Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath & Anannya Parekh
Delimitation dharma: A YouTube explainer
In 2026, there will be a significant readjustment of Lok Sabha seats—granting North Indian states a decisive majority. The reason: the North has far more citizens than the South. So should the South be “punished” for population control—or is it the inevitable price of the one person one vote rule? We look at that very prickly question in our latest video explainer.
Check it out below. Stay tuned for more such explainers on the big fat election coming soon, and be sure to hit the notification button.
War on Gaza: The latest update
Protests target Netanyahu: Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Tel Aviv to express their anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They are demanding an immediate election. This is separate from the protests demanding the return of hostages—which are also rising.
US sends more bombs: For weeks, Washington has been publicly wringing its hands over Netanyahu’s resistance to a ceasefire—or even sparing civilians. But that hasn’t interfered with its plans to ship more weapons to Israel. The ammunition includes “a thousand each of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses.” These will help Israel keep bombing Gaza for another 19 weeks.
A reminder: This comes just days after news that the State Department is investigating the illegal use of American arms to kill civilians. In sum, here’s what it all means:
[S]ecurity analysts say any additional weapons deliveries would be seen by the Israeli government as a signal of U.S. backing for the war, and waning American leverage, at a moment when the conflict risks tipping into a dangerous new phase. “The U.S. is both pouring fuel on this regional conflict and then trying to tamp out the flames.”
Wall Street Journal (paywall) and Reuters have more.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine: Russia scored a significant victory—capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. It comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are low on ammunition and facing an increasing shortage of troops. They are expected to lose even more ground—if the Russian troops take advantage of their momentum and surge forward. While Israel is getting more bombs, Ukraine has been struggling:
But, nearly two years later, military aid to Ukraine from Western allies, especially the United States, has slowed to a trickle because of political infighting in Washington, leaving ample room for Russia to gain fire superiority. Ukraine has tried to bridge that gap with self-exploding drones but is far from reaching any kind of parity with Russian forces, Ukrainian troops have said.
New York Times has more on what this defeat means for the war.
India vs England: How huge is that win?!
The boys in blue made history on Sunday—securing India’s largest victory in Test cricket. They beat England by a jaw-dropping 434 runs in the third Test at Rajkot. Both Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja scored centuries—but Yashaswi Jaiswal outdid them all with the 214-run knock. Also helping matters: Jadeja’s lethal five-wicket haul. FYI: India's previous best performance in Test cricket was in 2021 when we beat New Zealand by 372 runs. The Guardian offers an entertaining read on why England has to stop with the Bazball already! The Telegraph has a match report. Our fave moment: Rohit Sharma’s reaction when Sarfaraz Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal came trotting off the field—thinking he had declared. (Mint)
Also a great India moment: The Indian women's team won the Badminton Asia Team Championships for the first time ever after a thrilling final against Thailand. It marked the culmination of a remarkable streak—when we defeated the best in the game—including China, Hong Kong, and Japan. The star of the tournament: 17-year-old Anmol Kharb, ranked 472, who beat #45 Pornpicha Choeikeewong comfortably in the decider round. You can see the match point below. (ESPN India)
A staggering $450 million blow for Trump
Donald may be scoring big on the campaign trail—where he is slaying his Republican opponents by a mile. But his luck in courtrooms is going from bad to worse. He has once again lost a court case—this one for inflating his net worth by up to $3.6 billion—each year for over a decade! He has to pay a $350 million fine—plus $100 million in accrued interest. The judge made no secret of his feelings: “The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience”—adding the defendant’s “complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”
He has 30 days to pay up—either from his personal stash or take out a bond. The latter is a bit difficult since the judge also banned any bank registered in New York from giving him a loan. The judgement “threatens to wipe out a stockpile of cash, stocks and bonds that he amassed since leaving the White House.” New York Times has lots more on what the ruling means for Trump’s finances.
Bonus clip: The day after he lost in court, the Donald launched a line of gold high-top sneakers. The unveiling at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia did not go well:
Other than the $399 Never Surrender High-Tops, Trump is also hawking the Victory47 cologne and perfume at $99 a bottle. (The Guardian)
Oppenheimer sweeps the BAFTA
It was a big night for Cillian Murphy (best actor), Robert Downey Jr (best supporting actor) and Christopher Nolan (best director)—all of whom won awards last night. The flick scored a total of seven awards—including best film. However, the best actress prize went to Emma Stone for ‘Poor Things’. Point to note: “This was the second year in a row that no Britons won any of the four acting prizes at the most prestigious night in the British film calendar.” Sad. BBC News has loads more. The best moments: when host David Tennant brought Michael Sheen's dog "Bark Ruffalo" on to the stage:
And the surprise appearance of Michael J Fox—who presented the award for best film:
Pakistan: A surprising confession of election rigging
The context: Pakistan is no stranger to rigged elections—in 2018, the Army had installed their blue-eyed boy Imran Khan in office. But since he lost favour, it was widely expected that Nawaz Sharif—rehabilitated and returned from exile—will be installed as the next prime minister with the military’s blessings. While independent candidates supported by Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, unexpectedly won 93 seats out of a total of 266—Sharif’s party formed the government with support from Bilawal Bhutto’s PPP. Our Big Story has lots more on the election results.
What happened now: The commissioner of Rawalpindi made this colourful confession to reporters:
“We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats,” he told reporters, also implicating the head of the election commission and the country’s top judge… the commissioner admitted he was “deeply involved in serious crime like mega election rigging 2024” and said that “stabbing the country in its back” does not allow him sleep. “I should be punished for the injustice I have done and others who were involved in this injustice should also be punished,” he added.
No one knows what prompted him to “come clean”—but he will not be punished as no one has filed a case against him. Meanwhile, Imran Khan’s supporters have been staging angry rallies—claiming the elections were rigged. (Al Jazeera)
Dismal data on the Indian C-suite
According to an Economic Times analysis, women hold only 4% of executive director roles (such as MD, CEO, CFO) in Nifty 50 companies. That’s just six out of 146 positions. Across all National Stock Exchange-listed companies, only 3% are women— that’s 161 out of 5,134 jobs. The usual culprit: mid-career attrition:
There are not enough women coming up the funnel with many meritorious female professionals dropping off in their mid-30s due to maternity or caregiving responsibilities. Though post-Covid many organisations are trying to better the gender ratio, the patriarchal mindset is not improving the funnel.
Economic Times has more on the data.
OpenAI’s big and awesome reveal: Sora!
The company unveiled a new tool called Sora—that magically spits out video content when you give it a textual prompt. It can create videos that are up to a minute long—which include “complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background,”
Example: Sora spit out this video when Kunal Shah asked for: “A bicycle race on ocean with different animals as athletes riding the bicycles with drone camera view”:
For now, the tool is only available to visual artists, designers and filmmakers for testing. Unsurprisingly, experts are already flagging concerns about deepfakes. (Bloomberg News via Yahoo News)
A Hindutva controversy over ‘Akbar’
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has filed a case in Bengal protesting the decision to house a lioness named Sita in the same enclosure as a lion called Akbar. The organisation said: “Such an act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious belief of all Hindus.” They also argue that naming an animal after a deity is blasphemous.
All this is apparently a result of a Trinamool conspiracy afoot:
Mondal said the lion called Akbar had previously been named after the Hindu deity Rama when he was in the neighbouring state of Tripura, which is controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party. But the lion’s name was changed when he was brought to West Bengal, which is controlled by the opposition Trinamool Congress party.
The zoo has angrily denied all such allegations. (Indian Express)
One Downey thing to see
Park Chan-wook—the director of ‘Oldboy’ and ‘The Handmaiden’—is back with a new series called ‘The Sympathizer’. It is based on the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The intriguing part: Robert Downey Jr (also the series producer) plays five supporting roles. The series will drop on April 14 on HBO Max (in the US) and JioCinema (in India). (Hollywood Reporter)
