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• The US has expelled two Cuban diplomats to the UN in New York, accusing them of conducting "activities harmful to US national security", a State Department spokeswoman said.


• All of Cuba's UN mission is now restricted to Manhattan where the UN is headquartered, Morgan Ortagus added.


• The US has yet to provide details about the alleged actions.


• Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez called the move "categorically unjustified".

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• From grasslands to seashores to forests and backyards, birds are disappearing at an alarming rate in the United States and Canada, with a 29% population drop since 1970 and a net loss of about 2.9 billion birds, scientists said.


• People are to blame, the researchers said, citing factors including widespread habitat loss and degradation, broad use of agricultural chemicals that eradicate insects vital to the diet of many birds, and even outdoor hunting by pet cats.


• "Birds are in crisis," said Peter Marra, director of the Georgetown Environment Initiative at Georgetown University and a co-author of the study published in the journal Science.

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• Israel's weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw his offer on Thursday of a coalition with his strongest political rival swiftly rebuffed after failing to secure a governing majority in a tight election.


• Netanyahu's surprise move was an abrupt change of strategy for the right-wing leader. Benny Gantz's rejection of this offer could spell weeks of wrangling after election, which followed an inconclusive national ballot in April.


• Gantz's centrist Blue and White party emerged from the second round of voting this year slightly ahead of Netanyahu's Likud but lacking the numbers in the 120-member parliament to form a ruling bloc.

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• Sri Lanka's leading presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, would "restore relations" with the country's top lender China if he wins the November 16 vote, his adviser said.


• President Maithripala Sirisena initially suspended all Chinese investment projects after his election in January 2015, citing allegations of corruption, overpricing and flouting of government procedures.


• The following year, the Sirisena government allowed Chinese projects to resume after demanding changes in some. But diplomatic ties have been strained since.

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• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would withdraw about $100 million earmarked for an energy infrastructure project in Afghanistan and withhold a further $60 million in planned assistance, blaming corruption and a lack of transparency in the country.


• Pompeo said in a statement the United States would complete the infrastructure project but would do so using an "'off-budget' mechanism", faulting Afghanistan for an "inability to transparently manage U.S. government resources".

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• After failing to secure a clear election victory twice in six months, Israel's longest-serving prime minister now seems to be calculating that he can stay in power only by sharing it.


• Following the deadlocked parliamentary election, a weakened Benjamin Netanyahu offered a national unity government to his chief rival Benny Gantz - a former general who has emerged this year as a fresh face to take on Netanyahu.


• But Gantz's party rebuffed the veteran leader who has dominated Israeli politics, alone and virtually unchallenged, for the last decade.

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• Iranian regime’s threatening behaviour will not be tolerated, says US. Secretary of State Pompeo


• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that America backs Saudi Arabia’s “right to defend itself” after a weekend attack targeted the heart of its oil industry, comments coming after he described the assault as an “act of war”.

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• The clerics published the missive without the consent of the Church administration led by the influential Patriarch Kirill, a staunch ally of President Vladimir Putin.


• Dozens of Orthodox priests took Russians by surprise this week to defend jailed anti-government protesters, breaking ranks with Church authorities who for years have aligned themselves with the Kremlin.

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• A Delhi court has closed a cheating and criminal intimidation case against a former woman employee of the Supreme Court who had levelled allegations of sexual misconduct against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.


• In May, the top court’s three-member in-house inquiry committee, headed by Justice S.A. Bobde, gave a clean chit to the CJI as it “found no substance” in the allegations by the woman.

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• Losing his cool, a senior advocate for Muslim parties in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case in the Supreme Court, told a curious judge that he was seeing “some kind of aggression” in his tone.


• A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which was hearing the decades-old politically sensitive case on the 27th day, did not re-assemble after the lunch break and a source said the CJI was not feeling well.


• “The CJI was a bit unwell. That is why the board was discharged post-lunch,” the source said.

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• The study points out that India will miss its target for stunting levels of 25% by 9.6%; underweight target of 22.7% by 4.8%.


• India is unlikely to meet targets set under the ambitious Poshan Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission (NNM) for reduction in prevalence of stunting, underweight, low birth weight and anaemia in women and children by 2022 if there is no progress achieved in improving the rate of decline observed between 1990 and 2017, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

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• India will soar high if Pakistan "stoops low" by raising the Kashmir issue at a high-level UN General Assembly session next week, India's top envoy to the United Nations has asserted, warning that Islamabad may want to mainstream hate speech after normalising terrorism in the past.


• Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York on September 27.
  
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to speak the same day.


• Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Imran Khan will "forcefully" raise the issue before the international community during his address to the UNGA.

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• The prospect for a more prosperous Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, following the abrogation of the Article 370 "cuts the ground under the feet of Pakistan", a country whose "fingerprints" are on terrorist strikes across the world, Indian Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.


• In a hard-hitting opinion piece in The New York Times, Mr. Shringla said Pakistan has a "vested interest in preventing prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir, and in the Ladakh area of Kashmir because a weak economy fuels separatist sentiments in some quarters."

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• "Howdy Modi" is bringing together Indian-Americans and Hindu Americans from across the US, Democratic presidential aspirant and the first Hindu woman in the US Congress Tulsi Gabbard has said.


• Ms. Gabbard, 38, welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US ahead of his visit beginning.


• "I'm very happy to see that Howdy Modi is bringing together Indian-Americans and Hindu Americans from across our country, including many of my colleagues in the US Congress," Ms. Gabbard said.

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• Pakistani troops violated ceasefire night and resorted to firing and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, an Army official said.


• Pakistani Rangers also fired few small arms rounds along the International Border (IB) in Hiranagar sector of Kathua, he said.


• "At about 8.00 pm today, Pakistani Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing of small arms and shelling with mortars in Shahpur and Kerni sectors in Poonch district," the official said.

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• Madras University's Institute of Distance Education, yesterday, released the result for several non-semester courses.


• The result was released for exam which was held in May this year. Some of the courses for which the result has been released include undergraduate courses, diploma courses, certificate courses, BLIS, and MLIS. The result for courses which follow the semester pattern of assessment will be released soon.


• Students who are appeared in the May-exam for any non-semester distance program at Madras University can check their result from the official website. They would need their enrollment number to download their marks.

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• The 4th batch of Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta has successfully concluded its summer internship placement process with various organizations across industries participating with fervor for handpicking candidates suitable for both data-driven and business driven analyst roles, within half a day placing all 57 students.


• The highest monthly stipend was recorded at Rs. 1,72,000.


• PGDBA is a 2-year full-time residential program offered jointly by three premier Institutes of the country - IIM Calcutta, ISI Kolkata, and IIT Kharagpur.

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• Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has announced a new Scheme in Public-Private Partnership basis, National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT), for using technology for better learning outcomes in higher education.


• The education ministry would act as a facilitator to ensure that the solutions are freely available to a large number of economically backward students, said an official statement.

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• Finally there is some good news for premier Indian higher education institutes. After tanking at the Times World University Rankings, three IITs and Delhi University have made it to the top 200 in QS World Graduate Employability Rankings.


• This year QS World University Rankings: Graduate Employability included 758 institutions in their revaluation, comprising a 15% increase in the number of institutions on last year's edition.


• Ranked in the 111-120 range, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is among the top 24% in the 2020 QS Graduate Employability Rankings with score 54-55.1/100.


• Other Indian institutes which found their positions in top 200 include IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, and Delhi University.

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• IIT Madras recently concluded the first meeting of Space Technology Cells (STCs) established in premier research institutes in the country by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and the Department of Space, Government of India.


• ISRO - IIT Madras Space Technology Cell Confluence 2019 was held at IIT Madras on September 16 and 17.


• The meeting was held with the aim to promote information sharing about research underway in various institutions, the salient findings, and to understand the utilization of output by ISRO.

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• Private sector lender, YES Bank, stressed that it is in sound financial health, after the announcement of stake sale in the lender by promoter group firm Morgan Credits Pvt Ltd a day before.


• “The Board of Directors of YES Bank would like to state that the financial position of the bank is sound and stable, its operating performance continues to be robust and its growth plans stay firmly on track,” the private sector lender said in a statement.

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• Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, said there is room for rate cut as the growth has slowed down.


• “The policy objective of the monetary policy is to maintain price stability, keeping in mind the objective of growth.

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• India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) has been rated as the world’s best real-time payment service in an analysis of 54 countries that have similar facilities.


• “India received the only 5+ rating, and remains the global leader in real-time payments usage,” according to the sixth annual Flavours of Fast report by FIS.

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• Bajrang Punia lost his semifinal bout against home wrestler Daulet Niyazbekov under controversial circumstances after sealing his Tokyo Olympics quota along with Ravi Dahiya, who made his presence felt in a star-studded field at the World Wrestling Championships here.


• Bajrang’s frustrated coach Shako Benitidis kicked the coach’s block in anger after the 65kg bout ended 9-9 following a nerve-wracking six minutes.

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• Mason Greenwood came to Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s rescue just as the Manchester United manager’s faith in his promoted young players was beginning to look misplaced.


• On his first Old Trafford start, the 17-year-old earned United the points with a coolly struck winner.


• Solskjær had said he was an expert finisher and here he proved it with an important first United goal, though it was significant that by the 73rd minute he was the only teenager left on the field.

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• A British-Pakistani author has been stripped of a prestigious German literary award over her anti-Israel stance, a media report said here.


• Earlier this month, the German city of Dortmund announced novelist Kamila Shamsie as this year’s winner of the Nelly Sachs Prize — named after a Jewish poet — in honour of her literary work.

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• A documentary film, “Moti Bagh” based on the life of a farmer Vidya dutt Sharma (82) , who belongs to a remote village in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand has been nominated for an Oscar 2020.


• The film, directed by Nirmal Chander Dandriyal, shows the struggles of Sharma to keep his farm alive and on deserted hilly land.

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• The government appointed Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria as the new chief of Indian Air Force. RKS Bhadauria, who is currently vice chief of air staff, will take over the post of chief of Air staff after his predecessor BS Dhanoa retires on September 30.


• Interestingly, Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria was also due to retire on the same day as BS Dhanoa. But now that he has been appointed as the chief of Air staff, he will serve a three-year term or till the age of 62, whichever is sooner. In this case, his term will be two years.

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• Supreme Court(SC) of India has appointed 4 new judges which now took the total strength of judges to 34.


• Recently the parliament increased the no. of judges to 34(inclusive of Chief Justice(CJ)) from previous count of 31.


• The four judges appointed are, Justices V Ramasubramanian, Krishna Murari, S Ravindra Bhat and Hrishikesh Roy.

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• Tunisia's former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has died in exile aged 83, his family says.


• Ben Ali led the country for 23 years and was credited with delivering stability and some economic prosperity.


• But he received widespread criticism for suppressing political freedoms and for widespread corruption.