Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
Say hello to headlines in five
Have you checked out our excellent daily news wrap, ‘What the F*** Happened Here?’. It tells you what happened during the day—in around 5 minutes. As always, we are here to make it easier to know what’s up—without noise, negativity or that existential feeling of despair. The Tuesday pm edition is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.
Election 2024: A sex scandal in Karnataka
The context: First, we start with the family tree. Prajwal Revanna is the grandson of Janata Dal (Secular) founder HD Deve Gowda—and an MP from Hassan who is up for reelection. His father HD Revanna is former Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy’s brother. On April 21, five days before polls kicked off in the state, hundreds of pen drives containing over 2,900 videos of sexual violence were circulated in Hassan—and eventually shared on social media. A number of these show Revanna Jr sexually abusing several women—and seem to be filmed by Prajwal himself.
What happened next: The story first broke on April 27—when Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe. On April 28, a woman—formerly employed as a cook by the Revannas—filed a complaint alleging she had been sexually abused by father and son.
The kicker: These videos first surfaced last year—but Prajwal got a gag order to suppress them from a Karnataka civil court. Even more interestingly, BJP leader Devaraje Gowda filed a complaint in January—demanding the “dirty fellow” Prajwal’s disqualification because of them. And yet on March 30—the BJP in alliance with JD(S) gave him a ticket to seek reelection.
What happened now: Yesterday, the JD(S) suspended Prajwal from the party—after his uncle Kumaraswamy threw his nephew under the bus (after he safely fled to Germany, of course). According to Indian Express, Prajwal is the black sheep of the Gowda family—egged on by an ambitious mother—always at odds with his relatives.
As for the election: The BJP has claimed innocence: “We cannot tell the alliance partner not to field this or that candidate. It is left to the party." In a stroke of good luck for JD(S), the story broke after the first phase of elections—which included the three Lok Sabha seats assigned to it. But it could hurt the BJP in the second phase—when women’s safety is expected to be a key issue. The Hindu explains why.
War on Gaza: The latest update
Columbia University is exploding: As you know, there have been weeks of protests on campus—that have been getting angrier by the minute. The latest escalation was triggered by the university’s decision to suspend all students who did not empty the tents set up in the campus square.Students stormed an administrative building and occupied Hamilton Hall—which was also occupied during the Vietnam War protests. So it has lots of symbolic significance.
Cops were sent to clear the building—and have arrested a number of people—at the time of publishing (details on the CNN liveblog). The images of police in riot gear on a college campus are something else:
Equally insane: There’s a sign with the word “intifada” hanging from the building—in an Ivy League school in New York City:
Just last week, the university president came under fire for using the NYPD to clear those tents. And it just made students even angrier. This is not going to end well either. Axios has all the context you need on the campus protests.
Guilty verdict against the IDF: The State Department surprised everyone by finding Israeli troops guilty of gross human rights violations… in the West Bank—before the war even began! Four units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and one police unit are accused of torture and killings. What happens now? Nothing. The State Department informed Israel—and four units “were judged to have carried out effective remedial action.” Whatever that means. The remaining “ultra-orthodox military unit known as Netzah Yehuda, drawn in part from West Bank settlers” is running scot-free. (The Guardian)
Content warning: This story contains graphic details of violence that can be difficult to read.
A horror story from the hijab protests
The context: In 2022, the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody sparked widespread protests. She had been arrested for not “properly” wearing a veil (explained in this Big Story). The crackdown was brutal. As many as 551 protesters were killed by security forces, most of them by gunfire. One of the casualties was Nika Shakarami—a 16-year-old who shared a video of herself burning a scarf. She went missing within a couple of hours—and her body surfaced nine days later. Authorities claim she “killed herself”—and her death “had no connection to the protests.”
What happened now: An exclusive BBC investigation has revealed what really happened to Shakarami. She was sexually assaulted and killed by three men working for a security unit called ‘Team 12’. The report is based on a leaked document from a 322-page “highly confidential” case file on anti-government protesters from 2022—verified by an Iranian intelligence officer.
According to the document, the teenager was abducted and kidnapped in the back of an undercover van. She was raped by one of the men. When Shakarami fought back, the men beat her to death:
The report concludes that a sexual assault caused the fight in the rear compartment of the van, and that strikes from Team 12 had caused Nika's death. "Three batons and three Tasers were all used. It is not clear which one of the blows was the fatal one," it says.
All of this went down enroute to a detention facility—which was 35 minutes away. Shakarami’s mother later found her body at a mortuary, along with her death certificate—which states she was killed by "multiple injuries caused by blows with a hard object". BBC News has more details.
G7 says ‘no’ to coal plants
The context: The Group of Seven is made up of seven advanced countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They are also responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
What happened now: The G7 countries have agreed to end all use of coal power by 2035. That’s just over a decade away! But the expansion in coal plants is happening elsewhere—in coal-hungry countries like China and India. That’s why the number of coal-fired power stations around the world actually grew by 2% last year.
At climate change summits, India has opposed any agreement that calls for shutting down coal. New Delhi will only agree to “phase down” its production. And that’s because coal accounts for 55% of our energy needs. Still, the hope is that the G7 agreement will put pressure on India and China to follow suit. In the end, it doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not to ask developing nations to cut coal emissions. Catastrophic environmental change is fairly indifferent to borders. Our glaciers will melt nevertheless. (Financial Times, paywall, Semafor)
Devastating floods in Kenya
More than 120 people have died—and at least 76 people are missing due to heavy rain in Nairobi. The culprit: El Niño and terrible infrastructure:
A properly developed drainage system may have been able to cope, but as the city has grown over the last century from 100,000 residents to today's 4.5 million the infrastructure has not kept up.
It’s the same story everywhere. You can see the damage below. (BBC News)
The ‘Green Nobel’ goes to…
Alok Shukla has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize 2024—known as the Green Nobel—for saving 445,000 acres of forests. Thanks to his activism, “the government cancelled the auction of 21 proposed coal mines in Hasdeo Aranya, whose pristine forests—popularly known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh—are one of the largest intact forest areas in India.” One of the companies trying to set up shop—the Adani Group, of course. Indian Express has lots more on his work.
Beware a new LinkedIn scam!
This new kind of online con has surfaced in the US—but it’s just a matter of time before it pops up across the world. The targets are college graduates looking for a job. Scammers use information available on job boards and networking sites—Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn.
How it works: The person pretends the student has been recommended by some prof or dean known to the student. Even creepier: “In some cases, the scammers hack into a professor’s emails or create similar addresses to pose as a faculty member urging the student to apply.” In any case, the aim is to get you to apply for the job.
The person goes through the interview—conducted on chat. And after being hired, they get a check to buy home office equipment. Soon after depositing the check, they get a message from an equipment vendor—asking for payment on Apple Pay etc. The victim does it ASAP—only to find out later that the check has bounced. In other egregious cases, the new ‘hiree’ is persuaded to download a malicious app.
Data point to note: According to a recent report, 56% of Indian job seekers—between the ages of 20 and 29—have been scammed by fake job postings. They typically involve fake work-from-home gigs that require candidates to pay application fees for the job. FYI: LinkedIn now has a verification feature to help you weed out the fake employers. TechCrunch has more on that story. (Wall Street Journal)
Troubling news about Covishield
AstraZeneca has admitted that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side-effect called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome. It basically causes blood clots and a low platelet count. Almost one in five people who suffered from TTS died as a result. That’s not great news for Indians who opted for Covishield—which is the name for the AstraZeneca vaccine in India.
The company made the admission in a court document submitted in a lawsuit in the UK. It is facing 51 cases filed by victims and grieving relatives, seeking estimated damages of 100 million pounds. This is a big deal since AstraZeneca has been staunchly denying any connection between its vaccine and TTS—despite medical research to the contrary. Doctors raised a red flag very early in the pandemic.
What’s interesting: According to The Hindu, TTS is mentioned as a known side-effect in Covishield packaging in India. That’s striking since AstraZeneca wrote to the UK plaintiffs in May 2023—saying that “we do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level.”
As for India: The government has identified 37 cases—of which 18 died. But doctors say that such side-effects are even rarer in India. In any case, they occur soon after taking the vaccine. So if it hasn’t happened yet… Reminder: Independent studies show its vaccine has also saved at least six million lives—just in the first year of the pandemic. Indian Express has more from Indian doctors.
Healthy lifestyle trumps bad genes
A first-of-its-kind study shows that a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of death in people whose genes make them vulnerable to serious disease. That means not smoking, at least 150 minutes of exercise a week, sleeping for seven to eight hours a night, plus a healthy diet. All of that could help lower your risk for, say, cancer by 62%—even if your family history makes you more vulnerable. OTOH, if you have dodgy genes and embrace a dodgy lifestyle, you increase your chances of an early death by 78%.
Why this matters: “This new research shows that, despite genetic factors, living a healthy lifestyle, including eating a balanced nutritious diet and keeping active, can help us live longer.” (The Guardian)
Russia’s gotta Wiki clone!
People in Russia no longer have access to Wikipedia, but they can browse a state-sponsored clone called Ruviki. It’s, of course, “strictly edited” for content that pleases the Vlad (as in President Putin). The Russian edition of Wikimedia was forced to shut down in 2023—after Russia invaded Ukraine. Ruviki (or Ruwiki) was launched in January 2024, and is run by Vladimir Medeyko, who used to head Wikipedia RU. He chose to jump ship over concerns of “reliability and neutrality.” (404 Media)
