Concerned that China's cancer- stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo is not free to seek the medical treatment of his choosing, the US has urged China to grant him full parole and release his wife from house arrest.
Guarantor of Expats' Rights
As per the European Union`s chief Brexit negotiator, there were many differences with Britain on citizens` rights, including on the role of the EU court, that needed to be sorted out before talks on a trade deal could start.
EU citizens in Britain should have the same rights as British citizens who live in the EU. The current British position did not guarantee equal rights.
Barnier said that the European Court of Justice should be the "ultimate guarantor" of those rights, and if Britain opposed this "it would create uncertainty". Britain wants to regulate citizens` rights under British law.
China’s First Overseas Military Base
China has dispatched troops to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to set up its first overseas military base, which it says will help Beijing contribute to peace in Africa and the world.
Two ships carrying soldiers and military equipment left the southern port of Zhanjiang.
Djibouti, a small country at the Horn of Africa, is situated on the northwest edge of the Indian Ocean where China has increasingly been sailing its warships and sending submarines, causing concern in India.
In a bid to boost bilateral investments between India and Bangladesh, the Cabinet gave its approval for the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the Agreement between both the nations for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
The JIN includes interpretative notes to be jointly adopted for many clauses, including, the definition of investor, definition of investment, exclusion of taxation measures, Fair and Equitable Treatment, National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation treatment, expropriation, essential security interests and Settlement of Disputes between an Investor-and a Contracting Party.
Joint Interpretative Statements, in general, play an important supplementary role in strengthening the investment treaty regime.
CPI Inflation Slows
Inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slipped below the central bank’s lower tolerance level to 1.54% in June and industrial output growth decelerated to 1.72% in May, prompting Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to hint at the need to reboot monetary policy assumptions including ‘systematic inflation forecast errors’ he had red-flagged earlier.
The number of 1.54% is historically low and reflects the firm and ongoing consolidation of macro-economic stability.
Retail inflation slowed for the third straight month.
Amazon Tops Up Payments Biz
Amazon is gearing up to challenge existing players in the payments space, including Flipkart's PhonePe and the SoftBank-backed Paytm. The technology giant has pumped an additional Rs. 130 crore into its payments entity, Amazon Pay India.
Amazon Corporate Holdings Singapore and Amazon.com, Mauritius have invested the fresh capital in the firm. The resolution to put the funds was approved in June. The development comes at a time when Amazon has been pushing Amazon Pay aggressively since the start of the year.
A team of astronomers has discovered the smallest star ever known in the galaxy.
The star is called EBLM J0555–57Ab and is slightly bigger than Saturn. It is located about 600 light-years from Earth and can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
Indian women's team skipper Mithali Raj added another feather to her cap as she surpassed England great Charlotte Edwards to become the leading run-scorer in women's ODI cricket. She also achieved the landmark of becoming the first women to reach 6000 runs in the format.
Wimbledon 2017
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig crashed out of the Wimbledon`s mixed doubles event after suffering a defeat against the British-Finnish pair of Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen in the quarter-finals.
Watson and Kontinen will now face Rohan Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski, who defeated the Croatian pair of Nikola Mektic and Ana Konjuh in the quarterfinals.
India continues to modernise its atomic arsenal with an eye on China and the country's nuclear strategy which traditionally focused on Pakistan now appears to place increased emphasis on the Communist giant.
As per an article, India is now developing a missile which can target all of China from its bases in South India.
Vikram Likely to Take Charge as NSE Chief
As per reports, Veteran banker Vikram Limaye is likely to join National Stock Exchange(NSE) as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive from Monday.
Last month, markets regulator SEBI cleared Limaye's appointment as head of NSE, provided he gives up his role at BCCI.
Limaye was selected as the managing director and CEO of the exchange by the board of NSE in February following the abrupt exit of Chitra Ramkrishna in December last year.