Researched by: Nirmal Bhansali & Aarthi Ramnath
Ron DeSantis’ Twitter debacle
The Florida governor announced his bid for the White House on a Twitter Space event—hosted by owner Elon Musk. But it was marred by repeated server glitches—because the platform could not handle the massive surge in traffic. So Musk shut down a room with more than 600,000 people listening in—and started another one after 20 minutes:
Nearly a half-hour in, Mr. DeSantis got the microphone to declare, “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.” But by then, hundreds of thousands of listeners had abandoned the platform, Mr. Trump’s super PAC was mocking him, and even President Biden’s campaign had joined the schadenfreude.
Barely 70,000 heard DeSantis make the announcement. Experts are calling it a “bad look” for the Republican candidate—who is trailing Donald Trump in the opinion polls. (New York Times)
Speaking of the White House: A 19-year-old Indian American crashed a U-Haul truck into a barrier close to the building. According to the police, he “planned to seize power and kill the president if he had to.” He had no weapons but was armed with the Nazi flag—because “Nazis have a great history.” NRIs, excelling in every arena! (Washington Post)
RIP Tina Turner, OG pop goddess
The 83-year-old passed away after a long illness at her home near Zurich, Switzerland. She was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016 and underwent a kidney transplant in 2017. What can we say: Tina was “simply the best.” You can read the flood of tributes over at The Guardian. New York Times has a lovely obituary.
Melting glaciers pose energy risk
A new report reveals that melting glaciers in the Himalayas pose a grave threat to 16 countries—including India, China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Laos. The ten rivers originating from the mountains support almost 75% of hydropower and 44% of coal-fired power in these countries. The basins of the rivers are home to 1.9 trillion people and generate $4.3 trillion in annual GDP. Data point to note: “As much as 865 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity along the 10 rivers is considered vulnerable to climate risk, with most of it reliant on water.” (Reuters)
Netflix India’s swerve toward censorship
Until now, the platform had been releasing uncut versions of Indian films—without much protest from the government. However, that policy seems to have changed at least in the case of ‘Bheed’. The film’s teaser featured a voice-over of the PM—and a line of dialogue comparing the migrant exodus during the pandemic to Partition. It sparked great outrage and the producers eventually scrubbed both the voice-over and the line. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) also demanded a long list of cuts to clear the film for release.
The cuts include dropping all instances of seven swear words, reducing visuals of police brutality… replacing “Prime Minister” with “Minister”, and removing voiceovers of PM Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
One movie critic called it “slaughter.” And this is the version Netflix has chosen to release on its platform. This Firstpost review has more on the movie. (The Hindu)
A Catholic Church disgrace in Illinois
A new report revealed a total of 1,997 children have been abused in the state's six Catholic dioceses since 1950. The abuse involved a total of 451 clergymen. What’s notable: the number is 4X to what the Church fessed up to back in 2018. Reminder: last month, the Archdiocese of Baltimore acknowledged that 156 clergy members had abused more than 600 children since the 1940s. (New York Times, paywalled, CBS news)
Attacks on LGBTQ merchandise
In two separate incidents, merchandise for queer customers has become the target of attacks.
Malaysia: authorities raided 11 Swatch stores seizing 164 rainbow watches from the Pride collection—because they “bore LGBT connotations.” The watches are offered in the six colours of the gay pride flag—and have two rainbow loops on the strap. The company CEO pushed saying:
Swatch always promotes a positive message of joy in life. This is nothing political. We wonder how the Regulatory and Enforcement Division of the Home Ministry will confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up a thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia.
Reminder: The punishments for sodomy range from caning to 20 years in prison. (Associated Press)
United States: Target announced that it is removing some of its LGBTQ merchandise due to customer backlash—claiming it is necessary to protect the safety of its employees. Target offers more than 2,000 products—including clothing, books, music and home furnishings—as part of its Pride Collection. And it has always marked Pride Month without incident for over a decade. But this year, there have been increasing confrontations with customers—who often throw the items on the floor etc. (Reuters)
The winner of the International Booker is…
This year’s top honour went to Georgi Gospodinov’s book ‘Time Shelter’, which was translated by Angela Rodel. It marks the first time a Bulgarian book has won the award—which is given to a single novel that has been translated from its original language into English. Reminder: Last year, Geetanjali Shree’s ‘Tomb of Sand’ became the first Indian language novel to win the prize. The Guardian has more on Gospodinov. Also useful: an overview of the other fine books on the shortlist.
Three things to see
One: An ad for an Italian restaurant in Glasgow ran into trouble for excessive nudity. The problem: it featured a full-on view of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. The poster showed David holding a slice of pizza with the phrase: “It doesn’t get more Italian.” The restaurant finally had to cut out the most explicit bits of David’s anatomy to get the ad approved. Reminder: parents in Florida also objected to poor David—claiming their children were being exposed to pornography. You can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions below. (The Guardian)
Two: The season of trailers continues with ‘Tarla’—a biopic of celebrity chef and food writer Tarla Dalal. It will drop on Zee5 soon.
Three: Next up, the far less wholesome ‘Bloody Daddy’ trailer—starring Shahid Kapoor channelling his inner John Wick. It will drop on June 9 on Jio Cinema.
