Good news and bad news

Two items from the FT this morning.

First, while things still look pretty bad on the virus front, it may be that we are now past the third peak, with the first being the big one in April and the second being the small one in August. Once again, Europe is taking a large share, but at least while the UK is part of that, it is not such a big part as last time round. While the rest of Europe, presumably places like Serbia, Macedonia and the Ukraine, are a much bigger part than last time. And the count in Iran seems to be steadily creeping up. Upper green, down the bottom.

Second, the bad news. It seems that some Hindus, enough of them to get laws passed in northern states of India, are getting very cross about mixed marriages between Hindus and Moslems, these last accounting for around 15% of the population, with numbers presumably varying quite a lot between states. With the laws now being passed being frightening like those passed by Hitler's regime in Germany between the two world wars. See references 1 and 2.

India's founding fathers, people like Gandhi and Nehru, would have been both shocked and disappointed that things should have come to this. Not what that had in mind for the country they loved at all.

PS: tweet: the nuthatch turned out both yesterday afternoon and this morning.

Reference 1: Hindu nationalists raise spectre of ‘love jihad’ with marriage law: Indian Muslims accused of forced conversions but rights groups dismiss demographic plot – Amy Kazmin/Financial Times – 2020. 4th December 2020.

Reference 2: Nuremberg Laws - Wikipedia.