Researched & collated by: Sara Varghese, Elisha Benny & Sheya Kurian
The Russian invasion: The latest update
- Moscow aimed missiles at the key port city of Odesa—while UN officials say they have been blocked from delivering humanitarian aid to cities under siege like Mariupol. The worries about mass starvations are rising.
- In a big shift in its stance, Germany—which is Russia’s biggest energy customer—announced it will support an immediate ban on Russian oil.
- In Germany, PM Modi declared: “there will be no winning party in this war, everyone will suffer.” What was glaring was this one line in the joint statement: “Germany reiterated its strong condemnation of the unlawful and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine by Russian Forces.”
Something related to see: If you want to get a sense of how nuts Russian TV is these days, here’s a clip of news anchor Dmitry Kiselyov illustrating how Moscow can use nuclear missiles to “plunge Britain to the depths of the ocean.”
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.
Power consumption is soaring
Electricity demand in India touched a record high in April—jumping by 13.2% thanks to the unrelenting heat waves across most of the country (our Big Story here). Demand in Delhi rose 42%, while Punjab and Rajasthan spiked by 36% and 28%, respectively. The main reason is a surge in the use of air conditioning which raised demand to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). Why this is worrying: The temperatures show no signs of cooling, and there is a significant shortage in coal supply. All of which means the already unbearable power cuts could become worse. The government is already cancelling passenger trains to free up tracks to transport coal. (Reuters)
Also looking bad: Our unemployment numbers. The overall rate jumped from 7.60% in March to 7.83% in April. Haryana’s rate was the worst at 34.5%, followed by 28.8% in Rajasthan. The jump is mainly due to the urban unemployment rate which jumped to 9.22% from 8.28%. The main culprit: a sluggish economic recovery hit by high inflation. (Money Control)
Bored Ape metaverse sale goes ape-shit
In case you haven’t heard of them, Bored Ape Yacht Club is a company that sells NFT collectibles—which fetch crazy money. The web3 company behind it—Yuga Labs—opened sales for plots of land in its metaverse project called Otherside. The demand for these NFTs called Otherdeeds was so high that the stampede disrupted the entire Ethereum blockchain.
Since these NFTs are sold on the blockchain, Ethereum charges ‘gas fees’—required to verify each transaction. And they went through the roof for everyone. The result: one Ethereum user spent $3,300 to buy a $25 NFT. Also, by the time the Otherdeeds sold out, buyers paid a total of about $123 million just to execute their transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The Verge has more on the Bored Ape angle, while Mashable breaks down what happened with gas fees on Ethereum. Watch a promo for Otherside below:
Also a mess: Elon Musk’s Twitter follower count. The online auditing tool SparkToro found that 53.3% of his nearly 90 million followers are spam accounts, bots or no longer active. Musk recently tweeted: “If our Twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying.” Maybe we now know why. (Independent)
In happier tech news: Google will now let you limit ads about pregnancy, parenting, dating and weight loss—which may pop up due to your search history and other online activity. It already allows you to block ads about gambling and alcohol. FYI: “These controls probably don’t limit what data Google collects from users—only what ads will show up.” (Washington Post)
A new worry about microplastics
A new study has linked microplastics in the ocean to the spread of disease-causing parasites. Microplastics are extremely tiny particles formed when plastic degrades in water. When carried out to sea via faecal waste, they can travel long distances—and carry germs with them. Essentially, microplastics become sticky in water—turning into ‘biofilms’ that offer easy transport:
“We found that significant numbers of parasites were clinging to the microplastic, and these numbers were increasing over time. So many parasites were binding to the sticky biofilms that, gram for gram, plastic had two to three times more parasites than did seawater.”
The heavier microplastics sink to the ocean floor where they can be consumed by clams, mussels, oysters and other shellfish. (Fast Company)
A big SpiceJet scare
A flight from Mumbai to Durgapur, Bengal, experienced severe turbulence when it flew into a storm while landing. Twelve passengers were seriously injured, but are in stable condition. Aviation authorities are now investigating the entire SpiceJet fleet. See the chaotic scene below. (Indian Express)
In happier aviation news: Qantas announced its Project Sunrise flights—which fly direct from Australia to London and New York. These will be the world’s longest non-stop flights that will take around 19 hours. The planes include “Wellbeing Zones” that offer healthy snacks and drinks as well as a place to get up and stretch. The fanciest bit: plush first class cabins with separate beds, reclining lounge chairs and even closets. See one below. (CNN)
Netflix cancels Meghan Markle series
The company announced that it would be cutting costs after announcing abysmal growth numbers (explained here and here). One of the first casualties is ‘Pearl’—an animated series created and produced by Archewell Productions, the company formed by Harry and Meghan. But Netflix is holding on to ‘Heart of Invictus’, a series that focuses on the Invictus Games for injured veterans—a sporting event founded by Harry.
(BBC News)
Three things to see
One: Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi made an emotional speech at a pre-release event for his movie ‘Acharya’—calling out the disdain with which South Indian cinema has been treated in North India. And he recalls the time when he felt humiliated when he went to Delhi to collect a National Award. It’s totally worth a watch. (NDTV)
Two: At an event in Haryana, a number of people—including a local MLA—gathered to take an oath to make India a Hindu nation. It was administered by none other than Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News—who FYI is facing trial in a separate hate speech case. (Scroll)
Three: Christie’s is selling a dinosaur skeleton—a Deinonychus antirrhopus, to be precise—which inspired the scary ‘Jurassic Park’ velociraptors. The estimated price: between $4-6 million. (New York Times)
Good stuff to check out!
On the latest episode of the splainer podcast ‘Press Decode’, the splainer team looks at the demolition derby that is underway across the country—plus why Bollywood is nervous about the rise of South Indian movies. Be sure to head over to the IVM website, Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to it.
