Farmers in India organized a strike on Tuesday against laws that deregulate the sale of crops passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Tens of thousands of farmers have been protesting on the outskirts of Delhi for weeks. These protests follow a 24-hour general strike in late November.
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To comprehend this moment, you have to understand the long plight of India’s farmers. To a much greater degree than other major economies, India retains its mass agrarian traditions alongside its developed industrial and tech sectors—agriculture is still the largest source of livelihood for most Indians, employing more than half the subcontinent’s workforce, mostly in small and local farms instead of agribusiness behemoths. Yet the farmers themselves, despite feeding so much of the nation and providing a significant bedrock for India’s economy, have always had a brutal time of it. Colonial-induced famines (temporarily solved by the reforms of the 1960s “Green Revolution,” which later would cause its own issues), bureaucratic and oppressive government policy, exploitation by feudal-minded landholders, and, of course, climate change have continually left India’s land workers among the worst off the world over.
The United Kingdom administered the first clinically-approved COVID-19 vaccine this week to mostly elderly patients. While it’s a promising step int he fight against the pandemic, the vaccine will take time to truly make a difference in the lives of the country’s population.
Margaret Keenan, the first patient in Britain to receive the coronavirus vaccine, hopes to set an example for people hesitant to become vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/kMGEp7F4Vy
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 8, 2020
The Chinese embassy in the United States is claiming a hacker retweeted a false claim made by President Donald Trump concerning the results of the 2020 election from the official embassy Twitter account. The Chinese government formally congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his election win in November.
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