Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
The far-right rises in France
The context: France is in the midst of a high-stakes parliamentary election—called by President Emmanuel Macron three weeks ago. The elections for the 577 National Assembly seats will happen in two rounds—with results due on July 7. Reminder: His centrist party Renaissance was beaten up by rightwing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in elections for the European Parliament (which governs the EU). Macron gambled on a snap election—which doesn’t seem to be paying off. Lots more on Le Pen in this Big Story.
What happened now: Exit polls from the first round of voting show that Le Pen may become the next French president—a historic first for the far-right in France. Pollster projections say her party will likely take about 34% of the vote. The real shocker: Macron is in third place with 22%. An alliance of Left parties may end up with 29%—all of which spells bad news for French politics:
Most analysts suggest the most likely outcome is a polarised parliament, where consensus between the larger far-right and leftwing blocs, and a smaller number of Macron’s allies would be nearly impossible, leading to political paralysis.
Reuters offers more analysis. Translation: Get ready for the next Giorgia Meloni—the far-right PM who recently made history in Italy. (The Guardian)
Hemant Soren finally gets bail
The context: On January 31, Hemant Soren—head of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party—was arrested. The case involves 12 parcels of land in Ranchi—which he allegedly acquired with the assistance of the local land mafia. Soren had been forced to resign as CM—and kept behind bars for the national election. Our Big Story has more context. It was seen as part of a worrying trend of arresting Opposition leaders. See: Arvind Kejriwal.
What happened now: On Friday, Jharkhand High Court granted him bail after five months in prison. The court order declared that there seemed to be little evidence of his guilt. Why this matters: There’s an Assembly election slated for November. (The Hindu)
War on Gaza: The latest update
One: Israel is moving toward legalising five settlements in the West Bank—which suggests they are currently illegal. It is a quid pro quo for releasing the Palestine Authority’s tax revenue—which is owed to them under the 1990s peace accords. (New York Times)
Two: Brace yourself—the war may spread to Lebanon as “deadly tit-for-tat” attacks on the border escalate into direct confrontation. The US is scrambling to negotiate a cool-down—but doesn’t exactly have a great track record in these matters since the war kicked off. (Washington Post)
Warren Buffett’s $5 billion donation
The sadhguru of investment advice is doling out $5.3 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stocks to a variety of charities. Most of it will go to the Gates Foundation—while the rest will be given to organisations run by his kids. According to Buffett's will, 99% of his wealth will go to charities on his death. But it will be channelled into a new charitable trust overseen by his daughter and two sons. (Quartz)
Moving on to other billionaires: Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has landed a NASA deal to bring down the International Space Station—which will become defunct in 2030. SpaceX will be paid $843 million to crash the ISS into the sea. (BBC News)
AI is a ‘grade A’ student
According to a new study, the machine is kicking the ass of human students at take-home exams—and—this is important—were undetectable by graders. In this case, the researchers used ChatGPT for an exam in an undergraduate psychology course:
They said the AI students' results were half a grade boundary higher on average than those of their real-life counterparts. And the AI essays "verged on being undetectable", with 94% not raising concerns with markers.
Here’s the interesting bit: AI didn’t fare as well in more advanced courses: “[T]he humans scored better in the third-year exams—which ‘is consistent with the notion that current AI struggles with more abstract reasoning’, the researchers said.” Why this matters: This is the largest and most robust blind study of its kind to date. Also this: It may spell the end of take-home exams—according to some experts. (BBC News)
Speaking of very clever machines: Google can now translate 110 new languages—bringing its linguistic total to 243. There are a number of Indian languages on the list, including Awadhi, Bodo, Marwadi, and Tulu. Other additions include Cantonese, Manx (Gaelic), N’Ko (African), and Tok Pisin (Creole). The new additions represent 614 million speakers, accounting for roughly 8% of the world’s population. FYI: This goes way beyond Apple Translate’s capabilities—which is just over 20 languages. (TechCrunch)
Indians spend big on travel
We are splurging 3.5X more on foreign travel compared to just five years ago:
Indians took out a total of $17 billion (Rs 1,41,800 crore) in 2023-24 for overseas travel under the RBI’s liberalised remittances scheme (LRS). This is 24.4% more compared with $13.66 billion in the previous year.
We are also investing more overseas. That number in FY2024 was an average of $100 million abroad every month ($1.51 billion for the full year)—compared to $1.25 billion in FY2023. (Indian Express)
Bellingham’s beautiful bicycle kick
England’s Jude Bellingham scored an “iconic” goal to keep his team in the run for the Euros. The English only had 86 seconds to save themselves from losing to Slovakia in the round of 16—and finally won 2-1 after extra time. You can see the truly astonishing goal below. BBC News explains why it’s historic.
