World
Ethnic minority woman, Droupadi Murmu, wins India’s Presidential election
Droupadi Murmu, a leader from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was elected by the Indian Parliament and state legislatures in voting held on Monday, making her the first president from one of the country’s tribes and the second-ever woman to hold the position.
She will be formally sworn in as the president on Monday.
Murmu, 64, who hails from the eastern state of Odisha and was governor of Jharkhand state from 2015-2021, is a member of the Santal ethnic minority, one of India’s largest tribal groups. She started out as a school teacher before entering politics and has been a two-time lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.
Murmu’s father and her grandfather were village headmen in Baidaposi in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha.
Modi congratulated Murmu by visiting her at her residence in New Delhi, and in a tweet wrote he was “certain she will be an outstanding President who will lead from the front and strengthen India’s development journey.”
“Her record victory augurs well for our democracy,” Modi tweeted.
Murmu’s supporters and Modi’s BJP party see her win as a triumph of tribal people and a breakthrough moment for her community, which generally lacks health care and education facilities in remote villages. Opposition parties, however, are doubtful whether she would be able to help empower and bring any change to the marginalized community.
The president’s role in India is largely ceremonial, but the position can be important during times of political uncertainty such as a hung parliament, when the office assumes greater power. She is bound by the advice of the Cabinet led by the prime minister, who is the chief executive.
She will replace Ram Nath Kovind, a Hindu nationalist leader from the Dalit community, which is at the lowest end of Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy. Kovind has been president since 2017.
Murmu won against her opponent, Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP rebel who quit the party following differences with Modi on economic issues in 2018. Since then, Sinha has been a vocal critic of Modi and his government.
Indian lawmakers will vote for the country’s new vice president in August.
World
Former US President Bill Clinton hospitalised with fever
Bill Clinton, the former US president who has faced a series of health issues over the years, was admitted to hospital Monday in Washington after developing a fever, his office said.
“President Clinton was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center this afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever,” the 78-year-old’s deputy chief of staff Angel Urena said on social media platform X, adding Clinton “remains in good spirits.”
Bill Clinton was previously hospitalized for five nights in October 2021 due to a blood infection.
In 2004, at age 58, he underwent a quadruple bypass operation after doctors found signs of extensive heart disease. He had stents implanted in his coronary artery six years later.
The health scare motivated him to make lifestyle changes, including adopting a vegetarian diet, and he has since spoken publicly about his efforts.
Clinton’s health last made headlines in November 2022 when he tested positive for Covid-19. He said at the time that his symptoms were “mild” and he was “grateful to be vaccinated and boosted.”
Clinton, who led the United States for two presidential terms from 1993-2001, is the second-youngest living US president, after 63-year-old Barack Obama.
He was born mere months after fellow former US president George W. Bush and President-elect Donald Trump.
Though his prosperous time in office was marred by scandals, he has enjoyed a second life in the two decades after his presidency, which has seen him venture into numerous diplomatic and humanitarian causes.
World
Trump dismisses claims of handing presidency to Musk as ‘hoax’
Could Elon Musk, who holds major sway in the incoming Trump administration, one day become president? On Sunday, Donald Trump answered with a resounding no, pointing to US rules about being born in the country.
“He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a Republican conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said of the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who was born in South Africa.
The US Constitution requires that a president be a natural-born US citizen.
Trump was responding to criticism, particularly from the Democratic camp, portraying the tech billionaire and world’s richest person as “President Musk” for the outsized role he is playing in the incoming administration.
As per ceding the presidency to Musk, Trump also assured the crowd: “No, no that’s not happening.”
The influence of Musk, who will serve as Trump’s “efficiency czar,” has become a focus point for Democratic attacks, with questions raised over how an unelected citizen can wield so much power.
And there is even growing anger among Republicans after Musk trashed a government funding proposal this week in a blizzard of posts — many of them wildly inaccurate — to his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X.
Alongside Trump, Musk ultimately helped pressure Republicans to renege on a funding bill they had painstakingly agreed upon with Democrats, pushing the United States to the brink of budgetary paralysis that would have resulted in a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Congress ultimately reached an agreement overnight Friday to Saturday, avoiding massive halts to government services.
World
Seven confirmed dead in Western Mexico plane crash
At least seven people died when a light aircraft crashed Sunday in a heavily forested area of Jalisco in western Mexico, local authorities reported.
The aircraft, a Cessna 207, was flying from La Parota in the neighbouring state of Michoacan.
Jalisco Civil Protection said via its social media that the crash site was in an area that was difficult to access.
Initial authorities on the scene “reported a preliminary count of seven people dead,” who haven’t been identified yet, according to the agency.
“A fire was extinguished and risk mitigation was carried out to prevent possible additional damage,” it added.
Authorities said they were awaiting the arrival of forensic investigators to remove the bodies and rule out the presence of additional victims.
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