Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
War on Gaza: An outrage in Rafah
Well, can anything the IDF does actually cause outrage any more? Maybe. The world is shocked at Israeli airstrikes on a refugee camp in Rafah—which has killed 45 people. These include 23 women, children, and older people. Another 249 were injured.
The missile ignited a massive fire—which literally burned people alive inside the tent:
Chaotic scenes ensued, with panicked survivors running for safety amidst the charred bodies as one man held a headless child and a medic carried another with his brains blown out…“There’s no safe place here. No one is safe. Not even the dead who are buried underground are safe,” Abo Sebah said.
The really damning bit: Israel had designated the camp as a “safe zone.” The IDF justification: They were carrying out a “precise” strike to target Hamas commanders—but, oops, “something unfortunately went tragically wrong.” And it’s really all Hamas’ fault—for hiding among civilians. You can see clips from the camp below. (Al Jazeera)
The fallout: Hamas has pulled out of peace talks—describing the strike as a “massacre.” Meanwhile, Israeli and Egyptian soldiers exchanged fire on the border—which is remarkable as they have been at peace for decades. And there are increasing signs that Europe is losing its appetite for supporting Israel—with France, Italy and the EU voicing their outrage. The US, as always, remains shocked, shocked, shocked. (The Guardian)
Mukesh-bhai is off to Africa
Reliance telecom will enter Africa with a subsidiary Radisys Corp—which will build a mobile network—including 5G services. The company plans to enter the market in partnership with Tech Mahindra and Nokia. Why this is interesting. One: Indian companies are entering Africa to take on Chinese influence on the continent. For instance, at the inaugural GITEX conference in Morocco last year, the role of Chinese companies like Huawei, Lenovo, and Tecno, in Africa's digital transformation, was on full display.
Two: Ghana is trying to replicate the Jio model of super-affordable connectivity. If it succeeds, others will follow suit. That said, the most popular mobile operator in Africa is none other than Bharti Airtel—which recently pulled out of Ghana. (Bloomberg News, paywall, Hindustan Times)
Also making moves, Elon-bhai: His artificial intelligence company, xAI has raised $6 billion—which will help it take on OpenAI, Anthropic and other wealthy rivals. The investors are A-list, as expected: Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, along with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. (New York Times)
Sticking with Elon: The funding announcement was very vague about Musk plans to do with all that money. But The Information (paywall) claims he is working on a supercomputer to train the company’s AI chatbot Grok. Musk calls it a “gigafactory of compute”—that will be at least four times the size of anything used today. (Mashable)
Rafa loses big in France
Rafael Nadal—the emperor of the clay courts of Roland Garros—was defeated by Alexander Zverev, who won 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Nadal has struggled for the past two years with crippling hip and abdomen injuries—which have kept him out of several Grand Slam tournaments. His exit from the French Open was heartbreaking for fans, but Rafa himself was philosophical:
I’m happy that I finished healthy, and I was ready for more… If it’s the last time I play here, then I am at peace with myself. I tried everything for two years to be ready for this. I lost but that is part of the business.
BBC Sport has more on the match. You can see the love Nadal received from the jam-packed stadium below.
Ugly data on online sex abuse of kids
A new study reveals that one in eight children—or 302 million kids—have experienced online sexual abuse and exploitation over the course of a year. Of these, 13% have been victims of non-consensual taking and sharing of, and exposure to, sexual images and videos. Another 12% were subjected to “online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk.” Here’s a data point to think about:
More than 36 million reports of online sexual images of children who fell victim to all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse were filed in 2023 to watchdogs by companies such as X, Facebook, Instagram, Google, WhatsApp and members of the public. That equates to one report every single second.
This is nothing short of a global emergency. (The Conversation)
Also alarming: A whopping 80% of those surveyed on fire safety norms in India—say their home or workplace does not meet the requirement. Only 18% claimed that the fire safety equipment in their homes is checked every year, while 27% said that the check has never been done. The reason: a “cumbersome or corrupt” certification process.
Why this matters: More than 20 fire-related deaths occur every day in India—mainly because of short circuits. And fire regulations are rarely enforced due to lack of resources “In other countries, you have fire hydrants and everything at all the places. But in India, we don’t even have drinking water around the clock, so we do not think of having firefighting water around the clock.”
Reminder: In Rajkot, 28 people including seven children died in a blaze in an amusement park, and seven newborn infants died in a fire at New Born Baby Care Hospital in Delhi over the weekend. New York Times explains the gaps in fire safety measures, and The Print has more on the survey.
Three things to see
One: Cyclone Remal hit the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh late Sunday night—travelling at 130 kilometres (81 miles) per hour. The resulting storm killed at least three people—including one man in Kolkata, and caused power cuts and waterlogging. In Bangladesh, more than 800,000 have been shifted to cyclone shelters. Below is the viral video showing the formation of the cyclone over Bay of Bengal. (Hindustan Times)
Two: “Traffic jams” caused by climbers on an overcrowded Mount Everest are not new. But a now-viral vid shared on social media shows the situation is worse than ever. It was posted two days after British climber Daniel Paterson and his Nepali Sherpa Pastenji were hit by falling ice. The two are still missing and feared dead. BBC News has more on that story. Watch the nightmarish clip below: (NDTV)
Three: Cannes’ first ever prize for film poster design—Prix Luciole Award—was won by the poster for the Belgian film ‘Julie Keeps Quiet’. If you’re curious, The Guardian has more on the movie. (Hollywood Reporter)
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