A shooting tragedy in Russia
A person opened fire on a university campus in the city of Perm—killing six people, and wounding more than 20. The shooter—armed with a hunting rifle—is reported to be an 18-year-old student of the university. He is in custody and is in the hospital for injuries sustained during his arrest. Point to note: “Russia has strict restrictions on civilian firearm ownership, but some categories of guns are available for purchase for hunting, self-defence or sport to those who meet specific requirements.” Watch the students flee below. (Reuters)
In other Russian news: The United Russia party—which supports President Putin—just won a huge parliamentary majority in the national election. But opponents insist that the results are rigged. What’s making everyone suspicious: Candidates opposed to United Russia in Moscow had been ahead in more than half of 15 electoral districts, but all lost after electronic voters were added in. Also: a number of prominent leaders were simply disqualified from running at all. What this means: With such a huge majority, the ruling party can ram through any legislation it likes. (Reuters)
The #EmmysSoWhite problem
Although people of colour accounted for 44% of the nominees, white actors ultimately swept all 12 lead and supporting awards across the comedy, drama and limited series categories. The nominations raised the possibility of a number of historic milestones—including the first transgender person to win in a lead acting category—but all of them were missed. Host Cedric the Entertainer called it early in the evening when he said:
“The good news is there are a lot of Black people nominated tonight. Like my dawg Anthony Anderson. … This is Anthony’s 11th nomination, but tonight he’s up against Michael Douglas and Ted Lasso. So good luck, partner, but I gotta say, looks like it’s still hard out here for a pimp.”
Variety has the full list of winners—who included Jason Sudeikis (‘Ted Lasso’), Jean Smart (‘Hacks’) and Gillian Anderson (‘The Crown’). Vogue has a gallery of the best red carpet looks.
A horrific case of domestic violence
Video footage of a woman being beaten by her husband went viral yesterday—released by her sister after she died on Sunday. Apparently, the footage was taken when she was viciously attacked on Friday—in the presence of her family members who inexplicably failed to intervene:
“Videos shot after the assault on Friday show the woman in a state of delirium calling out for her mother. Blood can be seen dripping from her mouth to her body. Another video shows the woman lying on a cot - with foam around her mouth. A hand of a woman pours water on her mouth using a utensil. The voice of another woman can be heard in the background saying, ‘Do not beat her so badly’.”
But despite this, she remained with her husband—who beat her again on Sunday, this time to death. A police case has been registered and the husband is on the run. (NDTV)
India is mad at UK’s Covid rules
The latest iteration of the country’s travel rules remains racist unchanged. The UK government continues to insist that it will only recognise the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Not on the list: The exact same vaccine by any other name—including Covishield. In other words, Indians will continue to be treated as unvaccinated, and will have to quarantine for 10 days. Furious at this policy, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has pulled out of a number of events he was slated to attend in the country, tweeting: “It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine.” And the Indian government plans to subject UK citizens to a mandatory 10-day quarantine if the UK doesn’t reverse its decision. FYI: The US plans to open up its borders to fully vaccinated travellers—including from India. But no word yet on whether it will recognise Covishield.
A related read: Bloomberg News (via NDTV) has the story of crazy things people are doing to get around travel restrictions. Example: Paul Stratfold—who sailed 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) across the southern Pacific Ocean because there were no flights to Australia. The other big trend: “washing out”—flying first to low-risk countries to avoid lengthy quarantines.
In other vaccine-related news: The Indian government plans to resume vaccine exports starting October—which some see as premature since only 34% of those between 45-59 and 38% of people above 60 have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile in the US: Pfizer announced that its vaccine has been proven safe for children between the ages of five and 11.
Speaking of the damn virus: A team of researchers have discovered three coronaviruses in horseshoe bats in Laos—which are closely related to the Covid strain. They are “the closest ancestors of Sars-CoV-2 known to date”—especially in a critical part of its genome which enables it to latch onto and infect cells. The discovery is also described as a “hugely important study” which “totally rules out” the lab-leak theory. And here’s why:
“The receptor binding domain has been at the centre of the controversy over whether Sars-CoV-2 is natural or genetically engineered, with some scientists suggesting this region of the virus is specifically well-adapted to humans and thus not natural. Although the three viruses found in Laos were missing another notable feature that helps Sars-CoV-2 infect cells, the team said at the receptor binding domain they could bind to and enter human cells in a similar way to the pandemic virus.”
South China Morning Post has more details.
About those numbers: Here’s where we are. India reported 24,925 new cases on Monday—that’s compared to 208,713 in the US, 29,007 in the UK and 15,975 in Iran.
On a lighter note: We were highly amused by this chart spotlighting the unusual spike in vaccination rates on that very special date: September 17.
A new and alarming internet scam
Here’s a good reason to be careful the next time you look for a customer care number online. Here’s how this new and sophisticated phishing scam works:
“The most commonly practised method is where conmen modify customer care coordinates of a company on Google and use SEO to push their fake number at the top of the search results. As a consumer goes looking for a service provider’s customer care coordinates on Google, they fall for the trap by dialling the first number from the search results.”
They also swap numbers on Google Maps—which allows editing rights to all users. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The best way to protect yourself: only call the numbers listed on the official website. Mint has details on how this scam works on a number of platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and even Medium.
Great news about ovarian cancer
Early human trials show that a revolutionary combination of two drugs shrank tumours in at least half of the participants—who were in the late stage of the disease. How it works: The drugs block the signals cancer cells require to grow. Why this is a big deal: A very low percentage of women with certain kinds of ovarian cancer respond to chemotherapy or hormone therapy. The Guardian has more details.
A penguin tragedy in South Africa
For once, no humans were involved in this environmental disaster. A swarm of honeybees in Cape Town have killed 63 endangered African penguins—who are on the red list of species facing a high risk of extinction. The attack—which took place in a national park—is the first known attack of this kind, and experts are calling it “a fluke.” The two usually coexist peacefully:
“The bees don't sting unless provoked - we are working on the assumption that a nest or hive in the area was disturbed and caused a mass of bees to flee the nest, swarm and became aggressive… Unfortunately the bees encountered a group of penguins on their flight path.”
A ‘magic’ room for devices
A team of researchers have built a room that can wirelessly charge appliances and devices. No outlets or wires required! All you have to do is walk into the room with your phone or iPad—or just plonk a fan or lamp wherever you want. How this works:
“The secret lies in electromagnetic fields. The prototype room measures 100 square feet... It consists of a floor, ceiling, and walls made of aluminum sheets. Inside those walls, researchers have hidden a series of capacitors (devices that store electric charge), which generate a magnetic field that reverberates within the room.”
Fast Company has more details.
Two cool things to see
One: The iconic Arc de Triomphe in Paris has been shrouded in 25,000 square metres of fabric—made of silver-blue polypropylene fabric along with 3,000 metres of red rope. It is intended as a tribute to artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude—who transformed public spaces into a work of art—and fulfills Christo’s dying wish before he passed away in 2020. NPR has more details. See a time lapse video of the project below.
Two: The narrowest house in the city of Boston just sold for $1.2 million. The tourist attraction is 1,165 sq. feet, and spread over four levels. Marked by a plaque that says ‘Spite House’, it was built by one brother to literally spite the other—to block the entry to his house, his view of the waterfront and all the light. (CNN)
