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Monday, April 25, 2022

MI keeps losing! Pollard struggles !! - Nobel laureate wins elections !!!

Did you read about East Timorese Presidential  elections and  winning of José Manuel Ramos-Horta  ?

 


For Cricket lovers, Mumbai Indians losing 8 games in a row now and struggling without a single win is something unimaginable .. .. and yesterday the plight of the big hitting Kieron Pollard was hard to digest.  This big six hitter had a batting average of 11.30 from 15 ODIs and 17.20 from 10 T20Is when he became the joint-biggest buy at the IPL player auction in January 2010. He has had his matches of fame, but .. .. yesterday against Lucknow Super Giants scratched around to see his team die ! – not a great hooker, not playing pulls now a days, the big six hitter was held to a tight leash of some short barrage – Polard tried to shuffle across but could not score runs freely. 



Miles away, Emmanuel Macron comfortably defeated rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday, heading off a political earthquake for Europe but acknowledging dissatisfaction with his first term and saying he would seek to make amends. His supporters erupted with joy as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park by the Eiffel tower. Leaders in Berlin, Brussels, London and beyond welcomed his defeat of the nationalist, eurosceptic Le Pen. With 97% of votes counted, Macron was on course for a solid 57.4% of the vote, interior ministry figures showed. But in his victory speech he acknowledged that many had only voted for him only to keep Le Pen out and he promised to address the sense of many French that their living standards are slipping.



“No one in France will be left by the wayside,” he said in a message that had already been spread by senior ministers doing the rounds on French TV stations. Two years of disruption from the pandemic and surging energy prices exacerbated by the Ukraine war catapulted economic issues to the fore of the campaign. The rising cost of living has become an increasing strain for the poorest in the country. “He needs to be closer to the people and to listen to them,” digital sales worker Virginie, 51, said at the Macron rally, adding he needed to overcome a reputation for arrogance and soften a leadership style Macron himself called “Jupiterian”. Le Pen, who at one stage of the campaign had trailed Macron by just a few points in opinion polls, quickly admitted defeat. But she vowed to keep up the fight with parliamentary elections in June.  “I will never abandon the French,” she told supporters chanting “Marine! Marine!”

Macron can expect little or no grace period in a country whose stark political divisions have been brought into the open by an election in which radical parties scored well. Many expect the street protests that marred part of his first term to erupt again as he presses on with pro-business reforms. Outside France, Macron’s victory was hailed as a reprieve for mainstream politics rocked in recent years by Britain’s exit from the European Union, the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders.

.. .. and in East Timor, another head retained.  José Manuel Ramos-Horta would take office on 20 May 2022, having previously served as president from 20 May 2007 until 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2006 and Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007. He is a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".

East Timor   is an island country in Southeast Asia, comprising of the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island surrounded by Indonesian West Timor. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is 15,007 square kilometres (5,794 sq mi).  Dili is its capital. East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century and was known as Portuguese Timor until 28 November 1975, when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) declared the territory's independence. Nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by the Indonesian military; it was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. The Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterised by a violent, decades-long conflict between separatist groups (especially Fretilin) and the Indonesian military. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory. As Timor-Leste, it became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002 and joined the United Nations.

The Nobel prize winner José Ramos-Horta has scored a landslide victory in Timor-Leste’s presidential election; The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09%, against incumbent Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres’ 242,440, or 37.91%, the secretariat’s website showed on Wednesday after all ballots were counted. The victory gives Ramos-Horta his second term in office. He served as president of south-east Asia’s youngest country from 2007 to 2012.  The election could trigger a period of uncertainty, as Ramos-Horta previously indicated he might dissolve the parliament if he won the election.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
25.4.2022. 

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