Researched by: Rachel John, Aarthi Ramnath, Aakriti Anand & Anannya Parekh
Say hello to headlines in five
Have you checked out our excellent daily news wrap, ‘What the F*** Happened Here?’. It tells you what happened during the day—in around five minutes. As always, we are here to make it easier to know what’s up—without noise, negativity, or that existential feeling of despair. The Tuesday pm edition is below. Follow us on YouTube to get your daily dose.
Survey says… BJP’s gonna win!
The CSDS conducts the most comprehensive and reliable pre-election survey in India. They have been rolling out their 2024 results over the past weeks. The latest release shows that the BJP has a comfortable 12% lead over the INDIA alliance. Forty percent of the respondents said they would vote for the party. In fact, the BJP could even improve its vote share.
The bad news: The percentage of those happy with the government’s performance has dropped eight points since 2019. And there is only a 5% difference between those who want to give the BJP another chance—and those who do not. There is also a six-point difference in BJP’s support between the rich and the poor—that’s 45% for the rich and 39% for the poor. In contrast, the support for Congress and its allies hardly varies across class—ranging from 20 to 22%.
The mixed news: Modi-ji remains the most popular choice for PM—with a huge 21-point lead over Rahul Gandhi. According to his supporters, Modi’s most notable achievement was building the Ram Mandir. Less than 10% mentioned any other factor. In fact, voters did not credit creating jobs as an achievement—and are visibly unhappy about unemployment and mehengai.
The other good news: It seems to have made gains in South India—where support has jumped from 18% in 2019 to 25% right now. That said, the BJP does better when there is only Congress on the other side. When there is a three-way split with a regional party, that support drops by half. So, that bodes well for Karnataka. But not so much for the other states where there are strong regional parties.
The biggest takeaway from this survey? Voters prefer the BJP despite its economic performance—not because of it. (The Hindu)
A global coral bleaching event is coming!
The context: Coral bleaching refers to a phenomenon when stressful environmental conditions—like changes in temperature, light, or nutrients—cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae living inside—and turn completely white. They’re not dead—but are far more vulnerable to being wiped out. A global bleaching event is declared when at least 12% of corals in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans are affected within the space of one year. Only three such events have ever taken place—the last one lasted from 2014 to 2017—and 56% of corals were exposed to bleaching.
What happened now: The rising ocean temperatures are likely to trigger the fourth global coral-bleaching event—which is also expected to be the most extensive on record. As of now, 54% of reefs in the world are experiencing bleaching-level heat stress—and at least 54 countries and territories have witnessed mass coral bleaching over the past 14 months. The big picture is grim:
The bottom line is that as coral reefs experience more frequent and severe bleaching events, the time they have to recover is becoming shorter and shorter. Current climate models suggest that every reef on planet Earth will experience severe, annual bleaching sometime between 2040 and 2050.
The Guardian and Reuters have more.
Trump is making criminal history
Donald Trump is in court facing trial for paying hush money to two alleged lovers, right before the 2016 election. He basically wanted to shut them up. Trump paid $150,000 to oneand $130,000 to the other. Did we mention the fact that one of them is a porn star—called Stormy Daniels, no less!
Now, paying that kind of hush money isn’t illegal, as such. The problem is that he paid to cover up information that could hurt him in the presidential election. That’s a violation of the US campaign law. And then, he faked his business records to cover up the cover up. That’s illegal, as well. In the end, this is a lot of drama over a case where the judge will most likely give him probation. That said, this is the very first time that a former US president has ever faced a criminal trial.
Trump faces far more serious charges in three other criminal cases—including trying to overturn the US election in 2020. But this is the only one going on trial before the November election. So this will be the one that generates all the headlines. The sleazier the better! The only one bored of all this drama is Trump—who fell asleep in the courtroom on the first day! (New York Times, paywall, CNN)
X takes down Indian neta tweets
The Election Commission directed X to take down four posts by leaders of four different parties: YSR Congress Party, Telugu Desam Party, Aam Aadmi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. All of them said rude things about their rivals—none of them particularly offensive by Indian neta standards. The AAP tweet was the most creative:
The Aam Aadmi Party’s post features a headline from the online news portal The Quint, which reads, “ED Arrested Aurobindo Pharma’s Director. 5 Days Later, It Bought Electoral Bonds.” The party added a caption to the post saying “Bond Chor [thief],” over an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi edited to redden his eyes and superimpose a pose by the actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui from the poster for the film Raman Raghav 2.0, where the actor plays a serial killer.
All that hard work on Photoshop come to naught. Sad. Why we’re talking about this: “This is the first time that X is proactively disclosing a takedown notice from India to the public since April 2023.” (The Hindu)
Quelle surprise: AI is better than humans!
Since 2017, Stanford University has released a yearly report that charts the progress of artificial intelligence. According to the AI Index, machines have now matched or surpassed humans in a number of basic tasks—such as reading comprehension, image classification, and competition-level mathematics. So the benchmarks used to assess their performance may now be obsolete. In other words, humans can no longer be the baseline for machine learning.
One example is the Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark (GPQA)—which has 400 questions. Last year, AI systems scored about 30-40%—around the same as humans. This year Anthropic’s Claude 3 scored about 60%. One leading researcher says: “The rate of progress is pretty shocking to a lot of people, me included. It’s quite difficult to make a benchmark that survives for more than a few years.” Stanford summarises the findings in 13 charts. The chart below captures the pace of progress. Nature has a handy summary.
No ad-blocking on YouTube!
You won’t be able to use your ad-blocking software when watching free YouTube videos, anymore. Anyone using such apps will experience lots of buffering or a notice that says, ‘The following content is not available on this app.’ Why is that? YouTube says ad-blocking “prevents the creator from earning ad revenue. And ads help keep the platform free for billions of people.” And hey, if you want an ad-free experience, just pay up for the premium version. (The Verge)
Wipro’s weird CEO drama
The context: Last week, Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte stepped down as CEO in a sudden but unsurprising move. Delaporte had been dogged by media reports that claimed founder-chairman Azim Premji was unhappy with his performance. Wipro’s profit margin also declined from 19% in June 2020 to 16% in December 2023. He was replaced by Srini Pallia—who has been at the company since 1992. FYI: Delaporte is the seventh CEO to exit Wipro without completing his tenure.
What happened now: We now know why Delaporte made a hasty exit—a year before his contract ran out. Pallia apparently sold all his 100,000 Wipro shares in February—and was ready to head out the door. This was soon after chairman Rishad Premji announced his full faith in Delaporte. The board panicked and kicked out the old CEO—to hold on to Pallia. In any case, Wipro now has a CEO who sacked his shares in the very company he runs. (Economic Times)
The perfect season for conquest!
A new study of Indian history has uncovered a surprising fact. The Indian subcontinent experienced 11 invasions between 6th century BC and 16th century AD. Of these, nine occurred during a good monsoon year. This includes the arrival of Babur—which marked the beginning of the Mughal empire. And the expansion of Cyrus the Great into the region, back in the sixth century. So they invaded India when it was a fertile land with a flourishing economy.
What’s more notable: Many of these invaders were from Central Asia—which experienced severe droughts in the same year. The discovery confirms once again how climate has shaped the history of civilisations. Did you know the great Indus Valley Civilization declined due to a spate of bad monsoons? People just moved—following the rain to the east. Amazing, right? (The Telegraph)
Two thing to see
One: Hamara Akki will star in a Telugu action flick called ‘Kannappa’. The cast includes superstars such as Vishnu Manchu, Mohanlal, Prabhas, and Nayanthara. Apparently, Akshay Kumar will play a crucial role in the climax! In case you’re wondering, ‘Kannappa’ is about Bhakta Kannappa, an atheist and fearless warrior who became a devoted follower of Lord Shiva. Ah, religion and action—Akki’s two favourite things. You can see Kumar being welcomed by Vishnu Manchu and Mohan Babu below. (The Hindu)
Two: A huge fire has destroyed a 17th century old stock exchange building—called the Børsen—in Copenhagen. It is one of the Danish capital’s most famous landmarks. You can see the damage below. (CNN)
