Fake news trolls target Indian Americans
In a very close US presidential election, votes of 1.3 million Indian Americans could prove critical in key districts. And that’s why they’ve become the target of fake news—circulating on every desi’s favourite news source: WhatsApp. Most often targeted: Joe Biden supporters since 72% plan to vote Democrat. Point to note: Reuters tested WhatsApp’s much-touted fake news-fighting chatbot and found it was virtually useless on topics used to target this community.
Targeted raids on Kashmiri groups
The National Intelligence Agency carried out ten raids—in Srinagar, Bandipora and one in Bangalore. The targets: human rights groups, news organisations and leading activists. The allegation: funds being raised from “India and abroad in the name of charitable activities” are being used “for carrying out secessionist and separatist activities in J&K.” Point to note: The raids come right after the government announced a new land law that allows anyone in India to buy land in Kashmir (our explainer here). Also: Accusations of ‘fund diversion’ have become a preferred weapon in targeting human rights groups (See our explainer on Amnesty International India).
The great pandemic: A quick update
- France and Germany have announced a four-week partial lockdown in response to spiralling numbers. In France, people will need a certificate to move around, and all non-essential businesses will be closed. Germany has only closed restaurants, bars etc.
- A leaked government paper predicts 85,000 deaths in a possible second wave in the UK. And new data suggests that the nation is adding 100,000 cases a day!
- Also worried about numbers: Delhi, which saw a record one-day high of 5,673 cases.
- The founder of the private testing company Thyrocare—one of the top five diagnostic centres in India—says that the government is trying to rig test numbers. He claims that their technicians have been told not to pick up or test samples in key districts that may show a high number of cases: “[O]ne of the motivations is obviously they don’t really want to show a higher positivity scorecard. They want to show a better scorecard.”
- A new study found that the BCG vaccine used to protect against tuberculosis may also boost immunity against the virus—especially among the elderly.
- The ban on international flights has been extended until November 30. OTOH, Goa’s casinos are ready to party starting November 1.
- Speaking of bans, Hong Kong has reinstated its ban on Air India’s Vande Bharat flights from Mumbai until November 10. The reason: A number of its passengers tested positive when they landed in HK—which should alarm all of us since they all need Covid-negative certificates just to get on that plane.
Indian NGO scores UN award
Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) has been awarded the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award for being “one of the world’s first organizations” to use tourism and tech to promote solar energy. So what does GHE do?
“GHE conducts ‘Impact Expeditions’ to remote Himalayan villages and uses a portion of the expedition fee to fund the capital cost of the hardware, transportation, installation and training of village-scale solar micro-grids.”
To date, GHE has helped bring solar power to 131 villages, directly impacting the lives of more than 60,000 Indians. NDTV has more details.
In other must-read cheering news: Deccan Herald has the story of Sreedharan—who dropped out of school in seventh class and spent 25 years putting together the ‘Dictionary of Dravidian Languages’. How the dictionary works:
“For each Malayalam word, you find a corresponding word in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. For words with several meanings, all meanings are given in the three languages. This way there are about 1.25 million words in this unique dictionary.”
The ‘White Tiger’ trailer is out
Check out Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao in the teaser below. Reminder: This is an adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s prize winning novel.
Kim K’s birthday gift to the internet
The dazzling Ms Kardashian turned 40 recently and posted party pics of her celebration accompanied by the following message:
“After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time.”
The “tone deaf” tweet instantly became a hilarious meme. BBC News has the story and a fun collection.
K Pop singers are now totally unreal
A newly formed girl band called æspa—which is apparently a khichdi of the words ‘avatar’, 'experience’ and ‘aspect’—is made up of both real and virtual members. And it plans to explore the theme of “experiencing a new world via the encounter of the ‘avatar’, your other self”—confirming that we all do indeed live in a video game now (albeit designed by crap developers). See one of the members ‘encountering’ her avatar below:
