The farm bill uproar: A quick update

The government moved to defuse the outrage by increasing the minimum support price on six key crops. But the amount—a 2.6% hike—was dismissed by leading farmer groups as inadequate. Reuters has a great explainer on why they oppose the bill.

Meanwhile in Parliament: Eight Rajya Sabha MPs—including Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Sanjay singh, Congress’ Rajeev Satav and CPM’s KK Ragesh—have been suspended. They are now staging a dharna outside Parliament —though it quite honestly looks more like a family picnic (see below). The Congress party is planning to launch a nationwide protest.

The allegation against Anurag Kashyap

The director was accused of sexual assault by actor Payal Ghosh who says he “forced himself” on her in an interview to a Telugu channel. He plans to sue her, as does actor Richa Chadha—who was mentioned in the same interview along with other female actors. Ghosh had said that actors like Richa, Mahie Gill and Huma Qureshi would perform sexual favours for Kashyap and he expected the same from her. Meanwhile, Kalki Koechlin offered a stirring defense of her former husband Kashyap.

In related Bollywood news: The Narcotics Control Bureau plans to summon Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan—whose names “came up” during the course of their drug-related investigation of Rhea Chakraborty. Our question: Are there no men who do drugs in Bollywood?

Indian military breaks a few glass ceilings

Sub Lieutenant Kumudini Tyagi and Sub Lieutenant Riti Singh will become the first women to stay and serve on a Navy warship—which paves the way for future frontline duty. Also: The Indian Air Force announced that the squadron which will fly the newly acquired Rafale jets will include a female pilot. The Print has both stories.

Twitter has a ‘race’ recognition problem

If you share photos of two people on Twitter—one white and the other not-white—its algorithm consistently displays the white person’s face. This happens even if you put in multiple photos of a Black person (see here). Twitter has since apologised and promised to do better:

“Our team did test for bias before shipping the model and did not find evidence of racial or gender bias in our testing. But it’s clear from these examples that we’ve got more analysis to do. We’ll continue to share what we learn, what actions we take, and will open source our analysis so others can review and replicate.”

In related tech news: Google and Apple have promised to protect your privacy by blocking apps and cookies from tracking you. But a new startup has found a way around: “context prediction software.” It tracks the sensors on your phone instead:

“Most smartphones have internal components that record data on their movements. If you’ve ever used the compass on your phone, it’s thanks to internal sensors like the accelerometer (which can tell the direction you’re facing) and magnetometer, which is drawn to magnetic poles. These and other sensors also power features like ‘raise to wake,’ where your phone powers on when you pick it up, or rotating to horizontal orientation to watch a movie.”

All that super-handy data can be used to tell a third party exactly what you’re doing at any given moment. Ars Technica has more on this happy development.

The global pandemic: A quick update

• The UK is on course to add up to 50,000 new daily cases by mid-October—if its citizens do not mend their ways.
• The US Center for Disease Control first posted a new advisory that said the virus mainly spreads through the air—and therefore can remain in the air and travel greater distances than six feet. This reversed earlier advice that said the primary source of spread was close personal contact. Then—just to mess with all of us—the CDC pulled down the new guideline, saying it was just a “draft” posted by mistake. 
• Related good read: ABC News has an excellent report on ‘hygiene theater’—the OTT sanitisation measures adopted both by institutions and individuals. If the disease mainly spreads through air, then there is only one true protection: a face mask (glasses are a bonus).
• A new global study shows that Covid-19 has a significant impact on life expectancy—but only in richer regions of the world where people live to a ripe old age.
• New research reveals that houses of worship are the riskiest places to visit during the pandemic. People are 16 times more likely to be infected.
• The new hot pandemic pastime: ‘flights to nowhere’. Yup, people literally get on a plane, fly around for hours and then land right back at home. A seven-hour ‘sightseeing’ flight offered by Qantas in Australia sold out in 10 minutes!
• Mumbai Mirror reports on the covidiots who wander around Marine Drive without masks—and get into fights with the police.
• Last but not least: The Taj Mahal is now open to visitors—though only 5,000 a day. And group selfies are a big no-no. Nope, no one is expecting a rush of sightseers. 
• Online teaching poses an unexpected peril to female teachers—who have to deal with sexual harassment, stalking and even the odd flasher. Times of India has this important story.

A special Emmy treat

There’s been plenty of coverage of the Zoom-only award ceremony. ICYMI: the full list of winners is here. Also: Zendaya became the youngest actor to win best lead actress in a drama. Our fave picks for browsing:

• Jameela Jamil in her pjs. She posted the pic with this message: “No bra? No heels? NO PROBLEM.”
• Most people loved the ceremony, but if you want a Scrooge-ish take: ‘The 2020 Emmys Were a Meeting That Should've Been an Email.’
• People magazine has an excellent roundup of the best celeb Zoom background.
• Best of all: Ramy Yousef having to give back his Emmy statue to an intern in an insane looking hazmat suit. Yes, all nominees got statues delivered at their home, but only winners got to keep theirs.