Researched by: Nirmal Bhansali, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
Israel-Palestine War: The latest update
For more context on the Israel-Palestine war, check out our two-part series on the Hamas attack on Israel: part one lays out the Hamas offensive and failures of Israeli intelligence; part two explains the big picture—and Hamas’ motive driving what seems like a suicidal attack. Also read: our Big Story on the ground offensive by Israel, which will decide the fate of Gaza and the power balance in the Middle East. We look at the larger geopolitical picture in the region in this Big Story. We explained the Al-Shifa hospital in north Gaza that has turned into a battlefield in this Big Story.
Death toll: More than 13,300 people have been killed in Gaza—of them over 5,600 are children and 3,550 are women.
Another hospital in danger: At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on the Indonesian Hospital. According to the New York Times, the IDF claims it came under fire “from within the Indonesian Hospital”—but responded in a “targeted” manner. There is video evidence of tanks nearing the compound. What has been verified: This video taken by a journalist of the carnage inside the hospital. There are at least 500 patients and thousands of displaced residents inside. WHO says that critical care is now impossible at these hospitals.
Moving on to Al-Shifa: Israel has still not released definitive evidence of a Hamas headquarters hidden inside its premises. The IDF released two new videos—one seemed to show hostages being brought to the hospital. The other shows a tunnel—which has been confirmed by CNN—but no one knows what the tunnel connects to. BBC News sums it up:
The latest video is not yet the evidence that's been promised of the sort of vast and intricate operation depicted in a computer simulation which the IDF previously released showing what it believes any Hamas base underground at al-Shifa could look like.
FYI: Of the 32 surviving premature babies in Al-Shifa, only 28 made it to Egypt. The other five died before they could be evacuated. You can see the little ones getting treatment below:
A broadening war? Houthi rebels in Yemen—who are supported by Iran along with Hamas—have seized a cargo ship. Twenty five crew members have been taken hostage. The ship was bound for India from Turkey—and linked to an Israeli billionaire. Associated Press has more on this story.
Biden’s crashing popularity: Foreign policy rarely affects the standing of US presidents—unless US troops are involved. That makes President Biden’s latest poll numbers quite astonishing. His approval ratings have dropped to 40%--and he’s haemorrhaging the most support amongst Democrats: “[A] majority… believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza, and among voters ages 18 to 34, with a whopping 70% of them disapproving of Biden’s handling of the war.” Overall, 62% disapprove of his foreign policy. Veteran pollsters call the dramatic effect “stunning.” (NBC News)
Argentina gets its Donald Trump
The country has elected rightwing economist Javier Milei as president—in desperate hope that he might just rescue the nation from spiralling inflation and poverty. Milei defeated his centre-left rival Sergio Massa.
Milei is nicknamed ‘El Loco’—or ‘The Madman’—for excellent reasons. He wants to legalise organ trade, cut ties with Argentina’s biggest trade partners—Brazil and China—and shut down a dozen ministries. Here’s one of his “policy” announcements:
Most alarmingly, he has the signature bad hair shared by all out-of-control rightwing leaders. Even BoJo would be jealous of this coif—btw, that’s Milei celebrating his win:
The Guardian has more on Milei—including fascinating details such as his stint at a Rolling Stones cover band and love for tantric sex: “Each man has his own dynamic. In my particular case, I ejaculate every three months.” Reuters has more on his shock victory—while BBC News looks at what it means for Argentina.
World Cup 2023: The day after
As expected, Monday was marked by post-mortems, addendums and newly discovered nuggets. Here are the most notable among them:
The damned pitch: Since the semi-final against New Zealand, the Indian team management has been dogged by accusations that it has tried to tailor the pitch to its own needs. The strategy seemed to have worked against the Kiwis—but may have backfired on Sunday. Against Australia, Team India picked the same pitch that helped them best Pakistan—but it turned out to be a terrible decision. Rajdeep Sardesai succinctly sums up this self-goal:
A good related read: The Hindu spoke to sports psychologists who explained why this isn’t a case of ‘choking’.
Modi the Consoler: The PM dropped by the Indian team’s dressing room after the match to offer comfort. Mohammad Shami tweeted a picture of him being held by Modi. Indian Express has the story. See the pic below:
Jay Shah shenanigans: Everyone was amazed at the kind of security afforded the Secretary of the BCCI—who is not exactly a terrorist target:
Acting like losers: There were morning-after recriminations over unsportsmanlike behaviour on the part of the Ahmedabad crowds. Most of them didn’t bother to stick around for Australia’s victory—leaving them to receive their trophy in a near-empty stadium. Worse, even the Indian team was nowhere to be seen (wtf?). Apparently: “emotion simply got the better of them.” Hmm, doesn’t seem like a good reason for professional athletes. Everyone loses sometimes, right?
But it gets worse: The umpires weren’t spared either:
The most shocking act came when on-field umpires Richard Kettleborough and Richard Illingworth were called to the podium to receive their mementos—only to be booed by the remaining crowd for no apparent reason.
But the truly unforgivable behaviour was directed at Travis Head’s wife and one-year old daughter—who received death and rape threats:
Making Indians look worse: Aussie captain Pat Cummins who took everything in good humour—and made a point of appreciating the team’s Indian support staff.
The OpenAI tamasha: The latest update
With so much scheming, betrayal and melodrama, this is turning into a Hollywood fever dream. This is what has happened since OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman was fired over the weekend by his board (This saga is so complicated, you will have to read our Big Story ICYMI. We can’t summarise it for you).
The Nadella plot twist: After declaring Microsoft’s “commitment” to OpenAI—as its biggest investor—CEO Satya Nadella announced that he is hiring Altman to head an AI division within his own company. Happily, he will also get Altman loyalists like former OpenAI board chairman Greg Brockman—who quit right after he was fired. While Nadella said he was “super excited” about the big announcement, Altman coyly declared “the mission continues.”
Also this: Tech pundits like Ben Thompson have declared this a genius move on Microsoft’s part (and hamaro Nadella). Microsoft has the IP for ChatGPT—due to its OpenAI investment. Also:
[It] will soon have the team to combine with its cash and infrastructure, while shedding coordination problems inherent in their partnership with OpenAI previously... This, in the end, was Nadella’s insight: the key to winning if you are big is not to invent like a startup, but to leverage your size to acquire or fast-follow them; all the better if you can do it for the low price of $0.
Meanwhile, at OpenAi: The board has named a new head honcho—former CEO of Twitch Emmett Shear—who will replace CTO Mira Murati who lasted for less than two days as interim CEO. What’s interesting:
Shear now plans to hire an independent investigator to generate a report on the process leading up to Altman’s firing. He’s also planning to reform OpenAI’s management and leadership teams over the next 30 days, amid potential resignations from unhappy OpenAI executives and employees.
Ek aur plot mein twist: Over 700 OpenAi employees have rebelled against the board—out of 770, btw. They have threatened to join the Microsoft subsidiary run by Altman—unless the board resigns en masse—and reinstates Altman. What’s really odd: The name up top among the signatories is that of chief scientist Ilya Sutskever—who supposedly pushed Altman out:
In the fast-moving events, the change of heart expressed by Mr. Sutskever was one of the most startling. “I never intended to harm OpenAI,” Mr. Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI with Mr. Altman and its chief scientist, said in his post on X. “I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.” Mr. Altman reposted the message and added three red hearts.
Aww, sweet! The Verge and New York Times have more on the statement.
Altman says: The former CEO is playing super nice—and seemingly doing his best to save OpenAI from collapse:
Late Monday morning, Mr. Altman made an effort to appease the customers of OpenAI. In a post to X, he said that the top priority for Mr. Nadella and himself was to ensure that OpenAI continued to thrive. “We are committed to fully providing continuity of operations to our partners and customers,” he wrote. “We are all going to work together some way or other, and I’m so excited,” he wrote in another post to X. “One team, one mission.”
An interesting counterview: Eric Newcomer on why Silicon Valley shouldn’t be in such a hurry to rally around Altman—whose career has some sketchy bits. Bloomberg News has more on the other predators looking to feast on a dying OpenAI—such as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The Atlantic has an excellent reported piece on the chaos within OpenAI.
The high price of a wealthy lifestyle
Sure, we all know that wealthy people have a bigger carbon footprint. You don’t have to be fabulously rich to spend more—which in turn means you pollute more etc. But a comprehensive study titled “The Great Carbon Divide” reveals the severe consequences of that privilege. The wealthiest 1%—“made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those paid more than US$140,000 a year—accounted for 16% of all CO2 emissions in 2019.”
Doesn’t sound that bad? Ok how about this: that’s enough to cause more than a million excess deaths due to heat:
The Oxfam report shows that while the wealthiest 1% tend to live climate-insulated, air-conditioned lives, their emissions—5.9bn tonnes of CO2 in 2019—are responsible for immense suffering. Using a “mortality cost” formula—used by the US Environmental Protection Agency, among others—of 226 excess deaths worldwide for every million tonnes of carbon, the report calculates that the emissions from the 1% alone would be enough to cause the heat-related deaths of 1.3 million people over the coming decades.
Also: “The report finds that it would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year.” Two Guardian pieces have a lot more on the ‘great carbon divide’—you can read details about the pollution caused by the richest 1% here and a longer analysis here.
Three things to see
One: Scientists have spotted an aurora that is very special. Typically, we see auroras (think borealis or austrialis) on Earth—caused by solar storms (explained here). But no one has seen an aurora on the surface of our Sun. Below is the artist’s depiction of what it looked like. (Live Science)
Two: Taylor Swift bagged a staggering ten Billboard Music awards. But we were far more delighted by Mariah Carey singing ‘All I want for Christmas’ for the first time on an award show stage. Billboard has lots more on the winners.
Three: The teaser for ‘Lal Salaam’ has been out for a week—but we somehow missed it. If you did too, here is a glimpse of what promises to be a unique movie about how religion poisons cricket in a small town. Yes, there is a lot of Rajnikanth in the clip—playing a Muslim—but it’s supposedly a cameo. As is the appearance of Kapil Dev. The movie is directed by daughter Aishwarya Rajnikanth. The Hindu has more on the flick—which hits theatres on January 15. The Hindi trailer is here—while the Tamil version is below:
