3 Things

The headlines this evening from The Indian Express.

First, Vishnu Varma joins the podcast to describe a bizarre incident in Kerala’s Kollam where a social media prank led to the death of an infant and two women.

Next, Lalmani Verma discusses how one of India’s oldest tourist hotspots is dealing with an increasing number of tourists post the second Covid wave. (12:05)

And finally, we go over highlights from Day 2 of the Tokyo Olympics 2020. (19:50)

The headlines this evening from The Indian Express.

First, Indian Express’ Mihir Vasavda joins us on a call from Tokyo to talk about the Olympics, the measures in place to keep the participants safe, and India’s biggest medal hopefuls.

Next, Indian Express’ Mallica Joshi, explains the reasons why it is difficult to medically conclude that someone died due to the lack of oxygen, and what the government should do to make such data available (11:35).

And in the end, Indian Express’ Mohamed Thaver, who reports on Mumbai crime, talks about businessman Raj Kundra’s arrest related to an adult film racket (21:00).

You can check out the Express Sports podcast here - https://bit.ly/3zsDmFO

The headlines this evening from The Indian Express

First, Amitabh Sinha joins the podcast to discuss the fourth nationwide serological survey according to which two-third of Indians above the age of 6 have Covid antibodies.

Next, Bashaarat Masood from Indian Express' Srinagar bureau talks about the arrest of two BJP workers for allegedly faking a militant attack in Kashmir's Kupwara. (12:30)

And finally, we go over the latest updates about the Pegasus spyware row in India. (18:13)

In the final report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) regarding the post-election violence in West Bengal, the commission said that “thousands of people were subjected to murder, rape, displacement and intimidation in the last couple of months”. It also accused the Mamata Banerjee government of letting violence prevail in the period since the election results.

In light of these allegations of violence, The Indian Express recently did a series that looked at four incidents of post-poll violence – an alleged murder, a rape, houses being ransacked, and a social boycott. These four cases illustrate the extent to which people in the state have suffered after the elections.

In this episode, Indian Express’ Ravik Bhattacharya, who has been covering Bengal politics for two decades, joins us to talk about what the series revealed.

You can read the series here: https://bit.ly/3zkL70u

The headlines this evening from The Indian Express.

The Wire, a digital news platform, as part of a global collaborative investigative project has revealed that the Pegasus spyware was used to target over 300 mobile phone numbers in India – including that of several journalists, political leaders, and business persons.

In this episode, first Indian Express’ (IE) Ashish Aryan, talks about what the report has revealed so far, what we know about the spyware Pegasus, and the Israeli firm NSO that developed it.

Next, Nandagopal Rajan, who writes on technology for IE, explains why Pegasus is the most powerful spyware out there, the reasons why it is almost impossible to detect or stop, and what you can do to avoid getting attacked by it.

And in the end, Ritika Chopra, whose name features on the list of potential targets of surveillance, shares her reaction to the story, and whether the dangers of such hacking affects her reporting.