Trigger warning: The item below includes descriptions of violent sexual assault.
Yet another brutal killing in Badaun
- The district became infamous when two Dalit teenagers were gang-raped and hung from a tree—which in turn inspired the movie Article 15.
- This time around, a 42-year old woman has suffered the same fate as Nirbhaya —gang-raped and violated with an iron rod. Her rib and leg were broken.
- The suspects: Baba Satya Narayan who presided over the local ashram, his driver and a disciple.
- The three accused dropped her off at her home after the assault—claiming she had fallen into a well. She was bleeding profusely, and died soon after (other reports claim she was already dead).
- The police refused to file a complaint until the post-mortem was conducted— despite painfully evident injuries—giving the accused 24 hours to flee.
- The Baba’s cronies have now been arrested, but he is still absconding. The local SHO (station house officer) has been suspended for “insensitivity” and “delaying the due process.”
- The Hindu and The Telegraph have the most details on this story.
A big win for Biden in Georgia
When Donald Trump took office in 2016, Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House. Yesterday, they lost it all, including two critical Senate races in Georgia. By gaining these two seats, the votes in the upper house are split 50-50—with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaker.
Why these two victories matter very much: Republicans cannot block Biden from pushing through most parts of his legislative agenda—or trying to undo the damage wreaked by Trump. An added nice touch: One of the winners, Raphael Warnock, made history as the first ever Black senator from Georgia. Vox has a good overview of the two races. New York Times has more on Warnock’s win.
In other US news: Air traffic controllers in New York City heard a digitized voice with a chilling message: “We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged." Wednesday marked the death anniversary of Qassem Soleimani—who was an Iranian general assassinated by a US drone strike last year. No one expects another 9/11 but controlling aviation frequencies can be dangerous as it can affect instructions sent to pilots. (CBS News)
Do we have herd immunity yet?
The daily number of new cases has dipped below 20,000 for several weeks. And all the so-called hot spots—Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai—are reporting fewer and fewer cases. The only outlier: Kerala. This is especially striking since social distancing appears to have mostly collapsed—thanks to festival gatherings, farmer protests and election rallies. That said, virologists warn:
"Herd immunity is not a national concept. It’s applicable to communities and clusters. Some (communities) may have achieved it, others not. Remember (also) that people move in and out of clusters and that there will continue to be spikes in cases."
In vaccine-related news: The WHO isn’t impressed with the UK’s decision to delay administering the required second dose of the Pfizer vaccine by up to three months. The reason: “[I]t is important to note that there is very little empiric data from the trials that underpin this type of recommendation.” More so, since Pfizer itself said bluntly: “There is no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.” Sigh! (The Guardian)
Speaking of the WHO: China has denied entry to WHO’s team which was en route to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. Beijing had agreed to the probe after months of negotiations. Now, it claims that details of the visit are still being hammered out. BBC News has more.
Speaking of vaccines: The Indian government isn’t keen on protecting vaccine manufacturers from liability in potential lawsuits. A government official told Economic Times:
“During the usual vaccination drive, it is the responsibility of the company to provide protection in case of any untoward incident. While we are of the view that we should follow the same policy, a final decision will be taken once the agreements are signed with the vaccine makers.”
This is in contrast with the US and UK etc.—which have agreed to shoulder at least part of the responsibility to ensure a speedy rollout. Point to remember: The government hasn’t actually purchased any vaccine, and is still negotiating terms with Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech.
Related read: Bloomberg News offers an excellent deep dive into who will pick up the tab if the vaccinations trigger unexpected side effects during the mass campaign.
WhatsApp has a new privacy policy
If you’ve been on the app lately, you might have received an alarming message that asks you to accept its new terms of service—or else lose access to the app by February 8. Here’s what you are signing up for if you say okay:
- For starters, your messages are still encrypted and the company says it does not store your messages—except in cases a text hasn’t been delivered. It stores media forwards temporarily to make it more efficient to forward.
- But everything else is fair game. What you do on WhatsApp—including sharing contacts—when you do it etc will be diligently tracked.
- WhatsApp is collecting your location information at all times—whether you choose to share it with the app or not: “Even if you do not use our location-related features, we use IP addresses and other information like phone number area codes to estimate your general location (e.g., city and country).”
- Businesses you interact with on WhatsApp can share any user information they want with third parties, including Facebook (unless they promise not to in their privacy policy)—i.e. say hello to Jio!
- Whatever WhatsApp knows about you, so does every other Facebook company. Translation: everything you do on WhatsApp will be used to target you for ads on every FB platform.
Earth is spinning faster
In 2020, our planet took less time on average to complete a single rotation on its axis. In fact, July 19 was 1.4602 milliseconds shorter than the full 24 hours—the shortest since records began. In fact, the 28 fastest days in history occurred last year. This is a slight problem since Earth has been slowing down in recent decades. In fact, international timekeepers have added a ‘leap second’ 27 times to keep our clocks consistent. Now, for the very first time, we may have to deduct a leap second instead in 2021. (LiveScience)
Kim & Kanye are splitting up
Or so claim all the tabloids. Kimmie isn’t wearing her wedding ring, and the two spent the holidays apart. Her people say:
“The source added that while Kim has done much in the past to protect and help Kanye deal with his mental health struggles, ‘Now this divorce is happening because Kim has grown up a lot. She is serious about taking the bar exam and becoming a lawyer, she is serious about her prison reform campaign. Meanwhile Kanye is talking about running for president and saying other crazy s–t, and she’s just had enough of it.’”
His people say: Kanye loathes the Kardashians, and finds their reality show “unbearable.” Yup, that’s definitely grounds for divorce. Coming up next: A potentially nasty fight over assets.
Cricket news from Down Under
One: A conman duped at least 200 fans into paying $550 (Australian) each to meet the Indian cricket team at a Michelin-rated Indian restaurant—promising amazing food, beer, wine and soft drink, fantastic interviews and Q&A’s.” According to the owners, he has since been caught thanks to team members who alerted the restaurant about the scam. Indian Express has more on this odd story.
Two: Remember Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya got in trouble for shopping mask-less at a baby store? The owner has now come out with a stirring defence of the two men:
“At that stage, there were no restrictions in New South Wales. We wanted to give them gifts but they wanted to pay for everything… Our staff was not allowed to touch them and shake hands with them. Even though there were no restrictions at the time, they were very much keeping their distance.”
A new twist on earbuds
Until now—thanks mainly to Apple—we’ve been encouraged to jam the damn things right into our ears. Bose has finally put an end to the madness. Its pricey $200 Sport Open Earbuds are designed to sit right above the ear canal (far more comfortable for many of us). They are meant primarily for outdoor athletes since they do not cancel out ambient noise, i.e. you can hear traffic, nature or other sounds in your surroundings. Also, the design is way cooler and more secure than the AirPods. Engadget has more. No info yet on when they will be available in India.
Dwarf giraffes are a surprise
The first one was spotted in 2015 in Uganda, and three years later, another was discovered in Namibia. That’s when researchers decided to take a closer look and reached a surprising conclusion: Giraffes suffer from dwarfism. These two are between 8-9 feet tall—with long necks that make it look like someone has put a giraffe’s head and neck on a horse’s body (See photos here).
Why this matters: “Although it has been known to occur in humans and domestic animals like dogs, cows and pigs, dwarfism is rarely observed among wild animals and this is the first time it has been found in giraffes." New York Times has more.
Kashmir is very, very cold
The state is currently under the grip of 'Chillai-Kalan'—a harsh 40-day period during the winter when the temperature drops precipitously, and snowfall swamps the state. Flight operations to and from Srinagar remained suspended for the third consecutive day because the airport looks like this:
OTOH, snow can also serve other useful purposes—for protest graffiti like this (if you don’t know what this is about, read The Guardian report here)