3rd January 2021
Shorts:
News at a glance
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Senate overrides President Trump’s veto on the Defence Bill
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-Devansh mishra
President Trump's veto of the Defence Bill was overidden by the Congress
Source: The Economic Times
President Trump’s final days of being POTUS have been nothing short of bleak. So, as one would expect, his run of bad decisions peppered with a healthy helping of bad luck has overrun into his veto decision of the Defence Bill. To start off the New Year celebrations, President Trump’s veto over the defence bill was overridden by the US Congress on the 1st of the Jan.
The defence bill provides a 3% pay raise for all US troops and helps to cement decisions regarding troop levels, new weapon systems and personnel policy. President Trump was strongly against filling this Defence Bill, as he thought certain provisions of the bill impacted national security. He was also against provisions to rename military installations bearing the names of Confederate generals.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives voted against Trump’s veto 322-87, and the Senate had an overwhelming 81-13 against the veto. In response, Trump went to social media and tweeted “weak and tired Republican ‘leaders’ will allow the bad Defence Bill to pass” and called the threat to override a “disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW!”
Since the veto of the Defence Bill has been overridden comprehensively, it is now scheduled to be executed in the coming months. As for President Trump, his blaze of glory won’t be very large after all.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Hindu
Israel vaccinates a higher percentage of population than any other country
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-Snigdha Dhameja
Israel has vaccinated close to 10% of its population, as compared to the US and European nations, where only small fractions of people have been inoculated. This groundbreaking progress can be owed to the country’s digitized health system, that has sped up the registration and vaccination progress for all. Israeli health minister Yuli Edelstein says that the country procured vaccines early, and the nation’s reputation for efficiency and gathering reliable data aided in the process.
Israel has set an example for more developed and populated countries, in terms of its efficiency and pace at which it is vaccinating its citizens. Edelstein says, “We are leading the world race thanks to our early preparations.”
Sources: New York Times
A large majority of Israel citizens were vaccinated against COVID-19
Sources: The Times of Israel
Health Minister offers free vaccines to frontline health workers
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-Devansh mishra
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
Source: Business Today
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced that the COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to all frontline health workers throughout the country free of cost.
A dry run of the COVID vaccine will take place in all states and union territories throughout the country in the course of the next 3-4 weeks.
Unfortunately, rumours regarding the safety of the articles have been doing the rounds, and people are hesitant if it will cause side-effects. “I want to appeal to people to not believe in any rumours. There should be no rumours about the vaccine's safety...Everything has been checked in detail,” said Harsh Vardhan to reporters.
The minister again took to social media saying “In 1st phase of #COVID19Vaccination free #vaccine shall be provided across the nation to most prioritised beneficiaries that incl 1 crore healthcare & 2 crore frontline workers. Details of how further 27 cr priority beneficiaries are to be vaccinated until July are being finalised.”
Sources: OutlookIndia
India becomes the first to culture UK strain of mutated virus
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-Snigdha Dhameja
India has become the first country to successfully isolate and culture the new strain of the mutated virus at the National Institute of Virology (NIV). It has been announced by UK scientists that the new strain was up to 70% more infectious than previous ones. A total of 29 returnees from the UK have tested positive for the newly identified strain in India.
Sources: New York Times
Wars yet to be fought
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-Devansh Mishra
World Peace, right now more than ever, has been very fragile. A cut-throat virus which is ready to strike with one misstep is prevailing over the world, and we are not doing enough to stop it. Even during these tumultuous times, wars have continued to proceed how they used to. Let me outline some of them for you.
Since 2011, Yemen has been engaged in a full-blown civil war, and the true extent of the casualties is still undetermined. A humanitarian crisis has taken over the country, and the current situation has been called a ‘living hell’ by UNICEF. Yemen has been termed to be ‘most at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe’ in 2021.
Granted, the pandemic did sparingly help the citizens of the country for a few months because a ceasefire had been called, but it’s situation has been deteriorating exponentially in recent times. On the 30th of December, an airport attack had ensued, devastating civilians and civilian infrastructure. Just two days after that on New Year’s day, a wedding hall had blasted, and the number of casualties have been five till now. The cause of the attacks are still under speculation and serious investigation, but a UN envoy terms the airport attack as a war crime.
As mapped out by the UN, almost 24 million people in the country, which is about 80 percent of its population, is in need of humanitarian aid, like food, shelter, medicinal supplies or education. According to UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, Yemen had only received about half of the aid it required to sustain its citizens of their immediate needs by last November. Without any serious diversion of funds towards the country, both financially and non-financially, Yemen will cease to exist as a sovereign country, and will be a barren land ruled by extremists.
Sino-Indian relations can never be classified as ‘stable’ per se, because there’s always some or the other conflict arising between the two superpowers. So, there was no reason 2020 would be any different. To begin with, Chinese troops made an advancement across the Line of Actual Control on their border with India, and then started the Sino-Indian conflicts. The highpoint of the tension was the Galwan Valley skirmish, where a number of soldiers were killed on both sides of the border.
As a result, both the nations enacted both political and diplomatic resolve, and even tried a show of power here and there. Peace talks were conducted between the foreign ambassadors of the countries, but yielded no mutually acceptable resolve. The conflict has been shelved, for now, but I don’t think it will remain that way for a long time. One of these nations will definitely assume the mantle of the aggressor in coming months, and the flame is bound to rekindle. The only way to put this to bed is removing the root of the conflict, which is the hatred between the two nations, and it can only be done through the United Nations.
For US citizens, 2020 was going to be the year of rejoicing, or eternal damnation, and that was decided on the 3rd of November. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, and that war was purely political. Debate after debate was held, but it was Biden who turned out to be the winner. Before election results came out, Trump threatened that he would ‘not allow a peaceful transfer of power’. He later retracted this statement, but his desperate actions may suggest he wants to salvage his Presidency for another term. His appeal for recount in Texas and his veto of the Defence Bill may be interpreted as a whiny baby attempting to get back his lost toy. However, his attempts were unsuccessful, and the US is all set to welcome its 46th President to the White House on Jan 20th. But, you never know what Trump may pull.
Everything which I just described are wars, wars which are yet to be fought in the midst of a world-wide pandemic, and this is not responsible behaviour in any way. The theme for the International Peace Day in 2020 was ‘Shaping Peace Together’ where the UN ordered a ceasefire and urged everyone all around the world to come together to fight COVID-19 together. And that’s what we should all do, not fight battles amongst ourselves.
Sources: UN, News18, UNICEF, Wikipedia, Al-Jazeera