Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
Gaganyaan’s got some astronauts
India’s first manned space mission is slated for 2025. The three-day flight will launch astronauts to an orbit that is 400 km above our planet—and bring them right back. We now have the names of the four Indian Air Force pilots who will make that flight: Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap and Shubhanshu Shukla. All of them trained at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. Point to note: Only three of them will eventually go to space. Sadly, there are no women in the mix—as you can see below. Indian Express has more on the astronauts.
Rajya Sabha polls: BJP plans regime change!
Quick reminder: Members of the upper house are not elected by ordinary voters—but by members of state legislatures. So a majority in a state should give you the power to elect your party members to the Rajya Sabha—in theory.
About those results: The BJP’s performance in Himachal Pradesh came as an unpleasant surprise for Congress. Its nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated when nine MLAs — six from Congress and three Independents — voted against him. The result: victory of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan.
A downcast Singhvi said of the treacherous MLAs:
They have taught us a lot because they supped with us… dinner, drinks and photography until 11 pm last night and two of them had breakfast with us. So we are bad judges of human character. They are obviously better judges of human character.
Haw, the heartbreak! Congress’ sorrows may well increase now that the state BJP party is demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. PS: There was more “cross-voting” among Samajwadi MLAs in Uttar Pradesh—where the BJP won eight out of ten seats. None of this bodes well for the Lok Sabha polls. Indian Express has the drama in Himachal. The Hindu has the overall results.
War on Ukraine: Macron sparks diplomatic chaos
The French President is doing his best to take over the leadership of the anti-Russia alliance in Europe—since the US is far too caught up in party politics to help. After a meeting of European leaders in Paris about future support for Kyiv, he was asked about the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. To which, he astonishingly said “nothing should be ruled out.” He also added that “anything is possible if it is useful to reach our goal”—which is to ensure that “Russia cannot win this war.”
The fallout: This grandstanding immediately evoked immediate panic among his NATO colleagues. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted: “One thing is clear: there will be no ground troops from European states of NATO” in Ukraine. Polish, Czech, Swedish, and Spanish leaders did the same. As for the US: White House officials said: President Biden has been crystal clear since the beginning of this conflict: "There would be no U.S troops on the ground in a combat role there.”
As for the Kremlin: Its spokesperson menacingly said: "It is not in the interests of these countries, and they should be mindful. In that case (of sending troops), we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia)." Who’s afraid of Vladimir Putin? Everybody. (New York Times, paywall)
Microsoft’s surprising AI move
Microsoft—which is the biggest investor in OpenAI—has inked a partnership with the French startup Mistral AI. The company will offer Mistral’s tools as part of Azure—its cloud computing platform. It’s an interesting move—since Mistral's latest model competes directly with OpenAI's GPT4. And it’s launched its own chatbot called—very unimaginatively—‘Le Chat’. The EU regulatory authorities also find the move very interesting—and plan to review the deal. Microsoft is already under scrutiny in Europe for its $10 billion agreement with OpenAI. Reuters has that story. (Financial Times, paywall, CNBC)
The bad news about tuna
Back in the 1970s, scientists discovered alarmingly high levels of mercury in tuna. Their findings led to strenuous efforts to curb mercury pollution. Sadly, a new study shows that it hasn’t helped very much. An analysis of thousands of tuna samples from 1971 to 2022 shows that mercury levels in the fish have remained virtually unchanged.
Here’s how mercury pollution occurs:
Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but human activities like mining and burning fossil fuels cause the bulk of mercury pollution worldwide. From the air, it eventually settles, with much of it ending up in the oceans. Along the way, microorganisms convert mercury into a highly toxic form that builds up in fish and shellfish.
Even though we have drastically reduced such activities, “legacy” mercury that is stored deep in the ocean is being “churned” up to shallower parts where tuna swim and feed.
The main takeaway: Even with the most stringent laws, it will take another 10-25 years for mercury concentrations to start falling in the ocean. It will take additional decades for the amount of mercury in tuna to after that. (New York Times)
Scientists ‘print’ world’s strongest material
Researchers have used 3D printing to create an exceptionally strong material—that is "at least 50% stronger than the strongest alloy made by humans." This is a metamaterial—which is made by combining metals and plastics: “Researchers have been using this approach to create newer materials that can withstand extreme temperature and pressure demands in challenging environments such as aerospace.” Why this matters: This new metamaterial can be used in rocketry manufacturing, firefighting drones and even human bone implants. (Interesting Engineering)
A political fight over Andhra cricket
The state cricket team is caught in the midst of a political brawl between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP). In a post on X, team captain Hanuma Vihari said he was penalised for shouting at a player whose father is a politician.
I was the captain in the first game against Bengal, during that game I shouted at the 17th player and he complained to his dad (who is a politician), his dad in return asked the Association to take action against me. Although we chased 410 against last year’s finalists Bengal, I was asked to resign from captaincy without any fault of mine.
TDP jumped on the bandwagon—revealing that the player was the son of Kuntrapakam Narasimha, a YSRCP municipal corporator. The party also alleged that YSRCP had put their “henchmen” in the state’s cricket association. The fallout: The association has ordered a probe against Vihari. (Indian Express)
Sad news about South African rhinos
According to the South African government, 499 rhinoceros were killed by poachers in 2023—that’s a jump of 51 from the previous year. Ironically, successful conservation efforts at the famous Kruger National Park is responsible for this spike.
The majority of animals killed last year were in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal province… Poaching groups "often struggle to spot rhinos in the Kruger and so come here where they are more visible."
Why this is heart-breaking: South Africa is home to almost 50% of the critically-endangered black rhino population in Africa. And it has the world's largest population of near-threatened white rhinos. (BBC News)
Meanwhile, in India: The controversy over housing a lion named Akbar with a lioness named Sita has turned ugly. After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad raised a stink about this “blasphemy”—and demanded the name of the lioness be changed. They took their case to a Bengal court—where the judge went one step further: “Sita is worshipped by a larger section of this country. I also oppose naming the lion after Akbar. He was an efficient, successful and secular Mughal emperor.” Now, the matter has reached its logical conclusion: the wildlife official who named the beasts has been sacked. Jai Hind! (New York Times)
