News highlights from May – Jun 2020

For all those who missed out on the important happenings around the globe, here’s some news highlights from the month of May and June to catch up on.

National

The month of May started with screenshots of an Instagram chat group called the ‘Boys Locker Room’ where things like rape were glorified. It went viral all over social media and people condemned such conversations. The twist arrived in the case when the Cybercell DCP alleged that it was actually a girl posing as a boy. However, the investigation is still on and the girl has claimed to be receiving threats.

Another horrific incident happened in the country in the wee hours of May 7th where tons of gas leaked from LG Polymer plant in Vishakhapatnam. The tragedy resulted in death of 12 people and around 350 hospitalized. Over 2,000 people were evacuated within a radius of 3 kms from the plant.

On May 12th, the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced a package of 20 Lakh Crore. The package which is equivalent to 10 percent of India’s GDP is aiming at making the country ‘Aatma Nirbhar’ or self-reliant. The announcement came after the country has been struggling with its economy due to the 2 months long lockdown.

India received another blows in the form of the cyclones Amphan and Nisarga. Amphan had hit the eastern parts of the country on May 20 and 21, mainly West Bengal and Odisha claiming around 10-12 lives. It had caused major destruction in both the states. On the contrary, cyclone Nisarg hit the western part of the country on June 3rd. Fortunately, the destruction caused this time was much lesser in comparison to Amphan.

Around the same time, another news went viral in the country. A pregnant elephant in Kerala was fed a pineapple filled with crackers by the villagers. After it exploded in her mouth, the elephant eventually died standing in a river. The news created a rage all across the country and people criticised such cruelty towards animals.

Hollywood

On May 1st, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande announced on social media that they are collaborating for a single called ‘Stuck With U’. The collab was aimed to contribute to COVID-19 relief funds and the proceeds from the song will go towards grants and scholarships for children of first responders. The song was released on May 8th in association with the First Responders Children’s Foundation.

Just like a lot of other films, the release date of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson’s 2 The Hitman’s Bodyguard 2 got pushed. After receiving a huge response from fans for the first part in 2017, the sequel was supposed to release this year on August 2020. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, the film will now release in August 2021.

In another instance, Britney Spears surprised her fans and gave them a treat. She re-released her song ‘Mood ring’ worldwide, making it her first music release in over four years. The song was initially added just as a bonus track in her 2016 studio album ‘Glory’. But it was available only in Japan.

Condemning the brutal killing of George Floyd, many Hollywood celebs came out to criticize the incident. Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Khloe Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Halsey amongst many other supported #BlackLivesMatter and have been asking people bring a change and stop racism.

Bollywood

The starting of May saw several Bollywood celebs coming together to support Facebook’s I For India concert. Hosted by Karan Johar, the live concert saw performances of many biggies of B-town. While Shah Rukh Khan danced with his son AbRam, Alia Bhatt sang with her sister Shaheen Bhatt. Aamir Khan too narrated a poetry with his wife Kiran Rao.

Later on the occasion of Mother’s Day on May 10th, Ayushmann Khurrana dropped a special called Ma as an ode to all the mothers. Bollywood celebs recalled their special memories with their moms. Priyanka Chopra talked about how she misses being with her mom and said that whoever is with their family in this lockdown should be grateful.

As a treat for his fans, Salman Khan released two singles. First, we got to see him sharing sizzling chemistry with Jacqueline Fernandez in Tere Bina. Later he dropped the single Bhai Bhai on the occasion of Eid as a surprise.

Stars like Vicky Kaushal, Madhuri Dixit, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar celebrated their birthdays in lockdown. While KJo received a special surprise from Manish Malhotra in the form of a video, Madhuri surprised her fans by releasing her song ‘Candle’.

Talking about the film releases, many filmmakers took the OTT bait amid this lockdown. From Shakuntala Devi to Gulabo Sitabo and Kargil Girl, all these films are going to directly have an OTT release.

Meanwhile, the actor Sonu Sood has been winning hearts with his noble work. He has been helping the migrant workers to reach their hometown, facilitating their travel with buses, trains or even flights.

Technology

The Chinese video making app TikTok set a new record worldwide. The app has been downloaded over 2 Billion times by now from App Store and Google Play Store. On the contrary, the app also saw a bad rating, as low as 2.0, after the controversy surrounding the app.

As the demand for video calling apps grew in this lockdown, Facebook and Google came up with their video calling features. Joining the row, Reliance too plans on launching a similar feature. In a statement, they announced that they will launch their video conferencing app Jio Meet soon.

PUBG Mobile Game came up with their 0.18.0 update adding many new features to the game and fixing the previous bugs as well. Miramar map of PUBG mobile game has been updated, new locations and some new resources have also been added to the map. There have also been some changes in the UI, new currency and the skin.

Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook too came up with new features. Now one can receive a WhatsApp call while keeping a normal call on hold. On the other hand, Facebook has introduced a dark mode for desktop users.

Also Read: Highlights From The First Half Of The Year, January – June 2020