Bad news about a Covid pill

There are high hopes that oral pills will help stem the worst effects of the pandemic—offering an easy-to-access and cheap treatment option. But now there is disappointing news that Molnupiravir—manufactured by Merck—is only 30% effective in treating the disease. This is far lower than earlier reports that put that number at 50%. In comparison, a similar pill from Pfizer is 89% effective—but again, that’s from early trial data. Point to note: The UK has already cleared Molnupiravir for use in the country.  (Wall Street Journal)

Israel vs Iran: A cyber war

The two countries are waging a fierce battle against each other—hacking each other’s online systems to wreak havoc. No one has been killed, but the goal is “to create chaos, anger, and emotional distress on a large scale.” A cyberattack on Iran’s nationwide fuel distribution system paralyzed the country’s 4,300 gas stations. While Tehran was accused of hacking into a major Israeli medical facility and a popular LGBTQ dating site—where the sex lives of a well-known broadcaster and those of hundreds of thousands of others were uploaded on social media. Why this matters:  Unlike previous such attacks, the targets are civilians—which marks a new escalation. (New York Times)

Migrant ship tragedy: An update

Last week, an inflatable boat capsized killing 27 migrants trying to enter the UK from France. Over the weekend, authorities began identifying the victims. The first to be named: Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin, a Kurdish woman from Iraq who was looking to join her fiance in the UK. Other casualties included 17 men, six other women, one of whom was pregnant, and three children. The Guardian has names and stories of 10 other victims.

Indian government scolds Elon Musk

The government has told Musk’s company Starlink to stop advertising its satellite internet services “with immediate effect” until it has a license to sell in the country. It has also told citizens not to subscribe to its service. The company plans to have 200,000 Starlinks in the country by December 2022—including 160,000 in rural districts that have poor connectivity. (Gizmodo)

Also unhappy with the Indian government: Visa which has raised concerns about a “level playing field” to US officials due to the government’s open promotion of homegrown payment platform RuPay. FYI, back in 2018, PM Modi declared, “everyone cannot go to the border to protect the country, we can use RuPay card to serve the nation.” (Reuters)

Jio is getting more expensive

Having decimated its rivals by undercutting their prices, Reliance is now hiking its tariffs by 21%—starting December 1. It marks the end of the price war—and perhaps the days of super-cheap connectivity for Indian consumers. (Mint)

Indian thumbs up to domestic violence

The National Family Health Survey offers some eye-opening results. Vast majorities of women in many Indian states think it is perfectly fine for a man to beat his wife. Top of the league: Telangana where 83.8% of the women held that belief. The lowest: Himachal Pradesh at 14.8%. The state with the greatest percentage of violence-approving men: Karnataka. What’s interesting: in most of these states (except Karnataka), women were more likely to hold this view than men. (Indian Express)

Speaking of Karnataka: The police have uncovered a unique real estate scam—which involves 118 cases, top officials and a common set of lawyers. Here’s how it works: 

“The modus operandi of the alleged gang was to create a fake rental agreement—for a targeted property—between a fake owner and a fake tenant and to file a case in the small-causes court for eviction of the ‘tenant’. The court would then be informed that the litigants had reached a compromise and that the ‘tenant’ had agreed to leave the property. This was done to obtain a court decree directing the ‘tenant’ to leave the property as agreed. Using the ‘fake decree’, the alleged gang would then seek police support and evict whoever was in possession of the targeted property.”

More alarming news from Karnataka: The police in Belagavi issued a “friendly warning” to Protestant Christians to stop holding prayer meetings:

“A few pastors were called and told to not conduct prayers saying right wing groups may attack them and the police will not be able to give them protection...It is not banned because they have not given anything in writing, but they say it is to maintain communal harmony...the police told the pastors that if you have your own church buildings, you can conduct prayer meetings but do not hold them in rented buildings or private houses.”

Yes, it sounds a lot like Gurgaon. (The News Minute)

San Francisco is sinking 

According to data collected by a geophysicist, the city by the bay is going down—literally so! Satellite images show that SF—especially the downtown area—is sinking because of “the staggering weight and density of the buildings.” The main problem: the loss of groundwater because of new construction. (Futurism)

Speaking of more ideal cities: A new industry report assessed the best places to relocate based on average salary, property price, weather etc. The top pick: Austin, Texas—followed by Tokyo and Charleston, South Carolina. Really? More interesting: At the top of the most affordable locations is Istanbul, followed by Buenos Aires and Kuala Lumpur. (Money)

Bees that feed on meat?

Honey bees get their nutrition from flowers, but vulture bees are a whole new kind of beast. According to a new study, these carnivorous bees feed on rotting meat:

“They live in large, honey-producing colonies… and have systems of preserving the meat within the hive. ‘If you think about bringing a dead body to your colony, that sounds like a recipe for a pandemic,’ Maccaro says. ‘So they store the meat in these special pots, and they wait 14 days,’ until the meat is ‘cured,’ like gravlax. Then, they feed it to their young, who need the protein to grow.”

Scientists are calling them “super crazy on a bunch of different levels.” Business Insider has more details, including “little baskets” in their legs used to carry the meat.

Four things to see  

One: Egypt reopened the ancient Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor—a 2.7-kilometer (1.7-mile) road that connects the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak. Check out the grand event that included a march, an orchestra and dancers in ancient apparel. (CNN)

Two: Twitter was busy chuckling during the weekend over multiple tweets from BJP leaders sharing pictures of the future Noida international airport near Jewar—inaugurated by the PM. The great cause for amusement: The accompanying images were that of either Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport in South Korea or the Beijing Daxing International Airport in China—embarrassingly called out by a Chinese journalist. See the promo clip shared by many ministers below (you can see the Beijing airport in the first 10 seconds). On a more serious note, read Indian Express’ explainer on the Jewar airport. (Alt News)

Three: A 31-year old man had a close shave trying to get close to an African lion at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad. He was rescued by police as he sat on a low-lying rock—being stared at by a lion just waiting for him to fall right in. (Hindustan Times)

Four: Remember the ‘Sulli deal’ scandal—where an app was created to ‘auction’ Muslim women (explained here). That trend has now resurfaced in a hideous Clubhouse avatar—where men are once again ‘auctioning’ women. Here’s a clip of one such session going viral on Twitter. Fair warning, this is really hard to listen to without wanting to throw up.