Cubans march in protest

In an unusual show of defiance, thousands of citizens marched the streets to express anger at the government. The reasons: a healthcare system collapsing in the midst of rising Covid cases; an economic crisis marked by galloping inflation and severe shortages; and the internet—which has made it easy to organise and rise up:

“The internet has been both a threat to and a weapon of the government. The Cuban authorities, who normally put down protests swiftly, were overwhelmed on Sunday. Demonstrations spread rapidly across the island after activists used social media accounts to broadcast live videos of crowds gathered in the streets, inspiring people to turn out in greater numbers.” 

The size of the protests have shocked veteran Cuba watchers—especially demands for the end of the dictatorship. The government shut down the internet for 30 minutes on the entire island, and connectivity remains poor. And therefore it is getting harder to verify information coming from Cuba. But videos show that the police are now violently cracking down. BBC News lists three reasons why Cubans are angry. Al Jazeera has pictures. See a protest clip below:

An ugly racism row in the UK

Everyone knew it was coming. England lost the Euros thanks to three missed kicks in the penalty shootout. All three players who missed were Black: Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka. Within minutes, social media was awash with racist attacks and slurs. That’s hardly surprising given that this was the state of affairs in Leicester Square before the match started:

Of course, almost everyone spoke up against the ugliness—including Prince William who said: “It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour. It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable.” Companies also suspended racist employees caught ranting on Twitter. PM Boris Johnson too tried to chime in, as did Home Secretary Priti Patel—except neither of them supported players taking the knee in protest against racism. And they did not condemn racist fans who booed them for doing it.

Not just racist fans: Read The Conversation on the link to domestic violence in this piece aptly titled ‘If England gets beaten, so will she.’ Also this is from a study linking early kickoff times with higher incidents of violence: 

“Their study found a 5% fall in domestic abuse incidents during the two-hour duration of a game. After the game, however, abuse started increasing. It peaked about 10 hours after a game started, with about 8.5% more incidents than average at that point. There is no increase in domestic abuse when games kick-off after 7pm.”

Flipkart is rolling in it!

The Walmart-owned ecommerce platform raised a whopping $3.6 billion in its latest round. The company’s current valuation: $37.6 billion. The main investors were Walmart and notably the SoftBank Group—which had previously backed Flipkart and then sold its stake to Walmart at a huge profit. All this is preparation for the company’s IPO in the US in 2022. (Bloomberg News)

Jovenel Moïse’s assassination: a quick update

The Haitian president was killed by a squad of assassins on July 7—mostly Colombians plus two Haitian Americans. Now, authorities claim that they have arrested one of the “masterminds”: a Haitian man named Christian Emmanuel Sanon. Apparently, he flew to Haiti on a private jet in early June accompanied by hired security guards and wanted to take over as president. Except no one knows who the hell he is—or whether he is the same person as a doctor in Florida by that same name. Yes, this story gets weirder and weirder. For more background: we explained this murder mystery here. (NBC News)

An anti-cow slaughter bill in Assam

The BJP-led government has tabled a bill that will greatly restrict the sale of beef and appears to ban the slaughter of cows. Why this matters: Beef is widely consumed in the northeastern states—which have large Christian and Muslim populations—and Assam will be the first to ban it. The bill also includes a strange geographical proviso: It bars the sale and purchase of beef in areas “predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non beef-eating communities”, or “within a radius of 5 km” of any temple or sattra (Vaishnavite monasteries). The Opposition has vowed to push for amendments. (The Telegraph)

Speaking of the weather... 

The monsoons have finally arrived in Delhi. Related read: NDTV looked at why Indian meteorologists totally screwed up their predictions for its timing this year. Getting way too much rain: Himachal Pradesh which is experiencing a cloudburst and flash floods. Hindustan Times has the latest update. Watch how bad it is below:

Two political exits

One: Nepal’s Supreme Court has removed current prime minister KP Sharma Oli-and ordered that he be replaced by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba within two days. Hindustan Times has more on the new development. The Wire offers more context on what’s going on in Nepal.

Two: Having already announced his decision not to contest elections, actor Rajinikanth has now dissolved his political party—and said in no uncertain terms: “I don’t have any plans to enter politics in the future.” (Indian Express)

China’s worrying anti-satellite push

In a confidential webinar—accessed by Bloomberg News—a top intelligence official in the Pentagon warned that China is creating weapons with abilities that range from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space—all that, they’re on the march.” Also this:

“Beijing continues to train its military space elements and ‘field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons,’ the [National Intelligence] office said in its annual Threat Assessment report. It has ‘already fielded ground-based ASAT missiles intended to destroy satellites in low-earth orbit and ground-based ASAT lasers probably intended to blind or damage sensitive space-based optical sensors’ on low-earth orbit satellites, according to the report.”

All of which puts an alarming spin on China’s new obsession with conquering space—for anyone who gets on the wrong side of Beijing, including us. (Bloomberg News)

Two unhappy animal-related stories

One: Manatees are dying in record numbers in Florida—841 in just the first six months of 2021. And that’s higher than the previous record, when 830 died in 2013 due to harmful algae. Why this is happening: 

“This year biologists say seagrass beds manatees rely on for food are dying out because of rising water pollution. They say the main issue is the increasing waste contamination of Florida's waterways, which triggers the accumulation of algae and the loss of seagrass.”

Two: So you don’t want that goldfish any more. Why not just dump it in a stream or river—instead of killing it? Right? Wrong. When set free into the wild, the cute little fish become massive in size: “Goldfish can live to be 25 years old, weigh as much as four pounds and measure well over a foot long.“ And they behave like an invasive species—destroying the ecological balance of these water bodies, and posing a danger to native fish. And this has become a big problem in the United States, Canada and Australia. In one US county, they removed an estimated 30-50,000 goldfish in a single day! See one of these monster specimens below. (Washington Post)

Three new & cool things

Flexible ice: Chinese scientists have developed something called ‘elastic ice’—flexible microfibers of ice that don’t crack but bend like a wire. Why this matters: These ice microfibers can be used like fiber optic cables to transmit light. Futurism has all the nerdy details on how they did it. Watch the bendy ice below:

Fake chicken: Beyond Meat has launched the latest in its line of fake meat products: breaded chicken tenders made of fava beans and pea protein. And they taste exactly like the real thing:  

“Not only do these tenders taste delicious, but the texture almost perfectly mimics chicken’s fibrous muscle, the obstacle that has held back doppelganger-level vegan chicken for years.”

In other words, it’s chewy! Also, they have 14 grams of protein—and 40% less saturated fat than the animal kind. (Quartz)

A crypto-vending toilet: A South Korean university now has an eco-friendly toilet that not only converts human waste into energy to power its buildings—it also doles out a virtual currency called Ggool to its users: “Students can use the currency to buy goods on campus, from freshly brewed coffee to instant cup noodles, fruits and books.” Our fave user review: "I had only ever thought that faeces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me...I even talk about faeces during mealtimes to think about buying any book I want." (Reuters)

In our gratitude jar...

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