headlines that matter

Researched by: Rachel John, Anannya Parekh & Aarthi Ramnath

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In case you missed the Editor’s Note, we’ve launched our daily news wrap called ‘What the F*** Happened Here?’ The title sums up how all of us feel any time we watch or read the news. But we are here to make it easier to know what’s up—without noise, negativity or that existential feeling of despair. The latest edition from last evening is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.

Kejriwal is stuck in jail

The Delhi High Court rejected the Delhi CM’s plea against his arrest—declaring it was “not illegal” to detain him. The judge seemed to accept the evidence presented by the Enforcement Directorate—before the case goes to trial. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma even accused Kejriwal of casting “aspersions” on the judicial process. AAP has now pinned its hopes on the Supreme Court—which did not give Deputy CM Manish Sisodia bail, but granted it to the other AAP leader Sanjay Singh. 

What’s interesting about Kejriwal’s case is that he is not asking for bail—but challenging the legality of his arrest under the money laundering act. It’s an odd strategy since—as Samarth Bansal points out in this Big Story—the law itself has a very low burden of proof for arrest. 

Also this: The party is also contemplating giving Mrs K the top spot: “There is a view within the party that there is no harm in Sunita ji being handed the reins of the party till the CM returns, but a decision on it is yet to be taken with finality.” (Indian Express)

In very much related news: The Hindu has discovered that the ED is a client of a cyber forensics firm that offers iPhone-cracking hardware. Reminder: The ED has been trying to get into Kejriwal’s phone. He has refused to share his password.

A landmark climate change ruling in Europe

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Swiss government has violated its citizens’ human rights by not doing enough to stop climate change. The case was brought by a group called KlimaSeniorinnen—Senior Women for Climate Protection—which accused Bern of not meeting its climate targets, and endangering their lives:

With heat waves sweeping Switzerland in recent summers, the litigants… pointed to research showing that older women are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses. Four of the women said they had heart and respiratory diseases that put them at risk of death on very hot days.

Why this matters: It is “the first instance of an international court determining that governments were legally obligated to meet their climate targets under human rights law.” This ruling is legally binding—and Switzerland is expected to comply. According to experts, this case will open a floodgate for similar lawsuits against other governments. (New York Times)

The great electoral bonds con 

The context: The electoral bonds scheme allowed companies and individuals to make secret donations to parties—which violated our constitutional right to know. The Supreme Court ordered the State Bank of India to cough up details on all bonds sold to date—worth a total of  Rs 121.55 billion (12,155 crore)—sparking a frenzy of media coverage. Read our Big Story for more.

What happened now: According to The Quint, a Gujarati family from Kutch was “tricked” into buying electoral bonds worth Rs 111.4 million (11.14 crore). Of this, Rs 100 million was ended up with the BJP—and the rest went to Shiv Sena. What’s more interesting: The conman in this case is a company linked to the Adani Group—Welspun Enterprises. According to a member of the family, this is how it went down:  

Welspun had acquired approximately 43,000 square metres of our agricultural land in Anjar for a project. This money was part of the compensation we were given as per law. But at the time of depositing this money, Mahendrasinh Sodha, a Senior General Manager at the company, told us that such a huge amount can result in trouble with the income tax department… He then introduced us to the electoral bond scheme, which he said would ensure that we get 1.5 times the amount in a few years. We are illiterate people. We had no clue what this scheme was but at that time it sounded very convincing.

Ok, let’s review. This family thought they were getting money in the form of bank bonds—the kind that you invest in. Instead, the money owed to them was ‘donated’ to the two political parties. In the history of scams, this one is definitely in the top ten for sheer shamelessness.  

Interesting to note: The family has not filed an FIR as yet. But the land deal is being investigated. The Quint has this exclusive.

A new investigation into Boeing

The context: The company is in deep trouble due to repeated safety issues with its planes. It started with catastrophic crashes of its 737 Max back in 2018/2019. Those worries came again to the forefront in January—when a piece of an Alaskan Airlines plane blew off mid-flight. 

What happened now: Federal authorities are investigating alarming claims by a Boeing engineer. He alleges that Boeing “took shortcuts when manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets, and that the risks could become catastrophic as the airplanes age.” The “shortcuts” included doing very strange things to get pieces of the fuselage to fit together:

I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align. By jumping up and down, you’re deforming parts so that the holes align temporarily … and that’s not how you build an airplane.

Eeks! New York Times got the exclusive—CNN has a summary.

A YouTube shutdown: Sign of censorship to come?

According to the popular Hindi news site National Dastak, the government has directed YouTube to take down its channel, which has 9 million subscribers. The platform’s official handle tweeted the notice it received from the company. It shows the government invoked a specific rule of the Information Technology Act—which allows the union government to block content that is a threat to “national security, sovereignty or public order.” 

The news portal is owned by Shambhu Kumar Singh, who is a journalist turned politician. Singh is contesting the upcoming elections as an independent candidate from Bihar. ‘National Dastak’ describes itself as a “voice of Dalits, Adivasis, farmers, women and oppressed people”. FYI: Two other news channels—Article 19 India and Bolta Hindustan—were recently blocked from Facebook and YouTube, respectively. There has been no response from Google or Meta. (Scroll)

The Vatican cancels gender fluid IDs 

The context: Many people consider Pope Francis as a progressive leader—willing to move the Vatican into the 21st century. He has been inching toward a more liberal view of queer communities. He has said it’s okay for LGBTQAI Catholics to receive blessings from priests—and allowed transgender people to be baptised. But he’s drawn a line at gender fluidity, surrogacy and transition surgery. 

What happened now: The Vatican released a document that declared all three to be insults to human dignity. But if you look at the reasons it offers, the Church seems more concerned about insults to God. For example, the sex a person is assigned at birth is an “irrevocable gift” from God. So a sex-change operation is a rejection of that gift. People who want to determine their own gender are playing God—because that’s his job. Etcetera etcetera. 

Experts see the document as the Vatican’s attack on gender theory. The Church calls it an ideology that envisions a “society without sexual differences” —and therefore attacks the very basis of the human family. The moral of this story: The Church may be kinder and gentler—but it will never bend on what it considers to be the gospel truth. (New York Times, paywall, Associated Press)

The Basmati battle: India vs Pakistan

The context: Basmati is grown only in India and Pakistan. We account for 65% of the global supply. The main buyers of basmati are Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the US. 

What happened now: Recently, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) accused Pakistan of “seed piracy” and “unlawful cultivation.” It apparently stole high-yielding varieties developed by the institute. The damning evidence: YouTube videos of Pakistani agricultural companies talking up these seeds (see it here).

But the Pakistanis insist that the Kissan Basmati—which has the same parent strain as the Indian variety—is their own. Why is this a big deal: 

The Institute claims Pakistan's muscling into the market—at lower prices—could hurt India's reputation as a supplier of premium basmati in international markets. India already has a case at the European Commission for exclusive rights to the name basmati. But the latest flare-up comes at a sensitive time for Pakistan's neighbour as its own exports drop and it loses even more ground to its rice rival.

Nikkei Asia and Indian Express have loads more on this rivalry. Economic Times looks at the disruptions to the global basmati market.

Sierra Leone has a zombie drug problem

Sierra Leone declared a national emergency over the widespread drug abuse involving a synthetic narcotic called kush. It is a highly addictive mix of marijuana, fentanyl… and human bones. This has resulted in a bizarre law & order problem:

And the spike in kush use has seen Freetown's main cemeteries request police security to protect themselves from young men digging up skeletons - ground-up human bone is one of the many ingredients used to make kush, although it is not clear why.  

FYI: Kush is cheap and easy to buy—which makes it popular with unemployed, young people. (BBC News)

Wtf is with this weather?

Global surface temperatures in March have once again set a new record—and April is likely to be no different. The month was 0.1°C hotter than the previous record. More importantly, our planet was 1.68°C warmer than the pre-industrial average. This is the tenth consecutive record-setting month. February was the hottest February on record, the same was true for January and so on. And each time, the record was beaten by at least 0.2°C. Reminder: every climate change report predicts that terrible things will happen if we sail past the 1.5°C mark. 

Most worryingly: Scientists have no clue why this is happening. It could all be El Nino’s fault. The weather pattern is heating up an already hot planet. But no factor can fully explain the sharp and unexpected rise in temperature. One expert says “If the anomaly does not stabilise by August then the world will be in uncharted territory.” The effect of this anomalous climate pattern is already visible: Over 100 people died in Mali last month due to extreme heat. Now that’s scary!  (The Guardian) 

In very much related news: A new report shows that rich countries have been shutting down fossil fuels projects in their backyard. But funding the same projects in poorer countries. The countries in the G20—which are the biggest economies of the world—invested $142 billion dollars between 2020 and 2022. Canada, Japan and South Korea were the biggest offenders. But international institutions like the World Bank are just as bad. The Bank provided $1.2 billion a year to fossil fuels over the three-year period–of which two-thirds went to gas projects. 

In other words, the world’s wealthiest nations are not fighting climate change—but funding climate change! Want to know the high price of funding climate change? Just stick your head out the window. (The Guardian)

Chechnya’s weird music ban

Authorities in the Russian republic of Chechnya have banned music that is either too fast or too slow. All compositions will be limited to a tempo ranging from 80 to 116 beats per minute. This includes “all musical, vocal and choreographic works.” The aim of this musical fatwa is to save “Chechen mentality and musical rhythm” from evils like techno and pop. 

Point to note: The edict has been issued by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov—who is infamous for his far more serious hatred of homosexuality. Gay men have been routinely detained and even murdered in Chechnya under his rule. Kadyrov’s intolerance of good music is a small matter in comparison. (CNN)

One Vadra thing to see

If it’s election time, then it must be Robert Vadra time! Each Lok Sabha season, the Gandhi damaad hints at his political ambitions—which sadly never come true. Indians are left disappointed and heart-broken—like the voters of Amethi this time around. (Hindustan Times)