Remote work has transformed the geography of employment, allowing professionals to live thousands of miles from their employers.
The result has been the emergence of so-called digital nomad cities—destinations that attract remote workers seeking lower living costs, pleasant climates and flexible lifestyles.
Cities such as Lisbon, Bali, Medellín and Chiang Mai have become hubs for these mobile professionals.
Governments have taken notice.
More than 40 countries now offer specialised digital nomad visas, allowing remote workers to live and work legally for extended periods.
Portugal’s visa programme, for example, has drawn thousands of remote professionals to Lisbon and coastal towns. Estonia and Croatia have launched similar initiatives.
Economic benefits substantial
Remote workers often earn salaries tied to higher-income economies while spending locally in restaurants, apartments and services. This inflow of income can boost tourism sectors and urban economies.
But the trend has also sparked tensions.
In several popular destinations, local residents have complained that an influx of foreign professionals has driven up housing prices and changed neighbourhood dynamics.
Lisbon, for instance, has seen rents rise sharply in recent years, prompting protests by residents concerned about affordability.
Urban planners say the challenge lies in balancing economic opportunity with social stability.
“Digital nomads bring investment and cultural exchange,” said urban researcher Andrés Rodríguez-Pose of the London School of Economics. “But cities must ensure that local communities are not priced out.”
The remote-work revolution shows little sign of reversing.
For millions of professionals, the office is no longer a place but a laptop—and the world itself has become a workplace.
Over the past decade, India has quietly become the operational backbone of some of the world’s largest corporations. The country now hosts more than 1,500 Global Capability Centres (GCCs)—specialised hubs where multinational companies manage everything from software engineering and financial analysis to artificial intelligence research.
Bengaluru sits at the heart of this transformation.
The southern technology capital has long been known as India’s Silicon Valley, but its role is evolving. What once began as outsourcing support centres has matured into high-value innovation hubs.
According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), GCCs in India employ nearly two million professionals and generate tens of billions of dollars in annual economic activity.
Companies including Goldman Sachs, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, Airbus and Bosch operate large centres in Indian cities, particularly Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
“These centres are no longer just back-office operations,” said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president at NASSCOM. “They are increasingly responsible for product development, digital transformation and advanced research.”
Shift Reflects Logic and Talent Availability
India produces hundreds of thousands of engineering graduates each year, providing companies with a vast pool of skilled workers. Labour costs remain significantly lower than in North America or Europe, but the quality of technical expertise has steadily improved.
At the same time, multinational corporations are seeking to centralise operations and accelerate innovation.
Global capability centres allow companies to bring together diverse functions—from cybersecurity and data analytics to financial planning—under one roof. Many centres now operate around the clock, coordinating with teams across continents.
The growth has also reshaped urban economies.
In Bengaluru, demand from GCC employees has fuelled the expansion of housing markets, commercial real estate and transportation infrastructure. Entire neighbourhoods around tech corridors such as Outer Ring Road and Whitefield have developed to accommodate the growing workforce.
Hyderabad, meanwhile, has emerged as another major GCC hub, attracting companies with lower real estate costs and proactive state government policies.
MNCs largest occupiers of office space in India
Real-estate consultants estimate that multinational firms are among the largest occupiers of office space in India’s technology cities.
The boom shows little sign of slowing.
Industry forecasts suggest the number of GCCs in India could exceed 2,000 within the next five years as companies expand their presence in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and financial technology.
For India, the implications extend far beyond employment.
“These centres place India at the core of global innovation networks,” Gupta said. “The country is moving from a services economy toward a knowledge and technology powerhouse.”
A quiet but striking political shift is unfolding among the youngest voters in many democracies: men and women of Generation Z are moving in sharply different ideological directions.
Several international surveys suggest the divide is widening. A recent global study by Ipsos, which surveyed more than 23,000 people across multiple countries, found that a significant share of young men expressed traditional views on gender roles in marriage and family life. At the same time, young women were far more likely to support feminist ideals and policies promoting gender equality.
The divergence has been particularly visible in Western democracies. In the United States, polling by the Pew Research Center has shown young women consistently expressing more liberal views than their male peers on issues ranging from reproductive rights to immigration and climate policy.
Sociologists say the split reflects deeper changes in culture and economics.
“Gender attitudes among young people have been transforming for decades, but social media has accelerated the process dramatically,” said Alice Evans, a researcher at King’s College London who studies gender norms and political behaviour.
Women see more opportunities, outnumber men
For many young women, higher education and professional opportunities have expanded rapidly. Women now outnumber men in universities across much of Europe and North America, a shift that has coincided with growing support for progressive social policies.
Young men, however, have experienced a more uneven transition.
Economic insecurity in industries traditionally dominated by men—such as manufacturing and manual labour—has left some feeling excluded from new opportunities. Researchers say this economic anxiety can translate into more traditional views about gender roles.
At the same time, the digital ecosystem has created new cultural spaces that reinforce those views.
Influencers and online communities promoting “traditional masculinity” or criticising feminism have gained millions of followers on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and X. Critics say some of these spaces encourage resentment toward women and progressive politics.
“The online environment amplifies extreme voices,” said Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life. “Young men can easily find communities that reinforce feelings of grievance or marginalisation.”
Political parties have also begun to recognise the gender divide among younger voters.
Gender divide among Gen Z in elections
In South Korea’s 2022 presidential election, analysts noted a dramatic split between young men and women, with male voters strongly supporting conservative candidates while female voters leaned heavily toward progressive ones. Similar trends have been observed in parts of Europe.
The phenomenon has raised broader questions about how relationships and family structures may evolve.
Dating apps and changing social expectations have altered the dynamics between young men and women, sometimes intensifying tensions around gender identity and expectations. Cultural debates about feminism, masculinity and equality have become more visible—and more polarised.
Yet researchers caution against oversimplifying the trend.
“Young people are not monolithic,” Evans noted. “Many young men support gender equality, and many young women hold a range of views. But the ideological gap between them is undeniably growing.”
If the divide persists, it could shape political and social landscapes for decades.
For now, Generation Z appears poised to redefine gender politics in ways that few analysts predicted even a decade ago.
Bengaluru’s housing market is closely tied to the fortunes of the technology industry. Nearly 60–70 percent of homebuyers in many new projects come from IT or tech-linked sectors, according to industry estimates. With the oil shock shaking the metropolitan cities in India, here are three scenarios emerging in 2026:
IT Sector Hiring Slowdown
Over the past year, however, global technology firms have slowed hiring as they restructure around artificial intelligence and automation. Several outsourcing companies have also signalled a cautious outlook on recruitment.
Real-estate consultants say the biggest risk to the city’s property market is not geopolitical events but employment sentiment.
“When tech hiring slows, housing demand reacts within six to twelve months,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of property consultancy ANAROCK. “Bengaluru’s residential market is deeply linked to white-collar employment growth.”
If hiring weakens significantly, especially in IT corridors such as Whitefield, Sarjapur Road and Outer Ring Road, demand for both rentals and home purchases could soften.
Rising Home Loan Interest Rates
Housing affordability is another key variable. Many Bengaluru buyers rely heavily on large home loans to finance property purchases.
If global oil prices remain high due to Middle East tensions, inflation could rise. Higher inflation often pushes central banks to keep interest rates elevated.
For homebuyers, even a small increase in borrowing costs can significantly affect monthly payments. On a ₹1-crore loan, a one-percentage-point increase in interest rates can raise EMIs by several thousand rupees per month.
Property analysts say that while demand in Bengaluru’s premium segment remains strong, mid-income buyers are far more sensitive to financing costs.
If interest rates stay high for an extended period, developers could see slower sales in the ₹60 lakh to ₹1.5 crore housing category, which forms a large part of the city’s market.
Rapid Supply Of New Housing
Another factor being closely monitored is the rapid expansion of housing supply.
Developers have launched a large number of new residential projects across Bengaluru in the past two years, particularly in expanding suburbs such as North Bengaluru, Sarjapur Road, Devanahalli and Yelahanka.
This surge in supply was driven by strong demand after the pandemic, when many professionals sought larger homes and better living spaces.
However, if new launches continue rising faster than actual sales, the market could gradually shift toward a buyer-friendly environment. In such a scenario, prices may stabilise or grow more slowly.
Real-estate consultant Knight Frank has noted that Bengaluru already ranks among the top cities globally for housing price growth, which means sustained increases may become harder to maintain without strong demand.
For now, Bengaluru remains one of India’s strongest housing markets due to tech employment, migration and infrastructure expansion.
But analysts say three trends will determine the direction of prices in the coming year:
• the strength of the IT job market • interest rate movements • the balance between housing supply and demand
If all three weaken at the same time, the city could see its first meaningful property slowdown in several years, even if prices do not fall.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has reignited debate about extraterrestrial life after suggesting that humanity may not be alone in the universe. His remarks come at a time when discussion about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unexplained aerial phenomena is spreading rapidly across the internet and popular culture.
Speaking at the SXSW Film and TV Festival in Austin while promoting his upcoming science-fiction film Disclosure Day, Spielberg told audiences that although he does not have definitive answers about alien life, the possibility cannot be dismissed.
“I don’t know any more than any of you do,” Spielberg said during a live podcast session at the festival. “But I have a very strong suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now.”
The comments quickly gained traction online, where speculation about extraterrestrial encounters and government secrecy has grown sharply in recent years.
Spielberg’s upcoming film taps directly into that fascination. Disclosure Day, scheduled for theatrical release in June 2026, imagines the global consequences if governments were suddenly to confirm that alien intelligence had been interacting with Earth for decades. The film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor and Colin Firth and marks Spielberg’s return to large-scale extraterrestrial storytelling.
During the SXSW discussion, the director suggested that the idea of “disclosure”—a moment when authorities reveal hidden knowledge about alien contact—has increasingly captured the public imagination.
Interest in UFOs has surged globally over the past decade. Reports about unexplained aerial encounters involving U.S. Navy pilots and subsequent discussions in the U.S. Congress have brought the subject into mainstream political and scientific debate. Governments and defence agencies now commonly use the term “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) when referring to mysterious objects spotted in the sky.
Triggers Online Debate on Aliens
Online communities discussing UFO sightings and possible alien technology have expanded significantly. Videos of unexplained aerial objects regularly trend on social media platforms, while documentaries and podcasts exploring the subject attract millions of viewers worldwide.
Spielberg has long been associated with extraterrestrial storytelling. His 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind became one of Hollywood’s most influential science-fiction movies, portraying ordinary people encountering mysterious spacecraft. The film helped shape modern pop-culture imagery surrounding UFOs and alien contact.
Despite his long fascination with the subject, Spielberg joked that he has never personally experienced anything resembling a UFO encounter.
“I made Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” he told the SXSW audience. “I haven’t even had a close encounter of the first or second kind.”
The filmmaker also suggested that confirmed contact with extraterrestrial intelligence could challenge deeply held beliefs. According to Spielberg, such a revelation might disrupt “a lot of belief systems,” although he added that the change would not necessarily be destructive.
His comments arrive as curiosity about UFOs moves further into mainstream discourse. Once largely confined to science fiction and conspiracy circles, the question of alien life is now being discussed by scientists, policymakers and filmmakers alike.
For Spielberg, whose films have often explored humanity’s place in the universe, the renewed interest provides a timely backdrop. With Disclosure Day, the veteran director appears to be capturing a moment when speculation about extraterrestrial life has shifted from the fringes of culture to the centre of global conversation.
In a big relief for many US passport holders living overseas (including some Indians with dual ties or green card pasts), the US State Department has cut the fee to formally renounce American citizenship by about 80%. The cost drops from $2,350 (roughly ₹2 lakh) to just $450 (around ₹38,000 at current rates).
This change came into effect after years of court fights by groups like the Association of Accidental Americans, who argued the high fee was unfair, especially for people born in the US but living abroad their whole lives, facing complicated US tax rules like FATCA reporting. “The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible to all,” its president, Fabien Lehagre, said in a press release. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy.”
H-1B Visa Abuse: US Visa Program Under DHS Review, What it means for 6 lakh Indian techies / AI generated image
The fee was hiked in 2015 because more expats wanted to exit due to those tax headaches, but now it’s back to the 2010 level. The new fee, promised way back in 2023, had never been implemented. The cost of $450 is restored now as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.
The process is still lengthy, you have to go to a US embassy or consulate, make multiple declarations, take an oath, and get everything reviewed. But this lower fee makes it more accessible. Groups fighting the old rule welcomed it as a “victory” after six years of legal work. At least 8,755 people paid the full amount since a 2023 promise of reduction.
For Indians or NRIs dealing with US citizenship issues, this could ease decisions for those tired of dual tax compliance. But remember, renouncing doesn’t erase potential exit taxes or other rules, consult a tax expert!
The gun has been raised on one of the most far-reaching of international diplomats elections of 2026. There are five applicants to replace Antonio Guterres as the Secretary-General of the United Nations and starting April 20, one candidate will be subjected to the most examined job interview in the universe.
On Friday, General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said the interactive selection process, where each candidate will be subjected to a three-hour public session, question-and-answer format, and make his or her case to 193 member states, will commence next month. It is a very transparent, very neutral, and fair procedure, she said, where all candidates will be given equal chances and opportunities.
The meetings will be accessible to civil society groups and will be live-streamed through the internet and this will be a level of openness to the society that has not necessarily been a hallmark of past transitions in the summit of the UN.
The Five in the Frame
To date the sphere is an amalgamation of the familiar and the unobtrusive mighty.
The biggest name is that of the former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet who also is the UN High Commissioner of Human Right and has the support of three Latin American giants Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. Her resume is difficult to rival: elected two times as the president of one of the largest democracies in South America, and having served as the head of UN Women, she comes with political authority, as well as institutional knowledge.
In conjunction with her, Costa Rica has put forward Rebecca Grynspan, who is the present Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development also known as UNCTAD and the former Vice President of Costa Rica. In multilateral circles, Grynspan is a low-profile, consensus-seeking individual who has years of solid experience in the field of development economics, which the battered UN finances and Reform agenda could be desperately in need of.
The third candidate is an Argentine, Virginia Gamba, who has been nominated by Maldives and has even served as Secretary-General Guterres Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict and as the head of the Organisation to Prohibit Chemical Weapons.
The two men contending in the race are Rafael Grossi, an Argentinean member the International Atomic Energy Agency nominated to the organization by Argentina, and Macky Sall, the former president and prime minister of Senegal nominated by Burundi. Grossi comes with nuclear diplomacy qualifications at the time when the world is scurrying over the proliferation crises. Sall adds African political gravitas to a continent that has always felt underrepresented in the top leadership in the UN.
The nominations can be done until April 1, and the sphere may still grow.
Gender Question In Election
Gender is the elephant in the room or rather, in the General Assembly hall. In the call of candidates given by Baerbock and the then-president of the security council last year, he indeed urged women to nominate their names. The mood among many of the membership was simple, it was time, after 80 years of an organisation where there has never been once a woman within its leadership.
In the General Assembly resolution that regulates the election, the even and fair distribution is based on the gender and this is desired. They called out the name, three out of five candidates that have been called are women. However, that two men are also competing is a reminder that resolutions that demand gender parity do not have any enforcement mechanism. When it comes it is the vote that counts.
Process of Chosing the Winner
Its formal procedure is one to be appreciated, since the vote of the General Assembly which formally appoints the Secretary-General is not the entire affair.
The winning candidate has to be confirmed by a bare majority of the 193-member Assembly. However, in the Charter of the UN, the Assembly nominates the Secretary-General, under the recommendation of the Security Council, that is, the actual decision is made in that much smaller, much more controversial room, where the five permanent members have a veto vote. The United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and France can each cast a veto of any candidate they consider unacceptable, irrespective of the kind of support such a candidate has by the larger membership.
It is a structural anomaly that has influenced all the elections of the Secretary-General throughout the history of the organisation, and it will influence this one, as well. The process of great-power negotiation behind that transparency of the dialogues in the month of April and the airing sessions is less transparent and significantly quieter.
What the Next Leader Will Inherit
The requirements that Baerbock outlined of the next Secretary-General were less of a job description and rather of a brief to manage a crisis. She said that the individual must possess robust and committed, efficient governmental skills that have experience in governmental structures and the administrative skill, namely the ability to direct the UN through internal reforms, would be equally significant as the diplomatic reputation.
Guterres is a two-term former prime minister of Portugal who retires at the end of this year. During his tenure, the organisation was put to the test due to a global pandemic, two major wars, an ever-growing climate crisis, and a rapid degradation of the international agreement that the UN was established to uphold. Whatever replaces him is not going into a silent office.
Nominations close April 1. Interactive candidate conversations start April 20 and are to be broadcast publicly.
In 2009, a cemetery, located directly outside of Chicago, revealed a scandal. The employees at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois had been accused of digging up aged graves, shifting the remains to other places within the cemetery and selling the burial plots back. One such piece of evidence was a small knot of moss when the case went to trial in 2015.
Researchers have published the original full scientific account of the case in a new article in the journal Forensic Sciences Research where it is described how exactly moss was used to find that a crime had been committed.
The lead author of the paper, Matt von Konrat, the head of the botany collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, is a follower of detective programs on television (the new paper is called Silent Witness on the BBC), but he never thought that his work would bring him into a criminal case scenario. Around 2009, von Konrat received a call on the phone, which happened to be the FBI, inquiring whether she could assist in identifying a few plants, says von Konrat. The FBI appeared at the Field Museum and gave von Konrat a piece of moss which was discovered eight inches under the earth, and the recovered human remains at the cemetery.
What sort of moss it was, and how long it had been lying in the soil, they wanted to know.
First, von Konrat and his associates had looked at the moss under a microscope and compared it with dried moss specimens in museum collections to conclude that it was taxifolius Fissidens, which is also referred to as a common pocket moss. According to von Konrat, they conducted a survey of the various types of mosses found in different locations around the site of the crime and that type of moss was not present in the area. However, examining the remainder of the cemetery we discovered a large colony of that form of moss growing in the same spot where the investigator thought that the bones had been disturbed.
The investigators did not only require the species of the moss, however, they were also concerned about its age. The defendants to the case argued that someone must have exhumed the bones and reburied them at a later time prior to the defendants commencing working in the cemetery. As the moss was buried with the re-buried bones, the length of time that the moss had been under the ground would be used to help prove the date that the bones were reburied.
“Moss,” says von Konrat, “is a bit of a freak. Mosses are intriguingly physiologically regulated so that although they may be dry and lifeless and preserved, still they may have an active metabolism and some active cells. The level of metabolic activity decays with time, and that would inform us about when a moss sample was harvested.”
The metabolic activity of a plant may be determined by its chlorophyll – the green color that is used to photosynthesize the food. The chlorophyll in the cells of plants deteriorates as they die and more of the cells of plants lose the ability to perform their functions. The authors of the research determined the quantity of the light captured by chlorophyll of the moss specimens in known ages, including fresh and those that have been stashed in the museum collections over the past 14 years. Then they repeated the same test on the moss that was picked at the crime scene. The researchers concluded that the evidence moss was no more than a year or two old- which helped the case against the cemetery employees who in 2015 were finally found guilty of desecrating human remains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_Oak_Cemetery
“Occasionally, there are also cases when the FBI only has to summon experts to assist in the gathering of evidence, conduct analyses, submit the evidence to the prosecutors and testify to their efforts should a conviction be required. Burr Oak Cemetery case was one of those cases when we approached the Chicago Field Museum Botanical Program, which happened to be of invaluable help since plant material within the cemetery provided the key to charge four individuals and convict them,” says Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent and worked on the case, as well as, a co-author of the new paper.
Von Konrat has been consulted after the Burr Oak Cemetery case on a number of moss cases. However, these cases are quite few in the field of forensic science: in 2025, he and some of his co-authors released another article, looking into the application of mosses and other bryophyte plants as forensic evidence. It was only within the last century that they had discovered a dozen-odd examples.
“Mosses are usually underrated and that is how we hope our research will help to create awareness that there are other groups of plants out there other than flowering plants and they play a very crucial role in society and around us. However, most to the point, we wish to mention this microscopic group of plants as a law enforcement tool. Should we find the means of raising mosses as possible evidence, perhaps this might prove of service to some families in the future.”
A new international survey of 23,000 individuals shows that 31 percent of Gen Z men concur that a wife must always be submissive to her husband and that one third (33 percent) believes that a husband must have the final say when it comes to making significant decisions.
Gen Z men (born 1997-2012) were twice as apt to hold traditional perspectives in decision-making in a marriage, with only 13% and 17% of Baby Boomers men concurring with those words respectively.
In comparison, much fewer female Gen Zers (18% and even fewer Baby Boomer women) said that a wife should be submissive to her husband all the time.
Although the survey conducted by 29 countries, including Great Britain, USA, Brazil, Australia and India, conducted on young men, they are more likely than older generations to have conservative views regarding gender roles.
The survey commissioned by Ipsos in the UK and the Global Institute of Women Leadership at King Business School, King College London, to celebrate the International Women Day 2026 shows that there are sharp disparities among various generations of men concerning the issue of gender roles:
24% don’t see woman to be independent, self-reliant
Nearly a quarter (24% of Gen Z men concur that a woman is not supposed to look too independent and self-reliant, compared to 12% of Baby Boomer men. The consensus among women was also significantly lower at 15% with Gen Z and 9% with Baby Boomers.
Generational differences in attitudes towards sexual norms are also very sharp: 21% of men of Gen Z believe that a real woman must never take the initiative to initiate sex, whereas only 7% of Baby Boomer men do. Only 12% of Gen Z women concurred but the women and men of the Baby Boomer generation were at par, 7% to this query.
Gen Z men report that they expect men to do too much to achieve equality (59%), as opposed to Baby Boomer men (45%), again, this was higher than the proportion of women who agreed with the same (41% and 30% respectively).
Although Gen Z men were the most likely to think that a woman should not seem too independent or self-reliant, this same group was also the one who most likely to think that women with successful career are more appealing to men, with 41% believing this statement versus 27% of the Baby Boomers of both sexes.
Older generations more liberal
The findings indicate that the older generations of men and the female Gen Z group have more liberal expectations of their own behaviour and choices as well compared to the Gen Z male. For example:
Gen Z men who answered the survey are more likely to think men should not say to their friends I love you 30% as opposed to 20% of Baby Boomer men and 21% of Gen Z women.
Gen Z men (43 percent) also consider it true that young men are supposed to attempt to be physically tough, even when they are not by nature big, than all respondents (32 percent) and Gen Z women (28 percent).
Gen Z men who are less confident that men who engage in caring for children are less masculine than those who do not (21 percent) are half as many as Baby Boomer men (8 percent) and even less than Gen Z women (14 per cent).
Not just generational differences, the averages of 29 countries indicate that there is also a gap between what the individuals themselves believe concerning gender roles in the house, and what society believes they should believe.
There were more uniform ideas among people, with only one out of six saying that women ought to do the majority of childcare (17%) or household work (other than childcare) (16%), and less than a quarter (24%) that men should do the majority of the work in earning.
Nevertheless, several of the respondents thought that perceptions of traditional gender roles are still common in their country:
More than one-third (35) of them reported that they think more in their country believe women are supposed to assume the primary responsibility of caring and other household chores.
Four out of 10 (40 percent) respondents responded that they believe most of the population in their country believes that men are supposed to be the breadwinners.
Only 31% of people around the world believe that people in their country believe that men should make the last word on important decisions in the household, and only 21 percent of themselves agree with that statement.
Although the respondents in Great Britain were less than average to have traditional views about the household duties, they still believed that the society had a traditional expectation.
As an illustration, personal attitudes varied in Great Britain with only 14% thinking women needed to take on the greatest responsibility with childcare but 43% thinking women were expected to do so, 15% said they personally thought men had a responsibility to make money and 38% said they thought society expected men to have a responsibility.
Great re-negotiation era on gender norms
In the UK, Ireland and Chief Executive of Ipsos, Kelly Beaver, said: “The survey conducted this year demonstrates that we are possibly entering into a great re-negotiation of how men and women occupy gender roles in the current society. Gen Z, especially, are the most contradictory in our data: they are the group most likely to agree that a successful career in women makes them more attractive with men and are also the group most likely to agree that a wife should never be disobedient to her husband and that women should never seem too self-sufficient or independent.”
This duality in views provides the critical dialogue of redefining the gender norms and the relationships between modernity and tradition are so intricate, and we need to explore more about cultural, social, and economic forces that shape these beliefs. “We should aim at enjoying inclusive discussions that will promote tolerance and acceptance of various gender roles and create a more equal and balanced society and a freer and more equal future to everyone.”
Director of the Global Institute of Women Leadership, King business school, Professor Heejung Chung stated: “It is alarming to observe that traditional gender norms are still present in the modern world, and it is even more unsettling that most people feel like they are under pressure due to the social expectations that are not necessarily what a majority of us believe.”
Julia Gillard, the Chair of the Global Institute of Women Leadership, King Business School, added: “It is disappointing to find out that the attitude to gender equality is not more favourable, especially among young men. Not only do many Gen Z men impose restrictive demands on women, but they are also confining themselves in restrictive gender standards.”
“There is more work that we need to do to bust the notion of the so-called zero-sum game where women are the exclusive beneficiaries of the world being gender-equal. We must make everyone board the gender equality train, where people should clearly see the reasons why it is useful to the entire society.” This report offers the much-needed information on the global trends in regard to gender equality.
“As a society we need to resist the pressure to go backwards and accelerate the pace of change. Good research is critical to reasoned debate and forward progress, ” she says.
A new magnetorheological fluid-based soft robot created by the researchers includes reversible t robot with reversible gastrointestinal tract medical applications.
Millions of people around the world are infected with gastrointestinal tract diseases and the conventional drug delivery system lacks high targeting capacity with chances of side effects of systemic drug delivery. The development of magnetic soft robots has become an innovative solution to minimally invasive medical procedures, due to their miniaturity, untethered locomotion and their agile movements. Nonetheless, the current magnetic soft robots have severe constraints of multi-angle folding, real time reconfigurable magnetization, and compliance with the irregular and constrained gastrointestinal cavity, which are the barriers to clinical use of targeted drug delivery.
In order to solve these problems, a research team, comprising of researchers at China University of Mining and Technology, Soochow University, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Oxford created a magnetic soft sheet robot with magnetorheological fluids. The robot takes the form of a four-layered fully-soft sheet, which consists of upper and bottom layers of linear low-density polyethylene surface, a core layer of magnetorheological fluids and a polyamide nylon mesh support layer. The robot is non-magnetized in zero magnetic field, weighing 0.55 g (a weight of 30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which is small (30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which removes unwanted magnetic interference in the human body.
The main novelty of such robot is the magnetization, which can be reconfigured in real time, and the performance by reversible folding. The magnetic particle chains along the magnetic field direction can be generated by the internal magnetorheological fluids within milliseconds under the external magnetic and the magnetization direction can be dynamically readjusted using the spatial magnetic field. Propelled by a 5 degree of freedom magnetic field platform, the robot can be folded to a one third size of the original to move in slender intestinal tracts and unfolded to a large surface area to move in a stable fashion within the stomach cavity-achieving the flexible adaptation to the different spatial sizes of the gastrointestinal tract.
The research group used the fabrication of five prototypes of the soft sheet robot with varying magnetorheological fluid densities (3.0 g/mL to 4.2 g/mL) and a series of motion performance tests under various environments.
The robot was found to have a stable flip, steering and folding motion on smooth surfaces, on flexible fluff surfaces and on slope surfaces and also in environment with underwater. It was also able to maintain consistent performance of movement even under load (carrying biodegradable hydrogel drugs with a mass of 0.15 g, which is about 30 percent of the own mass of the robot).
The ex vivo porcine stomach experiments, which mimicked the human gastrointestinal environment, were done to have critical validation. The robot was able to reach any predetermined location in the porcine stomach in an average of 5 minutes and firmly secured to the point of drug release with the loaded hydrogel drugs dissolving within 30 minutes to create localized targeted therapy in 10 repetitions.
Also, the ultrasonic detection technology (Voluson E10), was able to trace real-time movements of the robot in closed gastric cavity, which proved traceable and controllable in closed biological environments- a technical assurance in monitoring robots in clinical practices.
The biocompatibility tests continued to confirm the safety of the robot when used in human body: the robot was immersed in the simulated gastric juice (pH 1.2) and intestinal juice (pH 6.8) at 37degC after 24 hours and no rupture of its surfaces, expansion of its volume and deformation of the shape were observed. It was revealed that no exceeding of the safety levels was detected in the extract solutions by the heavy metals and harmful substances and no bacterial colonies were obtained in the tests related to the growth of microbial cultures, which indicates the biocompatibility and non-toxicity of the robot in the gastrointestinal tract environment.
The research team observed that the magnetic soft sheet robot has overcome the technical bottlenecks of the conventional magnetic soft robots in terms of folding capability and magnetization ability. It has the benefit of untethered drive, complete soft-structure, and excellent targeting precision, which render it the best noninvasive medical device to deliver drugs to the gastrointestinal tract.
The legend went that wolves were followed by ravens to fresh kills. Another scavenging strategy is of much interest, as demonstrated by a tracking study.
The raven is usually the first to be on the scene when the wolf pack is running down its prey. The ravens are already waiting in queue to grab hold of the scrap of meat that is an oddity and may arise even before the predators have time to dig. The scavengers are so fast in getting to wolf kills that it is uncanny to people how they got there and the answer is that wolves must have ravens trailing on them.
However, a recent study that followed ravens and wolves in the Yellowstone National Park during two-and-a-half years reveals that the predators adopt a much more advanced approach. Ravens know the locations that wolves will most likely kill and they will fly far back to the location. According to the first author of the study, Matthias Loretto, “they are capable of flying six hours without making a landing, directly to a kill site.”
The findings were published in the journal of science, with suggestions that ravens attempt to locate food scattered in the landscape by the use of spatial memory and navigation. According to Loretto, ravens can travel long distances by flying, and apparently they have a good memory so they do not have to always keep up with wolves in order to make out of the predators.
The research was conducted by the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (Germany) along with several other institutes across the world including the Yellowstone National Park (USA).
Putting a legend to the test
The research was conducted regarding the Yellowstone National Park where wolves were introduced in the mid 90s after 70 years. The wolves of the park are monitored using tracking collars which are implanted on a quarter of the wolf population in any given year, according to Dan Stahler, a Yellowstone biologist, who has been tracking the wolves of the park since its reintroduction, the ravens seem to prefer the company of the wolves: you find them flying directly overhead or even leaping behind them when they take down prey.
To the ravens, it is a lucrative foraging measure, because the wolves always generate food which the birds can deal with. “The rule of the birds, which we all had supposed, was,” says Stahler, “simply to keep near the wolves.” However, the assumption was not checked. He says he did not know what ravens could do because nobody had ever put them in the middle; nobody had ever put the scavenger into the perspective.
To get a full view of the behavior of the raven, the group fitted the birds with small GPS positioning devices, 69 ravens in all, which is, according to Loretto, simply insane. “The reason is that ravens are so watchful of the scene that they do not easily fall into traps,” he says. Researchers were keen to adjust the traps to the environment in order to trap the birds to tag them. To illustrate, traps placed near the campsites had to be covered with rubbish and fast-food lure, otherwise, the ravens would know that something was not right and would not approach it, according to Loretto who is now a scientist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.
Besides the tracking ravens, the researchers added the movement data of 20 Yellowstone collared wolves. They followed the animals through the winter when ravens most frequently occur with wolves and recorded GPS positions with intervals up to 30 minutes in the case of ravens and up to one hour in the case of wolves. They also added information as where and when wolves killed their prey which consisted mainly of elk, bison and deer.
The memory of lucrative sceneries
In more than two-and-a-half years of observation, scientists discovered only one unambiguous incidence of a raven trailing a wolf at a distance of over one kilometer or over an hour. “In the beginning we were confused,” says Loretto. “After we discovered that wolves were not being followed by ravens from a great distance, we could not understand why the birds came so fast to wolf killings.”
The pattern was obvious after the thorough analysis of the movement data. Instead of following predators at long distances, the ravens returned to certain locations where they could find wolf kills. Others covered as little as 155 kilometers per day, but in a highly directional way, towards locations where a carcass was likely to be found–although the time a kill will occur is indeterminate.
In regard to location, wolves kills are clumped into specific terrain features, which the wolves hunt more effectively, flat valley bottoms. Ravens were also much more likely to visit frequently wolfridden locations as compared to infrequently wolfrided locations, indicating that they learn and retain the long-term resource landscape that wolves cause.
Loretto says that ravens have already been known to recollect consistent food sources, such as landfills. “What did we find surprising is that they also appear to learn where the wolf killings are more frequent. One kill is random, and with time certain areas of the terrain prove more fruitful than others, but ravens seem to take advantage of this pattern.”
Greater understanding of the intellect of animals
The authors do not eliminate the possibility that wolves continue to be followed by ravens on a short distance. To locate wolf kills in their area, ravens must be able to determine this by short-range signals, probably by watching the movements of the wolves or hearing them howl. However, on a bigger level, the order is quite obvious: memory then, cues then. Spatial memory and navigation enables ravens to make decisions regarding where to start searching, in the first place, sometimes tens or even hundreds of kilometers.
Senior author Prof John M. Marzluff of the University of Washington adds: “What is evident in our work is the fact that ravens are able to be quite flexible in the locations they choose to feed. They do not remain attached to a certain wolf pack. They have the opportunity to select between numerous foraging opportunities since they have a good sense and recollection of the previous feeding places far and wide. This alters our way of thinking about scavenger finding food, and the notion may be that we have long underestimated certain ones.”
Liquid water is said to be a necessity to life. Amazingly, however, there could be conducive conditions of life far away in an area that is not near a sun. A group of researchers working on the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has demonstrated how moons of free-floating planets can retain their water oceans as liquid to as long as 4.3 billion years through dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating – that is to say, roughly as long as Earth has been around and complex life can evolve.
Planetary systems are usually created when the conditions are not steady. In the event of close approach of young planets they have the ability to launch one another out of orbit. This results in free-floating planets (FFPs) that move around the galaxy with no parent star. A previous paper by LMU physicist Dr. Giulia Roccetti had indicated that gas giants that were thrown out in this manner do not always lose their moons in the process.
Oceans remain in their liquid state because of tidal heating
The ejection however does change the orbits of the moons. They are elongated to a high extent in which their distance to the planet is constantly varying. This leads to the tidal forces rhythmically deforming the lunar body, compressing the body interior, and creating heat due to friction. This tidal heating can be adequate to keep oceans of liquid water on the surface – without the power of a star, and in the coolness of interstellar space.
Hydrogen as stable heat trap
It is the atmosphere that dictates whether this heat remains on the surface or not. Carbon dioxide is a good greenhouse gas on earth. Prior research had shown that carbon dioxide would be able to stabilize life-supportable conditions on exomoons of up to 1.6 billion years. In really low temperatures of free-floating systems, however, carbon dioxide would condense, lose the protective effect on the atmosphere and the heat to escape.
Thus, the scientists of astrophysics, biophysics, and astrochemistry started to research the possibilities of the hydrogen-rich atmospheres being the alternative heat traps. Despite the fact that the molecular hydrogen is mostly transparent to infrared radiation, an important physical phenomenon occurs under high pressures: collision-induced absorption. During this process, hydrogen colliding molecules create temporary complexes, which are able to take up the thermal radiation and store it in the atmosphere. Simultaneously, hydrogen is a stable element even at the lowest temperature.
Parallels to early Earth
The results also provide new insights to the origin of life. The cooperation with the team of Professor Dieter Braun enabled us to understand that the cradle of life does not always need a sun, says David Dahlbudding who is a doctoral researcher at LMU and the lead author of the study. According to the case, there was a distinct relationship between these moons that were far away and the early Earth, which had high levels of hydrogen due to asteroid impact in order to form conditions that supported life.
The tidal force was even capable of providing heat, as well as, chemical development processes. There is deformation periodically, which produces local wet-dry cycles, where water evaporates and condenses. These cycles have been regarded as a significant process of the formation of complex molecules and may make essential steps in the direction to the emergence of life.
Life-friendly moons in interstellar space
The free-floating planets are believed to be common. It has been estimated that these so-called nomadic planets in the Milky Way may be as numerous as the stars. Their moons could also offer long term stable habitats. The new discoveries were therefore able to considerably expand the range of potential habitats in which life might exist – and indicate that life would not only exist but also be able to survive even in the darkest parts of the galaxy.
Every year, Indians living in the United States send tens of billions of dollars back home. A landmark new federal law, a shifting currency, and a maturing digital transfer market have together reshaped how that money moves. Here is what has changed, what it costs, and how to navigate it.
India has long held the title of the world’s top destination for remittances, and the numbers only keep climbing. In 2024, the country received a record $129 billion in inward remittances, the highest ever recorded for any single nation in a single year. By the close of FY25, that figure had climbed again to an estimated $136 billion, up roughly 14% from the previous financial year, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India.
The United States is the engine driving that growth. America now accounts for more than a quarter of all remittances flowing into India, the largest single-country source by a significant margin, ahead of the UAE, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. The shift toward digital transfers has accelerated this momentum. Nearly three-quarters of all remittance transactions are now completed digitally, a sharp rise from just a few years ago.
Yet for the millions of Indian-Americans, NRIs, and temporary workers who form the backbone of this money movement, 2026 has arrived with a significant change in the rules.
The 1% Remittance Tax: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Who It Affects
The biggest development this year is a new federal law that touches every international money transfer sent from US soil.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, introduced a 1% federal excise tax on outbound remittances effective January 1, 2026. The road to that figure was a negotiated one — the original proposal floated a 5% rate, which was reduced to 3.5% during House deliberations before landing at the final 1% when the bill was signed. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the tax will generate roughly $10 billion in federal revenue over ten years.
The mechanics are simple. The tax applies to transfers funded by cash, money orders, and cashier’s checks. It does not apply to transfers funded by bank accounts, debit cards, or credit cards. In other words: walk into a Western Union outlet with $1,000 in hand, and you owe an additional $10 in federal excise tax on top of whatever the service charges. Log in from your phone, enter your bank account details, and the tax does not apply at all.
Money transfer providers are required to collect the tax at the point of transaction, make deposits to the IRS on a semimonthly basis, and file quarterly returns. The Treasury Department and IRS have extended penalty relief for providers through the first three quarters of 2026 while compliance systems are established, with full enforcement beginning in the fourth quarter.
For the Indian-American community specifically, the practical impact is limited. The platforms most commonly used Wise, Remitly, Xoom, and ICICI Money2India are all digital-first services that require payment via bank account or card. For the vast majority of users, the new tax changes nothing. For those who rely on cash-based services at physical locations, often newer immigrants or those in communities with limited banking access, it represents a 1% surcharge that will either be absorbed as a cost or prompt a move to digital alternatives.
The Market in 2026: What Your Options Are
The money transfer market has matured considerably. The gap between the best and worst providers is wide, and understanding the two components of every transfer, the flat fee and the exchange rate markup, is essential before sending a single dollar.
The mid-market USD to INR exchange rate currently sits in the range of 90 to 92 rupees to the dollar. No consumer-facing transfer service passes this rate on without some markup; the question is how much of a cut each one takes. On a $1,000 transfer, the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive provider can easily amount to $30 to $50.
Wise, The Benchmark for Transparency
Wise has become the standard against which all other services are measured. The platform consistently uses the mid-market exchange rate without any markup, and charges a small, clearly displayed percentage fee, typically starting from 0.48% per transfer. There are no hidden margins buried in the rate. What you see quoted is what the recipient receives.
Speed is also a strong suit. Most transfers to India from the US arrive within one to three working days, and Wise displays the estimated delivery time before the transaction is confirmed. The platform is fully digital, funded by bank account or debit card, and therefore entirely exempt from the 2026 remittance tax.
For anyone sending larger sums, where even a fraction of a percentage point on the exchange rate translates into meaningful rupees, Wise is consistently the most cost-effective option available.
Best for: Regular senders, large transfers, and anyone who wants full transparency on costs before confirming.
Remitly — The Competitive Challenger
Remitly has built a strong reputation on the US-India corridor, particularly for speed and promotional pricing. The service offers two transfer modes: Express, which delivers within minutes to the same day at a higher fee, and Economy, which takes three to five business days at a lower cost.
The fee structure rewards new and high-value users. There is no flat transaction fee on transfers above $1,000, and first-time customers receive a promotional exchange rate that is significantly better than the standard rate. For transfers within the promotional threshold, Remitly can match or occasionally beat Wise on total cost. Beyond that threshold, however, the standard exchange rate markup, which typically ranges between 1% and 3.7% above mid-market depending on the speed tier, applies.
Transfer limits are set at $30,000 for US-based senders, and the platform supports bank deposits to all major Indian banks.
Best for: First-time senders taking advantage of the promotional rate, and those who need same-day Express delivery.
Western Union, The Network Giant
Western Union’s competitive advantage in 2026 is not its pricing, it is its physical reach. The service typically adds a 2% to 4% exchange rate markup, making it one of the more expensive digital options. But no other provider comes close to matching its network of agent locations across India, where recipients can collect cash without a bank account.
For recipients in rural areas or those who prefer cash, Western Union remains the most practical option. The service supports bank deposits to all major Indian banks as well as cash pickup, and verified US-based senders can transfer up to $50,000.
One important note in 2026: funding a Western Union transfer at a retail location with physical cash triggers the new 1% federal excise tax. Funding the same transfer digitally from a bank account or card avoids it entirely.
Best for: Recipients without bank accounts, urgent cash pickup requirements, and senders who need the widest possible network coverage.
Xoom by PayPal, The Ecosystem Play
Xoom operates within the PayPal ecosystem, which makes it a natural choice for the tens of millions of Americans who already use PayPal for everyday transactions. Transfers can be funded directly from a PayPal balance, a linked bank account, or a debit card, and the service supports bank deposits to all major Indian banks including HDFC, ICICI, SBI, PNB, and Axis Bank, as well as cash pickup.
Rupee-dollar/IANS
Rate-wise, Xoom sits in the middle ground — more competitive than Western Union, but with a more noticeable markup than Wise. The main draw is convenience and integration, not price leadership.
Best for: Existing PayPal users who want a seamless experience without opening a new account on a separate platform.
ICICI Money2India, The NRI Specialist
For NRIs making larger, planned transfers, property payments, fixed deposit funding, or long-term family support, ICICI’s Money2India platform occupies a category of its own. The bank-backed service waives transfer fees entirely on online remittances above $1,000, offers exchange rates that are locked at the moment of transaction initiation, and delivers funds instantly or on the same day to ICICI accounts and within one to two business days to other major Indian banks.
The platform integrates directly with NRE and NRO account management, which matters for NRIs who need to structure transfers correctly for Indian tax and repatriation purposes.
Best for: NRIs making large or planned transfers, and those managing NRE or NRO accounts who want a bank-grade platform.
The NRE vs NRO Distinction: A Critical Point Many Get Wrong
For NRIs, the account type receiving the funds matters as much as the platform sending them. These two account types are not interchangeable, and mixing them up can create unnecessary tax complications and repatriation headaches.
An NRE (Non-Resident External) account is designed to receive money earned abroad. Interest earned on NRE balances is tax-free in India, and both principal and interest can be freely moved back to the US at any time without restriction. This is the correct account for most NRIs sending salary savings or other foreign earnings back to India.
An NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary), account is meant for income that originates within India: rent from property, dividends, pensions, and similar earnings. Interest on NRO accounts is subject to Indian income tax, and repatriation is capped at $1 million per financial year after applicable taxes have been paid.
Sending US-earned money into an NRO account is not prohibited, but it complicates the paper trail and limits future flexibility. For most NRIs whose primary purpose is to support family or accumulate savings in India, an NRE account is the right destination.
What You Need to Send: A Practical Checklist
Regardless of which platform you choose, gather the following before initiating any transfer.
From the recipient’s side: their full name exactly as it appears on their bank account, the bank name, the account number, and the IFSC code, an eleven-character alphanumeric code unique to each bank branch, available on the recipient’s cheque book or through the bank’s website or app.
From your own side: a government-issued photo ID, your Social Security Number for identity verification, and your US bank account or debit card details. First-time users on any platform will be asked to complete a brief identity verification process before their first transfer is processed.
For transfers above $10,000, US anti-money-laundering regulations require additional reporting. This is a compliance and documentation requirement, not an additional tax. The transfer will not be blocked or penalised, but providers may request supporting documentation before processing.
The Bottom Line
The fundamentals of sending money to India from the US have improved dramatically over the past decade. What once required a branch visit, a $25 wire fee, and a three-day wait can now be done in minutes from a smartphone at a fraction of the cost.
The 2026 remittance tax is real, but it is also largely avoidable. For the overwhelming majority of Indian-Americans who already use digital platforms funded by bank accounts, it is a non-issue. For the smaller segment relying on cash-based services, it is a 1% prompt to go digital.
The clearest guidance, stripped to its essentials: use Wise for the best rate and the most transparency. Use Remitly if you are a new sender or need Express delivery. Use ICICI Money2India for large, planned NRI transfers. Use Western Union only when cash pickup is genuinely necessary, and fund it digitally.
India’s inward remittances have roughly doubled in the past decade, from around $70 billion in 2014 to nearly $140 billion today. The diaspora driving those numbers is not shrinking. The tools available to them, at least, have never been sharper.
Disclaimer: All exchange rates and transfer fees are subject to change. Readers should verify live rates directly on provider platforms before initiating any transfer. This report does not constitute financial or tax advice.
This is another reason I love Japanese popular matcha: a mouse study states that the green tea powder might decrease the necessity to sneeze in persons with nasal allergies.
Matcha is a clear green powder created by the dried and grounded leaves of green tea, which have been particularly grown. It is consumed as a tea beverage, and also as a flavouring ingredient in a large variety of commodities. It has been demonstrated that tea has been found to have high concentrations of biologically active compounds, which include antioxidants and amino acids, and its use is associated with numerous health benefits, including better heart and brain functioning, and decreased inflammation.
Hiroshima University in Japan was especially interested in matcha effects on people with allergic rhinitis (also called hay fever) especially by Professor Osamu Kaminuma, of the Research Institute of Radiation Biology and Medicine. There is no clear understanding of the mechanism of action of green tea on allergic rhinitis despite human studies being in the process of pointing out that it can help relieve allergic rhinitis.
Kaminuma and colleagues published an early access article in NPJ Science of Food on March 5 stating that mice with symptoms of hay fever were fed matcha tea in 2-3 doses weekly over a period of greater than five weeks and a second dose of tea 30 minutes prior to allergen exposure to instigate symptoms of allergic rhinitis.
Matcha treatment reduced allergy in mice
The group discovered that the sneezing of the mice was significantly reduced than anticipated with matcha treatment but what was found to be more interesting was that the matcha did not seem to influence the allergenic reactions of immunoglobulin E (IgE), mast cells, and T cells.
The role of IgE antibodies attaching to mast cells is central to the process of an allergic reaction and the subsequent release of histamine and other inflammatory chemicals. The initial part of the allergic response is mediated by mast cells, whereas the T cells mediate more prolonged immune responses, such as the production of IgE.
Oral matcha suppressed sneezing without a definite alteration of key immune parameters. It instead had a strong suppressive effect on brainstem neuronal activation associated to sneezing reflex, Kaminuma explained.
The activity of a gene, c-Fos-indicator of neurological and behavioural reactions to a strong stimulus such as exposure to an allergen causing hay fever was studied in the ventral spinal trigeminal nucleus caudali or the part of the brain associated with sneezing. They discovered that, the mice were in a state of hay fever; the c-Fos gene expression was high but this was reduced nearly to normal by medication with matcha.
The second thing to do is to research as to whether these effects are present in humans as well. Kaminuma said: The aim is an evidence-based, food-based alternative that includes typical care of the symptoms of allergic rhinitis.
According to a report that cautions against the use of AI-powered talking toys on small children, the toys should be more strictly regulated and have new safety kitemarks, since they are not necessarily intended at children with the safety of their psychology in mind.
The suggestion is found in the first report of AI in the Early Years: a University of Cambridge project and the first systematic study of how Generative AI (GenAI) toys that can have human-like conversation can affect development during critical years of up to age five.
This was a one-year project at the Faculty of Education at the university where formal scientific observations of children at the initial encounter with a GenAI toy were carried out.
The report reflects the perceptions of a few of the early-years practitioners that, over time, these toys would be useful in areas of child development, including language and communication skills. The researchers also discovered, however, that GenAI toys are not good at social and pretend play, do not understand children, and respond in the wrong way to emotions.
As an illustration, if a five-year-old child said to the toy, I love you, it responded, As a friendly reminder, please, make interactions in accordance with the guidelines given. Please tell me what you wish me to do.
Even though genAI toys are highly sold as learning companions or friends, their effect on the development of early years has hardly been examined. The report encourages parents and teachers to be careful. It suggests a more direct regulation, open privacy policy and new labeling norms to allow families to make their own decision about the suitability of toys.
NGOs help conduct studies
The studies were contracted by the children poverty charity, The Childhood Trust, and were targeted to children in locations with significant socio-economic disadvantage. Researchers based at the Faculty in the Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Centre carried out it.
Researcher Dr Emily Goodacre, opined: Generative AI toys tend to confirm they are friends with a child who is only beginning to understand the meaning of friendship. They can begin conversing with the toy regarding emotions and requirements, instead of discussing them with an adult. Since these toys might fail to interpret emotions correctly or act in a wrong way, children might be deprived of the comfort provided by the toy – and without the emotional assistance by an adult, either.
The research was maintained in a small scale deliberately to be able to observe the play of children in greater detail and to observe the finer details that would be overlooked in a bigger scale study.
The researchers question early years educators survey to investigate their concerns and attitudes and conducted more detailed focus groups and workshops with early years practitioners and 19 leaders of children charities. They also video-recorded 14 children playing with GenAI soft toy, named Gabbo, in London children centres working with someone called Babyzone, an early years charity. They also interviewed every child and a parent after the play sessions using a drawing activity to facilitate the dialogue.
The majority of parents and educators believed that AI toys may assist in the growth of the communication abilities of children and some parents were eager to learn about their educational possibilities. One of them informed the researchers: “I want to buy it in case it is sold.
There was concern among many about children developing the so-called para-social relationships with toys. The observations proved this: the children hugged and kissed the toy, said that they loved it and – in the case of one of the children – proposed to play hide-and-seek together.
Kid believe toys love them back
Goodacre emphasized that these responses could be merely a vivid imagining of children but commented that there could be a dangerous relationship with a toy which, as one of the early years practitioners had remarked, they believe loves them back, but not vice versa.
The children were also having difficulties with the conversation of the toy. It even disregarded their interruptions, confused the voices of parents with the voice of the child and did not even give the appropriate answers to seemingly significant statements about feelings. A number of children were seen to get frustrated when no one appeared to be listening.
When one of the three year old children said to the toy: I am sad, the toy mishheard, and answered: Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?” According to researchers, this could have indicated that the sadness of the child was not significant.
The authors discovered that GenAI toys are also not good at social play, playing with many children and/or adults, and pretend play – both of which are important in the early childhood development. In such a way, when a three-year-old child tried to give the toy an imaginary present, the latter reacted by saying: I cannot open the present – and shifted to another topic.
Most parents were concerned about the data that the toy could be capturing and where this could be stored. In choosing a GenAI toy to be used as a research, the researchers discovered that privacy practices of many GenAI toys are not very transparent or that they do not provide crucial information about them.
AI toys increase digital divide
Almost half of the surveyed early years practitioners reported that they did not know where they could find credible information on AI safety among young children and 69% said the sector required further guidance. They also highlighted the issue of protection and affordability with others being worried that AI toys would increase the digital divide.
The authors claim that most of these issues would be resolved by working out clearer regulation. They suggest restricting the distance at which toys can make children befriend or confide in them, more open privacy policies and more restrictive access of third parties to AI models.
One of the recurring themes of the focus groups, the other co-author of the study Professor Jenny Gibson added, was that individuals did not trust tech companies to do the right thing. Clear, forceful, disciplined standards would go a long way in enhancing consumer confidence.
The report recommends that manufacturers should test toys on children and consult experts in safeguarding before launching new toys as well as urging parents to research GenAI toys before purchase.
The IEA is reacting to the effects of the conflict in the Middle East on the energy market. The Strait of Hormuz holds significant effects on the world economy and the energy security and affordability through the disruption of oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and energy infrastructure in the region.
The conflict in the area which started on 28 February has disrupted the streams of energy trade across the Strait causing the biggest supply shock in the history of the global oil market. The situation has also decreased the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world by approximately 20%.
On 11 March, the IEA Member countries had unanimously agreed to conduct the largest ever emergency release of their oil stocks as a measure to contain the market shocks.
Current market backdrop
The prices of oil and natural gas have upsurged owing to the war. By 11 March, Brent crude futures have increased more than 25 per cent since the hostilities began on 28 February, and Dutch TTF, the European natural gas market, has increased by nearly 60 per cent. Oil products markets have also been especially hit such as the diesel and the jet fuel markets. The effects are being experienced worldwide.
Flows of crude and oil products via the Strait of Hormuz have fallen to a mere trickle of approximately 20 million barrels per day (mb/d) prior to the war and currently. Traffic paralyzed, little ability to circumvent the waterway of the crucible, and storage is filling, the Gulf Countries have reduced the overall production of oil by no less than 10 mb/d, as we have reported in our latest Oil Market Report, released on 12 March. Unless shipping traffic is quickly restored, loss of supply will continue to expand.
The gulf region is one of the major exporters of the refined oil products to world markets, especially to the middle distillates, used as diesel and jet fuel. In 2025, the gulf producers sold 3.3 mb/d of refined oil products and 1.5 mb/d of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Already more than 3 mb/d of refining capacity in the region has been shut down as a result of attacks and non-existent viable outlets to export.
The middle distillates markets globally have not been very tight in comparison with other products. Consequently, the refineries outside the area seem to have limited scope to pump more diesel and jet fuel to offset such losses in case of losses in supply on a lasting basis.
Global Markets(Wikipedia)
The oil consuming nations have large reserves of oil to overcome short time losses in supply. The international recorded stocks of crude and products are at present estimated to dominate above 8.2 billion barrels, the maximum amount since February 2021. Approximately 50 of these are in the advanced economies with 1.25 billion barrels of these in government emergency stock with an additional 600million barrels of industry stocks obligated by the government. These stocks are the foundation of the emergency collective action which IEA has declared on 11 March to provide more oil supply into the market.
The war has also greatly affected the LNG production in the Gulf region. The global natural gas markets were slowly rebalancing after a massive shock occurred after the invasion of Russia in Ukraine in February 2022. It is projected that a new wave of LNG capacity will be introduced between now and the end of this decade and this will change the dynamics of the markets. But the tightness in gas markets in the first two months of 2026, and empty storage at the end of the heating season in the Northern Hemisphere is poised to drive up the demand on LNG in much of the next few months.
A prolonged outage of production in the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar may further create a serious issue in this market tightness. On 2 March, an attack on the facilities brought about production shutdown. Ras Laffan delivered 112 billion cubic metres (bcm) of LNG, also 300 000 barrels per day of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and 180 000 barrels per day of condensate, making it by far the largest LNG plant in the world.
What is so special about the Strait of Hormuz?
Strait of Hormuz is a slender sea passage, which is located between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, and, which links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It is an important trade route and is the main outlet of oil and natural gas that are manufactured in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain and Iran.
It was estimated that in 2025 around 25% of the world seaborne oil trade passed through the Strait, and there are few alternatives to oil flows avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. Crude pipelines only exist in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which would potentially allow the rerouting to avoid the Strait with a capacity of 3.5 mb/d to 5.5 mb/d. Countries such as Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain are also dependent on the Strait to export the large percentage of their oil products.
In 2025, approximately 80 percent of the oil and oil products passing through the Strait was bound to Asia.
Besides that, more than 110 bcm of LNG went through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025. Approximately 93 percent of Qatar and 96 percent of the UAE LNG exports went across the Strait, which constitutes nearly a fifth of the entire LNG trade in the world. It does not have any other option of distributing these volumes to the market.
The majority of the LNG in the UAE and Qatar is shipped to Asia. In 2025, approximately 90 percent of the total amounts that get exported through the Strait of Hormuz was allocated to the Asian market. Just over 10% went to Europe.
Iran has categorically denied reports suggesting it gave special permission for India-flagged oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, dismissing the claims as unfounded amid the ongoing conflict that has choked the vital shipping lane since late February.
The controversy erupted yesterday when several Indian news outlets reported that Tehran had quietly agreed to let Indian vessels transit the strait following a telephone conversation between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
An Indian government source, speaking anonymously to Reuters, stated: “Iran will allow India-flagged tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of India’s crude imports pass.” The source pointed to the recent safe passage of two India-flagged ships, Pushpak and Parimal, as proof of the arrangement, while noting that vessels tied to the United States, Europe or Israel were still being blocked.
Tehran moved quickly to shoot down the story. An Iranian source told Reuters the matter was “sensitive” and no such deal had been reached. Another contact in Tehran, quoted by NDTV, was blunt: “No, it’s not true.” Iranian state-affiliated media echoed the denial, insisting no exemptions had been granted for Indian-flagged crude carriers.
Oil tankers bombed by Iran
The Strait of Hormuz has seen traffic plummet since the escalation began. Satellite data shows only a handful of commercial vessels crossing in recent weeks, with several tankers coming under drone and projectile attacks. While one Liberia-flagged tanker carrying Saudi crude did reach Mumbai recently (with an Indian captain on board), that does not confirm any broader policy change for India-flagged ships.
India remains heavily exposed. Roughly 40 percent of its crude and 90 percent of its LPG imports normally flow through the strait. At present, about 28 Indian vessels with 778 crew members are stuck in the Persian Gulf, and three Indian sailors have already lost their lives in related incidents, according to shipping sources.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs described early reports of a breakthrough as “premature,” stressing that talks on safe passage and energy security are continuing but no agreement has been finalized.
The closure has slashed global oil flows by an estimated 10–20 million barrels per day, sending prices soaring and unexpectedly boosting revenues for exporters like Russia. For now, the diplomatic back-and-forth has only added to the uncertainty hanging over one of the world’s most critical energy arteries.
Thursday night the Trump administration issued a temporary general license authorizing the delivery, sale and offloading of Russian crude and petroleum products loaded onto vessels on or before March 12, 2026, to stabilize global energy markets following the soaring of crude oil prices by the 13 years war between the U.S. and Israel, who war with Iran.
The license, called General License 134, takes effect through the middle of the Washington time on April 11, giving a 30-day period to such transactions, even involving authorized entities or vessels.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the move on X, saying: “US is granting a provisional sanction to allow nations to buy Russian oil already at sea.”
Bessent further highlighted that the action will be a short-term, narrowly focused action that is only applicable in the oil already under transit but it would not give great financial relief to the Russian government, which gets most of its energy revenue as taxes levied at the point of extraction.
The move comes after the recent spike in oil prices due to the strikes by the U.S and Israel on Iran that started February 28, 2026, including the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and strikes on Iranian nuclear, missile, and military facilities.
Congestion of the Strait of Hormuz and less output of the Middle East have propelled prices upwards, with the Brent crude futures already trading past $100 a barrel on Thursday, although prices have soared to a high of 110-119 a barrel in recent trading.
Goldman Sachs predicts that in March Brent will exceed the $100-mark because of the volatility, which also marks the middle of a loss of supply that will result in a potential addition of supply to oil-starved markets.
Experts predict that the waiver will release up to 100-128 million barrels of Russian oil that is currently at sea and will likely add to affected markets. The presidential envoy of Russia Kirill Dmitriev advocated the move stating that the move concerns approximately 100 million barrels of it and it shows the involvement of Russian energy in global stability.
The license is a follow-up on a waiver of a prior March waiver specifically to India which is criticized. It has now allowed sales across the globe and this has given Russia a financial boost. The move has led to a rise in oil income in Moscow where certain reports reveal that there has been an increment of about $150 million per day more oil sales due to the rise in prices.
In February, Russia earned about $9.5 billion from oil and product exports, or roughly $339 million per day (based on 28 days). January revenues were $11.1 billion. Annual projections under normal conditions (pre-escalation) ranged from $113-129 billion for 2026, depending on sanctions enforcement.
India’s shift to Russian oil
Earlier March projections had India’s Russian crude imports dropping sharply to low levels (~129,000 bpd or less in some forecasts) due to intensified U.S. sanctions pressure and tariffs. However, with Middle Eastern supplies choked by the Iran conflict and Hormuz effectively closed, India has dramatically ramped up purchases. Indian refiners snapped up around 30 million barrels of Russian crude in recent days following a temporary U.S. waiver allowing deals on in-transit (already-loaded) sanctioned cargoes. March volumes are now tracking toward 1.5-1.6 million bpd so far, with projections for the full month potentially reaching 40 million barrels (pre-sanctions levels), as buyers like India and China seek alternatives to offset the ~10-20 million bpd global shortfall.
With U.S. temporary sanctions relief by Washington for 30 days Russia is likely to reap an estimated up to $150 million per day in extra budget revenues from surging oil prices and renewed demand, which means a ~14% jump over February averages, driven by higher export taxes. Cumulative early gains from oil export duties alone are pegged at $1.3-1.9 billion since the conflict escalated, with potential for $3.3-4.9 billion more by month-end if trends hold.
Mineral extraction tax surge
Russia’s key oil production levy (mineral extraction tax) is projected to nearly double in March to around 590 billion rubles (~$7.43 billion), thanks to the global price rally pushing taxable Urals prices well above the budget’s $59/bbl assumption (recently hitting $70-90+ levels in various reports, sometimes at premiums in India).
With Urals now trading much closer to (or occasionally above) Brent amid the crisis, and exports potentially stabilizing or rising on Asian demand, Russia’s full-year oil revenues could significantly exceed pre-conflict forecasts. Sustained high prices and volumes might push totals toward the higher end of prior estimates ($200-250 billion or more), offering major fiscal breathing room despite sanctions.
These developments highlight Russia’s unexpected position as a prime beneficiary of the energy crunch, flipping prior sanction dynamics in its favor, at least short-term.
Democrats Oppose Trump’s Move
The step has received criticism by congressional democrats and European leaders. The decision was condemned by senate democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Jeanne Shaheen, Chuck Schumer and others as giving Putin a huge financial hit during his war in Ukraine and the Iran conflict was deemed reckless and ill-conceived, and is claimed to have strengthened the argument that the administration is enriching Russia at the cost of Middle East shocks.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reacted to the decision saying it was wrong and the Iran fighting was inadvisable and windfall profits were enriching Russia. The administration has positioned the step as a logistical one, ensuring the stranded cargoes do not disrupt shipping instead of the relief of broad sanctions, but critics say that this is a way of undercutting long-term effort to stop Russian revenue.
The narrower the difference between your biological age and actual age the lower the risk of a stroke and the health of your brain.
The study involved 250,000 people. The scientists measured the level of 18 biomarkers in their blood to obtain their biological age. Brain scans were also done to a section of individuals.
Individuals that bridged the difference between their biological and chronological ages during the intervention were 23% less likely than the rest to experience a stroke in the future.
The research does not demonstrate that the reduction of the age gap is the reason of the reduced stroke risk and positive brain health changes. It only shows an association.
According to researchers, a healthy diet, regular exercise, proper sleep and blood pressure management can contribute to the age gap in the biology of the body, although this study has not assessed any lifestyle program.
The article is a preliminary study published in March of 2026 will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 78th Annual Meeting in April 18-22, 2026 in Chicago. It found that the closer your biological age is to your chronological age, the lower the risk of stroke and the better the signs of damage in the brain.
Betterment of age gap
The research does not demonstrate that betterment of the age gap is the reason behind better brain health; it only presents a correlation.
The researcher Cyprien Rivier of Yale University and an American Academy of Neurology member, said that efforts to “change our biological age may be one of the ways to help our brains stay healthy. Lifestyle habit, such as healthy diet, physical activity, sleep and good blood pressure management, which can help to prevent cardiovascular and metabolic disease, might help reduce the biological age difference, but we did not assess lifestyle interventions in the study.”
In the study, the biological age of 258,169 individuals of a health care research database was analyzed. They quantified 18 biomarkers in the blood, including cholesterol, average red blood cell volume and white blood cell count, to assess biological age at the beginning of the study and six years later in a sub-group of the participants. Researchers then found the participants who had a stroke after an average of 10 years. A group of the participants also administered tests on memory and thinking ability and brain scans to examine indications of brain damage.
In the beginning of the study, the biological age of the participants was 54 on average and their real age was 56. Their actual age was 62 years but on average, they were 58 years biologically six years on.
Individuals whose biological age was more than their chronological age at the conclusion of the study exhibited poorer brain scans and also poorer scores in the cognitive tests. They were also at a higher risk of stroke by 41 percent.
Those who lengthened the distance between their biological and chronological ages between the beginning of the study and the repeat measure had their risks of developing a stroke in the follow-up phase reduced by 23%.
Individuals who had some improvement also contained a smaller amount of white matter hyperintensities, an indicator of tissue damage to the white matter, by the conclusion of the study compared to those who had no amelioration in their biological age gaps. The overall amount of damage that they could do was 13 per cent less with each standard deviation of progress.
These outcomes factored in other factors that might influence the risk of stroke and damage to the brain including high blood pressure and other blood vessels conditions and socioeconomic outcomes.
Study’s Insufficiency
One of the weaknesses of the research was that although it identified correlations, it was not a causal study. In addition, only a smaller number underwent repeat blood tests and this does not allow the researcher to draw conclusions of change over time especially on cognitive tests.
Scientists have found out that non-psychoactive cannabis substances, CBD and CBG, can help to reduce liver fat significantly and improve metabolic health. The researchers have found out that these compounds act by establishing a buffer of energy in the liver and by the re-activation of the cleaning crews inside the cells to clear undesirable waste products. These results point to the existence of a novel, plant-based direction of treating the most frequent chronic liver disease of the world.
According to a study by Prof. Joseph (Yossi) Tam, Dr. Liad Hinden, a PhD student, Radka Kocvarova, and the team of researchers led by Tam, at the School of Pharmacy in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, two compounds of the cannabis plant are useful in the treatment of fatty liver disease. The study indicates that the non-psychoactive and non-high-inducing Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) can help people live healthier lives due to its ability to alter how the liver processes energy and purifies itself.
The prevalent chronic liver disorder in the world is currently known as Maatotic asymptomatic liver disease (MASLD) which is associated with metabolic dysfunction. It is prevalent among about 1 in 3 adults, and strongly associated with obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance. Although lifestyle change such as diet and exercise is significant, it is not always easier to sustain it and known medicines approved to treat this condition are very limited. This renders the discovery of new medicines a top priority to the scientists.
The researchers demonstrated that CBD and CBG are not only fat-reducing tools with the help of sophisticated tools. In fact, they assist the liver to work more efficiently internally in a special mechanism of metabolic remodeling. The effect on the energy stores of the liver was identified as one of the most crucial findings. The compounds cause a rise in phosphocreatine levels which serve as a backup battery to keep the liver healthy despite the stress which is posed by high-fat diet. It is a novel finding because the liver is not normally dependent on such a system of energy in a heavy way.
Reinstate functions of cathepsins
Also, the experiment revealed that CBD and CBG reinstate the functions of cathepsins. They are enzymes that serve as the cleaning crew in the recycling centers of the cell and they are called lysosomes. With the help of getting this cleaning crew back at work the liver is able to better process and eliminate the harmful fats and waste. Another finding by the researchers was that the two treatments had significant lowering effects on the harmful lipids, including triglycerides and ceramides. Ceramides are those that are especially harmful since they have been identified to cause insulin resistance and liver inflammation.
The research found out that both compounds were useful but they had a slight difference in terms of benefit to metabolic health. CBD and CBG could all normalise blood sugar levels and enhance the glucose clearance in the body. Nevertheless, CBG seemed to influence some measures more strongly. It was much more effective in fat mass reduction in the body and insulin sensitivity than CBD. The CBG was also especially useful in reducing the total cholesterol and the bad LDL cholesterol levels.
Prof. Joseph Tam ssaid, “the findings of the research point to a new mechanism through which CBD and CBG improve the hepatic energy and lysosomal activity. Such dual metabolic remodelling results in a better process of lipids in liver and singling out such compounds as likely treatment options in MASLD.”
Though these findings are highly encouraging, the staff remarks that additional studies are required in order to comprehend how these findings can be optimally applied to human patients. The research provides a novel avenue in the use of plant-derived compounds to treat metabolic diseases because it is based on the energy and waste management in cells.
