Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

It feels like I have been sick for quite a while now. Every night before sleep, I cough up phlegm. And when I wake up, a dry mouth awaits me. A constant stream of lozenges during the day may suppress the itchiness in the back of my throat during meetings. However, their too frequent usage has led to occasional bouts of diarrhea that forced me on a soup-and-bread diet for days at a time...graphic as this may all seem, it is a rather apt description of the week I have had since returning to Malta from an intercontinental journey less than a week ago.

A few days ago, a marathon held in Beijing marked the first time that specifically designed humanoid runner robots participated alongside actual human runners. Rather than a display of technological prowess, the publicity focused on just how much the humanoids lagged behind the humans, with the fastest robot finishing more than an hour after the human winner, and three-quarters of the robot entries dropped out of the race. The event became a testament to just how difficult it remains for robotics to fully mimic such basic human actions as running, despite advancements in AI and precision manufacturing.

Having lived in Malta for over a year, I visited the famed Hagar Qim Temple for the first time late last month. I was spurred on by unexpectedly waking up to a sunny and warm weekday without work. My trip was well worth it, as the UNESCO heritage site’s enigmatic beige stone blocks contrast beautifully with the yellow flowers in full bloom amidst the green grass and the blue Mediterranean in the distance. 

While the world worries about the repercussions of the reciprocal tariffs that Trump has thrown at the world, he is quietly making his next move. Yesterday, in response to the South Sudanese government's refusal to take back its citizens deported from America, the Trump administration unilaterally revoked the US entry visas of all South Sudanese citizens, irrespective of their personal stance on their home country's government. With the attention of governments and investors the world over fixated on his Liberation Day, he is opening a new front on his determination to bend the world to his will.

If there is anything consistent about the inconsistent Trump administration so far, it has been a belief in self-importance. Amidst the endless threats and flip-flops of tariffs on other countries, the vague words around peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza, and the winding road of the domestic war against left-wing wokery, the administration has never stopped believing in one underlying principle: that the other countries fundamentally need the US more than the US will ever need them, and that in the face of the administration's agreessions, its enemies cannot credibly muster effective counterattacks.

I was surprised to realize I had never read  The Great Gatsby  until last week. The 1925 novel is almost a required reading for high schoolers across the US and is consistently deemed one of the greatest American novels ever written. A recent article in the Economist extolling the relevance of the novel's overarching theme on the permanence of class differences and the meaninglessness of wealth finally piqued my curiosity enough for me to pick up the book and finish it in two days. Let's call it a belated gift to my high school self. 

A piece of news from a few days ago gave a group of cynical netizens a good laugh. An Air India flight bound for Delhi was forced to turn back less than five hours after it took off from Chicago. The cause was a widespread blockage of toilets on the flight, leading to 11 of the 12 lavatories onboard being out of service despite the flight being less than a third of the way to the destination. Anxious passengers, upon return to Chicago, were provided with accommodation and booking on alternative airlines on their way, as one can assume, home.