A big climate summit

Yesterday was the first day of a two-day summit on climate change hosted by the United States. In attendance: 40 world leaders, including the Pope. Here are some of the commitments made by various countries:

• The US committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% below its 2005 emissions levels, by 2030.
• Brazil asked for more funds to execute its plan to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions by 2030.
• Japan promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 46% from its 2013 levels, by 2030—which is a big upgrade from the 26% pledged back in 2015. 
• South Korea plans to go carbon neutral by 2050—and phase out coal-powered plants. 
• China will strictly limit the increase in coal consumption until 2025, and actively reduce it between 2026-2030—which implies that its consumption will peak in 2025.
• India announced a joint India-US energy and climate partnership but did not make any new commitments—pointing out that its targets are already compatible with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 2°C.

A deadly blast in Pakistan

A bombing at Quetta’s Serena hotel has left five dead, and 11 injured. Saved by a whisker: The Chinese ambassador who was scheduled to arrive at the building minutes before the blast. The Pakistani Taliban, or the TTP—Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan have taken credit—and said a suicide bomber had intended to strike a meeting of “locals and foreigners” at the hotel. But officials say it was more likely a car bomb. Why China may be a target: Beijing has taken on a number of big infrastructure projects, including a seaport, in Balochistan—which is Taliban territory. See an image of the blast below. (New York Times)

Tokyo Olympics say no to kneeling

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is sticking with its rule that any “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” is a big no-no at any venue—be it inside stadiums, at ceremonies or on podiums. What they define as ‘propaganda’: taking a knee or raising a fist in support of racial equality. To be fair, the decision was taken after consulting 3,500 athletes—and 70% voted against changing the rule. (Al Jazeera)

In other Olympics-related news: The Tokyo games has reported its first Covid case: A cop assigned to assist with the torch relay. The good news: He wore a mask and had no contact with the runners. (Al Jazeera) 

A literary sexual abuse scandal

Here’s an ironic twist to a sorry literary tale. Blake Bailey is the author of the first authorised biography of the legendary Philip Roth. And the book was the first to directly tackle Roth’s “breathtaking tastelessness towards women.” But now Bailey has been accused of sexually harassing high school students—while he was their teacher! They claim he ‘groomed’ them, then lured them into sexual relationships after they graduated. One of them has also accused him of rape. As a result, the publisher has pulled his book, and he’s been dropped by his literary agency. The Guardian has more details.

In other writing-related news: Astronomers have been on a black hole spotting spree, and we now know that they “are ubiquitous.” And we will be discovering a greater number of them when the next generation of gravitational-wave antennas are deployed. So now astronomers have a grammar problem: What is the right collective noun for black holes? 

“There are gaggles of geese, pods of whales and murders of crows. What term would do justice to the special nature of black holes? A mass? A colander? A scream?... The question was crowdsourced on Twitter recently as part of what NASA has begun calling black hole week (April 12-16). Among the many candidates so far: A crush. A mosh pit. A silence. A speckle. A hive. An enigma.”

Our favourite: a ‘void’ of black holes! Just perfect! (New York Times)

Perseverance makes oxygen!  

The rover stripped oxygen atoms from CO₂ molecules in the Martian air to produce nearly 5 gms of the life-sustaining stuff—which is about how much an astronaut would use up in 10 minutes. But it’s still a huge achievement:

“Moxie isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world, it’s the first technology of its kind that will help future missions 'live off the land', using elements of another world’s environment, also known as in-situ resource utilisation.” 

BBC News has more details on how Perseverance managed this feat.

Also an amazing feat: Scientists have found a way to melt plastic bags and bottles back into oil! The process is called pyrolysis—which melts down polyolefins that are found in two-thirds of the world’s plastic, including drinking straws, packaging, thermal underwear and cling wrap. Researchers however warn that this breakthrough doesn’t help avert climate change because “fossil fuels, of course, release emissions when you burn them; using a gallon of oil melted down from a bunch of Tupperware won’t change that.” (Gizmodo)

Also very cool: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has for the first time shown that two separate people wrote part of the mysterious ancient Dead Sea Scrolls—in near identical handwriting. The Scrolls contain the oldest known version of the Bible—mostly written in Hebrew as well as Aramaic and Greek, and are believed to date back to the third century BC. (BBC News)

Bhai, we Radhe not!

Ok, so the trailer for the upcoming Salman Khan flick ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’ dropped yesterday. And yeah, there isn’t anything surprising about him playing a macho ‘encounter specialist’ or romancing women young enough to be his grand-daughters. Sallu has long been a parody of himself. But this one—directed by Prabhu Deva—promises to outdo the cheesiness of all his previous outings. 

Speaking of cool bros: Here are Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe on the Prada runway. Yes!