Tornadoes devastate the United States

At least 50 tornadoes have been reported in six states, including Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi. And more than 80 are feared dead. That number is projected to grow to 100. The damage includes the collapse of an occupied candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas. New York Times and CNN have the most details. See the devastation below.

Modi’s Twitter handle hacked

The Prime Minister’s account was “briefly compromised” in the early hours of Sunday—and sent out a tweet that said: “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and distributing them to all residents of the country.” The result: the price of bitcoin surged from Rs 3.72 million (37.24 lakh) to Rs 3.73 million (37.35 lakh). The account has since been secured—and experts say the hackers were likely trying to manipulate crypto currency prices. This is the second time the PM’s handle has been hacked to promote crypto. 

The government is demanding answers from Twitter, which insists it is not to blame: 

“The company, however, stressed that @narendramodi ‘was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter’s systems’. Twitter’s preliminary probe thus indicates poor gate-keeping by those who run @narendramodi, the Twitter handle of Modi’s personal website, narendramodi.in”

Also having serious problems on Twitter: Sixteen-year-old Aashna Lidder—who is the daughter of Brigadier Lakhbinder Singh Lidder, one of the victims of the recent military helicopter crash. She was hounded by rightwing trolls who uncovered her old tweets, such as:

“Woke up to watching Yogi Adityanath undermine the opposition. I get it. This is politics. But it is absolutely cheap and not okay to say things like ‘she’s only capable of sweeping floor’. I mean, wow, toothless tiger doesn’t stop roaring, truly. Yogi, clear the turmoil in UP first.”

She has now deleted her account. (The Print)

Miss India wins Miss Universe

Harnaaz Sandhu will be bringing home the crown—21 years after Lara Dutta won the title in 2000. Her advice to young people: “stop comparing yourself with others”—which kinda is the point of a beauty pageant lol! In any case, she looks very lovely. Watch the clip below. (Times of India)

A remarkable F1 victory

Max Verstappen won his first title in a memorable—and controversial—finale of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton had a 11-second lead when this happened in the very last lap:

“Hamilton had all but won his record-breaking eighth world title until Williams Racing driver Nicholas Latifi crashed into the barriers with four laps remaining, resulting in the safety car being called out. It meant the race restarted on the final lap, with Verstappen allowed to start almost side-by-side Hamilton, despite the Brit having established a healthy lead.”

Mercedes lodged a protest—which was rejected. CNN and New York Times have all the details. You can watch the winning moment below: 

A big software flaw worries tech giants

Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and Cisco are scrambling to fix a serious bug in an obscure bit of server software called Log4j—which could leave them vulnerable to a flurry of cyber-attacks. The US Department of Homeland Security warned: “To be clear, this vulnerability poses a severe risk. We will only minimize potential impacts through collaborative efforts between government and the private sector." 

What’s worrying: Log4j is open-source free software that has been downloaded millions of times—and it isn’t clear how many servers are now vulnerable. Also this: “Because all sorts of data is logged by servers—everything from email addresses to web navigation requests—these attempts could give attackers a foothold on a vulnerable server deep in corporate networks.” (Wall Street Journal via Mint)

Google refuses to pull suicide site

A New York Times deep dive recently exposed a website that instructs people on how to die by suicide—and has even live-blogged several such deaths:

“Equal parts message board and macabre instructional manual, this site considers itself ‘pro-choice’—that is, pro-people having the choice to die by suicide, and access to information about how to do it, alongside a community that will help them do so without judging them or trying to help keep them alive.”

When contacted, Google said it has no intention of pulling down the site—citing “our commitment to give people open access to information” and “local law when it comes to the important and complex questions of what information people should be able to find online.” (Futurism)

In related news: The Lancet has published a comprehensive policy paper offering concrete solutions to reduce the suicide rate in India—which reports the highest number of suicide deaths in the world. The Hindu has a report. Read the study over at The Lancet.

Taylor Swift sued over copyright 

She is headed to trial in a lawsuit that alleges she lifted lyrics for her song ‘Shake It Off’ from a 2000 3LW song titled ‘Playas Gon' Play’. The case was first dismissed by a judge who declared the lyrics "too banal" to be copyrighted. But the songwriters won their appeal—and Swift is headed to court. You can listen to the 3LW song here. (Buzzfeed News)

Speaking on musicians: A new book titled ‘Led Zeppelin: The Biography’ contains horrific allegations of underage sexual abuse—many involving lead guitarist Jimmy Page. Daily Mail has more details.

Lego is more lucrative than gold

A new study revealed that the market for secondhand Lego rises in value by 11% each year—and therefore offers a faster and better rate of return than gold, stocks, bonds, stamps and wine. The moral of this story: 

“[T]here could be lucrative gains to be made from investing in ‘more unusual goods whose purchase might seem less serious,’ such as Lego sets, Barbie dolls, superhero mini figures, or model cars and trains.”

The Guardian has more on the study.

A bizarre otter attack in Singapore

A British expat was mauled by a pack of smooth-coated otters in a park—which left him with 26 wounds—some in need of stitches—and a medical bill of $1200. They mistook the 60-year-old for a jogger who stepped on one of them. He later said: “I actually thought I was going to die—they were going to kill me.” (The Straits Times)

‘Body-checking’ soars on TikTok 

‘Body-checking’ is defined as "observing and taking mental note of what your body shape, weight, appearance or size looks like." This is normal, but can turn into compulsive behaviour if a person has body image issues—and it has become huge on TikTok. The hashtag #BodyChecking has 5.5 million views. Especially popular: “assessing the size of your wrist by seeing how many fingers fit around it.” Think of it as the latest iteration of the ‘thigh gap’ obsession on Instagram—where people would stand with their feet together to see if their thighs were skinny enough to have a space between them. (USA Today)

Maradona’s watch seized in… Assam!

During a raid over the weekend, the state police recovered a limited-edition Hublot watch that belonged to the late football legend Diego Maradona. What was it doing in Assam: “According to the information received from the Dubai police, Hussain used to work at the place Maradona used to stay in Dubai and had stolen a box containing many of the soccer great’s belongings...The watch was among the footballer’s belongings Hussain had taken away before returning to India in August 2020.” (The Hindu)

Two odd church-related stories

One: A Roman Catholic diocese in Sicily had to apologise after one of its bishops told children that Santa doesn’t exist—and his red costume had been chosen by Coca-Cola for publicity. (BBC News)

Two: Another bishop in Spain has been stripped of his clerical powers. The reason: He got married to an author who writes satanic erotica—i.e books with titles like ‘The Hell of Gabriel's Lust’. FYI: The bishop himself has long been controversial for advocating gay conversion therapy and conducting exorcisms. (CNN)

Four things to see

One: Scientists have created a tube-like sleeping bag that basically “sucks on [the] lower bodies of astronauts like human-sized popsicles.” What this contraption does: “counter one of the most serious medical problems astronauts face when they spend prolonged periods in microgravity: a buildup of fluid in the head that can exert pressure on the eyeball.” Without intervention, it can lead to astronauts becoming far-sighted, becoming unable to read or perform experiments. Futurism has more on how it works.

Two: An Israeli firm has unveiled the world’s largest lab-grown steak which weighs 110 grams. The steak is composed of real muscle and fat cells, derived from tissue samples taken from a cow—and took a year to create. TBH, it doesn’t look like much—but apparently this “marks an exciting step forward in terms of the complexity and sheer size of a cultivated steak.” (The Guardian)

Three: Huanlili and Yuandudu—female twin giant panda cubs took their first steps in public on Saturday at the Beauval Zoo, Paris. Aww. (Associated Press)

Four: Twitter heckled union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for displaying highly unsportsmanlike behaviour while going on a run (?!) with party workers at the cricket stadium in Gwalior. (Hindustan Times)