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A view shows Batman logo on a box of cocaine, said to be recovered by New Zealand Police.
Hard Numbers: Batman found on cocaine, Disney censors Simpsons, Nicaragua jails priests, Bard flub costs Google billions
3.2: In a possible indication that the Marvel universe is winning, Batman is now on cocaine. New Zealand’s navyintercepted a haul of 3.2 tons of the drug floating in the pacific. Many of the packets were labeled with the Dark Knight’s symbol, evidently a trademark of certain producers in South America.
1: Disney hasremoved one single episode of the current Simpsons season from its streaming service in Hong Kong. They haven’t commented on why, but the episode features a scene where Marge Simpson’s online spin instructor stands before a background that advertises “the wonders of China: Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones!”
5: A Nicaraguan courthas sentenced five priests to decade-long prison terms for supporting pro-democracy protests in 2018 that the government of strongman Daniel Ortega deemed illegal. Since those protests, Ortega has cracked down severely on civil society, with a particular focus on his one-time allies in the Catholic Church.
100 billion: Google’s parent company Alphabetlost more than $100 billion in value on Wednesday after Bard, its newly unveiled AI-powered chatbot, incorrectly attributed the origin of certain deep space photographs in an advertisement. That weird sound you hear right now is rival AI bot ChatGPT, somewhere deep in the metaverse, laughing its neural networks off.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a DNC meeting in Philadelphia.
Hard Numbers: Dems done with Joe, Nigerian lawmaker gets kidney beaned, Hong Kong trial begins, child marriage crackdown in India
37: Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that “run” in your hand? Only 37% of registered Democrats think President Joe Biden should seek reelection in 2024, according to a new AP-NORC poll. That’s down from 52% last fall. Biden’s numbers are particularly bad among younger voters — less than a quarter of Dems between 18-44 want more Joe.
7,000: A prominent Nigerian politician and his family are facing criminal charges in the UK over an alleged plot to bring a Lagos street trader to London and pay him 7,000 British pounds for his kidney. The kidney in question was destined for the lawmaker’s daughter, who needs a transplant. Donating organs in the UK isn’t illegal, but offering rewards for them is.
47: A Hong Kong court has begun the trial of 47 people — including prominent democracy activists Joshua Wong and Benny Tai — charged with “subversion.” Their crime? Holding an unofficial primary ballot in July 2020 to select candidates for Hong Kong’s legislative elections. Under the draconian Chinese national security law imposed that summer, this amounted to a “vicious plot” to overthrow the Beijing-backed government.
2,400: Police in India’s Assam state have arrested at least 2,400 people in a controversial crackdown on child marriage. Indian law prohibits marriage before the age of 18, but the government says more than a fifth of Indian girls marry before that, especially in some Muslim communities where religious law permits marriage after reaching puberty.
Beijing's tighter leash on Hong Kong may strain international business community's confidence: US report
HONG KONG - Growing political restrictions imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong "may be straining the confidence of the international business community" but the territory will continue to get special treatment from the United States, a report noted on Friday (March 22).