National Political
1. Uttarakhand witnessing very heavy rains and cloudburst at various places. 35 killed in Pithorgarh and Chamoli districts. Flood waters sweep away another 25 people. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to these areas. River Ganga and Yamuna along with their tributaries are in spate.
2. India’s first light combat aircraft Tejas inducted into IAF. It took 33 years in making and sum of Rs. 10,397 crores spent since 1983 on its development. It is made of 42% carbon composite, 43% aluminium alloy, 15% titanium alloy and has a speed of 1300 km/hr. with a 4 tonnes payload capacity. It has amodern cockpit with multifunction displays and a head of display.
3. The Union Council Minister has been expanded and partly reshuffled. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley retains finance but sheds away information and broadcasting which has gone to Venkaiah Naidu who gives up parliamentary affairs. Smriti Irani loses HRD and goes to Textiles. Parkash Jawadekaris elevated as a cabinet minister with HRD portfolio. His previous charge of environmental goes to Anil Madhav Dawe a new entrant. Another prominent change has been shifting of Jayant Sinha minister of state finance to civil aviation. Vijay Goel is the new minister of state for youth affairs and sports. S.S. Ahluwalia agriculture and farmers welfares minister.
International News
1. The race for next British Prime Minister takes a turn with Ex-London mayor Boris Johnson dropping off and Home Secretary Theresa May bidding for PM’s post. Michael Gore, the Justice Secretary, also throws his hat in the ring.
2. Rodrigo Duterta, the 71-year-old former prosecutor, sworn in as 16th Philippine President. Previously he was provincial city mayor. He pledges to crush crime, corruption, drugs and other nefarious activities.
3. Terrorist strike at a popular restaurant in high security diplomatic area of Dacca, Bangladesh. Taking hostage 20 people including foreigners, an Indian girl Tarushi Jain 19 years age was killed by a machete in the savage act. 13 Italians, 7 Japanese and 1 American were also killed. Daesh (ISIS) claims responsibility. 6 of its gunmen killed by security forces. 3 Dacca killers were students of elite schools in the past. The government on the other hand states that the terrorists were of local Jamaeytul Mujhadeen Bangladesh (JMB).
4. 2 ISIS suicide bombers blew themselves up in 2 busy shopping areas of Baghdad separately killing 126 and wounding another 140 people. Most of the killed and injured were Ramzan shoppers.
5. A suicide bombing near Prophets Mosque in Medina in the holy month of Ramdan. This is Islams 2nd holiest shrine. Four security guards killed.
The prophet is buried here and millions of pilgrims visit it each year. Saudi Arabia claims that it was a handiwork of a Pakistan driver working in Saudi Arabia.
Business News
1. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim meets PM Modi in New Delhi and assures proactive and full support for environmentally sustainable development. Kim appreciates India’s GDP growth rate at 7.6%.
2. The Indian stock and Equity market shrug off the Brexit fear on Indian economy. Foreign funds turn big buyers on the Indian bourses.
Science and Technology
1. The shift in the paradigm of start up towards the creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the next revolution. It is the science of trying to make computer thing and act like humans for a solution. AI can crunch huge amounts of software and hardware. GPU accelerated computing is the use of graphics processing unit along with a CPU to accelerate scientific, analytics, engineering, consumer and enterprise applications.
Use of mobiles and behaviour of phones and its users has helped developthis new app knows as Siri, Google Now and Cortona.
Tech Giants rushing into this field are: Google, Facebook, IBM, Apple, Tesla and Microsoft.
2. NASA’s space craft Juno enters Jupiter’s orbit after a five year journey from earth. The 1600 kg spacecraft will circle it 37 times in 20 months. The mythical God Jupiter’s wife’s name was Goddess Juno as per Greek and Roman mythology hence the name of the spacecraft.
Sports
1. Euro Cup Soccer
Marseilles.
Portugal beat Poland 5-3 in apenalty shootout to enter the semifinals. They were 1-1 during regulation time. Wales beat Belgium to enter the semis.
Germany beat Italy 6-5 in apenalty shootout to enter the semis in Bordeaux, France.
France beat Iceland 5-2 in Paris to enter the semifinals.
2. Wimbledon Tennis
Surprise 3rd round defeat for world champion Nowak Djokovic by American Sam Querrey ends his record of 30 successive wins in the majors.
Roger Federer, Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych are into the men’s semifinals.
William sisters Serena and Venus have made it to the women’s semifinals.
3. Soccers leading star Argentinean Lionel Messi and his father handed out a 21 months jail term for tax fraud for the period 2007 to 2009. The Spanish authorities have suspended the prison sentence as it is for a 1st-time offence and its duration is less than two years.
