Former Union Minister Jaswant Singh dies at 82, PM Modi, Rajnath Singh tweet condolences https://ift.tt/3i1lys4

Former Union Minister Jaswant Singh passed away on Sunday. He was 82. Jaswant Singh held defence, external affairs and finance portfolios in Vajpayee's different ministries from 1996-2004. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the seasoned BJP leader "served our nation diligently first as a soldier and later during his long association with politics."

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New top story from Time: All 53 People Aboard Indonesia Submarine Declared Dead After Vessel’s Wreckage Found

https://ift.tt/3ezrzg5 ANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was considered sunk, not merely missing , but did not explicitly say whether the crew was dead. Officials had also said the KRI Nanggala 402’s oxygen supply would have run out early Saturday, three days after vessel went missing off the resort island of Bali. “We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday. “With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead,” Tjahjanto said. An underwater ro...

New top story from Time: The Free Market is Dead: What Will Replace It?

https://ift.tt/32Q9kgW Big meetings in the Oval Office in the time of Covid-19 are rare, but two weeks into his presidency, President Joe Biden decided to make an exception. It was only a few days after the nation’s coronavirus case count peaked in late January, and Biden sat on a stately beige chair, double masked and flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and newly confirmed Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen. The leaders of some of the nation’s largest businesses like Wal-Mart and J.P. Morgan Chase had come to the White House that day to talk economic stimulus. But the real surprise attendee was the head of America’s largest business advocacy group, the Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue. Under Donohue’s leadership over the past two decades, the Chamber had effectively become an organ of the Republican party, handsomely rewarding conservatives who worked to dismantle public programs and the regulatory state with campaign donations and support. Donohue said little, but he ...

New top story from Time: As Myanmar’s Junta Intensifies Its Crackdown, Pro-Democracy Protesters Prepare for Civil War

https://ift.tt/3cUWeEQ Before the Feb. 1 coup, Zarni Win* worked for a United Nations-funded committee that monitored a ceasefire between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic armed groups. Today, the 27-year-old from Yangon, the country’s largest city, is getting ready to enlist in one of those groups herself. “Now is the time to start preparing to eliminate the terrorist military,” she tells TIME. “I am ready to join the armed revolution.” Myanmar is veering dangerously toward all-out civil war as the military, known as the Tatmadaw, terrorizes the public , and attacks restive ethnic territories. The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Mar. 31 that “a bloodbath is imminent.” In an online presentation cited by the Associated Press, she said civil war “at an unprecedented scale” was a possibility and spoke of Myanmar’s deterioration into a “failed state.” Protesters in Myanmar have maintained a largely peaceful resistance to dictatorship since ...

New top story from Time: ‘I Pray for My Nani.’ The Survivor’s Guilt of Watching India’s COVID-19 Catastrophe Unfold From Afar

https://ift.tt/32QjA8K The Sunday before last, I awoke to find that my aunt in India had added me to a WhatsApp family chat, titled “Mama”—her mother-in-law, my 91-year-old-grandmother. I scrolled through dozens of messages from my extended family, trying to figure out what had happened. At last I came to the dreadful news: “…Mama is positive.” My grandmother, who raised me, had tested positive for COVID-19. Her daughter-in-law, in turn, who lived with her was positive, as was her daughter, my cousin. A few days before, my great uncle, my grandmother’s last surviving sibling, had died of the virus. He, like my grandmother, had received one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine. But it was not enough to protect him. On the seventh day, his oxygen levels and blood pressure plummeted, and his weak heart gave out. We did not dare tell my grandmother, for fear that grief would further compromise her health. It is hard to exaggerate the hell India has become in these past two weeks....

New top story from Time: At the Republican National Convention, You Might Think COVID-19 Was Over

https://ift.tt/2Eo94gy Listening to the speakers at the Republican National Convention, you might be forgiven for thinking that the coronavirus pandemic is over. Many have largely ignored the virus that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans, despite the fact that it continues to seriously disrupt life in the United States, including their own event. Others, like White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, referred to the pandemic in the past tense: “It was awful,” Kudlow said on August 25. “Health and economic impacts were tragic. Hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID virus.” When Vice President Mike Pence took the stage Wednesday night, his speech was a striking example of the Trump Administration’s attempts to reframe the history of the pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and nearly ground the American...

New top story from Time: Almost Every Doctor Recommends Sunscreen. So Why Don’t We Know More About Its Safety?

https://ift.tt/3llOUXn Each year, as Memorial Day approaches, Holly Thaggard braces herself for the headlines. About how sunscreen may be damaging coral reefs . About the possible flammability of spray-on sunscreen . Headlines—as there were this year—about how sunscreen contains chemicals that could harm your health . “This has happened every single year for the last decade of my life,” says Thaggard, founder of Texas-based Supergoop, a sunscreen company that brands itself as reef-safe and free of hundreds of potentially problematic ingredients. This year, the is-sunscreen-dangerous news cycle started in May, when Valisure, an independent laboratory dedicated to quality-testing pharmaceuticals and personal-care products, released a report warning that its scientists found benzene—a carcinogen also found in vehicle emissions and cigarette smoke—in 78 U.S. sun-care products. Benzene is not an ingredient in sunscreens, but rather a contaminant likely introduced during the manu...

New top story from Time: Infrastructure Is Important to Reduce Climate Risk. But It’s Not Enough

https://ift.tt/2Rtvgwj In communities across the country, the increasingly visible effects of climate change have launched a race to adapt with new infrastructure. Miami Beach has built water pumps and elevated roads. California has created new rules requiring fire proof materials for new homes at risk of wildfires. Charleston, S.C. is planning to raise its sea wall—as are many other places. But often lost in this infrastructure discussion is the reality that adaptation—even paired with aggressive emissions reduction at a global scale—will not be enough to protect us from the financial costs of climate change. Some communities will inevitably need to relocate; others that stay will pay the price of living with new and more frequent weather extremes. All of this results in a toll on financial wellbeing on both the individual and a societal level that cannot be fixed with new infrastructure alone. On Thursday, after spending the past several months touting his infrastructur...

New top story from Time: To Solve Disordered Migration, Governments Need to Think About Climate Change

https://ift.tt/3t0sVpc Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador made a tangible proposal at last week’s U.S.-led climate summit, a rarity in the world of climate geopolitics. He called on President Joe Biden to finance an expansion of Mexico’s mass tree-planting program, called “Sowing Life,” across Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (which make up the “Northern Triangle” region just south of Mexico). The program would pay farmers in those countries to plant trees, which, he said, could help alleviate rural poverty and convince potential undocumented migrants to stay home. The U.S., he added, could offer six-month work visas for those who participated in Sowing Life for at least three years, “giving order to the flow of migration.” It was a bold idea, coming from a controversial populist leader with a dubious track record on environmental policy. It hit on an enticing number of U.S. priorities, though: in January Biden signed an executive order mandating the infusi...

New top story from Time: Germany Has Officially Recognized Colonial-Era Atrocities in Namibia. But For Some, Reconciliation Is a Long Way Off

https://ift.tt/3fVRkaO The German government formally recognized colonial-era atrocities against the Herero and Nama people in modern-day Namibia for the first time, referring to the early 20th century massacres as “genocide” on Friday and pledging to pay a “ gesture to recognize the immense suffering inflicted.” “In light of the historical and moral responsibility of Germany, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a statement , adding that the German government will fund projects related to “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia amounting to €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). The sum will be paid out over 30 years and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama, Agence France-Presse reported . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Although it’s a significant step for a once colonial power to agree such a deal with a former colony, there’s skepticism among some experts and ob...

New top story from Time: The Blocked Suez Canal Isn’t the Only Waterway the World Should Be Worried About

https://ift.tt/39rG7fN I’ve sailed through the Suez Canal many times—as a junior officer, a captain of a destroyer, a commodore in command of a group of destroyers, and as a strike group commander on the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise . It is a fascinating trip, and dangerous in a variety of ways. At various times, the terrorist threat was very high and we went through with crew-served weapons manned fore and aft, and helicopters over head. Exhaustion for the senior leaders tends to be a factor as it is a long passage. As a ship’s captain, I almost went aground in the Great Bitter Lake, as the Suez is called, after a couple of bad navigational decisions on my part, but, fortunately, my navigator saved my career with some good advice. But as we’ve all seen over the past few days, it can be dangerous from the perspective of seemingly simple and routine marine operations. The grounding and wedging athwart the canal of the Ever Given is beyond unusual, and hopefully ther...

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