 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. The list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. Let us take up this news article which provides a detailed information on Houthi rebels. The news article talks about their history, how they gained power in MN and their current position. So in this context let us discuss who are Houthi rebels and how they have captured power in MN and what is the current state of MN. This is going to be very exhaustive discussion wherein we are going to discuss the entire history of MN of last 200 years. See, since the 19th century the area that comprises MN today has been divided into two, North and Pottas, North MN and Southern Pottas, South MN. So the North MN was a part of former Ottoman Empire during 19th century and early 20th century. That was before World War I and South MN fell under British influence from 1839. But after the collapse of Ottoman Empire in World War I, North MN became an independent republic and was ruled by Imam Yahya who was the leader of Zaydi community. After Imam Yahya, his sons and grandsons succeeded the rule. But army officers seized power and set up MN Arab Republic in the later years. So simply a military coup happened. So this sparked a civil war between Zaydi royalists and Zaydi republicans, those who are supporting imams and those who are supporting army. So the royalists were supported by Saudi Arabia and republicans were supported by Egypt. So in 1970 the republican forces won this North MN war and as a result Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Zaydi republican became president of North MN in 1978. But if you see so far we have discussed only North MN. If you come to South MN we have said that it was under British influence. So this happened till 1967. So after a very long pro-independence insurgency in South MN, British has left the South MN in 1967. So immediately a communist coup renamed the South MN as People's Democratic Republic of MN and re-oriented towards Soviet bloc. So the Northern bloc was under control of President Ali Abdullah Saleh while Southern bloc was oriented towards Soviet bloc. But here what happened? In the later periods border clashes happened between two MNs. That is since 1970s. So then in 1980s work towards unification of these two states began. And in 1990 because of these unification efforts North and South MN were merged and a republic of MN was established. And the president of Northern bloc who was Ali Abdullah Saleh was made the president of combined MN. And Ali Saleh al-Bid who was from South bloc was made vice president. Though everyone thought that with merger of both blocs the peace will prevail but the contrast tensions between both the North and South blocs prevailed. In 1991 in 1992 there were deteriorating economic conditions which led to significant domestic unrest including several riots. So in 1993 vice president al-Bid exiled himself voluntarily to Aden. Aden is in South bloc so the vice president exiled himself to South bloc. So President Saleh declared a state of emergency and dismissed vice president and other southern officials. So by 1994 the country was in civil war and the international efforts to broker a ceasefire were unsuccessful. So because of all these issues the tensions were prevailing currency got devalued not even basic amenities and people were under severe stress because of all these military operations lack of food etc. So this is the basic information regarding the MN. But at the start we have talked about someone called Houthis. So who are they? See the Houthis come from Zeidi sect of Shia Islam. So broadly there are two sects in muslim they are Sunnis and Shiites. So this Shiite Muslims are minority community in the Islamic world and Zeidis are a minority among Shiites itself. So Zeidis are a sub classification under Shiites. But coming to MN the Zeidis population is significant they comprise around 30 to 40 percent of MN's population. So the issue started in 1970s when the North MN mistreated the Zeidis and it marginalised Zeidis both politically and economically. For example MNA government started to subsidise the building of Saudi style Sunni religious schools in Zeidi populated areas. See if you know the issues in West Asia Shiites and Sunnis are arc enemies. But the MNA government started supporting Sunni religious buildings in Shiite areas. So this created a strong sense of discrimination among the Houthis they are Zeidis. So they started getting frustrated with government policies which increased during the next three decades. In addition to all these issues the President Saleh was alleged of massive corruption obviously it is happening everywhere. This is even more common in Arab dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria etc. So after the unification of both MN's the tension in MN continued leading to civil war. All this together led to an emergence of Zeidi resistance to President Saleh. So this resistance movement was led by a leader named Hussein al-Houthi. The Zeidi group under him came to be known as Houthis but the group officially calls itself Ansar Allah which means the supporters of God. So simply Houthis are from Zeidi community who are an armed rebel group fighting against the government of MN. And during that time Houthis also criticised Saudi Arabia and America for backing Saleh and the pivotal moment is when America invaded Iraq in 2003. This deeply radicalised the Houthi movement like it did many other Arabs. So many Arab countries were not happy with America attacking Iraq in 2003. So at this time Houthis even adopted the slogan God is great death to US, death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory for Islam. So you can understand that there was very high Islamic radicalisation. So after 2003 Saleh launched a series of military campaigns to destroy the Houthis. In 2004 even the group leader Houthi was killed by Saleh forces. The killing of their leader frustrated the Houthis and there was a very massive armed rebellion against the state and president. At this point the President Saleh was supported by Saudis but to the surprise of everyone both Saleh and Saudis were defeated by Houthis. So this was the case until the first decade of current century and then came the Arab Spring of 2011. So this Arab Spring is also important in MN's politics. So this Arab Spring represents a wave of popular protests which started in Tunisia in 2010. So in general the demands of the protesters were democratic reforms in the Arab world. So within a short span of time the protests also spread to Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen etc. So the entire Arab world witnessed the rise of Arab Spring. So the reforms included political freedom, social freedom, press freedom, improved human rights conditions, economic environment etc. So these kind of demands were made by the protesters in their countries. So when Arab Spring came to Yemen the Houthi movement became one part of national wide uprising against the President Saleh. So this eventually led to the overthrowing of Saleh but even then Houthis did not stop rebelling because based on Saudi Arabia's instructions Saleh was replaced by his Vice President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi who is a Sunni from South Yemen. So again the new leader is a Sunni person that too with support of Sunni based Saudi Arabia. So this enraged Houthis even more. So at this time a national dialogue was set up to address the future of MN with regional and international assistance. So the dialogue proposed a federal solution with six provinces with some autonomy. In this the Zaidi dominated North got a divided two landlocked entities for which the Houthis argued that division was against them to shorten their power. But surprisingly in 2014 Houthis who were initially against Saleh colluded with him. So this is quite surprising the movement was started against Saleh but after the death of groups leader the group colluded with Saleh and captured Sana the capital city of Yemen. So then in beginning of 2015 Houthis surrounded the President palace and placed President Hadi under house arrest. And then the President Hadi fled to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia. So President Hadi requested intervention from Saudi for which Saudi Arabia formed a military coalition. As a result of this Houthis are in direct military conflict with the MN government forces as well as Saudi led military coalition. But even today Houthis continue to capture large areas of territories in Yemen. So it is said that Houthis are supported by Iran which provides them with weapons and funding. So over the years MN has become a theater ongoing proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. If you see the entire vegetation conflict can be seen as Sunnis versus Shiites where Saudi Arabia is majorly Sunni where Iran, Iraq are majorly Shiites. So Houthis who are basically Shiites are supported by Iran. In addition to this the continuing instability in Yemen has provided a conducive atmosphere to al-Qaeda and Islamic state of Iraq and Syria that is ISIS to operate and further expand their activities. So this has been a key concern for the whole region. So on a whole the Saudi military intervention the Houthi resistance and threat of terrorist groups have collectively turned MN into a humanitarian catastrophe. Unfortunately one more country which is very close to MN that is Syria is also witnessing a similar catastrophe. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. Let us move on to next news article discussion. Let us take up this news article which talks about flash droughts. In this news article the author explains what is a flash drought, what are the reasons behind it and what will be the consequences of a flash drought. So let us have a brief discussion on these issues. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See we all know that monsoon is India's life giver, its rebirth and its lifeblood. We are not exaggerating. See nearly 60% of Indian agriculture depends on the rains but historically India has been facing drought conditions owing to erratic climate. Erratic means not regular or inconsistent climate and particularly since 2015 India has been experiencing widespread drought conditions. In fact some 60 crore people of India are presently facing high to extreme water stress and according to government's own report India is facing its worst ever water crisis. The report was given by Niti Ayuk which says that by 2030 the country's water demand is projected to be twice the available supply. So in this regard first let us understand what is drought. See generally drought is a period of time when an area or regionic experiences below normal precipitation. So the lack of adequate precipitation either rain or snow can cause reduced soil moisture or groundwater or diminished stream flow etc. So this may even lead to crop damage and a general water shortage. So in general sense when the availability of water and precipitation is low we call it as a drought like condition. So the problem with drought is they are very hard to define and identify. See drought is a creeping phenomenon so it slowly sneaks up and impacts many sectors of economy and operates on many different time scales. If you see a cyclone we can exactly know when it is coming how many days it is going to stay and who will be affected by the occurrence of cyclone. But drought on the other hand will be having a very long impact. See if rain is not there agriculture will not be there. When agriculture is not there the food shortage, the rise of food prices, so entire market will be affected. So drought is very hard or very complex phenomenon to explain. So as a result of this the climatological community has defined drought into four types. First one meteorological drought, hydrological drought, agricultural drought, socio-economic drought. If you see first one it happens when dry weather pattern dominates an area dry weather is the key word here. Coming to second one as the word says hydrological it means when low water supply becomes evident especially in streams reservoirs and groundwater levels. And coming to third one that is agricultural drought it is said to be occurred when crops become affected or failed. Coming to fourth one that is socio-economic drought it relates the supply and demand of various commodities to drought. So basically drought can be classified into these four types and as we said before in this news article the author concentrates on flashed droughts. So what is a flashed drought? As the name suggests flashed drought occurs in a flash. It is simply the rapid onset or intensification of drought. See unlike slow evolving drought which is caused by a decline in precipitation the flashed drought is set in motion by lower than normal rates of precipitation and this is accompanied by abnormally high temperatures winds radiation. One side rain is slow on the other side abnormally high temperatures winds etc. So together all these changes in weather can rapidly alter the local climate. So here we should know that these sometime rapid changes can quickly raise evapotranspiration and removes available water from the landscape. See we know what is evaporation we know what is transpiration. Evaporation occurs with water bodies transpiration generally occurs with plants. But what is this evapotranspiration? So these two phenomenon combined that is the process by which water is transferred from land to atmosphere by evaporation and by transpiration from plants. So both things simultaneously happening resulting in transferring of water from land to atmosphere that is called evaporation plus transpiration which is equal to evapotranspiration and this evapotranspiration further lowers soil moisture which decreases rapidly as drought conditions continue. So simply put flashed drought is a type of drought which comes or intensifies in a very short span of time with a long lasting impact. So what are the reasons for flashed droughts? As the author mentions several factors including atmospheric anomalies, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions etc. Same to same the reasons for global warming are also causing flashed droughts. The author also quotes on experts view that ongoing climate change can lead to more and more flashed droughts in coming years. On talking about India a new study has now found out that India could experience many flashed droughts by end of this century. So in this regard we will analyze the occurrence of flashed droughts in India in the last 60 years. See this image shows six homogeneous precipitation regions in India. Top we have Himalayan region, northwest, central northeast, and here it is western central and in the south it is peninsula region, the south states. And if you see this graph shows the fraction of flashed droughts which occurred during monsoon and non-monsoon seasons in India during 1951 to 2018 period. If you observe in most of the graphs except south region in all other regions the droughts are high in monsoon region. The blue bar is monsoon and the other one is non-monsoon region. So we can say that in contrast with conventional drought which may occur throughout the year at any location flashed drought typically occurs during warm seasons. So far we have discussed what is a drought, classification of drought, what is a flashed drought and where does this flashed drought is occurring. We have discussed all these things. Now the final discussion will be what are the consequences of flashed droughts. So the article says that the increased frequency of flashed droughts can cause huge destruction to crops, reduced crop production, increased irrigation demands and groundwater usage in India. So in this regard how can we mitigate it? Same answer that is controlling climate change. So according to experts if we can meet the Paris agreement goals and limit global warming to well below 2 degrees centigrade the number and frequency of projected flashed droughts can be drastically reduced. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. Just have a brief idea on what is a drought, classification of drought, the definition of flashed drought etc. Let us move on to the next news article discussion. Let us take up this news article which says that the new president of USC that is Joe Biden has signed an order to restore America's participation in Paris agreement. See it has been almost three months since US formally left the Paris climate deal. So this order of President Joe Biden is a very welcome move to the climate mitigation measures. So in this context let us look at the path that US took in the last two decades with regard to climate change. Since 2009 UNFCCC that is UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has been negotiating with the member countries to finalize a climate deal to reduce the harmful impact on the climate due to anthropogenic measures. So even in this the American administration headed by President Obama was very active in finalizing a global level climate deal. It is even said that Obama was one of the key factors for finalizing of Paris agreement. But once the Trump became president in 2016 the US path on climate mitigation measures completely went in the opposite direction. It should be noted that the US taking a complete contrast view in climate change deals is not new. For example in 2001 then President George Bush pulled out of Kyoto Protocol. If you remember Kyoto Protocol is something about reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. So similarly even Trump after becoming president has diluted many environmental provisions. One such dilution is US coming out of Paris deal. See initially US pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below the 2005 level by 2025. So after coming out of Paris deal this commitment of US will not be honored. And to the worst of everyone America also stopped its contribution to UN's green climate fund. Initially US pledged around three billion dollars to GCF but American administration under Trump went back on this commitment. So what is GCF? See GCF is a financial mechanism under UNFCCC to channel funding from developed countries to developing countries to help them in mitigating climate change and also to adapt disruptions arising out of climate change. So this fund was set up in 2010 and as we said before US promised three billion dollars to this fund. But Trump administration have stopped contributions to this fund. Apart from stopping funding to green projects the Trump administration also relaxed controls on emissions from fossil fuel based industries. Also diluted standards on air quality vehicle emissions loosened the way the government calculated the social cost of carbon revoked protection for natural habitats including the Arctic region. So close to 100 environmental rules and regulations were diluted by Trump administration. So with respect to climate Trump administration took backseat and promoted pro-industrial policies and not just that during Obama as president the administration came up with clean power plan. So this plan sought to cut down power sector emissions by 32% of 2005 levels by 2030. Even this was replaced by affordable clean energy rule with a reduction effect of only 0.7%. So while Obama administration promised 32% the Trump rule effectively achieves only 0.7%. But if you see the entire campaign of Joe Biden was surrounded on climate change. So immediately after becoming the president of US Joe Biden signed an order to rejoin Paris agreement. So Joe Biden in his election manifesto unveiled a plan for climate change and environmental justice. He even promised an enforcement mechanism to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050. So this entire news article talks about how America used to participate in climate deals and how America went back on its words during Trump administration and what can be expected in Joe Biden's new presidency. So the author concludes saying that since Biden has promised to engage multilaterally again so all other top emitters such as China should come back to negotiating table in the next COP of E&FCCC and work out a sustainable climate change model for the future. So this is all about the discussion of this news article wherein we had a very brief discussion on US rule as a climate change mitigator and what can be expected from the new president Joe Biden. Let us move on to next news article discussion. Let us take up this news article which is in reference to a recently held meeting between telecom operators and government officials in national security council secretariat. So in that meeting two important issues were discussed. First the firms have asked the government to ensure price competitiveness because there are talks that Chinese equipments could be prohibited to be used by Indian telecom firms. For example, US as well as England have enforced restrictions on Huawei's telecom equipment. So it is even said that India may impose similar restrictions in rolling out 5G network in our country. So if the ban comes into play the telecom operators have to source their equipments from other countries which are costlier than the ones available in China. See generally Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei are known for best telecom equipment but Ericsson and Nokia which are based in Europe have higher prices compared to China's Huawei. So to ensure price competitiveness of European firms the Indian telecom firms have asked the government to reduce the import duties. So it was suggested that the price competitiveness can be maintained by reducing import duties and even the Nokia and Ericsson have told that the prices of their equipment would come down as they manufacture in India and save on import duty. And the second issue of the meeting was who would be held responsible if there is any security breach in the network once the national security directive comes into play. So what is this national security directive? See government in December last year announced the national security directive for the telecom sector to tighten the security of communications network. So this NSD will mandate service providers to purchase equipment from trusted sources. So NSD classifies telecom products and their sources into trusted and non-trusted categories. So this classification will be based on the approval of national security committee on telecom. See this committee is headed by deputy national security advisor and the committee will have the members from other departments ministries independent experts etc. To get this trusted source designation a company has to undergo two processes. First one it should get trusted certificate from national cybersecurity coordinator. Next it should meet the criteria to get preferential market access set by department of telecom. Once these two are done it will be certified as Indian trusted sources. See this national security directive for telecom sector has become inevitable because recently Chinese company Huawei was alleged of espionage by the governments of U.S, Canada etc. So with the setting up of new body that is NSD the telecom operators of India are asking who will be held liable if there is any security breach in the network because under the current rules telecom operators are held for any security breach in their network. So with NSD coming in who will be held liable? Because once the NSD is enforced the telecom operators can use only equipments allowed by the government. In such a case can the operators still be held responsible for any security breach? So this question needs to be answered by the government. Anyway the telecom operators cannot be completely absorbed from the responsibility. So both government and the telecom operators have the responsibility of protecting the data and privacy of Indians. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. Let us move on to next news article discussion. See these two questions they are framed based on this news article which says that the boundaries between tropical forests and savannas play an important role in controlling natural fires. So the experts analyzed forest savanna boundaries in Africa and found that they can act as natural buffers for fires. This is because boundary trees shaded the grasses thereby shielding the interior from fire. If you see the first question which of the following is correct with reference to tropical forests? So four options are given here and we have to identify which statement is correct. First one they grow within 28 degrees north or south of equator. See this statement is correct. Tropical forests are closed canopy forests which grow within 28 degrees north or south of the equator. See these are the very wet places receiving more than 200 centimeters of rainfall every year. So because of abundance of rainfall the areas between 28 degrees north and 28 degrees south latitudes are generally filled with tropical forests. And if you see tropical forests include many forest types depending upon temperature, rainfall, relief for example tropical rainforest, drier tropical forest, montane tropical forest, mangroves etc. Coming to statement two they absorb very less of insulation thus have a very high albedo. Albedo means the reflectivity of solar radiation. This statement is wrong. Know that tropical forests absorb the vast majority of incoming solar radiation that is insulation so they have very less albedo. Coming to statement three due to poor quality of timber they have the potential to produce only about 25 percent of world future wood products. This statement is also incorrect because tropical forests encompass over half of the world's standing timber and could potentially produce as much as 75 percent of world's future wood products. So statement C is also incorrect. Statement D they are the least vulnerable habitat on earth compared to any other habitat. This statement is also incorrect. See tropical forests have the largest living biomass and boast some of the highest rates of terrestrial biodiversity but these forests are the most endangered habitat on earth and most vulnerable to deforestation. If you see the brazil forests it is said that every second every minute we are losing lot of trees in the brazil because of deforestation. So the correct answer is option A that is they grow within 28 degrees north or south of the equator. And next let us see this second question which is about savanna forests. Statement one they are characterized by closed tree canopy. This statement is incorrect because not savanna it is tropical forests which is having closed tree canopy. Closed tree canopy means a dense growth of trees in which the top branches and leaves form a ceiling so that light can barely penetrate to reach the forest flow. So it is not savanna it is for tropical forests where we generally see closed canopy. Generally savanna forest has dispersed trees with grass so they grow under hot seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by open tree canopy that is scattered trees and a continuous tall grass as you can see in this picture. The largest areas of savanna are found in Africa, South America, Australia, India, Myanmar, Thailand, region, Asia, Madagascar etc. So coming to statement two they mainly grow in the tropical regions of 8 degrees to 20 degrees from the equator. Yes this statement is correct. In general savannas grow in tropical regions that is 8 degrees to 20 degrees from equator. Savannas can be subdivided into three categories wet, dry and thorn bush depending on the length of dry season. So we are supposed to identify incorrect statements so the correct answer is option A that is one only. And today's news article says that the boundary between tropical forest and savannas can play an important role in controlling natural fires that is they act as a natural barrier. Let us move on to practice questions discussion session. See this question. Recently the government has set up the National Security Directive. What is this directive about? Four options are given here. Option A it was set up to review the Indian armies preparedness against any unexpected Chinese aggression. Option B it was formed to look into defense manufacturing and purchases of armed forces. Option C it was set up to classify telecom products and their sources into trusted and non-trusted categories. Option D it is a new set of rules and regulations for central armed police force personnel. As we all know the correct answer is option C. See this question. It is an Arab country having the world-est centers of civilization in Near East. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula having a purely republican form of government. It occupies southwestern to southern end of Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. Its largest island is Sokotra which lies to its south. So which of the following countries is described in the above passage? As we all know the answer is option B MN. As you can see in this picture Sokotra the island of MN is its largest island. MN is bordered by Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. And if you see in the north MN is bordered by Saudi Arabia and in the east it is bordered by Oman. See this previous year question. Recently a series of uprisings of people referred to as Arab Spring originally started from option A Egypt, option B Lebanon, option C Syria, option D Tunisia. The correct answer is option D Tunisia. See this question with reference to flash droughts. Consider the following statements. Statement 1. Flash drought occurs when soil moisture falls below 20th percentile from above 40th percentile in less than 4 pentards. Statement 2. Flash droughts occur mainly during monsoon season in most of the precipitation zones in India. If you see both statements are correct. Coming to statement 1. See this graph. You can see that the soil moisture decreased from 40th percentile to below 20th percentile in not more than 4 pentards. Pentard means 5 consecutive days. So, the sharp fall in soil moisture can be attributed to flash drought. So, statement 1 is correct. Statement 2. Flash droughts occur mainly during monsoon season in most of the precipitation zones in India. This statement is also correct. If you see this figure flash droughts occurred mainly during monsoon season. So, correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. See this question. Consider the following statements with reference to Paris climate deal. Two statements are given here. Statement 1. It is the first binding environmental treaty with respect to greenhouse gas emissions. This statement is incorrect because we are having binding treaties like Kyoto Protocol even before Paris Agreement. Statement 2. Green climate fund that is GCF was set up in accordance with Paris Climate Agreement. This statement is also incorrect because GCF was set up by UNFCCC as back as in 2010 while Paris Agreement was finalized in 2015. So, statement 2 is also incorrect. But be careful, we are supposed to identify incorrect statements. So, the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. With this, we conclude today's news analysis. If you find this session resourceful, click on the like button, show your appreciation in the comment section, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.