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• Dominic Raab and Priti Patel returned to government as foreign secretary and home secretary respectively.


• And Sajid Javid became chancellor - as more than half of Theresa May's old cabinet, including leadership rival Jeremy Hunt, quit or were sacked.

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• North Korea has fired two short-range missiles into the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.


• They were launched early on Thursday, traveling a distance of 430km (270 miles) and reaching an altitude of 50km before falling into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.


• It comes after anger from the North over planned military exercises between South Korea and the US next month.

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• US President Donald Trump's claim that he was "totally exonerated" by special counsel Robert Mueller was rejected by Mr Mueller in a hearing on Wednesday.


• Mr. Mueller said he had not exonerated Mr. Trump of obstruction of justice.


• However, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Mueller's performance and said: "This was a great day for me."

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• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month cited threats from Iran as a reason to approve the $8.1 billion arms sale to the two U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.


• President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed a trio of congressional resolutions aimed at blocking his administration from selling billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.


• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month cited threats from Iran as a reason to approve the $8.1 billion arms sale to the two U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.

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• Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have recorded their highest ever temperatures, in a heatwave searing Western Europe.


• The Belgian town of Kleine Brogel hit 39.9C (102F), the hottest since 1833.


• The southern Dutch city of Eindhoven beat the 75-year-old national record, with a new high of 39.3C.


• Germany's weather service said a new record of 40.5C - just 0.2C higher - had been set in Geilenkirchen, near the Belgian and Dutch borders.

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• Avoiding an immediate confrontation with the Opposition, the government did not introduce the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in the Rajya Sabha, though it had listed it for Wednesday, as the numbers are clearly stacked against it.


• Fifteen Opposition parties have a signed a resolution moved by Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien. These include two neutral parties, the Biju Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which have been treading the middle path keeping equidistance from the Opposition and the ruling parties.

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• Panel members express apprehension, former members urge RTI (Amendment) Bill’s withdrawal.


• With the RTI (Amendment) Bill having been passed by the Lok Sabha and now pending introduction in the Rajya Sabha, several Central Information Commission (CIC) members — past and present — have warned that the changes would have a chilling impact on the implementation of the RTI Act as originally envisioned.

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• The Centre’s pension scheme for small traders has been notified and is being introduced on a trial basis this week, with the formal launch of the scheme likely to be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon, according to Union Labour and Employment Ministry officials.


• On Wednesday, the ministry posted the Gazette Notification dated July 22 for the Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-Dhan, Yojana 2019 on its website.


• The scheme, which was among the campaign promises of the BJP, was one of the proposals cleared by the Cabinet at its first meeting.

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• Debate in the Rajya Sabha over amendments in RTI Bill, 2005 and Triple Talaq Bill in Lok Sabha will be taken up for consideration and discussion. Congress has issued a whip in the Upper House. Catch live updates here


• Debate in the Upper House over amendments to the Right to Information Bill, 2005 is likely to continue as the Opposition has opposed the recent amendments to the RTI Bill, 2005. Congress has issued a whip in the Upper House.

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• The scientists at the IIT-Kanpur have ventured into the world's first robot hand for the rehabilitation of stroke patients and have finished their tests on it.


• The device is a two-finger robotic hand (exoskeleton) that uses a four-bar mechanism and has four degrees of freedom (DOF).


• Professor Ashish Dutta and Professors KS Venkatesh who have achieved this feat, explain that "The exoskeleton can be used by a patient on the hand. It uses brain signals, with the help of the brain-computer interface (BCI) that is worn on the head, and helps paralyzed patients to open and close the movement of their thumb, forefinger and middle fingers for physical practice."

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• CTET July exam Answer Key 2019 has been released by the Central Board of Secondary Education for the Central Teacher Eligibility Test that was conducted on July 7 at ctet.nic.in. Download now.


• Candidates who appeared for the test can visit the official website of CTET now to check the answer keys and OMR sheet.

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• The Reserve Bank of India is set to cut interest rates in August for the fourth meeting in a row, according to a Reuters poll of economists, a majority of whom said risks to their already-modest growth forecasts were skewed more to the downside.


• If RBI does cut rates next month, it will be the most aggressive amongst dovish central banks in Asia. The last time RBI delivered so many back-to-back cuts was after the global financial crisis over a decade ago when most major central banks went on a cutting spree to revive economic growth.

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• Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak won the 200-metre butterfly at the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday, breaking Michael Phelps' world record in the process.


• The 19-year-old produced an astounding performance to take gold in one minute, 50.73 seconds, beating Phelps' previous benchmark by an impressive 0.78 seconds

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• Keshav Dutt, two-time Olympic gold medallist in hockey and Prasun Banerjee, former Indian football captain, will be awarded the ‘Mohun Bagan Ratna’ for the year 2019 on Mohun Bagan Day on July 29, 2019.


• Keshav Dutt, aged 94, is one of the oldest surviving hockey Olympians of India. He represented India in the 1948 London Games, where India won the first gold post Independence. He won his second Olympic gold in Helsinki, Finland 1952.

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• Priti Patel had been a prominent member of the "Back Boris" campaign for the Conservative Party leadership and was widely tipped for the plum post in his frontline team.


• Priti Patel, an ardent Brexiteer who was among the most vocal critics of Theresa May's Brexit strategy, on Wednesday took charge as Britain's first Indian-origin Home Secretary in the newly-unveiled Boris Johnson Cabinet.

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• The government has appointed Atanu Chakraborty as the new Economic Affairs Secretary replacing Subhash Chandra Garg, who will be the new Power Secretary.


• Chakraborty, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, was the Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).


• Anil Kumar Khachi will take over from Chakraborty as the secretary in charge of the disinvestment department.

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• Hollywood actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his role in the 1982 film 'Blade Runner', passed away on July 19 aged 75 in the Netherlands after suffering from a brief illness.


• Dutch media said Hauer was buried at a private ceremony. Hauer had also starred in films including 'Nighthawks', 'Dracula 3D' and 'Batman Begins'.