Researched by: Rachel John & Aarthi Ramnath
ICYMI: We have a new YouTube show!
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 second edition from last evening is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.
Election 2024: The latest update
More damning election bond data: According to The Hindu, 33 companies that were making a loss donated a total of Rs 5.82 billion (582 crore)—of which 75% went to BJP. And the source of funding for 45 companies that donated electoral bonds is shady. The paper plainly spells the implications out: “That these loss-making companies made such substantial donations indicates they could be acting as fronts for other firms or have misreported their profits and losses — raising the possibility of money laundering.” That’s truly ironic given the bonds were supposed to eliminate black money from politics. We recommend checking out The Hindu investigation.
Kejriwal’s arrest: All eyes were on the Delhi High Court—which heard Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges. It was a court day full of filmi dialogues. The ED called Kejriwal the “kingpin” and “key conspirator”—taking money from a secret cabal of liquor-walas called the South Group. Kejriwal’s lawyer was just as dramatic—accusing the ED of trying to “disintegrate the AAP before the first vote is cast.”
After all that dramebaazi, the Court reserved its verdict—basically said we’ll tell you our decision later. The only question here is which Supreme Court order the High Court will follow. The one that released AAP leader Sanjay Singh on bail. Or the ruling that kept Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in jail. Live Law summarises the arguments. The Telegraph reports on Mr K’s battle with the machhars inside Tihar jail.
Farewell Manmohan-ji: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh bid adieu to the Rajya Sabha—formally retiring from active politics. The 91-year-old politician had served in the upper house for over three decades. Deepanshu Mohan in The Quint pays tribute to his tenure as FM and PM. His soft-spoken decency will be missed. (Hindustan Times)
War on Gaza: The WCK attack, explained
According to Israeli paper Haaretz, the airstrike on aid workers from the World Central Kitchen was a deliberate decision. The military targeted the convoy because they suspected an armed militant was travelling with the WCK.
In other words, they thought maybe there was one person who was maybe Hamas in that aid convoy. So they fired three missiles at three cars and killed them all. First they fired at one car. When the surviving passengers got into another car—they bombed that one as well. The third car was hit when its occupants tried to help the wounded.
Washington claims it’s “outraged” by the attack—and insists there is no evidence Israel deliberately targeted the aid workers. At least two of the SUVs prominently displayed the WCK logo on their roof. So there’s that. Reminder: All charities have cancelled their aid operations because of this attack. The New York Times has more on the growing pressure on President Biden to attach conditions to shipments of US bombs.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky finally succumbed to the desperate need for more troops. He lowered the minimum military draft age from 27 to 25. Even so, it is unlikely to solve Kyiv’s problems:
Data on Ukraine’s male population, cited by the Financial Times, showed that of 11.1 million Ukrainian men aged between 25 and 60, only an estimated 3.7 million are eligible for mobilisation. The others are fighting, disabled, out of the country or considered critical workers.
At the start of the war, hundreds of thousands of civilians volunteered for military service. But two years down the line, those that remain are no longer as keen to sign up. (Associated Press)
An excellent year for billionaires
It’s barely April, and we already have more billionaires than ever before. A total of 2,781 people in the world have fortunes over $1 billion, according to Forbes. Yes, Taylor is one of them. There are also a record 14 centibillonaires in the world who have fortunes worth more than $100 billion.
The number of billionaires has jumped by 141 compared to 2023. These billionaires are also worth more than ever—a collective total of $14.2 trillion. That’s more than the GDP of all countries in the world—minus the US and China. The top echelons of the list are predictable—LVMH’s Bernard Arnault at #1—followed by Elon Musk. Our Mukesh-bhai is at #9. (The Guardian)
Kanye West has a racism problem
A former employee is suing Kanye West—currently known as Ye—for being racist. He is accused of calling Adolf Hitler “great,” putting down Jews and saying that “gay people are not true Christians.” The lawsuit also noted that he treated Black people at his Donda Academy, significantly worse than the White employees.
His anti-semitic comments were mostly of the paranoid variety. He said stuff like “the Jews are out to get me” and “the Jews are stealing all my money.” Of course, the only person who ruined Ye’s bank balance is himself. He’s lost all his endorsements thanks to his racist rants—and Adidas won’t sell his Yeezy shoes.
But hey, his latest album “Vultures 1” has been a super streaming success. It’s the 11th No. 1 album of his career. No one is cancelling Kanye anytime soon. His fans are totally okay with Ye’s in-your-face racism. (New York Times, paywall, Variety).
In other music-related news: Some of the world’s biggest artists—Billie Eilish, Sam Smith, Bon Jovi and about 200 others—issued an open letter flagging the dangers of AI. Their main concern: plagiarism and royalties as developers train and produce “AI copycats,” or use “AI sound” to avoid paying up. Reminder: The three big music labels—Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO—sued the AI company Anthropic for training its models on copyrighted song lyrics. More recently, Google was caught training its unnamed music-generating AI on copyrighted music. (Hollywood Reporter)
Hey, what’s the Coordinated Lunar Time?
The White House has asked NASA to set a unified standard of time for the moon. It will be called Coordinated Lunar Time. But it will be very different from the way time works on Earth. That’s because of the difference in the force of gravity. For a person on the moon, a terrestrial clock will seem to lose, on average, 58.7 microseconds per Earth-day. And it will steadily drift further and further away from Earth time. In any case, the moon will need a universal clock very much like Earth. So everyone who is wandering in and out of the gleaming orb can agree on what time it is. (Reuters)
Three things to see
One: At least nine people were killed and 1038 injured by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan. The 7.2 magnitude quake is the strongest to hit the country in 25 years. A 7.6-magnitude quake in September 1999, killed around 2,400 people. It was the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history. A quick reminder: Taiwan is located on a junction of two tectonic plates—and gets its shares of minor quakes. Nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts a year.
While the body count is mercifully low this time, videos of the destruction are remarkable—as you can see below. Watch that swimming pool! (Al Jazeera)
Two: A key problem with Apple’s virtual reality headset Vision Pro is that it is socially isolating—and a bit creepy. The company’s solution: “spatial” personas—digital apparitions designed to mimic a user’s facial expressions and hand gestures. The goal: “you can work on presentations together, watch movies over SharePlay, or play games as if your friends are right beside you.” The results are, well, still creepy. (Engadget)
Three: The world’s most powerful MRI machine—developed by French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)—has begun scanning living human brains. Until now, it was tested on pumpkins. The machine has a magnetic field strength of 11.7 Teslas (T)—and produces detailed high resolution images with far greater speed. You can see the remarkable difference below. (New Atlas)
