Depressing data on Indian elephants

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Raghav Bikhchandani

The Women’s T20 World Cup is here!

The what: Starting today until October 20, ten cricketing nations will duke it out in the ninth edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. The hosts are the UAE—the Indian subcontinent’s eternal plan B when our own backyard turns into a sh*tshow. The original hosts Bangladesh couldn’t guarantee a safe tournament—due to the recent regime change there.

The format: is unchanged from the last edition held in South Africa 18 months ago. Ten teams are divided into two groups of five. Every team plays four matches in the group stage, with the top two in each group qualifying for the semifinals. You know how the rest goes—check out the full schedule here.

The cool bit: This last-minute venue change removes Bangladesh’s home advantage. The UAE stadiums are a complete mystery to all teams—which could give us the most closely contested ICC event in women’s cricket history. The reason:

No team can claim to have mastered the conditions. Picture this: none of the competing teams have ever played at the Dubai International Stadium… And the exact opposite of what Dubai offers is likely to spring up in Sharjah.

The favourites: Australia are still the team to beat, as they won the last three Women’s T20 World Cups and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. And most of the Aussies that lifted the trophy in 2023 are also in the current squad.

As for the Indians: We are currently ranked #3 in the world, behind the dominant Aussies and the swashbuckling English. But with a youthful team under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, we’re very much in the race. Reminder: We reached the semifinals in the 2023 edition and the final in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, losing to the Aussies on both occasions.

The India-Pakistan match: is scheduled for October 6 at 3:30 pm IST, but chances of a pure box office humdinger like the men’s version are slim. Pakistan has beaten us just thrice in 15 matches. Their most recent win over us was two years ago.

The rest of our group: includes Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka—pretty much making it the ‘group of death’. FYI: Sri Lanka and star allrounder Chamari Athapaththu beat us in the Asia Cup final earlier this year.

A cute visual: We’ll leave you with some good vibes exuding from this group of captains—including hamaari Harmanpreet—and some camels for good measure.

Reading list: ESPNCricinfo has the most comprehensive coverage for your women’s cricket needs. This Big Story has the history of women’s cricket in India—cool trivia and photos included.

Depressing data on Indian elephants

According to an Indian Express exclusive, the government is sitting on the latest elephant census—because the numbers are dire:

The data from the unreleased report, reviewed by The Indian Express, shows a 20% drop in the elephant population from five years ago, with the Central Indian and Eastern Ghats even recording an alarming 41% dip compared with 2017 estimates. Besides recording the dip in the elephant numbers, the unreleased report identifies “mushrooming developmental projects” such as “unmitigated mining and linear infrastructure construction” as significant threats to the species.

We highly recommend you read the rest of this investigation over at Indian Express.

In unhappy and related news: A new study shows that deforestation is driving elephant-human conflict in South India. Around 15% of the elephants’ habitats in and outside the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) and the Bhadra Tiger Reserve have been lost between the 1960s and the early 2000s. Researchers then overlaid the data of negative human-elephant events. They found 624 of them—including crop-raiding and attacks—occurred close to or in areas. The biggest loss: vital corridors than ran through private land:

As deforestation has also led to some habitats being destroyed, the corridors that do exist are narrow and that pass through regions with high human density, potentially leading to more negative interactions with people in the surrounding areas.

The Hindu has more on the study.

Prepare to pay for CNN and Reuters

Both websites are going behind a paywall. CNN will charge $3.99 (Rs 335) a month—while Reuters is $4 (Rs 336) a month. There will be some freemium CNN content—a number of free articles before you hit that paywall. On Tuesday, both news outlets announced their respective plans to begin charging readers for their content.

The big picture: The news industry no longer has a reliable revenue model. Good news content is very expensive—and ads revenue has been gobbled up by social media giants. Hence, paywalls. But, but, but: “[N]ewcomers could face challenges in an already crowded news and entertainment subscription market. They also risk eroding web traffic, lowering their reach and appeal to advertisers.”

Irony alert: A comprehensive global survey—put out by Reuters, no less—shows a very limited appetite to pay for news—even in affluent countries. And 40% of those surveyed said they sometimes or often avoid reading the news—because it brings their mood down.

Reading list: Hollywood Reporter and Wall Street Journal have the reporting on CNN and Reuters upcoming paywalls. For more data on the gradual collapse of online news, check out part one and part two of our special Big Story.

Full disclosure: Our subscription revenue is now so slim that we may now officially qualify as a charity lol!

California colleges: No nepo babies, please!

California has banned all legacy admissions—i.e giving preference to kids of alumni parents. The law comes into effect from September 1, 2025—and applies to both public and private colleges—i.e Stanford and Berkeley, alike. FYI: 14% of Stanford admissions in 2022 were nepo babies.

Why this matters: Legacy kids tend to be white and wealthy. Data point to note: Kids who belong to the top 1% are 5X more likely to get admission into Ivy League schools. Reminder: California was ground zero for the Varsity Blues scandal—involving fabulously celebs who literally bought their kids admission to the top colleges. So banning legacy admissions is just one step in the right direction. (New York Times, login required)

No country for Fawad Khan films

'The Legend of Maula Jatt’—starring the very fine Fawad Khan—will not be released in India. The 2022 film was a blockbuster in Pakistan—and was supposed to hit Indian theatres the same year. After being repeatedly blocked by Hindu nationalist groups, it was slated to hit theatres in Punjab today. This time, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry denied permission—for unspecified reasons. 'The Legend of Maula Jatt' would have been the first Pakistani film in over 10 years to get a theatrical release in India. FYI: the last one was ‘Bol’ in 2011—starring Humaima Malick and Atif Aslam. (The Print)

Sticking with Pakistan @ India: Bangalore police recently arrested a Pakistani family secretly living in a village since 2018. They had given themselves a Hindu surname—Sharma. At first, the police suspected them of being a ‘sleeper cell’. Turns out they were just desperate migrants fleeing religious persecution in Pakistan.

The Siddiquis are members of the Mehdi Foundation—which preaches interfaith peace—and is considered blasphemous in Pakistan:

In the mid 2000s, five members of MFI were paraded naked and beaten over allegations of blasphemy. In 2008, Mohammad Iqbal, an MFI member, was murdered in the Punjab province of Pakistan. In 2009, Paras Masih, another MFI member, was killed in Karachi. Today, the MFI does not operate in Pakistan and any information dissemination related to the MFI is treated as a crime. The government has also banned the Instagram accounts of MFI.

FYI: in 2007, 63 MFI members entered India on a tourist visa—and staged a protest outside the Pakistani embassy. The government gave them refugee status—but sent them on to other countries like the US and Canada. Dawn has the bigger picture—why thousands of Pakistanis are “dying to leave the country.” (Indian Express)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Another day, another real estate boost for Adani—this time, 256 acres of ecologically sensitive salt-pan land near Mumbai’s Dharavi neighbourhood will be leased out for the Adani Group’s redevelopment project.
SoftBank will invest $500 million in… Sam Altman’s OpenAI, as part of the startup’s $6.5 billion funding round with a valuation of $150 billion.
A US lawsuit alleges that company employees knew that Snapchat users were being sexually groomed and blackmailed—but did absolutely nothing.
Formerly part of Sequoia India, investing firm Peak XV has slashed its India fund by a whopping $465 million.

sports & entertainment

The Guardian has a must-read on the ugly side of the sports gambling boom in the US—heightened online abuse and threats towards college athletes.
The most viewed movie in Apple TV+ history is… ‘Wolfs’, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt! (see: our Advisory for the reviews.)
AR Rahman will score the music for Hansal Mehta’s upcoming series, ‘Gandhi’—an adaptation of Ram Guha’s books—‘Gandhi before India’ and ‘Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World’.
Stop the presses—Daniel Day-Lewis is coming out of retirement to star in ‘Anemone’, directed by… his son, Ronan.

as for the rest

New Zealand has increased visa fees across categories by up to 60%—for Indians, student visas are particularly affected, going up from $188 (Rs 15,781) to over $300 (Rs 25,183).
77% of manual scavengers in India are Dalit, according to a government report.
A new study has revealed the toll an in-family marriage can take on the foetus—including spontaneous abortions, stillbirths and post-neonatal child mortality.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a must-read on the latest court battle against Netflix—a federal judge in Los Angeles has allowed the person on whom ‘Baby Reindeer’s Martha Scott is allegedly based to proceed with her defamation lawsuit against the streamer.
Say hello to Mexico’s first ever female president—Claudia Sheinbaum—as she officially is inaugurated, taking over from her political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Four things to see

One: Back in 2019, Banksy designed a stab-proof vest with a Union Jack on it—as a comment on the rise of knife crime in the UK. It is now going to be auctioned at an estimated price of £300,000 ($397,000). FYI: It was worn by Stormzy at Glastonbury—which presumably adds to its value. Because it certainly isn’t easy on the eye. (Euronews)

Two: Imagine a powerful male CEO who becomes sexually obsessed with his female intern—who dominates and humiliates him. Now, flip the genders—and make a very botoxed Nicole Kidman the CEO—crawling on her knees for a 28-year-old Harris Dickinson. Ick or hot? Make up your own mind after you watch the trailer for ‘Babygirl’—which hits theatres on December 25. (Variety)

Three: Sticking with trailers, get ready for Clint Eastwood's final directorial outing—‘Juror #2’—with Nicholas Hoult and JK Simmons. The film releases on October 30. (Collider)

Four: Last not least: this heartwarming trailer for the upcoming documentary, ‘Music by John Williams’ which is about, yes, legendary film composer John Williams. You may remember his scores for ‘Jaws’, ‘Star Wars’, and the ‘Harry Potter’ films, among many others. The documentary drops on Disney+ Hotstar on November 1. (USA Today)