Storms have been wreaking havoc in the world and another one is expected in Parliament – the Monsoon session begins today. Two previous sessions of the house were curtailed due to COVID-19. Whatever the storm, we will bring it to you.
TOP NEWS:
➡️ IMA slams Kerala decision to relax COVID norms for 3 days
➡️ Around 40 people spied upon in India
➡️ Afghanistan withdraws envoys from Pakistan
➡️ Blackstone acquires Simplilearn for $250mn
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
🗞️ Disinformation Dozen: Almost 65% of fake news on COVID-19 vaccinations came from just 12 people who had 50 million followers, according to a new report. Facebook had the largest share of fake news from these people – 73%- and the company failed to remove almost 95% of such posts.
😤 Don’t remember Onam? : Despite very high cases and positivity rate, the Kerala govt relaxed COVID restrictions for three days from Sunday for Bakrid. The Indian Medical Association has slammed this move. Last year, post-Onam when a similar relaxation was in place, cases spiked.
INDIA NEWS
🌧️ ‘Monstrous’: Intense rain fell on Mumbai – dropping around 23.5cm of rain in just four hours. It is still lower than that day in 2005 when the city got 94.4cm of rain. It triggered landslides at Chembur and Vikhroli, killing at least 30. Climate change? Probably.
👾 Pegasus: Around 40 people in India, including journalists and Union ministers, were targets of a spying software called Pegasus developed by an Israel-based company called NSO Group. The company deals only with governments for the software that ought to be used only for anti-terror operations. Although the Indian govt has denied a role in it, it has not denied that it bought Pegasus.
Here is an explanation on what Pegasus is and what it can do.
✋ Just the beginning?: Navjot Singh Sidhu has been appointed new Punjab Congress chief. Punjab MLAs now begin showing their support – either to Amarinder Singh or Sidhu. Sidhu and Singh are yet to meet. So all is not well yet.
✋ Rejig: The Congress party has reconstituted many of its parliamentary committees ahead of the Monsoon Session and, contrary to speculations, West Bengal parliamentarian Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will continue to lead the party in the Lok Sabha. Two party members who had earlier opposed the party’s continued style of functioning and demanded a change – with 21 others and called G23- too find a place.
Caste Vote: With an eye on next year’s state elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will launch a Brahmin outreach programme from Ayodhya. In 2007, the party’s bonhomie with the community led to its winning office – 20/51 Brahmin candidates won. In 2017, only 4/52 won.
WORLD NEWS
🇳🇵 Deuba Wins: Nepali Congress’s Sher Bahadur Deuba has won the confidence vote in the parliament, confirming him as prime minister.
🇦🇫🇵🇰 Major Embarrassment: After shocking news that an Afghan diplomat’s daughter was abducted and tortured in Pakistan, Afghanistan has pulled out all its officials there.
“It is shocking – I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that’s been wreaked,”
Angela Merkel, German Chancellor on the recent flooding in her country
🔥 Fire in Arctic: Siberia is suffering its third year of wildfires as temperature increase has led to permafrost thawing and the exposure to more forest cover that now feeds the fire.
🇻🇪 Venezuela Crisis: Police vs criminal gangs battles have entered the streets of Caracas, the nation’s capital. The country is in deep economic crisis and law & order is missing in many parts. In the border, the government troops are facing off against Colombian rebels.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🏦 Banking Games: To get around RBI’s cryptocurrency rules, Cashaa has decided to go ahead and set up a bank through the credit-cooperative society route [Such institutions are not in the banking business but in the “lending” business to only members]. The so-called bank, named Unicas, will offer loans to buy crypto and open savings accounts.
🛢️ Fossil Fuel: The OPEC Plus grouping (OPEC + Russia) have agreed to increase production by 400,000 barrels beginning next month, but some experts say this is insignificant and unlikely to help India’s fuel cost much. The countries had been in some disagreement after the UAE demanded that it allowed to pump out more oil. Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the organisation, was initially hesitant but eventually gave in.
👨💻 Acquisition: Blackstone, a major private equity, will invest $250 million and buy out online skilling platform Simplilearn, which could now expand to the US and Europe. Simplilearn once started off as a blog in 2009 that shared tips and information and now it has partnered with institutions of global repute like IIT Kanpur, MIT, Caltech, Purdue University and Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft.
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE & TECH
🐅⬆️ Assam’s Tigers: Fron 0 in 2001 to 48 in 2021, tigers in Assam’s Manas national park has seen a tremendous spike.
🐵🦠 First Human Death: A Chinese veterinarian died of Monkey B virus on May 27, becoming the first recorded case of a human dying of the virus in the country.
News Of Today 