Table of Contents
• Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has more or less admitted that
terrorists who crossed over from Pakistan to India were responsible for the 2008
Mumbai terror attacks.
• This will change little for India.
• But it’s a big thing for Pakistan
• There are people in Pakistan who pretend that they know nothing about it at all.
• Those who know anything about this attack knows that handlers were from Pakistan
• The big thing is that at least one of most senior person in Pak politics has admitted
that Pakistanis were involved in this attack.
• Sharif has also admitted that trial is deliberately delayed.
• This is a good point for India to further isolate Pakistan diplomatically.
• The big question is will China take any stand on it?
• USA will give money and machines to Pakistan as it needs it to control
Afghanistan situation.
• Russia, Iran and other powers already supporting Pakistan now.
• Sharif’s statement is pointing its figure to real power holders in Pakistan that is The
Establishment (Army +ISI).
• He has said that no one takes Pakistan’s plaint of being a victim of terror seriously
because of the Pak military’s support for terrorists who attack India.
• Imran Khan has promptly backed the armed forces. So will the clergy.
• Sharif must now find the courage to take on religious extremism as well, and rally
the masses against them.
MEA
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia on 21st of this month for an
informal Summit with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi city.
• External Affairs Ministry said, this informal Summit is in keeping with the tradition of
regular consultations between India and Russia at the highest level.
• This visit will be an important occasion for the two leaders to exchange views on
international matters in a broad and long term perspective.
APY
• The subscriber base of Atal Pension Yojana (APY) crossed one crore on completion of
three years of the scheme.
• The APY was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function on 9th May,
2015.
• Under the scheme, the guaranteed minimum pension ranging between 1000
to 5000 rupees per month will be given at the age of 60 years depending on the
contributions by the subscribers. Information and Broadcasting
• Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore today took charge as the new Information and
Broadcasting Minister.
• Mr Rathore said, the work of the Ministry is to disseminate information on
Government’s schemes and programmers as well as getting feedback from the public
on the schemes for more improvement.
Lokpal
• The Centre today informed the Supreme Court that Senior Advocate, Mukul Rohatgi
has been appointed as an eminent jurist in the selection committee for appointment
of the Lokpal.
• Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi that
the decision in this regard was taken on 11th of this month.
• The selection committee is chaired by the Prime Minister.
• The post of eminent jurist in the Lokpal selection panel was lying vacant since the
death of senior advocate P P Rao in September 2017.
President
• President Ram Nath Kovind visited an exhibition on Department of Atomic
Energy (DAE) technologies at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay in
Mumbai today.
• He also dedicated several DAE facilities to the nation.
• India is recognized as one of the leading nations in the use of nuclear technologies
across multiple disciplines, ranging from energy to agriculture and from medicine
to waste management.
Jerusalem
• The United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem.
• President Donald Trump had announced the decision to re-locate the embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in December last year, when he formally recognised the
holy city as the capital of Israel.
• At least 41 Palestinians have been killed and 1,800 wounded by Israeli troops on
the Gaza border, as mass protests erupted against the transfer of the US embassy to
Jerusalem.
United Nations Security Council
• The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the
violence along the Gaza-Israeli border.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expressed deep concern about the
developments in Gaza.
• He urged both sides to show restraint to avoid further loss of life.
• Trump’s decision fits neatly with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
ideological inclinations and policies.
• A few dozen kilometers away, on the “border” with Gaza, 59 civilians were
killed and about 2,700 injured by Israeli troops firing across a fence at protesters,
reportedly unarmed.
• What is celebrated as its Independence Day by Israel is al Nakba (“The
Catastrophe”) for Palestinians, because more than 7,50,000 of them were
displaced as a new state took shape in their midst.
• Since that time, “peace in the middle east” has been a goal that many American
presidents have sought to facilitate, and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine
for any prospective two-state agreement has been essential to that.
• Saudi Arabia to Great Britain, warned of the consequences of such a decision.
• A hawk by any measure, Netanyahu has opposed the Oslo Accords between Israel
and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, in place since the early ’90s.
• Trump administration has only deepened the anger in the region and increased fears of a
greater number of Palestinians taking to extremist, violent tactics to achieve political
ends.
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