Firstpost Editor's Picks: Modi-MbS reality check, Sister Lucy, India's reliance on coal; today's must-read stories

**Modi-MbS joint statement provides reality check about India's foreign policy: So many partners, so few friends** Let’s assume for a moment that the India-Saudi Arabia joint statement had in fact, ‘in the strongest terms’, condemned Pakistan for fostering, grooming, nurturing, feeding, clothing, educating, organising the wedding of, babysitting for (feel free to add any other verbs that you deem apt) terrorism. Apart from causing a mild ripple in relations between Riyadh and Islamabad for the short term — do recall how Saudi Arabia’s anger at Pakistan for opting not to join its anti-Yemeni Houthi forces coalition in 2015, soon evaporated and that both sides settled their differences — things will return to normal. Kerala rape case: Sister Lucy, who protested against accused bishop, says sexual abuse is rampant in Church “I have not done anything wrong. They cannot oust me for supporting a fellow nun while she was suffering physical, mental and spiritual pain and five of her colleagues came out on the streets demanding justice. The FCC authorities have, therefore, cooked up flimsy grounds by raking up old issues for proceedings against me. The charges they have levelled against me will not stand legal scrutiny. Therefore, I am not afraid of their moves,” says Sister Lucy. Champions League: Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid's resilience proves to be a handful for Juventus in first leg The eventual result was a resounding win for the host but there will be many regrets for their Italian visitor. Like Atletico, the recent history of Juventus in the Champions League is of failure to get over the line. In 2015 and 2017, the Old Lady lost out to the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively, in the final. If it goes out to Atletico in three weeks’ time, the spectre of LaLiga will continue to hound Juventus in Europe. **Alia Bhatt's Safeena from Gully Boy is the Angry Young Woman Bollywood desperately needs** Safeena is uninhibited, sharp, ambitious, unorthodox and resilient, but that’s not all there is to her. Complicating her image as the rebellious spitfire that the hero must ultimately “tame” with his love — an archetype that Bollywood is obsessed with — are Safeena’s anger issues, an irrepressible violent streak, and the ability to use her charm to manipulate those around her. **India’s reliance on coal makes its precarious financial underpinnings both curious and troubling** In outright carbon pricing, in PPP terms, India has one of the highest rates of carbon tax (albeit on a single sector) in the world. The Indian power sector (and its financiers) should observe how the combination of pollution laws and carbon taxes in the UK led to the collapse of coal power in the UK. Am I saying this is a bad thing? Not at all. I’m merely saying it is something not to be ignored, and something we should prepare for, because in some sense it may be inevitable.