Our daily stroll around the world

🌊 A “gravity hole” in the Indian Ocean may have come from the remnants of an extinct ancient ocean called Tethys. For decades, scientists have wondered about the origins of a 1.2-million-square-mile region in the Indian Ocean where Earth's gravitational pull is significantly weaker than other parts, causing the sea level to be 348 feet lower than the global average. Now, a new peer-reviewed study suggests the area was created by low-density magma plumes from deep within Earth, which erupted as the ancient Tethys Ocean was squished between the continental plates of India and Asia ~50 million years ago.

🇲🇾 Malaysia’s government canceled a local music festival after British band The 1975 criticized the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws. In the middle of the band’s performance on Friday, The 1975 frontman Matt Healy criticized a 150-year-old Malaysian law penalizing homosexuality with up to 20 years in prison, and also kissed the band’s male bassist. The 1975 cut their show short 30 minutes later, telling the audience they “just got banned from Kuala Lumpur.” Then on Saturday morning, the Malaysian government canceled the remaining two days of the music festival. The 1975 also canceled their forthcoming shows in India and Taiwan following the incident.

🌎🪙 Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, officially launched yesterday. The new project’s core product is World ID, which it describes as a digital passport that proves its holder is a real human and not an AI bot. To get a unique World ID, customers must sign up for an in-person iris scan using a bowling ball-sized “orb.” The project, which has 2 million users from its beta period, launched yesterday across 35 cities in 20 countries.

+Update: Israeli lawmakers yesterday approved a key part of a controversial plan to curb the Supreme Court’s authority, a measure which has sparked nationwide protests since it was introduced in January.