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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.
Bassem Raaof dressed in a Batman costume drives his "Batmobile" replica in Cairo.
Hard Numbers — An All Fours Friday: Egypt vs. Batman, Russian execs vs. death, Oz vs. variant, McFly vs. flies
4: The latest summer blockbuster features Egyptian strongman Abdel Fattah el Sisi vs. The Caped Crusader. Local authorities have arrested four Facebook users for planning a fake street battle in Cairo to determine which of them is the “real Batman.” Police charged the men with “planning a riot.” Egypt’s human rights record remains darker than the Knight.
4: Australia is expanding the rollout of a fourth COVID vaccine dose for the general population as the country confronts a fresh wave of infections from the BA.4 and BA.5 variants. Australia, one of the most vaccinated countries on earth, has set aside its earlier policies of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions.
4: The boss of a Russian shipping firm that worked with state gas giant Gazprom was found shot to death in the pool of a swanky cottage outside St. Petersburg this week. Yury Voronov, who headed Astra Shipping, was the fourth Gazprom-linked businessman to die under shady circumstances this year.
4: Speaking of dropping like flies, as you may recall from a recent hump day recommendation, Signal writer Alex and his son purchased a Venus flytrap last month. They now report that the thing actually catches flies. McFly, as the plant has been named, is currently munching on no fewer than FOUR insects. Next, we’ll try a drop of human blood — what could possibly go wrong?