Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Anannya Parekh
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 five 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 Thursday pm edition is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.
War on Gaza: The latest update
Blocked UN bid: Washington seems to be doing its best to imitate a stereotypical villain. The United States blocked Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the United Nations. It was the only nation to oppose the resolution approving its membership in the Security Council. The reason offered by the White House:
Before the vote, U.S. deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the United States has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.”
The UK and Switzerland abstained. FYI: Palestine currently is an observer—like the Vatican. (Associated Press)
PS: Have you noticed the Biden administration has a store of desi PR spokespersons—who have the unenviable job of selling its policies? We’ve counted at least three. Call it the Kal Penn effect. Here’s more on the White House’s love for NRIs.
Qatar is out? Qatar is thinking about pulling out of the ceasefire talks. It was a key peace negotiator, along with Egypt and the US—trying to get Hamas and Israel on the same page. However, its representatives now say it is sick of “an abuse of this mediation in favour of narrow political interests."
In other words, it is tired of US senators taking aim at its role—to look tough in an election year. A number of them have blamed Qatar for Hamas’ rejection of the latest proposal. But Qatar is important precisely because it supports Hamas—and represents its interests. Hamas may simply refuse to participate in any negotiations that don't include Doha. (Al Jazeera)
Also out: Google employees: The tech giant fired 28 employees for staging protests against Project Nimbus earlier this week. It is a $1.2 billion contract that provides AI and cloud computing services to Israel—in partnership with Amazon. The protests were staged by a group called ‘No Tech For Apartheid’, in Google’s New York and Sunnyvale offices. On Tuesday, the group had occupied Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office and refused to budge for eight hours before they were arrested. Previously, an employee was sacked for staging a public protest against Nimbus at a tech conference. (The Verge)
Also staging dharnas: Columbia University students who had set up encampments on campus. The administration sent riot police to kick them out—which is guaranteed to make everything worse. New York Times has more on this brewing confrontation.
Speaking of the Middle East: The United States and European allies slapped new sanctions on Iran—to express their disapproval of Tehran’s failed aerial attack on Israel. They are also “imploring Israel not to retaliate so strongly as to risk a wider war”—which will likely have zero effect. Well, might as well claim higher moral ground before Tel Aviv does something awful and foolish. (New York Times)
Amazon’s secret spying program
Wall Street Journal has an exclusive, exposing an Amazon project designed to snoop on rivals. In 2015, the company set up a fake business called Big River Services International. The initial aim was innocent: to compare experiences of third-party sellers on Best Buy, Overstock, and Walmart—with the same on Amazon. It was called Project Curiosity.
Then it got creepy. Big River got its own website—its “employees” were given their own email addresses and so on:
Amazon employees on the Big River team were told to take pictures or screenshots of competitors’ pricing, cataloguing, and advertising systems, and they were sent to rivals’ conferences, where they obtained “exclusive” information.
There were guidelines on what to say when caught by the press. The recommended response: “We make a variety of products available to customers through a number of subsidiaries and online channels.” Doesn’t sound that serious—but experts say Amazon could be sued for industrial espionage. We recommend reading more about it over at Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link).
Also very creepy: An online service called Spy.pet is scraping data from Discord servers and selling it for as little as $5. This includes users’ messages and activity across servers—including what voice channels they join. According to Spy.pet’s website, it has accessed three billion messages from 600 million users across 14,000 Discord servers. The pricing ranges between $5 to $500—but you have to pay in crypto. The silver lining: Spy.pet can’t access DMs. (Engadget)
Dubai airport madness!
On Tuesday, the UAE experienced the heaviest rainfall in 75 years. Dubai received 259.5 millimetres in just 24 hours. The flooding has been eye-popping—resulting in chaos, especially at the airport. Passengers describe the situation over the past two days as “absolute carnage.” Every flight was delayed—over and over again. In fact, the airline Emirates told its passengers to stay away from the airport. People couldn't get a taxi to get out—and many ended up sleeping at the Metro station.
Air India, IndiGo, and every other airline has cancelled all its flights to the Gulf. The hardest hit is, of course, Kerala—where 27 flights were cancelled or diverted. Quick reminder: Dubai airport is the second busiest in the world—and the largest hub for international travel. So the effects are likely to be felt across the globe. BBC News has the latest on the situation in the airport.
Tsunami warnings in Indonesia
Indonesian authorities have issued a tsunami alert after a volcano erupted five times in recent days. Mount Ruang erupted once on Tuesday—and another four times on Wednesday. Officials are worried that a part of the volcano will collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami. This sounds a bit extreme but it has happened to Mount Ruang before—back in 1871.
More recently, Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano caused a tsunami along the coasts of Sumatra and Java in 2018—after parts of the mountain fell into the ocean. About 430 people were killed in the incident. This time around, authorities have already evacuated residents from nearby areas—and from remote islands. See the volcano eruption below. (The Guardian)
Six things to see
One: Boston Dynamics unveiled the new generation of its iconic humanoid robot, Atlas. This one is fully electric—and built for “real-world applications.” The OG robot could lift objects and even bust a dance move—but this one “has longer limbs, a straighter back, and a distinct ‘head’ that can swivel around as needed. There are no cables in sight, and its ‘face’ includes a built-in ring light.” This will help the robot carry out tasks in various industries. Watch the demo below. TechCrunch has lots more nerdy details.
Two: It is raining deep fakes in Bollywood. One clip shows Aamir Khan advising folks to stay away from jumla (rhetoric) in a 27-second clip. It was made by altering a clip from his decade-old TV show, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. In another clip, Ranveer Singh endorses the Congress. Watch the Aamir Khan video below. (India Today)
Three: Doordarshan is now bhagwa (saffron)…quite literally! The national broadcaster changed the colour of its logo from the flagship blue to saffron. Make of that what you will. (The News Minute)
Four: Gear up for a Beatles reunion! Actually, it’s more of a Beatles Junior reunion. James McCartney—the son of Linda and Paul McCartney—has released a song titled ‘Primrose Hill’. He co-wrote it with Sean Ono Lennon—the son of Yoko and John. Folks are describing it as a “dreamy ballad.” Is it likely to be a big hit, like the ones rolled out by their daddies? Unlikely. But this second generation family reunion is giving us total Bollywood vibes. We’re just waiting for KJo to catch on. (BBC News)
Five: Scientists have uncovered fossils of the ichthyosaurus, or “fish lizard”, which could have been 82 feet in size rivalling the blue whale (110 feet). They date back to the Triassic period and are 202 million years old. Fun fact: The fossils were found by 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds in 2020 at a beach in Somerset. Yes, new dinosaurs are found all the time—but this one is seriously impressive—as you can see in the artist sketch below. (CNN)
Six: The award for the most unexpected collab of the season goes to Pringles X Crocs. Say hello to the Crush Boot—which comes with a pocket on the side to fit a small can of Pringles. Pringles returned the favour with a new flavour—“Croc-tail Party”—that supposedly tastes like “watermelon chilli lime.” You get a freebie with the boots. The price of this ridiculous deliciousness: $100. It’s so goofy, it actually works lol!
Runner up in the kooky collab category: Heinz UK X Mattel, who unveiled an extremely pink ‘Barbiecue’ sauce. A celebration of the 65th anniversary of Barbie dolls, it gets its signature pink colour from beetroot extract. It’s made of vegan mayo + smoky barbecue sauce—which just sounds wrong. (Food & Wine)
