1.Southwest moonsoon likely to hit Kerala within 4-5 days, earliest in a decade

The southwest monsoon is gearing up to arrive in Kerala well ahead of its usual June 1 timeline, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. If the rains do roll in within the next four to five days as predicted, it would mark the earliest monsoon onset over the Indian mainland in over a decade—since May 23, 2009.

The weather office had earlier estimated a May 27 onset, and current conditions suggest the stage is now set for a timely advance. “Favourable factors for the monsoon’s arrival over Kerala are likely to develop in the next 4–5 days,” the IMD noted in its latest bulletin.

Kerala typically sees the first showers of the monsoon by June 1. From there, the seasonal rains sweep across the country by early July, eventually retreating by mid-October. However, recent years have seen a wide variation in onset dates, with the monsoon arriving on June 8 in 2023 and as early as May 29 in 2022.

2.India’s Dirty Furnaces Threaten Global Steel Net Zero Goal

Steel production contributes 10 percent to global carbon emissions, and a Bloomberg report says India leads the pack when it comes to making polluting steel. Though China still produces the most steel, India’s steel furnaces are still powered by coal. The global steel sector will only reach net zero emissions if India makes a serious shift to powering its factories with electric arc furnaces and direct reduced iron rather than fossil fuels.

“India is now the bellwether of global steel decarbonization,” Astrid Grigsby-Schulte, a project manager at Global Energy Monitor, said in a statement. “If the country does not increase its plans for green steel production, the entire sector will miss an important milestone.”

New data from GEM suggest that by 2030 the share of steel made without the use of coal as feedstock may reach 36% of the total, close to a 37% target set by the International Energy Agency. The goal is part of a global scenario in which all energy sources contribute to reaching the sector’s net-zero emissions by mid century.

3.Agra’s Taj Mahal regained its crown, but let’s not kid ourselves

On paper, India’s inbound tourism has recovered. India saw 18.89 million international tourist arrivals at the end of 2023, just crossing the pre-pandemic level of 17.91 million recorded in 2019—foreign tourist arrivals had finally edged past pre-pandemic levels. But a closer look at the numbers shows that non-resident Indians (NRIs) made up a big chunk of the arrivals. And arrivals from Bangladesh, many for medical care, made up another big chunk before political events in that country thinned those. In 2024, 9.66 million foreign tourists (excluding NRIs) arrived, provisional data from the government shows.

India has always been known to get a large part of its inbound travel from either low-budget international travellers or serious spenders from the US and UK in their 50s and 60s. While the former have returned to some degree and a wave of NRIs is also coming for vacations here, the pure play international tourist remains absent. A look at the results of any hotel company reveal that none of them rely on international leisure travel and tourism today. The lack of international travellers isn’t being felt fully by hoteliers as the gap is being filled by domestic travellers. But is that enough?

4.By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible 

Its new “AI Mode,” powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, the tech giant’s most advanced model, is “agentic” Google said, meaning it can not only find tickets to a sporting event, for instance, but fill out forms to buy them, while a “shopping partner” allows users to virtually try on billions of outfits.

Other announcements at Google’s annual I/O conference included new smart glasses intended to challenge Meta’s augmented reality Ray-Bans, and a collaboration with Volvo to add Gemini to its cars — allowing drivers to play music or ask for navigational help, while keeping their eyes on the road.

Google also announced new versions of its AI models, including a new version of its Veo video generation model with the ability to generate audio.

5.Israel is reportedly preparing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, even as Washington pushes to agree a deal curbing Tehran’s atomic ambitions. 

US intelligence officials do not believe Israel has made a final decision on carrying out the attack, CNN said, but oil prices rose on the risk. Israel’s apparent moves point to growing fissures between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and that of US President Donald Trump, who has made announcements with Middle East powers “without heeding Israeli concerns,” the Times of Israel’s founding editor noted. Any Iran nuclear deal remains a long way off — Washington’s demand that Tehran have zero domestic enrichment capacity is a red line on both sides.

6.Tools and Weapons -A conversation with Satya Nadella

In this new episode of Tools and Weapons, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith sits down with Satya Nadella — Microsoft’s third CEO — to talk about his journey from his early days playing cricket to leading Microsoft, the link between poetry and programming, and how the company is leading the next wave of technological transformation, redefining how we build and interact with technology.

7.Like it or not, the Like button has changed the world

The internet wouldn’t be the same without the Like button, the thumbs-up icon that Facebook and other online services turned into digital catnip.

Like it or not, the button has served as a creative catalyst, a dopamine delivery system and an emotional battering ram. It also became an international tourist attraction after Facebook plastered the symbol on a giant sign that stood outside its Silicon Valley headquarters until the company rebranded itself as Meta Platforms in 2021.

A new book, “Like: The Button That Changed The World,” delves into the convoluted story behind a symbol that’s become both the manna and bane of a digitally driven society.

It’s a tale that traces back to gladiator battles for survival during the Roman Empire before fast-forwarding to the early 21st century when technology trailblazers such as Yelp co-founder Russ Simmons, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Gmail inventor Paul Buchheit were experimenting with different ways of using the currency of recognition to prod people to post compelling content online for free.

8.Fortune Reveals the 2025 100 Most Powerful Women in Business List

GM CEO Mary Barra tops Fortune's list of 100 most powerful women in business, followed by Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.

The highest Indian women on the list are Roshni Nadar Malhotra of HCL group (No.21) and Leena Nair of Channel (No. 45). Other women of Indian origin on the list include Reshmi Kewalramani of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (No.18), Bela Bajaria of Netflix (No. 25) and Revathi Advaithi (No. 62)

9.Williams Syndrome: The people who are too friendly

People with Williams Syndrome treat strangers as their new best friends. Now the condition is giving clues to our evolutionary past – and what makes us human.

Imagine walking down the street and feeling an overwhelming love and warmth for every single person that you met. That is a familiar experience for people with Williams Syndrome (WS), a rare genetic condition that affects approximately 1 in 7,500 individuals.

People with WS, often dubbed the 'opposite of autism', have an innate desire to hug and befriend total strangers. They are extremely affectionate, empathetic, talkative and gregarious. They treat everyone they meet as their new best friend, yet there is a downside to being so friendly. Individuals often struggle to retain close friendships and are prone to isolation and loneliness.

10.Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, wins the 2025 International Booker Prize

It is the first ever Kannada book, and the second from India as well as South Asia, to win the award, which is given to translated works of fiction published in the UK and Ireland. It is also the first collection of short stories to win. Bhasthi is the first Indian translator to win the award. In 2022, Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, won the International Booker Prize.