Trump, Netanyahu Held Heated Phone Call Amid Iran War? | Vantage on Firstpost | 4K

Añadido: 2026-06-03

[00:00:09]Hello and welcome to First Post Vantage with me Horsoya. Let's get started.

[00:00:34]If reports are anything to go by, Donald Trump just gave Netanyahu a reality check. We're told there was some colorful language used. Trump is always hitting where it hurts the most, letting Netanyahu know just how unpopular he is.

[00:00:48]So, who is the boss? I think Donald Trump just answered that. While the back and forth there continues, India is wasting no time. It is drawing up a solid plan B. What is India's Gulf plan?

[00:01:01]I'll tell you in just a bit. While the future of West Asia and the Straits of Warmuz remains unclear, one thing is clear. Intelligent deadly remote controlled machines that we call drones have changed modern warfare. Stay tuned for that report. And once again tonight, we are talking about the tech pros. I know it seems as though I'm saying this flippantly, but these may just be the people who are actually running the United States. We take a close look inside the tech bros oligarchy or some as some would call it the broligarchy.

[00:01:34]And after years of pushing for AI adoption, why are corporates now mulling rationing AI usage? I'll tell you. From Gerba on the tarmac to Garba on train tracks. I asked tonight why has the behavior of Indian tourists abroad left so much to be desired? Also maybe leave GBA alone. All this and more lined up.

[00:01:56]But first the headlines.

[00:02:00]In India the government transfers the chairman and the secretary of the central board of secondary education.

[00:02:06]This comes amid scrutiny over the procurement process for the board's onscreen marking. The CBSC has been under fire over discrepancies in the evaluation of class 12th answer sheets.

[00:02:20]Protest in Kenya over a US Ebola center turned deadly. The Washingtonbuilt facility was due to open last week. It was to quarantine Americans arriving from the Ebola hit Democratic Republic of Congo. The unrest is over the US using Kenyan soil and bringing Ebola patients to the country.

[00:02:41]Donald Trump appoints a loyalist as the head of US intelligence. Bill Pi has been named as the acting director of the agency. He has no national security experience. Pi currently serves as the Federal Housing Finance Agency chief. He replaces Tulsi Gabbard who resigned last month.

[00:03:02]China is tightening its grip over the sharing of trade secrets. This includes cracking down on job hopping employees and expanding confidentiality rules.

[00:03:11]Suspicion of bad actors has grown in the country as Beijing aims for technological self-reliance.

[00:03:20]And France and Norway are experiencing their hottest spring since records began. The season broke the previous records set in 2011 and 2020. France, Britain, and Portugal have all reported their hottest ever Mayday.

[00:04:01]God is guaranteed.

[00:04:15]There are moments in international politics when actions speak louder than diplomatic statements. And then there are moments when they practically drown them out. If reports are accurate, US President Donald Trump is furious that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could jeopardize Washington's efforts to secure a preliminary agreement with Iran. The two leaders held a phone call yesterday and shortly afterwards Netanyahu made it clear that Israel's military operations in southern Lebanon would proceed. According to Israeli calculations that do, not diplomatic timetables. That sequence of events raises a fascinating question.

[00:04:56]Watching Netanyahu publicly chart his own course despite reported objections from Trump leaves us wondering in this partnership who is really the boss. Let me give you a recap of what actually happened. Yesterday Netanyahu ordered strikes on Hezbollah controlled areas of Beirut's District.

[00:05:17]It blamed the armed group for violations of ceasefire that have been in place since the 17th of April at least on paper. The announcement sent residents fleeing the Lebanese capital southern suburbs amid fears of a major strike.

[00:05:32]Iran jumped in. It backs Hezbollah, an armed group which claims to be in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, suffering Israel's response to Hamas's October 7th attack. The warned that continued Israeli aggression in Lebanon could derail peace talks. Later, Iranian state media even reported that peace talks with the United States have been put on hold.

[00:05:58]>> One of the clear reasons for the escalation of the crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in recent days can be nothing other than the undermining of any possible prospect for diplomatic processes to lead to some form of improvement in the situation. And this responsibility again lies with the United States.

[00:06:17]Now this seems to have angered Trump. He believes Netanyahu is escalating this conflict disproportionately.

[00:06:24]Reports mentioned that Trump is particularly disturbed by the civilian death toll in Lebanon. In the phone call with Netanyahu, he reportedly objected to large-scale attacks on the country.

[00:06:35]And then came the exploiters. He reportedly called Netanyahu crazy. Trump said the Israeli prime minister would have been in prison if it were not for him and then he added that everybody hates Netanyahu for this and everybody hates Israel because of this. Publicly though his message was diluted. Trump posted on truth social that he had a productive call with BB and Hezbollah.

[00:07:00]He said both sides have agreed to stop firing. Hours later Netanyahu also posted on X. His post stood in stark contrast to that of Trump's. He also reiterated that Israel's position on Hezbollah remains unchanged. And he said that the IDF will continue its operations as planned in South Lebanon.

[00:07:20]And he was right. Look at what is happening today. The Israeli military was warn has warned residents of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatier to evacuate head of ahead of planned strikes in the area. Hours earlier, Israel conducted strikes on South Lebanon and Hezbollah fired into northern Israel. It's clear that both sides have not stopped. Although fresh round of talks between Israeli and Lebanese negotiators are currently underway in Washington. So let me ask a question here. When Washington says stop and Tel Aviv says watch us, who is really steering this alliance? And most importantly, why can't America control the wars it starts? For years, the US-Issrael relationship presented as unbreakable.

[00:08:09]And now it is revealing significant cracks. Even before reports of heated call between Trump and Netanyahu emerged, there were talks of a rift between the two leaders. Reports suggested that Israel pushed Trump into the war. US intelligence and military officials stressed the risk that Iran could attack US allies in the Gulf and close the straight of war moves. They were not wrong. But it was Netanyahu and America's war secretary Pete Hexed who believed otherwise. They argued that Iran's revolutionary guards were overrated and would not have the strength to hit back. The current conflict in Iran is revealing something deeper.

[00:08:49]Trump and Netanyahu may be allies, but they are no longer chasing the same endgame. Trump wants closure. Netanyahu wants leverage. Eventually, long wars send the bill home. Oil prices rise, shipping routes panic, markets wobble, voters get angry, and nothing destroys a populist leader faster than expensive chaos abroad. Remember, Trump's political identity is built around one idea. I win wars. Managing them is not his forte. His foreign policy formula has always been maximum pressure, maximum drama, then a deal. He wants the headline, the handshake, the image. A ceasefire with Iran fits perfectly into that fantasy. Trump wants to build around himself, the ultimate dealmaker.

[00:09:41]But Netanyahu's calculations are completely different. He has vowed to make what he calls Iran's terror regime disappear. For Netanyahu, this war is not just geopolitical. It is personal.

[00:09:51]It is political and perhaps even existential.

[00:09:55]To understand that, you need to look at the politics going inside going on inside Israel. Right now, Netanyao is entangled in corruption trials involving fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. His coalition depends heavily on hardline nationalist ministers who oppose concessions, oppose ceasefires, and are against any arrangement that leaves Iran or Hezbollah standing. For them, stopping early is weakness. Negotiation is surrender. And Netanyahu knows something crucial.

[00:10:26]The moment the war truly ends, the political reckoning begins.

[00:10:32]Wars sometimes protect leaders from accountability.

[00:10:35]peace removes that shield, which explains why Netanyahu keeps insisting that military pressure is the only path to Israeli security.

[00:10:46]So once again, who's the boss? The answer is complicated. America still holds the money, the weapons, the global influence, but Israel holds something equally powerful. Urgency.

[00:10:59]Right now, Trump wants a deal before the war consumes his presidency. Netanyahu wants strategic victories before peace limits his options. And people who started this conflict and disrupted the entire global supply chain and are pulling in opposite directions. Caught between them are Lebanon and Iran and an entire region balancing on the edge of a prolonged war.

[00:11:28]3 months. That's how long the straight of moose. The crucial waterway that handles a fifth of the world's oil and gas has remained shut due to the war in West Asia. Every country that depends on energy from Gulf region has been hit.

[00:11:42]This includes India. Petrol prices have risen, shipping costs have climbed and import bills have swelled. But amid the chaos, India seems to have found a plan B through Oman. The India Oman trade pact kicked in yesterday. The comprehensive economic partnership agreement or the Ca was signed in December last year. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Muscat, Union Commerce and Industry Minister PJ Goyel announced the commencement of the agreement on X. He said the pact will open new markets, boost exports and attract investments.

[00:12:20]The importance of the deal lies in Oman's location. Iran's blockade of Hormuz has disrupted the flow of oil and gas to India from several Gulf nations including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The numbers are there to prove it.

[00:12:37]Our imports from major Gulf economies collapsed from $15 billion in April 2025 to just $9.8 billion in April 2026.

[00:12:47]Exports dropped too from $4.4 4 billion down to $2.7 billion during that same period. So India needed a bypass a side door into the Gulf system and Oman can provide exactly that. How?

[00:13:02]There are three reasons. The first one is Oman's strategic location. You see, most Gulf countries rely on the straight of Ormus for oil supply. But Oman is different. Much of its coastline is located outside the straight directly on the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman.

[00:13:18]Ships can dock at ports like Salala and Dukum without entering the narrow Hormuz corridor.

[00:13:25]So even if tensions choke Hormuz as they have, Omani ports can still function as alternate gateways. The second point is the trade pact.

[00:13:36]It integrates Oman into India's energy and cargo supply chain.

[00:13:41]This is the logistics advantage. The agreement is not just about lowering tariffs on products. It deepens energy flows, shipping networks, industrial connectivity. India can now import crude oil, LNG, fertilizers, and prochemicals more efficiently from Oman itself. And during regional instability, trade can be rrooted through Oman. Instead of depending entirely on Gulf States trapped behind Hormuz, meaning Oman is no longer just a trading partner, it becomes a backup supply hub. And finally, it allows India to diversify shipping lanes. This is the strategic advantage. Cargo can arrive in Oman first and then move onward regionally.

[00:14:23]Ships can be redirected instead of halted completely during disruptions.

[00:14:27]That creates redundancy.

[00:14:29]A very important word in modern geopolitics because the first rule of strategic planning is simple. Never depend entirely on one route. Ask Europe what happened when it depended too much on Russian gas. Ask the world what happened when the Swiss canal got blocked by one ship. That is the fragility of global trade and India seems to have learned that lesson. Under the agreement, Oman will provide immediate duty-free access covering around 99% of Indian exports by value.

[00:14:59]Meaning almost all the money value that of what India sells to Oman will be taxfree.

[00:15:06]Earlier more than 80% of Indian products were already entering Oman at average tariff rates of about 5%. Though some goods continued to face duties of up to 100%. For Oman, the PAT reinforces its existing role as a critical supplier to one of the world's fastest growing economies. India will reduce or eliminate tariffs of nearly 78% of its tariff lines under this agreement. So what does that mean for Oman? guaranteed preferential access to a massive and growing import market.

[00:15:40]Energy products, fertilizers, industrial raw materials, all gaining easier entry into India at reduced duties. So there are gains for both sides. As I mentioned earlier, our trade with major Gulf partners has fallen.

[00:15:55]But at the same time, Oman moved in the opposite direction. In April last year, imports from Oman stood at $430 million.

[00:16:03]Fast forward to April this year, the bill stands at nearly $1.5 billion, an almost 250% jump in trade. This was driven by crude oil, URA, and industrial supplies. So, while the Gulf became unstable, Oman became useful. That is the difference between a partner and a fallback partner. Oman fits perfectly into that puzzle. Yes, its market is small. Population of 5.5 million, GDP of $110 billion. Critics will say the trade gains are modest and they are right. If you only look at the market size, but this deal was never about the market size alone. It was about market access.

[00:16:43]This is India's fifth free trade agreement in 5 years, its 15th overall.

[00:16:48]Each one adding another threat to a web of global trade relationships.

[00:16:53]As the straight of hormos remains blocked and the conflict shows no signs of ending, the question for every major economy is simple.

[00:17:02]When the front door gets blocked, do you have another way out? India does. It faces the Arabian Sea and it's called Oman.

[00:17:48]The European Union has a message for Pakistan. If you want access to European markets, you need to improve your human rights record. Fair enough. After all, the world knows terror state Pakistan's record on human rights, minority protections, freedom of expression, and democratic governance. And the European Union likes to present itself as a community built on democratic rule of law, human rights. But of course, there is just one problem. Does Europe apply those principles consistently or only when it is convenient? or is it only interested in weaponizing human rights to be used against some countries but not others? Now, I'm asking these questions because the EU's latest engagement with Pakistan, it's raised some questions. During the eighth round of EU Pakistan strategic dialogue in Islamabad, the European Union did two things. First, it told Pakistan that its preferential trade access to Europe depends on human rights reforms. and second it signed off on a joint communicate that crossed a diplomatic line. Let's start with Europe's condition. The EU's foreign policy chief Kayakalas visited Islamabad for high level talks with Pakistan's leadership to discuss trade, regional security and Pakistan's future under the EU's GSP plus framework. That framework is extremely important for Pakistan. It allows duty-free access to many Pakistani exports into European markets. It is one of the most important economic lifelines available to Pakistan.

[00:19:21]But EU also has a condition. The block says these benefits are linked to compliance with 27 international conventions including human rights, labor rights, good governance and environmental standards. During the talks, Kalas made it clear if Pakistan wants to continue enjoying all of these benefits, it must show what she called measurable and tangible progress, not just promises or statements. The EU specifically raised concerns about freedom of expression, enforced disappearances, minority rights, judicial independence, labor protections, and due process.

[00:20:02]It was all fine till here. Everyone including India would like to see Pakistan make real progress on those democratic values. But that same visit also produced a joint statement. It said that Pakistan briefed the European Union on Jammu and Kashmir while the EU briefed Islamabad on the Ukraine war. The statement then noted that both sides supported the peaceful resolution of conflicts in accordance with the UN charter.

[00:20:33]A quick question though. Is the illegal occupation of Indian territory by a terror state the same as the war that the US and Europe have backed in Ukraine?

[00:20:45]Does Europe really see these as comparable issues? Kashmir and Ukraine are not the same thing. They do not share the same history. They do not share the same legal context and they certainly do not share the same geopolitical reality and more importantly Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and Pakistan continues to occupy a part of that region illegally while supporting crossber terrorism. Ukraine on the other hand is a conflict that Europe regularly presents as a defense of sovereignty against Russian aggression.

[00:21:27]The Indian government has categorically slammed the EUP Pakistan statement.

[00:21:31]>> Uh we have would like to say that we category categorically reject such unwarranted references in the joint press communicate on matters internal to India. The union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladak are integral and inelible parts of India. Those who have no locust stand eye on such matters should desist from making any comment on them.

[00:21:58]>> Now of course I do not expect logic from terror state Pakistan on this. After all, Islamabad has spent decades internationalizing Kashmir at every available forum. That part is hardly surprising. What is surprising is seeing the European Union appear to indulge the terror exporter of the world on this because for an institution that often speaks the language of precision principle and international law. This was a remarkably careless signal to send. In fact, it reminds us of a point India's external affairs minister Dr. SJ Shankar made back in 2022.

[00:22:32]Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems.

[00:22:44]Now, that remark resonated across much of the global south because the criticism was simple. Europe often expects the world to rally behind its priorities while not always showing the same urgency towards concerns raised by others. Now of course Pakistan and the European Union are free to conduct whatever diplomacy they choose. That is not the issue. The issue is the message that diplomacy sends because diplomacy is often more about the signals it sends. And this signal was impossible to miss. By placing Jammu and Kashmir and the war in Ukraine in the same sentence, the EU has drawn a false equivalence.

[00:23:22]India's position on this has been consistent for decades. Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India. It is not an international conflict. It is a bilateral issue with Pakistan and not a matter for third party mediation. As far as engagement with Islamabad is concerned, India's position has been clear. Terror and talks cannot go hand in hand. So if Europe wants to focus its attention on Pakistan and encourage it to address its human rights record, its governance challenges and its terrorism problem, that would certainly be a start. But until then, it would be wise for Europe to avoid blurring the lines between these two very different issues.

[00:24:06]At best, it is hypocritical. At worst, it's malicious. And India is having none of it.

[00:24:17]What comes to your mind when you hear the word warfare?

[00:24:21]Is it fighter jets that cost millions of dollars? Is it submarines and warships that take decades to build? Or is it cheap, intelligent, and deadly remote control machines that we call drones?

[00:24:33]Just look at the war in Ukraine. Drones now account for almost 80% of all battlefield casualties. In West Asia, the story was the same. Iran used cheap drones to destroy billiond dollar American weapons systems.

[00:24:48]But this is just the trailer because we now have AI drone swarms. Imagine thousands of AI powered drones communicating with each other, taking decisions and carrying out operations without any human input.

[00:25:04]The US wants to spend $54 billion for these swarm drones. India, Russia, China, and Israel are also pumping billions. Who is winning this race? Our next report tells you more.

[00:25:18]>> Drones have been used in warfare for decades.

[00:25:22]With the first use going as far back as World War I, but these cheap, pilotless, remotec controlled aircrafts were never considered game changers.

[00:25:34]But that is no longer the case.

[00:25:37]Now drones dominate the front lines.

[00:25:40]Let's look at the war in Ukraine.

[00:25:44]Almost 80% of all casualties in 2025 and 2026 have been from drones.

[00:25:52]>> When you look at uh studies um where combat kills come from, 70 to 80% of kills and injuries come from FPV drones.

[00:26:02]around 16% is artillery and only 4% is small firearms and traditional systems.

[00:26:09]>> When we look at the war in West Asia, Iran extensively used drones to destroy American weapons that cost billions of dollars. Nations are no longer investing billions of dollars on expensive fighter jets or submarines and warships that take decades to build.

[00:26:28]Armies are now turning to drones and flooding the battlefield with tens of thousands of these remotec controlled weapons.

[00:26:36]>> The drones have fundamentally changed both the cost calculation of war. So we have very cheap FPV drones costing just a couple hundred or thousand bucks taking out very expensive uh very bespoke systems such as tanks, fighter jets, helicopters. The most common drone being used on the battlefield is the FPV Kamikaz drone. FPV is short for firsterson view. These are small drones that carry a small warhead and can fly a distance of 20 to 30 km. These drones have a video transmitter and give the operator live feed from the camera mounted on it. and a fiber optic cable is attached to the drone which controls it but also relays the camera feed. As long as the cable stays intact, these drones can't be hacked or jammed resulting in an extremely high rate of casualties.

[00:27:34]>> What we are seeing is both drones evolving themselves. We started with those traditional quadcopter drones having an antenna and using a radio link um to transmit data back to the operator. But this radio link um can be jammed and communications can be spoofed. Most of those radio links are analog and are not encrypted. That's mainly because it's cheap and easy to do as compared to digital encrypted links.

[00:28:03]To add to the lethality of these FPV drones, manufacturers are now installing AI powered chips on these machines and creating swarms of lethal drones. Here's what makes these AI swarms different.

[00:28:18]Installing AI chips is like giving the drones a mind of their own. They can think, communicate, and carry out operations without any human input.

[00:28:28]Imagine thousands of AI powered drones launched in a span of seconds striking enemy targets without a human's intervention. These AI chips mean the drones have prefeded programs and flight paths, making them immune to electronic warfare and jamming. So in a contested airspace or battlefield, these drones can take split-second decisions to alter their path when faced with enemy fire or obstacles. That is much faster than any manual human input. The US has learned from the wars in Ukraine and Iran. The Pentagon wants to invest $54 billion to develop its AI drone swarms. But they are not the only ones in the race.

[00:29:11]India, Russia, China, and Israel are also developing their AI drone swarms.

[00:29:17]Meanwhile, Ukraine, the UK, and Australia are also setting up their programs. The message is clear. AI swarm drones will make warfare cheaper, faster, and more lethal than ever. And whichever country or coalition will dominate this technology won't just defend its borders, but will shape the next century of security.

[00:29:44]It's the era of broligarchy. You heard that right. Broligarchy. In other words, an oligarchy of tech bros. On the show, we have consistently told you how tech overlords are running, or rather ruining human minds, democracies, and the planet. And if you needed more proof, look no further than the California primaries. Tech billionaires are spending unprecedented sums to buy influence.

[00:30:09]According to campaign finance records, they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars. The money is flowing into governor's races, state legislature races, local campaigns, ballot initiatives, and political action committees. Experts say this may be the most expensive primary season in California history. And the names involved are not small ones. They are some of the most powerful figures in Silicon Valley. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent more than $82 million this year alone, mostly to fight a proposed billionaire tax that will go before voters in November. In the California governor's race, Democratic candidate Matt Mahen has emerged as the darling of Silicon Valley. He has attracted donations from executives linked to Google, Amazon, Snap, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Palanteer.

[00:31:02]Cryptobillionaire Chris Len has also been writing big checks. He's poured $26 million into multiple super PACs across the state, including money aimed at influencing the race for California's insurance commissioner. And then there are the companies themselves. Google and Meta have jointly contributed $10 million to a super PAC. This is a political action committee that supports state assembly and senate candidates.

[00:31:32]The result, California voters have been flooded with political messaging, TV ads, roote, mailers, all backed by some of the richest people in the world. And this money is not just being spent directly on elections. It is also being spent on lobbying. According to an analysis by Cal Matters, the tech industry spent $39 million lobbying California state government in 2025 alone. That is more than any previous year and even more than the oil and gas industry which usually dominates the lobbying leaderboard. A separate Bloomberg analysis found that major tech and AI companies spent a combined $ 109 million on federal lobbying this year.

[00:32:14]This is not just a California story because what happens in California often ends up shaping the world. The apps you use, the social media platforms you rely on, and the AI systems you interact with on a daily basis, many of them are built in California, which means the politics of that state matters to you as well. But this is not just a California story. The numbers are staggering when it comes to the midterms. These polls happen midway through every four-year presidential election cycle. And the biggest donor in this midterm election is not Elon Musk or George Soros or any of the other billionaires who are often thought to wield the fattest wallets in politics.

[00:32:56]It is a venture capital firm. Andre and Horowitz. According to reports, the firm and its founders Mark Andre and Ben Horowitz have already poured more than $115 million into US politics this election cycle. That makes them one of the biggest political spenders in America today. And this is not new. The firm spent tens of millions in the last election cycle, too. But this time, the scale is even bigger. And in fact, just one day after the 2024 election, the firm pumped another $23 million into cryptobacked political groups. A clear signal that this is not a short-term political hobby.

[00:33:38]It is a long-term investment in political influence. So this is no longer just a contest between Democrats and Republicans. It is a fight over who gets to write the rules for the AI age.

[00:33:49]And the money is not just flowing into local races. And Horowitz and its co-founders have also donated millions of dollars to President Trump's political operation.

[00:34:02]According to reports, the firm and its founders have contributed around $12 million to MAGA Inc. which is Trump's super political action committee.

[00:34:11]Another trust linked to Mark Andre has also donated close to $900,000 to the Republican National Committee. The result, a close and growing relationship between Silicon Valley's most powerful investors and the Trump administration.

[00:34:26]And the money does not stop there.

[00:34:30]Next on the list is George Soros. The billionaire investor and longtime Democratic Party donor has contributed more than $102 million.

[00:34:40]Then there is Elon Musk. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has contributed around $85 million.

[00:34:47]And then comes Wall Street billionaire Jeff Ya. He has contributed nearly $82 million.

[00:34:54]Now remember, this is just the publicly disclosed money. The real figure could even be higher. Tech executives would argue they have every right to participate in politics and they do, but so does everyone else. And when billions of dollars from tech bros start flowing into politics, are we still hearing the voice of voters or the voice of the people who can afford to outspend them?

[00:35:23]Companies are now rationing AIUS. The bill has come and it may be time for some budgeting. For the past few years, companies have been told that artificial intelligence is the futures future.

[00:35:35]Artificial intelligence became both the requirement and the excuse. Boards wanted AI strategies. Investors wanted AI strategies. Employees wanted AI strategies to not become victims of the company's ambitious AI strategies. They were encouraged to use AI wherever possible to use perhaps even trained systems which would eventually replace them. Companies rushed to demonstrate that they were embracing the technology and would not be left behind.

[00:36:04]But there are no free lunches, my friends. Everything has a cost. That enthusiasm has produced a new problem.

[00:36:12]The AI bill is getting very expensive.

[00:36:15]At the center of the issue are tokens.

[00:36:18]The basic unit used to measure AI computing. So every prompt submitted to an AI model, every response generated consumes tokens. The more employees use AI tools, the more tokens a company pays for and employees have been using a lot of them.

[00:36:38]Enter token maxing. Employees went on token maxing sprees using as much AI as possible to demonstrate that they were embracing the technology. The problem is that usage and value are not necessarily the same thing. Google recently said it now processes more than 3.2 quadrillion tokens every month. That is seven times more than a year ago. For a long time, many companies did not worry too much about usage because AI providers offered subscription models that encouraged experimentation. The objective was simple. Get employees using AI and figure out the economics of it later.

[00:37:19]The result was a culture where more usage was often treated as a sign of progress. But now, as for some company executives, employees are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on AI tokens.

[00:37:33]Some workers were reportedly using expensive frontier models for simple tasks that could have been handled by far cheaper systems. Basically, pick up a book. Maybe you don't need Jad GPD to write that birthday text. Now, companies are beginning to examine the costs more closely. Some enterprises have reportedly exhausted their annual AI budgets within just three months. Others have seen AI spending double or triple in a short period. At Uber, executives disclosed that the company had burned through its annual budget for agentic AI systems by March. That has triggered a shift in thinking. Instead of asking how quickly they can expand AI usage, companies are now increasingly asking whether that usage is producing measurable results.

[00:38:20]So much so that Meta's chief technology officer recently warned employees against using AI simply for the sake of using AI.

[00:38:30]Microsoft has reduced access to some premium AI tools for certain employees and has directed them towards internal alternatives. Salesforce has introduced systems designed to track whether AI spending is actually translating into business outcomes. The change reflects a broader reality. For years, the conversation around AI focused on productivity gains. Companies argued that AI would make workers more efficient, reduce costs, and transform operations.

[00:38:59]We've seen the wave of big tech layoffs.

[00:39:02]All this as they prepared for a more automated future.

[00:39:07]Like I said, AI became the convenient excuse for the layoff waves by big tech.

[00:39:13]So far this year, over a 100,000 employees have been handed the pink slip across 200 companies. What is becoming clear is that AI itself has become a major expense and measuring its return on investment is proving more complicated than many expected. Some reports suggest that only 18% of spending on tokens ultimately translated into software products that reached end users 18%.

[00:39:40]But of course that does not mean the technology is failing. AI can still accelerate coding research and many routine tasks. Adoption continues to grow rapidly. Investors remain bullish.

[00:39:52]Anthropic recently closed a funding round that valued the company at $965 billion. While OpenAI is also moving towards a public listing but the industry is entering a different phase.

[00:40:06]The first phase was about adoption.

[00:40:09]Companies wanted as many employees using AI as possible. The second phase is about efficiency. Companies now want to know which AI tools actually create value, which tasks justify premium models and which expenses can be reduced.

[00:40:26]In other words, after spending two years telling employees to use more AI, many companies are now trying to figure out how to use less of it. Not because they've lost faith in the technology, because they've finally seen the bill.

[00:40:46]Donald Trump never campaigned in Colombia. He never had to because somebody else did it for him. His name is Ebalardo Dea Espella, but everyone calls him Elte Gray, the tiger. He's a criminal lawyer, a singer, a man who designs clothes, a millionaire who spent years living the good life in Italy. He has never held public office, not once.

[00:41:08]He stood behind bulletproof glass pounding his chest in front of thousands of screaming Colombians who just made him the front runner in one of Latin America's most important presidential races. He outperformed every single poll. He shocked the establishment. He shocked the left. He shocked pretty much everyone except perhaps Donald Trump who has seen this film before because LT Gray is not just a Colombian politician.

[00:41:35]He is one of Trump's biggest fans in Latin America. And he is three weeks away from running a country. This is his story. And in many ways, it is also Trump's.

[00:41:51]Something is happening in Latin America and it has been happening for a while now. Argentina went right, then Ecuador, then Bolivia, then Chile, then Honduras.

[00:42:01]One by one, the left lost its grip. And now the last major domino is wobbling.

[00:42:07]And the man triggering this wobble, let us properly introduce him because he is a character.

[00:42:17]I'm an entrepreneur who has contributed to this country through my work and I got fed up with the most important company in the country which is the state being run by people who have never created wealth in their lives.

[00:42:30]>> Abelardo de la Esprielia is 47 years old widely known as Eligre or the tiger.

[00:42:38]He's a criminal lawyer, a singer, a clothingier, a millionaire who spent years living comfortably in Italy. He has never held public office. Hasn't been a mayor, a counselor, or a senator.

[00:42:50]Nothing.

[00:42:52]For months, Colombian politics had a predictable shape. The left was going to hold Colombia. And then Sunday happened.

[00:43:01]With 100% of ballots counted, Dea Esprielia secured 43.7% of the vote. 10.3 million Colombians chose him in the first round of the election. His rival, Ivan Sepeda, finished second with 40.9%.

[00:43:19]Most polls right up until election day still showed Dea Esprielia trailing. He did not just win the first round. He made the pollsters look foolish.

[00:43:31]The two will now face each other in a runoff on the 21st of June.

[00:43:36]>> In his victory speech, he stood behind a bulletproof glass, pounded his chest as thousands of screaming supporters hooted.

[00:43:48]Today, we've closed the first page of history, but we will finish writing the definitive history on June 21st when we are once again before the ballot boxes to reaffirm this commitment to Colombia and defeat Gustavo Petro and the bandit Ian Sepeda.

[00:44:05]He built his entire campaign around one word and that is security. He argued that criminal organizations have flourished under outgoing President Gustavo Petro and pledged to open mega prisons and wipe out narco terrorism. His exact words on the campaign trail. I will wipe out naroterrorism and those I've declared a military target like cockroaches, like rats. Subtle, he is not.

[00:44:33]For this is a man who draws inspiration from Donald Trump. And what is more interesting is not who he admires. It is how precisely he has replicated the formula. Political outsider who has never governed. Check. Larger than life personality. Check. Projecting an image of strength. Check. A media presence that makes traditional politicians look stiff and boring. A massive check. The only upgrade he has made to the original template is that he also releases music.

[00:45:12]Trump never did that. But here is what the analysis of Eltegra often misses.

[00:45:18]The people voting for him are not voting for Trump. They're voting because they are scared. Colombia is experiencing its worst security crisis. The worst since the 2016 peace accord. President Gustavo Petro came to power promising total peace. His government chose dialogue over force. Armed and criminal groups were offered negotiations instead of military confrontation. Many Colombians feel that strategy failed. The cartels got stronger, that the streets got more dangerous, that the government blinked.

[00:45:54]>> Insecurity is crushing us all ordinary people. We believe that the change they promised never happened. It never happened.

[00:46:04]It turned out to be more about corruption and empty rhetoric than anything else.

[00:46:09]>> I think Abelardo is our only option.

[00:46:13]>> Security was at the top of every voter's mind going into Sunday's election. Dea Esprielia did not create that fear. Now look at how the left responded.

[00:46:23]President Petro has questioned the vote results but hasn't provided any evidence. Colombia has been one of the last holdouts in Latin America after far-right victories swept. Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras all have proTrump leaders. Colombia could be next. Now the tiger has three weeks. The runoff is on June 21st. If he wins, Trump will have something new to celebrate and Elte would be his proudest export yet.

[00:47:01]Are Indian tourists badly behaved or has the world simply decided that we are?

[00:47:06]That is one uncomfortable question many of us have been asking recently. Every few months there is another viral video, another incident involving an Indian tourist, another social media pylon. And before you know it, one person's bad behavior becomes a debate about 1.4 billion people.

[00:47:26]And the internet starts asking its favorite question. What is wrong with Indian tourists? Take this group for example. Indian tourists were recorded performing Gerba, the folk dance of Gujarat on an airport tarmac in Vietnam.

[00:47:40]Why? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. But apparently some people see an airport tarmac and think that's the perfect dance floor. But this was also not a one-off. Before that, there were videos of Indians doing garba at the Great Wall of China.

[00:47:57]Then a group dancing at Hanoi's famous train street. At this rate, garba might as well become India's new extreme sport, depending on the airport, of course. Now, you see, Indians do not need a lot of encouragement to start celebrating a wedding, a promotion, a cricket victory or defeat, an engagement, a cousin's engagement, a cousin's cousin's engagement. Just give us five people, a Bluetooth speaker and enough place to stand and we will find a reason to dance.

[00:48:27]That joyful spontaneity is part of what makes Indian culture so vibrant. But one man's celebration is another man's nuisance and that has turned into a conversation about growing habit of treating public spaces abroad as if they were an extension of a destination wedding. Now, before we start beating ourselves up, let's be fair. The world is full of bad tourists, and bad tourists have no nationality. After all, at one point, American tourists had the reputation of being the loud, culturally insensitive types. British tourists were known for the art of getting drunk in foreign countries.

[00:49:06]Australians once had such a bad reputation in Asia that, and I'm quoting here, these are not my words, ugly Australian became a real phrase. And Chinese tourists have faced years of criticism. So no, Indians did not invent bad tourist behavior.

[00:49:23]We're not even particularly original at it. But here's the problem.

[00:49:29]We are the newest arrivals and we are arriving in huge numbers. Millions of Indians are now traveling abroad every year. For many destinations, Indian tourists are one of the fastest growing visitor groups. And when a country's presence grows, so does the scrutiny.

[00:49:46]People notice you more. They remember you more and they judge you more. That is human nature. But is all of this criticism fair? Sure, a lot of it is absolutely rooted in stereotypes and sometimes plain old prejudice. Anyone who has traveled abroad knows this. Some people assume Indians are loud. Some people say they bargain too much. Some people assume they are cheap. And once the stereotype takes hold, people start looking for evidence to confirm it. It's called confirmation bias.

[00:50:18]One bad tourist becomes proof of a national character of flaw. A thousand polite tourists go completely unnoticed.

[00:50:26]That is how prejudice works. But, and this is important, not everything can be explained away as racism because some of the complaints are coming from Indians themselves and many of them sound familiar.

[00:50:40]Talk to people in Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and the Northeast. You will hear many of the same complaints. Littering, Q jumping, public drunkenness, shouting, trespassing, treating places as Instagram sets rather than real communities. In other words, the problem is not that some Indians forget how to behave abroad. The problem is that some of us do not always behave well at home either.

[00:51:06]And that takes us to a much bigger question. What exactly is a good tourist? Is it someone who spends money?

[00:51:13]Not really. Is it someone who takes photos? Everyone does that. Is it someone who shows off their culture? Of course not. There's nothing wrong with celebrating your culture, of course. But as they say when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So the issue is context. A national monument is not your dance floor. An airport tarmac is not your garba venue. And the difference between welcome guest and an annoying tourist is often the ability to read the room. The reality is that travel requires humility. You are a guest in somebody else's home, somebody else's city, somebody else's country. Now, that does not mean you abandon your culture. It means that you respect theirs too. And that is the real story here. Don't feel ashamed of being Indian. Just travel better. Wait your turn in line. Follow the rules. Respect local customs. Keep the volume down and remember to not treat every moment as a real opportunity because when you travel abroad, you're not just representing yourself fairly or unfairly. You are representing all of us. So the next time you board a flight, pack your passport, pack your phone, pack your power bank, and some civic sense, too.

[00:52:51]Let me begin our next story with a question. What if the future of medicine isn't about treating disease but outsmarting it? For centuries, doctors played catch-up. Disease struck, humans responded. The cycle repeats. But something is shifting. And in just the last five weeks, five breakthroughs have landed in the field of medicine. And tonight, we break it all down. Let's start with a drug that has scientists excited. It's called Rotatrotide, made by Eli Lee. And yes, it started as a weight loss drug, but calling it just that would be an understatement. Our bodies of hormones that control hunger, blood sugar, and how fat is stored. Most current drugs like Ompic and Monaro, they mimic one or two of these hormones.

[00:53:38]Rotatide hits three simultaneously.

[00:53:41]Scientists call it a triple agonist.

[00:53:43]Think of it as not just turning the volume down on hunger, but rewiring the entire sound system. Patients in trials lost over 24% of their body weight. But the real headline, retatraide appears to reduce inflammation throughout the body because obesity isn't just about weight.

[00:54:02]Excess fat is essentially biological fire. Quietly burning, silently increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, liver failure, even cancer.

[00:54:13]This drug may be attacking the fire itself, not just the smoke. Now to a cancer so aggressive, so fast moving that doctors have historically had almost nothing to offer patients. I'm talking about pancreatic cancer. At the center of the story is a gene called K.

[00:54:30]It keeps telling cells to divide, grow, multiply endlessly. And for decades, scientists could not find a way to press the brakes. They literally called it undruggable.

[00:54:42]A company called Revolution Medicines may have just proved that wrong. Their experimental therapy targets KAS directly. Early results show tumors shrinking, patients surviving longer than expected for a disease with one of the worst survival rates in oncology.

[00:55:00]That sentence alone is historic. The trials are ongoing, but hope at this point is no longer theoretical.

[00:55:08]Moving on to breakthrough number three.

[00:55:10]What if you could solve bad cholesterol forever with a single injection? That's not science fiction anymore. There's a gene in your liver. It's called the PCSK9.

[00:55:21]Its job controlling how much bad cholesterol or LDL stays in your body in your blood. Too much PCSK9 activity means too much LDL which means clogged arteries and heart attacks. Millions of people take statins every single day to manage this. Researchers just tested a one-time gene editing therapy which essentially switches off part of this gene. The result, cholesterol levels dropped sharply after just a single dose. So instead of a lifetime of pills, imagine a single injection that protects your heart for decades.

[00:56:02]Breakthrough number four. At Mayo Clinic, artificial intelligence is doing something quitely remarkable. It's finding cancers that human eyes miss.

[00:56:10]Radiologists analyze thousands of scans every year. CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, early stage tumors can hide in details, nearly invisible to even the most trained eye. AI systems trained on millions of scans learn to detect patterns linked to disease with extraordinary precision. And critically, the AI isn't replacing doctors. It is acting as the world's most attentive second opinion. In cancer, catching it early isn't just better. It is often the difference between life and death.

[00:56:45]And finally, a breakthrough, one that sounds most like science fiction, a smart drug for cancer. Normally, your immune system has tea cells, which act like security guards. They scan cells in the body and remove anything abnormal.

[00:57:00]But cancer cells can be sneaky. Inside your body, cells show tiny ID tags on their surface, so tea cells can recognize them. An enzyme called the ERP1 helps prepare these ID tags. Some tumors mess with the ERA1. So the ID tags become unclear or incomplete. When that happens, the cancer cell becomes harder for T- cells to read. So by disrupting erra1 tumors can hide better from the immune system which helps them survive and grow. That is why treatments like imunotherapy which works by sending those tea cells to hunt cancer fails in twothirds of the patients. But now Oxford based researchers developed a drug. It is called the GRWD5769 and it removes the cloak that cancer cells put on ERA1.

[00:57:55]In a trial across the UK, France, Spain, and Australia, patients with cervical, bladder, liver, lung, and bowel cancer, patients for whom every other treatment had failed were given this drug alongside imunotherapy.

[00:58:09]Tumors shrank in 26 of 83 patients. And here's where we land. Five breakthroughs, five different diseases, five different mechanisms, but one unmistakable direction.

[00:58:22]Medicine is no longer just managing disease. It is beginning to dismantle it at the generic genetic level, at the cellular level, the biological route.

[00:58:33]The body has always fought back. And now more than ever, science is helping in this battle.

[00:58:48]Netflix wanted to give viewers a glimpse into the lives of Dubai's ultra rich Indians. Instead, it may have created the internet's latest cringefest. They see Bling was supposed to be about luxury cars, designer labels, over-the-top wealth, but online audiences seem more interested in the red flags than the diamonds. Critics have accused the show of glorifying patriarchy, normalizing misogyny, and turning toxic relationships into prime time entertainment. At this point, the biggest flex on the show may not be the money. It's the ability to generate so much secondhand embarrassment in just one episode.

[00:59:37]Hey, hey, hey.

[01:00:10]Heat. Heat.

[01:00:45]And now it is time for vantage shots.

[01:00:47]images that tell a story. In India, a 70-foot statue of football legend Messi was removed over safety concerns. In Peru, shaman's bless presidential candidates ahead of runoff elections on the 7th of June. And in South Korea, sleeping competition were for dogs was organized. Finally, taking you back in history, on this day in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at London's Westminster Abbey. It was the first coronation to be televised. Millions watched the proceedings on live television for the first time. Queen Elizabeth went on to become the longest reigning monarch in British history.

[01:01:22]Leaving you on that note. Thank you so much for watching. See you tomorrow.

[01:01:50]What's up?

[01:02:24]Heat. Heat.

[01:02:54]Hey.

[01:03:04]My mother.

[01:03:27]Heat. Heat.

[01:04:04]The planet is gasping for breath.

[01:04:07]Several species are fighting for survival through extreme heat waves, raging wildfires, severe droughts, and the race to build a greener future. But are we listening? This World Environment Day, join us for a special edition of Planet Pulse at 9:00 a.m. IST and 3:30 a.m.

[01:04:28]GMT, only on First Post.