Happy Friday folks! It’s that time of the week again where we round up the latest news from around the globe. 🌎

Today we’ll visit Silicon Valley where Apple’s latest iOS update has sparked a vicious new privacy war with Facebook; Argentina where Google’s domain name was bought for the equivalent of £2; Brazil whose senate launched an official investigation into President Bolsonaro’s Covid response; Italy where rival cities’ attempts to make coffee officially part of their culture were rebuffed; Afghanistan where dozens of smuggled relics were returned from a New York storage locker; and France where 15 volunteers emerged from a cave after 40 days without daylight or clocks.

Make sure you check out this month’s Data Corner as we focused on Covid-19’s devastating impact on the world’s students, teachers and schools. And also yesterday’s Inside The Middle East where we dissected a new report comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid.

Jobs and data below, let’s do this thing! 🤘

Job Corner ✍️

We have almost 100 deadlines in the next 10 days on the board, with 20 of them previewed below…

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Data Corner 🧮

A few datasets referenced in today’s edition…

1. Domain Names: Database on the world’s domain names, from ICANN
2. iOS Updates: List of all Apple iOS updates and version history, from GKGIGS
3. Poll Ratings: Approval ratings for all major world leaders, from Morning Consult
4. World Heritage: List of all global natural and cultural heritage sites by country and year, from UNESCO

Volunteers Exit Cave After 40 Days

We begin in France where 15 volunteers emerged from a cave after 40 days without natural light, clocks or communication with the outside world. The experiment assessed how a lack of external contact would affect their sense of time. Turns out most participants really did lose their bearings, as some estimated they’d spent a month in the cave, with others guessing as little as 23 days.

Scientists at the Human Adaptation Institute, which sponsored the Deep Time experiment, used sensors to monitor the participants’ behaviour, sleep patterns and social interactions. The group was tasked with creating its own electricity using a pedal bike, and drawing water from a well, all without the ability to pose time-centric deadlines. The results will be compared to samples taken before the group entered, and will help us understand how humans adapt to extreme conditions.

One of the participants said “It was like pressing pause” and that she didn’t feel any rush to do anything, and even wished she could have remained inside for a few more days.

Google Domain Sold for £2

Moving to Argentina next where Google’s domain name was snapped up briefly (and legally) for a bargain price equivalent to £2. Nicolas Kuroña, a designer from Buenos Aires, made the purchase after receiving a WhatsApp tip-off that the site was out of action for a brief, two-hour time window. Though the domain appeared as available on the country’s National Information Center database, Kuroña was left in disbelief when he became the owner. His fame, however, was short-lived as the NIC quickly reclaimed the domain.

How google.com.ar, which isn’t set to expire until July, was released in the first place remains unanswered. While Kuroña said there was never any malcontent on his part, ‘domain squatting’ is a monitored practice in which internet users purposefully buy domain names to block others from registering them to make profit. In the U.S., cybersquatters can face litigation from domain owners.

Previous Picks of the Week 👀

🔎 Picks of the Week — April 23

🔎 Picks of the Week — April 16

🔎 Picks of the Week — April 12

🔎 Picks of the Week — March 19

Apple’s ‘App Tracking Privacy’ Feature

Staying with tech for a sec, Apple’s latest iOS update includes an “app-tracking privacy” setting that will for the first time prevent advertisers from tracking users’ app activity. Version 14.5 allows users to opt in or out of the setting and, following a prompt, they can deactivate the unique user ID websites and apps use to track digital movements. Increased privacy is undeniably a great thing, unless you’re Facebook…

The social media giant responded to Apple's update with harsh criticism, claiming it could slash ad revenue in half. Turns out you can hit your arch enemy where it hurts and also improve the world slightly. Facebook’s head of ads even insisted the move toward anti-personalized advertising could set the world back a couple of decades. Alright Facebook… 🙄

Video: Apple vs Facebook — Why iOS 14.5 Started a Big Tech Fight

Bolsonaro’s Covid Response Investigated

Moving to Brazil next, whose senate ordered a parliamentary inquiry into far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s abysmal handling of the pandemic, ahead of next year’s presidential election. Brazil has registered the most cases and deaths per capita in South America.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed Covid, calling it a “little flu” and again refusing a national lockdown three weeks ago. The mask-shunning president also endorsed hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the virus with Donald Trump, calling it a “miraculous cure.” It isn’t.

Under Bolsonaro’s watch, Brazil is on its fourth health minister since the pandemic began (the other three were fired or quit). And in January, the country suffered its worst health care collapse so far when hospitals in the state of Amazonas ran out of oxygen tanks. Brazil’s vaccination rollout is also behind schedule, with only six percent of the population vaccinated.

The inquiry comes amid plummeting popularity ratings for Bolsonaro, which have lived between 30 and 40 percent for most of 2021. Some analysts claimed Bolsonaro’s pandemic response is reminiscent of necropolitics: use of political power to dictate life or death.

Smuggled Afghan Relics

We return to the subject of stolen relics, a topic we’ve covered before after African activists were fined for trying to reclaim treasures now housed in European museums. This time, a collection of 33 historic artefacts worth approximately $1.8m (£1.3m) were returned to their owners in Afghanistan, after being smuggled out of the country by a New York art dealer. The repatriation of the statues is part of a U.S. government initiative to return stolen artefacts found in New York City storage units. So far, relics have been returned to Nepal and Sri Lanka, with Thailand next on the list.

“Each one of these pieces are priceless depictions of our history,” said Roya Rahmani, the first female Afghan ambassador to the U.S, who emphasized their importance given the Taliban’s destruction of the country’s historic artefacts.

In 2001, the terrorist group infamously blew up the Bamiyan Buddha statues, and then broke into the National Museum of Afghanistan and destroyed all artefacts they believed to be blasphemous to Islam. Before this, roughly 70 percent of the museum’s relics had already been destroyed during the Soviet-Afghan War.

Video: Afghan relics seized from smugglers return home

Italian Coffee War

We end this week in Italy, where coffee aficionados are clashing over UNESCO’s approval of coffee being part of the nation’s cultural heritage. In 2019, coffee lovers in the northeastern city of Treviso launched a bid for the espresso to be recognized, and a year later the city of Naples placed its own, who wanted their city to be recognized for its own coffee culture separate from the rest of the country.

Although coffee’s origins lie in neither city, Napolese coffee has a reputation for being superior to the rest thanks to the Naples coffee pot and unique mineral content in the city’s water supply. Last month, however, UNESCO told both candidates to reapply next year. 

Coffee isn’t the only thing Naples claims is part of its intangible cultural heritage. In 2017, the Napolese art of' ‘pizza twirling’ was awarded world heritage status for being a unique gastronomic tradition. The anthropologist responsible for Naples’ coffee bid said the debate is another example of age-old north-south tensions within the country, which have deepened during the pandemic as tourist-dependent southern regions have suffered the most.

Daniel wants you all to watch this video of Conan O’Brien drinking coffee in Naples, the same place he went to (Gran Caffe Gambrinus) because Conan did. Loser…

Video: Conan Trying Napolese Coffee

See you next week for more jobs and global fun! 🌊