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In a striking reflection, Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2024 was “brain rot”—a term that encapsulates the impact of consuming excessive amounts of mind-numbing digital content. Interestingly, the phrase “brain rot” was first used by Henry David Thoreau in 1854 in Walden, where he criticised society’s inclination towards superficiality over depth. Today, it captures growing fears about the cognitive effects of compulsive endless social media scrolling, where algorithms reward emotional responses over rational discourse and fuel a cycle of distraction and intellectual decay.

WASHINGTON DC: Just in time for Pride month, President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have apparently decided it’s a good time to sentence more people to death in the future. That will be the result of the administration’s $258 million cut to HIV vaccine research, according to experts in the field.

WASHINGTON: A never-ending dispute is on. Who is most powerful among the five pillars of democracy? The government, the executive, the judiciary, the legislature and the media. We can bunch the government and the executive in one group. The other three branches are important as the government.

The World Economic Forum on June 3 Tuesday released from Geneva a new report examining how emerging technology combinations are reshaping industries and how business leaders can harness these insights to guide investment, build capabilities and position ecosystems strategically. It also offers valuable insights to policy-makers by highlighting how emerging technologies intersect and amplify one another, which can help break down regulatory silos and anticipate wider, system-level impacts.

NEW YORK: The U.S. House recently passed a massive Trump budget bill that will cut trillions in taxes for the ultra-wealthy while eviscerating Medicaid, SNAP, and other services for working Americans. It has now moved to the Senate.

Gaza’s Hamas militants face an unmitigated disaster as Israel is all set to take full control over Gaza strip after a gap of almost 20 years. Simultaneously, Israel seems to be gearing up to annex a substantial portion (Area C) of West Bank ignoring protests from France, the United Kingdom and Sweden and even a section of its own people In Tel Aviv. Last week, Israel said it would establish 22 additional Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Hamas has few genuine supporters in the Arab world barring Iran and pro-Iran Houthis. Gaza may soon become a part of Israel’s extended territory with Palestinian population vastly diminished due to death and displacement during the Israel-Hamas war since October 7, 2023. The present Gaza war follows several unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflicts in the past, including those in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021.

For European Union, its political woes are showing no signs of abating as the June 1 Presidential runoff results in Poland showed that the populist right opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki backed by the Law and Justice Party(PIS) won defeating his pro-European rival RafalTrzaskowski in a neck to neck contest. Nawrocki got 50.89 per cent of the votes as against his rival’s 49.11 per cent.

NEW YORK: Former US President Joe Biden considered regulating crypto currency just like many level headed presidents and prime ministers of other countries because US intelligence reports revealed that the crypto currency was largely used by the underworld to stash money earned by beating the law and it kept moving across the globe and had no regulatory authority to track it.

At the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urged US allies in Asia to boost defences fast, saying America is shifting its strategy to counter growing threats from China.

Brent crude oil futures continue to hover around the $65 per barrel mark, a level that reflects the push and pull of market forces clouded by a cocktail of geopolitical tensions, environmental disruptions, and strategic production decisions. As prices hold steady, the broader sentiment among traders and analysts leans toward caution, with a slightly bullish undertone given the confluence of supply-side constraints and persistent demand recovery hopes. Much of the current price resilience can be traced to heightened uncertainty regarding OPEC+’s intentions and external shocks to global oil supply.