Daily Briefing: Dip in Covid instances slows down; BJP claims sweep in UP rural polls, SP calls it ‘war zone’

Good morning, 
The Big Story 
In what could possibly be an early signal of an impending potential surge in Covid instances, the reproductive quantity, or R, an indicator of how briskly the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading, has elevated for the primary time because the center of April. 
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs directed eight states to make sure strict adherence of Covid protocols amid crowding at vacationer spots.
Only within the Express
Former Union minister P Chidambaram writes: Indians have crushed the French in sangfroid, the flexibility to remain calm in troublesome circumstances. 
Argentina’s Lionel Messi hoists the trophy after beating Brazil 1-0 within the Copa America remaining soccer match at Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 10, 2021. (AP Photo)
From the Front Page
Etawah, Unnao, Hathras, Amethi, Ballia, Siddharth Nagar, Kanpur, Mau, Hamirpur, Amroha, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh, Firozabad, Pratapgarh, Kanpur Dehat, Chandauli. Violence was reported from not less than 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh throughout elections for panchayat block chiefs.
As the BJP claimed to have swept the polls,  Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stated the conduct of the polls had proven “individuals and parties can contest elections peacefully” in UP.’ 
In 2005, the relics of Queen Ketevan, who was tortured and killed in Safavid Iran for refusing to surrender her Christian religion and convert to Islam, have been discovered at a church in Old Goa. Four hundred years after her loss of life, India handed over a part of the relics to Georgia, the place she is revered as Ketevan the Martyr.
A photograph taken in 2012 of a bunch of individuals fleeing certainly one of Assam’s worst sectarian riots has surfaced lately. Though it was extensively circulated again then, it was a “huge shock” to the photographer when he discovered it was being utilized by the Assam authorities on a web page about ‘Foreigners’ Tribunals. 
Must Read 
Just over every week stays earlier than the Olympic Games in pandemic-hit Tokyo and there appears to be a way of foreboding among the many locals that simply gained’t go away. “I don’t know a single person who is excited about the Olympics,” journalist Timothy Hornyak stated. 
 The Assam Cabinet has introduced the creation of an unbiased division to guard and protect the “faith, culture and traditions of tribes and indigenous communities” of the state.
From a beer baron to a scientist — the Congress has chosen a various mixture of Indian-origin ‘Country Presidents’ throughout Europe to “spread its ideology far and wide” on international shores. 
For the Modi authorities, particularly in the course of the second time period, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has emerged because the trouble-shooter in nearly each high-stakes authorized battle. But his critics usually say he’s raring to drop the gloves in opposition to the Opposition within the courtroom as an alternative of constructing arguments grounded in regulation. We observe his arc — from apprentice to a Congressman lawyer in Gujarat to India’s second most senior regulation officer.
And Finally 
He was an actor, an entertainer and a famous person. But over and past that, Dilip Kumar represented the composite tradition of the Indian subcontinent, usually unimaginable now within the din of jingoism on both facet of the India-Pakistan border. We take a look at what made him the final word ‘people’s actor’.
Until tomorrow 
Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose