Inauguration Day: A quick update

• Washington DC police have arrested a man trying to enter the Capitol armed with a handgun and 500 pounds of ammunition. Yup, it’s that nuts!
• Trump may face criminal charges in Georgia for trying to overturn the election results. No, he can’t pardon himself out of this one. New York Times has the details. CNN offers an excellent read on Trump’s last days—including his desperate effort to get a big military farewell. The Pentagon’s response: No.
• Women are using Bumble to trap rioters and turn them over to the police. Bumble does not approve. Law & Crime has the story.
• Joe Biden has picked 20 Indian Americans—including 13 women—for prominent posts in his administration. Hindustan Times has more details.
• Biden’s desi supporters in turn are making thousands of kolam tiles to welcome the new administration. Example below.

India has a good cricket day

As did two players making their India debut: Washington Sundar, Thangarasu Natrajan. Staging a grand comeback to Test cricket: Shardul Thakur. But day 3 was mostly about the Thakur-Sundar jodi who put up a seventh wicket stand of 123 runs—right when India had staggered to 186 for 6 (match recap here). Scroll best sums up what this day meant for us and the team:

“Indeed, one of the greatest joys in sport is success when you least expect it. Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur, two men who were in Australia arguably only as back-ups to the back-ups in the original squad, stood up to be counted with the series on the line. The result could still go either way for India but, from that 36 in Adelaide to this 336 in Brisbane, it’s been quite the journey and this partnership of 217 deliveries summed up their never-give-up attitude.”

Also read: Indian Express’ profile of the wonder kid in town: Washington Sundar. Our favourite moment: Sundar’s no-look six. Also see: this gorgeous photo of Sundar swaying away from a bouncer and Thakur’s sixer to reach his half-century.

In less happy news: 47 players at the Australian Open have been quarantined for two weeks. The reason: four people on the two charter planes carrying them to Melbourne tested positive. Now, the players are stuck in the hotel, and complaining bitterly about the food—exactly like the Indian cricket team!

Alexei Navalny returns… to prison

Russia’s main Opposition leader made global headlines due to a recent attempt to poison him—an attempt made by none other than Kremlin’s premier security agency (our explainer here). After escaping to Germany—and recovering from the brink of death—Navalny returned to Moscow, as he’s repeatedly promised. And he was promptly detained by the police. The reason offered:

"In a statement late on Sunday, Russia's prison service said the opposition leader 'had been wanted since 29 December 2020 for repeated violations of the probation period'. It added that he would remain in custody until a court decision."

This refers to a previous embezzlement case for which Navalny received a suspended sentence. The Kremlin is also preparing fresh fraud charges against him. BBC News has more.

Intelligence agencies target farmers

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a “fresh” case against Sikhs for Justice (SFJ)—an overseas group that supports the Khalistani cause.  As part of its probe, it has sent notices to 40 people to appear as witnesses. These include farm leaders, businessmen, a TV journalist and actor Deep Sindhu—Sunny Deol’s cousin who briefly shot to viral fame. All of them vocally oppose the new farm laws, but the NIA insists that’s just a coincidence:

“They need to be examined as witnesses to ascertain details of the investigation. A number of people have been called and we are not aware about their profession or they are involved in farmers agitation or if they are engaged in dialogue with the government.”

Those served with the notice are less convinced.

Also on the radar: NGOs like Khalsa Aid which has been providing geysers and foot massage machines to farmers on the Delhi border. Lending a helping hand: Reliance-owned CNN News18 which named Canadian talk show host Joginder Bassi as a foreign funder with Khalistani links—based on an “intelligence report.” But it quickly backed down thanks to photos that showed Bassi with the one and only PM Modi.

The great pandemic: A quick update

• 29 people have died in Norway within days of receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Of these, 13 were related to side effects from the vaccine—and were nursing home patients and at least 80 years old. But Norwegian authorities are not ringing the panic button. They instead have offered new guidance: “Doctors must now carefully consider who should be vaccinated. Those who are very frail and at the very end of life can be vaccinated after an individual assessment.”
• Also read: Indian Express' explainer on these deaths.
• Meanwhile in India, 52 healthcare workers reported some ‘adverse’ effects after being vaccinated, but only one had to hospitalised. There’s no information on which vaccine—Covishield or Covaxin—the person received. 
• In related news, we now know what the consent form for Covaxin looks like. FYI: It does not inspire confidence. Why this matters: Right now, a person does not have the option of choosing which vaccine they receive. So you either sign the “consent form” or choose not to be vaccinated.
• State governments are not meeting their daily vaccination targets due to a 'wait and watch' approach—i.e. people are waiting to see how those who go first will fare.
• Prefer to wait for the Oxford vaccine? Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla claims that it will be freely available at chemists after March/April. Watch him here.
• In the US, younger Americans are finding novel ways to skip the vaccine queue. They’ve found a handy loophole in the short shelf life of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines—both of which have to be used up once a vial is prepped for use. So they line up outside clinics and pharmacies to take advantage of leftover doses that would otherwise be thrown away.
• Mumbai police have uncovered an airport quarantine scam. Passengers pay Rs 4000 for fake health certificates that lets them skip mandatory institutional quarantine. Sigh, our jugaadi ways will be the death of us.

WhatsApp’s change of heart

Faced with widespread panic and indignation—and rising Signal and Telegram downloads—the company has postponed implementing its new privacy policy to May 15. 

“We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We’re also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15."

Indian Express has the story. 

In related news: Reliance Retail plans to embed its e-commerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months. Point to note: the updated privacy policy mainly affects your communication with businesses—which can now be shared with Facebook. Read our explainer here.

2020 was the hottest year ever

Or at least, it tied for first place with the previous hottest year, 2016. We will leave it to NASA to explain why this is a really big deal in a one-minute clip: 

In related news: Temperatures have plummeted to -2°C in Saudi Arabia, and snow is falling across the sand dunes in Sahara. Yes, it’s lovely (see clip below) but also an ominous sign of climate change—which is dramatically altering the weather across the globe.

The phishing of Nidhi Razdan 

Last June, the former executive editor of NDTV announced that she was quitting her job after 20-odd years to join Harvard University as an associate professor. But last week, she realised that there was no job offer. Rather, she’d been a victim of a "sophisticated and coordinated phishing attack”—which included dummy job interviews, recommendation requests from her colleagues, and forged offer letters on the Harvard letterhead (Read her astonishing first-person account of the experience here). 

Many were quick to blame Razdan—arguing that her self-importance and/or failure to investigate made her a dupe. But as a US professor revealed on Twitter, the scamster appeared to know standard academic hiring practices—and “is most likely an academic or at least a former academic with connections.” 

In other scam-related news: At least 40,000 people have fallen victim to a con perpetrated by two Chinese women. They sent victims a WhatsApp link promising a daily commission of up to Rs 3000 if they spent time interacting with an app to promote celebrities. Instead, the app installed malware on their phone which then drained their bank accounts.  Times of India has more details. 

Anti-scam advice: The Delhi police has warned folks to not post customer complaints on Twitter or Facebook. The reason: It attracts fraudsters who will then pose as customer service reps, and trick you into sharing sensitive personal data. They suggest using standard customer user service channels like emails or numbers to resolve grievances… never? (GadgetsNow)

Two new studies of note

One: A troubling US study shows that minor insults at the workplace can have a major impact on mental health—and can trigger suicidal thoughts among depressed or bipolar colleagues. These are “low-grade negative interactions” like excluding a coworker from a conversation, skipping eye contact etc.:

“They’re not even considered bullying or harassment. These are ways that, on a day-to-day basis, that you might hurt somebody but in a low-grade way. It’s how we may behave, and we don’t think twice about it.” 

Two: A study of 81 food ads on five children’s TV channels—Pogo, Nick, Hungama, Disney, and Cartoon Network—found that they mostly show boys rather than girls, “reflecting Indian society’s traditional preference for male children.” FYI: These are ads for candies, biscuits and beverages targeting kids as young as ages 5-12. Also, less surprisingly:

"The ads also show the mother as the caregiver at home, deciding what the kids should eat. Just one ad showed the father making the same decision. This aligns with traditional ideas of how household labour should be divided between parents in the kitchen."