From Indonesia’s palm oil export ban to Twitter’s daily users miscount – Here is your April 29 news briefing
A few minutes every morning is all you need.
Stay up to date on the world's Headlines and Human Stories. It's fun, it's factual, it's fluff-free.
Indonesia gets protective over its palm oil
Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil exporter, has put in place an export ban on edible oils amid a local shortage. The move comes after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has already threatened the global food supply chain. The move is being seen as the strongest sign of food protectionism since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war and also comes at a time when governments are battling record-high inflation themselves. So, everyone, be prepared to pay more for a lot of things on your shopping list.
Veteran actor Kenneth Tsang dies during stay in Hong Kong quarantine hotel
Kenneth Tsang, an 87-year-old veteran star known for his roles in Cantonese and Hollywood movies, was found dead in his quarantine hotel room on Wednesday. He had just arrived in Hong Kong from Singapore on Monday.
Health officials reportedly carried out regular checks, during which they knocked on Tsang’s door. But he didn’t answer – a tell-tale sign for an emergency response. The hotel staff found him unconscious on the floor and called the police around noon. Sources said Tsang had three vaccination doses and tested negative for COVID on Tuesday. He did have high blood pressure, according to his daughter, Musette Tsang Mo-suet. His cause of death is still unknown.
Twitter miscounted its daily users for 3 years straight
A few days ago, our team had a heated internal math debate over a story. Well, it turns out that Twitter could have a few more of these debates themselves. For three years straight, Twitter miscounted its amount of daily users, overcounting by up to 1.9 million users each quarter. The good news is that it isn’t too huge of a deal, considering the company has around 230 million daily users.
Elon Musk’s tweet about buying Coca-Cola to “put cocaine the back in” goes viral
Elon Musk is on a shopping spree – first, he bought Twitter (for a whopping US$44 billion) on Tuesday, and now he’s joking around on Twitter about buying Coca-Cola. His tweet went viral hours after posting and has now gotten around 4 million likes.
But even for the world’s richest man, the soft drink company might be a little too expensive, currently capped at US$284 billion. (For reference, his fortune is currently at US$253 billion.) But, then again, Musk joked about buying Twitter back in 2017, and now he owns it.
In other news …
🏛Biden has asked congress for US$33 billion to help Ukraine in the war.
🇨🇳Beijing has laid out a wide-ranging economic plan to try and combat the strain lockdown has put on its economy.
👉Musk attacked a content decision made by Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and safety expert, and then mocked her with a meme, making her the subject of online bullying. He also tweeted, “let’s make Twitter maximum fun!” But current and former workers inside Twitter are looking at one another and not sharing his excitement.
Written and put together by Jake Shropshire, Christine Dulion, Julianna Barcela and Krystal Lai
Comments ()