Israel’s big sabotage strike
Israel conducted a sabotage operation targeting Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility—taking out a number of centrifuges and causing an electricity blackout. But the act was primarily aimed at sabotaging renewed nuclear talks between the US and Iran—who have finally come back to the table after four tumultuous years under Donald Trump. He tore up the nuclear deal crafted by Barack Obama, and imposed punitive sanctions on Tehran—which in turn restarted its nuclear program. The militant Benjamin Netanyahu government is not happy about the prospect of a Washington-Tehran detente.
However, the Iranians seem determined to stick it out, and talks will resume on Wednesday:
“The Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions... We will not fall into their trap...We will not allow this act of sabotage to affect the nuclear talks.”
The great pandemic: A quick update
- The new variants in India may be able to avoid detection by RT-PCR tests—which is considered the gold standard. Times of India has this worrying story.
- According to a new survey, 50% of Indians plan to travel between the months of April and June—which will make containing the spread near impossible.
- Sputnik V has got the nod for emergency use—making it the third vaccine to do so after Covaxin and Covishield. According to earlier statements, around 200 million doses should be available in India. We explained how the vaccine works here.
- Both the stock market and the rupee plunged due to fears of a new lockdown.
- The UK ended the longest and most stringent lockdown in the world yesterday.
- Ten foreign tourists were forced to write “I did not follow the rules of lockdown so I am so sorry,” 500 times as a punishment in Rishikesh.
- New trials show that a synthetic antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron can protect people living with someone who is infected—and offer an alternative to vaccination.
- A mattress making unit in Maharashtra was caught stuffing its wares with discarded face masks instead of cotton.
- Forty four of the 90 employees at the Supreme Court have tested positive.
- The government has banned inflight meals on flights that are less than two hours.
- A new study found that 19 million Brazilians have gone hungry during the pandemic—compounding the tragedy.
- Mint Lounge has an excellent read on how Covid changed the lives of the elderly.
- A very good watch: CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria’s tribute to his mother, Fatima, who died of Covid complications.
A flood of data leaks
Last week, we found out about a massive Facebook data leak of 533 million users from 106 countries. Now Motherboard has uncovered another phone number database of its users—and they are all for sale. Basically, you can buy the number of anyone who liked your page. Also: hackers seem to be scraping publicly available info for 1.3 million users of Clubhouse. And similar data for 500 million LinkedIn users is up for sale.
Why this matters: It may seem trivial if someone is scraping info already available to everyone on your social media handle. But that information can be leveraged for a much bigger operation—as has happened with Microsoft Outlook, where Chinese hackers hacked hundreds of thousands of small businesses that use its software. But to do so, they first mined troves of personal information—including email addresses—from sites like LinkedIn. This in turn gave them access to admin accounts on Outlook.
Baftas were a blast
Not that you care about the Baftas now that the Bhaskar is in town, but here are the results. Best Film: Nomadland. Best Film Not in the English Language: Another Round. Best Documentary: My Octopus Teacher. Best Director: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland. Best Actress: Frances McDormand also for Nomadland. Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins for The Father. Buzzfeed News lists the rest. The Guardian rounds up the most emotional moments in a video. Harper’s Bazaar has a collection of red carpet photos. In case you care what Priyanka Chopra wore, People has that covered. And you can see what everyone is calling the ‘braless’ look on her Insta video.
Britain prepares for a funeral
Prince Philip will be buried in a small ceremonial funeral on Saturday—to be held at a chapel on the grounds of the Windsor Castle. There will be no public viewing of his body. The royal family will be in attendance—with the exception of Meghan who has been advised not to travel as she is pregnant. Covid restrictions in the UK will limit the number of attendees to just 30. Not on that guest list: PM Boris Johnson. BBC News has the detailed plan. CNN looks at the complicated legacy of a man known for making appallingly racist jokes. Buzzfeed News has a lovely gallery of photos celebrating the young royal couple at the beginning of their 73-year marriage.
Tesla India rumours grow
Tesla is scouting for locations to open showrooms in three cities and has hired a political lobbyist—the two things you need to kick off business in India. It is looking for 20,000-30,000 square feet in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. No, there aren’t any plans to set up an assembly plant in India anytime soon. (Reuters)
Wait, is that a UFO?
Video footage leaked to a documentary filmmaker appears to show unidentified objects swarming above a US Navy warship. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell says those who took the clip back in 2019 described the objects as so:
“It shows what they described as vehicles… this is not something that we own either a black project, this is not something of a foreign military, that these were behaving in ways that we did not expect. And that they were you know shaped non-aerodynamically. Like pyramids, these are flying pyramids!”
In case you think this is the stuff of tabloids (which we still suspect it is), the Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of the footage. Futurism looks at all the theories. Also, you can check it out for yourself below:
Stuffy noses are bad news
A new study found a correlation between always-congested sinuses and certain kinds of brain activity. People with this condition showed less activity in parts of our brain that help us stay focused, problem-solve, and communicate—and greater activity in parts that are triggered when we’re unfocused, like while daydreaming. So the ‘brain fog’ you feel when you’re all plugged up may not be an illusion. (Gizmodo)
How not to remember genocide
The government of Cambodia is furious at Vice for carrying a story on the victims of genocide carried out by the infamous Khmer Rouge regime. The photo essay carried colourised versions of photos from Tuol Sleng—a school turned torture centre where 14,000 Cambodians were executed. Except the artist Matt Loughrey added more than just colour, as you can see below. The story has since been pulled, but Vice has not issued any apology, and neither has Loughrey.
