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Coonoor helicopter crash: The latest update
On Wednesday, India’s most senior military officer—the first Chief of Defence Staff—General Bipin Rawat was killed in a helicopter crash with 12 others—including his wife (explained here).
One: An unverified video shot by locals—and distributed by ANI—shows the last moments of the fateful Mi-17V5 chopper as it disappears into the fog. The Telegraph has more on the speculation that the pilot was flying too low.
Two: Army officials said that they are finding it difficult to identify the bodies—except those of General Rawat, Mrs Rawat and Brigadier Lidder. The rest of the remains will be kept until “positive identification is complete”—and then accorded military funerals.
Three: Group Captain Varun Singh—the lone survivor—has been airlifted to Bangalore and remains on life support. Also read: Singh’s letter to the principal of his school—where he offers this advice to students:
“It’s ok to be mediocre. Not everyone will excel at school and not everyone will be able to score in the 90s. If you do it’s an amazing achievement and must be applauded. However, if you don't, do not think that you are meant to be mediocre.”
Four: Defence officials have retrieved the Flight Data Recorder or ‘black box’ from the chopper—after they expanded their search to a 1km radius.
Not a good time for journalists
The latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals that 293 journalists were imprisoned across the world in 2021—up from 280 last year. India had the highest number of journalists—four—who were murdered “in retaliation for their work.” NewsLaundry has more details.
BCCI leaks on Virat Kohli
Unnamed “sources” have started circulating explanations for why Kohli was stripped of his ODI captaincy. One reason: He failed to deliver the big ICC trophies. Another: Rohit Sharma is more popular with younger players and, ahem, the managemen. The most blunt quote:
“Rohit is very popular and can provide the desired security to the boys… It’s unfortunate but the truth is that Rohit can align with the new team management much better than Virat… Virat should have read the writing on the wall much earlier and announced his decision to avoid this ignominy... His adamant nature has led to his being shown the door by the Board.”
The Telegraph and Indian Express have more on what reads like a media campaign against Kohli.
The dirty secret about Delhi pollution
We’ve all been religiously tracking AQI numbers, but a new study shows that pollution levels are far higher inside a home than on the outside: “[T]he levels of PM2.5, the lung-damaging tiny particles in the air, indoors were ‘substantially higher’ than those found on the nearest outdoor government monitors.” And having more money to buy air purifiers only reduces the pollution levels by 10%: “In Delhi, the bottom line is—whether someone is rich or poor, no one gets to breathe clean air...It’s a complex vicious cycle.” For more background, check out our explainer on Delhi pollution. (BBC News)
In other grim environmental news: The world’s coldest inhabited place—Oymyakon, Russia—is experiencing ‘zombie fires’ which are raging under the snow and ice in minus 58.9°C weather. Vice explains why this is happening (hint: climate change). See what they look like below.
New Zealand’s novel cigarette ban
Starting next year, children under the age of 15 will not be allowed to buy tobacco products ever—as in, they are banned from doing so for the rest of their life! Cigarettes will still be legal for current smokers, but the generational approach gradually raises the smoking age until it covers the entire population. Hmm. We’re all for discouraging smoking but there is no better way to make something hugely attractive to kids other than to say ‘only grown ups can do it’. (New York Times)
Boris Johnson has yet another baby
The UK Prime Minister is a proud papa for the seventh time. This is his second baby with his wife Carrie Johnson. After years of ducking the question, Johnson finally owned up to fathering six children in September: “He has four children with ex-wife Marina Wheeler, a child born in 2009 as a result of an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre, and now two children with his current wife.” (Sky News)
Sexual violence horror in Myanmar
Women detainees have been tortured, sexually harassed and threatened with rape by the military. At least eight of the 93 women arrested have died in custody while four were tortured to death at an interrogation centre. BBC News has the disturbing details. We explained the coup in Myanmar here.
Say hello to a very tiny camera
Scientists have made a camera that is the size of a grain of salt. It can take “clear, full-color images—at the level of cameras that are 500,000 times larger.” How they did it:
“Researchers… created a new type of optical system, called a metasurface, to shrink the camera’s hardware down to size, and combined this with machine-learning image processing that enables the camera to produce clear images in natural lighting.”
Why this matters:
“The researchers envision these types of cameras being used in procedures like endoscopies, where high-quality photos from inside a patient’s body also need to be as minimally invasive as possible. They also foresee these metasurfaces as covering the whole surface of devices like cell phones.”
Vice has images taken by the camera—which looks like so:
A very bizarre Botox scandal
Saudi authorities have disqualified 40 contestants from a beauty pageant for the illegal use of cosmetic surgery. What’s unusual: The disgraced contestants are camels vying for the top $66 million prize in the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival.
“This year, authorities discovered dozens of breeders had stretched out the lips and noses of camels, used hormones to boost the beasts' muscles, injected camels' heads and lips with Botox to make them bigger, inflated body parts with rubber bands and used fillers to relax their faces.”
Associated Press has more but also check out Vice’s video report from the 2018 festival.
Also banned: Owning more than nine SIM cards as per the Indian government’s new rules. Mint has more details.
The top tweet in India is….
Twitter India put its list of the most popular tweets of the year. Top of the list: Australian test captain Pat Cummins announcing his $50,000 donation to the PM Cares fund at the peak of the second wave. Of course, Cummins eventually gave the money to UNICEF. The most liked is also from a cricketer: Virat Kohli sharing the birth of his baby girl. Check out the entire list here.
Eight things to see
Yes, it’s a long list today.
One: Farmers celebrated on the Delhi border as the unions called off their protest—after receiving a formal letter from the government sealing the deal. (Indian Express)
Two: The Pantone colour of the year for 2022 is called ‘Very Peri’—which, for the first time in its history, is a brand new shade created by the institute. Pantone describes it as a “dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet-red undertone” that blends the “faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red.” Umm, okay. In any case, it’s very pretty. (USA TODAY)
Three: This one is strange and somewhat alarming. The Future of Life Institute—which describes itself as an organisation “working to ensure that tomorrow’s most powerful technologies are beneficial for humanity”—has put out this five-minute video calling on the UN to ban “slaughterbots.” Popular Mechanics explains what this is all about.
Four: The US Coast Guard staged a daring rescue operation to save a woman whose car was trapped at the very edge of the Niagara Falls. The officer was “buffeted by winds and spraying water as he was lowered 80 feet to the car through falling snow.” Sadly, help arrived too late and she was already dead—but the effort to save her was incredible. (CBS News)
Five: This pitch invasion by a man in the middle of a women’s Chelsea vs Juventus game did not go as planned—thanks to Chelsea player Sam Kerr who knocked him down, and earned a yellow card for it. (CNN)
Six: This is the Batman River loach—a tiny fish that was discovered in Turkey by happy scientists nearly 50 years after it was thought to have gone extinct. It is the first to be found from a list of 10 “most wanted” lost species. (The Guardian)
Seven: Indian Twitter is cracking up over celebrity doctor Sanjay Gupta’s video teaching his kids how to make masala chai. Ok, so the recipe is atrocious but the father/daughter thing is still sweet.
Eight: After weeks of media reports on their paranoid levels of privacy, the happy couple—Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal—posted photos of their shaadi on Insta. (The Telegraph)