Being stalked can seriously damage your heart health

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Our daily list of Souk picks

Editor’s note: As you may have noticed, we just unveiled a beta version of Souk—which has one simple goal: To help you find unique, high quality products that are worth your time and money.

One: There’s not much to overthink here—these are Brawny Bear’s Stuffed Medjol Dates, known for being bigger, softer, and naturally more caramel-like than your usual supermarket kind. Grown without additives or processing, they come packed as-is: plump, juicy, and sweet in that one-is-almost-enough kind of way. They’re the kind of thing that works just as well for your pantry as they do in a gift box—especially for someone who likes their treats clean, not cloying.

Two: A lip balm is a must for this weird dry yet rainy season. This Inde Wild balm takes the idea of ghee-on-chapped-lips and upgrades it with skin-loving ingredients like squalane, shea butter, and peptides. It’s rich but not greasy, glossy but not sticky—and actually holds up through the day. The best bit is its flavour: Masala Chai!

Three: Forget stuffing dog treats into your pockets. These Hand-made Clip On Pouches from Canine India keep all your pup essentials—treats, poop bags, keys, even that squeaky tennis ball—in one neat spot. They clip right onto your bag, leash, or belt loop, so you’re never fumbling mid-walk. Bonus: they’re also perfect for carrying snacks for those friendly street dogs who come trotting over, tails wagging. Made from recycled materials and backing a good cause, it’s one of those rare finds that’s practical, purposeful, and just plain handy.

PS: This is a beta launch and feedback—good or bad—is key. So please email the team at dearsouk@splainer.in with your thoughts. We want to get this right!

Being stalked can seriously damage your heart health

A large Harvard study has established a strong link between being stalked and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease among women.

About the study: The researchers looked at more than 66,000 American women between the ages of 36 and 56—over a period of 20 years between 2001 and 2021. These women did not have cardiovascular disease when the study began—and anyone with cardiovascular disease was excluded from the study.

The findings: The study found that the risk of cardiovascular disease was a staggering 41% higher in women who experienced stalking—and 70% higher in women who obtained a restraining order against the stalker. The likely reason: psychological distress that disrupts the nervous system—and affects functioning of blood vessels and other biological processes:

To many people, stalking doesn’t seem to be such a serious experience, as it often does not involve physical contact. But stalking has profound psychological consequences that can have physical implications… Our study highlights that these preventable, common, non-contact forms of violence against women are health hazards and need to be considered as such, just like we consider smoking or poor diet.

Point to note: Overall, just 11.7% of women in the study reported stalking experiences, and 5.6% said they obtained a restraining order. But these were self-reported and are likely conservative. Around 1 in 3 American women have been stalked at some point in their lives.

Implications for India: Patriotic protestations aside, stalking is endemic in Indian society. Almost every Indian woman has experienced it to some degree. The chart below shows a steady increase in reported cases—see how it remains high even during the pandemic:

In 2021, women reported one case every hour and 25 cases every day. The number of cases, in 2022, had jumped 97% since 2014—when the crime bureau first started reporting stalking data. Btw, stalking was not defined as a crime until 2013.

Point to note: Of course, the numbers are a gross underestimate. As women activists point out, reporting a stalker has far greater consequences for the victim:

The social normative structure of our society prevents women from reporting cases of stalking. There is a risk that a girl faces of losing her mobility to step out of the house, continue her studies or job etc when she thinks of reporting a case.

An older 2015 study found that only one in 13 cases of sexual harassment in Delhi and one in nine in Mumbai were reported to the police.

As for heart disease: Stalking can lead to any number of violent outcomes—including rape, acid attacks or murder. We can now add lethal heart attacks to the list:

In India, heart disease is responsible for approximately 25% of all deaths, and women account for a significant portion of these deaths. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in India, accounting for almost 18% of all female deaths. Shockingly, the mortality rate due to heart disease among Indian women is higher than that of breast cancer and other cancers combined.

The big picture: Stalking is still a bailable offence—and many stalkers return to ‘punish’ their victims for reporting them. And we haven’t even mentioned digital stalking.

Reading list: Axios, paywalled, and News Medical have more on the study. This CNBC piece and Behan Box article from 2022 have more on the Indian angle and legal challenges.

Coming soon: A giant Paytm autopay mess

The context: Last year, the Reserve Bank of India suddenly brought down the axe on India’s biggest fintech success story—shocking the entire startup community. It shuttered the Paytm Payment Bank—banning the bank from facilitating any kind of transaction—including UPI payments. So millions of Paytm users’ UPI addresses—linked to the Payment Bank—had to be transferred to other banks. Lots more in this 2024 Big Story.

What’s happening now: The RBI deadline to shift all UPI handles is August 31. But a great number of autopay transactions have not been transferred. These are payments for anything from Netflix to life insurance. In terms of just insurance premiums, at least Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion) recurring mandates are still tied to Paytm handles—of which 500,000 are for life insurance policies with just one company. This is especially bad since you can lose coverage post the grace period.

The problem: The migration is not automatic: “Users will have to first cancel the existing mandate linked to the @paytm handle and then create a fresh one with their new handles.” And human beings tend to be lazy and/or forgetful—ignoring repeated reminders. People have also forgotten the brouhaha over Paytm last year—more so as their auto-payments continued to work.

The other issue: Many view links asking for changes to existing mandates as UPI scams:

What has added to the uncertainty and challenge is the absence of any official information in the public domain, he said, adding attempts to manually migrate some customers were unsuccessful as customers misunderstood the attempts as those perpetrated by scamsters due to phishing and social engineering concerns making the re-registration of fresh mandates an unsuccessful exercise.

For now, insurance and healthcare companies are asking for another extension—there have been two already. But they are unlikely to succeed. So if you have a Paytm recurring payment that you’ve forgotten about… (Mint)

Google’s plan to save news… from itself

After years of destroying search—and turning the news landscape into a SEO-optimised junk heap—Google has decided to do better. Say hello to Preferred Sources. The new search tool allows you to personalise your news feeds by filtering your favourite sources. Here’s how it works:

If you’re eligible to use the feature, you’ll see an icon next to the “Top Stories” section of search when you hit Google with a query. Tap it, and you’ll be able to search for your favorite outlets. Check the publications you want, and Google will start to serve you more results from those publications, both in the Top Stories section and in a new section that may appear in your results with the heading “From your sources.”...there is no limit on the number of outlets you can add.

This is how it’ll look on the search page:

For now, the feature is only available in the US and India.

Point to note: Publishers will also have call-to-action tools that “encourage” users to add them to their Preferred Sources lists.

The big picture: A Pew Research Centre study from March 2025 revealed that Google’s AI search tool was destroying news traffic: “Users who encountered an AI summary clicked on a traditional search result link in 8% of all visits.” So this offers some relief for an industry on the edge of catastrophe. Gizmodo and The Verge have more.

MAP Academy fellowships alert!!

Editor’s note: As you know, the wonderful MAP Academy is our content partner for Advisory. It is one of the few Indian institutions deeply invested in cultural research and education. They also offer rare funded opportunities for researchers, designers, archivists, journalists, writers and educators. The Nalli Fellowship is one of them.

Over to MAP Academy…

We’re pleased to announce that a new cycle of the MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowships will open to applications soon. Designed to support research and practice in South Asia’s diverse textile traditions, the Fellowship is born out of a collaboration between MAP Academy and Nalli Silks, a heritage textile brand based in India.

Programme Details: Four fellowships, each with a grant of INR 5,50,000, will be awarded.

The programme is open to a wide range of people, from individuals to collectives, from researchers to practitioners. We’re hoping to receive applications on a range of subjects, and these include:

Histories of clothing and costume
Community or personal textile archives
Textiles in religious or liturgical contexts
Environmental impact of textile production and consumption
Endangered or disappearing textile traditions
Critical perspectives on revivalism
Labour in textile production, with a focus on caste, class, and gender
Textiles in relation to other cultural forms—storytelling, poetry, music, architecture, and material culture
Textiles in the context of archaeological study
Textiles as symbols or metaphors in literature or mythology
Techniques and tools used in specific textile traditions

You can read more about the Fellowships here. We will begin accepting applications starting August 18, 2025.

To register your interest and receive a reminder when applications open, please visit this link. For any queries, contact us at: fellowships@map-india.org

what caught our eye

business & tech

Trump’s tariff threat has hit India’s diamond hub, putting up to 2 lakh jobs at risk as orders dry up and factories stall.
Kodak has warned it may not have enough money to pay off its debts, raising doubts about whether the 133-year-old company can stay in business.
US national debt has climbed past $37 trillion, marking the highest level in the country’s history.
Trump has threatened to let a “major lawsuit” over costly Fed headquarters renovations move forward as he presses Jerome Powell to slash interest rates.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a good read on how once-glamorous jobs at Apple, Google and Meta have morphed into grind-it-out roles as Big Tech turns into big bureaucracy.
Musk’s AI chatbot Grok was briefly suspended from X after stating Israel and the US are committing genocide in Gaza and then accusing Elon of censoring it.

sports & entertainment

The White House will host a UFC cage fight next year as part of July 4 celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary.
PSG came from 2-0 down in the final five minutes to beat Tottenham on penalties and win the UEFA Super Cup.
Jimmy Kimmel has obtained Italian citizenship as a possible escape route, saying Trump’s presidency is “so much worse” than expected.

health & environment

Whale strandings on India’s southwest coast have jumped tenfold in a decade, driven by ship traffic, fishing and environmental factors.
Research suggests that while excessive screen time harms teens, constant tech use may be helping older Americans keep their minds sharp.
Indian researchers say regular conch shell blowing could help treat sleep apnoea by strengthening breathing muscles and improving alertness.
Ars Technica has a good read on a Gulf of Maine experiment splashing bright pink dye into the sea to see if the ocean can be tweaked to soak up more carbon.
Indian Express has everything you need to know on caffeine pouches—the fast-acting, influencer-backed energy fix that’s catching on with teens.

meanwhile, in the world

Zelenskyy says Ukraine won’t trade land for peace as Trump and Putin prepare to meet in Alaska on August 15 to discuss ending the three-year war. Sky News has an explainer on what strip of land is in the crosshairs.
Six months after the US SEC asked for help, India has yet to deliver summons to Gautam Adani, his nephew, and the Adani Group, related to a bribery case. Context about the case can be found here.
UN-backed investigators have reported systemic torture and sexual violence in Myanmar’s detention centres, urging court action against those responsible.
Recent floods in Beijing killed 31 people in a single nursing home, highlighting how China’s emergency plans failed to protect its most vulnerable residents.
Artist Joseph Awuah-Darko said on Instagram he’d end his life unless people invited him to dinner—150 meals later, he’s still going.
After four years as a vegan fine-dining spot, Manhattan’s Eleven Madison Park is bringing meat back to the menu to win over more diners.
France has stopped renewing work visas for Israeli airline El Al’s security staff over disputes about airport security checks for French diplomats in Paris.
Canada’s Conservative Party is pushing to label the Lawrence Bishnoi gang a terrorist organisation and deport all its members.
A Hindu temple in Indiana has been vandalised—the fourth attack on a BAPS temple in the US in under a year.
McDonald’s Japan has ended its Pokémon card Happy Meal promotion early after reports of scalping and food wastage flooded social media.

meanwhile, in India

The Supreme Court will urgently hear a case today on the treatment of stray dogs after Delhi NCR authorities were ordered to round them up and lock them in shelters.
A good watch: The Quint took to the streets to interview strays on the SC’s ruling.
The News Minute has a must-read rebuke of the Indian journalists who toured Israel on a government invite amid the bombing of Gaza.
Indian Express has an interesting read on Bihar’s ‘Bol Bam’—a Kanwar Yatra that empowers women and promotes equality.
The Hindu has found that thousands of forest rights titles distributed in Chhattisgarh have disappeared from the records of the State government’s Tribal Welfare Department over the last 17 months.
Rahul Gandhi met with Bihar voters—declared ‘deceased’ by the Election Commission of India—over a cup of chai.
A new report highlights a lack of shared parenting laws in India, with fathers losing out more in child visitation battles.
In July, the ban on overage or ‘end of life’ vehicles from refuelling came into effect in Delhi. After a public outcry, the Delhi government has gone back on the ban.
The Indian Army has been more keen on retaining Agniveers—the controversial temporary young recruits—because of their “excellent” performance in Op Sindoor. Read our Big Story for more background on the recruits.

Six things to see

One: Pilgrims who line up to see the wooden statue of Virgin Mary of Macarena in Seville are very unhappy. The reason: A “light cleaning” of the 17th century statue has instead resulted in an unacceptable makeover: “Her glow-up gave her longer lashes, a smokier look in her gaze and changes to her skin and nose.” Haw, Mother Mary got FaceTuned! Two church leaders had to step down because of this debacle. See her before (left) and after (right) below. (New York Times)

Two: A Delhi policewoman beat up a young animal rights activist inside a bus. She was on her way to protest the Supreme Court’s order on stray dogs—when she was accosted by the police. It is unclear what triggered the attack. (Free Press Journal)

Three: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an annual arts festival—renowned as a birthplace of hit comedy shows, plays and musicals. This year, bubbleologists—i.e. artists who make gorgeous bubbles—took the stage and wowed the audience. The below image is of Graham Maxwell who is known for his traditional bubble shows. New York Times has more on the artists and the bubble madness.

Four: From the makers of ‘Mare of Easttown’ comes a new cop show—‘Task’—headlined by Mark Ruffalo. He plays an FBI agent in charge of a special task force investigating a string of robberies. The series premieres on September 7, on JioHotstar. You can watch its trailer below. (Deadline)

Five: Sticking with trailers, this is an adaptation of Max Porter’s novel ‘Shy’—where a delinquent is sent to a British reform school. But unlike the book, the movie instead focuses on the headmaster of the school—played by Cillian Murphy. The movie will be released on September 19. You can check out the trailer for ‘Steve’ below. (Indie Wire)

Six: Now for the ult film geeks, here’s the first look at the Martin Scorsese documentary series ‘Mr. Scorsese’—from the acclaimed director Rebecca Miller (best known for ‘She Came to Me’ and ‘Personal Velocity’). The series also features interviews with Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg and his close childhood friends. The five-part docu series is slated to drop on October 17 on Apple TV+. See Scorsese’s bit about ‘Taxi Driver’ below. (Variety)