15th November 2020
Shorts:
News at a glance
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The unnoticed election
The Bihar Assembly elections were one of the many high-strung events this year. After around 14 hours of counting and many allegations, the BJP-led NDA alliance was announced as the winner. They were well-boosted by Narendra Modi’s campaigning.
While speaking to eager BJP workers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the party now had an impact across India and the results of the election cleared up the fact that people would work for only those who honestly wanted development. He emphasised that it was the only national party which offered Dalit representation.
Intriguingly, he didn't mention Nitish Kumar or the JD(U) in his speech.
However, as our country has learned from experience, state elections don’t shape the national mood. Mr Modi also added that poll results ‘endorsed’ the way they’ve tackled the pandemic.
This year, the NDA also edged past the MGB for the first time in almost 20 years. It finally pushed ahead with 125 seats against the Grand Alliance’s 110 of the 243 member assembly. The RJD emerged as the largest party winning 75 seats, one more than the BJP.
The Congress' lacklustre performance cost the Opposition as it won only 19 seats out of the 70 it contested in.
Sources: The Print, Indian Express
The NDA alliance emerged victorious in the Bihar elections
Source: DNA India
Johnny Depp: Wrongfully accused or 'wife-beater'?
What does Captain Jack Sparrow's future look like?
Source: Google
After losing his court case against the British newspaper The Sun, Johnny Depp’s career is virtually over. Experts say his sack from the upcoming ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ was only the beginning of the end. Judge Andrew Nicol gave a 129-page verdict, announcing that The Sun was ‘substantially true’.
In 2018, The Sun published an article, claiming Depp to be a ‘wife-beater’ in a highly controversial statement. The report had brought out ex-wife Amber Heard’s allegations against him, accusing him of domestic abuse. However, Depp denied all such allegations during the 16-day trial.
Just days after losing the case, Depp was asked to resign from ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ by Warner Bros. However, Depp’s career had a downward trend even before the court case. He hasn’t worked in any large films over the past few years either.
Many claim that Depp was wrongfully accused in the 2018 article, but all such theories are circumstantial at best. Will Captain Jack Sparrow be successful in reviving his career from the ashes, or with the star of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ be lost from the big screen forever?
Sources: The Insider
Are we far away from colonising the moon?
Well, judging by NASA latest policy, I’d say not very far, no. On Wednesday, the 13th of October, NASA released a comprehensive set of a few rules that a country visiting the moon must follow under all circumstances.
Known as the Artemis Accords, NASA had begun drafting these rules back in May. Corresponding with a few other countries at that time, they took their inputs and drafted an accord trying to protect the intricate geographical and historical landscape of our natural satellite. Up till now, eight countries have agreed and signed on the Artemis Accord, namely Italy, Australia, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, the UK and of course, the USA. However, India, China and Russia, some of the world’s emerging economies and leaders in the space race, do not feature in the list till now.
The Artemis Accords claims authority of a heavenly body close to our own. It provides us with a launchpad to organise the habitation of the Moon correctly, and not like we handled our own planet. How far is Moon colonisation, and subsequently, stellar dominance? We can only wait and watch.
Sources: The Verge, India Today
Rules for the preservation of our natural satellite have been put into place. What's next?
Source: SpaceWatch.global
The 12th man army:
A Note to all the other teams
-Devansh Mishra
DISCLAIMER: This article doesn’t contain actual news; it’s purely a circumstantial memoir from an RCB fan.
It was early in the morning. I painfully rubbed my eyes open. Last night’s headache of shame and embarrassment had carried over to the next day. My very will to pick up my phone felt astonishingly low, in fear of all the ‘#nextsalacupnamde’ and ‘#ThankYouVirat’ trolls that would have flooded social media. Another year had gone by, and the Boys in Red had missed another title.
A first look at this year's squad.
Source: RoyalChallengersBangalore.com
Now, the IPL was over, and RCB hadn't failed to disappoint. Well, it wasn’t as embarrassing as the last three seasons, so please keep all your taunts to yourself. We made it to the Eliminator, and that is much better than I’d like to admit.
The first part of the season was what broke me - it gave me false hope. With five wins in seven matches, it looked like an absolute cruise to the playoffs. Except for that horrifyingly bad loss against KXIP, the IPL looked like a piece of cake for this team.
Then came the second half of the season, and I was almost in tears towards the end. Falling and stumbling and turning and toppling over ourselves, we somehow managed to get the playoffs in the fourth position, after enduring four losses on the trot at the end of the league stage. That, coupled with Morris’ injury, proved to be our undoing in the Eliminator against SRH. Our form going into the playoffs was worse than miserable, and we ended our season with five losses in a row.
Let me talk to each team specifically now, starting with RR. Being the perpetual underperformers of the league, thanks for letting us win in both our matches. ‘Doing the Tewatia’ has become your style of late, except we are still waiting for that late flourish at the end. Having the Player of Tournament and coming last in the league is something only you can do. Salute!
KKR, you’re next. King Khan was seen on the field a few times, attempting to twist your fate, but I don’t think Bollywood ka Badshah can change something even a switch in captaincy can’t. I really do feel sad for you - buying Pat Cummins in the auction for a whopping 15.5cr from us, and him returning just 12 wickets is not a sight you want to see. But, in the end, it was either you or us for the playoffs, so sorry-not-sorry.
KXIP, I applaud you for the comeback you made in the latter half. Thanks for losing against CSK at the end though, that did give me a scare. We are still angry for the double-loss against you, but it didn’t matter at the end, so I’m going to let that slide. Congrats on the Orange Cap though.
Coming to DC, I love you guys man. You never fail to be on our side. In the past few seasons, we were languishing at the bottom, and I saw you right there on 7th. We are in contention for the top 2, and you are there as well. We have three losses in a row, and you have the same with four in a row. It’s truly remarkable to have someone to share your fate with. However, we took that last game to heart, but I’ll forgive you for that. Also, fantastic work reaching the final this year, but you won’t be able to get to the top, because we will have that occupied in the coming years.
Moving on. SRH. I loathe you for that game in the Eliminator. You had to take it to the last over, then only crush our hopes, right? But good job in over-achieving for once in your existence (That 2016 final does NOT count).
This is going to be fun. CSK. Finally, FINALLY! You had this coming the whole time. Your squad is old, and ‘experienced’ is just another fancy term for old. After all these years of throwing toxic shade in our direction, you have finally found how it feels to not qualify for the playoffs. May there be many more occasions like this year’s IPL! Cheers! (P.S. I still remember last year’s win by one run, so if you ever need a reminder of your worth, allow me to rub that into your face.)
Save the best for the last, they say, and oh, I have. MI, yours is the last on my countdown. Well, congrats on winning the IPL, again. Granted, your team was pretty great this time, but we all know the IPL was totally rigged so let’s just leave it at that. Let’s see how much longer you will be able to keep up this charade. Also, that Super Over game was thrilling, and we beat you in that, so switch off your mouth siren, please. (Pro tip: I assure you, you won’t have any regrets if you follow the next few steps. Go to Google Translate and translate ‘I have money’ from English to Romanian. You won’t be disappointed.)
So, to wrap things up, I am assuming you all know the real value of your respective teams, so stay within your limits, please. As we all know very well by now, RCB is by far the best team to have ever graced the IPL, so ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’ isn’t very far from becoming true now. #PlayBold
Let’s rewind. December of 2019 had gotten us in a position we were praying for since 2016. In the auction, RCB managed to pick up stalwarts like Chris Morris and Aaron Finch in their ranks, and our bowling line-up looked formidable. Batting, being our strength for the past few seasons, had also been stabilised in the middle order. As always, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s team on paper felt in contention for their life-long dream: ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’.
And mind you, the keyword as always - on paper.
The election to decide it all
-Akshaj Balaji
The time had come. The third of November, the date of the United State’s election. The election that would decide whether the country will get their 46th President as Joe Biden, or whether the 45th President, Donald Trump will serve a second term. On the day of the election, current President Donald Trump began with a massive lead over his opponent Joe Biden on the first half of the day. His large lead was probably because most Republicans voted on Election Day and in person.​
How does post-election America look like?
Source: Economic Times
Confused? Well, there are multiple ways voters can vote in America, but to be exact three ways. The first one being voting in person on Election Day, second voting in person before Election Day (which is only possible in some states) and an absentee ballot. What’s that? Well, an absentee ballot or a mail-in ballot is a method using which American citizens can vote from anywhere in the world. They just need to fill in a piece of paper and mail it in or drop it off at a specific dropbox (This, however, can get quite complicated and only some states allow it).
Ok back to Election Day. As mentioned earlier, Trump was leading at the start of the day. This was because in-person voting is counted first in elections. It is the easiest and quickest to calculate and hence always shows up in results first. The Republicans mainly promote this type of voting, thus the lead. However, Trump, unaware of this or choosing to ignore this, refused to accept it when the Democrats came back strong over the next few days winning most of the remaining electoral votes.
Trump went on, saying that there was voter fraud, and it was his victory. This allegation, of course, was deemed to be untrue as there was no proof to back this accusation. Twitter also hid his tweets to avoid misinformation. Despite this, the Trump Administration is standing alongside him and are preparing for his second term.
All this is happening despite Joe Biden being confirmed as America’s 46th president. Trump and his administration have filed lawsuits in several states in a desperate last attempt to steal the election back from him. Joe Biden, in this past week, has made it clear that he will be a president to both the people who voted for him and the people who didn’t. These contrasting reactions to the election results say a lot about the candidates personality and how one candidate is desperate for attention and is delusional about his victory. The other is a decent human with courtesy.
Sources: Economic Times, Indian Express. HindustanTimes