Good morning. We’re covering strict hotel quarantines in Britain, work stoppages to oppose the military coup in Myanmar and winter storms bringing snow to Texas and other parts of the U.S. | |  By Melina Delkic | | | Security personnel at London’s Heathrow airport escorted travelers on Monday to buses taking them to compulsory hotel quarantine. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images | | | The quarantines, which began on Monday, will cost nearly $2,500 for a single adult, including meals, security guards and testing. Travelers from elsewhere are also required to self-isolate in the place they’re staying for 10 days. Scotland is requiring all international air passengers, no matter where from, to isolate on arrival in a government-designated hotel. | | | The restrictions are among the first of this kind in Europe, modeled after strict requirements in other countries with a better grasp on their epidemics, like Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. | | | Context: Britain has suffered one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks in terms of deaths per capita. But cases and deaths have plummeted in recent weeks amid a stringent lockdown. | | | Protesters demanding the release of Disha Ravi, a climate activist, in Bangalore, India, on Monday. Jagadeesh Nv/EPA, via Shutterstock | | | Before anyone outside her hometown knew her name, Disha Ravi spent four years raising awareness among young people in Bangalore about the effects of climate change. | | | The document — which the police say she shared with Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist — resembles the kind that grass-roots organizations around the world have used for years to campaign for their causes. But the police say Ms. Ravi was using it to “spread disaffection against the Indian State.” | | | Response: A climate activist who has worked with Ms. Ravi said the government arrested her because they wanted to make her an example and dissuade others from helping farmers in their struggle. Rights groups, opposition politicians and student groups said the government was using its law enforcement agencies to stifle dissent. | | | What’s next: Although she has not been formally charged yet, she is to spend five days in police custody, under a stringent sedition law. | | | Thousands of protesters gathered in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday. The New York Times | | | Hundreds of thousands of doctors, bankers, trash collectors, electricity workers and essential employees have kept protesting, even as soldiers try to intimidate them. The civil disobedience movement targets services essential to military rule, and is gaining support. | | | The walkouts have been widespread. At the nation’s power provider, about 60 percent of employees have walked off their jobs. In Yangon, people have started taking their own trash to neighborhood garbage bins during the trash collectors’ walkout. | | | Quote: “There is no way we can work under a dictatorship,” said Dr. Kyaw Zin, a surgeon who led one of the nation’s first walkouts at the government-run Mandalay General Hospital. “I am pretty sure we can bring down the regime.” | | | The Taliban have been encroaching on key cities for months as the Biden administration weighs whether to withdraw U.S. troops supporting Afghanistan’s beleaguered army and security forces. For the U.S., it’s a no-win situation: If it pulls out, the insurgents could take control of major cities, but if troops stay, the Taliban could renew attacks. | | | Australian Parliament rape case: Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s party came under criticism for the way it handled accusations of rape in the Parliament building from a former government staff member, who said she was assaulted after she had fallen asleep on a couch in the defense minister’s office. | | | Japan recovery: The economy rebounded sharply in the last three months of 2020, government data showed Monday, extending its recovery from the coronavirus’s devastating impact in the first half of the year. Analysts warned that the growth was fragile and could be easily disrupted, at least in the short term. | | | Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times | | | Snapshot: Above, playing in the snow in Austin, Tex., on Monday. More than 2 million homes and business were without electricity as a winter storm pummeled a large swath of the U.S. The coast-to-coast storm was particularly disruptive for states like Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, which aren’t as used to winter weather. | | | What we’re reading: This Rest of the World article about the people fighting for Urdu’s digital future. It’s a beautiful long read that touches on what the expansion of the internet does to languages. | | | Heami Lee for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Sophia Pappas. | | | Cook: This Russian salad requires a fine dice to make the finished dish delicate, luscious and savory. | | | Read: In “Halfway Home,” the sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller wants us to understand incarceration’s “afterlife” — how prison follows people “like a ghost,” a permanent specter in the lives of the 19.6 million Americans who have a felony record. | | | What books are on your night stand? | | | “Infinite Jest.” I’m on a mission to read everything David Foster Wallace wrote, and I’m slowly working my way through everything else before I get to that one. I’ve also got a copy of “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin, which I’ve been meaning to read for a while. | | | What’s the last great book you read? | | | I really liked President Obama’s new book. It was fascinating to read about times when he struggled with self-doubt and how he dealt with it. He’s honest about where he might have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. It had a level of candor and self-reflection that isn’t all that common among leaders. I was surprised that he portrayed the job as less crazy than I’ve always imagined it to be. | | | Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? | | | I’m surprised more books haven’t been written about how the insights we’re gaining from big data could be used for good. I read “Everybody Lies,” by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, last summer, which is all about what internet data — and especially search engines — reveal about human behavior. | | 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. | | |
