USA slaps tariffs on foreign goods

United States slapped steep tariffs on imports of washing machines and solar energy cells & panels on Monday, the first major step by the administration.

White House advisers had warned that additional measures related to steel, aluminium and other products from China could be coming.

The imposition of tariffs will most likely increase trade tensions with other nations including China, and could result in an escalation of retaliatory trade measures against imports from US.

Both China and South Korea harshly criticised the move with both suggesting they could take their complaints to World Trade Organisation.

Protectionism was a defining theme of populist campaign in which Trump gleefully rebuffed the long standing republican embrace of free and open markets. President Trump has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. the 12-country trade deal, and threatened other actions, including a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade agreement.

Trump is ratcheting up the protectionist policies he has long espoused as part of his “America First” approach.

Judiciary under threat?

Seven-member delegation from Bar Council of India met Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra and other judges on Sunday and were assured that there would be congenial atmosphere in the Supreme Court.

The meeting was held to resolve the crisis that struck the highest judiciary after four seniormost judges Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph on Friday questioned “arbitrary allocation of cases to select benches”.

A full court metting was also expressed on Monday where Chief Justice Misra might meet with all the other judges to address the concerns.

On Friday, the group of seniormost judges aired their grievances and dissent, “There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by Chief Justices of this court selectively to the benches of their preference without any rationale basis, this must be guarded at all costs.

Their letter addressed to the Chief Justic of India two months ago questioned decisions of allocating cases by “chief justices” in a clear indication that their anger has simmered even before the current CJI assumed charge. The letter by the four judges didn’t specify cases to ” avoid embarrasing the  institution”. They said that the image of institution has been damaged to some extent.

Nature Vs Nurture

“Nature vs. Nurture”, this is a debate older than our debate of existence of a supreme Almighty. It is believed that the edifice of anthropology is this nature-nurture divide. The argument is framed by the question of whether the two entities function separately from one another, or if they have a continuous biotic relationship with each other.

Several modern authors, such as Rousseau saw the process of education as a struggle against the most eradicated tendencies of human nature. In very simple words, nature is everything which has been imbibed into us from the very beginning, and nurture is man’s fight against it; against all the animalistic behaviour, the egoistical attitude and all the violence to achieve what you desire has been a part of our “Homo Sapiens” genes. Education is the antidote to all our wildest dispositions, to elevate above all the other species and beyond. Many experts also feel that these two can’t co-exist and say that nature can’t be a consequence of human intrusion and the advancement of nurture is developed against nature

It has also been said that one’s ‘nurture’ is the biological adaption in ‘nature’. For example, the invention of weapons, discovery of fire by the early men which was achieved to exist a better and easier life. The view in the last decade has been that nurture is in the human nature. Snails bring their shells, we bring our nurture.

 

Yusuf Pathan doping violation

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suspended Indian all-rounder Yusuf Pathan for an anti-doping violation.

BCCI backdated the suspension to August 15, 2017 which mean that Pathan’s period of ineligibility will end on January 14, 2018.

His urine sample was found to contain Terabutaline which is in the WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) prohibited list of substances.

Mr Pathan said that he had “inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance which can be commonly found in cough syrups to treat an upper respiratory tract infection and not as a performance enhancing drug.

Yusuf Pathan will be available for the IPL auctions to be held at 27th January, 2018 in Bengaluru.