headlines that matter

Researched by: Rachel John, Nirmal Bhansali & Aarthi Ramnath

France burns in anti-police riots

The context: Police violence against minorities—especially Algerians, Arabs and Africans—has long been a problem in France. Last year, 13 people were killed in traffic stops—an unprecedented number. Most of the victims were black or Arab. French policing has also been called out for its brutality by many human rights organisations:

Long a taboo subject, French policing – seen by many critics as instinctively repressive and favouring disproportionate force – has become a major political issue, particularly since the gilets jaunes protests of 2018 and 2019 in which an estimated 2,500 protesters were injured, several of whom lost eyes or limbs.

What happened now: On June 27, Nahel Merzouk—a 17-year-old kid of Algerian descent—was shot by police—when he tried to drive away after being stopped for traffic violations. The video of the incident went viral:

The incident immediately sparked angry protests—which soon turned into riots as protesters clashed with the police. The violence soon spread across the country—and did not show any signs of cooling down until Sunday—when Nahel was buried. You can see a clip of the violence below: 

Also very French: this person eating their sandwich amid the chaos:

The fallout: It isn’t clear if this is the end of the violence. There were fewer incidents over the weekend—but some marked a new escalation. A mob attacked a city mayor’s car—and set it on fire. The government has promised to identify the attackers—and try them for attempted murder. And President Macron has asked officials to “undertake a long-term project to understand, in depth, the causes of the situation”—but no one knows what that means. FYI: two unions representing half of the French police said that they were at war with “vermin” and “savage hordes.” 

The Guardian has an excellent piece on French police brutality. Associated Press looks at why social media is being blamed for the violence. This New York Times report has the latest.

The high price of working for Bill Gates

This doesn’t involve him personally but a security firm hired to screen job candidates for his private office. The female applicants were asked extremely offensive—and invasive questions about their sexual history: 

Some female job candidates were asked whether they ever had extramarital affairs, what kind of pornography they preferred or if they had nude photographs of themselves on their phones, according to the candidates and people familiar with the hiring process…. Female candidates sometimes were asked whether they had ever “danced for dollars,” some of the people said. One of the candidates was asked whether she had ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease, according to the candidate.

The security firm said its security screening involves “assessing a candidate’s truthfulness and vulnerability to blackmail”—and these were follow-up questions to information volunteered by applicants. The women insist they were not only interrogated—but also “informed that their job offers were conditional on passing the assessments.” The Gates spokesperson denied any knowledge—and vaguely claimed that all its contractors are expected to abide by the law. Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) has lots more details. 

The great Twitter shitshow: The latest update

The newest new rules: On Friday, the emperor of social media chaos slapped a limit on the daily number of tweets a user can read. Verified accounts will be limited to reading 10,000 posts per day while unverified accounts have access to 1,000. His justification: to deal with “extreme levels of data scraping” by “several hundred organisations” and “system manipulation.” Soon tens of thousands of users started seeing “rate limit exceeded” messages—because of a tech glitch—which made everyone very unhappy.  FYI: this came on the heels of a move to block visitors without a Twitter log in. (The Verge)

Twitter India loses out: The company had challenged the government’s orders to block and/or take down accounts—on the grounds that they violated India’s own IT Act. But the Karnataka High Court dismissed the petition. It instead imposed a fine of Rs 5 million (50 lakhs) on the company—for failing to act on these orders on time—describing it as a litigant “whose hands are soiled.” Also this:

According to the court, these handles had uploaded “objectionable, outrageous, treacherous and anti-national content”, with many of the tweets, pictures, audios and videos displayed on these handles having “abundant propensity to incite commission of cognizable offences relating to sovereignty & integrity of India, security of the State and public order.”

Hindustan Times offers more context, while The Print has more details on the judgement. 

Apple makes history

It is now the first company to be valued at $3 trillion—after its share price jumped by 2.3% on Friday. It added more than $983 billion to its market value this year. And Wall Street remains upbeat on its future growth potential:

Citi on Thursday began coverage of Apple with a buy rating, writing that its ability to continue expanding margins was underappreciated. It sees additional upside of about 30% for the stock, a target that would take Apple close to a $4 trillion valuation.

One reason for Apple’s popularity: “It is executing on a business strategy that works, its earnings plan is working, and its lock on the consumer is only getting stronger.” In other words, it’s not a tech startup lol!  (Bloomberg News)

Jair Bolsonaro is banned

The context: In the lead up to the elections last year, the Brazilian president whipped up a frenzy by claiming the electronic voting system could be rigged. But he still lost to his liberal rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. And in January, thousands of rioters invaded the Supreme Court, parliament and the presidential palace—demanding a military coup to reinstate former president Jair Bolsonaro. It was an eerie replay of the Capitol Hill violence in the United States. More details in this Big Story.

What happened now: The country’s Supreme Court found him guilty of abusing his power while in office. The bench voted 5-2 to bar him from running for office for eight years. He will next be able to run for president in 2030—when he is 75. He plans to appeal the ruling, but Bolsanaro is also accused of a raft of other crimes. Any of them could also keep him out of office. (New York Times)

An ugly Ashes controversy

On the final day of the second match, English batsman Jonny Bairstow was run out by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The circumstances were controversial:  

After ducking under Green’s bouncer, Bairstow wandered out of the crease without grounding his bat, presuming that the ball was dead and the over was completed. But before he even reached the middle of the pitch to meet Ben Stokes, he could hear Australians celebrating. Shocked, he turned around to see the bails broken.

You can see what happened here:

The dismissal was correct as per the rules—but there was the usual hand-wringing over the “spirit of the game.” 

The nasty bit: occurred when two Aussie players Usman Khawaja and David Warner were accosted on their way to the dressing room: “It is alleged players and staff from the Australian team were verbally abused, with some being physically contacted, as they made their way to lunch through the members area.” The MCC—which owns the Lord’s stadium—has profusely apologised. The Aussies had the last laugh—winning by 43 runs—leaving English captain Ben Stokes to piously complain: “Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no.” CNN and Indian Express have all the details. 

A octopus nursery to see

Scientists have discovered an octopus nursery—where females guard their valuable eggs—over 2,800 metres beneath the surface near Costa Rica. This is the third such nursery known to science. The added bonus: the discovery of a number of new species—which you can enjoy below. (Gizmodo)