☕ *Your Expresso is ready*

📬 Get this delivered straight to your inbox: https://indianexpress.com/newsletters/

Read the briefing in a single page: https://indianexpress.com/article/live-news/top-news-briefing-today-7617554/

Good morning,

🚨 *The Big Story*

With winter here and millions of Afghans in urgent need of humanitarian aid, National Security Advisors of eight countries, including India, expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and said assistance should be provided in an “unimpeded, direct and assured manner”. They also called for cooperation against radicalisation, extremism and drug trafficking.

https://www.inexp.in/v5xKO+

Meanwhile, Russia, which issued its own statement on the NSAs’ meeting on Afghanistan, made no mention of collective cooperation on these issues.

https://www.inexp.in/tVY1+p

⚡ *Only in the Express*

Multiple internal Facebook reports over the last two years red-flagged an increase in “anti-minority” and “anti-Muslim” rhetoric as “a substantial component” of the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. Inflammatory content in English, Bengali, and Hindi also spiked numerous times and especially in December 2019 and March 2020, coinciding with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and start of lockdowns enforced to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

https://www.inexp.in/G+8-PG

📰 *From the Front Page*

A country-wide National Achievement Survey, aimed at assessing learning loss among school students due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, will be carried out on Friday. But the conduct of the survey, the first such since the pandemic broke out, will be hobbled by realities of delayed school reopenings and natural calamities.

https://www.inexp.in/Yg3NSm

A day after Nawab Malik said he was going to drop a "hydrogen bomb", the Maharashtra minister accused former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of suppressing a fake currency case following demonetisation, and protecting "known criminals". The BJP rubbished the allegations and displayed pictures of men Malik accused Fadnavis of protecting with leaders of the MVA coalition.

https://www.inexp.in/Dzim-v

A 22-year-old detained over a minor going missing in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh was found dead at a police station on Tuesday. Five officials of the Kotwali Police Station, including the SHO, were suspended over the incident, with police claiming that Altaf had hanged himself with a drawstring from the hood of his jacket, using a water pipe in a toilet that is a couple of feet from the ground.

https://www.inexp.in/fOPsUE

👩‍💻 *Must Read*

Two of the three senior faculty members of NCERT’s Department of Gender Studies, who helped develop a first-of-its-kind teachers’ manual on inclusion of transgender children in school, have been transferred. The manual was earlier removed from the NCERT website after a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

https://www.inexp.in/DquZ90

In what appears to be an attempt to appropriate the legacy of late Congress stalwart ND Tiwari, Uttarakhand’s BJP government shortlisted the former chief minister for its prestigious annual state award. Tiwari will be posthumously conferred the state award for his “social work and public service”, and for this contribution in the state’s development, the government said. Meanwhile, the Congress has questioned why the BJP hasn’t honoured Tiwari in the last four years.

https://www.inexp.in/1SDHFV

At the COP26 conference, India has joined over 30 other countries in signing a declaration that promises to work towards ensuring that only zero-emission cars and vans are sold by the year 2040. However, this timeline is meant mainly for the developed country signatories, and is not a legally-binding commitment. Emerging markets like India have only promised to work “intensely towards accelerated proliferation and adoption of zero-emission vehicles”.

https://www.inexp.in/D3tZvB

⌛ *And Finally...*

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai now has a cricket connection after marrying Asser Malik, Pakistan Cricket Board’s general manager (high performance). So what do we know about Malala’s husband? A cricket enthusiast, Malik helped build one of Pakistan’s biggest amateur cricket leagues and has also been involved with grassroots cricket in low-income areas in southern Punjab for quite some time.

https://www.inexp.in/KWg5A4

🤐 Delhi Confidential: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked party general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal to call a meeting of Telangana leaders to discuss the defeat of the party candidate in the Huzurabad bypoll. This comes in the backdrop of a section of party leaders blaming the former state leadership for the humiliating defeat of party candidate B V Narsing Rao, who could garner only 3,012 votes.

https://www.inexp.in/KWgiBg

🎧 In today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we look at how the hospital in Bhopal was ill-equipped to deal with fire outbreaks, the challenges security forces are facing in Poonch, and why e-commerce companies are looking to deliver groceries in under 30 mins.

https://www.inexp.in/MKMesg

Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose

🔍Explained: How NASA’s DART mission will hit and deflect an asteroid

https://ift.tt/3n3YAq5

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Why US inflation is so high, and when it may ease

https://ift.tt/3wyqQEp

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: What’s behind the crisis at Belarus-Poland border

https://ift.tt/3wB8Usy

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Who is Puneet Dikshit, the McKinsey partner charged with insider trading in the US?

https://ift.tt/3c1tBEU

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: What’s behind the crisis at Belarus-Poland border

https://ift.tt/3wB8Usy

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Who is Puneet Dikshit, the McKinsey partner charged with insider trading in the US?

https://ift.tt/3c1tBEU

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Why North Chennai is worst-hit in this year’s heavy rains

https://ift.tt/3D8TNcj

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Why has Mumbai-Karnataka region been rechristened as Kittur Karnataka

https://ift.tt/3HdqyYn

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Who is Devasahayam Pillai, the first Indian layman to be conferred sainthood?

https://ift.tt/3D3huCW

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Personal loans are growing, but is this the right time to take one?

https://ift.tt/3oiS8ed

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: The Char Dham road debate

https://ift.tt/3kuKEU9

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: Personal loans are growing, but is this the right time to take one?

https://ift.tt/3oiS8ed

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: The Char Dham road debate

https://ift.tt/3kuKEU9

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Covaxin is 77.8% effective against symptomatic Covid: reading interim trial data

https://ift.tt/3wKPDVN

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Earth’s first landmass emerged in Singhbhum: study

https://ift.tt/3C2Kutn

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

According to the CBI chargesheet, around 740,128 Euros (Rs 4.15 crore) were received in the accounts of Interstellar Technologies from Dassault Aviation between 2003 and 2006 through IDS Infotech.

https://www.inexp.in/1-DLDo

SVA group of developing countries that includes India and China has rejected the first draft of the expected agreement from the Glasgow climate conference and asked for changing the entire section on enhancing mitigation actions. This group, which calls itself Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), accused the developed countries of “new carbon colonialism” — attempting to transfer their responsibilities on the rest of the world, and trying to impose new rules.

https://www.inexp.in/o7LwXZ

⌛ *And Finally…*

Sometime in 2017, New Zealand’s World T20 semi-final hero Jimmy Neesham was gripped by a growing sense of depression. He would wake up in the mornings of games, open the shades of his room, and would hope for rain. It got to a point where Neesham even considered quitting cricket. But, Heath Mills, the head of player association in New Zealand cricket encouraged him to seek help and then to take it a game at a time. 

https://www.inexp.in/gkcA7H

Delhi Confidential: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s meeting with party leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal and Ajay Maken on Wednesday was held at Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane residence. Rahul was not present at the meeting as he is believed to be out of the country. 

https://www.inexp.in/+9LNZk

Until tomorrow,

Rounak Bagchi and Rahel Philipose

🔍Explained: How will delimitation of PMC electoral panels be carried out ahead of civic polls?

https://ift.tt/3kvJsQp

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: What are the two initiatives of the RBI that PM Modi launched today?

https://ift.tt/3DeDBq7

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained

🔍Explained: How will delimitation of PMC electoral panels be carried out ahead of civic polls?

https://ift.tt/3kvJsQp

Go beyond the headlines with #ExpressExplained