Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
The ‘24 Questions project is here!
We published the first edition of our weekly election special yesterday. And it looks pretty good:) All through the election season, we will send you an exclusive election goodie bag right in your inbox each week—with the following:
- Deep dives by independent experts—with true area expertise—that will DECODE everything around elections.
- Creative (and shareworthy) infographics that offer important insights—perfect EYE CANDY.
- Our pick of the best YouTube analysis in our WATCHLIST.
- A weekly roundup of the most taaza election khabar plus the best reads of the season to understand the STATE OF PLAY.
Coming soon: Join our new Whatsapp channel here—to stay in the loop! And look for announcements of our IRL town halls—where you get to ask the smartest people in the biz all the questions you have about this election.
The big picture: Every bit of our election project is designed to help you understand what makes our democracy tick—without jargon or rants (and a sense of humour). If you’d like to support our work, you can get a founding member subscription—which comes with free subs for you and your friends:)
As always, thank you for your continued support. With your help, we hope to kick ass this election season, splainer style!
War on Gaza: The latest update
US airdrops meals: The US and Jordan military dropped 38,000 meals along the Gaza coastline. It is the first of many planned for the following weeks. The US will send aid on ships via Cyprus, as well.
Sounds good—though highly overdue—but aid organisations have slammed the move as a PR move.
While Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the absolute brink, dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza with no plan for its safe distribution would not help and be deeply degrading to Palestinians.
Point to note: There are about 2,000 trucks stuck at the border with Egypt. And a number of aid shipments have been hit by airstrikes. (Al Jazeera)
Ceasefire talks in Cairo: Hamas leaders and delegates from the US and Qatar have arrived in the city—to negotiate a ceasefire asap. Hamas is reported to have said that an agreement on a truce could be reached within the next 24 to 48 hours. But Israel is holding out—even though US officials claimed it is close to accepting “a framework for a temporary ceasefire.” The problem: Israel says Hamas has declined to share a list of captives who are still alive. (Al Jazeera)
Biden’s rising troubles: According to a new Wall Street Journal survey, sympathy for Palestinians in the US is on the rise—42% of voters say Israel has gone too far in Gaza. There is also growing discontent over Biden’s leadership:
The new poll found that 60% of voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, 8 points more than in December, with 31% approving of Biden’s actions…“The longer this goes on, there is a shift toward more sympathy toward the Palestinians and less toward Israel,” said Democratic pollster Michael Bocian.
About 33% respondents also said that the US was doing too little to help people in Gaza—30% believe that it was doing too much for Israel. This explains why Veep Kamala Harris delivered a rare rebuke of Tel Aviv—for not doing enough to allow aid to enter Gaza. (Wall Street Journal, paywall)
PS: A New York Times poll shows that even voters who support Biden think he is “just too old” to be an effective leader.
A bomb blast in Bangalore
A bomb exploded on Friday at the famous Rameshwaram Cafe in Whitefield on Friday. At the time, 35 to 40 customers were present at the cafe—but mercifully, only nine were injured. According to the police, a man left the bomb in a bag. The investigation is focused on four known Islamic extremists—including one nicknamed ‘Colonel’:
Owing to the similarities in the assembling of the explosive, the detonator, timer and the mechanism used to explode the bomb, between the recent explosion in the restaurant and the cooker bomb blast at Mangaluru on November 19, 2022, the police are now probing the networks of the absconding accused — Abdul Mateen Taha, 30, Musabir Hussain and ‘Colonel’ — in the Mangaluru case, the sources said.
The Hindu has lots more on the investigation.
Google shocker: PlayStore delists Indian apps
The context: Google imposes a 15% "service fee" on apps that earn up to $1 million from subscriptions or in-app purchases—and a 30% fee if they earn more. In February, Google scored a victory in the Supreme Court—which dismissed the legal challenge from Indian companies.
What happened now: On Friday, Google removed ten apps of “well-established” Indian companies from its store—claiming that they defaulted on their payments. These included Shaadi.com, Naukri.com and 99acres—as well as Kuku FM and Stage:
It said more than 200,000 apps from India were not paying a service fee. In a blog post, it said nearly 97% of all apps on the Play Store do not pay a fee, and that a majority of the rest pay 15%.
It insists that any company that doesn’t want to pay the fee has to “remove payment options from their mobile apps and use browsers to accept subscriptions from users instead” (This is what splainer does). But for many startups, this means they will have to redesign their apps. After intervention from the government, Google began restoring some of them over the weekend. However, Bharat Matrimony and KukuFM are still missing. (TechCrunch)
A horrific gang rape of Spanish vlogger
On Friday, a 28-year-old Spanish vlogger was sexually assaulted by seven men in Jharkhand’s Dumka. The incident took place around 11pm at a village where she and her partner had set up camp for the night. The woman and her partner also shared their ordeal in an Insta video. Four people have been arrested—but all seven have been identified. They are local residents—and were high on drugs, according to the police. (The Print)
Musk vs OpenAI: Let the battles begin!
The context: In 2015, OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk and legendary investor and current CEO Sam Altman—as a non-profit with a high-minded mission:
Its goal is to be the first to create AGI—a machine with the learning and reasoning powers of a human mind. The purpose is not world domination; rather, the lab wants to ensure that the technology is developed safely and its benefits distributed evenly to the world.
Musk pulled out in 2018—after clashing with Altman over control of the company. For more: We did a detailed Big Story on Altman and OpenAI.
What happened now: Musk is suing OpenAI and Altman for allegedly violating these founding principles:
The lawsuit—which has also been filed against OpenAI boss Sam Altman—says the firm has departed from its original non-profit, open source mission. It says instead of trying to "benefit humanity" — as it was set up to do — it is focusing on "maximising profits" for major investor Microsoft.
According to the complaint, these principles were laid out in something called the “Founding Agreement.”
But, but, but: No such agreement or contract exists:
Musk is straightforwardly alleging that OpenAI breached a contract that does not exist. It is simply not a thing! The complaint makes reference to a “Founding Agreement,” but no such Founding Agreement is attached as an exhibit, and the breach of contract claim admits that the “Founding Agreement” is basically a vibe everyone caught in some emails.
Nilay Patel in The Verge explains why Musk’s case doesn’t hold water. (BBC News)
Speaking of Altman: He is now worth more than $2 billion—and not a penny of that is from OpenAI. The reason: he doesn’t own any stocks—and has instead invested in a number of venture funds. And he owns an 8.7% stake in Reddit—which is due to go public soon. (Mint)
A near-satellite crash in space
NASA’s TIMED spacecraft and the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 came alarmingly close to each other—some 608 kilometres above Earth:
LeoLabs reported that the two satellites came within a mere 66 feet (20 metres) of each other. Considering the speed at which these objects travel — over 17,500 miles per hour (28,165 kilometres per hour) — this was “too close for comfort,” as the company said... Both of these spacecraft lack manoeuvrability, leaving ground observers with no choice but to watch helplessly, without the ability to intervene.
According to LeoLabs, if the two had collided, it would have generated a great amount of debris—2,000 to 7,000 fragments—increasing the possibility of future collisions. Why this matters: Space above our planet is getting crowded—and filling up with junk. These kinds of near-misses will become more frequent in the future. (Quartz)
Introducing: The climate Bechdel test
The context: The Bechdel-Wallace Test is a popular tool to measure if a film is feminist or not. The test checks three parameters— one: at least two women are featured in the project; two: that these women talk to each other; and three: that they discuss something other than a man. Some of the most famous chick flicks that have passed it include ‘Mean Girls’,‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Sex and the City’. Those who flunked: ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ and ‘La La Land’.
What happened now: We now have a climate change version of the test called Climate Reality Check. It looks at two questions: whether climate change exists in the project—and whether a character knows it. Of 31 Oscar nominated films in 2023, only three passed the test: ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’, ‘Nyad’ and ‘Barbie’—which also passed the Bechdel Test. A surprising loser: ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’—since the film is all about the dangers of big oil. NPR has more and the full report can be read here.
Nothing succeeds like excess: The Ambani guide
Yes, the amount of money being spent is obscene—an estimated Rs 12.50 billion on just the pre-shaadi spectacle. Yes, Mukesh-bhai wants to trap all of us in a crap quality, zero customer service Reliance world. But you got to give this to him—the man knows how to throw a party.
Point to note: The actual ceremony is on July 12. This is just “pre-wedding festivities” for his youngest son—Anant—who is marrying industrialist Viren Merchant's daughter Radhika. Ok, here we go!
The guest list: at Jamnagar was suitably A++++ list. Tech titans: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai. Bollywood stars: Everyone who matters—including the three Khans. Thrown into the mix: cricket stars like Rohit Sharma—though there was no sign of Virat (haw!). You can watch the Khans dance for their supper below:
Most amusing bit: How the Bolly stars were herded into a bus, janta style!
The superstar performance: Where Isha Ambani got Beyoncé, Anant scored a private Rihanna concert:
Rihanna was a great sport. She twerked with Janhvi Kapoor:
And she posed with paps—with the kind of warmth our homegrown stars can never muster:
The Mukesh & Nita show: The real movie stars of the evening were Mr and Mrs Ambani—who ruined one of our favourite Hindi film gaanas. But, hey, when you have true love, who needs good taste?
And just when you’ve barely recovered, this:
The sweet bits: Ambanis tried to show their nicer side, as well. Ambani served food to poor kids in a nearby village (which is either appalling or awww, depending on your politics).
We personally came closest to liking Mukesh-bhai when he seriously bawled in public:
Two things to see
One: Putin critic Alexei Navalny who died in prison earlier this month was finally buried on Friday. Thousands of people came to bid him farewell—despite a harsh warning from the Russian government. He was most appropriately buried to the theme song of ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’—recalling the famous final scene when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character gives a thumbs-up while he is lowered into a vat of molten steel. According to Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh: “Alexei considered Terminator 2 the best film in the whole world”. Watch a clip from the funeral below. Our Big Story has more on his death and its impact in Russia. (BBC News)
Two: On Saturday, LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 points. He achieved the milestone in his 21st season in a match against the Denver Nuggets. Watch the historic basket below. (The Guardian)
