Researched by: Rachel John, Nirmal Bhansali, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
A new splainer series on YouTube!!
We have launched exclusive video explainers on YouTube, hosted by our editor Lakshmi Chaudhry.
Our second video explores the history of electoral financing in the country, and the introduction of electoral bonds in 2017 which are used to make donations to political parties. Everything about them is astonishing—especially the fact that voters have no right to know who gave how much money to which party.
Check it out below. Stay tuned for more such explainers on the big fat election coming soon, and be sure to hit the notification button.
PS: This is also a great way to share splainer with your friends and family—especially anyone who is kinda text-averse :)
The Middle East crisis: The latest update
Pakistan’s retaliation: A day after Iran’s airstrikes in Pakistan killed four civilians, Islamabad retaliated with missiles of its own. It reportedly targeted “terrorist hideouts” in the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran. According to Pakistan, separatists were given safe haven in the region. The strikes killed ten people from a family including six children. Point to note: This marks the first time that Pakistan has responded with a big military action against Iran. The Guardian has more.
US launches missiles at Yemen: The US targeted Houthi-controlled regions in Yemen for the fifth time this week. According to Washington, it aimed at loaded missiles that were preparing for launch. The White House also noted that the attacks will continue “as long as they need to”. A reminder: Houthis have been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US in an attempt to stem their funding. (Bloomberg News)
Gaza hospital in line of fire: Israeli forces have advanced further into southern Gaza city and are attacking areas near the biggest functioning hospital in the region—Nasser Hospital. The hospital in Khan Younis has been “receiving hundreds of wounded patients a day, crammed into wards and treated on the floors”—but with forces closing in, many people are fleeing in panic. Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of operating from inside the premises, which was denied by the staff. A reminder: In November last year, the IDF had similarly captured the Dar al-Shifa hospital, claiming it was a Hamas hideout—but it could provide no evidence to definitively prove the fact. (Reuters)
In other disturbing news: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance and announced that he is opposed to any form of Palestinian statehood after the war. He also refused to scale back military operations in Gaza to the US. Associated Press has more.
Govt issues guidelines on coaching institutes
The central government has come out with a set of model guidelines to regulate coaching institutes in India that states can implement. Some of the key proposals are:
[S]tudents younger than 16-year-olds should not be enrolled in coaching centres. The guidelines also suggest that coaching centres should not make misleading promises or guarantee ranks to parents and students. Tutors with qualifications less than graduation should not be allowed to teach in coaching institutes either, the guidelines propose…To ensure the mental welfare of students attending coaching centres, the guidelines suggest weekly off for students, suitably spaced-out curriculum and classes no longer than five hours a day.
The guidelines also state that these centres cannot charge exorbitant fees that cause students undue stress—failing which the institutes will be penalised up to Rs 100,000 (1 lakh). The government has also cracked down on misleading advertisements. Why this matters: The coaching industry in India is cutthroat and expensive. Often students are unable to cope with the pressure that these institutes exert, which has led to many suicides in the past few years. Last year, 26 students died by suicide in Kota—‘the coaching capital’ of the country. Read our Big Story on the city for more. (Mint)
Another important announcement: The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) announced that the Aadhaar will no longer be accepted as proof of birth. This decision is based on an older directive by UIDAI, which had emphasised that Aadhaar was not proof of birth. (Hindustan Times)
Japanese live looong
Japan has surpassed Hong Kong to register the longest life expectancy in the world:
Women in Hong Kong were expected to live until 86.8 years old on average in 2022, compared with 87.1 for their Japanese counterparts, according to the latest statistics published this week by the city’s government…Life expectancy for men in the Asian financial hub was 80.7—the same as in Singapore, but shorter than Sweden, Japan and Norway, the data show.
People from Hong Kong were known to live the longest for several years after overtaking Japan in the early 2000s. This changed after the pandemic—with increasing levels of stress as well as deteriorating mental and physical health. A reminder: Hong Kong had one of the highest death rates at the peak of the pandemic and the elderly were the hardest hit in the city. Japan, meanwhile, also has the oldest population in the world with one in ten people aged 80 and above. Business Insider looks at how they manage to live so long. (Bloomberg News via TIME Magazine)
Pitchfork to merge with GQ
One of the most beloved music publications Pitchfork is set to be merged with men’s magazine GQ. Many senior staff members of the website have also been laid off—including editor-in-chief Puja Patel. Pitchfork was a “cultural force” that essentially defined album reviews and music curations. It was established in 1996—as a tiny music blog—before it became a highly-respected publication in the independent music space, probably because of some pretty acerbic reviews:
Pitchfork established itself as a taste-making institution. A prolific publication that could make or break a release from an artist — well-known or otherwise — with scathing put-downs or voluminous praise, it became an alternative to Rolling Stone for an audience hungry for a more indie taste. An example: The outlet gave Sonic Youth’s 2000 album, “NYC Ghosts & Flowers,” a zero out of 10 rating.
Condé Nast acquired the publication in 2015. However, with the rise of music streaming, social media and podcasts its relevance has waned. And just like other media companies, Condé Nast has struggled to remain profitable—hence the merger. (BBC News)
A disturbing study on Greenland’s ice
We have known for decades that Greenland is losing ice due to climate change. However, a new study reveals that ice is melting in the region at a much faster rate than was earlier estimated. In the past few decades, Greenland has lost 6,000 gigatons of ice—which is 20% more than the earlier estimation. This means that it is losing 30 million tonnes of ice every hour. This newly identified loss of ice has been attributed to the edges of glaciers, where they meet water. Ice in this area melts at a much faster rate than it can form.
Why this matters:
Ice loss at these edges wouldn’t directly affect sea levels…But it would allow ice on the land to flow into the ocean more quickly and accelerate sea level rise — it’s like pulling the plug out of the drain. The freshwater from the glacial ice could have a more direct effect on ocean circulation and the distribution of heat around the globe.
This will result in more extreme weather events across the world. Washington Post (paywall) has lots more.
A related good read: Nature has a feature on a theory that has divided scientists: Can ice-sheet melting be slowed by giant underwater curtains?
Appalling elephant deaths in Zimbabwe
Southern Africa has been witnessing extremely dry and arid conditions because of the El Niño effect (explained here). This has led to severe droughts in several parts of the region last year including Zimbabwe—where at least 160 elephants died as a consequence. These elephants were located in the country’s Hwange National Park—which received no rainfall between February and November in 2023. According to park officials, the elephants died between August and December due to starvation.
Saving elephants is not just for the animals’ sake, conservationists say. They are a key ally in fighting climate change through the ecosystem by dispersing vegetation over long distances through dung that contains plant seeds, enabling forests to spread, regenerate and flourish.
Point to note: Conservation groups warn that these drought-like conditions could continue in 2024 as well. (The Guardian)
Google’s big EU compliance
The context: The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has introduced a sweeping set of changes in the bloc’s antitrust rules, which regulate big tech companies. These include making services interoperable, allowing customers to choose their preferred search engine and browser, and ensuring that companies do not blockout their competitors who offer similar services. The deadline to comply with the rules is March 2024.
What happened now: Google has announced that it will be making certain changes to its operations in the EU to comply with the DMA. On Android phones, Google will allow consumers to pick their preferred browser instead of offering Chrome as default. It is also changing the way search functions for shopping related queries by prioritising price comparison sites rather than individual businesses:
The way Google handles price comparisons in Search has previously proved contentious with EU regulators, who fined the company €2.42 billion in 2017 for using the dominance of its search engine to give an “illegal advantage” to its comparison shopping service.
Users will also now be able to restrict the amount of data that is shared among Google’s services like YouTube, Chrome, and Google Play. FYI: A recent study has found that Google search has gotten worse in the past few years and “higher-ranked pages are on average more optimised, more monetized with affiliate marketing” and low quality text. 404 Media has that story. (The Verge)
Speaking of Google: Google Pay has partnered with the National Payment Corporation of India, which handles UPI payments, to expand the service internationally.
This will allow Indian travellers to use Google Pay internationally, which will eliminate the need to carry cash. (Indian Express)
Also related: Google’s AI research lab DeepMind has launched AlphaGeometry—“a system that the lab claims can solve as many geometry problems as the average International Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist.” According to the lab, solving geometry problems is key to the development of “deep mathematical reasoning” which will help with more advanced AI systems. (Techcrunch)
Samsung bets on AI smartphones
Recently, Apple toppled Samsung and sold the most smartphones globally for the first time since 2010. In its quest to return to the numero uno position, Samsung has unveiled its latest smartphone series—the Galaxy S24—that have been integrated with its generative AI technology Gemini. The smartphones offer a variety of AI functions:
The new phones will have two-way voice translation in real-time of a live phone call conducted in two different languages, which the company said the Galaxy S24 series is the first ever smartphone to offer … It also offers a "circle-to-search" function in which circling any part of an image on screen searches it in Google. Other features include AI translation and changing the tone of messages to casual, formal, business or social media.
Why this matters: According to experts, the future is AI-enabled smartphones: “Just 5% of smartphones shipped in 2024 will be AI-capable, but this will grow to 45% in 2027.” Watch the video below to see how the new smartphone operates. (Reuters)
In related news: Samsung has also announced that it is working on a new AI-enabled smart ring called the Galaxy ring—which has been described as a “powerful and accessible” health device. You can get a sense of what it looks like from the gif below: (The Verge)
Online piracy is on the rise!!
A report by a UK-based anti-piracy has revealed that visits to websites that carry pirated content has gone up by 12% across the world since 2019. In 2023, 141 billion visits were recorded on these sites—which equals about 386 million visits every day. Most of the piracy takes place in the US and India—but Europe and Asia Pacific had more per capita visits. Anime is copied the most, making up 25% of all pirated content.
A major reason for this rise is consumer hostility on several streaming platforms and also how rising costs of living make many of them unaffordable:
[C]racking down on password sharing, introducing more adverts, and generally limiting the number of devices able to simultaneously watch shows, while also hiking prices—means that piracy services can often offer a more seamless viewing experience.
Why this matters: Streaming platforms need to change their attitudes towards consumers. People who watch pirated content are often those who want to watch more content: “the streaming industry needs to converge towards a system where consumers can watch ‘pretty much everything they like for an affordable price’.” But in this economy, it is a task easier said than done. (Semafor)
Three things to see
One: A fortnight ago, we learnt about the Prada stainless steel bottle that retails for $195. Today, we learned about an even more ridiculously priced Prada product—a 6.5 cm-long silver paper clip—described as a “sleek money clip with engraved lettering logo”. The price: a whopping $370 dollars. And guess what, it's sold out!
FYI: This isn’t the first paperclip Prada has launched. Back in 2017, a silver paperclip with a price tag of $185 was one of the more affordable items from the luxury brand. You can see an image of the overpriced ‘Money Clip’ below: (Times UK)
Two: Jenny is back in the block! Here’s a very interesting trailer from JLo’s upcoming movie ‘This Is Me... Now: A Love Story’ which is “a narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing.” Oof, those are a lot of words. Directed by Dave Myers, the production is a movie version of the singer’s forthcoming album ‘This Is Me... Now’ and will feature celebrity cameos including her husband Ben Affleck. It is slated for a release on February 16 on Amazon Prime. (Independent UK)
Three: Here’s some geeky news for fans of comics. The first issue of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (one of two near perfect copies in the world) from 1963 fetched a whopping $1.38 million at a recent auction. Also: A “very fine” copy of the first Superman issue from 1939 was sold for $2.34 million. You can see the Spider-Man comic book cover below. (The Guardian)
