Researched & collated by: Vagda Galhotra

The Ukraine invasion: The latest update

• There is a big row within the EU over paying for Russian gas in roubles. Moscow has already cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for not doing so. And Warsaw is furious at fellow EU members—Austria, Germany and Hungary—who have adopted Moscow’s new mode of payment—which may possibly violate the sanctions—and continue to receive gas. 
• Russia may be focusing on the eastern front, but it continues to pound cities across Ukraine—including the capital Kyiv. The latest bombardment came barely an hour after President Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
• US intelligence claims that Russian troops are executing Ukrainians who are trying to surrender.
• The Guardian has a heart-wrenching story on the rush to get emergency contraceptives into Ukrainian hospitals—as reports of rapes continue to rise.

Editor’s note: If you need more context, we highly recommend reading our Big Story on the historical roots of the conflict, effectiveness of economic sanctions, return of the Cold War, what is driving Vladimir Putin, India’s “balancing act” and the looming oil crisis.

Raids on top Amazon sellers 

The anti-trust watchdog Competition Commission (CCI) launched raids against the two top sellers on the e-commerce platform—Cloudtail and Appario. Why this is notable: 

"This is a significant development as generally CCI doesn't do searches in non-cartel cases. Doing dawn raids to unearth complex economic activities is a new domain for the regulator."

Amazon is under the antitrust gun for giving preferential treatment to certain sellers like Cloudtail—but it isn’t clear what the raids aim to achieve. (Reuters)

In other big tech news: Investors are increasingly worried that Elon Musk may simply walk away from the Twitter deal—if he can’t come up with the money to pay for it. And the $1 billion penalty for backing out is too small to prevent a change of heart. (Reuters)

Google issues important Chrome warning 

The company says its browser has been hacked—revealing 30 new security flaws, of which seven are very serious. The hack affects users across Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile. The solution: force your Chrome to manually check for the update: Click the three dots in the top right corner of Chrome; click Settings > Help > About Google Chrome; wait for Chrome to find and install the update. Then restart your browser. (Forbes)

In happier Google-related news: If your home address, phone numbers, email accounts or log-in credentials show up in the search results, you can request the company to remove them. Want to file a request? Head to Google’s support page and fill in the URL that carries your information. (PCMag)

Yes, Zoom kills your creativity

A study looked at 1,490 engineers in five countries—Portugal, Israel, Finland, Hungary and India. They were randomly paired up and asked to come up with creative ways to use a frisbee or bubble wrap—either in person or over video conferencing. They found people in the same room were more likely to come up with one more idea than those brainstorming over a con-call. And those ideas were more creative. The reason: Those interacting on the screen “were too focused on specifically the task at hand and that made them narrower in their thinking.” And it has something to do with the fact we spend a lot of time looking at each other on a video call. More interestingly: it's better to do a Zoom call with the camera off. (Associated Press)

‘Interview’ row: St Stephen's vs Delhi University

Starting this year, admissions to Delhi University will be based entirely on a student’s performance in the newly introduced Common University Entrance Test (CUET). St Stephen’s college, however, wants to give 15% weightage for a candidate’s performance in the interview—while the test will account for the other 85%. DU authorities insist that it can only do so for its minority applicants—since Stephen’s is a minority institution that reserves half its seats for Christian students. But the principal is adamant on the importance of the interview—saying it is key to ensuring merit which is not measured solely by exams. DU is now seeking legal guidance on how to settle the issue. Indian Express has an explainer on the tussle, while former St Stephen’s principal Revd Valson Thampu makes a case for canning the interview.

Two key animal studies

One: A new study has found that one in five reptiles in the world face the risk of extinction. The biggest threat is the destruction of habitats—and therefore those at most risk are reptiles that live in forests. Six of seven species of sea turtles are threatened—and even the king cobra is vulnerable. This bit sums up the extent of the looming tragedy:

“The Galapagos marine iguana, the world’s only lizard adapted to marine life, is classified as ‘vulnerable’ to extinction, said co-author Blair Hedges, a biologist at Temple University. It took 5 million years for the lizard to adapt to foraging in the sea, he said, lamenting ‘how much evolutionary history can be lost if this single species’ goes extinct.”

Two: Dog lovers have been arguing that the problem of ‘bad’ dogs lies not with a ‘dangerous’ breed but the owner. New genetic research shows that they may be right. What it found: “breed only explains 9% of the behavioral variation in individual dogs, while age or dog sex were the best predictors of behavior instead.” (USA Today via MSN)

One thing to see

If you think those clips of the Yamuna are bad, check out the Balsillas river in Colombia—where the toxic foam is literally flying in the air. (USA Today)