CURRENT AFFAIRS
17 JULY 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Coronavirus cases reached 1 million tolls in India.
On 16 July, the number of coronavirus cases reported from India crossed the million mark. The country also passed another grim milestone on the same day, with the number of deaths crossing 25,000. India has 3,31,146 active Covid-19 cases, which is around a third of the country’s total tally, which had risen to 10,01,449 with the death toll at 25,582. On 16 July, the country witnessed a single-day increase of 32,695 cases. The Ministry said that the recovery rate has risen to 50% mid-June and thereafter. There has also been a steady rise in recoveries and a decline in the number of active cases.
B) Contempt plea over the committee on 4G restrictions in Kashmir.
The Center has informed the Supreme Court that a special committee which is chaired by the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla had met twice on the need to review the restrictions imposed on the 4G Internet connections in Jammu and Kashmir but postponed a decision on the issue due to the remarkable situation of continued terror attacks in the Valley. In an order issued on May 11, the Supreme Court had directed the Center to form a special committee to consider the restoration of 4G services in the Valley. This was meant to be a high-powered committee, different from a review committee. Both the Attorney General and the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the J&K administration, were responding to a contempt petition filed by the Forum for Media Professionals (FMP). The FMP argued that the Center had defied this SC order by failing to form this committee, and therefore must be held accountable for contempt of court. When Venugopal and Mehta informed the court that the committee had indeed been formed and had met twice, the court pointed out that the details of this committee were not in the pubic domain.
C) No postal ballot facility for voters above 65 in Bihar elections: Election Commission.
The Election Commission has decided not to extend the facility of postal ballot to voters above 65 years of age for the Bihar assembly elections and by-elections due in the near future, in view of logistical and manpower constraints, and Covid-19 safety protocols. It had earlier recommended extending optional postal ballot facilities to those above 65 years of age in order to minimize their vulnerability and exposure at polling stations.
D) Archer out of the second test for breaking protocol.
On 16 July, England pacer Jofra Archer was released from the second Test against West Indies. This was done because he breaks the bio-security protocols of the team. He will now undergo two Covid-19 tests during a five-day isolation period. The series is being played amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the first Test in Southampton passed off without any incident of coronavirus. Jofra Archer apologized which was not written in the statement given by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Air bubbles for now.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that India has signed bilateral agreements with France and the US which will allow the airlines of each country to operate international flights starting Friday. He added that similar arrangements are being worked out with Germany and the UK as well. He said that American carrier United Airlines will be operating 18 flights between India and the U.S. from July 17 to July 31, and Air France, 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Paris from July 18 to August 1.
B) High profile Twitter accounts hacked. A series of high-profile Twitter accounts were hijacked on 15 July, with some of the eminent personalities including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, television show star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama, billionaires Elon Musk, Amazon and Microsoft owner Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates respectively and rapper Kanye West, among many others used to solicit digital currency. As per Twitter, it was a coordinated attack that targets its employees with access to internal systems and tools. In a number of tweets, the hackers used the access to take control of many highly-visible twitter accounts and they Tweeted on their behalf. Twitter was forced to take the extreme step of stopping many verified accounts from tweeting altogether.
C) Oli’s comment ‘outrageous’: former MP Karan Singh.
Former MP Karan Singh has said in a personal statement that the Prime Minister of Nepal, K.P. Sharma Oli is trying to do everything to detach his country from India. Karan Singh, who is also related to the Nepal royals, said that the claim of Oli about the supposed origin of Lord Ram as Nepalese was completely strange. This statement has hurt the sentiments of many Hindus across the world. Karan Singh also served as India’s envoy to Nepal. He also said that the statement given by PM Oli could have been dismissed as the gymnastics of a distorted mind, except that it comes fast on the heels of Oli’s unforeseen unilateral action regarding a territorial dispute with India.
