Lathi Charge
SANITY BREAK ‘Chunnari, Chunnari’, say hello to BTS. This doesn’t need us to sell it at all!
HEADLINES THAT MATTER INDIA’S COVID NUMBERS: WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? First, the numbers: Total cases: 548,318. Total deaths: 16,475. Total recoveries: 321,722. Data points to note: * We recorded nearly over a 24-hour period on Saturday for the first time. Cases added on Sunday: 19,700. * Our number of deaths and cases are . Our daily growth rate is #2 in the world on both counts. In comparison, the number of deaths in the US is increasing by only 0.6% each day. * We have the worst case fatality ratios (3.1%) in South Asia—i.e. percentage of infections that lead to death. * account for 85% of the cases and 87% of the deaths: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bengal. * Here’s the that says it all. Why are we spiralling? There is no one answer to that question in a country as large as India. But here are some answers from the most-affected states: : Significant parts of the state have gone back into lockdown—including Chennai which has 68% of the cases. The reason: The state delayed increasing the number of tests until mid-June—even though the number of cases were rising steadily. Increased testing = higher totals. Reason for the increased number of deaths: Previously hidden or “fudged” data is now being “reconciled.” : There was very little contact tracing during the lockdown. More importantly, the lack of coordination with private hospitals made residents too scared to get tested: > “If you get calls from the police, if you get calls from the district surveillance officer saying you’ll get dragged away to > some quarantine facility, who would get tested?... You would rather wait it out. The process is the punishment.” So now the city is conducting a house-to-house screening of 29 million residents, and randomly sampling 26,000 people across the city. Expect those numbers to go even higher. : Over the weekend, its daily case numbers rose sharply—918, more than double its previous highest single-day total. One possible reason: this may reflect a backlog of 11,500 samples that remained untested due to the shutdown of two big government labs. Officials also blame the end of the lockdown—but have a Sunday-only and night curfew in response. Cause for worry: 13,000 cases home quarantine just in the past week. : In the past week, the state recorded 3,200 cases—which is 41% of its entire total. Telangana has among the lowest testing rates in the country. And yet it has a very high positivity rate: 31 out of every 100 tests are positive compared to 27.5 in Delhi. The government has now suspended all testing in Hyderabad. The reason: a backlog of 8,253 samples. Why Hyderabad matters: 75% of the tests were conducted here with near-zero testing in the rest of the state. A v. good FAQ: on the numbers is this with a leading AIIMS doctor. BIG BRANDS ARE STILL BOYCOTTING SOCIAL MEDIA Mark Zuckerberg personally due to a growing Facebook boycott by some of the biggest brands. The result of the #StopHate4Profit campaign: the Zuck and changed FB’s content policy. The platform will now slap a label on deranged Trump posts to politically indicate they are problematic—much as Twitter has done before. Irrespective of the changes, brands like Starbucks, Unilever, Diageo and Coca Cola are their boycott of social media. In related BLM news: will remove words like ‘whitening’ from its advertising. And is removing a US President—Woodrow Wilson—from its prestigious school of international affairs. WHAT’S NEW ON THE CHINA FRONT Talking tough: Despite rounds of talks, both sides are dialing up the heat—both in rhetoric and actions. While the PM China by name, “highly placed sources” are —at least with journalists. They claim that the government is ready for a military response if needed: “We are not going to step back, we will take them on.” In related news: China is now near the lake—and moving in 20 to prepare its troops. India is also ramping up its air defence missile systems in the area. According to : “India is also very shortly getting a highly capable air defence system from a friendly country which can be deployed and the entire area can be taken care off to prevent any enemy flying there.” Our guess re. the ‘friendly country’: Israel. Not a new thing: The first signs of Chinese aggression at Lake Pangong were apparent as —right after the government suspended Article 370 and made Ladakh a Union Territory. The connection between the two: China is intent on protecting the vital China-Pakistan Economic Corridor—which connects its territory to the strategic port of Gwadar in Pakistan—and passes right next to the Ladakh border. In more boycott news: burned their ‘Made in China’ t-shirts, and have banned Chinese nationals. reports on the key sectors that will be caught in the crossfire. Also in boycott mode: The government-owned Prasar Bharti. It the Press Trust of India. The reason: the wire agency's breaking news tweet on the Indian ambassador’s meeting with his Chinese counterparts said this: “India hopes China will realise its responsibility in de-escalation and disengaging by moving back to its side of LAC.” Now Prasar Bharti is planning to cancel its subscription in protest of such “anti-national” reporting. RUSSIA PAID TALIBAN TO KILL US SOLDIERS A shocking report revealed that Moscow placed a bounty on the head of US soldiers in Afghanistan—and paid Taliban fighters each time they scored a ‘kill’. This secret effort was coordinated by Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known widely as the G.R.U. Worse: President Trump had been briefed on this information and took no action—which he . The news is likely to be rich election campaign fodder for Trump’s opponents. For example: . Also trolling Trump: Tik-Tokers. The primary modus operandi: data manipulation. —called ‘shopping cart abandonment’—encourages users to load up their carts with Trump merch at his online store, and then ‘forget about it’. Why this works: brands typically spend (or in this case, waste) millions in targeted ads in trying to re-engage such shoppers. Also: it totally effs up the site's user data. Another is this: LOCUSTS HAVE LANDED! Gurgaon, Faridabad and Dwarka woke up this weekend to swarms of creepy-crawlies. The capital is now on . See below.
SANITY BREAK A BBC news anchor asked a very stupid question. This is Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna’s .
SMART & CURIOUS A LIST OF INTRIGUING THINGS is called Nila—and she recently debuted on Instagram. Here’s how her creators describe her: “Her primary characteristic is kindness and her favourite emotion is love. Otherwise, she’s shy and private and detests anything fake"—other than herself, that is. simulated what the sunset would look like on other planets—like Venus, Uranus or even the more distant Trappist-1e. This is very cool! scandal involves a stunning painting of the Virgin Mary—which the owner turned over to a furniture restorer. The result is below. Art aficionados are furious: “Can you imagine just anyone being allowed to operate on other people? Or someone being allowed to sell medicine without a pharmacist’s license?” in this clip? We were intrigued by this visual trick of perspective. We hope you will be too. A LIST OF GOOD WEEKEND READS * has a lovely piece on Olympic hopefuls whose dreams are threatened by the pandemic. It is heartbreaking to lose, but far more devastating to never compete. * explores an intriguing question: Where do your earliest childhood memories go? The really nice bit: there’s an audio version of the essay right at the top. * looks at the increasingly common practice of ‘doomscrolling’—bingeing on pandemic news at bedtime—and why it is terrible for your mental health. * offers an engaging personal essay that describes the fragmented, distracted experience of a writer unable to write under lockdown. * offers the perfect distraction from Covid news: a behind-the-scenes report on VVIP parties. * explains why some people can’t resist crowds—i.e. the psychology of what looks like grossly irresponsible behaviour to the rest of us. * A must-read from : A first-person account of a waiter working at a reopened restaurant.
LIFE ADVISORY A LIST OF USEFUL FACE-MASK GYAAN : How do you stop your mask from fogging up the lenses? This is especially annoying since the last thing you want to do is touch any part of your face when you’re out. has a list of simple hacks. : Let’s get real! Wearing a mask when you do any kind of vigorous outdoor exercise is seriously uncomfortable. But going mask-less is a bad, bad idea. Here’s a useful NPR video that doesn’t solve all your problems, but lays out the best practices. : makes exercising in a face mask look seriously fierce!
THE FEEL GOOD PLACE Symphony beautifully rendered as an Indian ‘raga’. Well, you don’t have to. , as demonstrated by an adorably furry teacher. is perhaps the best tennis thing right now. It started with this tweet: “50% of Roger Federer‘s name is ‘er’.” Then went on to: “62.5% of Djokovic is Covid.” And then got even sillier from there.
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