New Zealand claims the cricket crown
The Blackcaps defeated India by eight wickets to win the World Test Championship final in Southampton. It marked their first world title win in 21 years—and everyone agrees, it was well-deserved. As Indian Express notes:
“It would be tempting to see Wednesday’s eight-wicket win as a romantic story of redemption for the nice guys, as the night when the Cinderellas of world cricket didn’t have to flee in despair, but that would be disrespectful. This is a team of highly-talented players – skillful, passionate, professional, ambitious, intensely disciplined, and now, a bunch that knows how to win.”
For more on the match: Read this tribute to Luteru Taylor, The Hindu’s unflattering analysis of the final day’s events, Scroll’s transcript of Virat Kohli’s press conference, and ESPNCricinfo’s take on the batting collapse.
The great pandemic: A quick update
- First, the numbers: India added 53,186 new cases and 1,309 deaths on Wednesday.
- India administered 9.08 million doses as part of a ‘record-breaking’ vaccination drive on Monday—but the numbers slumped dramatically to 5.4 million on Tuesday, while modestly rising to 6.3 million on Wednesday. A good example of this yo-yo effect: Madhya Pradesh which administered 4,000 doses on Sunday, 17 lakh doses on Monday and then 5,000 shots on Tuesday. Quint has more on this one-day wonder.
- A new LinkedIn survey shows that women and Gen Z employees are the most vulnerable in the post-second wave job market: “India’s working women are approximately 2x more likely to be worried about the availability of jobs, their professional network and time devoted to job-seeking than working men today.” Also: “[O]ne in every four Gen Z (23%) and millennials (24%) report being more worried about their debt or expenses, compared to just half as many boomers (13%) in India.”
- Tokyo Olympics organisers unveiled a long list of demoralising rules for spectators: no booze, cheers, high fives or asking for autographs. Despite all the strict rules for everyone involved, two members of the Ugandan contingent have tested positive.
- Phase 1 trials for a universal coronavirus vaccine—which will protect against all kinds of such viruses and their variants—has shown promising results in mice.
- US authorities have confiscated illegal shipments of the antiviral drug Remdesivir, likely smuggled from India and Bangladesh.
- A new study—which has not been peer reviewed—suggests that Covid results in “a distinct loss of grey matter, in regions of the brain associated with smell and taste.”
- The vaccine lotteries in Hong Kong—to encourage people to get the jab—are getting ridiculous. The latest prize: A $1.4 million luxury flat.
- New data shows that India imposes the highest import duties on all Covid-related products in the world. These include essentials such as test kits, sterilisation products, protective gear and infrared thermometers—which drives up their cost.
- Kunal Kamra’s New York Times “opinion video” delivers a scathing takedown of the Modi government’s handling of the pandemic.
Killer heatwaves warning!
A chilling 4,000-page UN report paints a grim picture of what will happen if the planet warms by 1.5°C—just 0.4°C above the current global temperature. At least 14% of the world’s population will be exposed to severe heatwaves once every five years. The worst hit will be places that combine high temperatures with high humidity:
“It is easier, in other words, to survive a high temperature day if the air is bone-dry than it is to survive a lower temperature day with very high humidity. That steam-bath mix has its own yardstick, known as wet-bulb temperature. Experts say that healthy human adults cannot survive if wet-bulb temperatures (TW) exceed 35°C, even in the shade with an unlimited supply of drinking water.”
That puts megacities like Mumbai, Manila, Karachi and Kinhasa—which also have an added risk factor: “the so-called urban heat island effect, which adds 1.5°C on average during heatwaves compared to surrounding areas.” AFP via Mint Lounge offers a deep dive into this important report.
In equally dismal news: Parts of the Arctic Circle are so hot that “touching the ground could burn your skin.” The Siberian town of Verkhojansk recorded a ground temperature of 118°F or around 48°C. Vice has more on why this is happening.
Two big tech things
One: Indian authorities have opened an antitrust investigation into Google—which is accused of misusing the dominant position of Android to eliminate competition in the smart TV market. FYI: About 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019, over 60% of which were powered by Android. This is the third such investigation into Google in India. TechCrunch has more details on the probe.
Two: Twitter is rolling out a monetisation tool for users in the US called Ticketed Spaces. Basically, conversations on the Clubhouse-like Spaces can be turned into paid events where someone pays for a ‘ticket’ to participate. This is supposed to help all “creators,” but we think it may become just another way for elite influencers to leverage their social clout. (Indian Express)
A probe into big Bollywood designers
The Enforcement Directorate has sent a notice to three Bollywood fashion designers—Ritu Kumar, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, and Manish Malhotra—as part of a probe into illegal cash payments from a Punjab MLA. He is under investigation for money laundering and drug smuggling—and paid the designers for clothes for a family wedding in cash. (Firstpost)
In other entertainment news: Spain’s San Sebastián International Film Festival announced that its awards will be gender-neutral. There will no longer be honours for best actor, actress etc. but a single award for best leading performance and another for best supporting performance. The festival director said:
“The change arises from the conviction that gender, a social and political construct, is no longer a criterion that we follow to distinguish between performances...The criterion for the jury will be to distinguish between good and bad performances.”
A ‘decuplets’ news scandal
A couple of weeks ago, a South African woman made headlines around the world for giving birth to ten babies—which set a new record. Turns out the story was made up by the woman who suffers from mental illness—and has since been admitted to a psychiatric ward. And the editor who “broke” the viral story has apologised. (Daily Mail)
Three animal things
One: Wildlife experts in the US are confronting a heartbreaking and unexplained phenomenon: hundreds of birds are dying from a mysterious illness. Symptoms include crusty or puffy eyes, neurological signs of seizures and an inability to keep their balance. They act blind and don’t fly away when approached by humans: “They’ll just sit still, often kind of shaking.” There are a lot of theories about why this is happening—infectious disease, pesticides, cicada invasion—but no established cause. (NBC News)
Two: A video of an elephant breaking into a Thai woman’s kitchen is going viral. The elephant lives in a nearby national park and often wanders into the village. While the video is kind of funny, it actually reflects increasing human-animal conflict due to shrinking habitats. See the video below. (The Guardian)
Three: To end on a happy note, Ueno Zoo in Tokyo proudly announced the birth of twin panda cubs—born to giant pandas on loan from China. Since mama pandas rarely care for two cubs, the zoo is swapping them out in turns—keeping one with mom and the other in an incubator. FYI: Japan is so panda-mad, news of the pregnancy temporarily sent stock prices of restaurant chains near the zoo soaring. BBC News has more. See mom and cubs below:
In our gratitude jar…
We want to say a big thank you to founding members Kavita Khosla, Jessica Clark, Srijan Choudhary, Vishy Kuruganti, Gayatri Chanana, Sanjana Janardhanan, Anuradha Parekh, Anil Lamba, Ruchita Saraogi and Theyagarajan S. Your support is priceless to us!
