Wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the Paris Olympics after the official weigh-in on Wednesday morning, ahead of her scheduled gold medal bout in the evening. She will return from Paris without a medal. While she had cleared the weigh-in on Tuesday, Vinesh was found to be “a few grams over 50 kg” in Wednesday morning’s weigh-in. The Indian Express first reported that she was learnt to be 2 kilos overweight on Tuesday night — weight that she tried her best to cut overnight but could not. What is a…
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Vandita Mishra writes: The court and social justice
The wheels of Mandal have not stopped turning, and though they struck the most sparks and caused the maximum friction in the turbulent 1990s, their force is not yet spent. They can, potentially, still do both — deepen the constitutional promise of substantive equality, and unsettle and divide politically. This was underlined by the Supreme Court’s important verdict this week permitting the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the purpose of reservation. It extended the sub-classification principle from OBCs to SCs/STs, holding that it is not unconstitutional to…
Paris Olympics boxing gender debate: Why was Imane Khelif allowed to compete against Angela Carini? | Explained News
On Thursday (August 1), Italy’s 66kg boxer Angela Carini withdrew from her bout against Algeria’s Imane Khelif after just 46 seconds. Carini’s reason for pulling out: She had never been punched so hard. Her withdrawal made news because Khelif is one of the two boxers allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics despite failing a gender eligibility test at the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) World Championships in New Delhi in March last year. What are the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) rules regarding eligibility for female competitions and how does it…
Russia to release Evan Gershkovich: Why was the WSJ journalist arrested? | Explained News
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March last year, is expected to be freed in a major prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia on Thursday (August 1). Although neither Russia nor the US revealed any detail on the exchange location, Turkish intelligence said in a statement it would be coordinating the prisoner swap. Sources confirmed to The Guardian that the exchange would take place in Turkey on Thursday. Here is a look at who Gershkovich is, and why he was…
Why is there a move to split the Bengaluru municipal corporation into smaller bodies with a 3-tier structure? | Explained News
A legislative proposal to break up the Greater Bengaluru urban local body into several smaller bodies will be discussed at a meeting of all lawmakers from the city on Saturday. BJP MLAs protested after The Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024 was tabled in the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday (July 23), saying the proposal to restructure the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was against the interests of the city. Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar said the Bill would be discussed on July 27, suggesting it would…
How the modern Olympics came to be | Explained News
The inaugural Olympic Games kicked off in Athens, Greece on April 6, 1896, paving the way for modern sports competition as we know it. Most people recognise French baron Pierre de Coubertin as the “father of the modern Olympics” but the idea well predates him, going all the way back to 1830s Greece. Panagiotis Soutsos’ idea to make Greece great again Modern Greece emerged from the throes of revolution which lasted from 1821 to 1829. After centuries of foreign rule — most recently, four centuries of Ottoman control — the…
Scourge of the pink bollworm, and why cotton farmers struggle to deal with it | Explained News
For nearly four years now, the deadly pink bollworm has ravaged cotton crops in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. Cotton cultivation in these states has fallen from around 16 lakh hectares last year to only 10 lakh hectares this year, as of the first week of July. The pink bollworm (PBW), known among farmers as gulabi sundhi, damages the cotton crop by burrowing its larvae into the cotton bolls. This results in the lint being cut and stained, making it unfit for use. While there exist effective…
Mumbai court permits Indrani Mukerjea to travel to UK, Spain | Mumbai News
Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, out on bail in the case of the alleged murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, has been permitted to travel to the UK and Spain for 10 days by a special court on Friday. The special CBI court said that Mukerjea can travel once within the next three months, in the period between two dates of the case. “…as far as the conduct of the applicant/accused (Mukerjea) is concerned…it is seen that she has attended court on the dates of the trial. There is no…
National Quantum Mission: Why India has a lot of catching up to do | Explained News
India launched the National Quantum Mission last year and became one of the few countries in the world to have a dedicated programme to harness the power of quantum technologies. These technologies, which use special properties of the tiniest particles of matter, can yield radical solutions to some of the most intractable problems of our age, such as clean energy and affordable healthcare. But despite having a fairly strong research base in quantum science, India has a lot of catching up to do. A new report, surveying the existing capabilities…
These Voters Supported Biden in 2020. Now They Want a Plan B. | World News
Jeanne Winograd, 72, a Democrat in Phoenix, is such a ride-or-die fan of President Joe Biden that, on Valentine’s Day, she mailed him a card to say his vigor, not his age, would shape the presidential election. But after a week of panic attacks after his dismal debate performance, she felt compelled to send him another card. This one said: Thanks for everything, but it’s time to go. “I just love Biden, but he’s frail,” Winograd said. “Pass the baton.” As Biden and his allies have scrambled to fix the…