The hijab ban in Karnataka: Latest update

First, a government college banned female students wearing the veil from entering campus. Yesterday, they made the students sit in a separate classroom—but without permission to attend any class. Meanwhile, Hindu students took out rallies in support of the hijab ban while wearing saffron scarves—which spread to several other colleges in the state. Dalit students also held protests wearing blue scarves in solidarity with their Muslim peers (see below). And Muslim women staged a rally in Udupi as well (see here). Chief Minister Bommai has told students to stick to the rules until the High Court resolves the issue in a hearing today. (The Telegraph)

In other worrying developments: The government appointed Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as the Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University—making her JNU’s first female VC. That would be cause for celebration except her Twitter history reveals tweets describing the farmer agitators as “liars and losers”, anti-citizenship-act protesters as “jihadis”, and Trinamool as a party of “terrorists”—and in one instance, she refers to Christians as a “rice bag converts.” As the old tweets went viral, she suddenly deleted her account. Mint has more on her professional career. The Telegraph has more in the controversy. And you can see the now-deleted tweets on this thread.

A Covid hell at the Beijing Olympics

Athletes who are forced to isolate after testing positive say the conditions in quarantine are “nightmarish.” There is poor to no internet connection, bad food, and—most seriously —no training equipment. A number have posted tearful stories on social media. Athletes are stuck in isolation facilities until they test negative with two consecutive PCR tests. But in the case of Polish short track speed skater, Natalia Maliszewska, she was taken to another isolation facility despite a negative test. Olympics officials say they are working to fix these issues. Also read: A journalist’s account of being isolated which was a “terrifying experience.” (NPR)

In better Covid-related news: The third wave in India shows every sign of receding. We recorded 83,876 new cases on Monday—the first time the number has dropped below 100,000 in a month. (The Telegraph)

Indian media’s Twitter report card

University of Michigan researchers studied the Twitter activity of 50 Indian journalists and pundits and found the following:

• Hindi tweets get way more engagement than their English-language counterparts—and Hindi journalists show fastest growth of following and engagement. 
• Tweets that are pro-government or have an aggressive tone are far more likely to go viral. 
• This is a big change from two years ago when English-language journalists tended to be the most highly retweeted—and viral tweets were equally represented on both sides of the political spectrum. 
• More interestingly, the follower counts of all the big mainstream English-language anchors—Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal, Vir Sanghvi, and Vikram Chandra—have stagnated over the past year. 
• No, there is no evidence this is due to Twitter meddling with influencers who criticise the government—as Dutt has suggested. In fact, there is no discernible pattern in who lost or gained followers.
• You can read all the details here.

A big breakthrough in spinal injury

For the first time, a person whose spinal cord had been completely severed has been able to walk again. An electrical implant attached to the spine stimulates muscles into taking steps—which the person can control using a special walking frame. This is still not available for wide use but is a big first step. Read the details over at ABC News or watch how it works below.

Steal crypto, build nukes!

According to a UN report, that’s the secret strategy deployed by North Korea to fund its missiles. Pyongyang’s hackers launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly $400 million worth of digital assets last year. And in 2019, the crypto-heists generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programs. Now you know where all that stolen crypto is going—most definitely not toward a good cause. (Reuters)

Companies are fudging their eco-footprint

A study of the world’s biggest companies shows that they are failing to meet their own climate pledges—and routinely exaggerate or misreport their progress. It also gave each of the 25 corporations an ‘integrity’ rating. Bottom of the pile: Unilever, Nestle and BMW Group. Doing barely any better: Amazon, Google and Volkswagen. None of the companies were rated as having high integrity, but Maesrk came out on top with reasonable integrity, the report said, followed by Apple, Sony and Vodafone with moderate integrity. (CNBC)

In other corporate news: Both Nike and Amazon are eyeing Peloton—the maker of fancy, overpriced fitness machines. This is good news since the end of the pandemic has slaughtered Peloton sales—and the company has lost over 80% of its market value in the past year. 

While Nike makes sense, why does Jeff Bezos need a fitness company? For starters, a Peloton subscription could be bundled in with the Amazon Prime membership—whose price the company just hiked in the US. Also, user data from Peloton riders—who track their heart rate and energy consumption—can help it sell other health tech products. Financial Times has the Nike story, while Wall Street Journal has more on Amazon. FYI: both are behind a paywall, or you can check out the details over at BBC News.

Look out, mehengaayi ahead!

Prices of biscuits, beauty products and home appliances are among the consumer goods that will become more expensive soon. Experts expect a 5% hike due to continuing inflation on the wholesale side—spiking prices of everything from plastics to palm oil, steel and copper. Companies had been resisting passing on the costs to the customer until now. We explained the state of inflation here. (Mint)

Dog poo is destroying wildlife

Dog owners love to take their pooches on nature walks—but their urine and faeces is resulting in overfertilisation of the ground. According to a new study, dogs fed at home leave an annual average of 11kg of nitrogen a hectare and 5 kg of phosphorus. That is similar to air pollution caused by farming, industry and traffic fumes. And those high levels can persist for three years even after banning dogs from preserves. Why this matters: nitrogen pollution is “one of the greatest threats to our wild plants, lichens and fungi, yet little is being done to tackle it.” (The Guardian)

Fight over ‘Fight Club’ in China

An online streaming platform edited the ending of the film to make it more palatable to Beijing’s love for law and order. The David Fincher film didn’t disintegrate into anarchic chaos but with a black screen that announced: 

“The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding. After the trial Tyler was sent to a lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

This butchery was unconscionable even for loyal Chinese citizens—who were outraged. Human Rights Watch jumped in to describe the cuts as “dystopian.” So now the original ending (here) has been restored… and all is well in the world of toxic masculinity lol! (Hollywood Reporter)

Three things to see

One: The first installment of a three-part docuseries on Kanye West—titled ‘Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’—was recently screened at the Sundance Festival—and features more than 21 years of behind-the-scenes footage. Check out the trailer below. (Mashable)

Two: Sotheby’s is auctioning a collection of 102 iconic movie posters—ranging from $400 to up to $40,000-plus. The most expensive item under the hammer: the 1962 original poster of the first James Bond movie ‘Dr No’. See it below—and check out the other posters here. PS: We have a soft spot for this amazing Japanese poster for ‘Barbarella’. (Quartz)

Three: Famous British artist Damien Hirst has been charged with plagiarism—for the 16th time! The artwork at issue: the cherry blossom paintings unveiled in his latest exhibition in Paris. Joe Machine says they look like just his paintings—while Hirst claims they were inspired by “a memory of his mother painting a cherry tree in blossom when he was three or four.” Here’s what’s interesting: Some experts think Machine may be right: “Where plagiarism is concerned, Hirst has a very long rap sheet. He’s even admitted to it, so it’s hard to give him the benefit of the doubt on any new occasion.” You can see them side by side below (Hirst on the left)—and TBH, they both look just like cherry blossoms to us. (The Guardian)