Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
Election 2024: The latest update
Rude shock in Delhi: Congress party’s Delhi chief Arvinder Singh Lovely quit in protest against the party’s alliance with AAP. Also at issue: Giving tickets to outsiders like the former JNU activist Kanhaiya Kumar. Indian Express has more on why this is a big blow to Congress.
A rude shock in Bangalore: The political battle in Karnataka just took an unappetising turn. The Congress-ruled government announced a sexual harassment investigation against Deve Gowda's son and grandson. Gowda is the founder and party elder of the JD(S)—which is currently in alliance with the BJP.
At issue is a complaint by a former cook—and clips circulating on social media:
The SIT will also probe video clips that allegedly show Prajwal engaged in forced sex amounting to rape. The video clips were part of a collection of hundreds of such visuals discovered in pen drives that had been discarded at bus stops and parks in Hassan ahead of the April 26 polls in which [grandson] Prajwal was a candidate.
Yeah, it reeks, to say the least. But Gowda’s other son—HD Kumaraswamy–who is also JD(S) party chief—didn’t rush to defend his nephew or brother, saying “We won’t forgive anyone who has committed a mistake.” (The Telegraph)
War on Gaza: The latest update
Student protests: Since April 17, student protests against the war on Gaza have been spreading like wildfire across the US. So have their confrontations with the police. Over the weekend, 200 have been arrested across campuses. This includes 108 at Northeastern University in Boston—23 in Indiana University, and 69 at Arizona State University. Everyone is talking about the clip of the head of the philosophy department at Emory University—being taken away by the police.
Also, making news: The extreme response of Atlanta police on the Emory University campus, The Guardian has lots more on what happened there. (CNN)
World Kitchen returns: The US NGO—which offers emergency food relief—pulled out of Gaza—when seven workers were killed by an Israeli strike. But it has decided to resume operations—with a team of local Palestinians rather than foreigners. The organisation says it has received “no concrete assurances” that the Israeli military has changed its ways, but the humanitarian crisis is far too urgent to stay away. Also this: An Emirati ship with 400 tons of food set sail from Cyprus on Saturday. (The Week)
Two new videos: Hamas released two new videos of Israeli hostages to put more pressure on PM Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire. Al Jazeera has that story.
India in human rights hot water
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is under fire at the UN. It is in danger of being downgraded—which would ban it from voting at the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies. The main problem: Our human rights body is entirely controlled by the government—and relies on the police in its investigative process. Most of its members belong to the BJP or RSS. And there is not a single Muslim, Sikh, or Christian on the Commission. Indian officials say they don’t care what foreigners say about its human rights record. They also point out that one of the members—Rajiv Jain—“qualifies as a minority.” We have no comment. (The Hindu)
Indian Big Tech cut 72,000 jobs
Five of the top six IT services companies in India cut 73,600 jobs in 2023-24. These include Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and LTIMindtree. The only exception was HCLTech—the third largest—which added 1,537 people to its workforce. This is a dramatic shift from the previous year—when the same top six firms added more than 86,500 employees. (Economic Times)
A deepfake epidemic in India
In a new McAfee’s survey, 75% had seen some form of deepfake content; 38% had encountered a deepfake scam; and 18% had been a victim of a deepfake scam. Also this:
Nearly 8 of 10 (80%) people are more concerned about deepfakes than they were a year ago, the findings of the survey said. More than half (64%) of respondents say AI has made it harder to spot online scams, while just 30% of people felt confident they could tell real from fake if someone shared a voicemail or voice note that was generated using AI.
Reminder: Doctored vids of Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh seemingly endorsing the Congress party recently went viral. (Mint)
In happier tech news: We were today years old when we found out that the Apple iPad actually does not have a default calculator app. Apple never really explained the reason for this omission—but some reports blame Steve Jobs for it. He rejected the design of the very first one—created for the launch in 2010. The company never tried to p get it right–until now. The new iPadOS 18 will have a calculator—and since it’s Apple, it will be fancier than everything else out there. (Ars Technica)
A once-in-a-billion year evolution event!
The context: This is a bit nerdy but very cool. Primary endosymbiosis is when two lifeforms merge into a single organism. It is described so:
Primary endosymbiosis happens when one microbial organism engulfs another. It then begins to use the swallowed organisms as an internal organ. The host provides the organism–now called an endosymbiont–several benefits including nutrients, energy, and protection. When it can no longer survive on its own, the engulfed endosymbiont becomes an organ for the host called an organelle.
Yes, this is horror flick material. Except it also accounts for two foundational evolutionary events. The first led to the formation of mitochondria aka “powerhouse of the cell” about 2.2 million years ago—when a single-cell organism called archaea swallowed a bacterium. The second event birthed chloroplasts—which help harvest energy from sunlight via photosynthesis. This is how plants came into existence. This had only happened twice… until now.
What happened now: Scientists say they have witnessed a third instance of primary endosymbiosis:
A species of algae called Braarudosphaera bigelowii was found to have engulfed a cyanobacterium that lets them do something that algae, and plants in general, can’t normally do—"fixing" nitrogen straight from the air, and combining it with other elements to create more useful compounds.
Until now, plants used to get their nitrogen from a symbiotic relationship with bacteria—which remained separate. But by merging with the bacteria, the algae can acquire nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. According to scientists, this discovery could transform agriculture—maybe by engineering plants to do the same. Ok, that seems a little underwhelming compared to photosynthesis and mitochondria—but we’ll take it.
You can see the image of the combined cell below. New Atlas has more nerdy details.
Rockstar performance of Indian vultures
A new study shows that 600 captive-bred vultures can perform the same scavenging services as a factory that processes 25 carcasses per day. The researchers also found that the cost of paying for a single captive-bred vulture performs scavenging services worth Rs 230,000 in rural areas and Rs 268,000 near urban areas.
Why this study matters:
The findings come at a time India is experimenting with the captive breeding of vultures at select sites — Pinjore (Haryana), Buxa (Bengal), and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) — as part of efforts to reestablish wild vulture populations, decimated since the mid-1990s.
Our vulture population dropped to 0.1% by 2004-05—due to a painkiller called diclofenac—used to treat cattle. The birds would eat these carcasses and die of kidney failure. While the drug has been banned, the numbers have been slow to recover. A strong economic case for captive breeding could help boost the recovery. (The Telegraph)
Three things to see
One: As always, the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) offered a “glitzy roast” of the US Prez—who in turn made jokes about his rival, the Donald—and acknowledged the undeniable fact: He’s old! Biden’s full speech is here. (Associated Press)
Two: Fossilised footprints of a relative of velociraptors have been found in China—and they reveal creatures way scarier than their ‘Jurassic Park’ cousins. Fujianipus yingliangi stood about six feet high at the hip and was a terrifying 16 feet long. Smithsonian Magazine has more nerdy details. You can see the artist’s depiction of the monster below.
Three: More than 100 years later, Titanic memorabilia is still in insane demand. A gold pocket watch sold for $1.5 million—the most anyone has paid for a piece of Titanic history. The watch belonged to John Jacob Astor—the richest man on the boat—who died, having sacrificed his place on the lifeboat to his new wife. So kinda like Leo—but with way more money. (The Guardian)
