared hesitant to walk out with no clothes. Kimmel, tried to convince him and eventually forced him out of the wings to present the award. Cena covered his modesty with the envelop featuring the winner of Best Costume. After announcing the category, the presentation cut to the nominations. In the brief space, Kimmel draped him with a massive curtain. Relieved with the ‘cover-up’, Cena then presented the Best Costume award to ‘Poor Things’.

Beautiful stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Crown yourself with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-10

About: the world this week, 3 March 2024 to 9 March 2024: Airdropping; Abortion Rights; Kidnapping School Children; Indelible Election Ink; Possible Presidents; a Prime Minister; Gone Neutrality; Murder and Drugs; and sand Star Dunes.

Everywhere

Last week, the United States of America, probably under Home Election pressure, decided to airdrop food and other essential supplies into the Gaza. This in the backdrop of the United Nations (UN) saying that more than half a million people in the Gaza were one step away from famine. And airdropping seems to be the best choice given that delivery by trucks, on the ground ran into stampede problems or Hamas grabbing them easily. Israel acknowledged the plan, but sealed its lips. People in Gaza are eating animal feed and cactuses to survive, and children are dying in hospitals from malnutrition and dehydration. Experts say the measure is well-intentioned but unwise, and won’t solve the problem. And towards the end of the week, 5 people died, and many sustained injuries on being hit by the airdropped packages.

Meanwhile, hopes for a ceasefire ahead of the Muslim festival of Ramzan faltered. Israel demanded clear answers from Hamas on key issues as well as a list of the surviving Israeli hostages who could be released. Hamas says, “Practically, it is impossible to know who is still alive because of continuing Israeli bombing. They are in different areas with different groups. We have asked for a ceasefire to collect that data”. That’s a typical Catch-22 situation, but smirks of complete indifference to the plight of the over 130 hostages held in captivity for over 145 days, and ‘bargaining tool’.

Israel intends to push on with its offensive against Hamas, especially into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. On a completely different front, Israel announced new housing plans in the West Bank, expanding its settlements in the area, slowly dashing hopes of an independent Palestinian State.

In Nigeria gunmen kidnapped more than 200 school students in the northern town of Kuriga this Thursday, in the biggest mass abduction from a school since 2021. Kidnappings for ransom by armed men have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting daily lives and preventing thousands of children from attending school. The last major reported abduction involving school children was in July 2021 when gunmen took more than 150 students in a raid. The students were re-united months later with their families after they paid ransoms.

This Monday, France approved a historic bill, with 780 for and 72 against, to enshrine Abortion Rights permanently in the country’s Constitution, becoming the first country in the world to do so. France said, “the message we are sending to all women is, your body belongs to you and no-one can decide for you”. That’s indeed a powerful and significant step in respecting a woman’s unalloyed right to her body.

India is gearing for the quinquennial Parliamentary Elections to the Lower House, Lok Sabha – Members of Parliament directly elected by the people- to be announced in the coming weeks. The General Elections are expected to be held during April-May 2024. The Party winning the majority of seats in Parliament forms the Government, with its designated Prime Minister, and has a term of 5 years to unleash its magic, if any.

When people vote at the allotted booths in their area, indelible ink is applied on the left forefinger of a person as proof that he or she has cast the vote. In case a voter has the left forefinger missing, the ink is applied to any other finger on the left hand. And there are rules, laid down by India’s Election Commission, for other conditions, including the extreme of having no hands at all. The indelible marking is also to prevent electoral fraud and double-voting.

Typically, the indelible ink stain stays on the skin for 72–96 hours, lasting 2 to 4 weeks on the fingernail and cuticle area. The ink makes a permanent mark on the cuticle area, which only disappears with the growth of the new nail. It can take up to 4 months for the stain to be replaced completely by new nail growth. Electoral ink stain typically contains a pigment for instant recognition, a silver nitrate, which stains the skin on exposure to ultraviolet light. This leaves a mark that is impossible to wash off and is only removed as external skin cells are replaced. Industry-standard electoral inks contain between 10% and 18% silver nitrate solution, depending on when the mark must be visible.

The indelible ink used in India’s elections is manufactured and supplied by only one Company, in the whole of India: Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (MPVL) working out of the State of Karnataka. The indelible ink used in India was first developed by the Council of Industrial Research-National Physical Laboratories (NPL), New Delhi in 1962, and has been used ever since.

It is estimated that India would require 26.55 Lakh vials of the marker, at a cost of INR 55 crore. One vial of 10 mg can be used for 700 voters. Each vial costs INR 174. MPVL says that 70% of the production is done and the remaining will be completed by 15 March 2024.

MPVL also exports the ink to Cambodia, Fiji Islands, Sierra Leone, and a host of countries are now lining up to order, to mark their voters.

Last heard, MPVL is working on a marker pen to replace the glass vials. That seems to be an easy and practical way of marking, and wonder what is taking them so long?

This week,Nikki Haley, a former Ambassador to the United Nations, decided to end her presidential campaign. A decision that will almost certainly ensure that Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination and once again faces Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 Presidential Elections. Haley called it quits after Super Tuesday as Biden and Trump swept to victory in respective statewide nominating contests across the country.

Trump is sailing into battle against Biden powered by anger over the two policy issues that have driven his comeback campaign so far: immigration, and the economy.

This week, Pakistan’s ‘elected’ Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif took oath as PM on 4th March – his second stint in Office. He assured his folks that he would not allow Pakistan to become part of some ‘great game’ and would maintain cordial relations with neighbours based on the principles of equality. India’s PM offered facilitations, and Indian folk are ‘equally’ watching what unfolds across the border.

This week Sweden dropped its decades – over 200 years – of cultivated Neutrality and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as its 32nd member, almost two years after first applying. Of course, the war in Ukraine prompted a security re-think and behold, there they are now ‘safely’ ensconced in NATO. Swedish PM, Ulf Kristerson, handed over the final documentation to the United States Govt, the last step in a drawn-out process to secure the backing of all members to join the military alliance.

Sweden’s famous neutrality dates to as far back as 1812 when they lost territory to Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. In the year 1834, King Karl XIV declared the country’s neutrality, urging other countries particularly Russia and Britain to respect Sweden’s wish to stay out of their conflicts. They steadily kept up the neutrality during the two World Wars and the Cold War, but gradually, since 2009, entered in to mutual defence treaties with the European Union and other Nordic countries. That’s telling of our times, is it not? From neutrality to taking sides; from peace to war?

In India’s Union Territory of Puducherry, in the South, a nine-year old girl, Aarthi, a Class 5 student in the local Government School, was playing outside her house in Muthialpet, when she went missing on 2nd March. The parents, one of them a driver at the local Primary Health Centre promptly made a Police complaint, when the girl could not be traced after hours of searching. Two days later, a sack was found floating in a drain near their house. On hauling it out and opening, the Police found the girl dead, with hands and feet tied with ropes. Investigations revealed that she was kidnapped, raped and then murdered. Police were quick to nab four suspects, including three minors, and began their investigation.

When one of the accused, a 19-year old boy, Karunas, from the same area, was being interrogated when he suddenly took out a blade, that he had on him, and began cutting his arms and legs. His behaviour convinced the police that he was seriously into using drugs. He also confessed to the killing. The suspect had taken the girl to the terrace of his house and began to sexually harasses her. And was joined by a 56 year old man, Vivekanandan, who insisted that he would be the first to be upon her. And when both tried to rape her, the girl screamed. They beat her up heavily to silence her, resulting in her death. They then tied the girl’s hands and feet with ropes, put her in a sack, and dumped her into the nearby drain canal.

The horrific incident has shaken the soul of Puducherry. The Authorities promised to act on curbing the drug menace using the ‘proverbial iron hand’ and would look-in any lapses by the Police force.

This happened at a time with swirling news of multiple incidents of drug-busting by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the neighbouring State of Tamil Nadu was occupying the headlines, over the past weeks.

More than a week ago, a joint team of the NCB and the Delhi Police busted an international drugs trafficking network and arrested three persons, all from the State of Tamil Nadu. They seized 50 kg of pseudoephedrine – a narcotics making chemical – that was being sent to Australia and New Zealand by concealing it in mixed food powder and desiccated coconut. The trail led to the mastermind, a Chennai-based Film Producer, Jaffer Sadiq, who is also a leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Party which rules the State of Tamil Nadu. Since the incident, Jaffer Sadiq has gone absconding, and the DMK quickly threw him under the bus – suspended him from the party. Later, the NCB conducted searches at Jaffer Sadiq’s house in Chennai following information received from New Zealand customs authorities.

Soon many other stories of drug-busting in Tamil Nadu broke to the surface, and suddenly it became a minefield of them out there. Investigations are underway to throw light on the dark state of the now-visible drug-menace in the State.

They are among the wonders of the deserts of the world: star dunes, the vaguely pyramid-shaped sand formations up to about 300 meters tall with arms stretching out from a central peak to give them a star-like appearance when viewed from above.

This week, Scientists, unveiled the first in-depth study of a star dune, revealing the internal structure and showing how long it took for one of them to form – more quickly than expected, but still a process unfolding over many centuries.

The study focused upon a star dune in eastern Morocco called Lala Lallia, meaning ‘highest sacred point’ in the local Berber language. It is situated within the Sahara Desert in a small sand sea called Erg Chebbi about 5 km from the town of Merzouga, close to the border with Algeria.

Lala Lallia rises about 100 metres above the surrounding dunes and is approximately 700 meters wide, containing about five and a half million metric tons of sand. The researchers used ground-penetrating radar to peer inside the dune and employed luminescence dating to determine how long Lala Lallia has taken to form, a method based on the amount of energy trapped inside the grains of sand. The answer: about 900 years, accumulating roughly 6,400 metric tons annually as wind relentlessly blows sand through the desert. They also determined that Lala Lallia is moving westerly at a speed of 0.5 meters annually.

Star dunes make up just under 10% of the dunes in Earth’s deserts and are the tallest ones, surpassing other types such as crescent-shaped barchan dunes and straight and lengthy linear dunes. They also have been spotted on Mars and on Saturn’s large moon Titan. Star dunes are formed in areas with complex wind regimes, which means winds blowing from different directions, and net sand accumulation, points within the desert where big piles of sand can be blown around to form giant dunes.

While many star dunes are known today, only a single ancient one has been found preserved as sandstone in a geological record, dating to about 250 million years ago, in Scotland, United Kingdom.

Earth’s largest star dunes are found in the Badain Jaran desert in western China. Star dunes are also found in places including the Namib Sand Sea in Namibia, large sand seas in Algeria such as the Grand Erg Oriental and Grand Erg Occidental, and Rub’ al Khali in Saudi Arabia. In North America, Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado contains a series of them.

“They form extraordinary and awe-inspiring landscapes. From the ground they can be intimidating, mobile mountains of sand”, said a Scientist.

More sand stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay star-struck with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-9

About: the world this week, 25 February 2024 to 2 March 2024; The United Nations; Gaza and Israel; Russia and nuclear weapons; Sandeshkhali arrests; Moon Landing; India’s Astronauts; India’s Economy; a Princess in distress; and Japan’s Naked Festival.

Everywhere

In a moment of reckoning, United Nations(UN) Chief Antonio Guterres deplored how the UN Security Council had failed to respond adequately to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying the conflicts had ‘perhaps fatally’ undermined its authority. And of course, the disastrous operations of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), in the Gaza Strip, being complicit with the terrorist Hamas, runs in our minds.

Guterres said the UN Security Council often found itself, “unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues of our time”. Asked if the Security Council could eventually be considered ‘brain dead’ Guterres quipped, “If the Security Council one day shows that it is incapable of doing anything, then it will be very close to this medical condition.” That’s the best loud-thinking one can hear all week! The UN is certainly in need of a complete overhaul. Wonder, who’s going to do it?

This week there was a stampede in Gaza when dozens of people were trampled to death or run-over when aid trucks had arrived for distribution of food and supplies. There are conflicting reports on what exactly happened. Hamas says that Israeli forces shot and killed at least 100 Palestinians during the rush to get food; Israel says it fired warning shots to try to break up the crowd, which was getting out of control. And the firing caused trucks to leave in panic.

Over the past few weeks, getting aid into Gaza has become increasingly difficult in the midst of the ongoing war, with a complete breakdown in public order. The UN says the Gaza population is close to famine and there are reports of people eating animal feed and grass to survive. But this latest incident may have even bigger consequences. And Gaza is on a deadline. Israel has said that if Hamas does not release the remaining 130 hostages by 10th March, which marks the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, it will begin its ground offensive in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Russia’s relations with the Western World, since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the year 1962. President Vladimir Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning, this week, was one of his most explicit.

Putin warned Western countries that there was a genuine risk of nuclear war if they send their own troops to fight in Ukraine, and he said Russia had the weapons to strike targets in the West. In Russia signs of opposition, to Putin’s regime, still flicker despite the state machinery working round the clock to snuff out the slightest dissent over the invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, the death in detention of opposition leader, Alexi Navalny. This week, Russia Authorities finally handed over Alexi Navalny’s body to his parents and he was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow. His wife Yulia and their two children, who live in exile in the United States, did not attend on fears of being detained.

Sheikh Shahjahan, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader accused of turning Sandeshkhali in India’s West Bengal State into a hellhole of torture, land grab, and sexual exploitation, was finally arrested this week by the State police. He was on the run for over 55 days and was nabbed from a house around 30 km from Sandeshkhali, which is around 85 km from State Capital of Kolkata. A court sent him to 10 days in police custody. Shahjahan ‘dressed for the occasion’ walked to the courtroom with policemen behind him, escorting him like he was a VIP, waving to reporters gathered. Celebrations erupted in Sandeshkhali as the news of Shahjahan’s arrest broke, with residents distributing sweets. The TMC suspended Shahjahan for six years, but his body-language, the arrogance, and nonchalance spoke many things, all at once – a criminal controlling the system.

This week, India developed a swag in its stride, running on the double, to achieve its goal of becoming one of the largest economies in the World. The October to December 2023 GDP growth figures revealed a terrific 8.4%, beating all estimates. India’s growing economy is best amplified by Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, as recounted by my favourite news person, Minhaz Merchant.

“The Indian Economy, It’s just looking like a Wow. This dynamism and energy of a young country and an ancient civilisation that has found its voice and footing. There is a palpable sense that the country is on the move. India is awash with optimism, pride, and anticipation. This anticipation stems from our country’s accelerated high-growth trajectory”. I think India’s time has come.

Last Thursday, a spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon’s surface near its South Pole, becoming the first in more than half a century and the first ever by the US private sector. NASA had several research instruments aboard the vehicle. And is well into achieving its goal of sending a squad of commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts to the Moon, later this decade.

Earlier, on 15 February 2024, the Odysseus– nicknamed Odie – lunar lander was launched into space, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The rocket fired Odie into Earth’s orbit and after burning through its fuel detached itself, leaving the lunar lander to fly solo through space. The robotic explorer then consulted an onboard map of the stars so it could orient itself in space, pointing its solar panels toward the sun’s rays to charge its batteries. Odie then went into an oval-shaped path around Earth, and after about 18 hours into spaceflight, ignited its motors, for the first time, to continue a fast-paced trip toward the lunar surface. The moon then gave Odie a gentle gravitational tug as the spacecraft approached, pulling the vehicle towards its cratered surface. The six-legged Odie made a nail-biting touchdown on 22 February in what was called a ‘white-knuckle touchdown’, meaning ‘alive and well’ but resting on its side instead of fully upright.

Human-error led to a failure of the spacecraft’s laser-based range finders, but engineers detected the glitch, by chance, hours before landing time, and improvised an emergency fix that saved the mission from a probable crash. But initial communications problems following the landing raised questions about whether the vehicle may have been left impaired or obstructed in some way.

The spacecraft was not designed to provide live video of the landing, which came one day after it reached lunar orbit and a week after its launch from Florida. It also took some time after an anticipated radio blackout to re-establish communications with the spacecraft and determine its fate. When contact was finally renewed, the signal was faint, confirming that the lander had touched down but leaving mission control immediately uncertain as to the precise condition and orientation of the vehicle. Odie could have broken a leg on landing too fast, and tipped-over: details are awaited.

Continuing with the space theme, this week, India named four astronauts to travel to space as part of the India’s first manned spaceflight mission in Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan. They are Test Pilots, Group Captains, Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. The astronauts are already undergoing rigorous training. And the next step would be a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching them into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters.

India’s ambitious space plans, quickly brought back memories of Rakesh Sharma who made history, becoming the first Indian to travel to Space. In April 1984, he along with two Soviet Union cosmonauts flew the Soviet Spacecraft Soyuz T-11, which docked and transferred the three member crew to the Salyut 7 Orbital Station. Sharma spent about 7 days aboard Salyut 7 during which time he conducted scientific and technical studies with the team, practiced Yoga, and had a conversation with the then Prime Minister of India. The journey to space and back lasted about 21 days.

What’s going on with the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton? England’s Royal Family at Kensington Palace said that the Princess is recovering from a successful, planned abdominal surgery, but the meme-makers of the internet aren’t fully convinced. Kensington Palace previously announced on 17th January that Kate Middleton had undergone surgery and would be returning home after a hospital stay, adding that she wanted to keep her medical details private. It was said that she would likely not be able to return to public duties until after Easter. But the fact that she apparently hasn’t even been spotted by British tabloids since Christmas Day 2023 has concerned certain corners of the internet. But, the Royals know how to keep a secret!

For over 1250 years Japan has been celebrating the Hadaka Matsuri, or the ‘Naked Festival’ at the Konomiya Shrine, in central Japan. It’s always been a men’s only festival and this year, for the first time ever, women have been allowed to join. Turns out that there was never a ban on women participating; no one asked; and this time when someone asked, they were allowed, why not?

The ‘naked festival’ has been celebrated by men in an attempt to drive away evil spirits, before praying for happiness at the shrine. The men make a big scramble, rushing to the shrine yelling, “Washoi! Washoi!” – let’s go, let’s go! And clamber over one another to touch the Shin Otoko, or the ‘male deity’ – a man chosen by the shrine. Touching him, as the tradition goes, is meant to drive evil spirits away. However, in the scrabble, women are not allowed.

Hold on… ‘naked men’ and with women participating, ‘naked women’ too? Here, naked is defined as men wearing nothing but the traditional Japanese loin cloth. And the women wear ‘happi coats’ – long, purple robes – and white shorts, while carrying their own bamboo trunk offerings. They stand in two parallel lines and carry the long bamboo sticks wrapped in intertwined red and white ribbons, encouraging their men to make the naked dash!

Japan has one of the fastest ageing populations on Earth. Last year, for the first time, it was found that more than one in 10 people were aged 80 or older. Meanwhile, its birth rate stands at just 1.3 per woman, with only 800,000 babies born last year.

Hope Japan’s population woes are heard by Shin Otoko, and the men are driven to be be productive. Meanwhile, “Washoi Washoi,” the women too, join in the shout.

More naked and clothed stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Washoi Washoi with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-8

About: the world this week, 18 February 2024 to 24 February 2024; Israel in Rafah; Gone Alexei Navalny; Pakistan Government combine; Sandeshkhali; Indian Cricket – Ashwin and Jaiswal; Indian Women’s Badminton -Anmol.

Everywhere

Israel is preparing to mount a ground invasion of Rafah – the last place of relative safety – in Southern Gaza. It hopes to significantly damage Hamas’ remaining capabilities by continuing its full-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip, and making it safe for start of the ground operation. And rescue of 130 hostages.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that, as a contingency move, Egypt is preparing, an area at the Gaza border, which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier.

Israel has served an ultimatum to Hamas to release all hostages before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to avert an attack on Rafah. That’s about five weeks away.

This week, the United Nations (UN) Security Council failed to adopt a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East. The United States vetoed calls for an immediate ceasefire. Amid intense fighting, the UN says, people in Gaza face starvation, disease, and death as the humanitarian situation nears total collapse.

The situation is grim but then, all that is required is for Hamas to release all the hostages – held since 7 October 2023 – which should bring the war to an end.

On the other war, this week marks the second year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two years have passed since Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The military stalemate between the countries appears to be continuing without any end in sight. And the mind-boggling, unimaginable hardship of people of Ukraine continues.

Late last week, in Russia, Alexei Navalny, 47, former lawyer and President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, fell unconscious and died after a walk at the ‘Polar Wolf’ Arctic Penal Colony where he was serving a 19 year prison sentence. The icy ICK-3 Prison in the Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets, 2000 kilometres from Moscow is where Navalny spent the last few weeks of his life.

The death of Navalny robs the Russian opposition of its most prominent leader as Putin prepares for an election, which would keep him in power until at least the year 2030.

Last year, a Russian court convicted Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism, handing him a sentence of 19 years in prison. Navalny was at that time already serving a 9 year jail term, on varieties of charges, that he says were politically motivated. The extremism charges are related to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction and his third and longest prison term – all of which his supporters say are a deliberate Russian strategy to silence Navalny.

Alexi Navalny rose to prominence as a fierce critic of President Putin more than a decade ago. He documented and publicly spoke about what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the ‘crooks and thieves’ running Russia. He skilfully combined the use of social media with traditional campaigning, political organising and personal charisma to build a network of offices, and a political media machine. Subsequently, his movement was outlawed, members arrested, and most of his team now lives, in exile, in Europe.

Navalny earned admiration from Russia’s Opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent. Navalny said he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020, which Russia denies. Navalny was also physically attacked at least two times: a suspected poisoning attempt when he was in jail in 2019, and an assault in 2017 in which a green liquid was thrown in his face that nearly blinded him. Despite the harsh prison conditions he maintained a presence online and his team continued to publish investigations into Russia’s corrupt elite, from exile.

In Moscow, at a memorial to the victims of Russia’s political repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters, some people laid roses and carnations.

One note read: “Alexei Navalny – we remember you.”

People were warned not to take part in any mass meetings in Moscow. Supporters arranged meetings to honour Navalny in London, Paris, Oslo, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Geneva, Prague, Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Vilnius.

Navalny is married to Yulia Abrosimova, and had two children, daughter Darya and son Zakhar. His last word to his wife Yulia on Valentine’s Day was, “Baby, you and I have everything, just like in the song: cities, airfield lights, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometres between us. But I feel that you are near me every second, and I love you more and more”- A popular Soviet-era tune.

Yulia has vowed to carry-on the fight against Putin’s Russia. “In killing Alexei, Putin has killed half of me. Half of my heart and half of my soul. But there is another half of me, and it tells me that I have no right to give in. I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work, I will continue the struggle for our country,” she said.

After weeks of wrangling, Pakistan’s two dynastic parties, the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have reached a power-sharing agreement. Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, will be Prime Minister – he carries on with the job – and Asif Ali Zardari – he returns to the job, he once held – the husband of assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto will be President. All this, while another former PM Imran Khan cools his heels in jail, and whose Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) backed independents won the majority of seats but were unable to cobble together a Government.

If elections in Pakistan are a step forward, what transpires during the elections and after the results are declared, is often many steps backward. With the same kind of people getting together in various permutations and combinations, Pakistan does not seem to be moving in the right direction at all.

Over the past week, the word Sandeshkhali was on the lips of most of India. Sandeshkhali is a village in the Sundarbans, North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal State. Why is it in the news?

Sandeshkhali has been on the edge and ‘boiling’ over allegations of harassment and sexual exploitation by local Trinamool Congress (TMC) Party – the ruling Party in West Bengal – leaders, especially a TMC leader called Shahjahan Sheik. He was seen to be wielding great power, popularity, and influence in the village, even more than the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) or the Member of Parliament (MP), or even the Police, of the area.

The ‘can of worms’ began emerging last month, when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reached Shahjahan’s residence to interrogate him in connection with a probe into a Ration scam. A mob that had gathered at the place thrashed and chased away the ED Officials following which Shahjahan absconded – going into hiding. Using the ‘breakthrough opportunity’ villagers, especially women, of Sandeshkhali have found courage to speak out against the many horrific crimes of Shahjahan and his aides — Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar. The allegations are that women were sexually assaulted in Sandeshkhali, often at gun point, and his men had usurped their lands to set up prawn farms. And that tribal people were forcibly made to transfer their lands, by the TMC leader.

Women came out in the streets, in large numbers, saying, “In Sandeshkhali, TMC workers have been raping women for months now – Sheikh Shahjahan, Shibu Hajra, and Uttam Sardar are raping them. We had come to the Police peacefully with the demand to arrest them. If they do not arrest them in Sandeshkhali, how will the women in Sandeshkhali gain confidence?”

Shahjahan, also known as Bhai, has had an incredible journey. He started off in the year 1999 as a trekker driver, who doubled as a conductor at times, and also worked as a vegetable vendor at the local market. Not much is known of his family or his education. It was thanks to his uncle, Moslem Sheikh, a local Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader, that Shahjahan got a break in politics, getting himself elected as a Panchayat Pradhan. After Sheikh gave Shahjahan his first breakthrough, he started looking after the local fish trade.

Later in 2013 he switched his political affiliation, aligning with the ruling TMC. And built his own faction within the party, in which role he carried various tasks in the party hierarchy including, ‘doing all that is required’ to win elections.

As the years passed by Shahjahan accumulated wealth of untold proportions, such as three palatial houses. Allegations of land grabbing; collecting a cut from every fish trader in the area; forcing villagers to give up their wages and welfare payments; running an illegal cross-border trade, and the kind, are doing the rounds. Shahjahan’s rise to the top saw him embroiled in criminal cases with the police having registered several cases against him – from extortion to assault to even murder. In 2020, he was accused of double-murder of two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

The National Commission for Women (NCW), whose team visited the area, in a damning report, has highlighted widespread fear and systematic abuse in Sandeshkhali, implicating both police officers and the TMC.

Late last week, India’s cricket off-spinner Ashwin Ravichandran became only the second Indian bowler, after another Indian spinner, Anil Kumble (619 wickets) to take 500 Test wickets. This, when he got rid of England’s opening batsman, Zak Crawley, on the 2nd day of the third India-England Test Match at Rajkot, India.

In the 500 wicket league, Ashwin is the 9th bowler and 2nd fastest (98 Tests) to reach the milestone, behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan who did it in 87 Tests. Ashwin is also the third all-rounder and first Indian with 500 test wickets & 3,000 runs ‘under his cricket cap’.

In the game of cricket, records keep tumbling every time a match is played – at every turn of the ball and heave of the bat!

Then came along another star. This time in batting, in the same Rajkot Test.

Newcomer, 22 year old Yashasvi Jaiswal made an unbeaten, scintillating 214 runs (off 236 balls) along with Safaraz Khan’s unbeaten 68, in a 172-run fifth wicket partnership to take India to 430 for 4 wickets-declared. Chasing an improbable target of 557 England collapsed to 122 – All Out on day 4, due to a fiery spell of bowling by Ravindra Jadeja who took 5 wickets giving away only 41 runs. India leads the 5 match series, 2-1. Now some statistics.

Yashasvi Jaiswal became the first player to smash 22 sixes in a cricket test series – a hat-rick of sixes too. He becomes the first Indian to hit maximum sixes in a test innings and to get to his 3rd 150 runs in just seven Test Matches. He is the third youngest player to score two Test double-centuries behind Vinod Kambli and the great Don Bradman. He is the first Indian batsman (and third overall ) to convert his first 3 tons into 150 plus scores. He is the third Indian after Kambli and Virat Kholi to hit 200s in two successive tests…that’s a breathtaking list of records, already!

Jaiswal’s success story is amazing and truly inspirational.

The son of a small shop-keeper in Suriyawan, Bhadohi Village, Uttar Pradesh State, Yashasvi Jaiswal moved to Mumbai at the age of 10, on the advice of his seniors who detected his cricket talent. Jaiswal’s uncle put him up in a Dairy shop where he worked in the morning and was also allowed to stay. Unable to work in the evening, after cricket practice, the Owner kicked him out. Jaiswal then found shelter in Azad Maidan – a sports ground formerly known as Bombay Gymkhana Maidan, which has about 22 cricket pitches – in a Muslim United Sport Club Tent. Here it was a tremendous struggle, without bathroom facilities or electricity, and being forced to cook for others in the Tent. He used to sell pani puri outside Azad Maidan to earn money at night besides playing matches at the club. His life changed when Jwala Singh, a well-known local coach in Mumbai, found him and took responsibility for providing him with shelter, coaching, and mentoring.

Jaiswal’s fortunes looked-up when he was selected for the Under-19 World Cup in 2020, which was a turning-point. He dominated the Under-19 World Cup, smashing five 50s and finishing as the highest run-getter. He translated his World Cup success into an Indian Premier League (IPL) bid of INR 2.40 Crore, then thrived with 625 runs in 14 matches for the Rajasthan Royals.

“In India, when growing up you work hard for everything… I have done that since my childhood. And I know how important every innings is and that’s why I really work hard in the practice sessions”. Great wisdom on young shoulders!

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, Indian Women scaled a historic peak by winning the Badminton Asia Team Championship (BATC) with a 3-2 victory against Thailand in the final in Shah Alam. India’s ace player P V Sindhi gave a winning start to the team, but the teams played-on to tie at 2-2. Then, 17 year old teen shuttler Anmol Kharb clinched the deciding match for India with a 21-14, 21-9 convincing win over World No. 45, Pornpicha Choeikeewong. Anmol was on her first international tour and ranked 472 in the world. She displayed the proverbial nerves of steel and played like a seasoned campaigner. The rest, they say, is history.

Anmol Kharb is the 2023 Indian National Badminton Champion – Women’s Singles. She hails from Faridabad in Haryana State and initially played for the Dayanand Public School, Faridabad, before shifting bases to Noida at the Sunrise Shuttlers Academy under coach Kusumm Singh, a former national-level peer of Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal and Ashwini Ponnappa.

India is in safe ‘young hands’ – working awfully hard all the time.

More heart-warming success stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Leave your tent, work hard, play the game of your life, and stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-7

About: the world this week, 11 February 2024 to 17 February 2024; Israel rescues; Elections results in Pakistan, and Indonesia; India negotiates prisoners with Qatar; 1% of India’s farmers agitate; and India’s Electoral Bonds Scheme is struck down.

Everywhere

This week, Israel rescued two hostages in a deadly stealth operation in Rafah, Southern Gaza. This is the first successful rescue mission since the 7th October massacre of Israelis by Hamas Terrorists and should be a huge boost to Israel’s ‘lonely’, relentless efforts to bring home all the hostages kidnapped on that fateful day. There are about 130 of them still out there.

After Israeli intelligence identified a building in Rafah in which two hostages were held, Elite Commandos stormed a house and extracted the hostages after killing three terrorists guarding them. Within minutes, the Israeli Air Force carried out a massive air-strike providing cover for the hostages to be safely taken to an armoured vehicle and then onto a waiting military helicopter. The two Israeli hostages rescued were Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, who were ‘taken’ from Kibbutz, Nir Yitzhak.

Israel also discovered a baffling network of the ‘signature tune’ Hamas underground tunnels beneath the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which served as a command centre for the terrorists and also held the hostages. This is another damning find on the Hamas-complicit actions of UNRWA operating for decades in the Gaza Strip. Later, Israel promptly blew-up the Headquarters!

The final results of last week’s General Elections in Pakistan were out, amid reports of massive rigging and delays in counting of votes due to multiple reasons that’s possible only in Pakistan. The Election was dubbed as the most rigged (in favour of PML-N) election in the history of Pakistan. And the first reaction, to the outcome, is that this is something the Pakistan Army would not like at all.

Neither former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, nor the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, with 54 seats won enough seats to form a government on their own. Independent candidates backed by former PM Imran Khan represent the largest group, with 93 of the 264 parliamentary seats declared.

The results shocked many, who had expected the showing of Imran Khan’s supporters to be severely dampened by an intense crackdown on Imran Khan and his party. But Khan cannot become PM as he is in jail and his grouping cannot form a government as they nominally ran as independents as his party the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was barred from contesting the Elections. Analysts think the election results indicate voters’ protest against perceptions of the country’s powerful military’s involvement in politics, which, of course, the military denies. That adds to the political instability, given the military’s strong historic role in the security and foreign affairs of Pakistan.

“Pakistan has been on a slippery slope for some time but a mild one. The slope is now much stiffer,” said a South Asia expert. “The military will most likely be able to manage the situation for some time, but the political situation is likely to be less and less stable”.

Former PM Shehbaz Sharif-Nawaz Sharif’s brother-is likely to lead a coalition that is being stitched together, as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Now, on to another Election, this time in Indonesia.

Unofficial tallies in Indonesia’s Presidential Election show Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto taking a commanding lead. An official result is not expected until several weeks after the vote.

Prabowo Subianto, 72, is in pole position to be Indonesia’s next leader. He is a former special forces commander, and in recent times has cultivated the persona of a more charismatic statesman than the fiery, pious nationalist he earlier portrayed. He is from an elite Indonesian family and once the son-in-law of late Indonesian strongman dictator, President Suharto.

Subianto was dismissed from the military amid speculation of rights abuses, exiled in Jordan, and once banned from the United States over his alleged dark past. He is also accused of involvement in the kidnapping of student activists in 1998 and human rights abuses in Papua and East Timor.

Subianto lost in the previous two Presidential Elections to incumbent Joko Widodo who is hugely popular, but unable to run for a third term, in keeping with the ‘maximum two terms’ rule of the Constitution. In a patch-up, Subianto joined the government and has Joko Widodo’s tacit backing, with the President’s 36 years old son as his running mate and a possible Vice-President.

This week, Indian diplomacy was at its negotiating best when India convinced Qatar to release eight former Indian Navy personnel who were sentenced to death: seven returned to India this week and the remaining one is expected soon, after clearing certain legal formalities. The former navy personnel, working for a company in Qatar, were arrested on spying charges, and after a secret trial, handed the death sentence by a Court in Qatar. India then got the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment before pulling-of this stunning victory. And the process was lubricated by a special pardon by Qatar’s Ruler, Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

This week, India saw a bumper agitation by a section of its farmers, taking off from where they left the proceedings over two years ago.

There are about 9 crore farmers in India, of which about 10 lakh are in the State of Punjab. This, barely 1%, is a ‘disgruntled’ lot owning the best branded cars in the world and reaping every benefit offered by India’s Government (GOI), such a free-electricity, highly subsidised fertilisers, open-ended procurement of wheat and paddy, among other things: a pampered lot! Well that doesn’t seem to be enough. They want more, and this week they began protests.

Over 250 farmer associations from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh began a ‘Chalo Delhi’ march on their high-end cars, ‘fortified tractors’ and the kind, armed with a list of demands, raising tensions at Delhi borders. The GOI in turn set up riot control teams standing guard behind barricades on highways leading into the national capital, where police have prohibited large gatherings.

Farmer unions are seeking guarantees, backed by law, which they want the GOI to fulfill. What are they?

Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for 23 crops should receive a statutory legal backing; MSP should be fixed at above 50% above the comprehensives cost of production- actual cost incurred to grow crops and assumed values of other items such as family labour; Farm Loan waivers; Pension – about INR 10,000 per month for farmers over 60 years old; and pulling out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The MSP, which is the cost at which the GOI purchases crops from farmers, provides farmers with an assured income for their produce. This price acts as a safety-net ensuring farmers receive a fair price, particularly during times of market uncertainties and fluctuations or when market prices fall below the MSP. Of the 23 crops that the government currently announces MSPs for every year, there are seven cereals-paddy, wheat, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi, and barley; five pulses-chana, arhar, moong, urad and masoor; seven oilseeds-groundnut, soybean, rapeseed-mustard, sesame, sunflower, niger seed, and safflower; and four commercial crops-sugarcane, cotton, copra, and jute.

However, while MSP is announced for all crops it works mainly for rice and wheat, because the GOI has a vast storage system for only these grains that feed the GOI’s Public Distribution System (PDS). The GOI often ends up buying twice the amount needed for a buffer stock.

The issue is best understood through the political economy of Punjab, the most prosperous and fully irrigated agriculture system in the country. There are years when the procurement in Punjab, especially paddy has exceeded the production in the state. As paddy comes from other States- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar-to be sold in Punjab as the market price is often 15-25% below the MSP in these states and there is hardly any procurement in the home states. And everyone in the grain procurement network benefits and profits from the system: Commission Agents charge 2.5% commission; Punjab Govt charges 6% Mandi fees and other cess. The bill is footed by the GOI for the Food Security Programme which is executed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Punjab farmers have high productivity of paddy and wheat and use high doses of subsidised fertilisers. But their prices are constrained, especially when exports are banned and stocking limitations are imposed. The FCI also unloads wheat and rice at prices below their economic cost to bring down market prices on par with MSP or even below so that they can procure enough grains at ‘easy costs’. The GOI policy is biased towards urban consumers at the cost of farmers.

If the GOI policy does not allow the markets to operate especially when market prices are higher than MSP farmers stand to lose. So they clamour for higher and higher MSP based on unrealistic comprehensive costs. The difference between what farmers want and the GOI’s current cost calculation for MSP is about 25-30% in most crops. In the long run farmers stand to lose if they do not adapt to the ‘free’ market pricing of the simple ‘demand and supply’ mechanism.

Agricultural scientist and this year’s Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian award) winner, late Dr M S Swaminathan, called the Father of India’s Green Revolution, recommended that the GOI fix MSPs for farm produce based on a comprehensive measure of cultivation costs – weighted average cost of production – that includes the input cost of capital and the rent on the land (called ‘C2’ ) + 50% of C2, to give farmers 50% returns, rather than a narrower measure that takes into account the direct costs- out-of -pocket expenses incurred by the farmer and the value of family labour ( called ‘A2+FL’ ), which the GOI uses.

The M S Swaminathan Committee, established to recommend farm policy through the National Commission on Farmers, submitted its final Report in the year 2006. And the MSP calculation methodology was not readily accepted by the then GOI headed by Economist Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, as it was considered irrational, untenable, and unviable and would probably distort the market. And there were aspects of the comprehensive costs that were not ‘comprehensively’ defined.

Ashok Gulati, India’s most respected Agri-economist argues that agreeing to the framers demands means fiscal stability will go for a toss, food inflation will rise, and no Government can afford to accept these demands. He suggests farm income augmentation should be through diversification to high-value crops and livestock. And the Punjab farmers should come out of cultivation of only staple crops, and tap exports.

In 2021, when the year-long protest by farmers pushed the present GOI to repeal some farm laws, designed to deregulate vast agricultural markets, the GOI said it would set up a panel to find ways to ensure support prices for all farm produce. Farmers accuse the GOI of going slow on that promise and also not achieving a GOI stated goal of ‘doubling farm incomes by 2022-23 (over a base of 2015-16).

The GOI is in talks with the agitating Farmers and some ‘minimum’ results are expected in the upcoming week.

Meanwhile-to get a hang of the situation-a farmer in down South Karnataka State had this to say: “MSP of paddy is INR 2,204 per quintal; the market price near Mysuru is INR 3,000 per quintal; Last week I sold 10 quintals of paddy at INR 3,100 per quintal to a buyer in Nanjangud (a Town in Mysuru district). Why are farmers protesting in Punjab?”

In a historic judgement this week, India’s Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the Electoral Bond Scheme introduced by the Government in 2018. This allowed anonymous corporate contributions to Political Parties through the State Bank of India (SBI) – the only bank authorised to issue these bonds. There is not limit on the amount and an existing corporate limit was removed to facilitate the flow of ‘unlimited’ funds. Further, the contributions did not attract income tax. The GOI’s stated intent was to curb black money in Elections and bring ‘transparency’ in Electoral Funding. And by not revealing names, any political harassment was sought to be avoided. However, the Court said this could be quid pro quo for future benefits and that the citizen has a right to know the donations coming-in to a Political Party. On the other side, ‘right to privacy’ of Corporate Houses is in jeopardy.

The SBI has been ordered to stop issuing these bonds forthwith, and furnish details of contributions received for publication on the Election Commission of India’s website by 13 March 2024. Parties which received the funds have been ordered to return un-encashed Electoral Bonds to the donors.

More bonding stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Vote for World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-6

About: the world this week, 4 February 2024 to 10 February 2024; Israel hunting in Gaza; Russia & Ukraine; Myanmar; El Salvador’s Coolest Dictator; Pakistan’s Elections; India’s Bharat Ratna Awards; and the Grammys.

Everywhere

Israel is still hunting vigorously in the Gaza and there is no safe update on the ‘taken’ hostages. This week Israel seized control of much of the Hamas tunnel system in the city of Khan Younis and is said to be closer than ever to capturing the elusive Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar. War cries could be heard of the end -of the war-being near. Is Israel on the brink of victory?

Russia is, as usual, busy firing between 1,500 and 2,500 shells and rockets at Ukraine’s war-ravaged Donetsk region every day, and is targeting critical infrastructure making life miserable for Ukrainians. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked the Commander-in-Chief (CIC) of the country’s armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi. There appears to be a rift between the President and his CIC, who has led Ukraine’s war effort since the war with Russia began. Battle-hardened General Oleksandr Syrskyi was announced as his replacement. Perhaps it’s just a change of strategy. One started it; the other could finish it?

In Myanmar, Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to crush all opposition to military rule, as the state of emergency was further extended. He said that he would ‘do whatever it takes’ to return Myanmar to stability, amid unprecedented advances by an alliance of anti-coup forces and ethnic armed groups.

Over the past three months, the Army has been losing troops, territory and towns to determined opponents across multiple parts of the country. But it is determined to fight on, and retains an enormous capacity for violence, attacking civilian populations and infrastructure in areas it has lost, using air power and long-range artillery. Three years on, from the coup of February 2021, Myanmar military’s hold on power is more uncertain than at any time in the last 60 years. More than two million people have been displaced by Myanmar’s internal conflict, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, citing internal security reasons, neighbouring India has decided to suspend the India-Myanmar Free Movement Regime. This allows citizens from either nation to cross the border and travel up to 16 kilometres (km) into the other without documents such as passports or visas. India also plans to fence the entire 1,643 km Myanmar border – as part of its plan for creating ‘impenetrable borders’ – and build a patrolling track alongside the fence. A 10-km stretch in Manipur’s Moreh has already been fenced, and two pilot projects that involve a ‘hybrid surveillance system’ – each covering one kilometre – are in operation.

This week, El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated of the seven Central American countries made headlines. Lying in the Isthmus of Central America, El Salvador is bordered by Honduras, Guatemala, and the Pacific Ocean. Its capital and largest city is San Salvador.

El Salvador is known as the Land of Volcanoes with ‘with a population of 100 volcanos’, and around 20 of them being potentially active. And of course, the Volcanoes have ‘erupted into’ the National Flag, which features five volcanoes, representing the five states. El Salvador grows great coffee beans and coffee export is a major business. The country is also know as the ‘Mecca for Surfers’ as it gets some of the biggest ‘swells’ offered by the Pacific Ocean and due to the many right-hand ‘point breaks’ that grace most of its over 300 kilometres long coastline.

In Surfing, a ‘swell’ is a series of mechanical or surface gravity waves generated by weather phenomenon that propagate thousands of miles across the ocean. Swell is used to designate a set of waves that separate and move away from a storm or weather condition that develops in the ocean. ‘Point Breaks’ occur when a wave swell strikes a point of land, whether it’s a section of jutting rock or a headland.

Let’s break here, and surf in to El Salvador’s politics.

From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, El Salvador was mired in civil war and internal strife. Since the early 21st century, the country has experienced high crime rates, including gang-related crimes and juvenile delinquency. El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the world in 2012, but experienced a sharp decline in 2019 when a new centrist government took charge. It was also considered an epicentre of a gang crisis, along with Guatemala and Honduras.

Enter Nayib Bukele, called the ‘Coolest Dictator’ in the World.

In June 2019, Nayib Bukele became the new President of El Salvador, winning the February 2019 presidential election. A firebrand politician who often spars with foreign leaders and critics on social media, Bukele came to power trouncing traditional parties with a vow to eliminate gang violence and rejuvenate a stagnant economy. His New Ideas Party with its allies won around 63% of the vote in the February 2021 legislative elections, giving them 61 seats, well over the coveted supermajority of 56 seats in the 84-seat Parliament. This opened the gates for uncontested decisions at the legislative level. The absolute majority permits President Bukele’s party to appoint judiciary members and pass laws with little to no opposition, for instance, to remove presidential term limits.

In June 2021, at the initiative of President Bukele, pro-government deputies in the Legislative Assembly voted legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. In September 2021, El Salvador’s Supreme Court ruled to allow Bukele to run for a second term in 2024, despite the fact that the constitution prohibits the President to serve two consecutive terms in office.

Under a ‘state of emergency’, approved in March 2022, under which authorities suspended civil liberties, the Bukele’s government arrested more than 76,000 people – about 1% of El Salvador’s population – without charges. The assault on the gangs – not entirely democratic – has spurred accusations of widespread human rights abuses and a lack of due process. But violence plummeted along with a sharp decline in nationwide murder rates and fundamentally altered a country known just a few years ago as one of the most dangerous places in the world.

This Sunday, President Nayib Bukele secured a thumping victory in El Salvador’s 2024 elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy, to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed safety and security in El Salvador. Provisional results on Monday show Bukele winning 83% support with just over 70% of the ballots counted. Bukele declared himself the winner before official results were announced, claiming to have attained more than 85% of the vote. “All together the opposition was pulverised,” said Bukele. And added “El Salvador went from being the most unsafe (country) to the safest. Now, in these next five years, wait to see what we are going to do”.

New Ideas’ electoral success means Bukele will wield unprecedented power and be able to overhaul El Salvador’s constitution. Wildly popular, Bukele had campaigned on the success of his security strategy.

El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal last year permitted him to run for a second term even though the country’s constitution prohibits it. Opponents fear Bukele will seek to rule for life, following the example of President Daniel Ortega of ‘across-the-sea’ Nicaragua.

Nayib Bukele is the son of Palestinians from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He discontinued studying law at the Central American University to join his father in the family Business. Entering politics he went on to be elected as Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan – a small Municipality – and later San Salvador- the capital. He then established a political party called Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) to make a presidential bid, which did not help his cause. Hence he joined the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) to mount his bid and won the Presidential Elections, with ease in 2019, becoming President.

Bukele went on to become a highly popular leader and only more so since the government began its crackdown on the country’s feared gangs. “We are not substituting democracy, because El Salvador never had democracy,” he said. “This is the first time in history that El Salvador has democracy. And I’m not saying it, the people say it.”

Nayib Bukele is married to Gabriela Roberta Rodriguez, a Salvadoran educator, and prenatal psychologist, holding a doctorate in prenatal psychology. She is also a professional ballet dancer and is part of a dance company. Nayib and Gabriela began dating in 2004 and married in December 2014. They have two children.

Pakistan went to the polls this Thursday. This against the backdrop of jailing of popular former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, the winner of the last national election, dominating headlines despite an economic crisis and other woes threatening the country.

Pakistan, a nation of 241 million people is reeling from decades-high inflation and an economy that has come to a grinding halt as it navigates a tough International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme. Islamist militancy is on the rise and relations with neighbouring countries of India, Afghanistan and Iran are frayed. But these matters have been mostly absent as ‘election issues’, in which the parties of Imran Khan and former PM Nawaz Sharif are the main rivals. Instead the campaign is dominated by personalities. Pakistan’s National Assembly consists of 336 seats, of which, 265 are decided through direct voting on polling day.

Thousands of troops were deployed on the streets and at polling stations across the country on voting day. Borders with Iran and Afghanistan were temporarily closed as security was stepped up. Despite the heightened security, 12 people were killed in 51 bomb blasts, grenade attacks and shootings by militants, mostly in the western provinces.

Counting of votes began this Friday after unusual delays, which was ascribed to a suspension of mobile phone services. Candidates linked to jailed Imran Khan’s political party are in the lead, ahead of the two dynastic parties of Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, believed to be favoured by the military. Counting has entered its final leg, and interesting times are ahead!

Britain’s 75 years old King Charles was diagnosed with cancer and the Royal Medical team has been clever in catching it early. He had checked into hospital for a benign prostate enlargement problem when a separate ‘issue of concern’ was detected leading to diagnostic tests, which identified a form of cancer. Now the United Kingdom is hoping His Highness can make a full recovery given the swift detection.

In India, it’s suddenly raining ‘Bharat Ratna Awards’ – the highest civilian award for outstanding service to the people of India. First it was the late Karpoori Thakur, a politician who served two terms as the Chief Minister of Bihar, then it was the living 96 year old L K Advani, former Home Minister and one of the architect’s of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s success. And this week, the Government announced more. Former PMs, P V Narasimha Rao – who rolled out the landmark 1991 economic reforms, which transformed India forever – and Chaudhary Charan Singh; and agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan as recipients of the country’s highest award – all of them get it posthumously.

The 66th Grammys Awards 2024 were handed out this Sunday night in the Crypto.com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles.

Singer, songwriter Taylor Swift made history on winning Album of the Year, for Midnights. She became the first person to win ‘Album of the Year’ four times, more than any other artist in history. The closest is three wins – a tie of Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Frank Sinatra. Taylor Swift also won an award for best pop vocal album, and it was during the acceptance speech that she swiftly announced her upcoming album – The Tortured Poets Department.

The Record of the Year, and Best Pop Solo went to Miley Cyrus, Flowers – the first of her career; Song of the year went to Billie Ellish and Finneas O’Connell for What Was I made for – from Barbie, the movie; and Best New Artist went to Victoria Monet. A previous Best New Artist, Olivia Rodrigo had 6 nominations but could not carry home any award.

Indian music struck many right notes this year: Fusion Group, Shakti consisting of singer Shankar Mahadevan, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, percussionist Vinayakram Selvaganesh, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, and British guitarist and founding member John McLoughlin winning the Best Global Music Album for This Moment. This is the Group’s first studio album in more than 45 years.

Sakthi’s band members John McLoughlin and Zakir Hussain have been pioneers in bridging two oceans of music – the harmonic complexity of Jazz and the melodic and rhythmic intensity of Indian Music. The talk goes that, had there been no Sakthi there would have been no Global Music Album Category at the Grammys.

Pandit Ravi Shankar introduced Indian music to the world. But it was Sakthi, which took shape in the 1970s that permanently built a bridge between the two streams – any many more – of music. And after many ups and downs over decades, This Moment arrived. The Album’s cover was designed by a group in Kolkata and Bengaluru, inspired by a label founded by an Indo-American.

Ustad Zakir Hussain picked up two other Grammys along with flautist Rakesh Chaurasia for Best Global Music Performance, Pashto, and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for, As We Speak as part of the ensemble of American banjo player Bela Fleck and American bassist Edgar Meyer. Rakesh Chaurasia is the nephew of legendary Indian flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia. India’s Ricky Kej, a two-time Grammy winner, called 2024 the Year of India at the Grammys.

Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z won the Dr Dre Global Impact Award, but called out the Grammys for snubbing Beyonce by not giving her an Album of the Year Award, despite her winning more Grammys than any other artist. Remember, Beyonce who won 32 Grammys across her remarkable career, has never won the most prestigious prize of all: Album of the Year!

More music albums coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned to World Inthavaaram.