I am writing this from a hospital waiting room where the wi-fi is aggressive, the coffee is optimistic, and my father is currently having his knee surgically improved against his will. The last part is not entirely accurate; he consented to the surgery. It is the recuperation he is resisting, with the focused, creative energy of a man who has decided that the medical profession, for all its centuries of accumulated knowledge, has fundamentally misunderstood his particular knee. He will not do the prescribed exercises at the prescribed intervals. He has opinions about his medication schedule that differ meaningfully from those of his surgical team. He listens to advice the way a very senior cat listens to instructions: with complete attention, apparent comprehension, and zero subsequent compliance. I have spent the better part of this week sitting across from him, deploying every rational argument available to a grown adult son, and achieving roughly nothing. I am told this stubbornn...
The Indian National Congress on Friday assailed the Narendra Modi-led BJP government after the US temporarily allowed Russian oil stranded at sea to be sold to India, saying the move called into question the country’s autonomy in matters of national interest. The waiver, which the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was issued to “enable oil to keep flowing into the global market,” comes under heightened tensions in the Middle East following the US-Israeli attack on Iran, sparking uncertainty around oil. It should be noted that India had earlier said it would stop purchasing Russian oil as part of a trade deal with the US. In a post on X, the Congress, citing the development, criticised the Indian government, and stressed that the BJP-led government “has led the country to a situation where the US is now deciding where India can buy oil from and where it cannot”. “This decision is not being made by Prime Minister Modi, nor by the Indian government,” it said. Congress said t...