👀 Sunamangal

Namaste! We hope you're enjoying the monsoon season's refreshing showers while staying cozy with a hot cup of cihya. Just like many Nepali youths, Messi has landed in America, on an exciting journey across the continents. Do you think his relatives back in Argentina will ask him for an iphone when he heads back there for Christmas?

La Eta Hernus

Desh

Last week, an extraordinary smuggling tale unfolded at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). A shipment of innocent-looking scooter brake shoes (we had to Google what those were) arrived from Hong Kong, unbeknownst to customs that these shoes had some sneaky companions—almost 100 kilograms of gold! (We’re having a hard time even imagining how much 100 kilos of gold is. That's 1,333 packs of wai wai, all in gold.) The incident played out like a scene from a gripping crime thriller when the Department of Revenue Investigation and the Armed Police Force swiftly intervened, foiling a taxi getaway and apprehending the customs agent involved. The discovery of the gold, valued at over a billion rupees, left everyone in sheer disbelief.

The gold had cleverly passed through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) customs undetected but was later seized from a taxi cab at Sinamangal, a locality near the airport.

One would assume that TIA's customs would have learned from history, recalling the legendary quote from Charles Sobhraj about sneaking an elephant through here. This time, they've apprehended ten people, including a Chinese national attempting to flee the country, but we know the drill—the big fish tend to evade capture. Nonetheless, Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has vowed to bring down everyone involved. However, we mustn't get our hopes too high; this is the country where this happened:

Prachanda, our Prime Minister, recently visited Italy, enjoyed some pizza, and has now returned. (Our intern added this unecessary one-line news here just to make a 17,000 MARIO pun.)

Tech 

Elon Musk, in what he thinks is his typical quirky style, declared that he's giving Twitter's bird logo the boot and replacing it with an "X" – all part of his grand plan to create an "everything app" through his new company, X Corp. Whether it's a chirpy bird or a mysterious X, Twitter's financial struggles persist, with Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management recently writing down its stake in the company by a whopping 47%. The tweet storm continues!

The previous owner of @X Twitter handle confirmed they took over his account without warning or financial compensation, telling him the handle is a property of X. If Elon was really committed, he could could have given the guy who had @X the @Twitter handle.

Read more of the fiasco. 

Meta's attempt at a Twitter clone, Threads, seems to be losing its sparkle as the number of daily active users dipped by 20% and users spent 50% less time on the app. Looks like it needs more than just being "Twitter, but without Elon Musk" to keep people hooked. It's somewhat amusing to see Threads already taking a bite out of Twitter's traffic while Musk is busy with his new AI company. Are y’all still on threads? Let us know via an instagram DM.

Guess what's up next for Apple after ironing out those Apple Maps blunders? Well, they've been cooking up something even bigger and better! Bloomberg spills the beans that Apple engineers have been busy with their secret AI project, codenamed "Ajax," rumored to be the Apple GPT chatbot. Hold tight for a sleek and probably pricey tech release that might just send Apple's stock soaring to the moon!

Arts

Barbie and Oppenheimer, two unexpected but incredibly entertaining flicks, took the theaters by storm, delivering the best weekend box office results since Avengers: Endgame rocked the screen four years ago.

Greta Gerwig's Barbie made a grand entrance, raking in a whopping $155 million in its opening weekend in the USA, smashing records as the best domestic debut ever for a female director. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's gripping historical drama about the father of the atomic bomb, pulled in a stellar $80.5 million, proving that even a lengthy R-rated film can captivate audiences like never before.

But it's not just their individual success that has everyone talking; these two powerhouses teamed up to create the ultimate movie experience. About 200,000 moviegoers thought, "Why see one when you can see both?" and bought tickets to witness the Barbenheimer magic in action.

So, what's the secret behind their triumph? Simple—both movies offered more than just a cinematic escape. Barbie let us relive childhood memories and embrace our inner pink power, while Oppenheimer immersed us in awe-inspiring IMAX spectacles that left audiences spellbound.

Reading list

Reading List:
1. The World’s Last Internet Cafes (restofworld)

2.Cleaning Up ChatGPT Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers (Wall Street Journal)

Kahi Nabhako Jaatra

Three news briefs and a lie

Three of these news briefs are real, and one is faker than than the lamkhutte maarne stickers that BigMart sells. Can you spot the odd one out? (Scroll all the way to the bottom for the answer).

1. Looks like Suspended DSP Thug (ठग) Bahadur KC lived up to his name! This 'crook' of a cop got caught red-handed, accused of taking bribes from a gold businessman. And boy, did he have his own treasure chest! 40 shiny tolas of gold and a whopping 18 lakh rupees stashed away in his pad!

2. In a bizarre case that left everyone saying "Holy cow," Ram Tamang from Baluwatar got himself into a bit of a pickle with the police. Turns out, he was using meat from buffaloes who kicked the bucket due to lumpy skin disease and turning them into momos. The Department of Food Technology and Quality Control had to step in and issued a circular, kindly asking other restaurants to steer clear of serving this unusual delicacy.

3. Nepal police has busted a fraudulent gang that thought they could get away with posing as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Kathmandu. Turns out, these imposters set up shop in a rented house and even had a 'deputy secretary' holding the fort!

4. Talk about irony - Makwanpur's Manhari scored the title of being the nation's first 'child-friendly' wada, but it seems they missed the memo! Last week, the wada president got caught red-handed, giving a kid a not-so-friendly beating. Looks like they'll need to redefine their child-friendly tactics!

A request

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(Answer to three newsbriefs and a lie: The second one is a lie)