Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
ICYMI: We have a new YouTube show!
In case you missed the Editor’s Note, we’ve launched our daily news wrap called ‘What the F*** Happened Here?’ The title sums up how all of us feel any time we watch or read the news. But we are here to make it easier to know what’s up—without noise, negativity or that existential feeling of despair. The first edition from last evening is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.
Government raids & investigations: The latest update
Those damned statistics: An Indian Express investigation found that 25 prominent politicians facing corruption charges have crossed over to the BJP: “They cut across party lines: 10 are from the Congress; four each from NCP and Shiv Sena; three from TMC; two from TDP; and one each from SP and YSRCP.” Of these, 23 were spared any further action after their defection. Ah, the irresistible charms of the BJP.
Happy news for Sanjay Singh: The AAP leader has been released on bail—after being imprisoned for six months in the same liquor tax case as his boss Arvind Kejriwal. The Enforcement Directorate didn’t even oppose his bail in the hearing in front of the Supreme Court. A hint as to why the government is feeling unusually generous:
Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonwalla said with the Supreme Court granting bail to Singh in the case, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) now has no right to claim that the action of central probe agencies against its leaders is "vendetta politics.”
Terrible news for Mahua Moitra: The ED has turned its attention to the Trinamool MP—who was expelled from Parliament for taking bribes. She allegedly received luxury items, travel expenses, holidays from a friend—Darshan Hiranandani—in exchange for asking requested questions in the Lok Sabha (explained here). This ED probe is the continuation of that saga. (The Hindu)
War on Gaza: The latest update
Killing kitchen workers: In yet another Israeli airstrike, Tel Aviv is accused of killing aid workers from the World Central Kitchen. That’s the disaster relief NGO led by celebrity chef José Andrés. It has been delivering food to Gaza by sea—because Israel has been blocking aid shipments on land. This is a big deal because the workers killed were wearing very visible WCK logos on their clothes. And they had passports from Australia, Britain and Poland pinned to their chests.
But when you kill foreign citizens, their governments get mad. Like the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who’s asking for full accountability for this “unacceptable” tragedy. Even worse: Israel had promised to provide security to WCK— which is a Washington-based charity and can’t be accused of hiding members of Hamas. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claims that the aid workers had been “unintentionally” targeted and that “it happens in a war.” The fallout: Charities have suspended operations in the region after the attack. You can see a disturbing clip of the airstrike below. (CNN)
Anti-Muslim hate in the US: was at an all-time high in the US in 2023—especially after the October 7 attacks in Israel. A total of 8,061 complaints were registered by the Council on American-Islamic Relations—a 56% jump on the previous year. What’s really sad: In 2022, the number had dropped for the very first time. In total, around 3,600 incidents of hate were recorded in the last three months of the year. This includes the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American. Reuters has more.
Indians headed for Israel: After the October 7 attacks, Israel banned Palestinian workers. To make up for the shortfall, Tel Aviv launched a recruitment program in India. Now, the first batch of 64 construction workers from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh have left for Israel. In all, 10,000 will be flown out over the coming weeks. Reasons for concern:
The [Ministry of External Affairs] declined to respond to queries over whether the government has received any assurances that the Indians now being sent for construction work will only be assigned to “safe areas”, or whether they may be employed in border areas, Gaza, or even in occupied Israeli settlements not recognised by India.
Reminder: Indian workers who took jobs in Russia found themselves forced into dangerous war zones—resulting in one death. Critics say Indians are rushing to sign up for perilous jobs because of high rates of unemployment—which the government refuses to acknowledge. (The Hindu)
A shocking report on disinformation on YouTube
According to a new report, YouTube has been approving dozens of ads that suppress the vote—and incite violence—ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Two rights groups—Global Witness and Access Now—submitted 48 advertisements. They contained election-related content that is specifically prohibited by YouTube. The ads were in three languages: Hindi, Telugu, and English. And all of them contained disinformation. Examples:
Some of the ads approved by YouTube contained false information aimed at suppressing votes, such as saying ID is not required to vote, or that women could vote by text message… Other voter-suppression ads also contained content that could be considered incitement to violence. One accused a religious community of dispersing bribes in return for votes, and urged people to “show up in force at their voting stations and show them who’s in charge.”
Within a 24-hour review period, YouTube approved 100% of the ads. What’s even more alarming: When a similar experiment was conducted ahead of the mid-term elections in the US in 2022, 100% of these ads were rejected. But in Brazil the same year, all ads with misinformation were approved. The TIME Magazine report is a must-read.
Moving on to Microsoft: The company has finally unbundled its Office products from Teams—its answer to Zoom. This is mainly to avoid hefty antitrust fines in the EU—already has run up about €2.2 billion in penalties. (Reuters)
World Cup 2024: Ben Stokes is outta here!
England's star player says he will skip the T20 tournament—because the "sacrifice" will help him focus on his bowling:
I'm working hard and focusing on building my bowling fitness back up to fulfil a full role as an all-rounder in all formats of cricket. Opting out of the IPL and the World Cup will hopefully be a sacrifice that allows me to be the all-rounder I want to be for the foreseeable future.
Reminder: Stokes yanked himself out of IPL last year—after Chennai Super Kings bid a horrendous amount of money to get him at the auction. That time, his reason was he wanted to be in good shape for the Ashes, which was drawn last year. And the Stokes-led team was hammered 1-4 in the series against India earlier this year. Yes, we’re feeling mean. (The Hindu)
Bad sales news for Tesla
The company that built Elon Musk’s reputation is losing its grip on the EV market. It reported a “stunning drop” in quarterly sales. This came as a shock to investors since other EV makers—like BYD of China and Kia and Hyundai of South Korea—have reported increases in revenue. One interesting reason: The EV market is expanding to include “mainstream buyers”—who are not impressed with Tesla’s ‘cool’ design:
In contrast to the early adopters who fueled Tesla’s rise, mainstream buyers may be put off by the vehicles’ unconventional design, including minimalist interiors and lack of buttons and switches. Almost all functions in Tesla vehicles are controlled from a large screen on the dashboard.
It also doesn’t have showrooms like other car companies—or a responsive customer service. Musk didn’t respond to the new figures—and spent his time heckling Disney for being too ‘woke’. That’s a bit odd since liberals are most likely to shell out the big bucks for a Tesla. Taken with Twitter’s crashing ad numbers due to similar reasons, Elon is becoming indifferent to revenues. (New York Times)
Vistara’s got pilot problems
Booking a seat on Vistara these days is like playing the lottery. Of the 300 flights scheduled for Monday, 80 were cancelled and over 190 were delayed. The villains of this story are Vistara pilots who haven’t been showing up for work. They’re mad about a new salary structure. They will only be paid for a guaranteed 40 hours each month. That’s nearly half the previous total of 70. When the pilots expressed their unhappiness, the Tata-owned airline played hardball.
They were told to take the deal or lose their job when Vistara merges with Air India—which is also owned by the Tatas. All this cost-cutting misery is part of the big plan to consolidate all three Tata-owned brands into one. That’s AirAsia, Vistara and Air India. Vistara’s slogan is ‘Fly the new feeling’. Except it won’t be a very nice feeling when we’ll be at the mercy of just two airlines—IndiGo and Air India. (Indian Express)
Trashy news from outer space!
A couple of weeks ago, something crashed into the home of Alejandro Otero in Naples, Florida. It smashed through two floors. But mercifully no one was hurt. According to news reports, this unwanted visitor has been identified as a piece of debris from the International Space Station. It is part of a set of nine batteries junked by NASA back in 2021.
To be fair, falling space debris isn’t exactly rare. And the chance that it will hurt a human being is less than 1 in 100 billion. But those odds may increase as outer space fills up with more junk each year. As of June 2023, there were nearly 40,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimetres. Some of them are as big as a truck! Yikes! (Ars Technica)
Why are some people better at Fortnite?
Scientists have discovered why some people are better at games that require tracking fast-moving objects. They simply have better “temporal resolution”—the rate at which our brains perceive the world. Some people are able to see more “images per second” than others—which works in the same way as the refresh rate of a computer monitor.
FYI: This is an excellent advantage for tennis players—and probably applies to batters, as well. Fun fact: The temporal resolution of peregrine falcons is roughly 100 visual frames a second. (The Guardian)
One controversial thing to see
Adidas has banned fans from customising the new design for Germany’s national football jersey with the number 44. Thanks to the font used by the company, 44 looks like the symbol for the Schutzstaffel. That’s the paramilitary Nazi group responsible for the mass killings of Jews–we all know as SS. This is the symbol:
And here’s the kit with the number 44:
By the way, there’s also a brewing controversy over Germany’s away kit—which is pink. Some think it’s a silly woke gesture. We think it’s just Ken—as Ryan Gosling would say. (The Guardian)
