The Russian invasion: The latest update

• Russia announced that 1,026 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in Mariupol.  And its troops have advanced to the centre of the city. Reminder: this is the biggest target in the eastern Donbas region—which is the focus of the new push. It may soon be the first major city to fall. Ukrainian troops had earlier announced that they’ve totally run out of ammunition.
• President Biden used the G-word for the very first time—as in, genocide: “I called it genocide because it's become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian.” US media are calling it a “dramatic rhetorical escalation.” 
• The US has also committed another $800 million in aid—including a new weapons package of heavier, more sophisticated arms: 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had initially been earmarked for Afghanistan, 18 155 mm Howitzer cannons and 300 more Switchblade drones.

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.

Speaking of Russia: Cornell researchers have uncovered a new disinformation strategy used by Moscow to influence liberal voters during the 2016 US presidential election. The technique: “flooding” social media with entertainment content to skew their timeline:

“If someone posts a ton of entertainment content, and your feed only shows 10 posts at a time, then having eight posts that are now unrelated to politics pushes everything else down in the feed.”

Also, entertainment content can act like bait:

“You might think you’re clicking on a cat meme, but really you’re potentially putting a troll network into your feed that could later start posting divisive content, or monetize their following.”

India’s aid strategy in Sri Lanka

A Reuters exclusive reveals that New Delhi is willing to dole out $2 billion to Colombo—but in credit lines and currency swaps and not outright assistance. It views the economic crisis as an opportunity to reduce Sri Lanka’s dependence on China. Meanwhile, hundreds of citizens have transformed the area outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office into a protest camp—and plan to stay there until he resigns. See the carnival-like atmosphere at Galle Face below:

Elon Musk is being sued

A Twitter shareholder has filed a lawsuit against Musk for failing to disclose his 9.2% stake in the company in time. According to US regulations, a person has to notify the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when their stake in a publicly traded company exceeds 5%. Musk bought his Twitter shares on March 14, but did not reveal it until April 4. Why this matters: By not disclosing his purchase when it touched 5%—which would have sent the price soaring—he was able to continue buying shares at a lower price. Point to note: The stock price jumped 27% soon after Musk made his announcement. (ABC News)

IVF could save the koalas

New research recommends ‘biobanking’ as a solution to save this endangered species. It’s a fancy term for basically freezing koala sperm—just as we do human eggs today: 

“The frozen sperm can then be used to impregnate female koalas in breed-for-release programs, using assisted reproductive technology. We can cryopreserve koala sperm, just like we do for humans.”

The big benefit: it will be five to 12 times cheaper than current captive koala breeding programs—and will not compromise their genetic diversity. Point to remember: An estimated 64,000 koalas were killed in devastating wildfires in 2019-20. (The Guardian)

Speaking of wildlife: A US group has found that Facebook is a “thriving marketplace” for critically endangered species. It discovered 129 posts selling animals like baby tigers, African grey parrots, leopards, ocelots, and the world’s smallest monkey—the pygmy marmoset. While this content is a violation of Facebook’s strict policies, researchers found that its algorithm suggested more such posts to them. (Reuters)

In odder animal-related news: Google is suing a Cameroonian man for engaging in a vast “puppy fraud” conspiracy. He lured elderly people into forking over lots of money to buy non-existent basset hound pups. And he used “dozens of fraudulent Google accounts” to set up “Gmail and Google Voice... to communicate false promises to victims, register the fraudulent websites with US internet hosting companies, and request and receive payments.” Wonder why they never went after all those Nigerian princes… (Gizmodo)

A price tag to make Gatsby proud

A rare first edition of F Scott Fitzerald’s tour-de-force ‘The Great Gatsby’ will soon be coming up for sale—for a whopping £275,000 (about $360,000). Printed in 1925, there were only 20,870 copies. Before you get too impressed, may we remind you that a bunch of crypto bros recently spent $3 million for ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’—a little known guide to an ill-fated attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s novel. The reason: “These spiceheads had big plans to convert the book into NFTs, burn the physical copy, and adapt the story into an animated series”—because they thought it bought them the copyright 🤣.  Just saying. (Bloomberg News)

Three things to see

One: Recently released satellite images show the alarming shrinking of tree coverage in just one part of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Offering a stark contrast between March 2021 and early April 2022, it confirms all the dismal data released so far. The rate of deforestation jumped 64% just in the first quarter of the year—when 941 square kilometres were cleared. (Gizmodo)

Two: A ‘temple’ has popped up in the middle of the University of Hyderabad campus during Ram Navami celebrations: 

“[A] formation of rocks under a tree… had been painted saffron and the swastika and ‘Om’ inscribed in saffron on them, while pictures of Lord Ram had been kept in the cavity of the structure. Saffron flags had been affixed to the top of the structure.”

While student groups are calling this ‘saffronisation’, the university claims the “structure” has always been there—but was spruced up by some zealous students. FYI: college rules bar any permanent religious structures on campus. (The Telegraph)

Three: Tourism startup Space Perspective unveiled the design of its Space Lounge cabin—which will one day ascend up into the sky… and hang from a massive balloon! The ‘space’ bit is a bit misleading since it only goes 20 miles up in the air. The CEO’s defence: “We are above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere.” Hey, we’re guessing the view will be spectacular—as will the price tag. FYI, they’ve already sold 600 tickets at $125,000 each. (Futurism)