The Weekly Focus Edition 84
International Boycott of Winter Games
The Winter Olympic games are a series of sports that viewers around the world cherish. With exciting patriotic rivalry and a blast of entertainment, each country sends their top athletes to a different nation who create an extravagant show. For the coming Winter Olympic Games, China is the host nation; as most of you might be aware they do not have an exactly stable diplomatic situation. Major conflicts and some controversies have caused disturbance amongst countries that refuse to attend. Many nations are concerned by the alleged inhumane treatment of the Uighur Muslims in China. At the same time, others are displeased with the uncertain situation of star athlete tennis player Peng Shuai, who accused a former top official in the Communist Party of sexual assault.
Due to the aforementioned circumstances, the following countries have opted to pull out:
1. Lithuania
2. USA
3. Australia
4. UK
5. Canada
6. Belgium
7. Denmark
8. Estonia
Some nations have also chosen not to go due to the COVID-19 situation such as
1. New Zealand
2. Australia
3. Sweden
4. Slovenia
5. Netherlands
As of now no one knows how the Winter Olympics are going to function, we hope everything happens in a cooperative and safe manner.
New approach to the pandemic?
The Covid-19 Pandemic, caused by the Sars-COV-2 Virus has been going on for two long years now, and just when things seem to be getting better they take a turn for the worse. For example, after the initial wave between May-August 2020 things were calming down, and in January 2021 it seemed that with the new announcement of vaccines, life would indeed return to normal soon. But then disaster struck; Covid-19 bowled a bouncer and mutated into another, deadlier variant, the Delta variant. Our healthcare capacity was no match for this new variant, and thousands died in the deadliest outbreak till then. There were always shortages of oxygen, beds, ventilators, vaccines, pretty much everything needed to combat the virus. But once things settled down, we got to work and greatly increased our medical capacities, prepared for another wave by stocking up on machines and other items and started giving over a crore vaccine doses per day. When it was time for round three, we should be on the winning side. At first, Omicron sounded ominous, and people thought it
was going to be a repeat of Delta. But in reality, it was a much milder and weaker version of the virus, showing that it was actually desperate to survive and hence mutating rapidly. Although cases are at a high, 95% of them aren’t even symptomatic or mildly symptomatic and the deaths are more than 10 times lower than those of the previous wave. Our hospitals still remain largely vacant, and it seems our vaccines are working. With this being said, we learnt from our mistakes and have tackled the third wave extremely well. But despite this, there is no clear sign of life returning to normalcy. If we changed our approach and started to live normally and treat the pandemic as the common flu, not much damage will be done. In countries in Europe, people have already tried this approach and although the cases continue to come, the deaths are remaining low. It may seem iffy at first, but in my opinion, I feel this approach will result in the return to normalcy far sooner than expected, without dealing excess damage.
IPL is just 2 months away, auction in just under a month
The IPL is reportedly to start on the 27th of March, it will mostly take place in India but it's confirmed that no crowd will be allowed. Due to the current situation, the BCCI and IPL board have confirmed no crowd will be allowed, if the situation is worsened the IPL will be held in South Africa or Sri Lanka. The IPL player registration closed recently and a total of 1,214 players (896 Indian and 318 overseas) have signed up to be a part of the auction which will take place on the 12th and 13th of February. The auction will take place in Bangalore. Here are the detailed list of players registered for the auction- Capped Indian (61 players), Capped International (209 players), Associate (41 players), Uncapped Indians who were a part of previous IPL seasons (143 players), Uncapped International who were a part of previous IPL seasons (6 players), Uncapped Indians (692 players), and Uncapped Internationals (62 players). There are a few big names who did not register for the IPL auction and they are- Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Mitchell Starc, Chris Gayle, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes. They retained players from each team are-
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)– Ravindra Jadeja (16 cr), MS Dhoni (12 cr), Moeen Ali (8cr), and Ruturaj Gaikwad (6cr)
Delhi Capitals (DC)– Rishabh Pant (16cr), Axar Patel (9cr), Prithvi Shaw (7.5cr), and Anrich Nortje (6.5cr)
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)– Andre Russell (12cr), Venkatesh Iyer (8cr), Varun Chakravarthy (8cr), and Sunil Narine (6cr)
Mumbai Indians (MI)– Rohit Sharma (16cr), Jasprit Bumrah (12cr), Suryakumar Yadav (8cr), and Kieron Pollard (6cr)
Punjab Kings (PBKS)– Mayank Agarwal (14cr), and Arshdeep Singh (4cr)
Rajasthan Royals (RR)– Sanju Samson (14cr), Jos Buttler (10cr), and Yashasvi Jaiswal (4cr)
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)– Virat Kohli (15cr), Glenn Maxwell (11cr), and Mohammed Siraj (7cr)
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)– Kane Williamson (14cr), Umran Malik (4cr) and Abdul Samad (4cr)
Lucknow: KL Rahul (15 cr), Marcus Stoinis (11 cr) and Ravi Bishnoi (4 cr)
Ahmedabad: Hardik Pandya (15 cr), Rashid Khan (15 cr), Shubman Gill (7 cr)
The format of the season is as follows:
The format of IPL 2022 will be similar to the one used in 2011 when there were 10 teams too. The ten teams will be randomly drawn into groups of 5 and will play a total of 14 matches. Each team will play a team in their group twice(home and away), four teams in the other group, two teams from that group twice. Each win will get 2 points for a team, a loss 0 points and a draw/ no result will get both teams a point. The groups and schedules will be released by the end of February.
Other News
Thich Nhat Hanh, a famous Vietnamese monk who was called the ‘Father of Mindfulness’ passes away aged 95
Tensions along the Russia Ukraine border at an all time high, with over 100,000 Russian troops assembled at the border, according to the United States.
The World sends help to the stranded island Tonga after a volcanic eruption caused lethal damage to the country.
Kiribati, an isolated Pacific Island country reports its first Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemi.
Austria becomes the first European country to make the vaccine compulsory.
Novak Djockovic banned from playing the Australian Open, returns back to Serbia over vaccine controversy
India lose the series as South Africa take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the ODI series.
Naomi Osaka crashes out of the Australian Open in the third round.
Following Manchester United’s win against Brentford, they became the first club to win 300 away games in the Premier League.
With Maxwell’s 100, Melbourne Renegades score the highest ever T20 total in a professional game, of 273 runs.
Tech News
The iPhone 15 prob could come with a 5x periscope camera
One Plus may be working on a new phone called One Plus 10R
The iPhone SE 3 may get delayed
Smart wallpapers have been released for iPhone users of Whatsapp.
Fact or Fiction
1. Nuclear power plants use “nuclear fission” (the process of splitting an atom in two). “Nuclear fusion” (the process of combining atoms into one) has the potential to be safer but has not yet been developed to operate within a large power plant.
2. Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a non-renewable resource that must be mined.
3. Every 12 to 16 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which becomes radioactive waste.
4. Nuclear energy is being used in more than 30 countries around the world and even powers Mars rovers.
5. Nuclear power plants use large quantities of water for steam production and for heating. Some nuclear power plants remove large quantities of water from a lake or river, which could affect fish and other aquatic life.
6. More than 70% of America’s emission-free power comes from nuclear energy sources.
7. 1 in 10 households and business in the US are electrically powered by nuclear energy.
8. United States power plants produce 5,000 metric tons of radioactive waste every year.
9. Electricity generated by nuclear energy is not as susceptible to fluctuations in coal and gas prices.
10. Russian nuclear energy facilities are the highest regulated plants in the world, subject to scrutinous observations and regulations.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (14+ with some mature themes)
Review Overlook: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Love for the book: 4/5
Review in a line - Malibu Rising was absolutely breath-taking and beautifully written
Plot: I loved the plot, even though it wasn’t the driving force of the book. Taylor Jenkins
Reid manages to seamlessly weave the past and the present storylines together, and create parallels between them that will leave you shattered. The only complaint that I have is that towards the end, there were some things happening that seemed
convenient for the plot, and it felt a little more soap opera-like than I would have liked, but overall, it was wonderful.
Characters: The characters were the most impactful facet of the book. Each of the
siblings had their own problems to solve, that brought them together. Their flaws were
beautifully represented, and there was a dynamic between them that seemed so fragile,
yet strong. My favourite part of the book is the character growth and seeing how the
characters in the past and present storylines mirrored each other. Taylor Jenkins Reid
has a way of making you empathize with the character. I only wish we could have dived
deeper into each of the characters, but because there were quite a few, that wasn’t
possible.
Writing: The writing was breathtaking. It was the trademark Taylor Jenkins Reid style
that she is known and loved for. She managed to make a story that could have easily
been confusing with the multiple plotlines and timelines into something easy to track,
and memorable. Overall the writing completely exceeded my expectations and
captivated me enough to make this a one-sitting read.
:) - The character growth
:( - The convenience of the plot (only near the end)
Special Thanks to Anoushka Shah for providing us with this brilliant review! Please go check out her wonderful website for more such reviews!
https://anoushkathenerd.wordpress.com
Written by Vivaan Dharamshi Edited by Nirvaan Zaveri
Article 1 by Arhaan Zaveri Article 3 by Krishnav Bubna
Fact or Fiction by Nikunj Gupta
Review (Collaboration) by Anoushka Shah
Fact or Fiction Answers
Answers:
1) Fact
2) Fact
3) Fiction (It's actually 18 – 24 months, which is better because the plant lasts for longer and produces more energy.)
4) Fact
5) Fiction (It’s used for cooling, not heating)
6) Fact
7) Fiction (It's 1 in every 5, not 10).
8) Fiction (They produce 2000 metric tonnes of waste)
9) Fact
10) Fiction (It's American)