(From right) U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Indian cricket player Virat Kohli, Satellite image of Pakistan’s Sukkur air base by Maxar Technologies, Justice B.R. Gavai, and an accused in Pollachi sexual assault case.
(1) Operation Sindoor and India’s response to Pakistan
In a swift military operation on May 7, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor, carrying out 24 precision strikes on nine terrorist targets — five in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and four in Pakistan — within 25 minutes. The action was in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh affirming India’s right to retaliate.
Following the strikes, Pakistan initiated unprovoked shelling across the Line of Control (LoC), killing 16 civilians. Between May 7 and 10, around 300–400 Pakistani drones attempted incursions across Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat but were successfully intercepted. In Punjab’s Ferozpur district, debris from a downed drone injured three people and caused a fire.
After three days of intense hostilities, India and Pakistan have reached a mutual “understanding” to halt military actions and cross-border firing, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced on May 10, 2025. Officials clarified that this agreement does not affect India’s recent punitive measures against Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack.
At a press briefing on May 11, senior military officials confirmed the killing of over 100 terrorists, including key figures behind the IC 814 hijacking and the Pulwama attack, in Operation Sindoor.
(2) B.R. Gavai sworn in as Chief Justice of India
Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai was sworn in by President Droupadi Murmu as the 52nd Chief Justice of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday (May 14, 2025). He is the first Buddhist Chief Justice of India.
Justice Gavai took his oath of office, pledging his commitment to uphold the Constitution and faithfully discharge duties, in Hindi. He has a tenure of over six months till November 23, 2025.
He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2019 from the Bombay High Court.
Born on November 24, 1960 at Amravati, Justice Gavai joined the Bar on March 16, 1985. Justice Gavai’s father, Ramakrishna Suryabhan Gavai, also known as ‘Dadasaheb’, was a former Governor of Bihar and a prominent Dalit leader.
(3) Kohli brings an end to Test career
Just five days after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket in an Instagram story, Virat Kohli followed suit with a post on the social media platform to bring an end to a decorated Test career.
The 36-year-old’s announcement seemed to be on the cards after it emerged that he had told the selectors of his wish to step away from the longest format ahead of India’s five-Test series in England beginning on June 20.
“It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life,” Kohli wrote in an Instagram post on Monday (May 12, 2025) afternoon.
Having made his Test debut in 2011, Kohli amassed 9230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries and 31 fifties. While he reached phenomenal heights as a No. 4 batter from 2016 to 2019, in particular, his slide in the last five years was steep. Since January 2020, he averaged 30.72 in 39 Tests with just three tons. The final straw was the recent five-Test tour of Australia, where he only mustered 190 runs in nine innings despite scoring a century in the second innings of the first Test in Perth.
(4) Pollachi sexual assault case: Court convicts all nine accused
The Mahila Court in Coimbatore on Tuesday (May 13, 2025) found all nine accused in the sensational Pollachi sexual assault case guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The case of the prosecution was that the accused had enticed several women, sexually assaulted them, and filmed the acts to blackmail them.
Judge R. Nandhini Devi also ordered the State government to pay a total compensation of ₹85 lakh to eight survivors of the sexual assault.
They were awarded life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural life for offences committed under Section 376 D (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were also punished for offence under Section 376(2)(n) (repeated rape on the same woman) of IPC.
The nine persons had been charged with multiple offences, including criminal conspiracy, sexual harassment, rape, gang rape, and repeated rape on the same women.
Six years ago, nine men from Pollachi were arrested for blackmailing, sexually assaulting, and videographing young girls and women between 2016 and 2018. The accused, who have remained behind bars since their arrest, were prosecuted for multiple offences.
On February 24, 2019, a college girl lodged a complaint with the Pollachi East police, alleging sexual abuse by four men in a moving car near Pollachi 12 days ago. The 19-year-old was the first survivor to speak up against the group of youngsters, who had allegedly been luring women and sexually assaulting them since 2016. The perpetrators filmed the sexual acts, which they later used for further sexual exploitation.
(5) China-U.S. 90-day tariff truce
U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday (May 12, 2025) they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war for more talks on resolving their trade disputes. Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.
Editorial | Big deal: On the U.S.-China trade deal
In addition to easing the curbs, China agreed to lift export countermeasures issued after April 2, raising prospects for the lifting of restrictions on rare earth minerals, on which Beijing has not yet clarified its position.
Mr. Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva. The delegations, escorted around town and guarded by scores of Swiss police, met for at least a dozen hours on both days of the weekend at a sunbaked 17th-century villa that serves as the official residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
Published – May 19, 2025 11:41 am IST