Reports and social media posts from China — which proverbially painted itself into a corner with its Zero-Covid policy and a lack of effective vaccines — spoke of flooded hospitals, crowded funeral homes, and a dire shortage of essential medicines since it reopened its cities following widespread citizen anger. The country’s official death figures remained questionably low on Tuesday, further fanning fears that the epicentre of the pandemic is being opaque with crucial data that could help avert any new threats. HT brings you a round-up of the most important and interesting stories, so you don’t miss your daily dose of news. |
THE BIG STORY India heightens watch over China Covid spiral The Centre on Tuesday formally asked states to step up analysis of positive Covid-19 cases to detect new coronavirus variants, and officials aware of the matter separately said that testing and surveillance at airports could be tightened, as the government moved to deal with potential fallout from a spiralling wave in China. Read more. |
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED |
| |
The Big Question Will the ad spend fine on the Delhi govt by the LG lead to fresh hostilities? Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena has directed the chief secretary Naresh Kumar to recover ₹97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that was spent on advertisements that allegedly violated Supreme Court’s guidelines — a move that the AAP government has said is illegal. Read more. |
 Aryan Khan is 25, but busy. He’ll soon direct a series he has written. Last week, he also announced that he’ll launch a premium spirit. It’s in a Moscow Mule, a martini but not in a mimosa. What’s his poison? |
| |
Number Theory If December isn’t very cold, 2022 will be one of the warmest ever years Frost and snow gave way to a mild weather in the United Kingdom on Monday, a trend that is likely to persist up to Christmas, the country’s Met Office predicted. This has a parallel in India, where there has not been much or any snow in the Himalayas. If December isn’t cool either, 2022 will end with a weather trend true for most of the year: it has been very warm. But how warm exactly? Observed data of mean temperature (it includes temperature beyond the maximum and minimum) from NASA released late last week can help us track this for the entire world. Read more. |
From the Field Multiple signs of poaching show all is not well in Odisha’s reserves “There is something going wrong terribly,” chief justice of the Orissa high court, justice S Muralidhar, said on December 13 while hearing a case on wildlife protection days after a poached elephants carcass was burnt by forest department officials in Similipal, one of the largest tiger reserves in the state. There is. Thus far in 2022, the state has seen 12 cases where forest department personnel have allegedly been involved in hiding instances of elephant poaching by burning or burying the carcasses. In almost every case, action against the erring officials was initiated on directions of the Orissa high court. There also appears to be a spurt in poaching of big cats such as tigers and leopards in the state, government data shows. Read more. |
Infographic of the Day  (Click to expand) |
 Vodka |
Photo of the Day Mathura’s enduring legacy |
HT This Day: December 21, 1955 Yugoslavia elected to UN council  (Click to expand) Yugoslavia was elected to the U.N. Security Council today, breaking a deadlock with the Philippines which had lasted for most of the record 35 ballots. The General Assembly voted 43 to 11 with 13 abstentions in favour of Yugoslavia after she had won a private lottery with the Philippines to decide which country should take the first year in a “ split term “ compromise arrangement. Read more. |
Please share you feedback with us What do you think about this newsletter? |
Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | | | | |
