4th october 2020
Shorts:
News at a glance
​
Russian vaccine
Amongst the list of Russia’s greatest inventions and discoveries, including several greats like the radio, the helicopter and Sputnik, one can now also add a vaccine to COVID-19 to that list.
Discovered in the dingy atmosphere in Russia's Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, this vaccine can potentially provide relief to hundreds and thousands of people who could potentially contract the deadly virus. The vaccine has been named Sputnik V, in honour of the first successful space mission of the Soviet Union.
Passing the required medical tests, this vaccine has been rolled out to the public. One of the 76 people involved in taking the initial tests was President Putin’s own daughter, displaying his trust and faith in the vaccination. “She feels well, and the concentration of antibodies is high”, the President said in an official statement. “Clinical trials of the vaccine will also happen in UAE, Saudi, the Philippines and possibly India and Brazil”, said the official website.
Currently, Russia has received international requests for more than 1 billion samples of Sputnik V. The world has taken its first step towards restoration back to normal, and the vaccine has been an integral part in this major development.
Sources: The Lancet, rbth.com
Has the limitless race to find a vaccine ended?
california fires
The orange sky and wildfire-stricken land has almost become something of permanence in California.
Orange encompassed the skies while destruction reigned the land. Grey fumes rose into the sky, establishing a dominating presence in the state of California.
Cal Fire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) has put their best to the control of this disastrous occurrence. Having over a dozen fires at the moment, the biggest ones yet have been the Glass and Zogg fires, covering over 48000 and 52000 acres respectively.
Fall season aggravated the spread of the fire, as dried leaves and branches can easily catch fire. Having claimed almost 29 lives till now, the fire has injured more than hundreds. Air quality has sharply declined, as health concerns rage amongst the people of the affected states. More than 3.5 million acres have been burned down and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes.
The El Dorado fire has erased more 7000 acres of land. Cal Fire determines the cause of this fire to be a gender reveal party involving pyrotechnics, something which has enraged people all over the state.
Californian wildfires have spread for an enormous area within the span of just a few weeks. The governor had written 2 letters to President Trump concerning declaration of a state of emergency in the state, the first of which were approved.
People aren’t feeling very optimistic in the midst of this harsh calamity, but the state of California has taken all the measures required to control this disaster.
Sources: nytimes.com, BBC, National Geographics
The Long wait is finally over
-Devansh mishra
After six months of global agony and anguish, the biggest stage of world cricket finally arrived in UAE, much to the relief of thousands of fans across the globe. Started on 19th September, the 13th edition of the IPL has had ups and downs, heartbreaking and joyous moments alike. It began with an absolute cracker.
After almost fourteen matches, there is absolutely nothing dividing the top six. The two super-overs already bowled stand testimony to heart-wrenching and close games. There have been humongous run chases throughout the tournament till now, both breaking and uplifting many hearts.
Occurring in the middle of a global pandemic, the IPL too has accorded to the current circumstances. In this year’s edition, players had to return three negative tests for the virus in August before the quarantine period before joining their team in the bio bubble for practice. Unfortunately, no fans were allowed into the stadium to watch their favourite crickets in action. Only high-ranking BCCI officials and few media outlets were even allowed to enter the stadium. In UAE, the three stadiums allotted for the tournament are in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, to reduce the amount of travel the players had to undergo.
Sources: Financial Express, The Hindu
To many people’s great dismay, 13 people from CSK, including two players and eleven non-cricketing staff were reported to contract the coronavirus in August. The cricketers were said to be Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who, along with the support staff, went through the necessary quarantine period to return a negative test. To everyone’s relief, both players are now fit and have already played a few matches in the tournament.
Apart from that, the majestic tournament has begun on an optimistic and wonderful note. To give the fans watching from home a more stadium-like experience, the broadcasting committee has pre-recorded cheers to play after a ball is bowled. It did provide a mechanical feel to the game a while back, but now it feels familiar. Speculation reveals that machine learning and technology will develop to such an extent in upcoming seasons, that watching from home will be much more exciting than in the stadium.
IPL has been a great success over the past few years and has changed many lives. I can say that this year will be a new experience for both the players the people watching, but it is bound to be a just as big as it would be in the normal circumstances.
Presidential debate 2020:
The trump and biden standoff
-Akshaj Balaji
Set to elect its 46th President on the 3rd of November this year, the United States seems to be in a conundrum. Two leading contenders running for President - President Donald Trump, with running mate Mike Pence, the Republic nominee who is running for re-election, and Democratic nominee Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris. On the 29th of September, the two parties faced off for their first debate, and it was "an absolute trainwreck", as expressed by many news programmes and articles.
Going into this debate, Biden’s tax returns for the year were released, putting more pressure on President Trump. Earlier that week, a New York Times report revealed that Trump only paid $750 as federal tax in his first two years of presidency, compared to Biden's $300,000 paid this year. President Trump, however, has denied these allegations and the public are pressuring him for a tax disclosure for proof.
Before the debate, there were also several rumoured statements made by President Trump saying that he will not "transfer the power peacefully" in the case where he isn't re-elected, worrying several citizens that the country will turn into a dictatorship. However, he denied these rumours later on calling them "fake news".
Ahead of the debate, President Trump also insisted that someone should check Biden for earpieces or wires through which someone could feed him information. During the debate, the two parties were questioned on six key points. The Covid-19 pandemic, the American economy, race and equality, law and supreme court, integrity of the elections, and their own personal records.
​
During the debate Biden’s main points were to move for a national mask mandate and to defer to scientific research when it comes to combat the virus. President Trump was mostly against masks and downplayed the
Having faced off in an ultimate debate on Wednesday, President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in picture.
pandemic as a whole while questioning India’s case statistics. President Trump also boasted the recovery of the American economy while Biden, under his “Build Back Better” slogan, wants to invest more in clean energy in the future.
​
The two argued on the fact that the Democratic Party is rushing the replacement of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Judge Amy Coney Barett without respecting her. Throughout the debate, Biden also stressed that he will be the better family for “you” and “your families” while President Trump interrupted him with his childish antics. The most eye catching and jaw dropping moment of the debate was when President Trump refused to condemn white supremacy and dodged the question instead. The discussion saw both sides being disrespectful and ill-mannered with Biden calling President Trump a "clown" and "the worst president in the history of America" and President Trump cruelly calling out Biden’s sons in a manner of a personal attack.
​
The debate was moderated by journalist Chris Wallace who found it extremely difficult and chaotic to manage the two. Throughout the entire discussion, each presidential candidate was given two minutes of uninterrupted time to answer questions which both campaigns agreed to. President Trump repeatedly interrupted Mr Biden as he tried to answer Wallace's questions and did not adhere to the two minute rule. It got to a point where Wallace was so tired and irritated that he exclaimed "You know, sir, if you wanna switch seats, we could do that", directed at President Trump.
Overall, popular opinion would say that Joe won the debate as for the most of it he managed to keep his cool and made valid points to the questions while also going against President Trump. Chris Wallace's failure to prevent President Trump from dominating the debate and from disobeying debate rules sparked a critical debate in the community whether moderators should be allowed to cut off the other candidates mic while one is speaking. The question now is how to smoothly run these presidential debates in the future while ensuring people like Trump do not cause any interruptions to the flow of debate. Right now, the community wants mutable mics, so as to not repeat the consequences of the disastrous Presidential Debate.
Sources: BBC, Washington Post, CNBC