| Wednesday, Jan 27, 2021 | | | Good morning. We’re covering economic fault lines in Hong Kong being spotlighted by the pandemic, expanding farmer protests in India and protests over Australia’s national holiday. | |  By Melina Delkic | | | Jordan, a neighborhood in Hong Kong, was placed under lockdown over the weekend. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times | | | After an outbreak in the densely populated neighborhood of Jordan, officials locked down 10,000 residents, most of whom live in tenement apartments, where spaces are so tiny and restrictive that they are called cages or coffins. Residents worried about missing a day of work or feared being trapped in poorly ventilated hotbeds of transmission. It was the first such lockdown in the territory since the pandemic began. | | | Discrimination also compounded the problems. Some blamed the government for allowing the conditions for an outbreak to fester and then imposing measures on a group that can least afford to bear them. Wealthy Hong Kongers have caused outbreaks of their own, without similar consequences. | | | Details: More than 160 cases were confirmed in Jordan from Jan. 1 to the end of last week, out of about 1,100 citywide. Similar areas saw SARS outbreaks that spread through defective plumbing. The government promised reforms after SARS but has acknowledged that the situation remains perilous. | | | Police officers block farmers during a tractor rally as they continue to demonstrate against agricultural reforms in New Delhi. Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images | | | It was a split-screen moment, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saluting officers at a Republic Day parade as clashes broke out in several parts of the city just a few miles away. At least one person died, and our reporters in the area saw wounded people being carried away after a tractor tipped over. As evening fell, many parts of the city still felt unnerved. Farm leaders distanced themselves from the violence and appealed to protesters to return to campsites. | | | Deadlock: Farmers say they will not back down until the repeal of farming laws aimed at injecting private investment in the agricultural sector, but which farmers say will leave them at the mercy of corporate giants. The demonstration illustrated how deeply the deadlock with the farmers has embarrassed Mr. Modi. | | | Quotable: “Once we make it inside Delhi, we’re not going anywhere until Modi repeals the law,” said Happy Sharma, a farmer from Uttar Pradesh. | | | Gang Chen, a professor at M.I.T., was arrested on suspicion of hiding affiliations with Chinese institutions. M.I.T. | | | Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested during President Donald Trump’s last week in office on suspicion of hiding affiliations with Chinese government institutions in order to secure $19 million in U.S. federal grants. | | | More than 160 members of the M.I.T. faculty have signed a letter arguing that the Chinese affiliations Dr. Chen is accused of hiding were routine academic activities, such as reviewing grant proposals. The university said that $19 million in Chinese funding cited in the complaint was for a collaboration with a Chinese research center, and not for Dr. Chen individually. | | | Context: Dr. Chen’s prosecution was the latest in the Justice Department’s two-year-old China Initiative, which aims to root out research scientists passing sensitive technology to China. | | | Sustainability in the fashion industry was once the focus of only a handful of designers, like Stella McCartney and outdoor gear companies such as Patagonia. But brands everywhere are now working to improve a supply chain criticized for contributing to landfills and causing pollution. | | | PAID POST: A MESSAGE FROM CAMPAIGN MONITOR | | TEST: Email Marketing 101: Never Sacrifice Beauty for Simplicity | | A drag-and-drop email builder, a gallery of templates and turnkey designs, personalized customer journeys, and engagement segments. It's everything you need to create stunning, results-driven email campaigns in minutes. And with Campaign Monitor, you have access to it all, along with award-winning support around the clock. It's beautiful email marketing done simply. | | | Learn More | | | | Capitol Hill attack: The Capitol Police apologized for enormous security failures in the Jan. 6 mob attack. The acting police chief acknowledged that her department knew that militia groups and white supremacists would descend on Washington, but did not do enough to prepare. | | | Darren England/EPA, via Shutterstock | | | What we’re reading: This ranking from Bloomberg of the best and worst places to be during the pandemic, across multiple different metrics. (New Zealand holds the top spot — for now.) | | | Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich | | | Listen: “Ignorance,” a piercing new album by the Canadian musician Tamara Lindeman, who records under the name the Weather Station, explores the emotional impacts of climate change. | | | Do: It’s time to look inward with the help of movement practices that create healthy bodies and minds. | | | For the 125th anniversary of The New York Times Book Review, editors delved into the archives and spotlighted reviews by 25 big-name authors. Here’s a selection. | | | Tennessee Williams on Paul Bowles in 1949: Mr. Williams, who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” reviewed Mr. Bowles’s debut novel, “The Sheltering Sky,” which went on to be acclaimed as one of the best of the 20th century. “A talent of true maturity and sophistication” is how he described Mr. Bowles. | | | Margaret Atwood on Toni Morrison in 1987: Ms. Atwood — the author of her own classics, like “The Handmaid’s Tale” — wrote: “‘Beloved’ is Toni Morrison’s fifth novel, and another triumph. Indeed, Morrison’s versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds.” | | | Jhumpa Lahiri on Mohsin Hamid in 2000: Shortly before she won a Pulitzer Prize for her debut collection of stories, “Interpreter of Maladies,” Ms. Lahiri reviewed the debut novel by Mr. Hamid, who was embarking on his own award-winning career. “Like Fitzgerald, Hamid writes about the slippery ties between the extremely wealthy and those who hover, and generally stumble, in money’s glare,” Ms. Lahiri wrote. “And like Fitzgerald, Hamid probes the vulgarity and violence that lurk beneath a surface of affluence and ease.” | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Melina | | Thank you
Carole Landry helped write this briefing. Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
