In our latest Advisory edition… We’ve got a wonderful story from The Heritage Lab about Chintz. The history of the fabric spans slavery, royalty, and even Hollywood. We have the ultimate list of foundations, skin tints and concealers to get your base makeup sorted thanks to the splainer fam. We pick the best new book releases for your reading pleasure. As always, we’ve curated the best new shows and films to binge-watch this weekend. Summers are for pool parties and we’ve got the definitive playlist—from the iconic to K-Pop. Read the Advisory edition here.
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Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar
Miss World faces allegations of sleaze
The context: Chaired by British businesswoman Julia Morley, this year’s edition of the Miss World beauty pageant—not to be confused with Miss Universe—is underway in Hyderabad. The winner is chosen from contestants from 108 countries. On paper, they are supposedly judged on charity work, talent, and intelligence—as much as physical appearance. The contestants arrived in Hyderabad ahead of the opening ceremony on May 10—and have received lots of publicity. The grand finale will take place on May 31. FYI: Last year’s Miss World also took place in India—in Mumbai.
What happened in Hyderabad: Miss England Milla Magee withdrew from the contest—claiming she was being exploited by the pageant’s organisers and made to “feel like a prostitute.” For starters, contenders had to wear make-up 24/7 and ball gowns at all times—including at breakfast. But this was the final straw:
[T]hey were told to entertain middle-aged men as a “thank you” for money they put into the show. She revealed: “There were two girls to each table of six guests. We were expected to sit with them for the whole evening and entertain them as a thank you. I found that unbelievable. I remember thinking, ‘This is so wrong’. I didn’t come here to be farmed out for people’s entertainment… They made me feel like a prostitute.”
About Magee: Crowned Miss England, she is an example of a new, more progressive category of contestants—and has been billed as thefirst ‘plus size’ winner in her country. Magee has also been very vocal about body positivity and her aim tochallenge pageant stereotypes.
A round of denials: The organisers claimMagee asked to leave the competition due to a family emergency—and dismissed the tabloid reports as “completely unfounded.” The Telangana tourism department also jumped into the fray—labellingMagee’s allegations as “fabricated and highly exaggerated”—and claimed to have receipts:
We reviewed the CCTV footage from that night. It clearly shows that Milla Magee was seated with one man and four women, the gentleman being a senior IAS officer, accompanied by his wife, daughter-in-law, and their guests. He is known for his impeccable reputation and professionalism. To suggest he made any inappropriate advances, especially in the presence of his family members, is absurd and unbelievable.
Why this matters: Magee is the first Miss World contestant to publicly rebuke the pageant’s organisers—all other dropouts have been for “undisclosed reasons.” The last high-profile departure was that of Philippines’ Janina San Miguel in 2008—who finally called out the organisers in 2020. She claimed contestants were sexually propositioned—and forced to keep sponsors happy. The reporting sounds alarmingly similar:
Some of these women also face a risk of unwanted advances on the part of predatory sponsors, who are often powerful people. [A pageant reporter] saw an incident in which the pageant organiser asked the contestants to sit with guests who had paid tickets to attend the event and who had been drinking. Some of these girls begged the journalists for help, but the latter were “told not to interfere”.
What happens next: The 2024 Miss England runner-up—Charlotte Grant—has replaced Magee in Hyderabad. The winner will be named on May 31.
Reading list: UK tabloid The Sun has the exclusive interview with Magee, while The Hindu reports on the government’s response to her allegations. For more on Magee, check outBBC News. This older Channel News Asia report has more on exploitation at Filipino pageants.
Kush Maini makes history at F2
WTF is F2?: Formula 2 is the second-tier racing competition below the flagship event, Formula 1. The contest serves as a training ground for young drivers. F1 stars George Russell and Charles LeClerc, for example, successfully graduated from F2 to F1.
Maini for the win!: Bangalore boy Kush Maini won the sprint race on Saturday in Monaco—becoming the first Indian to win a race of any kind in F2 history. He came sixth in the main race on Sunday.
Wtf is a sprint race: It’s held on the Saturday of the race weekend. At 45 minutes or 120 kilometres, the contest is shorter than the main race—which is 60 minutes or 170 kilometres. Unlike the main race, drivers are not required to make any pit stops.
About Maini: The 24-year-old comes from a racing family—and is the younger brother of Arjun Maini who competed in GP3 and Formula 2. Kush is also the nephew of Indian businessman Chetan Maini, a big name in the EV industry. He started his racing career in 2016—at the Italian F4 Championship in BVM Racing. His first podium finish was at his Formula 2 debut in 2023—when he came third at the Australian Sprint Race.
The coolest bit of trivia: Maini has been mentored by two-time F1 Drivers World Champion Mika Häkkinen. The Telegraphhas more on Maini. The official website has a beginner’s guide to F2. Check out the race highlights here. Below is his awesome podium appearance—accompanied by our national anthem:
2025 Cannes: Meet the winners
Despite the drama of a power outage—which may have been caused by sabotage—the show went on… and in great style.
The Palme d’Or goes to… ‘Un Simple Accident’ or ‘It Was Just an Accident’ won the highest honour. The Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi was shot in secret—after he was released from prison. It tells the story of five characters who believe they have identified the person who tortured them in prison. What makes the film even more moving—it was inspired by Panahi’s own experience:
The first time I was in prison I was in solitary confinement. I was on my own in a tiny cell and they would take me out blindfolded to a place where I would sit in front of a wall and hear this voice at my back. It was the voice of the man who would question me — sometimes for two hours, sometimes for eight hours.
And I would just hang on his voice all that time, fantasising about who this person was from his voice. And I had an intuition that someday this voice would be an aspect of something I’d write or shoot and give a creative life to.
And yet the first thing Panahi did when released was to take the great risk of making this forbidden film. You can see Pahani’s reaction to winning here—and see a clip from the film below:
Reminder: Panahi has now won Cannes’ Palme d’Or, Venice’s Golden Lion (for ‘The Circle’) and Berlin’s Golden Bear (for ‘Taxi’). Only three other filmmakers have achieved this feat: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman.
The Grand Prix goes to… Joachim Trier’s drama ‘Sentimental Value’—which came in second. This movie reunited Trier and Renate Reinsve after their outing in ‘The Worst Person in the World’.Below is the trailer for the Norwegian drama starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning. Reminder: Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ won this last year.
As for the rest: An Iraqi film called ‘The President’s Cake’ directed by Hasan Hadi won the Camera d’Or—given to the best debut film (watch a clip here). It was also the first Iraqi film to be honored at Cannes. Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan won a special award for ‘Resurrection’—which the New York Times describes as “a delirious, elegiac journey through cinema history.” Here’s the official Cannes clip from the movie:
Sadly, our desi chalchitra—‘Homebound’ directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor—did not make the cut—despite being backed by Martin Scorsese and receiving a9-minute standing ovation after the screening. FYI: The film is inspired by journalist Baisharat Peer’s New York Timespiece titled ‘A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway’.
Moving on to the red carpet looks: Alia Bhatt turned a head or two in Gucci’s first ever saree—which is 100% going to be sold out. Get ready for Indians paying stupid amounts of money to a foreign brand for our traditional apparel. Waiting for LV ghagras. Though we do admire the chutzpah of turning a sari into a ‘naked look’ outfit:
Aish made waves for smearing sindoor in her hair—in a kinda bizarre moment of misplaced patriotism:
The latest AI model from Anthropic—Claude Opus 4—is turning out to be a grade-A villain—fit for a Hollywood melodrama. Here’s what the AI model did during safety testing:
Claude was given access to fictional emails about its pending deletion, and was also told that the person in charge of the deactivation was fooling around on their spouse. In 84% of tests, Claude said it sure would be a shame if anyone found out about the cheating in an effort to blackmail its way into survival.
Haw! To be fair, Claude started out nice—-emailing decision-makers to plead its case. It only turned evil when forced to choose between two options—blackmail or death—which sounds very, umm, human to us.
Should you be scared?: Some AI safety experts darkly warn this is a core AI problem: "We see blackmail across all frontier models—regardless of what goals they're given." Even Anthropic concedes that AI models can misbehave in “extreme” situations:
It also said Claude Opus 4 exhibits "high agency behaviour" that, while mostly helpful, could take on extreme behaviour in acute situations. If given the means and prompted to "take action" or "act boldly" in fake scenarios where its user has engaged in illegal or morally dubious behaviour, it found that "it will frequently take very bold action". It said this included locking users out of systems that it was able to access and emailing media and law enforcement to alert them to the wrongdoing.
BBC News has the best reporting on what Claude’s behaviour means. You can read Anthropic’s 120-page safety report if you really, really wanna know.
what caught our eye
business & tech
Boeing has struck a $1.1 billion deal with the US Justice Department to dodge criminal charges over the 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated nearly $700 million in Alphabet shares to three philanthropic organisations focused on a variety of issues—from Parkinson's research to climate change.
LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman, said AI is increasingly threatening the types of jobs that historically have served as stepping stones for young workers.
sports & entertainment
RIP Dave Shapiro—the trailblazing heavy metal exec died in a San Diego plane crash at the age of 42.
Amazon is pulling the plug on ‘The Wheel of Time’ after three seasons—despite fan praise, high costs and falling viewership sealed its fate.
‘Dhadak 2’ has been cleared by the CBFC after 16 cuts—including muted caste slurs and reworked political dialogue in the remake of ‘Pariyerum Perumal’.
The second grand slam of the year—Roland Garros—began yesterday. ESPN covers the favourites to win the tournament.
SRH flirt with a 300+ total as Klaasen’s fiery ton helps them post 278/3—before bulldozing KKR by 110 runs to wrap up IPL 2025 on a high.
Rashid Khan has joined an unwanted club—conceding a record 31 sixes this IPL season, tying with GT teammate Mohammed Siraj.
health & environment
Penguin poop might be doing climate work—new research says it helps form sun-blocking clouds that keep Antarctica cool.
The southwest monsoon arrived in Maharashtra on May 25—the earliest onset in 35 years.
meanwhile, in the world
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a must read on Israel’s new Gaza aid plan—bypassing the UN, handing food distribution to shadowy contractors in a bid to sideline Hamas.
Venezuela is holding elections in Essequibo this Sunday—a region that’s actually part of neighbouring Guyana.
Reporters now need escorts to roam the Pentagon—Trump’s latest press crackdown has the Pentagon Press Association crying foul over what it calls a direct attack on press freedom.
A federal judge stopped the Trump administration from barring foreign students at Harvard.
A $1.5 billion golf complex outside the capital, Hanoi, and a Trump skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City are the Trump family’s first projects in Vietnam—a blatant shakedown amid trade talks.
The Conversation has a good read on how Mexican drug cartels fuel violence and migration with hundreds of thousands of guns bought from licensed US shops.
North Korea detains three shipyard officials after botched warship launch, state media reports.
The US Defence Intelligence Agency says India views China as its primary adversary and Pakistan as an ancillary security challenge to manage—while Pakistan sees India as an existential threat.
After threatening a 50% tariff last week, Donald Trump has extended the EU trade deal deadline to July 9, after the bloc asked for more time to strike a “good deal.”
Hong Kong university steps in with unconditional offers and full support for students hit by Trump’s Harvard ban.
After three intense days and amid heavy Russian airstrikes, Ukraine and Russia wrapped up a massive “1,000 for 1,000” prisoner swap—Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the last 303 captives are home.
meanwhile, in India
Kerala’s on high alert after a Liberian-flagged cargo ship capsized off Kochi—spilling oil and hazardous cargo that’s now drifting straight for the coast.
India’s economy just hit $4 trillion—leapfrogging Japan to become the world’s fourth largest.
India’s economic growth likely rose to 6.9% in the March quarter from 6.2% in the previous quarter—largely due to robust agricultural activity and service sector exports.
India’s net FDI nosedived 96.5% in FY25—crashing to a record low of $353 million as investors pulled out via IPOs and domestic companies bet big abroad.
Over 300 suspects entered Chennai’s Puzhal prison with broken limbs in 2024—RTI data reveals a disturbing, systemic pattern of custodial torture in Tamil Nadu.
Air India has been named the most delayed airline in the UK—with flights departing an average of nearly 46 minutes late in 2024.
Indian troops shot dead a Pakistani man near the Gujarat border after he crossed the frontier and ignored warnings.
Even before Operation Sindoor kicked off on May 7, hacktivist groups had launched DDoS attacks on India and Pakistan, per a report linked to Google Cloud’s Mandiant.
The government-run Rail Vikas Nigam may end its year-old agreement with Turkish engineering firm Tumas due to a lack of progress.
Meanwhile, Pakistan PM Sharif held solidarity talks with President Erdogan in Istanbul.
Indians lost more than Rs 135 crore in denied Schengen visa applications last year—the third-highest rejections in the world. Check out our Big Story for more.
One scary thing to see
Delhi experienced an intense thunderstorm for six hours over the weekend—leading to the diversion of 49 flights. The scariest bit, however, wasthis moment at Terminal 1. Point to note: The structure that broke was installed after the roof collapsed and killed one person during heavy rains last June. (News18)
feel good place
One: Down the rabbit hole (in the best way possible).
Reading list:
