• Independence Day is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776.


• The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer subject to the monarch of Britain and were now united, free, and independent states.

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• Australian Alek Sigley who went missing in North Korea last week is "released and safe", Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said.


• It comes after a meeting between officials from the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang and the North Korean government.


• Australia does not have its own embassy in the North Korean capital.

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• China has warned the UK not to "interfere in its domestic affairs" amid a growing diplomatic row over the recent protests in Hong Kong.


• Its UK ambassador said relations had been "damaged" by comments by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and others backing the demonstrators' actions.


• Liu Xiaoming said those who illegally occupied Hong Kong's parliament should be "condemned as lawbreakers".

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• North Korea has accused the US of being "hell-bent on hostile acts", despite a recent agreement between the two countries to resume nuclear talks.


• Pyongyang's delegation to the United Nations said on Wednesday that the US was "obsessed with sanctions".


• This comes days after the countries' two leaders held a historic meeting in the heavily fortified demilitarised zone which divides the two Koreas.

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• The U.S. on July 2 designated the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as a terror organisation. “The BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan,” said the U.S. State Department in a statement.


• The BLA, the armed wing of the Baloch movement, has carried out several violent attacks in Pakistan. It has about 6,000 cadres spread across the Balochistan Province and in the bordering areas of Afghanistan.

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• Pakistani authorities announced a crackdown against Hafiz Saeed, leader of the group blamed for the deadly attacks on Mumbai in 2008, amid growing international pressure to act against militant groups.


• Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department said it had launched 23 cases against Saeed and 12 aides for using five trusts to collect funds and donations for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed by India and the U.S. for the attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

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• The party officials terms it as a "precautionary move" to "thwart any attempt by the ruling BJP to influence the MLAs for cross-voting."


• Wary of attempts at poaching ahead of the Rajya Sabha byelections to two seats in Gujarat, the Congress on Wednesday shifted all its legislators to a “safe” location in north Gujarat.

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• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on July 3 hit back at the Congress on the Rae Bareli rail coach factory issue, and said that not a single coach was made there before the Modi government came to power in 2014.


• “In 2007-08, they [United Progressive Alliance] made announcements but they did nothing. Until 2014, not a single coach was made here. They were either painting coaches or tightening fixtures,” Mr. Goyal told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

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• Amit Shah, who continues as the national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, was on his first visit to home state Gujarat after being inducted in the Union Council of Ministers.


• Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with his wife Sonal Shah, performed the ‘Mangala Aarti’ on Thursday morning at the historic Jagannath Temple here, to kick-start the annual Gujarat Jagannath Rath Yatra that coincides with the Puri festival.

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• A flood warning has been issued to 19 districts of Uttar Pradesh by the Flood Management Information System Centre (FMISC) this week, in view of the rise in the water level of rivers following heavy rain in Nepal.


• “The districts in the basin of Ganga, Ghagra and Sharda rivers have been issued a fresh alert after the water level in these rivers crossed the danger mark,” said FMISC executive engineer Mithilesh Kumar.

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• IBPS Recruitment 2019: Institute of Banking Personal Selection (IBPS) has issued notification for a number of posts.


• Applications have been invited for 5 positions of Analyst Programmer, Research Associate and others. Those looking to apply may do so through the prescribed format on or before July 20.

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• With the new Indian government shortly coming up with its first full federal budget and with education sector outlays being actively discussed, it is time to take a broader, holistic view of where Indian education needs to go.


• Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first non-European and Indian to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913, once noted, “Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time”. Economists would agree, given the established relationship between education and both individual success and long run economic growth.

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• The working group has also been tasked with recommending appropriate measures to enhance RBI’s off-sight surveillance and on-site supervision over CICs.


• With corporate group structures becoming more complex and layered, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now set up a working group to review the regulatory and supervisory framework for core investment companies (CICs).

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• A day before the General Budget, the Economic Survey for the fiscal year 2018-19 laid out blue print for $5 trillion economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the survey in both the houses of Parliament on Thursday.


• The survey has projected that the Indian economy will grow at 7 percent during the current fiscal, i.e., 2019-20.


• This is slightly higher than 6.8 percent recorded in the last fiscal and considered to be lowest during the last five years.

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• England defeated New Zealand by 119 runs in their last league match of 2019 World Cup today to qualify for World Cup semi-finals for the first time since the 1992 edition.


• England are the third team to qualify for the semi-finals of 2019 edition after India and Australia. New Zealand and Pakistan remain in contention for the fourth semi-final spot.

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• Quantela Inc, a Hyderabad and Silicon Valley-headquartered digital technology company, was awarded World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ‘Technology Pioneers’ award 2019.


• It was selected by a selection committee of more than 59 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate executives.

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• Congress president Rahul Gandhi officially resigned from his post. He stated that accountability was critical to the future growth of the party and assumed that he was responsible for the loss of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.


• In the absence of party president, Congress party is led by senior most leader until a chief is appointed.

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• Two women have won the backing of the EU’s leaders to head the European commission and European Central Bank, breaking with more than 60 years of male dominance at the top of the bloc’s institutions.


• After three days of tortuous negotiations, Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, received the support of heads of state and government to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission in Brussels.


• And the French managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, will move to Frankfurt to take over from Mario Draghi as the first female president of the ECB once it is formally signed off by the Eurozone group.

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• Carlin Dunne, motorcycle racer aged 36 passed away during the 97th Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He hailed from Santa Barbara, California, USA. He was the fastest racer of the Hill Climb.


• He crashed his 2019 Ducati Streetfighter V4 Prototype near the finish line during the 97th Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.