Global minimum tax wins supporters
The US recently put forward a proposal to impose a minimum corporate tax on companies. Governments who sign on will agree to ensure that companies headquartered in their countries pay at least 15% in taxes everywhere they operate. Now, 130 countries have jumped on board—including India and China. Why this matters: Governments are frustrated with global companies that simply relocate to a low-tax region when they raise corporate taxes. The plan is to force them to pay at least a minimum amount. (Wall Street Journal)
The great pandemic: A very short update
- First, the numbers: India added 46,617 new cases and 853 deaths on Thursday.
- Amid the brouhaha over the green pass aka the EU vaccine passport, nine countries have agreed to allow visitors who took the Covishield vaccine. These include: Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland.
- Infected humans pass on the disease to their pets—that’s the finding of a new study. The good news: Infected dogs and cats are usually asymptomatic. The bad news: They can act as carriers.
- Tokyo Olympics changed its strict pandemic rules, and will now allow all breastfeeding athletes to bring their children with them.
Yet another story of anti-Muslim hate
A group of Bajrang Dal activists in Aligarh smashed the foundation stone of a water cooler in a temple. The reason: It carried the name of Samajwadi Party’s Salman Shahid—a local Muslim politician who had donated the cooler. One of them said: “We cannot tolerate the name of a person from another community inside the temple premises.” A Bajrang Dal activist was briefly arrested—but soon released on bail after other members protested at the police station. FYI: The temple authorities have apologised to Shahid and returned the cooler “to maintain a peaceful atmosphere in the town.” Watch them in action below:
A related read: Scroll has an excellent investigation into the arrests of two Muslim men in UP who are accused of using funds from Pakistani intelligence agencies to carry out mass conversions. The evidence is astonishingly weak.
The dysfunction of Kamala Harris’ office
Politico has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the messy state of the Veep’s team. Based on interviews with 22 current and former aides and associates, the story paints a picture of “a tense and at times dour office atmosphere.” How bad is it?
“People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it’s an abusive environment… It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s---.”
Apparently, the person to blame is not Harris herself but her chief of staff Tina Flournoy—though as one person points out: “It all starts at the top.” OTOH, others say this is just another example of two Black women being held to different standards. Read all about it over at Politico.
Two quick updates
One: The judge has denied Britney Spears’ request to remove her father Jamie from her conservatorship (explained here). This ruling is in response to a petition filed back in November—and was signed after her powerful testimony in court. It found Spears to be “substantially unable to manage his or her financial resources or to resist fraud or undue influence.” But legal experts expect Spears to soon file a new petition to terminate her conservatorship entirely. Complicating matters: The wealth management firm that was appointed as a co-conservator of her financial affairs has asked to resign—saying her testimony made it clear that she opposed the arrangement. (Variety)
Two: The spectator who caused a spectacular Tour de France pile-up (watch it here)—and fled the scene—has been arrested by the French police. (BBC News)
Zomato bets on groceries
The food delivery company has bought a 9.3% stake in the online grocery app Grofers—right ahead of its planned IPO. The aim: To take on the likes of BigBasket and Swiggy that are already in this space. Point to remember: Zomato launched its own grocery delivery service in 80 cities last year, but it proved to be a dud. (NDTV)
A famine in Madagascar
The nation is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years—and 1.1 million are starving—thanks to climate change:
“Weather patterns in southern Madagascar, too, have been upended by a shifting climate. A lack of consistent rainfall has been the worst effect, with five of the last six rainy seasons in the country bringing below-average rainfall. This has led to failed harvests and underfed livestock, with farmers forced to sell off what they had to buy food to provide for their families. There are increasing dust storms—known as tiomena to the locals—and locust swarms, once a rare occurrence, are now regularly devastating crops.”
But here’s the even greater tragedy: Its people have done absolutely nothing to contribute to the climate crisis: “They don’t have cars; they have carts …They don’t have stoves; they don’t use electricity. They contribute zero, but they get the brunt of climate change. It’s a moral imperative to support them.” (Washington Post)
Speaking of victims of climate change: New research shows that dinosaurs were not wiped out by an asteroid striking Earth, but by falling temperatures:
“In the Late Cretaceous, though dinosaurs still dominated most ecosystems, dinosaur extinction rates increased and relatively few new species appeared to replenish their declining diversity...This waning diversity among the dinosaurs that did not evolve into birds coincided with a period of global cooling that started around 76 million years ago—and the changing climate may have been a contributing factor, especially among plant eating dinosaurs.”
Will & Harry’s unveiling moment
The two royal princes came together to unveil a statue of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace on her 60th birthday. Daily Mail has more details than you could possibly need. You can see the statue below… and the twinsie bald patches lol!
Two very bizarre things
One: Voodoo priests in Togo were called in to perform an exorcism on an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 struck by lightning: “the ceremony consisted of splashing the plane with water and pouring liquor as an offering to appease the anger of Hiébiésso, the ‘divinity of thunder’.” Watch it below:
Two: This advertisement for an “intimate lightening serum” to cure “patchy inner thighs” by Sanfe went viral on Twitter. Yes, that is a papaya.
In our gratitude jar…
We are hugely thankful to our founding members Pooja Ramakrishnan, Pooja Hegde, Yogini Oke, Armaan Agrawal, Manishika Tilak, Sushma Joseph, Alok Prasanna Kumar, Prateek Kiran, Zarine Habeeb and John J Kolencheril. We appreciate your priceless support.
