1. Rahul Gandhi was grilled for 8 hours on Day 2 and summoned to appear again today: Rahul Gandhi, 51, accompanied by his sister and party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and scores of congress functionaries appeared in the ED headquarters at APJ Abdul Kalaam road in Central Delhi. Following eight hours of quizzing yesterday regarding the National Herald Case, the Congress MP was asked to be present today too.
2. Life expectancy of Indians falls by five years due to air pollution: While Bangladesh is the most polluted country in the world, India ranks second. As per the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), air pollution is cutting down the life expectancy of Indians by five years. What’s more startling is that 44% of the world’s pollution rise since 2013 has come from India.
3. Chandigarh boy rescued from borewell after 104 hours: Rahul Sahu, the ten-year-old Chandigarh boy who got stuck in a borewell last Friday, was safely rescued after 104 hours. Rahul is stable and will recover soon, said Bilaspur collector Jitendra Shukla.
4. J&K education department shuts down 300 schools: Jammu and Kashmir school education department ordered the closure of some 300 schools run by Falah-e-Aam (FAT), an affiliate group of the banned Jamaat-e-Islam. The department has asked students of these banned schools to join nearby government-run schools.
5. The first private train of the country has begun its journey: India’s first private train brought out under the Bharat Gaurav Scheme was launched from Coimbatore with much fanfare. The train operated by South Star Rail began its journey to Sainagr Shirdi via Mantralayam Road.
6. WHO experts meet on Monkeypox: The World Health Organization is convening its experts to determine if the Monkeypox outbreak should be treated as a Global Health Emergency. The concern comes amid a rise in Monkeypox cases outside Africa, where the disease is endemic.
7. Google’s AI engineer calls Application sentient: Google puts Blake Lemoine, Senior software engineer in Google’s Responsible AI organization, on paid leave. For months, Lemoine had been arguing that the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Application (LaMDA) is sentient. The HR department has charged him for violating Google’s confidentiality policy.
8. Biden would head to Saudi Arabia next month: American President Joe Biden is traveling to Saudi Arabia next month to meet the leaders of the Kingdom, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The US and Saudi relationship got strained after US Intelligence officials said that the Crown Prince had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
9. VHP condemns threat to behead Nupur Sharma: A two-day Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) congregation in Hardiwar with over 200 sants in participation took exception to threats to life issued against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal. Some Islamic outfits said, “heads should be severed from the body of those guilty of blaspheming the prophet.”
10. Central government to recruit one million people in one and a half years: PM Modi has directed central government ministries and departments to start identifying vacancies and recruit a million new employees by 2024. The employment drive by the government was tweeted by the Prime minister on Tuesday.