The Daily Brief – 6th May 2019

Thailand has crowned its new King Maha Vajiralongkorn, marking the first ascension of a new monarch in seven decades. King Vajiralongkorn is the tenth monarch of the Chakri dynasty, which has reigned since 1782. The last coronation was held in 1950 for the king’s father Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thailand has been run by an arch-royalist junta since 2014. The monarchy takes primacy in the country but it is buttressed by the army.

World number one Bajrang Punia won the gold medal as he defeated Viktor Rassadin in the finals of men’s 65kg freestyle in the Ali Aliyev wrestling tournament in Kaspiisk, Russia on May 3. The 25-year-old Indian grappler had won a gold medal recently at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2019 in Xi’an, China.

In its fifth launch of year, SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft on a cargo mission for NASA to International Space Station (ISS) on a ‘Falcon 9’ rocket, from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The spacecraft carries 2,500 kilograms of research, supplies and hardware for astronauts living and working on ISS as part of the CRS-17 mission (17th resupply mission).

An 18-year old girl from Nepal named Bandana set a Guinness World Records on ‘Longest Dancing Marathon by an Individual’. She danced exclusively to Nepalese music continuously for 126 hours (over five days). She broke record set by India’s Kalamandalam Hemlatha, who danced continuously for 123 hours and 15 minutes in 2011.

The ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan announced that Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is planning to send a probe Aditya-L1 to study the sun early in 2020. The satellite would be in a halo orbit around the L1 (Lagrangian point 1) which is 1.5 million kms from the Earth. The mission’s key aim was to observe the solar corona, the outer layer of the sun.

Indian boxers finished with six medals, including two gold at the 36th Feliks Stamm International Boxing Tournament in Warsaw, Poland on 5 May, 2019. Gaurav Solanki and Manish Kaushik bagged one gold each. Mohammed Hussamuddin won a silver after his defeat by Russia’s Mukhammad Shekhov. Indian boxers also clinched three bronze in the European tournament.

The last captive white tiger named Bajirao died recently at Sanjay Gandhi National Park, in Borivali (Mumbai suburb). He was born at national park in 2001. The white tigers are basically a pigmentation variant of the Bengal Tiger. Their white colour is due to lack of red or yellow pheomelanin pigment, and presence of unique recessive genes. They are also called Bleached Tiger. They were found in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and in Sunderbans region.

Ace Indian squash players Saurav Ghoshal and Joshna Chinappa won their respective Asian Individual Squash Championship titles in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 6 May, 2019. Saurav Ghoshal defeated Leo Au Chun Ming of Hong Kong 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 to win the men’s title. Joshna Chinappa on the other hand retained her title as she beat top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6 in the women’s final event.