TikTok aur Twitter ki jodi

Twitter has emerged as an unexpected—and still unlikely—buyer of TikTok’s US operations. The talks are at an early stage, but most experts are skeptical. One reason: Twitter is just too small and doesn’t have the money: “Twitter will have a hard time putting together enough financing to acquire even the U.S. operations of TikTok. It doesn’t have enough borrowing capacity.” OTOH, TikTok’s most likely buyer, Microsoft, is already under scrutiny for being too large.

Point to note: TikTok plans to file a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s order banning the app if it does not find a buyer by September 15. Courts take their time to make decisions… and Trump may not be in office after November 2. Wall Street Journal has the most details. The Bloomberg story via Indian Express is here. 

Meanwhile, over at Facebook…: Its own employees are leaking information to make it look very bad. Internal documents show that Facebook allowed conservative and rightwing outlets and personalities to spread fake news—without facing any penalties. In fact, the company fired a senior engineer who collected evidence of this double-standard. NBC News has the details.

The global pandemic: A quick update

The India numbers: Total number of cases: 2,215,074. Total deaths: 44,386. Total recoveries: 1,535,743. The worrying news: After days of declining numbers, the capital reported 1,404 new cases on Sunday. OTOH: The number of tests conducted were also the highest since July 1. (The Hindu)

Far more worrying: 600,000 ASHA or Accredited Social Health Activists—who are frontline workers in the battle in rural India—went on a strike on Friday. Their reason: “For working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. we get only 2,000 rupees ($27) a month and no masks or sanitizer.” And many have not been paid for more than four months. Point to note: These women are harassed and ostracised for their Covid work in their own communities. (Bloomberg News)

Cats and Covid: New research shows that cats can easily spread the disease to fellow felines. The good news: it is rare for them to develop symptoms or become ill. But it raises questions about cats as carriers: “The ease of transmission between domestic cats indicates a significant public health need to investigate the potential chain of human-cat-human transmission.” (Gizmodo)

Wildlife and Covid: In the Chinese city of Chongqing  at least 135 animals across 17 species—including wild boars, Siberian weasels, and blackbirds—died due to widespread spraying of disinfectants. Point to note: A number of countries—including South Korea, France, and Spain—use trucks, drones, and even robots to douse streets, parks etc with chemicals. (National Geographic)

Two good reads: The Hindu reports on how Delhi’s red light areas are staying Covid-safe. The Rolling Stone explains why the pandemic marks the end of the American era—and is pretty darn convincing.

Zoom vs Microsoft Teams

Zoom introduced a whole slew of new features that makes video conferencing more fun—think fun filters—and easier to use for individuals. Example: controls that add noise cancellation and improve lighting. Microsoft is targeting companies with its Advanced Communications plan that comes with a 60-day free trial. Now, management can hold meetings with up to 20,000 employees in ‘view only’ mode—and add more branding to these mega-meets. Forbes has details on Teams. For Zoom, either watch the vid below or check out this list.

Defence Ministry embraces atma nirbhar Bharat

The government has banned the import of 101 items of defence equipment—which will be sourced from domestic manufacturers instead. But the announcement sounds more impressive than it is. Indian Express explains why. 

In key atma nirbharta news: The government’s push for self-reliance is very bad news for India’s forests. Latest plans call for 40 new coalfields in India’s most ecologically sensitive areas. For example: four huge blocks of 420,000 acres of forest in Chhattisgarh, which sit above an estimated 5 billion tonnes of coal. Also this: 

"At least seven of the coal blocks up for auction were previously deemed ‘no go’ areas for mining due to their environmentally valuable status and about 80% of the blocks are home to indigenous communities and thick forest cover. Four state governments—West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh—have written to Modi in opposition or raised legal objections to the auction, and one coal block, which overlapped with the Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra, has already been removed." 

The Guardian has a must-read on why the government’s energy plan comes at a terrible price.

Zomato offers ‘period leave’

The company’s women employees can take up 10 days off for menstruation-related reasons—a big step in a country where periods are still taboo. But there are restrictions: they can only take one day off per cycle. Since periods from hell can last for days, that stipulation may not be helpful. But we loved the spirit of CEO Deepinder Goyal’s staff email: 

“You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day.. In case you face any unnecessary harassment, or distasteful comments from men or women about the fact that you applied for a period leave, or that you are vocal about it, please report them to speakup@zomato.com—our prevention of sexual harassment (POSH) team will quickly spring into action.”

Canada’s last Arctic shelf is no more

The Milne Ice Shelf—which was the last intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic—has broken apart into large iceberg islands due to a hot summer and global warming. According to satellite photos, 43% of the shelf broke apart  on July 30 or 31. Why this matters: “There aren’t very many ice shelves around the Arctic anymore… It seems we’ve lost pretty much all of them from northern Greenland and the Russian Arctic. There may be a few in a few protected fjords.” Watch the shelf break apart below. (Time)

Rajput on a California billboard 

First it was Lord Ram looming large in Times Square. Now, it's Sushant Singh Rajput on a California highway billboard—the image of which was shared by his sister on Instagram (see below). She also shared a video of the same set to a Chhichore soundtrack here. All-India dramas: paying advertiser bills everywhere.