A TO Z OF NEWS“If you can't understand it without an explanation, youcan't understand it with an explanation.” Haruki Murakami 03

News...To TheL Today, in order to comment, debate or even opinionate,

one needs to dig deep and know the A TO Z of news. Startingwith letter A, TIMES NIE takes you on a news-ical journey,explaining every name, place and context associated with it

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images

LOUVRE MUSEUM■ The Louvre is the biggest museum in the world.It is so big that it is humanely impossible to seethe entire museum in one visit. Howlong would it take you? Well, if youever have 100 days spare, youcould probably squeeze inevery piece of art, but youcould only spend 30 secondson each piece — and that’sif you were there all day,every day. The museum of-fers 380,000 pieces in total —but not all of the collectionis exhibited to the public.■ The Louvre Museum alsoextends outside the confines ofthe 16th century museum andpalace, as it is connected to theMusée National Eugene-Delacroix, andfronts onto the Tulleries Gardens, which isParis’ oldest park.■ The Louvre is so popular that it welcomes15,000 visitors per day. ■ The Musée du Louvre was not originally a mu-seum. It was a fortress that was built in 1190. Inthe 16th century, it was turned from a fortress intoa royal palace. It was only in 1793, after the FrenchMonarchy moved to the Palace of Versailles that

the first Louvre museum was opened to the pub-lic, offering just 537 paintings.■ Napoleon once renamed the Louvre to Musée

Napoleon and expanded its collection by 5,000pieces. The pieces were, however, re-

turned to the original owners whenthe military leader was defeated.

■ During his rule, Napoleon hungthe Mona Lisa in his private bed-room. This was the first time theMona Lisa was ever hung. ■ André Malraux, the firstFrench minister of cultural af-fairs, met Jacqueline Kennedy in

1961, during an official presiden-tial visit to Paris. Her husband, US

president John F Kennedy, hadthen only been in office for four

months. His talks withFrench president Charles deGaulle did not go well, butJackie, fluent in French andsocial charms, struck a note

with the French men. A yearlater, Jackie threw a star-stud-

ded dinner at the White House,with Malraux as the guest of honour.

It was there that she persuaded the culture min-ister to loan the Mona Lisa to the US.

IN THE NEWS FOR:

Louvre reopensafter being blockedby strikers

The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most vis-ited museum, reopened after being shutdown by workers striking over govern-

ment plans to overhaul France’s pension sys-tem. Recently, hundreds of disappointed vis-itors had protested outside the Louvre, somehurling insults at strikers who had blockedthe entrance.

It was the first time since the strike beganon December 5 that the museum had shut com-pletely although it was forced to close somegalleries last month.

Union leaders are seeking to widen oppo-sition to the pension reforms proposed by Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron’s government, whichhave triggered the longest transport strike inFrance in decades.

LOUVRE

HOW IS LIBRA DIFFERENT FROM BITCOINAny discussion about Libra wouldn’t be com-plete without comparing it to Bitcoin.

Immediately after its launch, some blog-gers were quick to compare the Facebookcryptocurrency to the king of crypto.However, this is not the case, as the two digi-tal currencies are entirely different.

Firstly, the two coins have differentapproaches to censorship. The Bitcoinwhitepaper describes the king of crypto as apeer to peer payment system that people canuse to exchange money without going througha centralised financial institution. This feature

means that no single entity has control overthe network, making it censorship proof.

The Libra network, on the other hand, will begoverned by a consortium of organisations, put-ting the digital currency at the risk of censorship.

Another towering difference between Libracoin and Bitcoin is the fact that the Facebookdigital currency is not a true cryptocurrency(a digital asset designed to work as a mediumof exchange that uses strong cryptography tosecure financial transactions, control the cre-ation of additional units, and verify the trans-fer of assets.)

On the surface, Libra is a stablecoin, mean-ing that its value is pegged to real-worldassets. However, as opposed to other stable

coins, Libra is backed by short term govern-ment securities and a basket of bankdeposits. By definition, any security-backedasset is considered a security by itself. If youconsider this definition, Libra coin is literally acurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF). Libra’sstability is strengthened by the fact that it ispegged to different currencies.

IN THE NEWS FOR:

Swiss minister says Facebook’s Libra has‘failed’ in current form

T he Swiss president and finance minister has de-livered the latest blow to Facebook’s planned Li-bra cryptocurrency, saying it has “failed in its

current form,” Swiss network SRF reported.“The central banks are not going to accept the bas-

ket of currencies” that Libra is supposed to be basedon, said Ueli Maurer. Libra, a high-profile project ofFacebook, is tentatively scheduled for a 2020 launch.

LIBRA

LG: In India, a Lieutenant Governor is in charge ofa Union Territory. However, the rank is presentonly in the union territories of Andaman andNicobar Islands, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir,Delhi and Puducherry (the other territories havean administrator appointed, who is an IAS officeror a retired judge of a court). The Governors andLieutenant Governors are appointed by thePresident for a term of five years.

IN THE NEWS FOR:

LG seeks report on availability ofcommodities in snowbound areas

Amid reports of disruptions in the sup-ply of gas and other essential com-modities in Jammu and Kashmir af-

ter heavy snowfall, Lt Governor GC Mur-mu has sought a detailed report on the avail-ability of essential commodities in affect-ed areas, an official spokesman said.

The Lt Governor has directed that mul-tiple teams of officers be constituted im-mediately to visit affected areas with spe-cial focus on rural areas to ascertain the po-sition of stocks of essential items and aug-ment supply wherever required, thespokesman said. Lt Governor Murmu hassaid the first-ever J&K global investors sum-mit will be held in the region in April.

LIEUTENANTGOVERNOR

FUNCTIONS AND POWERSThe functions and powers of a Governor and aLieutenant Governor are, more or less, the same.The LG, like the Governor, acts a titular head ofthe Union Territory. But, the powers of an LG arewider than that of a Governor. This is because, aGovernor of a state has to act solely on the aidand advice of the Council of Ministers, whereas,the LG does not needthe approval of thecouncil of ministers onevery matter. In case ofDelhi, the governmentexercises no power inthe domain of land, law,and police. The LG hascomplete discretion to decide upon any of thesematters. In an observation made in November2017, the Supreme Court said that the Lt.Governor of Delhi has more powers that theGovernor of a State.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a film se-ries of three epic fantasy adventurefilms directed by Peter Jackson,based on the novel written by JRR.Tolkien. The films are subtitled ‘TheFellowship of the Ring’ (2001), ‘TheTwo Towers’ (2002) and ‘The Returnof the King’ (2003). Produced and

distributed by New Line Cinemawith the co-production of WingNutFilms, it is an international venturebetween New Zealand and the Unit-ed States.

The films feature an ensemblecast including Elijah Wood, IanMcKellen, Liv Tyler, ViggoMortensen, Sean Astin, Cate

Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies,Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Do-minic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom,Hugo Weavingand Sean Bean.

Set in the fictional world of Mid-dle-earth, the films follow the hob-bit Frodo Baggins as he and the Fel-lowship embark on a quest to de-stroy the ‘One Ring’, to ensure the

destruction of its maker, the DarkLord Sauron. The three films wereshot entirely in Jackson’s nativeNew Zealand. It was one of thebiggest film projects ever under-taken, with a budget of $281 million.

IN THE NEWS FOR:

‘Lord of the Rings’ pro-tector Tolkien no more

Christopher Tolkien, whoplayed a major role pro-tecting the legacy of his

father’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’series, has died. He was 95.

Tolkien’s life work wasidentified with that of his fa-ther JRR Tolkien’s. He helpedpublish much of his father’swritings after the science fic-tion and fantasy master died in1973. He also drew the originalmaps that adorned the trilogyof books released in the 1950s.

LORD OF THE RINGS

DICAPRIO■ DiCaprio is an American actor, producer,and environmentalist. He has often playedunconventional parts, particularly in biopics

and period films. ■ As of 2019, his films haveearned US$7.2 billion worldwide,and he has been placed eighttimes in annual rankings of theworld's highest-paid actors. ■ His accolades include anAcademy Award and three

Golden Globe Awards.■ Born in Los Angeles, DiCapriobegan his career by appearingin television commercials in

the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he playedrecurring roles in various TV series, such as thesitcom ‘Parenthood’. ■ He had his first major film role in ‘This Boy’sLife’, and received acclaim for the supportingrole of a developmentally-disabled boy in‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ (both 1993), whichearned him an Academy Award nomination. Heachieved international fame as a star in the epicromance ‘Titanic’ (1997). ■ DiCaprio starred in two successful features in2002: the biographical crime drama ‘Catch MeIf You Can’ and the historical drama, ‘Gangs ofNew York’, which marked his first of many col-laborations with director Martin Scorsese.

IN THE NEWS FOR:

Leonardo DiCaprio elated over Oscar nod

In ‘Once Upon a Timein Hollywood,’ Leon-ardo DiCaprio plays a

struggling actor who canonly dream of being nom-inated for an AcademyAward. He has to fight forgood parts, is never recog-nised for industry accoladesand is forced to travel overseas toget work.

That, of course, is far from Di-Caprio’s reality. Recently, the 45-year-old scored his sixth acting Oscar nom-ination for his leading turn in QuentinTarantino’s film. The actor, who tookhome the coveted trophy in 2016 for ‘TheRevenant’, said he was fortunate enoughto get to work with some pretty great film-makers.

LEONARDODICAPRIO