Daily Archives: November 1, 2019

All creatures great and small

On the joy of reporting on new species of plants and animals Every year on World Environment Day, the Botanical Survey of India and the Zoological Survey of India, set up in the colonial era in Kolkata to record the flora and fauna of the country, publish a list of …

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Millionaire for a day

A computer drove a Frenchman to the brink of a nervous breakdown by making him a multi-millionaire and then rendering him penniless overnight. The hapless Frenchman, trapped in the heartless electronic signals of his bank’s computer, now risks prosecution under France’s tough dud cheque laws. The Paris Commercial Court heard …

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Another election

The December polls are an opportunity for Labour to clarify its views on Brexit As Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s European Union (EU) withdrawal agreement hangs in the balance, the general election he has called for December 12 is, self-evidently, to obtain a mandate to deliver Brexit. Indeed, the Tory government’s …

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Relief for Pehlu’s sons

The finding that they weren’t smuggling cows exposes the perversity of blaming the victims The Rajasthan High Court’s order quashing the cow smuggling case against the sons of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer lynched by cow vigilantes in 2017, grants much-needed relief to the family. The Khans are yet to …

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Cleaning up the Kashmir mess

Nehru can’t be blamed for the flawed policies that New Delhi designed for J&K since the 1990s The Prime Minister and Home Minister have cited two reasons to justify the dilution of Article 370. The first is the need for a new approach to end the violence in Jammu and …

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Substance across the Arabian Sea

Even by its volatile standards, our Southwest Asian sub-region has lately been unusually turbulent, as reflected in issues ranging from India-Pakistan tensions to the approaching denouements of crises in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan. The oil market, too, has been inclement. Against this disorderly context, it is no small wonder that …

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Deciphering Greta’s climate message

There is more to the Swedish teenager-activist’s point of view than mere emotion and passionate commitment She is being looked at as an emotionally charged icon of environmental struggles, but there is more to Greta Thunberg’s point of view than mere emotion and passionate commitment. If we decipher all the …

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‘Hero’ dog to get a warm welcome

The “hero” dog wounded in the U.S. commando raid that culminated in the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is getting a White House homecoming next week, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday. Mr. Trump revealed that the military dog, a Belgian Malinois, is named “Conan” — …

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