Education
John Oliver talks about India and Modi on Last Week Tonight
As you may know by now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting with US President, Donald Trump, in Trump’s first official visit to India. Modi’s last meeting with POTUS was back in September 2019 during the UN General Assembly. Trump called him “The Father of India”, as they praised each other. However, is that how America and the rest of the world see India?
John Oliver, British comedian and actor, and the host of popular show “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, covered part of how the Modi’s Nationalist Platform and government have taken social conflict to the next level. The winner of 8 Emmy Awards did not hesitate on critiquing Trump’s decision of referring to the current PM as “Father Of India”, a non-official title belonging to Mahatma Gandhi for his influence on the modern concept of the country.
But previous to that encounter Modi had taken many steps to get where he is right now, as this CNN´s Edition fact collection notes. On the date 5 of august 2019, Modi announced the revoking of constitutional provisions that allowed the regions of Kashmir and Jammu to make their own laws. These are Muslim-Majority regions.
John Oliver’s segment also reminds us multiple times that Modi is a Hindu Nationalist, which he calls “provocative”, arguing that “Nehru and Gandhi, explicitly disavowed that…” Quoting: “The State should be undoubtedly secular” (Gandhi, 16 August 1947).
Then we are reminded that the PM’s Party, BJP is closely related to the RSS, a Right-Wing paramilitary volunteer organization founded in 1925. This organization had links according to International Business times, and were avid followers of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, admiring the idea of a pure super race. Sharing the vision of building a powerful nation under the banner of nationalism.
Let’s not forget that Modi was the Chief Minister of his birth state Gujarat during the early ’00s, where the majority of the population is Muslim. In 2002 a fire killed 58 people in a train that carried Hindu pilgrims, and it was established that the fire was intentional, causing riots that ended up killing a thousand people, most of them Muslims.
Modi was criticized and accused of condoning the deadly riots. This did not go good for him as he was not granted a diplomatic visa by the United States for the suspicions of his role during the riots.
In fact, although his popularity rates have been astronomical as president, his encounters with the press on one-to-one interviews are far from a rhetoric example of how to be a public person, National Herald India has a compilation of them.
The actions taken by the BJP to consolidate their ideas has been little less than debatable, as they tried to get Nehru erased from many important bits of History Classes in the country according to this Hindustantimes report. Substituting Nehru’s ideas with the thoughts of “Indian supremacy”, one of the books makes different racist remarks even using the N-Word, according to AlJazeera.
Which brings us to Modi’s last step so far, last December, parliament passed an incredibly controversial bill, known as the CAB, or Citizen Amendment Bill said Bill looks to give Indian Citizenship to immigrants of three neighboring countries as long as they are not Muslims, according to this note from CNN.
The bill allows the government to fast-track those of religious minorities. The Bill has the NRC or National Registration of Citizens as a companion to reach the government’s goals.
The NRC requires people to deliver papers and registration to the state officers, something that in the poorest areas will be incredibly difficult, not to mention it could harm those who are illiterates.
The bills have provoked outrage in many cities in India, and had the country in suspense, Trump's comments about Mod and what could happen the next couple of days could have important consequences on the ideas of the Indian population and government.
The odds of John Oliver’s comments making an impact on this side of the globe are as low as of a debutant horse to win the Kentucky Derby. However, the people have power and Indians have spoken on how they want their country united as they headed to the streets to protest a couple of times. Will there be any changes in power?
Everyone has been turning their selfies into cartoon characters on social media lately. Our recent piece on how people are creating animated WhatsApp avatars for free proves just how fast these tools are catching on.
But beyond all the fun filters and fast effects, there’s a larger narrative at play here, and that is that AI is revolutionising the way people edit photos. What used to take hours or even days in the past can be done in minutes with a few clicks, and you don’t need to have advanced design skills to get the job done either.
Here’s a look at some of the best AI tools that are making photo editing faster, smarter, and more enjoyable whether you’re a creative or simply someone who is looking to have some fun with your photos.
- Photoshop’s AI Photo Tools: Speed and Precision
Most people know Adobe Photoshop as the go-to program for editing images, but its latest AI features take things to a whole new level. Photoshop’s new AI-powered features can automatically identify faces, exposure, and colour issues, fixing them with the click of a button. The neural filters are especially clever, enabling you to smooth skin, modify facial expressions, swap backgrounds and even manipulate lighting to make everything look more natural.
With the integration of these new tools, what used to take a seasoned editor 30 minutes can now be accomplished in seconds, freeing up your time so you can focus on the creative side of things. Whether you’re editing portraits, creating graphics or resizing images for social media, Photoshop’s AI photo tools help to achieve that clean professional finish without the hassle of manual tweaking. It’s one of the best ways to give your photos a polished, cohesive look, even if you don’t consider yourself a pro yet.
- Lightroom: Simplify Bulk Edits and Maintain Consistency
If you’ve ever wondered how photographers maintain the same feel across hundreds of shots, Adobe Lightroom is the answer. Adobe Lightroom is an industry-standard photo management and editing app built for speed, helping you organise, adjust, and fine-tune large batches of images without getting lost in layers or complex tools. Most if not all professional photographers use Lightroom to edit photos before the final shots are sent on to their clients.
Like Photoshop, Lightroom’s built-in AI editing tools can be used for a wide variety of applications, including automatically detecting your subject and adjusting the exposure, colour and tone so every shot looks balanced. You can even apply the same “look” to an entire collection, making it great for projects that rely on consistent visuals – think wedding photos, product shots for an eCommerce website, or social media posts.
And speaking of social media, Lightroom is especially useful for content creators who want a clean, uniform look to their Insta grid or feed without spending hours editing each image individually. In short, Lightroom keeps your workflow simple, but your results professional.
- Sensei-Powered Auto Tagging and Smart Search
Organising photos can become messy and annoying quickly, especially if you have hundreds of folders full of similar shots. That’s where Adobe Sensei comes in. You might not have heard of it by name, but you’ve probably used this tool without even realising you have. How so? Because Adobe Sensei is the AI engine that runs quietly in the background across Photoshop, Lightroom, and other Adobe Creative Cloud apps. This innovative AI engine is programmed to facilitate a wide variety of processes, including facial recognition, recognising objects, and sorting your photos automatically.
Alongside being used for auto tagging elements in images, Sensei is also adept at using image metadata to organise your photo library, and make it even easier to find specific shots with typed search prompts. Say goodbye to searching through dozens of files trying to remember what you named them — just type in something like “beach” or “red dress” and your shot will pop up instantly. For anyone who shoots a lot or manages content libraries, Adobe Sensei’s generative AI engine makes organising photos simple and stress-free.
- Adobe Firefly: Intelligent Background and Object Replacement
Sometimes you take a great photo, but there’s one thing that ruins it. Maybe it’s an awkward background, an annoying photobomber, or a sky that just looks a bit blah. That’s where Adobe Firefly comes in. With this generative AI tool by Adobe, you can simply highlight the problem areas in your images and type in what you’d like instead, and it will make the changes for you. You could trade a dull sky for a sunset, introduce a gentle blur behind your subject or eliminate distractions entirely.
But it’s not just about fixing mistakes. Firefly is also fantastic for experimenting. You can change the feel of a shot, create atmosphere, or build new visuals for marketing and social media all without starting again from scratch. It’s an easy trick that makes photos look more purposeful and artistic, even if you’re starting off with something that looks average.
- Camera Raw: Smarter Corrections Right from the Start
Every photographer or creator knows that editing starts well before you get to the fun filters. Camera Raw’s built-in AI tools quietly sort out the basics so you don’t have to. These innovative AI tools fix lighting, balance colours, and pull detail back from shadows or overexposed spots. It even cleans up grainy low-light shots and straightens out lens distortion without much effort on your end.
For photographers and hobbyists, using Camera Raw’s AI tools just makes image processing easier, particularly for images that require only minor tweaks and adjustments. The attention to detail of Camera Raw’s editing tools makes autocorrecting blemishes, red eyes, and other small details across digital photography quick and efficient, supporting photographers and content creators in getting their image assets publication-ready.
- Adobe Express: Quick Edits for Social Media
Finally, not every photo edit has to be a full studio production. As this tool’s name suggests, Adobe Express is designed to be quick: you can trim, crop, and colour-correct your posts for social media in a matter of minutes. The AI auto-adjust tools detect the subject and optimise brightness, sharpness, and background balance without you having to do much.
Adobe Express is perfect for influencers, small businesses or creators who post daily content, stories and want to remain active on social media without having to spend hours editing content. You can create multiple versions of one image for different social media platforms and keep everything looking cohesive across your feed. It’s simple, practical, and exactly what you need when you want to share something polished without overthinking it.
Use these AI Tools to Elevate your Photo Editing
Editing photos has never been easier. With AI taking care of the technical fixes like lighting, colour, and cleanup, you get more room to focus on the creative side. Whether it’s for work, social media, or just something fun to share, these tools help you turn everyday photos into something worth keeping.
What really matters is experimenting and finding what feels right for your style. The tech is there to make the process faster, but the creative choices are still all yours. So have fun, experiment, and you just might be pleasantly surprised with the results!
