South Korea's prime minister and top presidential officials offer to resign after election defeat
Seoul (AP/PTI): South Korea's prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign en masse on Thursday, after their conservative ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections.
The results of Wednesday's elections were a huge political blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, likely setting back his domestic agenda and leave him facing an intensifying political offensive by his liberal opponents during his remaining three years in office.
Prime Minster Han Duck-soo and all senior presidential advisers to Yoon, except those in charge of security issues, submitted their resignations, according to Yoon's office. It didn't immediately say whether Yoon accepted their resignations.
Executive power in South Korea is heavily concentrated in the president, but the prime minister is the No. 2 official and leads the country if the president becomes incapacitated.
Yoon said he will “humbly uphold” the public sentiments reflected in the election outcome and focus on improving people's economic situations and on reforming state affairs, according to his office.
In a separate news conference, ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon said he would step down as well to take responsibility for the election defeat.
With most of the votes counted, the main opposition Democratic Party and its satellite party appeared to have won a combined 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. Another small liberal opposition party was expected to win 12 seats under a proportional representation system, according to South Korean media tallies.
Yoon's ruling People Power Party and its satellite party were projected to have obtained 109 seats.
The final official results were expected later Thursday.
But the outcome means the liberal opposition forces will extend their control of the parliament, though they likely won't have the super majority of 200 seats that would give them the power to overturn vetoes and even impeach the president.
Wednesday's election was widely seen as a midterm confidence vote on Yoon, a former top prosecutor who took office in 2022 for a single five-year term.
He has pushed hard to boost cooperation with the US and Japan as a way to address a mix of tough security and economic challenges. But Yoon has been grappling with low approval ratings at home and a liberal opposition-controlled parliament that has limited his major policy platforms.
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Bumrah leads India to its biggest Test win on Australian soil
Perth (PTI): Jasprit Bumrah led a feisty bunch of Indian cricketers to their most dominant Test victory on Australian soil, winning by a massive 295 runs in a remarkable turnaround that will find a pride of place among the country's golden moments in international cricket.
The stand-in skipper led by example with a match-haul of 8/72 as India bowled out the hosts, who were in pursuit of a mammoth 534, for 238 in 58.4 overs on the fourth afternoon of the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy here.
The victory propelled India back to the top of the World Test Championship standings with 61.11 percentage points.
India's previous biggest winning margin in terms of runs was 222 during a 1978 game in Sydney when Australia played an under-strength side due to mass exodus for the Kerry Packer World Series.
India are now 1-0 up in the five-Test series with regular skipper Rohit Sharma ready to take over during the Day/Night game starting December 6 in Adelaide.
While Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will be among the heroes with their solid second innings batting performances, it was Bumrah's unbelievable skill-set and self belief during Australia's first innings rout that formed the cornerstone of India's win.
Not many teams have come back after being 150 all-out on the first day but this Indian team has time and again showed that it is built different.
Prior to the Test, Bumrah spoke about embracing challenges and he did walk the talk during all four days.
It was evident from the manner in which he allowed Mohammed Siraj (match haul of five wickets), debutants Harshit Rana (match haul of four wickets) and Nitish Reddy (41 and 37 not out and one wicket) bowl from the Member's End so that they can get extra help due to the ball keeping very low.
Washington Sundar (two wickets and 29 runs), who was preferred after the team management felt that Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with 850 plus Test wickets between them, would not be as effective on this track, also did his bit in mopping up the tail.
The victory will bear greater significance because of India's shocking 0-3 whitewash at home by New Zealand.
With three of their automatic first team selections in skipper Rohit, talented Shubman Gill and bowling artist Mohammed Shami ruled out due to different reasons, Bumrah, leading in only his second Test, was left with a lot to do and less options to work with.
Gabba 2021 evokes nostalgia for every Indian cricket fan but Perth 2024 will certainly be right up there considering that no one, save those eleven and the few others in that change room, could have believed that something like this is possible.
Often the job of deputies in cricket is an understated one but it is all about making it easy for the general in charge.
Rahul Dravid had tirelessly done that for Sourav Ganguly during their time and as Rohit Sharma checked-in, he would know that his deputy has at lest tried to remove the ton of pressure on his chest after the home series debacle.
Gambhir Moves
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Credit must also go to head coach Gautam Gambhir, who copped a lot of flak after the defeat to the Black Caps and it was widely believed that rookies Reddy and Harshit got Test caps on his insistence.
Gambhir, who seldom smiles, could afford a grin under the Perth Sun as the burly Harshit and the sinewy Nitish didn't deviate from the script handed to them for the better part of the game.
Nervous Aussies
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Starting the day at 12 for 3 in pursuit of 534, it was about how much time would it take for Australia to capitulate and they eventually did despite a counter-attacking 89 by Travis Head that only delayed the inevitable.
On the last two tours, India started the series at Adelaide, which is believed to have friendlier batting conditions but this time, Australia decided to make the first move putting India on the bounciest surface in the country.
The move only worked for a session and a half before it backfired completely. The Australians had factored in India's vulnerability but decided to punt on their own batting line-up which has been woefully short of runs.
Steve Smith, one of the modern day greats, and Marnus Labuschagne, who has always been obsessed about batting, have had their forms desert them for the longest time.
Then they inducted a rookie in Nathan McSweeney, who isn't particularly tested and also not an opener. It indicated that just like India, Australia will also face a transition, and it's case could be even worse.
Josh Hazlewood had thrown the towel on third evening itself and one shouldn't be surprised if the Australian team management plays on flatter batting decks in the coming matches in order to nullify Bumrah's threat.
But Bumrah is the sort of bowler can tighten the noose whenever he desires and irrespective of conditions.
On the fourth afternoon, he came back to dislodge Head, who was putting on a fight.
That was possibly the best of his eight wickets in the game. It was pitched on length and the compulsive driver that Head is, he didn't expect it to climb from length and it took the outside edge.
