(1) India lifts T20 World Cup title after 17 years
Celebrations erupted Saturday night across cricket-crazy India as its team won the ICC T20 World Cup, with fans flooding the streets carrying the tricolour in their hands. In a classic final sure to be remembered for years to come, India made history with a nail-biting seven-run win over South Africa.
There was an undeniable sense of relief as well, as India finally managed to cross the final hurdle after two heartbreaking falls in just the last year.
Kohli, who later announced his retirement from T20 internationals, steadied the India innings with his fine 76 taking them to a strong 176-7. When Heinrich Klaasen blasted a superb 52 from 27 balls, it looked as though South Africa, appearing in their first final, were closing in on victory but they were halted by some outstanding Indian bowling and catching at the end. South Africa ended on 169-8 with Hardik Pandya taking 3-20 for India another reminder of his outstanding ability, particularly in ‘death bowling’.
The win is the second T20 World Cup title for India following their triumph in the first edition in 2007 and it also ends their 11-year wait for a major title going back to the 2013 Champions Trophy.
(2) Rohit, Virat announce retirement from T20Is
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their retirements from T20 internationals following India’s seven-run victory against South Africa in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. It was a fitting farewell to two of the most celebrated players in T20I cricket. The win also marked the end of Rahul Dravid’s tenure as head coach of Indian Cricket team.
“This was my last game as well. No better time to say goodbye. I wanted this (trophy) badly. It’s very hard to put in words,” Rohit told the post-match press conference. “This what I wanted and it happened. I was very desperate for this in my life. Happy that we crossed the line this time,” he added.
The 37-year-old had led India in the 2022 T20 World Cup where the team was ousted in the semifinals by eventual champions England. A year later, India reached the final of the 50-over World Cup at home under his leadership, but succumbed to Australia in the summit clash at Ahmedabad.
Rohit leaves T20Is with 4231 runs from 159 matches, having made five hundreds and 32 fifties. He continues to be active in the Test and ODI formats.
Kohli announced his retirement after anchoring India’s innings with a match-winning 59-ball 76 with two sixes and six fours to lift the side from a precarious 34 for three inside the powerplay, to a formidable 176 for seven.
Kohli said after collecting the Man of the Match award that it was his las T20I match for India. “This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve,” Kohli told the broadcast after India’s win in a global tournament after 11 years.
(3) Rahul Gandhi to be the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
The Indian National Congress announced Rahul Gandhi to be the next Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha on June 25. The decision came on a day when Mr. Gandhi took oath as an MP for the fifth consecutive term.
This is a position that has laid vacant for a decade since no singular party had numbers equalling a tenth of the total strength of the Lok Sabha which has conventionally been the requirement to lay claim to the post.
However, with 99 MPs, the party is now entitled to the post, and therefore, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had urged Mr. Gandhi to take over the responsibility. When congratulating Om Birla on June 26 for being elected speaker of the Lok Sabha for a second term, Mr. Gandhi said he hoped the Opposition would be allowed to raise the voice of people in the House.
Here is a look at the various leaders of opposition over the years:
(4) Julian Assange is free
In a dramatic conclusion to an extradition saga that lasted more than a decade, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on June 26 pleaded guilty to violating espionage law, allowing him to walk free to return to his home in Australia, as part of a landmark deal with U.S. Justice Department.
Mr. Assange, who founded the whistleblower media group WikiLeaks in 2006, released classified documents relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010, among several others.
The controversial figure was released from a British prison on June 24 and flew by charter jet to a remote US territory in the Pacific where he officially entered his guilty plea and was sentenced to time already served. He then flew onward to Australia, arriving in his home nation as a free man on June 26 night.
The 52-year-old has spent the past five years in the high-security prison in southeast London and nearly seven years before that holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital, trying to avoid arrest that could have led to life imprisonment.
Mr. Assange raised his right fist as he emerged for the plane and his supporters at the Canberra airport cheered from a distance. Dressed in the same suit and tie he wore during his earlier court appearance, he embraced his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton who were waiting on the tarmac.
He was accompanied on the flights by Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith, both of whom played key roles in negotiating his freedom with London and Washington.
It is unclear where Mr. Assange will go from Canberra and what his future plans are. His South African lawyer wife and mother of his two children, Stella Assange, has been in Australia for days awaiting her husband’s release.
(5) Proportion of Women MPs in Lok Sabha in 2024 is marginally lower than in 2019
The 18th Lok Sabha’s inaugural session, between June 24 and July 3, saw newly-elected members of Parliament taking oath, some for the first time. Among them are 74 women MPs, with West Bengal sending the most women to the House at 11 MPs. This is a marginal decrease from the previous Lok Sabha which had 78 Women MPs.
As many as 150 Lok Sabha constituencies had no women candidates. Some States saw no women candidates at all — such as Manipur and Nagaland (which have two and one Lok Sabha seats respectively).
When we look at where women candidates participated from, we find that, visually, even though several constituencies had at least a woman candidate participating, the map looked very different when we increase the metric to constituencies with at least two women candidates.
A full break down of the women MPs of the 18th Lok Sabha can be read here.
