headlines that matter

editor’s note

Happy New Year to the splainer fam! We hope you had a wonderful, restful break—because we certainly did:) We are ready and excited for the new adventures that lie before us—including souk, which is kinda splainer for shopping. Think what we do for news (foraging far and wide for what is valuable and reliable) but for products from home grown and mission-driven brands.

PS: Don’t forget to refer or gift splainer to friends & family—so we can all resolve to be smarter and more well-informed in 2025:)

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

The death of a Chhattisgarh journalist

Mukesh Chandrakar was found dead inside a septic tank of a construction contractor Suresh Chandrakar in Bastar on Friday. His murder has sparked widespread outrage—and reminds us once again that life is cheap in India, especially for local reporters.

Who is Mukesh Chandrakar? He was a freelance journalist for NDTV—-and ran his own YouTube channel, ‘Bastar Junction’—with 159,000 subscribers. He is best known for playing a key role in the release of a CoBRA commando by the Maoists in April 2021.

What happened and why? Mukesh was working on a story on an alleged scam involving the construction of a road in Bijapur—and had received death threats. The four suspects are the contractor Suresh Chandrakar, his brothers Ritesh and Dinesh—and an employee. They killed Mukesh after inviting him home for dinner. Yes, the brothers and the victim were related—as the name suggests.

Data point to note: India was ranked #159 on World Press Freedom Index in 2024—a slight improvement from our 2023 ranking of #161. Also this: “At least 13 of the 28 journalists killed since 2014 [in India] were working on environmental-related subjects, mainly land seizures and illegal mining for industrial purposes.” The Hindu has everything you need on the case. This personal essay—penned by Mukesh’s peer—captures the thankless and often dangerous job of field reporting in India.

Speaking of press freedom: Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from the Washington Post—when the newspaper refused to publish her cartoon on owner Jeff Bezos. Reminder: Bezos killed the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, breaking decades of tradition. Hence, the cartoon—which shows Bezos and other tycoons kneeling before a statue of Donald Trump. (The Guardian)

Payal Kapadia misses out at Golden Globes

We will have lots more from the awards ceremony tomorrow. For now, here’s the news that matters most: Payal Kapadia’s widely acclaimed All We Imagine as Light did not win any award. It was nominated in two categories—for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director (Motion Picture). She was bested by Brady Corbet—who was nominated for his acclaimed film ‘The Brutalist’. And the film lost out to ‘Emilia Perez’. That said: Kapadia has already made history to be the first Indian director to be nominated for the top honour at the Globes. (The Hindu)

PS: If you want the final line-up of winners right now, check out The Guardian liveblog. Red carpet photos are here.

Australia thrash India 3-1: WTF happened?

The Aussies won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday—with a 6-wicket win in the fifth and final Test in Sydney. The 3-1 loss marks India’s second straight Test thrashing—after we were whitewashed 3-0 by NZ in our own backyard. Also: we can no longer qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. The Aussies will now take on South Africa at Lord’s.

Reminder: The loss is all the more exceptional in light of our record down under. We won the last two series in 2019 and 2021. The latter was especially memorable due to the deciding win in Brisbane—-where Australia hadn’t lost since 1988.

WTF happened this time? Poor performances, of course—and alleged dressing room drama that belongs in an episode of Amazon Prime’s ‘Inside Edge’! But first, the damning performance data:

Batting blues: Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli flopped particularly hard. Rohit played three Tests and scored just 31 runs. Virat played all five Tests and scored a more respectable 190 runs—but that number includes a century. Check out the worst of Virat below:

In comparison, Travis Head plundered 448 runs, with two centuries and a fifty. Second-best Steve Smith scored 314 runs, including two hundreds.

The Jasprit Bumrah show: The Lone Ranger picked up 32 wickets at an average of 13 runs—despite suffering back spasms in Sydney. He rightly won the Player of the Series award for his efforts. The rest dropped the ball—literally and metaphorically.

Now, the off-field drama: When India was 2-1 down, Indian Express dropped an insider report on dressing room politics. The gist: Coach Gautam Gambhir was fed up—“Bahut ho gaya!”—and was ready to crack the whip.

Not helping matters: Captain Rohit Sharma had seemingly checked out at the very outset—arriving in the middle of the series after being on paternity leave, and uninterested in intervening in the collapse of performance and morale. All of which also led to unseemly jostling among the ranks for his job. All of which culminated with a bizarre situation—where the captain was not in the line-up for the fifth match in Sydney.

But, but, but: At the post-match presser, Rohit insisted that he had no plans to retire—and “just stood down from this Test because I am not in form.” As for Gambhir, he’s already dropped broad hints about the lack of ‘hunger’ in Rohit and Virat. So it’s unlikely that Rohit’s rest was voluntary.

The cherry on this shit pie: Indian fans in the stands faced the added misery of facing dozens of Aussies shamelessly chanting, “Where’s your visa?”.

Reading list: ESPNCricinfo remains the gold standard—including the Sydney Test match report, analysis on where India went wrong on and off the field, and the damning data of the entire series. The masala story by Indian Express is paywalled—luckily, Mint has a free curation.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Apple AI has storage problems: it is taking up nearly twice as much storage as it did at its launch. The reason: the latest December update.
Speaking of Apple AI, it falsely claimed that darts player Luke Littler won the PDC World Championship—before the teen sensation even played the final!
After years of providing a room to Indian youngsters, OYO will not allow unmarried couples to check-in—starting in Meerut.

sports & entertainment

Maddock Films unveils India’s first horror-comedy superhero universe—built upon titles like ‘Stree’, ‘Munjya’—with eight films slated through 2028.
Nicki Minaj is being sued for assault and emotional distress by a former tour employee, who claims she physically attacked him backstage after a Detroit concert in April 2023.
Amazon is releasing a Melania Trump documentary, with the former First Lady as executive producer.

as for the rest

CNN has a good read on how Elon Musk’s attacks on British PM Keir Starmer and support for far-right figures spark a political headache for the UK government who want to get close to Trump.
Politico has a good read on the challenges the European Commission is set to tackle in its next term—from migration policies to EU enlargement, and balancing green goals with national interests.
New probes reveal Credit Suisse hid Nazi-linked accounts, suggesting a cover-up and deeper links than previously thought.
China is in the midst of a new viral outbreak of the HMPV virus—which is causing concern. Mint explains.
In other news of viruses, three tigers and a leopard have died of avian flu at a Maharashtra rescue centre.
India has launched two new e-visas for international students and their dependents to pursue higher education in the country.
Marking the centenary of the civilisation’s discovery, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin announces a $1 million prize to decode the unsolved Indus Valley script. For a refresher on these early Indians, check out our Big Story.
Constellation Energy lands a first-of-its-kind $1 billion deal to supply nuclear power to over 80 US federal facilities for the next decade.
A 117-year-old football-loving Brazilian nun becomes the world’s oldest person after the death of Japan’s previous record holder.

Four things to see

One: The PM gifted the First Lady an eye-catching 7.5-carat green lab-grown diamond worth $20,000 in 2023—the most expensive present received by the White House that year. Modi’s generosity remained hidden until the State Department declared the gift in its annual audit last week. The diamond will be turned over to the National Archives after the Bidens exit. (The Telegraph)

Two: A viral video of a larger-than-life boarding pass is taking the Indian internet by storm. This is what happens when your printer runs out of A4 paper. (Mint)

Three: Check out the teaser for ‘Deva’—an action thriller that marks Shahid Kapoor’s comeback. We’re hoping it won’t be a rerun of his nasty Kabir Singh misogyny. Directed by Malayalam filmmaker Rosshan Andrrews, it hits the theatres on January 31. (Indian Express)

Four: Also making a big comeback: Himesh Reshammiya (and Prabhu Deva) in a ‘badass’ avatar in ‘Badass Ravi Kumar’! The movie is billed as a “larger-than-life retro action musical” and is releasing on February 7. We are intrigued. (The Hindu)