A jaw-dropping admission in Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

A jaw-dropping admission in Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

The context: In March, ICE agents arrested Palestinian activist and recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil. They raided his university-owned apartment—and first claimed that they were “executing a state department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa.” Except, Khalil has a green card—but that didn’t stop them from arresting him—and shipping him off to a detention centre in Louisiana. His lawyers have gone to court to block ICE’s plan to deport him.

What happened now: Newly released court documents show that Khalil was arrested without a warrant. This is what the Department of Homeland Security admitted:

DHS argued in court documents submitted to the court Thursday that it did not need to obtain a warrant before the arrest because immigration officers have the power to detain people where there is suspicion of “an offense against the United States… The HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] supervisory agent believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary," the DHS wrote. "The agents had reason to believe that the respondent was likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained.”

Just read that entire bit again. The power to detain people on mere suspicion—without a warrant? That stuff doesn’t happen even in the badlands of UP. At the very least, the Indian police will invent crimes for an FIR.

The telling detail: The agents lied to Khalil and claimed that they had a warrant—indicating they 100% knew that they needed one. Given this admission, it isn’t clear why Khalil is still in detention—except for the fact it’s Louisiana? You can see the footage of Khalil allegedly “resisting arrest” below. (NBC News)

Medics, EMT and hospitals: Collateral damage fair game in war

Once upon a time, hospitals were rarely bombed and very few arrested or tortured doctors. Almost no one deliberately killed emergency medics rushing to save lives. Because these are all war crimes. Sadly, that’s no longer the case according to a new NGO report. In 2024, there were over 3,600 such attacks—including “air, missile and drone strikes on hospitals and clinics, as well as the looting and takeover of facilities and arrest and detention of health workers.”

That’s a 15% jump from 2023. The reason: Israel, of course. More than a third of these attacks took place in Gaza and the West Bank. Wait, there’s more:

More than 55% of health worker arrests in 2024 were made by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem… Nearly half of the deaths were reported from Lebanon, and most were emergency medical responders killed during the IDF’s Operation Northern Arrows.

Point to note: Once arrested, many senior doctors in Gaza were tortured and sexually abused—like this surgeon:

During interrogations, he says he was tortured and beaten. “They would throw me on the ground. One would hit me on the head while the other opened my ear and poured water inside,” he says. “There was a bathroom [in the interrogation room] … [they] would take a toilet brush and tell me ‘today we are going to brush your teeth.’ I was tied up, blindfolded and three or four of them held my face, pinned it down and kept scrubbing.” Abu Ajwa says they broke his teeth: “They have no humanity.”

As for EMTs: In March of this year alone, Israeli troops attacked ambulances, shot 15 emergency workers in the head—and buried them in a mass grave.

For more information, you can read the full report or the overview at The Guardian.

Supreme Court blocks besharam ‘post facto’ enviro clearances

First came the notification: Until 2017, companies had to get an environmental clearance before they began a project. The government, however, issued a notification in March of that year giving them a “one-time” six-month window to apply for a clearance—after beginning operations. They were also given the same six-month elbow room if they “expanded production beyond what they were permitted or changed their product mix without obtaining prior clearance.”

The rationale: Better to have these violations brought “under the compliance net at the earliest”—than go “unregulated and unchecked.”

But, but, but: According to the law, the Environmental Ministry must conduct a multi-stage assessment based on opinions of expert appraisal committees. Only then can it either grant or reject a final clearance. The notification allowed companies to skip this tedious process—and go “unregulated and unchecked.”

What happened now: The Supreme Court has called the government out on its bs:

Accusing the Centre of “crafty drafting” to clear illegal constructions through retrospective ECs, the court said the government was only protecting project proponents who had committed gross illegality by commencing construction or operations in these illegal constructions without obtaining prior [clearance].

According to The Tribune, over 100 projects—including cement plants, mining and quarrying, steel and iron factories and airports—have already made full use of this ‘gross illegality’. (Indian Express)

China launches first supercomputer in space

Almost every month, Beijing unveils some giant leap in technology. This time it’s a vastly ambitious project to assemble the world’s first supercomputer that will orbit Earth. Last week, China launched the first 12 of 2,800 satellites that will form the Three-Body Computing Constellation (ooh, is that a reference to the ‘Three Body Problem’):

Once complete, the constellation would support real-time, in-orbit data processing with a total computing capacity of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS) – or one quintillion operations per second – the report said.

In comparison, the world’s most powerful supercomputer right now performs over 1.72 peta operations—or 1.72 quintillion operations per second. So that’s pretty impressive.

A space supercomputer, really? Yup—and it will be a big deal when done. Right now, satellites collect data—and send it back to Earth to be processed. There is a lot of data loss—only 10% makes it back—and delays. OTOH, this crew of supercomputing satellites will “carry a space-based AI model with 8 billion parameters, capable of processing raw satellite data directly in orbit.” The added bonus: Unlike the energy-guzzling supercomputers on the ground, these will rely on solar power. (South China Morning Post)

The other Beijing tech flex: China showing off its new “drone mothership”: A “drone mothership” called Jiu Tian or Nine Heavens—that can release up to 100 smaller drones at the same time to “overwhelm an enemy's air defence systems.” (Euronews)

Postcards from space: An astronaut’s last journey

Don Pettit—NASA’s oldest active astronaut—has retired at the age of 70. He recently concluded his fourth—and final—trip to space on April 20—where he spent 220 days at the International Space Station. Pettit was an avid astrophotographer whose images and videos offered sweeping views of our corner of the galaxy. Below are our favourites.

Here are “ethereal rhythmic pulsations of auroras”:

This photo of a sunrise shows “an array of celestial sights, including the Milky Way, zodiacal light, orbiting Starlink satellites and stars that resemble pinpoints of light.”

This stunner is the Betsiboka River in Madagascar—which reminded Pettit of “blood vessels of the eye.”

Pettit also conducted quirky scientific experiments like these electrically charged water droplets dancing around a Teflon knitting needle:

See the rest over at CNN and New York Times.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Axios has a must-read on how leadership looks like in the AI age—where the old rules no longer apply.
India’s Supreme Court has cleared the way for employers to enforce service bonds, allowing companies to mandate minimum tenures and recover training costs from early leavers—though lawyers caution these bonds can’t act as penalties or unfairly block future job opportunities.
Telegram’s Pavel Durov claims France’s spy boss asked him to silence Romanian conservatives ahead of their elections.
PVR Inox is eyeing small-town India for its next act—floating plans for no-frills, Rs 150 cinemas in places like Leh, Machilipatnam, and non-metro pockets of Bengal and the south.
No relief for telcos—SC has junked pleas by Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Tata Tele to waive over an accumulated Rs 80,000 crore in interest and penalties on unpaid AGR dues.
JPMorgan Chase is hitting pause on hiring after adding 60,000 staff in five years, urging managers to ‘resist’ headcount growth as AI-driven efficiency plans could cut 10% of roles in account services, processing, and fraud divisions.
SEBI has threatened two Mauritius-based Adani investors with penalties and licence cancellations for dodging shareholding disclosures—part of a SEBI probe sparked by Hindenburg’s 2023 allegations of tax haven misuse, which the group continues to deny. Read our Big Story for more details on the investigation.
BBC News has a good read on the secretive Arizona chip factory that’s quietly exposing the cracks in Trump’s America First agenda—built by Taiwan’s TSMC.

sports & entertainment

Amid continuing India-Pakistan tensions, the BCCI may be pulling out of upcoming Asian Cricket Council events—the Women’s Emerging Asia Cup and the Men’s Asia Cup.

meanwhile, in the world

In its biggest Brexit-era shift yet, Britain has inked a sweeping new deal with the EU—covering defence, trade, and fishing rights—nearly a decade after the split.
After nearly three months of blockade, the first aid trucks finally rolled into Gaza on Monday, as Israel caved to mounting pressure from allies like the US.
Meanwhile, the IDF has ordered a full evacuation of Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, as it continues its nonstop bombardment.
Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire negotiations following separate calls with both leaders, though there’s no word on when or where these negotiations will happen.
Romania dodged a Trump-style tilt as centrist Nicusor Dan clinched the presidency with 54% of votes, beating eurosceptic hard-right rival George Simion.
The Supreme Court gave the Trump admin the green light to end protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants—a strong signal of where the court stands on deportation.
Spain is stepping up its battle against the housing crisis, ordering Airbnb to remove nearly 66,000 rental listings as part of a widening crackdown on tourist rentals.
British climber Kenton Cool has summited Everest for the 19th time—breaking his own record for the most ascents by a non-Sherpa.

meanwhile, in India

MGNREGA saw more workers and job cards in 2024-25—but actual jobs took a hit, says a study.
British Kashmiri academic Nitasha Kaul announced on Monday that the Indian government has cancelled her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration over alleged “anti-India activities” through her writing, speeches, and journalistic work—she plans to challenge the decision in court.
Pakistan did not do any “nuclear signalling” after Operation Sindoor—the government told a parliamentary panel. Also mentioned: the US was neither involved nor informed about the ceasefire between the two countries.
The US is cracking down on Indian travel agents aiding illegal immigration—visa restrictions are now in play to shut down alien smuggling networks worldwide.
India’s COVID-19 situation remains under control with just 257 mild cases as of May 19, while authorities ramp up vigilance amid rising cases in Singapore and Hong Kong, the Health Ministry said.
Chief Justice of India BR Gavai agreed for an urgent hearing by Ali Khan Mahmudabad, the Ashoka University professor who was arrested for his Facebook posts that called out hypocrisy in the Operation Sindoor briefings (more context here).
Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah is in big trouble for his derogatory remarks against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi—the SC has ordered a three-member Special Investigation Team to probe the FIR against him.
After the Haryana travel vlogger’s Jyoti Malhotra arrest, the Special Task Force has arrested a UP man for allegedly working as a spy for the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.
Allahabad High Court upheld a trial court’s order to conduct a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal district—which the plaintiff claims was built after demolishing a temple at the site.

Two things to see

One: Researchers have found that epiphanies physically reshape brain activity. When you have an ‘aha moment’, your brain literally lights up—because of changes in blood flow. Also this: “If you have an ‘aha! moment’ while learning something, it almost doubles your memory.” This series of images maps what happens. Gizmodo has more on the findings.

Two: Marvel has greenlit ‘Sinners’ director Ryan Coogler’s six-episode series ‘Ironheart’—which follows Tony Stark’s protégé Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne). It’s described as “a crime show with an Iron Man twist at the center,” and is slated for June 24. Check out the trailer below. (Ars Technica)