TikTok US has a new suitor
Oracle has joined Microsoft and Twitter as a potential buyer of the app’s US operations. As pundits note, it's a bit of an odd decision since Oracle is a B2B company that sells database software—not exactly a great match for a platform for cheesy videos. OTOH, unlike Twitter, Oracle definitely has the cash to go shopping. Meanwhile, Trump has joined TikTok rival Triller, and already has 3000 followers. Now that will bring the kids flocking in.
Speaking of Trump: Rihanna tweeted photos of someone (who may or may not be her) painting ‘F**K Trump’ on a car. She’s since been dubbed BadGalBanksy.
International travel opens up
India is in talks with 13 countries—including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore—to open bilateral air corridors. Such ‘bubbles’ are already in place with the US, the UK, France, Germany, the UAE, Qatar and the Maldives. Also planning to go long haul: Vistara which will operate three Delhi-London flights a week starting August 28—as part of the UK deal.
Temporarily banned: from Hong Kong: Air India’s repatriation flights which have been put on hold for two weeks for “carrying too many passengers infected with Covid19.” According to local media reports, the ban came into place after 11 passengers from Delhi tested positive.
“The fact 11 passengers tested positive on the same flight shows the lab tests back in India are not very reliable…The airline has to do deep cleaning (on its planes) and make sure it won’t happen again on future flights before they can be resumed.”
IPL gets a title sponsor
Nope, it isn’t Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali but the fantasy gaming startup Dream11—which bagged the rights to the upcoming tournament for Rs 2.22 billion. It bid higher than its rivals Byju's (Rs 2.01 billion) and Unacademy (Rs 1.7 billion). Point to note: Dream11’s winning bid is 50% of what Vivo shelled out for the same honour. (Times of India)
The Indian pandemic: A quick update
- Amit Shah is back in hospital after testing negative and being discharged from Medanta on August 14. The reason: He is still experiencing “fatigue and body ache”—which are common ‘long haul’ symptoms for many Covid patients in recovery. This time, however, he has checked into the sarkaari hospital, AIIMS.
- BBC News took a closer look at India’s death rate, and uncovered anomalies and likely undercounting. Also, we may not be doing as well as we think: "In China, Covid-19 deaths per million population is 3. In India it is 34. Within South Asia, the only country doing worse than India is Afghanistan and going by the trends, India will overtake Afghanistan."
- A new global report warns that 6.1 million young Indians may lose their jobs if India takes six months—i.e. until the end of September—to flatten the curve.
- 24% of 200,000-plus people tested at a leading lab across the country have antibodies. This indicates they were recently exposed to the virus and recovered (See more in our explainer here). These are not random samples but self-selected—in that those who go to a lab are more likely to test positive.
- Government-controlled companies (PSUs) donated Rs 21.05 billion from their Corporate Social Responsibility budget to the PM-CARES fund for Covid relief. But no one knows where this largesse will be spent thanks to the Supreme Court which has given the government a free hand in operating the trust. One reason: it isn’t funded by public funds.
School openings are not going well
A number of states in the US that eagerly opened their classrooms have been forced to shut down. And the same trend is visible in other parts of the world. One reason: You cannot reopen schools when the number of cases is still high. Related reason: young people are superspreaders. Vox explains. Also, the WHO just made it official: “The epidemic is changing. People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread.”
In more amusing news: Johns Hopkins University—which is going wholly online—will ask students to recreate campus life via Minecraft:
“The plan is for Johns Hopkins to provide students with measurements to create an accurate replica of campus in the game, which students can access through the university’s internal platform.”
Students are not impressed. The Guardian has more.
Clueless is getting a reboot
Everyone’s favourite Jane Austen-inspired flick is being remade as a TV series (on Peacock, NBC's streaming service not a streaming platform, sadly). This one will not focus on the lead character—ditzy Valley Girl Cher—but her BFF Dionne. PR material for the show describes it as so:
“A baby pink and bisexual blue-tinted, tiny sun-glasses wearing, oat milk latte and Adderall-fueled look at what happens when queen bee Cher disappears and her lifelong No. 2 Dionne steps into Cher's vacant Air Jordans. How does Dionne deal with the pressures of being the new most popular girl in school, while also unraveling the mystery of what happened to her best friend."
In less happy news: Netflix has canceled comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show “Patriot Act’.
In not-related entertainment news: Rhea Chakraborty has released her first statement on the charges against her. It contains many unsavoury details which we leave you to discover. Indian Express has her entire statement.
