Splainer FREE: Infinite Misery of Work
Aaj ki khabar includes data on the work day that never ends, the new NASA X ISRO collab and the world’s tiniest violin. Our fave bit: Giorgia Meloni’s eye roll at the G7 Summit.
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Bibi bombs Iran: Master stroke or armageddon?
The TLDR: On Friday, Bibi Netanyahu found his next war. In this week’s Big Story we look at why Israel bombed Iran. The reason: Tel Aviv bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, claiming it was close to developing nine bombs. No, we don’t know how this story goes. This is Tehran not Gaza.
Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar
Welcome to the ‘infinite workday’
A new Microsoft report—based on users of its software—reveals the hellish reality of working life. Employees are working into the night—and yet don’t get very much done. Here’s what the ‘work day’ looks like today:
The average worker using Microsoft 365 receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages per workday.
The average employee sends or receives more than 50 emails outside of regular hours.
40% are already online and checking their email by 6 am.
Work meetings after 8 pm have jumped by 16% since 2024.
20% of employees actively check work email on weekends before noon.
The real killer: This relentless work schedule is terrible for productivity. The staggering reason: “Employees are… interrupted by a meeting, email, or notification every two minutes during ‘core business hours’.” The data is damning: 57% of work meetings occur without a calendar invite and 10% are booked at the last minute.
Here’s a quote from the report that sums it up:
As business demands grow more complex and expectations continue to rise, time once reserved for focus or recovery may now be spent catching up, prepping, and chasing clarity," Microsoft said. "It's the professional equivalent of needing to assemble a bike before every ride. Too much energy is spent organizing chaos before meaningful work can begin.
Why is this happening?: This is the long tail effect of the pandemic. Those ‘flexible’ WFH hours have turned into the ‘infinite’ workday.
The result: is, of course, employee burnout:
Mentions of burnout by employees on job-review site Glassdoor, meanwhile, jumped 32% in the first quarter from a year earlier, hitting their highest levels in nearly a decade. “A very common theme is workers who feel like they’ve had several years of mounting responsibilities,” says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor…In a Gallup survey of more than 10,000 workers last summer, 63% said they had been asked to take on additional responsibilities, up from 47% in early 2023.
What about AI?: The report says AI can help create free time by taking over menial tasks—like drafting emails, scheduling meetings, making summaries of notes. But, but, but, a 2024 report showed that the introduction of AI increased workloads. Employers expect their AI-assisted workers to do more, not less.
Reading list: Morning Brew and Quartz have the data on the Microsoft study. Forbes analyses possible solutions—while this 2024 piece looks at how AI has amped up employer expectations.
2/7 Israel vs Iran: Wtf happened now
You’ll be happy to know we are still not quite at armageddon. Iran and Israel traded missiles yet again on day #6. The only surprise: Tehran is landing more than expected—in central and north Israel. Yes, residential buildings are fair game for both sides…
3/7 The new NASA X ISRO collab: A landmark satellite
NASA and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are teaming up to launch a first-of-its-kind satellite from Chennai in July. Together, the space agencies have spent $1.5 billion…
For more in splainer LITE…
The world’s tiniest violin is here!
Israelis now kill Gazans with tank shells
Giorgia Meloni’s eye roll steals the G7 show
Wildlife footage offers clues to virus spread
what caught our eye
business & tech
BBC News has a good read on how Air India’s tragic crash—just as the Tata-led turnaround was gaining steam—now threatens to derail the airline’s high-flying comeback.
Blackstone has snapped up Kolkata’s South City Mall for Rs 3,250 crore—marking the world’s biggest alt-asset manager’s grand entry into the city’s real estate scene.
Elon Musk’s X is suing New York over a new law that forces social media platforms to disclose how they track hate speech—calling it a First Amendment violation.
Netflix is jumping into broadcast TV—teaming up with France’s TF1 to stream shows like ‘The Voice’ and ‘Brocéliande’, plus all five of TF1’s channels and 30,000+ hours of programming.
Mattel’s AI tie-up with OpenAI is raising eyebrows, as a consumer group warns the toy giant may be running a risky experiment on kids without telling parents what’s really coming.
Meta’s clearly putting that WhatsApp ad money to work—offering OpenAI staff $100 million signing bonuses, per Sam Altman on his brother’s podcast.
MakeMyTrip is raising $2.5 billion to cut down China-based Trip.com’s stake—amid growing calls in India to curb ties with countries seen as pro-Pakistan.
Meta is bringing its AI smart glasses to Prada and Oakley—building on the buzz from its Ray-Ban collab with Luxottica in 2023.
Ola says drivers now keep 100% of fares under its new zero-commission model—but union reps say subscription fees still keep money flowing back to the platform.
sports & entertainment
India and Pakistan will face off at both the 2025 Women’s ODI and 2026 T20 World Cups—just months after one of their worst military escalations in years.
The CBFC has cleared ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’—but only after asking Aamir Khan to add a Narendra Modi quote right after the opening disclaimer—amongst other changes.
The distributor for Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s ‘Thug Life’ in Karnataka will not release the movie in the state despite the Supreme Court ruling.
Stoner comedy enthusiasts, rejoice! ‘Harold & Kumar 4’ is in development with John Cho and Kal Penn expected to return!
Army, rejoice! After a two-year wait, K-pop group BTS will stage their highly anticipated full-group comeback in March 2026.
health & environment
A new MIT study asks the big Q: Is ChatGPT making us dumber? The answer is unfortunately but unsurprisingly a ‘yes’.
Doctors offer hope to patients with lupus with cutting-edge cancer therapy. Why this matters: About 3 million people in the world live with lupus disease with 90% of them being women.
meanwhile, in the world
Al Jazeera has the deets on how Iran’s hypersonic missiles are slipping past Israel’s vaunted air defences.
One of such weapons are the Fattah-1 hypersonic missiles—built to dodge even the Iron Dome and Arrow systems. NDTV has the details on them.
There are now 52 million “everyday millionaires” around the world—people with $1 to $5 million in assets—four times as many as in 2000, and together they hold $107 trillion in wealth, according to UBS.
Canada’s spy agency blamed India for Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing—just as Mark Carney shook hands with Modi to reset ties after the diplomatic fallout.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a good read on how Pakistan’s move to ban black magic has spooked astrologers—who fear the vague law could lump them in with occult scammers.
The US is reopening student visas—but wants a peek at your social media for any anti-America posts first.
After years of hype, lab-grown meat is finally hitting Aussie plates—Vow Foods just got the green light to sell products derived from cultured quail cells.
NYC mayoral hopeful Brad Lander was arrested at an immigration court protest—but walked free after Governor Kathy Hochul stepped in and got the charges dropped.
For the second time in recent months, Pakistan’s Jaffar Express was bombed—this time around six carriages derailed in Sindh’s Jacobabad, but no casualties were reported.
LA Mayor lifted the downtown curfew imposed during anti-Trump immigration raid protests and riots.
meanwhile, in India
In an exclusive, Wall Street Journal reports that Air India Flight 171’s emergency generator was running before it crashed—raising fresh questions about whether its engines failed at takeoff.
The airline is slashing its long-haul international flights by 15%—cutting back on widebody routes.
Insurers are in a bind after the Ahmedabad Air India crash—with both policyholders and their nominees among the dead, claim settlements just got a lot more complicated.
Just before Donald Trump sat down for lunch with Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir, PM Modi rang him up to remind: India doesn’t do third-party mediation—never has, never will.
Immediately after the phone call with Modi, however, Trump trotted out his ‘I stopped an India-Pakistan war’ claim—for the 14th time.
A flight carrying 110 Indian students evacuated from war-hit Iran under Operation Sindhu has landed safely in Delhi.
Hindi will now be the default third language in Maharashtra’s Marathi and English medium schools from Classes 1 to 5—unless 20 students per grade opt for another Indian language.
Two weeks after a mob assault by alleged cow vigilantes, 21-year-old Junaid Shehzad has died of his injuries—while another victim, Arman, remains critical in a Bhopal hospital.
Need an immediate pick-me-up? We have all you need to keep you sane.
One: First day as dog herder. (Volume off!)
Two: What ‘Baby, I watch you when you sleep’ actually looks like. Creepy.
Three: Feline philosophy: Let gravity do the work for you.
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