Achieve

• Chime rapporteerde voor het eerste kwartaal van 2026 een omzetgroei van 25% op jaarbasis, waarmee de prognose werd overtroffen en het eerste kwartaal van GAAP-winstgevendheid sinds de beursgang werd genoteerd. • Sterke momentum in de omzet leidde tot een verhoogde prognose voor het volledige jaar en een nieuwe autorisatie voor aandeleninkoop ter waarde van $200 miljoen, aangekondigd op 6 mei. • De resultaten van de fintech uit San Francisco benadrukken de versnellende adoptie van digitaal bankieren in een concurrerende Amerikaanse markt.

• De Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) van Narendra Modi won voor het eerst in haar 46-jarige geschiedenis West-Bengalen, waarbij zij 207 van de 294 zetels veroverde tijdens de recente staatverkiezingen op 8 mei 2026. • De BJP behield de controle over Assam en, samen met coalitiepartners, het federale territorium Puducherry, waarmee zij nu 21 van de 28 Indiase staten en 72% van de 1,4 miljard inwoners besturen. • Al Jazeera beschreef de overwinning in West-Bengalen als de meest cruciale winst van de hindoenationalistische partij sinds Modi in 2014 aan de macht kwam, gedreven door onvrede over de zittende macht van Mamata Banerjee en anti-moslimretoriek.

• Krutrim is succesvol overgestapt op AI-cloudservices, waardoor het bedrijf winstgevend is geworden en er per 5 mei 2026 een rally is ontstaan in de Indiase techsector. • Deze verschuiving valideert de ontwikkeling van de binnenlandse AI-infrastructuur in India, wat een positief effect heeft op aandelen zoals TCS, Infosys en RIL. • Deze mijlpaal signaleert een groeipad voor Indiase IT-giganten en herdefinieert de concurrentie met mondiale spelers.

• De Newsmakers Achievers Awards 2026 vierden de levensprestaties van bekende Indiase entertainers en publieke figuren, waaronder Usha Mangeshkar, Hariharan, Dilip Joshi en Sanjeev Kapoor. • De Gouverneur leidde de ceremonie, waarbij bijdragen van vooraanstaande persoonlijkheden werden erkend, waaronder Atul Tiwari, Pooja Bedi en culturele figuren uit diverse domeinen. • De awardceremonie benadrukte de Indiase erkenning van artistieke excellentie en publieke dienstverlening binnen de sectoren entertainment, culinaire kunsten, sociaal werk en onderwijs.

• Het vervolg van The Devil Wears Prada verdiende 233 miljoen USD wereldwijd in het openingsweekend, waarvan 77 miljoen USD uit de VS en Canada en 156,6 miljoen USD internationaal. • De Michael Jackson biopic Michael eindigde op de tweede plaats met 54 miljoen USD in het tweede Noord-Amerikaanse weekend, waarmee het wereldwijde totaal op 423,9 miljoen USD kwam op 3.955 schermen. • Het succes van de film, grotendeels gedreven door een vrouwelijk publiek, markeert het op één na grootste openingsweekend van Hollywood in 2026, waarmee het Project Hail Mary met 141 miljoen USD passeerde.

• Researchers introduced GAME, a suite of AI algorithms that improve accuracy in tracking cosmic changes by 95% for derivatives and 20% overall. • Published on arXiv in February, GAME enhances astrophysical modeling of the universe's dynamic behavior. • The technique sharpens AI's ability to reconstruct test functions, revealing potential flaws in current cosmological understanding.

• Google DeepMind released AlphaFold 4 on April 25, 2026, predicting protein structures with 98.5% accuracy, including dynamics for drug discovery. • Model simulates folding pathways in seconds for proteins up to 5,000 residues, licensed to 200 US biotech firms. • Advances could accelerate FDA approvals for 50+ new therapies, valued at $100 billion market impact.

• An international team including University of Oxford, University of Michigan, and others used the Gemini laser and plasma to compress light, creating the most powerful light ever in a lab. • The technique acts as a 'quantum magnifying glass' by focusing light waves, enabling direct study of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) interactions with the quantum vacuum. • Published in Nature on April 22, 2026, it bridges a 20-year gap between theory and observation, per Prof. Brendan Romey of Queen's University Belfast.

• Researchers have developed a compact CRISPR system capable of achieving up to 90% efficiency in targeted in-body gene editing applications. • The breakthrough addresses previous limitations of CRISPR technology, enabling more precise genetic modifications for therapeutic purposes. • This advancement could significantly improve treatment options for genetic disorders and certain cancers by allowing safer, more effective gene therapy interventions.

Experts say our preoccupation with net overseas migration figures has distracted from a more meaningful discussion on the ‘scale of temporariness’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia should set immigration targets to achieve a “stable temporary population” to address the ballooning number of nonpermanent residents that has stretched the country’s public services and housing, a new report argues.Temporary migrants as a share of the total population has more than doubled over the past 15 years, from 2.7% in 2010, to more than 6%. Continue reading...

• The Artemis II crew completes its historic lunar flyby mission, with crew members returning to Earth on April 10 after traveling farther from Earth than any humans in decades. • During the mission, the crew captured unprecedented photographs of Earth passing behind the Moon and observed portions of the lunar surface never previously seen by human eyes. • The mission marks a major milestone in NASA's Artemis program, re-inspiring public interest in space exploration through iconic imagery showing Earth's perspective from unprecedented distances.

Donald Trump’s threat to target Iran’s bridges and power plants follows a similar playbook to recent conflictsDuring Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli jets bombed the Jiyeh power station north of the coastal city of Sidon. The blaze could be seen for miles, a towering column of black smoke. Sand was turned to glass.The plant’s damaged storage tanks leaked an estimated 15,000 tonnes of oil into the eastern Mediterranean, the largest spill in that sea. Continue reading...

• A new study in Big Earth Data introduces CA-MTransUNet, a Cloud-Aware Mixture-of-Experts Linear Transformer U-Net for forest burned area (FBA) detection using Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 optical data. • The model attains the highest mean Intersection-over-Union (mIoU) of 87.00% with an inference speed of 6.26 ms, outperforming benchmarks despite cloud contamination. • This breakthrough addresses computational complexity in segmentation models, enhancing post-fire environmental monitoring critical for climate studies.

• NASA's Artemis II mission surpassed the Apollo 13 record on April 6, 2026, at 1:57 p.m. EDT, reaching beyond 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth as the Orion capsule 'Integrity' looped around the moon's far side. • The mission will peak at 252,760 miles (406,777 km), breaking the prior record by 4,100 miles (6,600 km) during its six-hour lunar flyby, marking the first crewed deep-space mission since Apollo. • This milestone validates life-support systems, navigation, and thermal protection for humans, paving the way for sustained lunar presence under the US Artemis program.

• Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other Gulf allies are privately urging President Trump to prosecute the U.S.-led war against Iran longer, arguing Tehran remains insufficiently weakened after a month of bombings. • Allies shifted from initial complaints over lack of notice to viewing the conflict as a historic chance to cripple Iran's clerical rule, per U.S., Gulf, and Israeli officials. • Secretary of State Marco Rubio affirmed alignment with Gulf partners, stating on 'Good Morning America' that Iran's 'religious zealots' must never possess nuclear weapons due to their apocalyptic vision.

• Researchers made a major breakthrough in solving the mystery of static electricity, explaining how it causes hair to stand on end and related phenomena. • The findings elucidate the physics behind volcanic lightning and other electrostatic events, providing new insights into charge separation mechanisms. • This peer-reviewed discovery advances fundamental physics knowledge with potential applications in materials science and atmospheric studies.

• The United States saw a record amount of new clean power capacity come online in 2025, according to a report released today by the Environmental Defense Fund. • Despite the record deployment, the renewable energy sector faced significant headwinds including project delays and cancellations that threatened to slow progress. • The achievement underscores continued momentum in U.S. transition toward clean electricity despite policy uncertainties and regulatory challenges.

• Researchers created pure hexagonal diamond (lonsdaleite) by compressing organized graphite at 20 gigapascals and 1,300-1,900°C for 10 hours, confirmed via structural analyses and simulations. • The material, rarer than cubic diamond, was identified in Arizona's Barringer Crater meteorite and offers superior hardness for tools and electronics. • Study provides definitive evidence of hexagonal diamond's existence, countering past skepticism about meteorite samples.

• Researchers at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston broke the longstanding record for high-temperature superconductivity, reaching a transition temperature of 151 Kelvin under ambient pressure. • The breakthrough by physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng, published March 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, enables potential advances in efficient energy generation, transmission, and storage. • This record surpasses all prior ambient-pressure superconductors since 1911, bringing room-temperature superconductivity—a century-old holy grail—closer by narrowing the gap to about 140 degrees Celsius.