Dose Of News Useful Today

Wednesday, January 27th

💺 Fasten Your Seatbelts

Welcome to Wednesday. Grab your boarding pass: we’re traveling to India, D.C., Puerto Rico, Europe, and Wall Street.

Travel mode, engaged. 🗞✈️👇

⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.08 minutes to read.

Daily Sprinkle

“Today is a good day to try.”

—Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

🇮🇳 India’s Farmer Protests

Tens of thousands of farmers in India marched, rode horses, and drove tractors into the capital yesterday to protest against agricultural reform laws championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the nation celebrated Republic Day.

The protesters broke through police barricades and stormed the Red Fort – an iconic monument where India’s prime ministers annually hoist the national flag to mark the country’s independence.

📝 Background: India’s agricultural sector makes up ~15% of India’s $2.7T economy and employs more than half of the country’s ~480M workers.

A Brief Timeline:

September 20: India PM Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government passed three new laws it says will raise incomes for farmers and lower prices for consumers by dismantling some government control over agricultural markets, giving companies more reason to invest in the industry.
November 26: Thousands of farmers marched to the outskirts of Delhi accompanied by the biggest organized strike in world history, with over 250M people across India joining in to protest both the agricultural laws and proposed labor law reforms.

For the past two months, farmers have camped at the edge of the capital, blockading highways and calling for PM Modi to repeal the agricultural reform laws, which they say will favor large corporate farms and devastate the earnings of smaller farmers.

The legislation has exacerbated existing government resentment among farmers, who have consistently maintained their needs are ignored.

What’s Next?
Indian government and farm leaders have reportedly held more than ten meetings, with officials offering to amend the laws and suspend implementation for 18 months.

Farmers maintain they will settle for nothing less than a complete repeal.

Why Are India’s Farmers Angry?

LEFT CENTER → NY Times (Opinion)

Capital anarchy: Farmers deviating from peaceful protest route severely discredits their movement.

RIGHT CENTER → Times of India (Opinion)

Indian farmers are right to be outraged

LEFT → CNN (Opinion)

Narendra Modi’s Reform Drama

RIGHT → WSJ (Opinion)

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⚖️ Impeachment Update

Forty-five Senate Republicans (out of 50) voted in favor of a motion to dismiss the impeachment trial of former President Trump yesterday, one day after the House delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate. The measure, which would have declared the impeachment proceedings unconstitutional since Trump is no longer in office, was defeated by a vote of 55-45. Opening arguments for the Senate trial are slated to start on February 9.

More: Impeaching Trump would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.

LEFT CENTER → NBC News	RIGHT CENTER → WSJ

📝 Executive Actions

President Biden issued four executive actions yesterday:

#1: Calls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to evaluate the fairness of the Trump administration's housing policies in regards to racial discrimination.
#2: Directs the Attorney General to refrain from renewing the DOJ's contracts with private prisons.
#3: Mandates federal department heads consult with the leaders of Native American and Alaskan Native tribes when making decisions that may affect them.
#4: Recommends the Department of Health and Human Services examine racial bias against Asians and Pacific Islanders in the wake of the pandemic.

More: The full list of Biden's executive actions so far.

LEFT CENTER → NPR	RIGHT CENTER → NY Post

⏰ Catch Up Quick

🇳🇱 More than 180 people were arrested across ten Dutch cities Monday night as protesters clashed with police over COVID restrictions for the third night in a row.
🇪🇪 Kaja Kallas, 43, was sworn in as Estonia’s first female prime minister yesterday after the previous government resigned due to a corruption scandal.
🇵🇷 Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency for gender-based violence and establishing various programs to address the issue.

☝️ 1 Last Thing

🏛️ The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Antony Blinken as the new secretary of state yesterday.

🤝 Let’s Make a Deal

Beyond Meat & Pepsico announced "The PLANeT Partnership" yesterday, a joint venture to develop plant-based drinks and snacks. The financial terms behind the deal have not been disclosed.
Target & Levi’s are partnering to release a limited-edition set of home goods and apparel starting February 28.

❌ The Other Side of the Pillow

Twitter permanently banned MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, citing "repeated violations of our Civic Integrity Policy" in a statement to the press. It was not immediately clear which posts by Lindell on Twitter led to the suspension of his account.

More: Read the policy in question.

LEFT CENTER → NPR

RIGHT CENTER → NY Post

🇪🇺🔋 EU OK’s EV R&D

The EU Commission approved $3.5B in funding to support the European Battery Innovation project, a plan that includes subsidies for Tesla, BMW, Stellantis, and other automakers to support the research and development of electric vehicle batteries in the EU.

More: In a statement, the commission said the public funding, provided by 12 member states, is expected to unlock an additional ~$11B in private investments.

🍩 DONUT Holes:

🏬 Department store chain Belk announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
📴 Verizon Fios internet users across the Northeast experienced widespread outages due to a fiber cut in Brooklyn.
📺 Vimeo announced a $300M round of funding valuing the 16-year-old video platform at more than $5B.

💰 Make Out Like A Bandit

Image via Facebook.

After ordering breakfast last Wednesday, a customer at Notchtop Bakery & Café in Estes Park, CO, known only as “David,” asked owner Nailya Khametvalieva how many people were working that day – and ended up leaving an incredibly generous tip.

“Thank you, 'Covid Bandit' for your generous gift to our staff. Your gift has touched many lives,” wrote Nailya on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

And in more feel-good features...

After his owner broke his leg and had to wear a cast, a dog named Billy developed a sympathy limp, adorably demonstrated in this Facebook video – a visit to the vet found nothing physically wrong with the compassionate canine.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the league will give free Super Bowl tickets to 7,500 healthcare workers who have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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🔬 The Answer to Cancer? A team of UK scientists is developing a new ultraprecise laser system that can remove cancer cells without damaging the surrounding tissue.

🤖 I, Robot… a new study from the Max-Planck institute suggests humans wouldn't be able to control a superintelligent AI. (Full study)

💻 Hack Attack… Google on Monday revealed a coordinated campaign in which North Korean hackers hacked a group of famous hackers with a fake hacking website (say that five times fast) to trick them into working for the North Korean regime.

🌐 What’s in the Box… some residents of Houston, TX, were surprised to discover Verizon 5G data boxes appearing without notice on their front lawns.