A British yacht captain said a pod of orcas repeatedly rammed his boat for two hours off the coast of Portugal last month, the latest of more than 40 unexplained killer whale attacks on vessels off the Iberian coast in the last six months.

“I don’t frighten easily and this was terrifying,” British sailor David Smith told the BBC last week.

Smith and his crew were delivering a 45-foot yacht to a new location for a client when the pod of six or seven killer whales began ramming the underside of the vessel.

“It was continuous,” Smith said. “I think there were six or seven animals, but it seemed like the juvenile ones — the smaller ones — were most active. They seemed to be going for the rudder” — typical of what others have reported in the string of attacks.

Portuguese maritime authorities advised Smith to shut down the boat’s engine to make it “uninteresting” to the orcas — but it didn’t work. Smith said he feared the pummeling would damage the rudder structure that steers the boat. 

“If that fractures, you’re really in trouble,” Smith said. “I was definitely preparing to ask the Portuguese coast guard to send a helicopter to get us off.”

The orcas suddenly departed after two hours. 

Scientists, initially skeptical of the reported orca attacks, have begun investigating. Though no humans have been injured, the attacks appear to be increasingly aggressive.  

Some media reports have characterized the orcas as a “rogue” pod of killer whales out for revenge, possibly for boat injuries.

Scientists, however, have speculated that the encounters may be some form of  “play” for the juvenile orcas. Three juvenile male orcas appear to be involved in most of the attacks, according to video footage reviewed by scientists. They show signs of injuries from boats.

“It’s mainly two of those guys … just going crazy,” biologist Renaud de Stephanis told the BBC. “They just play, play, and play. And the game is getting worse and worse.”

Spanish authorities have prohibited smaller boats from the area of the reported attacks.

Victoria Morris told The Guardian about an attack in July on a 46-foot sailboat where she was a crew member. She recalled the horror she felt as she prepared to abandon ship as some nine killer whales repeatedly bashed the hull as they “whistled to each other.” It felt “totally orchestrated,” she said. A chunk of the vessel’s rudder was bitten away.

In August a French-flagged vessel radioed authorities to say it was “under attack” by orcas.  

Later that same day, a Spanish naval yacht lost part of its rudder in an encounter with orcas. One crew member can be heard on a videotape of the clash that one of the orcas was eating the rudder.

In September three orcas repeatedly rammed a sailing boat off the coast of Spain for 45 minutes as it traveled to Scotland. That crew also reported the animals bit off part of the rudder.

Trigger warning: This article talks about rape and violence. 

In yet another horrific case of violence, a 15-year-old Dalit rape survivor died in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr of burn injuries on Tuesday after being set ablaze. 

PTI reported that the father of the minor girl has alleged that she was set on fire by an uncle and friends of the accused, who were pressuring her to withdraw the rape case. 

The accused raped the woman three months ago and is in prison after being charged under POCSO

Senior Superintendent of Police, Santosh Kumar Singh was quoted by NDTV as saying, “The (rape) incident took place on August 15. The accused was arrested and he is still in jail. This morning, at 8 am, she came to the hospital with burn injuries. She was sent to Delhi for treatment where she died.” 

The girl was brought to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where she died on Tuesday evening. 

ALSO READ: Hathras: Lawyers, Activists Explain How Blame Is Shifted To Victim’s Family In Caste Crimes

While the police had said that the girl had set herself on fire, the family has alleged that it was the family of the accused that set her on fire. 

The police have said that seven people have been booked in the incident and three have been arrested. 

The girl’s uncle told The Indian Express, “We were being threatened to withdraw the rape case and have a decision in the panchayat. Around 8.30 pm Monday, I received a call from an unknown number – they threatened and told the family to withdraw the case or face consequences. At 9.30 am Tuesday, when the girl’s parents were not at home, we were told that she was set on fire.”

The girl’s father, in his complaint, too has alleged that she was set ablaze when he and his wife were not at home. 

The Hindu reported that the father saying in his complaint that the uncle and aunt of the accused and five others forced their way into their house and set her on fire. He said that the family of the accused had also threatened him.

This comes over a month after a 19-year-old Dalit woman died after men of the dominant caste brutally assaulted her. While the family of the woman has said that the men raped her as well, the police in Uttar Pradesh had denied it. 

The incident in Hathras had caused massive outrage, with the Uttar Pradesh administration and government drawing severe criticism. 

Lavish royal drama The Crown is drawing both ire and admiration for its portrayal of Britain’s most famous family.

The Netflix series recreates some of the most sensitive and controversial events in the Windsor dynasty – including the death of the Prince of Wales’ beloved uncle Lord Mountbatten and of course, the entrance – and tragic exit of his first wife, Princess Diana.

Some royal commentators have been quick to deride the series for its portrayal of some of these events – despite writer and creator Peter Morgan’s repeated defence of his right to creative freedom.

The show does employ researchers and Morgan has gone on record to say he regularly meets with royal aides to allow them to “brace themselves” for upcoming storylines.

“We do our very, very best to get it right, but sometimes I have to conflate [incidents]… You sometimes have to forsake accuracy, but you must never forsake the truth,” he told The Times.

Despite Morgan’s transparency about his work, royal commentators and media figures have been quick to dispute some of the show’s more controversial content so far.

Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins has attacked the series, denouncing it as “fake history”, describing it as “reality hijacked as propaganda.”

Jenkins accused the show of taking liberties “by relying on royalty’s well-known – and sensible – reluctance to resort to the courts. This is artistic licence at its most cowardly as well as casual.”

Here are five of the most disputed moments. Spoilers ahead. 

Lord Mountbatten and the letter

The opening episode of the fourth season features an imagined interaction involving the Prince of Wales and his beloved great-uncle Lord Mountbatten.

Charles Dance’s Lord Mountbatten admonishes Josh O’Connor’s Charles for his pursuit of Camilla, who at the time was married to Andrew Parker Bowles.

Viewers see the older man writing a letter warning Charles he is in danger of bringing “ruin and disappointment” to the family. On the show, the prince only reads the note after the IRA assassinated Lord Mountbatten in August 1979.

While no record of the letter exists, Morgan believes the interaction to be based in truth.

Speaking on the show’s official podcast, he said: “What we know is that Mountbatten was really responsible for taking Charles to one side at precisely this point and saying, ‘Look, you know, enough already with playing the field, it’s time you got married and it’s time you provided an heir’.

“As the heir I think there was some concern that he should settle down, marry the appropriate person and get on with it.”

He said: “In my own head I thought that would have even greater impact on Charles if it were to come post-mortem, as it were. I think everything that’s in that letter that Mountbatten writes to Charles is what I really believe, based on everything I’ve read and people I’ve spoken to, that represents his view.

“We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten’s death, but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it.”

Piers Morgan has begged to differ, accusing the show of “crossing a line” and going too far with its treatment of the event. 

Speaking on Tuesday’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “Charles was utterly heartbroken by the murder of his great favoured uncle and that to me, that crosses a line to me where if you’re inventing a critical letter from someone who’s now dead and can’t respond and there’s no record of that letter ever being sent, what justification is there for that?”

Royal historian Hugo Vickers also pointed out that “Mountbatten was by no means a good influence” claiming (via The Times) he “urged Prince Charles to ‘sow his wild oats’ before finding the unsullied girl”.

The Queen and the Kennedys

In June 1961, President John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie visited Buckingham Palace.

In The Crown, the Queen finds out some time after their meeting that the First Lady described her to dinner guests as “a middle-aged woman so incurious, unintelligent and unremarkable that Britain’s new reduced place in the world was not a surprise but an inevitability”.

Buckingham Palace did not fare well either, with the fictional Jackie deeming it “second-rate, dilapidated and sad, like a neglected provincial hotel.”

It seems there is a grain of truth to these scenes, with Kennedy confiding to photographer Cecil Beaton that was unimpressed by the palace furnishings and by the Queen’s dress and hairstyle.

Writer Gore Vidal went so far as to say Kennedy felt “resented” by the Queen and found the monarch “pretty heavy going”. She is also said to have remarked: “Philip was nice, but nervous. One felt absolutely no relationship between them.”

Evidence of tensions is given further weight by Kitty Kelley, who in her 1998 book The Royals, stated: “The Queen’s resentment was real.”

Princess Margaret’s hidden cousins

In episode seven of season four, Princess Margaret (played by Helena Bonham Carter) learns she has two disabled cousins who were removed from their family and sent to live in a hospital.

Katherine and Nerissa were Margaret and Queen Elizabeth’s first cousins, the third and fifth daughter of Queen Mother’s eldest brother John Herbert Bowes-Lyon and his wife Fenella.

“[They were] locked up in the Earlswood Institution for Mental Defectives (later changed to The Royal Earlswood Hospital), you please, in Redhill, [Surrey],” Margaret tells the Queen.

Olivia Colman in her role as the Queen informs her sister they are “long dead”, but is informed this is not the case. “What my family did was unforgivable,” concludes Margaret in The Crown.

Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother blames the matter on the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, after which point her daughter became the Queen.

“My family, the Bowes-Lyons, went from being minor Scottish aristocrats to having a direct bloodline to the Crown,” she says, adding that the development “resulted in the children of my brother paying a terrible price.”

Unsurprisingly, there is only scant public knowledge of the Queen and Princess Margaret’s knowledge and relationship to their cousins.  

In 2011 Channel 4 screened the documentary The Queen’s Hidden Cousins, which revealed that Katherine and Nerissa, both born with learning difficulties, had been effectively abandoned by their parents after they were placed in hospital at the ages of 15 and 22 respectively.

According to the documentary, there is no official record of either woman ever receiving a family visit and the 1963 edition of Burke’s Peerage listed the women as both having died in 1961 when they were actually still alive.

In 1987 the Daily Express reported that Nerissa had died the year before, buried in a pauper’s grave. A 1987 statement from Buckingham Palace said the Queen was aware of the report but added: “We have no comment about it at all. It is a matter for the Bowes-Lyon family.”

Lady Elizabeth Anson, a niece of the two sisters, issued a statement to the BBC on behalf of the Bowes-Lyons family saying “there was no attempt at a cover-up” and that the sisters had been visited by many family members.

She added that her grandmother was “a very vague person who often didn’t fill out the forms that Burke’s Peerage sent her, either properly or completely.”

The Royal Earlswood closed in 1997 and Katherine died at the age of 87 in 2014 – though is unclear where she spent the last 18 years of her life.

When Liz met Maggie

The Crown paints a fraught relationship between the Queen and Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Played by Gillian Anderson, the women fail to gel, with a dismayed Thatcher leaving a disastrous weekend at Balmoral, telling her husband: “I’m struggling to find any redeeming features in these people at all. They aren’t sophisticated or cultured or elegant or anything close to an ideal.”

Tensions deepen in later episodes which see the two women at odds over sanctions against South Africa. Indeed an upcoming Channel 4 documentary entitled Royals Declassified promises to address the Queen’s relationships with prime ministers, “including mounting tensions with Margaret Thatcher that threatened a constitutional crisis.”

Morgan said: “It could be said that they are two very similar women, born only months apart.

“They are very much defined by the Second World War, by a sense of frugality, hard work, commitment, Christianity and so much more.

“It was a commonly held piece of wisdom that the Queen and Thatcher didn’t get on. I think there was probably a lot of respect.

“But they also had many differences, it was really fun exploring their differences and their similarities. I also get a chance to explore them both as mothers.

“Writing Thatcher and the Queen as mothers was probably an angle that no-one has explored before. But it yielded one of my favourite episodes in the season.”

For her part, in her 1993 memoir, The Downing Street Years, Thatcher remained tight-lipped: “Although the press could not resist the temptation to suggest disputes between the Palace and Downing Street, especially on Commonwealth affairs, I always found the Queen’s attitude towards the government absolutely correct.

“Of course, under the circumstances, stories of clashes between ‘two powerful women’ were just too good not to make up.”

Charles and Diana 

True to life, The Crown acknowledges the fact that Prince Charles was firstly dating Diana’s older sister Sarah, but its portrayal of the couple’s first meeting is infinitely more romantic than it really was.

The show sees Prince Charles at the Spencer home, waiting to pick up Sarah, when he finds himself face-to-face with a 16-year-old Diana – played by Emma Corrin, dressed as a wood sprite for her school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, peering puckishly at him from behind a tree.

Director Benjamin Caron said: “That scene wasn’t originally as magical,” though it ended up “leaning slightly into the more magical, wondrous side”.

He explained: “My instant reaction to that scene was thinking about Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, that moment when Leonardo DiCaprio sees Claire Danes through the fish tank and they catch eyes, how enchanting that was.”

The true circumstances were much less of a fairytale.

“We sort of met in a ploughed field,” Diana recalled in an interview following their engagement in 1981.

Charles was at the Spencer home for a grouse hunt, and the same interview, recalled: “I remember thinking what a jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was. I mean great fun and bouncy and full of life and everything.”

Diana’s first impression of Charles was “pretty amazing” – though in later years she seemed to have revised her opinion, telling author Andrew Morton for his book Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words that her first thought of Charles was: “God, what a sad man.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday and the two leaders discussed the Covid-19 pandemic, tackling climate change and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

This was the first interaction between the two leaders after Democrat Biden won the US presidential election.

Modi tweeted: 

The prime minister also conveyed his congratulations to US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“Her success is a matter of great pride and inspiration for members of the vibrant Indian-American community, who are a tremendous source of strength for Indo-US relations,” he said.

Biden’s transition team said in a statement that the President-elect noted he looks forward to working closely with Prime Minister Modi on shared global challenges, including containing Covid, launching the global economic recovery and strengthening democracy at home and abroad. 

Since Biden’s win, foreign media has looked at what this could mean for India and Modi, who has often called incumbent president Donald Trump his “friend”. 

Al-Jazeera

The Al-Jazeera piece looked at if the Biden-Harris administration will confront Modi on human rights. It quoted analysts as saying that the new US administration would not look away from human rights issues and the situation in Kashmir. 

“Unlike Trump, who had no interest in human rights anywhere, Biden-Harris team is likely to bring up questions of human rights, minority rights and crushing of freedoms in Kashmir and elsewhere,” Al-Jazeera quoted Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations at London’s University of Westminster, as saying.  

Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal also noted that Biden will “probably be tougher than Trump on Indian human-rights problems”. In a piece last week, WSJ said that as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as vice president, Biden has long championed stronger US-India ties.

“At the same time, Indians would be foolish to expect the free pass on human rights and democracy issued by the Trump administration to remain valid.”

Financial Times

Financial Times noted that “relations with the US will become more challenging” for Modi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and UK’s Boris Johnson. Trump turned a blind eye on policies seen as eroding India’s secular foundations, marginalising Muslims and cracking down on dissent, it said.

“The relationship could grow more fractious as Joe Biden has pledged a values-based foreign policy, which could put the spotlight on India’s record on human rights and religious freedoms. However, Indian officials note the bilateral relationship has steadily improved as the US looks to India to counter China.”

South China Morning Post

SCMP last week quoted analysts as saying that while shared concerns over China are likely to endure, US may turn up the heat on human rights under the Biden administration. 

Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, told SCMP that “human rights concerns in countries like India had been neglected by the Trump administration”.

Ashley Tellis, a former adviser in the US Department of State, said in a dossier that “Biden would likely be different, bringing domestic Indian political developments under greater US scrutiny”.

The piece noted that Biden has said he was “disappointed” by the Modi government’s move to amend citizenship laws in the country and has also criticised the Modi government’s handling of Kashmir saying that “restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or the shutting or slowing of the internet weaken democracy”.

A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government was planning to reinstate curbs amid rising Covid-19 cases, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved the proposal to limit the number of guests at weddings. 

The number of people allowed at weddings has now been cut to 50 from 200 as the national capital recorded 6,396 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

While the Delhi government has rejected rumours of another lockdown, health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that “local restrictions” are likely at some places, according to Hindustan Times. 

Kejriwal had said on Tuesday that his government has written to the Centre for permission to impose some curbs, including lockdowns of some markets. He had said that “if social distancing and mask-wearing is not being followed in any bazaar and there’s a possibility of those areas becoming a hotspot, we should be allowed to close them down for a few days.”

Since the middle of May, the capital has gradually opened markets and public transport shut during the early phase of the pandemic.

Experts had told HuffPost India last week that while pollution and winter can be blamed for the number of cases, there are other reasons too — an increase in commercial activities and slackening of guard on the part of the people.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs tweeted that DRDO will add 250 ICU beds to its already existing 250 ICU beds in the coming days at its Covid hospital near Delhi airport. 

In a series of tweets, the ministry announced a slew of measures that will be taken to contain the increasing number of Covid cases in Delhi. 

Indian Railways will make available train coaches with 800 beds at Shakur Basti railway station, the ministry said and added that doctors and para-medics from CAPFs will man these coaches. 

MHA said that planning for a house-to-house survey in Delhi is in an advanced stage and it is expected to begin by the weekend and be completed by 25 November. 

The number of tests will also be increased. MHA said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by the end of November. Testing capacity was enhanced by 10,000 tests/day on Tuesday.

For ease in testing, ICMR will help Delhi government in deploying 10 mobile testing labs for Covid with a total capacity of 20,000 tests in phased manner beginning next week, MHA said.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked for activist 81-year-old activist and poet Varavara Rao to be moved to Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital noting that he was almost on his death bed. 

The 81-year-old, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, had been lodged in the Taloja jail since August 2018, had contracted Covid-19 earlier this year. Rao also has other health complications. 

Live Law quoted the Bombay High Court as saying, “Ultimately the man is on almost death bed. He needs some treatment. Can the State say no no we will treat him in Taloja?”  

The bench of Justices SS Shinde and Madhav Jamdar made the remarks while hearing a plea by Rao’s wife Pendyala Hemlatha for his release from prison on medical grounds. 

The court asked the Maharashtra government to move Rao to the hospital and allowed for Rao’s family to see him. 

The Live Law report quoted senior lawyer Indira Jaising, who argued for his release, as saying, “He (Varavara Rao) is completely bed-ridden, in diapers, no medical attendant and has a catheter. Catheter was not changed for 3 months, as there was no one to change it.” 

In a thread of tweets from court, Live Law reported Jaising as saying that Rao was being taken care of by co-accused Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira because there was no one else to take care of him. 

Jaising also cited post-Covid complications that can be fatal. 

Rao was admitted to Nanavati hospital earlier this year because of his health complications. 

The Bombay High Court, had last week denied a bail on medical grounds and asked for a health check up, which had happened online. 

On October 29, the Supreme Court had also refused to grant him bail when his wife approached the court on the issue. 

Read the entire article on Live Law here and follow their tweet thread on today’s hearing here.

If you’re struggling for relax-spiration, you’ve come to the right place.

The past year has been stressful to say the least – and all that cortisol floating around our systems isn’t doing us any good. 

Self-care has never been more important, doctors tell us, and we 100% consider watching some of these calming live streams to be that.

Nature has it all for you, from otters lazing about in rivers, to bears hunting wild salmon, from totally zen beaches to wonderful worker bees, plus some incredible views of planet earth from space. There are thousands of cameras showing us live streams of goings on around the world (and beyond!). 

Not only are they a great way to tackle your wanderlust in a period where we’re not able to travel. Right now, it’s also the ultimate 10 minutes of non-work, non-Covid time your brain needs.

1. Otters go about their daily chill

Watching the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s world famous sea otter cam might be the most relaxing break you’ll take today (they also have feeds of their jellyfish, penguins and sharks).

The otters spend most of their time hanging out floating on their backs, but you can occasionally see them playing together and eating, too. Plus you know they have underarm pockets to keep their favourite rocks in, right?

Some might say it’s otterly wonderful to watch.

2. Bald eagles up close and personal 

Explore runs a wide range of live cameras showcasing nature around the world. See both nature and nurture in action with this one – watch this magnificent bald eagle tend to their nest (we spy an egg), all while overlooking the incredible landscape of Santa Cruz in Channel Islands National Park. 

An important reminder that nature keeps going, despite everything else.

3. Honey bees working from home

Not much happens on this live bee hive cam – and that’s the best part. It’s oddly peaceful to see so many honey bees so calm when they’re WFH. We wish we had their focus.

4. Bears go fishing

Watch some brown bears (!!) catch salmon as they swim upstream at Brooks Falls in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Not so relaxing for the salmon, but it’s certainly fascinating to watch them at work.

The sound of the water also doubles up as a white noise machine.

5. Reef life goes swimmingly

If you’re the kind of person who finds footage of fish tanks calming, check out this tropical reef exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific – modelled after the coast of Palau, it houses more than 1,000 animals. Combined, the fish’s slow movements and vibrant colours are absolutely mesmerising.

6. All eyes on the Northern Lights

Granted, this web cam stream can be slightly hit and miss – but the promised views are worth the wait. Streaming from Churchill, Canada, keep an eye out for the world’s most magical light show: the aurora borealis. 

7. Look down on Earth from space

This NASA stream has been pre-recorded, but it features some incredibly calming footage of the Earth spinning, astronauts going about their business on the International Space Station, as well as ridiculously peaceful music.

8. Head to the beach

Just because we can’t go on holiday right now, doesn’t mean you can’t visualise yourself on this gorgeous beach with a margarita (or virgin equivalent) in your hand.

9. Kittens chasing each other

Not so relaxing (especially when they’re zooming around, chasing each other) but definitely a great distraction from everything else right now.

Watch these tiny floofball kittens chase each other at Kitten Rescue Sanctuary in Los Angeles. We can only dream of having this much energy. 

10. Old doggos chilling to the max

On the more calming side of the spectrum, look at these lovely elderly dogs enjoying their retirement at the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary – you can watch them eat their meals, play and snuggle together.

Feeling better? We thought so.

FRANKFURT/LONDON — Governments and officials are voicing hopes that Covid-19 vaccines could bring “herd immunity”, with some calculating that immunising just two-thirds of a population could halt the pandemic disease and help protect whole communities or nations.

But the concept comes with caveats and big demands of what vaccines might be capable of preventing. Some experts say such expectations are misplaced.

For a start, figuring out what’s needed to achieve herd immunity with Covid-19 vaccines involves a range of factors, several of which are unknown.

What is the rate of the spread of the Covid-19-causing virus? Will the first vaccines deployed be able to stop transmission of the virus, or just stop people getting ill? How many people in a population will accept a vaccine? Will vaccines offer the same protection to everyone?

“Herd immunity is sometimes wrongly understood as individual protection,” said Josep Jansa, an expert in health emergency preparedness and response at the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

“It’s inappropriate to think ‘I will not be affected myself because there is herd immunity’. Herd immunity refers to community protection, not to how an individual is protected.”

The ECDC uses an estimated herd immunity threshold of 67% for its models, while Chancellor Angela Merkel said this month that Covid-19 restrictions in Germany could be lifted if 60% to 70% of the population acquired immunity, either via a Covid-19 vaccine or through infection.

World Health Organisation experts have also pointed to a 65%-70% vaccine coverage rate as a way to reach population immunity through vaccination.

“The idea of herd community is to protect the vulnerable,” said Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh. “And the idea behind it is that if, say, 98% of a population have all been vaccinated, there will be so little virus in the community that the 2% will be protected. That’s the point of it.”

REPRODUCTION RATE IS CRUCIAL

Central to the public health calculations on this concept for Covid-19 is the reproduction rate, or R value, of the virus that causes it. This is a measure of how many other people an average infected person passes a pathogen on to in “normal”, or restriction-free, circumstances.

Assuming complete vaccine efficacy, herd immunity percentage thresholds for infectious diseases are calculated by dividing 1 by the R value, deducting the result from 1, and multiplying by 100.

For instance, herd immunity from highly contagious measles, with an estimated R value of 12 or higher, will kick in only if 92% or more within a group are immune. For a seasonal flu strain that could have an R value of 1.3, the threshold would be just 23%.

“The problem is that for now we don’t know exactly how fast the virus spreads without any precautions and with the normal travel and social activities we had a year ago,” said Winfried Pickl, professor of immunology at the Medical University of Vienna.

With so many countries still operating in far from normal circumstances, the assumption should be that the Covid-19 R value would be “closer to 4 than to 2”, he said, since even with semi- or full lockdown measures the R value is around 1.5.

Additionally, anything less than 100% vaccine efficacy — such as the 90% or so suggested in early data on the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 shots — would require a matching rise in percentage of coverage to reach herd threshold. 

STOP TRANSMISSION IN THE “HERD”?

Experts say another important factor is whether the Covid-19 vaccines a government chooses to deploy can stop transmission of the virus.

Evidence so far suggests the first Covid-19 vaccines to come to market will at least stop people developing the disease. But it cannot be ruled out that people will still catch the SARS-CoV-2 virus and pass it on to others unnoticed.

“While protection against illness has a value for an individual, it will not prevent circulation of virus and risk of disease in unvaccinated (people),” said Penny Ward, a visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London.

Bodo Plachter, a professor and deputy director of the Institute of Virology at Germany’s Mainz University teaching hospital, said that respiratory infections in particular can be hard to block completely with vaccines — although the shots will go some way to reducing the amount of circulating virus.

“It may well be that vaccinated people will shed fewer viruses,” he said. “But it would be a mistake to assume vaccination alone can suppress a pandemic.”

FOCUS ON PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE?

Edinburgh’s Riley said this suggests that for now, pursuing an idea of herd immunity through Covid-19 vaccination is fruitless.

A better approach, she said, could be to “turn herd immunity on its head”, and use the first limited supplies of vaccines to protect those most in need, without worrying about the more robust members of the “herd” who can live relatively happily with the virus.

“Let’s forget about protecting the masses to protect the vulnerable,” she said. “Let’s directly protect the vulnerable.”

“I don’t know what the reality is - it’s probably nowhere near as exciting as what we’ve created,” laughs Benjamin Caron, executive producer on the fourth season of The Crown, and director of two of the episodes. “That’s when I love The Crown: when we push it slightly. It feels simple but we’re pushing the boundaries of drama and creating a spectacle.”

This is the mission statement behind the creation of the splashiest season yet, which features Charles and Diana’s wedding, and the tense relationship between The Queen and Margaret Thatcher.

Alongside dollops of dramatic license, the show’s depiction of the royals is strengthened by research gained “anecdotally”, says Benjamin.

One scene that epitomises the show’s creative approach is in the third episode, titled Fairytale, in which Diana greets the royals at Buckingham Palace.

“It’s awkward, it’s painful, I had my hands over my mouth biting my fingers with agony when I was filming that scene,” says Benjamin. “It’s cold, hurtful, lonely, all that pain – I think that’s where The Crown is at its best.

“I knew when I read that scene how I wanted to photograph it,” he explains. “Everyone talks about Diana being a sacrificial lamb, it just felt like that she was under this big spotlight in amongst the family, and the awkwardness around that. The movement of the camera represented her spinning out of control.”

He says of the royal family’s treatment of Diana in the scene: “I genuinely think it’s part of how they get their kicks a little bit: pulling the rug from under people. If you’re going to be part of this family, this is what you’re going to have to get used to. They like to play with people a bit. They see that as friendly banter.

“You’ve got to appreciate where they’re coming from or the whole scene doesn’t feel truthful... People don’t like tall poppies, so anyone that pokes their head up too high, they’ll get pulled down. Certainly in aristo circles I’ve seen that. It’s a bit of roughing up - it’s still really mean, but it’s sort of done with love.”

Episodes are lavished with plenty more striking Diana scenes. Another features the princess, played by relative newcomer Emma Corrin, being introduced to Charles for the first time while wearing a disguise. The look and style of the scene was inspired by Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“That scene originally wasn’t as magical,” says Benjamin, although it ended up “leaning slightly into the more magical, wondrous side”.

“My instant reaction to that scene was thinking about Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, that moment where Leonardo DiCaprio sees Claire Danes through the fish tank and they catch eyes, how enchanting that was,” he explains.  

Was the reality of how Charles and Diana actually met playing on his mind? “I know that he was dating her sister, we know that she was around at that time, so they probably would have met, any more than that, I have no idea.”

Creating these fictitious scenarios, rather than re-enacting royal events from history – such as the actual wedding – has always been the enticing challenge for Benjamin, writer Peter Morgan and the wider creative team. For those that wish to watch the wedding of Charles and Diana, it’s on YouTube, reminds Benjamin.

“My approach to these events is always in emotional terms,” he explains. “It’s really easy to get drawn into the pomp and ceremony, for me it’s always about the characters, the emotions and thats what I believe our audience relate to.”

Instead of recreating the lavish 1981 marriage of Charles and Diana, which happened speedily after a rumoured 10 or 12 dates, Benjamin’s lighter touch could be felt in a montage of scenes of Diana twitching the curtain to look over a packed Mall full of well-wishers. All the while, Charles looks sullen as a courtier helps him with his outfit. 

“There’s a scene in The Godfather with a very similar image where the main character looks out the window at the Statue of Liberty, and I wanted Diana to look out and feel the weight of the crown and the expectation, with the reflection of the Victoria Monument in the window,” says Benjamin.

“You have the wedding dress, we knew the wedding dress was going to be such a big symbolic moment, and for me it represented in so many ways. The size of it was almost the suffocation of Diana and the crown and what that meant: you see her standing there in a big wedding dress, repressive, suffocating...”

Another moment revealing of Diana’s struggles takes place during a lunch the princess has with Camilla. A younger Camilla appears hedonistic, while on the opposite end of the table, Diana is contemplating her bulimia as she stares down at a rich dessert.

“Bulimia can sometimes be shown on screen just as the vomiting side of things, but that’s not true: there’s all the processes that happen before that moment, the feelings that drive you there, the eating, all the various stages before and after,” says Benjamin. “I hope the scene shows bulimia for what it really is: a mental illness. It’s got to be shown the right way, not glamourised.”

While it was important to portray the darker parts of her story, Benjamin believes Charles and Diana were both in love with one another, but perhaps at different times. He calls the season “a whole examination of what being in love is”.

One scene that has a much lighter feel in episode three (Benjami directed episode one, Gold Stick, and episode three, Fairytale) shows Diana alone, dancing freely around the palace. In order to capture Diana’s spirit, Emma Corrin suggested they do away with choreography altogether and just try shooting her dancing spontaneously.

″It was me and her in a room, and literally one camera man,” recalls Benjamin. “Everyone else left and I gave her permission to just close her eyes and lose herself in the music. She ended up listening to Cher, Believe. I wanted her to just completely let go. She came to me with that. I love that impulse in her, I love the idea that she just wanted permission to let herself free and that’s what you see in that moment.”

There’s another reason for manifesting such lavish imagined realities: “All our memories are questionable, aren’t they?” poses Benjamin. “I can barely remember what happened yesterday, let alone 30 years ago.”

And another reason too, but this time more existential – are audiences driven to the royals because their lives really aren’t so different from our own? Some critics have said of the fourth season that it veers further into soap opera territory than the series has done before.

“Ultimately it’s incredibly relatable,” believes Benjamin. “It holds a mirror up to our own lives otherwise people wouldn’t be interested. It’s just the stakes are higher and they live in bigger houses.” 

The Crown season four is available now on Netflix.

NEW DELHI—The Narendra Modi government’s hasty abrogation of Article 370, the constitutional provision which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, has led to months of confusion and delay for people seeking information from government departments, shows a review of two recent orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and interviews with activists.

At the time of abrogation of the controversial provision, some news reports, as well as rightwing activists and websites,had claimed that the Right to Information (RTI) Act would now be applicable to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, implying that there was no such law in the state earlier due to Article 370.

In fact, until 5 August 2019, the erstwhile state was governed by its own version of the transparency law, the J&K RTI Act 2009. Now, more than a year since the abrogation of Article 370, a review of two recent orders of the CIC and interviews with activists shows that an existing RTI system that ensured relatively quicker access to information for local residents has been replaced by a slower, chaotic process riddled with red tape, mainly because of the lack of planning and public consultation that went into the decision of scrapping Article 370.

While the 2009 J&K RTI Act was limited to residents of the state, it mandated the state information commission to dispose of second appeals in 60-120 days. The central RTI Act of 2005 does not have any such provision. The net result of this was that RTI applicants received information, or at least a clear decision about their request, faster under the 2009 Act than they do now under the 2005 law which was operationalised in the union territory after scrapping of Article 370. 

The two CIC orders reviewed by HuffPost India specifically show how residents of the now-union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, who were trying to seek information from public authorities last year under the state’s own RTI law, were adversely affected by the abrupt scrapping of Article 370. 

In one case, an RTI applicant from Jammu was denied information by local civic authorities, who cited the repeal of Article 370 as the reason for the denial. In the second instance, the RTI applicant, apparently a resident of Kashmir, was told that his response was inordinately delayed due to the lockdown imposed in the valley after the removal of Article 370. 

“This is yet another instance of the unintended outcome of the rash manner in which fundamental changes to the status of J&K were made without any public consultation or adequate application of mind,” said Venkatesh Nayak, who heads the Access to Information Programme at the non-profit Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.  

Speaking about the CIC orders and his own experience of pursuing RTI cases in what is now a union territory, Jammu-based activist Raman Sharma said that the previous system under the 2009 RTI Act of the state was better, even if it had some limitations.

“It is true that as per section 3 of the J&K RTI Act 2009, only people residing in the state were allowed to seek information. But it is also true that in comparison with the central RTI law of 2005, the previous state RTI Act was more vibrant and ensured time-bound disposal of even second appeals,” Sharma said. “Whereas in the RTI Act 2005, there is no time limit for disposal of second appeals by the Central Information Commission.”

The practical consequences of this technical difference are significant. 

“Earlier, our second appeals were disposed of and decisions were coming within 60-120 days and the appellants were able to get time-bound information but presently after implementation of Central RTI, even my own and my friends’ second appeals/complaints are pending with the CIC for last 5-6 months,” said Sharma.

He also alleged that, with the central RTI Act in force, “the public information officers here also now do not take RTI Act seriously because they know that appeals would take long to be decided. Hence they do not respond to RTI pleas of the citizens”. 

How scrapping Article 370 caused delays and denials of info

On 13 September 2019, one Jagjit Singh filed an application in the office of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner in Jammu. 

Set up in 1990, this office is a department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration which is mandated to provide cash assistance and ration to families, mostly Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus, who were forced to migrate from the Valley to the plains of Jammu. 

Singh wanted information about five aspects of the assistance provided by this office from January-March 2019 to eligible beneficiaries. This included the names of beneficiaries and the reason for the assistance, and also why Singh, despite being eligible, did not get it. When he filed the application under the J&K RTI Act 2009 in September 2019, he was verbally told that the 2009 Act was no longer applicable since Article 370 had been removed the previous month. Singh received the same response in November 2019 when he filed an appeal. 

By the time he prepared and filed a second appeal in January 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission was shut down and all second appeals from Kashmir were now the responsibility of the CIC. 

It was only earlier this month, more than a year after he filed his request, that the CIC heard Singh’s appeal and passed some helpful directions. Disagreeing with the contention of the public information officer of the Jammu Rehabilitation Commissioner’s office, the Central Information Commissioner Y.K. Sinha asked him to consider the spirit of the law and respond according to provisions of the 2005 Act if the state law had been scrapped.

Sinha wrote in his order that instead of rejecting the application, “it would be expedient that the same RTI application filed by the Appellant under the State Act be treated now under provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 and appropriate reply/information may be furnished to the Appellant”. This would “uphold the spirit of the RTI Act” and dispose of RTI queries quickly, he added.

The order, issued on November 6, also said, “It is pertinent to note that most of the public authorities have followed the same procedure of applying the Central Act to adjudicate the RTI applications, particularly because there is no specific legal embargo to that effect.”  

Another applicant had to wait even longer than Singh. Inderjeet filed an application on 24 April 2019 in the office of the Baramulla Deputy Commissioner, seeking to know details about his mother’s land, which had been encroached upon, in the district of Baramulla. Since he did not get the answers he wanted, Inderjeet appealed in the CIC on 12 December 2019. Within three days, that is on 15 December, he received a  response. However, since it still did not properly answer his query, he continued to pursue the appeal in the CIC. 

It was during a hearing of this appeal, held early this month by Central Information Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, that government officials disclosed the reason why they were unable to provide information to Inderjeet for more than a year. They told Sinha that, to provide the information, they needed to remove an existing encroachment on the land. The officials sought help from the local police, but this could not be done because a lockdown was ordered in the valley due to the repeal of Article 370 and 35A of the Constitution.

After hearing the officials, Sinha sent the application for fresh consideration by the Deputy Commissioner of Baramulla, who was directed to issue a reasoned speaking order, explaining how it arrived at its decision. Clearly, the lockdown imposed at the time of repealing Article 370 constrained local bureaucracy from doing its civic functions, one of which was responding to RTI applications. 

A third order by Sinha, in response to an appeal by RTI applicant Harish Bhardwaj, brings out another related aspect of this issue. Filed in the Jammu University on 9 September 2019, Bhardwaj asked in his RTI application the details of students from Rajasthan who studied at the university. The university’s public information officer denied information to Bhardwaj under section 3 of the J&K RTI Act 2009, which made non-residents of the state ineligible to seek information. 

The first appellate authority upheld this decision and when Bhardwaj’s second appeal was being heard in the CIC early this month, the university’s information officer defended his decision citing a technical reason. Responding to Bhardwaj’s argument that, since Article 370 was scrapped on August 5, denial of information under the state law was wrong, the information officer said the abrogation of Article 370 came into effect on 31 October 2019 and hence his denial of information was correct. 

Brushing aside these technical arguments, Information Commissioner Sinha directed the official in an order dated 6 November to treat the RTI application as per provisions of the RTI Act 2005 and provide information accordingly. 

Avoidable issues

These problems could have been avoided if the repeal of Article 370 was better planned and done after a process of public consultation, say activists. This would have prevented the year-long wait for basic information by citizens and other such issues arising out of transitioning from the state’s RTI Act to the centre’s law. 

While RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak said that Information Commissioner Sinha’s two orders in which he directed officials to treat applications filed under the state Act as per the centre’s law were “laudable”, he also pointed out that they were legally flawed and could be challenged in courts by the public authorities.

“Neither the repealed State Act nor the Central act empower the CIC to pass such orders. The correct method is for the central government to issue clarificatory orders under Section 103 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 to provide for transitional provisions to counter the effect of the repeal of the State RTI Act. This is possible because both laws give effect to the same fundamental right. This transitional provision would provide legal cover to such orders issued by the CIC,” explained Nayak.  He further said that the section 103 can be used in this way till 30 October 2024 to deal with such issues. 

Jammu-based RTI activist Raman Sharma pointed out other issues which are yet to be resolved. 

“Unfortunately, the people of J & K Union Territory are kept in a state of limbo. The departments of Jammu and Kashmir administration are not integrated with the Central RTI portal and we the residents of J & K are unable to file online RTIs. We demand, like Chandigarh UT, that the departments of J & K UT are also integrated with the central online portal so that people here too are able to file RTI applications,” said Sharma. 

The minutes of a meeting held by the CIC in May show that issues regarding transfer of second appeals pending with the state information commission of Jammu and Kashmir and the overall transition to the RTI Act 2005 were discussed in some detail. The CIC did start hearing appeals from April this year but clearly there are pending issues which await a resolution. 

For instance, the RTI activist Sharma also said that multiple appeals against the decisions of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission were pending in the J&K high court and there is no clarity about what will happen to them. He filed an RTI in the CIC but failed to get any information.

The year was 2003, and Sudha Kongara’s family was readying to leave for a holiday to Shimla. Usually, the group, about 12 or 13 people, would take a train to Chandigarh and then drive to Shimla. That year, they flew to their destination — a man from Bengaluru was offering flight tickets that began at Re 1 and Sudha’s sister-in-law, an internet geek, decided to try her luck. “We managed two one-rupee tickets, and the rest at Rs 500. A middle-class family of 13 flew!” exclaims Sudha, the glee still evident in her voice. 

Even then, she remembers asking her father who was this “insane, super-duper rich man” letting them fly at one rupee. She had a lot of questions, including how on earth he would make any money like this.

In 2010, the year she made her debut as director with Drohi (she is credited as Sudha K. Prasad in the movie), she saw a TV programme on business tycoons that featured Capt GR Gopinath (Retd), the same person who helped her family fly to Shimla. His autobiography Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey released the same year, and Sudha knew she was on to something. 

Ten years later, Suriya-starrer Soorarai Pottru, her fictionalised take on Gopinath’s life, which draws from the book and from the many personal conversations between the entrepreneur and Sudha, has released on Amazon Prime Video to mostly positive reviews. 

Like Gopinath’s swift ascent after a long wait for the necessary licences, Sudha’s dizzying success came via the slow, steady route. Drohi did not do well; she concedes it was not “perfect”, but like many other films, it suffered from a poor release. She was crushed and considered taking up an offer to turn executive producer until her daughter Rhea, then in Class 7 in a boarding school, reminded her of what her dream really was. “When you have a family like that, you better be the best at what you’re doing; they give you the leg up.”

In the process, Sudha picked up one important lesson: find a producer who will back you to the hilt. That worked for her with her sophomore film Irudhi Suttru, the story of a girl from a Chennai slum who goes on to achieve boxing glory, mentored by her loner, angry middle-aged coach. S. Sashikanth of Y Not Studios saw potential in it, and the film broke new ground for lead actor R. Madhavan, actress Ritika Singh and Sudha too. 

Those who missed Drohi and its pulsating intro shot—a blindfolded man tied to a railway track struggles to escape as a train bears down on him—expressed their surprise that a “woman” director handled action scenes so well.   

They, of course, did not know Sudha’s fondness for Ram Gopal Varma’s Shiva and the cycle chain action sequence or her love for The Godfather. Before you can ask her the obvious question, she laughs, “No, I’ve not held a cycle chain, it will cut your hand!” More than gore, Sudha says she always felt drawn to action rooted in emotion. 

***

Growing up in Chennai’s Adyar, Sudha was not a sports-loving kid and her childhood was spent reading books from Murugan Lending Library and borrowing video cassettes from the local library. “It was the 80s, and while boys and girls played together, I was not the boisterous kind.”

Years later, she found it easy to fit right into Mani Ratnam’s sets, beginning with the subtitling of Kannathil Muthamittal, and then assisting him over many films from the Telugu version of Yuva to Guru. The director, she says, wouldn’t treat men and women differently on his sets, expecting them to do even the difficult jobs. 

This trait of hers rubs off on the women in her films too. They may be docile due to their circumstances, but have a fierceness in them that’s hard to disguise. Remember the mother Damayanthi in Irudhi Suttru? Or even Urvashi’s Pechi in Soorarai Pottru? And then, her heroines. Just going by her last two films, Madhi and Sundari aka Bommi are equal to the male lead in every possible way. They have the smarts to let the other know they cannot be taken for granted. Their heart is full of love and admiration, but it’s never bigger than their sense of self-respect. One reason why this equality in the writing shines through is because the women who played them were supremely able to hold their own in front of their talented male counterparts.  

“In Soorarai..., I wanted someone to stand up to this powerhouse of talent called Suriya. He can pull the rug beneath your feet. And, then I have this girl, who is new, but has an inherently strong face [referring to Aparna Balamurali]. They played off each other well. The credit goes to both of them for being real. If you look at it, both are similar people and they appeal to each other’s minds. He’s already achieved a fair bit when they meet for the first time, and she’s starting out. And then, things change, but they are still on an equal plane. Aparna is an extraordinary actress and she worked hard to perfect the dialect and pitch,” says Sudha.

There’s the scene where Maara swallows his words as he asks Bommi to lend some money, and gets a mouthful from her. When the scene was being written, the men in the writers’ room were against Suriya’s Maara borrowing from his wife. But Sudha stood her ground.

“I asked them, ‘What is it that irks you? All of you have done it with your wives. They earned when you are trying your luck in the movies, so why can’t you see another man do that?’” 

The only man on set who did not have a problem with the scene was Suriya, she says.

If Suriya is getting credit for breaking out of the mould that he was slotted in, credit must go to the director who tapped into his innate mix of vulnerability and strength. And the film only reaffirms why Suriya is one of the best on-screen criers. “Suriya has had more than two decades of extraordinary success, but I’ve not. And so, when his eyes have to mist over when his dream is realised, I told him to look into my eyes and take the depth of grief or joy there, because I am still able to feel all of those things.”

After the release, some reviews have pointed out that the life story of a dominant caste man has been Bahujanised on screen. He opts for a self-respect marriage, talks socialism… What’s Sudha’s take on that? 

“It is evident he belongs to the upper caste. But, he is anti-caste because of the background he comes from, and that line about ‘cost and caste barrier’ is what Capt. Gopinath told me. Who else would have allowed a goat on flight, or calmly handled it when first-time users did not know how to use the WCs? He got on-board staff who knew the local language, so that people would not be intimidated,” she says.  

***

To understand the visual language of Sudha’s films, one must look at where she began from. She’s a student of Mani Ratnam, yes, but Revathi’s all-woman project Mitr, My Friend was Sudha’s first gig as screenplay writer. 

“Mitr was my starting point. I did not even know how to give clap. Asha [Revathi’s real name is Asha Kelunni], taught me multi-tasking. I was also teaching dialogues, writing, calling artistes… we were a tiny crew and I think it prepared me for shooting indie films. Today, if I shoot any film as an indie project, that’s because of that experience. I also learnt from Asha how to extract performances from actors. So, when I was doing auditions and screen tests for Mani Sir, I had a way of getting actors to perform.”

Sudha is also very exacting. “I am never satisfied till I get that deep emotion I am looking for, be it romance and grief or a dance. I am very intrusive and keep pushing till they feel what the character is feeling,” she says. 

She’s as exacting about her favourite tic-tac hair clips, which keep her hair out of her eyes. She loved shopping for them in the erstwhile pavement markets of Pondy Bazaar in Chennai. “You don’t get them everywhere, you know. And so, I buy sheets wherever i find them... airports, malls.”

Sudha’s understanding of women comes from her lived experiences and her righteous anger as a viewer. “As a woman, you belong to a suppressed class, and I cannot handle it when they are reduced to cackling, giggling idiots. This is the fantasy of some male filmmakers and is so unreal. It’s not even manic-pixie behaviour, it’s plain condescending. I write women the way I see them. If you look at Damayanthi [Irudhi Suttru], she’s married to a no-gooder, but has an inner strength. She’s soldiering on. That’s an ode to all women.”
Ritika of Irudhi... was equally fierce as Madhi. “She was on point, being an MMA fighter herself, and she just had to draw from within. The only scene she struggled with was when she had to tell Maddy she loved him. She’s fiercely competitive and I told her that Maddy is performing better, eating you up in this scene. She went, drew an emotion from within, and gave a great shot.  Aparna is like that too, she cannot bear for her scene to be anything less than perfect.”

In her last two movies, Sudha has worked with heroes she first met on Mani Ratnam’s sets. She shares a close bond with both Madhavan and Suriya, and feels that’s an advantage because when you know people, you also sense their state of mind, even when they don’t tell you a thing. For instance, if Suriya’s shot began at 7 am, Sudha was there at 5, ensuring things were perfect, because she knew he was a stickler for order. “His concentration is fierce and I have to free him up to focus on just his performance. When you’re close, you also know them as individuals, and you know which button to press to get what emotion.” 

But neither this interview nor Irudhi Suttru would have happened if it hadn’t been for another Mani Ratnam connection —director Bejoy Nambiar [Shaitan, Taish], who was also one of the ADs on sets with her. 

“I was still picking up after Drohi and I considered getting into organic farming or starting a restaurant [there was a time when Sudha would relax after shooting by cooking a three-course meal]. That’s when I read something in the paper about girls in North Madras training in boxing, because there was money in it, with an investment of just Rs 250 for gloves. That struck a chord and I was formulating a story. Bejoy came to Chennai to edit Shaitan, and I told him I did not want to do cinema. I’d called the script Zara then, and he kept pushing me to do it, he said he’d produce it. And then, to let me know what I was missing, he told me to help out with the second unit of Shaitan. I went there and realised everything was in order and that he’d called me to drag me back into cinema. Maddy lived in the next street in Goregaon and he told me to tell him the story. He told me to write it and that he’d do if he liked it. He was not doing me a favour, and there is no pity project here. Both my actors came on board convinced by the script.”

Sudha loves her work, and the lockdown saw her busy with Soorarai, the post-production of her segment in the Netflix anthology Paava Kathaigal and the Amazon anthology Putham Pudhu Kaalai. “I was working and very fortunate to do so. I grabbed every opportunity.”

Did she ever consider making Soorarai in Kannada, the language that Gopinath speaks? “Not really. Language is very important when making a movie and you need to be familiar with a culture to set a film there. I am comfortable in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.”

One word her stars use for her is “democratic”. Suriya recalls how she would always ask for opinions from everyone, and how everything was sincerely considered on merit. “I want my film to be understood by all. My focus groups include people from all demographics. I have auto drivers, doctors, chartered accountants, little kids, my domestic help. I pay heed to feedback for the betterment of the film.” 

Sudha usually switches off from a film after the first show. “I probably read some YouTube comments after some days, since I am not on social media. I dwell on the criticism, because that helps me grow,” she says.

The director has not rewatched Irudhi Suttru and Soorarai Pottru after they were released. She tried to watch Drohi once in between, but could not finish it. “I am very hard on myself, it’s borderline masochism. I’m trying to change myself,” she laughs.

But, after all this success, Sudha’s heart still beats for Drohi, her firstborn film that did not get its due. Ironically, Gaddar, its dubbed Hindi version on YouTube, has more than 15 lakh views on YouTube, and the comments section often features the word ‘mast’. 

“Once, after Irudhi Suttru, someone came up to me and said he liked the film, and I was happy. Then he said his brother is a huge fan of Drohi and has watched it 100 times and he feels so much for the characters. I was beaming, it was like a validation, a triumph. It is a flawed film, but it needed a chance.”

WASHINGTON ― Having lost his election for a second term, President Donald Trump, his campaign and his allies are ever more openly just trying to steal it.

In recent days, his campaign has welcomed the idea of disenfranchising all of the voters of Nevada, pushed to have Michigan’s 16 electoral votes awarded by its Republican legislature and alleged, without evidence, “massive fraud” all over the country in a court case in Pennsylvania ― all as Trump posts one lie after another on social media.

“In Detroit, there are FAR MORE VOTES THAN PEOPLE. Nothing can be done to cure that giant scam. I win Michigan!” he wrote Wednesday morning.

“I WON THE ELECTION. VOTER FRAUD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!” he wrote a couple of hours earlier.

And campaign in-house lawyer Jenna Ellis wrote enthusiastically Tuesday evening of sending the election results in Michigan ― which President-elect Joe Biden won by 154,000 votes ― to the state’s GOP-run legislature: “Huge win for @realDonaldTrump.”

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism at New York University, said Trump’s claim to have won an election he lost by 74 Electoral College votes and 6 million votes overall is a clear danger sign.

“The red line is the election,” said Ben-Ghiat, whose new book, “Strongmen,” puts Trump in the context of a century of fascist leaders. “If you don’t recognize an election, you have gone into the territory of a non-democracy. It’s pretty easy.” 

Ryan Mahoney, who until early this year was a top staffer at the Republican National Committee, called the actions of Trump and his campaign “dangerous and undemocratic” and asked them to stop.

“They’re either purposely spreading false information and conspiracy theories and don’t care, or they actually believe this nonsense,” Mahoney said. “Either way, they’re subverting democracy with evidence-free allegations. There is no evidence of widespread fraud. It’s time to accept the results. Joe Biden won.”

Numerous staffers at the Trump campaign did not respond to HuffPost’s queries on this matter. Nor did White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has been appearing on television for the campaign while continuing to draw a $180,000 annual salary from American taxpayers. 

Nor did Stephen Bannon, a former top Trump White House aide who is now under indictment for fraud but who, out on bail as he awaits trial, has been broadcasting a daily radio show and podcast in which he repeatedly calls Biden an “illegitimate” president and falsely claims that the votes that were counted after election night are illegal.

Many of Bannon’s narratives have been echoed on pro-Trump media outlets, such as OAN and NewsMax, as well as Fox News’ prime-time evening shows. They even emerged in Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s arguments Tuesday before a federal judge in Pennsylvania.

One former White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Trump’s statements on social media are not taken seriously by Americans and that eventually his legal challenges will end and life will go on, in all likelihood with a Biden presidency.

“I think the country is fairly well-conditioned about Trump’s tweets,” the former official said. “Our institutions are not in danger because of this. Our republic will survive.”

While most Americans do appear to take Trump’s assertions with several, if not more, grains of salt, some of his hard-core supporters do not and have taken to harassing and threatening election officials in battleground states.

On Wednesday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, released a statement reporting threats to her family and her office, and called on Trump and others in Republican leadership to take responsibility.

“There are those, including the president, members of Congress and other elected officials, who are perpetuating misinformation and are encouraging others to distrust the election results in a manner that violates the oath of office they took,” she wrote. “It is well past time that they stop. Their words and actions have consequences.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, had previously reported death threats against him and his wife from Trump supporters. He also reported being pressured by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to discard mail ballots from areas of Georgia that favored Biden. He also said he was pressured directly by the Trump campaign earlier this year to help make sure Trump won the state.

Biden won Arizona by 10,400 votes and Georgia by 14,000. Trump has falsely claimed those results point to fraud, an accusation that has riled up his supporters in those states.

Jim Dicke, a Republican National Committee member from Ohio, nevertheless said he is not terribly worried that Trump will incite GOP voters into violence or anything of the sort when reality makes itself evident.

“Republicans will go home and get organized for 2022,” he said.

Michael B. Jordan is People magazine’s 2020 “Sexiest Man Alive.”

The 33-year-old actor, known best for his performances in “Creed” and “Black Panther,” was revealed Tuesday night as the winner of this year’s title on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

To up the suspense and drive down the risk of spreading COVID-19, Jordan arrived on stage in a bright yellow hazmat suit and revealed himself only when an audience member correctly guessed who he was.

In an interview with the magazine, Jordan said the women in his family were “definitely proud of this one.”

“When my grandmother was alive, it was something that she collected, and then my mom naturally reads it a lot and my aunts as well. This is one that they’re definitely going to have a special place for,” he said. 

“My grandma lookin down talkin bout ‘that’s my baby,’” he added in an Instagram post about his new title.

Jordan joins the likes of John Legend, Idris Elba, Chris Hemsworth, Channing Tatum and David Beckham winning the spot.

Legend, the 2019 winner, said he was more than happy to pass on the torch. 

In concert with his critically acclaimed acting performances in “Just Mercy” and the historic “Black Panther” film, Jordan has fought for justice off the screen, too.

He’s been an active voice in the Black Lives Matter movement and advocated for voter registration ahead of the 2020 election. 

He said he hopes in the coming decade to maybe direct and produce more, and act less.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has said in an order dated November 4 that private news channel Sudarshan TV, through its broadcast of the show Bindas Bol — UPSC Jihad violated the programme code, but allowed it to continue to telecast the remaining episodes of the show with “modifications”. 

Four episodes of the show have already been telecast. The show’s episodes alleged that Muslims were “infiltrating government services”, among other false claims. The I&B Ministry said, in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, that the show was not “in good taste, offensive and has a likelihood of promoting communal attitude.” 

The show on Sudarshan TV had caused outrage and on September 15, the Supreme Court had stayed the airing of the other episodes calling it an “attempt to vilify Muslims”. 

PTI quoted the Centre saying in the affidavit, “After taking into consideration the written and oral submissions of the channel and the findings and recommendations of the IMC, the ministry is of the opinion that while freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right, the tone and tenor of the episodes telecast do indicate that the channel has, through the various utterances and audio-visual content, breached the programme code. The ministry finds that they are not in good taste, offensive and has a likelihood of promoting communal attitude.” 

The Centre had issued a show-cause notice to the channel on September 23. 

“The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, after examining all facts and circumstances of the case and balancing the fundamental rights of the broadcasters, hereby ‘cautions’ Sudarshan TV Channel Ltd to be careful in future. It is further directed that if any violation of the programme code is found in future, stricter penal action would be taken,” PTI quoted the affidavit as saying. 

The ministry said the telecast of the remaining episodes of the programme would be subject to the order of the apex court in the pending matter.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud is on Thursday scheduled to hear pleas that objected to the airing of the programme. 

The indigenously developed Feluda (FNCAS9 Editor-Limited Uniform Detection Assay) paper strip test for Covid-19 will be launched in Delhi on Thursday and be available in other states by November end, according to reports. The test is called a cheaper, faster and simpler alternative to RT-PCR, the gold standard in the diagnosis of Covid, and more accurate than an antigen test. 

Feluda will be launched in Delhi by the Tata group in collaboration with the Apollo group of hospitals, according to Hindustan Times. The report also said that Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (TataMD) had announced earlier this month that the paper-strip kit would be marketed as “TataMD’s CHECK”.

The test gets its name from the fictitious detective in a series of novels written by Satyajit Ray. 

Here are five things you need to know about the new test:

1. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said last month that based on tests in over 2,000 patients during the trials at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and testing in private labs, the test showed 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity.

“This compares favourably to ICMR’s current acceptation criteria of RT-PCR Kit of at least 95% sensitivity and at least 99% specificity,” he stated.

2. The Feluda paper strip test has been developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) and has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India for a commercial launch.

“The kit has already been validated by the Department of Atomic Energy’s National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore,” Vardhan had said. 

3. An ICMR advisory noted that the paper-strip uses CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 in less than an hour.

The advisory also said that as claimed by the manufacturer, no further RT-PCR based confirmation is required for samples that are confirmed as positive or negative by the CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 test, according to PTI.

4. In the advisory, the ICMR also explained how the test works. “The test works by identifying SARS-CoV-2 virus strain and uses a Thermal Cycler instead of a qPCR machine for conducting the test.” The Wire detailed the process of taking a sample for the Feluda test. The sample collection for the Feluda test will be similar to RT-PCR – a swab that collects the sample from the nasopharyngeal area, it said (read more here).

Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty, senior scientist at CSIR-IGIB, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express that Cas9 protein is barcoded to interact with the SARS-CoV2 sequence in the patient’s genetic material. “The Cas9-SARS-CoV2 complex is then put on the paper strip, where using two lines (one control, one test) makes it possible to determine if the test sample was infected with Covid-19.”

5. Existing government or private laboratories already approved by the ICMR for RT-PCR based testing may use this new CRISPR test if the laboratory desires to do so, ICMR said in the advisory.

No further approval is required from ICMR for existing laboratories.

(With PTI inputs)

The UK’s coronavirus vaccine has shown to produce a strong immune response in older adults – suggesting one of the groups most vulnerable to serious illness and death from Covid-19 could build immunity.

Early stage results from a study of the University of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, published in the medical journal The Lancet, showed the jab triggered a robust immune response in healthy adults aged 56-69 and people over 70.

The phase two research demonstrated similar immune responses from the vaccine, being developed with AstraZeneca, across all three age groups (18-55, 56-69, and 70 and over).

The study of 560 healthy adults – including 240 over the age of 70 – found the vaccine is better tolerated in older people compared with younger adults.

Volunteers received two doses of the vaccine candidate, or a placebo meningitis vaccine.

No serious adverse health events related to the vaccine were seen in the participants.

The results are consistent with phase one data reported for healthy adults aged 18-55 earlier this year.

Phase three trials are ongoing to confirm these results and the University of Oxford is expected to release data on the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine in the coming weeks.

UK authorities have placed orders for 100 million doses of the vaccine – enough to vaccinate most of the population – should it receive regulatory approval.

Dr Maheshi Ramasamy, investigator at the Oxford Vaccine Group and consultant physician, said: “Older adults are a priority group for Covid-19 vaccination, because they are at increased risk of severe disease, but we know that they tend to have poorer vaccine responses.

“We were pleased to see that our vaccine was not only well tolerated in older adults, but also stimulated similar immune responses to those seen in younger volunteers.

“The next step will be to see if this translates into protection from the disease itself.”

Study lead author Professor Andrew Pollard, from the University of Oxford, said: “Immune responses from vaccines are often lessened in older adults because the immune system gradually deteriorates with age, which also leaves older adults more susceptible to infections.

“As a result, it is crucial that Covid-19 vaccines are tested in this group who are also a priority group for immunisation.”

Researchers say their findings are promising as they show that the older people are showing a similar immune response to younger adults.

Dr Ramasamy added: “The robust antibody and T-cell responses seen in older people in our study are encouraging.

“The populations at greatest risk of serious Covid-19 disease include people with existing health conditions and older adults.

“We hope that this means our vaccine will help to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, but further research will be needed before we can be sure.”

The authors note some limitations to their study, including that the participants in the oldest age group had an average age of 73-74 and few underlying health conditions, so they may not be representative of the general older population, including those living in residential care settings or aged over 80.

It comes amid a welter of positive news about the vaccine.

The coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer – which is due to arrive in the UK before the end of the year – is 95% effective and works in older people, according to new data from the firm.

The UK has secured 40 million doses in total of the vaccine, with 10 million due in the country by the end of the year if the vaccine is approved.

People will need two doses, meaning not enough vaccine has been secured for the entire UK population.

Another jab, from US firm Moderna, was shown this week in early data to be almost 95% effective.

The UK has ordered five million doses of that jab, and also awaits the results of the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine study.

Changes to the Human Medicine Regulations announced in October will allow the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorise temporary supply of vaccines, if one becomes available before 2021.

This means that if a vaccine is found to meet the safety, quality and effectiveness standards by the MHRA then vaccinations can begin without needing to wait for the European Medicines Agency.

The health secretary Matt Hancock has said the NHS will be ready by December 1 to roll out vaccines and that the MHRA could approve a jab “within days” of a licence application.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion in 2021.

The vaccine needs to be kept at an ultra-low temperature, between minus 70C and minus 80C, until a few days before use when it can be transferred to a standard medical fridge.

If it is approved for use in the UK it will need to be stored in regional hubs – including wholesalers and hospitals – before being shipped to GP surgeries and vaccination clinics.

In one of Aashram’s most significant scenes, a marriage procession of a Dalit man has arrived at the gates of a dominant caste colony. The groom is on a white, decked-up horse. The elders of his family gently coax him to get off the horse: “Get off the horse now. Once we have crossed the upper caste colony, you can get on it again.” Others shush the dhols being played by the younger men and women.  A group of smug, dominant caste men meet the procession and ask the people to keep playing the dhol and dance. The younger, hopeful Dalit men and women erupt in glee, but the older men are still sort of frozen with suspicion. And their fears come true — soon, a bunch of dominant caste men start harassing the women in the procession. As the women protest, the savarna men swoop down on the procession, clobbering the men with lathis and butts of guns, kicking and slapping them, pushing and dragging the women — it’s almost a picnic of violence. 

From a production point of view, the scene is mediocre at best. Most of the actors come across as wooden, their dialogue delivery is almost robotic at times and the lines are melodramatic. Yet, it is perhaps the only scene in recent memory that I have watched in a Hindi film or OTT show that shows, fairly unhesitantly, how dominant castes treat violence as a recreational sport, and treat basic rights in a democracy as trophies they like snatching from Dalit Bahujan people. 

The opening section from Aashram’s first season was “inspired” by the real-life incident of a Dalit man who was beaten up for riding a horse to his wedding. Aashram is a loosely tied string of several such incidents, but the central premise is critical of the majoritarian Hindutva politics dominating the country at present. However, its rhetoric is very 90s drama, and the preachiness blocks out any hope of nuance. As a result, the series’ treatment of caste-based discrimination and violence is heavy-handed. Significantly, the main cast doesn’t include Dalit, Bahujan or Adivasi actors, raising the question of whether the makers really care about walking their talk.

That said, at a time the government is actively attempting to regulate creative content, the two seasons of Aashram — which talk about violence by dominant castes and sexual abuse in cults mirroring practices of Hinduism — stand out for their intent, if not the execution.

In the first few episodes of season 1, Aashram also challenges the recurrent, uninformed savarna argument that the Dalit and Bahujan community don’t work hard enough or lack merit. Pammi, the protagonist of Aashram, is a young Dalit wrestler who dreams of becoming a national champion and turning around the fortunes of her poor family. Her family, the series shows, puts their little money into training her and yet, at competitions, dominant caste contestants who have lost to her are declared winners. Though the dialogues in this section are sweeping and theatrical, they lay bare how the dominant caste nexus actively prevents marginalised castes from accessing basic education and progress, no matter how hard they work. 

Aashram’s storyline, in the first season, has two threads. One follows Pammi (played by Aditi Pohankar) as she rages against dominant castes who constantly thwart her dreams of becoming a national wrestling champion and how she finds herself caught in the hogwash of a cult built by a crook who calls himself Baba Nirala. The other unravels how the ‘baba’ is not who he seems like but has a dark, shady past zealously guarded by his murderous accomplices. 

Pammi is ‘rescued’ from the violence of the dominant castes by Baba Nirala (played by Bobby Deol) and his men and soon, the family find themselves in his aashram, sacrificing all they have at his altar. Meanwhile, there are telltale signs of sexual abuse in the aashram, which is covered up by goons. This season stands its ground on the nature of caste atrocities and how they thrive. From police refusing to file an FIR against dominant caste goons to local politicians manipulating contests and then violently rejecting the rightful claims of Dalits, in the first few episodes, Aashram’s focus on the unscrupulous cruelty of the upper castes is unwavering.

Considering that MX Player, unlike Netflix, is made for widespread consumption and Aashram can be viewed for free, Prakash Jha doesn’t even have the flimsy protection that comes with being ‘niche’. The grandiose dialogues, clanging soundscape and overwrought drama amplify the caste nexus that most of Hindu right-wing social media is eager to brush off as non-existent. At a time when movie names have had to be changed because of fear of the right-wing, the fact that Aashram pulls no punches in showing a revered ‘baba’ as a sexual predator is worth taking note of. In most of its first season, Jha’s Aashram wades into waters big Bollywood producers fear. 

However, in the second season, the series’ focus on caste almost disappears to instead focus on sexual abuse, which is not shown to be rooted in caste. Nirala is shown to be a sociopath who oppresses the women in his aashram, across castes. While the whole political establishment is shown chasing Nirala to be their spokesperson, thereby indicating that caste-based oppression is systemic, the caste locations of the villains of the story mostly remain fudged. Unlike in the first season, the series moves from specific caste-based atrocities to generic villainy.

The ministers and politicians, instead of drawing their impunity from being privileged, upper-caste men, are presented as cut-to-fit Bollywood villains we have to assume are evil, without exploring what feeds their villainy. The story also introduces an oppressed caste police officer in the script who enables dominant-caste atrocities against women in his own community, leading to some sort of a lukewarm ‘all men are evil’ narrative.

The second season of Aashram claims to be about sexual abuse in so-called safe havens for marginalised people. However, the show’s writers seem to have little understanding of the nuances of depicting sexual abuse. The scenes of sexual violence are almost a minute long, the camera lazily skimming over the bodies of the perpetrator and the victims like it is a consensual encounter. It’s impossible to not feel like the scenes were meant for titillation. Obviously, the show comes without a trigger warning like most other popular Hindi productions. The ridiculously long rape scenes make you wonder if the show actually intended to make a political point, or the sexual violence was merely used as a prop to attract voyeuristic audiences to watching it. The scenes add nothing to the narrative of the show, thereby making it clear that the makers replaced sex with depictions of sexual abuse to grab eyeballs. And that is ridiculously wrong. 

Filmmaker and writer Rajesh Rajamani pointed out that while watching Jha’s Aarakshan (2011) he felt that the director took up the reservation issue just to draw attention to the movie, without having the gumption to follow it through. The film dwindles into a generic treatise on commercialisation of education, though it starts off by pretending that it will unravel the politics around reservation in educational institutions. 

“I felt Aarakshan claims to discuss reservation. It does it briefly but then takes an easy way out and talks about how education has become commodified, which is altogether a different problem. I felt the movie didn’t have the courage to either talk in favour of reservation or critique it but rather just used it as a selling point and took a very formulaic easy way out,” Rajamani told this writer. 

After its brave beginning, Aashram also heads in a similar direction, both in terms of depicting caste-based violence and sexual abuse.

In the first two seasons of Aashram, the characters of the dominant caste saviours — a journalist, a doctor, a police officer and the crooks, Baba Nirala and his henchman Bhopa (played by Chandan Roy Sanyal) — evolve. The oppressed castes are shown as either victims or wide-eyed, easily manipulated followers of Baba Nirala who don’t suspect a thing about his empire, because he promised them respect. The only people who detect the criminal baba’s past are the dominant caste saviours, like a Jat police officer whose character undergoes a sort of abrupt transformation from being complacent to becoming actively righteous. It’s only towards the end of Season 2 that Pammi is shown to exhibit some amount of agency against the atrocities against her. 

While Pohankar as Pammi is confident, her diction needs some work. Chandan Roy Sanyal who plays the baba’s accomplice is a natural on the show. 

While it will be interesting to see if Aashram reins its political commentary in, one thing is for sure. Bobby Deol is under the impression that he is playing a teletubby in the show. Who’s going to break it to him? 

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If there’s one thing that 2020 has taught us, it’s that pandemics are exhausting. 

Dr Sumera Shahaney, head of clinical operations at Thriva who also works in the UK’s NHS, has witnessed a rise in what is often referred to as ‘pandemic fatigue’.

“This is usually felt as an inner weariness or worthlessness – many of the things you might associate with mild depression,” explains Dr Shahaney, who says she often sees this associated with feelings of hopelessness about the pandemic.

“Many people have now accepted that life has changed,” she adds, “but we have lost resilience – we have no control over the future and are unable to see an end point.”

On top of that, we’re entering the winter months, meaning fewer daylight hours to be had (and a drop in vitamin D levels), which can make us feel tired. We’re also more stressed generally, engaging in an awful lot of screen time, moving about far less, and plenty of us are having a rubbish night’s sleep to boot.

And then there’s our social lives, which are completely lacking. Dr Peter Mills, clinical director for Cigna Europe, points out that a variety of experience and interactions are key things that help stimulate our brain and body.

“We are not meant to live like this; we are social animals, albeit some more than others, and we gain energy and inspiration from experiences and from convening with others, which we just aren’t getting right now,” he says.

All in all, it’s a recipe for feeling absolutely done in. So, what can we do about it?

Sort your sleep out

For some, sleep has been a real issue this year. A survey published by mattress company Sleepeezee in August found that 33% of adults reported getting less than four to six hours of sleep a night. 

Even if you’re lucky enough to be sleeping between the recommended seven and nine hours right now, that’s not to say the quality of the sleep you’re getting is good. Studies have found sleep quality has been greatly compromised in the pandemic, which isn’t a surprise when you think about how stressful it’s been.

The Sleepeezee survey found 79% of UK adults are reporting feeling tired most of the time – and screen time isn’t helping matters. Among those aged 18 to 34, 78% use their phone before bed, and 38% while they’re between the covers.

If screen time is an issue for you, sleep expert and author of The Good Sleep Guide, Sammy Margo, recommends setting a technology cut off time, as blue light emitted by your devices can suppress the release of your sleep hormone melatonin, and disrupt your brain’s natural sleep-wake cycles.

“The NHS recommends switching off technology an hour before your bedtime,” says Margo. “Or if you are using a screen, at least turn it to night-time mode or install an app that reduces the blue light.”

If you find yourself craving that bedtime scroll on Twitter, reach for a book instead. And if reading isn’t for you, Margo suggests listening to the radio, an audiobook, or some calming music.

Dr Shahaney urges people to do a sleep hygiene check, which includes reducing screen time before you sleep, as well as establishing a consistent bedtime routine, perhaps with a bath or some relaxation techniques.

“If at all possible, try to make sure that your bedroom is a place where you sleep only, and keep the room cool,” she adds.

Consider your diet

Sometimes it’s all about going back to basics. Registered nutritionist Saadia Noorani says the best way to keep up your energy levels and reduce tiredness right now is to follow a healthy, balanced diet.

As part of this, she urges people to aim to eat regularly, and at the same times each day, to sustain energy levels – and this means eating breakfast. “A healthy breakfast provides the fuel needed for the day ahead and an opportunity to obtain a significant portion of our fibre, calcium and iron intakes,” she says. 

Noorani also strongly recommends getting plenty of iron-rich foods into your diet, such as dark-green leafy vegetables, cereals and bread fortified with iron, meat, and pulses (such as beans, peas and lentils). Being low in iron can lead to anaemia, which can make you feel tired, she adds, pointing out that women and girls are most at risk due to the loss of blood during their menstrual cycle.

Dr Shahaney urges people to be mindful of their vitamin D levels, too, as they might be contributing to tiredness. It’s thought around one in five adults and one in six children in the UK may have a profound vitamin D deficiency. Health bodies typically recommend taking a vitamin D supplement in the winter months – and most people should aim to have 10 micrograms a day. 

Vitamin D is also found in many foods, including oily fish (salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel), red meat, liver, egg yolks and fortified foods, such as some fat spreads and breakfast cereals.

If you’ve found yourself drinking more booze in lockdown, this might also be exacerbating your tiredness. “It’s important to note that alcohol can not only dehydrate you, but also disturb your sleep, leading to tiredness the next day,” says Noorani. Instead, aim to drink more water.

“Sometimes you may feel tired because you are dehydrated,” she continues. “Make sure you stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids – the government recommends six to eight glasses every day.”

Get moving

To boost energy and reduce stress more generally you might also want to look at introducing some aerobic exercise into your day.

Dr Alka Patel, a GP, coach and creator of the Lifestyle First method, says the ideal time and place to exercise is in the sunlight, within a two-hour window either side of sunrise. “This helps to set the clock for later sleep, with the added benefit of vitamin D,” she says.

Dr Mills agrees that regularly exercising and doing activity daily “will have a positive impact on our energy levels” – although he acknowledges that trying to find the motivation to do so can be difficult.

Just breathe

Breathing has a huge bearing on how we feel. “When we are tired or our energy levels feel low we should stop and take a break to breath,” suggests Dr Patel. “A technique I like to use is box breathing.”

To do this, imagine drawing a square box – either on your palm, on a piece of paper or in your mind. Each side of the square is going to take you four seconds to draw and the whole square will take just 16 seconds and with each line you draw you’re going to do something different with your breathing, says Dr Patel.

Here goes:

• Draw your line across and breathe in for 4 seconds

• Draw your line down and hold for 4 seconds

• Draw your line across and breathe out for 4 seconds

• Draw your line up and hold for 4 seconds

“Repeat as many times as you want to give you a surge of calm and uplifting energy,” she adds.

Be kind to yourself

Right now our stress levels are through the roof and our bodies just can’t handle it.  “As humans, we generate a stress hormone – called cortisol – which is normally released in response to events and circumstances such as waking up in the morning, exercising, and acute stress,” explains Cigna’s Dr Peter Mills.

“Our bodies are not designed to deal with such long and protracted stressful scenarios such as the one we currently face, therefore those stress hormones that are there to assist us in times of danger, eventually shut down.

“Those hormones can only achieve that heightened sense of alertness for a period of time before having to take it down a few notches which ultimately affects our energy levels too.”

Looking after yourself “has never been so important,” he adds, urging people to take time out of their day to have some ‘me’ time. “It’s extremely important to give your mind and body permission to relax, and helps to release those surging stress hormones,” he adds.

When to seek help

Prolonged tiredness and fatigue can also be a sign of some serious health concerns, so when might a person want to get medical help?

Dr Shahaney says you should consider how long the fatigue has been going on for? “If it’s been something you’ve been managing for many weeks or months, it might be time to speak to your GP about it, or get a blood test to check your levels of vital vitamins and minerals,” she says. 

“Extreme fatigue can be a sign of something more sinister and I’d say when it is associated with worrying physical symptoms, such as weight loss, you may want to address it.”

If you think you might’ve had Covid-19 earlier in the year, fatigue is also one of the main symptoms that people are experiencing long after the virus has swept through their system. The issue can be debilitating. 

NHS England has promised to launch 40 long Covid clinics in the next few weeks to help support people with these persistent symptoms. 

You can find out more about post-Covid fatigue on the NHS Your Covid Recovery site. People are urged to contact their GP if: their fatigue is getting worse rather than better, their fatigue is unchanged after three months, or they are worried or have other new symptoms.

Covid-19 is more than a news story – it has changed every aspect of life in the UK. We are following how Britain is experiencing this crisis, the different stages of collective emotion, reaction and resilience. You can tell us how you are feeling and find further advice and resources here.

The UK’s scientific advisers to the government were forced to scour Wikipedia in the early stage of the pandemic because of a lack of data about the spread on coronavirus in other countries.

A BBC documentary – Lockdown 1.0 – Following the Science? — hears from top scientists at the heart of Britain’s response to the virus, and paints a picture of a country unprepared to reduce its spread.

Among those to speak out were members of the the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), which reports to the influential Scientific Advisory Committee for Emergencies (Sage).

Professor Ian Hall of the University of Manchester, who is deputy chair of SPI-M, said: “The public may be surprised that we were using Wikipedia to get data very early on in the pandemic, but that was really the only data that was publicly available that we could access.”

Dr Thibaut Jombart, an academic at Imperial College London and member of SPI-M, who spent six months in the Democratic Republic of Congo fighting Ebola, added that there was a big gap in the basic epidemiological information they were drawing from.

He said the Covid-19 data situation was “less good in the UK” than the Ebola data in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

By the middle of March, it became clear that the official number of daily cases being reported by the government – around 450 – was incorrect, but the extent to which it was incorrect was not clear.

Professor Mark Jit, an academic at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and member of SPI-M, had to extrapolate more accurate information by comparing the number of hospitalisations in China and Northern Italy to the actual data available in the UK.

Jit said: “We were predicting that there were probably close to 100,000 cases each day. This was extremely worrying because 100,000 new cases would mean that about a week later we would get 20,000 new hospital patients a day.”

Dr Nick Davies from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a member of SPI-M, said that the NHS data some modellers were using was “in some cases up to a week old” by the time they were able to use it.

“That was the first time when I started to feel like things really were not in control,” he says.

He believes the subsequent delay in lockdown cost lives and “had lockdown been imposed a week earlier, we may have avoided about half or slightly more than half the number of deaths”.

Boris Johnson announced a complete national lockdown on March 23 – exactly one week after receiving inaccurate advice from Sage about Covid-19’s doubling time. 

The documentary has also revealed that the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), which advises ministers, had no specialists on the spread of the disease among humans at the start of the outbreak.

Professor Calum Semple, an academic at the University of Liverpool and member of NERVTAG, said: “Quite a few of us had read the literature for SARS and MERS” but there was no particular specialist who has just focused their entire life on human coronaviruses.

Professor David Matthews, of the University of Bristol, who has been studying viruses for over 30 years, told the BBC that he would have expected to have been consulted on the virus as one of only a handful of UK human coronavirus specialists.

He told the programme that at the time they were one of the only teams that were working on human coronaviruses in the UK.

Matthews said: “You have to remember there are not many corona virologists in the UK at all. I half expected someone in the government to say: ‘Is there anybody who’s got a containment facility and working on dangerous human coronaviruses right now?’ And that didn’t happen.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the BBC: “Covid-19 is a novel virus – we drew on the relevant expertise.

“We have been guided by the advice of experts from SAGE and its sub-committees and our response helped to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed.”

NEW DELHI — A parliamentary committee questioned Twitter on Thursday over the recent tweets by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra targeting the Supreme Court and the chief justice of India (CJI), and sought reply from the social media giant over the matter within seven days, said the panel’s chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi.

This came close on the heels of Twitter apologising in writing to the same parliamentary panel for wrongly showing Ladakh in China and promising to correct the error by the month-end.

Twitter India representatives deposed before the Joint Committee of Parliament on Data Protection Bill on Thursday.

“It is shameful that Twitter is allowing its platform for obscene remarks like the one by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra against the Supreme Court and the CJI,” Lekhi told reporters.

“Twitter is allowing its platform to be misused for abusing top constitutional authorities, such as Supreme Court and CJI.”

She said members of the committee across political spectrum, including Congress MP Vivek Tankha, BSP MP Ritesh Pandey and BJD MP Bhatruhari Mahtab, grilled Twitter representatives on this issue.

Lekhi also said that explanation of Twitter about banning handles and tweets was found to be inadequate.

Meanwhile, Kamra has refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them, saying he believes they “speak for themselves”.

Earlier, Attorney General KK Venugopal consented to the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against him for a series of tweets following the apex court giving interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.