China confirmed that it had hosted Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as part of its bid to expand its role in Afghanistan.
According to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, Chinese officials exchanged views with Mr. Baradar and his aides on peace and reconciliation process as well as the fight against terrorism.
The dialogue took place ahead of the seventh round of talks between the Taliban and the U.S. in Doha, Qatar.
Britain Suspends New Saudi Arms Licences
The British government would suspend issuing new Saudi licenses for the sale of arms that might be used in the Gulf kingdom's bombing campaign in Yemen.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox announced the decision in parliament after a British court ordered the government to reconsider the sales because of their humanitarian impact.
Britain's Court of Appeal had ruled that the government broke the law by failing to properly assess whether the arms it sells to Riyadh violated its commitment to human rights.
US tech giant International Business Machines Corp is set to secure unconditional EU approval for its $34 billion bid for software company Red Hat.
IBM was seeking to expand its subscription-based software offerings via the deal, its biggest to date, to counter slowing software sales and waning demand for mainframe servers.
It would also help it catch up with Amazon, Alphabet Inc and Microsoft in the fast growing cloud computing business.
The European Commission is scheduled to decide on the deal by June end (2019).
Founded in 1993, Red Hat specialises in Linux operating systems, the most popular type of open-source software and an alternative to proprietary software made by Microsoft.
US regulatory authorities gave the green light to the deal in May 2019 without demanding concessions.
Sundaram Finance to buy BNP in JV
Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance Ltd. (SBPHFL) is set to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sundaram Finance Ltd. (SFL).
SFL would acquire the remaining stake of 49.9% from BNP Paribas Personal Finance S.A. France for Rs. 999.67 crore, subject to all regulatory approvals.
SFL inked an agreement with BNP Paribas Personal Finance S.A. France to this effect. The move follows a decision by the BNP Paribas Group to exit the retail housing finance business.
BNP Paribas currently holds 49.9% stake in the home finance unit and the rest is held by SFL. As per the deal, SFL would acquire the entire stake, representing 5.05 crore equity shares of Rs. 10 each.
BSR Quits as Auditor
BSR & Associates LLP, the sub-licensee of KPMG in India, quit as the auditor of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services' non-banking financial services (NBFC) arm, IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN), after it was served a show-cause notice on why it should not be removed.
BSR resigned as auditors of IFIN earlier this month (June 19). Both BSR and IL&FS confirmed the development.
BSR said that while it had responded to the show-cause notice from IFIN, it was yet to hear from IFIN.
The uncertainty over India's hosting of international sporting events officially ended with the International Olympic Committee communicating the same and lifting any restrictions in place over India's future hosting rights.
The IOC EB decided to lift, with immediate effect, all provisional measures and restrictions imposed under points 2 and 3 of the IOC EB decision of 21 February 2019 in relation to awarding and hosting any international sports events in India; and informed the International Sports Federations accordingly.
Rohan and Anargya Claim Titles
Rohan Jamadagni and Anargya Manjunath won the youth boys' and youth girls' titles in the state-ranking table tennis tournament.
Rohan Jamadagni defeated Kaustubh Milind.
Anargya Manjunath defeated Karruna Gajendran.
Marta Creates History
Marta became the top scorer in the history of FIFA World Cups, including the men's tournament, after scoring her 17th overall goal in Brazil's 1-0 win against Italy in the Women's World Cup in Valenciennes in France.
With her 17th goal, she surpassed the 16 goals netted by Germany's Miroslav Klose, thus setting a new record in the history of the World Cup in both the men's and women's categories.
Marta is also the only player, male or female, to have scored in five different World Cups.
Pathalgadi movement is once again back to haunt Jharkhand. Around 13 villages of three panchayats under Bandgaon Block in West Singhbhum district of the state have seen the movement getting active again, being led by Yusuf Purty alias Joseph Purty and Mudhu Soy.
Activists of the movement are seizing ration, voter and Aadhaar cards from the villagers and allegedly forcing them to not to take benefits of any government schemes.
The movement opposing the Indian government and calling for self-rule by tribals in 5th schedule areas by misinterpreting the Constitution, originated in Khunti district.
But it went silent after infamous gang-rape of five tribal girls – anti-trafficking activists – in Kochang village on June 19, 2018.
Kerala Offers Drinking Water to Tamil Nadu
With barely 23 million cubic feet of water left in the four main reservoirs, which cumulatively have a capacity of 11,257 million cubic feet, and supply to Chennai city, the Kerala government offered to transport 20 lakh litres of drinking water to Tamil Nadu.
TN's local administration minister S. P. Velumani clarified that while Tamil Nadu has not refused the offer, the decision will be taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Kerala's offer comes at a time when the All India Anna Munnetra Dravida Kazhagam (AIADMK) is facing Opposition heat over its failure in handling the water crisis.
The Union defence ministry invited proposal from Indian companies to partner foreign firms to manufacture six new submarines under the 'Make in India' initiative. The project is expected to cost about Rs. 45,000 crore.
The government issued the Expression of Interest (EoI), a process to shortlist Indian companies as Strategic Partners, to construct six conventional submarines.
A similar EoI to select the foreign companies who would partner the Indian companies would be issued in two weeks.
In January, 2019 the defence ministry had cleared the construction of the submarines.
India Deploys Warships in Persian Gulf
As tensions in the Persian Gulf rose due to strained relations between the US and Iran, India deployed two warships in the region.
The Indian warships would reassure Indian flagged vessels sailing through the area. India deployed INS Chennai and INS Sunayna and maritime surveillance aircraft.
The decision came on a day when Iran shot down a US naval surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz, adding to the already volatile situation. Iran claimed that the drone had violated Iranian airspace, a fact that was denied by the US.
The decision to deploy Indian warships was taken following maritime security incidents, the warships will coordinate between stakeholders and escort Indian merchant shipping when required.
The Persian Gulf is one of the most crucial waterways of the world, through which majority of the world's energy and as much as 40% of the Indian energy supplies flow.
Sajid Javid, son of an immigrant bus driver who had made it to the last four in the race to be the UK's next Prime Minister, was eliminated after he polled the least number of votes (34), while favourite Boris Johnson topped the list.
The fourth round of voting by Conservative MPs to select the next party leader and the man to replace Theresa May in Downing Street has now left only three in the fray: Johnson (with 157 votes), environment secretary Michael Gove (61) and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt (59).
Javid became the first Asian and non-white politician to come close to becoming the Prime Minister in a multicultural country, where the number of non-white MPs elected to the House of Commons has been growing in recent elections.
The loss notwithstanding, Javid 's 4th position places him well for future leadership contests.
Ram Vilas Paswan to File Nomination Rajya Sabha
Union Minister and chief of the Lok Janashakti Party Ram Vilas Paswan would file nomination for Rajya Sabha as an NDA candidate in Patna.
Mr. Paswan currently holds the reins of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Ministry.
International Day of Yoga, or commonly and unofficially referred to as Yoga Day, is celebrated annually on 21 June since its inception in 2015. An international day for yoga was declared unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The idea of International Day of Yoga was first proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at the UNGA, on 27th September 2014.
On 11 December 2014, India's Permanent Representative Asoke Mukerji introduced the draft resolution in the United Nations General Assembly.
The draft text received broad support from 177 Member States who sponsored the text, which was adopted without a vote.
This initiative found support from many global leaders. A total of 177 nations co-sponsored the resolution, which is the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA resolution of such nature.
The theme for 2019 International Day of Yoga is "Yoga for climate change".
Ralph Lauren collected an accolade from Prince Charles and it's a doozy: Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for Services to Fashion.
The designer was presented with the insignia, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II, in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Lauren is the first American designer to be recognised with an honorary knighthood.
Authorities at the government-run Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur converted one of their wards, meant for prisoners, into an intensive care unit (ICU) to accommodate the rising number of children affected by Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), even as the death toll from the brain fever reached 135 in the state.
The move came after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar issued instructions to authorities to create extra space in the hospital after he found that three to four children were being treated on a single bed.
Panipat Villages Get Two Women Colleges
The Haryana state government decided to open two women colleges at Bastali and Bastara villages in the district from the coming academic session. The online admission process for both colleges has already started.
In 2018, two colleges were opened at Taraori and Jundla villages under the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign.
The colleges would function from temporary buildings. While the Bastara college had already received 46 applications the response for the Bastali college was still low with only 21 applications for B.Com and BA courses received so far.
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