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• The spokesman for the Baghlan province police chief, Jawed Basharat, says gunbattles continue on the outskirts of its capital, Puli Khumri.


• An official says the Taliban have launched an attack on a second Afghan city in as many days, even as a United States envoy says the U.S. and the Taliban are at the threshold of an agreement to end America’s longest war.


• The spokesman for the Baghlan province police chief, Jawed Basharat, says gunbattles continue on the outskirts of its capital, Puli Khumri.

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• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is partially backtracking on a decree that banned most fires for land-clearing for 60 days, now saying the ban will only apply to the Amazon region.


• The government published a decree saying fires for agriculture outside the Amazon region would be allowed with authorization from state environmental authorities.


• A day earlier, it published a ban on such fires nationwide in response to an international outcry over fires in the Amazon.

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• Hong Kong police fired tear gas and water cannon on Saturday as pro-democracy protesters threw petrol bombs in the latest in a series of clashes that have plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its worst political crisis in decades.


• Police fired round after round of tear gas and protesters took cover behind umbrellas between the local headquarters of China’s People’s Liberation Army and the government. Protesters also threw bricks dug up from pathways at police.

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• The EU's lead Brexit negotiator has rejected Boris Johnson's demands for the Irish backstop to be scrapped.


• Michel Barnier said the backstop - intended to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland - was the "maximum flexibility" the EU could offer.


• Mr. Johnson has previously told the EU the arrangement must be ditched if a no-deal Brexit was to be avoided.

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• The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), labour wing of the RSS on Saturday criticised the bank merger plan announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying it was done without any study and it will only protect interests of corporate houses.


• “No serious study was done in this. It seems the government has not learned lessons from earlier mistakes. There will be dislocation and retrenchment of employees.


• A decision like this will only help corporate bodies,” BMS’ all-India president Saji Narayanan said in Thrissur.

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• State-run power distribution companies (discoms) owe Rs 9,954.3 crore to renewable energy producers, with the highest dues pending in southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, according to Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) data until August 20.


• Union minister of power and new & renewable energy RK Singh told Hindustan Times that the Centre will be writing to the states, whose pending dues to producers of wind and solar energy are very high, to expedite the payments.

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• More than 19 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants in Assam were left out of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was published to conclude a Supreme Court-monitored exercise that took five years and ₹1,220 crore.


• According to rights groups, the exercise also made people in Assam — mostly Hindus and Muslims of Bengal origin under suspicion of being illegal immigrants — spend more than ₹7,800 crore on hearings, besides claiming the lives of around 60 people.

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• The hall ticket/admit cards for Grade IV Junior assistant or post code 20/18 has been released on the official website of Delhi subordinate service selection board (DSSSB).


• Candidates who want to appear in the examination scheduled to be held on September 3, September 5 and September 6, 2019, can download it from DSSB’s official website.

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• Last week, the bank launched repo-linked lending rate to provide better interest rate transmission to its customers.


• Union Bank of India said it will reduce its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by up to 15 basis points across various tenors with effect from September 1, 2019.


• Following this rate cut, the benchmark one-year MCLR will come down from 8.50 percent to 8.35 percent.

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• Jasprit Bumrah (6/16), on Saturday, produced a lethal opening spell and rattled West Indies by picking up the first five wickets.


• With three of the wickets coming in successive balls, Bumrah became the third Indian to register a hat-trick in Test cricket, following Harbhajan Singh against Australia in Calcutta in 2001, and Irfan Pathan against Pakistan in Karachi in 2006.

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• The emotional clash was followed by tearful on-court interviews, Osaka asking Gauff to join her with the microphone as they met at the net.


• Top-ranked defending champion Naomi Osaka defeated US’s 15-year-old sensation Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday in a showdown at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the US Open's fourth round.

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• The Prime Minister (PM) of India, Shri Narendra Modi conferred Yoga awards for the year 2019 to the winners of PM’s Award for Outstanding Contribution for Promotion and Development of Yoga at New Delhi.


• They were announced during the International Day of Yoga, 2019 at Ranchi, Jharkhand along with the 2 winners of 2018 in an event organized by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).

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• Former Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar(PK) Sinha ,a 1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh Cadre has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) after Nripendra Misra’s request to be relieved as Principal Secretary was accepted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


• He has over 40 years of experience and held several important posts in UP state and Centre government.

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• Veteran comedian and four-time Emmy winner Valerie Harper, aged 80, passed away in Los Angeles, United States. She was suffering from different health issues over the years.


• She was born on August 22, 1939 in Suffern, New York.