headlines that matter

editor’s note

In our latest Advisory edition… Part one of a MAP Academy series offers a guide to the meaning of mudras—symbolic gestures that are rich with spiritual meaning. Kurush Dalal takes us on the wonderfully diverse history of the Parsi breakfast—including the Portuguese pav, Gujarati farsan, and meaty Persian Aleti Paleti. With Children's Day—and Pandit-ji’s birthday anniversary—round the corner, Neha Kirpal has curated a list of children’s books—by Indian authors—ranging from mythology to travel and activity books. We’ve pulled together the best new tracks and albums globally that dropped over the last month. And as always, curated the best new shows and films to binge-watch this weekend. Read it here.

Kuch hatke desi playlist: Once a month we gather suggestions from the splainer fam to put together an awesome playlist—each with its own theme. For the next edition, we're looking for kuch hatke Indian music—interpret it as you will—just not your mainstream or filmi tracks. We are language agnostic, as always:) Add your picks to this handy short form.

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Content warning: The headlines below deal with incidents of extreme sexual and physical violence.

Archbishop of Canterbury resigns in sex abuse scandal

In the matter of sex abuse by priests, the Catholic Church has received most of the attention. Turns out the Church of England isn’t all that far behind. An independent report revealed widespread abuse at Christian camps, universities, and at the posh private school Winchester College—most of it inflicted by a single person:

[John] Smyth became “arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England,” operating in three countries where he inflicted physical, sexual and psychological attacks on as many as 130 people. He died in 2018 in South Africa.

Smyth groomed his victims—then subjected them to “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks”—including “savage beatings.” He then convinced them “that the way to Christ was through suffering”. The report said the Archbishop’s wilful failure to investigate reports of abuse—of which he was informed in 2013—“amounted to a coverup.” New York Times (login required) and The Guardian have lots more details.

Speaking of unspeakable abuse: A US jury has awarded $42 million in damages to three men—who were tortured in the infamous Iraqi prison—during the American occupation.

Al Shimari, a middle school principal, Al-Ejaili, a journalist, and Al-Zuba’e, a fruit vendor, testified that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at Abu Ghraib. While they did not allege that CACI’s interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, they argued that CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to “soften up” detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.

Why this matters: The survivors successfully sued a civilian contractor—whose employees took part in the abuse. The contractor—CACI—claimed the US government should bear liability for the torture. But the US government has refused to compensate any of the Abu Ghraib victims. At the very least, the judgement puts an end to this shameful game of ‘pass the parcel’. (Al Jazeera)

The down low campaign to shut down ‘finfluencers’

YouTube has started blocking videos of a number of financial influencers—whose content deals with personal finance, market trends, and stock recommendations. Their videos are being blocked without prior notice—due to complaints from an unnamed "government entity.” YouTube won’t name this entity—nor will it specify the reasons for taking down the videos.

SEBI, maybe? The stock market regulator recently declared war on unregistered financial advisors—misleading Indians into making bad investment choices. Many claim YouTube has responded with a mass—and often indiscriminate—takedown:

Varun Mehta, founder of PaisaSmart, mentioned that while the videos had been blocked, neither his company nor its Sebi-registered parent had received any notice from the regulator regarding a potential violation of regulations. “We received a notice from YouTube for videos that had been online for months. One fine day, they got blocked. We have always been compliant with all regulations; our Sebi registration numbers and all standard disclosures are prominently visible in the videos," he said.

In one case, 124 videos were blocked in one fell swoop—forcing the creator to challenge each decision—a process that could take months. A number of influencers are now planning to sue YouTube—which says it shouldn’t be blamed for the government’s policies. (Mint, paywall, Exchange4Media)

Iraq plans to legalise child marriage

A proposed law will reduce the legal age of consent for girls from 18 to nine—which will “legalise child rape”. The government claims the move “aligns with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and is intended to protect young girls from ‘immoral relationships’.” Ofc, the bill has sparked protests:

Tell me about the bill: it ‘reforms’ the Personal status law first introduced in 1959—shortly after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy—to replace Islamic jurisprudence.

Personal status laws, or family laws, govern marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. In the Middle East, many of these are based on religion, but Iraq's Personal Status Law No. 188, passed in 1959, is less so. It basically replaced Sunni and Shiite Muslim religious courts with a civil judiciary and more liberal interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence.

Defenders of the bill argue that the law will merely recognise the status quo. A third of Iraqi women are married before the age of 18—in unregistered weddings performed by clerics. But since these marriages are not recognised by law, the girls are denied basic rights: “For example, hospitals can refuse women admitted for childbirth without a marriage certificate.”

The bigger picture: The bill appears to be an attempt to “shift away from Western influence”:

This is about Iraq reasserting the appearance of its sovereignty when it comes to the US and the UN. But in other ways, it's about the image these politicians want to present to their domestic audience… “They're using these bills to bring religion back into the conversation because they think they can at least regain ideological legitimacy with their constituency.”

Some activists worry that the law represents a giant step toward establishing a new religious judicial system known as the Guardianship of the Jurist. Deutsche Welle has more on the bigger picture. Telegraph UK (paywalled) and Business Standard report on the law and the protests.

And the Booker goes to…

Samantha Harvey for the novel 'Orbital'—“a ‘space pastoral’ about six astronauts circling the Earth” on the International Space Station. She is the first British novelist to win the top prize since 2020—and the first woman to do so since Margaret Atwood and Bernadine Evaristo in 2019. She beat out five other finalists including Percival Everett whose novel ‘James’ reimagines Mark Twain's ‘Huckleberry Finn’ from the point of view of its Black character. Our favourite among the others is Rachel Kushner's spy story ‘Creation Lake’. The Conversation offers short reviews of all the finalists. The Guardian has more on ‘Orbital’. (The Hindu)

Escape from Trump’s America

Wealthy Americans can flee Trump White House Part II by hopping on a cruise ship. Villa Vie Residences now offers a four-year “Skip Forward” package aboard its Odyssey cruise—for up to 600 people. The ship will travel to 425 ports across 140 countries. The price tag— $260,000 for a private cabin—includes meals and (most importantly) booze—so liberals can soothe their bleeding hearts. (Quartz)

An elephant-sized tragedy in Africa

The number of African elephants declined by a staggering 77% between 1964 and 2016—according to a new study that spans 37 countries. The reasons are predictable: poaching and habitat loss—especially forests. The silver lining: the study also shows that conservation works. In southern Africa, the numbers increased in 42% of the sites with “active stewardship.” Point to note: The last census of elephants across Africa was conducted in 2016—which put the population at between 415,000 and 540,000. (Reuters)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Climate change has a surprising supporter—Exxon CEO Darren Woods, who told President-elect Donald Trump not to abandon the Paris Agreement.
Say hello to Google Maps’ new real-time AQI monitoring feature, just in time for smog season!
Also newly launched: Amazon’s Future Engineer Makerspace in Bengaluru—which will admit 4,000 students next year.
In a landmark case, Dutch courts let Shell off the hook for its contribution to global emissions.
Nestle and Proctor & Gamble are investigating the supply chains of their palm oil—sourced from illegal deforestation in Indonesian wildlife reserves. Also read: Our Big Story on India’s addiction to palm oil.

as for the rest

Around 1.53 million people died in accidents on Indian roads between 2014 and 2023. That’s higher than the population of Chandigarh!
According to Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar, Gautam Adani had played a role in engineering BJP’s political coup in the state as far back as 2019.
Rising sea levels and Indian Ocean temperature patterns have caused some Maldives’ islands to lose up to half their mangrove cover over the past five years—portending what could happen in the Sunderbans.
Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov has an icky proposition—free IVFs for women who use his sperm.
Trump’s cabinet of comedies is taking shape—the latest appointment is Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defence secretary. Also: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will run the new Department of Government Efficiency—with the helpful acronym DOGE (as in the crypto coin backed by Elon Musk).
A driver crashed his car into a sports complex in southern China—killing 35 people—because he was upset over his divorce settlement.
Russia is cracking down on “propaganda” that discourages citizens from having kids or promotes child-free lifestyles.
The UK announced it will cut greenhouse emissions by 81% by 2035—the most ambitious target set by an industrialised nation.
Eating a few nuts everyday can help lower risks of dementia, a new study reveals.
New Yorker (login required) has a must-read on how Syria became the Middle East’s drug dealer—peddling an amphetamine called captagon.
Economic Times lists the many reasons the Schengen visa application process is more humiliating for Indians than even the US visa nightmare. Of course, our Big Story on the Schengen has lots more detail on why.
Also in Economic Times: A must-read by Rathin Roy explaining why India is on the edge of becoming a failed middle-income country.
The best Indian restaurant in 2024 is… Avartana at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, followed by The Table in Mumbai, and Indian Accent in New Delhi. Check out the rest of the list here.

Four things to see

One: Uddhav Thackeray did an aam aadmi thing—and videotaped Election Commission officials who frisked his bags—when he arrived for his own election rally. What’s notable: He didn’t do the outraged neta routine. (Times of India)

Two: A portrait of Alan Turing—aka the father of AI—by the AI robot Ai-Da fetched $1.08 million at auction. All we’ll say is it’s, umm, interesting. You can see more of her artworks here. (New York Times, login required)

Three: ‘Tis the season of celebrity lookalike contests. After Timothee Chalamet, Paul Mescal, and Harry Styles, we desis got to own this contest—thanks to the Dev Patel theme. We are mostly astonished at the number of bearded Indian men in the Bay Area. See the winner Jaipreet Hundal below. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Four: Brace yourselves for the last (impossible) mission. The trailer for the eighth instalment ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ just dropped. FYI: With a budget of $400 million, the movie will be the fourth-most expensive film ever made. The movie is slated to release next year on May 23. (Hollywood Reporter)