Let me introduce you to the Internet’s favourite brand of cinema: ‘brain rot’. Crowned Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year, brain rot is officially defined as the “deterioration” of one’s mental state thanks to endless scrolling. But it has increasingly become the Gen Z phrase for content that offers an escape from the mundane. The fun of brain rot is not in its lack of sense but its refusal to take sense seriously. Enter Aryan Khan’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood. With profanity-laced punchlines, self-referential digs, and wild plot twists, the seven-episode series has the entire Internet talking about it. In doing so, it joins a proud tradition of gloriously ridiculous Bollywood comedies, such as Tees Maar Khan, Malamal Weekly, and Welcome — films that transformed brain rot into a national pastime long before the Internet got to it. Today, they live on as meme fuel, and if there’s one thing Gen Z can’t resist, it’s a joke that’s in on the joke.On that note, let’s get to today’s edition. Big Story21 transactions. 16 bank accounts. And six weeks. That’s what it took for cyber fraudsters to siphon off a whopping Rs 22.92 crore from Naresh Malhotra, a 78-year-old retired bank manager. The fraudsters, claiming to be officers from the Enforcement Directorate and Mumbai Police, had placed Malhotra under “digital arrest”. They told him his identity had been used in terror funding, and he would have to pay a certain amount as surety for the RBI and Supreme Court to “bail” him out. And thus began a long con.“It is as if I was possessed and had lost all my senses; my thinking process was completely taken over by the scammers,” Malhotra told The Indian Express.Fraudsters directed Malhotra to transfer money to different bank accounts. These funds have now been dispersed into seven layers through 4,236 transactions into branches across states, making it difficult for the police to identify the scamsters and freeze the funds. The fact that Malhotra waited to report the crime also complicates recovery. Read the details of the case — how it unfolded and came to an end.Safety guide: How can you protect yourself from digital arrest scams? The police recommend using the Department of Telecom’s ‘Sanchar Saathi’ app, which can identify and report if your Aadhaar Card or name is being used by another number. Those who receive such calls can also report the mobile number on this app. If three people report a number, it is automatically blocked. Read more.Story continues below this ad⚡Only in ExpressDisruptor-in-chief: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has convened this week for its 80th session. This is at a time when the UN is facing a crisis thanks to US President Donald Trump, who’s intent on reducing the salience of the multilateral forum in the global order. Trump will be addressing the UNGA today, and if his 2017 speech is any indication, he will be building upon his unilateral foreign policy, one that prioritises national sovereignty over international cooperation. Columnist Raja Mohan writes that as the US recedes from the UN, China may rush to fill in the vacuum. But the question isn’t whether the US or China will dominate the UN, but what can middle powers like India do. From the Front PageTouch base: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UNGA. Sources described the hour-long meeting, which covered “international issues of current concern” as “positive”, hinting that hot-button issues such as the US-imposed 50% tariff and the $100,000 H-1B visa fee figured in the conversation.Meanwhile, a Congressional delegation will be in India this week to meet with government officials, political leaders and business executives. Ami Bera, the Democratic Congressman who will lead the team, spoke to The Indian Express about why he doesn’t agree with the Trump administration’s policy on the H-1B visa, penalty on India and their statements on the India-Pakistan conflict.Identity politics: The Uttar Pradesh government has issued an order prohibiting “caste-based political rallies” after the Allahabad High Court issued a directive seeking the removal of caste displays in public. The move was met with criticism from Opposition parties, who said that caste was an inseparable part of society. Notably, all UP-based political parties draw their strength from certain caste groups.Story continues below this ad Must ReadThe billion-dollar question: A staggering $1.4 billion in dividend income of Indian public sector oil companies has been piling up in Russia for over three years now. These dividends originate from Indian investments in Russian oil and gas projects. The money is being deposited in the companies’ accounts in an Indian bank in Moscow, but they are unable to access or use it. We explain what makes repatriation difficult.Tax-ing: The GST reforms serve two purposes: One, they reduce prices, enhancing disposable income and thus, consumption, and two, they resolve classification disputes by placing similar goods, such as roti and parotta, in the same rate slab. But the industry has flagged certain unresolved challenges, particularly the issue of inverted duty structure (IDS). For more on the GST rejig, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.⏳ And Finally…The end of cricket diplomacy? Sunday’s India-Pakistan match may not have been the stuff of great cricket, but it was arguably the most acrimonious one between the two rivals. The shadow of recent hostilities loomed large over the game. Pakistani pacer Haris Rauf at one point turned towards the Indian fans jeering him, and used his hands to mimic gun-firing and crashing aircraft. Just before that, Sahibzada Farhan had cosplayed machine gun firing with his bat. Sandip G, our man on the ground in Dubai, recaps how cricket diplomacy faltered at the tense T20 game.Story continues below this adThat’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,Sonal Gupta