Will Indian women’s cricket victory galvanise the sport?

Early voting is underway in New York’s mayoral election. As The New York Times notes, frontrunner Zohran Mamdani spent his last day of campaigning by crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in a symbolic gesture that a new day was arriving for the city. The young leftist upstart is running for the Democratic Party. Mamdani is a strong favourite to win the mantle of mayor of America’s largest city. If so, he would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, first mayor of South Asian descent and its first millennial mayor. USA Today draws comparison with another young, upstart politician: Barack Obama. Both ooze charm, are compelling and – in Mamdani’s case – social media savvy. Mamdani first rose to popularity thanks to video postings with regular New Yorkers like taxi drivers. Like Obama, however, he also shares the same weaknesses: his thin resumé. He has held only one full-time job outside of politics and got elected to state assembly. As mayor, he’d go from leading a paid staff of five to overseeing a $116 billion budget and 300,000 workers.

For that reason, there is a lot of scrutiny of Mamdani’s legitimacy to govern. As The Washington Post’s editors note, he would also be the most radical mayor. Mamdani is a paradox: he was born into wealth but “adopted a worldview centred on destroying the economic system that made the US thrive.” He’s called for higher taxes to fund state-run grocery stores, free childcare, transport and more state power in the housing market. New York’s business class is also in a panic over his “tax the rich” plans. Meanwhile, much of the city’s Jewish community are concerned over Mamdani’s long, passionate history of anti-Israel activism. Politico notes his past controversies: posing with the architects of Uganda’s anti-gay laws, his family’s luxury house in Uganda protected by armed guards and his tenancy in a rent-stabilised apartment despite his family’s wealth. 

Here in France, a major trial begins this Tuesday into the French concrete maker Lafarge, which is accused of funding terrorism. As FRANCE 24 reports, the group is accused of paying the Islamic State group and other jihadists €3 million in protection money to continue its operations in northern Syria during the height of the terrorist group’s power over a decade ago. The firm also pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide support to US-designated foreign terrorist organisations in a US trial and paid a nearly $800 million fine. French investigative website Mediapart calls this an unprecedented, historic trial. While other companies left Syria during the war, Lafarge did everything it could to continue its activities. It evacuated its foreign workers but kept its local staff. French Communist paper L’Humanité says bitterly: “they preferred cement over humans”. The trial will determine the group’s culpability but also that of French authorities. Le Point magazine quotes a former Lafarge worker as saying that French intelligence knew what was going on and used Lafarge as a source of information gathering.

Finally, there’s jubilation in India after the women’s cricket team won the World Cup for the first time. Hyperbole dominates the sports papers. The Hindustan Times calls it a defining moment and historic triumph as India “lifts the cup of dreams” after their incredible victory in the final over South Africa. As The New York Times notes, it had been the hardest, highest glass ceiling in Indian sports: cricket is watched by almost everyone in 1.4-billion strong India, the sport generates millions in revenue and cricketers are idolised. Up to now, that’s been solely male cricketers. Four decades ago, the men won the World Cup and galvanised men’s cricket. Now it’s hoped this victory could do the same for women’s cricket!

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